1. If you could see my heart-felt grief and anxiety for your salvation, you would perhaps “have pity on your own soul, doing what is pleasing unto God” b by giving ear to the injunction which is not ours, but His, and you would not impress His Scriptures on your memory only to close your heart against them. You are angry because you are being dragged to salvation, although you and your friends have dragged so many of our people to destruction. What other intention have we, but to arrest you and bring you before the judge and preserve you from perishing? As for the fact that you received a slight bodily injury, you are to blame for that yourself, for you would not make use of the mule that was at once brought for you, and dashed yourself with violence to the ground; for, as you know, the other person who was taken away with you, a colleague of yours, arrived uninjured, since he did not cause any such injury to himself.
1. Si posses videre dolorem cordis mei et sollicitudinem pro salute tua, fortasse miserereris animae tuae placens deo in audiendo verbo non nostro, sed ipsius, nec eius scripturas sic in memoria tua figeres, ut contra eas cor clauderes. Displicet tibi quia trahens ad salutem, cum tam multos nostros ad perniciem traxeritis. Quid enim volumus, nisi te comprehendi et praesentari et servari, ne pereas? Quod autem aliquantum in corpore laesus es, ipse tibi fecisti, qui iumento tibi mox admoto uti noluisti et te ad terram graviter conlisisti. Nam utique alius qui adductus est tecum, collega tuus, inlaesus venit, quia talia sibi ipse non fecit.
2. But even that, in your opinion, should not have been done to you, for you hold that no one should be forced to what is good. Mark the words of the Apostle, “If a man desire the office of bishop, he desireth a good work,”a yet in spite of them, many men are led to undertake the office of bishop only by being detained against their will, brought from one place to another, shut up and kept under supervision, subjected to treatment that they do not like, until they acquire a willingness to undertake that “good work.” b How much more fitting it is that you should be torn away from that pernicious error, by clinging to which you are your own worst enemies, and brought to either a knowledge or acceptance of the truth, so that you may not only retain your honour with safety to yourselves, but also escape the great misery of destruction. You say that God has given man free-will and that therefore no one should be forced even to good. Why then are those men I spoke of above compelled to good? Mark well then a point you refuse to take into consideration: the reason why a good will expends itself in works of mercy is to provide guidance for man's evil will. For who does not know that man is not damned unless for a his evil will, nor, on the other hand, granted deliverance, unless he has a good will? Still b it does not follow that those we love are to be cruelly left to enjoy their evil will without correction, but where the power is granted, they are to be both prevented from evil and forced to good.
2. Sed neque hoc putas tibi fieri debuisse, quia neminem aestimas cogendum esse ad bonum. Adtende quid apostolus dixerit: Qui episcopatum desiderat, bonum opus concupiscit, et tamen tam multi, ut episcopatum suscipiant, tenentur inviti, perducuntur, includuntur, custodiuntur, patiuntur tanta quae nolunt, donec eis adsit voluntas suscipiendi operis boni; quanto magis vos ab errore pernicioso, in quo vobis inimici estis, trahendi estis et perducendi ad veritatem vel cognoscendam vel eligendam, non solum ut honorem salubriter habeatis, sed etiam ne pessime pereatis! Dicis deum dedisse liberum arbitrium, ideo non debere cogi hominem nec ad bonum. Quare ergo illi, de quibus supra dixi, coguntur ad bonum? Adtende ergo quod considerare non vis. Ideo voluntas bona misericorditer inpenditur, ut mala voluntas hominis dirigatur. Nam quis nesciat nec damnati hominem nisi merito malae voluntatis, nec liberari nisi bonam habuerit voluntatem? Non tamen ideo, qui diliguntur, malae suae voluntati impune et crudeliter permittendi sunt, sed, ubi potestas datur, et a malo prohibendi et ad bonum cogendi.
