Letter CLXXIII.

(a.d. 416.)

To Donatus, a Presbyter of the Donatist Party, Augustin, a Bishop of the Catholic Church, Sends Greeting.

1. If you could see the sorrow of my heart and my concern for your salvation, you would perhaps take pity on your own soul, doing that which is pleasing to God, by giving heed to the word which is not ours but His; and would no longer give to His Scripture only a place in your memory, while shutting it out from your heart. You are angry because you are being drawn to salvation, although you have drawn so many of our fellow Christians to destruction. For what did we order beyond this, that you should be arrested, brought before the authorities, and guarded, in order to prevent you from perishing? As to your having sustained bodily injury, you have yourself to blame for this, as you would not use the horse which was immediately brought to you, and then dashed yourself violently to the ground; for, as you well know, your companion, who was brought along with you, arrived uninjured, not having done any harm to himself as you did.

2. You think, however, that even what we have done to you should not have been done, because, in your opinion, no man should be compelled to that which is good. Mark, therefore, the words of the apostle: “If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work,” and yet, in order to make the office of a bishop be accepted by many men, they are seized against their will,1376    An example is furnished in the case of Castorius, Letter LXIX.; Letters, p. 326. subjected to importunate persuasion, shut up and detained in custody, and made to suffer so many things which they dislike, until a willingness to undertake the good work is found in them. How much more, then, is it fitting that you should be drawn forcibly away from a pernicious error, in which you are enemies to your own souls, and brought to acquaint yourselves with the truth, or to choose it when known, not only in order to your holding in a safe and advantageous way the honour belonging to your office, but also in order to preserve you from perishing miserably! You say that God has given us free will, and that therefore no man should be compelled even to good. Why, then, are those whom I have above referred to compelled to that which is good? Take heed, therefore, to something which you do not wish to consider. The aim towards which a good will compassionately devotes its efforts is to secure that a bad will be rightly directed. For who does not know that a man is not condemned on any other ground than because his bad will deserved it, and that no man is saved who has not a good will? Nevertheless, it does not follow from this that those who are loved should be cruelly left to yield themselves with impunity to their bad will; but in so far as power is given, they ought to be both prevented from evil and compelled to good.

3. For if a bad will ought to be always left to its own freedom, why were the disobedient and murmuring Israelites restrained from evil by such severe chastisements, and compelled to come into the land of promise? If a bad will ought always to be left to its own freedom, why was Paul not left to the free use of that most perverted will with which he persecuted the Church? Why was he thrown to the ground that he might be blinded, and struck blind that he might be changed, and changed that he might be sent as an apostle, and sent that he might suffer for the truth’s sake such wrongs as he had inflicted on others when he was in error? If a bad will ought always to be left to its own freedom, why is a father instructed in Holy Scripture not only to correct an obstinate son by words of rebuke, but also to beat his sides, in order that, being compelled and subdued, he may be guided to good conduct?1377    Eccles. xxx. 12. For which reason Solomon also says: “Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.”1378    Prov. xxiii. 14. If a bad will ought always to be left to its own freedom, why are negligent pastors reproved? and why is it said to them, “Ye have not brought back the wandering sheep, ye have not sought the perishing”?1379    Ezek. xxxiv. 4. You also are sheep belonging to Christ, you bear the Lord’s mark in the sacrament which you have received, but you are wandering and perishing. Let us not, therefore, incur your displeasure because we bring back the wandering and seek the perishing; for it is better for us to obey the will of the Lord, who charges us to compel you to return to His fold, than to yield consent to the will of the wandering sheep, so as to leave you to perish. Say not, therefore, what I hear that you are constantly saying, “I wish thus to wander; I wish thus to perish;” for it is better that we should so far as is in our power absolutely refuse to allow you to wander and perish.

4. When you threw yourself the other day into a well, in order to bring death upon yourself, you did so no doubt with your free will. But how cruel the servants of God would have been if they had left you to the fruits of this bad will, and had not delivered you from that death! Who would not have justly blamed them? Who would not have justly denounced them as inhuman? And yet you, with your own free will, threw yourself into the water that you might be drowned. They took you against your will out of the water, that you might not be drowned. You acted according to your own will, but with a view to your destruction; they dealt with you against your will, but in order to your preservation. If, therefore, mere bodily safety behoves to be so guarded that it is the duty of those who love their neighhour to preserve him even against his own will from harm, how much more is this duty binding in regard to that spiritual health in the loss of which the consequence to be dreaded is eternal death! At the same time let me remark, that in that death which you wished to bring upon yourself you would have died not for time only but for eternity, because even though force had been used to compel you—not to accept salvation, not to enter into the peace of the Church, the unity of Christ’s body, the holy indivisible charity, but—to suffer some evil things, it would not have been lawful for you to take away your own life.

