4. Writings in connection with the Donatist controversy, translated by the Rev. J. R. King, M.A. In the Series of Translations of the Works of Augustin. Edinburgh. T. & T. Clark. 1872.
5. AusgewdJdte Schriften des heil. Aurelius Augusiinus, Kirchenlehrers, iiacn aeni Crtexte ubersetzt. Mit einer kurzen Lebensbeschreibung des Heiligcn von J. Motzberger. 1871-1879. In the Bibliothek der Kirchenvdter, Kempteti, 1869 sqq.
B. Literature.
This is a selected literature of the Donatist controversy so far as Augustin was connected with it.
I. In the Benedictine editions occur: 1. Their Vita S. Aurelii Augustini.
Tom. XI. A/itw.,pp. i-ZAA- Tom. I. Aligne, pp. 6^-31^.
2. Praefatio of Tom. IX. Antw. s.p. Migne,pp. 9-24.
3. Index opusculortim S. Augustini contra Donatistas. Tom. IX. Antw., pp. 463, 4. Migne,pp. 757-760.
4. Excerpta et scripta vetera ad Donatistarujti historiain pertinentia. Tom. IX. Antw., App.pp. T-^o. Migne, pp. 1li-'&At2.
5. Epistolarum or do chronologicus.
Tom. II. Antw., s. p. Migne, pp. 1 3-48.
II. Possidius: Vita S. Aurelii Augustini.
Reprinted in Migne Aug. Op. Tom. I, pp. 33-66. Cp. Migne Pat. lat. I. p. 407.
III. Ecclesiastica Historia. By the Magdeburg Centuriators. 1559-1574. Tom. II. and III., Centuria, IV. and V., contain the Donatist history.
IV. Balduinius, Franc.
1. Delibatio Africanae historiae ecclesticae, s. Optati libri VII. de Schismatc Donatistarum, etc. Paris, 1563. A second edition with improved readings. lb., 1569. In this the prefaces and annotations are of value. Reprinted in Du Pin's ed. of Optatus Mil.
2. Historia Carthaginensis Collationis sive disputationis de ecclesia, olim habitae inter Catholicos et Donatistas. Paris, 1^66. 8. Reprinted in £>u Pin. ib.
V. Baronius. Annates Ecclesiatici. 1588-1607. Tom. III.-V., contain the Donatist history.
VI. Albaspinceus: Optati Mel. opera cum notis et observationibus Gabrielis Albaspinm. Paris, 1631. Valuable mainly for the observations; reprinted in Du Pin's ed. of Optatus.
Vtl. Casaubonus: Optati Mel. de schismate Donatistarum libri VII. In eosd. notae et emendationes Merici Casauboni. Lond. 1631.
These notes are of value and are reproducea with those of other editions in the Annotationes Variorum of Du Pin's ed I VIII. Valesius Hetiiicus: Eusebii Pamph. Historia ecc, libri de Vita Constantini, Fanegyricus, Const. O ratio ad Sanctorum coetiim, gr. et lat. cum annotatt. Paris, 1659 and often. In this is his dissertation: Ve schismate Donatistaruvi.
IX. Long, Thomas, B.D. History of the Donatists. Lond. 1677. 8.
X. Die Pin: Nouvelle Bibliothc'qiie dcs Aitteiirs Eccle'siastiques.
I* St. Aiigustin. Tom. 1 1 [. premiere partie, pp. 522-S39, 1690. Particularly the review of vol. IX. of Augustin's collected works, pp. 792-811.
2. In Tom. II., Troisieme partie, 1 701, there are also many allusions to the history and literature.
3. In his ed. of Optatus Mel., Historia Donatistarum.
XL Ittig, Thomas: de HaeresiarcJiis a-vi apostolici at apostol. prox. lips. 1 690-1 703. 4.
XII. Leydecker Melchior; Historia Ecclesiastica Africana. 2 Tom. i^. See above. Traj. 1690. 4.
XIII. Witsius, Hermann: Miscellaneormn Sacrorum libri. 2 vols. Amst. i6()2. 4. In vol. I. Disscrtatio de schismate Donatistarum.
