Contra Fulgentium Donatistam

Against Fulgentius the Donatist, by an Unknown Author. Book One. Chapter One. — The little book which Your Piety, brother Fulgentius, sent to me, I received without disdain; whether you dictated it yourself or sought it from elsewhere, I do not sufficiently wonder. For it is also a duty of our religion not to regard persons, but to seek the truth in all things, to acknowledge it when found, and to guard it when acknowledged. For thus the Apostle Paul says: "Prove all things; hold fast what is good; abstain from every evil appearance" (1 Thess. 5:21-22). Therefore, I will say briefly what you have more ingeniously expanded in writing. You said that there is one Baptism, which the Samaritan, that is, the heretic, did not merit to have. One enclosed garden, which is the Church, having a sealed fountain, from which no outsider partakes. One oil, which is the most holy chrism, which dying musts corrupt, and sinners will by no means give. Against these things a response must be prepared for me with the help of the Lord, and taken from no other source than divine reading.

Let us therefore take up the beginning of the Word—nay, let us hold fast to the Word itself, the beginning, the Lord Jesus, the leader and commander of the heavenly army; let us wage war, and with His sacred trumpet let us assail the most mighty walls of the accursed city Jericho: that is, let us surround the height of worldly wisdom with the Lord’s testaments, let us resound with the voices of truth and liberty; let us compel the adversaries to take refuge in the house of Rahab—that is, the Church which received His messengers—on account of the destruction of the world; let us condemn the obstinate with anathema, so that we may be victors henceforth. These things, then, you have taken from the Law against the Law, from the Testament of God against the Testament of God, from the fountain of truth against the fountain of truth, with so strong an obstacle at the very outset, as if truth could be vanquished by itself, or the glory of light be darkened by its own radiance. Chapter II. The Donatist said: Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the teacher and guardian of the one Baptism, lest He should lead thirsty souls astray through the error of a dry mind, proclaiming that there are perennial draughts for them, testified in His Gospel, saying: “He who thirsts, let him come and drink, he who believes in me,” as Isaiah says.

The Catholic replied: It does not have it, as Isaiah says; but, as Scripture says. But I shall disregard these hindrances, lest by a long discourse I exclude the reader’s benefit. The Donatist said: “He who believes in me, as Isaiah says, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly” (John 7:37–38); and lest it be said that it could be drunk everywhere and anywhere, he himself distinguished the merits of the waters, when he condemned the origin of Samaria’s apostasy in its own spring. “He who drinks,” he says, “from this water will thirst again; he who drinks from the water which I have given will not thirst forever, but will become in him a spring of water gushing forth into eternal life” (John 4:13). The Catholic replied: You have set these things forth, of course, in order to show us Catholics as if we were Samaritans and without Baptism. Now, therefore, begin to behold the Donatists in the Samaritans. The dogma of the Samaritans, as the book of Kings teaches, was this: They feared God, and at the same time worshipped images; they observed the divine law, and they did not at all abandon the errors of their fathers; they had the sign of circumcision, and they did not hold the fellowship of the Israelites (3 Kings 12 and 13). This you also do: You fear God, and you equally worship the clay image Donatus. For he too was fashioned from the dust of the earth. You observe the divine law, and you do not abandon the error of your parents; you have the sacrament of Baptism, and you do not wish to have communion with Catholics. Behold, you are like them in all things.

Just as then the circumcision of the Samaritans could not be given a second time, so now the baptism of the Donatists ought not to be repeated, with the Lord Christ saying, “He who has once been washed has no need of washing again” (John 13:10). For the circumcision of the Samaritans signifies the baptism of the Donatists, with the Apostle saying, “You have been circumcised with a circumcision not made by hand in the stripping off of the flesh of the body, but in the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism” (Colossians 2:11-12). But what the Lord said, “He who drinks from this water will thirst again,” he spoke not about baptism but about an earthly element. For if he wished to indicate baptism here, he would in no way have asked for it from the Samaritan woman. Finally, that well was not called the well of Samaria, but of Jacob, and Jacob was certainly not a heretic, but beloved of God, always dear, and he himself drank from it, and his sons, and his cattle. Chapter 3. The Donatist said: Therefore the spirit of the Church never suffers to be joined what has merited to be proclaimed by divine mouth, with the proclamation of the Law warning beforehand, “Two against two, one against one” (Sirach 33:15). And the Lord in the Gospel: “Then,” he says, “there will be two in the field; one will be taken up, and one will be left; two grinding at the mill; one will be taken up, and one will be left” (Matthew 24:40-41).

