Letter 129: The Catholic bishops answer Donatist procedural demands and defend the worldwide church before Marcellinus.

To the honorable and dearly loved son, the distinguished and respectable tribune and notary Marcellinus: Aurelius, Silvanus, and all the Catholic bishops. The notice, or letter, of our brothers whom we long to turn from harmful division to catholic peace has made us deeply anxious, because they refused to consent to the edict of Your Nobility by which you provided for the calm and quiet of our debate. We fear that perhaps, even if not all of them, some of them may obstruct the conference, which ought to be peaceful and calm, by the tumult or noise of a crowd. If only this thought does not trouble them at all, and our suspicion proves false instead! If they wish all to be present, may it be so that, when it seems good to them, once we too have gathered there, we may leave together in harmony and peace, the schismatic division corrected, bound by the brotherly bond of Christ's unity, with all good people marveling and rejoicing, and only the devil and those like him grieving. Then may we go together into the Church with most ardent and shining love to give thanks and praises to God. What great difficulty is there, if a peaceful eye attends and Christian thought does not abandon the effort to consider and see, once human accusations, true or false, have been set aside, that the Church must be sought in the same writings in which Christ her redeemer became known? Just as we do not listen against Christ to those who say his body was stolen from the tomb by his disciples, so we ought not listen against his Church to those who say that it exists only among Africans and the very few partners of Africans. The apostle says that true Christians are members of Christ. Therefore, just as we do not believe that Christ's dead flesh perished from the tomb by anyone's theft, so we should not believe that his living members perished from the world by anyone's sin. It is not hard, then, to see that since Christ is the head and the Church the body, both are commended together in the Gospel: the head against the slanders of the Jews, and the body against the charges of heretics. The words, "It was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day," are against those who say the dead body was taken from the tomb. What follows, "and that penance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning from Jerusalem," is against those who say that the Church does not exist throughout the world. Thus in one brief passage and a few words both the enemy of the head and the enemy of the body are driven back and, if he attends faithfully, corrected. We grieve all the more that our brothers hold these hostilities, because it is plain that they hold with us the same Scriptures in which these most open testimonies are contained. The Jews who deny that Christ rose at least do not receive the Gospel. But these brothers of ours are bound by the authority of both Testaments, and yet they want to accuse us about a Gospel supposedly handed over while refusing to believe that Gospel when it is read aloud. Perhaps now, however, having undertaken the care of this conference, they have searched the holy Scriptures more diligently. In them they found countless testimonies by which the Church was promised as future among all nations and throughout the whole earth, just as in the Gospel, the apostolic letters, and the Acts of the Apostles we see it beginning to be delivered and presented: the places, cities, and provinces are named through which it grew, beginning from Jerusalem, so that from there it spread even into Africa not by migration but by growth. They found no testimony of the divine words saying that it would perish from the other parts of the world and remain in Africa alone in the party of Donatus. They saw how absurd it is that so many divine testimonies should be recited for the Church that, according to them, was going to perish, while not one testimony of the Lord could be found for the party that, as they think, was going to please him. Perhaps, thinking on these things, they wished all to come to the place of our conference in order to end vain hostilities, hostilities destructive and contrary to eternal salvation, not so that a new tumult might arise but so that an old discord might end. They are often stirred very sharply against us because the kings of the earth, whom it was foretold so long beforehand would serve Christ the Lord, make laws against heretics and schismatics for catholic peace. We believe that perhaps they have considered at last that this should not be blamed. Ancient kings, not only of the Hebrew people but also of foreign nations, frightened all the peoples of their realm with very threatening commands so that no one would do or even say anything against the God of Israel, that is, the true God. And their own ancestors sent the very case of Caecilian, from which this dissension was born, to the emperor Constantine through the proconsul Anulinus by way of accusation. They seem to have done this for no other reason than that the emperor Constantine, by royal authority, would issue some decision against those who were defeated in favor of those who prevailed. They could have found, and perhaps did find under the necessity of this very conference after searching the public