Letter 128: The Catholic bishops accept Marcellinus's Donatist conference terms and offer a peaceable episcopal settlement.

To our honorable and dearly loved son Marcellinus, Most Distinguished and Respectable tribune and notary: Aurelius, Silvanus, and all the Catholic bishops. By this letter we declare that we consent in every respect to the edict of Your Respectability, by which, as you were kind enough to remind us, provision has been made to preserve quiet and order at our conference and to bring out and secure the truth. We consent, that is, to the place and time of the conference and to the number of those who must be present. We also consent that those to whom we delegate the work of arguing the case should sign their statements, and that in the document by which we impose this duty on them and promise to ratify what they do, you should not only have the signatures of all of us, but should yourself observe them as they are made. With the Lord's help, we will also warn the Christian people to keep entirely away from the place of the conference for the sake of quiet and calm, and not to hurry to hear what is being done while it is being done, but to wait to learn it from the written record, as you have promised to make everything public. Trusting in the truth, we bind ourselves by this condition as well: if those with whom we are dealing are able to prove to us that, when according to God's promises the Christian people had already grown everywhere and filled a great part of the world, and were spreading into the rest that was still to be filled, Christ's church suddenly perished through infection by the sins, whoever they were, of the people they accuse, and remained only in the party of Donatus, then, if they can prove this, we will not seek any episcopal honors among them. For eternal salvation alone, we will follow the counsel of those to whom we would owe the grace of so great a benefit once the truth was known. But if we are able instead to show that Christ's church, already holding not only all the African provinces but also overseas provinces and the very fruitful spaces of many peoples, and, as Scripture says, bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, could not have perished through the sins of any people mixed within it; if we can show that the case of the very people whom they once chose to accuse rather than convict has been settled, although the church's cause does not rest on them; if we can show that Caecilian was innocent, and that those others were judged violent and slanderous by the emperor to whose examination they voluntarily sent their accusations; finally, if whatever sins of any people they bring forward, whether by human documents or by divine ones, we prove either that innocent people were attacked with false charges or that Christ's church, to whose communion we cling, was not destroyed by any such wrongdoing, then let them hold its unity with us in such a way that they not only find the way of salvation, but also do not lose the honor of the episcopate. What we detest in them is not the divine sacraments of truth, but the inventions of human error. Once those are removed, we embrace a brotherly heart joined to us by Christian love, which we now grieve has been separated by a devilish division. Each of us could, with a partner in honor joined to him, take turns sitting in the higher place, as when a visiting bishop sits beside a colleague. When this is granted by alternating basilicas on both sides, each gives the other precedence in mutual honor. Where the command of charity has enlarged hearts, the possession of peace is not cramped; when one of the two dies, then single bishops can again succeed single bishops in the old way. Nor would this be anything new. From the very beginning of the separation, Catholic love has preserved this practice for those who condemned the wicked error of division and, even late, tasted the sweetness of unity. Or if perhaps Christian congregations prefer one bishop each and cannot endure the unfamiliar sight of two sharing the office, let both of us step aside. Then, once the cause of schism has been condemned and the churches in each place have been established in peaceful unity, single bishops may be appointed where single bishops are found necessary. Why should we hesitate to offer our Redeemer this sacrifice of humility? Did he descend from heaven into human limbs so that we might be his members, while we are afraid to step down from our chairs lest his very members be torn apart by cruel division? For our own sake, it is entirely enough that we are faithful and obedient Christians. Let us always be that. We are ordained bishops for the sake of Christian peoples; therefore let us do with our episcopate whatever benefits Christian peoples for Christian peace. If we are useful servants, why should we envy the Lord his eternal gains because of our temporary rank? The episcopal dignity will be more fruitful for us if laying it down gathers Christ's flock than if retaining it scatters them. With what face will we hope for the honor Christ promised in the age to come if our honor in this age obstructs Christian unity? We have taken care to write these things to Your Eminence so that through you they may become known to everyone. We ask that, with the help of the Lord our God, who has prompted us to promise these things and by whose help we trust we can fulfill them, even before the conference if possible, devout charity may heal weak hearts or tame hard ones. Then, with minds already at peace, we will not resist the clearest truth, and our debate will either be preceded by agreement or followed by it. We must not despair if they remember that peacemakers are blessed, because they will be called children of God. It is much more fitting and much easier for them to want the party of Donatus to be reconciled to the whole Christian world than for the whole Christian world to be rebaptized by the party of Donatus. This is especially so because, when people came to them from the sacrilegious and condemned schism of Maximian, whom they had even sought to correct by pursuing them with orders from earthly powers, they received them with such love that they did not dare annul the baptism given by them, and they restored some of those condemned people without diminishing their honor at all, while judging that others had remained unstained within that division. We do not begrudge them that mutual concord; but they certainly ought to notice how lovingly the catholic root seeks a branch broken from itself with such care, if that same branch labored in the same way to gather up a little twig cut from itself. In another hand: We wish you well in the Lord, son. I, Aurelius, bishop of the Catholic Church of Carthage, have signed this letter. In another hand: I, Silvanus, elder of the church of Summa, have signed.

