Letters 141.1–142.4

Since the report kept growing louder in our ears that your bishops are telling you that the judge who heard the case was bribed to give sentence against them, and that you readily believe this, and that for this reason many of you still refuse to assent to the truth, it has seemed good to us, compelled by the love of the Lord, to send you this letter from our council. In it we first warn you that these falsehoods are being spread among you by men who were defeated and refuted. In the very mandate they drew up for the conference and confirmed with their names and signatures, calling us traitors and their persecutors, they were caught and refuted in a most manifest falsehood and lie: wishing to boast of the great number of their fellow bishops, they inserted among the names of some who were absent the name of a dead man as well; and when it was asked where he was, blinded by sudden confusion, they themselves admitted that he had died on the journey. And when they were asked how he could have signed at Carthage if he had already died on the journey, still more confused, they entangled themselves in another lie, answering that he had died on his way back from Carthage; and from that lie they could find no way out at all. See whom you believe, whether about the old “handing over” or about the judge’s being bribed: men who could not write out their own mandate, in which they charged us with the crime of handing over the Scriptures, without committing the crime of forgery. We have therefore gathered into this letter, as into a summary, what we believed most necessary, in case you cannot easily get hold of the great volumes of the proceedings or think it too laborious to read them.

We came to Carthage, both we and your bishops, and we met together in one place, which they had previously refused and called unworthy. Seven were chosen from us and seven from them to speak on behalf of all. Another seven were chosen on each side for them to consult with whenever necessary. Four were chosen on each side to act as guardians over the writing of the proceedings, so that no one could say that anything had been falsified by anyone. Four notaries were also supplied on each side, by us and by them, to work in turns, two at a time, with the judge’s stenographers, so that none of us could claim to have said something that had not been taken down. To all this care was added the further step that both we and they, as the judge himself did, should sign our own words, so that no one could say that anything in those proceedings had been corrupted afterward. For since those same proceedings have been made known, while those who signed them are still living, in all the places where they ought to be made known, the truth thus confirmed will endure for posterity as well. Do not, then, be ungrateful for so great a mercy of God, which has been supplied to you through this care. No excuse is left now; too hard, too devilish are the hearts of men who still resist so plain a manifestation of the truth.

See: the bishops of your party, whom all of them chose to speak for all, tried as hard as they could to prevent the very case from being heard at all, the case for which so great a number of bishops of both parties had come to Carthage from all Africa and from such distant places. And while every soul waited in suspense to see what would be done in so great an assembly, they insisted vehemently that nothing be done. Why, unless they knew their case was bad and could not doubt that they would very easily be defeated if it were heard? Their very state of mind, in which they feared that the case would be heard, already showed them defeated. For if they had wrung out what they wanted, so that the conference itself did not take place and the truth did not appear through our arguments, what were they going to answer you on their return from Carthage? What would they have shown you? I suppose they would have produced the proceedings and said to you: “We insisted that the case not be heard; they insisted that it be heard. You are waiting to see what we did: here, read how we beat them, so that we did nothing.” Perhaps you too, if you had any sense, would have answered: “If you were going to do nothing, why go there?” or rather: “Since you did nothing, why have you come back?”

Then, after they could not achieve what they attempted, that is, to keep the case from being heard, the hearing itself showed what they had feared, when they were defeated on every point. For they admitted that they had nothing to say against the Catholic Church, which is spread throughout the whole world, because they were overwhelmed by the divine testimonies of the holy Scriptures, in which the Church is described as beginning from Jerusalem and growing through the places where the apostles preached and whose names they wrote down in their letters and Acts, and from there spreading through the other nations. Against this Church they declared with a plain voice that they had no case; and here, in the name of God, our victory is most evident. For when they affirm the Church with which it is manifest that we are in communion and they are not, they testify that they were defeated long ago, and they show you most openly, if you have any wisdom, what you ought to give up and what you ought to hold, not in the falsehood with which they never cease lying to you even now, but in the truth which, once defeated, they were compelled to confess.

