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
during the Conference and intreats them to direct their discourse to the causes and grounds of the difference which was between them But the Donatists who as St. Augustine observes Contra Emeritum hoc unum agebant ut nil ageretur make use of all possible cavils and subterfuges as if the chief business that they had to do were to take care that nothing might be done and to return with as much Pride and Pomp as they came First therefore they object that the time appointed was elapsed then that there was no certain Date to the Imperial Edict because the Names of the Consuls were not inserted These being answered they desire to know who procured the Edict for that Meeting that the Names of the Legates and their Petition might be read tacitely reflecting upon the Catholicks saith St. Augustine for referring the cause of the Church to the Emperor To this it was answered that the Catholicks who confessed that they procured it had done no other than they themselves appealing from the Sentence of Meltiades in the case of Cecilian unto the Emperor Constantine Then they begin to reflect on the Persons of Felix and Cecilian and having almost tired Marcellinus to keep them from impertinencies repetitions and evasions he brought them at last to the merits of the cause But Quid dignum tanto I know not any thing that may raise greater admiration than to consider what trifles and apples of contention like the forbidden fruit ingaged all Africa in such desperate fewds as made it an Aceldama for blood-shed and slaughters and imployed so many Emperors Bishops and Councils for more than an Hundred Years together without any considerable effect For when the differences and causes of that confusion came to be considered in this Conference we do not hear that the Donatists could plead in justification of their Schisme that their supposed Enemies did deny God or Christ or the Resurrection or did actually persecute them or that they did with pride and contempt deny to admit them to their Communion nor did the Catholicks charge the Donatists with Apostasie from the Faith and denying Fundamentals of Christianity We do not hear them urging as they might their rebaptizing and joyning with the Macedonians or Jews and Pagans against those whom they knew to be Orthodox Bishops They all professed an agreement in all such necessary points of Faith that it is strange how they could differ in any thing And yet the Donatists persecuted the Catholicks so cruelly as if they had not been agreed in any principle of Christianity Marcellinus having heard the whole Conference declared against the Donatists and charged the inferior Officers speedily to execute the Imperial Laws in seizing their Churches for the Catholicks scattering their Conventicles and confiscating their Meeting places which Edict the Emperors confirm and cause to be entred among the publick Acts. That which was pretended by the Donatists as the ground of the Schism was that Cecilian who was Bishop of Carthage for almost 100. Years before was a Traditor that he and other Catholick Bishops had admitted lapsed Persons into their Communion whereby all their Churches were defiled and ought not to be communicated with Quia lapsi vel haeretici qui resipiscerent admittebantur Prosper de promiss praedict So I find the Question expresly stated by consent of both Parties Vtrum Ecclesia permixtos malos usque id finem habitura praedicta sit an omnion omnes bonos sanctos atque immaculatos ab hoc seculo usque in finem habitura sit Whether the Church of God according to the predictions concerning it were to consist of a mixture of good and evil or only of such as were holy and undefiled The Catholicks maintained the former from the predictions of the Prophets concerning the Universal extent of Christ's Kingdome from many Parables of our Saviour concerning his Church from the Commission he gave to his Apostles to Disciple all Nations from the event which succeeded upon the Apostles preaching the Conversion of all Nations from many Arguments used by St. Cyprian against the Novatians and lastly from their own practice in readmitting the Maximianists who had revolted from the Donatists and used another Baptism And most unreasonable it was to think that the wickedness of one Man should ruine the whole Church of Christ St. Aug. Epist 50. Nec peccavit Cecilianus haereditatem suam perdiâ—â— Christus Against this the Donatists urge that the same Prophets foretold that the Church of Christ should be Holy as well 〈◊〉 Catholick that Hierusalem was to be a Holâ— City the Spouse of Christ must be withouâ— spot a chast and undefiled Virgin To whicâ— St. Augustine replies Perfectio promissa non data that these things oughâ— to be endeavoured in the Church in thiâ— World but would never be effected untâ—â— Christ do come in the end of the World wheâ—â— he will thoroughly cleanse his Flowr gather the Wheat into his Garner and burn up the chaff with unquenchable Fire Then the Donatists begin to recriminate Mensurius and Cecilian that had been long dead To which it is presently answered That they were absolved by the Emperor and Councils of the Church then in being as did appear by most ancient Records which were ready to be produced and thereby also Donatâ—â— stood condemned But saith St. Augustine if those Bishops had been wicked the Church of God cannot be judged to have perished with them Whether they were good or bad they were our Brethren if we knew them to be evil we would joyn with you to condemn them but not to desert the Church of God because of them If Cecilian were good and innocent he hath the reward of his innocence and I rejoyce at it but I never placed my hope and faith in his innocence if he had been evil yet the Church thought fit to continue in his Communion and so do we Melius est per patientiam ferre malos quam per calumniam relinquere bonos St. Aug. in Colloq Carthag The several Arguments and Answers are too large to be here set down Upon the whole Marcellinus adjudged that the Donatists arguments and pretences were invalid their Schisme unjust their practices cruel and therefore he willed them to return to the Communion of the Church and live in peace and unity otherwise he would provide that the Imperial Laws should be executed upon them In the mean time he prevailed with them to subscribe the Records of the Conference which had been faithfully taken by the Notaries on both sides and so dismissed them After the Publication of this Conference and of the Emperor 's reinforcing the Laws for pecuniary Mulcts and Banishment against them some Thousands of the common People deserted them and returned to the Catholick Church and to their honest and lawful callings which they had long omitted as generally the Circumcellians did But the Donatist Bishops and Presbyters were for the most part obstinate and
endeavoured to continue the Schisme There were many imprisoned and condemned for Murther and Robberies committed in that Tumult wherein Restitutus and Innocentius were slain for these St. Augustine mediates and obtains Pardon But the Donatist Bishops return in great discontent and report among the People that they were not permitted to speak with that liberty and freedome as they ought And Petilian who went off from the Conference before it was ended having lost his Voice by raving and passion pretended afterward that he was dissatisfied with the partiality of Marcellinus and therefore he perswaded the rest to Appeal from his Sentence pretending that they had been kept as Prisoners and were not suffered to prosecute their Arguments and that Marcellinus was corrupted and pronounced the Sentence at Midnight which was contrary to Law And St. Augustine going afterward to Mauritania was challenged by Emeritus one of the Donatist Bishops who undertook to defend the Conference in a Personal disputation which St. Augustine agreed to and hath given us a particular account of it But as St. Augustine saith Hoc proprium Donatistis eandem cantilenam canere It was their custome to inculcate the same Arguments again which had been often confuted many Years before There being no reformation among the Leaders of the Faction who continue several Tumults Cruelties and Murthers Thirty of their Bishops were condemned to be banished who met together and resolved rather to cast themselves over the Precipices as the practice of the Circumcellians was and to dye Martyrs for the cause And some did destroy themselves in Wells and by throwing themselves from the Rocks In so much that Dulcitius who was joyned with Marcellinus in the Government of Africa advised with St. Augustine what was most fit to be done with those obstinate Persons that still seduced the People and what counsel St. Augustine gave him we read in the 61. Epistle Furiosus error paucorum non debuit tot populorum salutem impedire Proculdubiò melius est ut quidam suis ignibus perirent quam pariter sempiternis ignibus Sacrilegae dissentionis ardeant universi That the error of a few distracted Persons should not be permitted to involve all the People in confusion and ruine and that without doubt it was better that such as were Incendiaries should dye in the flames which they had kindled than that all the People should still suffer in the fires of sacrilegious Dissention Thus I have given you a Summary of the History of these dangerous Persons for full an Hundred Years and might pursue it yet farther but considering how troublesome and unsafe it may be to follow them too nigh I shall desist and only add some Reflections upon the Faction And first Of their several Sects The Luciferians as the most moderate shall have precedency These were so called from Lucifer Calaritanus Bishop of Sardinia who in the Nicene Council was a zealous Defender of the Catholick Faith against the Arians for which he was banished while they had the power He is commended for it by Athanasius Hilarion and St. Hierome When the Arians were suppressed he was recalled and restored to his Bishoprick but perceiving that many of the Arians were on very easie conditions admitted to the Catholick Communion and made capable of Ecclesiastical Dignities he was much dissatisfied and denyed to hold Communion with the Church for being so charitable to those new Converts He therefore lays the Foundation of his Schisme in Sardinia where the Catholicks solicite him by all gentle and rational means not to divide that Church whose Faith and unity he had so strenuously asserted but finding that he was not only resolutely obstinate but indefatigably industrious to propagate the Schisme the Catholicks thought fit to suspend him and to dissipate his adherents Whereupon he transports himself into Africa whither great numbers of his perswasion follow him and joyn themselves to the Donatists but kept themselves as a distinct Faction in this respect that they did not rebaptize as the Donatists generally did but their Pride and contempt of the Catholicks was in a short time equal to that of the Donatists St. Augustine commends them for not renouncing their Baptism but condemns them as much for cutting themselves off from the Catholick unity and much urgeth that known Axiom Extra Ecclesiam non est salus Oratio de obitu Satiri St. Ambrose writing to his Brother Siricus who espoused this Schisme doth thus acquaint him with the danger of it Non est fides in Schismate cum enim propter Ecclesiam passus est Christus Christi corpus sit Ecclesia non videtur ab his Christo exhiberi fides à quibus evacuatur ejus passio corpus distrahitur There is no true faith in Schism for whereas Christ suffered for his Church and that Church is his Body it doth not appear that true faith in Christ is in them by whom his Passion is frustrated and his Body divided for Christ gave his Natural Body for the preservation of his Mystical Body the Church Saint Hierome therefore comparing these Donatists with the Novatians calls them both Non Ecclesiam Christi sed Antichristi Synagogam These Luciferians stood as independent on the Donatist Congregations or any of the other Factions which were generally Anabaptistical For they did not only Rebaptize the adult that came over to them but refused to baptize Children contrary to the practice of the Church as appears by several discourses of St. Augustine The most desperate Sect of all were the Circumcellians who were as so many Hectors to fight for the Donatists on all occasions These were the Zealots which did abound in every faction and pretended to higher dispensations than their Brethren for they believed that they were inspired by God to act and suffer extraordinary things which they were ready to attempt as often as their Brethren or their own lusts did prompt them thereunto They met sometime in lesser and sometime in greater Numbers either as Robbers to abuse and plunder all that were not of their own Perswasion Slaves would rob their Masters and Debtors would force their Creditors to deliver up their Obligations and had the perfect Principles of Levellers holding that none had right to any of their Possessions but by partaking of the same Faith and Profession with themselves Dominium fundatur in gratiâ was their Maxime Or else they would meet in great Numbers well armed and able to affront the chief Armies of the Emperor And were often the Aggressors provoking the Roman Souldiers to their own destruction Thus they set upon Paulus and Macarius who were sent with Presents to the Church of Carthage from the Emperor Constans who being assisted by the Proconsul slew great Numbers of them These were animated by their Leaders who were generally Donatist Bishops and called Sanctorum Duces Captains of the Saints and were animated by a Perswasion that as many as suffered a violent Death in defence of the
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