EPISTOLA 128 Scripta forte octavo kal. Iunii a. 411. Marcellini edicto collationis apud Carthaginem habendae condiciones praescribenti consentire se profitentur episcopi catholici (n. 1) id etiam ultro pollicentes non postulaturos ut sibi servetur episcopatus si victi fuerint, cum tamen velint dignitatem Donatistis episcopis etiam victis suam cuique integram manere (n. 2) vel cum illis eam exercere si Ecclesiae unitatem amplecti et servare voluerint (n. 3) eodem spiritu quo schismaticorum pacem servare conati sint Maximianistas episcopos in honorem pristinum restituendo (n. 4). HONORABILI AC DILECTISSIMO FILIO, VIRO CLARISSIMO ET SPECTABILI TRIBUNO ET NOTARIO, MARCELLINO, AURELIUS, SILVANUS, ET UNIVERSI EPISCOPI CATHOLICI. Catholici episcopi Marcellini condiciones servabunt. 1. Edicto Spectabilitatis tuae, quo nostrae collationis tranquillitati quietique servandae, et veritati manifestandae muniendaeque consultum est, in omnibus nos consentire, sicut admonere dignatus es, per has litteras intimamus; hoc est, de loco et tempore ipsius collationis, et de numero eorum quos praesentes esse oportebit. Consentimus etiam ut hi quibus conferendi delegamus officium, subscribant prosecutionibus suis: inque illo scripto, quo eis hoc munus imponimus, ratumque nos habituros quod egerint pollicemur, subscriptiones omnium nostrum non solum habeas factas, verum etiam cum fiunt ipse perspicias; admonituri quoque, Domino adiuvante, populum christianum, ut a collationis loco, quietis et tranquillitatis gratia, suum abstineat omnino conventum, et ea quae aguntur, non cum aguntur, audire festinet, sed conscripta ut cognoscat, exspectet, sicut ea te prolaturum omnibus promisisti. Ipsi sua se dignitate abdicabunt si erroris convincantur. 2. Illo etiam, veritate confisi, nos vinculo conditionis obstringimus, ut si nobis ii cum quibus agimus demonstrare potuerint, cum secundum Dei promissa populi christiani usquequaque crescendo iam magnam partem orbis implerent, et in caeteram dilatarentur implendam, subito Ecclesiam Christi, nescio quorum, quos isti accusant, peccatorum periisse contagio, et in sola remansisse parte Donati; si hoc, ut dictum est, demonstrare potuerint, nullos apud eos honores episcopalis muneris requiremus, sed eorum sequemur, pro sola aeterna salute, consilium, quibus tanti gratiam beneficii pro cognita veritate debebimus. Si autem nos potius valuerimus ostendere Ecclesiam Christi, omnium non solum Africanarum, verum etiam transmarinarum provinciarum, multarumque gentium spatia feracissima populorum copia iam tenentem, et, sicut scriptum est, toto mundo fructificantem atque crescentem 1, nullorum hominum sibi commixtorum peccatis perire potuisse: si denique ipsorum, quos tunc accusare voluerunt, potius quam convincere valuerunt, quaestionem demonstraverimus esse finitam, quamvis non in eis Ecclesiae causa consistat; et Caecilianum innocentem, illos autem violentos et calumniosos esse iudicatos ab eo imperatore, ad cuius examen criminationes suas ultro accusando miserunt: postremo si quidquid de peccatis quorumlibet hominum dixerint, vel humanis documentis, vel divinis probaverimus, aut eorum innocentiam falsis criminibus appetitam, aut Christi Ecclesiam, cuius communioni cohaeremus, nullis eorum delictis esse destructam; sic eius nobiscum teneant unitatem, ut non solum viam salutis inveniant, sed nec honorem episcopatus amittant. Neque enim in eis divinae Sacramenta veritatis, sed commenta humani detestamur erroris: quibus sublatis fraternum pectus amplectimur, Christiana nobis caritate coniunctum, quod nunc dolemus dissensione diabolica separatum. Cum Donatistis ad pacem conversis dignitatem exercebunt. 