had been Deacon to Cecilian to be Bishop of Carthage By this you may perceive how many sins and lusts were in conjunction when this Monster of Schisme was first produced The defeated Ambition of some the sacrilegious covetousness of others the restless guilt and feminine malice of others and therefore it is rightly numbred among the works of the flesh Gal. 5.20 Jude 19. and the Authors condemned for sensual Persons It is generally true of all Schisme what is particularly observed of this Iracundia peperit Ambitio nutrivit Avaritia roboravit Discontent is the Mother Opt. p. 41. Ambition the Nurse and Covetousness a Champion to defend it To which agrees another ancient Observation Quicunque pacem ecclesiae perturbant aut Superbiae tumore furiosi aut invidentiae Livore vesani aut Seculari commoditate corrupti aut cannali concupiscentia perversi Aug. contr Parm. l. 3. The Faction being by these Arts propagated and become numerous begins to remonstrate against Cecilian not sparing Mensurius his Predecessor nor Felix who ordained him but charged them all to have been Traditors and particularly that Cecilian while he was a Deacon under Mensurius did forbid and hinder all relief from those that were imprisoned and ready to suffer Martyrdom in the days of Dioclesian And which is usual with such Persons by how much the more guilty of such practices they themselves were so much the more vehemently do they accuse others that their pretended zeal against those sins falsly imputed to others may serve as a cloak to cover the real guilt which defiled themselves Vt crimina in silentium mitterent sua vitam infamant alienam And now they begin to perswade the People that Cecilian is no Minister of Christ nor the People that adhered to him Members of the true Church that they had no true Sacraments nor saving Ordinances Opt. p. 42. but all were corrupted by Idolatry and Superstition And thus they generally called the Catholicks Pagans and Idolaters Adhuc Paganus es They would tell those whom they intended to seduce that they were very Pagans Donatus de Casâ nigrâ is the first that sets up Private Meetings L. 1. as Optatus observes Nolebat cum allis sacrificare sed in domibus secretò He withdraws from the Communion of Cecilian and the Bishops that adhered to him though they had Communicatory Letters from the chiefest Churches of the World and gathering the People into Coventicles for so both Optatus and St. Augustine call those Meetings they Preach against the Corruption of Cecilian and other Catholick Bishops and the Idolatrous and Superstitious practices that had defiled the whole Church of Carthage into whose Communion they say lapsed Persons and profane Traditors were promiscuously admitted to the defiling of all that joyned with them seeing the Church of Christ is to consist only of such as were holy and without spot and wrinkle and such said Donatus were to be found only in his separated Congregations where were better Ministers and purer Ordinances Having laid this Foundation no Pharisees were ever so industrious in gaining Proselytes as Donatus and his Party to seduce the People of Carthage from the Church under Cecilian to their own Conventicles for they run from House to House and from Village to Village and pick up one of a Family and two or three of a Village by foul and false accusations of others and fair pretences in behalf of themselves pitying the People and perswading them that they lived among Idolaters and were defiled by their communion with them Their manner of seducing the People is recorded both by Optatus and St. Augustine Caius Seius or Caia Seia adhuc Paganus es consule animae tuae esto Christianus p. 75. Bonus Homo si non esses Traditor i. e. Good Man or good Woman you are yet a rank Idolater be advised by me for the Salvation of thy Soul come out of that Babylon and be made a Christian thou hast good affections if they were sanctified and placed aright thou may'st become an eminent Saint Against this Un-christian practice St. Augustine most passionately declaimes O improbam rabiem cùm Christiano dicitur esto Christianus hoc est dicere nega Christum O accursed madness to perswade them that were true Christians already to renounce their Christianity under a pretence that they should be admitted to a higher form What is this saith he but to deny Christ which to prevent the Servants of Christ have been alway ready to lay down their Lives Opt. p. 75. and resist even to Blood Vnus consensus manus tuae porrectio pauca verba Christianum faciunt de Christiano As if the being admitted into their Congregations did contribute more to their Christianity than their Baptism By these insinuations they skrued themselves into the affections of the younger and weaker sort Opt. l. 3. p. 73. Aut exivit Vxor resedit Maritus c. Either the Wife separated and the Husband remained in the Catholick Communion or the Children and Servants were seduced from their obedience to their earthly as well as heavenly Parents and Masters until they had rent the Church of God into pieces and of one Church made many Synagogues of Satan Persuasionibus vestris divisa sunt corpora nomina pietatis The Church and the City the Townes and Families Husbands and Wives Parents and Children were divided and were no longer known by the Name of Christians but one was a Majorite another a Donatist a third a Maximianist and all of them professed Enemies to the Communion of the Catholick Church And whereas they pretended to greater purity than other Congregations yet such as joyned with them were Persons of least honesty and charity Ille vobis Christianus erit qui quod vultis fecerit non quem fides adduxerit He shall be a choice Christian among you saith Optatus whom a blind obedience to you and not faith in Christ hath p. 75. brought over Tertullian commended the Christian Religion in his days because it did so alter the dispositions of Men as to make those who were fierce and cruel as Bears or Tygers to be meek and innocent as Lambs or Doves but the spirit of Donatisme did Hominem de homine tollere Optat. p. 79 rob Men of their Humanity and made them that were formerly harmless and peaceable to be unnatural and implacable and yet as bad as they were they promised forgiveness of sins and a Crown of Martyrdome too to such as not only shed the blood of their Brethren but desperately cast away their own Lives Of which I shall give too many instances in the insuing History The Faction being increased by such arts they begin to leave their private Houses and build Basilicas non necessarias Optat. p. 61 unnecessary Churches when those of the Orthodox were sufficient and having first departed from Cecilian they departed also from the Catholick Church affirming that they only and
