Letter LXXXVIII.

(a.d. 406.)

To Januarius,662    Bishop of Casæ Nigræ in Numidia, and at that time the Donatist primate, as the oldest of their bishops.the Catholic Clergy of the District of Hippo663    Hipponensium Regiorum.Send the Following.

1. Your clergy and your Circumcelliones are venting against us their rage in a persecution of a new kind, and of unparalleled atrocity. Were we to render evil for evil, we should be transgressing the law of Christ. But now, when all that has been done, both on your side and on ours, is impartially considered, it is found that we are suffering what is written, “They rewarded me evil for good;”664    Ps. xxxv. 12. and (in another Psalm), “My soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.”665    Ps. cxx. 6, 7. For, seeing that you have arrived at so great age, we suppose you to know perfectly well that the party of Donatus, which at first was called at Carthage the party of Majorinus, did of their own accord accuse Cæcilianus, then bishop of Carthage, before the famous Emperor Constantine. Lest, however, you should have forgotten this, venerable sir, or should pretend not to know, or perhaps (which we scarcely think possible) may never have known it, we insert here a copy of the narrative of Anulinus, then proconsul, to whom the party of Majorinus appealed, requesting that by him as proconsul a statement of the charges which they brought against Cæcilianus should be sent to the Emperor aforesaid:—

2. To Constantine Augustus, from Anulinus, a man of consular rank, proconsul of Africa, these:666    The actual heading of the Report stands thus: “A. GGG. NNN. Anulinus VC. proconsul Africæ.” For the interpretation we are indebted to the marginal note on the Codex Gervasianus.

The welcome and adored celestial writing sent by your Majesty to Cæcilianus, and those over whom he presides, who are called clergy, have been, by the care of your Majesty’s most humble servant, engrossed in his Records; and he has exhorted these parties that, heartily agreeing among themselves, since they are seen to be exempted from all other burdens by your Majesty’s clemency, they should, preserving Catholic unity, devote themselves to their duties with the reverence due to the sanctity of law and to divine things. After a few days, however, there arose some persons to whom a crowd of people joined themselves, who thought that proceedings should be taken against Cæcilianus, and presented to me667    Dicationi meæ. a sealed packet wrapped in leather, and a small document without seal, and earnestly besought me to transmit them to your Majesty’s sacred and venerable court, which your Majesty’s most humble servant668    Parvitas mea. has taken care to do, Cæcilianus continuing meanwhile as he was. The Acts pertaining to the case are subjoined, in order that your Majesty may be able to arrive at a decision concerning the whole matter. The documents sent are two: the one in a leathern envelope, with this title, “A document of the Catholic Church containing charges against Cæcilianus, and furnished by the party of Majorinus;” the other attached without a seal to the same leathern envelope.

Given on the 17th day before the Calends of May, in the third consulship of our lord Constantine Augustus [i.e. April 15, a.d. 313].

3. After this report had been sent to him, the Emperor summoned the parties before a tribunal of bishops to be constituted at Rome. The ecclesiastical records show how the case was there argued and decided, and Cæcilianus pronounced innocent. Surely now, after the peacemaking decision of the tribunal of bishops, all the pertinacity of strife and bitterness should have given way. Your forefathers, however, appealed again to the Emperor, and complained that the decision was not just, and that their case had not been fully heard. Accordingly, he appointed a second tribunal of bishops to meet in Aries, a town of Gaul, where, after sentence had been pronounced against your worthless and diabolical schism, many of your party returned to a good understanding with Cæcilianus; some, however, who were most obstinate and contentious, appealed to the Emperor again. Afterwards, when, yielding to their importunity, he personally interposed in this dispute, which belonged properly to the bishops to decide, having heard the case, he gave sentence against your party, and was the first to pass a law that the properties of your congregations should be confiscated; of all which things we could insert the documentary evidence here, if it were not for making the letter too long. We must, however, by no means omit the investigation and decision in open court of the case of Felix of Aptunga, whom, in the Council of Carthage, under Secundus of Tigisis, primate, your fathers affirmed to be the original cause of all these evils. For the Emperor aforesaid, in a letter of which we annex a copy, bears witness that in this trial your party were before him as accusers and most strenuous prosecutors:—