Whoever, therefore, has been separated from this Catholic Church, however praiseworthy he may think his life to be, will not have life for this crime alone, that he is cut off from the unity of Christ; but the wrath of God remains on him. But whoever lives well in this Church is not prejudiced by the sins of others, because in it each one will bear his own burden, as the apostle says. And whoever in it eats the body of Christ unworthily eats and drinks judgment on himself; for this too the same apostle wrote. When he says “eats judgment on himself,” he shows clearly enough that he eats judgment not for another but for himself. This is what we argued and showed and established: that communion with the wicked does not stain anyone by sharing in the sacraments but by consenting to their deeds. For if a man does not consent to the wicked in their evil deeds, the wicked man bears his own cause and his own person and does not prejudice another whom he does not have as an accomplice in the crime by consent to the evil work.

This too they were compelled to confess with a most open voice, not when we were saying these things, but later, when another matter was under discussion. For the discussion had come also to the case of Caecilian, which we kept distinct from the case of the Church, so that, if he were perhaps found to be wicked, we would anathematize him, yet would not on his account abandon the Church of Christ, which he could not prejudice by his own bad case. When, then, they had come to the case of Caecilian, and they had read the Council of Carthage, in which they recited the sentences of about seventy bishops pronounced against Caecilian in his absence, we replied that this council of bishops did no harm to the absent Caecilian, just as the council of a larger number of bishops of Donatus’s party did no harm to the absent Primian, when about a hundred bishops had condemned him in the affair of Maximian. Then, when the affair of Maximian was named, from which they know that they received back with their honor intact even men whom they had condemned, that they confirmed and did not destroy baptism given in the sacrilegious schism of Maximian, and that in their sentence at Bagai, in which they condemned them, they granted a delay to some who were in that very schism, saying that the “sacrilegious shoots of Maximian’s planting” had not polluted them — after, I say, this affair struck their ears, terrified, confused, and forgetting what they had been contending against us earlier, they said at once: “Neither does case prejudice case, nor person person.” And so they confirmed in their own words what we had said before about the Church: that the case and person of Caecilian, whatever he had been, could not prejudice not only the Catholic Church overseas, against which they confessed they had nothing to say, but also the Catholic Church of Africa, which is joined to it in the communion of unity, if Maximian, who with his other associates condemned Primian, and if Felician, who joined in condemning Primian and was afterward condemned by Donatus’s party in the case of Primian, does not prejudice Donatus’s party, to which he is now attached, received as bishop as he had been before; and if Maximian does not prejudice even his own associates, to whom these men granted a delay, saying that they had not been polluted by the man with whom they had been, because neither does case prejudice case nor person person.

What more, then, do you seek? They loaded the proceedings with many superfluous words, and since they could not prevent the case from being heard, they managed by much talking to make what was done hard to read. But even these few words of theirs ought to be enough for you, so that you do not hate the unity of the Catholic Church because of who knows what crimes of who knows what men; for, as they themselves said, read over, and signed, neither does case prejudice case nor person person. For even in the case of Caecilian itself, which, although it does not concern the case of the Church, we nevertheless undertook to defend, so that their slanders might be exposed there too, they were most plainly defeated; they could prove none of the charges they brought against Caecilian. Moreover, we produced episcopal records concerning the crimes of handing over, from which we read out that some of the very bishops who had pronounced sentence against the absent Caecilian were most manifest traitors. Against these records they, having nothing to say, said that they were false, but they could in no way prove it.

Moreover, they also admitted, or rather proclaimed as a great glory, that Caecilian was accused before the emperor Constantine by their predecessors, and they added the lie that on their accusation he was condemned by the emperor. See, here too they were defeated, on the very point on which they usually pour clouds of error over you, stirring up ill will against us and bringing us into your hatred because we plead the cause of the Church before the emperors. See, their forefathers, whose names they glory in, pleaded the cause of the Church before the emperor; they prosecuted Caecilian by accusing him before the emperor; they said he was condemned. Let them no longer lead you astray with the emptiest and most lying words; return to your heart, fear the Lord, think on the truth, abandon falsehood. For whatever you may now suffer under the imperial laws, since you suffer it not for righteousness but for iniquity, you will not be able to say that we are unjust because you ought not to have been treated in such a way that the emperor restrains you from this iniquity. For your bishops confessed that their forefathers dealt with Caecilian in the way you do not wish to be dealt with. And yet, that they prosecuted Caecilian before the emperor was well established, even by their own admission and proclamation; but that Caecilian was condemned by the emperor was not established at all. On the contrary, it was established that, when their forefathers accused and prosecuted him, he was cleared twice, first by bishops and afterward by the emperor himself. This too they confirmed by later producing such things as if for their own case, so that they were found to be rather against themselves, and even what they produced was read out in favor of Caecilian’s case. Whomever they wished to accuse, they could prove nothing by any sure documents; but whatever we said, both for the cause of the Church and for the cause of Caecilian, they themselves confirmed both by their own words and by the readings they produced.

