17.
Give no credit to their words, neither be afraid of them. They say that we are enemies of their idols. May God so grant, and give all into our power, as He hath already given us that which we have broken down. For this I say, Beloved, that ye may not attempt to do it, when it is not lawfully in your power to do it; for it is the way of ill-regulated men, and the mad Circumcelliones, 1 both to be violent when they have no power, and to be ever eager in their wishes to die without a cause. Ye heard what we read to you, all of you who were present in the Mappalia. 2 "When the land shall have been given into your power" (he saith first, "into your power," and so enjoined what was to be done); "then," saith he, "ye shall destroy their altars, and break in pieces their groves, and hew down all their images." 3 When we shall have got the power, do this. When the power has not been given us, we do not do it; when it is given, we do not neglect it. Many Pagans have these abominations on their own estates; do we go and break them in pieces? No, for our first efforts are that the idols in their hearts should be broken down. When they too are made Christians themselves, they either invite us to so good a work, or anticipate us. At present we must pray for them, not be angry with them. If very painful feelings excite us, it is rather against Christians, it is against our brethren, who will enter into the Church in such a mind, as to have their body there, and their heart anywhere else. The whole ought to be within. If that which man seeth is within, why is that which God seeth without?
-
By the Donatists called Agonistici (St. Augustin, In Ps. 133. 6), and by the Catholics Circilliones, or Circumcelliones, that is, Vagrants. Circumcelliones dicti sunt, quia circum cellas vagantur, solent enim ire hac illac nusquam habentes pedes (In Ps. 132. 3). They were of a very licentious and abandoned character, and in their fanaticism they would often commit suicide, to which the text may suppose to refer (Lib. de Haeres. c. 69; Brev. Coll. cum Donat. viii. [14]). They exercised extreme cruelty against the Catholics (Cont. Cresc. Don. lib. 3, xliii. [47], xlvi. [50]). Their form of salutation was Deo laudes (Cont. lit. Petil. lib. 2, lxv. [146]), which St. Augustin (In Ps. 133, 6) says was more feared than the roaring of a lion. For the time of their origin see Opt. lib. 3. ↩
-
A place where St. Cyprian's body was buried outside the walls of Carthage. Macrius in his Hierolexicon (ad verb) thinks it ought to be written Mapalia, i.e. domus rurales. ↩
-
Deut. vii. 1 and xii. 3. ↩