You see therefore that there are two kinds of baptisms and two rewards of merits, while one burns with the heat of a deadly character and consumes with perpetual draughts of a thirsty drought; the other, which once for all by the channels of waters to be drunk has established the perpetuity of life, certainly in dug-out pools it extends perpetual aridities, and while it has piously closed off its merit, it has opened the way of death, as Jeremiah says: “This people has done two evil things; they have abandoned me, and have dug for themselves worn-out cisterns, which cannot hold water” (Jer. 2:13). And again: “All who abandon you will be confounded; those who turn away from you will be written in the book of death, because they have abandoned you, the fountain of life” (Jer. 17:13). The Catholic replied: You set one against one; I assert many baptisms against one. For the Pagan baptizes, and the Jew baptizes, and the Sadducee baptizes, and many outside the rule of the given law do not cease to baptize. But that one is true which is Christ’s; that is true which is of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; this is true, this is healthful, to this none is to be compared. He who does not receive this has himself closed off the merit of life and opened the way of death.

CHAPTER IV. Donatus said: "But if, as you claim, there is one faith in each, why did the Lord, through Isaiah, make a just separation between faithful water and faithless water, testifying: 'Who told you that the fire burns? Who told you of that eternal place? Walking in justice, preaching the straight path, hating wickedness and injustice, refraining from bribes, weighing down the ear so as not to hear judgment of blood, and closing his eyes so as not to see iniquity—he will dwell in another hope; strong bread will be given to him, and his water faithful' (Isaiah 33:14-16)? And separating faithlessness from that faith, Jeremiah testifies, he set it thus: 'Why do those who injure me prevail? My wound has become solid; whence shall I be healed? It has become for me like deceitful water having no faith' (Jeremiah 15:18)." The Catholic replied: "All heretics, although they disagree among themselves in their own disputation, nevertheless agree in the solemn word of the tradition of Baptism: just as circumcision was one, but varied in faith among the Jews and the ancient Samaritans. Therefore it is necessary, as then, so also now, that it ought to happen for converts, that what is sought by disputation alone is again resolved by disputation alone, so that they may hear from the Lord: 'You are clean because of the word I have spoken to you; remain in me and I in you' (John 15:3). For all things happened to them in figure; but they are written for our correction, into whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Corinthians 10:11).

CHAPTER V. Donatus said: "Ezekiel also spoke thus: 'And they will see, because many have turned away the water of the ancient pool, and have not looked to him who made it from the beginning, and they have not seen him who established it' (Isaiah 22, according to the Septuagint). Unheard-of madness of the faithless, neither willing to believe the divine words, nor to preserve the simple teaching of the Apostle for the jaws of their error." The Catholic replied: "Far be it, far be it that we, as you do, should take the water of the ancient pool in a partisan sense, or not believe the divine utterances. What we read, we believe; and what we believe, we proclaim. Hear what our origin is, and where its water spreads. In Zechariah you have this: 'Living waters will go forth from Jerusalem; half of them to the eastern sea, and half of them to the farthest sea'; that is, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth: 'they will be in summer and winter'; that is, they will be at all times. 'And the Lord will be king over all the earth' (Zechariah 14:8-9); that is, Christ will rule over all the earth, not Donatus. This is the possession, this is the inheritance of Christ, which is cultivated by the saints and watered by a perennial spring, concerning which it was said to him, 'I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession' (Psalm 2:8). Whoever is in it is enrolled as an heir; whoever is not in it is already condemned and destined for death, as Scripture says: 'Whoever goes outside your house will be guilty himself' (Exodus 12).

CHAPTER VI. Donatus said: "God Himself proclaims that there is one Baptism; hence the Apostle confirms that He said one thing to all; God-bearing Solomon proving: 'An enclosed garden, my sister, my spouse, a sealed fountain, a well of living water, a paradise with fruit of pomegranates' (Song of Songs 4:12, 13)." The Catholic replied: "Remember, read everything, attend diligently, and see that from this paradise, from this enclosed garden, from this sealed fountain, a wave of salvation also flows outward, which goes against the Assyrians, that is, against you Donatists. For from the Assyrians are born those Samaritans who are compared to you. 'It is,' says Scripture, 'the river that goes against the Assyrians' (Genesis 2:44); against the people who are enemies of God's people. It does not go for them but against them. For some there is the odor of death unto death, for others the odor of life unto life (2 Corinthians 2:46). For just as he who eats and drinks the Lord's blood unworthily eats and drinks judgment for himself (1 Corinthians 11:29), so also he who receives Baptism unworthily receives judgment, not salvation. For Judas the traitor partook of the body, and Simon Magus received the good Baptism of Christ; but because they did not use the good well, they were destroyed by using the evil evilly. Baptism is good, the blood and body of Christ are good, the law is good, but if one uses them lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8).