such as afflict the People of peace This if your Serenity shall observe you shall soon see by the grace of God that the Ring-leaders of contention will be destroyed when their designs shall be frustrated and their manners discovered In the mean time let all your People know that they ought not to be led to Eternal Death by the perswasion of a few desperate Persons but that by the grace of repentance and amendment of their errors they may be reconciled to Eternal Life Moreover he was pleased to certifie Eumalius and other his Officers in Africa of Cecilian's innocency Pervidi inquit Cecilianum c. I have always found Cecilian to be a Man of great integrity and free from the crimes objected by his Adversaries But the Donatists were now by their great Numbers above the Laws and Power of the Emperor for now was Constantine imployed to suppress the War raised by Licinius which he did with much more ease than he could the Tumults of the Donatists And the Catholick Bishops were busied in confuting the Arians Credo nostros in refutandis Arianis totos fuisse Hist Collat. Carth. p. 606. which is the reason that we hear but little of the Donatists for five or six Years the Council at Nice continuing for three Years but the Council being risen and the Catholick Bishops returned the controversie is renewed and carried on with more fury than ever For Donatus the first being dead Donatus Magnus as his Party called him succeeds him in the pretended Bishoprick of Carthage A man of more Learning and popular reputation than his Predecessor and of no less zeal and obstinacy in opposing the Catholicks and supporting the Faction among whom there was none so proud and fanatick as himself I find this Character of him Eò evasit Donatus ut non modo tanquam alter Hannibal Imperatores contemnebat sed ut deus aliquis à suis coleretur He got Troops of Armed Men to prosecute his designs and called their Captains Duces Sanctorâ—â—m Optatus p. 68. these often affronted the Emperor's Officers Baronius observes in the 26th Year of Constantine that he did not only load the Prefects with reproaches calling them Senatus opprobrium dedecus Praefectorum but did also cast dirt on the Emperor as if he had been corrupted by the Catholicks Corruptum esse Imperatorem Delib Hist p. 246. which he did on this occasion The good Emperor commiserating the great sufferings of the Churches of Africa gives Order for considerable Summs of Mony to be sent to Cecilian with a gracious Letter which is recorded by Eusebius l. 10. c. 6. to this effect Constantine the Emperor to Cecilian Bishop of Carthage sendeth Greeting I have sent Letters to Vrsus Lieutenant of Africa that he cause 3000. Folles of Silver to be delivered to thy fidelity for the relief of the Churches of Africa and if this suffice not demand of Heraclus our Treasurer as much as may be sufficient And whereas I understand that some lewd People have much disturbed the peace of the Church I have given Order in the presence of Anilinus and Patricius to take cognizance thereof and in no wise to permit such things If therefore those Men persist in their folly acquaint the Governors thereof that they may act as I have appointed them The Great God preserve thee This great bounty and grace of the Emperor which did as so much Oyl heal the wounds and refresh the countenances of Cecilian and his People had a contrary effect on the spirits of Donatus and his Complices whose malice was hereby inflamed to rage and fury so that he forbad his People to accept any Portion of the Emperor's Largess if it should be offered Whereof Optatus gives the reason p. 64. Misit ornamenta Domibus Dei misit Elecmosynas Ceciliano nil Donato He sent Ornaments to the Catholick Churches and gifts to Cecilian but nothing to Donatus And at last the Emperor saw a necessity oâ— using more severity towards them and to rescue the Catholick Churches by force out oâ— the hands of the Donatists who in the late times of distraction had taken possession of them and triumphed alone nobis absentibus says Optatus The Emperor therefore by a more strict Edict not only denied them any publick Places of Worship but forbad them to reside in any of his Cities St. Augustiâ—â— mentioneth another Law against them and any others that should trouble the peace oâ— the Church by which it was provided thaâ— all such as called themselves Christians and refused to communicate with the Catholicâ— Churches sed in suis conventiculis separatiâ— congregantur and gathered into separate Congregations should be suppressed And that such Priests as did ordain or were ordained otherwise than the Church did approve of should be fined in a Mulct of Ten Pounds of Gold and the Place wherein such impious Meetings were held should be forfeited to the Emperor if the owners were consenting thereunto Moreover they were made uncapable of any Ecclesiastical promotion Vt nihil Ecclesiae nomine possiderent and that the Goods of such as were convicted should be seized on for the Emperor Fisco vindicarentur St. Aug. Epist 47. 