says: "About the same time" (as that at which he wrote
POLITICAL WRITINGS 207 for His cause. Your predecessors exposed Caecilianus and his companions to be punished by the kings of the earth for crimes with which they were falsely charged: let the lions now be turned to break in pieces the bones of the calumniators, and let no intercession for them be made by Daniel when he has been proved innocent, and set free from the den in which they meet their doom;^''' for he that prepareth a pit for his neighbour shall himself most justly fall into it.^®
C. Treatise on the Correction of the Donatists^
[A letter to Boniface, who, as we learn from
Letter CCXX, was tribune, and afterwards count in Africa. In it Augustine shows that the heresy of the Donatists has nothing in common with that of Arius; and points out the moderation with which it was possible to recall the heretics to the communion of the church through awe of the imperial laws. He adds remarks concerning the savage conduct of the Donatists and Circumcelliones, concluding with a discussion of the unpardonable nature of the sin against the Holy Ghost.]
I must express my satisfaction, and congratulations, and admiration, my son Boniface, in that,
27. Dan. vi. 23, 24. 28. Prov. xxvi. 27.
1. In Book II. c. xlviii. of his Retractations, Augustine says: "About the same time" (as that at which he wrote his treatise De Gestis Pelagii, i.e. about the year 417), "I wrote also a treatise De Correctione Donatistarum, for the sake of those who were not willing that the Donatists should be subjected to the correction of the imperial laws. This treatise begins with the words "Laudo, et gratulor, et admiror." This letter in the old editions was No. 50,—the letter which is now No. 4 in the appendix being formerly No. 185.
a. Letters, CLXXXV, 1-2.
208 ST. AUGUSTINE amid all the cares of wars and arms, you are eagerly anxious to know concerning the things that are of God. From hence it is clear that in you it is actually a part of your mihtary valour to serve in truth the faith which is in Christ. To place, therefore, briefly before your Grace the difference between the errors of the Arians and the Donatists, the Arians say that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are different in substance; whereas the Donatists do not say this, but acknowledge the unity of substance in the Trinity. And if some even of them have said that the Son was inferior to the
Father, yet they have not denied that He is of the same substance; whilst the greater part of them declare that they hold entirely the same beUef regarding the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost as is held by the Catholic Church. Nor is this the actual question in dispute with them; but they carry on their unhappy strife solely on the question of communion, and in the perversity of their error maintain rebelUous hostility against the unity of Christ. But sometimes, as we have heard, some of them, wishing to concihate the Goths, since they see that they are not without a certain amount of power, profess to entertain the same beUef as they. But they are refuted by the authority of their own leaders; for Donatus himself, of whose party they boast themselves to be, is never said to have held this belief.
Let not, however, things like these disturb thee, my beloved son. For it is foretold to us that there must needs be heresies and stumbling-blocks, that we may be instructed among our enemies; and that so both our faith and our love may be the more approved,—our faith, namely, that we should not be deceived by them; and our love, that we should