this is related by Paulinus a Man of great Learning and holiness Baronius ad Ann. 315. as well as of a noble Family and therefore to be believed above Eusebius saith the Cardinal And yet as we shall observe hereafter when Constantine accepted of an Appeal from the Donatists to the derogation of the power of the Pope then they plead that he was a Novice rudis fide lately instructed in the Christian Faith and unacquainted with the Customes of the Church The flames that were kindled by Heathen Persecutors were scarcely extinguished when the new lights and heats raised by contentious and ambitious Persons begun another conflagration for the Bishoprick of Carthage being void Botrus and Celesius two Presbyters become Competitors for it against Cecilian who being a Person of known integrity was by the general suffrage of that whole Church chosen Bishop and was ordained by Felix Bishop of Aptung And now the good Woman according to the trust reposed in her brings the Inventory of the Church-Treasury to Cecilian whereupon he summoneth those Elders to whom the Treasury was committed to make restitution but whether they had sold or shared it among themselves they refused to deliver it and Cecilian as his duty was proceeds against them to obtain satisfaction On this occasion those sacrilegious Elders deny to hold farther communion with Cecilian their Bishop and joyn themselves to Botrus and Celesius Optat. p. 41 those two Presbyters that were discontented at the preferment of Cecilian To these Lucilla a Woman descended from a Noble Family of Spain whom St. Augustine calls S. August cont Parm. l. 1. Factiosissimam pecuniosissimam foeminam quam pro corripiendo Ecclesiae Disciplinam Cecilianus laeserat A rich and factious Woman who conceiving that Cecilian being Arch-Deacon had injured her by a too sharp reproof for some superstitious practice p. 40. contrary to the Discipline of the Church which was to kiss the Reliques of some supposed Martyrs before her communicating at the Lord's Supper joyns her self to strengthen the Faction and by her Mony incourageth Secundus Primate of Numidia and Donatus of Casa nigra with some others to oppose Cecilian Secundus and the rest of his Party being partly terrified by their own guilt many of them having in the time of Persecution betrayed their Brethren or their Bibles to the flames for which they were called Traditors and by the Discipline of the Catholick Church were to be deprived of Communion until they had satisfied the Church by Penance and Reformation and partly hired by the gifts and promises of Lucilla first meet together at Cirta a City which was afterward new built by Constantine and called after his Name Constantina And that they might carry on their design against Cecilian with the less suspicion like self-denying Persons they begin first to purge and absolve themselves of that guilt which by their fear and cowardize they had contracted in the times of Persecution The number of the Bishops met at this time they say was above Seventy The Names of the Chief St. Augustine acquaints us with viz. Secundus the Primate Donatus Masculitanus Victor Marinus Purpurius and Donatus à Casa Nigra Opt. p. 39. the Head of the Faction Secundus acquaints his Brethren that they were met to ordain a Bishop in the place of Cecilian who was thought unfit for the Chair of Carthage as being a Traditor but it behoves us first to clear our selves from that crime before we condemn another First therefore he questioneth Donatus Masculitanus what he could say to free himself from the accusation of being a Traditor which lay against him Donatus answered that it was well known how violently Florus did prosecute him to make him offer sacrifice but God delivered me out of his hands and God having preserved me my hope is that you will continue me in the service of God Secundus replyed what shall we say then of he Martyrs that chose to indure the flames themselves rather than to offer a grain of Incense to the Heathen Gods Donatus answered I pray you to leave me to God to whom I shall give an account Secundus bids him to go on the other side Then he declares that Victor was accused to have delivered the Four Evangelists to be consumed in the Fire Victor answered that Valentianus being Curator compelled him to cast them into the Fire and that the Books were so blotted and defaced that they were almost useless and if you pardon me for this I hope God will do the like Secundus bids him go on the other side Then was Marinus accused for delivering up his Books he answered I gave some Books to Pollus but the chiefest of them are safe Secundus bids him go on the other side The next that was questioned was Purpurius for destroying his Sisters two Sons with whom Secundus dealing more severely than with the rest Do you think saith Purpurius to affright me as you have done others Consider what you your self did when you were urged by the Curator to deliver up your Books how got you your liberty but by delivering all that was in your power I confess I did slay them and I will slay all such as seek my destruction therefore provoke me not lest I discover more Upon this discourse Secundus the younger spake thus to his Unkle Sir You hear what a charge is brought in against your self and these whom you have accused are all resolved to leave your Communion and joyn in a Faction against you do not inquire too strictly what others have done leave them to give an account to God Hereupon Secundus consulting with his Brethren what was fit to be done in this case they all advised to leave the Judgment to God's Tribunal and accordingly Secundus said You all know and God knows what each of you have done and he will judge you and so he grants them honorem consessus bidding them sit down in their places and they all sate down and said Thanks be to God S. Aug. Ep. 162. This was the Form of Absolution After this they proceed to choose Sylvanus who also was a Traditor to be Bishop of Cirta whose Election Cecilian opposing drew the whole Faction against himself And during the Session of this Assembly they held many private Consultations against Cecilian and sent threatning Messages to him so that his Friends advised him of the great danger that he was in his Enemies having strengthned their Party by great Numbers and taken to themselves the Authority of a Council They resolve therefore to adjourn their Session to Carthage and Summon Cecilian to appear before them Botrus and Celesius intending to accuse him there for a Traditor Cecilian not owning their Authority refuseth to appear and thereupon they proceed to condemn him as guilty with as much facility as they had absolved one another and pronouncing his See void they proceed to prefer Majorinus who was Domestick Chaplain to Lucilla and
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
the Congregations that joyned with them were the true Churches of Christ and all the rest were Apostates Gaudentius one of their Faction undertook to maintain That the Article of the Catholick Church was Figmentum humanum an Invention of Man and not agreeable to the Ordinance of Christ And Donatus who gave the Name to the Faction used all diligence to gain the face and reputation of a Church to the separated Brethren to which end he teacheth it to be necessary that they who were admitted to their Communion should make a Publick confession of their Errors and submitting themselves to the Discipline of their new pastors should be rebaptized for by these means he knew he should secure as many as came to his communion without any fear of their return to the Catholick Church And to the Sacrament of Baptism they added Exorcisme which is still retained in the Church of Rome in this form of words Maledicte exi foras Come forth thou wicked Spirit whereby as Optatus observes they did blaspheme the blessed Trinity in whose Name they had been formerly baptized The Catholick Bishops are not remiss in the Vindication of Cecilian but prevailed with Zenophilus a Man of Consular dignity to take cognizance of the difference between Cecilian and Majorinus and in the inquiry to the merits of the cause it was affirmed by one Nundinarius a Deacon who was sometime privy to the transactions of that Party that most of those who opposed Cecilian were Traditors and particularly that Sylvanus whom they made Bishop of Cirta had betrayed the Holy Scriptures and some Ornaments of his Church and sacrilegiously with-held what was devoted to the use of the Poor For the truth whereof he appealed to the Bishops and Presbyters of his own Party who knew the certainty of the particulars and of a great Summe of Mony Quadringinta folles Baronius Vol. 3. P. 352. each Follis weighing three Pound and half of Silver sent by Lucilla and divided among the chief of that Party to condemn Cecilian and to advance Majorinus into his Chair And that Victor who had been by Occupation a â—uller gave Twenty Folles to be ordained a Priest and all this Nundinarius affirmed to be true as in the presence of Christ and his holy Angels And thus the Schisme is begun by erecting Altare contra Altare a Presbyter or Mock-bishop against Cecilian the lawful Bishop of Carthage But the first Invader of this Holy Office was short-lived for about the Year 306. Majorinus the Mock-bishop dyed and none is thought so fit to succeed him as Donatus who hence-forth gives the Denomination to the Schisme which was no longer Pars Majorini but Pars Donati for as much as in him lay he did not only re-baptize particular Persons but the whole Church which was no longer known by the appellation of Christian or Catholick but Donatist and now he takes on him a power to silence and depose the Catholick Bishops and Presbyters or to impose such Penance on them as he thought fit and to prevent any prejudice that might arise to his Party by the restimony pf Nundinarius which was by Zenophilus certified to the Emperor he is resolved to complain first and to cast the Odium of the Schisme and all the sad consequences thereof upon Cecilian whom he accuseth to be a Traditor and contrary to the custome of the Church desireth transmarine Bishops to be appointed Judges in the case The Petition was to this effect Rogamus te O Constantine we intreat thee O Constantine most gracious Emperor whose Father never exercised Persecution that your Piety would appoint us Judges from France because that Country is free from this dissention This Petition was subscribed by Lucianus Dignus Nassutius Capito Fidentius and the other Bishops of the Party of Donatus The good Emperor was much grieved to hear of these differences which he had rather might have been determined among themselves than be brought to his Court where were many Heathen that would rejoyce at them or to trouble Foreign Churches with them However he grants their desire and appoints Marinus Maternus and Rheticius three Bishops of France to whom he adjoyneth the Bishop of Rome to determine the cause And sendeth his Epistle to Meltiades Bishop of Rome which is recorded by Eusebius l. 10. c. 5. The Epistle is as followeth Whereas I have received from Anilinus Lieutenant of Africa many Letters signifying that Cecilian Bishop of Carthage is accused by divers of his Colleagues It being grievous to me that there should be dissention among the Bishops before the People who are so prone to evil It seemeth good to me that Cecilian himself with Ten of his Accusers and Ten others whom he shall choose on his behalf do Sail to Rome where I have appointed Meltiades Bishop of Rome together with Rheticius Marinus and Maternus Bishops of France to hear and judge of the differences in question You cannot be ignorant that I would have you suffer no Schisme in any part of the Church The Great God preserve you These Bishops met at Rome in the House of Fausta in the Laterane Meltiades took to his Assistance Fifteen Italian Bishops to assist for the expedition of the cause These with great deliberation heard all that was objected against Cecilian Donatus himself being present The Bishops also agreed to take publick Notaries for the more orderly and speedy dispatch that the examinations and proofs in this cause might be reduced into publick Acts. The first thing that was inquired was who were the Accusers and what Witnesses were present to give Evidence against Cecilian To which the Party of Donatus answered that their Accusation was contained in the Libels which they had presented to the Emperor and by him were transmitted to them which they desired might be read One of the Libels was superscribed thus Libellus Ecclesiae Catholicae c. A Libel of the Catholick Church so they called their Faction containing the Crimes whereof Cecilian is accused What was contained in the Libel is not particularly mentioned by any Author nor are Ecclesiastical Writers agreed concerning the charge then in question Those who in this last Century have defended the Authority of the Pope say that nothing came in question besides the grounds of the Schisme on pretence that Cecilian himself was a Traditor And hereby they hope to avoid the Appeal which was made from the sentence of the Pope to the Emperor because say they the questions discussed afterward in the Council of Arles were of a divers nature from those at Rome but of this hereafter It is very probable that the Donatists had stuffed their Libel with more than a single accusation some particulars whereof I shall give an account The Libel being read it was demanded who were Cecilian's Accusers They answered the People of Carthage It was replyed that the Voice of the People assembled in a tumultuary manner was not a sufficient ground to condemn any and therefore the Bishops ordered
them to produce some competent Witnesses to attest the accusation Whereupon Donatus produced some Persons whom he brought with him from Carthage to depose against Cecilian The Charge against him was high viz. That while Cecilian was a Deacon under Mensurius he was set by Mensurius near the Prison Doors where many Catholicks lay who were appointed to suffer Martyrdome and did by force Loris flagris Armatorum multitudine withstand such Friends as came to comfort and relieve them To this the Witnesses for Donatus being examined could say nothing on their Personal knowledge but only from the report of the People This Optatus urged against Parmenian p. 36. Nullis certis personis aut nominibus Traditores accusastis The second Article insisted on was That Cecilian was condemned by a Synod of 70. Bishops at Cirta who being all of them Neighbours to Carthage could not be ignorant of the matters of fact whereof they judged and that they judged that both Cecilian and Mensurius his Predecessor and Felix who ordained Cecilian were Traditors To which Cecilian replyed that he was condemned in that Assembly being absent and unheard That he could not without great hazard of his life appear among them who being his professed Enemies made themselves his Judges That many of them were corrupted by the Money of Lucilla to Vote against him and that generally they were such as had confessed themselves to have been Traditors but had absolved one another And also that he had received many threatning Messages from some of them especially from Purpurius Bishop of Limatia Lastly That they had long before held private Conferences among themselves how to destroy him as well as to depose him of which things he was advised by several Catholick People who were ready to attest the same and by their advice he did forbear to appear The next Article was that Felix who ordained Cecilian was a Traditor and so his Ordination was null But this the Bishops thought not fit to inquire into Felix not being present nor having been at any time convicted by any Ecclesiastical censure and so long he had a lawful Power of Ordination And as in the case of Baptisme the Catholâ—cks did not rebaptize such as had been baptized by the Donatists So they resolved in this case Canon 13. That Crimen Ordinantis non transiret in Ordinatum After this Donatus promised to produce other Witnesses against Cecilian which he never did for divers that came with him deserted him and returned to Carthage The Bishops therefore acquitted Cecilian in the Sentence recorded by Optatus Cum constiterit Cecilianum ab iis qui cum Donato venerunt juxta professionem suam non accusari nec à Donato convictum esse suae Ecclesiasticae Communioni integro statu retinendum merito esse censeo Then Cecilian accused Donatus for rebaptizing those that came to his Party from the Catholick Church and for abusing the Bishops and it appeared by proof and by Donatus his own confession that he had not only rebaptized many whom he seduced from the Catholick Church but also degraded the Bishops and Priests which Optatus expresseth by occidere Honores but also by a certain Ceremony