§12Donatista dixit: Si ergo unico fonti ecclesia gloriatur, utique traditorum spelunca est, quae in aquarum multitudine extollitur et baptismi sui ebrietate confusa cum regibus fornicatur, dicente Iohanne: ueni, ostendam tibi damnationem meretricis magnae sedentis super aquas multas, et inebriati sunt omnes inhabitantes terram a uino fornicationis eius.
Donatista dixit: If therefore the church glories in a single fountain, yours is surely a cave of traitors, which is puffed up in a multitude of waters and, confused by the drunkenness of its own baptism, commits fornication with kings, John saying: "Come, I will show you the condemnation of the great whore who sits upon many waters, and all the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." I ask, what are the many waters if not multiple baptisms?
rogo quae sunt aquae multae nisi plura baptisma? quae mulier fornicaria nisi traditorum spelunca, quae regum uoluptatibus seruit obnoxia,. a quibus persecutionis poculum bibens ebria caecitate populis miscet et in amentia quos rigauerit ducit? cuius accessu sapientissimus Salomon interdixit: ab aqua, inquit, aliena abstine te et de fonte alieno ne biberis, ut longum uiuas tempus, et adicientur tibi anni uitae tuae.
What is the whorish woman if not the cave of traitors, which serves subject to the pleasures of kings, and drinking from them the cup of persecution, mixes it for the peoples in her drunken blindness, and leads those whom she has watered into madness? From approaching her, the most wise Solomon forbade, saying: "Abstain from foreign water, and drink not from a foreign fountain, so that you may live a long time, and years of your life may be added to you.
fons aquae tuae priuatus sit tibi: ne quisquam extraneus communicet tibi. solus ergo priuatum non habet fontem, qui ui meretricis aquarum possidet multitudinem.
Let the fountain of your water be private to you: let no stranger share it with you." He alone, therefore, does not have a private fountain, who possesses a multitude of waters by the power of the whore.
Iohannes quoque apostolus aquarum multitudinem inprobat dicens: et dixit mihi angelus: aquas quas uidisti, super quas sedet fornicaria illa, populi, turbae et nationes sunt. Catholicus respondit: Ut uideo, ubicumque aqua nominata est male bene, baptisma credidisti.
John the apostle also disapproves of the multitude of waters, saying: "And the angel said to me: The waters which you saw, upon which that whore sits, are peoples, crowds, and nations." Catholicus respondit: As I see, wherever water is named, well or badly, you believed it to be baptism.
si in bono, tibi, si in malo, mihi illam tribuere uoluisti, ut de uobis impleretur quod Paulus apostolus dixit: nescientes neque quae locuntur neque de quibus affirmant. quemadmodum enim Iamnes et Mambres restiterunt Moysi, ita hi resistunt ueritati.
If in a good sense, you wished to attribute it to yourself, if in a bad sense, to me, so that what the apostle Paul said might be fulfilled in you: "Understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm." For just as Jannes and Mambres resisted Moses, so these resist the truth.
angelus dicit: aquas quas uidisti, populi, turbae et nationes sunt. et tu angelo exponenti resistis et dicis: \'rogo quae sunt aquae multae nisi plura baptisma? quae mulier fornicaria nisi traditorum spelunca?\' si et traditorum uocabula cupis addiscere, habes uestros, Siluanum Cirtensem Felici curatori sacramenta tradentem, habes Marianum ab Aquis Tibilitanis Romano curatori tres codices offerentem, habes Uictorem Rusiccaziensem quattuor euangelia ueluti deleticia conburentem, qui Caecilianum absentem damnare ausi sunt innocentem.
The angel says: "The waters which you saw are peoples, crowds, and nations." And you resist the angel who explains, and say: "I ask, what are the many waters if not multiple baptisms? What is the whorish woman if not the cave of traitors?" If you also wish to learn the names of the traitors, you have your own: Siluanus of Cirta handing over the sacred objects to the curator Felix; you have Marianus from Aquae Tibilitanae offering three codices to the Roman curator; you have Victor of Rusiccade, burning the four Gospels as if they were worthless things to be destroyed—those very men who dared to condemn the innocent Caecilian in his absence.
haec est spelunca latronum, haec progenies traditorum, haec mulier fornicaria, quae relicto Christo Donato prostituit lupanaria, cuius domus iuxta Salomonem secessus est mortis, cuius uiae sunt inferorum, quae se mundam uocat cum sit sordibus plena, quae se innocentem clamat cum sit sceleribus inretita, quae pudenda committit et facta sua in alteram dicit, ne prior audiat quae commisit.
This is the cave of robbers, this is the offspring of traitors, this is the whorish woman who, having abandoned Christ, prostituted her brothels to Donatus, whose house according to Solomon is the retreat of death, whose ways are of hell, who calls herself clean though she is full of filth, who cries out that she is innocent though she is entangled in crimes, who commits shameful deeds and attributes her own actions to the other woman, lest she first hear of the things she herself committed.
de factis enim uestris catholicos infamatis, ut populos a domino separetis.
