Silence as defeat, and the promise of the conference records
Augustine is speaking to the gathered congregation in the Catholic church, with Emeritus the Donatist bishop present but refusing to answer.
And when he kept silent, Augustine, bishop of the Catholic Church, said: If then you kept silent under truth, you did not come without a reason—except that you wanted to deceive these people. And when he kept silent for a long time, Augustine, bishop of the Catholic Church, said: You see, brothers, how long he has been silent. I warn you to wish that he come to his senses; I beg you not to follow him as he perishes.
But since he brought up the records of our conference, where he said it could appear whether he was defeated by truth or crushed by power, there are indeed many places where they piled up the records with superfluous and delaying proceedings, doing nothing else with great efforts except that nothing should be done. But with the Lord presiding and pleading his own cause, it came to the point they did not want. The case was stated and decided.
But if we wanted to read all the records to you—although in your presence I bind my brother and fellow bishop Deuterius, so that just as is done at Carthage, at Thagaste, at Constantina, at Hippo, and in all the churches that care, he should not be slow to do the same from now on: that every year during the days of fasting, that is, the forty days before Easter, when you have the most time to listen because you are fasting, the same records of the conference should be read aloud in full, from beginning to end, in order, each year—nevertheless, as I had begun to say, because we cannot read everything to you now, deign first to hear what letter we sent to the judge before the conference, where we promised both how we would want to be received if we were defeated, and how we would receive them if we won, so that it might be seen that victory lies not in contention but in humility.
Latin
Cumque reticeret, Augustinus episcopus ecclesiae catholicae dixit: Si ergo sub ueritate tacuisti, non sine causa uenisti, nisi quia istos decipere uoluisti. cumque diu reticeret, Augustinus episcopus ecclesiae catholicae dixit: Uidetis, fratres, diu tacentem; moneo ut optetis resipiscentem, obsecro ne sequamini pereuntem. uerumtamen quoniam gesta collationis nostrae commemorauit, ubi apparere posse dixit, utrum ueritate sit uictus an potestate oppressus, multa sunt quidem ubi superfluis et moratoriis proseeutionibus gesta cumularunt, nihil aliud magnis uiribus agentes, nisi ut nihil ageretur; sed domino praesidente et causam suam agente uentum est quo noluerunt. dicta causa atque definita est. sed si omnia gesta uobis legere uelimus, quamquam praesentibus uobis fratrem et coepiscopum meum Deuterium obstringo, ut, quemadmodum fit apud Carthaginem, apud Tagastem, apud Constantinam, apud Hipponem, apud omnes diligentes ecclesias, sic etiam deinceps facere non pigrescat, ut annis omnibus per ieiuniorum dies, id est quadragesima ante pascha, quando uobis maxime ieiunantibus plus uacat audire, eadem gesta collationis per annos singulos uniuersa a capite in finem recitentur ex ordine, tamen, ut dicere coeperam, quia non omnia uobis modo legere possumus, dignamini prius audire ante collationem quas litteras dederimus ad cognitorem, ubi promisimus uel quemadmodum suscipi uellemus si uicti fuissemus, uel quemadmodum eos susciperemus si uinceremus, ut uideretur non in contentione, sed in humilitate esse uictoria.