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Handout #58 |
St. Augustine: from persecution to repression |
| Augustine, Bishop
of Hippo from 396 A.D., encountered the rivalry and opposition of a
Donatist bishop. The Donatist schism often led to violence, because it
drew on social conflicts. Augustine primarily used persuasion and
sweetness to convince his adversaries. Gradually, worn down by the
violence of the Donatists, he moved from persuasion to 'good coercion and
finally to repression organized by the authorities. The reference to the
words compelle intrare (force them to come in) in Luke 14:23 will
often be taken up in the Middle Ages.
I do not propose to compel man to embrace the communion of any party, but desire the truth to be made known to persons who, in their search for it are free from disquieting apprehensions. On our side there shall be no appeal to men's fear of the civil Power; on your side let there be no intimidation by a mob of Circumcelliones (farm workers often vagabonds, who served as the Donatist's shock troops). Let us attend to the real matter in debate, and let our arguments appeal to reason and to the authoritative reaching of the divine scriptures, dispassionately and calmly so far as we are able: let us ask; seek; and knock that we "may receive and find, and that to us the door maybe opened. Letter 23,7 (392) You must not consider just the mere fact of the coercion, but the nature of that to which one is coerced, whether it be good or bad: not that anyone could become 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 the truth of which he had been contentedly ignorant, and under the influence of this fear repudiates the error he wont to defend, or seeks the truth of which he formerly knew nothing, and now willingly holds what he formerly rejected ... 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 instance to which they could point. Letter 93, 16,17 (408). There is a persecution of unrighteousness, which the impious inflict upon the church of Christ; and there is a righteous persecution, which the church of Christ inflicts upon the impious ... Moreover she persecutes in the spirit of love, they in the spirit of wrath ... Wherefore, if the power which the church has received by divine appointment in its due season, through the religious character and the faith of kings, be the instrument by which those who are found in the highways and hedges - that is, in heresies and schisms - are compelled to come in, then let them not find fault with being compelled, but consider whether they be so compelled. The supper of the Lord is the unity of the body of Christ...Letter 185, 11,24 (417) (commentary on Luke 14:23 'Compel them to come in...') |
