Against the Letters of Petilian

Contents

Translation in progress.

Reading pages: 1.1–1.23 · 1.24–2.25 · 2.26–2.50 · 2.51–2.75 · 2.76–2.101 · 2.102–2.137 · 2.138–2.179 · 2.180–2.202 · 2.203–2.223 · 2.224–2.240 · 2.241–3.8 · 3.9–3.30 · 3.31–3.47 · 3.48–3.62 · 3.63–3.72

1. 1.1Augustine explains how a letter of the Donatist bishop of Constantina (Petilian) to his presbyters reached him and why he will refute it.
2. 1.2Augustine takes up Petilian's claim that the giver's conscience cleanses the receiver's, and asks how a hidden, stained conscience can cleanse anyone.
3. 1.3Augustine shows that Petilian's maxim that faith received from the faithless is guilt either fails for hidden sinners or obliges the Donatists to rebaptize those baptized by their own hidden sinners.
4. 1.4Making salvation depend on the baptizer's conscience puts hope in a man, which Scripture curses.
5. 1.5If the baptizer is the origin, root, and head of the baptized, an unknown bad baptizer leaves the baptized with a bad head or none.
6. 1.6Christ, not the minister, is always the origin, root, and head of the Christian, as Paul himself teaches.
7. 1.7On Petilian's view it would be better to be baptized by a hidden sinner, since only then would Christ be one's head.
8. 1.8Augustine answers each of Petilian's maxims: Christ, not the minister, is the origin, root, head, and seed of the Christian.
9. 1.9The 'good tree' cannot be the baptizer; otherwise those baptized by hidden sinners would either be bad or be better off than those baptized by good men.
10. 1.10The saying about being baptized by the dead refers to idol worship, not sinful ministers; otherwise the Donatists would have to judge the baptisms of their own notorious Optatus.
11. 1.11Augustine confronts the Donatists with their council of Bagai, which condemned the Maximianists as dead, including Felicianus and Praetextatus, whom they later received back.
12. 1.12The Donatists received the Maximianist baptizers and those they baptized without rebaptism, while cursing the baptism of the apostolic churches overseas.
13. 1.13If the Donatists are not stained by reuniting with the Maximianists, overseas Catholics cannot be stained by mere reports about Africans.
14. 1.14If the Donatists can receive condemned schismatics for their own unity, they should return to the worldwide unity of Christ foretold in Scripture.
15. 1.15Augustine will rest his case on the Maximianist affair alone.
16. 1.16The living witnesses of the Maximianist affair at Musti and Assuras settle the question.
17. 1.17Petilian's definition of who is 'dead' is turned against the Donatists' reception of the Maximianists.
18. 1.18If the Maximianists kept the form of baptism though they lost its power, the Donatists should not reject the same form in Catholics.
19. 1.19Charges about traitors do not touch the Catholics, who disapprove of such crimes; the Donatists themselves received men they had condemned.
20. 1.20Augustine answers the charge of persecution: the Donatists themselves persecuted the Maximianists, and Catholic emperors rightly correct schismatics.
21. 1.21Petilian's claim to be the persecuted prophets is undercut by Donatist refusal to debate and by their reception of the Maximianists they had called vipers.
22. 1.22The Donatists, not the Catholics, are the false prophets in sheep's clothing.
23. 1.23Augustine turns the charge of handing over the Scriptures back on the Donatists, citing Silvanus of Constantina.
24. 1.24Even with true charges, the Donatists should have proved them to the worldwide church rather than separating from it.
25. 1.25The Testament promises blessing to all nations; those who refuse communion with the nations are the real heirs of the traitors who burned it.
26. 1.26Augustine lists Donatist fruits, above all their open condemnation and then reception of the Maximianists.
27. 1.27Augustine urges Catholics to circulate his reply and charges the Donatists with schism alone.
28. 1.28Petilian's remarks on the Manichees need no refutation; one error cannot overthrow another.
29. 1.29The Maximianist affair answers all three Donatist charges: handing over the books, persecution, and false baptism.
30. 1.30Augustine concludes Book 1 with a charge to love those in error while refuting their errors.
31. 2.1Augustine explains that, having obtained the whole of Petilian's letter, he will answer it point by point in the form of a dialogue.
32. 2.2Petilian's greeting.
33. 2.3Petilian uses the apostolic greeting of the very churches whose communion he rejects.
34. 2.4Petilian accuses the Catholics of polluting souls with a false baptism.
35. 2.5Baptism in the name of the Trinity belongs to Christ, not to either party.
36. 2.6Petilian's maxim on the giver's conscience.
37. 2.7Only Christ's conscience gives certainty.
38. 2.8Petilian's maxim on faith from the faithless.
39. 2.9Faith comes from Christ, who is never faithless.
40. 2.10Petilian's maxim on origin, root, head, and seed.
41. 2.11Christ is the origin and head; the seed is the gospel, which bears fruit even when preached by unworthy ministers.
