INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
By Rev. Chester D. Hartranft, D.D.
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Chapter I.-Bibliography.
A. Sources.
i. Of course all the Anti-Donatist writings of Augustin are found in the general editions from Amerbach, 1506, to Migne, 1861. A few are also collected in Du Pin's edd. of Optatus Mil. 1. In the Monumenta vetera ad Donatistarum Historiam pertinentia. 2. In the Gesta Collationis Carthagini habitae Honorii Caesaris iussu inter Catholicos et Donatistas. See also the different Collections of Councils, Labbe, Baluze, Harduin, Mansi, etc. Since these works are discussed in Chapter II. it is unnecessary to repeat the titles here. Cp. titles in Retractationes: and Indiculus librorum, tractatuum et epistolarum S. Augustini, ed. cura Possidii, cap. III.
ii. Separate editions of Augustin's Anti-Donatist writings. (From Schönemann's Bibliotheca, and other bibliographies.)
1. S. Augustini liber seu Epistola de unitate Ecclesiae contra Petiliani Donat. Epistolam, Argumentis, Notis atque Analysi illustrata, studio Justi Caluini. Moguntiae. 1602.
2. SS. Cypriani et Augustini de unitate Ecclesiae tractatus. Accedit Georgii Calixti, S. Theo. Doct. et in Acad. Julia Prof. primarii, in eorundem librorum lectionem Introductionis fragmentum edente Frid. Ulrico Calixto. Georgii filio. Helmaestadii ex typogr. Calixt. 1657. 8.
3. Aurelii Augustini, Episcopi Hipponensis, Liber de Unitate Ecclesiae contra Donatistas. Ext. cum Commentariis uberrimis et utillisimis in Melchioris Lydeckeri Historia illustrata Ecclesiae Africanae, cujus totum paene tomum secundum constituit inscriptum:
Tomus secundus ad Librum Augustini de Unitate Ecclesiae contra Donatistas, de principiis Ecclesiae Africanae, illiusque fide in Articulis de Capite Christo et Ecclesia, de Unitate et Schismate, plurimisque Religionis Christianae capitibus agit. Ultrajecti apud viduam Guil. Clerck, 1690. 4.
4. D. Augustini liber de moderate coercendis haereticis ed Bonifacium Comitem. Nic. Bergius Revalensis Holmiae, 1696, in 8.
iii. III. Translations.
1. Epistre ou le Livre de St. Augustin de l'Unité de l'Eglise, contre Petilien, Evesque Donatiste, avec certaines observations pour entendre les lieux plus difficiles par Jac. Tigeou, imprimé à Reims par Jean de Foigny. 1567. 8.
2. L'Epistre à Vincent, Evesque de l'heresie Rogatiane, traduict de latin par Clément Vaillant. A Paris, Mathurin Prevost. 1573. 8.
3. Traité du Baptême trad. par l'abbé Dujat, chapelain d'Étampes. Paris. 1778. 12.
4. Writings in connection with the Donatist controversy, translated by the Rev. J. R. King, M.A. In the Series of Translations of the Works of Augustin. Edinburgh. T. & T. Clark. 1872.
5. Ausgewählte Schriften des heil. Aurelius Augustinus, Kirchenlehrers, nacnaem Urtexte ubersetzt. Mit einer kurzen Lebensbeschreibung des Heiligen von J. Motzberger. 1871-1879. In the Bibliothek der Kirchenväter, Kempten, 1869 sqq.
B. Literature.
This is a selected literature of the Donatist controversy so far as Augustin was connected with it.
i. In the Benedictine editions occur:
1. Their Vita S. Aurelii Augustini. Tom. XI. Antw., pp. 1-344. Tom. I. Migne, pp. 65-578.
2. Praefatio of Tom. IX. Antw. s. p. Migne, pp. 9-24.
3. Index opusculorum S. Augustini contra Donatistas. Tom. IX. Antw., pp. 463, 4. Migne, pp. 757-760.
4. Excerpta et scripta vetera ad Donatistarum historiam pertinentia. Tom. IX. Antw., App. pp. 7-50. Migne, pp. 773-842.
5. Epistolarum ordo chronologicus. Tom. II. Antw., s. p. Migne, pp. 13-48.
ii. Possidius: Vita S. Aurelii Augustini. Reprinted in Migne Aug. Op. Tom. I., pp. 33-66. Cp. Migne Pat. Lat. L. p. 407.
iii. Ecclesiastica Historia. By the Magdeburg Centuriators. 1559-1574. Tom. II. and III., Centuria, IV. and V., contain the Donatist history.
iv. Balduinius, Franc.