For first they produced the book of Optatus, to prove, as it were, that Caecilian was condemned by the emperor. When this book was read against them and rather showed that Caecilian had been cleared, they were laughed at by everyone. And since the laughter itself could not be taken down by the stenographers, they testified in their own words in the record that they had been laughed at. Again they produced and read a petition presented to the emperor Constantine by their forefathers, in which they complained that the emperor was persecuting them severely; and so by this same petition they made it plain that they had been defeated by Caecilian before the emperor, and that what they had said, that he was condemned by the emperor, was false. Thirdly they produced a letter of the same Constantine addressed to the vicar Verinus, in which he expresses strong detestation of them and says that they are therefore to be released from exile and left to their own madness, because God had already begun to take vengeance on them. And so by this letter of the emperor too they confirmed that they had spoken falsely in saying that Caecilian was condemned by the emperor, since the emperor rather showed that they had been defeated by Caecilian, when, cursing them vehemently, he ordered them to be released from exile for this reason, that they might be punished with God as judge, as they had already begun to be.

Afterward they brought into the discussion the case of Felix of Abthugni, who ordained Caecilian, saying that this Felix, by whom Caecilian had been ordained, was a traitor; and they produced a letter of the same emperor Constantine, for Caecilian and against themselves, in which he wrote to the proconsul that Ingentius should be sent to his court. Now this Ingentius had confessed in the hearing before the proconsul Aelianus that he had committed forgery against Felix, the ordainer of Caecilian. These men said, then, that the emperor would not have wanted Ingentius sent to him without reason, unless Caecilian’s case was still pending; and they tried to insinuate the emptiest suspicion, that after Ingentius was sent to the court, the emperor then chose to judge against Caecilian and to rescind by a later sentence that judgment of his, which we had read, in which he had heard the parties and cleared Caecilian. But they were told to read that instead, and they produced nothing at all. That letter of the emperor ordering Ingentius to be sent to him, which they read against themselves for Caecilian, contains this: that the proconsul Aelianus gave a proper hearing in the case of Felix, and that this same Felix was established to be innocent of the crime of handing over; but that he ordered Ingentius to be sent to his court so that he might appear before those who were there and did not cease petitioning him day after day, and inform them that they had wished in vain to stir up ill will against Caecilian and to rise violently against him.

Who would believe that they read these things for us against themselves, unless it had been brought about by the will of almighty God, so that not only their words were held in the record but even the hands of those who signed could be read? For if anyone now carefully notes the order of consuls and days expressed in the record, he will find that Caecilian was first cleared by the judgment of bishops; then, not long afterward, the case of Felix of Abthugni was examined by the proconsul Aelianus, in which he was established to be innocent, and in this case Ingentius was ordered to be sent to the court; and long afterward the emperor himself heard the case between the parties and settled it. In that hearing he judged Caecilian innocent and them most slanderous. This order of consuls and days shows sufficiently that they spoke deceitfully and slanderously in saying that the emperor, after Ingentius was sent to the court, changed his judgment and afterward condemned Caecilian whom he had earlier cleared. Not only could they read nothing on this point, while reading so much against themselves, but they are refuted still more clearly by the order of consuls: after the case of Felix had been concluded by the proconsul’s judgment, in which Ingentius was ordered to be sent to the court, Caecilian was cleared by the judgment of the emperor held between the parties, and not after a short interval but long afterward.

So let them not tell you that we bribed the judge. What else do defeated men usually say? Or if we gave the judge something to pronounce for us against them, what did we give them, that they not only said but even read out so much against themselves for us? Or perhaps they want us to thank them before you, because, while they say that the judge was bribed by us, they themselves supplied us with everything they said and read for us against themselves free of charge? Or surely, if they say they defeated us because they pleaded Caecilian’s case better than we did, believe them in this, by all means: for we had thought two readings were enough for him, but they produced four.