3. (For if an evil will is always to be left to enjoy its liberty, why were such severe scourges employed to prevent the disobedient and querulous Israelites from evil and to compel them to the land of promise? c If an evil will is always to be left to enjoy its liberty, why was Paul not allowed the free use of his perverted will to persecute the Church, but was thrown to the ground to be blinded, and blinded to be transformed, and transformed to be made an apostle, and made an apostle to endure for the truth sufferings such as he had inflicted when in error? d If an evil will is always to be left to enjoy its liberty, why do the Holy Scriptures admonish a father not only to correct his obstinate son with rebukes, but also to punish his bodyT with blows, so that, compelled and subdued, he may be led to habits of goodness? e That is why the same writer says, “Thou shalt beat him with a rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.” f If an evil will is always to be left to enjoy its liberty, why are careless pastors rebuked with the words, “Ye have not brought back the wandering sheep, ye have not sought that which was lost” g? You too are Christ's sheep; you bear the mark a of the Lord in the sacrament you have received, but you have wandered away and are lost. There is no reason why you should be angry with us for recalling you from wandering and seeking you when you were lost, for it is better for us to carry out the will of the Lord, Who gave us the injunction to compel you to return to His fold, than to acquiesce in the will of the wandering sheep and allow you to be lost. Do not then say what I hear you keep saying, “I want to wander in my own way; I want to be lost in my own way,” for it is better that we should not allow that at all, as far as in us lies.)
3. Nam si voluntas mala semper suae permittenda est libertati, quare Israhelitae recusantes et murmurantes tam duris flagellis a malo prohibebantur et ad terram promissionis compellebantur? Si voluntas mala semper suae permittenda est libertati, quare Paulus non est permissus uti pessima voluntate, qua persequebatur ecclesiam, sed prostratus est, ut excaecaretur, excaecatus, ut mutaretur, mutatus, ut mitteretur, missus, ut, qualia fecerat in errore, talia pro veritate pateretur? Si voluntas mala semper suae permittenda est libertati, quare monetur pater in scripturis sanctis filium durum non solum verbis corripere sed etiam latera eius tundere, ut ad bonam disciplinam coactus et domitus dirigatur? Unde idem dicit: Tu quidem perditis eum virga, animam autem eius liberabis a morte. Si mala voluntas semper suae permittenda est libertati, quare corripiuntur neglegentes pastores et dicitur eis: Errantem ovem non revocastis, perditam non inquisistis? Et vos oves Christi estis, characterem dominicum portatis in sacramento quod accepistis, sed errastis et peristis. Non ideo vobis displiceamus, quia revocamus errantes et quaerimus perditos; melius enim facimus voluntatem domini monentis ut vos ad eius ovile redire cogamus, quam consentimus voluntati ovium errantium, ut perire vos permittamus. Noli ergo iam dicere, quod te assidue audio dicere: “Sic volo errare, sic volo perire;” melius enim nos hoc omnino non permittimus, quantum possumus.
4. When lately you threw yourself into a well with the intention of slaying your body, you certainly did that of your own free will. But how cruel the servants of God would have been if they had handed you over to your own evil will and not delivered you from that death! Who would not have justly blamed them? Who would not have been right in judging them inhuman? And yet you threw yourself into the water, intending to slay your body, of your own free will, and they lifted you out of the water, to defeat your intention, against your will; you acted according to your own will, but to your own destruction, while they acted against your will, but for your own preservation. If then the preservation of the body is to be safeguarded so that those who do not wish it are to be secured by their friends, how much more the preservation of the spirit, for the abandoning of which the fearsome consequence is eternal death! And yet the death you sought to deal yourself was not only a death for time but for eternity, for even if you were being compelled to some evil deed instead of to self-preservation, to the peace of the Church, to the unity of Christ's body, or to holy and indivisible charity, even so, you had no right to attempt to take your own life.
