Writings of Augustine. Answer to the Letters of Petilian
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The Three Books of Augustin, Bishop of Hippo,
In Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist, Bishop of cirta
[contra litteras petiliani donatistÆ cortensis, episcopi.]
Circa A.D. 400.
Translated by the Rev. J. R. King, M.A.,
Vicar of St. Peter's in the East, Oxford; and late Fellow and Tutor of
Merton College, Oxford
Published in 1886 by Philip Schaff,
New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co.
Book III.
In this book Augustin refutes the second letter [2319] which
Petilianus wrote to him after having seen the first of Augustin's
earlier books. This letter had been full of violent language; and
Augustin rather shows that the arguments of Petilianus had been
deficient and irrelevant, than brings forward arguments in support of
his own statements.
Chapter 1.--1. Being able to read, Petilianus, I have read your
letter, in which you have shown with sufficient clearness that, in
supporting the party of Donatus against the Catholic Church, you have
neither been able to say anything to the purpose, nor been allowed to
hold your tongue. What violent emotions did you endure, what a storm
of feelings surged within your heart, on reading the answer which I
made, with all possible brevity and clearness, to that portion of your
letter which alone at that time had come into my hands! For you saw
that the truth which we maintain and defend was confirmed with such
strength of argument, and illustrated with such abundant light, that
you could not find anything which could be said against it, whereby
the charges which we make might be refuted. You observed, also, that
the attention of many who had read it was fixed on you, since they
desired to know what you would say, what you would do, how you would
escape from the difficulty, how you would make your way out of the
strait in which the word of God had encompassed you. Hereupon you,
when you ought to have shown contempt for the opinion of the foolish
ones, and to have gone on to adopt sound and truthful sentiments,
preferred rather to do what Scripture has foretold of men like you:
"Thou hast loved evil more than good, and lying rather than to speak
righteousness." [2320]Just as if I in turn were willing to
recompense unto you railing for railing; in which case, what should we
be but two evil speakers, so that those who read our words would
either preserve their self-respect by throwing us aside with
abhorrence, or eagerly devour what we wrote to gratify their malice?
For my own part, since I answer every one, whether in writing or by
word of mouth, even when I have been attacked with insulting
accusations, in such language as the Lord puts in my mouth,
restraining and crushing the stings of empty indignation in the
interests of my hearer or reader, I do not strive to prove myself
superior to my adversary by abusing him, but rather to be a source of
health in him by convicting him of his error.
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2. For if those who take into consideration what you have written
have any feelings whatsoever, how did it serve you in the cause which
is at issue between us respecting the Catholic communion and the party
of Donatus, that, leaving a matter which was in a certain sense of
public interest, you should have been led by private animosity to
attack the life of an individual with malicious revilings, just as
though that individual were the question in debate? Did you think so
badly, I do not say of Christians, but of the whole human race, as not
to suppose that your writings might come into the hands of some
prudent men, who would lay aside all thoughts of individuals like us,
and inquire rather into the question which was at issue between us,
and pay heed, not to who and what we were, but to what we might be
able to advance in defense of the truth or against error? You should
have paid respect to these men's judgment, you should have guarded
yourself against their censure, lest they should think that you could
find nothing to say, unless you set before yourself some one whom you
might abuse by any means within your power. But one may see by the
thoughtlessness and foolishness of some men, who listen eagerly to the
quarrels of any learned disputants, that while they take notice of the
eloquence wherewith you lavish your abuse, they do not perceive with
what truth you are refuted. At the same time, I think your object
partly was that I might be driven, by the necessity of defending
myself, to desert the very cause which I had undertaken; and that so,
while men's attention was turned to the words of opponents who were
engaged not in disputation, but in quarrelling, the truth might be
obscured, which you are so afraid should come to light and be well
known among men. What therefore was I to do in opposing such a design
as this, except to keep strictly to my subject, neglecting rather my
own defense, praying withal that no personal calumny may lead me to
withdraw from it? I will exalt the house of my God, whose honor I
have loved, with the tribute of a faithful servant's voice, but myself
I will humiliate and hold of no account. "I had rather be a
door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of
heretics." [2321]I will therefore turn my discourse from you,
Petilianus, for a time, and direct it rather to those whom you have
endeavored to turn away from me by your revilings, as though my
endeavor rather were that men should be converted unto me, and not
rather with me unto God.
Footnotes
[2320] Ps. lii. 3.
[2321] Ps. lxxxiv. 10.
Chapter 2.
--3. Hear therefore, all ye who have read his revilings,
what Petilianus has vented against me with more anger than
consideration. To begin with, I will address you in the words of the
apostle, which certainly are true, whatever I myself may be: "Let a
man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of
the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards, that a
man be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I
should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine
own self." With regard to what immediately follows, although I do not
venture to apply to myself the words, "For I am conscious of nothing
in myself," [2322] yet I say confidently in the sight of God, that I
am conscious in myself of none of those charges which Petilianus has
brought against my life since the time when I was baptized in Christ;
"yet am I not hereby justified, but He that judgeth me is the Lord.
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both
will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make
manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have
praise of God. And these things, brethren, I have in a figure
transferred to myself; that ye might learn in us not to think of men
above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one
against another." [2323]"Therefore let no man glory in men: for
all things are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's."
[2324]Again I say, "Let no man glory in men;" nay, oftentimes I
repeat it, "Let no man glory in men." If you perceive anything in us
which is deserving of praise, refer it all to His praise, from whom is
every good gift and every perfect gift; for it is "from above, and
cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning." [2325]For what have we which we did not
receive? and if we have received it, let us not boast as though we had
not received it. [2326]And in all these things which you know to be
good in us, be ye our followers, at any rate, if we are Christ's;
[2327] but if, on the other hand, you either suspect, or believe, or
see that any evil is in us, hold fast to that saying of the Lord's, in
which you may safely resolve not to desert His Church because of men's
ill deeds. Whatsoever we bid you observe, that observe and do; but
whatsoever evil works you think or know to be in us, those do ye not.
[2328]For this is not the time for me to justify myself before you,
when I have undertaken, neglecting all considerations of self, to
recommend to you what is for your salvation, that no one should make
his boast of men. For "cursed be the man that trusteth in man."
[2329]So long as this precept of the Lord and His apostle be
adhered to and observed, the cause which I serve will be victorious,
even if I myself, as my enemy would fain have thought, am faint and
oppressed in my own cause. For if you cling most firmly to what I
urge on you with all my might, that every one is cursed who places his
trust in man, so that none should make his boast of man, then you will
in no wise desert the threshing-floor of the Lord on account of the
chaff which either is now being dispersed beneath the blast of the
wind of pride, or will be separated by the final winnowing; [2330] nor
will you fly from the great house on account of the vessels made to
dishonor; [2331] nor will you quit the net through the breaches made
in it because of the bad fish which are to be separated on the shore;
[2332] nor will you leave the good pastures of unity, because of the
goats which are to be placed on the left when the Good Shepherd shall
divide the flock; [2333] nor will you separate yourselves by an
impious secession, because of the mixture of the tares, from the
society of that good wheat, whose source is that grain that dies and
is multiplied thereby, and that grows together throughout the world
until the harvest. For the field is the world,--not only Africa; and
the harvest is the end of the world, [2334] --not the era of Donatus.
Footnotes
[2322] Nihil enim mihi conscius sum.
[2323] 1 Cor. iv. 1-6.
[2324] 1 Cor. iii. 21, 23.
[2325] Jas. i. 17.
[2326] 1 Cor. iv. 7.
[2327] 1 Cor. iv. 16.
[2328] Matt. xxiii. 3.
[2329] Jer. xvii. 5.
[2330] Matt. iii. 12.
[2331] 2 Tim. ii. 20.
[2332] Matt. xiii. 47, 48.
[2333] Matt. xxv. 32, 33.
[2334] Matt. xiii. 24-40.
Chapter 3.
--4. These comparisons of the gospel you doubtless
recognize. Nor can we suppose them given for any other purpose,
except that no one should make his boast in man, and that no one
should be puffed up for one against another, or divided one against
another, saying, "I am of Paul," when certainly Paul was not crucified
for you, nor were you baptized in the name of Paul, much less in that
of Cæcilianus, or of any one of us, [2335] that you may learn, that so
long as the chaff is being bruised with the corn, so long as the bad
fishes swim together with the good in the nets of the Lord, till the
time of separation shall come, it is your duty rather to endure the
admixture of the bad out of consideration for the good, than to
violate the principle of brotherly love towards the good from any
consideration of the bad. For this admixture is not for eternity, but
for time alone; nor is it spiritual, but corporal. And in this the
angels will not be liable to err, when they shall collect the bad from
the midst of the good, and commit them to the burning fiery furnace.
For the Lord knoweth those which are His. And if a man cannot depart
bodily from those who practise iniquity so long as time shall last, at
any rate, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from
iniquity itself. [2336]For in the meantime he may separate himself
from the wicked in life, and in morals, and in heart and will, and in
the same respects depart from his society; and separation such as this
should always be maintained. But let the separation in the body be
waited for till the end of time, faithfully, patiently, bravely. In
consideration of which expectation it is said, "Wait on the Lord; be
of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say,
upon the Lord." [2337]For the greatest palm of toleration is won by
those who, among false brethren that have crept in unawares, seeking
their own, and not the things of Jesus Christ, yet show that they on
their part seek not to disturb the love which is not their own, but
Jesus Christ's, by any turbulent or rash dissension, nor to break the
unity of the Lord's net, in which are gathered together fish of every
kind; till it is drawn to the shore, that is, till the end of time, by
any wicked strife fostered in the spirit of pride: whilst each might
think himself to be something, being really nothing, and so might lead
himself astray, and wish that sufficient reason might be found for the
separation of Christian peoples in the judgment of himself or of his
friends, who declare that they know beyond all question certain wicked
men unworthy of communion in the sacraments of the Christian
religion: though whatever it may be that they know of them, they
cannot persuade the universal Church, which, as it was foretold, is
spread abroad throughout all nations, to give credit to their tale.
And when they refuse communion with these men, as men whose character
they know, they desert the unity of the Church; whereas they ought
rather, if there really were in them that charity which endureth all
things, themselves to bear what they know in one nation, lest they
should separate themselves from the good whom they were unable
throughout all nations to fill with the teaching of evil alien to
them. Whence even, without discussing the case, in which they are
convicted by the weightiest proofs of having uttered calumnies against
the innocent, they are believed with greater probability to have
invented false charges of giving up the sacred books, when they are
found to have themselves committed the far more heinous crime of
wicked division in the Church. For even, if whatever imputations they
have cast of giving up the sacred books were true, yet they in no wise
ought to have abandoned the society of Christians, who are commended
by holy Scripture even to the ends of the world, on considerations
which they have been familiar with, while these men showed that they
were not acquainted with them.
Footnotes
[2335] 1 Cor. i. 12, 13.
[2336] 2 Tim. ii. 19.
[2337] Ps. xxvii. 14.
Chapter 4.
--5. Nor would I therefore be understood to urge that
ecclesiastical discipline should be set at naught, and that every one
should be allowed to do exactly as he pleased, without any check,
without a kind of healing chastisement, a lenity which should inspire
fear, the severity of love. For then what will become of the precept
of the apostle, "Warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded,
support the weak, be patient toward all men; see that none render evil
for evil unto any man?" [2338]At any rate, when he added these last
words, "See that none render evil for evil unto any man," he showed
with sufficient clearness that there is no rendering of evil for evil
when one chastises those that are unruly, even though for the fault of
unruliness be administered the punishment of chastising. The
punishment of chastising therefore is not an evil, though the fault be
an evil. For indeed it is the steel, not of an enemy inflicting a
wound, but of a surgeon performing an operation. Things like this are
done within the Church, and that spirit of gentleness within its pale
burns with zeal towards God, lest the chaste virgin which is espoused
to one husband, even Christ, should in any of her members be corrupted
from the simplicity which is in Christ, as Eve was beguiled by the
subtilty of the serpent. [2339]Notwithstanding, far be it from the
servants of the father of the family that they should be unmindful of
the precept of their Lord, and be so inflamed with the fire of holy
indignation against the multitude of the tares, that while they seek
to gather them in bundles before the time, the wheat should be rooted
up together with them. And of this sin these men would be held to be
guilty, even though they showed that those were true charges which
they brought against the traditors whom they accused; because they
separated themselves in a spirit of impious presumption, not only from
the wicked, whose society they professed to be avoiding, but also from
the good and faithful in all nations of the world, to whom they could
not prove the truth of what they said they knew; and with themselves
they drew away into the same destruction many others over whom they
had some slight authority, and who were not wise enough to understand
that the unity of the Church dispersed throughout the world was on no
account to be forsaken for other men's sins. So that, even though
they themselves knew that they were pressing true charges against
certain of their neighbors, yet in this way a weak brother, for whom
Christ died, was perishing through their knowledge; [2340] whilst,
being offended at other men's sins, he was destroying in himself the
blessing of peace which he had with the good brethren, who partly had
never heard such charges, partly had shrunk from giving hasty credence
to what was neither discussed nor proved, partly, in the peaceful
spirit of humility, had left these charges, whatsoever they might be,
to the cognizance of the judges of the Church, to whom the whole
matter had been referred, across the sea.
Footnotes
[2338] 1 Thess. v. 14, 15.
[2339] 2 Cor. xi. 2, 3.
[2340] 1 Cor. viii. 11.
Chapter 5.
--6. Do you, therefore, holy scions of our one Catholic
mother, beware with all the watchfulness of which you are capable, in
due submission to the Lord, of the example of crime and error such as
this. With however great light of learning and of reputation he may
shine, however much he may boast himself to be a precious stone, who
endeavors to lead you after him, remember always that that brave woman
who alone is lovely only to her husband, whom holy Scripture portrays
to us in the last chapter of the Book of Proverbs, is more precious
than any precious stones. Let no one say, I will follow such an one,
for it was even he that made me a Christian; or, I will follow such an
one, for it was even he that baptized me. For "neither is he that
planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the
increase." [2341]And "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love,
dwelleth in God, and God in him." [2342]No one also that preaches
the name of Christ, and handles or administers the sacrament of
Christ, is to be followed in opposition to the unity of Christ. "Let
every man prove his own work; and then shall he have rejoicing in
himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own
burden," [2343] --the burden, that is, of rendering an account; for
"every one of shall give an account of himself. Let us not therefore
judge one another any more." [2344]For, so far as relates to the
burdens of mutual love, "bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill
the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when
he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." [2345]Let us therefore
"forbear one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the
Spirit in the bond of peace;" [2346] for no one who gathers outside
that peace is gathering with Christ; but "he that gathering not with
Him scattereth abroad." [2347]
Footnotes
[2341] 1 Cor. iii. 7.
[2342] 1 John iv. 16.
[2343] Gal. vi. 4, 5.
[2344] Rom. xiv. 12, 13.
[2345] Gal. vi. 2, 3.
[2346] Eph. iv. 2, 3.
[2347] Matt. xii. 30.
Chapter 6.
--7. Furthermore, whether concerning Christ, or concerning
His Church, or any other matter whatsoever which is connected with
your faith and life, to say nothing of ourselves, who are by no means
to be compared with him who said, "Though we," at any rate, as he went
on to say, "Though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto
you than that which" ye have received in the lawful and evangelical
Scripture, "let him be accursed." [2348]While carrying out this
principle of action in our dealings with you, and with all whom we
desire to gain in Christ, and, amongst other things, while preaching
the holy Church which we read of as promised in the epistles of God,
and see to be fulfilled according to the promises in all nations of
the world, we have earned, not the rendering of thanks, but the flames
of hatred, from those whom we desire to have attracted into His most
peaceful bosom; as though we had bound them fast in that party for
which they cannot find any defense that they should make; or as though
we so long before had given injunctions to prophets and apostles that
they should insert in their books no proofs by which it might be shown
that the party of Donatus was the Church of Christ. And we indeed,
dear brethren, when we hear false charges brought against us by those
whom we have offended by preaching the eloquence of truth, and
confuting the vanity of error, have, as you know, the most abundant
consolation. For if, in the matters which they lay to my charge, the
testimony of my conscience does not stand against me in the sight of
God, where no mortal eye can reach, not only ought I not to be cast
down, but I should even rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is my
reward in heaven. [2349]For in fact I ought to consider, not how
bitter, but how false is what I hear, and how true He is in defense of
whose name I am exposed to it, and to whom it is said, "Thy name is as
ointment poured forth." [2350]And deservedly does it smell sweet in
all nations, though those who speak evil of us endeavor to confine its
fragrance within one corner of Africa. Why therefore should we take
amiss that we are reviled by men who thus detract from the glory of
Christ, whose party and schism find offense in what was foretold so
long before of His ascent into the heavens, and of the pouring forth
of His name, as of the savor of ointment: "Be Thou exalted, O God,
above the heavens: let Thy glory be above all the earth"? [2351]
Footnotes
[2348] Gal. i. 8.
