This letter was written by Constantino during the interval that elapsed between the appearance of the Donatists at Rome and the judgement at Milan. It betrays considerable irritation even against Caecilian, due no doubt to the fact that he had failed to obey the Emperor's summons (given in a letter no longer extant) to Rome. Constantine in this letter expresses a new determination----which he failed to carry out----to go himself to Africa and investigate the conditions on the spot. Since Constantine mentions in this letter the 'flight' of some of the Donatists as having already taken place, it was not written before September 315, when the Emperor left Rome; on the other hand it must have been written before Celsus was succeeded as Vicar of Africa by Eumelius early in 316. We are thus enabled to fix its date, as having been written in the autumn of 315 or the winter of 315-316. |404
TO CELSUS, THE VICAR OF AFRICA:
The latest despatches from your Lordship have informed me how Menalius, a man whom madness long ago took hold of, and the others who have departed from the truth of God, and given themselves over to a most shameful error, persevere in their course. You tell me in your letter, my well-beloved Brother, that you have obeyed my order with regard to the seditious in accordance with their deserts, and have placed a check upon the tumult which they were preparing. And now that they were contemplating wicked deeds has become manifest from the fact that, when I had determined to inquire most fully between them and Caecilian, concerning the various charges which they brought against him, they did their best to withdraw from my presence by taking to flight. By this most disgraceful deed they acknowledged that they were hastening to return to the things which they both had done previously and are now persisting in doing. But (since it is certain that no one ever gains an unmixed advantage from his own misdeeds, even though punishment may be delayed for a little while), I have thought well to command your Lordship that in the meantime you should leave them alone, and understand that we must temporise with them.
But after you have read this letter, you should make it plain both to Caecilian and to them, that when by the Divine Goodness I come to Africa, I shall render it most |405 clear to all, both to Caecilian, and to those who are acting against him, by reading a perfectly plain judgement, as to what and what kind of worship is to be given to the Supreme God, and with what manner of service He is pleased. Also, by diligent examination, I shall acquaint myself to the full with the things which at the present time some persons fancy they can keep dark through the allurements of their ignorant minds, and shall drag them into the light. Those same persons who now stir up the people in such a war as to bring it about that the supreme God is not worshipped with the veneration that is His due, I shall destroy and dash in pieces. And since it is sufficiently clear that no one may hope to obtain the honours of a martyr with that kind [of Martyrdom] which is seen to be foreign to the truth of religion, and is altogether unbecoming, I shall without any delay cause those men whom I shall ascertain to have acted against that which is right and against religion itself, and whom I shall discover to have been guilty of violence in their worship, to undergo the destruction which they have deserved by their madness and reckless obstinacy.
Wherefore, let them also know for certain what they ought to do to secure full credence after they have invoked their own salvation, since I am going most diligently to search into the things which concern not merely the |406 people, but also those clerics who are in the first places, and shall pass judgement in accordance with that which is most clearly in the interests of truth and religion. I shall also make these persons see what worship and what kind of worship is to be given to the Divinity, for by no means do I believe that I can in any way escape the greatest guilt otherwise than by refusing to close my eyes to that which is wicked. What can be done by me more in accordance with my constant practice, and the very office of a Prince, than, after having driven away errors and destroyed all rash opinions, to bring it about that all men should show forth true religion and simplicity in concord, and to render to Almighty God the worship which is His due? |407
APPENDIX IX. EPISTOLA CONSTANTINI IMPERATORIS AD EPISCOPOS
ET PLEBEM AFRICAE, UT DONATISTAS TOLERENT. A.D. 321
I NTRODUCTION
This letter speaks for itself. It seems to be contemporaneous with the Rescript of Verinus (May 5, 321). Its object is to inform the Catholics of Africa that the Government had changed its plan of dealing with the recalcitrant Donatists. Rigorous measures were to be abandoned, and toleration granted, in the hope of attaining good results in the end. With regard to this new determination Duchesne writes as follows ( op. cit. p. 28):
'This toleration, in face of the fanaticism, of the audacity and the violence of the schismatics, was in reality an abandonment. Without doubt the Emperor exhorts the Catholic Bishops to endure with patience the wrongs inflicted upon them by the Donatists; he also makes reparation, up to a certain point, for the material damage caused by these sectaries, but this does not make it less true that he tolerates them. In thus granting them toleration, he goes back upon his much more decided attitude anterior to the Rescript of 321 and allows the judgement to fall into abeyance, which he had himself given against Donatus and in favour of Caecilian.' |408
Letter of Constantine on Toleration to be granted to the Donatists.
