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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	child_n	husband_n	parent_n	3,987	5	7.8229	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49120	The history of the Donatists by Thomas Long ...	Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.	1677 (1677)	Wing L2971; ESTC R1027	83,719	176

had been Deacon to Cecilian to be Bishop of Carthage By this you may perceive how many sins and lusts were in conjunction when this Monster of Schisme was first produced The defeated Ambition of some the sacrilegious covetousness of others the restless guilt and feminine malice of others and therefore it is rightly numbred among the works of the flesh Gal. 5.20 Jude 19. and the Authors condemned for sensual Persons It is generally true of all Schisme what is particularly observed of this Iracundia peperit Ambitio nutrivit Avaritia roboravit Discontent is the Mother Opt. p. 41. Ambition the Nurse and Covetousness a Champion to defend it To which agrees another ancient Observation Quicunque pacem ecclesiae perturbant aut Superbiae tumore furiosi aut invidentiae Livore vesani aut Seculari commoditate corrupti aut cannali concupiscentia perversi Aug. contr Parm. l. 3. The Faction being by these Arts propagated and become numerous begins to remonstrate against Cecilian not sparing Mensurius his Predecessor nor Felix who ordained him but charged them all to have been Traditors and particularly that Cecilian while he was a Deacon under Mensurius did forbid and hinder all relief from those that were imprisoned and ready to suffer Martyrdom in the days of Dioclesian And which is usual with such Persons by how much the more guilty of such practices they themselves were so much the more vehemently do they accuse others that their pretended zeal against those sins falsly imputed to others may serve as a cloak to cover the real guilt which defiled themselves Vt crimina in silentium mitterent sua vitam infamant alienam And now they begin to perswade the People that Cecilian is no Minister of Christ nor the People that adhered to him Members of the true Church that they had no true Sacraments nor saving Ordinances Opt. p. 42. but all were corrupted by Idolatry and Superstition And thus they generally called the Catholicks Pagans and Idolaters Adhuc Paganus es They would tell those whom they intended to seduce that they were very Pagans Donatus de Casâ nigrâ is the first that sets up Private Meetings L. 1. as Optatus observes Nolebat cum allis sacrificare sed in domibus secretò He withdraws from the Communion of Cecilian and the Bishops that adhered to him though they had Communicatory Letters from the chiefest Churches of the World and gathering the People into Coventicles for so both Optatus and St. Augustine call those Meetings they Preach against the Corruption of Cecilian and other Catholick Bishops and the Idolatrous and Superstitious practices that had defiled the whole Church of Carthage into whose Communion they say lapsed Persons and profane Traditors were promiscuously admitted to the defiling of all that joyned with them seeing the Church of Christ is to consist only of such as were holy and without spot and wrinkle and such said Donatus were to be found only in his separated Congregations where were better Ministers and purer Ordinances Having laid this Foundation no Pharisees were ever so industrious in gaining Proselytes as Donatus and his Party to seduce the People of Carthage from the Church under Cecilian to their own Conventicles for they run from House to House and from Village to Village and pick up one of a Family and two or three of a Village by foul and false accusations of others and fair pretences in behalf of themselves pitying the People and perswading them that they lived among Idolaters and were defiled by their communion with them Their manner of seducing the People is recorded both by Optatus and St. Augustine Caius Seius or Caia Seia adhuc Paganus es consule animae tuae esto Christianus p. 75. Bonus Homo si non esses Traditor i. e. Good Man or good Woman you are yet a rank Idolater be advised by me for the Salvation of thy Soul come out of that Babylon and be made a Christian thou hast good affections if they were sanctified and placed aright thou may'st become an eminent Saint Against this Un-christian practice St. Augustine most passionately declaimes O improbam rabiem cùm Christiano dicitur esto Christianus hoc est dicere nega Christum O accursed madness to perswade them that were true Christians already to renounce their Christianity under a pretence that they should