[2349] Matt. v. 12.
[2350] Cant. i. 3.
[2351] Ps. lvii. 11.
Chapter 7.
--8. Whilst we bear the testimony of God to this and the
like effect against the vain speaking of men, we are forced to undergo
bitter insults from the enemies of the glory of Christ. Let them say
what they will, whilst He exhorts us, saying, "Blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you,
and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake."
What He says in the first instance, "for righteousness' sake," He has
repeated in the words that He uses afterwards, "for my sake;" seeing
that He "is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption, that, according as it is written, He
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." [2352]And when He says,
"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven,"
[2353] if I hold in a good conscience what is said "for righteousness'
sake," and "for my sake," whosoever willfully detracts from my
reputation is against his will contributing to my reward. For neither
did He only instruct me by His word, without also confirming me by His
example. Follow the faith of the holy Scriptures, and you will find
that Christ rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, sitteth at the
right hand of the Father. Follow the charges brought by His enemies,
and you will presently believe that He was stolen from the sepulchre
by His disciples. Why then should we, while defending His house to
the best of the abilities given us by God, expect to meet with any
other treatment from His enemies? "If they have called the Master of
the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His
household?" [2354]If, therefore, we suffer, we shall also reign
with Him. But if it be not only the wrath of the accuser that strikes
the ear, but also the truth of the accusation that stings the
conscience, what does it profit me if the whole world were to exalt me
with perpetual praise? So neither the eulogy of him who praises has
power to heal a guilty conscience, nor does the insult of him, who
reviles wound the good conscience. Nor, however, is your hope which
is in the Lord deceived, even though we chance to be in secret what
our enemies wish us to be thought; for you have not placed your hope
in us, nor have you ever heard from us any doctrine of the kind. You
therefore are safe, whatever we may be, who have learned to say, "I
have trusted in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide;" [2355] and "In
God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto
me." [2356]And to those who endeavor to lead you astray to the
earthly heights of proud men, you know how to answer, "In the Lord put
I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?"
[2357]
Footnotes
[2352] 1 Cor. i. 30, 31.
[2353] Matt. v. 10-12.
[2354] Matt. x. 25.
[2355] Ps. xxvi. 1.
[2356] Ps. lvi. 11.
[2357] Ps. xi. 1.
Chapter 8.
--9. Nor is it only you that are safe, whatever we may be,
because you are satisfied with the very truth of Christ which is in
us, in so far as it is preached through us, and everywhere throughout
the world, and because, listening to it willingly, so far as it is set
forth by the humble ministry of our tongue, you also think well and
kindly of us,--for so your hope is in Him whom we preach to you out of
His loving-kindness, which extends over you,--but further, all of you,
who also received the sacrament of holy baptism from our ministering,
may well rejoice in the same security, seeing that you were baptized,
not into us, but into Christ. You did not therefore put on us, but
Christ; nor did I ask you whether you were converted unto me, but unto
the living God; nor whether you believed in me, but in the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost. But if you answered my question with
truthful hearts, you were placed in a state of salvation, not by the
putting away of the filth of the flesh, but by the answer of a good
conscience towards God; [2358] not by a fellow-servant, but by the
Lord; not by the herald, but by the judge. For it is not true, as
Petilianus inconsiderately said, that "the conscience of the giver,"
or, as he added "the conscience of him who gives in holiness is what
we look for to wash the conscience of the recipient." For when
something is given that is of God, it is given in holiness, even by a
conscience which is not holy. And certainly it is beyond the power of
the recipient to discern whether the said conscience is holy or not
holy; but that which is given he can discern with clearness. That
which is known to Him who is ever holy is received with perfect
safety, whatever be the character of the minister at whose hands it is
received. For unless the words which are spoken from Moses' seat were
necessarily holy, He that is the Truth would never have said,
"Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do." But if the
men who uttered holy words were themselves holy, He would not have
said, "Do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not." [2359]
For it is true that in no way do men gather grapes of thorns,
because grapes never spring from the root of a thorn; but when the
shoot of the vine has entwined itself in a thorn hedge, the fruit
which hangs upon it is not therefore looked upon with dread, but the
thorn is avoided, while the grape is plucked.
Footnotes
[2358] 1 Pet. iii. 21.
[2359] Matt. xxiii. 2, 3.
Chapter 9.
--10. Therefore, as I have often said before, and am
desirous to bring home to you, whatsoever we may be, you are safe, who
have God for your Father and His Church for your mother. For although
the goats may feed in company with the sheep, yet they shall not stand
on the right hand; although the chaff may be bruised together with the
wheat, it shall not be gathered into the barn; although the bad fish
may swim in company with the good within the Lord's nets, they shall
not be gathered into vessels. Let no man make his boast even in a
good man: let no man shun the good gifts of God even in a bad man.
Chapter 10.
--11. Let these things suffice you, my beloved Christian
brethren of the Catholic Church, so far as the present business is
concerned; and if you hold fast to this in Catholic affection, so long
as you are one sure flock of the one Shepherd, I am not too much
concerned with the abuse that any enemy may lavish on me, your partner
in the flock, or, at any rate, your watch-dog, so long as he compels
me to bark rather in your defense than in my own. And yet, if it were
necessary for the cause that I should enter on my own defense, I
should do so with the greatest brevity and the greatest ease, joining
freely with all men in condemning and bearing witness against the
whole period of my life before I received the baptism of Christ, so
far as relates to my evil passions and my errors, lest, in defending
that period, I should seem to be seeking my own glory, not His, who by
His grace delivered me even from myself. Wherefore, when I hear that
life of mine abused, in whatever spirit he may be acting who abuses
it, I am not so thankless as to be grieved. However much he finds
fault with any vice of mine, I praise him in the same degree as my
physician. Why then should I disturb myself about defending those
past and obsolete evils in my life, in respect of which, though
Petilianus has said much that is false, he has yet left more that is
true unsaid? But concerning that period of my life which is
subsequent to my baptism, to you who know me I speak unnecessarily in
telling of those things which might be known to all mankind; but those
who know me not ought not to act with such unfairness towards me as to
believe Petilianus rather than you concerning me. For if one should
not give credence to the panegyrics of a friend, neither should one
believe the detraction of an enemy. There remain, therefore, those
things which are hidden in a man, in which conscience alone can bear
testimony, which cannot be a witness before men. Herein Petilianus
says that I am a Manichæan, speaking of the conscience of another man;
I, speaking of my own conscience, aver that I am not. Choose which of
us you had sooner believe. Notwithstanding, since there is not any
need even of this short and easy defense on my part, where the
question at issue is not concerning the merits of any individual,
whoever he may be, but concerning the truth [2360] of the whole
Church, I have more also to say to any of you, who, being of the party
of Donatus, have read the evil words which Petilianus has written
about me, which I should not have heard from him if I had had no care
about the loss of your salvation; but then I should have been wanting
in the bowels of Christian love.
Footnotes
[2360] Some editors have "unitate," but Amerbach and the Mss.
"veritate;" and this is supported by c. 24, 28 below: "De ecclesiæ
vel baptismi veritate;" and c. 13, 22 of the treatise de Unico
Baptismo: "Ambulantibus in ecclesiæ veritate."
Chapter 11.
--12. What wonder is it then, if, when I draw in the grain
that has been shaken forth from the threshing-floor of the Lord,
together with the soil and chaff, I suffer injury from the dust that
rebounds against me; or that, when I am diligently seeking after the
lost sheep of my Lord, I am torn by the briars of thorny tongues? I
entreat you, lay aside for a time all considerations of party feeling,
and judge with some degree of fairness between Petilianus and myself.
I am desirous that you should be acquainted with the cause of the
Church; he, that you should be familiar with mine. For what other
reason than because he dares not bid you disbelieve my witnesses, whom
I am constantly citing in the cause of the Church,--for they are
prophets and apostles, and Christ Himself, the Lord of prophets and
apostles,--whereas you easily give him credit in whatever he may
choose to say concerning me, a man against a man, and one, moreover,
of your own party against a stranger to you? And should I adduce any
witnesses to my life, however important the thing he might say would
be, it would not be believed by them, and of this Petilianus would
quickly persuade you; especially when any one would bring forward a
plea for me. Since he is an enemy of the Donatist party, in virtue of
this fact he would also continually be considered your enemy.
Petilianus therefore reigns supreme. Whenever he aims any abuse at
me, of whatever character it may be, you all applaud and shout
assent. This cause he has found wherein the victory is possible for
him, but only with you for judges. He will seek for neither proof nor
witness; for all that he has to prove in his words is this, that he
lavishes most copious abuse on one whom you most cordially hate. For
whereas, when the testimony of divine Scripture is quoted in such
abundance and in such express terms in favor of the Catholic Church,
he remains silent amidst your grief, he has chosen for himself a
subject on which he may speak amidst applause from you; and though
really conquered, yet, pretending that he stands unmoved, he may make
statements concerning me like this, and even worse than this. It is
enough for me, [2361] in respect of the cause which I am now pleading,
that whatsoever I may be found to be, yet the Church for which I speak
unconquered.
Footnotes
[2361] Ubi vobis faventibus loquatur, et victus verum simulans statum,
talia vel etiam sceleratiori dictat in me. Mihi sat est ad rem, etc.
Morel (Elem. Crit. pp. 326-328) suggests as an improvement. "Ubi vobis
faventibus loquatur et victus. Verum si millies tantum talia vel
etiam sceleratiora dicat in me, mihi sat est", etc.,-- "on which he
may speak amidst applause from you, even when beaten. But if he were
to make a thousand times as many statements concerning me," etc.
Chapter 12.
--13. For I am a man of the threshing-floor of Christ: if
a bad man, then part of the chaff; if good, then of the grain. The
winnowing-fan of this threshing-floor is not the tongue of Petilianus;
and hereby, whatever evil he may have uttered, even with truth,
against the chaff of this threshing-floor, this in no way prejudices
its grain. But whereinsoever he has cast any revilings or calumnies
against the grain itself, its faith is tried on earth, and its reward
increased in the heavens. For where men are holy servants of the
Lord, and are fighting with holiness for God, not against Petilianus,
or any flesh and blood like him, but against principalities and
powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, [2362] such as
are all enemies of the truth, to whom I would that we could say, "Ye
were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord," [2363]
--where the servants of God, I say, are waging such a war as this,
then all the calumnious revilings that are uttered by their enemies,
which cause an evil report among the malicious and those that are rash
in believing, are weapons on the left hand: it is with such as these
that even the devil is defeated. For when we are tried by good
report, whether we resist the exaltation of ourselves to pride, and
are tried by evil report, whether we love even those very enemies by
whom it is invented against us, then we overcome the devil by the
armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. For when
the apostle had used the expression, "By the armor of righteousness on
the right hand and on the left," he at once goes on to say, as if in
explanation of the terms, "By honor and dishonor, by evil report and
good report," [2364] and so forth,--reckoning honor and good report
among the armor on the right hand, dishonor and evil report among that
upon the left.
Footnotes
[2362] Eph. vi. 12.
[2363] Eph. v. 8.
[2364] 2 Cor. vi. 7, 8.
Chapter 13.
--14. If, therefore, I am a servant of the Lord, and a
soldier that is not reprobate, with whatever eloquence Petilianus
stands forth reviling me, ought I in any way to be annoyed that he has
been appointed for me as a most accomplished craftsman of the armor on
the left? It is necessary that I should fight in this armor as
skillfully as possible in defence of my Lord, and should smite with it
the enemy against whom I wage an unseen fight, who in all cunning
strives and endeavors, with the most perverse and ancient craftiness,
that this should lead me to hate Petilianus, and so be unable to
fulfill the command which Christ has given, that we should "love our
enemies." [2365]But from this may I be saved by the mercy of Him
who loved me, and gave Himself for me, so that, as He hung upon the
cross, He said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they
do;" [2366] and so taught me to say of Petilianus and all other
enemies of mine like him "Father, forgive them; for they know not what
they do.'
Footnotes
[2365] Luke vi. 35.
[2366] Luke xxiii. 34.
Chapter 14.
--15. Furthermore, if I have obtained from you, in
accordance with my earnest endeavors, that, laying aside from your
minds all prejudice of party, you should be impartial judges between
Petilianus and myself, I will show to you that he has not replied to
what I wrote, that you may understand that he has been compelled by
lack of truth to abandon the dispute, and also see what revilings he
has allowed himself to utter against the man who so conducted it that
he had no reply to make. And yet what I am going to say displays
itself with such manifest clearness, that, even though your minds were
estranged from me by party prejudice and personal hatred, yet, if you
would only read what is written on both sides, you could not but
confess among yourselves, in your inmost hearts, that I have spoken
truth.
16. For, in replying to the former part of his writings, which then
alone had come into my hands, without taking any notice of his wordy
and sacrilegious revilings, where he says, "Let those men cast in our
teeth our twice-repeated baptism, who, under the name of baptism, have
polluted their souls with a guilty washing; whom I hold to be so
obscene that no manner of filth is less clean than they; whose lot it
has been, by a perversion of cleanliness, to be defiled by the water
wherein they washed;" I thought that what follows was worthy of
discussion and refutation, where he says, "For what we look for is the
conscience of the giver, that the conscience of the recipient may
thereby be cleansed;" and I asked what means were to be found for
cleansing one who receives baptism when the conscience of the giver is
polluted, without the knowledge of him who is to receive the sacrament
at his hands. [2367]
Footnotes
[2367] See above, Book I. c. 1, 2.
Chapter 15.
--17. Read now the most profuse revilings which he has
poured forth whilst puffed up with indignation against me, and see
whether he has given me any answer, when I ask what means are to be
found for cleansing one who receives baptism when the conscience of
the giver is polluted, without the knowledge of him who receives the
sacrament at his hands. I beg of you to search minutely, to examine
every page, to reckon every line, to ponder every word, to sift the
meaning of each syllable, and tell me, if you can discover it, where
he has made answer to the question, What means are to be found for
cleansing the conscience of the recipient who is unaware that the
conscience of the giver is polluted?
18. For how did it bear upon the point that he added a phrase which
he said was suppressed by me, maintaining that he had written in the
following terms: "The conscience of him who gives in holiness is what
we look for to cleanse the conscience of the recipient?" For to prove
to you that it was not suppressed by me, its addition in no way
hinders my inquiry, or makes up the deficiency which was found in
him. For in the face of those very words I ask again, and I beg of
you to see whether he has given any answer, If "the conscience of him
who gives in holiness is what we look for to cleanse the conscience of
the recipient," what means are to be found for cleansing the
conscience of the recipient when the conscience of the giver is
stained with guilt, without the knowledge of him who is to receive the
sacrament at his hands? I insist upon an answer being given to this.
Do not allow that any one should be prejudiced by revilings irrelevant
to the matter in hand. If the conscience of him who gives in holiness
is what we look for,--observe that I do not say "the conscience of him
who gives," but that I added the words, "of him who gives in
holiness,"--if the conscience, then, of him who gives in holiness is
what we look for, what means are to be found for cleansing one who
receives baptism when the conscience of the giver is polluted, without
the knowledge of him who is to receive the sacrament at his hands?
Chapter 16.
--19. Let him go now, and with panting lungs and swollen
throat find fault with me as a mere dialectician. Nay, let him
summon, not me, but the science of dialectics itself, to the bar of
popular opinion as a forger of lies, and let him open his mouth to its
widest against it, with all the noisiest uproar of a special pleader.
Let him say whatever he pleases before the inexperienced, that so the
learned may be moved to wrath, while the ignorant are deceived. Let
him call me, in virtue of my rhetoric, by the name of the orator
Tertullus, by whom Paul was accused; [2368] and let him give himself
the name of Advocate, [2369] in virtue of the pleading in which he
boasts his former power, and for this reason delude himself with the
notion that he is, or rather was, a namesake of the Holy Ghost. Let
him, with all my heart, exaggerate the foulness of the Manichæans, and
endeavor to divert it on to me by his barking. Let him quote all the
exploits of those who have been condemned, whether known or unknown to
me; and let him turn into the calumnious imputation of a prejudged
crime, by some new right entirely his own, the fact that a former
friend of mine there named me in my absence to the better securing of
his own defense. Let him read the titles that have been placed upon
my letters by himself or by his friends, as suited their pleasure, and
boast that he has, as it were, involved me hopelessly in their
expressions. When I acknowledge certain eulogies of bread, uttered in
all simplicity and merriment, let him take away my character with the
absurd imputations of poisonous baseness and madness. And let him
entertain so bad an opinion of your understanding, as to imagine that
he can be believed when he declares that pernicious love-charms were
given to a woman, not only with the knowledge, but actually with the
complicity [2370] of her husband. What the man who was afterwards to
ordain me bishop [2371] wrote about me in anger, while I was as yet a
priest, he may freely seek to use as evidence against me. That the
same man sought and obtained forgiveness from a holy Council for the
wrong he thus had done me, he is equally at liberty to ignore as being
in my favor,--being either so ignorant or so forgetful of Christian
gentleness, and the commandment of the gospel, that he brings as an
accusation against a brother what is wholly unknown to that brother
himself, as he humbly entreats that pardon may in kindness be extended
to him.
