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Against the Donatists

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

Book 2, The Wrong Done by the Donatists to Men of Every Degree and Age by Laying Hands…

So you have sharpened your tongues into swords with which you slew not the bodies of men, but their dignities; you have destroyed not their members, but their titles. What boots it for those to live, who have been slain by you in their office? Their members are indeed whole and sound, but they carry about the corpse of the dignity which you have scratched away. For you stretched forth your hand and placed the death-bearing Veils upon every head; so that whilst there are (as I have said above) four kinds of heads in the Church----Bishops, priests, deacons, and the Faithful, yon have not spared one.

You have overturned the souls of men.¹ God holds these actions of yours up to detestation in Ezekiel the Prophet, when He says:
‘Woe to you who make a Veil,’²
that is, who place your hands
‘upon every head³ and upon every age, to overturn souls.’

You have found boys, you have wounded them with Penance, so that none of them might be ordained.

Recognise that you have ‘overturned souls.’

You have found old men amongst the Faithful,⁴ you have made them do Penance.

Recognise that you have ‘overturned souls.’

You have found deacons, priests, Bishops, you have made them as laymen.

Recognise that you have ‘overturned souls.’

He, upon whose head thou hast now endeavoured to lay thine hands,⁵ had, for a long time, been thy fellow and companion.⁶ You were once wont to run together.⁷ Guilty he was not----but let us assume his guilt.

In that case, as thou thinkest, he has fallen. See then (if thou hast read the Apostle) to Whom thou dost stand, and let him see, to Whom he has fallen. If thou art a servant, recognise thy Lord, and understand that he who, a short time ago, ran together with thee, to thee has not fallen. Why dost thou invade Another’s power, why dost thou in thy rashness ascend the tribunal of God? And though thyself art guilty, darest to pass judgement upon another? Yet thou hast read:
‘He who stands, stands to his own Lord, and who falls, to his own Lord he falls. But his Lord is powerful to raise him up.’⁸

Who then art thou to judge Another’s servant?

That you⁹ have no right to touch the Oil bestowed by God upon a Bishop, you ought to have learnt from David the servant of God, who was anointed by Samuel, with the condition that what had already been given to Saul, should by no means be taken away.¹⁰ When, through the command, or the providence, of God, they were shut up together in one cave, Saul, who had sinned, came into the power of the youth David. Saul, although he sees not, is seen, because (as usually happens to one that passes from the light of day) he was not able, in the darkness of the shut-in-air,¹¹ to see the other who was near him. A great army followed the old king. Still he had fallen into the power of another. David had the chance of victory in his hands. Without effort he might have slain his incautious adversary who was wrapt in security. Without bloodshed, and the clash of arms, he might have summarily changed war into slaughter. The opportunity was there. His soldiers were in favour of this course. The situation urged him on to snatch a victory. Already he commenced to draw his sword. His armed hand was now reaching for his enemy’s throat. But the remembrance of the divine commands completely blocked the way. He fought against the persuasion of his soldiers, and resisted the fitness of the circumstances, as if he had said:
‘To no purpose, O Victory, dost thou tempt me; in vain, O opportunity, dost thou lure me on to triumphs!’

He wished to conquer his foe, but desired even more to keep the commands of the Lord.

‘I will not,’ he said, ‘lay my hands upon the Lord’s anointed.’¹²

He checked his hand and his sword----he feared to violate the Oil; he saved his enemy; and, that he might accomplish his duty towards his King to the end, after his death took up his defence.¹³

You neither fear God, nor regard those who are your brethren. You have sharpened the razors of your tongue upon the whetstone of your malice, and, trampling underfoot the precepts of Heaven, have rushed upon the heads of miserable men, that, after you had slain their leaders, you might drag them in their blindness and ignorance into bondage. You hunger after the dignities of innocent priests, with a hunger so furious that you have made open sepulchres of your throats. For each separate sepulchre one funeral is enough, and then it is closed. For your throats many funerals of many dignities have not by any means been enough. They still remain open, seeking whom they may devour. So that with reason was it said of you:
‘Their throat is an open sepulchre’;¹⁴
for with cursing you are beforehand, though it has been written:
‘Bless ye and curse not.’¹⁵

If any man has done anything against your will, you threaten him with horrors and foul menaces; and then, since some there are who deserve more evil than good, you attribute to your bitter curses whatever has befallen them from the Judgement of God, or is the just result of their sins. With reason was it said of you in the thirteenth Psalm:
‘Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.’¹⁶

You boast that some men have been known to die after you have cursed them.

It is certain that it is not lawful to kill. On this account do you hold yourselves innocent, merely because you have not used cold steel? If there be no murder without steel, the poisoner, also, may judge himself to be innocent; and a man need not deem himself guilty who has killed another by withdrawing his food; he also, then, may claim to be guiltless who smothers his victim----still clinging to life----by stifling his breath. Of murders there are many kinds, but the name of Death is one. Thou dost declare with confidence that a man has died through thy curses. What difference does it make whether thou smitest him with the sword, or dost strike him with the tongue? Beyond doubt thou art a murderer, if a man, who was alive, has met his death through thee.

Whoever of thy party has thus acted professes in vain that he is a Christian, or a priest of God, for he takes no care to imitate the Mildness of God, though it is written in Solomon¹⁷:
‘God hath not made death, nor doth He rejoice in the destruction of the living.’¹⁸

I do not believe that you are able to forget the crimes that you have committed throughout several districts, where you set to work to slay those who were preaching the Law of God, that is to say, His Prophets, contrary to His command, who says:
‘Lay not your hands upon My Prophets.’¹⁹

Deuterius, Partenius, Donatus and Getulicus, Bishops of God, you slew with the sword of your tongue. You shed the blood, not of their body, but of their dignity. Afterwards they still lived, but were slain by you in their dignities----they who were Priests of God.

It is known to many (and has been proved) that in the time of persecution some Bishops fell away through cowardice from the confession of the Name of God, and offered incense to idols. But never did any one of those who remained faithful either place his hand [in Penance] upon the fallen, or command them to bend their knees²⁰ [as penitents]. Yet you to-day do to those who preserved Unity²¹ that which was never done by any man to those who offered incense to idols.²² For it has been written;
‘Touch not Mine Anointed, and lay not your hand upon My prophets.’

God avenges the Oil which is His own, for the sin belongs to man, but the unction to God. ‘Touch not,’ He says, ‘Mine Anointed,’ in order that when the sin of man is punished, the Oil, which is God’s, be subjected to no indignity.²³ God has reserved to His own Judgement that which is His own, but you everywhere rush upon that which is Another’s, and destroy the happiness of all. For, what greater unhappiness, than for priests of God to live, and not be what they once had been?

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