have intellect enough to penetrate. As therefore it is possible that, after leaving men to themselves in free will, the Father should yet draw them to the Son, so is it also possible that those warnings which are given by the correction of the laws do not take away free will. For whenever a man suffers anything that is harsh and unpleasing, he is warned to consider why it is that he is suffering, so that, if he shall discover that he is suffering in the cause of justice, he may choose the good that consists in the very act of suffering as he does in the cause of justice; but if he sees that it is unrighteousness for which he suffers, he may be induced, from the consideration that he is suffering and being tormented most fruitlessly, to change his purpose for the better, and may at the same time escape both the fruitless annoyance and the unrighteousness itself, which is likely to prove yet more hurtful and pernicious in the mischief it produces. And so you, when kings make any enactments against you, should consider that you are receiving a warning to consider why this is being done to you. For if it is for righteousness' sake, then are they truly your persecutors; but you are the blessed ones, who, being persecuted for righteousness' sake, shall inherit the kingdom of heaven:' but if it is because of the iniquity of your schism, what are they more than your correctors; while you, like all the others who are guilty of various crimes, and pay the penalty appointed by the law, are undoubtedly unhappy both in this world and in that which is to come? No one, therefore, takes away from you your free will. But I would urge you diligently to consider which you would rather choose, — whether to live corrected in peace, or, by persevering in malice, to undergo real punishment under the false name of martyrdom. But I am addressing you just as though you were suffering something proportionate to your sin, whereas you are commitof such enormity and reigning in tmg sins I Matt. V. lo; I Pet. ii. 20.
such impunity. You are so furious, that you cause more terror than a war trumpet with your cry of ''^Praise to God;'' so full of calumny, that even when you throw yourselves over precipices without any provocation, you impute it to our persecutions.
187. He says also, like the kindest of teachers, " You who will not choose the good, have, by your own sentence, declared that you do not wish to live." According to this, if we were to believe your accusations, we should live in kindness; but because we l;elieve the promises of God, we declare by our own sentence that we do not wish to live. You remember well, it seems to me, what the apostles answered to the Jews when they were desired to abstain from preaching Christ. This therefore we also say, that you should answer us whether we ought rather to obey God or man.- Traditors, offerers of incense, persecutors: these are the words of men against men, Christ remained only in the love of Donatus: these are the words of men extolling the glory of a man under the name of Christ, that the glory of Christ Himself may be diminished. For it is written, "In the multitude of people is the king's honor: but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince: "3 these, therefore, are the words of men. But those words in the gospel, " It behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem," ■* are the words of Christ, showing forth the glory which He received from His Father in the wideness of His kingdom. When we have heard them both, we choose in preference the communion of the Church, and prefer the words of Christ to the words of men.
I ask, who is there that can say that we have chosen what is evil, except one who shall say that Christ taught what was evil?
Chap. 86. — 188. Petilianus said: "Is it then the case that God has ordered the massacre even of schismatics? and if He were to issue such an order at all, you ought to be slain by some barbarians and Scythians, not by Christians."
189. AuGUSTiN answered: Let your Circumcelliones remain qui'et, and let me entreat you not to terrify us about barbarians. But as to whether we or you are schismatics, let the question be put neither to you nor to me, but lo Christ, that He may show where His Church is to be found. Read the gospel 2 Acts V. 20.
3 Prov. xiv. 23.
, CHAr. LXXXVIII.J THE LETTERS OF PETILIAX, THE DOxXATIST.
I t'.ien, and there you find the answer, "In j Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, ' -'nd even in the whole earth." ' If any one, erefore, is not found within the Church, let not any further question be put to him, but I let him either be corrected or converted, or I else, being detected, let him not complain.
, Chap. 87. — 190. Petilianus said: " For ' neither has the Lord God at any time rejoiced in human blood, seeing that He was even willing that Cain, the murderer of his brother, should continue to exist in his murderer's l.te.
