Psalm against the Donatist Party

1All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly. The abundance of sinners often troubles brothers. For this reason our Lord wanted to warn us, comparing the kingdom of heaven to a net cast into the sea, gathering many fish of every kind from here and there. When they had dragged them to the shore, then they began to separate them: the good they put into vessels, the rest, the bad, into the sea. Whoever knows the Gospel should recognize this with fear. He sees the net as the church, he sees this world as the sea; the mixed kind of fish is the righteous person with the sinner; the end of the world is the shore: then is the time to separate. Those who have now broken the nets have loved the sea greatly; the vessels are the seats of the saints, where they cannot arrive.

All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly. A good listener perhaps asks who broke the net. Very proud men, who say they are righteous. They made both a split and altar against altar. They handed themselves over to the devil when they fight about the handing over, and the crime they committed they want to transfer to others. They themselves handed over the books and they dare to accuse us, so that they commit a worse crime than they committed before. They could excuse the matter of the books out of fear, because Peter denied Christ when he was terrified of death. But now how will they excuse the making of altar against altar, and having torn the peace of Christ they place their hope in a human being? What persecution did not do, they did in time of peace.

All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly. Our guardian, great God, you can free us from these false prophets who seek to devour us. They cover a cursed wolf-like heart with a sheep's skin. The name of a righteous person is the sheep's skin; the schism is in the wolf-like heart. Those who do not know the Scriptures, these they usually deceive. For they hear 'traitors' and do not know what happened before. If I say to them, 'Prove it,' they have nothing to answer. They say they believed their own people: I say they have lied. Because we also believed our own people, who say that they handed them over. Do you want to know who speaks falsely? Those who are not in unity. The case was finished long ago; as for you, you do not stand in peace.

All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly. Our ancestors spoke and made books about it, those who then examined the case, so they could prove it while it was fresh: there were certain traitors of the books of the holy law, bishops from Numidia and not just any from the people. When they came to Carthage to ordain a bishop, they found Caecilian already ordained in his see. They were angry because they themselves could not ordain. Botrus and Caelestius were great enemies of Caecilian, impious, proud thieves, about whom it would take long to tell. They all joined together to fabricate a charge against him; they say his ordainer handed over the holy books. Thus they broke the nets of peace and now wander through the sea.

All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly. Behold how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity! (Psalm 133:1). Hear the voice of the prophet, so that you may be in unity. Who proved to you the ancient charge of handing over? Who brought it forward in judgment? Those who sat to judge? By what witnesses was he convicted? Who dared to affirm it? But they gladly invented what they knew they themselves had done. Because rumor was already speaking about the handing over of the books, but those who had done it were hiding in that disturbance, so they defamed others so that they could hide themselves. Through them the rest went astray, the leaders from that party, because they thought it shameful not to believe their colleagues. Now, brothers, let the error end and let us be in unity.

All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly. They did what they wanted then in that blindness. Judges did not sit, priests did not sit according to custom, as they usually do when gathered to judge in great cases. Accuser and defendant did not stand in examination; there was no witness, no document by which they could prove the charge. But fury, deceit, and tumult, which reign in falsehood. Let the records be brought forward to us, the kind that are usually made in a council; let us see what thing compelled the making of altar against altar. If the priest was evil, he should have been deposed first; if he could not be deposed, he should have been tolerated within the net, just as you now tolerate so many openly evil men, and you who bear them with pious fury would have borne one for peace.

All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly. It would be a great joy for us if you had refused to go astray then; but if the truth was not seen then, now at least see it from experience. You now have many wicked men who displease you greatly, and yet you do not separate them from your communion. I am not speaking of those sins which you can deny: I speak of clubs, fires, deaths, which your people commit in the light, and yet you tolerate them either by error or by fear. How much was it for your fathers to bear one for unity, if the tumult was so great that they could not depose him? Add that he was innocent and they could prove nothing. But so that the charge would not be investigated, where they saw themselves to be, they pretended to be exceedingly righteous, when they wanted to throw everything into confusion.

All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly. Whoever seeks empty honors does not want to reign with Christ, like the prince of this evil, from whom their party is named. For Donatus then wanted to obtain all Africa; then he sought overseas judges from the emperor. But this so-just petition was not from love. The truth itself cries this out, which I want now to relate. For the emperor consented and sent priests to sit in Rome who could then hear Caecilian with him. The case was heard, nothing was proven: he dared even to appeal, and after the see of his colleagues to be heard by the emperor. By this that petition is proven not to be from love. Then, defeated everywhere, he began to rebaptize Christians.

