1. You can see with how much joy we welcome the eagerness of your Charity. For we rejoice in the Lord our God, of whom the Apostle says: He is our peace, who has made us both one (Eph 2:14). We give thanks, then, to the same Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, who has granted to us that, before we should have the goodwill of our brother Emeritus, we have already come to know how much he loves unity. Yet hear what beginnings God willed that we should hear from his own mouth. As soon as he entered this church, standing in the very spot where we first began to converse with him, by the inspiration of the Lord, who both instructs the heart and governs the tongue, he said to us: "I cannot refuse to will what you will, but I can will what I will." See what he promised, who said he could not refuse to will what we will. For if he cannot refuse to will what we will, he knows what we will. For what we will is what you also will. We all will what God wills. And what the Lord wills is no secret. For his Testament is read, the Testament of him who has made us his coheirs; and in it these words are recited: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you (John 14:27). Whether soon, then, or late, he cannot refuse to will what we will. But the second saying causes us some delay: "I can will what I will." For he put it thus: I cannot refuse to will what you will, but I can will what I will. He can will what he wills, but he cannot refuse to will what we will. For we see what he says he can do. For he wills for now what he wills; but the very thing he wills for now, God does not will. For what does he will for now? To be in dissension from the catholic Church, to be still in the communion of the party of Donatus, to be still in schism, to be still among those who say: I belong to Paul, but I to Apollos, but I to Cephas (1 Cor 1:12)? But God does not will this, since the Apostle rebukes them: Is Christ divided? (1 Cor 1:13) He can therefore will what he wills, but only for a time, only for an hour of bashfulness, not by the reasoning of wisdom can he will what he wills. For this is what he wills for now, and he can will what he wills. But since he cannot refuse to will what we will, let him sooner cease to will what he wills, and let him do what we will. Do not let any little delay disturb you, then, brothers, while he wills what he wills; but pray that he may do what he promised, so that he may not be able to refuse to will what we will. And by all the cry went up: "Either here, or nowhere!" You who have declared your hearts by your voices, help us also by your prayers. The Lord who commands unity is powerful to change his will for the better. And as for what your Charity acclaimed, "Either here, or nowhere," we have recognized in him the voice of your Charity, and we love it. This too we think not now for the first time, but always; we always desire it. The mind of our brother and fellow bishop, your bishop Deuterius, is the same, which is especially necessary. His mind has long been known to us. He poured out prayers to the Lord with us about this matter, together with the council, where we promised and offered this to those who are outside. Our signatures on this matter are already kept on record. For we never so cherish our own honor as to begrudge unity. Let us be lesser in honor, since we are greater in love. We know in what way weakness must be invited, so that unity may be brought to perfection.

2. Nor do we say these things, brothers, as though those who remained under the schism have any hope toward the Lord. For many dispute, understanding too little what they are saying, and they say: "If they are schismatics, if they are heretics, why do they welcome them in this way?" Listen, my brothers. If we were to welcome them as such, then we would already be welcoming this brother of ours Emeritus—whether good or bad, still a brother. I say this because he too knows that it was said to us through the prophet, as we also said to them in the Conference: Say to those who hate you: You are our brothers (See Isa 66:5). They hate us; we believe that what they hate must come to an end; yet so long as he hates, he is called a brother; until the hatred comes to an end, the name will stand as a testimony. We do not, then, welcome them as they are—far be it from us, for they are heretics—but we welcome catholics: they are changed, they are welcomed. But because of the evil they have, we cannot persecute in them the good things that we recognize. For the evil of dissension, of schism, of heresy is their own evil; but the good things that we recognize in them are not their own. They have the good things of our Lord, they have the good things of the Church. Baptism is not theirs, but Christ's. The invocation of the name of God over their heads when they are ordained bishops—that invocation is God's, not Donatus's. I do not welcome him as a bishop if, when he was ordained, Donatus was invoked over his head. In a soldier who strays and deserts, the crime is the deserter's, but the mark is not the deserter's, but the commander's. But our brother did not desert, where he never yet was. Indeed, the deserter's error was born in him when he was marked by a deserter. The one who first made the schism, who separated himself from the catholic Church, was a deserter, along with those whom he dragged with him; the rest were marked by deserters, yet not with the mark of a deserter, but with the mark of the commander. For the deserter did not stamp his own mark. What do I mean by saying that the deserter did not stamp his own mark? Donatus did not baptize in the name of Donatus. For if Donatus, when he made the schism, had baptized in the name of Donatus, he would have impressed the deserter's mark; then, when I called people to unity, if I found the deserter's mark, I would drive it out, blot it out, abolish it, cast it away, refuse to approve it; I would spit it out, anathematize it, condemn it. But as it is, the deserter himself stamped the mark of his commander. God and our Lord Jesus Christ seeks the deserter, blots out the crime of his error, but does not destroy his own mark. When I come to my brother and gather in my straying brother, I attend to the faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This is the mark of my commander. About this mark he commanded his soldiers, or rather his companions, that they should impress it on those whom they gathered into his camp, saying: Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19). Because Paul knew that this mark, declared by the Lord, was to be impressed on all believers, he is alarmed at those who wanted to belong to Paul, and he says to them: Was Paul crucified for you? (1 Cor 1:13) Why do you want to be mine, and not rather the Lord's? Why do you want to be mine, and not rather his to whom I belong? Recognize, take note of your mark: Were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor 1:13) So, then, we gather them in, in such a way that those whom we do not gather in should not flatter themselves. Let them too be gathered in, not puffed up; let them come, they will be welcomed. We do not hate in them what is God's; we do not hate them either, because they are God's. And what they have is God's. They are God's, because they are human beings, and every human being is a creature of God. It is God's, that they have the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; the Baptism of the Trinity is God's; the Gospel they have is God's; the faith they have is God's.