5. Consider the divine Scriptures, and examine them to the utmost of your ability, and see whether this was ever done by any one of the just and faithful, though subjected to the most grievous evils by persons who were endeavouring to drive them, not to eternal life, to which you are being compelled by us, but to eternal death. I have heard that you say that the Apostle Paul intimated the lawfulness of suicide, when he said, “Though I give my body to be burned,”1380    1 Cor. xiii. 3. supposing that because he was there enumerating all the good things which are of no avail without charity, such as the tongues of men and of angels, and all mysteries, and all knowledge, and all prophecy, and the distribution of one’s goods to the poor, he intended to include among these good things the act of bringing death upon one-self. But observe carefully and learn in what sense Scripture says that any man may give his body to be burned. Certainly not that any man may throw himself into the fire when he is harassed by a pursuing enemy, but that, when he is compelled to choose between doing wrong and suffering wrong, he should refuse to do wrong rather than to suffer wrong, and so give his body into the power of the executioner, as those three men did who were being compelled to worship the golden image, while he who was compelling them threatened them with the burning fiery furnace if they did not obey. They refused to worship the image: they did not cast themselves into the fire, and yet of them it is written that they “yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God.”1381    Dan. iii. 28. This is the sense in which the apostle said, “If I give my body to be burned.”

6. Mark also what follows:—“If I have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” To that charity you are called; by that charity you are prevented from perishing: and yet you think, forsooth, that to throw yourself headlong to destruction, by your own act, will profit you in some measure, although, even if you suffered death at the hands of another, while you remain an enemy to charity it would profit you nothing. Nay, more, being in a state of exclusion from the Church, and severed from the body of unity and the bond of charity, you would be punished with eternal misery even though you were burned alive for Christ’s name; for this is the apostle’s declaration, “Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” Bring your mind back, therefore, to rational reflection and sober thought; consider carefully whether it is to error and to impiety that you are being called, and, if you still think so, submit patiently to any hardship for the truth’s sake. If, however, the fact rather be that you are living in error and in impiety, and that in the Church to which you are called truth and piety are found, because there is Christian unity and the love (charitas) of the Holy Spirit, why do you labour any longer to be an enemy to yourself?

7. For this end the mercy of the Lord appointed that both we and your bishops met at Carthage in a conference which had repeated meetings, and was largely attended, and reasoned together in the most orderly manner in regard to the grounds of our separation from each other. The proceedings of that conference were written down; our signatures are attached to the record: read it, or allow others to read it to you, and then choose which party you prefer. I have heard that you have said that you could to some extent discuss the statements in that record with us if we would omit these words of your bishops: “No case forecloses the investigation of another case, and no person compromises the position of another person.” You wish us to leave out these words, in which, although they knew it not, the truth itself spoke by them. You will say, indeed, that here they made a mistake, and fell through want of consideration into a false opinion. But we affirm that here they said what was true, and we prove this very easily by a reference to yourself. For if in regard to these bishops of your own, chosen by the whole party of Donatus on the understanding that they should act as representatives, and that all the rest should regard whatever they did as acceptable and satisfactory, you nevertheless refuse to allow them to compromise your position by what you think to have been a rash and mistaken utterance on their part, in this refusal you confirm the truth of their saying: “No case forecloses the investigation of another case, and no person compromises the position of another person.” And at the same time you ought to acknowledge, that if you refuse to allow the conjoint authority of so many of your bishops represented in these seven to compromise Donatus, presbyter in Mutugenna, it is incomparably less reasonable that one person, Cæcilianus, even had some evil been found in him, should compromise the position of the whole unity of Christ, the Church, which is not shut up within the one village of Mutugenna, but spread abroad throughout the entire world.