archives, that the whole case had long ago been finished: after the ecclesiastical judgments by which Caecilian was acquitted, and after the same emperor judged the matter, to whose examination they first sent and later carried the whole case. There too they could have found the case of Felix of Aptunga, the ordainer of Caecilian, whom they had called the source of all evils in their council, cleared by the proconsul Aelianus under order of that same emperor. Even if Caecilian and his fellow bishops had had a bad case, they could have noticed, and it would have been easy to see, that in the holy Scriptures Christ's Church is promised as one in which weeds, chaff, and bad fish will be mixed until the time of harvest, winnowing, and shore. They could surely have thought that such men could not have prejudiced the Christian world, which God promised long before when few believed and now has delivered when many see it. Unless, perhaps, a sinful human being had more power against the Church than God swearing had for the Church, and iniquity had more power over what it lost than truth over what it promised. They may now at last have seen how foolish and impious it is to think this. They have also thought about how they themselves, through earthly powers, arranged that the Maximianists, whom they condemned and who condemned Primianus, should be driven even from basilicas. In that recent example of their own they learned with greater certainty that it is not a sin if the Church asks powers of this kind for some such action against its rebels. They later received some of those condemned people, although when they condemned them they also granted delay to many others who remained in the same fellowship of schism. They said these people had remained unstained in the communion of Maximian's sacrilegious little branch, and they did not dare annul and repeat baptism given outside in schism either by the condemned or by their associates. They have surely judged by their own example that the things they were saying against us are condemned. We should believe that they now understand how unworthy and intolerable it is that, so there may be peace in the party of Donatus, they sit on episcopal chairs with such men, with Primianus's condemners and the condemned in his case, while the Christian world is slandered over Caecilian lest the unity of Christ live in peace. Perhaps they have thought over all these things and, moved by the fear of God, wanted everyone to be present at the place of the conference not to arrange a tumult but for peace. They said they wanted everyone present so that their number might be seen, since, as they claim, their opponents have often lied that they are few. If anyone on our side ever said this, it could most truly be said about those places where the number of our fellow bishops, clergy, and laypeople is far larger, especially in the proconsular province. Except for consular Numidia, they are very easily surpassed by our number even in the other African provinces, and, in comparison with all the nations through which catholic communion is spread, we most rightly say that they are very few. But if they now wanted their number to become known, would it not become known more orderly and calmly through their signatures, which you instructed by edict should be attached to their mandate while you watched? What, then, do they mean by wanting everyone to be present at the place of the conference? If they are not thinking of peace, what will they not disturb if they speak, or what will they do there if they keep silent? Even if there is no shouting, the very whispering of so many will create enough noise to obstruct the conference. Why did they think they should put in their notice that they had rightly demanded that everyone be present because everyone had been summoned to come? As though a few who ought to be present could be chosen otherwise than by all who came, so that with you present they might sign their choice, and in the few all would be present, since the few had been chosen by all. Therefore either a tumult is being planned by them, or peace. We pray for the one and guard against the other. Therefore, lest perhaps, God forbid, what we guard against is being prepared rather than what we pray for, we consent that all of them be present, while from us only such a number is present as seemed sufficient to Your Respectability. If anything tumultuous through the crowds should emerge, it will rightly be charged only to those on whose side there will be a multitude entirely unnecessary for a matter that must be conducted by a few. But if, as we pray with all our vows, ardently desire, and humbly ask from the Lord, that multitude will be necessary for bringing about unity, then when they wish it, we will all be present. We will fly eagerly, with the help of the one who gives this gift, toward so great a good, saying, "You are our brothers," no longer to those who hate us but to those who, hatred ended, embrace us, so that the Lord's name may be honored and it may appear to them, now experiencing it with us in gladness, how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell as one. In another hand: We wish you well in God, son. Again in another hand: I, Aurelius, bishop of the catholic church of Carthage, have signed. Again: I, Silvanus, of the first see of the province of Numidia, have signed.