But why should we load the letter with more? If you are willing to believe us, believe, and let us hold together the unity that God commands and loves. If you are not willing to believe us, read the proceedings themselves, or allow them to be read to you, and test for yourselves whether what we have written is true. But if you are unwilling to do any of these things and still wish to follow the falsehood of Donatus’s party, refuted by the most manifest truth, we are clean of your punishment, when you repent too late afterward. But if you do not despise what God has given you, and after a case so carefully conducted and so carefully made public you abandon a perverse habit and consent to the peace and unity of Christ, we shall rejoice at your correction; and the sacraments of Christ, which you have to your judgment in the sacrilege of schism, will be useful and wholesome to you, when in the Catholic peace you have Christ as head, where love covers a multitude of sins. We wrote this to you on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of July, in the ninth consulship of the most pious Honorius Augustus, so that this letter might reach each of you as soon as possible.

Your coming gladdened us; but do not let our absence sadden you. For we are in that Church which, by God’s favor, although it is stretched out everywhere and spread through the whole world, is nevertheless one great body of one great head, and that head is the Savior himself, as the apostle says. Of the glorification of this head, which was to come after his resurrection, the prophet foretold so long before: “Be exalted above the heavens, O God”; and because, when he had been exalted above the heavens, his Church was to fill the whole earth with abundant fruitfulness, the same psalm went on to add: “And your glory over all the earth.” Therefore, dearly beloved, let us persevere with steady mind and most firm heart under so exalted a head in so glorious a body, in which we are members of one another. So even if my absence took me far off into the most distant lands, we would be together in him, from the unity of whose body we must not withdraw. For if one house held us, we would certainly be said to be together; how much more are we together when we are together in one body! And yet the truth itself testifies that we are in one house too, since the holy Scripture, which says that the Church is the body of Christ, likewise says that this same Church is the house of God.

But this house is built not in one corner of the world but throughout the whole earth. That is why the psalm whose title reads “When the house was being built after the captivity” begins thus: “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.” For in the oldness of the old man the devil had taken the world captive; when the house is built after this captivity, the renewal of the faithful in the new man is meant. That is why the apostle says: “Put off the old man and put on the new, who has been created according to God.” And because this takes place throughout the whole earth in Catholic unity, just as it was said in another psalm, “And your glory over all the earth,” so in this one, after it had been said, “Sing to the Lord a new song,” in order to show where the house is built in this new song, there was added at once: “Sing to the Lord, all the earth.” And the workmen through whom this great house is built are exhorted by the same psalm when it goes on to say: “Proclaim well his salvation from day to day; announce his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples.” And a little later it says: “Bring to the Lord, you families of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honor.”

To these and similar testimonies to this great house, which are found in such numbers throughout Scripture, its enemies so yielded that they admitted that against the Church overseas, which they nevertheless confessed to be Catholic, they had no case … with this we are in communion … that we may be worthy … the members of Christ, and let us embrace the framework of his body with the affection of most faithful love; for in the unity of this Church whoever lives wickedly eats and drinks judgment on himself, as the apostle says, but whoever lives well is not prejudiced by another’s case and another’s person, as even they, when they were pressed about the case of Maximian, were compelled to confess with their own mouth: that neither does case prejudice case nor person person. Yet we are anxious for one another as members of one body, so that all of us who by the Lord’s help belong to the future barn may meanwhile bear the chaff together on the threshing floor, and not, because of the chaff destined for the coming fire, desert the Lord’s threshing floor.

Carry out faithfully and cheerfully the church duties that belong to you according to your ranks, and fulfill your ministry sincerely for the sake of that God under whom we are fellow servants, and to whom we reflect that we shall give account of our deeds. Hence the bowels of mercy ought to abound in us, because judgment without mercy will be for him who has shown no mercy. And for this reason pray with us also for those who are still saddened … the weakness of a carnal mind has, as something gathered and drawn together by long habit. For who would not understand how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity, if this pleasantness touched a healthy palate, so that the mind that loves the sweetness of love would spit out the bitterness of division? But God is powerful and merciful, and we pray to him for them, that by whatever occasions he may draw them also to salvation. May the Lord keep you in peace.