191. AuGUSTiN answered: If God was unwilling that death should be inflicted on him wiio slew his brother, preferring that he should continue to exist in his murderer's life, see wiiether this be not the cause why, seeing that t!;e heart of the king is in the hand of God, V iiereby he has himself enacted many laws for your correction and reproof, yet no law of the king has commanded that vou should 1 c put to death, perhaps with this very object, t at any one of you who persists in the obstinate self-will of his sacrilegious madness should be tortured with the punishment of the fratricide Cain, that is to say, with the life of a murderer. For we read that many were slain in mercy by Moses the servant of the Lord; for in that he prayed thus in intercession to the Lord for their wicked sacrilege, saying, "O Lord, if Thou wilt forgive their sin —; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which Thou hast written," -his unspeakable charity and mercy are plainly shown. Could it be, then, that he was suddenly changed to cruelty, when, on descending from the mount, he ordered so man)'' thousands to be slain? Consider, therefore, whether it mav not be a sitrn of greater anger on the part of God, that, whilst so many laws have been enacted against you, you have not been ordered by any emperor to be put to death. Or do you think that you are not to be compared to that fratricide? Hearken to the Lord speaking through His prophet: " From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of ho^ts."^ On this brother's sacrifice you show that you look with malignant eyes, over and above the respect which God pays to it; and if ye have ever heard that " from the rising of the sun, unto the going down of the same, the Lord's I Acts i. 8.
2 Ex. xxxii. 28-32.
3 Mai. i. II.
name is to be praised, "•> which is that living sacrifice of ivhich it is said, " Offer unto God thanksgiving," 5 then will your countenance fall like that of yonder murderer. But inasmuch as you cannot kill the whole world, you are involved in the same guilt by your mere hatred, according to the words of John, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer."'^ And I would that any innocent brother might rather fall into the hands of your Circumcelliones, to be murdered by their weapons, than be subjected to the poison of your tongue and rebaptized.
Chap. 88. — 192. Petilianus said: "We advise )-ou, therefore, if so be that you will hear it willingly, and even though you do not willingly receive it, yet we warn you that the Lord Christ instituted for Christians, not any form of slaying, but one of dying only. For if He loved men who thus delight in battle. He would not have consented to be slain for us."
193. AuGUSTiN answered: Would that your martyrs would follow the form that He prescribed! they would not throw themselves over precipices, which He refused to do at the bidding of the devil. ' But when you persecute our ancestors with false witness even now that they are dead, whence have you received this form? In that you endeavor to stain us with the crimes of men we never knew, while you are unwilling that the most notorious misdeeds of your own party should be reckoned against you, whence have you received this form? But we are too much yielding to our own conceit if we find fault about ourselves, when we see that you utter false testimony against the Lord Himself, since He Himself both promised and made manifest that His Church should extend throughout all nations, and you maintain the contrary. This form, therefore, you did not receive even from the Jewish persecutors themselves, for they persecuted His body while He was walking on the earth: you persecute His gospel as He is seated in heaven. Which gospel endured more meekly the flames of furious kings than it can possibly endure your tongues; for while they blazed, unity remained, and this it cannot do amid your words. "Fhey who desired that the word of God should i)erish in the flames did not believe that it could be despised if read. They would not, therefore, set their flames to work upon the gospel, if you would let them use your tongues against the gospel. In the earlier persecution the gospel of Christ was 5 Ps. 1. 14.
7 Matt. IV. 6, 7.
[Book II.
sought by some in their rage, it was betrayed by others in their fear; it was burned by some in their rage, it was hidden by others in their love; it was attaclced, but none were found to speak against its truth. The more accursed share of persecution was reserved for you when the persecution of the heathen was exhausted. Those who persecuted the name of Christ believed in Christ: now those who are honored for the name of Christ are found to speak against His truth.