4. Modo quod te in puteum, ut morereris, misisti, utique libera voluntate fecisti. Sed quam crudeles essent servi dei, si huic malae tuae voluntati te permitterent et non te de illa morte liberarent! Quis eos non merito culparet? Quis non impios recte iudicaret? Et tamen tu te volens in aquam misisti, ut morereris, illi te nolentem de aqua levaverunt, ne morereris; tu fecisti secundum voluntatem tuam sed in perniciem tuam, illi contra voluntatem tuam sed propter salutem tuam. Si ergo salus ista corporalis sic custodienda est, ut etiam in nolentibus ab eis qui eos diligunt, servetur, quanto magis illa spiritalis, in cuius desertione mors aeterna metuitur! Quamquam in ista morte quam tibi tu ipse inferre voluisti, non solum ad tempus sed etiam in aeternum morereris, quia, etsi non ad salutem, non ad ecclesiae pacem, non ad Christi corporis unitatem, non ad sanctam et individuam caritatem, sed ad mala aliqua cogereris, nec sic tibi ipse mortem inferre debuisti.
5. Examine the Holy Scriptures and scrutinize them to the best of your ability, and see if at any time any one of the righteous and the faithful took this course, although they endured such great sufferings at the hands of those who sought to impel them to everlasting destruction, not to everlasting life, to which you are being forced. I have heard that you have said that the apostle Paul indicated that self-immolation was lawful, in the words, “Though I give my body to be burned,”a on the supposition that, as he was there enumerating all the good things that are of no avail without charity, such as the tongues of men and of angels, and all mysteries, and all knowledge and all prophecy and all faith that could remove mountains, and the bestowal of one's property on the poor, b he intended among these good things to count even self-immolation. But observe carefully and notice in what sense the Scripture says that a man may give his body to be burned: certainly not that he may throw himself into the fire when he is harassed by a pursuing enemy, but that when the proposal is made to him that he should do wrong or else suffer wrong, he should choose not to do wrong rather than not to suffer wrong and so give his body over to him who has power to slay it, as did those three men who were compelled to worship the golden statue, when he who applied the compulsion threatened them with the fiery furnace if they did not comply. c They refused to worship the image; they did not cast them- selves into the fire, and yet it was written even of them that “they yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own God.”a That is the sense in which the Apostle said, “If I give my body to be burned.”
5. Considera scripturas divinas et discute quantum potes, et vide utrum hoc fecerit aliquis aliquando iustorum atque fidelium, cum ab eis tanta mala perpessi sint qui eos ad aeternum interitum non ad vitam aeternam, quo tu compelleris, adigebant. Audivi quod dixeris apostolum Paulum significasse hoc fieri debere, ubi ait: Et si tradidero corpus meum, ut ardeam. Quia videlicet omnia bona dicebat, quae sine caritate nihil prosunt, sicut sunt linguae hominum et angelorum et omnia sacramenta et omnis scientia et omnis prophetia et omnis fides ita ut montes transferantur, et rerum suarum distributio pauperibus, ideo videtur tibi etiam hoc inter bona numerasse, ut sibi quisque inferat mortem. Sed adtende diligenter et cognosce quem ad modum dicat scriptura quod tradat quisque suum corpus ut ardeat, non utique, ut ipse se in ignem mittat, quando persequentem patitur inimicum, sed, quando ei proponitur ut aut mali aliquid faciat aut mali aliquid patiatur, eligat non facere mala quam non pati mala atque ita corpus suum tradat in potestatem interfectoris, sicut tres illi viri fecerunt qui auream statuam cogebantur adorare et, nisi facerent, minabatur eis ille qui cogebat, caminum ignis ardentem. Idolum adorare noluerunt, non ipsi se in ignem miserunt et tamen etiam de illis scriptum est quod tradiderunt corpora sua. ut neque servirent neque adorarent ullum deum sed deum suum. Ecce quo modo dixit apostolus: Si tradidero corpus meum, ut ardeam.
