Letter CXXXIX.
(a.d. 412.)
To Marcellinus, My Lord Justly
Distinguished, My Son Very Much Beloved and Longed for, Augustin
Sends Greeting in the Lord.
1. The Acts which your Excellency promised to
send I am eagerly expecting, and I am longing to have them read as
soon as possible in the church at Hippo, and also, if it can be
done, in all the churches established within the diocese, that all
may hear and become thoroughly familiar with the men who have
confessed their crimes, not because the fear of God subdued them to
repentance, but because the rigour of their judges broke through
the hardness of their most cruel hearts,—some of them confessing
to the murder of one presbyter [Restitutus], and the blinding and
maiming of another [Innocentius]; others not daring to deny that
they might have known of these outrages, although they say that
they disapproved of them, and persisting in the impiety of schism
in fellowship with such a multitude of atrocious villains, while
deserting the peace of the Catholic Church on the pretext of
unwillingness to be polluted by other men’s crimes; others
declaring that they will not forsake the schismatics, even though
the certainty of Catholic truth and the perversity of the Donatists
have been demonstrated to them. The work, which it has pleased God
to entrust to your diligence, is of great importance. My heart’s
desire is, that many similar Donatist cases may be tried and
decided by you as these have been, and that in this way the crimes
and the insane obstinacy of these men may be often brought to
light; and that the Acts recording these proceedings may be
published, and brought to the knowledge of all men.
As to the statement in your Excellency’s
letter, that you are uncertain whether you ought to command the
said Acts to be published in Theoprepia, my reply is, Let this be done, if
a large multitude of hearers can be gathered there; if this be not
the case, some other place of more general resort must be provided; it must not, however, be omitted on any account.
2. As to the punishment of these men, I beseech you
to make it something less severe than sentence of death, although
they have, by their own confession, been guilty of such grievous
crimes. I ask this out of a regard both for our own consciences and
for the testimony thereby given to Catholic clemency. For this is
the special advantage secured to us by their confession, that the
Catholic Church has found an opportunity of maintaining and
exhibiting forbearance towards her most violent enemies; since in a
case where such cruelty was practised, any punishment short of
death will be seen by all men to proceed from great leniency. And
although such treatment appears to some of our communion, whose
minds are agitated by these atrocities, to be less than the crimes
deserve, and to have somewhat the aspect of weakness and
dereliction of duty, nevertheless, when the feelings, which are
wont to be immoderately excited while such events are recent, have
subsided after a time, the kindness shown to the guilty will shine
with most conspicuous brightness, and men will take much more
pleasure in reading these Acts and showing them to others, my lord
justly distinguished, and son very much beloved and longed for.