The whole world rejoices concerning Catholic unity, excepting a portion of Africa, in which a conflagration has been blown up from a spark. You complain that some evil deeds or other were committed by the makers of unity. No complaint of this kind is made by Italy, or by Gaul, or by Spain, or by Pannonia, or by Galatia, or by Greece, or by any of the Provinces of Asia.
No one was sent there to put things right, because there was nothing there which needed setting right. No tailor (so to speak) was sent to them, because amongst them there was no rent to repair.
Here, too, in Africa, of old----so long as the people remained in unity----the garment had been whole, but it was torn by the envious hand of an enemy. It may be said, metaphorically, that pieces, coming originally from one garment, were hanging loose, and that branches, coming from the same root, were divided one from another. |162
Why does part prefer itself before part? Why does one piece of the garment raise itself above the second, though it cannot prove itself to be better? What if the despised piece were to say:
'Why dost them sound thine own praises only? Have we not grown up together? Have we not been together in the hands of those who made us up into one, and have we not together been cleansed by Him who washed us ? An enemy has wished to cut us off from one another; an adversary has wished to mar our beauty.'
In part of the garment we are still one, but we hang on different sides. For that which has been rent has been partly divided, not totally, since it is surely certain that you and we have one ecclesiastical discipline, and if men's minds are at war, the Sacraments are not at war. Finally, we can also say:
'Together we believe the same truths, and have been |163 sealed with one Seal, nor have we been baptised otherwise than you; in like manner we read the divine Testament; in like manner together we worship one God; the Prayer of the Lord is one with you and with us. But since, as we have just said, part had been rent asunder, the work of mending had become necessary, whilst parts [of the garment] were hanging on either side.'
When he who arranges or works at a matter of this sort wishes to restore the garment to its former appearance, he torments the threads that are next to his hand. The tailor, who wounds whilst he is mending the rent, displeases you. He who brought it about that the tailor has had the opportunity of offending, should displease you even more. And [remember] that the things which you allege to have been committed by the makers of unity either should be attributed to your fathers, of whose actions they |164 were the result, or came from the Will of God. But we had nothing to do with them.
X. It is shown from Ezekiel that the severity employed against the Donatists was by the will of God.
How will it be if the severities (great though they may have been) were nevertheless inflicted----as we have said----by the Will of God? For we read in the Prophet Ezekiel of a whitened wall, against which God threatened storm, rain, thunderbolts and accusations:
'There shall be false prophets to build up a wall which is ready to fall, crying "Peace, peace"----and where is peace?'
Call to mind how of old you tore away one from another the members of Mother Church. For you were not able to seduce any one family at once. Either the wife departed and the husband stayed behind, or the parents were seduced and the children refused to follow them, or the brother stood firm, when his sister wandered off. At your instigation divisions were made between man and wife----between parents and their children----and you could not even leave in peace that which natural law permits.
No doubt, you have said:
'Peace be with you';
but God on the other hand asks:
'Peace, and where is peace?'
that is to say:
'Why do you give a salutation concerning that which you have not? Why do you name that which you have destroyed? Peace you love not, yet do you give a salutation concerning peace.'
'They,' He says, 'built a wall which is ready to fall.'
The House of God is one.
They who have gone out and wished to make a |166 party, have built a wall, not a house, for there is no second God, to dwell in a second house.
On this account false prophets are said to have made a wall, and if a door be placed in this wall, anyone who enters through that door is [still] outside. Nor can a single wall have the Corner Stone----the Stone which is Christ, who, receiving into Himself two peoples----Gentiles and Jews----joins both walls with the bond of peace.
For a wall has as many disadvantages as a house has advantages. The house protects all that is shut within it, turns the edge of the storm, throws off the rain, keeps out murderer and thief and beast. Thus also the Catholic Church embraces all the sons of peace in her bosom and breast. On the other hand the wall, which has been built in a ruinous state, supports no corner stone ; it has a purposeless door ; it keeps nothing inside it ; but is soaked with the |167 rain, is struck by the storm, and is able neither to keep off the murderer, nor to stop the thief when he approaches.
The wall belongs to the house, but is not the house.
So your party is a quasi-church, but is not the Catholic Church.