of laying his Hands on their Heads and shaking them injoyned them to do severe Penance contrary to the priviledges and custome of the Church Hereupon they condemned Donatus and acquitting Cecilian received him into their Communion Of these proceedings Meltiades certifieth the Emperor but Donatus instead of acquiescing in the Sentence of these Bishops works secretly with Fuliminus a Proconsul to Mediate with the Emperor on a pretence of preserving peace Bono pacis that Cecilian might be confined a while at Brixia p. 44. Which being granted on that pretence Donatus hastneth to Africa and there boasteth of a Victory against Cecilian and gives out that he was imprisoned at Brixia Which as soon as Cecilian understood he gets leave to return to Carthage to undeceive the People and shortly after the Emperor sends two Bishops thither Eunomius and Olympius â—o assist in the establishing of one Bishop where the People were as yet divided by two These having tarried at Carthage Fifty Days and diligently inquired into the causes and grounds of the Schisme and finding that Donatus did Schismatically defend Altare contra Altare i. e. Bishop against Bishop they joyn in communion with Cecilian condemning Donatus and his Party But that hardy Man being not daunted by all these Sentences against him his Faction as well as his Spirit growing the greater for this opposition addresseth himself in another supplication to the Emperor complaining that Meltiades and his Colleagues at Rome being but a few and very partial for he reported that Meltiades himself was a Traditor did precipitate the Sentence not inquiring into the grounds of the difference and therefore he desired a more full Council might be called for a final determination of that controversieâ— Constantine is pleased of his clemency to appoint a more frequent Council at Arles Anâ—â— 314. Of which before I speak it may be material to inquire Whether the Donatists did Appeal from the Sentence of Meltiades and his Colleagues to the Emperor For if Meltiades was called to the determination of this Controversie by a delegated Power it will necessarily follow saith Albaspinaeus in the fourth Observation on Optatus that the Popes in those days were not Universal Pastors nor had the Supreme Authority of determining Ecclesiastical matters And the reason of the consequence is evident for he that submits to the command of another doth ipso facto confess that he is not Supreme nor will the Supreme Judge suffer his determinations to be rescinded by another Power Now it is not denied 1. That Meltiades did sit together with the other Bishops at the Emperor's command 2. And that Silvester his Successor did afterward send his Delegates into France by the same command 3. That the Emperor did appoint other Bishops to sit with Meltiades and Meltiades did joyn with them as coordinate which he would not have done if the Supreme Power had been his own 4. The Donatists did Appeal thinking themselves aggrieved from the Sentence of Meltiades and his Colleagues to the Emperor Optatus is so plain herein that Valesius de Schismate Donatistarum could find no other evasion but to say Optat. p. 44. that Optatus is corrupted in that place the words are Donatus appellandum esse ab Episcopis credidit but he saith less against the second Appeal from the Council of Arles to the Emperor where the Pope's Delegates being sent Silvester the present Pope being himself not able to be present did acknowledge that they were Voluntate Imperatoris adducti and Valesius grants that the Gallican Bishops did take place of the Delegates as appears by their Subscriptions 5. That the Emperor did understand it as an Appeal and acted accordingly for he did not only appoint such Judges as were desired but at last determined the case in his own
null Constantine therefore sent to Aelian to enquire into the Life and Actions of Felix which he did with great care and integrity taking to his assistance Saturnius who had been Curator of the City while Dioclesian lived and so probably was best acquainted with the behaviour of Felix and Gratianus the present Curator Alfius Cecilianus a Duum-Vir in the time of Persecution and others And first they question Calidius and Saturnius what they knew concerning Felix Both which agreed in a testimony of his Innocence and Christian courage Then was produced by the Donatists one Ingentius a Notary to testifie that he had seen certain Letters in the hands of Alfius Cecilian which expressed the guilt of Felix as a Traditor which being produced and they are yet on record in Baronius upon examination and the testimony of Alfius Cecilianus concerning them they were found to be forged and thereupon Ingentius was condemned to the punishment called Equuleius unless he would confess who had perswaded him to that forgery The terror of that punishment which was in the nature of a Rack for two pieces of Timber being joyned together the Offender was stretched out at length and his Hands and Feet tyed fast to the Timber which being joyned in the middle by a Skrue the Executioners extended it to the racking of every Joynt and if the Offender did not confess they added hot Irons and Pincers to burn and rent his Flesh did so prevail with Ingentius that he confessed that he had forged those Letters at the instigation of some of the Donatists and thereupon he was committed to the Custody of Petronius Probianus to be sent to the Emperor by whom being examined he acknowledged the Fact and implored his clemency But the Emperor was so provoked at this that he called the Donatists Officinam Diaboli the Devil's shop Together with Ingentius the Emperor receives a full account of the innocency of Felix and relates the whole business to the Council so that this Objection being answered there was no considerable Article added de Novo for the Donatists did Eandem cantilenam canere only revive their old slanders by adding new impudence and malice in the prosecution of them So that the Council having with great patience heard the clamors and false accusations of the Donatists they justified Cecilian condemning his Accusers and appointed the 14th Canon against them Qui falsò accusant fratres suos placuit eos usque ad exitum non communicare sed falsum testem juxta Scripturam impunitum non licere esse These transactions the Emperor immediately confirms But the Donatists were so provoked that they condemned the whole Council and the Emperor also of partiality and especially that famous Hosius Bishop of Corduba in Spain who was in great favour with the Emperor saying that he was not only a Judge but an Advocate for Cecilian so that as Antaeus in the Poet the oftner they were foiled the more their fury was increased against their Adversaries Animosque ex vulnere sumunt These subtile Persons were content to be baffled abroad while their Party was succesful at home and to animate them they alway sent home false reports of the condemnation of Cecilian and when these were refuted of the partiality of the Judges so that their Numbers did still increase notwithstanding the Anathema of the Council against them they had the far greater part of the People and above Two Hundred Bishops to strengthen them And whereas they pleaded formerly for themselves that Christ's Flock was a little Flock and did not act but suffer persecution their success had furnished them with other Arguments and with Armes too for now they begin to boast that none are so Catholick as themselves and their Brethren find that none are so cruel as they for being much increased they will not be confined to Africa any longer The gangrene begins to spread it self into Foreign parts they planted their Emissaries in France and at Rome where Victor was made a titular Bishop with whom they held correspondence and had intelligence of all transactions that concerned them Their Party also grew formidable in Africa and at Constantina formerly Cirta they possessed themselves of the chief Church and constrained the Catholicks to meet in the Fiscal belonging to the Emperor and the Catholicks not being able to oppose their Potent Adversaries petition the Emperor that they might have leave to convert that place into a Church The Emperor commiserating their condition caused a Church to be built for them at his own cost being unwilling to provoke the Donatists whom he saw to affect a false Martyrdome and not only to glory in but to gain by their sufferings And Donatus thinking to have his Faction established by a Law soliciteth the Emperor for another Meeting which St. Augustine says Epist 162. Epistle 162. was appointed at Millain where the Emperor once more condemned them as the Authors of Schisme and Disturbers of the Peace of the African Churches In so much that the Emperor being wearied by their importunities sent word to Valerius his Lieutenant that the Donatists were Furori suo Deo Vindici remittendi as an incorrigible Faction to be left to be punished by their own fury and the righteous judgment of God Ad Annum 316. Which as Baronius observes the Emperor was constrained to because he could not otherwise â—â—tain Africa under his Dominion but by yielding to so powerful a Faction He therefore wrote to his Officers Vt eos libero dimittant arbitrio to grant them Liberty of Conscience but in the same Letters Sic eos detestatur ut nihil eâ indulgentiâ possit deformius inveniri he so expresseth his Detestation of them that nothing may appear more deformed than that Indulgence St. Aug. Brevic. Collat. Diei 3. c. 22. Indeed the Emperor though he was both wise and valiant had great difficulties to incounter On the one hand the Senate which was generally made up of Pagans would not yield to any alteration of their religious Rites and he was inforced to grant them a Toleration Vt Senatui morem gereret On the other hand the Number of Hereticks and Schismaticks which exceeded that of the Catholicks in divers Countries gave another check to his Authority Nos Numerus sumus magno dominamur Atridi They were so numerous that upon their revolt all Africa was in danger of being lost And here we shall observe that in all these Councils nothing was to be determined but the case of Schisme as both Optatus and St. Augustine have recorded that is whether Cecilian or Donatus were the true Pastor and Governor of the Church for we hear not of any dissent in point of Doctrine Pares credimus uno sigillo signati sumus nec aliter Baptizati Opt. p. 72. nec aliter ordinati quam vos Testamentum Divinum legimus pariter We have one Creed one Baptisme for the Catholicks allowed of their Baptisme where it
was not repeated on them that were formerly baptized we read the same Divine Testament we invocate One God the Lord's Prayer is the same with us and you for they used it until they thought themselves so without sin that they could remit the sins of others and then they saw they could use it no longer without a manifest contradiction Quid vocaris dum peccata confiteris tua si sanctus es cum dimittis aliena Opt. l. 2. but the Schisme that was made to the dividing of the People of God and to the destroying of unity was the great grievance And it is also remarkable that though many Heresies were at this time vented in the Church as the Novatian Macedonian Audaean Apollinarian and Arian too yet none did so much afflict the Churches of Africa as this Schism against which as Optatus spent all his labour so St. Augustine wrote at least one of those great Volumes which the Church of GOD doth now injoy The good Emperor notwithstanding that the Donatists had defeated so many of his endeavours for Peace was resolved to trie one more which was to call in some of the Eastern Bishops to joyn with those of the West as he intimates in an Epistle written to Alexander and the other Bishops of Aegypt mentioned by Eusebius in the Life of Constantine who also says that the Emperor was much blamed for his too great indulgence toward these implacable Spirits But if the necessity of his affairs be considered it will appear that he could not do otherwise for having out of his Christian clemency condescended so far to them they take advantage of some unhappy Circumstances to force him farther For about this time Licinius Anno 315. to whom the Emperor had given his own Sister in Marriage and almost half the Empire revolted and begun a War against him The Arian Heresie also was spread over Aegypt and like a mighty Torrent overflowed the Christian World Of which Heresie it will not be impertinent to give a brief Account because many of the Donatists to strengthen their Faction against the Catholicks joyned with them And indeed the descent from Schisme to Heresie is very facile and familiar Arius a Presbyter of Alexandria in Egypt appeared about the Year 315. He was bred up under Meletius a Presbyter while Peter was Bishop of Alexandria by whom Arius was made Deacon but being found to have maintained Opinions contrary to the Catholick Faith both he and Meletius that had corrupted him were excommunicated Meletius persisted in his Heretical Opinions That Christ was not the Eternal Son of God but a very Man Ex utroque Parente and that it was lawful in times of Persecution to deny him which also he did pleading for himself that he had not denyed God but a Man only and at last Daemonibus sacrificavit he sacrificed to Devils Thus as from Schisme to Heresie so from Heresie to Infidelity and Atheisme the passage is obvious Arius refined this Opinion of his Master and differed but in one Letter from the Catholicks teaching that Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a like substance with his Father not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. of the same nature and substance with the Father which Opinion for a while he dissembled until Peter the Bishop was dead to whom succeeded Achillas who did not only restore Arius to his Office of Deacon but afterward ordained him Priest and being a Man of subtile parts he was appointed to be a Reader of Divinity in the City of Alexandria which he performed with some applause and go◠such an esteem among the Inhabitant that the Bishoprick of Alexandria being void by the Death of Achillas he was Competitor with Alexander but Alexander being a Person of greater Wisdome and Piety was preferred by a general suffrage Whereat Arius being much discontented openly opposed Alexander and having nothing to object against his Life or Learning he began to contradict his Doctrine for whereas Alexander had taught that Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same substance and ought to receive the same Worship with the Father Arius taught that he was indeed the Son of God and more excellent than the other Creatures but that he was not from Eternity but made Ex praeexistentibus of things pre-existent and did not partake of the substance of the Father nor was of equal dignity and power but that the Son was inferior to the Father and the Holy Ghost inferior to the Son by whom he was made So that he affirmed Christ to be the Son of God by Adoption only not by Eternal Generation and that he was mortal and passible not only according to the flesh but as he was The Word of God These Doctrines the good Bishop could not indure and finding that Arius did diligently propagate and defend them he first excommunicates him and then procures his banishment and sends cautionary Epistles to his Colleagues throughout Alexandria to suppress those destructive Opinions and fortifie their People against them which notwithstanding a great part as well of the Clergy as the Laity were infected So that Hosius Bishop of Corduba a right good Catholick and a Favourite of the Emperor's by the intreaty of Alexander perswaded Constantine to Summon a General Council of Bishops and Presbyters at Nicaea a City of Bithynia where Three Hundred and Eighteen Bishops besides Presbyters and others assembled together the Emperor himself being present and moderating among them About this time Epiph. Heres 69 but whether during the Session of this Council or before it is not agreed by Ecclesiastical Writers Arius dyed Baronius thinks he dyed not until the Year 336. But his Death hapned thus Alexander provoked Arius to a publick disputation and the time and place being appointed Alexander sets a-part the precedent day for publick fasting and prayers to God to put a stop to that pernicious Doctrine which had so much infected the Catholick Church as that the very foundations of Christianity were shaken And the time of Meeting being come Arius going towards the place was troubled with a violent pain in his bowels whereupon going aside to ease himself the pains increased and became so yiolent that he voided his very Bowels and so miserably dyed But his Name and Doctrine survived in another Arius Arianus potius homo quam Arius who appeared and disputed with the great Athanasius in the Council of Nice to which Council there was presented a Confession of the Faith of the Arians which was no sooner read but condemned and presently rent in pieces and the judgment of the Council in Opposition thereto was drawn up in the Nicene Creed They also ordered the burning of such Tracts as Arius and his Party had written Constantine also published an Edict that none should conceal any of their Books on pain of Death However Lirinensis observes 〈◊〉 6. that by these Hereticks not only the Foundations of the Church but of the Roman Empire were shaken all
