Against Gaudentius, Bishop of the Donatists

Contents

Translation in progress.

Reading pages: 1.1–1.20 · 1.21–1.32 · 1.33–1.46 · 1.47–2.6 · 2.7–2.14

1. 1.1Augustine explains the occasion: the Donatist bishop Gaudentius threatened to burn himself in his church and wrote two letters to the tribune Dulcitius, which Augustine now refutes point by point.
2. 1.2Augustine passes over the greeting of Gaudentius’s first letter.
3. 1.3Augustine notes that Dulcitius had written to Gaudentius more courteously than was owed, hoping to win him.
4. 1.4Augustine answers that Dulcitius did call the Donatists guilty, and that a layman’s wording does not bind the church.
5. 1.5The fellowship of criminals is to be fled, but their correction is to be sought.
6. 1.6Dulcitius never called Gaudentius innocent; the laws persecute vices, not people, and one who would kill himself and others cannot claim innocence.
7. 1.7Gaudentius vows to die in his church if force is used; Augustine answers that the Donatists hold true baptism in error, and that rushing to death when urged toward life is madness.
8. 1.8Gaudentius claims his followers are free to leave; Augustine asks why he does not openly urge them to his deed if it is good.
9. 1.9Augustine answers the closing wish of Gaudentius’s first letter.
10. 1.10Augustine answers the greeting of Gaudentius’s second letter.
11. 1.11Dulcitius preferred Gaudentius absent because his presence hindered the salvation of others.
12. 1.12Gaudentius cites Exod 23:7 against receiving converts while punishing Donatists; Augustine answers that the laws seek correction or exile, not death, and that Gaudentius is his own persecutor.
13. 1.13Converts from Donatism are not rebaptized, since their baptism bears the royal mark, but the love of unity cleanses them so that their baptism now profits them.
14. 1.14Augustine turns Exod 23:7 against Gaudentius: no one who kills himself dies innocent, since the intention to do so already makes him guilty.
15. 1.15Augustine recounts how Emeritus, Donatist bishop of Caesarea, came of his own will to meet him in 418 and could say nothing in reply, which testified for the Catholic case.
16. 1.16Augustine turns Rom 3:3–4 against Gaudentius: converts believe God’s promise to all nations, while Donatists believe men’s charges against Caecilian.
17. 1.17Gaudentius cites the good shepherd who does not flee; Augustine answers that Paul fled through the wall, that Christ commanded flight in persecution, and that the shepherd who destroys his flock is the thief.
18. 1.18Truth is to be heard even from sinners, as Christ said of the Pharisees; Christ, not the tribune, commands flight in persecution.
19. 1.19Gaudentius says no refuge remains; Augustine answers that Christ promised refuges to his own until the end, so the Donatists’ lack of them shows they are not his.
20. 1.20Gaudentius argues from free will that God needs no human defense; Augustine answers that by this logic all crimes would go unpunished, and cites Rom 13, Moses, and Nebuchadnezzar’s decree.
21. 1.21God gave free choice but punished Adam with death and exile; the emperor imposes only exile, and the Donatists add death themselves.
22. 1.22Persecution is blessed only when suffered for Christ; Christ’s last words commended a church spreading from Jerusalem to all nations, which the Donatists resist.
23. 1.23The beatitude belongs to those persecuted for righteousness; the command to flee was also given to all, and the Donatists’ refusal shows they are not among Christ’s own.
24. 1.24Augustine corrects Gaudentius’s quotation of 2 Tim 3:12 and explains that the persecution all the pious suffer includes the devil’s temptations through prosperity.
25. 1.25The Catholics suffer the persecution of grief over the Donatists, as David grieved for Absalom, besides the violence Donatists have done them; their suicides grieve the church most.
26. 1.26John 16:2 refers to Jewish persecutors or to heretics killing Catholics; the Donatists who kill themselves fit its next verse, knowing neither the Father (“You shall not kill”) nor the Son (“Flee”).
27. 1.27Augustine answers that the converts from Donatism rejoice in true peace; if some are insincere, the wedding feast gathered good and bad, and grain swept back onto the floor brings earth with it.
28. 1.28Augustine defends compulsion toward the truth by the king of Nineveh and by “compel them to come in” (Luke 14:23), which he applies to heresies and schisms.
29. 1.29Those who kill themselves to avoid hardship do not rejoice in the world’s hatred; the promise in John 15 belongs to those Christ told to flee.
30. 1.30The martyrs under the altar ask vengeance on those who shed their blood; the Donatists who kill themselves by water, fire, and the precipice imitate the devil and will be avenged on themselves.
31. 1.31The martyrs foretold in Rev 6 include countless true martyrs since John and the Catholics killed by Donatists; those who kill themselves will have their blood avenged on themselves.
32. 1.32Gaudentius praises Donatists who killed themselves, citing Razis in 2 Maccabees; Augustine answers that they suffer from their own deeds and describes the circumcellions’ habit of seeking death.
33. 1.33Few now kill themselves compared with the many circumcellions and others who have been reclaimed; mercy cannot mean leaving all in error so that a few do not burn themselves.
34. 1.34Gaudentius’s use of “the spirit is willing” to justify suicide fails; God gives a way out and patience, and Cyprian forbade offering oneself.
