In the Year 404. _Austin_ writ to _Innocent_, in the Name of the Bishops assembled in Council at _Carthage_, intreating him to apply to _Honorius_ for new Laws against the _Donatists_; whose Cruelties towards the Orthodox, if not magnified by _Austin_[1410], are scarce to be matched in History. The Emperor hearkened to _Innocent_’s Remonstrances, and severe Laws being issued against them, they began by that means to be convinced of their Errors, and to return daily in great Numbers to the Unity of the Church. This is what we read in one of _Austin_’s Letters[1411]; for the _Donatists_, as he would make us believe, finding themselves persecuted, began to inquire, which they had never done before, into the Grounds of the Religion, for which they suffered. This Inquiry had the desired Effect; their Eyes were opened; they discovered the Errors of their Sect; and, being sensible of their Folly in foregoing any temporal Advantage, or exposing themselves to the least Inconvenience, for the sake of such a Religion, they sincerely abjured it, and zealously embraced the Catholic Faith. An ingenious Term, I must own, to excuse, nay, and to authorize and sanctify, the greatest Barbarities! But daily Experience teaches us, that Persecution has a contrary Effect, and that the more Men are persecuted, the more obstinately they adhere to the Opinions, however absurd, for which they suffer; witness the great Number of Martyrs which almost every Church, as well as the Catholic, can boast of. And, where it has not that Effect, the most it can do is to make Men become Hypocrites, and profess a Religion they do not believe; but scarce ever changes their Hearts, or brings any to a sincere and efficacious Assent to a Faith which is thus violently forced on their Minds. [Sidenote: Innocent _writes to the Bishops of_ Spain.] About the same time, or not long after, _Innocent_ writ to the Bishops of _Spain_, and the chief Articles of his Letter were: 1. That they ought to cut off from their Communion such of their Brethren as refused to communicate with _Symphosius_, _Dictinius_, and other Bishops, who, having renounced the Errors of _Priscillian_, had been readmitted to the Communion of the Church by the Council held at _Toledo_, in the Year 400[1412]. 2. That those Bishops should be deposed who had been ordained without the Knowlege or Consent of their Metropolitan. 3. That such as presumed to ordain against the Canons should be likewise deposed, and all who had been thus ordained by them. [Sidenote: Chrysostom _Bishop of_ Constantinople _recurs to_ Innocent.]