For neither is it that what is outside is not divine; nor because it is held by strangers will it be considered foreign; nor because it is unjustly treated by the wicked will it be justly condemned by us. The water of paradise is the water of the Trinity: where we recognize this water as that of paradise, we do not deny it; where we do not perceive it as such, we do not call it paradise at all; whatever water is born outside, it is by no means to be called paradise water: as for example Manichaeus, because he was never in paradise, nor did he, like you, go forth from the Church, he must drink the water of paradise, though he arose outside. He has need to live, lest he die eternally: but that he may live legitimately, let him live in it, lest he bring judgment upon himself and drink. CHAPTER VII. — Donatus said: On the contrary, the Apostle testifies that he said: One God, one faith, one Baptism (Ephesians 4:5). There is no variety in divine doctrine; in all things the servant follows the Lord, the disciple differs in nothing from the Master. Whom do you follow, whom do you imitate, whom do you consider the author of this outrage?

The Catholic replied: Show me any one of the saints after the Trinity rebaptizing, as you do. Read to me, not those scriptures by whose authority I am not bound, but those of the New and Old Testament, to which we are both subject. If baptism is one, why do you duplicate the one? For you do not repeat anything other than what you find to be true. Since, therefore, you rebuild what you have destroyed, you show yourselves to be transgressors. Chapter VIII. — The Donatist said: Or if you think the sacrament of baptism, joined with the guilty by some mixture, is one, listen to the Prophets, to whom it was rightly entrusted, as Solomon says, "The fountain of life is in the hand of the just" (Prov. 10, according to the LXX). The Catholic replied: The Lord spoke well of you, who foresaw your error: "You are those who justify yourselves before men; but the Lord knows your hearts: because what is hidden from men is abominable before God" (Luke 16:15). If you are just, and the fountain of life is in your hand, you are not a man, but God. Let people flee to you, trust in you, place all hope of life in you, let baptism itself be given in your name, and let the Lord be silent. Do you wish to know where to seek this fountain of life? In the Psalm you have: "With you is the fountain of life, and in your light we will see light" (Ps. 35:10). Have you not read: "A mute son has proud eyes; a mute son declares himself just, but he will not wash away his own outcomes" (Prov. 24, according to the LXX).

... unless you acknowledge yourself to be guilty as a man, unless you cry out with a truthful heart that you are a sinner, you cannot be justified at all, as the prophet says: "Declare your iniquities first, that you may be justified" (Isaiah 42:26). And the apostle John: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in you" (1 John 1:8). CHAPTER IX.—The Donatist said: And David says, "But the oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head." The Catholic replied: Then tell me one of your own whom you can prove not to be a sinner, so that your oil cannot be that of a sinner, since it is written, "There is no man who does not sin" (Ecclesiasticus 7:21). Interpret the passage correctly. Read it so that you may grasp the sense: thus it says, "The just man will correct me in mercy, and will rebuke me; but the oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head" (Psalm 140:5). That is: A merciful rebuke is better than smooth flattery, just as that saying: "Better are the wounds of a friend than the willing kisses of an enemy" (Proverbs 17:6). The oil of the sinner is the blandishment of a flatterer, concerning which it is said elsewhere: "His words were softened more than oil, and they are darts" (Psalm 54:22). The oil of the just is the Spirit of God, as Peter says: "Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 10:38). Therefore cease calling the Holy Spirit the oil of a sinner, lest you begin to assert that God is a sinner.

CHAPTER X. — Donatist said: An open confession of the faithless is shown in this passage, which is polluted by the hostile presumption of a criminal priest, whose sacrifice is rejected by the divine voice like oil. "A criminal," he says, "who sacrifices to me is like one who kills a dog; and he who offers fine flour is like one who offers pig's blood; and he who offers incense in a memorial is like a blasphemer" (Isaiah 66:3). Catholic replied: It is certain that God detests and despises the holocausts of both priest and people, if good conscience is not present. Or if you wish to understand this as said only about priests, how is it that among you the confection of criminal priests is not polluted? You say, "As long as the wicked are hidden, they cannot pollute; because it is written, 'What is hidden is for me; what is manifest is for you'" (Deuteronomy 29:29). Therefore, if as long as the wicked are hidden they cannot pollute, why do you not fear to rebaptize distant nations, to whom the name of Donatus and Caecilian is unknown? Which of you has ever had knowledge of the evils of some among them? And if he had had knowledge and had not proven it, it would in no way be harmful, according to that: "What is hidden is for me; what is manifest is for you.