All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly. If you want to follow justice, consider the whole case. What Donatus did afterward, why was it not done before? The priests were in disagreement throughout the whole African region: overseas priests could judge about it. Why did you run to schism and altar against altar, so that what was afterward judged you could no longer hear, and you were compelled by your own judges to appeal, while you want to confirm the reign of error in any way? And now you all know the whole matter, but you pretend not to know, and when the truth presses you, you say your fathers went astray, as if someone forbids you now to withdraw from error. But pride has bound you in the seat of pestilence.

All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly. Whoever has the love of Christ cannot hate peace. Listen now, you peoples, and agree with us—you who do not hold the see for which you fight unjustly. If your bishops from some one region had a dispute among themselves, whom would you want to judge it except bishops of other regions who were not part of that dispute? But when they had examined the case, they would pronounce for one side; you would never communicate with those who refused to agree with them. Why then did you communicate with these men, who did this before? For they too did not agree with the sentence of the overseas bishops, who judged for us; for they are joined to us today. If Christ the judge should say this, what do you have to answer? All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly.

If the light of the heart is in you, you can see the truth. There are the prayers and the records of Donatus, by which you prove what has been said. If you do not want to believe these, bring forward some of your own. If we do not believe those either, there will be a quarrel without end. Let us embrace peace, then. What is it to us what was done before? You throw the betrayal at us: we answer that you did it. You cry out about Macarius: and we about the circumcellion. That matter of ours is now past: yours do not cease even today. Our threshing floor has chaff: you want it to be only this; for you do not want peace. Those men threaten with the club: and if only they threatened and did not beat people daily. If these men of yours expel them, they have no one through whom to reign. All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly.

If Macarius exceeded the measure written in Christian law, or he was citing the law of the king, so that he might fight for unity. I do not say that he sinned nothing, but that yours are worse. For who commanded them to rage like this through Africa? It is proven that neither Christ nor the emperor permitted this—private clubs and fires and madness without law. Because it is written, “Put your sword back into its place” (Matthew 26:52), they do not think it a crime with a club—not that a man should die, but that he should be beaten severely and afterward die from it, already tortured by weakness. But even so, if they pity, they kill with even one club. They call the clubs “Israels,” which they said with honor, so that they may lay waste the name itself more than the body they strike with it. All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly.

Do not now, brothers, charge the time of Macarius to us. If those men were cruel, they displease us greatly too; but if they speak falsely about them, God can judge. Let us love the peace of Christ, let us rejoice in unity. If there are evil men in the church, they can do us no harm. If they cannot be with us, let them be excluded with peace preserved. If they cannot be excluded, let them at least be excluded from the heart. Holy Ezekiel said that certain ones were marked, who groan over the sins of their brothers and do not separate themselves from them. So let us not separate ourselves from our mother because of evil brothers, as the impious did then, raising an altar outside, so that they now have worse men than those they pretend to have fled. All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly.

Everyone who reads the scriptures knows what I want to reveal. John the Baptist said openly to the Jews then, that Christ could winnow them like his threshing floor. He sent workers into the harvest, his disciples, to preach, through whom the threshing floor was gathered and winnowed from the cross. Then the righteous, like wheat, filled the churches purely, selling what they possessed and saying farewell to the world. They were like seed that was scattered through the whole world, so that another harvest might rise, which is to be winnowed at the end. This grows among the weeds, because there are heresies everywhere; its chaff is the unjust, who are not in unity. If Macarius was from among these, why do you want to rebaptize us? All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly.

Set two threshing floors in your heart, so that you can see what I am saying. Certainly the earlier ones also had holy men, as the scriptures show. For God said he had left himself seven thousand men (1 Kings 19:18), and many priests and kings are righteous in the law. There you have so many prophets, and you have many from the people too. Tell me which of the righteous then separated an altar for himself. That wicked people committed many crimes: sacrifice was made to idols, so many prophets were killed, and yet none of the righteous withdrew from unity. The righteous endured the unjust until the coming winnower; they were mixed in one temple, but they were not mixed in heart. They said such things against them, and they had one altar. All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly.