Chap. 89. — 194. Petilianus said: "Here you have the fullest possible proof that a Christian may take no part in the destruction of another. But the first establishing of this principle was in the case of Peter, as it is written, "Simon Peter having a sword, drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath. For all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.' " ' 195. AuGUSTiN answered: Why then do you not restrain the weapons of the Circumcelliones with such words as these? Should you think that you were going beyond the words of the gospel if you should say, All they that take the cudgel shall perish with the cudgel? Withhold not then your pardon, if our ancestors were unable to restrain the men by whom you complain that Marculus was thrown down a precipice; for neither is it written in the gospel, He that useth to throw men down a precipice shall be cast therefrom. And would that, as your charges are either false or out of date, so the cudgels of those friends of yours would cease! And yet, perhaps, you take it ill that, if not by force of law, at any rate in words, we take away their armor from your legions in saying that they manifest their rage with sticks alone. For that was the ancient fashion of their wickedness, but now they have advanced too far. For amid their drunken revellings, and amid the free license of assembling together, wandering in the streets, jesting, drinking, passing the whole night in company with women who have no husbands, they have learned not only to brandish cudgels, but to wield swords and whirl slings. But why should I not say to them (God knows with what feelings I say it and with what feelings they receive it!), Madmen, the sword of Peter, though drawn from motives not yet free from fleshly impurity, was yet drawn in defence of the body of Christ against the body of His persecutor, but your arms are portioned out against the I John xviii. lo, ii; Matt. xxvi. 52.
cause of Christ; but the body of which He is the head, that is. His Church, extends throughout all nations. He Himself has said this, and has ascended into heaven, whither the fury of the Jews could not follow Him; and it is your fury which attacks His members in the body, which on His ascension He commended to our care. In defense of those members all men rage against you, all men resist you, as many as being in the Catholic Church, and possessing as yet but little faith, are influenced by the same motives as Peter was when he drew his sword in the name of Christ. But there is a great difference between your persecution and theirs. You are like the servant of the Jews' high priest; for in the service of your princes you arm yourselves against the Catholic Church, that is, against the body of Christ. But they are such as Peter then was, fighting even with the strength of their bodies for the body of Christ, that is, the Church. But if they are bidden to be still, as Peter then was bidden, how much more should you be warned that, laying aside the madness of heresy, you should join the unity of those members for' which they so fight? But, being wounded by such men as these, you hate us also; and, as though you had lost your right ears, you do not hear the voice of Christ as He sits at the right hand of the Father. But to whom shall I address myself, or how shall I address myself to them, seeing that in them I find no time wherein to speak? for even early in the morning they are reeking with wine, drunk, it may be already in the day, it may be still from overnight. IVIoreover, they utter threats, and not they only, but their own bishops utter threats concerning them, being ready to deny that what they have done has any bearing on them. May the Lord grant to us a song of degrees, in which we may say, " When I am with those who hate peace, I am peaceful. When I would speak with them, they are wont to fight me without cause." - For thus says the body of Christ, which throughout the whole world is assailed by heretics, by some here, by others there, and by all alike wherever they may be.^ Chap. 90. — 196. Petilianus said: "Therefore I say. He ordained that we should undergo death for the faith, which each man should do for the communion of the Church. For Christianity makes progress by the deaths of its followers. For if death were feared by the faithful, no man would be found to live with perfect faith. For the Lord Christ says, 2 Ps. cxx. 6, 7, cp. Hieron.
i1 Chap. XCIIL] THE LETTERS OF PETILIAN, THE DONATIST.
' Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground [ and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it Iringeth forth much fruit,' " ' 197. AuGUSTiN answered: I should be glad ^ to know which of your party it was who first j threw himself over a precipice. For truly that grain of corn was fruitful from which so -reat a crop of similar suicides has sprung.
j Tell me, when you make mention of the words of the Lord, that He says a grain of \', aeat shall die and bring forth much fruit, why do you envy the real fruit, which has most truly- sprung up throughout the whole v.orld, and bring up against it all the charges cif the tares or chaff which you have ever either heard of or invented?
Chap, 91. — 198, PETiLiANUssaid: " But you scatter thorns and tares, not seeds of corn.
I so that you ought to be burned together with t:iem at the last judgment. We do not utter ' urses; but every thorny conscience is bound ider this penalty by the sentence which God IS pronounced."
199. AuGUSTiN answered: Surely, when you mention tares, it might bring to your minds j tie thought of wheat as well; for both have I'l-en commanded to grow together in the field iitil the harvest. But you fix the eye of malice fiercely on the tares, and maintain, in (-Imposition to tlT,e express declaration of (-'arist, that they alone have grown throughout the earth, with the exception of Africa alone.
