Augustine in His Own Words (continued)
Against the Donatists
had separated themselves but not lost Christ's baptism) and so received it as an enemy of the love and peace of Christ; but when he corrects himself and comes to the community and unity of the Church, he should not be baptized over again because, by his reconciliation to peace, he receives this benefit: that now, in unity, the sacrament begins to produce the remission of his sins, what it could not produce when received in schism.38
The Ark's Cooing Dove
We have seen Augustine's anti-Donatist theology in a piecemeal fashion; now let us see how the individual elements come together in a single address. In 407, Augustine delivered a sermon-series on John's Gospel, in the course of which he routinely discussed the Donatists, rebutting their behavior and their claims, making these sermons, in the phrase of Marie-François Berrouard, "a combat for the honor of Christ."39 We see here how biblical exegesis and theological controversy come together. The following sermon focuses on John 1:32–33: "John testified further, saying, 'I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon Him. I did not know Him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, "On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, He it is who baptizes with the Holy Spirit." ' " Here, as elsewhere, Augustine focuses his audience's attention on some clue, some "mystery," buried within the text that he argues is key to its deeper meaning. Here the clue is that the Holy Spirit appears as a dove. Throughout the sermon, Augustine plays on the Latin word gemitus, which generally means "moaning," but, in the case of a dove, means "cooing." From Tractates on the Gospel of John 6:
(1) My holy people, I had feared, I admit it to you, that this cold [weather] might cool your enthusiasm for coming together; but because you show by the great number and crowd of you that you are on fire in the Spirit, I have no doubt that you have also prayed for me that I may pay what is owed to you. For I had promised, in the name of Christ, to discuss today why God wanted to show the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove—something that the shortness of time had prevented me from being able to give an interpretation and explanation of earlier. That this may be explained, this day has dawned for us. And I see that, because of a desire for listening and a holy devotion, you have come together in unusual numbers. May God, through our mouth, fulfill your expectation. For you have loved [so much] that you came. But what have you loved? If us, this too is good, for we want to be loved by you, but we do not
38. De baptismo 1.12.18 (CSEL 51:162–63); my trans. 39. Berrouard, Introduction de saint Augustin sur l'Évangile de saint Jean, 55–78.
want to be loved in ourselves. Therefore, because we love in Christ, love us in return in Christ; and let our love for one another be a moaning to God, for moaning, or cooing, is characteristic of the dove.
(2) If, then, cooing is characteristic of a dove, as we all know, and doves coo in love, hear what the Apostle says, and do not wonder that the Holy Spirit wished to be shown in the form of a dove. He says: "For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspeakable moanings" (Rom 8:26). . . . And it is no small thing that the Holy Spirit teaches us to moan. For He makes known to us that we are in exile, and He teaches us to sigh for our native land, and we moan with that very longing. One who is well off in this world—or, rather, who thinks he is well off, who revels in the enjoyment of carnal things, and in the abundance of temporal possessions, and in a hollow happiness—has the voice of a raven. For the voice of the raven is full of loud shrieking, not of moaning. . . . But one who knows that he lives in the midst of the affliction of this mortal life, and that he is exiled from the Lord, that he does not yet possess that unending beatitude which has been promised to us, but that he has it in hope, and will have it in fact, when the Lord comes with shining brightness in His manifestation, who before came hidden in His lowliness—he who knows this is the one who moans. And as long as he moans on this account, he moans well. . . . Rightly the raven was sent from the ark, and it did not return; the dove was sent and returned. Noah sent both birds. Noah had the raven there; he also had the dove. That ark contained each kind. If the ark symbolized the Church, you see, of course, that it is necessary for the Church in this flood of the world to contain each kind, both the raven and the dove. Who are the ravens? They who seek the things that are their own. Who are the doves? They who seek the things that are Christ's. (3) Therefore when [Christ] sent the Holy Spirit, He showed [the Spirit] visibly in two ways: as a dove and as fire; as a dove upon the baptized Lord, as fire upon the assembled disciples. . . .
(7) What then did [John the Baptist] learn through the dove? . . . That there would be a certain peculiar characteristic in Christ, such that, although many ministers would baptize, whether [they were] just or unjust, the holiness of baptism would be ascribed only to Him upon whom the dove descended, about whom it was said, "He it is who baptizes with the Holy Spirit" (Jn 1:33).40 Let Peter baptize; "He it is who baptizes." Let Paul baptize; "He it is who baptizes." Let Judas baptize; "He it is who baptizes."
