Schism and unity in the early church

The unity of the church, and schisms that broke it (Novatianists, Donatists, Meletians and others). Part of The church.

1 Clement 46.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Why is there strife among you?
1 Clement 46.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · One God, one Christ, one Spirit, one calling.
1 Clement 46.7Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Division tears apart Christ's body.
1 Clement 46.9Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The schism has harmed many and still continues.
1 Clement 47.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Paul rebuked their factions over Paul, Cephas, and Apollos.
1 Clement 47.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Their earlier partisanship was less serious.
1 Clement 47.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Now worse people have led them astray.
1 Clement 47.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The Corinthian church has rebelled against its presbyters because of one or two people.
1 Clement 51.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Seek forgiveness; the ringleaders should consider the common hope.
1 Clement 51.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The loving would rather suffer than harm others or the church's harmony.
1 Clement 51.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Better to confess than to harden one's heart like Korah's rebels.
1 Clement 54.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Let the ringleaders withdraw so the church can be at peace with its presbyters.
1 Clement 63.1Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Submit and end the faction.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3.9.9 (17.9)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Divisions may cost you your life.
To the Philadelphians 2.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Avoid division and follow the bishop as sheep follow their shepherd.
To the Philadelphians 2.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Unity protects the church from deceptive wolves.
To the Philadelphians 3.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Following a schismatic excludes one from God's kingdom.
To the Philadelphians 7.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius's call to unity came from the Spirit, not from human reports.
Against Heresies 4.33.7Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The spiritual man will judge schismatics who divide Christ’s body and all outside the Church; his own faith in Father, Son, and Spirit is consistent throughout.
Didascalia 2.43Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 2.55–56Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 6.1–2Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 6.3Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 6.4Anonymous · first half of the third century
Prescription against Heretics 42Tertullian · ca. 203 · Heretics aim to overthrow believers rather than convert pagans; they respect no authority, and their unity is itself schism, since each follows his own choice.
Fragments on Genesis, column 111Origen · ca. 220-254 · Unity is the mark of virtue and division of vice; Terah's sons; Abraham sojourns while the wicked dwell; Abraham yields to Lot and receives the promise, read spiritually.
Commentary on John 13.81Origen · ca. 230–248 · Jews represent the orthodox, Samaritans the heterodox; Gerizim means “division,” fitting the schism under Jeroboam, while Zion means “watchtower.”
Commentary on John 13.82Origen · ca. 230–248 · Gerizim as “cutting off” fits the schism; as “division” it fits the blessing, since wise distinction is needed to understand truth.
Homilies on Ezekiel 2.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · False teachers gather schismatic flocks and claim apostolic tradition, but have not risen with Christ; they will be excluded from God’s people and the land of promise.
Homilies on Ezekiel 9.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Jerome's translation in the 380s) · Sin multiplies and divides while virtue unites; Jerusalem’s sisters, Samaria and Sodom, stand for heresy and paganism, which become the sinful believer’s kin.
Homilies on Leviticus 4.8Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ is the one sacrifice whose flesh sanctifies all who touch it in faith, as the woman with the flow of blood did; only 'males', mature souls, may eat it, and only within the church, not among schismatics.
Instructions 2.13Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Those who flee from the church to a barbarian king and to idols separate themselves and are to be rejected.
Instructions 2.25Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The peace after persecution is a hidden war, and leaders who led the people into schism have become soldiers of another than Christ.
Commentary on Romans 2.6Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Paul says God 'will render' eternal life but does not say he renders wrath, because punishment comes from sinners' own deeds as sickness comes from intemperance, not from the doctor; contention is the worst sickness of the soul, and the narrow heart is the devil's lair while the enlarged heart is God's dwelling.
Commentary on Romans 10.35Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Those who sow dissension serve their belly, flattering for gain; the Romans' indiscriminate obedience, though a good disposition, must learn discernment, which comes only from training in Scripture, to obey God rather than men and to tell sheep from wolves.
To Quirinus 3.86Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Schism is forbidden even for those who keep the same faith and tradition, since the church is one house.
Letter 3.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Deacons, appointed by the apostles, must respect bishops, whom the Lord chose; the insolent deacon must do penance or be deposed or excluded, though patience is preferred.
Letter 41.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian learns that the deacon Felicissimus, already guilty of fraud, is splitting the church by obstructing the relief Cyprian's deputies were distributing and threatening those who accepted it.
Letter 41.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Felicissimus has formed a faction; he is excluded from communion, also on a charge of adultery, and anyone who joins him, including Augendus, cuts himself off from the church.
Letter 43.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian tells the whole people that the old opposition to his election among certain presbyters has kept him from returning before Easter, but they have now cut themselves off from the church.
Letter 43.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · There is one God, one Christ, one church, and one chair founded on Peter; a rival altar is sacrilege, and those who offer the lapsed a false peace are blind guides.
Letter 44.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian refused to let Novatian's envoys attack Cornelius in public; they are now spreading schism in Africa, but once a bishop is lawfully made, no other can be appointed.
Letter 45.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Since Novatian's party has set up a rival bishop, Cyprian, after confirming the facts, has written to recognize Cornelius and asked the other African bishops to do the same.
Letter 46.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian grieves that the Roman confessors have backed the making of a second bishop and so a second church, and begs them to return to their mother the church.
Letter 49.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cornelius reports with joy that the confessors misled by Novatian have come back, admitting that they signed his slanderous letters and consented to his ordination.
Letter 49.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Before presbyters, five bishops, and the people, the returning confessors acknowledge Cornelius as the one bishop and are received back; Maximus resumes his rank as presbyter.
Letter 51.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian thanks God that Maximus and the other confessors have returned from schism to the catholic church, keeping their glory unstained.
Letter 52.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian describes Novatus as a lifelong troublemaker who stirred schism at Carthage and then at Rome, robbed widows and orphans, neglected his dying father, and caused his wife's miscarriage by a kick.
Letter 55.24Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Whatever Novatian teaches, he is outside the church and not a bishop: the episcopate is one, spread through many bishops in concord, and he who breaks from it has neither the power nor the honor of a bishop.
Letter 59.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Heresies and schisms come from disobedience to the one bishop who judges in Christ's place; a bishop lawfully made is made by God's will, while those made outside the church are not.
Letter 59.7Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Defections were foretold; when disciples left Jesus, Peter, on whom the church was built, answered for the church that it would never leave Christ; those who leave were never truly of the church.
Letter 59.9Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian explains why he had not hastened to report the schismatic bishop Fortunatus, one of five excommunicated presbyters: the African bishops had already sent Rome the list of lawful bishops, and his letter was overtaken by Felicissimus.
Letter 59.14Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The schismatics dare to carry their case to the chair of Peter and the principal church at Rome, though it was agreed that each case be heard where the offense occurred, and the African bishops have already judged them.
Letter 59.20Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The faithful should shun the schismatics' company, as Scripture commands; if they come with penance they will be heard, if with threats rejected.
Letter 66.8Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Only chaff has left the church; as Peter answered for the church, the church never leaves Christ: the bishop is in the church and the church in the bishop, and the one catholic church is bound together by its bishops.