4. The Emperors Flavius Constantinus, Maximus Cæsar, and Valerius Licinius Cæsar, to Probianus, proconsul of Africa:

Your predecessor Ælianus, who acted as substitute for Verus, the superintendent of the prefects, when that most excellent magistrate was by severe illness laid aside in that part of Africa which is under our sway, considered it, and most justly, to be his duty, amongst other things, to bring again under his investigation and decision the matter of Cæcilianus, or rather the odium which seems to have been stirred up against that bishop of the Catholic Church. Wherefore, having ordered the compearance of Superius, centurion, Cæcilianus, magistrate of Aptunga, and Saturninus, the ex-president of police, and his successor in the office, Calibius the younger, and Solon, an official belonging to Aptunga, he heard the testimony of these witnesses;669    The value of the evidence of these witnesses is apparent when we remember that they were all in a position to speak from personal knowledge of the persecution in A.D. 303 (under Diocletian and Maximian), and had in their public capacity some share in enforcing the demand made in that persecution for the surrender of the sacred books. These could tell whether Felix the Bishop of Aptunga was guilty or not of the unfaithfulness to his religion with which the faction of Majorinus reproached him. the result of which was, that whereas objection had been taken to Cæcilianus on the ground of his ordination to the office of bishop by Felix, against whom it seemed that the charge of surrendering and burning the sacred books had been made, the innocence of Felix in this matter was clearly established. Moreover, when Maximus affirmed that Ingentius, a decurion of the town of Ziqua, had forged a letter of the ex-magistrate Cæcilianus, we found, on examining the Acts which were before us, that this same Ingentius had been put on the rack670    Suspensum. for that offence, and that the infliction of torture on him was not, as alleged, on the ground of his affirming that he was a decurion of Ziqua. Wherefore we desire you to send under a suitable guard to the court of Augustus Constantine the said Ingentius, that in the presence and hearing of those who are now pleading in this case, and who day after day persist in their complaints, it may be made manifest and fully known that they labour in vain to excite odium against the bishop Cæcilianus, and to clamour violently against him. This, we hope, will bring the people to desist, as they should do, from such contentions, and to devote themselves with becoming reverence to their religious duties, undistracted by dissension among themselves.

5. Since you see, therefore, that these things are so, why do you provoke odium against us on the ground of the imperial decrees which are in force against you, when you have yourselves done all this before we followed your example? If emperors ought not to use their authority in such cases, if care of these matters lies beyond the province of Christian emperors, who urged your forefathers to remit the case of Cæcilianus, by the proconsul, to the Emperor, and a second time to bring before the Emperor accusations against a bishop whom you had somehow condemned in absence, and on his acquittal to invent and bring before the same Emperor other calumnies against Felix, by whom the bishop aforesaid had been ordained? And now, what other law is in force against your party than that decision of the elder Constantine, to which your forefathers of their own choice appealed, which they extorted from him by their importunate complaints, and which they preferred to the decision of an episcopal tribunal? If you are dissatisfied with the decrees of emperors, who were the first to compel the emperors to set these in array against you? For you have no more reason for crying out against the Catholic Church because of the decrees of emperors against you, than those men would have had for crying out against Daniel, who, after his deliverance, were thrown in to be devoured by the same lions by which they first sought to have him destroyed; as it is written: “The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion.”671    Prov. xix. 12. These slanderous enemies insisted that Daniel should be thrown into the den of lions: his innocence prevailed over their malice; he was taken from the den unharmed and they, being cast into it, perished. In like manner, your forefathers cast Cæcilianus and his companions to be destroyed by the king’s wrath; and when, by their innocence, they were delivered from this, you yourselves now suffer from these kings what your party wished them to suffer; as it is written: “Whoso diggeth a pit for his neighbour, shall himself fall therein.”672    Ecclus. xxvii. 29, and Prov. xxvi. 27.

6. You have therefore no ground for complaint against us: nay more, the clemency of the Catholic Church would have led us to desist from even enforcing these decrees of the emperors, had not your clergy and Circumcelliones, disturbing our peace, and destroying us by their most monstrous crimes and furious deeds of violence, compelled us to have these decrees revived and put in force again. For before these more recent edicts of which you complain had come into Africa, these desperadoes laid ambush for our bishops on their journeys, abused our clergy with savage blows, and assaulted our laity in the same most cruel manner, and set fire to their habitations. A certain presbyter who had of his own free choice preferred the unity of our Church, was for so doing dragged out of his own house, cruelly beaten without form of law, rolled over and over in a miry pond, covered with a matting of rushes, and exhibited as an object of pity to some and of ridicule to others, while his persecutors gloried in their crime; after which they carried him away where they pleased, and reluctantly set him at liberty after twelve days. When Proculeianus673    Donatist bishop of Hippo. See Letter XXXIII. p. 260. was challenged by our bishop concerning this outrage, at a meeting of the municipal courts, he at first endeavoured to evade inquiry into the matter by pretending that he knew nothing of it; and when the demand was immediately repeated, he publicly declared that he would say nothing more on the subject. And the perpetrators of that outrage are at this day among your presbyters, continuing moreover to keep us in terror, and to persecute us to the utmost of their power.