(8) For if baptism is holy in proportion to the diversity of merits, be-
40. "He it is who baptizes" (Hic est qui baptizat): This phrase from John 1:33 becomes a sort of slogan or refrain that punctuates this and other sermons. Augustine's point is that, while others serve as ministers of baptism, the baptism itself is empowered by Christ and claimed by Christ as His own.
cause merits are diverse, baptism will be diverse; and the better the person from whom one seems to have received something, so much the more does one suppose that he is receiving a better thing. But understand this, brothers and sisters, that the saints themselves, the good who are associated with the dove, who are associated with the destiny of that city of Jerusalem, the good themselves in the Church, about whom the Apostle says, "The Lord knows who are His" (2 Tm 2:19), possess different graces; they do not all have equal merits. Some are holier than others; some are better than others. Therefore, if one should be baptized, for instance, by a true saint, while another by one with less merit before God, one of lesser hierarchical rank, with less continence, and of a lesser spiritual life, why, nevertheless, is that baptism they have received one and equal and identical, except that "He it is who baptizes"? Therefore, when a good man baptizes and a better man baptizes, one person does not receive a good baptism while another person gets a better one. Even though, of the ministers, one is good and the other is better, what they received is one and the same, not better in one and inferior in the other. So too when an evil man baptizes, either from some lack of knowledge or from some toleration on the part of the Church (for either the evil are not known or they are tolerated; even chaff is tolerated until the wheat on the threshing-floor has been completely winnowed), what has been given is one, and it is not unequal just because the ministers are unequal, but is equal and identical because "He it is who baptizes."
(9) Therefore, my dearest people, let us see what [the Donatists] do not wish to see, not what they cannot see, but what they would grieve to see, as though it were made inaccessible to them. Where were the disciples sent in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to baptize the ministers? Where were they sent? "Go," he said; "baptize the nations" (Mt 28:19). You have heard, brothers and sisters, how that inheritance came: "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession" (Ps 2:8). You have heard how the Law went forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. For there the apostles heard, "Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28:19). . . .
(10) But, "look," say the disciples to the Lord, "we have heard in what name we are to baptize; you have made us ministers, and you have said to us, 'Go, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' (Mt 28:19). Where shall we go? Where?" "Did you not hear? To my inheritance. You ask, 'Where shall we go?' To that which I bought with my blood. Where then? To the nations," he says. Am I to suppose he said, "Go, baptize the Africans in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"?
Thanks be to God! The Lord solved the problem; the dove taught it. Thanks be to God! The apostles were sent to the nations; if to the nations, then to all tongues. The Holy Spirit, parted in tongues, united in the dove, signified this. On this side tongues are parted; on that the dove joins them together. Have the tongues of the nations achieved harmony and only the tongue of Africa become disharmonious? What is clearer, my brothers? In the dove is unity; in the tongues of the nations is community. . . .
(12) On [the Donatists'] side, too, assuredly they say that there are good and evil people; for if they say that they have only good, let their own believe them and assent. Let them say, "There are among us only the holy, the just, the chaste, the sober, no adulterers, no usurers, no defrauders, no perjurers, no wine guzzlers." Let them say it; for I do not pay attention to their tongues, but I touch their hearts. But since they are known to us and to you and to themselves, as you are also known both to yourselves in the Catholic Church and to them, neither let us reprimand them nor let them flatter themselves. We admit there are good and evil in the Church, but as grain and chaff. Sometimes the one baptized by grain is chaff and the one baptized by chaff is grain. If one argued that one baptized by grain has a valid baptism while one baptized by chaff did not have a valid one, then "He it is who baptizes" would be a false statement. If, on the other hand, it is true that "He it is who baptizes," what is given by chaff has validity, and thus chaff baptizes as validly as the dove. Granted, such an evil [minister] is not a dove, nor does he belong to the membership of the doves; nor can he be said to be Catholic or among them (as they say the dove is in their own church). How then do we understand things, brothers and sisters? We understand—and this is clear and known to all, and even if they do not wish to understand it, they stand convicted—that even when evil [ministers] give baptism, a second baptism is not given after it. The dove does not baptize the raven. Why then does the raven want to baptize after the dove does?
(13) Pay attention, my beloved people! Why also was something designated through a dove, so that the dove (that is, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove) came to the Lord after his baptism and was hovering over Him, in consequence of which in the coming of the dove John should understand that [there was] a certain exclusive power in the Lord for baptizing? For through this exclusive power, as I have said, the peace of the Church was confirmed. And it is possible that someone may have baptism outside the dove; but that any baptism outside the dove benefits him is impossible. Pay attention, my beloved people, and understand what I am saying; for often by that chicanery they mislead those of our brothers who are lazy and frigid. Let us be simpler and more zealous. "Look," they say, "did I receive or didn't I?" I answer: You received it. [They say:] "Well, if I received it, you have nothing to give me; I am secure, even by your testimony. For I say that I have received it and you admit that I have received it; we both assert that I am secure. What, then, are you promising me? Why do you want to make me a Catholic when you are not going to give me anything more, and you admit that I have already received what you say you have? But when I say, 'Come to me,' I declare that you, who admit that I do have it, do not have it. Why do you say, 'Come to me'?"