166. and l. 1º contra Parmen and Bzovius Epitome Baâ—â—â— p. 550. And that which made these Laws more effectual was the Emperor's charge to his Sons to put them in Execution after his Death whereby their hopes of Indulgence were much abated And by this means the Church had a Prospect of Peace and Unity before it and Children were restored to their Parents Wives to their Husbands Servants to their Masters and all of them the Unity of the Church It may here be seasonable to consider with what Mortar these Persons daubed to make a Building that consisted of such different Materials Aedificium quod de ruinis constat as Optat. p. 62. to subsist and joyn together notwithstanding the opposition against it by so Potent and Religious a Prince and the joynt endeavours of the Catholick Bishops and People and several Councils as well Foreign as of their own Nation For the Emperor had sent express command to Anilinus not only to restore to the Catholick Churches all those possessions and priviledges which any of their Adversaries had usurped Sive hortos sive Aedes sive aliud quodcunque ad jus Ecclesiarum aliquando spectaverat Euseb l. 10. c. 1o. but more especially he granted to the Clergy united in Communion with Cecilian new Priviledges and Immunities As in the 7th Chap. of Eusebius l. 10. Vt absque ulla molestiâ proprie legi obsequium praestent But exempted as well Schismaticks as Hereticks from the benefit of those Edicts And in another Epistle to Cecilian having ordered him to receive what Money he should want he adds Quoniam accepi c. Whereas I understand that some Men of unstable and ill composed minds do seek by corrupt practices to withdraw the People from the Catholick Church I have given order to Anilinus
THE HISTORY OF THE Donatists By THOMAS LONG B. D. and Prebendary of St. Peter's EXON Mutato Nomine de te Anglia narratur LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1677. To the Reverend GEORGE CARY D. D. AND DEAN of EXETER Reverend Sir ALthough I am no Conjurer yet I suspect I have done enough to raise the spirits of the Donatists which are wont to be very troublesome and that it may exceed my skill to allay them And therefore I have thus seasonably I hope taken Sanctuary under Your Name for I have observed that some consecrated Persons as well as Places are not haunted with such Spectres And though such Apparitions have been very affrighting vexatious to Men of weak judgments wavering minds yet some Persons who have arm'd themselves with constant integrity to God and resolved Loyalty to the King have been least obnoxious to their power and malice as good Souldiers that keep their ranks are not so much exposed to the hazards of War as they whose fears make them sneak from Place to Place And this through God's good providence was Your security in the late Times of Confusion wherein notwithstanding the busie Emissaries of the Prince of Darkness you did not only shine as a bright Example of Christian resolution sound Doctrine and a holy Life but did really influence a great part of your neighbouring Clergy the sense whereof hath obliged me to this publick acknowledgment by which I cannot hope to add to your reputation but to provide for my own quiet against such unjust and unsavory reflections as guilty persons are prone to make from whom I appeal to your more righteous judgment whether I have done them wrong or no. Sure I am I intended them none for I only present them with a Glass wherein if they see their own defects they have no reason to be displeased with the Glass but with those Vices which cause the reflexion Socrates l. 2. c. 15. of the Tripartite History tells us that Constantine to shame the Arians provided by an Edict that they should be called Porphyrians Ut quorum mores imitati sunt eorum nomine perfruantur that they might be known by his Name whose manners they did imitate And a greater than Constantine did the like by the Jews John 8.44 Ye are of your father the Devil and his lusts ye will do Every Man 's publick profession and practices are the plainest characters to teach us what party he is of They who through pride and discontent raise and propagate new Opinions that they may head a Faction and take pet at the preferment of better Men vexing their Governors despising their Authority persecuting their innocent Brethren and fomenting Divisions in a well established Church are as manifestly acted and animated by the spirit of Donatus as if there were a transmigration of Souls Sic oculos sic ille manus sic ora gerebat As old Donatus did so do his Race Cast up their Eyes and Hands with down-cast Face In vain therefore do such pretend as with great confidence they do that they are the off-spring of those Primitive Christians who suffered under the Heathen Emperors for they in the worst times obeyed their lawful Governors in all things wherein they might not disobey God and constantly adhered to their Bibles their Bishops and their Brethren accounting all such Traditores i.e. Traytâ—rs as forsook either Such pretences therefore do make odious representations of the Primitive Christians as if they were in their Generation as factious and seditious as the late Donatists in ours And as ill reflexions do they cast on their Christian Governors as if they were very Persecutors But by their fruits ye shall know them for if it be considered how exactly every Scene of that horrid Tragedy which was first acted in the Churches of Africa hath been acted over and if I may so speak over-acted in the Church of England it cannot be denyed that they who destroyed the Church of England and its Defender were the most natural off-spring of those Donatists who so perpetually vexed the good Constantine and made Havock of the Churches of Africa or that the present Sectaries who so tenaciously adhere to the principles and follow the practices of them that brought such confusion on the Land in the former Age are their proper Successors However it is advisedly done by their