Footnotes
[2368] Acts xxiv. 1.
[2369] Paracletus.
[2370] "Favente," which is wanting in the Mss., was inserted in the
margin by Erasmus, as being needed to complete the sense.
[2371] Megalius, bishop of Calama, primate of Numidia, was the bishop
who ordained Augustin, as we find in c. viii. of his life by
Possidius. Augustin makes further reply to the same calumny, which
was gathered from a letter of Megalius, in Contra Cresconium, Book
III. c. 80, 92, and Book IV. c. 64, 78, 79.
Chapter 17.
--20. Let him further go on, in his discourse of many but
manifestly empty words, to matters of which he is wholly ignorant, or
in which rather he abuses the ignorance of the mass of those who hear
him, and from the confession of a certain woman, that she had called
herself a catechumen of the Manichæans, being already a full member of
the Catholic Church, let him say or write what he pleases concerning
their baptism,--not knowing, or pretending not to know, that the name
of catechumen is not bestowed among them upon persons to denote that
they are at some future time to be baptized, but that this name is
given to such as are also called Hearers, on the supposition that they
cannot observe what are considered the higher and greater
commandments, which are observed by those whom they think right to
distinguish and honor by the name of Elect. Let him also maintain
with wonderful rashness, either as himself deceived or as seeking to
deceive, that I was a presbyter among the Manichæans. Let him set
forth and refute, in whatever sense seems good to him, the words of
the third book of my Confessions, which, both in themselves, and from
much that I have said before and since, are perfectly clear to all who
read them. Lastly, let him triumph in my stealing his words, because
I have suppressed two of them, as though the victory were his upon
their restoration.
Chapter 18.
--21. Certainly in all these things, as you can learn or
refresh your memory by reading his letter, he has given free scope to
the impulse of his tongue, with all the license of boasting which he
chose to use, but nowhere has he told us where means are to be found
for cleansing the conscience of the recipient, when that of the giver
has been stained with sin without his knowing it. But amid all his
noise, and after all his noise, serious as it is, too terrible as he
himself supposes it to be, I deliberately, as it is said, and to the
purpose, [2372] ask this question once again: If the conscience of
him who gives in holiness is what we look for, what means are to be
found for cleansing one who receives baptism without knowing that the
conscience of the giver is stained with sin? And throughout his whole
epistle I find nothing said in answer to this question.
Footnotes
[2372] Lente, ut dicitur, et bene. Morel (Element. Crit. pp. 140,
141) suggests as an amendment, "lene," as suiting better with "lente."
Chapter 19.
--22. For perhaps some one of you will say to me, All
these things which he said against you he wished to have force for
this purpose, that he might take away your character, and through you
the character of those with whom you hold communion, that neither they
themselves, nor those whom you endeavor to bring over to your
communion, may hold you to be of any further importance. But, in
deciding whether he has given no answer to the words of your epistle,
we must look at them in the light of the passage in which he proposed
them for consideration. Let us then do so: let us look at his
writings in the light of that very passage. Passing over, therefore,
the passage in which I sought to introduce my subject to the reader,
and to ignore those few prefatory words of his, which were rather
insulting than revelant to the subject under discussion, I go on to
say, "He says, `What we look for is the conscience of the giver, to
cleanse that of the recipient.' But supposing the conscience of the
giver is concealed from view, and perhaps defiled with sin, how will
it be able to cleanse the conscience of the recipient, if, as he says,
`what we look for is the conscience of the giver, to cleanse that of
the recipient?' For if he should say that it makes no matter to the
recipient what amount of evil may be concealed from view in the
conscience of the giver, perhaps that ignorance may have such a degree
of efficacy as this, that a man cannot be defiled by the guilt of the
conscience of him from whom he receives baptism, so long as he is
unaware of it. Let it then be granted that the guilty conscience of
his neighbor cannot defile a man so long as he is unaware of it; but
is it therefore clear that it can further cleanse him from his own
guilt? Whence then is a man to be cleansed who receives baptism, when
the conscience of the giver is polluted without the knowledge of him
who is to receive it, especially when he goes on to say, `For he who
receives faith from the faithless receives not faith but guilt?'"
[2373]
Footnotes
[2373] See Book I. c. 1, 2, c. 2, 3.
Chapter 20.
--23. All these statements in my letter Petilianus set
before himself for refutation. Let us see, therefore, whether he has
refuted them; whether he has made any answer to them at all. For I
add the words which he calumniously accuses me of having suppressed,
and, having done so, I ask him again the same question in an even
shorter form; for by adding these two words he has helped me much in
shortening this proposition. If the conscience of him who gives in
holiness is what we look for to cleanse that of the recipient, and if
he who has received his faith wittingly from one that is faithless,
receives not faith but guilt, where shall we find means to cleanse the
conscience of the recipient, when he has not known that the conscience
of the giver is stained with guilt, and when he receives his faith
unwittingly from one that is faithless? I ask, where shall we find
means to cleanse it? Let him tell us; let him not pass off into
another subject; let him not cast a mist over the eyes of the
inexperienced. To end with, at any rate, after many tortuous
circumlocutions have been interposed and thoroughly worked out, let
him at last tell us where we shall find means to cleanse the
conscience of the recipient when the stains of guilt in the conscience
of the faithless baptizer are concealed from view, if the conscience
of him who gives in holiness is what we look for to cleanse that of
the recipient, and if he who has received his faith wittingly from one
that is faithless, receives not faith but guilt? For the man in
question receives it from a faithless man who has not the conscience
of one who gives in holiness, but a conscience stained with guilt, and
veiled from view. Where then shall we find means to cleanse his
conscience? whence then does he receive his faith? For if he is
neither then cleansed, nor then receives faith, when the faithlessness
and guilt of the baptizer are concealed, why, when these are
afterwards brought to light and condemned, is he not then baptized
afresh, that he may be cleansed and receive faith? But if, while the
faithlessness and guilt of the other are concealed, he is cleansed and
does receive faith, whence does he obtain his cleansing, whence does
he receive faith, when there is not the conscience of one that gives
in holiness to cleanse the conscience of the recipient? Let him tell
us this; let him make reply to this: Whence does he obtain his
cleansing, whence does he receive faith, if the conscience of him that
gives in holiness is what we look for to cleanse the conscience of the
recipient, seeing that this does not exist, when the baptizer conceals
his character of faithlessness and guilt? To this no answer has been
made whatever.
Chapter 21.
--24. But see, when he is reduced to straits in the
argument, he again makes an attack on me full of mist and wind, that
the calm clearness of the truth may be obscured; and through the
extremity of his want he becomes full of resources, shown not in
saying what is true, but in unbought empty revilings. Hold fast, with
the keenest attention and utmost perseverance, what he ought to
answer,--that is, where means may be found for cleansing the
conscience of the recipient when the stains in that of the giver are
concealed,--lest possibly the blast of his eloquence should wrest this
from your hands, and you in turn should be carried away by the dark
tempest of his turgid discourse, so as wholly to fail in seeing whence
he has digressed, and to what point he should return; and see where
the man can wander, whilst he cannot stand in the matter which he has
undertaken. For see how much he says, through having nothing that he
ought to say. He says "that I slide in slippery places, but am held
up; that I neither destroy nor confirm the objections that I make;
that I devise uncertain things in the place of certainty; that I do
not permit my readers to believe what is true, but cause them to look
with increased suspicion on what is doubtful." He says "that I have
the accursed talents of the Academic philosopher Carneades." [2374]
He endeavors to insinuate what the Academics think of the falseness or
the falsehood of human sensation, showing in this also that he is
wholly without knowledge of what he says. He declares that "it is
said by them that snow is black, whereas it is white; and that silver
is black; and that a tower is round, or free from projections, when it
is really angular; that an oar is broken in the water, while it is
whole." [2375]And all this because, when he had said that "the
conscience of him that gives," or "of him that gives in holiness, is
what we look for to cleanse the conscience of the recipient," I said
in reply, What if the conscience of the giver be hidden from sight,
and possibly be stained with guilt? Here you have his black snow, and
black silver, and his tower round instead of angular, and the oar in
the water broken while yet whole, in that I suggested a state of the
case which might be conceived, and could not really exist, that the
conscience of the giver might be hidden from view, and possibly might
be stained with guilt!
25. Then he continues in the same strain, and cries out: "What is
that what if? what is that possibly? except the uncertain and wavering
hesitation of one who doubts, of whom your poet says'--
`What if I now return to those who say, What if the sky should fall?'"
[2376]
Does he mean that when I said, What if the conscience of the giver be
hidden from sight, and possibly be stained with guilt? that it is much
the same as if I had said, What if the sky should fall? There
certainly is the phrase What if, because it is possible that it may be
hidden from view, and it is possible that it may not. For when it is
not known what the giver is thinking of, or what crime he has
committed, then his conscience is certainly hidden from the view of
the recipient; but when his sin is plainly manifest, then it is not
hidden. I used the expression, And possibly may be stained with
guilt, because it is possible that it may be hidden from view and yet
be pure; and again, it is possible that it may be hidden from view and
be stained with guilt. This is the meaning of the What if; this the
meaning of the Possibly. Is this at all like "What if the sky should
fall?" O how often have men been convicted, how often have they
confessed themselves that they had consciences stained with guilt and
adultery, whilst men were unwittingly baptized by them after they were
degraded by the sin subsequently brought to light, and yet the sky did
not fall! What have we here to do with Pilus and Furius, [2377] who
defended the cause of injustice against justice? What have we here to
do with the atheist Diagoras, [2378] who denied that there was any
God, so that he would seem to be the man of whom the prophet spoke
beforehand, "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God?" [2379]
What have we here to do with these? Why were their names brought
in, except that they might make a diversion in favor of a man who had
nothing to say? that while he is at any rate saying something, though
needlessly, about these, the matter in hand may seem to be
progressing, and an answer may be supposed to be made to a question
which remains without an answer?
Footnotes
[2374] Lactantius, Divin. Instit. Book V. c. xv., tells us of the
talents of Carneades, recording that when he was sent on an embassy to
Rome by the Athenians, he spoke there first in defense of justice, and
then on the following day in opposition to it; and that he was in the
habit of speaking with such force on either side, as to be able to
refute any arguments advanced by anybody else.
[2375] Ter. Heaut. act. IV. scen. iii. vers. 41.
[2376] Ter. Heaut. act. IV. scen. iii. vers. 41.
[2377] In de Civ. Dei, Book II. c. xxi., Augustin mentions L. Furius
Philus, one of the interlocutors in Cicero's Laelius, as maintaining
this same view. From the similarity of the name, it has been thought
that here Furius and Pilus are only one man.
[2378] The Mss. here and below have Protagoras. Both were atheists,
according to Cicero, Nat. Deor. I. i. 2, and Lactantius Divin. Instit.
I. c. ii.; de Ira Dei, c. ix.
[2379] Ps. xiv. 1.
Chapter 22.
--26. Lastly, if these two or three words, What if, and
Possibly, are so absolutely intolerable, that on their account we
should have aroused from their long sleep the Academics, and
Carneades, and Pilus, and Furius, and Diagoras, and black snow, and
the falling of the sky, and everything else that is equally senseless
and absurd, let them be removed from our argument. For, as a matter
of fact, it is by no means impossible to express what we desire to say
without them. There is quite sufficient for our purpose in what is
found a little later, and has been introduced by himself from my
letter: "By what means then is he to be cleansed who receives baptism
when the conscience of the giver is polluted, and that without the
knowledge of him who is to receive the sacrament?" [2380]Do you
acknowledge that here there is no What if, no Possibly? Well then,
let an answer be given. Give close heed, lest he be found to answer
this in what follows. "But," says he, "I bind you in your cavilling
to the faith of believing, that you may not wander further from it.
Why do you turn away your life from errors by arguments of folly? Why
do you disturb the system of belief in respect of matters without
reason? By this one word I bind and convince you." It was Petilianus
that said this, not I. These words are from the letter of Petilianus;
but from that letter, to which I just now added the two words which he
accuses me of having suppressed, showing that, notwithstanding their
addition, the pertinency of my question, to which he makes no answer,
remains with greater brevity and simplicity. It is beyond dispute
that these two words are, In holiness, and Wittingly: so that it
should not be, "The conscience of him who gives," but "The conscience
of him who gives in holiness;" and that it should not be, "He who has
received his faith from one that is faithless," but "He who has
wittingly received his faith from one that is faithless." And yet I
had not really suppressed these words; but I had not found them in the
copy which was placed in my hands. It is possible enough that it was
incorrect; nor indeed is it wholly beyond the possibility of belief
that even by this suggestion Academic grudge should be roused against
me, and that it should be asserted that, in declaring the copy to be
incorrect, I had said much the same sort of thing as if I had declared
that snow was black. For why should I repay in kind his rash
suggestion, and say that, though he pretends that I suppressed the
words, he really added them afterwards himself, since the copy, which
is not angry, can confirm that mark of incorrectness, without any
abusive rashness on my part?
Footnotes
[2380] See Book I. c. 2, 3.
Chapter 23.
--27. And, in the first place, with regard to that first
expression, "Of him who gives in holiness," it does not interfere in
the least with my inquiry, by which he is so much distressed, whether
I use the expression, "If the conscience of him that gives is what we
look for," or the fuller phrase, "If the conscience of him that gives
in holiness is what we look for, to cleanse the conscience of the
recipient," by what means then is he to be cleansed who receives
baptism if the conscience of the giver is polluted, without the
knowledge of him who is to receive the sacrament? And with regard to
the other word that is added, "wittingly," so that the sentence should
not run, "He who has received his faith from one that is faithless,"
but "He who has wittingly received his faith from one that is
faithless, receives not faith but guilt," I confess that I had said
some things as though the word were absent, but I can easily afford to
do without them; for they caused more hindrance to the facility of my
argument than they gave assistance to its power. For how much more
readily, how much more plainly and shortly, can I put the question
thus: "If the conscience of him who gives in holiness is what we look
for to cleanse the conscience of the recipient," and "if he who has
wittingly received his faith from one that is faithless receives not
faith but guilt," by what means is he cleansed, from whom the stain on
the conscience of him who gives, but not in holiness, is hidden? and
whence does he receive true faith, who is baptized unwittingly by one
that is faithless? Let it be declared whence this shall be, and then
the whole theory of baptism will be disclosed; then all that is matter
of investigation will be brought to light,--but only if it be
declared, not if the time be consumed in evil-speaking.
Chapter 24.
--28. Whatever, therefore, he finds in these two
words,--whether he brings calumnious accusations about their
suppression, or boasts of their being added,--you perceive that it in
no way hinders my question, to which he can find no answer that he can
make; and therefore, not wishing to remain silent, he takes the
opportunity of making an attack upon my character,--retiring, I should
have said, from the discussion, except that he had never entered on
it. For just as though the question were about me, and not about the
truth of the Church, or of baptism, therefore he says that I, by
suppressing these two words, have argued as though it were no
stumblingblock in the way of my conscience, that I have ignored what
he calls the sacrilegious conscience of him who polluted me. But if
this were so, the addition of the word "wittingly," which is thus
introduced, would be in my favor, and its suppression would tell
against me. For if I had wished that my defense should be urged on
the ground that I should be supposed to have been unacquainted with
the conscience of the man that baptized me, then I would accept
Petilianus as having spoken in my behalf, since he does not say in
general terms, "He that has received his faith from one that is
faithless," but "He that has wittingly received his faith from one
that is faithless, receives not faith but guilt;" so that hence I
might boast that I had received not guilt, but faith, since I could
say I did not receive it wittingly from one that was faithless, but
was unacquainted with the conscience of him that gave it. See,
therefore, and reckon carefully, if you can, what an amount of
superfluous words he wastes on the one phrase, "I was unacquainted
with" which he declares that I have used; whereas I never used it at
all,--partly because the question under discussion was not concerning
me, so that I should need to use it; partly because no fault was
apparent in him that baptized me, so that I should be forced to say in
my defense that I had been unacquainted with his conscience.
Chapter 25.