8. But, behold, we do what you have desired; we treat with you as if your bishops had not said: “No case forecloses the investigation of another case, and no person compromises the position of another person.” Discover, if you can, what they ought, rather than this, to have said in reply, when there was alleged against them the case and the person of Primianus,1382    Primianus, Donatist bishop in Carthage, was in 393 deposed by a factious clique of bishops, who appointed Maximianus in his place. The other Donatist bishops, however, assembled in the following year at Bagai in Numidia, and, reversing the decision of their co-bishops deposed them in turn, and passed a sentence to which, as stated in the text, they did not inexorably adhere. The matter is referred to in Letter XLIII. p. 276. who, notwithstanding his joining the rest of the bishops in passing sentence of condemnation on those who had passed sentence of condemnation upon him, nevertheless received back into their former honours those whom he had condemned and denounced, and chose to acknowledge and accept rather than despise and repudiate the baptism administered by these men while they were “dead” (for of them it was said in the notable decree [of the Council of Bagai], that “the shores were full of dead men”), and by so doing swept away the argument which you are accustomed to rest on a perverse interpretation of the words: “Qui baptizatur a mortuo quid ei prodest lavacrum ejus?”1383    Ecclus. xxxiv. 25, translated, accurately enough, in our English version: “He that washeth himself after touching a dead body, if he touch it again, what availeth his washing?” The Donatist, in quoting the passage to support their practice of re-baptizing Catholics, omitted the clause, “et iterum tangit mortuum,” and translated the sentence thus: “He that is baptized by one who is dead, what availeth his baptism?” It would be difficult to quote from the annals of controversy a more flagrant example of ignorant ingenuity in the wresting of words to serve a purpose. If, therefore, your bishops had not said: “No case forecloses the investigation of another case, and no person compromises the position of another person,” they would have been compelled to plead guilty in the case of Primianus; but, in saying this, they declared the Catholic Church to be, as we mentioned, not guilty in the case of Cæcilianus.

9. However, read all the rest and examine it well. Mark whether they have succeeded in proving any charge of evil brought against Cæcilianus himself, through whose person they attempted to compromise the position of the Church. Mark whether they have not rather brought forward much that was in his favour, and confirmed the evidence that his case was a good one, by a number of extracts which, to the prejudice of their own case, they produced and read. Read these or let them be read to you. Consider the whole matter, ponder it carefully, and choose which you should follow: whether you should, in the peace of Christ, in the unity of the Catholic Church, in the love of the brethren, be partaker of our joy, or, in the cause of wicked discord, the Donatist faction and impious schism, continue to suffer the annoyance caused to you by the measures which out of love to you we are compelled to take.

10. I hear that you have remarked and often quote the fact recorded in the gospels, that the seventy disciples went back from the Lord, and that they had been left to their own choice in this wicked and impious desertion, and that to the twelve who alone remained the Lord said, “Will ye also go away?”1384    John vi. 67. But you have neglected to remark, that at that time the Church was only beginning to burst into life from the recently planted seed, and that there was not yet fulfilled in her the prophecy: “All kings shall fall down before Him; yea, all nations shall serve Him;”1385    Ps. lxxii. 11. and it is in proportion to the more enlarged accomplishment of this prophecy that the Church wields greater power, so that she may not only invite, but even compel men to embrace what is good. This our Lord intended then to illustrate, for although He had great power, He chose rather to manifest His humility. This also He taught, with sufficient plainness, in the parable of the Feast, in which the master of the house, after He had sent a message to the invited guests, and they had refused to come, said to his servants: “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”1386    Luke xiv. 21–23. Mark, now, how it was said in regard to those who came first, “bring them in;” it was not said, “compel them to come in,”—by which was signified the incipient condition of the Church, when it was only growing towards the position in which it would have strength to compel men to come in. Accordingly, because it was right that when the Church had been strengthened, both in power and in extent, men should be compelled to come in to the feast of everlasting salvation, it was afterwards added in the parable, “The servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said unto the servants, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in.” Wherefore, if you were walking peaceably, absent from this feast of everlasting salvation and of the holy unity of the Church, we should find you, as it were, in the “highways;” but since, by multiplied injuries and cruelties, which you perpetrate on our people, you are, as it were, full of thorns and roughness, we find you as it were in the “hedges,” and we compel you to come in. The sheep which is compelled is driven whither it would not wish to go, but after it has entered, it feeds of its own accord in the pastures to which it was brought. Wherefore restrain your perverse and rebellious spirit, that in the true Church of Christ you may find the feast of salvation.

EPISTOLA CLXXIII . Augustinus Donato, villae Mutugennae in dioecesi Hipponensi presbytero donatistae, qui jussus comprehendi et adduci ad ecclesiam, conatus est sibi vim inferre, suadet ut re sobrie perpensa resipiscat, docens pravam voluntatem recte cogi ad meliora.

