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556 Credibility of the Gospel History.
Csecilian's faulty ordination was always one' pretence
And, if Optatus may be relied upon, the only complaint,
which the Donatists at first made ag-ainst Ctecilian, was,
that^ he had been ordained by Felix of Apthronga, who,
they said, delivered up the scriptures to persecutors: whilst
the catholics^ always denied the charge, as groundless.
Augustine, as we have seen, farther assures us, their
opinion was, that the church of Christ subsisted in Africa
only among themselves; and that every where else the
church of Christ was lost and ruined, by communicating'
with unworthy persons, particularly with such as adhered
to Caecilian, who had been ordained by traitors.
With what warmth and bitterness they expressed themselves
upon this head, appears from a passage of an author
of theirs, whom I have quoted more than once ; as also from
a place of "Petilian, in Augustine.
Augustine himself has mentioned a remarkable instance
of their disdain of*' other men, which I suppose may be
relied upon.
But though the Donatists scrupled to communicate with
the catholics, because they were traitors of the divine scrip-
ante Caecilianum ecclesise Carthaginis episcopus, tempore persecutionis tradi-
derit persecutoribus sanctas scripturas, kc. August. Brev. Collat. D. iii. cap.
:.iii. n. 25.
' Dicunt ordinatorem ejus sanctos libros tradidisse. Aug. Psalm. Contr.
Donat. D.
^ Illo tempore a tot inimicis nihil in eum potuit confingi sed de ordinatore
sue, quod ab iis false traditor diceretur, meruit infamari. Optat. 1. i. c. 19.
' Deinde Gesta Proconsularia, ubi Felix diligentissimo examine probatus
estinnocens. Aug. Ep. 43. [al. 162.] c. 2. n. 5. Vid. Gesta Purgation is Felicis
Aptungitani.
" Igitur cum hfec ita sint, quisnam est divini juris peritia pollens,— qui
judicii Dei memor separat a stante lapsum, ab integro vulneratum, a
justo reum, ab innocente damnatum, a custode legis proditorem, a confessore
Christi nominis ejus negatorem et unum atque idem existimet et ecclesiam
martyrum et conventicula traditorum. Quamobrem fugienda bonis,
et vitanda est semper religiosis conspiratio traditorum, hypocritarum domus.
Denique isti falsi sacrorum ritus fictaque mysteria non tamen in salutem quam
in perniciem miserorum celebrantur, cum erigitaltare sacrilegus, celebrat sacramenta
profanus, baptizat reus, curat vulneratus,—legit evangelia traditor,
haereditatem coeli promittit divinorum testamentorum exustor. Acta Satur-
nini, &c. cap. 19. ap. Du Pin, Optat. p. 150.
" Qui utique spiritus—sancfus in vos venire non potuit, quos non vel
poenitentise baptismus abluit : sed poenitenda, quod verum est, aqua polluit
traditoris. Aug. Contr. Lit. Petil. 1. ii. c. 36. n. 83.
° Usque adeo ex ipso numero sunt, ut nuper in Collatione nostra, quod
etiam in gestis ipsis legere potestis, cum eis a cognitore esset confessus oblatus,
ut sederent nobiscum, respondendum putarunt : Scriptum est nobis, cum
talibus non sedere, scilicet ne per contactum subselliorum ad eos velut nostra
contagio perveairet. Aug. Semi. 99. cap. 8. Tom. v. p. 524. E.
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