--29. And yet Petilianus, to avoid answering what I have
said, sets before himself what I have not, and draws men's attention
away from the consideration of his debt, lest they should exact the
answer which he ought to make. He constantly introduces the
expressions, "I have been unacquainted with," "I say," and makes
answer, "But if you were unacquainted with;" and, as though convicting
me, so that it should be out of my power to say, "I was unacquainted
with," he quotes Mensurius, Cæcilianus, Macarius, Taurinus, Romanus,
and declares that "they had acted in opposition to the Church of God,
as I could not fail to know, seeing that I am an African, and already
well advanced in years," whereas, so far as I hear, Mensurius died in
the unity of the communion of the Church, before the faction of
Donatus separated itself therefrom; whilst I had read the history of
Cæcilianus, that they themselves had referred his case to Constantine,
and that he had been once and again acquitted by the judges whom that
emperor had appointed to try the matter, and again a third time by the
sovereign himself, when they appealed to him. But whatever Macarius
and Taurinus and Romanus did, either in their judicial or executive
functions, in behalf of unity as against their pertinacious madness,
it is beyond doubt that it was all done in accordance with the laws,
which these same persons made it unavoidable should be passed and put
in force, by referring the case of Cæcilianus to the judgment of the
emperor.
30. Among many other things which are wholly irrevelant, he says that
"I was so hard hit by the decision of the proconsul Messianus, that I
was forced to fly from Africa." And in consequence of this falsehood
(to which, if he was not the author of it, he certainly lent malicious
ears when others maliciously invented it), how many other falsehoods
had he the hardihood not only to utter, but actually to write with
wondrous rashness, seeing that I went to Milan before the consulship
of Banto, and that, in pursuance of the profession of rhetorician
which I then followed, I recited a panegyric in his honor as consul on
the first of January, in the presence of a vast assembly of men; and
after that journey I only returned to Africa after the death of the
tyrant Maximus: whereas the proconsul Messianus heard the case of the
Manichæans after the consulship of Banto, as the day of the chronicles
inserted by Petilianus himself sufficiently shows. And if it were
necessary to prove this for the satisfaction of those who are in
doubt, or believe the contrary, I could produce many men, illustrious
in their generation, as most sufficient witnesses to all that period
of my life.
Chapter 26.
--31. But why do we make inquiry into these points? Why
do we both suffer and cause unnecessary delay? Are we likely to find
out by such a course as this what means we are to use for cleansing
the conscience of the recipient, who does not know that the conscience
of the giver is stained with guilt: whence the man is to receive
faith who is unwittingly baptized by one that is faithless?--the
question which Petilianus had proposed to himself to answer in my
epistle, then going on to say anything else he pleased except what the
matter in hand required. How often has he said, "If ignorant you
were,"--as though I had said, what I never did say, that I was
unacquainted with the conscience of him who baptized me. And he
seemed to have no other object in all that his evil-speaking mouth
poured forth, except that he should appear to prove that I had not
been ignorant of the misdeeds of those among whom I was baptized, and
with whom I was associated in communion, understanding fully, it would
seem, that ignorance did not convict me of guilt. See then that if I
were ignorant, as he has repeated so often, beyond all doubt I should
be innocent of all these crimes. Whence therefore should I be
cleansed, who am unacquainted with the conscience of him who gives but
not in holiness, so that I may be least ensnared by his offenses?
Whence then should I receive faith, seeing that I was baptized
unwittingly by one that was faithless? For he has not repeated "If
ignorant you were" so often without purpose, but simply to prevent my
being reputed innocent, esteeming beyond all doubt that no man's
innocence is violated if he unwittingly receives his faith from one
that is faithless, and is not acquainted with the stains on the
conscience of him that gives, but not in holiness. Let him say,
therefore, by what means such men are to be cleansed, whence they are
to receive not guilt but faith. But let him not deceive you. Let him
not, while uttering much, say nothing; or rather, let him not say much
while saying nothing. Next, to urge a point which occurs to me, and
must not be passed over,--if I am guilty because I have not been
ignorant, to use his own phraseology, and I am proved not to have been
ignorant, because I am an African, and already advanced in years, let
him grant that the youths of other nations throughout the world are
not guilty, who had no opportunity either from their race, or from
that age you bring against me, of knowing the points that are laid to
our charge, be they true, or be they false; and yet they, if they have
fallen into your hands, are rebaptized without any considerations of
such a kind.
Chapter 27.
--32. But this is not what we are now inquiring. Let him
rather answer (what he wanders off into the most irrelevant matters in
order to avoid answering) by what means the conscience of the
recipient is cleansed who is unacquainted with the stain on the
conscience of the giver, if the conscience of one that gives in
holiness is what we look for to cleanse the conscience of the
recipient? and from what source he receive faith who is unwittingly
baptized by one that is faithless, if he that has wittingly received
his faith from one that is faithless receives not faith but guilt?
Omitting, therefore, his revilings, which he has cast at me without
any sound consideration, let us still notice that he does not say what
we demand in what follows. But I should like to look at the garrulous
mode in which he has set this forth, as though he were sure to
overwhelm us with confusion. "But let us return," he says, "to that
argument of your fancy, whereby you seem to have represented to
yourself in a form of words the persons you baptize. For since you do
not see the truth, it would have been more seemly to have imagined
what was probable." These words of his own, Petilianus put forth by
way of preface, being about to state the words that I had used. Then
he went on to quote: "Behold, you say, the faithless man stands ready
to baptize, but he who is to be baptized knows nothing of his
faithlessness." [2381]He has not quoted the whole of my proposition
and question; and presently he begins to ask me in his turn, saying,
"Who is the man, and from what corner has he started up, that you
propose to us? Why do you seem to see a man who is the produce of
your imagination, in order to avoid seeing one whom you are bound to
see, and to examine and test most carefully? But since I see that you
are unacquainted with the order of the sacrament, I tell you this as
shortly as I can: you were bound both to examine your baptizer, and
to be examined by him." What is it, then, that we were waiting for?
That he should tell us by what means the conscience of the recipient
is to be cleansed, who is unacquainted with the stain on the
conscience of him that gives but not in holiness, and whence the man
is to receive not guilt but faith, who has received baptism
unwittingly from one that is faithless. All that we have heard is
that the baptizer ought most diligently to be examined by him who
wishes to receive not guilt but faith, that the latter may make
himself acquainted with the conscience of him that gives in holiness,
which is to cleanse the conscience of the recipient. For the man that
has failed to make this examination, and has unwittingly received
baptism from one that is faithless, from the very fact that he did not
make the examination, and therefore did not know of the stain on the
conscience of the giver, was incapacitated from receiving faith
instead of guilt. Why therefore did he add what he made so much of
adding,--the word wittingly, which he calumniously accused me of
having suppressed? For in his unwillingness that the sentence should
run, "He who has received his faith from one that is faithless,
receives not faith but guilt," he seems to have left some hope to the
man that acts unwittingly. But now, when he is asked whence that man
is to receive faith who is baptized unwittingly by one that is
faithless, he has answered that he ought to have examined his
baptizer; so that, beyond all doubt, he refuses the wretched man
permission even to be ignorant, by not finding out from what source he
may receive faith, unless he has placed his trust in the man that is
baptizing him.
Footnotes
[2381] See Book I. c. 2, 3.
Chapter 28.
--33. This is what we look upon with horror in your party;
this is what the sentence of God condemns, crying out with the utmost
truth and the utmost clearness, "Cursed is every one that trusteth in
man." [2382]This is what is most openly forbidden by holy humility
and apostolic love, as Paul declares, "Let no man glory in men."
[2383]This is the reason that the attack of empty calumnies and of
the bitterest invectives grows even fiercer against us, that when
human authority is as it were overthrown, there may remain no ground
of hope for those to whom we administer the word and sacrament of God
in accordance with the dispensation entrusted unto us. We make answer
to them: How long do you rest your support on man? The venerable
society of the Catholic Church makes answer to them: "Truly my soul
waiteth upon God: from Him cometh my salvation. He only is my God
and my helper; I shall not be moved." [2384]For what other reason
have they had for removing from the house of God, except that they
pretended that they could not endure those vessels made to dishonor,
from which the house shall not be free until the day of judgment?
whereas all the time they rather appear, by their deeds and by the
records of the time, to have themselves been vessels of this kind,
while they threw the imputation in the teeth of others; of which said
vessels made unto dishonor, in order that no one should on their
account remove in confusion of mind from the great house, which alone
belongs to the great Father of our family, the servant of God, one who
was good and faithful, or was capable of receiving faith in baptism,
as I have shown above, expressly says, "Truly my soul waiteth upon
God" (on God, you see, and not on man): "from Him cometh my
salvation" (not from man). But Petilianus would refuse to ascribe to
God the cleansing and purifying of a man, even when the stain upon the
conscience of him who gives, but not in holiness, is hidden from view,
and any one receives his faith unwittingly from one that is
faithless. "I tell you this," he says, "as shortly as I can: you
were bound both to examine your baptizer, and to be examined by him."
Footnotes
[2382] Jer. xvii. 5.
[2383] 1 Cor. iii. 21.
[2384] Ps. lxii. 1, 2; cp. Hieron.
Chapter 29.
--34. I entreat of you, pay attention to this: I ask
where the means shall be found for cleansing the conscience of the
recipient, when he is not acquainted with the stain upon the
conscience of him that gives but not in holiness, if the conscience of
him that gives in holiness is waited for to cleanse the conscience of
the recipient? and from what source he is to receive faith, who is
unwittingly baptized by one that is faithless, if, whosoever has
received his faith wittingly from one that is faithless, receives not
faith but guilt? and he answers me, that both the baptizer and the
baptized should be subjected to examination. And for the proof of
this point, out of which no question arises, he adduces the example of
John, in that he was examined by those who asked him who he claimed to
be, [2385] and that he also in turn examined those to whom he says, "O
generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to
come?" [2386]What has this to do with the subject? What has this
to do with the question under discussion? God had vouchsafed to John
the testimony of most eminent holiness of life, confirmed by the
previous witness of the noblest prophecy, both when he was conceived,
and when he was born. But the Jews put their question, already
believing him to be a saint, to find out which of the saints he
maintained himself to be, or whether he was himself the saint of
saints, that is, Christ Jesus. So much favor indeed was shown to him,
that credence would at once have been given to whatever he might have
said about himself. If, therefore, we are to follow this precedent in
declaring that each several baptizer is now to be examined, then each
must also be believed, whatever he may say of himself. But who is
there that is made up of deceit, whom we know that the Holy Spirit
flees from, in accordance with the Scripture, [2387] who would not
wish the best to be believed of him, or who would hesitate to bring
this about by the use of any words within his reach? Accordingly,
when he shall have been asked who he is, and shall have answered that
he is the faithful dispenser of God's ordinances, and that his
conscience is not polluted with the stain of any crime, will this be
the whole examination, or will there be a further more careful
investigation into his character and life? Assuredly there will. But
it is not written that this was done by those who in the desert of
Jordan asked John who he was.
Footnotes
[2385] John i. 22.
[2386] Matt. iii. 7.
[2387] Wisd. i. 5.
Chapter 30.
--35. Accordingly this precedent is wholly without bearing
on the matter in hand. We might rather say that the declaration of
the apostle sufficiently inculcates this care, when he says, "Let
these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon,
being found blameless." [2388]And since this is done anxiously and
habitually in both parties, by almost all concerned, how comes it that
so many are found to be reprobates subsequently to the time of having
undertaken this ministry, except that, on the one hand, human care is
often deceived, and, on the other hand, those who have begun well
occasionally deteriorate? And since things of this sort happen so
frequently as to allow no man to hide them or to forget them, what is
the reason that Petilianus now teaches us insultingly, in a few words,
that the baptizer ought to be examined by the candidate for baptism,
since our question is, by what means the conscience of the recipient
is to be cleansed, when the stain on the conscience of him that gives,
but not in holiness, has been concealed from view, if the conscience
of one that gives in holiness is what we look for to cleanse the
conscience of the recipient. "Since I see," he says, "that you are
unacquainted with the order of the sacrament, I tell you this as
shortly as I can: you were bound both to examine your baptizer, and
to be examined by him." What an answer to make! He is surrounded in
so many places by such a multitude of men that have been baptized by
ministers who, having in the first instance seemed righteous and
chaste, have subsequently been convicted and degraded in consequence
of the disclosure of their faults: and he thinks that he is avoiding
the force of this question, in which we ask by what means the
conscience of the recipient is to be cleansed, when he is unacquainted
with the stain upon the conscience of him that gives but not in
holiness, if the conscience of one that gives in holiness is what we
look for to cleanse the conscience of the recipient,--he thinks, I
say, that he is avoiding the force of this question, by saying shortly
that the baptizer ought to be examined. Nothing is more unfortunate
than not to be consistent with truth, by which every one is so shut
in, that he cannot find a means of escape. We ask from whom he is to
receive faith who is baptized by one that is faithless? The answer
is, "He ought to have examined his baptizer." Is it therefore the
case that, since he does not examine him, and so even unwittingly
receives his faith from one that is faithless, he receives not faith
but guilt? Why then are those men not baptized afresh, who are found
to have been baptized by men that are detected and convicted
reprobates, while their true character was yet concealed?
Footnotes
[2388] 1 Tim. iii. 10.
Chapter. 31.
--36. "And where," he says, "is the word that I added,
wittingly?so that I did not say, He that has received his faith from
one that is faithless; but, He that has received his faith wittingly
from one that is faithless, receives not faith but guilt." He
therefore who received his faith unwittingly from one that was
faithless, received not guilt but faith; and accordingly I ask from
what source he has received it? And being thus placed in a strait, he
answers, "He ought to have examined him." Granted that he ought to
have done so; but, as a matter of fact, he did not, or he was not
able: what is your verdict about him? Was he cleansed, or was he
not? If he was cleansed, I ask from what source? For the polluted
conscience of him that gave but not in holiness, with which he was
unacquainted, could not cleanse him. But if he was not cleansed,
command that he be so now. You give no such orders, therefore he was
cleansed. Tell me by what means? Do you at any rate tell me what
Petilianus has failed to tell. For I propose to you the very same
words which he was unable to answer. "Behold the faithless man stands
ready to baptize; but he who is to be baptized knows nothing of his
faithlessness: what do you think that he will receive--faith, or
guilt?" [2389]This is sufficient as a constant form of question:
answer, or search diligently to find what he has answered. You will
find abuse that has already been convicted. He finds fault with me,
as though in derision, maintaining that I ought to suggest what is
probable for consideration, since I cannot see the truth. For,
repeating my words, and cutting my sentence in two, he says, "Behold,
you say, the faithless man stands ready to baptize; but he who is to
be baptized knows nothing of his faithlessness." Then he goes on to
ask, "Who is the man, and from what corner has he started up, that you
propose to us?" Just as though there were some one or two
individuals, and such cases were not constantly occurring everywhere
on either side! Why does he ask of me who the man in question is, and
from what corner he has started up, instead of looking round, and
seeing that the churches are few and far between, whether in cities or
in country districts, which do not contain men detected in crimes, and
degraded from the ministry? While their true character was concealed,
while they wished to be thought good, though really bad, and to be
reputed chaste, though really guilty of adultery, so long they were
involved in deceit; and so the Holy Spirit, according to the
Scripture, was fleeing from them. [2390]It is from the crowd,
therefore, of these men who hitherto concealed their character that
the faithless man whom I suggested started up. Why does he ask me
whence he started up, shutting his eyes to all this crowd, from which
sufficient noise arises to satisfy the blind, if we take into
consideration none but those who might have been convicted and
degraded from their office?
Footnotes
[2389] Book I. cc. 1, 2, 2, 3.
[2390] Wisd. i. 5.
Chapter 32.
--37. What shall we say of what he himself advanced in his
epistle, that "Quodvultdeus, having been convicted of two adulteries,
and cast out from among you, was received by those of our party?"
[2391]What then (I would speak without prejudice to this man, who
proved his case to be a good one, or at least persuaded men that it
was so), when such men among you, being as yet undetected, administer
baptism, what is received at their hands,--faith, or guilt? Surely
not faith, because they have not the conscience of one who gives in
holiness to cleanse the conscience of the recipient. But yet not
guilt either, in virtue of that added word: "For he that has received
his faith wittingly from one that is faithless, receives not faith but
guilt." But when men were baptized by those of whom I speak, they
were surely ignorant what sort of men they were. Furthermore, not
receiving faith from their baptizers, who had not the conscience of
one that gives in holiness, and not receiving guilt, because they were
baptized not knowing but in ignorance of their faults, they therefore
remained without faith and without guilt. They are not, therefore, in
the number of men of such abandoned character. But neither can they
be in the number of the faithful, because, as they could not receive
guilt, so neither could they receive faith from their baptizers. But
we see that they are reputed by you in the number of the faithful, and
that no one of you declares his opinion that they ought to be
baptized, but all of you hold valid the baptism which they have
already received. They have therefore received faith; and yet they
have not received it from those who had not the conscience of one that
gives in holiness, to cleanse the conscience of the recipient. Whence
then did they receive it? This is the point from which I make my
effort; this is the question that I press most earnestly; to this I do
most urgently demand an answer.