3. Poterit quippe unusquisque nostrum, honoris sibi socio copulato, vicissim sedere eminentius, sicut peregrino episcopo iuxta considente collega. Hoc cum alternis basilicis utrinque conceditur, uterque ab alterutro honore mutuo praevenitur; quia ubi praeceptio caritatis dilataverit corda, possessio pacis non fit angusta, ut uno eorum defuncto, deinceps iam singulis singuli pristino more succedant: nec novum aliquid fiet; nam hoc ab ipsius separationis exordio, in eis qui damnato nefariae discissionis errore unitatis dulcedinem vel sero sapuerunt, catholica dilectio custodivit. Aut si forte christiani populi singulis delectantur episcopis, et duorum consortium, inusitata rerum facie tolerare non possunt, utrique de medio secedamus, et Ecclesiis in singulis damnata schismatis causa, in unitate pacifica constitutis, ab his qui singuli in Ecclesiis singulis invenientur, unitate facta per loca necessaria singuli constituantur episcopi. Quid enim dubitemus Redemptori nostro sacrificium istius humilitatis offerre? an vero ille de coelis in membra humana descendit, ut membra eius essemus; et nos, ne ipsa eius membra crudeli divisione lanientur, de cathedris descendere formidamus? Propter nos nihil sufficientius, quam christiani fideles et oboedientes sumus: hoc ergo semper simus. Episcopi autem propter christianos populos ordinamur: quod ergo christianis populis ad christianam pacem prodest, hoc de nostro episcopatu faciamus. Si servi utiles sumus, cur Domini aeternis lucris pro nostris temporalibus sublimitatibus invidemus? Episcopalis dignitas fructuosior nobis erit, si gregem Christi magis deposita collegerit, quam retenta disperserit. Nam qua fronte in futuro saeculo promissum a Christo sperabimus honorem, si christianam in hoc saeculo noster honor impedit unitatem? Donatistae quam indulgentes in suos dissidentes fuerint. 4. Haec propterea Praestantiae tuae scribenda curavimus, ut et per te innotescant omnibus. Postulamus ut in adiutorio Domini Dei nostri, quo admonente ista promittimus, et quo adiuvante nos implere posse confidimus, etiam ante collationem, si fieri potest, corda hominum vel infirma, vel dura, pia caritas aut sanet, aut edomet; ac sic iam pacificis mentibus non resistamus manifestissimae veritati, et disputationem nostram vel praecedamus concordia, vel sequamur. Neque enim desperare debemus, si recolunt beatos esse pacificos, quoniam ipsi filii Dei vocabuntur 2, multo dignius et facilius eos velle ut pars Donati universo orbi christiano reconcilietur, quam universus orbis christianus a parte Donati rebaptizetur: cum praesertim de Maximiani sacrilego et damnato schismate venientes, quos etiam terrenarum potestatum iussionibus insectando emendare curarunt, tanta dilectione quaesierint ut nec baptismum ab eis datum rescindere auderent, et quosdam eorum damnatos, sine ulla honoris eorum diminutione susciperent, quosdam vero in illius discissionis societate impollutos fuisse censerent. Quorum inter se concordiae non invidemus; sed eos certe oportet advertere quam pie tanto studio ramum a se fractum radix catholica inquirit, si ramus ipse similiter a se parvum fragmen incisum sic colligere laboravit. (Et alia manu): Optamus te, fili, in Domino bene valere. Aurelius episcopus Ecclesiae catholicae Carthaginensis, huic epistolae subscripsi. (Item alia manu): Silvanus senex Ecclesiae Summensis subscripsi.