Letter 69.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Answering Magnus, Cyprian holds that Novatian, like all heretics and schismatics, is outside the church and among the antichrists, so his baptism is no baptism.
Letter 69.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The Passover eaten in one house and Rahab's house show that salvation is only inside the one church; the heretic condemns himself by leaving it.
Letter 69.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · One flock and one shepherd: a self-made bishop is outside God's house, and even the eucharistic bread and wine, made of many grains and grapes, signify the church's unity.
Letter 69.6Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The schism of the ten tribes under Jeroboam, punished by God, and Christ's command to avoid Samaria show that schismatics are no better than gentiles.
Letter 69.8Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Korah, Dathan, and Abiram worshiped the same God yet were destroyed for usurping the priesthood; schismatics who seize the right to baptize and offer are worse.
Letter 72.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Clergy who went into schism or were ordained by heretics may be readmitted only as lay communicants, not keep their office.
Letter 74.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian mocks Stephen's appeal to heretics' own practice; since church, Spirit, and baptism are one and inseparable, baptism cannot exist among heretics.
Letter 74.8Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian asks whether a bishop who honors blasphemers' baptism and excludes faithful bishops gives honor to God, and warns that such advocacy makes heresies flourish.
Letter 75.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Angels rejoice at unity and grieve at division; Stephen's harshness has at least revealed the Africans' faith, though he deserves no credit, any more than Judas.
Letter 75.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · God unites his people across distance, as he joined Noah, Job, Daniel, and Ezekiel across ages; those who divide themselves from God's unity perish.
Letter 75.24Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Firmilian accuses Stephen of stirring up strife across the world and, by excommunicating so many, of cutting himself off, contrary to Paul's call to unity.
Letter 75.25Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Firmilian mocks Stephen's “gentleness” in refusing even hospitality to the African envoys, argues that one baptism requires one God, faith, and church, and reports that Stephen called Cyprian a false apostle.
On Rebaptism 1Anonymous · ca. 250–258 (disputed) · The anonymous writer states the question whether converts baptized by heretics in Christ's name need only the bishop's laying on of hands or must be baptized again, and defends the ancient custom against the innovators.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 3Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · The devil, defeated by Christ, invented heresies and schisms to deceive people under the Christian name.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 5Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · The bishops must uphold unity: the episcopate is one, held jointly by each, and the church is one like a sun with many rays or a spring with many streams.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 7Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Christ's seamless tunic, not torn at the cross, signifies the church's unity, unlike Ahijah's torn garment, which signified Israel's division.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 8Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · There is one flock and one shepherd; like Rahab's house and the Passover lamb eaten in one house, salvation is found only within the one church.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 10Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · God permits heresies to test the faithful; schismatics make themselves bishops without lawful ordination.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 12Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Christ's promise to be with 'two or three' applies only to those praying in unity within the church, not to schismatics.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 14Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · A schismatic who dies for the name is not a martyr, since without charity and unity even martyrdom profits nothing.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 17Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Believers must shun schismatics, who set up a rival altar and profane the Lord's sacrifice.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 23Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian begs those misled by schism to return, for there is one God, one Christ, one church, and nothing cut off from it can live.
Against Novatian 2Anonymous · after 251 (disputed) · Novatian's schism is poverty, not wealth; like Noah's ark, the one church holds clean and unclean alike, and the raven that never returned figures the apostates, while the returning dove figures those who come back.
Opinions of the Bishops 5Cyprian of Carthage · 1 September 256 · Nemesianus of Thubunae argues from many Scriptures that heretics must be born again of water and the Spirit in the one catholic church, since both sacraments, and not the laying on of hands alone, are needed.
Church History 4.22.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Hegesippus (quoted): from them came false Christs, prophets, and apostles who divided the church.
Church History 5.24.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Other bishops sharply urged Victor to keep peace.
Church History 5.24.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus, a peacemaker as his name implies, wrote to many church leaders about the controversy.
Church History 6.45.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius urged Novatian to end the schism: dying to avoid schism is a greater martyrdom than dying to avoid idolatry.
Church History 7.5.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius: the churches of the East, once divided, are united under their bishops.
Church History 10.5.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Constantine encloses the documents and urges the bishops to settle the case justly, since he wants no schism anywhere in the catholic church.
Fragment 1Peter of Alexandria · ca. 300–311 · Peter warns the church of Alexandria not to communicate with Meletius, who has intruded into his see and ordained clergy for himself in prison.
Divine Institutes 4.30.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Some believers caused schism through weak faith, ignorance, or carelessness.
Divine Institutes 4.30.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Some, failing to gain the episcopate, broke away with their supporters.
Divine Institutes 4.30.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Sects named after men have ceased to be Christian.
Letter of the Egyptian bishops to MeletiusAnonymous · ca. 306 · Four imprisoned Egyptian bishops rebuke Meletius for ordaining clergy in parishes not his own, against the ancient law, the honour of their bishop Peter, and Paul's warning to Timothy, while they and Peter suffered persecution.
Narrative of the Meletian schism (anonymous fragment)Anonymous · ca. 306 · An anonymous narrative: Meletius ignored the letter, entered Alexandria after the bishops' martyrdom, and with the help of Isidore and Arius set aside Peter's presbyters and ordained his own, so that Peter wrote to the people.
Letter of Peter of Alexandria to the people of AlexandriaAnonymous · ca. 306 · Peter of Alexandria warns his people not to hold communion with Meletius, who has invaded his see and ordained clergy, until the matter is examined.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.18.28Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The mountain's division can also figure the church's schisms, heresies, and moral failings, split into two better and two worse parts.
Letter 1.1Alexander of Alexandria · ca. 319–324 · Alexander warns his fellow bishop that Arius and Achillas, after forming a schism and denying Christ's divinity, have been expelled from the church of Alexandria.
Section 1Anonymous · 325 · The synod of Nicaea tells the church of Alexandria that Arius's teaching was anathematized and that Melitius may keep only the bare title of bishop in his own city.
Section 2Anonymous · 325 · Clergy ordained by Melitius are received after a further laying on of hands but rank below Alexander's clergy; the East is to keep Easter with Rome and Alexandria.
Demonstration 14.12Aphrahat · 337-345 · As the serpent seduced Eve and was cursed, so seducers and troublemakers have arisen in the church, full of the serpent's venom.
Demonstration 14.13Aphrahat · 337-345 · Envy and strife ruined a long line of biblical figures from Cain to Haman, and finally scattered Israel.
Demonstration 14.30Aphrahat · 337-345 · The brothers are urged to pursue peace, since good and evil cannot be joined, and peacemakers will be called sons of God.
Demonstration 14.37Aphrahat · 337-345 · Unlike the rest of creation, people transgress; a long catalogue denounces troublemakers in the church as greedy, deceitful, and divisive enemies of Christ.
Life of Constantine 3.12.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Division in the church is worse than any war.
Life of Constantine 3.59.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · A dispute split the church at Antioch and nearly led to violence.