CHAPTER XI. — The Donatist said: The Prophet further reveals his waters as turbid: "You set your horses upon the sea, troubling many waters," he says. "Galaad, the city that works foolishness, has despised me; it troubles the waters; and your strength is like that of a pirate." (Hab. 3:15; Hos. 6:8-9) The Catholic replied: Recognize that your own weapons are turned against you, as it is written, "Let their sword enter their own hearts, and their bow be broken." (Ps. 36:15) Your strength, Donatist, is like that of a pirate; you who by force rebaptize, by force fight in the water, by force kill in the water. Bearing these things, you will be captured and killed as a pirate, unless you are converted and repent, and serve King Christ in the Catholic Church. CHAPTER XII. — The Donatist said: If, therefore, the Church glories in a single font, then the cave of the traditors is that which exalts itself in a multitude of waters, and, confused by the drunkenness of its own Baptism, fornicates with kings, as John says: "Come, I will show you the condemnation of the great harlot sitting upon many waters, and all the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk from the wine of her fornication." (Rev. 17:1) I ask, what are the many waters, if not multiple baptisms? What is the fornicating woman, if not the cave of the traditors, which serves the pleasures of kings, being subject to them, and, drinking the cup of their persecutions, in blind drunkenness mixes it for the peoples, and leads into madness those whom she has watered?

whose approach the most wise Solomon forbade: "Keep away from strange water," he says, "and do not drink from a foreign spring, that you may live long, and years will be added to your life" (Prov. 9:18, according to the Septuagint). "Let the spring of your water be private to you, that no outsider may share with you" (Prov. 5:16-17). Therefore only he who possesses a multitude of the waters of a harlot does not have a private spring. The apostle John also condemns a multitude of waters, saying: "And the angel said to me, 'The waters which you saw, over which that harlot sits, are peoples, crowds, and nations'" (Rev. 17:15). The Catholic replied: As I see, wherever water is named in a bad sense, you have believed it to be Baptism. But you wished to attribute it to me in a good sense, to you in a bad sense, so that what the apostle Paul said might be fulfilled concerning you: "Not knowing either what they say or what they affirm" (1 Tim. 1:7). For just as Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses, so these resist the truth (2 Tim. 3:8). The angel says, "The waters which you saw are peoples, crowds, and nations." And you resist the angel explaining and say, I ask, what are the many waters, if not many baptisms? What is the harlot woman, if not the cave of the traditors? If you wish also to learn the names of the traditors, you have your own: Silvanus of Cirta handing over the Sacraments to Felix the curator. You have Marinus from Aquis Tibilitanis offering three codices to Romanus the curator.

You have Victor of Rusiccadi burning the four Gospels like trash, who dared to condemn the innocent Caecilian in his absence. This is the den of thieves, this is the brood of traitors, this is the harlot woman who, having abandoned Christ, prostituted the brothels to Donatus: whose house, according to Solomon, is a retreat of death, whose ways are those of the underworld (Prov. 7:27); who calls herself clean, though she is full of filth; who proclaims herself innocent, though she is entangled in crimes; who commits shameful acts and blames another for her deeds, lest she be the first to hear what she has done. For you defame Catholics with your own deeds, so that you may separate the people from the Lord. Therefore, as though you were exhorting your own to abstain from our water, you say: "Keep away from strange water, and do not drink from a foreign spring; let the spring of your water be private to you; let no outsider share with you." Who does not see that the Prophet was commending chastity to spouses, and that you have strayed far from the truth? Or if no outsider ought to share in your spring, why do you seek outsiders, why do you rebaptize Catholics?

CHAPTER XIII. — The Donatist said: It is clear, therefore, that among the traitors there is a multitude of waters, where the diverse seeds of schisms, where the manifold plagues of heretics, where the detestable filth of the Manichaeans, or into the abyss of a muddy whirlpool, a Charybdis snatched away in eternal death, and the oil of destruction animated the devouring flames. The Catholic replied: O proof! O error! O madness! It is clear, therefore, that among the traitors there is a multitude of waters, where the diverse seeds of schisms, where the manifold plagues of heretics, where the detestable filth of the Manichaeans: how do you prove that the manifold plagues of schismatics are with us? If they were with us, they would not be heretics, but Catholics. CHAPTER XIV. — The Donatist said: Hear what Solomon says: Dying flies spoil the sweetness of the ointment (Ecclesiastes 10:1). The genuine sweetness of oil, therefore, if it has been violated by an improper touch, becomes polluted by a spoiled mixture. And rightly do you equate the traitors to the Holy Spirit with unclean birds, because they rush improperly upon another's table and defile the sweetness of oil with unclean touches.

