Against Cresconius, a Donatist Grammarian

Contents

Translation in progress.

Reading pages: 1.1–1.18 · 1.19–1.39 · 1.40–2.15 · 2.16–2.31 · 2.32–2.47 · 2.48–3.17 · 3.18–3.36 · 3.37–3.54 · 3.55–3.74 · 3.75–4.1 · 4.2–4.16 · 4.17–4.35 · 4.36–4.55 · 4.56–4.71 · 4.72–4.83

1. 1.1Augustine explains why he answers Cresconius, a Donatist layman who wrote against his reply to Petilian of Cirta.
2. 1.2Augustine answers Cresconius's attack on eloquence: it is useful or harmful according to what it is used to say.
3. 1.3Augustine says Cresconius's attack on eloquence is itself sophistry, since the Donatists praise their own eloquent bishops.
4. 1.4Augustine asks why Cresconius writes if he praises his bishops for refusing to debate.
5. 1.5Augustine replies that both parties' bishops have sought to settle the dispute, so he is not alone or arrogant in seeking it.
6. 1.6Augustine says the Catholic party does not reopen a settled case but shows how it was settled, for the sake of those deceived.
7. 1.7Augustine argues that preaching truth is never fruitless, since much of Africa has returned to unity and the preacher is rewarded regardless.
8. 1.8Augustine cites Paul to Timothy: correction with gentleness is a duty, and the Donatist question must be preached in season and out of season.
9. 1.9Augustine distinguishes those who defend falsehood from those who preach truth from envy, and says truth preached from any motive should be welcomed.
10. 1.10Augustine appeals to Christ's disputes with the Samaritan woman, the Jewish leaders, and even the devil as precedent for arguing with opponents.
11. 1.11Augustine cites Ezekiel's commission to speak to a people who would not listen as precedent against Cresconius's charge that his labor is fruitless.
12. 1.12Augustine shows from Paul's letters that a bishop is commanded to refute those who contradict sound teaching.
13. 1.13Augustine states Cresconius's objection that the prophets were sent only to their own people.
14. 1.14Augustine cites Apollos, who publicly refuted the Jews from the Scriptures, as an example for Christ's servants.
15. 1.15Augustine points to Paul disputing with Stoics and Epicureans in the Areopagus as proof that one should refute error even among outsiders.
16. 1.16Augustine defines dialectic as skill in disputing and turns Cresconius's charge back on him, since he too argues with eloquence and dialectic.
17. 1.17Augustine explains that “dialectic” is simply the Greek word for disputation, which Paul plainly practiced.
18. 1.18Augustine shows that Scripture itself uses the word “dispute” of Paul, the psalmist, and God.
19. 1.19Augustine describes the true disputant, who first distinguishes truth from falsehood within himself and then leads others from what they know to what follows.
20. 1.20Augustine shows from Paul's own writing that eloquence and disputation are two styles of the same truthful speech.
21. 1.21Augustine cites Christ's answer about tribute to Caesar as a model of drawing the truth from opponents by questions.
22. 1.22Augustine argues that Christ did not refuse to answer captious questioners but compelled them to confess the truth.
23. 1.23Augustine presses Cresconius to define dialectic, showing that any definition either praises Christ's method or condemns the Donatist bishops' refusal to debate.
24. 1.24Augustine notes that the Stoics were the foremost dialecticians, yet Paul did not refuse to confer with them.
25. 1.25Augustine says dialectic only shows what follows from premises, so Christian teaching need not fear it.
26. 1.26Augustine sets out Cresconius's argument that, since Catholics admit Donatist baptism is real, one should be baptized among the Donatists.
27. 1.27Augustine answers that baptism exists among the Donatists but does not profit there, just as robbers have gold without its being good to join them.
28. 1.28Augustine gives examples of good things that help some and harm others, as baptism does.
29. 1.29Augustine argues from 1 Tim 1:8 that even good things belonging to God's law harm those who misuse them.
30. 1.30Augustine shows from Paul that the law, knowledge, and even the Lord's body and blood harm those who use them badly.
31. 1.31Augustine concludes that baptism, though holy, harms heretics who have it outside the church, as the good law did not make the Jews good.
32. 1.32Augustine refutes the premise that all who have a good baptism are good, using the Corinthian factions as proof.
33. 1.33Augustine argues from Eph 4:5 that one baptism can exist outside the one church, just as the one God is worshiped and the one faith confessed outside it.
34. 1.34Augustine argues from Acts 17, James 2, and 1 Cor 13 that God, faith, and baptism can exist outside the church, but are fruitful only within it.
35. 1.35Augustine explains the Catholic practice: correct what schismatics corrupted, but recognize what they kept intact, like the king's mark or the owner's brand.
