Contra Gaudentium Donatistarum Episcopum

See what you hear, see what you must beware of, so that with the help of the Savior's mercy we may together hold to Catholic charity, together love Catholic peace, together grow everywhere with its wheat, together endure the tares until the end, together live without end in the granary. You see, indeed, that without any defense of Caecilianus or of any men whom you think should be accused, the Catholic Church stands by its own strength and firmness, although our conference has also cleared the case of Caecilianus and of others about whom you make slanderous accusations, either the charge is doubtful or the condemnation unjust. But it is very foolish to place the Church's case, supported and fortified by divine testimonies, in the cases of men with a reasoning that goes astray, when, even if we saw those men as manifestly evil and could no longer separate them from the Church's sacraments, our faith or charity should not be hindered, so that, because we perceived them among the tares in the Church, we ourselves should withdraw from the Church. If you intend to reply, do not abandon the case and wander off into superfluous matters. Look at what has been said, and respond to what has been said not by deceitfully evading it, but by reasoning rationally. For what you have accomplished by that lengthy response, or rather how little you have accomplished, if it seems necessary and the Lord grants it, I will demonstrate more carefully in another work.

From the Book of Retractations of Augustine, Chapter 85 (59) (Page 198, Knoell Edition). Against Gaudentius, Bishop of the Donatists, Two Books. At the same time, Dulcitius, tribune and notary, was here in Africa as the executor of imperial mandates issued against the Donatists. When he had sent a letter to Gaudentius of Tamugadi, a Donatist bishop, one of those seven whom they had chosen as authors of their defense in our conference, urging him toward Catholic unity and dissuading him from the fire with which he threatened to consume himself and his own along with the church in which he was, also adding that, if they considered themselves just, they should rather flee according to the precept of the Lord Christ than burn themselves with nefarious fires, he wrote back two letters: one short, because the bearer was in haste, as he asserted, and another lengthy one, as if responding more fully and carefully. The aforementioned tribune thought these should be sent to me, so that I myself might refute them. I refuted both in a single book. When this reached the hands of the same Gaudentius, he wrote back, as seemed good to him, to me personally, responding with no reasoning, but rather declaring that he neither responded nor kept silent. Since this can sufficiently appear to intelligent readers who compare our statements and his own, I nevertheless did not wish to leave whatever that was without a reply. Hence it came about that these two books of ours were written against him.

This work begins thus: Gaudentius, Bishop of the Donatists of Tamugadis. SENTENCES OF THE COUNCIL OF BAGAIA WHICH SURVIVE, COLLECTED FROM VARIOUS PLACES IN AUGUSTINE. With the will of almighty God and of His Christ, our Saviour, coming together from all the provinces of Africa in the holy church of Bagaia to hold a council, we, Gamalius, Primianus, Pontius, Secundianus, Ianuarianus, Saturninus, Felix, Pegasius, Rufinus, Fortunius, Crispinus, Florentius, Optatus, Donatus, Donatianus, and the rest, three hundred and ten in number, it pleased the Holy Spirit, who is in us, to establish perpetual peace and to cut off sacrilegious schisms... ...Indeed, the desired brotherhood of peace and concord is joined, as it is written: justice and peace have kissed each other. But the truthful wave has cast shipwrecked members upon rough rocks, the shores are full of the corpses of those perishing after the manner of the Egyptians, for whom in death itself there is a greater punishment, because after the avenging waters have wrung out the soul, they do not even find burial...

... for although the noxious offspring of viperous seed may long be concealed by the hollow of a venomous womb, and the moist clots of conceived crime may slowly vaporize into the limbs of asps with a tardy heat, yet the conceived poison could not be hidden by a fading shadow. For even if the pregnant vows of crimes belatedly gave birth to a public crime and their own parricide, what was foretold earlier has come to pass: she gave birth to injustice, conceived pain, and bore iniquity. But since a clear sky now shines from the clouds, and the forest of crimes is no longer confused, when names are designated for punishment—for indulgence had been granted before—while we yield the line of clemency, the case finds whom to punish... ...let us speak, dearest brothers, of the causes of schism, because we can no longer remain silent about persons. Maximianus, an emulator of faith, an adulterer of truth, an enemy of mother Church, a minister of Dathan, Korah, and Abiram, was struck from the bosom of peace by the thunderbolt of a sentence, and what the gaping earth has not yet swallowed up, it has reserved for a greater punishment among the living. For he would have gained the profit of his punishment by a swift death; now he collects the interest of a heavier debt, since he, though dead, stands among the living.

... just condemnation of his crime does not condemn only him; it also drags many into the fellowship of crime by the chain of sacrilege, concerning whom it is written: "The venom of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of curse and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Crushing and unhappiness are in their ways, and they have not known the way of peace. There is no fear of God before their eyes." We would indeed not wish to be cut off as from the joint of our own body. But since the pestilential putrefaction of a festering wound has more comfort in excision than in the remission of treatment, a more healthful course has been found, lest the poison creep pestilentially through all the members, so that the wound may fall away with a brief pain. Therefore, know that the following, guilty of notorious crimes—Victorianus of Carcabiana, Marcianus of Sullectum, Beianus of Beiana, Salvius of Ausafa, Theodorus of Usula, Donatus of Sabrata, Miggo of Elephantaria, Praetextatus of Adsuritum, Salvius of Membresita, Valerius of Melzita, Felicianus of Mustita, and Martialis of Pertusa—who, in a deadly work of perdition, glued together a foul vessel with collected filth, and also the clerics once of the Church of Carthage, who, while participating in the crime, provided panderage for an illicit incest, have been condemned by the truthful mouth of a universal council under the judgment of the presiding God.

But those whom the sacrilegious offshoots did not pollute with their plantings—that is, those who, with the chaste modesty of faith, withdrew their own hands from the head of Maximianus—we have permitted to return to Mother Church. For to the extent that we are cleansed by the death of the guilty, we rejoice in the return of the innocent. And lest the narrowness of time, by the pressure of a constricted day, steal away the hope of salvation from those returning, we open the door of recognition to all who acknowledge it—while the previous statutes remain in force for those who abide by them—until the eighth day before the forthcoming Kalends of January, so that those who return may have the foundations of undiminished honor and faith. But if anyone is unable to enter through sluggish indolence, let him know that the path to all means of pardon has been removed by his own will. For the pronounced sentence will remain in effect concerning them, and fixed penance will await those who return after the appointed day.