Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine

57

John xiii. 34.

58

Gal. v. 22, 23.

59

Botrum.

60

John xv. 2.

61

Rom. iii. 17; from which it has been introduced into the Alexandrine MS. of the Septuagint at Ps. xiv. 3, as it is quoted by Migne, and found in the English Prayer-book version of the Psalms.

62

Charitatis ubera.

63

Præfocantur.

64

The Council of Carthage, September 1, A.D. 256, in which eighty-seven African bishops declared in favour of rebaptizing heretics. The opinions of the bishops are quoted and answered by Augustine, one by one, in Books vi. and vii.

65

Matt. xvi. 18.

66

Cypr. Ep. lxxi.

67

Gal. i. 20.

68

Gal. ii. 14.

69

Luke xxiii. 40-43.

70

Matt. xxvi. 69-75.

71

That is, the proconsular province of Africa, or Africa Zeugitana, answering to the northern part of the territory of Tunis.

72

See above, c. i. 2.

73

Bede asserts that this was the case, Book viii. qu. 5.

74

See above, c. ii. 3.

75

Matt. xxii. 30.

76

1 Cor. x. 13.

77

Phil. iii. 15.

78

Rom. iii. 17; see on i. 19, 29.

79

Phil. iii. 16.

80

1 Cor. xiii. 3.

81

Eph. iv. 3.

82

Traditores sanctorum librorum.

83

Ex. xxxii.

84

Jer. xxxvi.

85

Num. xvi.

86

Non convicti sed conficti traditores.

87

Rom. xiv. 4.

88

Ps. lviii. 1; though slightly varied from the LXX.: si vere justitiam diligitis; for ει αληθως αρα δικαιοσυνην λαλειτε

89

John vii. 24.

90

Matt. vii. 15.

91

1 Cor. xiv. 29, 30.

92

Cypr. Ep. lxxi.

93

The former Council of Carthage was held by Agrippinus early in the third century, the ordinary date given being 215 A.D.

94

Tanquam lectulo auctoritatis.

95

Cypr. Ep. lxxi.

96

The general Council, on whose authority Augustine relies in many places in this work, was either that of Arles, in 314 A.D., or of Nicæa, in 325 A.D., both of them being before his birth, in 354 A.D. He quotes the decision of the same council, contra Parmenianum, ii. 13, 30; de Hœresibus, 69; Ep. xliii. 7, 19. Migne brings forward the following passages in favour of its being the Council of Arles to which Augustine refers, since in them he ascribes the decision of the controversy to "the authority of the whole world." Contra Parmenianum, iii. 4, 21: "They condemned," he says, "some few in Africa, by whom they were in turn vanquished by the judgment of the whole world;" and he adds, that "the Catholics trusted ecclesiastical judges like these in preference to the defeated parties in the suit." Ib. 6, 30: He says that the Donatists, "having made a schism in the unity of the Church, were refuted, not by the authority of 310 African bishops, but by that of the whole world." And in the sixth chapter of the first book of the same treatise, he says that the Donatists, after the decision at Arles, came again to Constantine, and there were defeated "by a final decision," i. e. at Milan, as is seen from Ep. xliii. 7, 20, in the year 316 A.D.

97

See above, ch. ii. 3.

98

See above, ch. ii. 3.

99

Rom. xiv. 4.

100

Wisd. xii. 10.

101

Ps. ciii. 8. "And truth" is not found in the A. V., nor in the Roman version of the LXX. The Alexandrian MS. adds και αληθεινος.

102

Ezek. xxiii. 11.

103

2 Tim. iv. 2.

104

John xii. 43.

105

He is alluding to that chief schism among the Donatists, which occurred when Maximianus was consecrated bishop of Carthage, in opposition to Primianus, 394 A.D.

106

Optatus, a Donatist bishop of Thaumugade in Numidia, was called Gildonianus from his adherence to Gildo, Count of Africa, and generalissimo of the province under the elder Theodosius. On his death, in 395 A.D., Gildo usurped supreme authority, and by his aid Optatus was enabled to oppress the Catholics in the province, till, in 398 A.D., Gildo was defeated by his brother Maxezel, and destroyed himself, and Optatus was put in prison, where he died soon afterwards. He is not to be confounded with Optatus, Bishop of Milevis, the strenuous opponent of the Donatists.

107

The Council of Bagai. See above, I. v. 7.

108

Matt. xviii. 19.

109

1 Pet. iv. 8.

110

Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. to Jubaianus.

111

John xiii. 10. "Qui lotus est, non habet necessitatem iterum lavandi." The Latin, with the A.V., loses the distinction between ο λελουμινος, "he that has bathed," and νιπτειν, to wash; and further introduces the idea of repetition.

112

John iii. 5.

113

See above, c. ii. 3.

114

See above, ii. ii. 3.

115

See above, II. ii. 3.

116

Ecclus. iii. 18.

117

See above, II. ii. 3.

118

John i. 33.

119

The Council of Carthage.

120

Epist. lxxiii. sec. 20, to Jubaianus.

121

Conc. Carth. sec. 28.

122

John xiv. 6.

123

Conc. Carth. sec. 30.

124

Ib. sec. 56.

125

Gal. ii. 11-14.

126

Conc. Carth. sec. 63.

127

Ib. sec. 77.

128

Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 1.

129

Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 2.

130

Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 3.