36. 1.36Augustine argues from circumcision, the figure of baptism, which was not repeated when Samaritans or Nazarenes came over, that baptism should not be repeated either.
37. 1.37Augustine says neither side can cite Scripture for or against rebaptizing those who come from heretics, and Paul's baptizing John's disciples is a different case.
38. 1.38Augustine says the whole church settled the baptism question after a time of differing views, and Cyprian's council does not bind, just as Peter's error was corrected by Paul.
39. 1.39Augustine says that where Scripture gives no example, one should consult the church that Scripture plainly commends, spread through all nations.
40. 1.40Augustine summarizes Book 1 and says that what is given only in the church is the “sealed fountain,” not visible baptism, which the good and the wicked both receive.
41. 2.1Augustine sums up Book 1: the Donatist bishops' refusal to debate is unjustified, and baptism held by them is real but harmful to them.
42. 2.2Augustine dismisses Cresconius's quibble over “Donatists” versus “Donatians,” noting the two Donatuses who began and strengthened the schism.
43. 2.3Augustine says the name matters little; what matters is showing that the Donatists are heretics.
44. 2.4Augustine quotes Cresconius's definition: heresy follows different doctrines, schism is separation among those who follow the same.
45. 2.5Augustine turns Cresconius's own words (one religion, the same sacraments) against the Donatist practice of rebaptizing.
46. 2.6Augustine argues that by Cresconius's own definition the Donatists are heretics, since rebaptizing means following something different.
47. 2.7Augustine imagines confronting Donatists in the act of rebaptizing a Catholic with Cresconius's own admission of one religion and the same sacraments.
48. 2.8Augustine says the only real difference between the parties is the Donatist repetition of sacraments both admit are the same.
49. 2.9Augustine prefers defining heresy as an inveterate schism, but shows that by Cresconius's own definition the Donatists are heretics.
50. 2.10Augustine defends calling the Donatists' error heretical and sacrilegious, and denies that converts are received unchanged.
51. 2.11Augustine insists that converts from the Donatists are changed by a conversion of the will, like the tax collector and the penitent thief.
52. 2.12Augustine answers that Donatist bishops were received as bishops because the sacraments they hold belong to the church, not to the schism.
53. 2.13Augustine explains that clergy are received in their office as the church's peace requires, since office exists for others' sake, unlike the Christian faith itself.
54. 2.14Augustine distinguishes church offices, received as useful, from the Donatists' errors, which are corrected, while their sacraments are recognized.
55. 2.15Augustine denies that heresy is inexpiable and says converts are cleansed not by a second baptism but by the word, repentance, alms, and above all love given by the Spirit.
56. 2.16Augustine identifies what is given only in the church as the Holy Spirit's gift of love, which makes baptism, received outside, profitable.
57. 2.17Augustine argues that the “fountain” proper to the church is the Holy Spirit, given at Pentecost with the sign of tongues signifying unity among all nations.
58. 2.18Augustine shows that the “sealed fountain” cannot mean visible baptism, which Simon Magus and greedy bishops received, but the Spirit's gift of love found only in unity.
59. 2.19Augustine explains that Donatists coming to unity receive the Spirit and love, and that those who lapsed from the Catholic church are received more strictly than those coming for the first time.
60. 2.20Augustine concludes that the Donatists are heretics but can be healed by the Holy Spirit when they return to unity, keeping the sacraments they have.
61. 2.21Augustine examines Petilian's claim that the giver's holy conscience washes the recipient, and Cresconius's reply that the giver's public reputation suffices.
62. 2.22Augustine shows that Cresconius's appeal to the giver's reputation means that falsehood, a bad man's false good name, washes the recipient.
63. 2.23Augustine says the Donatist position makes falsehood the mother of truth, attributing to men what belongs to God.
64. 2.24Augustine answers that Judas, who baptized as an apostle while a thief, shows that God and Christ, not the minister's conscience or reputation, give baptism its effect.
65. 2.25Augustine argues that the only coherent answer is the Catholic one: Christ cleanses recipients whether the minister is good or bad.
66. 2.26Augustine answers that those condemned by the church baptize as hidden sinners condemned by Christ do: the visible rite is theirs, the inner cleansing is Christ's.
67. 2.27Augustine answers the charges of handing over the Scriptures and persecution with the parable of the threshing floor and Scripture's just “persecution” of enemies.
68. 2.28Augustine shows that the Donatist proof texts on “the oil of a sinner” and “deceitful water” tell against them, since they too have hidden sinners who baptize.
69. 2.29Augustine shows that the oil of the sinner in Ps 141:5 refers to flattery, not baptism, and that Cresconius's reading would require rebaptizing those baptized by hidden sinners.
70. 2.30Augustine explains that by “the dead” in Sir 34:25 he meant the dead gods of pagan rites, whereas Christ, who baptizes through every minister, lives.
