Writings in Connection with the Donatist ControversyAugustine, of Hippo, Saint
ReligionChristian
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy
Augustine, of Hippo, Saint
Donatists; Donatists -- Controversial literature
37. This may be my own judgment also. For it is so balanced, that it
contains nothing contrary to the truth. For we also believe in the
one only baptism which is in the holy Church. Had he said, indeed, We
believe in that which is in the holy Church alone, the same answer
must have been made to him as to the rest. But as it is, since he has
expressed himself in this wise, "We believe in the one only baptism
which is in the holy Church," so that it is asserted that it exists
in the holy Church, but not denied that it may be elsewhere as well,
whatever his meaning may have been, there is no need to argue against
these words. For if I were questioned on the several points, first,
whether there was one baptism, I should answer that there was one. Then
if I were asked, whether this was in the holy Church, I should answer
that it was. In the third place, if it were asked whether I believed in
this baptism, I should answer that I did so believe; and consequently I
should answer that I believed in the one baptism which is in the holy
Church. But if it were asked whether it was found in the holy Church
alone, and not among heretics and schismatics, I should answer that,
in common with the whole Church, I believed the contrary. But since he
did not insert this in his judgment, I should consider that it was mere
wantonness if I added words which I did not find there, for the sake
of arguing against them. For if he were to say, There is one water of
the river Euphrates, which is in Paradise, no one could gainsay the
truth of what he said. But if he were asked whether that water were in
Paradise and nowhere else, and were to say that this was so, he would
be saying what was false. For, besides Paradise, it is also in those
lands into which it flows from that source. But who is rash enough to
say that he would have been likely to assert what is false, when it is
quite possible that he was asserting what is true? Wherefore the words
of this judgment require no contradiction, because they in no wise run
counter to the truth.
* * * * *
CHAP. XXII.--38. Dativus of Badis[460] said: "We, so far as lies within
our power, refuse to communicate with a heretic, unless he has been
baptized in the Church, and received remission of his sins."
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