unity in necessary things; liberty in doubtful things; charity in all things

The common misconception attributes these words to Augustine. Augustine

wrote over a million words, but he never said these words in this order. The
real Augustine would accept no compromise. He would relentlessly
persecute the Donatists; imprisonment, confiscation of property and
coercion into Catholicism. Why? The Donatists agreed on virtually every
theological position the Catholics held. The minor differences of theology
(i.e. rebaptism) were truly insignificant in the struggle between Christianity
and paganism. This is Augustines charity to fellow Christians:

The Donatist bishops expounded the same Bible as himself, they professed the
same creed, they celebrated an identical liturgy; yet they refused to see obvious
truth about the Catholic Church They go down with eyes into Hell.(C.Ep. Fund. 4)

Brown, Peter. Augustine of Hippo, A Biography. University of California Press,

Berkeley and Los
Angeles, California. 1967. P 212

In the Lausanne Disputation John Calvin would achieve his fame as a debater and a defender
of the Protestant Reformation. His claim reiterated in his letter of 1539, to Cardinal Sadoleto,
bishop of Carpentras, makes the outrageous assumption that the Church
Fathers were closer to the Protestant cause than to the Catholic. This
assumption is partly the reason of Calvins prominence in Protestant affairs.

With this Church we deny that we have any disagreement. Nay, rather, as we revere her as our
mother, so we desire to remain in her bosomI pray, before your eyes, that ancient form of the
Church, such as their writings prove it to have been in the age of Chrysostom and Basil,
among the Greeks, and of Cyprian, Ambrose, and Augustine, among the Latins; after so doing,
contemplate the ruins of that Church, as now surviving among yourselves.

A Reformation Debate JOHN CALVIN AND JACOPO SADOLETO Edited by

John C. Olin, Baker Books, 1966, Grand Rapids Michigan p.62

Augustine would have persecuted and hated the Protestants. He was willing to jail and
confiscate property from the Donatists who were close almost identical to the Catholic religion.
On the other hand, he hated literalists and fundamentalists, persons who would have a close
affiliation with the Protestant cause. He would have detested John Calvin and the other
Protestant clergy. A careful examination of the Donatist controversy will clarify this contention.
The Donatists were much closer to Catholicism than the Reformers, and the Donatists shared
many theological ideas of the Reformation.

Augustine was the father of many things. The father of Western Theology,
Catholicism, and Christian Mysticism. Perhaps, his most hidden trait is the
father of the Inqusition. How does Augustine move from Christian mystic
above the cares of the world to the father of the Inquisition? From the time
of his appointment as bishop in 395 up to his death 430 he did not cease in
persecuting and attacking the Donatists. In the years before his death,when
the Vandals were approaching Hippo, and every priest and citizen was in
danger of being tortured and/or raped, it would have been prudent for
opponents to make common cause to fight a common enemy. Augustine,
nevertheless, was relentless in his persecution and would not let up in his
attacks on the Donatists. Who were the Donatists and what made them
enemies of Augustine?

The Donatists

Tertullian (160 225 AD), is regarded as a church father by Protestants

because of his high regard for Scripture. He became a Montanist later in life
and as a result was considered outside of mainstream Catholicism. He
believed Scripture was the source of authority over doctrinal issues.
Consequently when he argues against the Gnostics in his writing on the
Flesh he cites Scriptures as authoritative evidence against their teachings

If you had not purposely rejected in some instances, and corrupted in others,
the Scriptures which are opposed to your opinion, you would have been
confuted in this matter by the Gospel of John,

We have, however, challenged these opinions to the test, both of the

arguments which sustain them, and of the Scriptures which are appealed to,
and this we have done ex abundanti; so that we have, by showing what the
flesh of Christ was, and whence it was derived, also predetermined the
question, against all objectors, of what that flesh was not.

Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ, Chapter 3 & 25

Source. Translated by Peter Holmes. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3. Edited

by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY:
Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885.) Revised and edited for New Advent
by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0315.htm>.

Tertullian despised Greek philosophy. He considered Plato, Aristotle and

other Greek philosophers the forefathers of the heretics (De anima, iii.) He
would use argument and scripture to free Christian thought from philosophy.
He made important contributions to the theology of Donatism. In his later
life he become a follower of Montanism; a cult stressing contemporary
prophecy as revelation from God.

Tertullian would emphasize the separation of Church and state. As he is

often quoted 'what is more foreign to us than the State?" The Donatist
Church of the fourth and fifth centuries would stress this independence from
the State, the primacy of Scripture, and the discrediting of Greek philosophy.