XIV. Bernino: Historia di tutte I'heresie descritta da Domenico Bernino. Vejiezia 171 1. Tom. I., contains hist, of Donatism.
XV. Storren, J. Ph.: ansfiihrlicher und griindlicher Bericht von den Namen, Ursprung, v.s.w. der Donatisten. Frank/. 1723. 8.
XVI. Norisitis, Henricus: Opera otnnia nunc prim, collecta et ordinata. Veronae, Tumcrmani, 1729-32, /i?/. i\vols. The fourth volume contains his posthumous work on History of Donatism, as finished by Ballerini.
XVII. Tillemont: in his Memoires pour servir a Vhistoire Ecclesiastique: 1. Tom. VI. Histoire du schisme des Donatistes, dii Ion marque aussi tou„ ce qui regarde I 'Eglise d 'Afrique depuis I 'an 2,o^,yusques en I 'an 391 que S. Augustin Jut fait Prestre. 1732.
2. Tom. XIII. La Vie de Saint Augustin, dans laquelle on trouvera Vhistoire des Donatistes de so?i temps, et celle des Pelagic ns. 1732.
XVIII. Or si: Delia Istoria Ecclesiastica descritta da F. Guiset)pe Agostino Orsi. Tom. IV. (1741) and V. (1749) contain the history of the Donatists.
Entwurf einer vollstdndigen Historic der Ketzereien, Spaltungen und Religionsstreitigkeiten, bis auf die Zeiten der Reformation. Leipzig, 1768.
Vierter Theil: Von der Spaltung der Donatisten; with its three sections: (a) Von der historie der Donatisten.
(b) Von den zwischen den Donatisten und ihren Gegnern geWirten Religionsstreitigkeiten.
(c) Beurtheilung der Donatistichen Streitigkeiten.
This work was the beginning of a new critical estimate of the documents.
XX. Schrbckh, Johann Mattheus: Christliche Kirchengeschichtc. Sechster Theil: 1784, but particularly Elfter Theil, 1786. A juster estimate of Donatism.
3/2 XXI. Morcellii, Steph. Ant.: Africa Christiana in tres partes distribiita. 3 vols. 4. Brixiae, 1816-17. 4. P. II. for Donatism.
XXII. Bindemann, C.: Der heilige Aiigustinus, 1 844-1 869.
Bdd. II. & III. contain excellent analyses of the works on Donatism, as well as a history during Augustin's life.
XXIII. Boux, Adrianus: Dissertatio de Aurelio Augi/stino, adversaria Donatistarum. Lugduni Batavorum, id>2,^. A brief summary of the works and doctrine.
XIV. Bibbeck: Donatiis und Augustinus oder der erste entscheidende Kampf zwisc/ien Separatismus und Kirche. Bin Kirchen/iistorischer Versuc/i von Berditiand Bibbeck. Elberfeld. 1857. 8. An uncritical history; but a vigorous analysis, apologetic and polemic.
XXV. Dcutsch: Drei Actenstiicke zur GescJiichte des Donatismus. Neii herausgegeben und erkldrt %>on Ma rtin Deiitsch. Berlin, 1875.
The first work on the textual and historical criticism of the sources.
XXv^I. Voelter: B)er Ursprung des Donatistnns, nach den Quellen imtersiicht und dargestcllt von Lie Dr, Daniel Voelter. Brciburg i. B. und Tubingen, 1883.
This keen writer, at present Prof. Ord. in Univ. of Amsterdam, has gone still further into textual and historical criticism, and gives fair promise of a more impartial hearing for Donatism. It is to be hoped that he will fulfill his qualified promise of further research.
Among the general church histories particular mention may be made of Gieseler, Neander, Lindner, Niedner, Robertson, Ritter, Hergenrother, Schaff. The articles on Augustin, Donatism and related persons and topics in Ceillier, Ersch und Gruber, Herzog, Schaff-Herzog, Smith's Dictionary of Christian Biography, Wetzer and Welte, Lichtenberger, are more or less noteworthy. Mention must also be made of the Patrologies, the biographies, Hefele's Conciliengeschichte. the Analyses Patrum, etc.