Footnotes
[2391] The Council of Carthage, held on the 13th of September, 401,
passed a decree (canon 2) in favor of receiving the clergy of the
Donatists with full recognition of their orders.
Chapter 33.
--38. See now how Petilianus, to avoid answering this
question, or to avoid being proved to be incapable of answering it,
wanders off vainly into irrelevant matter in abuse of us, accusing us
and proving nothing; and when he chances to make an endeavor to
resist, with something like a show of fighting for his cause, he is
everywhere overcome with the greatest ease. But yet he nowhere gives
an answer of any kind to this one question which we ask: If the
conscience of one that gives in holiness is what we look for to
cleanse the conscience of the recipient, by what means is he to be
cleansed who received baptism while the conscience of the giver was
polluted, without the knowledge of him who was to receive it? for in
these words, which he quoted from my epistle, he set me forth as
asking a question, while he showed himself as giving no answer. For
after saying what I have just now recited, and when, on being brought
into a great strait on every side, he had been compelled to say that
the baptizer ought to be examined by the candidate for baptism, and
the candidate in turn by the baptizer; and when he had tried to
fortify this statement by the example of John, in hopes that he might
find auditors either of the greatest negligence or of the greatest
ignorance, he then went on to advance other testimonies of Scripture
wholly irrelevant to the matter in hand, as the saying of the eunuch
to Philip, "See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?"
[2392] "inasmuch as he knew," says he, "that those of abandoned
character were prevented;" arguing that the reason why Philip did not
forbid him to be baptized was because he had proved, in his reading of
the Scriptures, how far he believed in Christ,--as though he had
prohibited Simon Magus. And again, he urges that the prophets were
afraid of being deceived by false baptism, and that therefore Isaiah
said, "Lying water that has not faith," [2393] as though showing that
water among faithless men is lying; whereas it is not Isaiah but
Jeremiah that says this of lying men, calling the people in a figure
water, as is most clearly shown in the Apocalypse. [2394]And again,
he quotes as words of David, "Let not the oil of the sinner anoint my
head," when David has been speaking of the flattery of the smooth
speaker deceiving with false praise, so as to lead the head of the man
praised to wax great with pride. And this meaning is made manifest by
the words immediately preceding in the same psalm. For he says, "Let
the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; and let him reprove
me: but the oil of the sinner shall not break my head." [2395]What
can be clearer than this sentence? what more manifest? For he
declares that he had rather be reproved in kindness with the sharp
correction of the righteous, so that he may be healed, than anointed
with the soft speaking of the flatterer, so as to be puffed up with
pride.
Footnotes
[2392] Acts viii. 36.
[2393] Jer. xv. 18. See Book II. c. 102, 234, 235.
[2394] Rev. xvii. 15.
[2395] Ps. cxli. 5. See Book II. c. 103, 236, 237.
Chapter 34.
--39. Petilianus quotes also the warning of the Apostle
John, that we should not believe every spirit, but try the spirits
whether they are of God, [2396] as though this care should be bestowed
in order that the wheat should be separated from the chaff in this
present world before its time, and not rather for fear that the wheat
should be deceived by the chaff; or as though, even if the lying
spirit should have said something that was true, it was to be denied,
because the spirit whom we should abominate had said it. But if any
one thinks this, he is mad enough to contend that Peter ought not to
have said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," [2397]
because the devils had already said something to the same effect.
[2398]Seeing, therefore, that the baptism of Christ, whether
administered by an unrighteous or a righteous man, is nothing but the
baptism of Christ what a cautious man and faithful Christian should do
is to avoid the unrighteousness of man, not to condemn the sacraments
of God.
40. Assuredly in all these things Petilianus gives no answer to the
question, If the conscience of one that gives in holiness is what we
look for to cleanse the conscience of the recipient, by what means is
he to be cleansed who receives baptism, when the conscience of the
giver is polluted without the knowledge of the proposed recipient? A
certain Cyprian, a colleague of his from Thubursicubur, was caught in
a brothel with a woman of most abandoned character, and was brought
before Primianus of Carthage, and condemned. Now, when this man
baptized before he was detected and condemned, it is manifest that he
had not the conscience of one that gives in holiness, so as to cleanse
the conscience of the recipient. By what means then have they been
cleansed who at this day, after he has been condemned, are certainly
not washed again? It was not necessary to name the man save only to
prevent Petilianus from repeating, "Who is the man, and from what
corner has he started up, that you propose to us?" Why did not your
party examine that baptizer, as John, in the opinion of Petilianus,
was examined? Or was the real fact this, that they examined him so
far as man can examine man, but were unable to find him out, as he
long lay hid with cunning falseness?
Footnotes
[2396] 1 John iv. 1.
[2397] Matt. xvi. 16.
[2398] Matt. viii. 29; Mark i. 24; Luke viii. 28.
Chapter 35.
--Was the water administered by this man not lying? or is
the oil of the fornicator not the oil of the sinner? or must we hold
what the Catholic Church says, and what is true, that that water and
that oil are not his by whom they were administered, but His whose
name was then invoked? Why did they who were baptized by that
hypocrite, whose sins were concealed, fail to try the spirit, to prove
that it was not of God? For the Holy Spirit of discipline was even
then fleeing from the hypocrite. [2399]Was it that He was fleeing
from him, but at the same time not deserting His sacraments, though
ministered by him? Lastly, since you do not deny that those men have
been already cleansed, whom you take no care to have cleansed now that
he is condemned, see whether, after shedding over the subject so many
mists in so many different ways, Petilianus, after all, in any place
gives any answer to the question by what means these men have been
cleansed, if what we look for to cleanse the conscience of the
recipient is the conscience of one that gives in holiness, such as the
man who was secretly unclean could not have had.
41. Making then, no answer to this which is so urgently asked of him,
and, in the next place, even seeking for himself a latitude of speech,
he says, "since both prophets and apostles have been cautious enough
to fear these things, with what face do you say that the baptism of
the sinner is holy to those who believe with a good conscience?" Just
as though I or any Catholic maintained that that baptism was of the
sinner which is administered or received with a sinner to officiate,
instead of being His in virtue of belief in whose name the candidate
is baptized! Then he goes off to an invective against the traitor
Judas, saying against him whatever he can, quoting the testimony of
the prophets uttered concerning him so long a time before, as though
he would steep the Church of Christ dispersed throughout the world,
whose cause is involved in this discussion, in the impiety of the
traitor Judas,--not considering what this very thing should have
recalled to his mind, that we ought no more to doubt that that is the
Church of Christ which is spread abroad throughout the world, since
this was prophesied with truth so many years before, than we ought to
doubt that it was necessary that Christ should be betrayed by one of
His disciples, because this was prophesied in like manner.
Footnotes
[2399] Wisd. i. 5.
Chapter 36.
--42. But after this, when Petilianus came to that
objection of ours, that they allowed the baptism of the followers of
Maximianus, whom they had condemned, [2400] --although in the
statement of this question he thought it right to use his own words
rather than mine; for neither do we assert that the baptism of sinners
is of profit to us, seeing that we maintain it to belong not only to
no sinners, but to no men whatsoever, in that we are satisfied that it
is Christ's alone,--having put the question in this form, he says,
"Yet you obstinately aver that it is right that the baptism of sinners
should be of profit to you, because we too, according to your
statement, maintained the baptism of criminals whom we justly
condemned." When he came to this question, as I said before, even all
the show of fight which he had made deserted him. He could not find
any way to go, any means of escape, any path by which, either through
subtle watching or bold enterprise, he could either secretly steal
away, or sally forth by force. "Although this," he says, "I will
demonstrate in my second book, how great the difference is between
those of our party and those of yours whom you call innocent, yet, in
the meantime, first extricate yourselves from the offenses with which
you are acquainted in your colleagues, and then seek out the mode of
dealing with those whom we cast out." Would any one, any man upon the
earth, give an answer like this, save one who is setting himself
against the truth, against which he cannot find any answer that can be
made? Accordingly, if we too were to use the same words: In the
meantime, first extricate yourselves from the offenses with which you
are acquainted in your colleagues, and then bring up against us any
charge connected with those whom you hold to be wicked amongst
us,--what is the result? Have we both won the victory, or are we both
defeated? Nay, rather He has gained the victory for His Church and in
His Church, who has taught us in His Scriptures that no man should
glory in men, and that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord.
[2401]For behold in our case who assert with the eloquence of truth
that the man who believes is not justified by him by whom he is
baptized, but by Him of whom it is written, "To him that believeth on
Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for
righteousness," [2402] since we do not glory in men, and strive, when
we glory, to glory in the Lord in virtue of His own gift, how wholly
safe are we, whatever fault or charge Petilianus may have been able to
prove concerning certain men of our communion! For among us, whatever
wicked men are either wholly undetected, or, being known to certain
persons, are yet tolerated for the sake of the bond of unity and
peace, in consideration of other good men to whom their wickedness is
unknown, and before whom they could not be convicted, in order that
the wheat may not be rooted up together with the tares, yet they so
bear the burden of their own wickedness, that no one shares it with
them except those who are pleased with their unrighteousness. Nor
indeed have we any apprehension that those whom they baptize cannot be
justified, since they believe in Him that justifieth the ungodly that
their faith may be counted for righteousness. [2403]
Footnotes
[2400] See Book I. cc. 10, 11, 11, 12.
[2401] 1 Cor. iii. 21, and i. 31.
[2402] Rom. iv. 5.
[2403] Rom. iv. 5.
Chapter 37.
--43. Furthermore, according to our tenets, neither he of
whom Petilianus said that he was cast forth by us for the sin of the
men of Sodom, another being appointed in his place, and that
afterwards he was actually restored to our college,--talking all the
time without knowing what he was saying,--nor he whom he declares to
have been penitent among you, in whatever degree their respective
cases do or do not admit of any defense, can neither of them prejudice
the Church, which is spread abroad throughout all nations, and
increases in the world until the harvest. For if they were really
wicked members of it that you accuse, then they were already not in
it, but among the chaff; but if they are good, while you defame their
character with unrighteous accusations, they are themselves being
tried like gold, while you burn after the similitude of chaff. Yet
the sins of other men do not defile the Church, which is spread abroad
throughout the whole world, according to most faithful prophesies,
waiting for the end of the world as for its shore, on which, when it
is landed, it will be freed from the bad fish, in company with which
the inconvenience of nature might be borne without sin within the same
nets of the Lord, so long as it was not right to be impatiently
separated from them. Nor yet is the discipline of the Church on this
account neglected by constant and diligent and prudent ministers of
Christ, in whose province crimes are in such wise brought to light
that they cannot be defended on any plea of probability. Innumerable
proofs of this may be found in those who have been bishops or clergy
of the second degree of orders, and now, being degraded, have either
gone abroad into other lands through shame, or have gone over to you
yourselves or to other heresies, or are known in their own districts;
of whom there is so great a multitude dispersed throughout the earth,
that if Petilianus, bridling for a time his rashness in speaking, had
taken them into consideration, he would never have fallen into so
manifestly false and groundless a misconception, as to think that we
ought to join in what he says: None of you is free from guilt, where
no one that is guilty is condemned.
Chapter 38.
--44. For, to pass over others dwelling in different
quarters of the earth,--for you will scarcely find any place in which
this kind of men is not represented, from whom it may appear that
overseers and ministers are wont to be condemned even in the Catholic
Church,--we need not look far to find the example of Honorius of
Milevis. But take the case of Splendonius, whom Petilianus ordained
priest after he had been condemned in the Catholic Church, and
rebaptized by himself, whose condemnation in Gaul, communicated to us
by our brethren, our colleague Fortunatus caused to be publicly read
in Constantina, and whom the same Petilianus afterwards cast forth on
experience of his abominable deceit. From the case of this
Splendonius, when was there a time when he might not have been
reminded after what fashion wicked men are degraded from their office
even in the Catholic Church? I wonder on what precipice of rashness
his heart was resting when he dictated those words in which he
ventured to say, "No one of you is free from guilt, where no one that
is guilty is condemned." Wherefore the wicked, being bodily
intermingled with the good, but spiritually separated from them in the
Catholic Church, both when they are undetected through the infirmity
of human nature, and when they are condemned from considerations of
discipline, in every case bear their own burden. And in this way
those are free from danger who are baptized by them with the baptism
of Christ, if they keep free from share in their sins either by
imitation or consent; seeing that in like manner, if they were
baptized by the best of men, they would not be justified except by Him
that justifieth the ungodly: since to those that believe on Him that
justifieth the ungodly their faith is counted for righteousness.
Chapter 39.
--45. But as for you, when the case of the followers of
Maximianus is brought up against you, who, after being condemned by
the sentence of a Council of 310 bishops; [2404] after being utterly
defeated in the same Council, quoted in the records of so many
proconsuls, in the chronicles of so many municipal towns; after being
driven forth from the basilicas of which they were in possession, by
the order of the judges, enforced by the troops of the several cities,
were yet again received with all honor by you, together with those
whom they had baptized outside the pale of your communion, without any
question respecting their baptism,--when confronted, I say, with their
case, you can find no reply to make. Indeed, you are vanquished by an
expressed opinion, not indeed true, but proceeding from yourselves, by
which you maintain that men perish for the faults of others in the
same communion of the sacraments, and that each man's character is
determined by that of the man by whom he is baptized,--that he is
guilty if his baptizer is guilty, innocent if he is innocent. But if
these views are true, there can be no doubt that, to say nothing of
innumerable others, you are destroyed by the sins of the followers of
Maximianus, whose guilt your party, in so large a Council, has
exaggerated even to the proportions of the sin of those whom the earth
swallowed up alive. But if the faults of the followers of Maximianus
have not destroyed you, then are these opinions false which you
entertain; and much less have certain indefinite unproved faults of
the Africans been able to destroy the entire world. And accordingly,
as the apostle says, "Every man shall bear his own burden;" [2405] and
the baptism of Christ is no one's except Christ's; and it is to no
purpose that Petilianus promises that he will take as the subject of
his second book the charges which we bring concerning the followers of
Maximianus, entertaining too low an opinion of men's intellects, as
though they do not perceive that he has nothing to say.
Footnotes
[2404] That of Bagai.
[2405] Gal. vi. 5.
Chapter 40.
--46. For if the baptism which Prætextatus and Felicianus
administered in the communion of Maximianus was their own, why was it
received by you in those whom they baptized as though it were the
baptism of Christ? But if it is truly the baptism of Christ, as
indeed it is, and yet could not profit those who had received it with
the guilt of schism, what do you say that you could have granted to
those whom you have received into your body with the same baptism,
except that, now that the offense of their accursed division is wiped
out by the bond of peace, they should not be compelled to receive the
sacrament of the holy laver as though they had it not, but that, as
what they had was before for their destruction, so it should now begin
to be of profit to them? Or if this is not granted to them in your
communion, because it could not possibly be that it should be granted
to schismatics among schismatics, it is at any rate granted to you in
the Catholic communion, not that you should receive baptism as though
it were lacking in you, but that the baptism which you have actually
received should be of profit to you. For all the sacraments of
Christ, if not combined with the love which belongs to the unity of
Christ, are possessed not unto salvation, but unto judgment. But
since it is not a true verdict, but your verdict, "that through the
baptism of certain traditors the baptism of Christ has perished from
the world in general," it is with good reason that you cannot find any
answer to make respecting the recognition of the baptism of the
followers of Maximianus.
47. See therefore, and remember with the most watchful care, how
Petilianus has made no answer to that very question, which he proposes
to himself in such terms as to seem to make it a starting-point from
which to say something. For the former question he has dismissed
altogether, and has not wished to speak of it to us, because I suppose
it was beyond his power; nor is he at any time, up to the very end of
his volume, going to say anything about it, though he quoted it from
the first part of my epistle as though it were a matter calling for
refutation. For even though he has added the two words which he
accused me of having suppressed, as though they were the strongest
bulwarks of his position, he yet lies wholly defenseless, unable to
find any answer to make when he is asked, If the conscience of one
that gives in holiness is what we look for to cleanse the conscience
of the recipient, where are we to find means for cleansing the
conscience of the man who is unacquainted with the conscience of him
gives, but not in holiness? and if it be the case that any one who has
received his faith from one that is faithless, receives not faith but
guilt, from what source is he to receive not guilt but faith, who is
unwittingly baptized by one that is faithless? To this question it
has long been manifest from what he says that he has made no answer.
48. In the next place, he has gone on, with calumnious mouth, to
abuse monasteries and monks, finding fault also with me, as having
been the founder of this kind of life. [2406]And what this kind of
life really is he does not know at all, or rather, though it is
perfectly well known throughout all the world, he pretends that he is
unacquainted with it. Then, asserting that I had said that Christ was
the baptizer, he has also added certain words from my epistle as
though I had set this forth as my own sentiment, when I had really
quoted it as his and yours, and it was inveighed against with most
copious harshness, as if it were I who had said these things against
myself, when what he reprehended was not mine, but his and your
sentiment, as I will presently show clearly to the best of my ability.
