Optatus of Milevis, Against the Donatists (1917) Book 3. pp. 120-179.
BOOK THE THIRD
The Four Reasons on Account of which it was not possible to bring about unity without Severity.
Because the Schismatics had built Churches 'that were not wanted.'
Because Donatus of Carthage had appealed to the Emperor to bring about Unity.
Because Donatus of Bagaia collected Bands of Armed Men to stop the Work of Unity.
Because none of those Things with which the Work of Unity has been reproached came to pass in Opposition to the Will of God.
I. The severities against the Donatists were provoked by themselves, and Catholics ought not to be blamed for them.
I have written in my second Book (as I think, at sufficient length) concerning the Church, which is the Bride of Christ, and about her Endowments, and of the Saviour's inheritance. It remains for me to show, in the first place, the errors of the schismatics; secondly, to point out how it came to pass that unity was enforced; and thirdly, to prove who brought it about that an armed force was sent.
That much severity was shown by the makers of unity cannot be denied. But why impute this to |121 Leontius, Macarius or Taurinus ? Ascribe it rather to your own ancestors, who, as the prophet has written, 'have themselves eaten sour grapes, that your teeth may be set on edge.'
They are primarily responsible, who divided the people of God and built basilicas which were not wanted.
Secondly, Donatus of Carthage ought to be blamed, for it was in consequence of his appeal that an attempt was made to enforce unity at the next opportunity.
Thirdly, Donatus of Bagaia, who got together a mob of madmen, so that Macarius asked for the help of an armed force, in order to protect himself and the interests which had been committed to his care.
Then came armed men 'with their quivers,' and 'every town was filled with those who shout.' Unity |122 was proclaimed, and you all 'took to flight.' To no man was it said 'Deny God'; to none was the commandment given 'Burn the Scriptures'; to none was it said 'Place incense in the censer'; or 'Pull down the basilicas.' These are the commands which give birth to martyrs. Unity was proclaimed. There were merely exhortations that the people should assemble in one place, to pray together to God and His Christ. At first there were no threats ; no one had seen a weapon or a prison; there were, as I have said, exhortations merely. Yet you were all filled with fear; you fled; you trembled----so that which has been written in the fifty-second Psalm was certainly said of you:
'They trembled for fear where there was no fear.'
Then all your Bishops, with their clergy, 'took to flight.' Some died. The 'more hardy' were 'captured and banished to a distance.'
II. These things happened to the Donatists through the just punishment of God.
Still, none of these things was done at our instigation, none by our advice, none with our privity, none by our aid. They were all done through the grief of God, (who grieved bitterly, ) to punish your sin against |123 the water of Baptism which, contrary to His command, you had moved a second time, drawing to yourselves, as it were, the water of the ancient pool. I know not whether it contained that Fish by which is understood Christ, the Fish captured, as we read in the book of the Patriarch Tobias----captured in the River Tigris, of which the gall and the liver were taken by [young] Tobias as a protection for his wife Sara, and to give sight to his father in his blindness----that Fish through the entrails of which Asmodeus, the devil, was put to flight by Sara the maiden (by whom is understood the Church), and blindness was removed from Tobias. This is that Fish, which in Baptism, through the |124 Invocation of God, is placed in the waters of the font, so that what had been water is, from the Fish, also called ' piscina .'
This is that Fish, the name of which in Greek contains in its one name alone, through each of its letters, a number of holy names, ΙΧΘΥΣ , that is to say in Latin, Iesus Christus, Dei Filius, Salvator ---- Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour. This 'piscina,' which in the whole Catholic Church throughout the world is joyfully filled with saving waters for the life of the human race, you have drawn away according to your own wills; and have made null that one only Baptism (through which walls have been built up for the protection of men ), and have made as it were other walls, building |125 an unworthy building, since you have not been able to build up without throwing down.
And what kind of building can that be which is built out of a ruin? This it is over which God grieves and weeps, through the prophet Isaiah, saying that the daughter of His people ( generis ) was laid low. For it is the genus of God to have no genus . He is of Himself, and He remaineth for ever. And like to Him in this is the water, of which we do not read that it was created. To avenge the injury done to this water, God points out His Tears, which you have caused Him. These He declares can be dried by no consolation, addressing you by Isaiah His prophet:
'Depart from me, I will weep bitterly. No one will be able to comfort me, for the laying low of the daughter of my people.'
In this passage our innocence is defended, whilst God with grief makes clear His wrath against you, giving the cause and alleging the reason.
Besides, He does not say 'in Sion,' for it is not |126 in the whole of Sion, but only in its valley that judgements were delivered. Not that Mount Sion which in Syrian Palestine is separated by only a small river from the walls of Jerusalem, on the summit of which there is not the great plain, on which were the seven synagogues, whither the Jewish people might assemble and learn the law given to Moses----but where no lawsuits were heard and no judgements were given by any, for it was a place of teaching, not of controversial discussion. (If anything of this sort had to be done, it was done within the walls of Jerusalem.) Therefore was it written in Isaiah the prophet:
'The Law shall go forth from Sion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.' |127
It was not therefore on this Mount Sion that Isaiah beheld the valley, but on the holy mountain, that is the Church, which has reared her head throughout all the Roman world, beneath the whole expanse of Heaven.