In contrast to Protestant theology Tertullian would believe there is only one

true Church, the sole source of baptismal regeneration, outside the church
sacraments such as communion had no real efficacy. Tertullian believed the
sanctity of the of priest enabled the effectiveness of the sacraments.
Tertullian firmly believed. Tertullian would argue that without baptism
salvation was impossible. The heretics had to be rebaptized as their
baptism was ineffective.

Augustine would disagree with almost every point. He would use the State
to coerce the Donatists into the Catholic faith. Instead of despising
philosophy,

Colossians 2:8
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit,
according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the
world, and not according to Christ.

Augustine would weave Platonism into the very core of Christian theology.
He was against rebaptism and reinterpreted Scriptures in accordance with
Greek philosophy.

In the next generation Cyprian (200-258 AD) would become the spiritual heir
of Tertullian. The Emperor Valerian I would start a persecution of Christians
in 256 AD (Valerian Persecution). Both Pope Stephen I and his successor
Pope Sixtus II were martyred. In Africa, Cyprian was brought before the
Roman proconsul and commanded to sacrifice to the pagan deities. He
would refuse and proclaimed Christ instead.

On September 13, 258, Galerius Maximus, the new proconsul would sentence
him to death by the sword. He reported to have said "Thanks be to God!"
He removed his clothes, knelt down to pray, blindfolded himself and was
beheaded.

Prior to his death, in the first round of persecution, (the Decian Persecution 250-251) many
persons of the laity and members of the clergy, had apostatized rather than face torture or death.
Their apostasy was offering incense to the emperor or to the heathen gods. When the immediate
persecution ended many wanted to return to the Church and begged forgiveness. At a council in
251 Cyprian developed a roadmap for the lapsi to return to the faith.

The lapsi who had not sacrificed but obtained false certificates of sacrifice would be reconciled
after penance. The thurificati, those who had offered sacrifices under persecution, and the
sacraficati, who made sacrifices to the idols, must do penance and be readmitted when they were
about to die.

Cyprian thought a person should be rebaptized if he was baptized by a heretic or outside the
Church. If a priest was a lapsi, he was outside of the Church. The baptisms he performed, while
he was outside the Church, would be invalid. St Stephen, Bishop of Rome, in 256 did not
welcome that position. The Roman position was against rebaptism because of the Novotion
schism. In 258 Cyprian was martyred and the issue was never settled formally.

During the Decian Persecution (250-251), pope Fabian was martyred. One of the priests who
offered guidance during this period was Novatus. Novatus was a purist who was against
allowing the lapsed clergy back into the Catholic faith. His caused failed and St Stephen, one of
his opponents, became Bishop of Rome.

To both the Romans and the Africans Cyprian was a hero, the bishop martyred in Carthage.
The Donatists used Cyprian's writings on the sacraments. Cyprian believed in rebaptism and the
sacraments administered by the Church were only effective if administered by true priests: those
who were not lapsi. However the Catholics would use the writings which stress his emphasis on
the Catholic Church. Baptism would be effectively administered within the unity of the Catholic
Church, lapsi priest or not.

The Diocletianic Persecution (or Great Persecution), the last and most severe persecution, began
in 303. A series of Roman Emperors Diocletian, Maximian, Galerius and Constantius demanded
all people, including the Christians, in a show of unity in the Empire, to sacrifice to the Roman
gods.

Diocletian split the Roman Empire into two. Maximiam was appointed
Emperor of the Western providence. Diocletian appointed Galerius as second
in command in the East and Maximian appointed Constantius in the West.

In 303 the Roman rulers demanded the Christian clergy hand over the
Scriptures and perform an act of obedience to the Roman gods. If the
Christians resisted the churches would be destroyed and assemblies
prohibited. Sensing the edict was being resisted, three more edicts were
issued: all clergy to be arrested and imprisoned; the Christian laity were to
be included.

Eventually the persecution subsided by 305. This did not bring unity to the
Church. Many of the clergy and the laity had made sacrifices marking them
as traditores. One traitor in particular was Caecilian, an Archdeacon to
Mensurius, bishop of Carthage. He not only appeased the Romans with some
sort of act of obedience to the Roman gods but he actively persecuted
Christians who resisted. There was a group of some 40 Christians from
Abitina who were imprisoned for resisted the Roman edicts. Not only were
the Christians tortured in prison, but as punishment they were being starved
to death. Caecilian, with the support of Mensurius, stood at the door of the
prison and whipped or clubbed any Christians who attempted to bring food to
the prisoners. The prisoners became martyrs by starvation.