[2407]Then he has endeavored to show us, in many unnecessary words,
that Christ does not baptize, but that baptism is administered in His
name, at once in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost; of which Trinity itself he has said, either because it was
what he wished, or because it was all that he could say, that "Christ
is the centre of the Trinity." In the next place, he has taken
occasion of the names of the sorcerers Simon and Barjesus to vent
against us what insults he thought fit. Then he goes on, keeping in
guarded suspense the case of Optatus of Thamugas, that he might not be
steeped in the odium that arose from it, denying that neither he or
his party could have passed judgment upon him, and actually intimating
in respect of him, that he was crushed in consequence of suggestions
from myself.
Footnotes
[2406] See Possidius' Life of St. Augustin, cc. v.-xi.
[2407] See c. 45, 54.
Chapter 41.
--49. Lastly, he has ended his epistle with an exhortation
and warning to his own party, that they should not be deceived by us,
and with a lamentation over those of our party, that we had made them
worse than they had been before. Having therefore carefully
considered and discussed these points, as appears with sufficient
clearness from the words of the epistle which he wrote, Petilianus has
made no answer at all to the position which I advanced to begin with
in my epistle, when I asked, Supposing it to be true, as he asserts,
that the conscience of one that gives--or rather, to add what he
considers so great a support to his argument--that the conscience of
one that gives in holiness is what we look for to cleanse the
conscience of the recipient, by what means he who receives baptism is
to be cleansed, when, if the conscience of the giver is polluted, it
is without the knowledge of the proposed recipient? Whence it is not
surprising that a man resisting in the cause of falsehood, pressed
hard in the straits of the truth that contradicts it, should have
chosen rather to gasp forth mad abuse, than to walk in the path of
that truth which cannot be overcome.
50. And now I would beg of you to pay especial attention to the next
few words, that I may show you clearly what he has been afraid of in
not answering this, and that I may bring into the light what he has
endeavored to shroud in obscurity. It certainly was in his power,
when we asked by what means he is to be cleansed, who receives baptism
when the conscience of the giver is polluted without the knowledge of
the proposed recipient, to answer with the greatest ease, From our
Lord God; and at any rate to say with the utmost confidence, God
wholly cleanses the conscience of the recipient, when he is
unacquainted with the stain upon the conscience of him that gives but
not in holiness. But when a man had already been compelled by the
tenets of your sect to rest the cleansing of the recipient on the
conscience of the giver, in that he had said, "For the conscience of
him that gives," or "of him that gives in holiness, is looked for to
cleanse the conscience of the recipient," he was naturally afraid lest
any one should seem to be better baptized by a wicked man who
concealed his wickedness, than by one that was genuinely and
manifestly good; for in the former case his cleansing would depend not
on the conscience of one that gave in holiness, but on the most
excellent holiness of God Himself. With this apprehension, therefore,
that he might not be involved in so great an absurdity, or rather
madness, as not to know where he could make his escape, he was
unwilling to say by what means the conscience of the recipient should
be cleansed, when he does not know of the stain upon the conscience of
him that gives but not in holiness; and he thought it better, by
making a general confusion with his quarrelsome uproar, to conceal
what was asked of him, than to give a reply to his question, which
should at once discomfit him; never, however, thinking that our letter
could be read by men of such good understanding, or that his would be
read by those who had read ours as well, to which he has professed to
make an answer.
Chapter 42.
--51. For what I just now said is put with the greatest
clearness in that very epistle of mine, in answering which he has said
nothing; and I would beg of you to listen for a few moments to what he
there has done. And although you are partisans of his, and hate us,
yet, if you can, bear it with equanimity. For in his former epistle,
to the first portion of which--the only portion which had then come
into our hands--I had in the first instance made my reply, he had so
rested the hope that is found in baptism in the baptizer, as to say,
"For everything consists of an origin and root; and if anything has
not a head, it is nothing." Since then Petilianus had said this, not
wishing anything to be understood by the origin and root and head of
baptizing a man, except the man by whom he might be baptized, I made a
comment, and said "We ask, therefore, in a case where the
faithlessness of the baptizer is undetected, if then the man whom he
baptizes receives faith and not guilt? if then the baptizer is not his
origin and root and head, who is it from whom he receives faith? where
is the origin from which he springs? where is the root of which he is
a shoot? where the head which is his starting-point? Can it be that,
when he who is baptized is unaware of the faithlessness of his
baptizer, it is then Christ who is the origin and root and head?"
This therefore I say and exclaim now also, as I did there as well:
"Alas for human rashness and conceit! Why do you not allow that it is
always Christ who gives faith, for the purpose of making a man a
Christian by giving it? Why do you not allow that Christ is always
the origin of the Christian, that the Christian always plants his root
in Christ, that Christ is the Head of the Christian? Will it then be
urged that, even where spiritual grace is dispensed to those that
believe by the hands of a holy and faithful minister, it is still not
the minister himself who justifies, but that One of whom it is said,
`He justifieth the ungodly'? [2408]But unless we admit this, either
the Apostle Paul was the head and origin of those whom he had planted,
or Apollos the root of those whom he had watered, rather than He who
had given them faith in briefing; whereas the same Paul says, `I have
planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So that neither
is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that
giveth the increase.' [2409]Nor was the apostle himself their root,
but rather He who says, `I am the vine, ye are the branches.' [2410]
How, too, could he be their head, when he says that `we, being many,
are one body in Christ,' [2411] and expressly declares in many
passages that Christ Himself is the Head of the whole body?
Wherefore, whether a man receives the sacrament of baptism from a
faithful or a faithless minister his whole hope is in Christ, that he
fall not under the condemnation, that `Cursed is he that placeth his
hope in man!'" [2412]
Footnotes
[2408] Rom. iv. 5.
[2409] 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7.
[2410] John xv. 5.
[2411] Rom. xii. 5.
[2412] Book I. c. 5, 6.
Chapter 43.
--52. These things, I think, I put with clearness and
truth in my former epistle, when I made answer to Petilianus. These
things I have also now quoted, intimating and commending to you the
truth that our faith rests on something else altogether than man, and
that we believe that the Lord Christ is the cleanser and the justifier
of men that believe in Him that justifieth the ungodly, that their
faith may be counted unto them for righteousness, whether the man who
administers the baptism be righteous, or such an impious and deceitful
man as the Holy Spirit flees. Then I went on to point out what
absurdity would follow were it otherwise, and I said, as I say now:
"Otherwise, if each man is born again in spiritual grace of the same
sort as he by whom he is baptized, and if, when he who baptizes him is
manifestly a good man, then he himself gives faith, he is himself the
origin and root and head of him who is being born; whilst, when the
baptizer is faithless without its being known, then the baptized
person receives faith from Christ, then derives his origin from
Christ, then he is rooted in Christ then he boasts in Christ as his
head; in that case all who are baptized should wish that they might
have faithless baptizers, and be ignorant of their faithlessness. For
however good their baptizers might have been, Christ is certainly
beyond comparison better still, and He will then be the Head of the
baptized if the faithlessness of the baptizer shall escape detection.
But if it be perfect madness to hold such a view (for it is Christ
always that justifieth the ungodly, by changing his ungodliness into
Christianity; it is from Christ always that faith is received; Christ
is always the origin of the regenerate, and the Head of the Church),
what weight then will those words have, which thoughtless readers
value by their sound, without inquiring what their inner meaning is?"
[2413]This much I said at that time; this is written in my epistle.
Footnotes
[2413] Book I. c. 6, 7.
Chapter 44.
--53. Then a little after, as he had said, "This being so,
brethren, what perversity must that be, that he who is guilty by
reason of his own faults should make another free from guilt, whereas
the Lord Jesus Christ says, `Every good tree bringeth forth good
fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit: do men gather
grapes of thorns?' [2414] and again, `A good man, out of the good
treasure of the heart, bringeth forth good things: and an evil man,
out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things,'" [2415] --by
which words Petilianus showed with sufficient clearness, that the man
who baptizes is to be looked on as the tree, and he who is baptized as
the fruit: to this I had answered, If the good tree is the good
baptizer, and his good fruit he whom he has baptized, then any one who
has been baptized by a bad man, even if his wickedness be not
manifest, cannot by any possibility be good, for he is sprung from an
evil tree. For a good tree is one thing; a tree whose quality is
concealed, but yet bad, is another. What else did I wish to be
understood by those words, except what I had stated a little above,
that the tree and its fruit do not represent him that baptizes and him
that is baptized; but that the man ought to be received as signified
by the tree, his works and his life by the fruit, which are always
good in the good man, and evil in the evil man, lest this absurdity
should follow, that a man should be bad when baptized by a bad man,
even though his wickedness were concealed, being, as it were, the
fruit of a tree whose quality was unknown, but yet bad? To which he
has answered nothing whatsoever.
Footnotes
[2414] Matt. vii. 17, 16.
[2415] Matt. xii. 35.
Chapter 45.
--54. But that neither he nor any one of you might say
that, when any one of concealed bad character is the baptizer, then he
whom he baptizes is not his fruit, but the fruit of Christ, I went on
immediately to point out what a foolish error is consequent also on
that opinion; and I repeated, though in other words, what I had said
shortly before: If, when the quality of the tree is concealed, but
evil, any one who may have been baptized by it is born, not of it but
of Christ, then they are justified with greater holiness who are
baptized by wicked men, whose wickedness is concealed, than they who
are baptized by men that are genuinely and manifestly good. [2416]
Petilianus then, being hemmed in by these embarrassing straits, said
nothing about the earlier part on which these remarks depended, and in
his answer so quoted his absurd consequence of his error as though I
had stated it as my own opinion, whereas it was really stated in order
that he might perceive the amount of evil consequent on his opinion,
and so be forced to alter it. Imposing, therefore, this deceit on
those who hear and read his words, and never for a moment supposing
that what we have written could be read, he begins a vehement and
petulant invective against me, as though I had thought that all who
are baptized ought to wish that they might have as their baptizers men
who are faithless, without knowing this themselves, since, however
good the men might be whom they had to baptize them, Christ is
incomparably better, who will then be the head of the person baptized,
if the faithless baptizer conceal his true character. As though, too,
I had thought that those were justified with greater holiness who are
baptized by evil men, whose character is concealed, than those who are
baptized by men that are genuinely and manifestly good; when this
marvellous piece of madness was only mentioned by me as following
necessarily on the opinion of those who think with Petilianus, that a
man, when baptized, bears the same relation to his baptizer as fruit
does to the tree from which it springs,--good fruit springing from a
good tree, evil fruit from an evil tree,--seeing that they, when they
are bidden by me to answer whose fruit they think a man that is
baptized to be when he is baptized by one of secretly bad character,
since they do not venture to rebaptize him, are compelled to answer,
that then he is not the fruit of that man of secretly bad character,
but that he is the fruit of Christ. And so they are followed by a
consequence contrary to their inclination, which none but a madman
would entertain,--that if a man is the fruit of his baptizer when he
is baptized by one that is genuinely and manifestly good, but when he
is baptized by one of secretly bad character, he is then not his
fruit, but the fruit of Christ,--it cannot but follow that they are
justified with greater holiness who are baptized by men of secretly
bad character, than those who are baptized by men who are genuinely
and manifestly good.
Footnotes
[2416] See Book I. cc. 7, 8, 8, 9.
Chapter 46.
--55. Now, seeing that when Petilianus attributes this to
me as though it were my opinion, he makes it an occasion for a serious
and vehement invective against me, he at any rate shows, by the very
force of his indignation, how great a sin it is in his opinion to
entertain such views; and, accordingly, whatever he has wished it to
appear that he said against me for holding this opinion will be found
to have been really said against himself, who is proved to entertain
the view. For he shows herein by how great force on the side of truth
he is overcome, when he cannot find any other door of escape except to
pretend that it was I who entertained the views which really are his
own. Just as if those whom the apostle confutes for maintaining that
there was no resurrection from the dead, were to wish to bring an
accusation against the same apostle, on the ground that he said, "Then
is Christ not risen," and to maintain that the preaching of the
apostle was vain, and the faith of those who believed in it was also
vain, and that false witnesses were found against God in those who had
said that He raised up Christ from the dead. This is what Petilianus
wished to do to me, never expecting that any one could read what I had
written, which he could not answer, though very anxious that men
should believe him to have answered it. But just as, if any one had
done this to the apostle, the whole calumnious accusation would have
recoiled on the head of those who made it so soon as the entire
passage in his epistle was read, and the preceding words restored, on
which any one who reads them must perceive that those which I have
quoted depend, in the same way, so soon as the preceding words of my
epistle are restored, the accusation which Petilianus brings against
me is cast back with all the greater force upon his own head, from
which he had striven to remove it.
56. For the apostle, in confuting those who denied that there was any
resurrection of the dead, corrects their view by showing the absurdity
which follows those who entertain this view, however loth they may be
to admit the consequence, in order that, while they shrink in
abhorrence from what is impious to say, they may correct what they
have ventured to believe. His argument continues thus: "But if there
be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is
also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God: because we
have testified of God that He raised up Christ; whom He raised not up,
if so be that the dead rise not." [2417]In order that, while they
fear to say that Christ had not risen, with the other wicked and
accursed conclusions which follow from such a statement, they may
correct what they said in a spirit of folly and infidelity, that there
is no resurrection of the dead. If, therefore, you take away what
stands at the head of this argument, "If there be no resurrection of
the dead," the rest is spoken amiss, and yet must be ascribed to the
apostle. But if you restore the supposition on which the rest
depends, and place as the hypothesis from which you start, "There is
no resurrection of the dead," then the conclusion will follow rightly,
"Then is Christ not risen, and our preaching is vain, and your faith
is also vain," with all the rest that is appended to it. And all
these statements of the apostle are wise and good, since whatever evil
they have in them is to be imputed to those who denied the
resurrection of the dead. In the same manner also, in my epistle,
take away my supposition, If every one is born again in spiritual
grace of the same character as he by whom he is baptized, and if, when
the man who baptizes is genuinely and manifestly good, he does of
himself give faith, he is the origin and root and head of him who is
being born again; but when the baptizer is a wicked man, and
undetected in his wickedness, then each man who is baptized receives
his faith from Christ, derives his origin from Christ, is rooted in
Christ, makes his boast in Christ as his Head:--take away, I say, this
hypothesis, on which all that follows depends, and there remains a
saying of the worst description which must fairly be ascribed to me,
viz., that all who are baptized should desire that they should have
faithless men to baptize them, and be ignorant of their
faithlessness. For however good men they may have to baptize them,
Christ is incomparably better who will then be the Head of the
baptized, if the baptizer be a faithless man, but undetected. [2418]
But let the statements that you make be restored, and then it will
forthwith be found that this which depends upon it and follows in
close connection from it is not my sentiment, and that any evil which
it contains is retorted on the opinion which you maintain. In like
manner, take away the supposition, If the good baptizer is the good
tree, so that he whom he has baptized is his good fruit, and if, when
the character of an evil tree is concealed, then any one that has been
baptized by it is born, not of it, but of Christ,--take away this
hypothesis, which you were compelled to confess had its origin in your
sect and in the letter of Petilianus, and the mad conclusion which
follows from it will be mine, to be ascribed to me alone, then they
are justified with greater holiness who are baptized by undetected
evil men, than they who are baptized by men that are genuinely and
manifestly good. [2419]But restore the hypothesis on which this
depends, and you will at once see both that I have been right in
making this statement for your correction, and that all that with good
reason displeases you in this opinion has recoiled upon your own head.
Footnotes
[2417] 1 Cor. xv. 13-15.
[2418] See Book I. c. 6, 7.
[2419] See Book I. c. 8, 9.
Chapter 47.
--57. Furthermore, in like manner as those who denied the
resurrection of the dead could in no way defend themselves from the
evil consequences which the apostle proved to follow from their
premises, in order to refute their error, saying, "Then is not Christ
raised," with the other conclusions of similar atrocity, unless they
changed their opinions, and acknowledged that there was a resurrection
of the dead; so is it necessary that you should change your opinion,
and cease to rest on man the hope of those who are baptized, if you do
not wish to have imputed to you what we say for your refutation and
correction, that they are justified with greater holiness who are
baptized by undetected evil men than those that are baptized by men
that are genuinely and manifestly good. For if you make your first
assertion, see what I say, unless some one shall suppress this a
second time, and make out that I have entertained the opinion which I
quote for your refutation and correction. See what I lay down as my
premiss, from which hangs the statement which I shall subsequently
make: If you rest the hope of those who are to be baptized on the man
by whom they are baptized, and if you maintain, as Petilianus wrote,
that the man who baptizes is the origin and root and head of him that
is baptized; if you receive as the good tree the good man who
baptizes, and as his good fruit the man who has been baptized by him;
then you put it into our heads to ask from what origin he springs,
from what root he shoots up, to what head he is joined, from what tree
he is born, who is baptized by an undetected bad man? For to this
inquiry, belongs also the following, to which I have over and over
again maintained that Petilianus has given no reply: By what means is
a man to be cleansed who receives baptism while he is ignorant of the
stain upon the conscience of him that gives but not in holiness? for
this conscience of him that gives, or of him that gives in holiness,
Petilianus wishes to be the origin, root, head, seed, tree from which
the sanctification of the baptized has its existence,--springs,
begins, sprouts forth, is born.