7. Our bishop, however, did not complain to the emperors of the wrongs and persecution which the Catholic Church in our district suffered in those days. But when a Council had been convened,674    At Carthage, A.D. 403. it was agreed that you should be invited to meet our party peaceably, in order that, if it were possible, you [i.e. the bishops on both sides, for the letter is written by the clergy of Hippo] might have a conference, and the error being taken out of the way, brotherly love might rejoice in the bond of peace between us. You may learn from your own records the answer which Proculeianus made at first on that occasion, that you would call a Council together, and would there see what you ought to answer; and how afterwards, when he was again publicly reminded of his promise, he stated, as the Acts bear witness, that he refused to have any conference with a view to peace. After this, when the notorious atrocities of your clergy and Circumcelliones continued, a case was brought to trial;675    For a more detailed reference to this case, see Letter CV. sec. 4. Crispinus was charged with an attempt to kill Possidius the bishop of Calama. See also Aug. Cont. Crescon. b. iii. c. 46, n. 50, and c. 47, n. 51. and Crispinus being condemned as a heretic, although he was through the forbearance of the Catholics exempted from the fine which the imperial edict imposed on heretics of ten pounds of gold, nevertheless thought himself warranted in appealing to the emperors. As to the answer which was made to that appeal, was it not extorted by the preceding wickedness of your party and by his own appeal? And yet, even after that answer was given, he was permitted to escape the infliction of that fine, through the intercession of our bishops with the Emperor on his behalf. From that Council, however, our bishops sent deputies to the court, who obtained a decree that not all your bishops and clergy should be held liable to this fine of ten pounds of gold, which the decree had imposed on all heretics, but only those in whose districts the Catholic Church suffered violence at the hands of your party. But by the time that the deputation came to Rome, the wounds of the Catholic bishop of Bagæ, who had just then been dreadfully injured, had moved the Emperor to send such edicts as were actually sent. When these edicts came to Africa, seeing especially that strong pressure had begun to be brought upon you, not to any evil thing, but for your good, what should you have done but invited our bishops to meet you, as they had invited yours to meet them, that by a conference the truth might be brought to light?

8. Not only, however, have you failed to do this, but your party go on inflicting yet greater injuries upon us. Not contented with beating us with bludgeons and killing some with the sword, they even, with incredible ingenuity in crime, throw lime mixed with acid [? vitriol] into our people’s eyes to blind them. For pillaging our houses, moreover, they have fashioned huge and formidable implements, armed with which they wander here and there, breathing out threats of slaughter, rapine, burning of houses and blinding of our eyes; by which things we have been constrained in the first instance to complain to you, venerable sir, begging you to consider how, under these so-called terrible laws of Catholic emperors, many, nay all of you, who say that you are the victims of persecution, are settled in peace in the possessions which were your own, or which you have taken from others, while we suffer such unheard-of wrongs at the hands of your party. You say that you are persecuted, while we are killed with clubs and swords by your armed men. You say that you are persecuted, while our houses are pillaged by your armed robbers. You say that you are persecuted, while many of us have our eyesight destroyed by the lime and acid with which your men are armed for the purpose. Moreover, if their course of crime brings some of them to death, they make out that these deaths are justly the occasion of odium against us, and of glory to them. They take no blame to themselves for the harm which they do to us, and they lay upon us the blame of the harm which they bring upon themselves. They live as robbers, they die as Circumcelliones, they are honoured as martyrs! Nay, I do injustice to robbers in this comparison; for we have never heard of robbers destroying the eyesight of those whom they have plundered: they indeed take away those whom they kill from the light, but they do not take away the light from those whom they leave in life.

9. On the other hand, if at any time we get men of your party into our power, we keep them unharmed, showing great love towards them; and we tell them everything by which the error which has severed brother from brother is refuted. We do as the Lord Himself commanded us, in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word; say, Ye are our brethren, to those who hate you, and who cast you out, that the name of the Lord may be glorified, and that He may appear to them with joy; but let them be put to shame.”676    Isa. lxvi. 5, as given by Augustin. And thus some of them we persuade, through their considering the evidences of the truth and the beauty of peace, not to be baptized anew for this sign of allegiance to our king they have already received (though they were as deserters), but to accept that faith, and love of the Holy Spirit, and union to the body of Christ, which formerly they had not. For it is written, “Purifying their hearts by faith;”677    Acts xv. 9. and again, “Charity covereth a multitude of sins.”678    1 Pet. iv. 8. If, however, either through too great obduracy, or through shame making them unable to bear the taunts of those with whom they were accustomed to join so frequently in falsely reproaching us and contriving evil against us, or perhaps more through fear lest they should come to share along with us such injuries as they were formerly wont to inflict on us,—if, I say, from any of these causes, they refuse to be reconciled to the unity of Christ, they are allowed to depart, as they were detained, without suffering any harm. We also exhort our laity as far as we can to detain them without doing them any harm, and bring them to us for admonition and instruction. Some of them obey us and do this, if it is in their power: others deal with them as they would with robbers, because they actually suffer from them such things as robbers are wont to do. Some of them strike their assailants in protecting their own bodies from their blows: while others apprehend them and bring them to the magistrates; and though we intercede on their behalf, they do not let them off, because they are very much afraid of their savage outrages. Yet all the while, these men, though persisting in the practices of robbers, claim to be honoured as martyrs when they receive the due reward of their deeds!