things sacred and civil brought to confusion Non solum affinitates cognationes Domus verum etiam Vrbes Provinciae Nationes imo Vniversum Romanum Imperium funditus concussum emotum est And St. Hierome says All the Eastern Churches except Athanasius and Paulinus were corrupted Among the Bishops Eusebius Nicomediensis was a chief Defender of the Arian Heresie and Eusebius of Caesarea was tainted also for he refused for a while to subscribe the Anathema against them though the next Day he was better perswaded and did it But notwithstanding all the Learning and care used by this Council the Arians increased for Constantine dying his Son Constantius succeeded him in part of the Empire who being of the Arian perswasion did so countenance those Hereticks that many of the Catholick Bishops were banished and wandred up and down in remote Parts among whom Athanasius whom they wickedly called Sathanasius was forced to flee as far as Triers and there lay obscure several Years until the Storm was over Of which the good Leontius a Catholick Bishop did foretel when putting his hand on his gray Hairs he said When this Snow shall be melted much filth will be dissolved with it Multum Luti sequetur meaning great Persecution and Impiety would shortly befall the Church To these Hereticks the Donatists joyned themselves many of whom defended the same Opinions and they that did not yet agreed in the Persecution of the Catholicks as their common Enemy To this Heresie saith St. Augustine those who are called Circumcellians in Africa do belong De Haeres c. 69. And St. Hierome saith that Donatus wrote a Book De Spiritu Sancto agreeable to the Doctrine of the Arians For before Arius was well known Ebion and Cerinthus and Corpocrates while St. John lived troubled the Churches of Asia with the like Opinions against which St. John at the desire of those Churches wrote his Gospel to assert the Eternal Deity of our Saviour And Eusebius and others say that Origen was the Father of Arius for he taught That As much as the Apostles were inferior to Christ to much was Christ inferior to God and that the Son was not to be prayed unto with the Father seeing he was not the Author of granting our requests but onely a Supplicator or Mediator And among these Hereticks the Gloria Patri was altered which they used in this form Gloria Patri per Filium in Spiritu Sancto Glory be to the Father by the Son in the Holy Ghost To this Council we find that Cecilian was called as appears by his Subscription but none of the Donatists they being excluded from the Communion of the Catholick Church The Donatists taking occasion of these troubles abroad did with the more violence prosecute their good old cause at home and now they take the confidence to petition the Emperor Constantine to rescind and abrogate the Laws made against them And whereas some of them had been denied the liberty of exercising their Functions either publickly or privately and others banished for transgressing the Laws and inforced to return to secular imployments they urge that their banished may be recalled particularly that Silvanus one of their Bishops of whom we have spoken before might return He was banished upon the accusation of Nundinarius for selling the Ornaments of his Church but his Party reported that he was banished for refusing to communicate with Vrsacius and Zenophilus two Catholick Officers under the Emperor who as they said did persecute him This slander St. Augustine refuteth l. 3. contra Cresconium c. 30. where he shews that the cause of his banishment was not as they pretended for denying to communicate with the Catholicks only but Quia cum jam traditor fuit permanere haereticus voluit ut falsum honorem in parte Donati haberet qui habere in Catholicâ nullum potuit tam manifestis traditionis suae gestis publico judicio reseratis because being evidently proved a Traditor he would continue in the Schisme hoping to find a false honor among the Donatists who could have none among the Catholicks It hapned that this Vrsacius being imployed in the Emperor's Wars lost his life at whose Death the Donatists rejoyced as a token of Divine vengeance against a Capital Enemy of theirs I may not omit another clause of their Petition which was that they might enjoy Libertatem Arbitrii that is as Valesius c. 17. interprets it Liberty of Conscience but St. Augustine calls it more fitly Licentiam agendi a Licence to do what they pleased and that they might no more be constrained to communicate Antistiti ipsius i.e. Constantini Nebuloni with that Prelatical Knave of his Cecilian Colloq Carth. l. 3. c. 54. Brevic. August c. 21. Declaring that neither by threats nor promises they would be thereunto induced bus would rather suffer a Thousand Deaths These demands of theirs how insolent soever were proposed in such a juncture of time that the Emperor could noâ— deny them but grants what they desired leaving them to the Divine vengeance which had begun to be revenged on them The consideration of this restless temper of theirs puâ—â—â— St. Augustine into so great a passion that hâ— said Epistle 167. Puto quod Diabolus ipseâ— I think that if the Devil himself had been so often condemned by Judges of his own choosing he would not have been so impudent as to persist in such a cause Now that this indulgence was extorted from the Emperor may appear by his consolatory Epistle written to the Catholick Bishops which I shalâ— here insert from the Appendix to Optatus p. 287. You well know that I have endeavoured by all the Offices of humanity and moderation which either faith requireth oâ— prudence and purity would admit that the most holy peace of that fraternity wherewith the grace of God hath indued the hearts of his Servants might in all things be kept inviolate But for as much as our good endeavours have not been effectual to subdue that power of wickedness which adheres to the judgment of those who still rejoyce in the mischiefs which they have acted we must expect until by the mercy of Almighty God the malice of these Men which from a few hath infected many be again mitigated for from thence we must expect a remedy from whence every good work proceeds and until this heavenly Medicine be applyed our counsels are to be moderated that we may give an Honourable testimony of our patience and by the virtue of true tranquillity we may endure whatever their wonted insolence shall do or attempt For it is a folly to usurp that revenge which we ought to leave to God especially when by faith we ought to be confident notwithstanding all that the fury of such Men may cause us to suffer that God will esteem it as Martyrdom for what else is it at such a time as this to overcome in the Name of God and with a constant heart no endure the insolent affronts of
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
my Proconsul and Patricius my Vicar of the Prefects when they were with me u◠rem ejusmodi nullo modo negligerent that they should carefully suppress such and if you find any to persist in that madness that you speedily acquaint those Judges therewith that they may punish them as I have commanded And in another Epistle ad Episcopos Catholicos he acquaints them that he had commanded his Prefects to bring to his Court such Donatists as did disturb them ut ibi sib◠mortem pervideant c. that they might see the terrors of Death which were prepared for them So that we may admire how such a peevish Faction should not only subsist but the Leaders of it being Men of pernicious Principles and Practices should delude such Numbers of the People and retain them not only in their Communion but at their Devotion but the Scripture hath foretold what Arts and Methods the Instruments of Satan should use to deceive unstable Souls most of which were very diligently practised by these Donatists as St. Augustine observed in his Epistle to Vincentius As first their tampering with the weaker Sex and most ignorant sort of People such as had weak judgments but strong affections and being once seduced were perverse and violent in their ways and deaf to all reason and arguments to the contrary So Rom. 16.18 it is said they should deceive the hearts of the simple and 2 Tim. 3.6 Lead captive silly Women Accordingly Optatus observes that the weaker Sex and Younger sort were generally seduced by them Exivit Vxor c. The Wives and Children were seduced from their Husbands and Parents 2dly Their transforming themselves as Satan himself may do into Angels of Light pretending to greater Purity better Ordinances and a greater shew of severity in the Discipline which they used for the admission of lapsed Persons whence they were called the rigid Donatists Nè Luce veritatis carere ostendantur umbram rigidae severitatis obtendunt They supplied the want of solid piety by the shadow of rigid severity August contra Parmen l. 3. And according to what the Apostle observed of the Gnosticks They had a form of Godliness but denyed the power thereof 2 Tim. 3.5 3dly Their good words and fair speeches Rom. 16.18 commending such as they would seduce for some excellent gifts or good affections and conversing familiarly with them promising glorious Priviledges and liberty to act according to their own Consciences assuring them of remission of their Sins and of special grace and favour with God 4ly They pretended also to immediate Revelations and Answers of their Prayers from God As that an Angel was sent to confirm them in their ways that there were divers Prodigies and Signs declared from Heaven a◠tokens to their acceptation with God for if any strange accident fell out they interpreted it to the Vulgar as a special providence to assert their cause If the Heathen invaded the Emperor's Dominions or overthrew his Armies or slew any of those Commanders that had been Instruments of their Correction these were demonstrations of God's displeasure against their Adversaries Periit Macarius periit Vrsacius cunctique comites vestri Dei pariter vindictâ perierunt August contr◠Petil. l. 2. c. 92. 5ly The false reports and unjust censures raised against such as were not of their Communion as well Superiors as Equals for as St. Peter observes 2 Pet. 2.10 They are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities as that Constantine was corrupted by Hosius a famous Bishop St. August l. 1. contra Parmen 2dly That Meltiades was a Traditor Brevic. Collationis cum Donatistis 3dly That the Catholicks were Idolaters and Persecutors having extorted the Penal Laws from the Emperor against them They also spake evil of their Worship that they had no Ministers nor Sacraments nor was there Salvation to be had in their Communion so that as St. Augustine says they carried on their work Per insanas querelas vana mendacia by furious complaints and vain lies Contra Donat. post Collat And when nothing would stick on their Doctrine then against their Persons Cum adversariorum Doctrinam refellere non possunt eorum mores accusarunt Istae sunt Haereticorum Machinae ut convicti de perfidia ad maledicta se conferunt Hieron contra Ruffinum The miscarriage of one Catholick was enough to cause them to defame not only his whole conversation but the whole Church quasi homo ille esset Causa Aug. ad Crescon They rejected the Liturgy then used by the Catholicks which both Optatus and Tertullian before him called the Legitimate Prayers as the double salutation or Pax vobiscum with which they begun and ended their Prayers The Prayer for the Catholick Church which as it was framed by the Apostles injunction 1 Tim. 2.1 so it had been from his days always continued in the Church and was called Sacrificium pro Ecclesiâ They omitted also the Prayer for the Emperor in that Collect Opt. p. 64. mentioned by Tertullian to be used in the Church of Africa even for such Emperors as persecuted it Oramus pro Imperatore pro Ministris ejus potestatibus seculi pro rerum quiete pro mora finis c. And no wonder that they rejected the Prayers of the Church when they also left off the use of the Lord's Prayer They also pulled down many of their Churches and such as they thought fit to preserve for their own use they washed the Walls and Pavements as if the Assemblies of the Catholicks had defiled them They razed their Altars to the ground and often cast their Bibles into the Fire which was the very crime that they objected against the Catholicks and particularly against Cecilian from whose communion they separated on that account And all this they did under a pretence of zeal for reformation and a purer worship 6ly As often as they had power in their hands they did not only silence the Catholic◠Bishops but deprived them of all sustenance and banished them from their Habitations Aut tacenda erat veritas aut eorum immanitas serenda as St. Augustine complained Epist 50. They must either conceal the truth o◠yield themselves up to the cruelty of their Adversaries that laid wait for them knowing that their errors could not resist the light of the truth Appendix ad Ope. p. 612. Nec praedicari à Catholicis veritatem patiebantur contra suum errorem 7ly When they admitted any to their Communion they Rebaptized and imposed new Vows and Covenants on them obliging them not to approach the Catholick Assemblies or hear any of their Bishops which St. Augustine desired of Crispine Epistle 172. And in the next Epistle he acquaints us with another Art used by Crispine to increase and keep firm his Proselytes Crispine being a wealthy Man as the Donatists generally were by the Spoils of the Catholicks he imployed none to dress his ground or to manage his affairs but such as did profess to