6. Notice, however, what follows: “If I have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”b To that charity you are summoned; by that charity you are withheld from perishing, and yet you think that to throw yourself headlong to destruction does to some degree profit you, although even if you suffered death at the hands of another person while you are still a foe to charity, that would profit you nothing; indeed, as long as you remain outside the Church and severed from the fabric of unity and the bond of charity, you would be punished with everlasting chastisement, even if you were burned alive for Christ's sake. That is what the Apostle means when he says, “Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” Bring back your mind, then, to sane reflection and sober thought; consider carefully whether it is to error and impiety that you are being summoned, and endure any troubles you like for truth's sake. But if you rather are living in error and in impiety, and truth and piety rather exist in the place to which you are summoned, for the reason that there are to be found Christian unity and the charity of the Holy Spirit, why do you keep on trying to be your own worst enemy?
6. Quod autem sequitur, vide: Si caritatem non habeam, nihil mihi prodest. Ad istam caritatem vocaris, ab ista caritate perire non sineris et putas tibi aliquid prodesse, si te ipse praecipites in interitum, cum tibi nihil prodesset, etiamsi alter te occideret caritatis inimicum. Foris autem ab ecclesia constitutus et separatus a compage unitatis et vinculo caritatis aeterno supplicio punireris, etiamsi pro Christi nomine vivus incendereris. Hoc est enim quod ait apostolus: Et si tradidero corpus meum, ut ardeam, caritatem autem non habeam, nihil mihi prodest. Revoca ergo animum ad sanam considerationem et sobriam cogitationem; adtende diligenter utrum ad errorem et impietatem voceris, et patere pro veritate quaslibet molestias. Si autem tu potius in errore atque in impietate versaris, quo autem vocaris ibi est veritas et pietas, quia ibi Christiana unitas et sancti spiritus caritas, quid adhuc tibi esse conaris inimicus?
7. It was with this end in view that God in His mercy provided your bishops and us with an opportunity of meeting at Carthage in a crowded and well-attended conference c and of reasoning together in the most orderly manner about this very question of separation. The minutes were written down; further, our signatures are on record. Read them, or have them read to you, and choose then which you prefer. I have heard you have stated that you could have some discussion with us about those minutes, if we leave out the words of your bishops, in which it is said, “One case does not compromise another case, nor one person another person.” a You want us to leave these words out, which truth itself spoke through them, though they knew it not. But you will say that in this point they were mistaken and through lack of foresight fell into a false opinion; we say that what they said was true, and we very easily prove this by referring to yourself. For if you refuse to allow those bishops of yours, chosen by the entire Donatist party to represent the whole body in such wise that whatever they did, the rest should take as satisfactory and acceptable, to prejudice your case by what you hold to be a rash and incorrect statement on their part, by this refusal you admit the truth of their statement that one case does not compromise another case, nor one person another person. And at this point you ought to grant that, if you refuse to allow the person of so many of your bishops as represented in those seven b to compromise the person of Donatus, priest of Mutugenna, a all the less ought the person of Caecilian, even if some degree of evil had been detected in him, to compromise Christian unity, which is not confined to the single village of Mutugenna, but is spread abroad throughout the world.
7. Ideo praestitit misericordia dei, ut et nos et episcopi vestri tam frequenti numerosoque conventu Carthaginem veniremus atque inter nos de ipsa dissensione ordinatissime conferremus. Gesta conscripta sunt, nostrae etiam subscriptiones tenentur. Lege vel patere ut tibi legatur, et tunc elige quod volueris. Audivi quod dixeris posse te nobiscum de ipsis gestis aliquid agere, si omittamus verba episcoporum vestrorum, ubi dixerunt: “Nec causa causae nec persona personae praeiudicat.” Haec verba vis omittamus, ubi per eos nescientes veritas ipsa locuta est. Sed tu dicturus es hic eos errasse et in falsam sententiam incautius cecidisse; nos autem dicimus hoc eos verum dixisse et hoc per te ipsum facillime probamus. Si enim episcopi vestri electi ab universa parte Donati, qui causam omnium sustinerent et, si quid egissent, gratum et acceptum ceteri haberent, tamen in eo quod illos temere et non recte dixisse arbitraris, non vis ut tibi praeiudicent, verum ergo dixerunt, quia “nec causa causae nec persona personae praeiudicat.” Et ibi debes agnoscere quia, si persona tot episcoporum tuorum in illis septem constitutorum non vis ut prae- iudicet personae Donati Mutugennensis presbyteri, quanto minus non debet praeiudicare Caeciliani persona, etiamsi mali aliquid in illo esset inventum, universae unitati Christi, quae non in una villa Mutugenna concluditur, sed toto terrarum orbe diffunditur!
