23. Retr. 1.20 (CCL 57:61); trans. Bogan, FOTC 60:86.
(20) Because I wished to familiarize the most lowly people and especially the ignorant and uneducated with the case of the Donatists and to impress it on their memory to the best of my ability, I composed a psalm to be sung by them, arranged according to the Latin alphabet, and only as far as the letter V, that is, in the so-called abecedarian style. I omitted, however, the last three letters, but in their place at the end, I added an epilogue, so to speak, as though Mother Church were addressing them. Moreover, the refrain, which is repeated again and again, and the prologue to the case which we wanted sung, are not in alphabetical order. Furthermore, I did not want this psalm composed in any form of metrical verse lest the metrical requirements force me [to use] some words which are not familiar to the common people.23
While Augustine did not use a fixed meter for the poem's nearly 300 lines, he did make use of musical devices, such as rhyme and alliteration. Each line is divided into two hemistiches, each hemistich averaging eight syllables. The poem sets out the Catholic case against the Donatists, both historically and theologically. I have translated here the first two stanzas and the epilogue. The first introduces Augustine's classic view that the Church here and now is a mix of good and bad, which he illustrates with Jesus' parable of the catch of fish (Mt 13:47–48). The second sets out his central accusation against the Donatists: they have shattered the unity of the Church. The epilogue, as Augustine noted, has Mother Church give a speech lamenting the divisions. From Psalm against the Donatists:
[Refrain] You who rejoice in peace, now judge the truth. Abundant sin tends to spin the brethren dizzy. For this reason, our Lord wanted to give fair warning, (10) Comparing Heaven's kingdom to a net tossed into the sea, Gathering loads of fish, all kinds, from here and from there, and when dragged to shore, then began the separating: the good, put into barrels; the bad, tossed back into the sea. Any who know the Gospel recognize it with fear. They see the Church is the net, they see this world's the sea, The many fish, all kinds mixed, that's the righteous with sinners; World's end, that's the shore. Then will be the time of separating Fish who once split the nets: too much did they love the sea; The barrels, that's the saints' seats, to which sinners cannot reach.
(20) You who rejoice in peace now judge the truth.
23. Retr. 1.20 (CCL 57:61); trans. Bogan, FOTC 60:86.