be admitted to a higher form What is this saith he but to deny Christ which to prevent the Servants of Christ have been alway ready to lay down their Lives Opt. p. 75. and resist even to Blood Vnus consensus manus tuae porrectio pauca verba Christianum faciunt de Christiano As if the being admitted into their Congregations did contribute more to their Christianity than their Baptism By these insinuations they skrued themselves into the affections of the younger and weaker sort Opt. l. 3. p. 73. Aut exivit Vxor resedit Maritus c. Either the Wife separated and the Husband remained in the Catholick Communion or the Children and Servants were seduced from their obedience to their earthly as well as heavenly Parents and Masters until they had rent the Church of God into pieces and of one Church made many Synagogues of Satan Persuasionibus vestris divisa sunt corpora nomina pietatis The Church and the City the Townes and Families Husbands and Wives Parents and Children were divided and were no longer known by the Name of Christians but one was a Majorite another a Donatist a third a Maximianist and all of them professed Enemies to the Communion of the Catholick Church And whereas they pretended to greater purity than other Congregations yet such as joyned with them were Persons of least honesty and charity Ille vobis Christianus erit qui quod vultis fecerit non quem fides adduxerit He shall be a choice Christian among you saith Optatus whom a blind obedience to you and not faith in Christ hath p. 75. brought over Tertullian commended the Christian Religion in his days because it did so alter the dispositions of Men as to make those who were fierce and cruel as Bears or Tygers to be meek and innocent as Lambs or Doves but the spirit of Donatisme did Hominem de homine tollere Optat. p. 79 rob Men of their Humanity and made them that were formerly harmless and peaceable to be unnatural and implacable and yet as bad as they were they promised forgiveness of sins and a Crown of Martyrdome too to such as not only shed the blood of their Brethren but desperately cast away their own Lives Of which I shall give too many instances in the insuing History The Faction being increased by such arts they begin to leave their private Houses and build Basilicas non necessarias Optat. p. 61 unnecessary Churches when those of the Orthodox were sufficient and having first departed from Cecilian they departed also from the Catholick Church affirming that they only and

such as afflict the People of peace This if your Serenity shall observe you shall soon see by the grace of God that the Ring-leaders of contention will be destroyed when their designs shall be frustrated and their manners discovered In the mean time let all your People know that they ought not to be led to Eternal Death by the perswasion of a few desperate Persons but that by the grace of repentance and amendment of their errors they may be reconciled to Eternal Life Moreover he was pleased to certifie Eumalius and other his Officers in Africa of Cecilian's innocency Pervidi inquit Cecilianum c. I have always found Cecilian to be a Man of great integrity and free from the crimes objected by his Adversaries But the Donatists were now by their great Numbers above the Laws and Power of the Emperor for now was Constantine imployed to suppress the War raised by Licinius which he did with much more ease than he could the Tumults of the Donatists And the Catholick Bishops were busied in confuting the Arians Credo nostros in refutandis Arianis totos fuisse Hist Collat. Carth. p. 606. which is the reason that we hear but little of the Donatists for five or six Years the Council at Nice continuing for three Years but the Council being risen and the Catholick Bishops returned the controversie is renewed and carried on with more fury than ever For Donatus the first being dead Donatus Magnus as his Party called him succeeds him in the pretended Bishoprick of Carthage A man of more Learning and popular reputation than his Predecessor and of no less zeal and obstinacy in opposing the Catholicks and supporting the Faction among whom there was none so proud and fanatick as himself I find this Character of him Eò evasit Donatus ut non modo tanquam alter Hannibal Imperatores contemnebat sed ut deus aliquis à suis coleretur He got Troops of Armed Men to prosecute his designs and called their Captains Duces Sanctor●●m Optatus p. 68. these often affronted the Emperor's Officers Baronius observes in the 26th Year of Constantine that he did not only load the Prefects with reproaches calling them Senatus opprobrium dedecus