The Catholic replied: Who violates with impure touch—he who preserves what he finds, or he who shamelessly destroys what has been made? When did we touch your oil, when did we drive away the Holy Spirit by insulting it? Show that any one of us has fallen impurely upon the oil of the divinity, or has unlawfully violated the Baptism of the Trinity, as you have. Dying flies of the Donatists buzz around all the members of the body; wherever they find wounds, they sting the healthy, they lick the diseased, and they pour forth the worms of sins from their ulcers, which gnaw at the conscience, which finish off the soul, which nourish putrefaction, which spare not even the dead corpses themselves. Dying flies, when they destroy the oil, are destroyed by the oil: for you do not live, you who breathe out the Holy Spirit. CHAPTER XV. — The Donatist said: This is what the most holy David teaches, supplying the rule of our faith: that the oil of a sinner brings no salvation, nor should it touch anyone’s head. He says, “The oil of a sinner shall not anoint my head” (Psalm 140:5). Therefore, the person of the sinner must be sought out with careful examination, if the Lord did not speak of a sacrilegious priest, as the profane assert.

The Catholic replied: Since you are conscious of sin, you dare to say that the person of the sinner must be examined. Hear what this person of the sinner is. The Apostle said: For all have sinned, and stand in need of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). And Solomon: There is no man who does not sin (Eccles. 7:21). And Job: He found perversity even among his angels; how much more among the sons of men, who have an earthly dwelling (Job 4:18-19)? This is the person of the sinner: that is, every man is a sinner. If you are a priest, you are a man; and if you are a man, you are a sinner. What do you make of yourself? You have said that you alone are holy, alone just, alone without sin, alone without stain. You have said that your Baptism is yours, your holy oil is yours, your Lord’s table is yours, all those things that are divinely granted to the faithful are yours. What remains, except that you wickedly and impiously declare yourself to be God? But hear what the head of pride deserved to hear: How you fell from heaven, O Lucifer, who rose in the morning, who wounded the nations, who said in your heart, I shall ascend above heaven, and I shall exalt my seat above the stars of God, I shall sit on the mountain of the covenant on the sides of the north, and I shall be like the Most High. Nevertheless, you will descend into hell, and into the depth of the pit (Isa. 14:12-15). Therefore, unless you repent, unless you are converted, unless, having laid aside your pride, you ask forgiveness for your sins, you will hear what he heard; because, while you are a man, you make yourself God.

CHAPTER XVI. — The Donatist said: Similarly, the Lord demonstrated through the prophet Haggai, with a salutary exposition, that impure touches confer defilement, and that no polluted person can sanctify if he attempts with illicit presumption to touch what he sees contained as sacred, since He presented the Prophet as cautious for our sake. Ask, said the Lord, the priests, saying: If a man binds sacred flesh in the uppermost part of his garment, and the edge of the garment touches any creature of bread, or wine, or oil, is it sanctified? And the priests answered and said: No. And the Lord said: If one polluted in soul touches any of these, will it be polluted? And the priests said: It will be polluted. And the Lord said: So this people, and so this nation: everyone who approaches there will be polluted (Haggai 2:12-15). The Catholic replied: You have used this testimony against yourself, who place the gift of God in your own will. For if the touch of a holy person does not remove the defilements of the impure, then what you do, what you confect, what you wash, is vain. If he touches, it says, what is sacred, the creature of bread, or wine, or oil, will it be sanctified? And the priests answered and said: No. Where is what you boast, that your sanctity confers purity?

But if that statement moves you—"This people, and that nation; everyone who approaches them will be defiled"—teach us that Haggai, who said these things, departed from the midst of that same people so that he himself was not polluted among them. That touch signifies works. "If a holy man," he says, "touches an unclean thing, he will not be sanctified; if an unclean man touches a holy thing, he will be defiled"—that is, it is easier for a holy man who is joined to this most wicked people to become wicked, than for that people to be changed for the better, because people run more readily to the imitation of evil than the mind is roused to the virtues of the good; just as when a little wormwood is thrown into a great deal of honey, it quickly acquires bitterness, but even if twice as much honey is added, its sweetness cannot be obtained. Therefore we must depart from the midst of the wicked in mind, not in flesh; in works, not in bodies. "Do not," says the Apostle, "communicate in the unfruitful works of darkness" (Ephesians 5:11): he says "works," not "altars." For it is written in Isaiah: "Those who say, 'Stand away from me, do not approach me, because you are unclean'—they will be smoke in my wrath, a fire burning all day long" (Isaiah 65:5). If the sayings of men do not frighten you, at least let the threatening wrath of God turn you.