Donato presbytero partis Donati, AUGUSTINUS episcopus Ecclesiae catholicae.

1. Si posses videre dolorem cordis mei, et sollicitudinem pro salute tua, fortassis miserereris animae tuae, placens Deo (Eccli. XXX, 24) in audiendo verbo, non nostro, sed ipsius; nec ejus Scripturas sic in memoria tua figeres, ut contra eas cor clauderes. Displicet tibi quia traheris ad salutem, cum tam multos nostros 0754 ad perniciem traxeritis . Quid enim voluimus, nisi te comprehendi, et praesentari, et servari ne pereas? Quod autem in corpore laesus es, ipse tibi fecisisti, qui jumento tibi mox admoto uti noluisti, et te ad terram graviter collisisti: nam utique alius qui adductus est tecum, collega tuus illaesus venit, qui talia sibi ipse non fecit.

2. Sed neque hoc putas tibi fieri debuisse, quia neminem existimas cogendum esse ad bonum. Attende quid Apostolus dixerit, Qui episcopatum desiderat, bonum opus concupiscit (I Tim. III, 1); et tamen tam multi ut episcopatum suscipiant tenentur inviti, perducuntur, includuntur, custodiuntur, patiuntur tanta quae nolunt, donec eis adsit voluntas suscipiendi operis boni: quanto magis vos ab errore pernicioso, in quo vobis inimici estis, trahendi estis, et deducendi ad veritatem vel cognoscendam vel eligendam, non solum ut honorem salubriter habeatis, sed etiam ne pessime pereatis! Dicis Deum dedisse liberum arbitrium; ideo non debere cogi hominem nec ad bonum. Quare ergo illi de quibus supra dixi, coguntur ad bonum? Attende ergo quod considerare non vis. Ideo voluntas bona misericorditer impenditur, ut mala voluntas hominis dirigatur. Nam quis nesciat nec damnari hominem, nisi merito malae voluntatis, nec liberari nisi bonam habuerit voluntatem? Non tamen ideo qui diliguntur, malae suae voluntati impune et crudeliter permittendi sunt; sed ubi potestas datur, et a malo prohibendi, et ad bonum cogendi.

3. Nam si voluntas mala semper suae permittenda est libertati; quare Israelitae recusantes et murmurantes tam duris flagellis a malo prohibebantur, et ad terram promissionis compellebantur? Si voluntas mala semper suae permittenda est libertati; quare Paulus non est permissus uti pessima voluntate qua persequebatur Ecclesiam, sed prostratus est ut excaecaretur, et excaecatus est ut mutaretur, mutatus ut mitteretur, missus ut qualia fecerat in errore, talia pro veritate pateretur? Si voluntas mala semper suae permittenda est libertati; quare monetur pater in Scripturis sanctis, filium durum non solum verbis corripere, sed etiam latera ejus tundere, ut ad bonam disciplinam coactus et domitus dirigatur (Eccli. XXX, 12)? Unde idem dicit: Tu quidem percutis eum virga; animam autem ejus liberas a morte (Prov. XXIII, 14). Si mala voluntas semper suae permittenda est libertati; quare corripiuntur negligentes pastores, et dicitur eis: Errantem ovem non revocastis, perditam non requisistis (Ezech. XXXIV, 4)? Et vos oves Christi estis, characterem dominicum portatis in Sacramento quod accepistis; sed erratis et peritis. Non ideo vobis displiceamus, quia revocamus errantes, et quaerimus perditos. Melius enim facimus voluntatem Domini monentis ut vos ad ejus ovile redire cogamus, quam consentimus voluntati ovium errantium, ut perire vos permittamus. Noli ergo jam dicere quod te assidue audio dicere: Sic volo errare, sic volo perire. Melius 0755 enim nos hoc omnino non permittimus, quantum possumus.

4. Modo quod te in puteum, ut morereris, misisti, utique libera voluntate fecisti. Sed quam crudeles essent servi Dei, si huic malae tuae voluntati te permitterent, et non te de illa morte liberarent! quis eos non merito culparet? quis non impios recte judicaret? Et tamen tu te volens in aquam misisti ut morereris; illi te nolentem de aqua levaverunt, ne morereris: tu fecisti secundum voluntatem tuam, sed in perniciem tuam; illi contra voluntatem tuam, sed propter salutem tuam. Si ergo salus ista corporalis sic custodienda est, ut etiam in nolentibus, ab eis qui eos diligunt, servetur; quanto magis illa spiritualis, in cujus desertione mors aeterna metuitur! Quanquam in ista morte quam tibi tu ipse inferre voluisti, non solum ad tempus, sed etiam in aeternum morereris; quia etsi non ad salutem, non ad Ecclesiae pacem, non ad Christi corporis unitatem, non ad sanctam et individuam charitatem, sed ad mala aliqua cogereris, nec sic tibi ipse mortem inferre debuisti.