Canon 5Anonymous · 341 · A presbyter or deacon who sets up a separate congregation against his bishop and ignores repeated summons is to be deposed, and if he persists, restrained by the civil power.
Canon 33Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Christians are not to pray with heretics or schismatics.
Historical Fragments 1.4.1.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Eastern bishops pray for the church's unity and for the firm keeping of church rules, especially on bishops.
Catechetical Lecture 15.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Division among Christians prepares for the Antichrist; the apostasy Paul foretold is already present in the heresies that confuse Father and Son or make the Son a creature.
Defence against the Arians 11Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · The bishops show that the charge of the broken chalice is impossible: Ischyras’s house was no church, he was no presbyter, and it was not the Lord’s day.
Defence against the Arians 19Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · The Egyptian bishops ask the bishops everywhere to accept their testimony for Athanasius, to reject Eusebius’s party, who have set up a bishop for the Arians, and to disregard letters signed in the names of Egyptian bishops.
Defence against the Arians 59Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · Athanasius recounts the origin of the Meletian schism, Eusebius’s alliance with the Meletians, Constantine’s threatening letter, and the charge of treason dismissed at Psammathia.
Defence against the Arians 69Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · Arsenius, the bishop supposedly murdered by Athanasius, writes to him submitting to the catholic Church and breaking communion with the Meletian schismatics.
Defence against the Arians 70Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · Athanasius quotes Constantine’s letter welcoming John Arcaph’s reconciliation, then tells how Eusebius’s party revived the Meletian charges at Tyre, and gives Meletius’s own list of his clergy, which shows that Ischyras was never a presbyter.
Long recension, Ephesians 5Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius praises the Ephesians' union with their bishop, warns against separating from the common worship, and urges obedience to bishop, presbyters and deacons.
Long recension, Philadelphians 2Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius urges the Philadelphians to flee division and heresy and to follow their shepherd.
Long recension, Philadelphians 3Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius warns against schismatics and false teachers, urges the Philadelphians to receive the penitent gently, and forbids violence against God's enemies.
Long recension, Philadelphians 7Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius recalls how the Spirit moved him to cry out at Philadelphia: do nothing without the bishop.
Letters 8Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Athanasius tells the monks to shun not only Arians but also those who claim orthodoxy yet pray with Arians.
On Not Agreeing with Heretics 1Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Answering the charge that the Nicene bishops are enemies of peace, Lucifer argues from Moses' tent set outside the camp that the faithful must separate from the Arians.
History of the Arians 78Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius describes the Meletians chosen as bishops: pagans and councillors seeking tax immunity, uncatechized and ready to become Arians at the emperor’s word.
Letter 59Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil breaks a long silence with his uncle Gregory, a bishop estranged from him, and begs him to restore peace for the churches' sake.
Letter 65Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil breaks the silence with Atarbius, urging him to love, peace, and communion with other bishops against the common danger to the churches.
Letter 66Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil urges Athanasius to win the support of the Western bishops for the East and to heal the schism at Antioch.
Letter 67Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil asks Athanasius to support Meletius as the rightful bishop of Antioch, around whom the divided Nicene parties should unite.
Letter 69Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil sends Dorotheus to Athanasius, proposes asking the bishop of Rome to send envoys and to condemn Marcellus of Ancyra, and urges unity at Antioch.
Letters 81, 82Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil offers bishop Innocent a holy presbyter as his successor; a second letter asks Athanasius to write to the Eastern bishops seeking communion, offering to hold the letters until they reply.
Letter 92Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · A joint letter of thirty-two Eastern bishops to the bishops of Italy and Gaul describing the Arian ruin of the Eastern churches and begging them to send a synod to restore the Nicene faith and heal the schisms.
Letters 97, 98Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells the senate of Tyana that he seeks only peace and needs his brothers' fellowship; a second letter tells Eusebius of his plans to meet Meletius, his talk with Eustathius, and Gregory of Nyssa's small see.
Letter 99Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells Count Terentius how he met Eustathius and found him orthodox, how Theodotus of Nicopolis then shut him out and insulted him, and what little he could do in Armenia.
Letter 119Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil asks Eustathius of Sebasteia not to believe the slanders of monks who have deserted him, and to restrain Sophronius from widening the breach.
Letter 128Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil refuses to be reconciled with Eustathius's party until it answers plainly whether it holds communion with those who reject Nicaea and call the Spirit a creature.
Letter 151Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil answers the physician Eustathius, who urged reconciliation with the Eustathians: he grieves at the separation but bears it, putting God and truth first.
Letters 202, 203Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil, too ill to travel, excuses himself to Amphilochius; then (Letter 203) he appeals to the bishops of the sea coast, estranged from him by slanders, to restore communion and love or to meet him and examine the charges.
Letter 204Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil appeals to the church of Neocaesarea, estranged from him by slander, to examine the charges fairly, recalling their common teachers (Gregory Thaumaturgus, Macrina), his orthodoxy, and his communion with bishops throughout the world.
Letter 214Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil warns Count Terentius against the party of Paulinus at Antioch and its Western letters, defends Meletius, and explains why speaking of one hypostasis in God gives ground to Sabellianism: essence is common, hypostasis particular.
Letters 219, 220Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil urges the clergy of Samosata to end their quarrels and make peace; a second letter, to the Beroeans, whose heading is lost, praises their steadfastness and urges them not to lose heart.
Letter 223Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil breaks three years of silence to answer Eustathius of Sebaste and his party, describing his own conversion to the ascetic life and his long trust in them, denying their charge of heresy based on an old letter, and exposing their real motive for the breach.
Letter 224Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil tells the presbyter Genethlius that the Eustathians who broke with him have attached heretical writings to their letters to make them look like his, denies any communion with Apollinarius, and points to the creed they signed and then abandoned.
Letter 226Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil writes to his own ascetics, breaking three years of silence about the slanders of Eustathius's party, exposing their shifts of allegiance, defending the Nicene homoousios and his teaching on the Holy Spirit, and urging them not to believe one-sided accusations.
Letter 258Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil thanks Epiphanius for his concern about the divided monks on the Mount of Olives, says he will add nothing to the Nicene creed but the glorifying of the Spirit, explains his loyalty to Meletius in the Antiochene schism, welcomes Epiphanius's confession of three hypostases, and describes the Magusaeans of Cappadocia.
Letter 231Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory urges an official to reconcile the divided Churches, having himself withdrawn like Jonah to calm the storm; then he asks the Gothic general Modarius to work for peace at the synod.
Tractates on the Psalms 119.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The real distresses are the influences that drag us into sin, worldly ambition, idleness, false religion, schism, and heresy; crying to God against them is the beginning of salvation.
Tractates on the Psalms 132.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Brothers dwelling in unity means not shared houses but the church, God's house, united in love.
Tractates on the Psalms 138.45Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Deceitful teachers are heretics, contentious and destructive, who gather churches in vain through schism and are guilty of the souls they lose.
Commentary on Ephesians 4.2Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Humility, gentleness, patience, and magnanimity are to be joined to mutual forbearance in love and zeal for the unity of the spirit, since the church is one body with one spirit and one hope.