(14) The dove teaches us. For he answers from above the Lord's head and says, "You have baptism, but the love with which I coo you do not have." "What does this mean," he says, "that I have baptism but I do not have love? Do I have the sacraments and not love?" Do not shout. Show me how one who divides unity has love. "I," he says, "have baptism." You do, but that baptism profits you nothing, because without love you are nothing. For that baptism, even in him who is nothing, is not nothing. For that baptism is something, and something great on account of Him about whom it was said, "He it is who baptizes." But that you might not think that that which is great could somehow benefit you if you are not in unity, the dove descended upon him baptized, as if saying, "If you have baptism, be in the dove; otherwise, what you have may not benefit you." Come, therefore, to the dove, we say, not that you may begin to have what you did not have, but that what you had may begin to benefit you. For, outside, you had baptism to your ruin; if you have it within, it begins to benefit for salvation.
(15) For it is possible not only for baptism to be beneficial to you; it is also possible for it to be injurious to you. Even holy things can injure; for in good people holy things involve their salvation, but in the evil, they involve their judgment. . . . Consider what you have—what belongs to the dove outside the dove. If you have what belongs to the dove within the dove, you have it securely. Suppose you are a soldier. If you should have the mark of your general within [the army], you serve as a soldier securely. If you have it outside [the army], not only does that mark not benefit you for military service, but you will also be punished as a deserter. . . .
(18) Therefore, do not boast about baptism, as if salvation through it suffices for you. Do not be angry, put aside gall, come to the dove. Here that will benefit you which, outside, not only did not benefit but also injured.
(19) And don't say, "I am not coming because I was baptized outside." Look, begin to have love, begin to bear fruit; let fruit be found in you; the dove will send you inside. We find this in Scripture: "The ark had been built from incorruptible woods" (Gn 6:14). The incorruptible woods are the saints, the faithful who belong to Christ. For just as in a temple faithful people are called the living stones of which the temple is built (1 Pt 2:5), so people persevering in the faith are the incorruptible woods. In that ark, then, were incorruptible woods; for the ark is the Church. The dove baptizes there; for that ark was borne over the water. The incorruptible woods were baptized within. We find that certain woods were baptized outside, that is, all the trees which were in the world. Nevertheless, the water was the same, and there was no other; it had come from the sky and from the abysses of springs. It was the very water in which the incorruptible woods that were in the ark were baptized and in which the woods outside were baptized. The dove was sent and at first did not find a resting place for its feet, and it returned to the ark. For all places were filled with the waters, and it preferred to return rather than to be rebaptized. But the raven was sent out before the water dried up. Rebaptized, it did not wish to return, and it died in those waters. May God turn away [from us] the death of that raven! For why did it not return, except that it had been cut off by the waters? But the dove, not finding a resting place for its feet, although on all sides the water cried out to it, "Come, come, bathe yourself here," just as these heretics shout out, "Come, come you have [baptism] here," the dove, not finding a resting place for its feet, returned to the ark. And Noah sent it out again, as the ark sends you to speak to them. And what did the dove do after that? Because there were woods that had been baptized outside, it carried back to the ark an olive branch. That branch had both leaves and fruit. Let there not be only words in you. Let there not be only leaves in you. Let there be fruit, and you return to the ark. But not through yourself, for the dove calls you back. Coo on the outside that you may call them back inside. . . .
(23) But what do you [Donatists] say? "Look, we suffer many evils." Would that you suffered them for Christ and not for your own honors. . . . Those martyrs who suffered in the time of persecution acted out of love. They acted out of love. But these men act out of ostentation and out of pride. For since there is no persecutor, they hurl themselves down [to a violent death]. Come then, that you may have love. "But we have martyrs." What martyrs? They are not doves. They tried to fly and fell from the rock.41
(24) And so, my brothers and sisters, you see all things shout out against them, all the holy pages, all the prophecy, the whole Gospel, all the apostolic letters, all the moanings and cooings of the dove; and they do not yet awaken, they do not rouse themselves up. But if we are the dove, let us moan and coo,
41. "What martyrs? . . . they tried to fly and fell from the rock": Optatus of Milevis, De schismate Donatistarum 3.5 (CSEL 26:81–85; Edwards, 69–70), reports that certain Donatists leapt off cliffs, apparently as a sort of ritual suicide, and that other Donatists honored them as martyrs. W. H. C. Frend, Rise of Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), 574, reports finding Donatist stone monuments at the foot of certain cliffs. Augustine is satirizing this here; see also ep. 43.8.24; Contra epistulam Parmeniani 3.6.29; Contra litteras Petiliani 1.24.26; Contra Cresconium 3.49.54. When he says, "they fell from the rock," note the singular; Augustine is consciously echoing Paul (1 Cor 10:4), who says that "the rock is Christ."