Chap. 92. — 200. PETiLiANUSsaid: " Where is the saying of the Lord Christ, 'Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to iiim the other also' P^ Where is the patience \\ iiich He displayed when they spat upon His i:ice, who Himself with His most holy spittle : opened the eyes of the blind? Where is the ' saying of the Apostle Paul, ' If a man smite )U in the face?' Where is that other saying j of the same apostle, ' In stripes above meas-';re, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft '?•• ile makes mention of the sufferings which he imderwent, not of the deeds which he performed. It had been enough for the Christian faith that these things should be done by the Jews: why do you, wretched men, do these others in addition?"
201. AuGUSTiN answered: Is it then really so, that when men smite you on the one cheek, )'ou turn to them the other? This is not the report that your furious bands won for you by wandering everywiiere throughout most the w^hole of Africa with dreadful wickedness. I would fain have it that men should make a bargain witii you, that, in accordance with the old law, you should seek but "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," s instead of bringing out cudgels in return for the words which greet your ears.
Chap, 93. — 202, Petilianus said: "But what have you to do with the kings of this world, in whom Christianity has never found anything save envy towards her? And to teach you shortly the truth of what I say, A king persecuted the brethren of the Maccabees,*^ A king also condemned the three children to the sanctifying flames, being ignorant what he did, seeing that he himself was fighting against God.' A king sought the life of the infant Saviour.* A king exposed Daniel, as he thought, to be eaten by wild beasts,' And the Lord Christ Himself was slain by a king's most wicked judge." Hence it is that the apostle cries out, ' We speak wisdom among them that are perfect; yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which was hidden, which God ordained before the world unto our glory; which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.' " But grant that this was said of the heathen kings of old. Yet you, rulers of this present age, because you desire to be Christians, do not allow men to be Christians, seeing that, when they are believing in all honesty of heart, you draw them by the defilement and mist of your falsehood wholly over to your wickedness, that with their arms, which were provided against the enemies of the state, they should assail the Christians, and should think that, at your instigation, they are doing the work of Christ if they kill us whom you hate, according to the saying of the Lord Christ: 'The time cometh,' He says, 'that whosoever killetli you will think that he doeth God service.' '- It makes no matter therefore to you, false teachers, whether the kings of this world desire to be heathens, which God forbid, or Christians, so long as you cease not in your efforts to arm them against the family of Christ. But do you not know, or rather, have you not read, that the guilt of one who instigates a murder is greater than the guilt of him who carries it out? Jezebel had excited the king her husband to the murder of a poor and 7 Pan. lii.
'0 Matt, xxvii. 26.
I 5/8 [Book II.
righteous man, yet husband and wife alike perished by an equal punishment.' Nor indeed is your mode of urging on kings different from that by which the subtle persuasion of women has often urged kings on to guilt. For the wife of Herod earned and obtained the boon by means of her daughter, that the head of John should be brought to table in a charger."" Similarly the Jews forced on Pontius Pilate that he should crucify the Lord Jesus, whose blood Pilate prayed might remain in vengeance upon them and on their children. 3 So therefore you also overwhelm yourselves with our blood by your sin. For it does not follow that because it is the hand of the judge that strikes the blow, your calumnies therefore are not rather guilty of the deed. For the prophet David says, speaking in the person of Christ, ' Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of me, and 1 shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.' And he warned the kings themselves in the following precepts, that they should not, like ignorant men devoid of understanding, seek to persecute the Christians, lest they should themselves be destroyed, — which precepts I would that we could teach them, seeing that they are ignorant of them; or, at least, that you would show them to them, as doubtless you would do if you desired that they should live; or, at any rate, if neither of the other courses be allowed, that your malice would have permitted them to read them for themselves. The first Psalm of David would certainly have persuaded them that they should live and reign as Christians; but meanwhile you deceive them, so long as they entrust themselves to you. For you represent to them things that are evil, and you hide from them what is good. Let them then at length read this, which they should have read already long ago. For what does he say, ' Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve 'the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Lay hold of instruction lest the Lord be angry, and ye. perish from the right way. Since how quickly has His wrath kindled over you? Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.^'* You urge on emperors, I say, with your persuasions, even as Pilate, whom, as we showed above, the Jews urged on, though he himself i cried aloud, as he washed his hands before them all, ' I am innocent of the blood of this just person,' 5 — as though a person could be clear from the guilt of a sin who had himself committed it. But, to say nothing of ancient examples, observe, from instances taken from your own party, how very many of your emperors and judges have perished in persecuting us. To pass over Nero, who was the first to persecute the Christians, Domitian [ perished almost in the same way as Nero, as ■ also did Trajan, Geta,^ Decius, Valerian, Diocletian; Maximian also perished, at whose command that men should burn incense to their gods, burning the sacred volumes, Marcellinus indeed first, but after him also Mensurius of Carthage, and Caecilianus, escaped ' death from the sacrilegious flames, surviving like some ashes or cinders from the burning. For the consciousness of the guilt of burning incense involved you all, as many as agreed with Mensurius. Macarius perished, Ursacius' perished, and all your counts perished in like manner by the vengeance of God.
