1. I should wish indeed that the African Church were not placed in such afflictions as to require the aid of any earthly power, but since, as the Apostle says, “there is no power but of God,” c it is true that when you, a very whole-hearted son of our Catholic Mother, come to her aid, “our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.”d For amid such grievous afflictions who does not realize, my excellent lord, worthy of all honour, and eminently praiseworthy son, that no small consolation has been sent us from heaven, when a man of your character and great devotion to the name of Christ has been raised to the dignity of proconsul, so that your power seconded by your goodwill may restrain the enemies of the Church from their criminal and sacrilegious violence? In short, there is only one thing that we fear in your administration of justice, namely, that perhaps, since whatever evil impious and irreverent men commit against the Christian community is surely more serious and more heinous than if the same evil were committed against others, you personally may decide to administer punishment in proportion to the enormity of the offence instead of in accordance with regard for Christian gentleness. We beseech you for Jesus' sake to refrain from doing so. For we exact no vengeance from our enemies on this earth, nor indeed should our sufferings drive us to such mental straits that we forget the injunctions of Him for Whose truth and name we suffer; we love our enemies and pray for them. a So, in availing ourselves of the terror of judges and laws, we desire their repentance, not their death, so that they may be saved from falling into the penalties of the eternal judgement. We do not wish to see them quite absolved from punishment, nor, on the other hand, visited with the torments they deserve. Check their sins, therefore, in such a way as to produce repentance in at least a few.
1. Nollem quidem in his afflictionibus esse Africanam ecclesiam constitutam, ut terrenae ullius potestatis indigeret auxilio. Sed quia, sicut apostolus dicit, non est potestas nisi a deo, procul dubio, cum per vos sincerissimos catholicae matris filios eidem subvenitur, auxilium nostrum in nomine domini est, qui fecit caelum et terram. Quis enim non sentiat in tantis malis non parvam nobis consolationem divinitus missam, cum tu vir talis et Christi nominis amantissimus proconsularibus es sublimatus insignibus, ut ab sceleratis et sacrilegis ausibus inimicos ecclesiae bonae tuae voluntati potestas sociata cohiberet, domine exinde meritoque honorabilis insigniterque laudabilis fili? Denique unum solum est quod in tua iustitia pertimescimus, ne forte quoniam, quicquid mali contra Christianam societatem ab hominibus impiis ingratisque committitur, profecto gravius est et atrocius, quam si in alios talia committantur, tu quoque pro immanitate facinorum ac non potius pro lenitatis Christianae consideratione censeas cohercendum. Quod te per ipsum Christum ne facias obsecramus. Neque enim vindictam de inimicis in hac terra requirimus aut vero ad eas angustias animi nos debent coartare quae patimur, ut obliviscantur quid nobis praeceperit, pro cuius veritate ac nomine patimur; diligimus inimicos nostros et oramus pro eis. Unde ex occasione terribilium iudicum ac legum, ne in aeterni iudicii poenas incidant, corrigi eos cupimus, non necari; nec disciplinam circa eos neglegi volumus nec supplicia, quae digna sunt, exerceri. Sic ergo eorum peccata compesce, ut sint quos paeniteat peccavisse.
2. I beg you then, when you are trying cases concerning the Church, however outrageous the injuries with which you discover it has been assailed or distressed, to forget that you possess the power of life and death, but not to forget my entreaty. And do not think it an unimportant or contemptible thing, my honoured and well-beloved son, that I ask you to spare the lives of men whom we pray God to bring to repentance. Even setting aside the fact that we ought not to depart from the eternal principle of overcoming evil with good, a let your Wisdom take this other fact into account, that no one takes the trouble to bring Church cases before you, except churchmen themselves. So if in such cases you think fit to put men to death, you will deter us from having any such cases brought before your tribunal; and when our opponents ascertain this, they will proceed with all the more unrestrained effrontery to destroy us, when the necessity is laid upon us of choosing rather to die at their hands than to hale them before your tribunal to suffer death themselves. Do not receive with contempt, I beg you, this exhortation, this request, this entreaty of mine. For I do not think that you will forget that, even if you were in a much more exalted position than the one you now occupy, and even were I not a bishop, I might still have had great confidence in addressing you. Meanwhile, let the heretical Donatists quickly learn by your Excellency's edicts that the laws passed against their error are still in force, though they now think that they are of no effect, and boast that, not even if they were, could they to any extent spare us. But you will very greatly assist our labours and perils to bear fruit, if you strive to repress by the imperial laws that sect of theirs which is so flaunting and so full of impious pride, in such a way that they do not appear to themselves or their supporters to be enduring hardships, no matter how slight, for the sake of truth and righteousness; but allow them, when this is requested from you, to be convinced and instructed by the incontrovertible evidence of clearly ascertained facts either in your Excellency's own court or in that of inferior judges, to the end that those who are arrested at your command may themselves bend their stubborn will, if it can be bent at all. to the better side and profitably read those proofs to others. For the effort to make men abandon even a great evil and cleave to a great good produces more trouble than benefit, if they act merely under compulsion and not from conviction.
2. Quaesumus igitur, ut, cum ecclesiae causas audis, quamlibet nefariis iniuriis appetitam vel afflictam esse cognoveris, potestatem occidendi te habere obliviscaris, petitionem nostram non obliviscaris. Non tibi vile sit neque contemptibile, fili honorabiliter dilectissime, quod vos rogamus ne occidantur, pro quibus dominum rogamus ut corrigantur. Excepto etiam, quod a perpetuo proposito recedere non debemus vincendi in bono malum, illud quoque prudentia tua cogitet quod causas ecclesiasticas insinuare vobis nemo praeter ecclesiasticos curat. Proinde si occidendos in his homines putaveritis, deterrebitis nos, ne per operam nostram ad vestrum iudicium aliquid tale per veniat, quo comperto illi in nostram perniciem licentiore audacia grassabuntur, necessitate nobis impacta ut etiam occidi ab eis eligamus, quam eos occidendos vestris iudiciis ingeramus. Hanc admonitionem, petitionem, obsecrationem meam ne, quaeso, aspernanter accipias. Neque enim te arbitror non recolere magnam me ad te et multo quam nunc es altius sublimatum, etiam si episcopus non essem, fiduciam tamen habere potuisse. Cito interim per edicta excellentiae tuae noverint haeretici Donatistae manere leges contra errorem suum latas, quas iam nihil valere arbitrantur et iactant, ne vel sic nobis parcere aliquatenus possint. Plurimum autem labores et pericula nostra, quo fructuosa sint, adiuvabis, si eorum vanissimam et impiae superbiae plenissimam sectam non ita cures imperialibus legibus comprimi, ut sibi vel suis videantur qualescumque molestias pro veritate atque iustitia sustinere, sed eos, cum hoc abs te petitur, rerum certarum manifestissimis documentis apud acta vel praestantiae tuae vel minorum iudicum convinci atque instrui patiaris, ut et ipsi qui te iubente adtinentur, duram, si fieri potest, flectant in melius voluntatem et ea ceteris salubriter legant. Onerosior est quippe quam utilior diligentia, quamvis ut magnum deseratur malum et magnum bonum teneatur, cogi tantum homines, non doceri.