71. 2.31Augustine presses that if every sinner is “dead” and cannot baptize, the Donatists must rebaptize those baptized by hidden sinners, while they rebaptize distant Christians who never heard of the African dispute.
72. 2.32Augustine argues that, on Cresconius's principle, those baptized by a hidden sinner must be rebaptized once he is exposed, which the Donatists do not do.
73. 2.33Augustine quotes Cresconius's claim that no sinner may baptize and shows it excludes hidden sinners too, and indeed everyone, since all have sin.
74. 2.34Augustine adds that even if “the dead” meant heretics, Catholics agree that baptism received among them profits nothing until the recipient joins the church.
75. 2.35Augustine shows from the Lord's Prayer and 1 John 1:8 that every minister is a sinner, so Cresconius's rule would leave no one able to baptize.
76. 2.36Augustine grants that a notorious sinner should not baptize but holds that if he does, the baptism is given and harms only the unworthy.
77. 2.37Augustine argues from Ps 50 and Matt 23 that a wicked preacher harms only himself while his hearers profit, and so with a wicked baptizer.
78. 2.38Augustine answers that Catholics do not claim baptism is permitted to anyone, but that a holy thing misused is not cancelled, and hope must rest in God, not in the minister.
79. 2.39Augustine distinguishes Cyprian's writings from canonical Scripture and notes that Cyprian, while differing on rebaptism, never left the unity of the church.
80. 2.40Augustine declines to be bound by Cyprian's letter to Jubaianus, since only canonical Scripture binds, and challenges the Donatists to produce Cyprian's scriptural proofs.
81. 2.41Augustine cites Cyprian's admission that those formerly received from heresy without rebaptism were not cut off from the church's gifts, which was the church's older custom.
82. 2.42Augustine quotes Cyprian's On the Unity of the Church on the one church spread through the world, and applies the image of the cut-off stream to the loss of the Spirit, not of baptism.
83. 2.43Augustine quotes Cyprian's letter to Maximus: the church must not be deserted because of tares, since only the Lord separates them at the judgment.
84. 2.44Augustine argues that either way, the church survived Cyprian's era, so the wicked do not defile the good, and the Donatists had no reason to leave.
85. 2.45Augustine's dilemma: whether Caecilian was innocent or guilty, the Donatists had no ground for leaving the worldwide church that Scripture and Cyprian commend.
86. 2.46Augustine says the Donatist position condemns all the apostolic churches named in the New Testament as perished through African sins.
87. 2.47Augustine says that even those who believed Caecilian guilty should, by Cyprian's teaching, have stayed in communion with the worldwide church.
88. 2.48Augustine repeats Cyprian's words to Maximus and applies them: they keep the God-fearing in the church and condemn the Donatists' separation.
89. 2.49Augustine closes Book 2: Cyprian's error, if any, was pruned by martyrdom, and Book 3 will answer the rest of Cresconius's letter.
90. 3.1Augustine begins Book 3, answering the rest of Cresconius's letter point by point for the sake of slower readers.
91. 3.2Augustine argues that Cyprian kept communion with bishops who disagreed on rebaptism, so the Donatists' separation contradicts Cyprian himself.
92. 3.3Augustine says the few Eastern bishops corrected their view, and either way the Donatists are guilty of leaving the church's peace.
93. 3.4Augustine denies erasing the difference between faithful and faithless ministers: they differ in life, though both can administer the same sacrament.
94. 3.5Augustine answers the charge that the unclean cannot cleanse: Christ, who is pure, cleanses through every minister, while the Donatist appeal to reputation makes falsehood sanctify.
95. 3.6Augustine says a good minister is better as an example, but the baptism he gives is not better, as Paul's baptism was not better than Apollos's.
96. 3.7Augustine shows that Petilian made the minister the origin and head of the baptized, which contradicts Cresconius's own claim that Christ is the origin.
97. 3.8Augustine answers that growth comes from God whatever the farmer's motives, and Ezekiel shows that God himself feeds his flock even through bad shepherds.
98. 3.9Augustine argues that Christ, the one shepherd, feeds through all ministers, and that relying on a minister's reputation is worse than trusting in man.
99. 3.10Augustine dismisses Cresconius's appeals to John's baptism and to Moses' “baptism” in the Red Sea as irrelevant.
100. 3.11Augustine repeats that the Donatist division arose from placing hope in a minister's righteousness, which Paul rebuked at Corinth.
101. 3.12Augustine says faith and justification come from God, not from the minister, who cannot say “believe in me.”
102. 3.13Augustine argues that if the minister were the origin and head of the baptized, being baptized by a hidden sinner, through whom Christ alone acts, would be better.
103. 3.14Augustine shows that Petilian's appeal to the good tree makes the minister the source of the baptized, which fails whenever the minister is secretly evil.
