Emeritus's own sentence against the Maximianists is read back
Augustine is speaking to the gathered church, asking that the sentence by which Emeritus condemned the Maximianists be read aloud, and then comparing it with the sentence by which the Donatists' predecessors condemned Caecilian.
The sentence is held, and as we heard from our brother himself—may God make him our peaceful brother—this sentence by which they were condemned was spoken by Emeritus here. Let the very sentence by which they were condemned be read, and let the sentence by which their ancestors condemned Caecilian be read, and let us see which men were made the worse criminals, which were punished with a heavier sentence, which were condemned with greater uproar. There he said: 'For although the channel of the poisoned womb long covered the harmful offspring of viper seed, and the wet curdlings of conceived crime warmed into the limbs of asps with slow heat, yet the conceived venom could not be hidden once the shadow was gone. For although late, still the parricide and its crime were brought to public birth by the vows pregnant with crimes, as was foretold: "She travailed with injustice, conceived pain, and gave birth to iniquity" (Psalm 7:14). But since the clear sky now shines from the cloud and the forest of crimes is no longer tangled, when the names have been marked out for punishment—for there had been indulgence before—while we let out the line of clemency, the case finds whom to punish.' And among other things: 'Let us speak, dearest brothers, of the causes of the schism, because we can no longer keep silent about the persons. Maximianus, rival of the faith, corrupter of the truth, enemy of mother church, minister of Dathan, Korah and Abiram.' These are the words of the Donatist party against the Maximianists, brought forth, as we heard, with this man dictating. You know who Dathan, Korah and Abiram are. They first made a schism, and the usual punishment was not enough for them: the open earth devoured them alive. 'Minister of Dathan, Korah and Abiram'—these are his own words—he hurled the thunderbolt of a sentence from the bosom of peace. Listen further: 'And because the gaping earth did not swallow him too,' he says, 'it reserved him for a greater judgment above. For snatched away, he had gained the penalty of his own death prematurely; now he collects the interest of a heavier debt, since dead he is present among the living.' These are his own words condemning Maximianus, or rather, as he himself says, thundering with a 'truth-speaking mouth.' And yet they were received back—asps, vipers, parricides—and the baptism given by an asp, a viper, a parricide is not exsufflated. You heard how great a fire of eloquence blazed up when it found straw it could burn. Brother Emeritus, you embraced your brother Felicianus, condemned by the thunderbolt of your own mouth: acknowledge your brother Deuterius, joined to you even by family.
Latin
Sententia tenetur, et quantum audiuimus ab ipso fratre nostro, quem deus faciat pacatum fratrem nostrum, ab isto Emerito est dicta sententia ubi illi damnati sunt. legatur ipsa sententia ubi illi damnati sunt, et legatur sententia ubi Caecilianum damnauerunt maiores istorum, et uideamus qui rei peiores facti sunt, qui grauiore sententia puniti, qui strepitu maiore damnati. ibi dixit: licet enim uiperei seminis noxios partus uenenati uteri alueus diu texerit et concepti sceleris uda coagula in aspidum membra tardo se calore uaporauerint, tamen conceptum uirus euanescente umbraculo occultari non potuit. nam etsi sero publicum tamen parricidium et facinus suum feta scelerum uota pepererunt, quod ante praedictum est: 'parturiit iniustitiam, concepit dolorem et peperit iniquitatem.' sed quoniam serenum iam fulget e nubilo nec est confusa criminum silua, cum ad poenam designata sunt nomina — indulgentia enim antehac fuerat —, dum clementiae dimittimus lineam, inuenit causa quos puniat. et inter cetera: loquamur, carissimi fratres, schismatis causas, quia iam non possumus tacere personas. Maximianum fidei aemulum, ueritatis adulterum, ecclesiae matris inimicum, Dathae, Chorae et Abiron ministrum. haec uerba sunt partis Donati in Maximianistas isto ut audiuimus dictante prolata. scitis autem qui sunt Dathan, Chore et Abiron. ipsi primo schisma fecerunt, quibus poena usitata non suffecit: uiuos aperta terra deuorauit. Dathae, Chorae et Abiron ministrum, uerba ipsius sunt, de pacis gremio sententiae fulmen excussit. audite adhuc: et quod adhuc eum, inquit, dehiscens terra non absorbuit, ad maius iudicium superis reseruauit. raptus enim poenam sui compendio lucrauerat funeris; usuras nunc grauioris colligit faenoris, cum mortuus interest uiuis. uerba sunt ipsius Maximianum damnantis uel potius, ut ipse dicit, 'ore ueridico' fulminantis. et tamen collecti sunt, aspides uiperae parricidae nec exsufflatur baptismus, quem dedit aspis uipera parricida. audistis, quantus ignis exarserit eloquentiae, quando inuenit faenum quod posset incendere. frater Emerite, amplexus es fratrem tuum Felicianum tui oris fulmine condemnatum: agnosce fratrem tuum Deuterium tibi etiam genere sociatum.