Constantine Augustus to all the Bishops in Africa and to the people of the Catholic Church. You know right well that, as Faith required, so far as Prudence permitted, as much as a single-minded intention could prevail, I have endeavoured by every effort of kindly government to secure that, in accordance with the prescriptions of our law, the Peace of the most holy Brotherhood, whose grace the supreme God has poured into the hearts of His servants, should, through complete concord, be preserved secure. 'But whereas the provisions that we have made have not prevailed to subdue the obstinate violence of crime, which has been implanted in the breasts of certain men----few though they be----and whereas some favour is still shown to this wickedness of theirs, so that they would not on any account suffer a place in which they were proud to have sinned to be extorted from them, we must see to it, that as all this evil affects a few, it may be, through the mercy of Almighty God, mitigated for the people. For we ought to hope for a remedy, from that source to which all good desires and deeds are referred. But, until the Heavenly medicine shows itself, our designs must be moderated so far as to act with patience, and whatever in their insolence they attempt or carry out, in accordance with their habitual wantonness----all this we must endure with the strength which comes from tranquillity. In no way let wrong be returned to wrong, |409 for it is the mark of a fool to snatch at that vengeance which we ought to leave to God, especially since our faith ought to lead us to trust that whatever we may endure from the madness of men of this kind, will avail before God for the grace of martyrdom. For what is it, to overcome in this world in the Name of God, excepting to endure with an unshaken heart the untamed savagery of men who harass the people of the Law of Peace? But, if you will give yourselves loyally to this affair, you will speedily bring it about that, by the favour of God on high, these men, who are making themselves the standard-bearers of this most miserable strife, may all come to recognise, as their laws or customs fall into decay, that they ought not, through the persuasion of a few, to give themselves over to perish in everlasting death, when they might, through the grace of repentance, be made whole again, having corrected their errors, for everlasting life.
Fare you well, by your common prayer, for ever, by God's favour, dearest brethren. |410
APPENDIX X. RESCRIPTUM CONSTANTINI AD EPISCOPOS NUMIDAS UBI HAERETICI
TULERUNT BASILICAS A CATHOLICIS UT AD ALIAM BASILICAM FACIENDAM
SIBI LOCUM VEL DOMUM EIS DENT. A.D. 330
I NTRODUCTION
In this Rescript Constantine provides that, as the Donatists refused to give back to Catholics their basilicas----amongst which was one that he had himself built for their use----the Donatists should, lest worse things befall, be left in undisturbed possession of their ill-gotten goods, and that a new Church should be built, again at his expense, to provide for the religious needs of Catholics. He also states that he had ordered that certain exemptions, relative to the curia and munera personalia, of which the Donatists had succeeded by their intrigues in depriving Catholic clerics of lower degree, should be restored to them, according to a custom which was already ancient.
Duchesne has shown ( op. cit. pp. 28, 29) that certain passages in this letter are in even verbal accord with the prescriptions of Constantine in his letter to the Consular of Numidia still preserved in a law of the Theodosian Code.
He prints them as follows in parallel columns: |411
Letter to the Numidian Bishops. Theodosian Code, xvi,ii.
Ad consularem quoque scribi mandavi Numidiae ut ipse in eiusdem ecclesiae fabricatione in omnibus sanctimoniam vestram iuvaret.
Lectores etiam Ecclesiae Catholicae et hypodiacones, reliquos quoque [qui] instinctu memoratorum quibusdam pro moribus ad munera vel ad decurionatum vocati sunt, iuxta sta[tu]tum legis meae ad nullum munus statui evocandos. Sed et eos qui ducti sunt haereticorum instinctu iussimus protinus molestis perfunctionibus absolvi.
Data non. febr., Serdica. Imp. Constantinus Valentino consulari Numidiae.
Lectores divinorum apicum et hypodiaconi ceterique clerici qui per iniuriam haereticorum ad curiam devocati sunt absolvantur; et de cetero ad similitudinem Orientis minime ad curias devocentur sed immunitate plenissima potiantur.