Why Donatists are received as brothers
Augustine is addressing the Catholic congregation at Caesarea, explaining how the Church can receive Donatists without approving their schism.
We do not say this, brothers, as if those who remain in schism have any hope before the Lord. Many people argue without understanding what they are saying, and they ask: "If they are schismatics, if they are heretics, why do you receive them like that?" Listen, my brothers. If we received them as they are, we would already be receiving our brother Emeritus here—whether good or bad, still a brother. I say this because he himself knows that the prophet told us, and we said it to them in the conference: "Say, 'You are our brothers,' to those who hate you." They hate us, and we believe their hatred must come to an end. But as long as he hates, he hears "brother." Until the hatred ends, the name will stand as a witness. So we do not receive them as they are—far be it from us, for they are heretics. We receive them as Catholics: they change, and then they are received. But because of the evil they possess, we cannot persecute in them the good things we recognize. The evil of dissension, of schism, of heresy—that evil is their own. But the good things we recognize in them are not their own. They belong to our Lord; they belong to the Church. Baptism is not theirs, but Christ's. The invocation of God's name over their heads when bishops are ordained—that invocation is God's, not Donatus's. I would not receive him as a bishop if, when he was ordained, Donatus had been invoked over his head. In a soldier who wanders off and deserts, the crime belongs to the deserter, but the mark is not the deserter's—it is the emperor's. But our brother did not desert where he had never been, since in that deserter the error was born when he was signed by a deserter. The one who first made the schism, who separated himself from the Catholic Church with those he dragged along with him, was a deserter. The rest were signed by deserters, but not with the deserter's mark—with the emperor's mark. For the deserter did not set his own mark. What do I mean when I say the deserter did not set his own mark? Donatus did not baptize in the name of Donatus. If Donatus, when he made the schism, had baptized in the name of Donatus, he would have stamped the deserter's mark. If I were calling to unity and found the deserter's mark, I would root it out, erase it, abolish it, cast it away, reject it, spurn it, anathematize it, damn it. But as it is, the deserter himself set the mark of his emperor. Our God and Lord Jesus Christ seeks the deserter, erases the crime of error, but does not root out his own mark. When I come to my brother and gather my wandering brother, I look for faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That is my emperor's mark. It was about this mark that he commanded his soldiers—or rather his companions—to imprint it on those they gathered into his camp, saying: "Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). Paul knew that this mark, spoken by the Lord, was to be imprinted on all believers, and he was alarmed at those who wanted to belong to Paul. He said to them: "Was Paul crucified for you? Why do you want to be mine and not my Lord's? Why do you want to be mine and not rather his whose I am? Recognize, notice your mark: were you baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Corinthians 1:13). So we gather them in such a way that those we do not gather should not flatter themselves. And let those very ones be gathered, not puffed up. Let them come; they will be received. We do not hate what is God's in them, and we do not hate them either, because they are God's and what they have is God's. They are God's because they are human beings, and every human being is God's creature. What they have is God's—the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Trinity is God's; the gospel they have is God's; the faith they have is God's.
Latin
Nec ideo dicimus haec, fratres, quasi illi, qui sub schismate remanserint, aliquam spem habeant ad dominum. multi enim disputant parum intellegentes quid loquantur et dicunt: *si schismatici sunt, si haeretici sunt, quare sic illos suscipiunt?' audite, fratres mei. si (sic) eos susciperemus, iam istum susciperemus fratrem nostrum Emeritum, siue bonum siue malum, tamen fratrem. quod ideo dico, quia et ipse nouit per prophetam nobis dictum esse quod illis etiam in collatione diximus: dicite 'fratres nostri estis' his qui uos oderunt. oderunt nos, credimus finiendum esse quod odiunt: tamen quamdiu odit 'frater audit. donec finiatur odium, erit nomen in testimonium. non ergo sic illos suscipimus ut sunt — absit a nobis; nam haeretici sunt —, suscipimus autem catholicos: mutantur, suscipiuntur. sed propter malum quod habent non in eis possumus persequi bona quae agnoscimus. malum enim dissensionis, schismatis, haeresis malum suum habent, bona uero quae in illis agnoscimus non sunt sua. domini nostri habent bona, ecclesiae habent bona. baptismus non est ipsorum, sed Christi. inuocatio nominis dei super caput ipsorum, quando ordinantur episcopi, inuocatio illa dei est, non Donati. non eum suscipio episcopum, si, quando est ordinatus, super caput eius Donatus est inuocatus. in errante et deserente milite crimen est desertoris, character autem non est desertoris, sed imperatoris. sed frater noster non deseruit, ubi adhuc numquam fuit, siquidem in illo desertoris error est natus, quando est a desertore signatus. qui primo schisma fecit, qui se ab ecclesia catholica separauit, cum his quos secum traxit desertor fuit. ceteri a desertoribus signati sunt, non tamen signo desertoris, sed signo imperatoris; non enim desertor characterem suum fixit. quid est quod dico: desertor characterem suum non fixit? Donatus non baptizauit in nomine Donati. nam si Donatus, quando schisma fecit, in nomine Donati baptizaret, desertoris characterem infigeret. ego quando uocarem ad unitatem, si inuenirem desertoris characterem, exterminarem delerem abolerem abicerem non approbarem respuerem anathemarem damnarem. nunc uero ipse desertor characterem fixit imperatoris sui. deus et dominus noster Iesus Christus quaerit desertorem, delet erroris crimen, sed non exterminat suum characterem. ego quando uenio ad fratrem meum et colligo errantem fratrem meum, attendo fidem in nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti. iste est character imperatoris mei. de isto charactere militibus suis uel potius comitibus suis, ut hunc inprimerent eis, quos congregabant castris eius, praecepit dicens: ite, baptizate omnes gentes in nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti. istum characterem a domino dictum omnibus credentibus inprimendum quia nouerat Paulus, expauescit ad eos qui uolebant esse Pauli et dicit eis: 'numquid Paulus pro uobis crucifixus est? quid uultis esse mei et non magis domini mei? quid uultis esse mei et non potius cuius ego sum? agnoscite, aduertite characterem uestrum: numquid in nomine Pauli baptizati estis?' sic ergo eos colligimus, ut non sibi blandiantur illi quos non colligimus. et ipsi colligantur, non inflentur; ueniant, suscipientur. non in eis odimus quod dei est, non odimus et ipsos, quia dei sunt et quod habent dei est. dei sunt, quia homines sunt et omnis homo creatura dei est; dei est quod habent nomen patris et filii et spiritus sancti: baptismus trinitatis dei est, dei est euangelium quod habent, dei est fides quam habent.