be of his Party and to every one that would be rebaptized by him he gave a certain Summ of Money and promised more by which means he had corrupted great Numbers whose dependance being wholly on him they were ready to execute his designs against the Catholicks St. Augustine asks him Epistle 173. how he would be able to answer Christ when he should question him for such sacrilegious practices upon those souls which he had redeemed with his Blood Crispine Carum fuit precium tuum ad emendum timorem Mappaliensium vilis mors mea ad emendum amorem Gentium Plus valuit rebaptizandis colonis tuis quod numeratum est de sacculo tuo quam baptizandis populis meis quod manavit de latere meo O Crispine Why shouldest thou corrupt with thy Money those poor Souls to live in fear of thee whom I redeemed with my Blood to live in the love of me 8ly Their Pride and Reputation with the People kept off many of their Bishops from the Church communion Vinci possunt suaderi non possunt saith St. Augustine he gives instance in Tichonius who was one of their most learned Bishops and defended the Article of the Catholick Church yet kept himself in the Schisme still And though divers of them knew and hated the pride of Donatus yet they deserted him not or with a greater pride to set up for themselves in a more Congregational way Alia schismatâ— facta sunt ex vobis sicut Rogatense in Mauritania Vrbanense in Numidia c. contra Crescâ— l. 4. c. 60. Convicta est falsitas apparuit veritas adhuc contemnitur charitas Post collat They were convinced of the falshood of their own Opinions and the truth of those of the Catholicks yet would not imbrace peace So did Tichonius who continued in the Schism when he was convinced that it was so having espoused the Schisme and gained great reputation he knew not how to leave that and his credit too l. 2. contra Parmen And iâ— Men do either love the pre-eminence or to hear themselves prate as Diotrephes did 3 John 9. or if they gain a livelihood and wealth as Demetrius and his Crafts-men by the Shrines of Diana Acts 19. their Ears are so stopt that neither the Arguments of St. Paul nor the Eloquence of Apollos nor the Authority of Cephas 2 Tim. 3.8 are sufficient to open them but they will still resist the truth Men of corrupt minds reprobate or as our Margent reads it of no judgment concerning the Faith 9ly St. Peter tells us of some places of Scripture hard to be understood 2 Pet. 3.16 which they that are unlearned and unstable do wrest And this was another evil art whereby they advantaged their Party They would Proferre Evangelium take a Text of Scripture as Optatus p. 78. and usually such as they did not understand non intellectas Lectiones from the Canticles or Daniel or the Revelations and these must be made to speak their Language and promote their designs So they interpreted that of the Prophet Isay Isa 52. calling the People from the Captivity of Babylon to justifie their Separation and from St. Paul 2 Corinth 6. they would perswade the People not to have any commerce with or to salute others So in the Conference at Carthage to prove that the whole World was Apostatized except the Church of Christ with them they alledge the revolt of the Ten Tribes and compare themselves to Judah St. August de Verbis Domini in Johan Serm. 50. names their quoting of Canticles 1.7 as a proof that they were the Church of Christ Because it is there said that he maketh his Flock to rest in Meridie i. e. say they in the South where Africa lay of which see St. August De unitate Ecclesiae c. 14. I wonder the less at these when I find A Lapide from the same Text telling us that Meridies is Romana Ecclesia ad quam Petrus jubente Christo ex Jerusalem Antiochia transtulit Pontificatum suum Thus to prove themselves without sin they alledged Eph. 5.27 where it is said Christ gave himself for his Church that he might present it a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle which they applyed to themselves as St. Augustine observes Absit ut quis nostrum ita se justum dicat ut sine peccato in hac vitâ se esse jactaret as did the Donatists in our Conference saying that they were in that Church which hath no spot noâ— wrinkle Epist. 50. They accounted themselves to be Coelestes in Coelo and other Terrestres in Terrâ August Epistle 48. Theâ— were the few that were chosen the rest werâ— reprobates They were Israelites and otherâ— Egyptians and Persecutors They the Flock oâ— Christ others were Wolves Whatever thâ— Text was a great part of the Sermon was to thâ— purpose Nec mirum si Scripturae pacem nâ—â— intelligent qui pacem cum Dei Ecclesiâ non habebunt August de Gestis cum Emerito It iâ— no strange thing if they do not understand the truth who do hate peace 10ly Their ready complyance with all other factious Parties though never so vile and heretical was another advantageous practice For though there were great fewds between the Donatists and others that separated from them on the like pretences as they separated from the Catholicks as Maximinianists and Luciferians who were professed Anabaptists the Circumcellians much like our Quakers the Euchitae and Massalians who were perfect Enthusiasts and the Arians who denyed the Deity of our Saviour and the Holy Ghost yet as often as there was an opportunity of vexing and afflicting the Catholicks they all united as one Man and forgetting their private animosities armed themselves as against their common Enemy yea they scrupled not to joyn with the Jews the most implacable Enemies of Christianity and when they were destitute of other Assistants to make use of the power of the barbarous Goths and Vandals Thus Manasseh vexed Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh but both joyned to oppose Judah Isay 9.21 Thus it was in the Infancy of the Church and thus it will be until its Consummation Herod and Pontius Pilate the Gentiles and the People of Israel will conspire against it Acts 4.27 11ly Their promiscuous receiving of Men of desperate fortunes and as desperate resolutions into their Parties Such as were in debt or disgrace through their debauchery and vicious lives such as were discontented and thinking themselves injured by their Magistrates Parents or Masters upon whom they could not otherwise be revenged made Donatus or his Successors their Protectors they were immediately above the Power of the Laws their debts are all satisfied and all obligations of Nature and Religion cancelled and if they believe their Leaders their sins are all pardoned This honour did those new Saints confer upon each other while they lived and promised no less than a Crown of Martyrdome if they dyed in defence of that Holy League 12ly
Another Engine which they employed was the maintaining of Emissaries in all places where there was hope of advancing their cause and Party They had their Confederates in Rome who scrued themselves into the favour of great Men nor wanted they their Advocates in the Emperor's Court for being many of them inriched by the spoils of others they were very free in their Bribes and Presents to Men in Power to purchase liberty to themselves and being Men of smooth Tongues and soft discourse as well as of crafty and complying conversation they did insinuate themselves to the acquaintance and counsels of some good Men with a design to betray them and not unlike our Jesuits could personate all sorts and degrees of Men that by all means they might increase the Number of their Proselytes and support their Cause To which we may add the familiar and constant correspondence which they held among themselves advising not only what was done but what was most facile and probable to be effected no◠did they only meet frequently to consult o◠such means but did as unanimously agree and resolve on them and having resolved as vigorously act and prosecute their designs with great secresie and constancy for as our Saviour observed of the unjust Steward Th◠Children of this World are wiser in their generation than the Children of light Luk. 16.8 i. e. according to the Hebrew phrase in rebus sui◠agendis in prosecuting those worldly affairs wherein they are concerned for the Hebrews call the actions of Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Vatablus sheweth from Gen. 6.9 and 37.2 And the reason of it is because when Men are conscious to themselves of unjust dealing with others their own just fears do excite them to advise warily and act speedily and industriously for their security Whereas the righteous Man having also an honest cause supposeth his innocency to be a sufficient guard and therefore is less studious and solicitous for his own preservation Lastly And the great countenance they gave to the Vices of their Proselytes was no small advantage to the Faction for they were better than their words to them they promised only liberty but they allowed all manner of licentiousness they counted it no sin in them to rob and deceive the Catholicks nor to defile themselves with fleshly lusts Vnde tantae turbae convivarum ebriosorum innuptarum sed non incorruptarum innumerabilia stupra foeminarum Aug. l. 3. contra Parmen They had Principles and Doctrines that incouraged them to live more lewdly than others as that all their sins were already pardoned and that they could never fall from the grace of God In so much as their sins as well as their Opinions had a Toleration Greges ebrios sanctimonialium suarum cum gregibus ebriis circumcellionum die noctuque permixtos vagari turpiter sinunt cont Parm. l. 2o. Their Teachers permitted the unclean Circumcellians to wander up and down Day and Night with young Women who pretended vows of Chastity and more holiness than others as the Gnosticks had done before them but lived in all Uncleanness If any Bishop or Priest were cast out of the Catholick Communion for scandalous offences and fled to them they received and defended him and he that was in his own account unworthy of the Office of a Deacon in the Catholick Church is accounted fit not only to be a Presbyter but to create Presbyters too among the Donatists as Splendonius did Extant innumerabilia documenta in iis qui vel Episcopi vel alterius gradus Clerici fuerunt l. 3. contr Petil. tunc degradati vel pudore in alias terras abierunt vel ad vos ipsos vel ad alias haereses saith St. Augustine And when any Bishop or private Person deserted them to joyn in Communion with the Catholick Church they did not only defame him but by open violence and secret conspiracies sought his utter ruine to which the People were incouraged by their Priests who taught them that therein they should do God good service as they did concerning St. Augustine It was a difficult matter to find any one among them that had a good opinion of any that were of another Communion or that did think soberly of himself but his proud conceit did generally swell and poyson their souls that they were the most excellent Christians and others reprobates Qui se à Christs anitate discindunt se solos Christianos esse jactant damnant caeteros Aug. contra Crescon l. 4. c. 59. By these and other such arts they increased their Faction and made it formidable not only to the Bishops but to the Emperor himself by whose care and good government though the limbs of the Faction were cut off yet the heads and the heart remained still and with innumerable affronts and vexations did they grieve that good Emperor whom as much as in them lay they had slain in * In the Language of Optatus they did occidere Oleum slew him with the sword of their tongues and handled him as if he had not been the Lords anointed his reputation and tantum non with violent hands brought down his gray Hairs with sorrow to the Grave in the 65. Year of his Age and the 31th of his Empire But their malicious spirits survived to the perpetual trouble of the Church and of the Emperor's Sons which succeeded him whereof Constantine was slain shortly after by his Brothers Souldiers Constans who lived longer and was Heir to his Father's Vertues as well as his Dominions was also made the object of the Donatists malice for during these revolutions of the Empire they recruited their Faction and had spawned a mad fry of Fanatick Persons called Circumcellians to be their Champions for though they did not always own them to be of their Communion yet did they on all occasions imploy them to fight against the common Enemy These Circumcellians were incouraged by Donatus who pretended that an Angel had appeared to him and assured him of the confirmation of his Faction and that he had immediate answer of his Prayers from God Oravit Donatus respondit ei Deus è coelo and that as many as suffered violent Deaths in defence of the good old cause should have a Crown of Martyrdome and for their encouragement white Altars or Memorials were erected to their honour and great commendations of them were celebrated i◠publick Assemblies Anno 348. Now Constans the Emperor being mindful of his Father's charge and in imitation of his Example sent Paulus and Macarius with some Gifts and Almes to the Churches of Africa but with a Commission also to endeavour the unity of those Churches Whereof Donatus having intelligence although those Legates whom Optatus calls operarios unitatis did in a friendly manner apply themselves to him first offering him to partake of the Emperor's bounty and then perswading him to imbrace peace and unity with the Catholick Bishops
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