Tome to the Antiochenes 1Athanasius of Alexandria · 362 · The council of Alexandria (362) writes to the bishops sent to Antioch, rejoicing that many wish to return to communion and praying for one faith among all.
Tome to the Antiochenes 8Athanasius of Alexandria · 362 · The council urges that those who explain their terms in an orthodox sense be received, and that all stop quarreling over words.
Oration 2.38Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · A long stretch of the oration: right teaching on the Trinity, the difficulty of teaching mixed congregations, the presumption of untrained teachers, Paul as the model pastor, the prophets' warnings against bad shepherds, the greatness of the priesthood, and the strife that disgraces the church.
Oration 2.39Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory fears no persecutor, but feels helpless before the church's internal strife, which made him withdraw.
Oration 6.3Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory lists the griefs of the schism and celebrates the regained unity, offering his speech to God as his thanksgiving.
Oration 6.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory gives thanks that God used the division to teach the value of peace and restored the body's unity.
Oration 6.10Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The church of Nazianzus, long a peaceful ark amid the controversies, fell into schism last and was healed first.
Oration 6.11Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The father's party accepted the separated party's leaders in love, and the monks accepted the father's orthodoxy despite the creed he had signed; both had kept the same faith in the Trinity.
Oration 6.12Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Agreement about God is the strongest bond of concord; God and the angels are at peace, and the devil works through faction.
Oration 6.17Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Israel prospered while united and fell through faction; Gregory distinguishes good from bad peace, urges reconciliation with the father, and ends with a confession of the Trinity.
Oration 21.35Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory praises Athanasius for reconciling Greeks and Latins who used different terms (hypostasis, person) for the same faith, describes his death, and closes with a prayer to him.
Oration 22.2Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory says the worst of present calamities, worse even than barbarian invasion, is the loss of peace in the Church, while even robbers and rival schools keep the peace among themselves.
Oration 22.3Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory asks why Christians, who worship the God of love, quarrel even with those of the same faith, judging the same man holy one day and wicked the next out of contentiousness.
Oration 22.7Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory laments the Church’s self-inflicted sickness and warns that its divisions may open the way for Antichrist.
Oration 22.14Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory deplores the split of the Church into two hostile camps, places himself among the moderates attacked by both, and traces peace from the Trinity through the angels and creation to the human soul and body.
Oration 26.18Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory, unafraid of his enemies, laments the clergy who joined the schism of Maximus, and closes with a prayer to the Trinity for their return.
Oration 32.2Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory names peace as the finest and most profitable thing in Christian teaching and discord as the most harmful, and asks what causes each.
Oration 32.3Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory, as a physician of souls, traces discord to zeal without knowledge: noble, spirited souls do great good when trained by reason, and great harm without it.
Oration 32.5Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory says zeal without knowledge has split the Church into parties and multiplied rival views of Christ and the Spirit, and states the faith in one God the Father, one Son, and one Spirit.
Oration 42.21Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory laments the factions that divide East and West, compares church parties to circus factions, answers those who blame him for not taking revenge on the Arians and for lacking episcopal pomp, and asks for a successor who will please the many.
Oration 43.28Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Basil's bishop, Eusebius, grew jealous of him; the monks and many of the people were ready to secede in Basil's support.
Oration 43.29Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Rather than divide the church, Basil withdrew with Gregory to Pontus and the monastic life.
Oration 43.55Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · When Cappadocia was divided into two provinces, the bishop of the new metropolis, Tyana, claimed jurisdiction and revenues, and even seized Basil's mules, under the pretext of doctrine.
Homilies 23.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · The hirelings are those who lead for their own profit, then and now; Basil condemns schism over Christ's words and turns to the heretics' use of “I know my own and my own know me.”
Against Parmenian the Donatist 1.10Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Optatus agrees that heretics lack the church's endowments, being outside the one bride of the Song of Songs, but argues that Parmenian, by joining schismatics to heretics, condemned his own party, since the Donatists are the ones who broke away from Caecilian.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 1.19Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The Numidian bishops came to Carthage, could prove nothing against Caecilian, and with Lucilla's support ordained her household member Maiorinus as a rival bishop, setting up altar against altar.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 1.21Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Optatus argues that schism is the worst of sins: God spared Cain and Nineveh, but the schismatics Korah, Dathan and Abiram were swallowed alive by the earth.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 2.5Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Expounding Ps 1:1, Optatus says the Donatists walked in the counsel of the ungodly, stood in the way of sinners and sat in the chair of pestilence, and he gathers texts on peace to show they have rejected it, so that the church's endowments are with the Catholics.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 2.9Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The five endowments belong to the Catholic Church throughout the world, and so also to the Catholics in Africa; the Donatists are branches cut off from the tree.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 3.1Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Optatus begins Book 3 on the union of 347: the harsh measures are to be blamed on the Donatist leaders who provoked them, and the Donatists fled though no one was asked to deny God.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 3.9Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Only Africa needed the union, because only there had the garment of the church been torn; the mender who pricks some threads is less to blame than the one who tore it, and Catholics and Donatists still share the same sacraments.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 3.10Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The Donatist party is the ruinous whitewashed wall of Ezekiel 13, built by false prophets who cry "Peace" without peace; the measures under Ursacius, Gregory and Macarius were the storm, rain and stones God threatened against it.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 4.2Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Catholics and Donatists remain brothers, born of one mother church through the same sacraments, and the Lord's Prayer, spoken in the plural, makes each pray for the other.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 4.3Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The sinner of Psalm 50 is identified by what follows: one who despises discipline, slanders his brother and sides with thieves and adulterers, which fits the Donatists.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 7.3Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Peter, who denied Christ three times after professing him, still received the keys and was kept in the apostles' communion for the sake of unity, a pattern that shows the church must receive the Donatists.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 7.5Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Parmenian likened the Donatists to Moses and the Catholics to his opponents Jannes and Jambres, but the order is the reverse: the Catholic Church came first, and the Donatist founders, once salt of the earth, lost their savor by schism.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul urges the whole church to return to the one faith they had received.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Factions named after men divide Christ, as the heretical sects of Ambrosiaster's day do by claiming parts of the one God-man.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:20–22Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Factions claimed their own offerings at the Eucharist, shaming the poor; the offering belongs to the whole people as one bread.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 13:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Prophecy, knowledge and miracle-working faith profit nothing without love, as Balaam, Caiaphas, Saul, Judas, the devil, the Pharisees, Tertullian and Novatian show.
Commentary on Ephesians 4:4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Because the church is one body with one faith, its people should be of one mind.
Commentary on Ephesians 4:5–6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · One Lord, faith, baptism, and God and Father require one mind in the church; the Father dwells in believers by confession and the Spirit.
Epigram 37Damasus I of Rome · 366–384 · Epigram on Hippolytus, said to have been a presbyter in schism who at his martyrdom told his followers to return to the catholic church.
Question 102, section 28Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Even if some Catholic clergy were sinful, the truth they hand on is still true, and persecutors themselves recognize Catholics as Christians by their confession, so Novatian’s schism has no just cause.
