Untitled - Shattering Denial

THE INQUISITION 15
Did not Christ forbid St. Peter to use the sword?" 1
Yes,
undoubtedly, but Christ came to suffer, not to defend him
self. 2 The lot of Christians is different from that of Christ.
It is in virtue, therefore, of the Old Law that St. Optatus
defends the State s interference in religious questions, and
its infliction of the death penalty upon heretics. This is
evidently a different teaching from the doctrine of tolera
tion held by the Fathers of the preceding age. But the
other bishops of Africa did not share his views.
In his dealings with the Donatists, St. Augustine was at
first absolutely tolerant, as he had been with the Mani-
cheans. He thought he could rely upon their good faith,
and conquer their prejudices by an honest discussion.
"We have no intention," he writes to a Donatist bishop,
"of forcing men to enter our communion against their will.
I am desirous that the State cease its bitter persecution,
but you in turn ought to cease terrorizing us by your band
of Circumcelliones. . . . Let us discuss our differences
from the standpoint of reason and the sacred Scriptures/ 3
In one of his works, now lost, Contra partem Donati, he
maintains that it is wrong for the State to force schis
matics to come back to the Church. 4 At the most, he
1
John
xviii. n.
2 De Schismate Don., cap. vii.
3 "Ut omnes intelligant non hoc esse propositi mei ut inviti homines ad
cujusquam communionem cogantur. Cesset a nostris partibus terror temporalium
potestatum; cesset etiam a vestris partibus terror congregatorum
Circumcellionum," etc. Ep. xxiii, n. 7.
4 "Sunt duo libri mei quorum titulus est Contra partem Donati. In