Turn yourself now to that precept: Bear one another's burdens. For you have the burden of Christ; from which you should bear with another his own burden. He is poor, you are rich; his burden is poverty; you do not have such a burden. Be careful that when the poor man calls upon you, you do not say: Each one shall bear his own burden. Here, listen to another precept: Bear one another's burdens. Poverty is not my burden, but it is the burden of my brother. Be careful that wealth is not a greater burden for you. For you do not have the burden of poverty, but you have the burden of riches. If you consider rightly, it is a burden. He has one burden, you have another. Bear with him, and let him bear with you, so that you may carry each other's burdens. What is the burden of poverty? Not having. What is the burden of riches? Having more than is needed. Both he and you are burdened. Bear with him in not having, and let him bear with you in having more; so that your burdens may be equal. For if you give to the needy, you lessen for him the burden of not having, which was his burden; if you give to him, he begins to have; his burden of not having is lessened; he also lessens your burden, which is called having too much. Two of you walk the way of God in the pilgrimage of this age: you carry excessive unnecessary wealth, he carries no wealth; he joins you, desiring to be your companion; do not neglect, do not disdain, do not leave him. Don't you see how much you are carrying? Give something from it to the one who carries nothing and has nothing, and you will help your companion and relieve yourself. The apostolic sentence has been sufficiently, as I reckon, explained.
The Donatists are stubborn in schism.
Do not let them sell you delusions who say: We are holy, we do not carry your burdens, therefore we do not communicate with you. These carry greater burdens of division, greater burdens of cutting off, burdens of schism, burdens of heresy, burdens of dissent, burdens of animosity, burdens of false testimonies, burdens of slanderous accusations. We have tried, and we try, to lay these burdens off the shoulders of our brothers. They love holding those burdens to themselves, they do not want to be lesser, because they have been inflated by those burdens. For even he who puts down the burden he was carrying on his neck becomes as if lesser; but he has laid down the weight, not his stature.
He who tolerates the wicked does not thereby partake in their sins.
But you say, I do not partake in others' sins. As if I were to say to you: Come, partake in others' sins. I do not say this, I know what the Apostle says; but I say this. Because of others' sins, if they were true, and not more your own, you would not abandon the flock of God mixed with sheep and goats; you would not leave the Lord's threshing floor as long as the chaff is being threshed; you would not tear apart the Lord's nets as long as they draw good and bad fish to the shore. And how, you ask, would I endure whom I know to be evil? Would it not be better to endure him, than to carry yourself out? Behold how you would endure: if you heeded the Apostle saying: Each one will bear his own load; this sentence would set you free. For you would not partake in his greed, but you would partake with him at Christ's table. And what harm would it be to you, if you partook with him at Christ's table? The Apostle says: For whoever eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment upon himself. Upon himself, not upon you. Surely if you are a judge, if you have received the power to judge, according to ecclesiastical rule, if he is accused before you, if he is convicted by true documents and witnesses, control, correct, excommunicate, degrade. Let tolerance be vigilant in such a way that discipline does not sleep.
Caecilianus, absent and innocent, is condemned. The laws of the emperors against the Donatists. Caecilianus acquitted three times. Primianus.