3. And what do they not have, someone says to me, who have these things? You say: They have the Baptism of Christ. I grant it. You say: They have the faith of Christ. I grant it. If, then, they have these things, what do they not have? What is Baptism? A sacrament. Listen to the Apostle: If I know all sacraments (1 Cor 13:2). It is much to know all the sacraments of God. However many sacraments we may know, who knows all the sacraments of God? What does the Apostle say? If I know all sacraments, if I have all prophecy (1 Cor 13:2). Add still further, and all knowledge (1 Cor 13:2). But you had spoken of faith. Listen further: If I have all faith (1 Cor 13:2). It is hard to have all faith, just as it is hard to know all the sacraments. And what is it that he says, all? So as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2). Attend, brothers; attend, I beg you, to the Apostle's words, and see why it is that with such great labors and dangers we seek out our brothers. Love seeks them out from our hearts. For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors, says the Psalm, I spoke peace concerning you (Ps 122:8 (121)), speaking to holy Jerusalem. See, then, my brothers, what the Apostle said: If I have all sacraments, all knowledge, prophecy, faith (1 Cor 13:2). What kind of faith? So as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2). He did not say: All those things are nothing; but: if I have not love, I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2). For who would be so mad as to say: The sacraments of God are nothing? Who would be so mad as to say: Prophecy is nothing, knowledge nothing, faith nothing? Those things are not nothing; but although those things are great, I, having great things, if I have not love, I am nothing (1 Cor 13:2). Those things are great, and I have great things, and I am nothing if I have not love, through which the things that are great are of profit to me. For if I have not love, those things can be present, but they cannot profit me.

4. Attend, then, brother; attend, I beg you. You say to me: Why do you seek me? I answer: Because you are my brother. You answer me and say: If I have perished, why do you seek me? And I answer: If you had not perished, I would not be seeking you. Why do you seek me, you say to me? If I have perished, why do you seek me? When I answer: I seek you because you have perished. And why do I seek? With what fruit do I seek? That it may one day be said to me: Your brother was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found (Luke 15:32). You answer and say to me: But I have the Sacrament. You have it, I acknowledge it; for this reason I seek you. You have added a great reason why I should seek you more diligently. For you are a sheep from the flock of my Lord; you strayed with the mark: therefore I seek you the more, because you have that very mark. Why do we not possess one Church? We have one mark; why are we not in one fold? Therefore I seek you, so that this Sacrament may be for you a help to salvation, not a testimony to your damnation. Do you not know that a deserter is condemned for the very mark by which he is honored while serving? Therefore I seek you, so that you may not perish with the mark. For it is a mark of salvation, if you have salvation, if you have love. For this mark of salvation, while it is outside, can be present in you, but it cannot profit you. Come, so that what you had may profit you—not so that you may receive what you had, but so that what you had may begin to profit you, and that you may receive what you did not have. For you had the mark of peace, but you did not have peace itself. In that house, that is, in you, discord was dwelling, and it was fixing up the tokens of peace on the threshold. I recognize the tokens, but I seek the one who dwells within. I read the token of peace: Baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is a token of peace; I read it; I seek who dwells there, I attend to my brother, I recognize the token of peace. I too have that very token; I want to enter. What does "I want to enter" mean? Receive me as a brother, that together we may pray to the Father. I do not pray with you. There are tokens of peace, and yet discord contradicts me? I shall labor in earnest, with the Lord's help, to cast out the discord that wrongly possesses, and to bring in peace as the lawful possessor. When, then, I shut out discord and bring in peace, why should I take down the tokens of peace? I say plainly to my Lord: "O Christ, who are our peace, who have made both one, make us one, that we may rightly sing: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity (Ps 133:1 (132)). Bring in concord, drive out discord; bring yourself into your own tokens. Remain yourself: let no other possess them, and deceive by means of your tokens. Change this contradicter, you who in one hour on the cross changed the thief."