10. Accordingly our desire, which we lay before you, venerable sir, by this letter and by the brethren whom we have sent, is as follows. In the first place, if it be possible, let a peaceable conference be held with our bishops, so that an end may be put to the error itself, not to the men who embrace it, and men corrected rather than punished; and as you formerly despised their proposals for agreement, let them now proceed from your side. How much better for you to have such a conference between your bishops and ours, the proceedings of which may be written down and sent with signature of the parties to the Emperor, than to confer with the civil magistrates, who cannot do otherwise than administer the laws which have been passed against you! For your colleagues who sailed from this country said that they had come to have their case heard by the prefects. They also named our holy father the Catholic bishop Valentinus, who was then at court, saying that they wished to be heard along with him. This the judge could not concede, as he was guided in his judicial functions by the laws which were passed against you: the bishop, moreover, had not come on this footing, or with any such instructions from his colleagues. How much better qualified therefore will the Emperor himself be to decide regarding your case, when the report of that conference has been read before him, seeing that he is not bound by these laws, and has power to enact other laws instead of them; although it may be said to be a case upon which final decision was pronounced long ago! Yet, in wishing this conference with you, we seek not to have a second final decision, but to have it made known as already settled to those who meanwhile are not aware that it is so. If your bishops be willing to do this, what do you thereby lose? Do you not rather gain, inasmuch as your willingness for such conference will become known, and the reproach, hitherto deserved, that you distrust your own cause will be taken away? Do you, perchance, suppose that such conference would be unlawful? Surely you are aware that Christ our Lord spoke even to the devil concerning the law,679    Matt. iv. 4. and that by the Apostle Paul debates were held not only with Jews, but even with heathen philosophers of the sect of the Stoics and of the Epicureans.680    Acts xvii. 18. Is it, perchance, that the laws of the Emperor do not permit you to meet our bishops? If so, assemble together in the meantime your bishops in the region of Hippo, in which we are suffering such wrongs from men of your party. For how much more legitimate and open is the way of access to us for the writings which you might send to us, than for the arms with which they assail us!

11. Finally, we beg you to send back such writings by our brethren whom we have sent to you. If, however, you will not do this, at least hear us as well as those of your own party, at whose hands we suffer such wrongs. Show us the truth for which you allege that you suffer persecution, at the time when we are suffering so great cruelties from your side. For if you convict us of being in error, perhaps you will concede to us an exemption from being rebaptized by you, because we were baptized by persons whom you have not condemned; and you granted this exemption to those whom Felicianus of Musti, and Prætextatus of Assuri, had baptized during the long period in which you were attempting to cast them out of their churches by legal interdicts, because they were in communion with Maximianus, along with whom they were condemned explicitly and by name in the Council of Bagæ. All which things we can prove by the judicial and municipal transactions, in which you brought forward the decisions of this same Council of yours, when you wished to show the judges that the persons whom you were expelling from your ecclesiastical buildings were persons by schism separated from you. Nevertheless, you who have by schism severed yourselves from the seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed,681    Gen. xxii. 18. refuse to be expelled from our ecclesiastical buildings, when the decree to this effect proceeds not from judges such as you employed in dealing with schismatics from your sect, but from the kings of the earth themselves, who worship Christ as the prophecy had foretold, and from whose bar you retired vanquished when you brought accusation against Cæcilianus.

12. If, however, you will neither instruct us nor listen to us, come yourselves, or send into the district of Hippo some of your party, with some of us as their guides, that they may see your army equipped with their weapons; nay, more fully equipped than ever army was before, for no soldier when fighting against barbarians was ever known to add to his other weapons lime and acid to destroy the eyes of his enemies. If you refuse this also, we beg you at least to write to them to desist now from these things, and refrain from murdering, plundering, and blinding our people. We will not say, condemn them; for it is for yourselves to see how no contamination is brought to you by the toleration within your communion of those whom we prove to be robbers, while contamination is brought to us by our having members against whom you have never been able to prove that they were traditors. If, however, you treat all our remonstrances with contempt, we shall never regret that we desired to act in a peaceful and orderly way. The Lord will so plead for His Church, that you, on the other hand, shall regret that you despised our humble attempt at conciliation.

EPISTOLA LXXXVIII . Clerici Hipponenses catholici ad Januariumepiscopum donatistam, expostulantes de Circumcellionum saevitia in Catholicos. Stilus est Augustini, quanquam communi clericorum nomine scripta est epistola.

JANUARIO Clerici catholici regionis Hipponensium-Regiorum.