CHAPTER 17. — Donatist said: A thief never brings his plunder into the light; workers of the night have always more often shuddered at the light, which is pleasing to all good men. Only a traitor is neither broken by the threats of God, and the shameless man glories in another’s garment. Against him the Lord proclaims through Zephaniah, and is not heard: “It will be,” he says, “on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, and I will take vengeance on the princes, and on all who are clothed in another’s garment” (Zeph. 1:8). Catholic replied: I do not fear your accusations, because my conscience is fortified. Whom do you say has handed over? Show the name and place of the traitor. You will never be able to show this, just as you were never able to before. But even if you produce someone, it cannot harm me, as the Lord says, “The soul of the father is mine; the soul of the son is mine; the soul that has sinned, that one alone will die” (Ezek. 18:4). I, however, do not rejoice in another’s garment, I who always exult in the Catholic faith. That is the garment I have, with which the merciful and kind Father clothed me in splendor on the day of redemption. “Bring,” he says, “that first robe, and clothe him; because this son of mine was dead, and has come back to life; he was lost, and has been found” (Luke 15:22, 24). That is the one of which the apostle Paul said, “All of you who have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). This I have, in this I rejoice, in this I will always appear more glorious. This is the garment which you have either stolen like thieves, or which you, wretches, defile.

CHAPTER 18. — The Donatist said: For to the extent that wickedness seeks to bolster its devious errors with others’ goods, and the false Catholic tries to conceal the clouds of falsehood, it proceeds along winding paths, which the Lord through Jeremiah confronted as an adversary: “Do not,” he says, “trust in yourselves in false words, for they will profit you nothing at all, saying, ‘The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord it is’” (Jer. 7:4). And the Lord in Deuteronomy: “Take heed that you do not offer holocausts in every place you see; but in the place which the Lord your God has chosen in your tribe, in this place you shall offer holocausts, and there you shall do all things which I command you today” (Deut. 12:13-14). The Catholic replied: You have cited a testimony that is excellent and very fitting for your own salvation: “Take heed that you do not offer holocausts in every place you see; but in the place which the Lord your God has chosen in your tribe, in this place you shall offer holocausts, and there you shall do all things which he commands you.” Therefore, listen to what the chosen place is, and what the proclaimed tribe of the Lord is. In Psalm 131 you have: “Because the Lord has chosen Zion, he has chosen it as a dwelling for himself. This is my rest forever and ever; here I will dwell, because I have chosen it.” Likewise in Psalm 121: “Our feet were standing in your courts, Jerusalem. Jerusalem, which is built as a city.” For there the tribes ascended, the tribes of the Lord, the testimony of Israel.

This is the chosen place, this the sanctified mountain, this the city set upon a mountain so that it cannot be hidden, this the Catholic root, this the fruitful vine spread far and wide, which cries out in Ecclesiasticus and says, “I am founded in Sion, and my power is in Jerusalem” (Sir 24:15). For it was necessary that Christ suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that penance and remission of sins be preached in his name among all nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:46–47). You would rightly accuse me if you remained in this inheritance. But since you do not remain in this inheritance of God the Father, since you do not serve in this tribe of Christ the King, why does a deserter rebuke a soldier? Why does a guilty man reproach an innocent one? And I say to you: Take heed that you do not offer in every place, that is, in every heresy, and say, “Here is God, and there is God”; but in the place which your Lord God has chosen in your tribe, that is, in his tribe, there you shall offer your holocausts, and there you shall do all things that have been commanded you. Do this, and you will live.

CHAPTER XIX. — The Donatist said: "Baptism cannot be called such, which the crowd of waters scattered, which malice separated from the fountain of the Church, which the sterile wave dried up, which saw neither an angel nor found a prophet who could heal it, just as in the fourth book of Kings the most holy Elisha healed the lethal waters by dispelling death, and by a fertilizing word allowed them to flow into abundant streams. And the men of the city said to Elisha: 'Behold, the city's dwelling is good, as you, lord, see; but the waters here are many and sterile.' And Elisha said: 'Bring me a clay vessel, and put salt into it.' And they brought it: and he came to the outlets of the waters, and threw the salt and said, 'Thus says the Lord, I have healed these waters, and there will be no death in them nor sterility': and the waters were healed unto this day (2 Kings 2:19-22)." The Catholic replied: "Thanks be to God the Father, who faithfully fulfilled in us what he showed would come. Thanks, I say, to God the Father, who sent to us not only Angels, not only Prophets, as before in our Jericho, that is, in this world, but his own Son, namely the Lord of Angels and the Prince of Prophets, who would heal the sterility of the waters, that is, the unfruitfulness of the nations, by dispelling death.