42. 2.12Petilian argues that a guilty minister cannot make another innocent.
43. 2.13No minister makes another innocent; the 'tree and fruit' are men and their works, and a minister administers God's sacrament, not his own.
44. 2.14Petilian explains 'baptized by a dead man' as baptized by one without God's Spirit, including those who have mixed with traitors.
45. 2.15Christ, whose baptism it is, lives; the sacrament stays alive even in a dead minister, as in Simon Magus.
46. 2.16Baptism is not lost by sin, since penitent apostates are not rebaptized; 'baptized by the dead' fits pagan rites, not the Catholic Church.
47. 2.17Petilian compares Catholic bishops to Judas and calls them heirs of those who burned the Scriptures, contrasting them with the Maccabean martyrs.
48. 2.18Augustine answers the charge of handing over the books with a simple denial and a demand for proof.
49. 2.19The prophecy that foretold Judas also foretold the faith of the whole world, which Christ bought with his blood.
50. 2.20The Donatists, who claim to have kept the Testament, have lost the inheritance it promises, the Christian world; they are the true heirs of the betrayer.
51. 2.21Petilian denies that a Catholic bishop can be a true bishop.
52. 2.22Crimes of individuals do not touch the worldwide seed of Abraham.
53. 2.23Petilian asks whether the apostles or Christ ever persecuted or handed anyone over.
54. 2.24Paul handed men over to Satan and Christ drove traders from the temple; but wrongs done by chaff do not touch the worldwide church.
55. 2.25Petilian argues that sonship is a matter of imitating deeds.
56. 2.26By Petilian's own rule, Catholics are not sons of traitors whose deeds they do not share; sharing sacraments with the wicked is no more sin than the apostles' sharing the supper with Judas.
57. 2.27Petilian cites John 10:37.
58. 2.28The text tells for the Catholics.
59. 2.29Petilian cites John 8:44 in the form 'an accuser from the beginning'.
60. 2.30The devil murdered by drawing man out of paradise; those who draw men out of the worldwide church are his sons, and the Donatists are the accusers who did not stand in Christ's truth.
61. 2.31Petilian applies Christ's words against the 'brood of vipers' to the Catholic persecutors.
62. 2.32Cursing without proof is itself the viper's mark; the Donatists cannot show that Catholics everywhere killed any prophet.
63. 2.33The real killers of the prophets are those who contradict the prophecies of a worldwide church that are visibly being fulfilled.
64. 2.34Petilian applies Ps 14 and Rom 3 to the Catholics.
65. 2.35Augustine turns each phrase of the psalm back on the Donatists, who cut men off from the unity of the world.
66. 2.36Petilian cites Matt 7:15–16.
67. 2.37The Donatists' fruit is schism; false prophets point to a part ('here is the Christ'), while the shepherd points to all nations.
68. 2.38Petilian calls the Catholic a son of the devil who wages war under the name of peace.
69. 2.39Augustine returns the charge.
70. 2.40Petilian calls Catholic bishops false bishops like fallen angels and the apostate disciples, and claims that Donatists conquer by fleeing or dying.
71. 2.41False bishops exist, but the charge must be proved, and neither chaff nor heretical sects touch the worldwide church.
72. 2.42Petilian cites Christ's command to flee persecution and says God does not use executioners as priests.
73. 2.43The command to flee belongs to preachers of the gospel; lawful authorities may expel schismatics, and the only question is whether the Donatist separation was just.
74. 2.44Petilian says Catholics persecute Christ in his priests as Saul did.
75. 2.45The Donatists' own persecution of the Maximianists answers their complaints; if displeasure with others' evils suffices, their separation was needless.
76. 2.46No imperial law ordered Donatists killed; Marculus and Donatus may have thrown themselves down; and schism itself is murder by hatred of brothers.
77. 2.47Petilian argues that as Paul the persecutor was healed by baptism, Catholic persecutors should accept Donatist baptism.
78. 2.48Paul was baptized because he had never received Christ's baptism; those already baptized are not to be baptized again.
79. 2.49Petilian argues from John 13 and 15 that a traitor loses baptism and peace.
80. 2.50Penitent traitors are not rebaptized, so baptism is not lost; and Christ called the disciples clean even with Judas present.
81. 2.51Petilian claims that Catholic persecution gives Donatist martyrs a second baptism of blood, like Christ's.
82. 2.52Only those who die for righteousness are baptized in blood; the cause, not the suffering, makes the martyr.
83. 2.53Augustine sets the notorious deeds of the Donatist Optatus against Petilian's charges: if the Donatists were not defiled by him, distant nations cannot be defiled by unknown Africans.
84. 2.54If association with Optatus did not make the Donatists thieves, association cannot make Catholics traitors; if it did, they convict themselves.
85. 2.55The Donatists, unwilling to carry others' loads, condemn themselves by their own logic; their punishment for schism is no baptism of blood.