1. Clerici et Circumcelliones vestri novi generis et inauditae crudelitatis persecutione in nos saeviunt. Qui si malum pro malo redderent, etiam sic contra legem facerent Christi. Nunc vero, consideratis omnibus factis nostris et vestris, invenimur hoc pati quod scriptum est, Retribuebant mihi mala pro bonis (Psal. XXXIV, 12); et in alio psalmo: Cum his qui oderant pacem, eram pacificus; cum loquebar illis, debellabant me gratis (Psal. CXIX, 7). Nam cum sis in tam grandi constitutus aetate, arbitramur te optime nosse quod pars Donati, quae primo apud Carthaginem pars Majorini dicebatur, ultro accusavit Caecilianum, tunc episcopum Ecclesiae Carthaginensis, apud imperatorem illum antiquum Constantinum. Sed ne forte aut oblita hoc sit gravitas tua, aut te nosse dissimules, aut etiam, quod non putamus, forsitan nescias, exemplum relationis tunc Anulini proconsulis, quem pars Majorini tunc interpellavit, ut ea crimina quae objiciebat Caeciliano, ad memoratum imperatorem ab eodem proconsule mitterentur, his nostris litteris inserimus.

A. GGG. NNN . ANULINUS VC , proconsul Africae.

2. Scriptacoelestia Majestatis vestrae accepta atque adorata, Caeciliano et his qui sub eodem agunt, quique 0303clerici appellantur, devotio mea apud Actaparvitatis meae insinuare curavit, eosdemque hortata est ut, unitate consensu omnium facta, cum omni omnino munere indulgentia Majestatis vestrae liberati esse videantur, Catholica custodita, sanctitati legis debita reverentia acdivinis rebus inserviant. Verum post paucos dies exstiterunt quidam adunata secum populi multitudine, qui Caeciliano contradicendum putarent, quique fasciculum in aluta signatum et libellum sine signo obtulerunt dicationi meae, atque impendio postularunt, ut ad sacrum et venerabilem comitatum Numinisvestri dirigerem, quae manente Caeciliano in statu suo, subjectis eorumdem actis, quo cuncta Majestas vestra possit dignoscere, parvitas mea dirigere curavit. Transmisi libellos duos, unum in aluta suprascriptumita: «Libellus Ecclesiae catholicae, criminum Caeciliani, traditus a parte Majorini;» item alium sine sigillo cohaerentem eidem alutae. Datum die decimo septimo calend. maias, Carthagine, Domino nostro Constantino Augusto tertium Cos.

3. Post hanc relationem ad se missam jussit Imperator venire partes ad episcopale judicium in urbe Roma faciendum; ubi quemadmodum causa dicta atque finita sit, et Caecilianus innocens judicatus sit, indicant Gesta ecclesiastica. Jam utique post pacificum moderamen judicii episcopalis, omnis contentiosnis et animositatis pertinacia debebat exstingui. Sed rursus majores vestri ad Imperatorem redierunt, et non recte judicatum, neque omnem causam auditam esse conquesti sunt. Unde ille alterum episcopale judicium dedit habendum in Arelatensi Galliae civitate, ubi multi vestri, vana et diabolica dissensione damnata, cum Caeciliano in concordiam redierunt; alii vero pertinacissimi et litigiosissimi ad eumdem imperatorem appellaverunt. Postea et ipse coactus episcopalem causam inter partes cognitam terminavit, et primus contra vestram partem legem constituit, ut loca congregationum vestrarum fisco vindicarentur: quarum omnium rerum documenta si vellemus inserere, nimium longas litteras faceremus. Illud tamen nullo modo praetermittendum est, quomodo Felicis Aptungensis, quem fontem omnium malorum in concilio Carthaginensi, ab Secundo Tigisitano primate, patres vestri fuisse dixerunt, urgentibus apud Imperatorem vestris, publico judicio causa discussa atque finita sit. Nam memoratus Imperator in hac ipsa causa vestros apud se accusatores et assiduos interpellatores 0304 litteris suis fuisse testatur, quarum exemplum infra scripsimus.

Imperatores Caesares, FLAVIUS CONSTANTINUS MAXIMUS, et VALERIUS LICINIUS, ad PROBIANUM, proconsulem Africae.