1. Delibatio Africanae historiae ecclesticae, s. Optati libri VII. de Schismate Donatistarum, etc. Paris, 1563. A second edition with improved readings. Ib., 1569. In this the prefaces and annotations are of value. Reprinted in Du Pin's ed. of Optatus Mil.
2. Historia Carthaginensis Collationis sive disputationis de ecclesia, olim habitae inter Catholicos et Donatistas. Paris, 1566. 8. Reprinted in Du Pin. ib.
v. Baronius. Annales Ecclesiatici. 1588-1607. Tom. III.-V., contain the Donatist history.
vi. Albaspinoeus: Optati Mel. opera cum notis et observationibus Gabrielis Albaspinoei. Paris, 1631. Valuable mainly for the observations; reprinted in Du Pin's ed. of Optatus.
vii. Casaubonus:
Optati Mel. de schismate Donatistarum libri VII. In eosd. notae et emendationes Merici Casauboni. Lond. 1631. These notes are of value and are reproduced with those of other editions in the Annotationes Variorum of Du Pin's ed
viii. Valesius Henricus: Eusebii Pamph. Historia ecc., libri de Vita Constantini, Panegyricus, Const. Oratio ad Sanctorum coetum, gr. et lat. cum annotatt. Paris, 1659 and often. In this is his dissertation: De schismate Donatistarum.
ix. Long, Thomas, B.D. History of the Donatists. Lond. 1677. 8.
x. Du Pin: Nouvelle Bibliothéque des Auteurs Ecclésiastiques.
1. St. Augustin. Tom. III. première partie, pp. 522-839, 1690. Particularly the review of vol. IX. of Augustin's collected works, pp. 792-811.
2. In Tom. II., Troisième partie, 1701, there are also many allusions to the history and literature.
3. In his ed. of Optatus Mel., Historia Donatistarum.
xi. Ittig, Thomas: de Haeresiarchis oevi apostolici at apostol. prox. Lips. 1690-1703. 4.
xii. Leydecker Melchior; Historia Ecclesiastica Africana. 2 Tom. 4, See above. Traj. 1690. 4.
xiii. Witsius, Hermann: Miscellaneorum Sacrorum libri. 2 vols. Amst. 1692. 4. In vol. I. Dissertatio de schismate Donatistarum.
xiv. Bernino: Historia di tutte l'heresie descritta da Domenico Bernino. Venezia 1711. Tom. I., contains hist. of Donatism.
xv. Storren, J. Ph.: ansführlicher und gründlicher Bericht von den Namen, Ursprung, v.s.w. der Donatisten. Frankf. 1723. 8.
xvi. Norisius, Henricus: Opera omnia nunc prim. collecta et ordinata. Veronae, Tumermani, 1729-32, fol. 4 vols. The fourth volume contains his posthumous work on History of Donatism, as finished by Ballerini.
xvii. Tillemont: in his Memoires pour servir a l'histoire Ecclésiastique:
1. Tom. VI. Histoire du schisme des Donatistes, où l'on marque aussi tou ce qui regarde' l'Eglise d 'Afrique depuis l'an 305, jusques en l'an 391 que S. Augustin fut fait Prestre. 1732.
2. Tom. XIII. La Vie de Saint Augustin, dans laquelle on trouvera l'histoire des Donatistes de son temps, et celle des Pelagiens. 1732.
xviii. Orsi: Della Istoria Ecclesiastica descritta da F. Guiseppe Agostino Orsi. Tom. IV. (1741) and V. (1749) contain the history ot the Donatists.
xix. Walch, Ch. Wilh. Fr.: Entwurf einer vollständigen Historie der Ketzereien, Spaltungen und Religionsstreitigkeiten, bis auf die Zeiten der Reformation. Leipzig, 1768. Vierter Theil: Von der Spaltung der Donatisten; with its three sections:
a. Von der historie der Donatisten.
b. Von den zwischen den Donatisten und ihren Gegnern geführten Religionsstreitigkeiten.
c. Beurtheilung der Donatistichen Streitigkeiten. This work was the beginning of a new critical estimate of the documents.
xx. Schröckh, Johann Mattheus: Christliche Kirchengeschichte. Sechster Theil: 1784, but particularly Elfter Theil, 1786. A juster estimate of Donatism.
xxi. Morcellii, Steph. Ant.: Africa christiana in tres partes distributa. 3 vols. 4. Brixiae, 1816-17. 4. P. II. for Donatism.
xxii. Bindemann, C.: Der heilige Augustinus, 1844-1869. Bdd. II. & III. contain excellent analyses of the works on Donatism, as well as a history during Augustin's life.
xxiii. Roux, Adrianus: Dissertatio de Aurelio Augustino, adversario Donatistarum. Lugduni Batavorum, 1838. A brief summary of the works and doctrine.