104. 3.15Augustine turns to Optatus of Thamugadi and the Maximianists, noting that those baptized by Optatus were cleansed neither by his conscience nor his reputation.
105. 3.16Augustine applies Cresconius's neutrality about Optatus to Caecilian, and points to the Donatists' own reception of the condemned Maximianists Felicianus and Praetextatus.
106. 3.17Augustine turns to Felicianus and Praetextatus, Maximianist bishops condemned by the Donatists and later received back, using Cresconius's own account.
107. 3.18Augustine quotes Cresconius's account: the council of Bagai gave Maximian's followers a period of grace, and those who returned within it kept their baptism.
108. 3.19Augustine shows from Cresconius's own words that the Maximianists were outside the church until they returned, yet their baptisms given meanwhile were accepted.
109. 3.20Augustine quotes the decree of Bagai permitting those not involved in Maximian's ordination to return to “mother church.”
110. 3.21Augustine argues that the Donatists' acceptance of baptisms given by the Maximianists outside their communion proves the Catholic teaching, and asks how the returning Maximianists were expiated.
111. 3.22Augustine quotes the council of Bagai's fierce condemnation of Maximian and his twelve consecrators, including Felicianus and Praetextatus, and asks how they were expiated on their return.
112. 3.23Augustine mocks the idea that the Maximianists sinned but were defiled only when the Donatists chose, and turns again to the widely read sentence of Bagai.
113. 3.24Augustine argues that by Donatist principles those who ordained Maximian and shared his altar were defiled even more than he.
114. 3.25Augustine quotes the sentence's charge that Felicianus and Praetextatus personally laid hands on Maximian.
115. 3.26Augustine asks how the condemned Maximianist bishops could baptize validly and be received in their honors with those they baptized, on Donatist principles.
116. 3.27Augustine concludes that the Donatists' own reception of the Maximianists, with their baptisms, concedes the Catholic teaching that baptism given outside is valid.
117. 3.28Augustine notes that the Donatists recalled bishops they had named and condemned, and that Cresconius, an African, did not even know these recent facts.
118. 3.29Augustine defends turning the charge of handing over the Scriptures back on the Donatists, citing Elijah's reply to Ahab and the council of Cirta.
119. 3.30Augustine quotes the acts of the council of Cirta (305), where several future Donatist bishops admitted handing over sacred books and Secundus left them to God's judgment.
120. 3.31Augustine argues that the same confessed traitors of Cirta sat in the council of Carthage that condemned Caecilian, which Paul's words in Romans 2 expose.
121. 3.32Augustine explains that the council of Carthage condemned Caecilian under pressure from the wealthy Lucilla, as was revealed in the trial before Zenophilus.
122. 3.33Augustine quotes the Proceedings before Zenophilus (320), which established that Silvanus of Cirta had handed over church property in 303 and that Lucilla's money bought Majorinus's election.
123. 3.34Augustine says Silvanus's sentence against Caecilian proves nothing, and that, as both sides' records conflict, Christians should at least agree on the certain gift of peace.
124. 3.35Augustine cites Cyprian's “we see” tares as proof that even known evil does not justify schism, much less unproven charges.
125. 3.36Augustine argues that Christians who never knew of any traitors cannot be guilty by contact, so rebaptizing them judges hidden things and contradicts Deut 29:29.
126. 3.37Augustine answers that both sides claim witnesses and records, so the doubtful past should not outweigh the certain peace of Christ.
127. 3.38Augustine explains that the “council of Serdica” letter addressed to Donatus came from the Arian party opposed to Athanasius, and so proves nothing for the Donatists.
128. 3.39Augustine says that even proven traitors among past Catholics would not stain him, since he holds the apostolic church of wheat and chaff, fleeing the chaff but not the threshing floor.
129. 3.40Augustine explains 1 Tim 5:22: one keeps oneself pure without leaving the sacraments shared with sinners, as Cyprian did with greedy colleagues.
130. 3.41Augustine rejects the claim that a traitor “created” Catholics: Christ, not any minister, is the origin and head of the baptized.
131. 3.42Augustine answers that Ezek 20:18 forbade imitating the fathers' sins, not separating from God's people, as the prophets themselves never did.
132. 3.43Augustine replies that sins corrected in life are blotted out, so the Donatists cannot impute long-dead men's sins to those who never knew of them.
133. 3.44Augustine compares Caecilian, acquitted at Rome after condemnation in absence, with the Donatists' own Primian, and says Catholics may at least doubt the charges.
134. 3.45Augustine clarifies that he meant not that persecution should be done for unity, but that the good tolerate wrongdoers in their communion for unity's sake, as Cyprian taught.