Question 110, section 7Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Rival bishops who set up seats outside or against the church, breaking the succession that began with Peter, also sit in the chair of pestilence and will be punished like Korah and Uzziah.
Letter 16.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Pressed by Arians and the three rival factions at Antioch, Jerome again asks Damasus to tell him with whom to be in communion.
Letter 133.12Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome invites scrutiny of his own writings and calls on the Pelagian teacher either to defend his views openly or to confess his error for the sake of unity.
Letter 146.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues from Scripture and Alexandrian custom that presbyters and bishops were originally the same office and that deacons rank below presbyters.
Letter 149.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer interprets the new moons and the sacrificial animals spiritually and closes by warning against schism.
Synodal Letter 98Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · The Spirit is not a creature but is named in baptism; the synod confesses one principle and three hypostases, urges peace and unity, and requires the Spirit to be glorified with the Father and the Son.
On the Holy Spirit 30.76Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Basil likens the present state of the churches to a naval battle fought in a storm, where friend and foe are confused and ambition persists as the ship sinks.
On the Holy Spirit 30.77Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · The Arian controversy has split the churches into warring factions: bishops exiled, doctrine twisted to both extremes, self-appointed men seizing office, and no one willing to obey.
Ancoratus 14.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Melitians split over the readmission of the lapsed.
Ancoratus 14.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Audians are schismatics, not heretics, over the image of God, wealth, and Easter's date.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.2.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Refused, Marcion vowed to divide the church, but divided only himself and his followers.
Apostolic Canon 31Anonymous · ca. 380 · A presbyter who sets up a rival altar without cause is deposed.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.44.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Bishops must be united and teach their people to be of one mind.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.1.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Bishops must flee heresies and schisms.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.4.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · If schismatics were punished at once, heretics who blaspheme God's providence and creation will be punished more severely.
Book of Heresies 90.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Meletians communicated with both heretics and catholics and were excluded.
Section 4Anonymous · 382 · The bishops report the canonical ordinations of Nectarius at Constantinople, Flavian at Antioch, and Cyril at Jerusalem and ask the West to accept them for the sake of unity.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 1Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · An account of the Roman schism: when Liberius was exiled for refusing to condemn Athanasius, the clergy broke their oath and accepted the archdeacon Felix in his place; Liberius returned after consenting to the emperor's faith, and Felix was driven out.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 3Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · Damasus's partisans stormed the basilica of Liberius on 26 October 366, killing 160 of Ursinus's supporters; the survivors appealed to the emperor and the bishops to depose him.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 4Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · Ursinus was briefly recalled in 367 but exiled again; Damasus's men attacked his followers at Saint Agnes, the Italian bishops refused to condemn Ursinus unheard, and the presbyters Faustinus and Marcellinus, scattered in exile, addressed their petition to the emperors.
Letter 33.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine laments that the schism divides Christian households and that bishops who settle worldly disputes cannot agree about Christ himself.
Letter 43.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine imagines the counsel Secundus should have given: leave the cases to God or bring them before the churches overseas, rather than create a schism.
Letter 43.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine charges the Donatists with schism and rebaptism and argues that tolerating the wicked in the church for the sake of unity does not defile the good.
Letter 43.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine points to the Donatists' own toleration of Circumcellion violence and of Optatus, and argues that schism is punished more severely than idolatry.
Letter 43.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine compares the Maximianist schism against Primian with the Donatist schism against Caecilian and asks the Donatists to judge both alike.
Letter 51.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine proposes to the Donatist bishop Crispinus a debate by letter and argues that Scripture punishes schism more severely than idolatry or burning the sacred books.
Letter 51.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine presses Crispinus with the Donatists' reception of Felicianus and Praetextatus, condemned as Maximianist schismatics, back into their sees.
Letter 53.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Fortunatus, Alypius, and Augustine answer a Donatist presbyter who claimed an angel told him to write to Generosus, citing Paul's curse on any other gospel.
Letter 69.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Alypius and Augustine praise Maximian, a convert from Donatism, for resigning as bishop of Bagai to avoid dissension in the church.
Letter 76.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine, speaking for the Catholic Church, urges the Donatists to accept the worldwide Church promised in Scripture rather than unproved charges about the surrender of the sacred books.
Letter 76.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from the parable of the wheat and tares that the Donatists separated themselves wrongly, and summarizes the origins of the schism and its condemnation at Rome, Arles, and by Constantine.
Letter 87.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine writes to the Donatist bishop Emeritus, arguing that the churches overseas cannot be defiled by African crimes they never knew of, any more than Donatists are defiled by hidden sinners among them.
Letter 87.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that no one is defiled by unknown sinners, and that even known sinners do not harm the good who mourn their sins, as Ezekiel and Paul show.
Letter 87.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that the Donatists, by tolerating Optatus to avoid dividing their own party, condemn their own original division of the Church, a sin punished in Korah’s rebels.
Letter 87.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from Romans 13 that the state rightly punishes evil, and that the Donatists suffer not for righteousness but for the evil of schism.
Letter 93.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The worldwide church could not be guilty of crimes it never knew; the bad are to be tolerated for the sake of the good, as the prophets, Christ, the apostles and Cyprian did.
Letter 93.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If separation could be just, the Donatists cannot know whether some unknown group elsewhere separated justly before them; their claim rests only on their own testimony.
Letter 93.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If Vincentius values Cyprian, he should follow him in loving unity, refusing to separate the tares early, and not breaking communion over disagreement.
Letter 93.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If sharing sacraments with sinners destroyed the church, it perished before Cyprian and Donatus were born; so the Donatist separation has no excuse.
Letter 93.41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Cyprian records that earlier African bishops who refused reconciliation to adulterers still did not break communion with those who granted it.
Letter 93.42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Whichever side was right about reconciling adulterers, neither defiled the other by communion; so no one is stained by others' sins in the unity of Christ.
Letter 93.45Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Even setting Tyconius aside, Cyprian's writings show that no one is stained by others' sins in the church's unity.
Letter 105.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Catholics correct the bad where they can and tolerate the rest without sharing their sins, as Christ's parables of the tares, chaff and net teach, and as he bade obey bad leaders' teaching.
Letter 108.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks the Donatist bishop Macrobius why he rebaptizes Catholics when his own party accepted the baptism given by the Maximianist Felicianus.
Letter 108.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine turns Macrobius's refusal to judge his predecessor against the Donatist demand that the whole church judge Caecilian.
Letter 108.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine praises the Donatists' own acceptance of Felicianus's baptism and argues that Macrobius cannot refuse to judge Primian while judging the whole world for Caecilian.
Letter 108.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine recounts how the Council of Bagai condemned Maximian and his ordainers, yet the Donatists later received Felicianus and Praetextatus in their honors without rebaptizing those they had baptized.
Letter 108.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine quotes Cyprian's warning that only the Lord may separate wheat from tares, and that those who presume to do so perish from the church.
Letter 108.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that the Donatists' lenient treatment of the Maximianists refutes their claim that the whole world was polluted by Caecilian.