86. 2.56Petilian replies to the Catholic use of John 13:10.
87. 2.57Christ is the author of baptism and the truth.
88. 2.58Petilian says Catholic baptism is no baptism, so his is not a second one.
89. 2.59If guilt voided baptism, secretly guilty Donatist ministers would void their own baptisms.
90. 2.60Petilian compares Catholic baptism to a painting or mirror image: a likeness, not the reality.
91. 2.61Even deceitful ministers, later convicted, gave true baptism, because the Spirit flees the man's deceit, not the sacrament's truth.
92. 2.62Petilian cites Eph 4:5.
93. 2.63Baptism is one because it is Christ's, though the good have it for salvation and the wicked for destruction.
94. 2.64Petilian compares Catholic baptism to a false second sun.
95. 2.65If the wicked have only an image of baptism, the Donatists must sort out and rebaptize those baptized by Optatus.
96. 2.66Petilian compares a Catholic minister to a private man who presumes to declare law.
97. 2.67A genuine law handed on by a forger is still genuine; so too a sacrament.
98. 2.68Petilian argues that reciting a priest's prayers does not make one a priest.
99. 2.69A true sacrament can be held by a false minister, just as Paul acknowledged true sayings of a Cretan prophet and an Athenian altar without approving their authors.
100. 2.70Petilian asks when the Catholics received power to administer the sacraments.
101. 2.71The worldwide church never lost the power to baptize; no one's crime can overturn God's promise to bless all nations.
102. 2.72Petilian divides baptism into three stages, John's water, Christ's Spirit, and the Paraclete's fire, and denies the Catholics all three.
103. 2.73Augustine mocks Petilian's rhetoric, proposes that neither side charge the other with others' crimes, and leaves the Donatists with the crime of schism.
104. 2.74The gift of tongues at Pentecost foreshadowed a church speaking in all languages, visible to all, as Psalm 19 foretold.
105. 2.75John assigns water to himself and both Spirit and fire to Christ; and Paul's rebaptism of John's disciples shows John's water was not part of Christ's baptism.
106. 2.76The Spirit breathed by Christ and the Spirit given at Pentecost are one Spirit, given by the same Christ; Acts 1:5 refutes Petilian's three stages.
107. 2.77Petilian argues that Catholics cannot baptize in the name of the Trinity because they lack peace, imitation of the Son, and the Spirit.
108. 2.78By Petilian's rule, Optatus could not baptize in the Trinity's name; but baptism is God's and stays holy even in wicked men.
109. 2.79Petilian appeals to the apostles' baptizing of John's disciples.
110. 2.80Petilian's appeal to Acts 19 contradicts his own theory of three stages.
111. 2.81Petilian makes the gift of the Spirit depend on the water of a pure conscience.
112. 2.82The Spirit came without hands or before baptism; and if baptism required pure consciences, those baptized by Optatus would need rebaptism.
113. 2.83Petilian denies that the Spirit could come on those baptized by 'traitors'.
114. 2.84If a traitor's water differs from Christ's, so does a robber's; but since each carries his own load, Catholics keep unity while Donatists break it.
115. 2.85Petilian cites Paul's baptism of John's disciples at Ephesus as precedent for rebaptizing Catholics.
116. 2.86John's baptism was not part of Christ's, so Paul's action was a first baptism, not a repetition.
117. 2.87John's baptism, like circumcision and the Passover, foretold Christ; Christ received them as an example, but Christian baptism is a different sacrament.
118. 2.88Baptism after John was right because his was a different baptism; but no one is rebaptized after Optatus, since Christ's baptism is the same whoever gives it.
119. 2.89The Catholics seek the Donatists as the shepherd seeks the lost sheep, loving them while hating their error.
120. 2.90Petilian argues from the Greek meaning of 'catholic' that the Catholics are only a part.
121. 2.91'Catholic' means 'according to the whole,' as Christ's commission to the whole earth shows; the church is the mountain of Daniel filling the earth.
122. 2.92Petilian argues that the 'party of Macarius' can have no part with the Donatists.
123. 2.93Donatist communion is itself mixed; what all Donatists share is not vice but heresy.
124. 2.94The world has never heard of Macarius, but the Donatists all know Optatus; and if makarios means 'blessed,' the church is indeed the party of the Blessed One, Christ.
125. 2.95Petilian cites 2 Cor 6:14–15.
126. 2.96Sharing sacraments with the wicked, as Peter did with Judas, is not partnership in their iniquity.
127. 2.97Petilian cites 1 Cor 1:12–13.
128. 2.98Petilian's own citation tells against him.
129. 2.99Petilian accuses the Catholics of dividing Christ.
130. 2.100Augustine turns Petilian's question back on him.
131. 2.101Petilian accuses the Catholics of seizing church property and handing Donatists to the secular powers.
132. 2.102Loss of church property is like the Jews' loss of their place; and the Donatists themselves had the Maximianists expelled from their churches.