35. 1.35Job longed for death but would not kill himself, because it is never just; what a just man “cannot” do means what justice forbids.
36. 1.36Razis should have suffered patiently like the seven Maccabean brothers; and since he could not flee and was strong, not weak, he is no model for the Donatists.
37. 1.37Scripture praises Razis for love of his city and his reputation, but merely narrates his death without commending it.
38. 1.38The books of Maccabees are not held by the Jews like the Law, Prophets, and Psalms, but are received by the church with profit if read soberly; not every deed of praised men is to be imitated.
39. 1.39Not everything done by praised figures is to be imitated (David, Solomon, Peter, Noah, Judah); Samson’s death came from the Spirit’s prompting, like Abraham’s sacrifice at God’s command.
40. 1.40Cyprian said discipline forbids offering oneself; Christ commands flight and the tribune permits it, so the Donatists have no excuse for suicide.
41. 1.41Emeritus’s free departure shows that no Donatist is forced into communion; Gaudentius should imitate him rather than burn himself.
42. 1.42Gaudentius calls the Catholic Church a man-made idol; Augustine answers from Isa 54:5 and Gen 22:18 that it is God’s promised work, while Donatism rests on men’s word.
43. 1.43Converts like Gabinius rightly judged that losses should not be borne for a human sect, and took the pressure as an occasion for correction.
44. 1.44Kings have a duty toward the church, as the king of Nineveh, David, and Nebuchadnezzar show.
45. 1.45Kings serve God by enforcing his will (Ps 2:10–11), and they must do so through soldiers.
46. 1.46Wis 5:1–9 promises vindication to the just, not to all who suffer; Donatists who kill themselves, including pregnant nuns, imitate Judas rather than the martyrs.
47. 1.47The Donatists’ own councils during the present “persecution” undercut their claim that the council of Cirta could not have met; Purpurius’s charge against Secundus confirms its minutes.
48. 1.48A Donatist council pardoned clergy who joined the Catholics unwillingly; by the same rule the original betrayers could have been pardoned, and Caecilian’s condemnation was unjust.
49. 1.49In killing themselves by whatever means, the Donatists imitate Judas, prompted by the same devil who drove the boy into fire and water and the swine into the sea.
50. 1.50The Catholics seek the Donatists themselves, not their property; the love that compels them to enter is the opposite of greed.
51. 1.51Confiscation of heretics’ property under imperial law is like Israel’s taking Canaan, not Ahab’s seizing Naboth’s vineyard; property is returned to converts, but Donatist violence cannot be undone.
52. 1.52The words of the repentant wicked in Wis 5 fit the Donatists, and the line about pride and riches fits best Gaudentius’s predecessor Optatus.
53. 1.53Augustine answers Gaudentius’s closing wish: Dulcitius gave him a way out, while Gaudentius seeks his own destruction; God uses believing kings to correct the bad.
54. 1.54Augustine challenges Gaudentius to explain the Donatists’ acceptance of the Maximianists Felician and Praetextatus and their baptism, while rejecting the baptism of the apostolic churches.
55. 2.1Augustine begins the second book by noting that Gaudentius’s reply to the first only avoids silence without answering.
56. 2.2Cyprian’s image of the church sending its rays through the whole world matches the meaning of “catholic” (καθ᾽ ὅλον), which the Donatists cannot claim.
57. 2.3The Donatists cannot excuse their departure; Cyprian’s letter to Maximus forbids leaving the church because of weeds, since only the Lord may separate.
58. 2.4Gaudentius now claims that even unknown sins of others can destroy Christians, citing Achan; Augustine answers that this contradicts Cyprian and the Donatist speakers at the conference, who said unknown sinners defile no one.
59. 2.5Cyprian speaks of weeds that are seen, not hidden, yet forbids leaving the church; Gaudentius’s view that unknown sins destroy all leaves no one innocent.
60. 2.6The worldwide church contains many good and more bad; Luke 18:8 speaks of the rarity of great faith, not a universal apostasy.
61. 2.7The council of Bagai condemned Felician by name, yet the Donatists later accepted his baptism; Gaudentius cannot place him among those given a grace period.
62. 2.8In Cyprian’s time Stephen of Rome received heretics without rebaptism and Cyprian stayed in communion with him; if the church did not perish then, the Donatists had no reason to leave it.
63. 2.9Cyprian erred on rebaptism, but his love, peaceableness, and martyrdom in unity show he was a fruitful branch the Father pruned, as Peter was corrected by Paul.
64. 2.10The good in the church either do not know the bad, discipline them, or tolerate them, as Cyprian did; the Donatists are both schismatic and heretical, as Cyprian called the Novatianists.
65. 2.11Baptism given among the Donatists remains holy, like the temple vessels in Babylon and the captured ark; as Paul kept true sayings of pagan poets, the church keeps the truth while rejecting the error.
66. 2.12Gaudentius distinguished “religion” (true worship) from “superstition” (false), yet addressed the Catholic Dulcitius as “Your Religiousness”: by his own words the Catholic faith is the true religion.
67. 2.13The king of Nineveh did command repentance (Jonah 3); kings who command what is of God act from religion, and the Donatist schism and suicide are superstition.
68. 2.14Augustine closes by urging Gaudentius, as a brother, to accept the worldwide church described by Cyprian, which stands by divine testimony whatever the guilt of individuals.