{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>43. <span class=\"smcap\">Augustine</span> answered: To flee from one state to another\r\nfrom the face of persecution has not been enjoined as precept\r\nor permission on heretics or schismatics, such as you are; but\r\nit was enjoined on the preachers of the gospel, whom you\r\nresist. And this we may easily prove in this wise: you are\r\nnow in your own cities, and no man persecutes you. You\r\nmust therefore come forth, and give an account of your\r\nseparation. For it cannot be maintained that, as the weakness\r\nof the flesh is excused when it yields before the violence\r\nof persecution, so truth also ought to yield to falsehood.\r\nFurthermore, if you are suffering persecution, why do you not\r\nretire from the cities in which you are, that you may fulfil\r\nthe instructions which you quote out of the gospel? But if\r\nyou are not suffering persecution, why are you unwilling to\r\nreply to us? Or if the fact be that you are afraid lest, when\r\nyou should have made reply, you then should suffer persecution,\r\nin that case how are you following the example of those\r\npreachers to whom it was said, \"Behold, I send you forth as\r\nsheep in the midst of wolves?\" To whom it was also further\r\nsaid, \"Fear not them which kill the body, but are not\r\nable to kill the soul.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_745_745\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_745_745\">[745]</a> And how do you escape the charge of\r\nacting contrary to the injunction of the Apostle Peter, who\r\nsays, \"Be ready always to give an answer to every man that\r\nasketh you a reason of the faith and hope that is in you?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_746_746\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_746_746\">[746]</a>\r\nAnd, lastly, wherefore are you ever eager to annoy the Catholic\r\nChurches by the most violent disturbances, whenever it is in\r\nyour power, as is proved by innumerable instances of simple\r\nfact? Wherefore in such a case did you not hearken to the\r\nvoice of the Lord, when He says, \"But I say unto you, that\r\nye resist not evil?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_747_747\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_747_747\">[747]</a> Or, allowing that it is possible that in\r\nsome cases it should be right for violent men to be resisted\r\nby bodily force, and that it does not violate the precept which\r\nwe receive from the Lord, \"But I say unto you, that ye resist\r\nnot evil,\" why may it not also be that a pious man should\r\neject an impious man, or a just man him that is unjust, in\r\nthe exercise of duly and lawfully constituted authority, from\r\nseats which are unlawfully usurped, or retained to the despite\r\nof God? For you would not say that the false prophets<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_278\">[Pg 278]</a></span>\r\nsuffered persecution at the hands of Elijah, in the same sense\r\nthat Elijah suffered persecution from the wickedest of kings?<a id=\"FNanchor_748_748\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_748_748\">[748]</a>\r\nOr that because the Lord was scourged by His persecutors,\r\ntherefore those whom He Himself drove out of the temple\r\nwith scourges are to be put in comparison with His sufferings?\r\nIt remains, therefore, that we should acknowledge that there\r\nis no other question requiring solution, except whether you\r\nhave been pious or impious in separating yourselves from the\r\ncommunion of the whole world. For if it shall be found\r\nthat you have acted impiously, you would not be surprised if\r\nthere should be no lack of ministers of God by whom you\r\nmight be scourged, seeing that you suffer persecution not from\r\nus, but as it is written, from their own abominations.<a id=\"FNanchor_749_749\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_749_749\">[749]</a></p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK SECOND."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-472"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"7adde14f74607c7428005bee58f10ae4072edcfcc6183865a97c38d10afee43b","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_748_748","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_748_748","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_748_748\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_748_748\"><span class=\"label\">[748]</span></a> 1 Kings xviii.</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_748_748","text_sha256":"7b455f1b4461a1683f5945eb9b6001567d1b84a08ccf43f1bc62b9c1ef90af6e","verified":false,"work_id":null}