them to bear any Office in the Army or to serve as common Souldiers Then he excludes them from the Magistracy and all publick Offices in the Commonwealth and permits them not to teach Schools or instruct Youth in any human literature He did not persecute the Christians so violently as Dioclesian and others had done but he contrived more mischievous ways to destroy Christianity it self if it had been possible than others did to destroy the Professors of it For first having shut up their Churches and denyed them the nurture of their Children in Humane Learning He sends for the Bishops of the several Factions and injoyns them to do nothing prejudicial to the peace of the Empire and then tells them they might securely follow their own different Modes and Opinions in the Worship and Faith of God Eo môdo nomen Christi de terris perire putavit St. Aug. Epist 166. si sacrilegas dissentiones liberas esse permifit And this was that which he designed in shewing any favour to the Arians and calling back the Donatist Bishops from Banishment the total destruction of Christianity And whereas the Catholicks lookt on this indulgence of the Emperor's as a design that would prove in time to be fatal to Christianity St. Augustine for quae pejor mors animae quam libertas erroris there is no Death so evil as the Licence of Error which is the destruction of so many Souls Yet the Donatists are loud in their thanks and acclamations to Julian for this liberty as a most just and gracious Prince when as he did only contrive and allow it as a more easie and ready way to destroy the name and being of Christianity which was almost lost already among the new denominations of Arians Photinians Macedonians and Donatists And that it might be no more had in remembrance he imposeth the name of Galilaeans upon them as nomen criminis not religionis a name of criminal and wicked persons not of a religious profession And against the being of Christianity he encouraged the Arians and others that denyed the Divinity of Christ and ever favoured the several Sects more than the Orthodox Upon this the Donatists grew more proud and implacable towards the Catholicks and to ingratiate themselves with the Emperor pull down the Cross which Constantine had set up in publick Places to the honour of Christ and set up the Image of Julian in its place and by how much he was more severe against the Catholicks by so much the more they applauded him He silenced all the Men that were famous for their Learning as St. Basil and St. Gregory both of Cappadocia Èugenius Antiochenus and Apollinaris the Syrian who wrote for Christianity against the Heathen which Book the Christian Bishops presented to the Emperor desiring him to peruse it which he did and returned it to them again saying Legi intellexi improbavi to whom they replyed Epist 166. Si intellexisses nunquam improbasses In the Petition of Petilian Rogatianus c. they stiled Julian the only Assertor of Publick Liberty from whom alone Justice and Clemency was to be hoped for when-as St. Augustine says nil injustius nil perniciosius The Catholicks wondred as well they might that the Donatists and the several Hereticks should be so short sighted as not to perceive that Julian was striking at the very root of Christianity which the Catholicks often minded them of desiring them to consider Opt. l. 2. p. 54. that by the same Edict by which they were indulged the Worship of Idols was injoyned and the Devil and they were let loose together to compass the Earth and make Proselytes to their Party Tunc reddidit basilicas Donatistis quando templa Daemoniis St. August Epistle 166. And when Julian was dead they often wished their good Protector alive again But as if Julian were too slow an Executioner of the true Religion the Donatists make more speed by destroying their Brethren with as much rage and cruelty as their most barbarous Enemies for having by Rogatianus Pontius and Cassianus three of their Bishops obtained some priviledges which were denied to the Catholicks they exercised all manner of cruelty against them Opt. 55. Felix and Januarius two of their Bishop's came to the Castle o◠Lemelle where the Catholicks had a Church which being shut against them they commanded the Rabble which followed them to pull i◠down who presently got up on the Roof and uncovered it and perceiving the Deacons defending the Altar they threw down the Tile stones and slew two of the Deacons In Thipasa a City of Mauritania Idem Vrbanus Formensis and Felix Idicrensis with their bloody Companions assaulted an Assembly of the Catholicks while they were at their Devotions and driving them out of the Church slew and wounded a great part of them without respect of Sex or Age. The Bread of the Consecrated Eucharist they threw to their Dogs which having eaten it by the judgment of God grew mad and fell upon their Masters renting them in pieces They sold the consecrated Chalices to Women for live uses or to the Heathen for the Service of their Gods pulled down the Altars and burnt the Books of the Holy Scriptures Felix who was one of their Leaders defloured a Virgin that had a little before owned him as her Spiritual Father and none of the Heathen committed greater outrages than some of their Bishops Julian by their instigation did shut up their Church-Doors and some of his Officers with a kind of admiration of the beauty and order See Baron as well as the richness of the Ornaments and Utensils of their Church took them away Theodorct l. 3. c. 12. Ecce quibus vasis ministratur Mariae silio as too good to be imployed in the Service of the Son of Mary but such profanation as the Donatists committed those Heathen never learned or practised This Storm was too violent to continue long One of the Fathers thus comforted the Church that Julian was Nubecula cito transitura and accordingly Julian's ambition instigated him to a War against the Persians where he dyed in the midst of his own Army by the wound of an Arrow shot from an unknown hand which he conceiving to be sent from Heaven pulled it out saying Vicisti Galilaee and so dyed To him succeeded Jovianus proclaimed Emperor by the Army that was then in Persia who desired them to name some other because he being a Christian could not lead an Army of such Principles as Julian had formed To whom the old Souldiers that had served Constantine and Constans answered that they were Christians Ann. 364. and would have no other Emperor But he dyed unhappily within seven Moneths after and Valentinian succeeds him a right good Christian whom Julian had for that cause banished from his Court He joyns his Brother Valens to himself in the Empire who was an Arian About the Fourth Year of this Emperor dyed the
Great Donatus and Parmenian against whom Optatus wrote his Seven Books succeeded him It will not be impertinent to set down here a series of the Bishops during this Schisme which is as followeth The Catholick Bishops Mensurius Cecilian Rufus Gratus Genetlius Aurclius The Donatists Majorinus Donatus à Casi◠Nigris Donatus magnus Parmenianus Primianus Gratus and Parmenian are the two Bishops that were in competition Anno 368. Of what temper Parmenian was Optatus his Cotemporary a Person greatly beloved as well for his Piety as Learning hath shewn at large He wanted very little of the Pride of Donatus and for Calumny and Cruelty nothing at all In his days Ticonius one of the most learned and sober of that Party reading and weighing the Arguments of Optatus for the Catholick Church was so far convinced that he wrote in defence of it confuting the Arguments of the Donatists and asserting that nullius hominis peccatum potest praescribere promissis Dei the wickedness of Man cannot make void the promises of God concerning the extent of Christ's Church for which he was condemned by a Synod of their Bishops without any other Answer to his Arguments Now the great confusion which was at Carthage drove St. Augustine who was yet a Heathen to Rome where he read Rhetorick and Philosophy until at length by the Prayers of his Mother Monica and his converse with Pious and Learned Men especially Saint Ambrose he was converted and baptized by St. Ambrose at Millain and became Malleus Donatistarum a happy Instrument to destroy that Faction * At his Baptisme Te Deum was first sung by S. Ambrose and St Augustine Alternatim Which Valentinian seeks to do by good Laws and Edicts divers of which are yet extant in the Codex Justinianus as that against all Hereticks Nullus haereticis ministeriorum locus c. That no Place be allowed to them that were condemned by the Councils of the Church to exercise their Ministry and if any such command or allowance were fraudulently procured it should be null That the People should be restrained from such Meetings and their Teachers banished from Towns and Cities Another Law was made against Rebaptizing that the Offender be deprived of his Priesthood l. 2. Ne sanctum Baptisma iteretur Another against Conventicles Conventicula illicita etiam extra Ecclesiam in privatis aedibus celebrari prohibemus proscriptionis domus periculo imminente si dominus ejus in eâ clericos nova ac tumultuosa conventicula celebrantes susceperit I shall name but one more made expresly against the Manichees and Donatists Tit. de Haereticis Which in English is to this effect We do deservedly prosecute the Manichees and Donatists with severity Commanding that they enjoy not the Priviledges common to others because they offending against Religion are injurious to all We therefore pronounce them uncapable of enjoying any publick bounty or liberality of making their Wills and bestowing their Goods neither shall their Sons inherit their Estates unless they depart from their Fathers wickedness and if their Servants forsake such Masters to have communion with the Catholick Church they shall be indemnified These Laws are severe indeed and by Men that had made conscience of any Law would have been thought obligatory but to them that had broken th◠great Law of Charity they were as cords o◠Sand. The Donatists were now become so numerous and had so wasted the Catholicks that they began to quarrel with each other and in one Tumult Donatus Bishop of Bagaia is thrown into a Well in another Marculus is cast from a high Rock Salvius an Aged Bishop of Membresa hath Dogs hung about his Neck while the mad People with obscene Songs dance round about him a cruelty saith St. Augustine beyond that of the Hetruria◠Tyrant who joyned only Humane Bodies together This is true however strange it may be St. Augustine tells them the City is nigh and there they may be fully informed of it Nor will it seem strange if it be considered how the mad Circumcellians cast away their own lives of whom I shall at present give you only this short account That they lived in madness they dyed in desperation they lay stinking and noysome after Death and yet there were a madder sort left behind that worshipped these abominable Wretches as if they had been Martyrs Of these barbarities the poor Catholicks desired their Governors to acquaint the Emperor and it was in a fit season for both Valentinian and Valens the Arian who gave them some countenance being dead Gratianus and Valentinianus they younger succeeded and chose Theodosius Magnus to govern the Empire who though he used great power and prudence to suppress these Donatists and hated them perfectly as by the Laws made while he was Consul and his actions during his Government may appear yet could he not effect it How much he honoured the Church may appear by submitting himself to the censure of St. Ambrose having by the instigation of some of his Courtiers given order to destroy some of the Inhabitants of Thessalonica in cold blood But the wisdome of God intended to effect this by other means Anno 389. St. Augustine having buried his Mother Monica resolves to return to Carthage to assist in making up the breaches of that Church where the first Book which he wrote against the Donatists was that which he calls his Psalm containing an Epitome of their Opinions and Practices and being afterward made Bishop of Hippo in Africa he bestowed much of his time and labour as well in private and publick disputations as in many learned Writings yet extant But still the Faction thrived and was delivered of another Sect For Parmenian being dead the Donatists meet at Bagaia to choose a Successor in the Chair of Carthage and there were two Competitors Primianus and Maximianus Primianus was the most zealous but Maximianus being of the alliance of Donatus St. Aug. Epist 162. and having some good Women to assist him hoped to succeed but as St. Augustine observes for any real worth or ability other than to head a Faction Maximianus might have been Minimianus and Primianus Postremianus The Assembly is much divided the greater part vote for Primianus to the discontent of Maximianus and his Party who thence-forward deny to hold communion with their Brethren and gather distinct Congregations and in a short time he and his Party had procured Forty Three Bishops to side with him and these condemned Primianus and owned Maximianus for their Bishop And St. Augustine on Psal 36. tells us of another Meeting at Cubursussita where were an Hundred Bishops that confirmed Maximianus But still Primianus hath the greater Number for shortly after at another Synod at Bagaia we read of Three Hundred Bishops that rescinded all that the Maximinianists had decreed and establish Primianus of this St. Augustine gives a full account Contra Cresconium and there observes that without scruple they could urge and execute
the Imperial Laws against such as divided their Church upon the Maximinianists but thought it a Persecution when the Catholicks proceeded by the same Laws against them they compared the Maximianists to Core Dathan and Abiram for dividing from them St. Augustine confuted the Donatists by their Arguments against the Maximianists Hoc corum factum multum valuit ut corum ora penitus clauderentur S. Aug. Epist 50. yet would justifie their Separation from the Catholick Church Such is usually the judgment of God upon Schismaticks as well as Hereticks to make themselves condemned returning their own actions arguments and censures against others upon themselves Quae tanta Dementia est pacem in ipsa pace relinquere eam in dissentione velle retinere as St. Augustine most ingeniously applies it Contra Petil l. 2. What greater madness can there be than to forsake the peace of the Universal Church and seek it in the midst of dissention For it seldome hapneth that all who separate are of one mind among themselves but there is a superfetation some are ready to set up for themselves as soon as there is another opportunity It was so with the Maximianists who went off from the Primianists pregnant and were shortly delivered of Twins the Rogatians and Claudianists which as Vipers endeavoured to eat out the bowels of their Parents And now we are come to a Scene so full of cruelty and blood-shed that you will suppose it to be the last But Nec dum finitus Orestes this Tragedy is not yet at an end Arcadius and Honorius succeed their Father Theodosius and at their entrance on their Empire make divers as strict Laws against the Hereticks in general and particularly against the Donatists as the wisdome of Man could contrive but the more they were restrained the more violently they acted The Churches generally injoyned a calm the fury of the Arians and other Hereticks was spent only Africa is pestered with new Monsters of whom the Catholicks send their complaints to the Emperors That their Bishops could not appear in publick without affronts nor travel for fear of such as lay in wait to destroy them They burned the Bishops Houses destroyed the Churches slew their Priests particularly Restitutus and Innocentius having first digged out one of his Eyes and cut off his Fingers St. Augustine hardly escaped them for having been abroad as his custome was to visit and comfort his Brethren they had provided some of their Circumcellians to lay in Ambush in the way by which he was to return but by God's providence his Guide conducted him home another way St. Hier. to St. Aug. Epist 25. quos gladio nequeunt voto interficiunt But he could not escape the Sword of their Tongues for they rail at him as a Deceiver and Murtherer of Souls and dicebant tractabant they taught and preached publickly that it was not only as lawful to kill him as to kill a Wolf that did destroy the Flock but also that whoever slew him should have all their sins undoubtedly pardoned and be honoured as Martyrs In the Year 401. Aurelius Primate of Africa assembles a Council at Carthage for conversion for the Donatists and supplying the Catholick Churches with Ministers which were much destroyed To this they were encouraged by Anastasius Bishop of Rome and by his perswasion they offered that whoever of the Donatists would return to the