It received a clay vessel, that is, the body of human frailty; it put in salt, that is, it filled with divine wisdom; it cast it into the water, that is, it descended into the Jordan; it healed the waters by its descent, that is, it redeemed the nations by its coming; and by the fertilizing word it gathered the Church from the nations, and spread it far and wide in abundant offspring. Whoever does not see this fulfilled in us is blind; whoever does not believe it is insane. Behold the abundant offspring, say where this Church is not, say where yours is found, except in a corner of Africa, poorly gathered, like a useless vine-shoot, cut off from this one, it remained there, could not extend further, because once cut off from the root it immediately withered. CHAPTER XX. — The Donatist said: One city received the substance of the saving water, and a widow together with her children received the gifts of oil, nor did the prophet entrust the divine benefit indiscriminately, except to her whom he knew to have one jar of oil, as the truth of the Books of Kings attests: And one woman from among the wives of the prophets cried out after Elisha, saying: Your servant, my husband, is dead; and you know how your servant was a God-fearing man; and behold, those to whom I am indebted have come to take my two sons as slaves. And Elisha said: What shall I do? Tell me, what do you have in your house? And she said: Your maidservant has nothing in her house except one jar of oil.

And Elisha said: "Go, ask for vessels for yourself from outside from all those dwelling with you, many vessels; and you will enter, and you will close the door against yourself and your sons, and you will fill the vessels with oil, and you will pay the debt" (2 Kings 4:1-4). For Elisha worked through the lineaments of true Baptism. For because I do not approve yours, therefore I blow away your faithful. The Catholic replied: For all do this, which you also do; all the faithful blow away, while they claim for themselves the unique sacrament of Baptism. When you find such a one, you will not capture, you will not hold, you will not bind with that chain; but having recognized the piratical sign, so that he may perform the art with you, you permit him to go away unharmed. CHAPTER XXI. — Fulgentius said: Far be it that I permit him to go away; since God said, "Compel all to enter, so that my house may be filled" (Luke 14:23). He who said "all" excepted no one. Augustine replied: What then will you do? Fulgentius said: I will teach him my church as most certain.

Augustine replied: In what? Will you show that Christ, because he received all nations from the Father, has remained only in a small part of Africa? Fulgentius said: I will say that it consists in a few. Augustine replied: What if even his few will have? For all, in comparison with the Catholic Church, have few. Fulgentius said: I will show that this is the true Church which suffers persecution, not which inflicts it. Augustine replied: What if even his Church did not inflict persecution at all? Fulgentius said: I will set forth, according to the Apostle, that my Church alone has no wrinkles or spots (Ephesians 5:27). Augustine replied: It will immediately be proved to have them. For it is written, "No one is clean from filth, even if his life on earth were but a single day" (Job 14:4-5). But why say more? By whatever ingenuity you will capture and hold, how do you receive those whom your faithful perhaps retained, who extinguished the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer?

CHAPTER XXII. — Fulgentius said: I condemn him, I reject him, and I baptize with true water in the remission of sins. Augustine replied: How do you forgive his sins, when it is written that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven forever (Matthew 12:32)? But let us set him aside and consider another. Tell also the Maximianist, your rival, what you have said to me: How can another possess it, if it has been granted to me alone? Or if you claim it has been handed over to your authority, why do you approve another’s? This Maximianist will also reply: How can it be granted to another? For you have received my Christians and clergy baptized or ordained outside your Church without any change of Baptism or honor, in their entirety; and when this was charged against you in the Acts of Marcellinus, you were in no way able to refute it. Likewise Augustine replied: If you are just, why is your judgment different? Why do you receive Maximianists and reject my faithful?

Fulgentius said: “Because he was mine.” Augustine replied: “And you were mine; why do you persist as merciful in your schismatic, but as merciless and implacable in the Catholic?” CHAPTER XXIII. — Fulgentius said: “You have sinned more, and therefore you are punished differently in you.” Augustine replied: “What then? Do you place Baptism as vengeance, and what is promised for salvation is given by you as punishment? If in Baptism you do not forgive offenses, but punish sins; if in water you do not free but flog; you openly show yourself to be a pirate: and yet what have I sinned more? what have I done?” Fulgentius said: “You handed over the Codices, and you sacrificed to idols.” Augustine replied: “Teach; I did not do it, you falsely attribute deeds to me.” Fulgentius said: “Your father did it.” Augustine replied: “I know no father except God. For it is written, ‘Do not call anyone on earth your father; for there is one Father, your heavenly Father’ (Matt. 23:9).” Fulgentius said: “I mean your father Caecilian: he handed over, he offered incense, he committed all evils.