Apologists to make their Pamphlets swell with the frequent mention of the Indulgence of some of the Emperors to peaceable Christians but pass by the many strict Edicts of the most Christian and pious Emperors against such as withdrew from the Communion of the Catholick Church some of which I have transcribed for their better information at the end of this History and shall only acquaint them here with that success which Sozomen l. 3. c. 11. of the Tripartite History observed to follow on the due execution of them Who speaking of the Laws of Constantine against such as denyed communion with the Church in his days The Emperor saith my Author strictly commanded that their Meeting-places should be taken from them and they not permitted to assemble in private Houses or Churches by reason of which Law I suppose saith Sozomen the Memorial of Heresie was utterly destroy'd for after this Law they could meet neither publickly in the Churches nor secretly being observed and forbidden by the Bishops and Clergy Doubtless those Bishops and Clergymen were no Persecutors they did what was their duty and by a seasonable restraint of Men of corrupt principles preserved the true Christians in peace And certainly the present Bishops would be defective in a special duty of their Function which is to preserve the Flock of Christ in Peace and Unity if they should tolerate such as seek to scatter and make a Prey of them St. Hierome who is thought by some to have been no Friend to that Office doth yet affirm that it was ever since the Apostles days the best Remedy against Schisme I shall entreat your patience while I mention a passage or two of that Father which have been tortured to speak against Episcopacy but do so far commend its usefulness and assert its antiquity and authority as may suffice to silence all its adversaries In his Comment on 1 Titus he saith Antequam Diaboli instinctu c. Before such time as by the instigation of the Devil Factions were made in Religion and the People began to say I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas the Churches were governed by the common Council of Presbyters but afterward when every one accounted those whom he had baptized to be his own and not Christs it was decreed in the whole Christian World that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be set over the rest unto whom the care of the Church should belong that the seeds of schisme might be taken away Would you know when this was done and by whom Panormitan will
tell you Li. Decret de consuetud c. 4. Immediately after Christ's death all the Presbyters ruled in common but after a while the Apostles caused that Bishops should be created for the appeasing of Schismes If any shall not agree that this is St. Hierome's sense let him compare that passage in his Epistle to Evagrius 85 Quod autem posteà That after this i. in the Apostles age as appears both by what goes before and by what follows concerning St. Mark one was chosen and set over the rest was done for a Remedy against Schisme lest every one drawing a part of the Church to himself should destroy the whole for in the Church of Alexandria from the days of St. Mark the Evangelist unto Heraclas and Dionysius Bishops there the Presbyters choosing one of their number and setting him in a Higher degree called him Bishop and in his Dialogue ad Luciferianos Ecclesiae salus in summi sacerdotis dignitate pendet cui si non exors ab omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur schismata quot sacerdotes So then St. Hierome's testimony is express for the Antiquity of Bishops for as to the original institution I shall not now discourse that they were in the Apostles days particularly in the Church of Alexandria in St. Mark 's days and in the Church of Corinth ever since the People began to say I am of Paul and I of Apollo for the ending of which controversie one was preferred above the rest and the Scholiast tells us on Titus 1. that Apollo was the Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Bishop of Corinth and the same was decreed in all the Christian World That the care of the Church was committed to them and the welfare of the Church depended on their dignity to whom if there were not an eminent and peerless power given by all there would be as many schismes in the Church as there were Priests and lastly that it was a principal duty of theirs though it be now accounted their crime to prevent the growth of schisms in their several Churches And this is that which I have according to my mean capacity endeavour'd in these Papers wherein I have only applyed that gentle Remedy which hath been approved by Ancient and Modern Divines who agree that The means to confute schisme is to reduce it to its first Original for howsoever it comes to pass that factious persons are in love with their own they cannot but abhor the actions of their Progenitors And now Reverend Sir If I have said any thing unworthy of your Name I know that as your judgment will discern it so your candor will pardon it since nothing hath moved me to this attempt but my duty to the Church and my particular esteem of your great Merits who are a chief Ornament of the same for though you have been placed in an eminent station yet that you have rather honour'd that dignity than been dignified by it is the judgment of all that know you and not only the private opinion of Your Humble Servant THO. LONG Exon Febr. 1. 