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Against the Donatists

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

Book 4, 6. That the Donatists are Thieves and on What Ground

For also when God says:
‘Thou didst see a thief and didst run with him,’¹
concerning what kind of thievery think you that this has been said? Was it perhaps on account of some stolen article of clothing, or some pocket that had been picked,² or about goods the stealing of which brings loss and gain to men?

Yes, without doubt such thefts as these are forbidden; but in this passage God rebukes those which are made from Himself. Do you ask what thefts are made from God? They are to be found amongst you! God’s possession is the mass of the Faithful,³ from which that thief the Devil tries every day to steal something, striving to corrupt in some way or other the morals of a Christian man or woman, and thus to snatch away, if not the whole man----at any rate something or other from the man.

Since you saw this Thief bringing force to bear against us, you have helped him by your deeds. For none are unaware, that everyone who is born (even though he may be born of Christian parents) cannot be without the unclean spirit, who must of necessity be driven out and separated from a man before the saving layer. This is effected by the exorcism,⁴ through which the unclean spirit is cast forth and driven, in flight, to desert places.

The house in the heart of the Believer is made empty, the house is made clean. God enters and dwells therein, even as says the Apostle:
‘You are the Temple of God, and God dwells in you.’⁵

Whereas then each [baptised] man is full of God, and that Thief the Devil is endeavouring to steal something away from him, you exorcise that faithful man by rebaptising him, and say to God, who dwells within him:
‘Go forth, O cursed one,’
that there may be fulfilled what was spoken by Ezekiel the Prophet:
‘And they spoke evil things to Me amongst My people for the sake of a handful of barley and a morsel of bread, that they might kill souls which ought not to die, whilst they announce to My people empty deceits.’⁶

So God hears wrongful insults, which are not His due, and departs from such a dwelling as this; and the man who, when he entered the church, was full of God, goes out an empty vessel.

The Devil, who wished, like a thief, to steal something, sees that the whole, from which he was striving to snatch some little thing, has become his by your assistance. Wherefore, of you God said:
‘Thou didst see a thief and didst run together with him.’⁷

Again it has been written in the Gospel:
‘But when God shall have left a man, he remains an empty vessel, but the unclean spirit wandering through desert places, says, in his hunger⁸: “ My house is empty,”⁹ that is to say, He who had shut me out has been Himself shut out. “ I will go back and dwell therein.” And he brings with him seven others more wicked, and he shall dwell there, and that man’s last state shall be worse than his first.’

That is:
‘Thou didst see a thief and didst run together with him, and with adulterers didst cast thy lot.’

He terms heretics adulterers, and their churches adulterous,¹⁰ which Christ contemns and disowns¹¹ in the Canticle of Canticles, as though He should say:
‘Why do you make churches that “are not wanted¹²”?’

‘One is My beloved, one is My Spouse, one is My dove’¹³
that is, the Catholic Church, in which you too might be.¹⁴ And yet by rebaptising you have chosen to cast your lot amongst adulterers.

It has been most clearly proved by divine witness that you are sinners. It has also been shown that thine auxiliaries have warred against thee,¹⁵ for thou hast brought up to thy relief¹⁶ the saying of the Prophet:
‘The sacrifice of the sinner, is as of one who would offer in sacrifice a dog.’¹⁷

Now, if you have any shame, recognise with grief that you are the sinners.

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