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Against the Donatists

St Optatus of Milevis, tr. Vassall-Phillips, 1917

8. Appendix 8: Letter of Constantine to Celsus

To Celsus, the Vicar of Africa:

The latest despatches from your Lordship have informed me how Menalius,¹ a man whom madness long ago took hold of, and the others who have departed from the truth of God, and given themselves over to a most shameful error, persevere in their course. You tell me in your letter, my well-beloved Brother, that you have obeyed my order with regard to the seditious in accordance with their deserts, and have placed a check upon the tumult which they were preparing. And now that they were contemplating wicked deeds has become manifest from the fact that, when I had determined to inquire most fully between them and Caecilian, concerning the various charges which they brought against him, they did their best to withdraw from my presence by taking to flight.² By this most disgraceful deed they acknowledged that they were hastening to return to the things which they both had done previously and are now persisting in doing. But (since it is certain that no one ever gains an unmixed advantage from his own misdeeds, even though punishment may be delayed for a little while), I have thought well to command your Lordship that in the meantime you should leave them alone,³ and understand that we must temporise with them.⁴

But after you have read this letter, you should make it plain both to Caecilian and to them, that when by the Divine Goodness I come to Africa, I shall render it most clear to all, both to Caecilian, and to those who are acting against him, by reading a perfectly plain judgement, as to what and what kind⁵ of worship is to be given to the Supreme God, and with what manner of service He is pleased. Also, by diligent examination, I shall acquaint myself to the full with the things which at the present time some persons fancy they can keep dark through the allurements⁶ of their ignorant minds, and shall drag them into the light. Those same persons who now stir up the people in such a war as to bring it about that the supreme God is not worshipped with the veneration that is His due, I shall destroy and dash in pieces.⁷ And since it is sufficiently clear that no one may hope to obtain the honours of a martyr with that kind [of Martyrdom]⁸ which is seen to be foreign to the truth of religion, and is altogether unbecoming, I shall without any delay cause those men whom I shall ascertain to have acted against that which is right and against religion itself, and whom I shall discover to have been guilty of violence⁹ in their worship, to undergo the destruction which they have deserved by their madness and reckless obstinacy.

Wherefore, let them also know for certain what they ought to do to secure full credence after they have invoked their own salvation,¹⁰ since I am going most diligently to search into the things which concern not merely the people, but also those clerics who are in the first places, and shall pass judgement in accordance with that which is most clearly in the interests of truth and religion. I shall also make these persons see what worship and what kind of worship is to be given to the Divinity, for by no means do I believe that I can in any way escape the greatest guilt otherwise than by refusing to close my eyes to that which is wicked. What can be done by me more in accordance with my constant practice,¹¹ and the very office of a Prince, than, after having driven away errors and destroyed all rash opinions, to bring it about that all men should show forth true religion and simplicity in concord, and to render to Almighty God the worship which is His due?

Notes

eum Menalium. Probably the Menalius mentioned by Optatus (i, 13) as having been present at the Council of Cirta.
The MS. has praesentia mea susceptam fugam subtrahere. This seems impossible to translate, even though, with Ziwsa, we read praesentiae meae. If, with Du Pin, we read suscepta fuga se subtrahere, the sense becomes clear.
eosdem omittas.
dissimulandum super ipsos cognoscas.
quae et qualis.
inlecebris. The editors read in latebris.
perdam atque discutiam.
posse beatitudines martyris eo genere conquirere. Duchesne paraphrases thus (op. cit. p. 37): ‘Il ne reculera pas devant la rigueur, et ceux qui s’en trouveront mal ne devront pas s’attendre à ce qu’on les regarde comme des martyres.’
The MS. reads violentiae; Ziwsa reads violentes.
ad plenissimam fidem salute etiam teste invocata. The sense seems to be that the clerics were to invoke their own salvation as witness to their fullest fidelity or truthfulness. ‘As they hoped for salvation,’ this was to be the Christian formula, as distinguished from the old appeal to heathen deities, in confirmation of evidence.
pro institute meo.