Letter 108.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that any honest Donatist defense of the Maximianist affair must adopt the Catholic principles on baptism, tolerance of the wicked, and moderate coercion.
Letter 108.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine lists the evils of the schism, which divides the flock, married couples, and neighbors at the very altar.
Letter 108.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine appeals to Macrobius to keep the peace of Christ, citing the ark in which clean and unclean animals were carried together until the flood ended.
Letter 128.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Catholic bishops pledge to give up their sees if the Donatists prove their case, and offer the Donatist bishops their episcopal rank if they join Catholic unity.
Letter 128.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Catholic bishops propose that former Donatist bishops share sees with Catholic bishops, or that both resign for the sake of unity.
Letter 141.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · When the Maximianist schism was raised, the Donatists themselves declared that 'neither case prejudices case nor person person,' which concedes the Catholic argument about Caecilian.
Letter 144.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine offers the doubtful a dilemma: whether or not the Donatist case was tried overseas, separation from the worldwide Church is indefensible; he hopes to visit.
Letter 170.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Maximus to bring his household with him into the Catholic Church.
Letter 173.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Outside the church's unity and love, even martyrdom by fire profits nothing.
Letter 185.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The parable's two stages, “bring in” then “compel,” show that compulsion belongs to the church's later age; the banquet is the unity of Christ's body.
Letter 208.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says good and bad are mixed in the Church's flock until Christ separates them, and that the Donatists, by separating early, cut themselves off from unity.
Letter 208.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Christ's sheep hear his voice even through bad pastors, doing what they teach but not what they do, and imitate good pastors without placing their hope in them.
Letter 249.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine recommends to the deacon Restitutus Tyconius's treatment of tolerating evil in the Church for the sake of unity, while pointing him to Scripture itself.
Canon 8Anonymous · 390 · A presbyter who, after being disciplined, sets up a separate altar is anathematized and expelled from the city; his complaint against his bishop goes to the neighbouring bishops.
Tractates on Matthew 3.7Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that peacemakers are those who keep the peace and unity of the Catholic Church and seek to restore those who dissent.
On True Religion 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine contrasts the philosophers, who kept rites in common with the people while disagreeing in doctrine, with the Church, which does not share the sacraments with heretics, and concludes that true religion is found only among catholic Christians.
On True Religion 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine describes how the catholic Church makes use of pagans, heretics, schismatics and Jews, tolerates carnal members as chaff, and how good men unjustly expelled should remain loyal without forming separate assemblies.
Sermon 3.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Hagar and Ishmael are figures of heretics and schismatics: Ishmael's "play" was persecution, and those who have baptism outside the Church will not inherit unless they return.
Sermon 4.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Heresies and schisms, including the Donatists, arise from the carnal, who lack love; they are Esau, who lives by the sword of division.
Sermon 4.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Schismatics live and die by the sword of division; those inside the Church who love honor are chaff, while the true grain bears with them until the end.
Sermon 8.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Sanctification comes from the Holy Spirit, to whom the number seven belongs (seven gifts, Pentecost after seven weeks); those who break unity, like Pharaoh's magicians, do not have the Spirit.
Sermon 10.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Solomon's threat to divide the child teaches that we must contend for the truth against hypocrisy, but never to the point of dividing the Church's unity.
Sermon 10.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The greatest proof of love is to give up one's own honor rather than divide the Church; even hypocrites in the Church nourish believers with the milk of Scripture, and love will be rewarded at the last judgment.
Sermon 37.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Church’s precious stones are her learned teachers; Cyprian stayed in her setting, but Donatus fell out of it and, lacking charity, became a worthless stone.
Sermon 46.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Heresies are scattered in different lands, all born of pride, while the one Catholic Church, born of love and spread everywhere like a vine, seeks the straying of every sect and can graft back the cut-off branches.
Sermon 46.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God says “I will feed,” not because good shepherds are lacking, but because all good shepherds are one in Christ, as Peter, entrusted with the sheep after confessing his love, represented the unity of the Church.
Sermon 46.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Donatists misdivide Song 1:7–8: “at noon” belongs to the bride’s question, and the bridegroom’s answer, “Unless you know yourself, go out and feed your kids,” warns against the heretics, former table-companions who set up altar against altar.
Sermon 46.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even granting that the “South” is Africa, the verse fits a Catholic from overseas asking where Christ’s true flock is in divided Africa; the reply “know yourself” means know the Church in the whole world, and those who “go out” feed goats, not sheep.
Sermon 47.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Donatist who calls himself righteous is the “bad son” of Proverbs who cannot wash away his going out from the Church spread through the whole world; let him return and bear fruit in Catholic peace.
Sermon 47.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The sheep who hear the shepherd will not be devoured by the heretics who twist Scripture; God plants peace in a Church spread through the world, while the Donatists starve beside the food of Scripture.
Sermon 71.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Heresies and schisms do not divide Christ’s kingdom; the devil’s kingdom is divided, but only those who depart from iniquity belong to Christ.
Sermon 71.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those separated from the Church do not have the Spirit; quarrelsome Christians within the Church have him, though as carnal little ones they do not yet understand.
Sermon 71.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those baptized in schism are not rebaptized when they enter the Catholic Church, but only within it do they receive the Spirit’s unity; outside, the sacraments have the form without the power.
Sermon 71.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In Matthew the saying follows “he who does not gather with me scatters,” showing that the unforgivable blasphemy is impenitent resistance to the unity of the Church.
Sermon 88.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whoever leaves the unity of the Church violates charity; the parable of the weeds shows that the field is the whole world, not Africa, and that the Church must bear the bad until the harvest.
Sermon 88.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The command to “go out” from the unclean means refusing consent and rebuking sin, not bodily separation from the Church, as the usage of the phrase and the example of the saints show.
Sermon 88.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The prophets and Moses did not separate themselves from a sinful people but rebuked them and, like Moses after the golden calf, interceded for them.
Sermon 88.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Departing from the bad means departing in heart, not leaving the Church as the Donatists did; the prophet who gave the command stayed among his people and rebuked them.
Sermon 112.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Putting away pride, curiosity, and fleshly pleasure, let the poor, weak, lame, and blind come to the supper; the Gentiles came from the streets, and heretics are to be compelled to come in from the hedges of division, for will is born within once necessity is applied outside.
Sermon 138.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The bride asks where her bridegroom feeds at noon, that is, who are his wise and fervent ones, so that she may not fall in with the flocks of his “companions,” those who share his sacraments but have gone out in schism.
Sermon 138.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The bridegroom answers sternly: unless the Church knows that she is one, spread through all nations, and chaste, she must go out after the flocks of the schismatic “shepherds”; so warned, she is strengthened.
Sermon 146.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The newly baptized must not imitate bad Christians; the sheep are Christ’s, not the pastors’; schismatics who baptize outside the Church put Christ’s mark on stolen sheep, and the Song of Songs bids them go out with their own kids.
Sermon 164.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Donatists, who refuse communion with Catholics in order to stay holy, carry heavier burdens of schism, slander, and animosity, and refuse to put them down.