xxiv. Ribbeck: Donatus und Augustinus oder der erste entscheidende Kampf zwischen Separatismus und Kirche. Ein Kirchenhistorischer Versuch von Ferdinand Ribbeck. Elberfeld. 1857. 8. An uncritical history; but a vigorous analysis, apologetic and polemic.
xxv. Deutsch: Drei Actenstücke zur Geschichte Donatismus. Neu herausgegeben und erklärt von Martin Deutsch. Berlin, 1875. The first work on the textual and historical criticism of the sources.
xxvi. Voelter: Der Ursprung des Donatismus, nach den Quellen untersucht und dargestellt von Lic Dr. Daniel Voelter. Freiburg i. B. und Tübingen, 1883. This keen writer, at present Prof. Ord. in Univ. of Amsterdam, has gone still further into textual and historical criticism, and gives fair promise of a more impartial hearing for Donatism. It is to be hoped that he will fulfill his qualified promise of further research.
Among the general church histories particular mention may be made of Gieseler, Neander, Lindner, Niedner, Robertson, Ritter, Hergenröther, Schaff. The articles on Augustin, Donatism and related persons and topics in Ceillier, Ersch und Gruber, Herzog, Schaff-Herzog, Smith's Dictionary of Christian Biography, Wetzer and Welte, Lichtenberger, are more or less noteworthy. Mention must also be made of the Patrologies, the biographies, Hefele's Conciliengeschichte. the Analyses Patrum, etc.
Chapter II.-An Analysis of Augustin's Writings Against the Donatists.
The object of this chapter is to present a rudimentary outline and summary of all that Augustin penned or spoke against those traditional North African Christians whom he was pleased to regard as schismatics. It will be arranged, so far as may be, in chronological order, following the dates suggested by the Benedictine edition. The necessary brevity precludes anything but a very meagre treatment of so considerable a theme. The writer takes no responsibility for the ecclesiological tenets of the great Father, nor will he enter here into any criticism of the text and truth of the documents, upon which the historical argument was so laboriously and peremptorily built, to the utter ignoring of the Donatist archives, and the protests of their scholars against the validity and integrity of their opponents' records. Both parties claimed to be the historic Catholic church; both were little apart in doctrine, worship, and polity; both tended toward externalism in piety; both accused one another of fraud in inventing records. Later Romanism in its bright spirit of selection took much spoil from either camp.
The city of Augustin's birth, its neighborhood, indeed the whole ecclesiastical province of Numidia, was a stronghold for this puristic school. Is it not singular, then, that it seems to have made no impression upon his early years? As a child he had witnessed its brief restoration under Julian, and then the severe or lax efforts at suppression under succeeding emperors; the Rogatian schism and the Tychonian reformation were quite familiar to him in his Manichaean period; but the Confessions are silent as to any such stamp or hold upon his mind. His activity begins with his ordination to the presbyterate, a time marked in Donatist annals by the Maximianist separation, and increases as he becomes bishop. From about 392 to near the close of his life, pen and voice were seldom still. In all those years the outlinear thoughts grew in breadth and depth; endless are the forms in which his few and radical conceptions manifest themselves; never does he lose sight of the popular effect, so that he knows when to relax his love of word-play and delight in mysterious inductions, in order to make the chief themes plain to the dullest mind.
How varied the channels through which he struggled for the mastery of his idea of the Church! In the pulpit he made Donatism the occasion of many a polemic, many an appeal; in his correspondence it was an ever-recurrent topic; it was the staple of many a tract and book; verse was not shunned to destroy its fashionableness and popularity; commentaries and manuals for the meditative hour or for the training of the theological student, abounded in warnings against its aggressiveness; no opportunity for debate or conference or epistolary discussion was left unimproved. And no wonder: it was a living thing, of the street, of the market, of the social circle, of the home; it threatened at times to obliterate the transmarine view of the church from North Africa; its spirit of political independence and plea for religious liberty went to the hearts of a people, more and more restive under the decline of the Empire.
The literary creations of Donatism had been somewhat more fertile than that of Caecilianism. We must not belittle Donatus the Great, Parmenian, Petilian, Gaudentius, and certainly the eminence of Tychonius is confessed by Augustin himself. Up to this time Optatus of Milevis had been the only forcible opponent. But against the great Augustin whom could they bring into the field? And against the great Augustin, backed by the energy of the State, there was little hope of fairness. Augustin found a new and weighty school. Donatism, with its impossible ideal, already began to despise the culture which seemed to help its defeat and withdrew into its sensitive shell after the manner of all puristic tendencies under persecution.