133. 2.103Petilian contrasts putting on Christ with putting on Judas.
134. 2.104Baptism in Christ's name is never baptism into the minister; only a baptism in another's name would need repeating.
135. 2.105Petilian argues that sharing the name 'party' or 'way' does not make the two sides alike.
136. 2.106The few on the narrow way are found throughout the worldwide church; if fewness proved righteousness, the Maximianists would win.
137. 2.107Petilian cites Psalm 1 to separate the blessed from the ungodly, with his own comments.
138. 2.108The Greek of Psalm 1, makarios anēr, shows that the blessed throughout the world are the true 'party of Macarius'.
139. 2.109Petilian reads Psalm 23 as a hymn to Donatist baptism.
140. 2.110Psalm 23 speaks of those who use baptism well, but the one holy baptism is also held by the wicked, as Simon, Judas, Saul, and apostates show.
141. 2.111Petilian denies holiness to those who are not innocent.
142. 2.112Saul lacked innocence but had the holiness of the anointing, which David revered; so the sacrament is holy even in the wicked.
143. 2.113Petilian says the Catholics know the law only as the devil does, quoting it while opposing it.
144. 2.114The Donatists imitate the devil by using Scripture against God's promises, and their suicidal 'martyrs' follow the devil's suggestion to Christ to throw himself down.
145. 2.115Petilian threatens Catholic priests with God's vengeance on false priests.
146. 2.116Augustine asks for teaching rather than abuse.
147. 2.117Petilian calls the Catholic episcopal chair the 'seat of pestilence' of Psalm 1.
148. 2.118The apostolic sees of Rome and Jerusalem are no 'seat of pestilence'; Christ honoured even the chair of Moses occupied by the Pharisees.
149. 2.119Petilian declares Catholic sacrifices defiled, citing Isaiah and Hosea.
150. 2.120The sacrifice is to each according to his own state; the Donatists' bread of mourning is their shared schism and their reception of the condemned Felicianus.
151. 2.121Petilian says Catholic prayers are void because of their bloody consciences.
152. 2.122Augustine refuses to return abuse and asks only that neither side charge the other with others' sins.
153. 2.123Petilian says Catholic exorcisms owe nothing to Catholic merit.
154. 2.124Petilian concedes that Christ's name is effective even when invoked by sinners, which is Augustine's point about baptism.
155. 2.125Petilian cites Matt 7:22–23.
156. 2.126Miracles prove nothing without love, and love is found only in those who love unity; those who share Christ's sacraments but reject his worldwide body will hear 'I do not know you.'
157. 2.127Petilian charges the Catholics with breaking the commandment against killing.
158. 2.128Augustine declines to answer accusation with accusation.
159. 2.129Petilian calls the Catholics spiritual adulterers.
160. 2.130Charges true of some cannot be extended to all nations.
161. 2.131Petilian accuses the Catholics of false witness before the emperors about church property.
162. 2.132The Donatists, who had the Maximianists expelled under imperial laws against heretics by claiming to be Catholics, are themselves the false witnesses.
163. 2.133Petilian accuses the Catholics of coveting and seizing Donatist property.
164. 2.134Property used for unity is rightly the church's, as Canaan became Israel's and Jerusalem the church's; the Donatists themselves seized the Maximianists' basilicas.
165. 2.135Petilian denies that Catholics keep the law.
166. 2.136Augustine declines to answer abuse.
167. 2.137Petilian cites Matt 5:19 against the Catholics.
168. 2.138Augustine corrects Petilian's quotation of Matt 5:19 and shows that Christ did not command the chair of Moses to be deserted because of bad occupants.
169. 2.139Petilian conflates 1 Cor 6:18 with Matt 12:32.
170. 2.140Augustine separates the two texts Petilian merged and notes that the Donatists promise forgiveness by their baptism for a sin they call unforgivable.
171. 2.141Petilian begins to apply the Beatitudes against the Catholics.
172. 2.142Augustine redirects the charge to the Circumcellions.
173. 2.143Petilian cites Matt 5:5.
174. 2.144Those who reject communion with the whole earth have lost earth and heaven; the Donatists' own principle that others' sins do not concern them condemns their schism.
175. 2.145Petilian cites Matt 5:4.
176. 2.146The 'Deo laudes' war cry of the Circumcellions has caused much mourning; by Donatist logic, others' deeds do not touch the world either.
177. 2.147Petilian cites Matt 5:6.
178. 2.148The church thirsts not for Donatist blood but for their return to unity.
179. 2.149Petilian cites Matt 5:7 and denies the Catholics mercy.
180. 2.150Just correction is merciful, unlike flattering leniency; each carries his own load, but the Donatists all carry the load of schism.
181. 2.151Petilian cites Matt 5:8.
182. 2.152The real blindness is charging the nations with unproved crimes while ignoring God's plain promises about them.