Sermon 164.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Others' sins do not justify leaving the Church, a flock and threshing floor mixed of good and bad; sharing Christ's table with a sinner does not share his sin, though church judges must still discipline the convicted.
Sermon 183.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Donatists who confess the orthodox doctrine of the Son still deny Christ by their deeds, by pride and schism, for Christ loves unity; the Bridegroom himself must tell who his bride is.
Sermon 248.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the first catch the boats, Jews and Gentiles joined in Christ the cornerstone, were weighed down and the nets torn, as bad Christians now burden the Church and cause schisms.
Sermon 249.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first catch shows the Church now, good and bad mixed and schisms tearing the nets; the good must live well among the bad without breaking away, to be found on the right after the resurrection.
Sermon 251.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first catch signified three things in the present Church: good and bad mixed, the pressure of crowds that endangers discipline, and the separations of heretics.
Sermon 252.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Gentiles’ ship is weighed down by crowds of carnal Christians, as the riot over feasting in the basilica showed; heretics and schismatics in many lands broke the nets and went out, but only the bad go out, while good and bad remain.
Sermon 265.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Asked about the time of judgment, Christ answered with the place of the Church, “to the ends of the earth,” so that the bride is not one faction claiming “here it is” but the Church spread through the world.
Sermon 265.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s last words before ascending, “to the ends of the earth,” are his testament against those who divide his possession, as the seamless tunic, woven from above, signifies the unity of charity.
Sermon 265.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Charity is held only in the Church’s unity; Christ came to gather, not divide, so that the Catholic asks not that his brother divide the inheritance but that he hold it with him.
Sermon 268.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The risen Christ commended both the truth of his body and the Church to be preached in all nations, as a bridegroom commends his bride to his friends; Paul, a jealous friend, refused to be loved in Christ’s place by the divided Corinthians.
Sermon 269.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Heretics and schismatics may have true baptism, yet not the Holy Spirit unless they hold to unity in charity; Acts shows the Spirit given in varied ways, before, at, and after baptism, so that baptism and the Spirit are distinct and all is ascribed to grace.
Sermon 269.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Separatists are “animal men, not having the Spirit”; Donatists who ask what they will gain by joining the Church are told that they have Christ’s baptism but must come to receive his Spirit, shown in the charity of unity and in deeds.
Sermon 270.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first catch signifies the present Church of good and bad, torn by schisms; the catch of 153 large fish on the right signifies the risen Church of the good, those who fulfill the law (ten) by the grace of the Spirit (seven), seventeen being the seed of 153.
Sermon 285.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against Peter’s charge to feed Christ’s sheep, the Song’s ‘go out’ describes the Donatists, who left the Church because they did not know themselves, claimed their sacraments as their own, and feed their own kids.
Sermon 312.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Cyprian did what he taught and taught what he did; God, who predestined, called, cleansed and crowned him and gave his body to this place, showed in him that love without the unity of Christ is no love, and the day should be kept soberly.
On Illustrious Men 35Jerome · 392–393 · Irenaeus of Lyons, disciple of Polycarp: his works, his adjuration to copyists, and his letter urging Victor not to break unity over Easter.
On Illustrious Men 69Jerome · 392–393 · Dionysius of Alexandria, Origen's pupil, wrote many letters, including one urging Novatian to end his schism, and books against Nepos's millenarianism.
On Faith and the Creed 21Augustine of Hippo · 393 · We believe in the holy catholic church, from which heretics are excluded by false belief about God and schismatics by breaking brotherly love.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains the blessing on the persecuted disciples: blessedness is inward, heretics and schismatics who suffer do not share the reward, and the reward is in the spiritual heavens.
On the Christian Struggle 31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Augustine rejects the Donatist claim that the true church survives only in Donatus's party in Africa, citing the prophecies of a worldwide church and the Donatists' own divisions.
On the Christian Struggle 32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Augustine praises the Luciferians for not rebaptizing but condemns their schism, which arose from their refusal of the church's forgiveness to bishops who had yielded to the Arians.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 13.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine describes how the convert, received into the Catholic Church, learns to bear with the wicked mixed in it until the harvest, as the prophets foretold, and not to follow heretics.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus retorts that catholic Christians and Jews are the true schisms of paganism, keeping its belief in one principle and its rites in altered form.
Canon 6Anonymous · ca. 398 · Gallic bishops in communion with Felix of Trier may be received if they break with him, as the letters of Ambrose and the Roman bishop direct.
The Harmony of the Gospels 4.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · 'Whoever is not against you is for you' and 'Whoever is not with me is against me' agree: the exorcist was with the disciples in using Christ's name, against them in being outside their fellowship, as heretics share the sacraments yet divide the church.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 1.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Citing Optatus’s account of Lucilla and the Numidian bishops who condemned the absent Caecilian while pardoning their own confessed traitors, Augustine argues that to tolerate unknown or unproved sins in the church is not to consent to them.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 1.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Even if Ossius of Cordoba was guilty, the Donatists must prove that others knew it; more likely the Spaniards condemned him wrongly and humbly yielded when the Gauls acquitted him, rather than fall into schism.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 1.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · The Donatists refused to accept the overseas verdict lest they condemn their own sentence, misusing Gal 2:18; their own Maximianist schism repeated the same error against Primian.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 1.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · The Donatists themselves appealed to Constantine, lost before Bishop Miltiades of Rome, and then accused the judge; the churches overseas rightly believed the party that had won before church judges.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · After losing again at the Council of Arles and before Constantine, the Donatists accused their judges; impartial people believe the judges rather than defeated litigants.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 1.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · The Donatists suffer less than they inflict; people mourn bodily wounds but not souls killed by schism, and the Donatists call Catholics persecutors while refusing to debate them.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · The Donatists call their presumption light and God’s fulfilled promise darkness; and either tolerating the notorious Optatus did not stain them, in which case their schism was groundless, or it stained them more surely than unknown African traitors could stain the world.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · The psalm describes the Donatists themselves; and if they say others’ sins do not stain them within their party, they admit they had no reason to leave the Catholic unity, so schism is the crime of all of them.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Nothing is graver than schism, since the good can tolerate the bad without harm and use church discipline when it can be done without division; one departs from iniquity in heart now and will be separated in body at the end.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Jehoshaphat was rebuked for helping Ahab sin, not for living among sinners; Paul’s command to ‘come out and be separate’ means not consenting to sin, and the faithful separate from the bad in heart, not by schism.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Isaiah’s ‘depart, touch nothing unclean’ means separation of heart by refusing consent to sin, together with discipline in peace; bodily separation from the known bad means deserting the unknown good.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Jeremiah, Isaiah, and David, whose words the Donatists cite, never separated bodily from their sinful people; David even revered Saul’s anointing; their separation was of heart and consent.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · On the Donatist principle, unknown righteous separatists elsewhere could already have left them behind as chaff; just as the Donatists judge splinter groups from their own party, the world securely judges that those who separate from the whole world are not good.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · The church promised by God is visible everywhere like a city on a mountain; no good person leaves it, and any schism anywhere can safely be judged the work of pride, envy, worldliness, or fear.
