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Against the Donatists
St Optatus of Milevis, tr. Vassall-Phillips, 1917
Book 3, 6. Against the Alleged Donatist Martyrs
I am now compelled, against my will, to make mention of those men----whom I do not wish to mention----who are placed by you amongst the martyrs, by whom you swear, as the one thing which those of your communion hold sacred.1 I should indeed prefer to pass them over in silence, but this is forbidden me by considerations of truth. On account of the names of these men, a mad hatred yelps thoughtlessly2 against unity, and on account of them there are some who reject unity with contumely, thinking that it is something to be fled from or assailed, because Marculus and Donatus are said to have been slain and to be dead. As if no one at all ought ever to be killed in punishment of offences against God. No one ought to have been injured by the makers of unity, but neither ought the divine precepts to be despised by Bishops, to whom, the command was given:
‘Seek peace, and thou shalt obtain it’3;
and once more:
‘How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.’4
And again:
‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the Sons of God.’5
Whatever evils those persons who refused to hear these words willingly, or loyally to carry them out, may have endured, they have themselves----if to be killed is an evil----brought their own evil upon themselves.6
Notes
- tanquam per unicam religionem vestrae communionis. Religio is here the sacredness of an oath.
- inconsiderate rabida latrat invidia.
- Ps. xxxiii, 15.
- Ps. cxxxii, 1.
- Matt, v, 9.
- mali sui ipsi sunt caussa. Cf. S. August. (c. Hit. Petil. ii. 20): ‘Illi, de quibus maximam invidiam facere soletis, Marculus et Donatus, ut moderatius dixerim, incertum est, utrum se praecipitaverint, . . . quapropter de omnibus talibus invidiosis criminibus hoc vobis . . . libera et secura voce respondet [Ecclesia Catholica]: Si non probatis quod dicitis, ad neminem pertinet; si autem probatis, ad me non pertinet.’ This is precisely the statement and argument of St. Optatus in this Book.