But they say, "Caecilian was condemned." Condemned? By whom? First in absence, then by traitors though innocent. These things were alleged, inserted in the records, and proven. They indeed tried to weaken the power of the truth and strove as much as they could to cloud its clarity with empty mists of accusations. The Lord was present; His clarity overcame their mists. And see how, unknowingly, they absolved the Church of the whole world, in whose communion we rejoice, whatever we might be within it. We do not defend ourselves, but we defend it; maintaining it, we defend the lord's threshing floor. I proclaim for the lord's threshing floor. Who you are within it, I do not want you to care; I await the winnowing fan. I do not want, I say, that you care about this; or if you want to care, do not care with contention, so that you may heal your brothers. Tend to the chaff, if you can; but do not neglect the wheat, if you cannot tend to the chaff. Sometimes the chaff is shaken out from the lord's threshing floor; sometimes also the grains, but not far. However, there are good workers, who go around the threshing floor and bring back what has been shaken out with some cleaning instruments, even if by pulling or even by compelling. The cleaning instruments are these worldly laws. Bring back, even with the earth, drag the wheat, lest the wheat perish because of the earth. They say, "Caecilian was condemned." He was once condemned in absence, thrice absolved in presence. We responded to them; and to the unteachable men, as much as we could, we briefly reminded them of their deeds, and said: Why do you recite against Caecilian the council of seventy bishops, passing sentences on an absent one? More sentences were passed by the council of the Maximianists against the absent Primianus. We said: Caecilian was condemned by those in his absence, Primianus was condemned by these in his absence. Just as these do not prejudice against the absent Primianus, so those could not prejudice against the absent Caecilian.
The Donatists condemned by their own opinion.
What do you think they answered in this distress? What indeed could they say? How could they escape, enclosed in the nets of truth? To violently break these nets, what did they say briefly and absolutely on our behalf? And indeed many things, and almost all in our favor, as the deeds will show, which your Charity is now about to read. But at this point I ask you, and I implore you through Christ, that you hold, say, and always have on your lips. For no shorter, more certain, and clearer sentence could be given on our behalf. So what did he say, when we objected: As these do not prejudice Caecilian, so also those do not prejudice Primianus. And the defender of their cause said: Neither does a case prejudice a case, nor a person prejudice a person. O brief, clear, true response! For he did not know what he said; but like Caiaphas, though he was the high priest, he prophesied: Neither does a case prejudice a case, nor a person prejudice a person. If neither a case prejudices a case, nor a person prejudices a person, then each one carries their own burden. Let him now go and object to you about Caecilianus; not to you, a mere human, but to the whole world he should object about Caecilianus. When he does this, he objects to the innocent on behalf of the innocent. Certainly, the deeds will show this very clearly. Caecilianus has been acquitted. But even assume he was not acquitted, assume he was found guilty; hear your own voice from the whole world: Neither does a case prejudice a case, nor a person prejudice a person. O heretical soul, incurable, spirited, when you pass judgment on yourself, why do you accuse the judge? If I corrupted him to judge in my favor, who corrupted you to condemn yourself?
What holds the Donatists in error.
Would that they think on these things at some time, or at least think on them late, or think on them when their animosity subsides; let them return to themselves, question themselves, scrutinize themselves, answer themselves, and not fear those to whom they have long sold falsehood for the sake of truth. For they fear to offend these; they are ashamed before human weakness, and are not ashamed before the most invincible truth. Certainly they fear this, lest it be said to them: Why then did you deceive us? Why did you lead us astray? Why did you speak so many evil and false things? They should reply, if they feared God. It was human to err, but it is diabolical to remain in error out of animosity. Indeed, it would have been better if we had never erred; but let us do at least what next best, to correct error sometime. We deceived because we were deceived; we preached false things because we believed those preaching false things. Let them say to their people: We erred together, let us together withdraw from error. We were leaders to the pit for you, and you followed when we led to the pit; and now follow when we lead to the Church. They could say these things; they could say to the indignant, to the enraged, and in time they would set aside their indignation, and love unity though late.
Patience must be shown towards them.
Nevertheless, brothers, let us be patient with them. They are in a state of fervor and swelling of the eyes whom we are treating. I do not say that we should cease to treat them, but that we should not provoke them to greater bitterness with insults; let us gently render reason, and not boast proudly of victory. For the servant of the Lord must not quarrel, says the Apostle, but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, correcting with modesty those who dissent; if perhaps God may grant them repentance, and they may recover from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive according to his will. Therefore, bear patiently, if you are healthy, bear patiently, as far as you are healthy. For who is perfectly healthy? When the just King sits on his throne, who will boast of having a pure heart, or who will boast of being free from sin? Therefore, as long as we are such, we owe this to ourselves, that we bear one another's burdens. Turned to the Lord, etc.