The end of the persecutions left the North African community deeply divided. In 311, Mensurius
died, Caecilian, his archdeacon was elected in his stead. He was elected by two bishops instead
of the twelve required for the post. What was to become the Donatist party objected to his
appointment. The Church of North Africa assembled 70 bishops who deposed Caecilian. The
Council unanimously condemned Caecilian's and appointed Majorinus in his place. When
Majorinus died Donatus was chosen to take his place, from him the name Donatists originated. He
presided over the Church for over forty years.

Constantine, after defeating Maxentius and declaring himself a Christian, restored the churches
of North Africa to the Catholics calling Caecilian its president. The Donatists appealed to
Constantine. Constantines father, Constantius was the one of the Caesars of the Great
Persecution, he had no sympathy with the Donatists and would have sympathy with the Catholic
bishops who sided with his father. Constantine directed the appeal to the Rome. Pope
Melchiades chose fifteen Italian bishops to judge the case. The ten Donatist bishops lead by
Donatus, brought accusations against Caecilian. Caecilian was judged innocent and allowed to
keep his post as Bishop of Carthage and Donatus was stripped of his post. The nineteen bishops
of Rome triumphed over the seventy bishops of North Africa.

In 386, the Emperor Theodosius mader Gildo the leading military leader in
Africa. Gildo soom allied with Optatus, Bishop of Thamugadi, the most
important Donatist bishopric in Numidia. They attempted to impose
Numidian Donatism on all North Africa. In 398, they were the leaders of a
revolt against Honorius, who was appointed Emperor at the death of his
father Theodosius.
Gildo was defeated in 398, the Catholics began a long series of edicts in
opposition to Donatism until the Vandels took North Africa in 430. In 398
Honorius repealed the Donatist privilege of assembly.
In 403, Augustines disciple and friend Alypius began to take a more active role on behalf of the
Catholic Numidian delegation, of which Augustine was a delegate. The main issue was the
drafting of a document inviting the Donatist bishops to a conference in 403. This was a failure,
the Donatists rightly interpreted any attempt at communication to be a prelude to further
restrictions on Donatist worship.
 In June 404 the African bishops were meeting to seek another solution but
this conference was frustrated by Maximianus of Bagai. He was a bishop
who had been severely beaten by the Circumcellians, a fanatical group
associated with the Donatists. He traveled directly to Ravenna, the Western
Roman capital city, and appealed to Honorius, the Emperor. Honorius
responded in February of 405 with the Edict of Unification. This edict
declared the Donatists to be heretics, confiscated their churches, excluded
them from inheritance rights, imposed fines upon them, and instituting
flogging.

Augustine did not request the harsh laws of the edict. The harshness was the result of the sudden
visit and personal appeal of Maximianus of Bagai. Of course the real politic of the revolt of
Gildo and the Donatist support of Gildo was certainly a real factor in the edict. However this
period shows a marked turning in Augustines approach to Donatist conversion. He approves of
coercion to force conversion on the Donatists.
Prior to 405, Augustine had taken a more personal, and persuasive approach to the conversion of
the Donatists to the catholic church. His letters were respectful an theologically apologetic. He
believe Caecilian had been libeled in his actions against the Donatists, therefore the Donatists
should return to the Catholic Church.

Between 403 and 411 Augustine participated in six councils in Carthage dealing with the
Donatist schism. In 408 Augustine was challenged by a distant correspondent Vincentius of
Cartennae to justify his present view on coercion. Vincentius was the leader of a Donatus
splinter group, the sect of Rogtus. He attempts to be persuasive, flatters Augustine as the man of
peace who he knew as a friend. Then he asks the difficult question, why after being a man of
literary pursuits are you now involved in theological controversies and political coercion.
Augustines reply:

16. You now see therefore, I suppose, that the thing to be considered when any one is coerced, is
not the mere fact of the coercion, but the nature of that to which he is coerced, whether it be
good or bad: not that any one can be good in spite of his own will, but that, through fear of
suffering what he does not desire, he either renounces his hostile prejudices, or is compelled to
examine truth of which he had been contentedly ignorant; and under the influence of this fear
repudiates the error which he was wont to defend, or seeks the truth of which he formerly knew
nothing, and now willingly holds what he formerly rejected.Perhaps it would be utterly useless
to assert this in words, if it were not demonstrated by so many examples. We see not a few men
here and there, but many cities, once Donatist, now Catholic, vehemently detesting the diabolical
schism, and ardently loving the unity of the Church; and these became Catholic under the
influence of that fear which is to you so offensive by the laws of emperors, from Constantine,
before whom your party of their own accord impeached Ccilianus, down to the emperors of our
own time, who most justly decree that the decision of the judge whom your own party chose, and
whom they preferred to a tribunal of bishops, should be maintained in force against you.
17. I have therefore yielded to the evidence afforded by these instances which my colleagues
have laid before me. For originally my opinion was, that no one should be coerced into the unity
of Christ, that we must act only by words, fight only by arguments, and prevail by force of
reason, lest we should have those whom we knew as avowed heretics feigning themselves to be
Catholics. But this opinion of mine was overcome not by the words of those who controverted it,
but by the conclusive instances to which they could point. For, in the first place, there was set
over against my opinion my own town, which, although it was once wholly on the side of
Donatus, was brought over to the Catholic unity by fear of the imperial edicts

