used
the pardon which their formal retraction merited. This denunciation
was what we would call to-day "a service for the public good." We,
however, know of no case in which the Church made use of this
information to punish the one who had been denounced.

. . . . . . . .

Donatism (from Donatus, the Bishop of Casae Nigrae in Numidia) for a
time caused more trouble to the Church than Manicheism. It was more
of a schism than a heresy. The election to the see of Carthage of the
deacon Caecilian, who was accused of having handed over the
Scriptures to the Roman officials during the persecution of
Diocletian, was the occasion of the schism. Donatus and his followers
wished this nomination annulled, while their opponents defended its
validity. Accordingly, two councils were held to decide the question,
one at Rome (313), the other at Arles (314). Both decided against the
Donatists; they at once appealed to the Emperor, who confirmed the
decrees of the two councils (316). The schismatics in their anger
rose in rebellion, and a number of them known as Circumcelliones went
about stirring the people to revolt. But neither Constantine nor his
successors were inclined to allow armed rebellion to go unchallenged.
The Donatists were punished to the full extent of the law. They had
been the first, remarks St. Augustine, to invoke the aid of the
secular arm. "They met with the same fate as the accusers of Daniel;
the lions turned against them."[1]

[1] _Ep._ clxxxv, n. 7.

We need not linger over the details of this conflict, in which crimes
were committed on both sides. The Donatists, bitterly prosecuted by
the State, declared its action cruel and unjust. St. Optatus thus
answers them: "Will you tell me that it is not lawful to defend the
rights of God by the death penalty? ... If killing is an evil, the
guilty ones are themselves the cause of it."[1] "It is impossible,"
you say, "for the State to inflict the death penalty in the name of
God,"--But was it not in God's name that Moses,[2] Phinees,[3] and
Elias[4] put to death the worshippers of the golden calf, and the
apostates of the Old Law?--"These times are altogether different,"
you reply; "the New Law must not be confounded with the Old. Did not
Christ forbid St. Peter to use the sword?"[5] Yes, undoubtedly, but
Christ came to suffer, not to defend Himself.[6] The lot of
Christians is different from that of Christ.

[1] _De Schismate Donatistarum_, lib. iii. cap. vi.