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Against the Donatists

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

Book 2, It is Proved Against the Donatists, Who Call Themselves Saints, that No Man Can…

Will you then----you who wish men to think you holy and innocent----tell me this----whence comes this sanctity of yours, which you too freely claim for yourselves----a sanctity which the Apostle John does not dare to profess, when he writes:
‘If we shall say that we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.’¹

He who spoke thus kept himself, with wisdom, prepared for the grace of God.² For it belongs to a Christian man to will what is good, and to run the course which he has rightly willed. But it is not given to man to bring to perfection; so that after the stages, which a man can go, there remains something for God with which He may meet man’s deficiency. For He alone is perfection; and perfect alone is Christ, the Son of God. We, the others, are all half-perfect³; for it is ours to will,⁴ it is ours to run, but it is God’s to make perfect. So the most blessed Apostle Paul has written:
‘It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of him that reacheth to the grace of God.’⁵

For perfect sanctity has not been given, but promised, by Christ our Saviour. Thus He says:
‘You shall be holy, because I am holy.’⁶

So that He alone is perfect and holy. He did not say ‘You are holy’ but He did say
‘You shall be holy.’

With what reason then do you, in your pride, claim for yourselves perfect holiness, except it be to make it clear that you deceive yourselves, and that the truth is not in you?

You have been unwilling to live in the school of John,⁷ for, when you lead some astray, you promise them that you will grant them forgiveness of their sins; and, when you are pleased to forgive sins, you profess your own innocence and bestow forgiveness of sins, in such a manner as though you had no sin yourselves.⁸ This in you is not presumption [merely]; it is deception. This is not truth; it is a falsehood.⁹ For it is only a moment after¹⁰ you have laid your hands upon the heads of others and pardoned their crimes, that you turn to the altar, and are unable to pass over the Lord’s Prayer. Then no doubt you say:
‘Our Father who art in Heaven, forgive us our debts¹¹ and sins.’

What ought you to be called when you confess your own sins, if you are holy when you forgive the sins of others? In this way do you deceive yourselves, and the truth is not in you.

But it is clear that this is dictated to you by your nursing mother Pride, as Christ bears witness in the Gospel. Although He did not mention your names, still He pointed out your character by a parable. For thus has it been written:
‘Jesus spoke this parable on account of those who consider themselves holy and despise others.’¹²

The evidence itself clearly shows that, when you puff yourselves up as holy, and plainly and openly despise us, this has been said of you. Two men, He said, went up into the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a Publican. The Pharisee swollen out, proud, puffed up, such as we see you too to be, his body not humbled, his neck not bent, but with raised countenance and swelling breast----cried aloud:
‘I give Thee thanks, my God, because in nothing have I sinned.’

This is to say to God:
‘I have nothing for Thee to pardon.’

O wildness of a madman! O pride that must be punished and condemned!¹³ God is prepared to pardon and the guilty one hastens to reject forgiveness. The Publican in his humility, recognising that he was a man, besought in this manner:
‘Have mercy, O Lord, on me a sinner.’

Thus did he¹⁴ deserve to be justified; thus did pride go down from the Temple, condemned in the Pharisee ----your teacher.

More tolerable is it to find sins where there is humility, than innocence where there is pride.

But you, though you are burdened with the heavy sins of Betrayal and Schism, take credit to yourselves that you are proud as well!

Notes

1 John i, 8.
sapienter se ad Dei gratium reservavit.
semi-perfecti (and this only through the grace of God).
If St. Optatus had lived after the Semi-Pelagian heresy, he would have expressed himself in a more guarded manner (cf. Tixeront, Histoire des dogmes, ii, 282). But we may be sure that he did not forget Philippians ii, 13: ‘For it is God, who works in you both to will, and to make perfect.’ …
neque volentis, neque currentis, sed ad Dei gratiam pertinentis. The reference is of course to Rom. ix, 16. But here once again one suspects that St. Optatus is trusting to his memory, and quoting by heart. The Vulgate has not ad Dei gratiam pertinentis, but miserentis Dei. This is a literal translation of the Greek.
Leviticus xi, 45.
Cf. 1 John i, 8 (supra).
It was the false boast of the Donatists that they could forgive the sins of other men, because they were themselves without sin.
St. Optatus has already told us (cf. i, 10) that Parmenian had asserted that ‘the unclean could not cleanse, nor the guilty grant pardon, nor could one who had been condemned absolve from sin.’ He now retorts this argument: ‘You absolve. On your own principles no sinner can absolve. Therefore you are forced to assert that you are without sin, but if you say that you are without sin, the truth is not in you.’
etenim inter vicina momenta.
debita. (Cf. iii, 4: ‘debita etiam maxima perdere.’)
Luke xviii, 9 seq.
O insanus furor, o punienda et damnanda superbia! For O RBvbd read hoc.
Du Pin supplies humilitas, but it is not in the MSS.