5. And let us certainly see what you have. I have, you say, the Sacrament; I have Baptism. If I say to you: Prove it; you show me what you received, you say what you confessed, you say what you hold. I acknowledge it, I do not change it, I do not blow it away. Far be it that, while I seek the salvation of a deserter, I should do injury to the commander. So you have proved to me that you have the Sacrament; in expounding the Sacrament you have proved to me that you have faith. Prove to me that you have love: hold to unity. I do not want you to say to me: I have love; prove it. We have one Father, let us pray together. What do you say, when you pray, I ask you? Our Father, who are in heaven (Matt 6:9). Thanks be to God. According to the teaching of our Lord you added, who are in heaven (Matt 6:9). For we had separate fathers on earth; we have found one together in heaven. Our Father, who are in heaven (Matt 6:9): you invoke that very Father. Our Father willed to have one wife: we, then, who adore one Father, why do we not acknowledge one mother? If you say you were born of another, then she bore you from a stranger's bosom. What I have said, not all of you were able to understand. We know that it came about through lawful wives that even those who were not born of lawful wives were joined in the same inheritance: this the will of the wife brought about. For Ishmael was disinherited. Sarah had borne him, though from another's womb. Sarah had borne him from another's womb, by her own desire. For she herself said: I want you to beget children for me by her (See Gen 16:2). And so Abraham did. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband; likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife (1 Cor 7:4). For he would have been a son, had he not been proud. Ishmael was disinherited for his pride. For the slave woman raised her neck, so that it was said: Cast out the slave woman and her son; for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac (Gen 21:10). For do you want to know what peace avails, what concord avails, what humility avails, and what pride hinders? It disinherited Ishmael, but the sons of the slave women by Jacob—because for them too lawful marriages willed that they should be born—the sons, then, of the slave women by Jacob we know to have been summoned into one inheritance. All twelve patriarchs were numbered together; the difference of womb separated none of them from another, because love joined them all. What difference does it make, then, where you received Baptism? Baptism is mine, Sarah says to you; Baptism is mine, Rachel says to you. Do not be proud, come to the inheritance: especially because the inheritance itself is not that land which was given to the sons of Jacob. The land was given to the sons of Israel: the more it was possessed, the more it was crowded. Our inheritance is called peace. I read the Testament: My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you (John 14:27). Let us hold together what cannot be divided. A multitude of possessors does not crowd it, however many may come; as it was promised: So shall your seed be as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the shore of the sea: in your seed shall all the nations be blessed (Gen 22:17–18). And I saw, he says in the Apocalypse, many in white robes, holding palms, whom no one can number, coming from all nations (Rev 7:9). Let them come, let them hold to peace; our possession is not crowded; nothing makes it crowded but dissension alone. Behold, my brothers, it is our brother's dissension that causes us still to suffer crowding: let him consent in peace, and there is spaciousness.

6. But what are we to do, except to bear with our brother's weakness, and not give up? This sweat of mine, we believe, will be fruitful. The Lord our God, who willed that we should come to you, who commanded that we should seek him, who brought it about that for now we should find him face to face, will, with the help of your prayers, make us find his heart, rejoice over his concord, give thanks to God for his salvation, which he cannot have except in the catholic Church. Outside the catholic Church he can have everything except salvation. He can have honor, he can have the Sacraments, he can sing Alleluia, he can answer Amen, he can hold the Gospel, he can have and preach the faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: but nowhere except in the catholic Church will he be able to find salvation. For all these things pass away, my brothers. For now he thinks that he will be great among his own people, if he does not consent, and is called a martyr of the party of Donatus. Far be it; let that vanity be taken from his heart in the name of the Lord. He too knows, he too reads: If I hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Cor 13:3). I do not say: If he boasts that he has suffered some injuries, as it were, for the party of Donatus, or some earthly losses, it profits him nothing. I say more: If he should suffer outside an enemy of Christ—not a catholic brother seeking his salvation, but an enemy of Christ—if he should suffer outside, and an enemy of Christ, outside the Church of Christ, should say to him: Offer incense to the idols, adore my gods; and refusing to adore, he should be killed by the enemy of Christ: he can shed his blood, but he cannot receive the crown.

