Proceedings with Emeritus · §7 · Augustine of Hippo

Bishops should lay down their rank for the flock's peace

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Alypius is reading aloud the Catholic bishops' letter from the Council of Zerta, and Augustine interrupts to explain its point about laying down the bishopric for the people's good.

Why should we hesitate to offer our Redeemer the sacrifice of this humility? Did he descend from heaven into human limbs so that we might be his limbs, and do we fear to descend from our chairs so that those very limbs of his may not be torn apart by a cruel division? For ourselves, nothing is more fitting than to be faithful obedient Christians; so let us always be that. But bishops are ordained for the sake of Christian peoples; so whatever benefits Christian peoples for Christian peace, let us do that with our bishopric.

Augustine the bishop said: For your sakes we ought to be what you are. What ought you to be—you, whoever I am speaking to among you? A faithful obedient Christian. That you are for yourself, and that I am for myself. So what you are for yourself and I am for myself, we ought always to be; but what I am for your sake, let me be if it benefits you, and not be if it harms you. Pay attention to what has been said.

He read on: If we are useful servants, why do we begrudge the Lord eternal gains for the sake of our temporal heights? The dignity of a bishop will be more fruitful for us if, laid down, it gathers the flock of Christ rather than, kept, it scatters them. And while he was reading, Augustine the bishop said: My brothers, if we think of the Lord, this higher place is a vinedresser's watchtower, not a proud man's pinnacle. If, when I want to keep my bishopric, I scatter the flock of Christ, how is the loss of the flock the honor of the shepherd?

He read on: For with what face shall we hope for the honor promised by Christ in the age to come, if our honor in this age hinders Christian unity? We have taken care to write these things to your eminence, and we ask that they be made known to all, so that with the help of the Lord our God—by whose admonition we promise these things and by whose aid we trust we can fulfill them—even before the conference, if it can happen, loving charity may either heal or subdue the weak or hard hearts of men, and so with minds already at peace we may not resist the most manifest truth, and may either precede the debate with concord or follow it. For we ought not to despair, if we recall that the peacemakers are blessed, for they shall be called sons of God (Matthew 5:9), that it is much more worthy and easy for them to want the Donatist party to be reconciled to the whole Christian world than for the whole Christian world to be rebaptized by the Donatist party—especially since, in the case of those coming from the sacrilegious and condemned schism of Maximianus, whom they even took care to correct by pursuing them with the orders of earthly powers, they sought them with such great diligence that they did not dare to invalidate the baptism given by them, and they received some of them who had been condemned without any diminution of honor, while they judged others to be unpolluted in the fellowship of that division. We do not begrudge their concord among themselves, but they ought to notice how devoutly the Catholic root seeks the branch broken from itself with such great effort, if the branch itself likewise labored to gather a small fragment cut from itself. And in another hand: We desire that you be well in the Lord, son.

