Tractates on the Gospel of John (continued)
TRACTATE 10 217 that Simon, too, wanted to buy the Holy Spirit for the very reason that he wanted to sell the Holy Spirit;^* and he thought that the apostles were such merchants as the Lord drove out of the temple with a scourge. For he was such a man and wanted to buy what he might sell; he was of those who sell doves. For the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove.^^ Therefore, brothers, they who sell doves, who are they except those who say, "We give the Holy Spirit"? Why do they say this and at what price do they sell? At the price of their own honor. They receive for a time bishops' seats as their price, that they may seem to sell doves. Let them beware of the scourge of ropes. The dove is not for sale; it is given gratis, for it is called grace.
(4) Therefore, my brothers, as you see that those who sell are hucksters, each one praises what he sells; how many sales' pitches have they made? Primianus has one sales' pitch at Carthage, Maximianus^^ has another; Rogatus^^ has another in Mauritania; and in Numidia this one and that one, there isn't time to name them all, have others. Therefore someone
24. Cf. Acts 8.9-24; see also Tractate 6.18. 25. Cf. Jn 1.32; Mt 3.16; Mk 1.10; Lk 3.22. 26. The Latin word is cathedras; this is likely an allusion to Mt 2 1 . 1 2 where Jesus overturns the tables of the money-changers and the seats {cathedras) of those who sold doves.
27. Cf. Tractate 3.9. 28. Primian became the Donatist bishop of Carthage in 391 or 392 A.D. and instituted a policy of leniency for Donatist dissidents. One of his deacons, Maximian, objected to this policy and with the support of some other Donatist bishops challenged the validity of Primian's election. After grievous internal conflict a Donatist general council held at Bagai in April, 394 A.D., ruled against Maximian and excommunicated him. This decision was supported by the Roman governor of Africa, Gildo, in 397 A.D., and the Maximianist faction gradually dissipated. See Frend, Donatist Church, 213 ff. 29. Rogatus, the Donatist bishop of Cartenna, objecting to the drunken orgies of the Circumcellions and seeking the traditional purity of Donatism, based on non-violence, formed about 370 A.D. a separatist Donatist party called the Rogatists. It was always a small and uninfluential sect. See Frend, Donatist Church, 170 and 197.
30. Each faction of the Donatists claimed to have the one truly valid baptism. Cf. Augustine, De Baptismo contra Donatistas 1.6 (PL 43.113—114; and CSEL 51.153-154); En in Ps 36.2.18—23 (CCL 38.359—368; and ACW 30.287-304); Epistula 93-43-53 (PL 33-342-347; CSEL 34.486-496; and FOTC 18.96106). See Berrouard, Homelies I— XVI, 910—91 1.