7. They themselves know, when they were present at our Conference, which we held at Carthage, how they confessed that their forebears made persecution against bishop Caecilian. Then, dissenting from the catholic Church, they made a schism: their forebears persecuted him—that is, the first who made the party of Donatus persecuted Caecilian, and by persecuting brought him all the way to the judgment of the Emperor. They sent charges against him to the Emperor, charges that were not true. The Emperor ordered the case to be heard. It was heard before the bishops; those charges were found false, and Caecilian was acquitted. Nor did they cease from persecuting, but they appealed often to the Emperor, who afterward appointed a judge for the case. And he himself heard between the parties and examined it. The Emperor examined it, and judged Caecilian innocent. And when we brought this up, they contended with us and said that the Emperor condemned Caecilian to exile: which is false. But still, see what they said: that, since his elders were persecuting, Caecilian was brought to the Emperor, and sent into exile. We read the records; they are his own prosecutions; the hands of the one signing his own words are held fast. Attend, I beg you, judge now our case. Certainly their elders persecuted Caecilian, certainly they brought him to the Emperor, certainly they acted so that he might be condemned. I do not wish to say that he was not condemned; I do not wish to say that he was pronounced innocent. But let it be what they say. When they were persecuting him, when they had him condemned, what was Caecilian then? When he was suffering persecution from the elders of these people, what was he? Let it be told me, what was he? Was he a Christian? Was he a catholic? Or what was he? They do not say: He was not a catholic; but: he was a criminal. Criminal men, then, can suffer persecution from holy ones. Let us grant this outright: Caecilian, who was suffering persecution, was a criminal. For thus I do not say: They were lying; but: they were mistaken—so that even if we agree with them, he was a criminal. Those who were doing it, what were they? Choose what you will: if they were wicked, abandon the wicked, come to us. But if they were holy, then it can happen that the holy persecute an unjust man. Do not be angry with us, if we persecute; do not say: You are unjust who persecute. For you have already shown that it can happen that even the just persecute an unjust man. Can it happen, or can it not? Let one of the two be told me. If it cannot happen: why did your people persecute Caecilian? But if it can happen: why are you surprised? Why do you praise the penalty, and not show the cause? Blessed, says the Lord, are those who suffer persecution (Matt 5:10). Add, for the sake of righteousness (Matt 5:10), and you have separated out robbers, you have separated out malefactors, you have separated out adulterers, you have separated out the impious, you have separated out the sacrilegious, you have separated out heretics. Such people suffer persecution, but not for the sake of righteousness.

8. And yet what kind of persecution does our brother suffer, who has been brought to us? It is itself the more glorious persecution: of that I openly profess. Let whoever wishes blame me, I profess such persecution. I read the Psalm: Him who secretly slandered his neighbor, I persecuted (Ps 101:5 (100)). If I rightly persecute the one who secretly slanders his neighbor, do I not more rightly persecute the one who publicly blasphemes the Church of God, when he says: "She is not the Church"; when he says: "Ours is the one that is in a part"; when he says: "She is a harlot"? Shall I, then, not persecute the one who blasphemes the Church? I shall certainly persecute him, because I am a member of the Church; I shall certainly persecute him, because I am a son of the Church. I use the very voice of the Church; the Church herself says through me in the Psalm: I will persecute my enemies, and overtake them, and I will not turn back until they fail (Ps 18:37 (17)). Let them fail in evil, advance in good. Brothers, do not think that anything new has happened to our brother. When the party of Donatus prevailed at Constantina, it seized Petilian—a layman of ours, a catechumen, born of catholic parents—and did violence to him against his will; it hunted him as he fled, found him in hiding, dragged him out as he trembled in fear, baptized him as he shook, ordained him against his will. See what kind of violence it did against one of ours. It snatched that man to death; do we not draw this one to salvation?

9. I have said these things to your Charity, on account of what you said: "Either here, or nowhere." For we too will this, that it be "here, here"—but in peace; "here, here"—but in unity; "here, here"—but in the fellowship of love. Then "here" is good. For if it is not so, "nowhere" is better than "here." But may the Lord grant that it be "here" rather than "nowhere." If not here, far be it that it should not be elsewhere, far be it: here, or elsewhere. You have heard, he has heard. What God has done in his mind, he himself knows. For we strike the ear from outside; he knows how to speak within, he within preaches peace, and he does not cease to preach if he is heard. His mercy will be present, with your prayers helping, so that our labor may be fruitful. Yet if today he is unwilling to enter into communion, although we ought not to grow weary, but ought to press on as much as we can, even so we ought not to grow weary. We can defer, but we can neither set aside our insistence, nor ought we to. He will be present who led him here to us, so that he may make us rejoice with him in unity, together with you, and in his peace.