Chapter II. — An Analysis of Augustin's Writings against the Donatists.
The object of this cliapter is to present a rudimentary outline and summary of all that Augustin penned or spoke against those traditional North African Christians whom he was pleased to regard as schismatics. It will be arranged, so far as may be, in chronological order, following the dates suggested by the Benedictine edition. The necessary brevity precludes anything but a very meagre treatment of so considerable a theme. The writer takes no responsibility for the ecclesiological tenets of the great Father, nor will he enter here into any criticism of the text and truth of the documents, upon which the historical argument was so laboriously and peremptorily built, to the utter ignoring of the Donatist archives, and the protests of their scholars against the validity and integrity of their opponents' records. Both parties claimed to be the historic Catholic church; both were little apart in doctrine, worship, and polity; both tended toward externalism in piety; both accused one another of fraud in inventing records. Later Romanism in its bright spirit of selection took much spoil from either camp.
The city of Augustin's birth, its neighborhood, indeed the whole ecclesiastical province of Numidia, was a stronghold for this puristic school. Is it not singular, then, that it seems to have made no impression upon his early years? As a child he had witnessed its brief* restoration under Julian; and then the severe or lax efforts at suppression under succeeding emperors; the Rogatian schism and the Tychonian reformation were quite familiar to him in his Manichasan period; but the Confessions are silent as to any such stamp or hold upon his mind. His activity begins with his ordination to the presbyterate, a time marked in Donatist annals by the Maximianist separation, and increases as he becomes bishop. From about 392 to near the close of his life, pen and voice were seldom still. In all those 3^ears the outlinear thoughts grew in breadth and depth; endless are the forms in which his few and radical conceptions manifest themselves; never does he lose sight of the popular effect, so that he knows when to relax his love of word-play and delight in mysterious inductions, in order to make the chief themes plain to the dullest mind.
How varied the channels through which he struggled for the mastery of his idea of the Church! In the pulpit he made Donatism the occasion of many a polemic, many an appeal; in his correspondence it was an ever-recurrent topic; it was the staple of many a tract and book; verse was not shunned to destroy its fashionableness and popularity; commentaries and manuals for the meditative hour or for the training of the theological student, abounded in warnings against its aggressiveness; no opportunity for debate or conference or epistolary discussion was left unimproved. And no wonder: it was a living thing, of the street, of the market, of the social circle, of the home; it threatened at times to obliterate the transmarine view of the church from North Africa; its spirit of political independence and plea for religious liberty went to the hearts of a people, more and more restive under the decline of the Empire.
The literary creations of Donatism had been somewhat more fertile than that of Caecilianism. We must not belittle Donatus the Great, Parmenian, Petilian, Gaudentius, and certainly the eminence of Tychonius is confessed by Augustin himself. Up to this time Optatus of Milevis had been the only forcible opponent. But against the great Augustin whom could they bring into the field? And against the great Augustin, backed by the energy of the State, there was little hope of fairness. Augustin found a new and weighty school. Donatism, with its impossible ideal, already began to despise the culture which seemed to help its defeat and withdrew into its sensitive shell after the manner of all puristic tendencies under persecution.
The two prevalent lines of attack are the historical on the origin of the schism, which involved the dissectijon of the documents, and the doctrinal, or the discussion of the true notes of the Church from rhe basis of the Scriptures. This latter Augustin preferred, because.final; he bowed to no patristic. One or the other or both may be traced in all his works, great or small, against them. Out of so protracted a controversy there grew up a symmetrical and comprehensive theory of the Church and the Sacraments on either side.
Of three fundamental points of Donatism, as perpetuated practices of North Africa, rebaptism and the encouragement of a martyr spirit with its attendant feasts, the continuance of theSeniores in the government of the Church, we find Augustin aiming mainly at the overthrow of the first two. One of his earliest letters suggests to his bishop some means for checking the drunkenness and great excess connected with the Natalitia. Passing to the specific subject in view: In the early period of his presbyterate, (possibly about 392, others place it later), Augustin journeyed through Mutugenna, which apparently belonged to his bishop's see. He learned how pacifically disposed Maximin, Donatist bishop of Sinaita, was. The friendly feeling thus kindled toward him was shaken by the rumor that he had rebaptized a defecting Catholic deacon of Mutugenna; not willing to credit the story, he visited the deacon's home.
