Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p><span class=\"smcap\">Chap. lvii.</span>—69. Furthermore, if, whilst I have continued\r\nwithout intermission to prove how entirely the passages of\r\nScripture which Petilianus has quoted against us have failed to\r\nhurt our cause, he himself has in some cases not touched at\r\nall what I have quoted, and partly, when he has endeavoured\r\nto handle them, has shown that the only thing that he could\r\ndo was to fail in finding an escape from them, you require no\r\nlong exhortation or advice in order to see what you ought\r\nto maintain, and what you should avoid. But it may be that\r\nthis has been the kind of show that he has made in dealing\r\nwith the testimony of holy Scripture, but that he has not been\r\nwithout force in the case of the documentary evidence found\r\nin the records of the schism itself. Let us then see in the\r\ncase of these too, though it is superfluous to inquire into\r\nthem after testimony from the word of God, what he has\r\nquoted, or what he has proved. For, after pouring forth a\r\nviolent invective against <i>traditors</i>, and quoting loudly many\r\npassages against them from the holy books themselves, he yet\r\nsaid nothing which could prove his opponents to be <i>traditors</i>.\r\nBut I quoted the case of Silvanus of Cirta, who held his own\r\nsee some little time before himself, who was expressly declared\r\nin the Municipal Chronicles to have been a <i>traditor</i> while he\r\nwas yet a sub-deacon. Against this fact he did not venture<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_475\">[Pg 475]</a></span>\r\nto whisper a syllable. And yet you cannot fail to see how\r\nstrong the pressure was which must have been urging him to\r\nreply, that he might show a man, who was his predecessor,\r\nnot only one of his party, but a partner, so to speak, in his\r\nsee, to have been innocent of the crime of delivering up the\r\nsacred books, especially as you rest the whole strength of your\r\ncause on the fact that you give the name of <i>traditor</i> to all\r\nwhom you either pretend or believe to have been the successors\r\nof <i>traditors</i> in the path of their communion. Although, then,\r\nthe very exigencies of your cause would seem to compel him\r\nto undertake the defence of a citizen even of Russicadia, or\r\nCalama, or any other city of your party, whom I should declare\r\nto be a <i>traditor</i>, on the authority of the Municipal\r\nChronicles, yet he did not open his mouth even in defence of\r\nhis own predecessor. For what reason, except that he could\r\nnot find any mist dark enough to deceive the minds of even\r\nthe slowest and sleepiest of men? For what could he have\r\nsaid, except that the charges brought against Silvanus were\r\nfalse? But we quote the words of the Chronicles, both as to\r\nthe date of the fact, and as to the time of the information laid\r\nbefore Zenophilus the ex-consul.<a id=\"FNanchor_1170_1170\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1170_1170\">[1170]</a> And how could he resist\r\nthis evidence, being encompassed on every side by the most\r\nexcellent cause of the Catholics, whilst yours was bad as bad\r\ncould be? For which reason I quote these words from my\r\nepistle to which he would fain be thought to have replied in\r\nthis which I am now refuting, that you may see for yourselves\r\nhow impregnable the position must be against which\r\nhe has been able to find no safer weapon than silence.</p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK THIRD."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-748"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"74ff557120f03e0cbed35ebedb639213277aaa2ce37f2ab48f6c641e824af725","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_1170_1170","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Title leaves identify J. R. King, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1872; catalog identifies translator John Richard King (1835-1907). Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/American Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_1170_1170","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_1170_1170\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1170_1170\"><span class=\"label\">[1170]</span></a> See Book <span class=\"smcap\">III</span>. <i>c. Cresconium</i>, cc. xxvii. xxviii. secs. 30, 32.</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_1170_1170","text_sha256":"7e5c8260e4b9d344c828ffe3491d6daf7d8261134690448155e18464d1a23589","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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