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Against the Donatists

St Optatus of Milevis, tr. Vassall-Phillips, 1917

Book 2, 18. The Donatists’ Murderous Deeds

Catholics were slaughtered in the above-mentioned districts. You remember how your people ran to and fro from place to place. Were not Felix of Zaba and Januarius of Flumenpiscinum of your party, and the others who rushed all together as swiftly as they could, to a fortified place called Lemella¹? So soon as they saw that the Basilica, notwithstanding their clamours, was closed against them, they commanded their followers to climb to the top, strip the roof, and throw down the tiles. These orders were executed without delay. In the defence of the altar, a number of Catholic deacons were wounded with tiles----of whom two were killed----Primus the son of Januarius, and Donatus the son of Ninus. Your fellow-Bishops, whose names I have just given, were present and urged them on, so that, without doubt, of your party has it been said:
‘Their feet are swift to shed blood.’²

Primosus, the Catholic Bishop of the place, complained of all this----whilst you listened disingenuously to his complaints----at your Council held in the City of Theneste.

See then how you did the things, of which you have said:
‘That is not the Church which battens on bloody morsels’;
and again you have said:
‘Soldiers sent to war are one thing, consecrated Bishops are another.’

What in your hatred you bring as a charge against us was done by others, not by us; that which you say ought not to have been done, has been done by you.

You have recalled how the most blessed Apostle Paul has said that the Church ought to be³ without wrinkle and without stain.⁴ In the presence, and at the order, of your Bishops, Catholic deacons were slain over the altar.⁵

The same things happened also at Carpi.⁶ Do not such deeds appear to you indelible stains? When you came into the cities of Mauritania, the people were overwhelmed with dread, so that children who were near to birth died in their mothers’ wombs. Does not this seem to you to be a ‘wrinkle’ such as cannot be stretched or made smooth⁷ by any reparation whatsoever? What have we done of such a character as this? We wait for the vengeance of God.

And yet you create a prejudice against Macarius, although anything that he may have done with harshness on behalf of unity may well be regarded as of light account, when compared with these monstrous, bitter, bloodstained acts of war done by you on behalf of dissension. Why should I mention Tipasa, a city of Mauritania Caesariensis, whither rushed from Numidia Urban of Forma and Felix of Idicra, two burning torches, set on fire by hatred⁸? These men upset the minds of quiet people, who were established in unity,⁹ and, aided by the favour and fury of certain officials, in the very presence of Athenias the magistrate, with colours flying,¹⁰ broke up the Catholic assemblies, with bloodshed. Catholics were driven out from their homes. Their men were wounded. Their women were dragged into captivity. Their infants were slain. Mothers miscarried.

Look now at your church. Under the guidance of its Bishops it
‘battened on bloody morsels.’

After all this, you have gone on to say:
‘Let the greed of vultures consume whatever it will; still the number of doves is greater.’¹¹

What, then, has happened to the common saying that a liar should have his memory in due keeping? Have you forgotten what you said a moment before, that in the Canticle of Canticles
‘The Church is Christ’s one Dove’¹²?

If yours is the One Church, the Dove is One. What then did you mean by saying that
‘the number of doves is greater’?

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