1676 7. THE PREFACE IT hath been sometime known that when divers learned Physicians after all their regular methods of Physick have given over their Patients as desperate a mean Empirick by an easie and gentle application hath effected the Cure And having often considered with my self how fruitless and ineffectual the many excellent Discourses and unanswerable Arguments of such as have opposed the Separation from our Church have been and that the contumacious humor still spreads it self to the infection and ruine of many precious Souls I thought it might be expedient to apply another remedy viz. A true representation of the Opinions and practices of such Schismaticks as have been condemned in the Primitive times of the Church whereby as in a Glass such as are guilty of the present Separation may reflect on their own deformities and the evil consequence of their dividing practices Some Women who have been too well conceited of their beauty when they have unawares beheld in a clear Glass the deforming and destructive effects of a loathsome Disease have been so surprised with the change that is visibly made on their Faces that they have immediately fallen sick and dyed And who knows but when those fanciful persons who are so highly conceited of their purity and tenderness of their Consciences shall be convinced as by a serious reflection on this History of the Donatists they may be what unclean spots and visible defects the Souls and Consciences of such as live in Separation from a well established Church have contracted they may immediately grow sick of their Sins and apply themselves to the mortification of them that their Souls may be saved It is the Opinion of some learned Men that the Cardinal Baronius hath raised more Prejudices against the Reformed Churches by his Annals than Cardinal Bellarmine by all his Arguments And indeed upon supposition that the Relation which he gives of the Primitive Doctrine and Discipline is true the contrary whereof hath been sufficiently evinced by Bishop Jewel and many others he hath done more to prove our Churches guilty both of Heresie and Schism than all the Polemical Divines of the Church of Rome Accordingly when it shall appear by the Authentique Records of the Church of God that those Persons who held the same Opinions and followed the same practices as some in this present Age do were frequently condemned by the best Christian Emperors and Catholick Councils as schismatical and dangerous and upon what small and inconsiderable grounds they have run themselves into such great confusions as have overturned all things Sacred and well setled in Church and State it may be rationally hoped that though the most cogent arguments have not perswaded them â—et such horrible Spectres may affright them from their sullen and unchristian apartment and make them choose to live rather with peaceable and humble Christians in a conformity to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Primitive and present Church than among such turbulent spirits as revive the Opinions and practices of the most dangerous and condemned Schismaticks And it is both a more civil and facile way of insinuating instructions and reproofs to the minds and consciences of such as are averse from plain dealing to teach them by pertinent instances and examples by Historical allusions and wise Apologues such as the Parable of Trees used by Jotham and of the Ewe-Lamb by the Prophet Nathan and this method was familiarly used by our Saviour especially when he would convince the Pharisees as he doth in the Parable of the unthankful Husband-men Luke 21.33 and divers others wherein he proves them to be worse than those who persecuted the Prophets by their malice against the Son of God and v. 45. it is said They perceived that he spake of them In the days of the late Vsurpation The History of Andronicus the unfortunate Politician of Massonello and
the Munster Anabaptists had their good effect Most Men are severe censurers of the same sins in others which they do indulge and allow in themselves There is scarce a Separatist among us who when he shall impartially consider the grievous and continued troubles of the African Churches occasioned by the Schisme of the Donatists who upon false or frivolous pretences first forsook the Communion of the Catholick Church and then raised Parties to oppose it falsly accusing condemning persecuting and murthering their Fathers and Brethren affronting the Magistrates despising their Laws raising Tumults and Armies and pronouncing them Martyrs that dyed in Rebellion I say there is not any but will readily condemn these though he have been seduced to joyn with such as have practised the same or worse things The Ancients resembled a wise Man to the Image of Janus which looked both forward and backward and it would certainly be a point of Prudence in us to look back upon the transactions and counsels of former Ages and to observe what Opinions and practices have been condemned by wise and good Men and carefully avoid such As also to look forward and to consider to what dangers and precipices our present Opinions may betray us what out-rages and cruelties our ambition may lead us to though for the present we think it impossible that ever our lusts or any temptations or advantages should be able to transform us into such ravenous beasts as afterward we may appear to be Had Cromwel been foretold as Hazael was what horrid Massacres and Regicide he should commit he would have thought it a slander though from the mouth of a Prophet 2 Kings 8.12 And if such as have given themselves up to dividing principles did but consider how easily they may be taught to act over the same Tragical Scenes of Sacrilege Rapine and Blood when their Masters shall get power and opportunities agreeable to their malice which both ancient and modern Sectaries have done before them they may find just cause to grow jealous of themselves though they have yet the sheeps clothing on them and to suspect their Teachers though transformed into Angels of light for the Ministers of Satan whose design it is to attempt the ruine of the Church by the abused zeal of her seduced Children which he could not effect by the cruelty of her professed Enemies To undeceive such Persons and render Schisme and Faction as odious and pernicious as the Scripture doth describe them and both the History of former Ages and the sad experience