36. Cf. Song 6.8 (NAB 6.9). 37. Cf. Mt 27.34, Mk 15.23. (continued)
140 ST. AUGUSTINE hear quickly if it has been said to me. He says, it has been said to you. I answer with the voice of the Catholic church, to me. But brothers, although the sound of this answer has come only from my mouth, the answer has also sounded forth, I believe, from your hearts; and we have all said it together. It has been said to the Catholic church, "One is my dove, the only one her mother has." Outside the dove itself there is no baptism, he says. I have been baptized outside this dove; therefore I do not have baptism. If I do not have baptism, why don't you give it to me when I come to you?
12. I, too, am questioning. Let us put aside for the moment to whom it was said, "One is my dove, the only one her mother has." We are still seeking. Either it was said to me or it was said to you. Let us put aside to whom it was said.
(2) Therefore, I ask you, if the dove is simple, innocent, without bile, peaceful in kisses, not savage in its talons, I ask whether to this dove's members belong the greedy, the robbers, the deceivers, the drunkards, the dissolute — are they members of this dove? Far from it, he says. And in truth, brothers, who would say this? To mention nothing else, if I mention robbers only, they can be members of the hawk, not of the dove. Falcons ravage, hawks ravage, ravens ravage; doves do not ravage, do not tear apart. Thus robbers are not members of the dove.
(3) Has there been not even one robber among you? Why does the baptism remain which a hawk, not a dove, has given? Why do you not baptize among yourselves after the robbers and adulterers and drunkards, after the greedy among you? Or are all these members of the dove? You so dishonor the dove that you make the vulturous its members. What, then, brothers, are we saying? There are good and evil men in the Catholic church; but there are only evil men there. But, perhaps, I say this with a hostile mind; let this, too, be questioned later.
(4) On their side, too, assuredly they say that there are good and evil men; for if they say that they have only good, let their own believe them and I assent. Let them say, there are among us only the holy, the just, the chaste, the sober, no adulterers.