4. Aelianus praedecessor tuus, merito, dum vir perfectissimus, Verus, vicarius praefectorum, tunc per Africam nostramincommoda valetudine teneretur, ejusdem partibus functus, inter caetera etiam id negotium vel invidiam, quae de Caeciliano episcopo Ecclesiae catholicae videtur esse commota, ad examen suum atque jussionem credidit esse revocandam. Etenim cum jam Superium centurionem, et Caecilianum magistratum Aptungitanorum, et Saturninum excuratorem , et Calibium juniorem, ejusdem civitatis curatorem, atque Solonem servum publicum suprascriptae civitatis, praesentes esse fecisset, audientiam praebuit competentem: adeo ut, cum Caeciliano fuisset objectum quod a Felice eidem episcopatus videretur esse delatus, cui divinarum Scripturarum proditio atque exustio videretur objecta, innocentem de eo Felicem fuisse constiterit. Denique cum Maximus Ingentium decurionem Ziquentium civitatis, epistolam Caeciliani exduumvirifalsasse contenderet, eumdem ipsum Ingentium suspensum Actis quae suberant, pervidimus, et ideo minime tortum, quod se decurionem Ziquensium civitatis asseveraverit. Unde volumus ut eumdem ipsum Ingentiumsub idonea prosecutione ad comitatum meum Constantini Augusti mittas, ut illis qui in praesentiarum agunt, atque diurnisdiebus interpellare non desinunt, audientibus et coram assistentibus apparere et intimari possit, frustra eos Caeciliano episcopo invidiam comparare, atque adversus eum violenter insurgere voluisse. Ita enim fiet ut omissis, sicut opertet, ejusmodi contentionibus, populus sine 0305dissensione aliqua religioni propriae cum debita veneratione deserviat.

5. Haec cum videas ita se habere, quid est quod nobis de imperatorum jussionibus, quae contra vos constituuntur, invidiam concitatis, cum hoc totum vos potius antea feceritis? Si nihil debent in his causis imperatores jubere, si ad imperatores christianos haec cura pertinere non debet, quis urgebat majores vestros causam Caeciliani ad Imperatorem per proconsulem mittere, et episcopum contra quem absentem jam sententias quoquo modo dixeratis, iterum apud Imperatorem accusare, quo innocente pronuntiato, ordinatori ejus Felici alias apud eumdem imperatorem calumnias machinari? Et nunc quid aliud quam ipsius majoris Constantini judicium contra vestram partem vivit, quod majores vestri elegerunt, quod assiduis interpellationibus extorserunt, quod episcopali judicio praetulerunt? Si displicent imperialia judicia; qui primitus imperatores ad ea vobis excitanda coegerunt? Sic enim modo contra Catholicam clamatis, in his quae contra vos ab imperatoribus decernuntur, quemadmodum si vellent adversus Danielem clamare, qui liberato illo eisdem leonibus consumendi missi sunt, a quibus eum ipsi primitus consumi voluerunt: scriptum est enim, Nihil interest inter minas regis et iram leonis (Prov. XIX, 12). Danielem calumniosi inimici in lacum leonum mitti coegerunt: vicit innocentia ejus illorum malitiam; illaesus inde levatus est; ipsi illuc missi perierunt. Similiter majores vestri Caecilianum et ejus societatem regiae irae consumendam objecerunt, cujus innocentia liberata, ab eisdem regibus eadem vos patimini, quae illos vestri pati voluerunt; quoniam scriptum est: Qui parat proximo foveam, ipse incidet in eam (Eccli. XXVII, 29).

6. De nobis ergo quod queramini non habetis; et tamen Ecclesiae catholicae mansuetudo, etiam ab his imperatorum jussionibus omnino conquieverat, nisi vestri clerici et Circumcelliones, per suas immanissimas improbitates furiosasque violentias quietem nostram perturbantes atque vastantes, haec in vos recoli et renovari coegissent. Nam priusquam recentiores leges istae de quibus modo querimini, venissent in Africam, insidias in itineribus nostris episcopis tetenderunt, conclericos nostros plagis immanissimis quassaverunt, laicis quoque et plagas gravissimas inflixerunt, et intulerunt eorum aedificiis incendia. Presbyterum etiam quemdam quia propria et libera voluntate unitatem nostrae communionis elegit, de domo sua raptum, et pro arbitrio immaniter caesum in gurgite etiam coenoso volutatum, buda vestitum, cum quibusdam dolendum, quibusdam ridendum in pompa sui 0306 facinoris ostentassent, abductum inde quo voluerunt, vix post dies duodecim dimiserunt. Unde conventus municipalibus Gestis a nostro episcopo Proculeianus, cum ab inquirenda causa dissimulasset, et iterum continuo conventus esset, nihil se dicturum amplius Gestis expressit. Et hodie illi qui hoc fecerunt, presbyteri vestri sunt, adhuc nos insuper territantes, et sicut potuerint persequentes.