of our own do demonstrate them to have been and that all who profess the Name of Christ may agree in the truth of his Holy Word and live in Vnity with their Brethren and in due Obedience to their lawful Governors both in Church and State is the only Design and hearty Prayer of Si sapitis benè recte si non sapitis vestri curam gessisse non poenitebit quia etsi cor vestrum ad pacem non convertitur pax nostra ad cor nostrum convertetur August ad Petil. l. 3. IMPRIMATUR G. Jame R.P.D. Hen. Episc Lond. à Sacris Dom. THE HISTORY OF THE DONATISTS WHen Dioclesian as a Romish Wolf had worried and scattered the Flock of Christ and exhausted Rivers of that precious Blood he perceived that he could neither diminish their Numbers nor abate any thing of that primitive Spirit which like a Rock did not only stand firm but broke in pieces the Fluctus Decumanos most impetuous Waves of the greatest persecution Ann. 300 The Tyrant thought therefore of a more probable way to extinguish that Spirit which was to withdraw the word of life and accordingly in the Nineteenth Year of his Empire like another Antiochus Epiphanes who did Mosaicis libris bellum indicere he publisheth his Edict That the Christian Churches should be levelled with the ground the Ornaments seized to his use the Holy Scriptures consumed in the Fire and all that professed Christianity be deprived of all Liberties Offices and Dignities unless they would offer Sacrifice to the Heathen Gods Immediately upon publishing this Edict his Officers do generally become Inquisitors and strictly require all the Christians to deliver up the Utensils of their Churches and the Testament of their Lord to be consumed in the Fire which if any refused they themselves were condemned to the Flames Among other Confessors Felix Deacon of Autramitum was summoned by the Inquisitors Optarus p. 40. to deliver up the Ornaments of his Church and the Evangelical Books which were in his custody whereupon he hid himself with Mensurius Bishop of Carthage whereof the Officers being informed they require Mensurius to deliver him up or to appear on a set Day at the Emperors Court to answer the contempt Where it is observable that Episcoporum domus nè in persecutionibus fas erat violare the Bishops Houses even in times of Persecution were accounted as a Sanctuary by the very Heathen Mensurius was too much a Christian to betray his Brother and therefore he chose rather to submit himself to the Emperors sentence and to appear at the appointed time but in the interim he is careful to secure the Goods belonging to his Church And in those Days as the Christians had Churches called Basilicas so those Churches had their Ornaments St. August contr Cresconium says that the Church of Cirta in the time of Dioclesian had two Chalices of Gold six Cups of Silver and a Silver Candlestick Yet the Treasuries of those Churches were much exhausted in those days it being the frequent practice of those Primitive Christians to sell their Plate and Ornaments to redeem the lives or to relieve the necessities of their persecuted Brethren Mensurius therefore causeth an Inventory of the Treasury of the Church of Carthage to be made and committing the Treasury it self to the custody of the Elders as Optatus saith he leaves the Inventory with an ancient Woman p. 41. whom he had always found faithful charging her to preserve it for his Successors if it should please God to account him worthy of Martyrdom * Erant in illâ Ecclesiâ quamplurima Ornamenta Auri Argenti St. Augustine saith there were in that Church very many Ornaments of Gold and Silver Concerning the Death of Mensurius we have no certain account in Ecclesiastical History only we find the Bishoprick of Carthage to be void shortly after and Dioclesian languishing under a surfeit of Christian blood resigned his Empire to Maxentius who was overthrown sometime after by Constantine as also Maximinus another Tyrant by Licinius and thereupon Constantius the Father of Constantine though he were then in England was proclaimed Emperor but he dyed in York and so the whole Empire was devolved on Constantine who by his Mother Helena had been from his Childhood instructed in the Principles of the Christian Religion Which Baronius observes to be true notwithstanding the opinion of some ancient Writers to the contrary for
as the Emperor had given them instructions he not only refused to accept of the Emperor's Largess but returned many opprobrious speeches Quid est imperatori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperor to do with the Church aut quid est Ecclesiae cum Regibus Seculi quos nunquam nisi invidos Christianitas sensit multa maledicta effudit or what hath the Church to do with the Kings of this World who have been always adversaries to Christianity and so he rejected the Emperor's propositions for peace with as much pride and contempt as the Emperor did with Humility and Charity offer them There was at this time another Donatus Bishop of Bagaia who gathered great Troops of the Circumcellians to oppose the Emperor's Legates to intercept the Gifts and Moneys which they were dispersing for the relief of the several Churches Of which the Legates being advised and apprehending themselves in great danger by reason of the flocking together of those desperate persons They sent to Silvester who had then the command of the Souldiers to send them a Guard of Souldiers not that they intended to be Aggressors but only vim vi repellere to defend themselves against those furious Persons that were in an extraordinary manner assembled And the event proved that they did but what was necessary for the People were stirred up to Sedition by jealousies and prejudices against the Emperor which the Donatists had scattered through all Africa perswading them that Paulus and Macarius had brought with them certain Images which they intended to set upon the Altars and to command a Superstitious