For you defame the Catholics with your own deeds, so that you may separate the peoples from the Lord.
proinde quod quasi tuos, ut ab aqua nostra se abstineant, hortaris et dicis: ab aqua aliena abstine te et de fonte alieno ne biberis.
Therefore, when you exhort your own, as it were, to abstain from our water and say: "Abstain from foreign water, and drink not from a foreign fountain.
fons aquae tuae priuatus sit tibi: ne quisquam extraneus communicet tibi, quis non uideat prophetam coniugibus pudicitiam commendasse et te a ueritate procul errasse? aut si fonti tuo communicare nullus debeat extraneus, cur extraneos quaeris, cur catholicos rebaptizas?
Let the fountain of your water be private to you: let no stranger share it with you," who does not see that the prophet commended chastity to spouses, and that you have erred far from the truth? Or if no stranger ought to share in your fountain, why do you seek strangers, why do you rebaptize Catholics?
§13Donatista dixit: Claret ergo apud traditores esse multitudinem aquarum, ubi diuersa schismatum semina, ubi haereticorum multimodas pestes, ubi Manicheorum detestanda sordium feculenta uel in abruptum cenosi gurgitis lacum in aeterna morte abreptos Charybdis uidit et exterminii oleum flammis edacibus animauit.
Donatista dixit: It is clear, therefore, that with the traitors there is a multitude of waters, where the various seeds of schisms, where the manifold plagues of heretics, where the detestable dregs of the filth of the Manichaeans—or those dragged away into eternal death into the steep lake of the muddy abyss— Charybdis has seen, and has quickened the oil of destruction with devouring flames.
Catholicus respondit:s o probare, o errare, o delirare! claret ergo apud traditores esse multitudinem aquarum, ubi diuersa schismatum semina, ubi haereticorum multimodas pestes, ubi Manicheorum detestanda sordium feculenta? quomodo probas nobiscum esse schismaticorum multimodas pestes? si nobiscum essent, non haeretici, sed catholici essent.
Catholicus respondit: O what proving, O what erring, O what raving! "It is clear, therefore, that with the traitors there is a multitude of waters, where the various seeds of schisms, where the manifold plagues of heretics, where the detestable dregs of the filth of the Manichaeans"? How do you prove that the manifold plagues of schismatics are with us? If they were with us, they would not be heretics, but Catholics.
§14Donatista dixit: Audi dicente Salomone: muscae moriturae exterminant confectionem suauitatis. olei est ergo genuina suauitas, quae si tactu inprobo fuerit uiolata fit ingrata confectione polluta.
Donatista dixit: Listen to Solomon saying: "Dying flies ruin the preparation of sweetness." Therefore, there is a genuine sweetness of oil, which if it is violated by an improper touch, becomes polluted with an unpleasant preparation.
et recte spiritus sanctus inmundis alitibus traditores aequauit, quod in aliena mensa inprobi corruant et olei suauitatem inmundis tactibus foedent.
And rightly did the Holy Spirit compare the traitors to unclean birds, because they improperly swoop down upon a foreign table and defile the sweetness of the oil with unclean touches.
Catholicus respondit: Quis tactu inprobo uiolat? qui quod inuenit seruat, aut qui confectum inpudenter exterminat? quando oleum uestrum tetigimus, quando spiritum sanctum iniuciando fugauimus? docete aliquem nostrum in diuinitatis oleum inprobe cecidisse aut trinitatis baptisma sicut uos inlicite uiolasse.
Catholicus respondit: Who violates by an improper touch? He who preserves what he finds, or he who shamelessly ruins what has been prepared? When did we touch your oil? When did we put the Holy Spirit to flight by doing injury? Teach us that any of our people has improperly fallen into the oil of divinity, or has unlawfully violated the baptism of the Trinity as you have done.
muscae moriturae Donatistae circumuolant per totius corporis membra; sicubi repperiant uulnerata, sana pungunt, aegra lambunt et eorum ulceribus peccatorum uermes fundunt, quae conscientiam mordeant, quae animam finiant, quae putredinem nutriant, quae nec ipsis mortuis cadaueribus parcant.
The dying flies, the Donatists, fly around through the members of the whole body; wherever they find wounded areas, they sting the healthy, lick the sick, and pour out from their ulcers the worms of sins, which bite the conscience, end the soul, nourish putrefaction, and spare not even the dead corpses themselves.
muscae moriturae cum oleum exterminant oleo perimuntur; neque enim uiuitis, qui spiritum sanctum exflatis.
The dying flies, when they ruin the oil, are destroyed by the oil; for neither do you live, you who blow out the Holy Spirit.