135. 3.46Augustine contrasts Donatist claims of martyrdom with the violence of their clergy and Circumcellions against Catholic clergy, including blinding with lime and vinegar.
136. 3.47Augustine recounts Donatist attacks on the Catholic bishops Servus of Thubursicu and Maximianus of Bagai, which led to the imperial laws against the Donatists.
137. 3.48Augustine says the imperial laws are against the Donatists' error and for their good, and that their earlier violence would take too long to recount.
138. 3.49Augustine recounts the Catholic council of Carthage's decision (403) to invite each Donatist bishop to a conference, which they refused.
139. 3.50Augustine recounts how Crispinus, Donatist bishop of Calama, refused a conference with quotations of Scripture, and how his presbyter Crispinus then attacked Bishop Possidius.
140. 3.51Augustine relates how Crispinus was convicted under Theodosius's law against heretics but excused the fine at Possidius's request, and still went unpunished after his appeal.
141. 3.52Augustine contrasts the Donatists' blinding of clergy with the devil's sparing of Job's eyes, and faults Crispinus for not simply degrading his violent presbyter.
142. 3.53Augustine tells how the convert presbyter Restitutus was abducted and abused by Donatists near Hippo, and how Bishop Proculeianus evaded responsibility.
143. 3.54Augustine says the Catholics are not responsible for actions of the authorities, and that the Donatist martyr Marculus probably threw himself from a cliff, as many Donatists did.
144. 3.55Augustine says good Catholics disapprove of any violence, revenge, or seizure of private property against Donatists, though they tolerate such wrongdoers within the church.
145. 3.56Augustine argues from Nebuchadnezzar's two decrees that kings serve God by legislating for truth, including in religion.
146. 3.57Augustine answers the appeal to free choice: free will does not exempt evil from just restraint, which must be exercised with measure and love.
147. 3.58Augustine prepares to show from the council of Bagai's sentence that Felicianus and Praetextatus were condemned outright, not granted the period of grace.
148. 3.59Augustine quotes the opening and condemnation clauses of the sentence of Bagai, naming Felicianus and Praetextatus among Maximian's twelve condemned ordainers.
149. 3.60Augustine quotes the sentence's grant of time, which applied only to those who had not laid hands on Maximian, until 25 December.
150. 3.61Augustine concludes that Felicianus and Praetextatus were among the condemned twelve, not those given time, so Cresconius's bishops lied.
151. 3.62Augustine cites dated records showing that the Donatists prosecuted Felicianus and Praetextatus in court months after the deadline, so these men were outside their communion and baptizing there.
152. 3.63Augustine says the Donatists rightly accepted the Maximianists' baptisms given outside their communion, which is exactly the Catholic position.
153. 3.64Augustine shows that the Donatists themselves received condemned schismatics with their baptisms and used the courts against them, undermining every charge they make against the Catholics.
154. 3.65Augustine shows that the Donatists themselves persecuted the Maximianists through the courts, so suffering persecution does not prove righteousness.
155. 3.66Augustine notes that Donatist pressure, including Optatus's threats, brought Felicianus and Praetextatus back, and that they were received with their rank and their baptized without rebaptism.
156. 3.67Augustine notes that the Donatists first brought the case to Constantine and lost, and that Christians abroad rightly believed the judges rather than the defeated accusers.
157. 3.68Augustine says the Maximianist affair was God's way of making the Donatists, who condemned the world for believing Caecilian's judges, acquit men they had themselves condemned.
158. 3.69Augustine urges the Donatists, who received back their own condemned and corrected them by pressure, to accept the same remedy and return to the Catholic church.
159. 3.70Augustine sets the promise to Abraham's seed, fulfilled in the worldwide church, against Cresconius's argument that the Catholic church is not everywhere.
160. 3.71Augustine answers that the gospel is still spreading among the nations, as Christ foretold, and that the Donatists deny the visible church while believing in the unseen Christ.
161. 3.72Augustine sets side by side prophecies that the Donatists accept of Christ and the verses next to them that foretell the church spread through the whole earth.
162. 3.73Augustine says Cyprian learned the worldwide church from these prophecies and would not have deserted it on account of visible sinners.
163. 3.74Augustine answers that the world is full both of heretics and of God's faithful, as the sea holds bitter water and sweet fish.
164. 3.75Augustine reconciles the “few” and “many” saved: true Christians are many in themselves but few compared with the wicked, and both are spread through the whole world.
165. 3.76Augustine notes that if fewness proved righteousness, the tiny Maximianist party, persecuted by the Donatists, would be most righteous.
166. 3.77Augustine says the Catholic church is one everywhere, while heresies are local, and that the Donatists should have proved their evidence to that worldwide church.
167. 3.78Augustine presses a dilemma: whether or not the Donatist evidence was put before the churches overseas, those churches cannot justly be condemned, and the Donatists should have stayed in unity.