Worship and Sacrifice to them whereas they came only as Ambassadors of Peace and Instruments of Union And notwithstanding all the affronts which they received from that furious and desperate Party who often set upon the Guards of Souldiers to their own destruction the Legates at the request of the Catholicks did forbear any farther acts of Hostility nor did they act any thing prejudicial to the true Religion Nulli dictum est Nega Deum Incende testamentum c. Opt. p. 62. None were required to deny God to burn their Bibles or destroy the Churches Sola fuerunt ad pacem hortamenta ut Deus Christus ejus à Populo in unum conveniente pariter rogaretur They only endeavoured according to the Emperor's instruction to exhort them to peace and unity that they would worship God and Christ with one consent in an uniform manner But these exhortations to peace did more offend them than the tidings of War they loved the inheritance of Schisme more than the Legacy of Christ Nunciatâ unitate omnes fugistis at the very name of peace they all desert the Legates Opt p. 64. and become their Enemies and both by open violence and secret plots by their slanders and Swords too are always provoking them And yet these Donatists did not only complain of Persecution by the Legates but imputed it to the Catholicks as if they had procured those Bands of Souldiers with a purpose to destroy them p. 69. to which Optatus answereth Quod ab aliis vobis provocantibus factum est nobis non debet imputari quicquid objecistis vos fecistis that if it were true that the Donatists were slain by the Souldiers yet it was false that it was done by the procurement of the Catholicks who always mediated with the Officers to spare them And that in truth the Emperor's Officers never used violence but when they were first provoked Nullus erat primitùs terror nemo vidit virgam nemo custodiam there was no terror against any but evil doers no punishment or Prison threatned to any peaceable Christian the Emperor only preserved peace in the State And about the end of Constans his Reign there was a Council held at Carthage Anno 349. Gratus being then Bishop to restore peace to the Church in which they decreed divers Canons against rebaptizing and to prevent that desperate practice of the Circumcellians to cast themselves from high precipices and by other violent practices to destroy themselves And thus for a while the fury of the Donatists was abated and the hopes of peace and settlement comforted the Church But this good Emperor is untimely slain by divers Military men who conspired against him thinking to divide the Empire among themselves One Marcellinus invites him to a Supper and continuing with him late at Night Magnentius one of the Conspirators begins to affright him whereupon the Emperor fled to Helena whither they sent a selected Company of Souldiers and murthered him But Constantius his Brother succeeded him who at his entrance on the Government did seem to favour the Orthodox against the Arians and Donatists but being setled in the Empire he declares himself an Arian and consequently an Enemy to the Orthodox Christians whereby the Arians and Donatists rage every where against them Donatus himself and many of his Faction joyned themselves with the Arian Hereticks although they had formerly declared their abhorrence of them in hope of obtaining the greater power against the Catholicks by the Emperor's favour And to this end Donatus wrote a Book de Spirit◠Sancto as St. Hierome hath observed agreeable to the Arian Doctrine And others of the Faction joyned with the Macedonians and as St. Ambrose * De Spiritu Sancto l. 3. c. 11. says blotted out of their Books those words of St. John God is a Spirit Maximus Bishop of Neapolis was deprived of his dignity and function for not complying with the Arians who placed one Zosimus in his See Maximus keeps to his charge and function until they ejected him by force and then he denounceth an Anathema against the Intruder whereof the Intruder taking no notice applyed himself to the discharge of his new Office and endeavouring to speak unto the People his Tongue hung out of his Mouth so that he could not speak nor draw it in again until he went out of the Church and then he recovered the use of it and this befell him a second and a third time whereupon he forsook his new Dignity And now lived that famous Ecebolius a Sophist of Constantinople who while Constantius was a Catholick professed himself so too and with him turned Arian and when Julian was Emperor was an Idolater and in the days of Jovianus would become a Catholick again and lay at the Church Doors crying to the Faithful Me salem infatuatum pedibus conculcate to trample on him as unsavory Salt fit for nothing But it is more worthy our observation that within a short time that Constantius had declared against the Deity of the Son of God the Empire was taken from him and given to Julian This Julian the Apostate who had from his Childhood been instructed in the Christian Religion l. 3. c. 1. and as Socrates says had been a Reader in the Church at Nicomedia being of an unstable wit declares himself an open Enemy to the Christians forbidding
