{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>2. For if those who take into consideration what you have\r\nwritten have any feelings whatsoever, how did it serve you\r\nin the cause which is at issue between us respecting the\r\nCatholic communion and the party of Donatus, that, leaving a\r\nmatter which was in a certain sense of public interest, you\r\nshould have been led by private animosity to attack the life\r\nof an individual with malicious revilings, just as though that\r\nindividual were the question in debate? Did you think so\r\nbadly, I do not say of Christians, but of the whole human\r\nrace, as not to suppose that your writings might come into\r\nthe hands of some prudent men, who would lay aside all\r\nthoughts of individuals like us, and inquire rather into the\r\nquestion which was at issue between us, and pay heed, not\r\nto who and what we were, but to what we might be able to\r\nadvance in defence of the truth or against error? You should\r\nhave paid respect to these men's judgment, you should have\r\nguarded yourself against their censure, lest they should think\r\nthat you could find nothing to say, unless you set before\r\nyourself some one whom you might abuse by any means within\r\nyour power. But one may see by the thoughtlessness and\r\nfoolishness of some men, who listen eagerly to the quarrels of\r\nany learned disputants, that while they take notice of the\r\neloquence wherewith you lavish your abuse, they do not perceive\r\nwith what truth you are refuted. At the same time, I<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_407\">[Pg 407]</a></span>\r\nthink your object partly was that I might be driven, by the\r\nnecessity of defending myself, to desert the very cause which\r\nI had undertaken; and that so, while men's attention was\r\nturned to the words of opponents who were engaged not in\r\ndisputation, but in quarrelling, the truth might be obscured,\r\nwhich you are so afraid should come to light and be well\r\nknown among men. What therefore was I to do in opposing\r\nsuch a design as this, except to keep strictly to my subject,\r\nneglecting rather my own defence, praying withal that no\r\npersonal calumny may lead me to withdraw from it? I will\r\nexalt the house of my God, whose honour I have loved, with\r\nthe tribute of a faithful servant's voice, but myself I will\r\nhumiliate and hold of no account. \"I had rather be a door-keeper\r\nin the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of\r\nunrighteousness.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_1031_1031\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1031_1031\">[1031]</a> I will therefore turn my discourse from\r\nyou, Petilianus, for a time, and direct it rather to those whom\r\nyou have endeavoured to turn away from me by your revilings,\r\nas though my endeavour rather were that men should\r\nbe converted unto me, and not rather with me unto God.</p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK THIRD."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-679"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"f09f92debbf14dba025174229d055ea4eaf384f8491ebd5f1ac97f2f0189e465","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"PSA","chapter":84,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Ps. lxxxiv. 10","verse":10,"verse_end":10}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_1031_1031","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_1031_1031","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_1031_1031\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1031_1031\"><span class=\"label\">[1031]</span></a> Ps. lxxxiv. 10.</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_1031_1031","text_sha256":"b20ecee9a33d7cf7569f055e79d0e212c1c206f3f2a555e942a032e34c6c41e3","verified":false,"work_id":null}