Austin to consult; we cannot go to him with his works in
our hand, and ask him whether they are to be taken to the letter under
our altered circumstances. We cannot explain to him that, as far as the
appearance of things goes, there are, besides our own, at least two
Churches, one Greek, the other Roman; and that they are both marked by a
certain peculiarity which does not appear in his own times, or in his
own writings, and which much resembles what Scripture condemns as
idolatry. Nor can we remind him, that the Donatists had a note of
disqualification upon them, which of itself would be sufficient to
negative their claims to Catholicity, in that they refused the name of
Catholic to the rest of Christendom; and, moreover, in their bitter
hatred and fanatical cruelty toward the rival communion in Africa.
Moreover, St. Austin himself waives the question of the innocence or
guilt of Caecilian, on the ground that the _orbis terrarum_ could not be
expected to have accurate knowledge of the facts of the case;[23] and,
if contemporary judgments might be deceived in regard to the merits of
the African Succession, yet, without blame, much more may it be
maintained, without any want of reverence to so great a saint, that
private letters which he wrote fourteen hundred years ago, do not take
into consideration the present circumstances of Anglo-Catholics.
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