A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

354 A Source Book for Ancient Church HistoryOptatus given here, Epistles 88 and 185 by Augustine areaccessible in translations and will be found of assistance infilling in the account of the Circumcellions. The latter isknown as De correctione Donatistarum and is published inthe anti-Donatist writings of Augustine in PNF, ser. I, vol. IV;the most important passages are §§ 15 and 25. It is probablethat the party of the Circumcellions was originally due to arevolt against intolerable agrarian conditions and that theirassociation with the Donatists was at first slight.[323]§ 3. … The Emperor Constans did not send Paulus and Macariusprimarily to bring about unity, but with alms, that, assisted bythem, the poor of the various churches might be relieved, clothed,and fed. When they came to Donatus, your father, and showedhim why they had come, he was seized with his accustomedfurious anger and broke forth with these words: “What has theEmperor to do with the Church.”…§ 4. If anything, therefore, has been done harshly in bringingabout unity, 106 you see, brother Parmenianus, to whom it oughtto be attributed. Do you say that the military was sought byus Catholics; if so, then why did no one see the military inarms in the proconsular province? Paulus and Macarius came,everywhere to consider the poor and to exhort individuals tounity; and when they approached Bagaja, then another Donatus,bishop of that city, desiring to place an obstacle in the wayof unity and hinder the work of those coming, whom we havementioned, sent messengers throughout the neighboring placesand all markets, and summoned the Circumcellions, calling themAgonistici, to come to the said place. And at that time thegathering of these was desired, whose madness a little beforehad been seen by the bishops themselves to have been impiouslyinspired. For when men of this sort before the unity 107 wandered106 I.e., in forcing the Donatists to return to the Church.107 The temporary defeat of the Donatist party which was celebrated at theCouncil of Carthage in 348-349. See Hefele, § 70.