7. Nec tamen de his injuriis et persecutionibus quas Ecclesia catholica in regione nostra tunc pertulit, imperatoribus conquestus est episcopus noster. Sed facto concilio placuit ut pacifice conveniremini, quo, si fieri posset, haberetis inter vos collationem, et errore sublato, fraterna charitas pacis vinculo laetaretur . Et in ipsa conventione quid Proculeianus primo responderit, quod concilium facturi essetis, et illic visuri quid respondere deberetis; deinde quid postea, cum propter suam promissionem denuo conventus esset, Actis expresserit, recusans pacificam collationem, ipsa Gesta instruant Gravitatem tuam. Deinde cum vestrorum clericorum et circumcellionum notissima omnibus non cessaret immanitas, dicta causa est, cum Crispinus judicatus haereticus, nec poena decem librarum auri quae in haereticos ab imperatoribus fuerat constituta, per mansuetudinem catholicam feriri permissus est, et tamen ad imperatores appellandum putavit . Cujus appellationi quod ita responsum est, nonne vestrorum praecedens improbitas, et eadem ipsius appellatio extorsit ut fieret? nec tamen etiam post ipsum rescriptum, intercedentibus apud Imperatorem nostris episcopis, eadem auri condemnatione multatus est. Ex concilio autem nostri episcopi legatos ad comitatum miserunt, qui impetrarent ut non omnes episcopi et clerici partis vestrae, ad eamdem condemnationem decem librarum auri, quae in omnes haereticos constituta est, tenerentur; sed hi soli in quorum locis aliquas a vestris violentias Ecclesia catholica pateretur . Sed cum legati Romam venerunt, jam cicatrices episcopi catholici Bagaitani horrendae ac recentissimae Imperatorem commoverant, ut leges tales mitterentur, quales et missae sunt. Quibus in Africam venientibus, cum utique non ad malum, sed ad bonum coepissetis urgeri, quid facere debebatis nisi et vos mittere ad episcopos nostros, ut quomodo vos ipsi convenerant, sic convenirentur a vobis, et potius collatione veritas appareret?

0307 8. Non solum autem non fecistis, sed pejora mala nobis vestri nunc faciunt. Non tantum nos fustibus quassant ferroque concidunt; verum etiam in oculos exstinguendos calcem mixto aceto incredibili excogitatione sceleris mittunt. Domus insuper nostras compilantes, arma sibi ingentia et terribilia fabricarunt, quibus armati per diversa discurrunt, comminantes atque anhelantes caedes, rapinas, incendia, caecitates. Quibus rebus compulsi sumus tibi primitus conqueri, ut consideret Gravitas vestra quam multi vestrum, imo vos omnes, qui vos pati dicitis persecutionem, sub ipsis quasi terribilibus imperatorum catholicorum legibus in possessionibus vestris et alienis securi sedeatis, et nos a vestris tam inaudita mala patiamur. Vos dicitis pati persecutionem; et nos ab armatis vestris fustibus et ferro concidimur. Vos dicitis pati persecutionem; et nostrae domus ab armatis vestris compilando vastantur. Vos dicitis pati persecutionem; et nostri oculi ab armatis vestris calce et aceto exstinguuntur. Insuper etiam si quas mortes sibi ultro ingerunt, nobis volunt esse invidiosas, vobis gloriosas. Quod nobis faciunt, sibi non imputant; et quod sibi faciunt, nobis imputant. Vivunt ut latrones, moriuntur ut circumcelliones, honorantur ut martyres; et tamen nec latrones aliquando audivimus eos quos depraedati sunt, excaecasse. Occisos auferunt luci, non vivis auferunt lucem.

9. Nos interim si quando vestros tenemus, cum magna dilectione servamus illaesos, loquimur illis, et legimus omnia, quibus error ipse convincitur, qui fratres a fratribus separat; facimus quod Dominus per Isaiam prophetam praecepit, dicens: Audite qui pavetis verbum Domini; dicite, Fratres nostri estis, his qui vos oderunt et qui vos exsecrantur, ut nomen Domini honorificetur, et appareat illis in jucunditate; ipsi autem erubescant (Isai. LXVI, 5). Ac sic aliquos eorum considerantes evidentiam veritatis, et pulchritudinem pacis, non Baptismo quem jam sicut regalem characterem tanquam desertores acceperant, sed fidei quae illis defuit, et Spiritus sancti charitati et Christi corpori sociamus. Scriptum est enim, Fide mundans corda eorum (Act. XV, 9); itemque scriptum est, Charitas cooperit multitudinem peccatorum (I Petr. IV, 8). Si autem vel nimia duritia, vel pudore non ferentes eorum insultationem, cum quibus contra nos tam multa falsa jactabant et tam multa mala excogitabant, vel magis timore, ne qualia nobis antea faciebant, talia nobiscum jam patiantur, unitati Christi consentire noluerint, sicut illaesi retenti sunt, sic a nobis dimittuntur illaesi: hoc quantum possumus monemus etiam laicos nostros, ut eos illaesos teneant, et nobis corripiendos instruendosque perducant. Sed aliqui nos audiunt, et si possunt faciunt: alii cum illis quemadmodum cum latronibus agunt, quia eos revera tales patiuntur. Aliqui ictus eorum suis corporibus imminentes feriendo repellunt, ne ab eis ante feriantur: aliqui apprehensos judicibus offerunt, nec nobis intercedentibus eis parcunt, 0308 dum ab eis pati mala immania pertimescunt. In quibus omnibus illi non deponunt facta latronum, et honorem sibi exigunt martyrum.