Latin

Item legit: Quid enim dubitemus redemptori nostro sacrificium istius humilitatis offerre? an uero ille de caelis in membra descendit humana, ut membra eius essemus, et nos, ne ipsa eius membra crudeli diuisione lanientur, de cathedris descendere formidamus? propter nos nihil sufficientius quam christiani fideles et oboedientes sumus; hoc ergo semper simus. episcopi autem propter christianos populos ordinamur; quod ergo christianis populis ad christianam pacem prodest, hoc de nostro episcopatu faciamus. Augustinus episcopus dixit: Propter nos hoc debemus esse quod uos. quid debes esse tu cuicumque loquor uestrum? christianus fidelis oboediens. hoc tu propter te, hoc et ego propter me. ergo, quod tu propter te et ego propter me, semper esse debemus, quod autem sum propter te, sim si tibi prodest, non sim si tibi obest. ecce quod dictum est attendite. item legit: Si serui utiles sumus, cur domini aeternis lucris pro nostris temporalibus sublimitatibus inuidemus? episcopalis dignitas fructuosior nobis erit, si gregem Christi deposita magis collegerit quam retenta disperserit. cumque recitaret, Augustinus episcopus dixit: Fratres mei, si dominum cogitamus, locus iste altior specula uinitoris est, non fastigium superbientis. si, cum uolo retinere episcopatum meum, dispergo gregem Christi, quomodo est damnum gregis honor pastoris? item legit: Nam qua fronte in futuro saeculo promissum a Christo sperabimus honorem, si christianam in hoc saeculo noster honor impedit unitatem? haec propterea praelostantiae tuae scribenda curauimus et ut per innotescant omnibus postulamus, ut in adiutorio domini dei nostri, quo admonente ista promittimus et quo adiuuante nos implere posse confidimus, etiam ante collationem, si fieri potest, corda hominum uel infirma uel dura pia caritas aut sanet aut edomet ac sic iam pacificis mentibus non resistamus manifestissimae ueritati et disputationem uel praecedamus concordia uel sequamur. neque enim desperare debemus, si recolunt esse pacificos beatos, quoniam ipsi filii dei uocabun- . tur, multo dignius et facilius eos uelle, ut pars Donati uniuerso orbi christiano reconcilietur quam uniuersus orbis christianus a parte Donati rebaptizetur, cum praesertim de Maximiani sacrilego e t damnato schismate uenientes, quos etiam terrenarum potestatum iussionibus insectando emendare curarunt, tanta diligentia quaesierunt, ut nec baptismum ab eis datum rescindere auderent et quosdam eorum damnatos sine ulla honoris diminutione susciperent, quosdam uero in illius discissionis societate impollutos esse censerent. quorum inter se concordiae non inuidemus, sed eos oportet aduertere, quam pie ramum a se fractum tanto studio radix catholica inquirit, si ramus ipse similiter a se paruum fragmen incisum sic colligere laborauit. et alia manu: optamus te, fili, in domino bene ualere.

About this text

Emeritus, a Donatist bishop, came to the city two days earlier and agreed to enter the Catholic church.

Augustine of Hippo (354–430) wrote this dialogue for the Catholic congregation at Caesarea in Mauretania, with Emeritus the Donatist bishop present. Emeritus had come to the city two days earlier and agreed to enter the Catholic church. The Catholic bishops, with Deuterius the metropolitan of Caesarea presiding alongside Augustine and others, held a public session to question him about why he came and to expose the weakness of the Donatist position before the people.

Augustine publicly confronts Emeritus, who remains largely silent, and argues that the Donatists were defeated at the Conference of Carthage not by power but by truth. He says their treatment of the Maximianist schism proves inconsistency, because they received Felicianus and Praetextatus back in their honors without rebaptizing them after condemning them with Maximianus, while refusing communion with the worldwide Catholic Church over the long settled case of Caecilian. The reader also meets the Catholic bishops Deuterius, Alypius, Possidius, Rusticus and Palladius, the judge Marcellinus, Primianus, Donatus, Optatus and Rogatus, and hears Alypius read the bishops letter to Marcellinus with Augustine interrupting to comment, while Augustine quotes and argues against the words of Emeritus himself condemning the Maximianists, and closes by urging prayer for the conversion of Emeritus.

Here conference means the formal public debate between Catholic and Donatist bishops held at Carthage, and judge means Marcellinus the imperial official appointed to decide it. Communion means full fellowship sharing the Eucharist, unity means the visible unity of the Church throughout the world, and Catholic peace is contrasted with schism and dissension. To rebaptize means to baptize again those coming from the Catholic Church, Maximianists means the followers of Maximianus who split from Primianus, and Circumcellions means violent Donatist bands. Old Testament names follow the Septuagint, so Dathan, Chore and Abiron appear as Dathan, Korah and Abiram, and Psalms follow Septuagint numbering with a note where it differs from the Hebrew used in modern Bibles.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from CSEL 53 (1910) (Latin)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.