EPISTOLA 129 Scripta paulo post superiorem. Catholici episcopi Notoriae Donatistarum respondent, significantes Marcellino, se illis concedere quod petierant, scilicet ut universi qui venerant eorum episcopi praesentes essent ubi celebranda erat collatio, etsi timent ne haec ab haereticis perturbetur (n. 1) tum etiam Ecclesiae causam adversus eorum schisma validis argumentis vindicant (nn. 2-5). Si autem seditionem illi molientur, in ipsorum caput eventus recidet (n. 7). HONORABILI AC DILECTISSIMO FILIO V. C. ET SPECTABILI TRIBUNO ET NOTARIO MARCELLINO, AURELIUS, SILVANUS, ET UNIVERSI EPISCOPI CATHOLICI. Catholici Donatistarum "notoriam" impugnant. 1. Multum nos sollicitos reddidit Notoria, vel litterae fratrum nostrorum, quos cupimus ad catholicam pacem a perniciosa dissensione converti, quod edicto Nobilitatis tuae, quo ipsius disputationis nostrae tranquillitati quietique providisti, consentire noluerunt; ne forte etiamsi non omnes, aliqui tamen eorum per multitudinis tumultum seu strepitum, collationem, quae pacifica et pacata esse debet, impediant. Atque utinam ipsos non pertentet ista cogitatio, et nos potius fallat ista suspicio! et ideo si velint omnes esse praesentes, ut cum eis visum fuerit, congregatis illuc etiam nobis, simul inde egrediamur concordes atque pacati, et schismatica divisione correcta, fraterno unitatis Christi vinculo obstricti, mirantibus et gaudentibus omnibus bonis, dolente autem solo diabolo et similibus eius, pariter in Ecclesiam ad gratiarum actionem, laudesque Deo reddendas ardentissima et lucidissima caritate pergamus. Christum eiusque Ecclesiam Scripturis demonstrari. 2. Quid enim magnum est, si oculus pacatus attendat, et cogitatio christiana non deserat considerare et videre, remotis humanis criminationibus seu veris seu falsis, in eis Litteris Ecclesiam esse quaerendam, ubi Christus Redemptor eius innotuit? Nam sicut non audimus contra Christum eos qui dicunt corpus eius de sepulcro furatum a discipulis; sic non debemus audire contra eius Ecclesiam eos qui dicunt non eam esse nisi in solis Afris et Afrorum paucissimis sociis: Apostolus quippe dicit quoniam veraces christiani membra sunt Christi 1; sicut ergo non credimus furto cuiusquam periisse carnem Christi mortuam de sepulcro, sic credere non debemus peccato cuiusquam viva eius membra periisse de mundo. Non est itaque difficile, quoniam caput est Christus, et corpus Ecclesia, simul in Evangelio commendatum videre, et caput contra calumnias Iudaeorum, et corpus contra criminationes haereticorum. Nam quod legitur: Oportebat Christum pati, et resurgere a mortuis tertio die 2, contra eos est qui dicunt mortuum de sepulcro esse sublatum; quod autem sequitur, et praedicari in nomine eius poenitentiam, et remissionem peccatorum, per omnes gentes, incipientibus ab Ierusalem 3, contra eos est qui dicunt non esse Ecclesiam in orbe terrarum: ut uno brevi capitulo paucisque verbis, et inimicus capitis, et inimicus corporis repellatur, et, si fideliter attenderit, corrigatur. Schisma perniciem, unio autem salutem affert. 