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
CHAP. XIII.--14. If, in the interests of the unity of the party of
Donatus, no one rebaptizes those who were baptized in a wicked schism,
and men, who are guilty of a crime of such enormity as to be compared
by them in their Council to those ancient authors of schism whom the
earth swallowed up alive,[662] are either unpunished after separation,
or restored again to their position after condemnation; why is it
that, in defence of the unity of Christ, which is spread throughout
the whole inhabited world, of which it has been predicted that it
shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends
of the earth,[663]--a prediction which seems from actual proof to be
in process of fulfilment; why is it that, in defence of this unity,
they do not acknowledge the true and universal law of that inheritance
which rings forth from the books that are common to us all: "I shall
give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of
the earth for Thy possession?"[664] In behalf of the unity of Donatus,
they are not compelled to call together again what they have scattered
abroad, but are warned to hear the cry of the Scriptures: why will they
not understand that they meet with such treatment through the mercy
of God, that since they brought false charges against the Catholic
Church, by contact as it were with which they were unwilling to defile
their own excessive sanctity, they should be compelled by the sovereign
authority of Optatus Gildonianus to receive again and associate with
themselves true offences of the greatest enormity, condemned by the
true voice, as they say, of their own general Council? Let them at
length perceive how they are filled with the true crimes of their own
party, after inventing fictitious crimes wherewith to charge their
brethren, when, even if the charges had been true, they ought at length
to feel how much should be endured in the cause of peace, and in behalf
of Christ's peace to return to a Church which did not condemn crimes
undiscovered, if on behalf of the peace of Donatus they were ready to
pardon such as were condemned.
* * * * *
CHAP. XIV.--15. Therefore, brethren, let it suffice us that they should
be admonished and corrected on the one point of their conduct in
the matter of the followers of Maximianus. We do not ransack ancient
archives, we do not bring to light the contents of time-honoured
libraries, we do not publish our proofs to distant lands; but we bring
in, as arbiters betwixt us, all the proofs derived from our ancestors,
we spread abroad the witness that cries aloud throughout the world.
* * * * *
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