5. Considera Scripturas divinas, et discute quantum potes, et vide utrum hoc fecerit aliquis aliquando justorum atque fidelium, cum ab eis tanta mala perpessi sint, qui eos ad aeternum interitum, non ad vitam aeternam, quo tu compelleris, adigebant. Audivi quod dixeris apostolum Paulum significasse hoc fieri debere, ubi ait, Etsi tradidero corpus meum ut ardeam (I Cor. XIII, 3); quia videlicet omnia bona dicebat, quae sine charitate nihil prosunt, sicut sunt linguae hominum et Angelorum, et omnia sacramenta, et omnis scientia, et omnis prophetia, et omnis fides ita ut montes transferantur, et rerum suarum distributio pauperibus ; ideo videtur tibi etiam hoc inter bona numerasse, ut sibi quisque inferat mortem. Sed attende diligenter et agnosce quemadmodum dicat Scriptura, quod tradat quisque suum corpus ut ardeat. Non utique ut ipse se in ignem mittat, quando persequentem patitur inimicum; sed quando ei proponitur ut aut mali aliquid faciat, aut mali aliquid patiatur, eligat non facere mala quam non pati mala: atque ita corpus suum tradat in potestatem interfectoris, sicut tres illi viri fecerunt qui auream statuam cogebantur adorare, et nisi facerent, minabatur eis ille qui cogebat, caminum ignis ardentem. Idolum adorare noluerunt; non ipsi se in ignem miserunt: et tamen etiam de illis sic scriptum est, quod tradiderunt corpora sua, ut neque servirent, neque adorarent ullum deum, sed Deum suum (Dan. III, 14-95). Ecce quomodo dixit Apostolus, Si tradidero corpus meum ut ardeam.

6. Quod autem sequitur, vide: Si charitatem non habeam, nihil mihi prodest. Ad istam charitatem vocaris, ab ista charitate perire non sineris; et putas tibi aliquid prodesse, si te ipse praecipites in interitum, cum tibi nihil prodesset, etiamsi alter te occideret charitatis inimicum! Foris autem ab Ecclesia constitutus, 0756 et separatus a compage unitatis et vinculo charitatis, aeterno supplicio punireris, etiamsi pro Christi nomine vivus incendereris: hoc est enim quod ait Apostolus, Etsi tradidero corpus meum ut ardeam, charitatem autem non habeam, nihil mihi prodest. Revoca ergo animum ad sanam considerationem, et sobriam cogitationem; attende diligenter utrum ad errorem et impietatem voceris, et patere pro veritate quaslibet molestias. Si autem tu potius in errore atque in impietate versaris, quo autem vocaris ibi est veritas et pietas, quia ibi est christiana unitas et sancti Spiritus charitas; quid adhuc tibi esse conaris inimicus?

7. Ideo praestitit misericordia Dei ut et nos et episcopi vestri tam frequenti numeroso que conventu Carthaginem veniremus, atque inter nos de ipsa dissensione ordinatissime conferremus. Gesta conscripta sunt, nostrae etiam subscriptiones tenentur; lege, vel patere ut tibi legantur, et tunc elige quod volueris. Audivi quod dixeris posse te nobiscum de ipsis Gestis aliquid agere, si omittamus verba episcoporum vestrorum, ubi dixerunt, Nec causa causae, nec persona personae praejudicat. Haec verba vis omittamus, ubi per eos nescientes veritas ipsa locuta est. Sed tu dicturus es hic eos errasse, et in falsam sententiam incautius cecidisse. Nos autem dicimus hoc eos verum dixisse, et hoc per teipsum facillime probamus. Si enim episcopi vestri electi ab universa parte Donati, qui causam omnium sustinerent, et si quid egissent gratum et acceptum caeteri haberent, tamen in eo quod illos temere et non recte dixisse arbitraris, non vis ut tibi praejudicent; verum ergo dixerunt, quia nec causa causae, nec persona personae praejudicat. Et ibi debes agnoscere, quia si persona tot episcoporum tuorum in illis septem constitutorum non vis ut praejudicet personae Donati Mutugennensis presbyteri, quanto minus non debet praejudicare Caeciliani persona, etiamsi mali aliquid in illo esset inventum, universae unitati Christi, quae non in una villa Mutugenna concluditur, sed toto terrarum orbe diffunditur?