3. Nam tenere istas inimicitias fratres nostros tanto magis dolemus, quanto magis eos constat easdem Scripturas nobiscum tenere, quibus haec apertissima testimonia continentur. Iudaei quippe qui negant resurrexisse Christum, saltem non accipiunt Evangelium: isti autem fratres nostri utriusque Testamenti auctoritate devincti sunt; et tamen criminari nos volunt de Evangelio tradito, et nolunt ei credere recitato. Sed nunc fortasse huius collationis cura suscepta diligentius perscrutati sunt Scripturas sacras; et quia in eis innumerabilia testimonia repererunt, quibus promissa est Ecclesia futura in omnibus gentibus, et toto orbe terrarum, sicut eam reddi et praesentari coepisse in Evangelio et Epistolis apostolicis, et in Actibus Apostolorum videmus, ubi et ipsa loca, et civitates, et provinciae leguntur, per quas crevit, incipiens ab Ierusalem, ut inde se etiam in Africam non migrando, sed crescendo diffunderet; non autem invenerunt aliquod testimonium divinorum eloquiorum, ubi dictum est eam perituram de caeteris partibus mundi, et in sola Africa Donati parte mansuram; et viderunt quam sit absurdum, pro illa, quae fuerat peritura, tot testimonia divina recitari; pro ea vero, quae, sicut putant, fuerat Domino placitura, nullum eius testimonium reperiri: haec forte cogitantes, ad finiendas vanas, et perniciosas, et saluti aeternae contrarias inimicitias, ad locum collationis nostrae omnes convenire voluerunt, non ut tumultus novus oriatur, sed ut vetusta discordia finiatur. Caecilianus ecclesiasticis atque imperialibus iudiciis absolutus. 4. Nam et illud quo in nos solent graviter irritari, quod reges terrae, quos tanto ante praedictum est Christo domino servituros, leges contra haereticos et schismaticos pro catholica pace constituunt, credimus quod aliquando cogitaverint non esse culpandum: quia et antiqui reges non solum gentis Hebraicae, sed etiam alienigenae, ne quisquam contra Deum Israel, hoc est verum Deum, non tantum faceret, sed vel diceret aliquid, omnes regni sui populos praeceptis minacissimis terruerunt; et maiores istorum ipsam Caeciliani causam, unde nata est ista dissensio, ad Constantinum imperatorem per Anulinum proconsulem accusando miserunt; quod utique non ob aliud videntur fecisse, nisi ut imperator Constantinus contra eos qui superati essent, eis qui superassent, aliquid regali auctoritate decerneret; totamque ipsam causam potuerunt (et forte fecerunt ipsius collationis necessitate), archivis publicis perscrutatis, invenire olim esse finitam, post ecclesiastica iudicia, quibus absolutus est Caecilianus, illo etiam imperatore iudicante, ad cuius examen rem totam et primo miserunt, et postea perduxerunt. Ibi potuerunt etiam causam Felicis Aptungensis ordinatoris Caeciliani, quem malorum omnium fontem in concilio suo dixerant, cognoscente Aeliano proconsule ex praecepto eiusdem imperatoris, invenire purgatam. Christianorum delicta Ecclesiae minime obesse. 5. Quamquam et hoc si attenderunt, et, quod facile fuerat, adverterunt, in Scripturis sanctis Ecclesiam Christi permixtis zizaniis, et palea, et piscibus malis futuram esse promissam usque ad tempus messis 4, ventilationis 5, et littoris 6, utique cogitare potuerunt, etiamsi malam causam Caecilianus et coepiscopi eius habuissent, nihil eos praeiudicare potuisse orbi christiano, quem Deus paucis credentibus tanto ante promisit, et nunc multis videntibus reddidit. Nisi forte plus contra Ecclesiam valuit homo peccans, quam pro Ecclesia Deus iurans, et iniquitas quod amisit, quam veritas quod promisit. Haec sentire quam sit stultum et impium iam fortasse viderunt: cogitaverunt quoque damnatos a se Maximianistas Primiani damnatores per potestates terrenas etiam de basilicis curasse pellendos, et ibi certius exemplo suo recentiore didicerunt non esse peccatum, si tale aliquid Ecclesia contra rebelles suos ab huiusmodi potestatibus postulat: et quod aliquos ex damnatis