183. 2.153Petilian cites Matt 5:9 against Catholic coercion.
184. 2.154True peace is peace with Christ's word about the church of all nations; the spiritual 'war' for unity is correction in love, like the spirit's struggle against the flesh.
185. 2.155Petilian cites Eph 4:1–3.
186. 2.156The Donatists tolerate Optatus's known crimes for their own unity but invent unknown crimes to break the church's.
187. 2.157Petilian cites Jer 6:14 / Ezek 13:10.
188. 2.158Peace is in Christ's worldwide church, the city on the mountain of Daniel's prophecy, not in the party of Donatus.
189. 2.159Petilian says Catholic persecution makes Donatist martyrs.
190. 2.160Augustine mocks the Donatist cult of those who threw themselves over cliffs.
191. 2.161Petilian applies Christ's woes against the Pharisees to the Catholics.
192. 2.162A proselyte of the Pharisees who reformed would not be recircumcised; so no one baptized by the wicked should be rebaptized.
193. 2.163Petilian calls the Catholics wolves among Christ's sheep.
194. 2.164Christ's sheep hear his voice about the church of all nations; those who draw sheep away from that fold are the wolves in sheep's clothing.
195. 2.165Petilian laments that the Catholics fulfil the role of the wicked in Scripture.
196. 2.166Augustine returns Petilian's lament, applying it to the Donatists as heretics.
197. 2.167Petilian cites Christ's command of mutual love.
198. 2.168Words of love are the Donatists' sheepskin.
199. 2.169Petilian likens the Catholics to the false brothers who endangered Paul.
200. 2.170Paul bore with false brothers within the church; to imitate him the Donatists should tolerate the bad inside, not slander the innocent from outside.
201. 2.171Petilian cites 1 Cor 13:1–3.
202. 2.1721 Cor 13 tells against the Donatists: they have sacraments and faith but lack love, which is kept only in the unity of the church.
203. 2.173Petilian cites 1 Cor 13:4–8 against Catholic persecution and seizure of property.
204. 2.174Love would have borne the wicked within for the sake of unity; the Donatists instead would rejoice to learn the world was wholly wicked, contrary to Christ's word about the wheat growing everywhere.
205. 2.175Petilian asks what justifies persecution.
206. 2.176Scripture itself speaks of righteous persecution of wrongdoers; the question is the cause and manner.
207. 2.177Petilian claims Christ tolerated other sects and coerced no one.
208. 2.178Augustine corrects Petilian's misquotation and turns the true text to his point: Christ's name avails outside the communion of the disciples, as the sacrament does outside the church, though without love it does not bring eternal life.
209. 2.179Petilian cites Phil 1:18.
210. 2.180Paul rejoiced that Christ was preached even by envious men; whether they were inside or outside the church, this shows either that the wicked do not pollute the good or that Christ's name is holy even among heretics.
211. 2.181Petilian asks why the Catholics coerce others.
212. 2.182Catholics persecute only as truth persecutes falsehood, and seek the Donatists' healing.
213. 2.183Petilian claims the Donatists coerce no one.
214. 2.184No one is forced to faith, but laws rightly restrain evil; the Donatists coerce wherever they can, as the violence under Julian, against Rogatus, under Optatus, at Hippo, and at Calama shows.
215. 2.185Petilian appeals to free choice against coercion.
216. 2.186Coercion leaves free choice intact by prompting reflection on why one suffers; if for schism, the laws correct rather than persecute.
217. 2.187Augustine chooses Christ's words about a worldwide church over Donatist words about traitors and the 'love of Donatus'.
218. 2.188Petilian denies that God orders schismatics killed.
219. 2.189Christ, not either party, settles where the church is: throughout the earth.
220. 2.190Petilian cites God's sparing of Cain.
221. 2.191Like Cain, the Donatists are left to live by God's severity; they envy the worldwide 'sacrifice' of the church as Cain envied Abel, and their hatred makes them murderers.
222. 2.192Petilian says Christ gave Christians a pattern of dying, not killing.
223. 2.193The Donatists follow neither Christ's pattern nor even that of the pagan persecutors: they contradict the gospel's promise of a worldwide church.
224. 2.194Petilian cites Christ's rebuke of Peter's sword.
225. 2.195The Circumcellions, not the Catholics, wield weapons; Peter's sword was drawn for Christ's body, theirs against it, and Catholics who resist them by force are like the still-weak Peter.
226. 2.196Petilian says Christianity advances through martyrdom.
227. 2.197The grain that died is Christ, whose fruit fills the world; the Donatists' 'harvest' is suicides.
228. 2.198Petilian says the Catholics sow tares and will be burned.
229. 2.199The parable says wheat and tares grow together throughout the field.
230. 2.200Petilian contrasts Christ's and Paul's patience with Catholic violence.
231. 2.201The Circumcellions' violence belies any Donatist claim to turn the other cheek.