8. But see, we shall do as you have desired; we shall treat with you as if your bishops had not said, “One case does not compromise another case, nor one person another person.” Do you find out what they ought to have replied to that point, when the objection was made to them of the case and person of Primianus, b who although he joined the others in anathematizing those who had anathematized him, nevertheless received back with their former honours those whom he had anathematized and cursed, and chose rather to recognize and accept, than to abolish and breathe scorn upon, c the baptism given by dead men (for of them it was said in that famous decree a that “the shores were full of dead men” ), and so gave a complete denial to that argument which you are wont to deduce from a wrong interpretation of the words, “He that washeth himself after touching a dead body, what availeth his washing?” b If then your bishops had not said, “One case does not compromise another case, nor one person another person,” they would have been held to share the guilt in the case of Primianus; but in making that assertion they secured the Catholic Church, as we contended, from any guilt in the case of Caecilian.
8. Sed ecce facimus quod voluisti; sic tecum agimus, ac si non dixerint vestri: “Nec causa causae nec persona personae praeiudicat.” Tu inveni quid illic dicere debuerint, cum eis obiecta esset causa et persona Primiani, qui damnatores suos et damnavit cum ceteris et damnatos ac detestatos in suo rursus honore suscepit, et baptismum quem mortui dederant (quia de ipsis in illa praeclara sententia dictum erat quod "mortuorum funeribus plena sint litora "), agnoscere potius et acceptare quam exsufflare et rescindere maluit, totumque dissolvit quod male intellegentes dicere soletis, quia qui baptizatur a mortuo, quid ei prodest lavacrum eius? Si ergo non dicerent: “Nec causa causae nec persona personae praeiudicat,” rei tenerentur in causa Primiani; cum autem hoc dixerunt, immunem fecerunt ecclesiam catholicam, sicut nos adserebamus, a causa Caeciliani.
9. But read all the rest and examine it well. Notice whether they have succeeded in proving any evil against Caecilian himself, from whose person they attempted to compromise the Church; notice whether they have not rather achieved much in his favour and altogether confirmed the soundness of his case by the comparatively large number of extracts they produced and recited to the detriment of their own position. Read those, or have them read to you; consider the whole matter, give it a further careful investigation, and choose which you will follow, whether you will share our joy in the peace of Christ, in the unity of the Church Catholic, in brotherly affection, or, in the cause of wicked discord, the Donatist party and sacrilegious schism, will endure still further the importunity of our love for you.
9. Sed cetera lege, cetera discute. Vide utrum in ipsum Caecilianum, de cuius persona praeiudicare conabantur ecclesiae, aliquid mali probare potuerint. Vide utrum non potius etiam pro illo multa egerint et pluribus lectionibus, quas contra se protulerunt et recitaverunt, causam eius bonam omnino firmaverint. Lege ista vel legantur tibi. Considera omnia, retracta diligenter, et elige quid sequaris, utrum nobiscum in Christi pace, in ecclesiae catholicae unitate, in fraterna caritate gaudere, an pro nefaria dissensione, pro Donati parte, pro sacrilega divisione importunitatem nostrae circa te dilectionis diutius sustinere.
