{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p><span class=\"smcap\">Chap. x.</span>—11. Let these things suffice you, my beloved Christian\r\nbrethren of the Catholic Church, so far as the present\r\nbusiness is concerned; and if you hold fast to this in Catholic\r\naffection, so long as you are one sure flock of the one Shepherd,\r\nI am not too much concerned with the abuse that any enemy\r\nmay lavish on me, your partner in the flock, or, at any rate,\r\nyour watch-dog, so long as he compels me to bark rather in your\r\ndefence than in my own. And yet, if it were necessary for the\r\ncause that I should enter on my own defence, I should do so\r\nwith the greatest brevity and the greatest ease, joining freely\r\nwith all men in condemning and bearing witness against the\r\nwhole period of my life before I received the baptism of Christ,\r\nso far as relates to my evil passions and my errors, lest, in\r\ndefending that period, I should seem to be seeking my own\r\nglory, not His, who by His grace delivered me even from\r\nmyself. Wherefore, when I hear that life of mine abused, in\r\nwhatever spirit he may be acting who abuses it, I am not so\r\nthankless as to be grieved. However much he finds fault with\r\nany vice of mine, I praise him in the same degree as my\r\nphysician. Why then should I disturb myself about defending\r\nthose past and obsolete evils in my life, in respect of which,\r\nthough Petilianus has said much that is false, he has yet left\r\nmore that is true unsaid? But concerning that period of my\r\nlife which is subsequent to my baptism, to you who know me\r\nI speak unnecessarily in telling of those things which might\r\nbe known to all mankind; but those who know me not ought\r\nnot to act with such unfairness towards me as to believe\r\nPetilianus rather than you concerning me. For if one should\r\nnot give credence to the panegyrics of a friend, neither should<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_418\">[Pg 418]</a></span>\r\none believe the detraction of an enemy. There remain, therefore,\r\nthose things which are hidden in a man, in which conscience\r\nalone can bear testimony, which cannot be a witness\r\nbefore men. Herein Petilianus says that I am a Manichæan,\r\nspeaking of the conscience of another man; I, speaking of my\r\nown conscience, aver that I am not. Choose which of us you\r\nhad sooner believe. Notwithstanding, since there is not any\r\nneed even of this short and easy defence on my part, where\r\nthe question at issue is not concerning the merits of any individual,\r\nwhoever he may be, but concerning the truth<a id=\"FNanchor_1070_1070\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1070_1070\">[1070]</a> of the\r\nwhole Church, I have more also to say to any of you, who,\r\nbeing of the party of Donatus, have read the evil words which\r\nPetilianus has written about me, which I should not have\r\nheard from him if I had had no care about the loss of your\r\nsalvation; but then I should have been wanting in the bowels\r\nof Christian love.</p>","headings":["WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY.","BOOK THIRD."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45843-paragraph-688"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"7505bc2f56bbcd1cd0bf4aac2fc17e3d3257fbec15796480e809ddccd240a4a6","edition_title":"Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy","edition_translators":["John Richard King"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45843-Footnote_1070_1070","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_1070_1070","source_ebook":45843,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_1070_1070\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1070_1070\"><span class=\"label\">[1070]</span></a> Some editors have \"unitate,\" but Amerbach and the MSS., \"veritate;\" and\r\nthis is supported by sec. 28 below: \"De ecclesiæ vel baptismi veritate;\" and\r\nsec. 22 of the treatise <i>de Unico Baptismo</i>: \"Ambulantibus in ecclesiæ veritate.\"</p></div>","source_sha256":"a7a04003f4d3c49eb73db6c5936713979fcecadd86884373a9914ac54373ac5b","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45843/pg45843-images.html#Footnote_1070_1070","text_sha256":"8e3392bb3ebfa96841f4f7c4e676a48fa6c0ee676c9e0f5b30cbe226d50d83a2","verified":false,"work_id":null}