The two prevalent lines of attack are the historical on the origin of the schism, which involved the dissection of the documents, and the doctrinal, or the discussion of the true notes of the Church from the basis of the Scriptures. This latter Augustin preferred, because final; he bowed to no patristic. One or the other or both may be traced in all his works, great or small, against them. Out of so protracted a controversy there grew up a symmetrical and comprehensive theory of the Church and the Sacraments on either side.
Of three fundamental points of Donatism, as perpetuated practices of North Africa, rebaptism and the encouragement of a martyr spirit with its attendant feasts, the continuance of the Seniores in the government of the Church, we find Augustin aiming mainly at the overthrow of the first two. One of his earliest letters suggests to his bishop some means for checking the drunkenness and great excess connected with the Natalitia. Passing to the specific subject in view:
In the early period of his presbyterate, (possibly about 392, others place it later), Augustin journeyed through Mutugenna, which apparently belonged to his bishop's see. He learned how pacifically disposed Maximin, Donatist bishop of Sinaita, was. The friendly feeling thus kindled toward him was shaken by the rumor that he had rebaptized a defecting Catholic deacon of Mutugenna; not willing to credit the story, he visited the deacon's home. His parents testified to their son's reception into the same office by the Donatists. In the absence of Bishop Valerius, he writes to Maximin with entreaty, refusing to credit the repetition of the rite, and urging him to remain firm in the convictions which had been imputed to him. He solicits a reply, that both letters may be read in the public service, after the dismission of the military. The prominent points of the letter are: while declining to recognize the validity of Maximin's orders, he does not refuse to salute him as Dominus dulcissimus, and Pater venerabilis. His solicitude as a shepherd to do his duty to all the sheep, constrains him to force himself upon their attention, and to be eager for correspondence or conference with a view to bringing them back to the fold. He is perfectly assured of the absolute and final correctness of his idea of the Church, and of the hopeless error of Donatism, an error so great as to merit eternal destruction. He discriminates, however, between heresy and schism at this time. Rebaptism in any case is a sin, but as applied to apostatizing Catholics, is an immanissimum scelus. There is only one baptism; that of Christ; as there was no double circumcision, so the sacrament of the New Testament should not be repeated. The Church is the owner of the nations which are Christ's inheritance, and of the ends of the earth, which are his possession; hence it is universal; the seamless robe should not be rent. Moreover the Lord's threshing-floor has chaff upon it along with the wheat, and therefore he urged the disuse of imputations through unworthy members on either side, whether Macarius or Circumcelliones. The schism made itself disastrously felt in all domestic and social relations. He engages to avoid anything that would look like using the power of the state for coercing conscience, and begs that on Maximin's side the Circumcelliones may be restrained. [Ep. xxiii.]
A Plenary council of all Africa was convened in Hippo-Regius in 393, before which Augustin preached the sermon. His subject was Faith and the Creed: his handling made such an impression that he was induced to expand it into the treatise: De Fide et Symbolo. In explaining the article credimus et sanctam ecclesiam, utique catholicam, he reflects on heretics and schismatics as claiming the title of churches for their congregations; and distinguishes between these two opponents of the Catholic body, heretics erring in doctrine, schismatics, while similar to the Catholic body in views of truth yet transgressing in the rupture of fraternal love. Neither pertain to the true Church of God. (Cp. Retractt. I. xvii).
Determined if possible to win the ear of all classes, the presbyter next affected a poem, "Psalmus contra Partem Donati," in the art of an Abecedarium, running the letters to U. The line with which it began was to be chanted as a refrain after each group of usually twelve lines connected with each letter, the whole closing with an extended epilogue. A generally vulgar performance it is, and purposely disclaimed all metrical dignity; and yet it contains the germs of his logical and historical opinions on the controverted points. The Church is a net in the sea of the world, enclosing the good and bad, which are not to be separated until the net is drawn to the shore. Those who accuse the Catholics of tradition, were themselves traditors and broke the net. The history is repeated, and all proof of the Donatist charges declared to be wanting. Unity is a note of the Church, and toleration within the net essential to its preservation. Over against Macarius he puts the violent Circumcelliones. The wicked members of the Church do not contaminate the good by a communion which is only outward and not of the heart. The threshing-floor has chaff upon it; wheat and tares must grow together. The Catholics rear the Elijah altar, the Donatist the Baal altar over against it. Christ endured Judas. Why rebaptize us, he exclaims, when you do not repeat the rite upon your once expelled but now restored Maximianists? Surely it is better to draw life from the real root. The character of him who administers the sacrament has nothing to do with its efficiency; and so he returns to the necessity for toleration within the net, as Judas was forborne in the apostolic company. The epilogue pictures the personified Church expostulating with the Donatists for quarreling with their Mother, and presents a loose summary of the previous arguments.
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