Chapter 48.
--58. When we ask, therefore, by what means the man is to
be cleansed whom you do not baptize again in your communion, even when
it has been made clear that he has been baptized by some one who, on
account of some concealed iniquity, did not at the time possess the
conscience of one that gives in holiness, what answer do you intend to
make, except that he is cleansed by Christ or by God, although,
indeed, Christ is Himself God over all, blessed for ever, [2420] or by
the Holy Spirit since He too is Himself God, because this Trinity of
Persons is one God? Whence Peter, after saying to a man, "Thou hast
dared to lie to the Holy Ghost," immediately went on to add what was
the nature of the Holy Ghost, saying, "Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God." [2421]Lastly, even if you were to say that he was
cleansed and purified by an angel when he is unacquainted with the
pollution in the conscience of him that gives but not in holiness,
take notice that it is said of the saints, when they shall have risen
to eternal life, that they shall then be equal to the angels of God.
[2422]Any one, therefore, that is cleansed even by an angel is
cleansed with greater holiness than if he were cleansed by any kind of
conscience of man. Why then are you unwilling that it should be said
to you, If cleaning is wrought by the hands of a man when he is
genuinely and manifestly good; but when the man is evil, but
undetected in his wickedness, then since he has not the conscience of
one that gives in holiness, it is no longer he, but God, or an angel,
that cleanses; therefore they who are baptized by undetected evil men
are justified with greater holiness than those who are baptized by men
that are genuinely and manifestly good? And if this opinion is
displeasing to you, as in reality it ought to be displeasing to every
one, then take away the source from which it springs, correct the
premiss to which it is indissolubly bound; for if these do not precede
as hypotheses, the other will not follow as a consequence.
Footnotes
[2420] Rom. ix. 5.
[2421] Acts v. 3, 4.
[2422] Matt. xxii. 30.
Chapter 49.
--59. Do not therefore any longer say, "The conscience of
one that gives in holiness is what we look for to cleanse the
conscience of the recipient," lest you be asked, When a stain on the
conscience of the giver is concealed, who cleanses the conscience of
the recipient? And when you shall have answered, Either God or an
angel (since there is no other answer which you possibly can make),
then should follow a consequence whereby you would be confounded:
Those then are justified with greater holiness who are baptized by
undetected evil men, so as to be cleansed by God or by an angel, than
those who are baptized by men who are genuinely and manifestly good,
who cannot be compared with God or with the angels. But prevail upon
yourselves to say what is said by Truth and by the Catholic Church,
that not only when the minister of baptism is evil, but also when he
is holy and good, hope is still not to be placed in man, but in Him
that justifieth the ungodly, in whom if any man believe, his faith is
counted for righteousness. [2423]For when we say, Christ baptizes,
we do not mean by a visible ministry, as Petilianus believes, or would
have men think that he believes, to be our meaning, but by a hidden
grace, by a hidden power in the Holy Spirit as it is said of Him by
John the Baptist, "The same is He which baptizeth with the Holy
Ghost." [2424]Nor has He, as Petilianus says, now ceased to
baptize; but He still does it, not by any ministry of the body, but by
the invisible working of His majesty. For in that we say, He Himself
baptizes, we do not mean, He Himself holds and dips in the water the
bodies of the believers; but He Himself invisibly cleanses, and that
He does to the whole Church without exception. Nor, indeed, may we
refuse to believe the words of the Apostle Paul who says concerning
Him, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church,
and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with
the washing of water by the word." [2425]Here you see that Christ
sanctifies; here you see that Christ also Himself washes, Himself
purifies with the self-same washing of water by the word, wherein the
ministers are seen to do their work in the body. Let no one,
therefore, claim unto himself what is of God. The hope of men is only
sure when it is fixed on Him who cannot deceive, since "Cursed be
every one that trusteth in man," [2426] and "Blessed is that man that
maketh the Lord His trust." [2427]For the faithful steward shall
receive as his reward eternal life; but the unfaithful steward, when
he dispenses his lord's provisions to his fellow-servants, must in no
wise be conceived to make the provisions useless by his own
unfaithfulness. For the Lord says, "Whatsoever they bid you observe,
that observe and do; but do not ye after their works." [2428]And
this is therefore the injunction that is given us against evil
stewards, that the good things of God should be received at their
hands, but that we should beware of their own evil life, by reason of
its unlikeness to what they thus dispense.
Footnotes
[2423] Rom. iv. 5.
[2424] John i. 33.
[2425] Eph. v. 25, 26.
[2426] Jer. xvii. 5.
[2427] Ps. xl. 4.
[2428] Matt. xxiii. 3.
Chapter 50.
--60. But if it is clear that Petilianus has made no
answer to those first words of my epistle, and that, when he has
endeavored to make an answer, he has shown all the more clearly how
incapable he was of answering, what shall I say in respect of those
portions of my writings which he has not even attempted to answer, on
which he has not touched at all? And yet if any one shall be willing
to review their character, having in his possession both my writings
and those of Petilianus, I think he will understand by what
confirmation they are supported. And that I may show you this as
shortly as I can, I would beg you to call to mind the proofs that were
advanced from holy Scripture, or refresh your memory by reading both
what he has brought forward as against me, and what I have brought
forward in my answer as against you, and see how I have shown that the
passages which he has brought forward are antagonistic not to me, but
rather to yourselves; whilst he has altogether failed to touch those
which I brought forward as especially necessary, and in that one
passage of the apostle which he has endeavored to make use of as
though it favored him, you will see how he found himself without the
means of making his escape.
61. For the portion of this epistle which he wrote to his
adherents--from the beginning down to the passage in which he says,
"This is the commandment of the Lord to us, `When they persecute you
in this city, flee ye into another;' [2429] and if they persecute you
in that also, flee ye to a third"--came first into my hands, and to it
I made a reply; and when this reply of ours had fallen, in turn, into
his hands, he wrote in answer to it this which I am now refuting,
showing that he has made no reply to mine. In that first portion,
therefore, of his writings to which I first replied, these are the
passages of Scripture which he conceives to be opposed to us: "Every
good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit. Do men gather grapes of thorns?" [2430]And again: "A
good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good
things: and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth
evil things." [2431]And again: "When a man is baptized by one that
is dead, his washing profiteth him nothing." [2432]From these
passages he is anxious to show that the man who is baptized is made to
partake of the character of him by whom he is baptized; I on the other
hand, have shown in what sense these passages should be received, and
that they could in no wise aid his view. But as for the other
expressions which he has used against evil and accursed men, I have
sufficiently shown that they are applicable to the Lord's wheat,
dispersed, as was foretold and promised, throughout the world, and
that they might rather be used by us against you. Examine them again,
and you will find it so.
62. But the passages which I have advanced to assert the truth of the
Catholic Church, are the following: As regards the question of
baptism, that our being born again, cleansed, justified by the grace
of God, should not be ascribed to the man who administered the
sacrament, I quoted these: "It is better to trust in the Lord than to
put confidence in man:" [2433]and "Cursed be every one that
trusteth in man;" [2434] and that, "Salvation belongeth unto the
Lord;" [2435] and that, "Vain is the help of man;" [2436] and that,
"Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but
God that giveth the increase;" [2437] and that He in whom men believe
justifieth the ungodly, that his faith may be counted to him for
righteousness. [2438]But in behalf of the unity of the Church
itself, which is spread abroad throughout all the world, with which
you do not hold communion, I urged that the following passages were
prophesied of Christ: that "He shall have dominion also from sea to
sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth;" [2439] and, "I
shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for Thy possession;" [2440] and that the covenant
of God made with Abraham may be quoted in behalf of our, that is, of
the Catholic communion, in which it is written, "In thy seed shall all
nations of the earth be blessed;" [2441] which seed the apostle
interprets, saying, "And to thy seed, which is Christ." [2442]
Whence it is evident that in Christ not only Africans or Africa, but
all the nations through which the Catholic Church is spread abroad,
should receive the blessing which was promised so long before. And
that the chaff is to be with the wheat even to the time of the last
winnowing, that no one may excuse the sacrilege of his own separation
from the Church by calumnious accusations of other men's offenses, if
he shall have left or deserted the communion of all nations; and to
show that the society of Christians may not be divided on account of
evil ministers, that is, evil rulers in the Church, I further quoted
the passage, "All whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and
do; but do not ye after their works; for they say and do not." [2443]
With regard to these passages of holy Scripture which I advanced to
prove my points, he neither showed how they ought to be otherwise
interpreted, so as to prove that they neither made for us nor against
you, nor was he willing to touch them in any way. Nay, his whole
object was could it have been achieved, that by the tumultuous
outpouring of his abuse, it might never occur to any one at all, who
after reading my epistle might have been willing to read his as well,
that these things had been said by me.
Footnotes
[2429] Matt. x. 23.
[2430] Matt. vii. 17, 16.
[2431] Matt. xii. 35.
[2432] Ecclus. xxxiv. 25. See Book I. c. 9, 10.
[2433] Ps. cxviii. 8.
[2434] Jer. xvii. 5.
[2435] Ps. iii. 8.
[2436] Ps. lx. 11.
[2437] 1 Cor. iii. 7.
[2438] Rom. iv. 5.
[2439] Ps. lxxii. 8.
[2440] Ps. ii. 8.
[2441] Gen. xxii. 18.
[2442] Gal. iii. 16.
[2443] Matt. xxiii. 3.
Chapter 51.
--63. Next, listen for a short time to the kind of way in
which he has tried to use, in his own behalf, the passages which I had
advanced from the writings of the Apostle Paul. "For you asserted,"
he says, "that the Apostle Paul finds fault with those who used to say
that they were of the Apostle Paul, saying, `Was Paul crucified for
you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?' [2444]Wherefore, if
they were in error, and would have perished had they not been
corrected, because they wished to be of Paul, what hope can there
possibly be for those who have wished to be of Donatus? For this is
their sole object, that the origin, and root, and head of him that is
baptized should be none other than he by whom he is baptized." [2445]
These words, and this confirmation from the writings of the apostle,
he has quoted from my epistle, and he has proposed to himself the task
of refuting them. Go on then, I beg of you, to see how he has
fulfilled the task. For he says, "This assertion is meaningless, and
inflated, and childish, and foolish, and something very far from a
true exposition of our faith. For you would only be right in
asserting this, if we were to say, We have been baptized in the name
of Donatus, or Donatus was crucified for us, or we have been baptized
in our own name. But since such things as this neither have been said
nor are said by us,--seeing that we follow the formula of the holy
Trinity,--it is clear that you are mad to bring such accusations
against us. Or if you think that we have been baptized in the name of
Donatus, or in our own name, you are miserably deceived, and at the
same time confess in your sacrilege that you on your part defile your
wretched selves in the name of Cæcilianus." This is the answer which
Petilianus has made to those arguments of mine, not supposing--or
rather making a noise that no one might suppose--that he has made no
answer at all which could bear in any way upon the question which is
under discussion. For who could fail to see that this witness of the
apostle has been adduced by us with all the more propriety, in that
you do not say that you were baptized in the name of Donatus, or that
Donatus was crucified for you, and yet separate yourselves from the
communion of the Catholic Church out of respect to the party of
Donatus; as also those whom Paul was rebuking certainly did not say
that they had been baptized in the name of Paul, or that Paul has been
crucified for them, and yet they were making a schism in the name of
Paul. As therefore in their case, for whom Christ, not Paul, was
crucified, and who were baptized in the name of Christ, not of Paul,
and who yet said, "I am of Paul," the rebuke is used with all the more
propriety, "Was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the
name of Paul?" to make them cling to Him who was crucified for them,
and in whose name they were baptized, and not be guilty of division in
the name of Paul; so in your case, also, the rebuke, Was Donatus
crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Donatus? is used
all the more appositely, because you do not say, We were baptized in
the name of Donatus, and yet desire to be of the party of Donatus.
For you know that it was Christ who was crucified for you, and Christ
in whose name you were baptized; and yet, out of respect to the name
and party of Donatus, you show such obstinacy in fighting against the
unity of Christ, who was crucified for you, and in whose name you were
baptized.
Footnotes
[2444] 1 Cor. i. 13.
[2445] See Book I. cc. 3, 4, 4, 5.
Chapter 52.
--64. But if you wish to see that the object of Petilianus
in his writings really was to prove "that the origin, and root, and
head of him that is baptized is none other than he by whom he is
baptized," and that this has not been asserted by me without meaning,
or childishly, or foolishly, review the beginning of the epistle
itself to which I made my reply, or rather pay careful attention to me
as I quote it. "The conscience," he says, "of one that gives in
holiness is what we look for to cleanse the conscience of the
recipient; for he who has received his faith from one that is
faithless, receives not faith but guilt." And as though some one had
said to him, Whence do you derive your proof of this? he goes on to
say, "For everything has its existence from a source and root; and if
anything has not a head, it is nothing; nor does anything well confer
a new birth, unless it be born again of good seed. And this being so,
brethren, what perversity must it be to maintain that he who is guilty
by reason of his own offenses should make another free from guilt;
whereas our Lord Jesus Christ says, `A good tree bringeth forth good
fruit: do men gather grapes of thorns?' And again, `A good man, out
of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things; and an
evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things.' And
again, `When a man is baptized by one that is dead, his washing
profiteth him nothing.'" You see to what end all these things tend,
viz., that the conscience of him that gives in holiness (lest any one,
by receiving his faith from one that is faithless, should receive not
faith but guilt) should be itself the origin, and root, and head, and
seed of him that is baptized. For, wishing to prove that the
conscience of one that gives in holiness is what we look for to
cleanse the conscience of the recipient, and that he receives not
faith but guilt, who wittingly receives his faith from one that is
faithless, he has added immediately afterwards, "For everything has
its existence from a source and root; and if anything has not a head,
it is nothing; nor does anything well confer a new birth, unless it be
born again of good seed." And for fear that any one should be so dull
as still not to understand that in each case he is speaking of the man
by whom a person is baptized, he explains this afterwards, and says,
"This being so, brethren, what perversity must it be to maintain that
he who is guilty by reason of his own offenses should make another
free from guilt; whereas our Lord Jesus Christ says, `A good tree
bringeth forth good fruit: do men gather grapes of thorns?'" And
lest, by some incredible stupidity of understanding, the hearer or
seer should be blind enough not to see that he is speaking of the man
that baptizes, he adds another passage, where he actually specifies
the man. "And again," he says, "`A good man, out of the good treasure
of his heart, bringeth forth good things; and an evil man, out of the
evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things;' and again, `When a man is
baptized by one that is dead, his washing profiteth him nothing,'"
Certainly it is now plain, certainly he needs no longer any
interpreter, or disputant, or demonstrator, to show that the object of
his party is to prove that the origin, and root, and head of him that
is baptized is none other than he by whom he is baptized. And yet,
being overwhelmed by the force of truth, and as though forgetful of
what he had said before, Petilianus acknowledges afterwards to me that
Christ is the origin and root of them that are regenerate, and the
Head of the Church, and not any one that may happen to be the
dispenser and minister of baptism. For having said that the apostles
used to baptize in the name of Christ, and set forth Christ as the
foundation of their faith, to make men Christians, and being fain to
prove this, too, by passages and examples from holy Scripture, just as
though we were denying it, he says, "Where is now that voice, from
which issued the noise of those minute and constant petty
questionings, wherein, in the spirit of envy and self-conceit, you
uttered many involved sayings about Christ, and for Christ, and in
Christ, in opposition to the rashness and haughtiness of men? Lo,
Christ is the origin, Christ is the head, Christ is the root of the
Christian." When, therefore, I heard this, what could I do but give
thanks to Christ, who had compelled the man to make confession? All
those things, therefore, are false which he said in the beginning of
his epistle, when he wished to persuade us that the conscience of one
that gives in holiness must be looked for to cleanse the conscience of
the recipient; and that when one has wittingly received his faith from
one that is faithless he receives not faith but guilt. For, wishing
as it were to show clearly how much rested in the man that baptizes,
he had added what he seems to think most weighty proofs, saying "For
everything has its existence from a source and root; and if anything
has not a head, it is nothing." But afterwards, when he says what we
also say, "Lo, Christ is the origin, Christ is the head, Christ is the
root of the Christian," he wipes out what he had said before, "that
the conscience of one that gives in holiness is the origin, and root,
and head of the recipient." The truth, therefore, has prevailed, so
that the man who is desirous to receive the baptism of Christ should
not rest his hope upon the man who administers the sacrament, but
should approach in all security to Christ Himself, as to the source
which is not changed, to the root which is not plucked up, to the head
which is not cast down.