His parents testified to their son's reception into the same office by the Donatists. In the « absence of Bishop Valerius, he writes to Maximin with entreaty, refusing to credit the repetition of the rite, and urging him to remain firm in the convictions which had been imputed to him. He solicits a reply, that both letters may be read in the public service, after the dismission of the military. The prominent points of the letter are: while declining to recognize the validity of Maximin's orders, he does not refuse to salute him as Dominus dulcissimns, and Fater venerabilis. His solicitude as a shepherd to do his duty to all the sheep, constrains him to force himself upon their attention, and to be eager for correspondence or conference with a view to bringing them back to the fold. He is perfectly assured of the absolute and final correctness of his idea of the Church, and of the hopeless error of Donatism, an error so great as to merit eternal destruction. He discriminates, however, between heresy and schism at this time. Rebaptism in any case is a sin, but as applied to apostatizing Catholics, is an immanissimuvi scelus. There is only one baptism, that of Christ; as there was no double circumcision, so the sacrament of the New Testament should not be repeated. The Church is the owner of the nations which are Christ's inheritance, and of the ends of the earth, which are his possession; hence it is universal; the seamless robe should not be rent. Moreover the Lord's threshing-floor has chaff upon it along with the wheat, and therefore he urged the disuse of imputations through unworthy members on either side, whether Macarius or Circumcelliones, The schism made itself disastrously felt in all domestic and social relations. He engages to avoid anything that would look like using the power of the state for coercing conscience, and begs that on Maximin's side the Circumcelliones may be restrained. \Ep. xxiii.]
A Plenary council of all Africa was convened in Hippo-Regius in 393, before which Augustin preached the sermon. His subject was Faith and the Creed: his handling made such an impression that he was induced to expand it into the treatise: De Fide et Symbolo. In explaining the article credimus et sanctavi ecdcsiam, utique catholicain, he reflects on heretics and schismatics as claiming the title of churches for their congregations; and distinguishes between these two opponents of the Catholic body, heretics erring in doctrine, schismatics, while similar to the Catholic body in views of truth yet transgressing in the rupture of fraternal love. Neither pertain to the true Church of God. (Cp. Retractt. I. xvii).
Determined if possible to win the ear of all classes, the presbyter next affected a poem, '''' Fsalmus contra Fartem F)onati," in the art of an Abecedarium, running the letters to U. The line with which it began was to be chanted as a refrain after each group of usually twelve lines connected with each letter, the whole closing with ar^ extended epilogue. A generally vulgar performance it is, and purposely disclaimed all metrical dignity; and yet it contains the germs of his logical and historical opinions on the controverted points. The Church is a net in the sea of the world, enclosing the good and bad, which are not to be separated until the net is drawn to the shore. Those who accuse the Catholics of tradition, were themselves traditors and broke the net. The history is repeated, and all proof of the Donatist charges declared to be wanting. Unity is a note of the Church, and toleration within the net essential to its preservation. Over against Macarius he puts the violent Circumcelliones. The wicked members of the Church do not contaminate the good by a communion which is only outward and not of the heart. The threshing-floor has chaff upon it; wheat and tares must grow together. The Catholics rear the Elijah altar, the Donatist the Baal altar over against it. Christ endured Judas. Why rebaptize us, he exclaims, when you do not repeat the rite upon your once expelled but now restored Maximianists?
Surely it is better to draw life from the real root. The character of him who administers the sacrament has nothing to do with its efificiency; and so he returns to the necessity for INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 3; toleration within the net, as Judas was forborne in the apostolic company. The epilogue pictures the personified Church expostulating with the Donatists for quarreling with their jMother, and presents a loose summary of the previous arguments It is doubtful whether, even in the fashion of the times, so lengthy a poem could become a street theme, or find many repeaters in the markets and inns of Hippo or Carthage, although the refrain for peace and truthful judgment miglu catch the ear of the more zealous. [Cp. Retractt. I. xx.].