232. 2.202Petilian argues that kings have always persecuted the righteous, that Catholics incite Christian emperors against Donatists, and that persecutors and alleged traitors perished by God's vengeance.
233. 2.203Petilian contradicts himself about kings, and his own party petitioned the apostate Julian, praising his 'justice'.
234. 2.204Scripture shows many kings friendly to the righteous, including the very kings of Daniel's story; Petilian's 'never' is a headlong falsehood.
235. 2.205Petilian's examples predate Christ; and the Donatists appealed to the Christian Constantine yet rejected his judgment, while praising the apostate Julian who restored their churches.
236. 2.206John 16:2 was fulfilled by the Jews' persecution of the apostles and later by the Arian Valens, not by Catholic emperors; and Paul himself sought the protection of Roman soldiers.
237. 2.207Petilian's list of persecuting emperors names only pagans, who persecuted Catholics and Donatists alike, not the Catholic rulers he promised.
238. 2.208Augustine mocks Petilian's promised list of Catholic persecutors who perished, which shrinks to Ursatius alone.
239. 2.209One death proves nothing about all counts; and if Ursatius lived well, God will avenge his blood even on the beasts.
240. 2.210Christian kings hear Psalm 2 in church, including its promise of the nations to Christ, and serve God as kings by acts no private person could do.
241. 2.211Christian emperors hearing Daniel 3 in church learn both to refuse idolatry and, like Nebuchadnezzar after the miracle, to forbid blasphemy against God.
242. 2.212Daniel's kings both persecuted and later protected the faithful and punished blasphemers; Christian emperors forbidding the 'blasphemy' of rebaptism resemble the latter.
243. 2.213Petilian's own examples tell against him; Augustine invites him to correct his error.
244. 2.214Petilian accuses the Catholics of killing.
245. 2.215Catholics do not kill; the Donatists kill souls.
246. 2.216Petilian asks why the Catholics coerce or kill them.
247. 2.217Correction against one's will can be an act of love, as with a child's discipline.
248. 2.218Petilian asks why the Catholics seek communion with those they call heretics.
249. 2.219Catholics seek the Donatists' return so that they may cease to be heretics.
250. 2.220Petilian presents a dilemma.
251. 2.221Augustine refuses the false dilemma: Catholics are innocent of the crimes charged, and Donatists are all guilty of schism.
252. 2.222The Donatists' armed bands are the ones using swords; they are sought by the innocent so that they may become innocent.
253. 2.223Petilian cites Ps 118:8–9 against reliance on emperors.
254. 2.224Catholics do not hope in princes; the Donatists themselves relied on Julian's rescript restoring their basilicas, which Augustine turns into a plea that all be restored to the older unity of Christ.
255. 2.225Petilian accuses Catholic laymen of joining the church to protect their wealth.
256. 2.226Losing wealth is praiseworthy for the truth, but not for heresy; laws that threaten heretics with loss are merciful warnings.
257. 2.227Petilian claims Donatist poverty and martyrdom.
258. 2.228Petilian misquotes Christ's promise; his boast of poverty sits ill with his colleague Crispinus of Calama, who bought an estate and rebaptized its tenants by force.
259. 2.229Petilian says the Donatists fear only the soul-killing communion of the Catholics.
260. 2.230The Donatists kill souls with the sword of the tongue; by their own logic of contaminating communion they are like Optatus.
261. 2.231Petilian claims that those baptized by Catholics take on their baptizers' crimes.
262. 2.232No one comes innocent to baptism but Christ, even infants being baptized for forgiveness; and if baptism transferred the baptizer's crimes, all Optatus baptized would share his guilt.
263. 2.233Petilian's view makes the baptized depend on the baptizer, which is to hope in man, contrary to the texts he himself quoted.
264. 2.234Petilian cites Jer 15:18 on 'deceitful water'.
265. 2.235Jeremiah's 'deceitful water' refers to the wicked people who wounded him, not to baptism; water signifies peoples, and Christ's baptism is true even in liars.
266. 2.236Petilian cites Ps 141:5.
267. 2.237Every minister is a sinner, as the Lord's Prayer shows; Ps 141:5 contrasts merciful rebuke with flattery, not valid and invalid anointings.
268. 2.238Petilian cites Psalm 133 on the ointment of unity.
269. 2.239The ointment of Psalm 133 is the Spirit's love flowing from Christ the head through strong teachers to the perfect, beginning at Jerusalem; the visible chrism, like baptism, can be held by the wicked, but love only by the good.
270. 2.240Petilian cites 1 Sam 2:25 (Old Latin) on sinning priests.
271. 2.241Petilian's text would make Donatist bishops sinless; Paul asked for prayers and John and Daniel confessed sin. The sinless priest no one prays for is Christ, foreshadowed by the high priest.
272. 2.242Petilian cites 1 Tim 5:22.
273. 2.2431 Tim 5:22 was addressed to Timothy, an ordained minister, and forbids consenting to sin, not tolerating sinners in unity.