Church should still enjoy their Bishopricks and Dignities But their courtesie was a little regarded as their authority onely they prevailed with the Emperors to send relief to the poor Catholicks who suffered no less than if they had lived under Heathen Persecutors The Decretals of Anastasius made about this time against the Donatists are still on Record At Milevis also was a Council assembled against them where St. Augustine being present Epist 168. describes their accursed practices and gives an instance in a young Man who had been admonished by the Bishop for beating his Mother The young Man thereupon threatneth his Mother that he would become a Donatist and then would slay her and so he did For to them he flies and is rebaptized and in white Garments as a Circumcellian he goes and sheds his Mother's blood And from this instance St. Augustine draws this conclusion That he who durst not strike his Mother while he was of the Catholick Church slew her without punishment when he became a Donatist Aurelius the Primate summons a General Council of all the Bishops of Africa and sends express Messages to the Donatists that they would be present at that Council to treat of the Union of the Church where he promised a full and calm disquisition of their arguments and pressed them to consider the great confusions which that Veternus error as he calls it old error of theirs had occasioned Possidius is imployed to deliver this Message to Crispinus a Donatist Bishop which having heard He replieth Patriarchali Sermone Definio Recedant à me impii vias eorum nosse nolo in a Patriarchal stile Depart from me ye wicked I desire not the knowledge of your ways and a few days after Possidius was pursued as he was travelling by a Presbyter that was also called Crispinus and fled into a Cottage to hide himself but Crispine with his Armed Company broke open the Doors and having drawn him down from an upper Room St. Aug. Epist 166. would certainly have slain him had not the People that were present intreated for him or rather had they not threatned to prosecute the Mutherers St. Augustine having heard among the People how their Bishops and Presbyters did often wish that they might meet and confer with the Catholicks for the vindication of their practices offers himself to discourse privately or publickly with any of them Particularly he invited Procidianus who pretended a great desire of it Ep. 147. but refused when it was offered In the Year 404. is another Council at Carthage against the Donatists from which Council they send Theasius and Evodius two Bishops to Honorius the Emperor to desire his Protection of that part of the Church and the due execution of the Laws that were made in that behalf which if well observed would redress all their grievances They name especially the Edicts whereby they were disabled to take or receive any publick dignities or profits belonging to the Church or to make their Wills and dispose of Estates and another Law for punishing those that should schismatically or heretically ordain or be ordained Honorius was grieved at the complaints of these Bishops and professed that the confusion and ruine of the Church did grieve him more than the loss of Rome which the Goths and Vandals had about that time taken from him and St. Ambrose observes of him fecit quod Pater fecit in Causâ Donati that he acted for the Church in the case of Donatus as Theodosius his Father had done who was solicitous for the welfare of the Church as
of his own Soul Accordingly he gives order to Adrian his Vicegerent in Africa to Vindicate the integrity of the Catholicks and punish the perfidiousness of the Donatists that did rent asunder the Members of the Church being as he describes them subtle to seduce cruel to destroy provoking the Sons of Peace to War Moreover he forbad all that were Enemies to the Peace of the Church to come within his Palace Opt. p. 650. And upon the Petition of a young Nobleman whose Sister being seduced by the Donatists divided a considerable Estate among them without any Legacy to her Brother it was ordered that the Estate should wholly descend to him according to a former Edict It would offend the Readers patience to repeat all the Constitutions of the Emperors and Decrees of Councils against these lawless Persons who could break them with less trouble than the Emperors could make them Witness their hainous Murther of one Maximianus Bishop of Vaga St. Aug. Epist 50. who having by sentence of Law recovered his Church which the Donatists had by force taken from him came to demand it of them and to take possession But the Donatists fell on him with so great fury and wounded him so desperately that he was left for dead through loss of blood and wheâ— the Catholicks came to carry him away they drave them off and carrying him into a Turret cast him down thence but it being no great height and falling on soft Turfs he was afterward conveyed away and recovered by his Brethren and together with other Sufferers petitioned the Emperor to pity those persecuted Churches shewing their wounds and relating the Cruelty of the Donatists with which the Emperor was so affected that he made Capital Laws against several exorbitances of the Donatists and injoyned a strict execution of them which produced so good effect that St. Augustine says thus of them It was my Opinion heretofore Epist 48. that none ought to be compelled to the Unity of Christ but to be perswaded by Reason and Argument lest we should have dissembling Catholicks instead of open Hereticks but this Opinion was overthrown not by the contradiction of words but by the demonstration of Examples for this my City saith he that is Hippo whereof he was Bishop which was wholly seduced by the Donatists by the Laws of the Emperor which punished some Offenders among them with Death is so generally united in the Catholick Unity as if there had been no Schisme among them for being first awed by fear they are afterward convinced by truth which they could not hear among their false Teachers and are by degrees made to understand and abhor their wicked practices c. And to silence their Objections that they were persecuted and punished beyond their deserts He willeth them to consider first what they had done and then what they did suffer which was far less than their demerits Leges puniendo non possunt quod isti saeviendo potuerunt Epist 170. The Laws never inflicted such punishments on the worst Malefactors as They did on their innocent Brethren How great mischiefs did some of your mad Clerks and Circumcellians act among us our Churches were burnt our Books cast into the flames Men were taken out of their Houses which they also burnt down having first plundered them and then tortured their Masters by maiming them in their Limbs and putting out their Eyes saith St. Augustine contra Donat. post Collat. These things were not done by the rabble of Circumcellians alone but by their Clergy Qui duces eorum semper fuerunt who were still their Leaders What Master was there that did not stand in fear of his Servant if he came to the Donatists Epist 166. to make his complaint and desire their Patronage They constrain the Masters to deliver up their Covenants and let them go free they force from the Creditors their Bonds and Obligations and deliver them up to the Debtors and if this were not done at their command they assembled Multitudes with Arms and Fire threatning present Death and burning of their Houses St. August Epistle 50. Praetexatus a Bishop of the Donatists dying they ordained Rogatus in his place being a Person of good Learning and Reputation who afterward declared himself to be of the Catholick Communion whereupon they so persecuted him that at length the Circumcellians pluckt out his Tongue and cut off his Hand as St. August de Gestis cum Emerito No good Catholick while he lived among them could be secure of any Possession nor of life it self Epist 61. for as St. August Qui sibi nequam cui bonus They that by Fire Water and Precipices desperately destroyed their own Lives had an easie command and power over the Lives of others and yet these Men would first cry out of Persecution Nos ab armatis vestris fustibus ferro concidimur vos dicitis pati persecutionem St. August Epist 166. gives many instances of their cruel usage of such Bishops and Presbyters as were reconciled to the Catholicks Marcus a Priest of his own proper motion declared himself to be a Catholick and shortly after some of the Donatists met him and would have destroyed him had not some that by accident came by rescued him out of their hands Restitutus another Convert was drawn out of his House beaten and dragged through the Mud and long kept a Prisoner until Proculianus obtained his deliverance Marcianus had his House beset and he escaping they beat his Subdeacon so as they left him for Dead They made publick Proclamations that whoever should communicate with Maximianus his House should be burnt and when Possidius was sent to Fugilia to visit and instruct some People there the Donatists laid ambushes for him which he having escaped they pursued him to a House where he hid himself and set it on Fire three times intending to have burnt him alive had not the Countrey Men quenched the Fire and this was done by some of the Donatist Clergy who being condemned for this out-rage in a Mulct of Ten Pounds of Gold the good Bishop Possidius interceded for them and got the Penalty to be remitted So desperately were they bent to ruine the Catholicks that sometimes they joyned with the Arians and Macedonians and sometimes with the Pagans and with the Jews whom the Fathers of that Age called Coelicolas to persecute the Catholicks Who meet again in another Council at Carthage and decree to send Legates to Honorius to complain of the great slaughters made upon them by the Donatists who had slain many eminent Person namely Severus Macarius Evodius Theasius and Victor who were Bishops besides greaâ— Numbers of other Persons They appoinâ— therefore Restitutus and Florentius to inforâ—â— the Emperor of their continued cruelty and St. Augustine sends Letters to Olympius a Mâ—â— of great account with the Emperor desiring that some Assistance might be speedily sent â—â—to them upon which the Emperor sent 〈◊〉 Rescript commanding
that such Jews and Hereticks as molested the Church should be pâ—nished with Banishment or loss of Life Oâ—â— device of the Donatists may be here seasonably mentioned which is this Honorius the Emperor and Arcadius his Brother were Persons of so much piety and clemency that they could not immediately reproach them as Persecutors and therefore they laid the blame of all the severe Laws that were enacted againâ—â— them St. August Epist 129. upon the evil Counsellers that weâ—â— near them These are not the Laws say they of the Sons of Theodosius but of Stilicho yet when Stilicho was dead the same Law were vigorously executed against them I hapned in the Year 410. that Attalâ—â— a Tyrant had invaded the Emperor's Dominions and promised protection to all such as would submit to him whereupon many of the Donatists fled to him insomuch that the Emperor was inforced to grant a General Toleration that every one should worship God in what manner he pleased to prevent that general revolt to Attalus which was feared Upon this the Donatists grew more insolent than ever so that they permitted not the Catholick Doctors to speak against their Errors nor to Preach the truth They dragged Restitutus a Presbyter through a Chanel of mud Possidonius in vitâ Aug. Contra Cresc l. 2. Epist 166. and after twelve days torments slew him They put out the Eyes of others and poured in Lime and Vinegar into the holes and with Fire and Sword terrified all the Churches of Africa To divert this fury the Catholicks meet again at Carthage and send four Bishops to the Emperor to acquaint him of the Cruelties that had been committed upon his Edict for Toleration which he recalls by hi Rescript in these words Codex de Rel. l. 3. de Haeret 51. Ea quae circa Catholicam fidem vel olim ordinavit Antiquitas vel Parentum nostrorum authoritas religiosa constituit vel nostra Serenitas roboravit novellâ superstitione remotâ integra inviolata custodire praecipimus That whatever Laws had been established by himself or his Predecessors concerning the Catholick Faith should be held firm and inviolated By the four Bishops sent from this Council to the Emperor at the motion of St. Augustine who complained that in the Regions belonging to Hippo where the Barbarians had not come the robberies and violence of the Donatist Clergy and their Circumcellians the Churches were made more desolate than under the power of the Barbarians It was earnestly petitioned that the Donatists might be compelled to a publick conference with the Catholicks all other endeavours for Union being frustrated This Honorius willingly grants Pridie Id. Octob. 413. and lest the Donatists should refuse this Christian means or commit any act of violence against the Catholicks he sent Marcellinus his Principal Notary or Secretary to be a Moderator between them and to take cognizance of the proceedings and lest he should meet with the like affronts as Paulus and Macarius did when they were sent by Constans upon the like occasion He commanded a sufficient Army to attend him which also the Catholicks fearing the attempts of the Circumcellians justly desired The day appointed for this conference being at hand the Donatist Bishops being as they reported 279 enter the City with great Pomp and Numbers so as they drew all the City to be Spectators and to admire their equipage And though many of them lived on the benevolence of their Faction being rendred uncapable by the Imperial Laws of Ecclesiastical Dignities and Possessions or upon that which they had wrested from the Catholicks in Licentious times The Catholicks were far inferior to them as well in Riches as in Ostentation The Catholicks were in Number 286 many of their Party had been slain and many were afraid to Travel because of the Circumcellians however their Number much exceeded the Donatists for when St. Augustine viewed the Subscriptions of that Party to satisfie himself of their number he found that the noise of 279. was shrunk into 159. The Meeting was appointed to be at the Gargilian Baths in a spacious Room fitted for that purpose Aug. de Gestis cum Emerito Before the Catholicks enter they agreed mutually by solemn promise That if the Donatists could evince that the Marks of the true Church belonged to their Party they would not desire to retain their Episcopal Dignities but leave them to the Donatists to be disposed of bono pacis for the peace of the Church And if it should appear that they were in the Communion of the Catholick Church they would notwithstanding admit of the Donatists as their Brethren and Colleagues upon their conformity to enjoy their several Dignities and where-ever there was a competition for the present between a Catholick and a Donatist for any Ecclesiastical Preferment there should be a present provision made for the Donatist and if the Catholick dyed he fore him he should have an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Civilians called it a right of succession wherein they manifested their real charity who as they generally professed Parati erant Episcopatum pro Christi unitate deponere non perdere sed Deo commendare were prepared to lay down their Bishopricks for the Christian Unity and not think them lost but intrusted with God Delib p. 220. This charity was not answered with the like from the Donatists who as soon as they had been saluted by the Catholicks as Brethren Marcellinus willeth them all to sit down Accordingly the Catholicks took their Seats but the Donatists refused and Primianus their Titular Bishop of Carthage replyed August post Collat Carth. Indignuâ— est ut filii Martyrum progenies Traditorâ—â— in unum conveniant It is an indignity to the Sons of the Martyrs to sit with the off-spring of Traditors Another said Odi Ecclesian malignantium cum impiis non sedebo To which the Catholicks answered that they were met to enquire of the truth and not of Mens persons and desired that nec causa causae nec persona personae praejudicet former cause and persons might not create a prejudice to the present At length they condescend to take their Seats and then it was proposed by Marcellinus that for Orders sake there should be a Select number appointed by both Parties to discourse pro con This after some reluctancy by the Donatists was yielded to and the Number on each side were to be Seven whereof St. Augustine was to be Prolocutor for the Catholicks and Petilian who had been a Civilian for the Donatists There were also four Notaries appointed by each Party to write down the several Arguments and Answers which being printed at large and joyned with the Works of Optatus I shall refer the Reader to them and onely give a brief account of what is pertinent to the present case of the Schisme Marcellinus having produced the Emperor's Rescript for the Treaty promiseth them all candor freedom and protection