Chapter 53.
--65. Then who is there that could fail to perceive from
what a vein of conceit it proceeds, that in explaining as it were the
declaration of the apostle, he says, "He who said, `I planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase,' surely meant nothing else than
this, that `I made a man a catechumen in Christ, Apollo baptized him;
God confirmed what we had done?'" Why then did not Petilianus add
what the apostle added, and I especially took pains to quote, "So then
neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but
God that giveth the increase"? [2446]And if he be willing to
interpret this on the same principle as what he has set down above, it
follows beyond all doubt, that neither is he that baptizeth anything
but God that giveth the increase. For what matter does it make in
reference to the question now before us, in what sense it has been
said, "I planted, Apollos watered,"--whether it is really to be taken
as equivalent to his saying, "I made a catechumen, Apollos baptized
him;" or whether there be any other truer and more congruous
understanding of it?--for in the mean time, according to his own
interpretation of the words, neither is he that makes the catechumen
anything, neither he that baptizes, but God that gives the increase.
But there is a great difference between confirming what another does,
and doing anything oneself. For He who gives the increase does not
confirm a tree or a vine, but creates it. For by that increase it
comes to pass that even a piece of wood planted in the ground produces
and establishes a root; by that increase it comes to pass that a seed
cast into the earth puts forth a shoot. But why should we make a
longer dissertation on this point? It is enough that, according to
Petilianus himself neither he that maketh a catechumen, nor he that
baptizes, is anything, but God that gives the increase. But when
would Petilianus say this, so that we should understand that he meant,
Neither is Donatus of Carthage anything, neither Januarius, neither
Petilianus? When would the swelling of his pride permit him to say
this, which now causes the man to think himself to be something, when
he is nothing, deceiving himself? [2447]
Footnotes
[2446] 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7.
[2447] Gal. vi. 3.
Chapter 54.
--66. Finally, again, a little afterwards, when he
resolved and was firmly purposed, as it were, to reconsider once more
the words of the apostle which he had brought up against him, he was
unwilling to set down this that I had said, preferring something else
in which by some means or other the swelling of human pride might find
means to breathe. "For to reconsider," he says, "those words of the
apostle, on which you founded an argument against us; he said, `What
is Apollos, what is Paul, save only ministers of Him in whom ye have
believed?' [2448]What else for example, does he say to all of us
than this, What is Donatus of Carthage, what is Januarius, what is
Petilianus, save only ministers of Him in whom ye have believed?" I
did not bring forward this passage of the apostle, but I did bring
forward that which he has been unwilling to quote, "Neither he that
planteth is anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth
the increase." But Petilianus was willing to insert those words of
the apostle, in which he asks what is Paul, and what is Apollos, and
answers that "They are ministers of Him in whom ye have believed."
This the muscles of the heretic's neck could bear; but he was wholly
unable to endure the other, in which the apostle did not ask and
answer what he was, but said that he was nothing. But now I am
willing to ask whether it be true that the minister of Christ is
nothing. Who will say so much as this? In what sense, therefore, is
it true that "Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that
watereth, but God that giveth the increase," except that he who is
something in one point of view may be nothing in another? For
ministering and dispensing the word and sacrament he is something, but
for purifying and justifying he is nothing, seeing that this is not
accomplished in the inner man, except by Him by whom the whole man was
created, and who while He remained God was made man,--by Him, that is,
of whom it was said, "Purifying their hearts by faith;" [2449] and "To
him that believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly." [2450]And
this testimony Petilianus has been willing to set forth in my words,
whilst in his own he has neither handled it nor even touched it.
Footnotes
[2448] Ministri ejus cui credidistis. See 1 Cor. iii. 4, 5.
[2449] Acts xv. 9.
[2450] Rom. iv. 5.
Chapter 55.
--67. A minister, therefore, that is a dispenser of the
word and sacrament of the gospel, if he is a good man, becomes a
fellow-partner in the working of the gospel; but if he is a bad man,
he does not therefore cease to be a dispenser of the gospel. For if
he is good, he does it of his own free will; but if he is a bad
man,--that is, one who seeks his own and not the things of Jesus
Christ,--he does it unwillingly, for the sake of other things which he
is seeking after. See, however, what the same apostle has said: "For
if I do this thing willingly," he says, "I have a reward; but if
against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me;"
[2451] as though he were to say, If I, being good, announce what is
good, I attain unto it also myself; but if, being evil, I announce it,
yet I announce what is good. For has he in any way said, If I do it
against my will, then shall I not be a dispenser of the gospel? Peter
and the other disciples announce the good tidings, as being good
themselves. Judas did it against his will, but yet, when he was sent,
he announced it in common with the rest. They have a reward; to him a
dispensation of the gospel was committed. But they who received the
gospel at the mouth of all those witnesses, could not be cleansed and
justified by him that planted, or by him that watered, but by Him
alone that gives the increase. For neither are we going to say that
Judas did not baptize, seeing that he was still among the disciples
when that which is written was being accomplished, "Jesus Himself
baptized not, but His disciples." [2452]Are we to suppose that,
because he had not betrayed Christ, therefore he who had the bag, and
bare what was put therein, [2453] was still enabled to dispense grace
without prejudice to those who received it, though he could not be an
upright guardian of the money entrusted to his care? Or if he did not
baptize, at any rate we must acknowledge that he preached the gospel.
But if you consider this a trifling function, and of no importance,
see what you must think of the Apostle Paul himself, who said, "For
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel." [2454]To
this we may add, that according to this, Apollos begins to be more
important, who watered by baptizing, than Paul, who planted by
preaching the gospel, though Paul claims to himself the relation of
father towards the Corinthians in virtue of this very act, and does
not grant this title to those who came to them after him. For he
says, "Though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye
not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the
gospel." [2455]He says, "I have begotten you" to the same men to
whom he says in another place, "I thank God that I baptized none of
you but Crispus and Gaius, and I baptized also the household of
Stephanus." [2456]He had begotten them, therefore, not through
himself, but through the gospel. And even though he had been seeking
his own, and not the things of Jesus Christ, and had been doing this
unwillingly, so as to receive no reward for himself, yet he would have
been dispensing the treasure of the Lord; and this, though evil
himself, he would not have been making evil or useless to those who
received it well.
Footnotes
[2451] 1 Cor. ix. 17.
[2452] John iv. 2.
[2453] John xii. 6.
[2454] 1 Cor. i. 17.
[2455] 1 Cor. iv. 15.
[2456] 1 Cor. i. 14, 16.
Chapter 56.
--68. And if this is rightly said of the gospel, with how
much greater certainty should it be said of baptism, which belongs to
the gospel in such wise, that without it no one can reach the kingdom
of heaven, and with it only if to the sacrament be added
righteousness? For He who said, "Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," [2457] said
Himself also, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter
into the kingdom of heaven." [2458]The form of the sacrament is
given through baptism, the form of righteousness through the gospel.
Neither one without the other leads to the kingdom of heaven. Yet
even men of inferior learning can baptize perfectly, but to preach the
gospel perfectly is a task of much greater difficulty and rarity.
Therefore the teacher of the Gentiles, that was superior in excellence
to the majority, was sent to preach the gospel, not to baptize;
because the latter could be done by many, the former only by a few, of
whom he was chief. And yet we read that he said in certain places,
"My gospel;" [2459] but he never called baptism either his, or any
one's else by whom it was administered. For that baptism alone which
John gave is called John's baptism. [2460]This that man received as
the special pledge of his ministry, that the preparatory sacrament of
washing should even be called by the name of him by whom it was
administered; whereas the baptism which the disciples of Christ
administered was never called by the name of any one of them, that it
should be understood to be His alone of whom it is said, "Christ loved
the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." [2461]If,
therefore, the gospel, which is Christ's, but so that a minister also
may call it his in virtue of his office of administering it, can be
received by a man even at the hands of an evil minister without danger
to himself, if he does according to what he says, and not after the
example of what he does, how much more may any one who comes in good
faith to Christ receive without fear of contagion from an evil
minister the baptism of Christ, which none of the apostles so
administered as to dare to call it his own?
Footnotes
[2457] John iii. 5.
[2458] Matt. v. 20.
[2459] 2 Tim. ii. 8.
[2460] Acts xix. 3.
[2461] Eph. v. 25, 26.
Chapter 57.
--69. Furthermore, if, while I have continued without
intermission to prove how entirely the passages of Scripture which
Petilianus has quoted against us have failed to hurt our cause, he
himself has in some cases not touched at all what I have quoted, and
partly, when he has endeavored to handle them, has shown that the only
thing that he could do was to fail in finding an escape from them, you
require no long exhortation or advice in order to see what you ought
to maintain, and what you should avoid. But it may be that this has
been the kind of show that he has made in dealing with the testimony
of holy Scripture, but that he has not been without force in the case
of the documentary evidence found in the records of the schism
itself. Let us then see in the case of these too, though it is
superfluous to inquire into them after testimony from the word of God,
what he has quoted, or what he has proved. For, after pouring forth a
violent invective against traditors, and quoting loudly many passages
against them from the holy books themselves, he yet said nothing which
could prove his opponents to be traditors. But I quoted the case of
Silvanus of Cirta, who held his own see some little time before
himself, who was expressly declared in the Municipal Chronicles to
have been a traditor while he was yet a sub-deacon. Against this fact
he did not venture to whisper a syllable. And yet you cannot fail to
see how strong the pressure was which must have been urging him to
reply that he might show a man, who was his predecessor, not only one
of his party, but a partner, so to speak, in his see, to have been
innocent of the crime of delivering up the sacred books, especially as
you rest the whole strength of your cause on the fact that you give
the name of traditor to all whom you either pretend or believe to have
been the successors of traditors in the path of their communion.
Although, then, the very exigencies of your cause would seem to compel
him to undertake the defence of a citizen even of Russicadia, or
Calama, or any other city of your party, whom I should declare to be a
traditor, on the authority of the Municipal Chronicles, yet he did not
open his mouth even in defense of his own predecessor. For what
reason, except that he could not find any mist dark enough to deceive
the minds of even the slowest and sleepiest of men? For what could he
have said, except that the charges brought against Silvanus were
false? But we quote the words of the Chronicles, both as to the date
of the fact, and as to the time of the information laid before
Zenophilus the ex-consul. [2462]And how could he resist this
evidence, being encompassed on every side by the most excellent cause
of the Catholics, while yours was bad as bad could be? For which
reason I quote these words from my epistle to which he would fain be
thought to have replied in this which I am now refuting, that you may
see for yourselves how impregnable the position must be against which
he has been able to find no safer weapon than silence.
Footnotes
[2462] See Book III. c. Cresconium, cc. 27, 28, 31, 32.
Chapter 58.
--70. For when he quoted a passage from the gospel as
making against us, where our Lord says, "They will come to you in
sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves; ye shall know
them by their fruits," [2463] --I answered and said, "Then let us
consider their fruits;" and then I at once went on to add the
following words: "You bring up against them their delivery of the
sacred books. This very charge we urge with greater probability,
against their accusers themselves. And not to carry our search too
far: in the same city of Constantina, your predecessors ordained
Silvanus bishop at the very outset of his schism. He, while he was
still a sub-deacon, was most unmistakably entered as a traditor in the
archives of the city. If you, on your side, bring forward documents
against our predecessors, all that we ask is equal terms, that we
should either believe both to be true, or both to be false. If both
are true, you are unquestionably guilty of schism, who have pretended
that you avoid offenses in the communion of the whole world, though
these were common among you in your own fragmentary sect. But again,
if both are false, you are unquestionably guilty of schism, who, on
account of the false charges of traditors, are staining yourselves
with the heinous offense of severance from the Church. But if we have
something to urge in accusation, while you have nothing, or if our
charges are true, while yours are false, it is no longer matter of
discussion how thoroughly your mouths are closed. What if the holy
and true Church of Christ were to convince and overcome you, even if
we held no documents in support of our cause, or only such as were
false, while you had possession of some genuine proof of delivery of
the sacred books, what would then remain for you, except that, if you
would, you should show your love of peace, or otherwise should hold
your tongues? For whatever in that case you might bring forward in
evidence, I should be able to say with the greatest ease and with the
most perfect truth, that then you are bound to prove as much to the
full and Catholic unity of the Church, already spread abroad and
established throughout so many nations, to the end that you should
remain within, and that those whom you convict should be expelled.
And if you have endeavored to do this, certainly you have not been
able to make good your proof; and, being vanquished or enraged, you
have separated yourselves, with all the heinous guilt of sacrilege,
from the guiltless men who could not condemn on insufficient proof.
But if you have not even endeavored to do this, then with most
accursed and unnatural blindness you have cut yourselves off from the
wheat of Christ, which grows throughout His whole fields, that is,
throughout the whole world until the end, because you have taken
offense at a few tares in Africa." [2464]To this, which I have
quoted from my former epistle, Petilianus has made no answer
whatsoever. And, at all events, you see that in these few words is
comprised the whole question which is at issue between us. For what
should he endeavor to say, when, whatever course he chose, he was sure
to be debated?
71. For when documents are brought forward relating to the traditors,
both by us against the men of your party, and by you against the men
of our party, (if indeed any really are brought forward on your side,
for to this very day we are left in total ignorance of them; nor
indeed can we believe that Petilianus would have omitted to insert
them in his letter, seeing that he has taken so much pain to secure
the quotation and insertion of those portions of the Chronicles which
bear on the matter in opposition to me),--but still, as I began to
say, if such documents are brought forward both by us and by you,
documents of whose existence we are wholly ignorant to this very
day,--surely you must acknowledge that either both are true, or both
false, or ours true and yours false, or yours true and ours false; for
there is no further alternative that can be suggested.
Footnotes
[2463] Matt. vii. 15, 16.
[2464] See Book I. cc. 21, 22, 23, 24.
Chapter 59.
--But according to all these four hypotheses, the truth is
on the side of the communion of the Catholic Church. For if both are
true, then you certainly should not have deserted the communion of the
whole world on account of men such as you too had among yourselves.
But if both are false, you should have guarded against the guilt of
most accursed division, which had not even any pretext to allege of
any delivery of the sacred books. If ours are true and yours are
false, you have long been without anything to say for yourselves. If
yours are true and ours are false, we have been liable to be deceived,
in common with the whole world, not about the truth of the faith, but
about the unrighteousness of men. For the seed of Abraham, dispersed
throughout the world, was bound to pay attention, not to what you said
you knew, but to what you proved to the judges. Whence have we any
knowledge of what was done by those men who were accused by your
ancestors, even if the allegations made against them were true, so
long as they were held to be not true but false, either by the judges
who took cognizance of the case, or at least by the general body of
the Church dispersed throughout the world, which was only bound to pay
heed to the sentence of the judges? God does not necessarily pardon
any human guilt that others in the weakness of human judgment fail to
discover; yet I maintain that no one is rightly deemed guilty for
having believed a man to be innocent who was not convicted. How then
do you prove the world to be guilty, merely because it did not know
what possibly was really guilt in the Africans,--its ignorance arising
either from the fact that no one reported the sin to it, or from its
having given credence, in respect of the information which was given,
rather to the judges who took cognizance of the case, than to the
murmurers who were defeated? So far then, Petilianus deserves all
praise, in that, when he saw that on this point I was absolutely
impregnable, he passed it by in silence. Yet he does not deserve
praise for his attempts to obscure in a mist of words other points
which were equally impregnable, which yet he thought could be
obscured; or for having put me in the place of his cause, when the
cause left him nothing to say; while even about myself he could say
nothing except what was either altogether false, or undeserving of any
blame, or without any bearing whatsoever upon me. But, in the
meantime, are you, whom I have made judges between Petilianus and
myself, possessed of discrimination enough to decide in any degree
between what is true and what is false, between what is mere empty
swelling and what is solid, between what is troubled and what is calm,
between inflammation and soundness, between divine predictions and
human assumptions, between bringing an accusation and establishing it,
between proofs and fictions, between pleading a cause and leading one
away from it? If you have such power of discrimination, well and
good; but if you have it not, we shall not repent of having bestowed
our pains on you, for even though your heart be not converted unto
peace, yet our peace shall return unto ourselves.
Footnotes
[2319] Possidius, in the third chapter of his Indiculus, designates
this third book as "One book against the second letter of the same."
Cp. Aug. Retractt. Bk. II. c. xxv.
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