Doctrine for a long time until they began to Rebaptize upon an Opinion that there were no true Ministers in the Catholick Church and by consequence no true Sacraments St. Augustine says that in his time they were Pares Doctrinâ Ritibus agreed in the chief points of Doctrine and in the Ecclesiastical Rites And when Optatus wrote against Parmenian Optat. p. 72 They had generally One Creed One Testament and One Baptism viz. in the Name of the Blessed Trinity they prayed to One God and used the Lord's Prayer alike The Controversie was not de Captie but de Corpore concerning the Head but the Body of the Church But their Schism which divided that Body was sufficient to condemn them Opt. p. 72. St. August cum Emerito Extra Ecclesiam omnia possunt habere praeter salutem possunt habere honorem possunt habere Sacramentum possunt cantare Hallelujah possunt respondere Amen possunt Evangelium tenere possunt in nomine patris filii Spiritus sancti fidem habere praedicare sed nusquam nisi in Ecclesiâ Catholica salutem possunt invenire He granted they had the Scriptures the Sacraments the Prayers and Preaching materially the same as in the Church but yet Salvation was not to be had but within the Church All which is true upon the grounds of St. Paul as well as St. Augustine because without Charity all these gifts and exercises do profit nothing 1 Cor. 13. And therefore the Primitive Fathers did so passionately declaim against Schisme not only because it was the Occasion of greater confusion in the Church than Heresies ordinarily were but because it did equally endanger the Salvation of those that obstinately persisted in it fitting them for any Error Dionysius Alexandrinus wrote to Novatian Quisquis ab Ecclesia Catholica separatus est quanquam laudabiliter se vivere existimet hoc solo scelere quod à Christi unitate disjunctus est non habebit vitam Epist 152. that he might rather do any thing than rent the Church of God by Schismes which saith he you ought to avoid as much as Idolatry for when you flye from Idolatry you consult only your own safety but when you avoid Schisme you consult for the benefit of the Universal Church I shall therefore only mention that great Error in the chief Article of Faith wherein Donatus himself and many of his Followers agreed with the Arians as divers of the * Aug ad quod vult Deum Ancients have recorded viz. That the Son was less than the Father and the Holy Ghost than the Son This being a Consequent of the Schisme And it is usual for such as first desert the Unity of the Church to deny the faith and verity therein professed within a short time It is my intent to speak chiefly of such Opinions as led them to it or hardned them in it that others may see and avoid them There was a strict Canon in the Catholick Church forbidding Christians to hold any Communion with such as had in times of Persecution turned Apostates or Traditors until they had undergone the censure of the Church and manifested their repentance but as if this Canon were not strict enough the Novatians first and then the Donatists made themselves wiser than the Laws and would not on any termes admit such Persons accounting that by Communion with them the whole Congregation was defiled and such as had been of the Clergy they accounted of as lay Persons and the lay People they esteemed of as Heathen their Baptisme being frustrated upon this ground they withdrew from the Communion of Cecilian and other Catholick Bishops pretending they had been Traditors and that all the People adhering to them were polluted and that the Bishops and Clergy of the Church could not lawfully rule or teach the People nor administer the Sacraments the efficacy of all these Ordinances depending oâ— the Holiness of the Minister and that there were no such true Ministers but among themselves For this Opinion they urge Acti 19.4 where St. Paul gives order that they who had been baptized by St. John should be baptized again in the Name of Jesus Now if John's Baptism say they who was a Friend of the Bridegroom was made void much more ought the Baptism of those that are Enemies and Apostates to be so accounted Against this Opinion Optatus argueth thus Non dotes Ministri sed Trinitatem in Sacramento operari cui concurrit fides professie credentium The efficacy of the Sacrament depends not on the endowments of the Minister but the grace of the blessed Trinity in whom if they that are baptized do believe and make profession accordingly their Baptisme will doubtless have its effect for the believer is regenerate not according to the abilities of the Minister but the power of the Sacrament Nascitur Credens non ex Ministri sterilitate sed ex Sacramentorum fertilitate This is handsomely expressed by Gregory Nazianzene in the allusion of an Image ingraven on two Seals one of Iron another of Gold where the Image being the same the Iron Seal makes the same impression as that of Gold But St. Augustine observes also the difference between the Baptisme of St. John and that of our Saviour Chriâ—â— which was in the Name of the Holy Trinity and therefore both Optatus and St. Augustine charge the Donatists with no less sin than Blasphemy when as their practice was they would exorcise those whom they had rebaptized with this form of words Maledicte exi for as calling the whole Trinity in whose Name they had been baptized accursed Optatus therefore farther urged Opt. p. 86 Si datis alterum baptisma date alteram fidem date alterum Christum It is superfluous to renew the Baptisme where there is no alteration of the Faith He adds Etsi hominum litigant mentes non litigant Sacramenta The Sacrament is the same although the judgment of those that administer it may differ The Bishops of the Catholick Church did therefore admit of those that were baptized by the Donatists although the Donatists would by no means approve of the Catholicks Baptisme Which plainly argues as well their excess of Pride as their defect of Charity both which St. Augustine observed in a Donatist Bishop that Preached in his City of Hippo who used this comparison that the Church of God was like Noah's Ark it was pitched both within and without without Nè admitteret baptisma alienum and within Nè emitteret suum that it might not admit of those that were baptized by others nor baptize any but such as were of their own perswasion They uâ—ged the bare Authority of St. Cyprian for their rebaptizing which as St. Augustine says theâ—â— despised when he pleaded for the unity of thâ—â— Church Cyprianus tolerandos in Ecclesia malos potius quam propter cos Ecclesiam deserendam exemplo consirmavit praecepto admonuit though his arguments weâ—â— inforced with Scripture