Praefectorum but did also cast dirt on the Emperor as if he had been corrupted by the Catholicks Corruptum esse Imperatorem Delib Hist p. 246. which he did on this occasion The good Emperor commiserating the great sufferings of the Churches of Africa gives Order for considerable Summs of Mony to be sent to Cecilian with a gracious Letter which is recorded by Eusebius l. 10. c. 6. to this effect Constantine the Emperor to Cecilian Bishop of Carthage sendeth Greeting I have sent Letters to Vrsus Lieutenant of Africa that he cause 3000. Folles of Silver to be delivered to thy fidelity for the relief of the Churches of Africa and if this suffice not demand of Heraclus our Treasurer as much as may be sufficient And whereas I understand that some lewd People have much disturbed the peace of the Church I have given Order in the presence of Anilinus and Patricius to take cognizance thereof and in no wise to permit such things If therefore those Men persist in their folly acquaint the Governors thereof that they may act as I have appointed them The Great God preserve thee This great bounty and grace of the Emperor which did as so much Oyl heal the wounds and refresh the countenances of Cecilian and his People had a contrary effect on the spirits of Donatus and his Complices whose malice was hereby inflamed to rage and fury so that he forbad his People to accept any Portion of the Emperor's Largess if it should be offered Whereof Optatus gives the reason p. 64. Misit ornamenta Domibus Dei misit Elecmosynas Ceciliano nil Donato He sent Ornaments to the Catholick Churches and gifts to Cecilian but nothing to Donatus And at last the Emperor saw a necessity o● using more severity towards them and to rescue the Catholick Churches by force out o● the hands of the Donatists who in the late times of distraction had taken possession of them and triumphed alone nobis absentibus says Optatus The Emperor therefore by a more strict Edict not only denied them any publick Places of Worship but forbad them to reside in any of his Cities St. Augusti●● mentioneth another Law against them and any others that should trouble the peace o● the Church by which it was provided tha● all such as called themselves Christians and refused to communicate with the Catholic● Churches sed in suis conventiculis separati● congregantur and gathered into separate Congregations should be suppressed And that such Priests as did ordain or were ordained otherwise than the Church did approve of should be fined in a Mulct of Ten Pounds of Gold and the Place wherein such impious Meetings were held should be forfeited to the Emperor if the owners were consenting thereunto Moreover they were made uncapable of any Ecclesiastical promotion Vt nihil Ecclesiae nomine possiderent and that the Goods of such as were convicted should be seized on for the Emperor Fisco vindicarentur St. Aug. Epist 47. 166. and l. 1º contra Parmen and Bzovius Epitome Ba●●● p. 550. And that which made these Laws more effectual was the Emperor's charge to his Sons to put them in Execution after his Death whereby their hopes of Indulgence were much abated And by this means the Church had a Prospect of Peace and Unity before it and Children were restored to their Parents Wives to their Husbands Servants to their Masters and all of them the Unity of the Church It may here be seasonable to consider with what Mortar these Persons daubed to make a Building that consisted of such different Materials Aedificium quod de ruinis constat as Optat. p. 62. to subsist and joyn together notwithstanding the opposition against it by so Potent and Religious a Prince and the joynt endeavours of the Catholick Bishops and People and several Councils as well Foreign as of their own Nation For the Emperor had sent express command to Anilinus not only to restore to the Catholick Churches all those possessions and priviledges which any of their Adversaries had usurped Sive hortos sive Aedes sive aliud quodcunque ad jus Ecclesiarum aliquando spectaverat Euseb l. 10. c. 1o. but more especially he granted to the Clergy united in Communion with Cecilian new Priviledges and Immunities As in the 7th Chap. of Eusebius l. 10. Vt absque ulla molestiâ proprie legi obsequium praestent But exempted as well Schismaticks as Hereticks from the benefit of those Edicts And in another Epistle to Cecilian having ordered him to receive what Money he should want he adds Quoniam accepi c. Whereas I understand that some Men of unstable and ill composed minds do seek by corrupt practices to withdraw the People from the Catholick Church I have given order to Anilinus