What does this seem like to you? The second harvest of the church, which grows through the whole world, ought to endure more. It has also the Lord’s example in Judas the traitor. He bore with him among the good; he sent him also to preach. The evil servant preached, but Christ was in the faith, because those who believed the judge did not care about the herald. When he gave the holy supper, he did not exclude him from it even then, and he could have been betrayed by him even if he had gone out before. But an example was given to us to tolerate evil brothers, so that when they cannot be excluded, we are separated only in heart. All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly.

I ask you, answer us: why do you want to rebaptize? You drive your fallen priests from communion, and yet no one after them has dared to rebaptize, and all whom they baptized communicate with you today. What did they receive from them, if they did not have anything to give? Read how adulterers are punished in the holy law; for they cannot say that they sinned from fear. If only the holy baptize, rebaptize after these men. Why do you accuse us falsely, because we are in unity—we who were not yet born in that persecution? It is written that the sins of the fathers do not belong to the sons, but no one gives good fruit if he is cut off from the vine. All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly.

You know what the catholic is and what is cut off from the vine. If there are any cautious ones among you, let them come and live in the root; before they dry up too much, let them now be freed from the fire. Therefore we do not rebaptize, because there is one sign in the faith—not because we see you as holy, but because you hold only the form, because the branch that is cut off from the vine has the form itself. But what does the form profit it, if it does not live from the root?

Come, brothers, if you wish, so that you may be grafted into the vine. It is painful when we see you cut off and lying there like that. Count the bishops even from the very see of Peter, and look at that line of fathers: see who succeeded whom. That is the rock which the proud gates of the underworld do not overcome. All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly.

Suppose someone like this comes to you full of catholic faith—the kind of holy men we are all accustomed to hear about—and says to you: "Brother, why do you wish to rebaptize me? I do not know what happened before, but now I am in the faith of Christ. If what I do not know stains me, then show me what you yourself are like now. Look, I am watching your face, but I do not know what is in your heart. If what I do not know stains me, then perhaps you stain me—and if I believe you are holy, look at those with whom you share communion. If what I do not know stains, then you can no longer be holy, since so many sins stain you, which your people commit in secret. But if you do not care about what you do not know, then neither do I care about what happened before." And yet you dare to rebaptize such a Christian.

All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly. Woe to you who contend so unjustly for your sees. You shout that you alone are holy, but you say something else in your heart, because you see that many evil people abound everywhere among you too. Can you say, "We are mixed within the net"? The answer comes back to you: you have already broken it. Nor can you say that you endure the chaff; again we answer: you would have done this before too. For they were not worse than that traitor Judas, with whom the apostles received the first sacrament of the supper, when they already knew that the man guilty of so great a crime was among them. Yet the filth in another's heart did not stain them. And still you dare to rebaptize Christian brothers.

All you who rejoice in peace, now judge truly. Hear what I say, brothers, and do not be angry with me. Because what you hear is not false—you can also consider it for yourselves. What if mother Church herself were to address you with peace and say: "O my children, why do you complain about your mother? Why have you deserted me? I want to hear it from you now. You accuse your brothers, and I am torn apart greatly. When the nations pressed me down, I endured many things with sorrow. Many deserted me, but they did so in fear. But no one forced you to rebel against me like this. You say you are with me, but you see that it is false: I am called catholic, and you are of Donatus's party. The apostle commanded me to pray for the kings of the world; you are envious that kings are now in the Christian faith. If you are children, why are you envious that my prayers have been heard? For when they sent gifts, you refused to accept them, and you forgot the prophets who foretold this before—that the great kings of the nations would send gifts to the church. When you rejected those gifts, you showed that you were not my children, and you forced Macarius to avenge his own grief. But what have I done to you, your mother throughout the whole world? I expel the evil ones I can; those I cannot, I am forced to bear. I bear them until they are healed or separated at the end. Why have you abandoned me, and why am I tormented by your death? If you hate evil people so much, look at what kind you have among yourselves. If you too tolerate evil people, why not in unity, where no one rebaptizes and there is no altar against altar? You tolerate so many evil people, but with no good reward, because what you ought to bear for Christ, you wish to bear for Donatus."

We have sung to you, brothers, of peace, if you wish to hear. Our judge is coming: we give, he demands.