The Correction of the Donatists.

 St. AUGUSTIN:

 A Treatise

 Chapter 1.—1. I must express my satisfaction, and congratulations, and admiration, my son Boniface, in that, amid all the cares of wars and arms, you

 Chapter 2.—6. I would add, moreover, that they themselves, by making it the subject of an accusation, referred the case of Cæcilianus to the decision

 Chapter 3.—12. But those who are unacquainted with their habits think that they only kill themselves now that all the mass of the people are freed fro

 Chapter 4.—15. And indeed, before those laws were put in force by the emperors of the Catholic faith, the doctrine of the peace and unity of Christ wa

 Chapter 5.—19. But as to the argument of those men who are unwilling that their impious deeds should be checked by the enactment of righteous laws, wh

 Chapter 6.—21. It is indeed better (as no one ever could deny) that men should be led to worship God by teaching, than that they should be driven to i

 Chapter 7.—25. However, before those laws were sent into Africa by which men are compelled to come in to the sacred Supper, it seemed to certain of th

 Chapter 8.—32. But they, as we have sometimes said before in other places, do not charge themselves with what they do to us while, on the other hand,

 Chapter 9.—35. As to the charge that they bring against us, that we covet and plunder their possessions, I would that they would become Catholics, and

 Chapter 10.—43. But this, they say, is the very thing which disquiets us,—If we are unrighteous, wherefore do you seek our company? To which question

 Chapter 11.—48. But as to what they say, arguing as follows: If we have sinned against the Holy Ghost, in that we have treated your baptism with conte

A Treatise

Concerning

the Correction of the Donatists;

Or Epistle CLXXXV.1 Written c. 417.

A Letter of Augustin2 In Book 11. c. xlviii of his Retractations, Augustin says: "About the same time" (as that at which he wrote his treatise De Gestis Pelagii, i.e., about the year 417), "I wrote also a treatise De Correctione Donatistarum, for the sake of those who were not willing that the Donatists should be subjected to the correction of the imperial laws." This treatise begins with the words "Laudo, et gratulor, et admiror." This letter in the old editions was No. 50,—the letter which is now No. 4 in the appendix (Benedictine) being formerly No. 185.to Boniface, who, as we learn from Epistle 220, was Tribune, and afterwards Count in Africa. In it Augustin shows that the heresy of the Donatists has nothing in common with that of Arius; and points out the moderation with which it was possible to recall the heretics to the communion of the Church through awe of the imperial laws. He adds remarks concerning the savage conduct of the Donatists and Circumcelliones, concluding with a discussion of the unpardonable nature of the sin against the Holy Ghost.3 He handles the same thought in Ep. 93.