The Bishop of Carthage, Donatus the Great, the sphinx of Donatism, had written a book to vindicate the claim of his church to the only Christian baptism. The work obtained considerable currency, and maintained its authority, even in Augustin's day, so he answered it during the year 393, most probably, in a treatise of one book now no longer extant, but which has been given the title: ''Contra Episiolam Donati hcerefici.'' The Retractations (I. xxi.) correct some points which had been lield in this work. (i). According to the Ambrosian view, Augustin here identified Peter with the rock, on which the Church was to be built; but afterwards he regarded that rock as Christ, who was the subject of the Petrine confession; on Christ was the Church to be built, and to the Church as thus reared, were given tlie keys. (2). The Donatus present at the Roman Synod, he had spoken of as the bishop of Carthage, the author of the book, which error is corrected in the Retractations. (3). He had also charged the writer with falsifying a favorite passage of their side, Ecclus. xxxiv. 30, but afterwards found that some codices read according to the Donatist quotation, and apologizes for his assertions.
Doubtless many of the sermons preached during his presbyterate had reference to the schism, but the chronology of these is too uncertain to allow of any definite arrangement.
We pass to the period of his co-bishopric with the aged Valerius, which dates from 395 A.D.
Evodius, a brother connected with the Church at Hippo Regius, had a chance meeting with Proculeianus, bishop of the Donatist body in that diocese. The two fell into a discussion of their mutual differences. Evodius spoke in rather a lofty and censorious way, after the fashion of his side, and wounded the feelings of the older disputant, for the Donatists, like all kindred bodies, cultivated an undue sensitiveness and were altogether too ready to take offense. Proculeianus, however, expressed a perfect readiness to have a friendly debate with Augustin in the presence of competent men. In view of this suggestion, and in the absence of Valerius, Augustin, always anxious to improve such an opening, addressed A letter to Proculeianus [c. 396), with courteous recognition, and no such sharp denial of the episcopal function as in the case of Maximin. He apologizes for the severe language of his friend, and in every way avoids any expression which might cause the tendrils again to be drawn in. The methods suggested for discussion show the anxiety of Augustin to beat out the fire of Donatism; there is the debate before chosen hearers, all the statements to be written out for use; or there is the private discussion through mutual discourse, to be read to one another and corrected, and so given to the people; or the single correspondence with a view to public lections, or any possible way that the aged bishop himself might prefer.
He urges that the dead bury their dead, and the past history be left out of the debate; tl\e present with its burning dissensions affords sufficient topics. As the people seek the bishop to arbitrate in their private litigations, let these worthies cultivate peace in this broader field; to this end he invites to prayer and conference. {Ep. xxxiii.).
Apparently the letter led to nothing practical. A new turn was given to matters. A son had beaten his mother, and threatened her life; to avoid Catholic discipline, he joined the Donatists and was rebaptized by them: as Augustin says, he wounded also his spiritual mother hy contemning her sacrament. Public registration of the facts were made by Augustin, all the more because the reported instructions, given by bishop Proculeianus to his presbyter Victor concerning the affair, liad already been denied. Tlie case presented an opportunity for getting at some rule for the recognition of one anotlier's discipline. Accordingly Augustin addresses himself to Eusebius, a judicious Donatist of higher rank. He professes tuat his aim is peace; he emphasizes with impatient vehemence his opposition to coercive measures in matters of conscience: ncqiie me id agcrc ut ad coDivimiionein catliolicam quisquam cogatiir invitiis. He asks Eusefeius to find out whether Proculeianus had given the order to his presbyter as recorded; whether the bishop would consent to a collation between themselves and ten selected men on each side, agreeably to the original suggestion, so that the whole question might be discussed from the Scriptural grounds, not the historical. Some proposals for a meeting either at the Donatist region of Constantina, or at their projected council at Milevis, he could not accept, because both lay outside of his diocese. If Proculeianus objected to the dialectic and rhetorical skill of his counter bishop, the latter would propose Samsucius, bishop of Turris, an earnest but uncultivated man, as a substitute to lead the Catholic side. {£p- xxxiv.).