For Ursacius was slain in a battle with the barbarians, after which birds of prey with their savage talons, and the greedy teeth of dogs with their biting, tore him limb from limb. Was not he too a murderer at your suggestion, who, like king Ahab, whom we showed to have been persuaded by a woman, slew a poor and righteous man?*^ So you too do not cease to murder us, who are just and poor (poor, that is, in worldly wealth; for in the grace of God no one of us is poor). For ' I Kind's XXI.
J Matt. xiv. 8, g.
4 Ps. ii., cp. Hieron. 5 Matt, xxvii. 24.
6 Some editions liave Varius in the place of Geta, referring to Aurelius Antoninus Heliogabalus, of whom I.ampridius asserts that he derived the name of Varius from the doubtfulness of his parentage. Aelii Lampridii Antoninus Heliogabalus, in.S'^. Histoyia; A iigustcp. The Mss. agree, however, in the reading " Geta," which was a name of the second son of Severus, the brother of Caracalla.
7 Optatus defends the cause of Macarius at great length in his third book against Parmenianus. Of Ursacius he says in the same place: " You areoffended at the timesof a certain Leontius, of Ursacius, Macarius and others." And Augustin, in his third book against Cresconius, c. 20, introduces an objection of the Donatists against himself: " But so soon as Silvanus, bishop of Cirta, had refused to communicate with Ursacius and Zenophilus the persecutors, he was driven into exile." Usuardus, deceived by a false story made up by the Donatists, enters in his Martyrology that a pseudo-martyr Donatus suffered on the ist of March, under Ursacius and INIarcellinus, to this effect: " On the same day of the holy martyr Donatus, who suffered under Ursacius the judge (or dux), and ♦^'e tribu.ie Marc^linus.
t' I Kings xxi.
Chap. XCII.] THE LETTERS OF PETILIAN, THE DONATIST.
even if you do not murder a man with your iiands, you do not cease to do so witli your butcherous tongues. For it is written, ' Death and hfe are in the power of the tongue.' ' All, therefore, who have been murdered, you, the instigator of the deed, have slain. Nor indeed does the hand of the butcher glow save at the instigation of your tongue; and that terrible heat of the breast is inflamed by your words to take the blood of others, — blood that shall take a just vengeance upon him who shed it."
203. AuGUSTiN answered: If I were to answer adequately, and as I ought, to this passage, which has been exaggerated and arranged at such length by you, where you speak in invidious terms against us concerning the kings of this world, I am much afraid that you would accuse me too of having wished to excite the anger of kings against you. And }et, whilst you are borne after your own fashion by the violence of this invective:gainst all Catholics, you certainly do not liass me by. I will endeavor, however, to show, if I can, that it is rather you who have been guilty of this offense by speaking as you have done, than myself by answering as I shall do. And first of all, see how you yourself oppose your self; for certainly you prefaced the passage which you quoted with the words, " What have you to do with the kings i)f this world, in whom Christianity has never found anything save envy towards her? " In these words you certainly cut off from us all access to the kings of this world. And a little later you say, "And he warned the kings themselves in the following precepts, that they should not, like ignorant men devoid of understanding, seek to persecute the Christians, lest they should be themselves destroyed,— which precepts I would that we could teach them, seeing that they are ignorant of them; or, at least, that you would show them to them, as doubtless you would do if you desired that they should live." In what way then do you wish us to be the instructors of kings? And