Canon 92 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · The form of summons to the Donatists, inviting them to choose delegates for a peaceful conference; then the notice of the council of 404 sending Theasius and Evodius to the emperors.
Letter 3, inscription and introductionInnocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent tells the bishops at Toledo that Hilary and Elpidius have reported schism and breaches of the canons in Spain, which he must now remedy.
Letter 3, chapter 1Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rebukes the bishops who broke communion because converted Priscillianists such as Symphosius and Dictinius were received and kept their rank, and urges unity.
Letter 19, chapter 1Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent restores communion with Alexander of Antioch, who has reconciled the followers of Paulinus and Evagrius, restored Elpidius and Pappus, and satisfied the conditions concerning John Chrysostom.
Letter 23Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent reports that Antioch has made peace with Rome, receiving the Evagrians and John Chrysostom’s followers and restoring John’s name among the departed bishops.
Apology against Jerome 2.21Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus imagines a prophet warning Jerome that he would one day condemn the Origen he then praised, and so condemn himself.
Dialogues 3.13Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · To save the condemned and stop the tribunes, Martin takes communion once with the Ithacian bishops at Felix’s ordination, refuses to sign, is consoled and warned by an angel, and never attends a synod again.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 1.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Founders of heresies and schisms are false 'mountains' on which souls are shipwrecked, for those who divide unity have not received peace.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 4.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ is Daniel's stone cut without hands, against which the Jews stumbled while it was small; those who deny the Church spread through the world stumble against the mountain it has become.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The dove signifies true peace without tearing; those who tore the Church have only the false peace of ravens, who feed on death, but many are returning to life in the Church.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · What John learned through the dove was that Christ would keep for himself the power of baptism; on this rests the unity of the Church and of baptism, signified by the one dove.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ sent the apostles to all nations, not to Africa alone; the pride of Babel divided tongues, but Christ's humility and love unite them in the one Church, signified by the dove.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · All Scripture cries out against the Donatist schism; Catholics should groan, pray, and love, trusting that the grain among the Donatists will return to the ark.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine recalls his earlier teaching: John learned through the dove that Christ alone baptizes; the dove signifies peace, and its olive branch the fruit of love, without which baptism outside the Church profits nothing.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 10.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The sellers of doves are schismatic leaders who claim to give the Holy Spirit for the price of their own honor, while the Spirit is given freely as grace.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 10.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Schismatic leaders deceive the people with the Scriptures and so sell them to the devil, who carries off whatever is cut off from the one Church.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 12.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Believers ascend because they are made one in Christ, the one seed of Abraham; hence the unity of the Church, which Paul defended against factions.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 13.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Virginity, continence, and almsgiving profit nothing to those who tear apart the tunic of unity and love.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 13.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Miracles claimed by Donatist leaders prove nothing without love and unity; it is better to be a humble member within the body than a gifted one torn from it.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit gives life only to members joined in the unity of Christ's body, as the soul quickens only attached limbs; so the Christian must dread separation from that body.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 32.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The baptized receive the Spirit without speaking in all tongues, because the Church spread through all nations now speaks them; those cut off from its unity lack the Spirit.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 47.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ enters through himself because he preaches himself, as light shows itself; he shares the office of shepherd with apostles and good bishops but keeps being the door as his own.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 50.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Judas was already a thief before the betrayal; his presence among the twelve teaches the Church to bear with the wicked without dividing Christ's body, for the one bread gives life to the good and judgment to the unworthy.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 61.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's trouble at Judas's departure prefigures the Church's grief when schismatics and heretics, tolerated like tares, must be separated before the harvest.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 122.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The earlier catch (Luke 5) figures the present Church of good and bad, this one the Church of the good alone at the end of the age, in a fixed number.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 1.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · John humbly counts himself among sinners who need Christ as advocate; those who claim to sanctify others make schisms, but Christ's propitiation and his Church extend to the whole world.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 1.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Love for the brothers keeps one from stumbling at Christ or at the Church; schismatics who left the worldwide Church over charges against Africans lack this love.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 2.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Scripture foretells both Christ's suffering and rising (the bridegroom) and the Church preached to all nations from Jerusalem (the bride); those cut off should be grafted in again.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Since the Donatists also confess that Jesus is the Christ, the test of who left whom is communion with the Church spread through all nations, which is Christ's inheritance.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Giving to the poor and even dying can be done without love, as by schismatics seeking glory; the true test is the witness of one's own conscience before God.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · To confess that Christ came in the flesh is to have the love for which he came and died; schismatics who divide the Church deny it by their deeds, whatever they say.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 9.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · No one can love God and hate his brother, any more than one can love the emperor and hate his laws; we must hold the unity of the Church and love, with the Spirit as pledge.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 10.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Love of Christ must extend to his body spread through the whole world, not be confined to Africa; to honour the head while trampling the members hurts the whole Christ, as the tongue cries out when the foot is stepped on.
City of God 21.25Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Neither heretics nor lapsed catholics nor catholics living wickedly will be saved by the sacraments alone: those who do the works of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom, and only those who abide in Christ truly eat his body.
On Patience 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · A schismatic who suffers rather than deny Christ is not to be blamed; his patience is praiseworthy and may lighten his judgement, though without love it does not gain the kingdom.
On Patience 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Augustine asks whether the patience of a schismatic who suffers for the truth he retains is God's gift, since both answers seem to raise difficulties.
On Patience 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Schismatics may receive some gifts of God, like the gifts Abraham gave the sons of his concubines, but not the inheritance; the patience of Christ's poor heirs will bear eternal fruit.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.29.18Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Constantius, who divided the church, was harried by civil wars.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.42.16Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Unity is restored to the African church.
Retractations 2.27Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine describes his lost book of proofs against the Donatists, posted on a basilica wall, and corrects the date of Felix's acquittal and his use of Jude 19 and 1 Cor 2:14.
Part 1, chapter 12Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Abraham’s threefold sacrifice of heifer, goat, and ram figures the three times before the law, under the law, and under grace, culminating in Christ; the divided carcasses signify schisms, the undivided birds the chaste and simple.
Part 2, chapter 6Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The inspection of leprosy figures the judgment of heresies: leprosy of the head (Manichaeans, Priscillianists), of the beard (Arians, Photinians, Nestorians), of the body (Donatists and other schismatics), and of the whole (Pelagians); the ten lepers figure heretics returning to Christ.
Part 2, chapter 28Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The division of the kingdom under Rehoboam figures heresy and schism, which Christ will gather into one flock; Elijah’s drought, the seven thousand, the sacrifice on Carmel, and the ravens that fed him figure Christ’s victory over idolatry and the Eucharist ministered through the Jews to the nations.
Part 4, chapter 5Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The mark of the beast is to imitate and glory in the devil’s works under the name of Christ; the many antichrists are the heretics, especially the Arians, who tear the Church’s unity, while the Catholic is the one in communion with the apostolic Church of Jerusalem, Ephesus, Asia, and Rome.