Augustine replied: “Read who accused him, who convicted him, who condemned him when the wax tablet was placed. Granted, he did what he did not do: is a son to be condemned for his father, when it is written, ‘The soul of the father is mine, and the soul of the son is mine; the soul that has sinned, that alone shall die’ (Ezekiel 18:4)?” Fulgentius said: “You are his son; you did not indeed betray him, but you made persecution against us.” Augustine replied: “I indeed did not do it, but I believe that my people could have done it. Inquire into the reason why: what if you deserved it? Is it a sin to persecute the wicked? For we read that the saints and the Holy of Holies, the Lord, persecuted the wicked; for the demons, unable to bear the persecution of the Lord, loved it. ‘What is it to us, to you, Jesus, Son of God?’ (Mark 1:24?). And Paul says: ‘The proconsul was struck with blindness’ (Acts 13:11), and ‘the house of so-and-so’ (1 Timothy 1:20?). And Peter, Ananias, and Sapphira his wife, liars, met their end (Acts 5:1-10). And Simon Magus, whom Peter persecuted, perished. But also David, in the person of Christ, says: ‘I will pursue the wicked, and I will not turn back until they fail; I will afflict them, so that they can stand no more’ (Psalm 18:38-39).

Therefore, not everyone who has suffered persecution is immediately to be considered righteous; but he who has suffered for the sake of righteousness is indeed blessed, as Peter says: “For what glory is it, if you suffer blows when you are sinning? But if you suffer while doing good, and bear it patiently, this is grace before God” (1 Pet. 2:20). CHAPTER XXIV. — Fulgentius said: The saints whom you mention did not deserve the edicts of secular judges, which your people did. Augustine replied: Is it permitted, or is it not? If it is permitted, it is not fitting to murmur about what is permitted; if it is not permitted, correct that crime while it is permitted. For you, as the records show, have persecuted your own Maximianist schismatics with the authorities of secular judges, the assistance of men of rank, the execution of various soldiers, and the appointed defenders of the Church, so as to drive them from their basilicas. You who reproach me, why do you not first correct yourself?

CHAPTER 25. Fulg. said: We took away the basilicas from our schismatics in order to restore them to the true Church. Aug. replied: Our people also did this to you: they took them away from their schismatics and restored them to the Catholic mother. What your people did for the sake of the peace of Donatus, our people did for the sake of the peace of the body of Christ. CHAPTER 26. Fulg. said: You are the schismatics, you who both burned incense and handed over the sacred books. Aug. replied: Let us become weak with the weak, so that we may win over the weak. I see that what cannot happen has happened: the party of Donatus has conquered the whole body of Christ; the African corner has shut out the whole world; one people has brought in all peoples; a shoot from the vine has preceded, and has cut off the little branches of the trees. At least you would observe the laws established by your predecessors concerning us: you would not rebaptize, but you would free the souls of the erring through penance, as you suppose. Reread the decisions of your fathers, and see what they decreed ought to be done concerning the traditors, the thurificati, and the schismatics, when they had conspired against Caecilianus of Carthage and came together. Your Marcianus, among others, delivered such a sentence, which the seventy who were present certainly did not disapprove: In his Gospel, he said, the Lord says: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer: every branch that does not bear fruit in me, he will cut off and cast away; and every branch that remains in me and bears fruit, he will prune it" (John 15:1-2).

Just as unfruitful branches are cut off and thrown away, so those who have offered incense, the traditores, and those who are ordained in schism by traditores cannot remain in the Church of God unless, having recognized their own howling, they are reconciled through penance. Therefore, one ought not to communicate with Caecilian, who was ordained in schism by traditores. This is the fixed sentence of your fathers. Behold—though may it not happen—if we have been traditores, if we have offered incense, if we have committed schisms, why do you transgress the mandate of the elders, so that you establish your own traditions? "Just as," he says, "unfruitful branches are cut off and thrown away, so those who have offered incense, the traditores, and those who are ordained in schism by traditores cannot remain in the Church of God unless, having recognized their own howling, they are reconciled through penance"—through penance, not through re-baptism. If you deign, let even your own leaders overcome you, or else confirm their decrees and lay aside your fabrications; or if you wish your own statutes to prevail, declare that they were in error. With us truth reigns; why does your tradition disagree? The Savior says in the Gospel: "Every kingdom divided against itself will not stand, but will be laid waste" (Matt. 12:25).