Letter 93 (408) From Augustine to Vincentius Source. Translated by J.G. Cunningham. From
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1. Edited by Philip Schaff. (Buffalo, NY:
Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight.
<http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102093.htm>.

Two centuries of persecution under pagan emperors inoculated the Donatist Church from the
Catholic persecution. Many would convert out of practicality but there persisted a stubborn
group maybe even a majority of Christians who still practiced the Donatist faith. Augustine,
himself, must have worshipped with the Donatists as a youth. His mother, Monica, practiced the
Donatist superstition of honoring the martyrs by visiting gravesites until Ambrose, by sermon or
personal appeal, convinced her to stop in Milan.
Not content with the two church system in North Africa, Augustine and the African bishops
requested a church council under the supervision of Emperor Honorius. The Donatists were
invited but rather forced to attend in Carthage in 411. The Emperor controlled the council
through his surrogate, Marcellinus of Carthage. Augustine would dedicate his most famous work
City of God to Marcellinus.

was a Christian martyr and saint who died in 413. He was secretary of state of the Western
Roman Empire under Roman Emperor Honorius and a close friend of Augustine of Hippo, as
well as a correspondent of Saint Jerome's. Saint Augustine dedicated the first books of his
landmark The City of God to Marcellinus in 413.

In 409, Marcellinus granted the right to public worship to the Donatists, an heretical group. The
Donatists grew in power and began to oppress the orthodox, who appealed to the emperor for
protection. Marcellinus was set up as the judge of the controversy. In 411

There was never any doubt the Donatist party would be defeated. Marcellinus declared the
purpose of the council to confirm the catholic faith. The Donatists were defiant. They stalled,
demanded roll calls, marched a large procession in front of the assembly each day, and asked for
documentation. Augustine, always the best debater of his age, defeated the Donatists by
concentrating on the theological issues of the schism: rebaptism and sacramental efficacy of
Catholic clergy. The arguments, no matter how eloquent, did not matter. The judges in the
council were all Catholics and none of them had Donatist sympathies.
On January 30, 412, after the conference of Carthage, judgment was pronounced. All Donatist
clergy were exiled, membership in a Donatist church was a crime, and all property of the Church
was to be turned over to the Catholics. The difference between the punishments of the two edicts
on their face value did not seem much different from one another.

In 413, the Donatists had their revenge. Marcellinus and his brother, Apringius,were accused of
conspiracy against the Emperor in the rebellion of Heraclion. The Roman general, Maricus,
who had defeated Heraclion, arrested Marcellinus and Apringius. The Catholics would accuse
him of having Donatist sympathies. Before Augustine could intervene on his behalf, he was
executed by the court.

There is no dispute that from Theodosius I (ruled 379-395) to the invasion of the Vandals in 430,
the Catholics had the power over heretics to exile, imprison, confiscate property, prevent children
from inheriting property and take their lives. Augustine eventually was given judicial power
over such legal proceedings and would write letters defending the practice. How many people
were actually sentenced by Augustine is not known.

As an estimated 80,000 man army of Vandals besieged Hippo in 430, Augustine was on his
deathbed. It is reported by his friends that Augustine spent his final days in prayer and
repentance. The Vandals would lift the siege of Hippo, but returned and burn the city. The city
was burned, the inhabitants were killed and tortured, but Augustine's cathedral and library, were
left untouched.

In the midst of these evils, he was comforted by the saying of a certain wise man He is no great
man who thinks it a great thing that sticks and stones should fall and that men, who must die,
should die.

Brown, Peter. Augustine of Hippo, A Biography. University of California Press,

Berkeley and Los Angeles, California. 1967. P 430

The wise man was Plotinus, the writer of the Enneads. The attraction of the Plato and the
Neoplatonists were never removed from Augustines mind. The effect of removing oneself from
the world and becoming like the impassable One, would leave its impression on Augustine. His
lack of sympathy for the people he served and among whom he lived was evident. The sticks and
stones were the city of Hippo and the men who must die were its citizens.