This is the mountain on which the Son of God rejoices that He is made King by God the Father, saying:
'That He hath made me King upon His holy hill of Sion' ----
that is, over the Church, of which He is King and Spouse and Head----not on the hill [in Palestine], where there were no gates beloved by God, but on the mount, by which the Church is spiritually signified. The gates of this Church are entered by the innocent, the just and the merciful, by the pure of heart, and the virgins. These are the gates of which the Holy Ghost makes mention, through David, in the eighty-sixth Psalm, when He says:
'Her foundations are upon the holy hills; the Lord loveth the Gates of Sion' ----
not the gates of that material mountain, where now, after the triumphs of the Emperor Vespasian, there are no gates, and scarce any traces of its ancient ruins are to be found.
Wherefore, the spiritual Sion is the Church, in which Christ was made King by God the Father----that is in the whole world, where there is One Catholic Church |128 . . . for the most holy prophet David bears witness in another place also that Sion is the Church:
'Laud thy God, O Sion, for he hath made fast the bars of thy gates. He hath blessed thy children within thee.'
We understand the various provinces of the whole world to represent the various valleys of the mountain. And since Isaiah had not his vision of the whole mountain, but of one valley, that means in Africa alone, for in Africa alone your fathers were pleased to build fresh temples, although the first were amply sufficient. In Africa alone walls were cast down, and in order that walls might be made the water of the holy font was turned to a wrong purpose, and novelty was introduced by you against antiquity, and water of human origin was provided, against that which is divine. |129
Chiding the valley of Sion, God challenges all this, demanding :
'What aileth you that you have gone up into superfluous temples? Every city is full of those who clamour. Their wounded were not wounded by the sword, and those who are dead in thee are not dead in battle. From the smallest to the greatest all thy princes are in error, wandering upon the hills. They have been turned to flight, and those who have been taken have been grievously bound. And thy strong ones have been put to flight to a far distance. Let me go, for I will weep bitterly. No one will be able to |130 console me for the devastation of the daughter of my people. And the Elamites shall come up with their quivers.'
Elamites in the Latin tongue are called choirs of the camps. And he goes on to say:
'Your inmost recesses shall be made public, and the secrets of the House of Israel shall be laid bare.'
This has happened in Africa alone, and God pointed out for what reason all this was done, blaming you with these words:
'Because you have diverted the water of the old pool into your city, and have cast down the walls of Jerusalem to build another wall, and have made a pool between the two walls. You have paid no heed to the old pool, nor to Him who created it in the beginning.'
So you see, my brother Parmenian, that you, by whose first fathers the seed of all these things was sown, find yourselves burdened with the crop. |131
III. The pride of Donatus.
Secondly, Donatus of Carthage was responsible, for through his poisonous wiles the question of [effecting] unity was first mooted.
I shall be able to show that the makers of unity did nothing at our instigation, nor of their own wickedness, but that everything happened through provocatory causes, which were set in motion by Donatus of Carthage, in his lightness of heart, and were due to the actions of individuals controlled by him, whilst he was struggling to be thought great. Is there anyone that can be ignorant of all this excepting yourself; for, since you were a stranger, they have been able to get you to believe idle fables?
Again, who can deny a fact, to which the whole of Carthage is the leading witness, that the Emperor Constans did not originally send Paul and Macarius to bring about unity, but to be his almoner, in order that the poor people in the various churches might be afforded assistance, by means of which they might breathe anew, be clothed, fed, and rejoice?
But when they came to Donatus, your father, and told him why they had come, he, as was usual with him, fell into a rage, and burst out with these words:
'What has the Emperor to do with the Church?'
And, from the fountain of his levity, he poured forth torrents of reproaches no less evil-sounding than those with which he had once upon a time not hesitated to |132 assail the prefect Gregory----calling him 'Gregory, the stain upon the Senate, the disgrace of Prefects,' and the like. Gregory replied to him with patience worthy of a Bishop. Copies of these letters exist and are in the mouths of many chanted everywhere. Then Donatus----against the commands of the Apostle Paul----planned to do a wrong to those in high places, and to kings, on behalf of whom, if he had listened to the Apostle, he would have prayed every day, since this is the teaching of the blessed Apostle Paul:
'Pray for kings and for powers, that with them we may lead a quiet and tranquil life.'
For the State is not in the Church, but the Church is in the State, that is to say, in the Roman Empire, |133 which Christ calls Libanus in the Canticle of Canticles, saying:
'Come, my spouse, whom I have found, come from Libanus,'