Religion were Martyrs Optat. p. 146. and accordingly Altars were built to their Memorial and Prayers offered up on those Altars These Circumcellians had a Solemn initiation for having devoted themselves to violent Deaths which they sometimes voluntarily executed on themselves or at the command of their Brethren their Neighbours and Relations gave them all possible respect and attendance so that nothing was denied to them for their encouragement that like so many fatted Beasts they might be fit for the slaughter rather than for a Sacrifice which yet they were perswaded that they were offering up to God in an acceptable manner And as oft as they declared themselves ready for such desperate designs their Brethren assembled and prayed and gave thanks for that supernatural and heroick spirit wherewith they were inspired Being thus in a most diabolical manner initiated they would go forth sometime armed sometimes unarmed but resolved to provoke whomsoever they met with railing beating and wounding them sometime slaying others or suffering themselves to be slain and if this hapned not they would cast themselves into deep Wells or over high Precipices to their certain destruction Sometimes these Circumcellians assembled in great Numbers Sub specie Martyrum rapientium latrocinantes playing the Robbers under pretence of Martyrs as Philaster observes or else really attempting such acts of Hostility upon the Catholicks their Houses and Churches or upon the Emperor's Souldiers as caused the ruine of many Thousands De fabutis Haereticor St. August Epist 50. ad Bonifac. Theodoret tells us of a Company of these who went abroad armed and resolved to run this mad race and meeting with a young Man unarmed they were so humane as not to destroy him with such unequal Numbers wherefore they all agreed that they would deliver their Weapons to him to wound and kill them as he pleased but threatned him also that if he did not execute them they would miserably destroy him The young Man seems to accept of the Conditions only he tells them it was fit they should suffer themselves to be bound not only that he might the better fulfill their desires but also because he feared that when he had shed the blood of some of the Brethren the survivors might to preserve their own lives take away his They therefore do all agree to this as a reasonable proposal and forthwith submit themselves to be bound and fettered by the young Man which having done with as much skill as he could he first destroyed most of their Weapons and then beats them soundly with the rest and so departs leaving them in their bonds to be mocked and derided by the Passengers This phrensie they thought a very high Enthusiasme but Malus Daemon istam phrenesim immisit it was the Devil that was a Murtherer from the beginning that inspired it There were two mad Captains of these Martyrs of the Devil that as Theodoret says were instar Corybantum furentes debacchantes like the Priests of Bacchus drunk with fury and led on great Numbers of the Circumcellians to destroy as far as they went all sorts of Men Women and Children burning Houses and Churches razing the Altars and casting the Bibles into the Fire With some such Donatus Bishop of Bagaia assaulted Macarius and Paulus who having the Roman Souldiers to guard them slew great Numbers of them whom being destroyed he afterward disowned and denyed them Burial and at last cast himself headlong and perished in a Well You have heard formerly of Salvius a Bishop of the Donatists who made another Faction among the Membresitans He built a Church for his Party and kept a separate Congregation for a while but being abandoned by the Donatists who condemned him in a Synod of theirs was left to the fury of the mad Circumcellians who as you have heard hung dead Dogs about his Neck and danced about him August l. 3. cont Parmen singing filthy Songs This Saint Augustine says they would excuse because he was condemned by a full Synod of Bishops to which he replies That if he suffered justly being condemned by their Bishops they ought not to repine and murmur it they also suffered who were so often condemned by the Bishops of the Catholick Church and desireth them to consider Priùs quid faciunt deinde quid patiuntur First what they do against others and then what they suffer from others The History of the Maximianists you have had already I shall now acquaint you with another Faction which they had established at Rome for when they perceived that they could not Answer the Arguments of the Catholicks for the Universality of Christ's Church and considered how numerous they were in all Africa they sent their Emissaries abroad and especially at Rome they had planted some of their Faction so that at length they pretended that no Party were more Catholick than themselves Victor was setled as the Titular Bishop of Rome in the days of Constantine his Successors were First Bonifacius Balatensis 2. Encolpius 3. Macrobius 4. Lucianus 5. Claudianus who lived in the days of St. Augustine But as both Optatus and St. Augustine say they could pretend no higher than Victor whereas the Churches of Hierusalem and Rome could derive their Succession from the Apostles But Victor was Filius sine Patre Discipulus sine Magistro and Episcopus sine populo A Son without a Father a Disciple without a Master and a Bishop without a Flock nor could any of them produce their literas formatas communicatory or testimonial Letters signifying their Communion with the Universal Church Besides Sr. Augustine tells them that they lived at Rome more like Beasts of Prey than like a Flock of Christ and never met but in Speluncis in Dens and Caves without the City where they kept their Conventicles and from their wandring from place to place they were called Montenses Campitae and Rupitani as St. Hierome observes not unlike our Quakers Quod inter homines solet esse commune Optatus p. 78. salutationis officium auferunt ne Ave dicunt cuiquam nostrum Nec monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti They would not salute any nor bid them God speed I shall name but one mad crew more which were headed by Optatus Gildoniensis a Donatist Bishop who was called Gildoniensis from one Gildo a barbarous Person who invaded Africa with a great Army and made havock of the Catholick Churches To him this Optatus with a great Number of the Circumcellians joyned himself and was first Latrociniis infamis notorious for his Robberies He snatched away the Wives from their Husbands and Children from their Parents causing many Abortions and in his Cruelties exceeded the very Barbarians for they would kill them at once but he would torment them many days together that they might dye daily So that Historians observe he as much exceeded the Circumcellians as they did exceed others in Cruelty Their Opinions It appears not that they were accused of any false
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
come to advance Idolatry and Superstition that they had brought Images which they intended to set upon the Altars and would command the People to Worship them Whereas those Statues were sent rather as a token of the Emperor's favour it being a Custome of those Emperors to send their Effigies into those Countries under their Dominion to which they could not come in Person and the Christian Emperors had provided by their Edicts that Cultura excedens hominum dignitatem supremo numini reservaretur Onely a civil respect was to be yielded to them and Divine Worship to be reserved to God alone And the event proved them lyars for when those peace-makers came and communicated with the Catholicks Nil tale visum est nil viderunt Christiani Oculi quod horrerent There was no change or innovation in the Publick Worship but the same decency and order was observed as formerly and those Images proved to be onely imaginations of their own brains The Second Nicene Council calls these Images of the Emperor's Laurata Iconas which being sent to great Cities the People went out to meet them with Acclamations to the Emperor whom they did honour and not the painted Image Thus also they accused Marcellinus as if he had been corrupted by Bribes and Presents from the Catholicks to incline him to their Cause And Honorius the Emperor was said to be seduced by Evil Counsellors though he acted by the known Laws of his Ancestors And as to false accusations they gave such proof of their faculty in contriving them that St. Augustine at the Conference at Carthage hearing them contrary to evident truth to charge Felix and Mensurius for Traditors and to alledge that Optatus had written that Cecilian was condemned by Miltiades and that Constantine had imprisoned him at Brixia tells Cresconius that he wondred how the Donatists could have any Bloud in their Bodies and not blush at the mentioning of such things And as to St. Augustine's particular they gave him no other Character but of a contentious Sophister that was rather to be avoided than confused and to be dealt with as a Wolf upon no other provocation but because as St. Augustine said they had rather cover a bad cause with wicked slanders and excuses than to end it by fair disputations and inquiry after truth And this is the reason saith he that Cresconius Me fecit causam cum defecisset in Causa fell so foully on my Person when I had fairly overthrown his cause Leave off such subterfuges saith he I am but one Man It is the cause of the Church not my own that is now in question what my conversation is is known to those among whom I live we are now to inquire into the cause of the Church Optatus complained of the like Calumnies long before Nullus vestrum est Opt. p. 69. qui non suis tractatibus convitia nostra miscet lectiones Dominicas incipitis tractatus vestros ad injuriam nostram explicatis Profertis Evangelium facitis absenti fratri convitium idem p. 81. nec voluntatem bonam vis habere nec pacem They wrested and tortured the Scripture to make it speak against their Brethren There is not one of you that doth nor fill up his Sermons with slanders You begin to read the Scriptures and expound them to our injury and disgrace You have neither Peace nor Good will Turba gravis paci placidaeque inimica quieti Of their Cruelty What St. Cyprian Epistle 49. observed of Donatus was true of these In ipsa persecutione alia nostris persecutio fuit St. Augustine in the Psalm which he wrote against the Donatists saith more Quod persecutor non fecit ipsi fecerunt in pace They that were prodigal of their own Lives could not be sparing of other Mens No sooner did any of the People flie from the Catholicks to the Donatists but they were of another spirit clean contrary to what the Gospel inspires good Christians withall This made the Lyon as mild as the Lamb but among the Donatists not only Men but Women of Sheep became Wolves of faithful perfidious of patient furious of peaceable contentious and of modest impudent Optatus p. 99. says they were pragmatici crudeles busie and diligent in exercising Cruelty Episcopi vestri multas caedes propria manu perpetrarunt Many of their Bishops did with their own hands shed that Blood for the sparing of which Christ shed His. Under Constantine and other good Emperors they did not make such havock of the Churches as they would they were then awed by a greater Power Epist 48. But St. Augustine tells them Nulla bestia mansueta dicitur quod neminem mordet cum dentes ungues non habet The Lyon or the Bear do not lose their Natures when they lose their Liberty or their Pawes and Teeth and that their intentions were alway cruel their actions manifested as soon as they got liberty and their power was increased under Julian Quae caedes à vobis factae postquam Julianus Basilicas tradidit What Murthers did they not commit when Julian restored the Churches and gave them power They forced the Catholicks from their Habitations and Churches into the Mountains or into Places of strength and there assaulted them with as much fury as the most barbarous Enemy they slew the Bishops at the Altars and those Churches which Dioclesian had spared were by the Donatists razed to the ground they were Interfectores Prophetarum Murtherers of the Prophets and built Monuments to those that murthered them And this did animate them to slay the Catholicks with a rage that reached up to Heaven they were taught that they did God good service in it When Men think their Passions to be warranted from Heaven and that they act by a Commission from God they think themselves obliged by their greatest hopes and fears to act them to the highest as St. Paul did before his Conversion But such a furious zeal is without knowledge For the Wisdome that is from above is first Pure then Peaceable c. How far the Donatists were from this temper the many Massacres made by them do demonstrate it was a sport to them to shed Bloud for as Optatus says they did Vivum facere Homicidium make Men dye often starving some to death cutting off the Hands and Fingers of others putting out the Eyes of others with Lime and Vineger Deturbatos bonis dignitatibus Opt. p. 99. vivere in poenam quasi sibi ipsis superstites sinitis The very mercies of these wicked Men were cruel Yea they persecuted them after Death denying them Burial and exposing their dead Bodies to the Beasts and Fowls of the Ayr Vt terreatis vivos male tractatis mortuos negantes funeribus locum cum mortuis litigatis Clarius a Priest being ready to perform the solemnity accustomed at the Funerals in the Village of Subbulia was forbid by his Bishop who was a Donatist and so did insepultam