Eusebius declined to interfere on the ground that he could not be a judge, so Augustin replies {Ep. xxxv, ) that he had only asked him to make some inquiries, because the bishop refused to have any direct communication. The need for some adjustment concerning discipline had become very pressing; a Catholic subdeacon and some nuns under rebuke had been received into full standing by the Donatists, yet their subsequent career had been even more scandalous. Augustin claimed that the Catholics always respected the penal enactments of their opponents. To show his own hostility to compulsory conversions, he cites the case of a daughter, who against the paternal will had joined the Donatists, and had professed among them; when the father was about to use violence for her recall, he was dissuaded by Augustin, and when a presbyter of Proculeianus had shouted abusive epithets at him, although upon the property of a Catholic woman, he neither replied nor allowed others to resent the insult.
A practical treatise is ascribed by some to this time, called de Agotic Christiano. In expounding the faith he warns against different groups of heretics and schismatics. In Chap. xxix. 31, he cautions against listening to the Donatist party, who deny the one holy Catholic church to be diffused throughout the whole world, and claim it to be alone in Africa, and there among themselves, against th^ plain Scripture teaching of its universality; they affirm that the prophecies of its extension have already been fulfilled, after which the whole church perished outside of their remnant. He alludes to the divisions which have befallen them as a retribution for their separation. If the end shall come after the preaching of the gospel to all nations, how can all nations have lapsed from the faith, when there remain some who are yet to hear and believe? This system robs Cnrist of His glory, and is to be avoided by all who love the Church. (Cp. Rctractt. II. iii.).
In 397 A. D., at the death of Valerius, he became sole bishop. In this year, while on a visit to Tibursi, he had met with Glorius and other Donatists, with whom he held a friendly disputation on the origin and history of the schism, during which some Donatist documents were produced which he declared to be false, and from memory recapitulated the archives current on his side. Augustin pursued his journey to Gelizi, where he attended to some episcopal duties, and brought back with him a copy of the Catholic Gesta, and spent a day with these friends in reading them, but could not quite finish. He subsequently reproduces this story with the arguments in a letter. {Ep. xliii.). The chief burden is a criticism of the Acts, highly important in its place, but it must be passed by here save to remark that in speaking of Bishop Secundus, he suggests that it would have been better to appeal to the principalities of Rome or of some other apostolic church, than to have proceeded as he did; he should have preserved the unity at all hazards; had the case been inexplicable, he should INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. Z']'] have left it to God; if definable, he should have addressed the transmarine bishops, after j finding that his peers at home could not adjust the difficulty; disobedience on the part of C^ecilian to such an order, would have made him the author of the schism; but now the Donatist altar is set up against the Universal Church, It may be well to note that tnroughout the survey of these acts, there appears a manifest contradiction as to the beginning of the appellations. In the next place, the Donatists are held guilty of schism, rebaptism, and resistance to civil correction; of non-communion with those churches concerning whom they read in their lections; and of the demand for purism against the Lord's parable. The angels of the churches in the apocalypse are ecclesiastical powers, not heavenly messengers. The Church cannot be charged with the crimes of the evil men in it. Toleration is the only practice by which unity can be conserved; Moses bore with murmurers, David with Saul, Samuel with the sons of Eli, Christ with Judas. They themselves forbear with Circunicelliones, with Optatus bishop of Thamugada. The emphasis, however, is not so much upon those matters as upon schism. He would rather leave the archives and elucidate the doctrine, in which he claims to have the book of the world; that the Catholics are the Lord's inheritance; that they stand in fellowship with the churches of the New Testament; they are the light of the world. A divine rebuke has befallen Donatism in all the tenets of its particularity, by the schism and return of the Maximianists.
No open door was passed by. On a journey to Cirta, possibly about the beginning of 398 A.D., he visited with clerical friends the aged Donatist, bishop Fortunius, at Tibursi.