{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/101/1010382.htm","path":"chr/ecf/101/1010382.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/101/1010382.htm","text":"1. Hear, O Donatists, what the Catholic Church says to you: \u201cO ye sons of men, how long will ye be slow of heart? why will ye love vanity, and follow after lies?\u201d 1954 Why have you severed yourselves, by the heinous impiety of schism, from the unity of the whole world? You give heed to the falsehoods concerning the surrendering of the divine books to persecutors, which men who are either deceiving you, or are themselves deceived, utter in order that you may die in a state of heretical separation: and you do not give heed to what these divine books themselves proclaim, in order that you may live in the peace of the Catholic Church. Wherefore do you lend an open ear to the words of men who tell you things which they have never been able to prove, and are deaf to the voice of God speaking thus: \u201cThe Lord hath said unto me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession\u201d? 1955 \u201cTo Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, \u2018And to seeds,\u2019 as of many, but as of one, \u2018And to thy seed,\u2019 which is Christ.\u201d 1956 And the promise to which the apostle refers is this: \u201cIn thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.\u201d 1957 Therefore lift up the eyes of your souls, and see how in the whole world all nations are blessed in Abraham\u2019s seed. Abraham, in his day, believed what was not yet seen; but you who see it refuse to believe what has been fulfilled. 1958 The Lord\u2019s death was the ransom of the world; He paid the price for the whole world; and you do not dwell in concord with the whole world, as would be for your advantage, but stand apart and strive contentiously to destroy the whole world, to your own loss. Hear now what is said in the Psalm concerning this ransom: \u201cThey pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones; they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.\u201d 1959 Wherefore will you be guilty of dividing the garments of the Lord, and not hold in common with the whole world that coat of charity, woven from above throughout, which even His executioners did not rend? In the same Psalm we read that the whole world holds this, for he says: \u201cAll the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee; for the kingdom is the Lord\u2019s, and He is the Governor among the nations.\u201d 1960 Open the ears of your soul, and hear: \u201cThe mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth, from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof; out of Zion, the perfection of beauty.\u201d 1961 If you do not wish to understand this, hear the gospel from the Lord\u2019s own lips, how He said: \u201cAll things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Him; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.\u201d 1962 The words in the Psalm, \u201cthe earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof,\u201d correspond to these in the Gospel, \u201camong all nations;\u201d and as He said in the Psalm, \u201cfrom Zion, the perfection of beauty,\u201d He has said in the Gospel, \u201cbeginning at Jerusalem.\u201d\n2. Your imagination that you are separating yourselves, before the time of the harvest, from the tares which are mixed with the wheat, proves that you are only tares. For if you were wheat, you would bear with the tares, and not separate yourselves from that which is growing in Christ\u2019s field. Of the tares, indeed, it has been said, \u201cBecause iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold;\u201d but of the wheat it is said, \u201cHe that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.\u201d 1963 What grounds have you for believing that the tares have increased and filled the world, and that the wheat has decreased, and is found now in Africa alone? You claim to be Christians, and you disclaim the authority of Christ. He said, \u201cLet both grow together till the harvest;\u201d He said not, \u201cLet the wheat decrease, and let the tares multiply.\u201d He said, \u201cThe field is the world;\u201d He said not, \u201cThe field is Africa.\u201d He said, \u201cThe harvest is the end of the world;\u201d He said not, \u201cThe harvest is the time of Donatus.\u201d He said, \u201cThe reapers are the angels;\u201d He said not, \u201cThe reapers are the captains of the Circumcelliones.\u201d 1964 But you, by charging the good wheat with being tares, have proved yourselves to be tares; and p. 344 what is worse, you have prematurely separated yourselves from the wheat. For some of your predecessors, in whose impious schism you obstinately remain, delivered up to persecutors the sacred Mss. and the vessels of the Church (as may be seen in municipal records 1965 ); others of them passed over the fault which these men confessed, and remained in communion with them; and both parties having come together to Carthage as an infatuated faction, condemned others without a hearing, on the charge of that fault which they had agreed, so far as they themselves were concerned, to forgive, and then set up a bishop against the ordained bishop, and erected an altar against the altar already recognised. Afterwards they sent to the Emperor Constantine a letter begging that bishops of churches beyond the sea should be appointed to arbitrate between the bishops of Africa. When the judges whom they sought were granted, and at Rome had given their decision, they refused to submit to it, and complained to the Emperor or against the bishops as having judged unrighteously. From the sentence of another bench of bishops sent to Arles to try the case, they appealed to the Emperor himself. When he had heard them, and they had been proved guilty of calumny, they still persisted in their wickedness. Awake to the interest of your salvation! love peace, and return to unity! Whensoever you desire it, we are ready to recite in detail the events to which we have referred.\n3. He is the associate of wicked men who consents to the deeds of wicked men; not he who suffers the tares to grow in the Lord\u2019s field unto the harvest, or the chaff to remain until the final winnowing time. If you hate those who do evil, shake yourselves free from the crime of schism. If you really feared to associate with the wicked, you would not for so many years have permitted Optatus 1966 to remain among you when he was living in the most flagrant sin. And as you now give him the name of martyr, you must, if you are consistent, give him for whom he died the name of Christ. Finally, wherein has the Christian world offended you, from which you have insanely and wickedly cut yourselves off? and what claim upon your esteem have those followers of Maximianus, whom you have received back with honour after they had been condemned by you, and violently cast forth by warrant of the civil authorities from their churches? Wherein has the peace of Christ offended you, that you resist it by separating yourselves from those whom you calumniate? and wherein has the peace of Donatus earned your favour, that to promote it you receive back those whom you condemned? Felicianus of Musti is now one of you. We have read concerning him, that he was formerly condemned by your council, and afterwards accused by you at the bar of the proconsul, and in the town of Musti was attacked as is stated in the municipal records.\n4. If the surrendering of the sacred books to destruction is a crime which, in the case of the king who burned the book of Jeremiah, God punished with death as a prisoner of war, 1967 how much greater is the guilt of schism! For those authors of schism to whom you have compared the followers of Maximianus, the earth opening, swallowed up alive. 1968 Why, then, do you object against us the charge of surrendering the sacred books which you do not prove, and at the same time both condemn and welcome back those among yourselves who are schismatics? If you are proved to be in the right by the fact that you have suffered persecution from the Emperor, a still stronger claim than yours must be that of the followers of Maximianus, whom you have yourselves persecuted by the help of judges sent to you by Catholic emperors. If you alone have baptism, what weight do you attach to the baptism administered by followers of Maximianus in the case of those whom Felicianus baptized while he was under your sentence of condemnation, who came along with him when he was afterwards restored by you? Let your bishops answer these questions to your laity at least, if they will not debate with us; and do you, as you value your salvation, consider what kind of doctrine that must be about which they refuse to enter into discussion with us. If the wolves have prudence enough to keep out of the way of the shepherds, why have the flock so lost their prudence, that they go into the dens of the wolves?\nThe original here is antithetical: \u201cjam vos videtis, et adhuc invidetis.\u201d\n343:1959 343:1960 343:1961 343:1962\nLuke 24:44, 47.\n343:1963 343:1964 344:1965\nProceedings before Munatius Felix, Letter LIII. sec. 4, p. 299.\n344:1966\nOptatus, Donatist bishop of Thamugada, was cast into prison A.D. 397, and died there. He was a partisan of Gildo in his rebellion against Honorius, and shared the misfortunes, as he had participated in the crimes, of his chief.\n344:1967\nJer. 36:23, 30.\n344:1968","title":"Nicene and Post Nicene-Fathers, Vol. I: Letters of St. Au...","type":"page"}