168. 3.79Augustine concludes that even if the Donatist documents were true, the worldwide harvest of Abraham's seed could not perish because of hidden African tares.
169. 3.80Augustine quotes the proconsul Aelianus's sentence (315) clearing Felix of Abthugni, Caecilian's ordainer, of handing over the Scriptures, and exposing Ingentius's forgery.
170. 3.81Augustine quotes Constantine's rescript to the proconsul Probianus confirming Felix's acquittal and summoning the forger Ingentius.
171. 3.82Augustine quotes Constantine's letter to the vicar Eumalius declaring Caecilian innocent after a personal hearing.
172. 3.83Augustine challenges Cresconius to produce Constantine's supposed sentence against Caecilian, and turns his “who persecutes?” question back on the Donatist accusers.
173. 3.84Augustine argues that even true evidence against some Africans could not condemn the worldwide church, and that the charge of handing over fits the Donatists better.
174. 3.85Augustine takes up Cresconius's grammatical point that his phrase “more probably” concedes that the Donatist charge is probable.
175. 3.86Augustine shows from Heb 6:8–9 that a comparative can be set against its opposite rather than imply the positive.
176. 3.87Augustine cites Virgil's “better things to the pious” to show the comparative does not imply the positive, and distinguishes the probable from the true.
177. 3.88Augustine turns Cresconius's grammatical rule against him: if baptism by a good minister is “better,” baptism by a bad one is still done “well” and should not be repeated.
178. 3.89Augustine brushes aside Cresconius's mockery of his metaphors, noting that the trident is a fisherman's tool and that Scripture gives God wings and arrows.
179. 3.90Augustine defends comparing the Donatist error to Satan, citing Paul's description of those to be gently corrected as captives of the devil.
180. 3.91Augustine answers insinuations of Manichaeism by pointing to his many writings against the Manichees, who had deceived him in his youth.
181. 3.92Augustine dismisses the letter of Megalius, primate of Numidia, against his ordination, saying the case concerns the church, not himself, and that he relies on God's mercy.
182. 3.93Augustine says his personal character is irrelevant, and criticizes Parmenian's use of Jer 23:28 to claim the Donatists are wheat already purged of chaff.
183. 3.94Augustine closes Book 3: the Maximianist case refutes every Donatist charge, and Cresconius should answer it or be silent.
184. 4.1Augustine opens Book 4, which will answer all of Cresconius's points from the single case of the Maximianists, God's provision for refuting the Donatists.
185. 4.2Augustine points to the ornate eloquence of the Donatists' own sentence of Bagai, adopted by 310 bishops, against Cresconius's attack on eloquence.
186. 4.3Augustine notes that the Donatists who refuse to debate with Catholics took the Maximianists to court before several proconsuls.
187. 4.4Augustine says the question where to be baptized is settled for the Donatists by their reception of Felicianus and Praetextatus without rebaptizing those they baptized in schism.
188. 4.5Augustine cites the court records in which Donatist advocates read the sentence of Bagai against Salvius, Felicianus, and Praetextatus, with its full text and the grant of time to others.
189. 4.6Augustine argues that the Donatists' reception of Maximianist baptisms concedes that baptism exists outside the church but profits only when unity and the Spirit's love are received.
190. 4.7Augustine notes that Maximian too claimed to be the true party of Donatus, citing two councils against Primian, and the Donatists can only appeal to the larger council of Bagai.
191. 4.8Augustine compares the procedures: Primian's accusers summoned him repeatedly, whereas Bagai condemned Maximian unheard for raising altar against altar.
192. 4.9Augustine shows that by the Donatists' own reasoning for Primian, Caecilian, acquitted in four later hearings, should be held innocent, and the world's many bishops should outweigh them.
193. 4.10Augustine argues that the sin against the Holy Spirit is persistent impenitence, not schism or handing over as such, as the Donatists' own reception of Felicianus shows.
194. 4.11Augustine notes that the Maximianists too used the form “Claudianists” for a group Primian received, so the “-ist” form is not his alone.
195. 4.12Augustine shows from the council of Bagai that the Donatists called the Maximianist schism sacrilege, yet received its leaders without expiation or rebaptism.
196. 4.13Augustine concludes that by receiving the Maximianist bishops and their baptized through love alone, the Donatists have themselves settled the dispute in the Catholic favor.
197. 4.14Augustine repeats that Cresconius's appeal to reputation makes a lying report cleanse and a true one defile.
198. 4.15Augustine shows that Felicianus, baptizing with neither a good conscience nor a good reputation, had his baptisms accepted by the Donatists because they were given in the Trinity's name.
199. 4.16Augustine sums up: Felicianus's accepted baptisms refute every Donatist criterion, and show that grace is God's and only the recipient's life needs correction.