postea receperunt, quos cum damnarent, aliis etiam plurimis in eadem societate schismatis constitutis dilationem dederunt, quos in Maximiani sacrilegi surculi communione impollutos mansisse dixerunt, et Baptismum vel a damnatis, vel a sociis eorum, quamvis foris in schismate datum, rescindere atque iterare non ausi sunt; satis utique iudicarunt ea quae contra nos dicebant, exemplo suo esse damnata: et credendum est quod iam intellegant quam sit indignum, quam intolerabile, ut cum sedeant in cathedris episcopalibus cum istis, et cum ipso simul Primiano damnatores eius et damnati in causa eius, ut sit pax in parte Donati, de Caeciliano infametur orbis christianus, ne in pace vivat unitas Christi. Ut universi episcopi conlationi adsint, haud pacificum esse. 6. Haec omnia fortasse cogitantes, et Dei timore permoti, omnes collationis loco adesse voluerunt, non tumultus dispositione, sed pacis. Quod enim propterea se universos adesse dixerunt, ut eorum numerus appareat, quoniam eos paucos esse adversarii saepe sui mentiti sunt; hoc si aliquando a nostris dictum est, de his locis dici verissime potuit ubi nostrorum coepiscoporum et clericorum atque laicorum longe maior est numerus, et maxime in proconsulari provincia: quamquam, excepta Numidia consulari, etiam in caeteris provinciis Africanis nostrorum numero facillime superentur; aut certe, in comparatione omnium gentium, per quas catholica communio dilatatur, eos esse paucissimos rectissime dicimus. Sed nunc si numerum suum innotescere voluissent, nonne ordinatius atque tranquillius innotesceret per eorum subscriptiones, quas ut mandato suo te cernente subiungant, edicto admonuisti? Quid sibi ergo vult quod collationis loco omnes adesse desiderant? Si enim pacem non cogitant, quid non perturbabunt locuturi, aut quid illic facient tacituri? Nam etiamsi clamor non sit, solus susurrus ipse multorum, satis magnum strepitum faciet, quo impediatur illa collatio. Seditio si fiet, Donatistis imputanda. 7. Quid est autem quod in Notoria sua ponendum putarunt, ideo se iuste flagitasse ut omnes adessent, quia omnes conventi sunt ut venirent? quasi possent eligi pauci qui adesse deberent, nisi ab omnibus qui venissent, ut eorum electioni te praesente subscriberent, ac sic in paucis omnes essent, cum ab omnibus pauci electi essent. Aut ergo tumultus ab eis cogitatur, aut pax; quorum illud optamus, illud cavemus: et ideo ne forte, quod absit, hoc praeparetur potius quod cavemus quam quod optamus, consentimus adesse omnes illos, ut tamen a nobis tantus adsit numerus, quantus tuae Spectabilitati sufficere visus est; ut tumultuosum per turbas si quid emerserit, nonnisi eis recte imputetur, in quorum parte praesens fuerit ad rem, quae a paucis agenda est, omnino superflua multitudo. Si autem quod votis omnibus cupimus, quod ardenter appetimus, quod suppliciter a Domino deprecamur, causa unitatis faciendae illa erit necessaria multitudo, cum voluerint, omnes aderimus, et ad tantum bonum, illo adiuvante qui hoc donat, alacriter convolabimus, dicentes. Fratres nostri estis 7, non iam eis qui nos detestantur, sed qui odio finito amplectuntur, ut nomen Domini honorificetur, et appareat illis in iucunditate iam nobiscum experientibus, quam bonum sit et iucundum fratres habitantes in unum 8. (Et alia manu): Optamus te, fili, in Deo bene valere. (Item alia manu): Aurelius episcopus Ecclesiae catholicae Carthaginensis, subscripsi. (Item): Silvanus primae sedis provinciae Numidiae, subscripsi.