274. 2.244Petilian cites Rom 1:32.
275. 2.245Consenting to sin differs from tolerating sinners.
276. 2.246Petilian argues that Catholic acceptance of Donatist baptism proves its holiness.
277. 2.247Catholics accept in converts the baptism of Christ, not of the Donatists, as they accept it in all sinners; the church on the rock is worldwide, and they destroy the deserter's faithlessness, not the commander's mark.
278. 3.1Augustine opens Book 3: Petilian, unable to answer the first book, turned to abuse; Augustine will not return it.
279. 3.2Augustine refuses to be drawn into self-defence and turns to address the readers about the church.
280. 3.3Augustine asks his readers to glory in no man and not to leave the church because of anyone's sins, recalling the gospel images of the mixed church.
281. 3.4The gospel parables teach toleration of the bad in the church until the end; separation is of heart now and of body only at the judgment.
282. 3.5Church discipline is medicinal and necessary, but separating from the whole church over others' sins, even true ones, destroys the weak.
283. 3.6Augustine warns Catholics against following any man against unity and urges mutual forbearance in love.
284. 3.7Augustine's comfort under slander is a clear conscience and the truth of Christ, whose name is spread like ointment through all nations.
285. 3.8Slander for Christ's sake adds to one's reward, as Christ himself was slandered; and the faithful are secure because their hope is in God, not in their ministers.
286. 3.9Those baptized by Augustine are secure whatever he is, because they were baptized into Christ; the sacrament, like the vine's grape in a thorn hedge, is taken from Christ, not from the minister.
287. 3.10The faithful are secure in God and the church whatever their ministers are.
288. 3.11Augustine disowns his life before baptism, leaves his later life to those who know him, and denies on his conscience Petilian's charge that he is still a Manichee.
289. 3.12Petilian attacks Augustine because he cannot answer the Scriptures for the church; whatever Augustine is, the church he defends stands.
290. 3.13Slander is a 'weapon of the left hand' by which God's servants defeat the devil, through loving those who slander them.
291. 3.14Augustine will use Petilian's slanders to grow in love of his enemy, praying for him as Christ prayed on the cross.
292. 3.15Augustine undertakes to show that Petilian did not answer his first book.
293. 3.16Augustine recalls the question he put in Book 1 about the hidden conscience of the giver.
294. 3.17Augustine challenges readers to find any answer in Petilian's letter to his central question.
295. 3.18Petilian's added word ('in holiness') leaves Augustine's question unanswered.
296. 3.19Augustine lists Petilian's personal attacks: dialectic, rhetoric, Manichaeism, letters, the blessed bread, and an old complaint of the bishop who ordained him, later retracted.
297. 3.20Augustine corrects Petilian on Manichaean 'catechumens' (hearers) and denies having been a Manichaean priest.
298. 3.21Despite all his noise, Petilian never answers the question.
299. 3.22Augustine quotes the passage of Book 1 that Petilian set out to answer.
300. 3.23Even with Petilian's two words restored ('in holiness', 'knowingly'), the question stands: from what source is one cleansed when the baptizer is secretly faithless?
301. 3.24Petilian accuses Augustine of Academic scepticism, but the possibility of a hidden, stained conscience is no sceptical paradox.
302. 3.25Augustine's 'what if' and 'perhaps' describe real cases, unlike 'what if the sky falls'; Petilian's parade of philosophers merely fills space.
303. 3.26Even without 'what if' and 'perhaps,' the question stands; the two words Petilian says were omitted were simply missing from Augustine's copy.
304. 3.27The word 'knowingly' only sharpens the question of the source of cleansing and faith for one unknowingly baptized by a faithless minister.
305. 3.28The question is not about Augustine; and Petilian's word 'knowingly' would actually help anyone baptized unknowingly by a sinner.
306. 3.29Mensurius died in communion before the schism; Caecilian was acquitted three times; and the imperial officials acted under laws the Donatists brought on themselves.
307. 3.30Augustine refutes the claim that he fled Africa after condemnation by the proconsul Messianus, giving the dates of his stay in Milan.
308. 3.31Petilian's insistence that Augustine could not be ignorant concedes that ignorance excuses; yet the question of the source of cleansing remains, and the Donatists rebaptize even those who could not have known anything.
309. 3.32Petilian's only answer, that the candidate should examine the baptizer, removes the excuse of ignorance and makes hope depend on the man who baptizes.
310. 3.33Making salvation depend on examining the baptizer puts hope in man; the faithful soul is subject to God, from whom alone is salvation.
311. 3.34John's case does not show that baptizers must be examined; his holiness was attested by God, and a hypocrite's self-description would deceive any such examination.
312. 3.35Testing ministers is right, but cannot prevent hidden sinners; Petilian's 'examine the baptizer' leaves those baptized by later-exposed ministers without remedy unless they are rebaptized.
