The third treatise in this volume belongs to a later period, being a letter written to Bonifacius, the Roman Count of Africa under Valentinian the Third. He had written to Augustine to consult him as to the best means of dealing with the Donatists; and Augustine in his reply points out to him his mistake in supposing that the Donatists shared in the errors of the Arians, whilst he urges him to use moderation in his coercive measures; though both here and in his answer to Petilianus we find him countenancing the theory that the State has a right to interfere in constraining men to keep within the Church. Starting with a forced interpretation of the words, "_Compel_ them to come in," in Luke xiv. 23, he enunciates principles of coercion which, though in him they were subdued and rendered practically of little moment by the spirit of love which formed so large an element in his character, yet found their natural development in the despotic intolerance of the Papacy, and the horrors of the Inquisition. It is probable that he was himself in some degree misled by confounding the necessity of repressing the violence of the Circumcelliones, which was a real offence against the State, with the expediency of enforcing spiritual unity by temporal authority. The Donatist treatises have met with little attention from individual editors. There is a dissertation, _De Aur. Augustino adversario Donatistarum_, by Adrien Roux, published at Louvain in 1838;[4] but it is believed that no treatises of this series have ever before been translated into English, nor are they separately edited. They are in themselves a valuable authority for an important scene in the history of the Church, and afford a good example both of the strength and the weakness of Augustine's writing,--its strength, in the exhaustive way in which he tears to pieces his opponent's arguments, and the clearness with which he exposes the fallacies of their reasoning; its weakness, in the persistency with which he pursues a point long after its discussion might fairly have been closed, as though he hardly knew when he had gained the victory; and his tendency to claim, by right of his position, a vantage-ground which did not in reality belong to him till the superiority of his cause was proved. J. R. KING. OXFORD, _March 1870_. FOOTNOTES: [1] Aug. _De Hoer._ c. 69; _Enarr. in Ps._ 132, secs. 3, 6; _C. Cresc._ iii. 46, 47; _C. Gaudentium_ i. 32. [2] _Epist._ xlix. li. [3] Vol. ix p. 34, etc. [4] The other works bearing on this controversy are mentioned in the exhaustive volume of Ferd. Ribbeck, _Donatus und Augustinus_ (Elberfeld, 1858).--ED. THE SEVEN BOOKS OF AUGUSTINE, BISHOP OF HIPPO, ON BAPTISM, AGAINST THE DONATISTS.[5] BOOK FIRST. HE PROVES THAT BAPTISM CAN BE CONFERRED OUTSIDE THE CATHOLIC COMMUNION BY HERETICS OR SCHISMATICS, BUT THAT IT OUGHT NOT TO BE RECEIVED FROM THEM; AND THAT IT IS OF NO AVAIL TO ANY WHILE IN A STATE OF HERESY OR SCHISM.