200. 4.17Augustine notes that the Maximianists' condemned consciences could give baptism, and the Donatists, who persecuted them, still baptize.
201. 4.18Augustine turns the Donatist proof texts about the sinner's oil and the dead baptizer against them, since their council called the Maximianists sinners and unburied corpses.
202. 4.19Augustine says baptism does not vary with the minister's merit, as the Donatists conceded by accepting the Maximianists' baptisms.
203. 4.20Augustine says the Donatists, by accepting Maximianist baptisms, abandoned Cyprian's view on rebaptism, just as they blamed the Easterners for doing.
204. 4.21Augustine answers Cresconius's rhetorical outburst: faithful and faithless ministers differ in merit, not in the sacrament, as the Donatists' reception of Felicianus shows.
205. 4.22Augustine shows that Petilian made the minister's conscience the source of cleansing, which differs from Cresconius's softened claim that Christ acts through the minister.
206. 4.23Augustine draws out that Cresconius's “better through a good minister” concedes that Christ acts even through a bad one.
207. 4.24Augustine agrees a good minister is better, for his own sake and as an example, but the sacrament is holy because it is God's, whoever ministers it.
208. 4.25Augustine argues that a convert from schism becomes better but his baptism does not, and that what Christ does is always done well.
209. 4.26Augustine says schism is a great evil, yet baptism given or received in schism is real, though it serves for punishment while the schism lasts.
210. 4.27Augustine points to the Maximianist baptisms accepted by the Donatists as proof that God, not the minister's righteousness, gives baptism its growth.
211. 4.28Augustine notes that Felicianus lacked faith and righteousness, yet the Donatists admitted his baptism was real, adding only righteousness on reception.
212. 4.29Augustine says the questions about John's baptism and Moses' crossing are irrelevant; the Donatists must explain why they did not rebaptize after Felicianus.
213. 4.30Augustine says each of Petilian's claims (holy conscience, origin and root, good tree, good treasure) fails in the case of Felicianus, whose baptism the Donatists accepted as Christ's.
214. 4.31Augustine notes that Cresconius ignored his earlier statement that Optatus the Gildonian had brought Felicianus and Praetextatus back by force.
215. 4.32Augustine sets the Donatists' indulgence toward Optatus beside their condemnation of distant churches, and asks how they could be ignorant of crimes their own council proclaimed.
216. 4.33Augustine explains, from Judas among the apostles, Paul's rivals, and Cyprian's greedy colleagues, that the good share sacraments, not sins, with the wicked until the final separation.
217. 4.34Augustine argues that the Donatists themselves tolerate known sinners among them and so condemn their own reasons for breaking with the world, as the Maximianist case mirrors.
218. 4.35Augustine shows that Cresconius's own account says the Maximianists were sentenced as schismatics yet claims they never left the church.
219. 4.36Augustine repeats Cresconius's own words to show that the Maximianists were in schism, and baptized there, before their return.
220. 4.37Augustine presses that “restored to the church” means they had been outside it and baptized there, as Cresconius's own words admit.
221. 4.38Augustine piles up the phrases of the sentence of Bagai to show that the Maximianists baptized in schism and were received without rebaptism of those they baptized.
222. 4.39Augustine shows from the sentence of Bagai that the grant of time was only for those not present at Maximian's ordination, not for Felicianus and Praetextatus.
223. 4.40Augustine argues that even if all were given time, they baptized in schism before returning, and the Donatists accepted those baptisms.
224. 4.41Augustine notes that the council of Bagai itself spoke of the Maximianists “returning” to mother church, so they baptized outside it and kept both rank and baptism on return.
225. 4.42Augustine contrasts Cresconius's claim that the extension was for correction with the council's claim that those given it were unpolluted and innocent.
226. 4.43Augustine notes the contradiction between Cresconius and the council, and the double standard by which Maximian polluted no one but Caecilian polluted the world.
227. 4.44Augustine ridicules the idea that the Maximianists were unpolluted for eight months and became polluted only when the deadline, Christmas Day, passed.
228. 4.45Augustine insists that the council's own language of “return” proves the Maximianists were outside Donatist communion and baptized there.
229. 4.46Augustine notes that, either way, the Donatists recalled the condemned, and that the dated court petition against Felicianus and Praetextatus came months after the deadline.
230. 4.47Augustine quotes the advocate Titianus's petition, which shows that Felicianus and Praetextatus were still with Maximian after the deadline.
231. 4.48Augustine says the petition proves the two bishops were outside Donatist communion after the deadline, and only madness can still deny it.
232. 4.49Augustine declines to call Cresconius a false witness in return, since he may have believed his bishops in good faith.
233. 4.50Augustine argues that if Maximian's crime did not pollute his own associates or the Donatists who received them, no African crime could pollute the worldwide church.