313. 3.36Many ministers everywhere have been exposed after baptizing; Petilian cannot say from what source those they baptized were cleansed.
314. 3.37On Petilian's terms, those baptized by undetected Donatist sinners would receive neither faith nor guilt; yet Donatists count them faithful, so from what source did they receive faith?
315. 3.38Petilian's scriptural proofs (the eunuch, 'deceitful water', 'the oil of the sinner') are misapplied and do not answer the question.
316. 3.39Testing spirits guards against deception, not against the truth even when spoken by the wicked; Christ's baptism is his whoever ministers it.
317. 3.40The Donatist Cyprian of Thubursicubure, caught in a brothel, had baptized before exposure; those he baptized are not rebaptized, so their cleansing came from Christ, not him.
318. 3.41Baptism is never 'a sinner's' baptism; and the same prophecies that foretold Judas foretold the worldwide church.
319. 3.42Petilian evades the Maximianist question; Catholics, who glory in God not man, are secure whatever is proved against some of their members.
320. 3.43Alleged sinners among Catholics prejudge nothing against the church; and Catholic discipline does depose clergy, as many degraded men show.
321. 3.44Catholic discipline condemned Honorius of Milevis and Splendonius, whom Petilian rebaptized and ordained; the faithful are justified by God whoever baptizes them.
322. 3.45The Donatists' reception of the Maximianists, condemned by a council of 310 bishops, refutes their own principle that the guilt of some infects others.
323. 3.46Baptism given in schism is Christ's and is not repeated; what reconciliation gives is that it begins to profit, as Catholic unity offers the Donatists.
324. 3.47Petilian has never answered the central question.
325. 3.48Augustine summarizes the rest of Petilian's letter: attacks on monasticism, on Augustine's statement that Christ baptizes, magicians' names, and the case of Optatus.
326. 3.49Petilian's letter ends without answering the central question.
327. 3.50Petilian could not answer 'God cleanses' without conceding that one baptized by a hidden sinner is better off than one baptized by a good man, which reduces his view to absurdity.
328. 3.51Augustine quotes his earlier argument (1.6–1.7) that Christ, not the minister, is always the origin, root, and head of the baptized.
329. 3.52Augustine quotes his earlier reductio (1.7–1.8): on Petilian's view a secretly faithless baptizer would be preferable.
330. 3.53Augustine recalls his answer on the 'good tree' (1.9), to which Petilian made no reply.
331. 3.54Petilian presented as Augustine's own view the absurd consequence Augustine had drawn from Petilian's premise.
332. 3.55Like those who would accuse Paul of denying Christ's resurrection by quoting his reductio in 1 Cor 15, Petilian distorts Augustine's argument.
333. 3.56A conditional argument from an opponent's premise is the opponent's responsibility, as with Paul's argument in 1 Cor 15; restored to its premises, Augustine's argument condemns the Donatist view.
334. 3.57To escape the absurd consequence, the Donatists must stop placing the hope of the baptized in the baptizer.
335. 3.58If God or an angel cleanses when the minister is secretly bad, those so baptized are better off; the only escape is to deny that the minister cleanses at all.
336. 3.59Hope belongs in God who justifies; Christ baptizes not by bodily ministry but by invisible grace, cleansing the whole church through the washing of water in the word.
337. 3.60Petilian ignored most of Augustine's scriptural arguments.
338. 3.61Augustine recalls how he answered the texts Petilian had cited in the first part of his letter.
339. 3.62Augustine lists the scriptural testimonies he gave for the church, which Petilian never addressed.
340. 3.63The Corinthians too were baptized in Christ's name yet made schism over Paul's name; so Paul's rebuke fits the Donatists exactly.
341. 3.64Petilian's opening made the baptizer the origin, root, and head, yet later he concedes that Christ is origin, head, and root; so the truth has won.
342. 3.65By Petilian's own exposition of 1 Cor 3:6–7, neither catechist nor baptizer is anything, but God; yet he will not say this of Donatist bishops.
343. 3.66A minister is something for dispensing word and sacrament, but nothing for cleansing and justifying, which God alone does.
344. 3.67A bad minister is still a steward, like Judas among the apostles; Paul begot the Corinthians through the gospel, not by baptizing them, and the Lord's money is not spoiled by a bad steward.
345. 3.68Baptism and righteousness are both needed for the kingdom; Paul called the gospel 'mine' but never baptism, which is Christ's alone, so it can be received from a bad minister without harm.
346. 3.69Petilian could not answer the charge that his predecessor Silvanus of Cirta was recorded as a traitor, and so kept silent.
347. 3.70Augustine quotes his dilemma from Book 1 (1.23–1.24), to which Petilian made no answer.
348. 3.71Augustine sets out the four possibilities regarding the documents on the traitors.
349. 3.72In every case the truth favours Catholic unity: the world could not be guilty of crimes in Africa it could not know. Augustine leaves the Donatist readers to judge, his peace returning to him.