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Against the Donatists

St Optatus of Milevis, tr. Vassall-Phillips, 1917

Book 4, 4. That the Donatists are Despisers of Discipline

So discipline has been held in contempt by you. To what end then dost thou. who dost not obey the covenant, recite the covenant, in which has been set forth the discipline which you1 will not observe? For you cannot say that you observe something, against which you bear arms!

God says:
‘Seek peace, and thou shalt obtain it.’2

Thou hast rejected peace. Is not this to despise discipline?

In the Gospel we read:
‘On earth peace to men of good will.’3

Thou wilt have neither peace nor good will. Is not this to despise discipline?

Moreover, we read in the hundred and thirty-second Psalm:
‘Behold how good and pleasant it is to dwell together in unity.’4

Thou5 wilt not dwell in unity with thy brethren. Is not this to despise discipline?

Christ says in the Gospel:
‘He who has once been cleansed, has no need to be cleansed anew.’6

Thou by rebaptising dost cleanse anew. Is not this to despise discipline? God says:
‘Touch not Mine anointed, and lay not thy hand upon My Prophets.’7

You8 have stripped so many priests of God of their dignities. Is not this to despise discipline?

Christ says:
‘From this I know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.’9

You hold in hatred us, who are surely your brethren; nor have you been willing to imitate the Apostles, by whom Peter was beloved, though he denied his Lord.10 Is not this to despise discipline?

Thou11 declarest the commandments12 of God, and takest His covenant in thy mouth. How dost thou exhort: ‘Seek peace,’ though thou dost not possess peace? Thou recitest the covenant,13 and dost not obey the covenant, in which has been set forth discipline.

Notes

  1. St. Optatus here passes abruptly from the singular to the plural number, from Parmenian individually to the Donatists collectively.
  2. Ps. xxxiii, 15.
  3. Luke ii, 14.
  4. Ps. cxxxii, 1.
  5. Here St. Optatus returns to the singular.
  6. John xiii, 10.
  7. Ps, civ, 15.
  8. We have the plural once more.
  9. John xiii, 34.
  10. Cf. vii, 3.
  11. We have the singular again.
  12. iustificationes.
  13. Ziwsa has added at the beginning of this last sentence a second quomodo and places a note of interrogation at the end (Quomodo testamentum recitas?). This addition (for which no reason is given) seems unnecessary. The recitas testamentum corresponds well with the exponis iustificationes Dei etc. of the beginning of the paragraph.

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