8. Sed ecce facimus quod voluisti; sic tecum agimus, ac si non dixerint vestri, Nec causa causae, nec persona personae praejudicat. Tu inveni quid illi dicere debuerint, cum eis objecta esset causa et persona Primiani, qui damnatores suos et damnavit cum caeteris, et damnatos ac detestatos in suos rursus honores suscepit, et baptismum quem mortui dederant (quia de ipsis in illa praeclara sententia dictum erat quod mortuorum funeribus plena sint littora [In Bagaitano concilio]), agnoscere potius et acceptare, quam exsufflare et rescindere maluit, totumque dissolvit quod male intelligentes dicere soletis, Qui baptizatur a mortuo , quid ei prodest lavacrum ejus (Eccli. XXXIV, 30)? Si ergo non dicerent, Nec causa causae, nec persona personae praejudicat, rei tenerentur in causa Primiani: cum autem hoc dixerunt, immunem fecerunt Ecclesiam catholicam, sicut nos asserebamus, a causa Caeciliani.

0757 9. Sed caetera lege, caetera discute. Vide utrum in ipsum Caecilianum, de cujus persona praejudicare conabantur Ecclesiae, aliquid mali probare potuerint. Vide utrum non potius etiam pro illo multa egerint, et pluribus lectionibus, quas contra se protulerunt et recitaverunt, causam ejus bonam omnino firmaverint. Lege ista, vel legantur tibi. Considera omnia, retracta diligenter, et elige quid sequaris: utrum nobiscum in Christi pace, in Ecclesiae catholicae unitate, in fraterna charitate gaudere; an pro nefaria dissensione, pro Donati parte, pro sacrilega divisione, importunitatem nostrae circa te dilectionis diutius sustinere.

10. Attendis enim et saepe repetis, sicut audio, quod in Evangelio scriptum est recessisse a Domino septuaginta discipulos, et arbitrio suae malae atque impiae discessionis fuisse permissos, caeterisque duodecim qui remanserant, fuisse responsum, Numquid et vos vultis ire (Joan. VI, 68)? Et non attendis quia tunc primum Ecclesia novello germine pullulabat, nondumque in ea fuerat completa illa prophetia, Et adorabunt eum omnes reges terrae; omnes gentes servient illi (Psal. LXXI, 11): quod utique quanto magis impletur, tanto majore utitur Ecclesia potestate, ut non solum invitet, sed etiam cogat ad bonum. Hoc tunc Dominus significare volebat, qui quamvis haberet magnam potestatem, prius tamen elegit commendare humilitatem. Hoc et in illa convivii similitudine satis evidenter ostendit, ubi misit ad invitatos, et venire noluerunt, et ait servo: Exi in plateas et vicos civitatis, et pauperes, et debiles, et caecos, et claudos introduc huc. Et ait servus domino, Factum est ut imperasti, et adhuc locus est. Et ait dominus servo, Exi in vias et sepes, et compelle intrare, ut impleatur domus mea (Luc. XIV, 21-23). Vide nunc quemadmodum de his qui prius venerunt, dictum est, Introduc huc; non dictum est, compelle: ita significata sunt Ecclesiae primordia ad hoc crescentis, ut essent vires etiam compellendi. Proinde, quia oportebat ejus jam viribus et magnitudine roborata etiam compelli homines ad convivium salutis aeternae, posteaquam dictum est, Factum est quod jussisti, et adhuc est locus; Exi, inquit, in vias et sepes, et compelle intrare. Quapropter si ambularetis quieti extra hoc convivium salutis aeternae et sanctae unitatis Ecclesiae, tanquam in viis vos inveniremus; nunc vero quia per multa mala et saeva quae in nostros committitis, tanquam spinis et asperitate pleni estis, vos tanquam in sepibus invenimus, et intrare compellimus. Qui compellitur, quo non vult cogitur; sed cum intraverit, jam volens pascitur. Cohibe itaque tam iniquum et impacatum animum, ut in vera Ecclesia Christi invenias salutare convivium.