10. Hoc est ergo desiderium nostrum, quod tuae Gravitati per has litteras, et per fratres, quos misimus, allegamus. Primum si fieri potest, ut cum episcopis nostris pacifice conferatis, ut in quibus fuerit inventus, non homines, sed error ipse tollatur; ut homines non puniantur, sed corrigantur; ut vos modo conveniatis, quia eorum conventionem antea contempsistis. Quanto melius enim hoc inter vos facitis, ut quod egeritis conscriptum et subscriptum Imperatori mittatis, quam ut hoc apud terrenas potestates fiat, quae non possunt nisi jam datis contra vos legibus inservire ? Vestri enim collegae qui navigaverant, apud praefectos dixerunt se audiri venisse. Et nominaverunt sanctum patrem nostrum catholicum episcopum Valentinum, qui tunc in comitatu erat, dicentes cum illo se velle audiri: quod eis non poterat judex concedere, qui jam secundum leges, quae contra vos constitutae sunt, judicabat; nec ille episcopus ita venerat, aut aliquod tale mandatum a suis episcopis acceperat. Quanto ergo melius ipse imperator, qui non est eisdem legibus subditus, et qui habet in potestate alias leges ferre, cum ei collatio vestra fuerit recitata, de tota ipsa causa poterit judicare, quamvis jam olim dicta fuerit terminata? Sed ideo vos conferre volumus, non ut causa iterum finiatur; sed ut eis qui nesciunt jam finita monstretur. Quod si hoc facere vestri episcopi voluerint, quid inde perditis, et non potius acquiritis, quia voluntas vestra innotescit, ne diffidentia merito reprehendatur? An forte putatis non licere fieri, cum non vos lateat quod Dominus Christus etiam cum diabolo de Lege locutus est (Matth. IV, 4); quod cum Paulo apostolo non solum Judaei, sed etiam de haeresi Stoicorum et Epicureorum philosophi Gentium contulerunt (Act. XVII, 18)? an forte istae leges Imperatoris, vos non permittunt nostros episcopos convenire? Ecce interim episcopos vestros qui sunt in regione Hipponensi, ubi a vestris tanta mala patimur, convenite. Quanto enim licentius et liberius ad nos, per vestros vestra scripta, quam eorum arma perveniunt?

11. Postremo per istos ipsos fratres nostros, quos ad vos misimus, talia rescribite. Si autem et hoc non vultis, saltem cum vestris a quibus talia patimur nos audite. Ostendite nobis veritatem, pro qua vos pati dicitis persecutionem, cum patiamur nos vestrorum tantam crudelitatem. Si enim nos esse in errore conviceritis, forte concedetis nobis ut non rebaptizemur a vobis, justum existimantes ut nobis hoc praestetis, qui baptizati sumus ab eis quos nullo judicio damnastis, 0309 quod praestitistis eis quos Felicianus Mustitanus et Praetextatus Assuritanus per tam longum tempus baptizaverant, quando eos per judicum jussa de basilicis pellere conabamini, quia Maximiano communicabant, cum quo a vobis in concilio Bagaitano expresse nominatimque damnati sunt. Quae omnia Gestis judicialibus et municipalibus demonstramus, ubi et ipsum concilium vestrum allegastis, dum vultis judicibus ostendere quod schismaticos vestros de basilicis pelleretis. Et tamen qui ab ipso semine Abrahae, in quo omnes gentes benedicuntur (Gen. XXII, 18), schisma fecistis, de basilicis pelli non vultis, non per judices, sicut schismaticis vestris vos fecistis, sed per ipsos reges terrae, qui completa prophetia Christum adorant, apud quos Caecilianum accusantes victi recessistis.

12. Si autem nec audire nec docere nos vultis, venite aut mittite nobiscum in regionem Hipponensium, qui videant armatum exercitum vestrum; quamvis nullus miles numero armorum suorum calcem et acetum addidit ad oculos barbarorum. Si neque hoc vultis, saltem scribite ad illos, ut jam ista non faciant, ut jam se a caedibus nostris, a rapinis, ab excaecatione compescant. Nolumus dicere: Damnate illos. Vos enim videritis quomodo vos non inquinent, quos modo ostendimus in vestra communione latrones, et nos inquinent quos nunquam potuistis ostendere traditores. Ex his omnibus eligite quod volueritis. Si autem querelas nostras contempseritis, nos minime poenitebit ordine pacifico agere voluisse. Aderit Dominus Ecclesiae suae, ut vos potius humilitatem nostram contempsisse poeniteat.