10. I hear that you often quote and draw attention to the fact recorded in the Gospels that seventy disciples withdrew from the Lord and were left to their own choice in this wicked and undutiful desertion, and that to the other twelve who remained it was said, “Will ye also go away?” a But you neglect to draw attention to the fact that then the Church was just beginning to sprout with new shoots and that as yet that prophecy had not received fulfilment in her: “All kings shall fall down before him, yea, all nations shall serve him” b; it is in proportion to the more complete fulfilment of that prophecy that the Church enjoys greater authority, so that she not only invites, but actually compels, men to goodness. This is what our Lord intended in that incident to indicate, for although He possessed great authority, He chose rather to give the example of humility. This too He taught clearly enough in that parable of the feast, in which, after a message had been sent to the invited guests and they had refused to come, the servant was told, “' Go out into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind.' And the servant said to his lord, ' It is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.' And the lord said to his servant,' Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.'” c Just notice the phrase used of those who came first: “bring them in,” not the phrase, “compel them to come in”; that symbolized the incipient stage of the Church, still developing to the point where it would have the strength to compel men to it. Accordingly, since it was right that when it had grown stronger in power and extent men should actually be compelled to the feast of everlasting salvation, the words were afterwards added: “It is done as thou hast commanded, and still there is room. And the lord said, ' Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in.'” Wherefore, if you were walking quietly outside this feast of the Church's holy unity, we should find you, so to speak, in the “highways”; but as it is, you are, so to say, full of thorns and sharpness, by reason of the many cruel sufferings you inflict on our people, so we find you, as it were, in the " hedges " and compel you to come in. He who is compelled is forced to go where he has no wish to go, but when he has come in, he partakes of the feast right willingly. So curb your hostile and rebellious spirit, that you may find the feast of salvation within the true Church of Christ.
10. Adtendis enim et saepe repetis, sicut audio, quod in evangelio scriptum est recessisse a domino septua- ginta discipulos et arbitrio suae malae atque impiae discessionis fuisse permissos, ceterisque duodecim qui remanserant, fuisse responsum: Numquid et vos vultis ire? Et non adtendis quia tunc primum ecclesia novello germine pullulabat nondumque in ea fuerat completa illa prophetia: Et adorabunt eum omnes reges terrae, omnes gentes servient illi, quod utique quanto magis impletur, tanto maiore utitur ecclesia potestate, ut non solum invitet, sed etiam cogat ad bonum. Hoc tunc dominus significare volebat, qui quamvis haberet magnam potestatem, prius tamen elegit commendare humilitatem. Hoc et in illa convivii similitudine satis evidenter ostendit, ubi misit ad invitatos et venire noluerunt; et ait servo: Exi in plateas et vicos civitatis et pauperes et debiles et caecos et claudos introduc huc. Et ait servus domino: “Factum est, ut imperasti, et adhuc locus est.” Et ait dominus servo: Exi in vias et saepes et compelle intrare, ut impleatur domus mea. Vide nunc quem ad modum de his qui prius venerunt, dictum est: “Introduc ” eos. non dictum est “compelle;” ita significata sunt ecclesiae primordia adhuc crescentis, ut essent vires etiam compellendi. Proinde, quia oportebat eius iam viribus et magnitudine roborata etiam compelli homines ad convivium salutis aeternae, posteaquam dictum est: Factum est, quod iussisti, et adhuc est locus, exi, inquit, in vias et saepes et compelle intrare. Quapropter, si ambularetis quieti extra hoc convivium sanctae unitatis ecclesiae, tamquam in viis vos inveniremus; nunc vero, quia per multa mala et saeva quae in nostros committitis, tamquam spinis et asperitate pleni estis, vos tamquam in saepibus invenimus et intrare compellimus. Qui compellitur, quo non vult cogitur, sed, cum intraverit, iam volens pascitur. Cohibe itaque iam iniquum et inpacatum animum, ut in vera ecclesia Christi invenias salutare convivium.