234. 4.51Augustine notes that Cresconius did not know the recent Maximianist affair in Africa, yet expects distant churches to know Caecilian's case.
235. 4.52Augustine repeats that the Serdica letter came from Arians and turns Cresconius's charge of inconstancy against the Donatists' treatment of the Maximianists.
236. 4.53Augustine contrasts the Donatists' objection to commemorating unproven “traitors” with their living communion with men they themselves condemned.
237. 4.54Augustine rejects the claim that a traitor “created” Catholics: Christ is the head, and even the faithful in Elijah's day did not separate from Israel's common sacraments.
238. 4.55Augustine says the Maximianists' sufferings, like the Donatists', prove nothing: the cause, not the penalty, makes a martyr.
239. 4.56Augustine argues that the righteous may also pursue the wicked for their correction, as the Donatist bishops themselves did to their schismatics.
240. 4.57Augustine cites records showing that Primian seized Maximian's house through the courts and that Donatist bishops prosecuted Maximianist bishops in their old sees.
241. 4.58Augustine tells how the Donatist bishop Restitutus prosecuted the Maximianist Salvius of Membresa, whom the proconsul advised to flee his persecutors.
242. 4.59Augustine recounts how the people of Abitina, enforcing the Donatist judgment, paraded the aged Salvius with dead dogs tied to his neck.
243. 4.60Augustine concludes from the case of Salvius that persecution can be just, so suffering it proves nothing for the Donatists.
244. 4.61Augustine compares the laws against the Donatists to a physician binding a madman, and says excesses are no more the church's fault than the Abitinians' cruelty was Primian's.
245. 4.62Augustine notes the Donatists made peace with the Maximianists despite applying the same harsh texts to them, so they could make peace with the Catholic church too.
246. 4.63Augustine answers the claim that truth lies with the few: the Maximianists are fewer still, and Scripture promises the church multitudes from all nations.
247. 4.64Augustine sets the prophecy and gospel of the church spreading from Jerusalem to all nations against the Donatist claim, and notes that the Maximianists' associates were not polluted.
248. 4.65Augustine shows from the sentence of Bagai's own “more salutary” that a comparative can be set against an opposite, answering Cresconius's grammatical point.
249. 4.66Augustine repeats the records proving Silvanus of Cirta a traitor, compares his condemning Caecilian to the elders accusing Susanna, and contrasts Felicianus's change of side.
250. 4.67Augustine says the Donatist forefathers should have proved their charges to the overseas churches or else tolerated the accused, as Cyprian taught, rather than separate.
251. 4.68Augustine notes that Cresconius chose the fourth option of his dilemma and evaded it with talk of argument forms.
252. 4.69Augustine imagines future Donatists answering Maximianist charges against Primian, and applies their answer to the Catholic church: unproved African crimes cannot make the world guilty.
253. 4.70Augustine compares the Donatist claim to have expelled the worldwide church with the absurd Maximianist claim to have expelled Primian.
254. 4.71Augustine says the church is now a threshing floor with chaff, and the Donatists, by claiming to be pure wheat, have blown away like dust.
255. 4.72Augustine explains that his willingness to read Scripture from any copy shows confidence in the truth, not an admission that Catholics burned the books.
256. 4.73Augustine compares the Catholic church, present wherever schisms exist, to the Donatists, who are present wherever their own splinter groups are, while the reverse is not true.
257. 4.74Augustine cites the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob of blessing to all nations, and puns that the Donatists remain only “in the south” (Africa).
258. 4.75Augustine says the Catholic church is found wherever heresies are, but not vice versa, and that broken branches are regrafted without repeating baptism, as the Donatists did with the Maximianists.
259. 4.76Augustine argues that the Donatists do not rebaptize returning schismatics, conceding that baptism remains in those who leave, though without profit.
260. 4.77Augustine answers the “enclosed garden” argument by asking how Felicianus, outside the Donatist “garden,” baptized validly in their eyes.
261. 4.78Augustine repeats that he likened the Donatist error, not Petilian, to Satan, and that the Donatists said harsher things of the Maximianists.
262. 4.79Augustine answers insinuations about his Manichaean past and about Megalius's letter, which its author retracted, and contrasts the mutual condemnations of Felicianus and Primian.
263. 4.80Augustine says Cresconius answered much but refuted nothing, and that the Maximianist case needs no eloquence to prove it.
264. 4.81Augustine drops the metaphors Cresconius mocked, noting that the Maximianist case stands regardless of wording.
265. 4.82Augustine sums up the Maximianist case on communion, persecution, and baptism, and answers the Donatists' proof texts for refusing debate.
266. 4.83Augustine concludes the work: the Maximianist case refutes every Donatist charge, and he urges Cresconius to return to the Catholic church for the peace of Christ.