• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
Download
 
Revue des Études Augustiniennes,
42 (1996), 255-266
The Lily and the Thorns :Augustine's Refutation of
the
Donatisi Exegesisof
the
Song of Songs
Ά garden locked is my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed'says the Song of Songsi. The Donatists used this verse to justify their refusal toopen the gates to the Christians who had been traitors during the persecution ofDiocletian (303-4). In doing so they relied on the authority of Cyprian who,before them, had applied the passage to the Church to underline its separationfrom the rest of the world and from the schismatic groups which appeared afterthe persecution of Decius (250). To refute such an exegesis, Augustine was ledto examine closely the text of the Song of Songs
2
. He argues that the bride of theSong of Songs is not the Donatist Church. The Donatists, he says, are mistakenin their definition of the Church's spotlessness. The loved one is the CatholicChurch which, despite its sinners, remains pure and virgin.
1.
Song of Songs 4, 12.
2.
In her article «Le Cantique des Cantiques dans
l'œuvre de saint Augustin»
(RÉAug.,
1,
1955,
pp. 225-237) A. M. La Bonnardière gives an exhaustive list of all the quotations fromthe Song of Songs found in Augustine's works. The Song of Songs appears nearly exclusivelyin baptismal or anti-donatist contexts. Augustine, in the
De civitate Dei
(XVII, 20), affirmsthat the Song of Songs is to be interpreted as the spiritual marriage of Christ and the Churchbut the bishop of Hippo never really develops the theme for its own sake. Instead he uses
verses from Psalm 44. See E.
LAMIRANDE,
Études sur l'Ecclésiologie de saint Augustin,
Ottawa, 1969, chap. 2 pp.
21-31.
See also F.
OHLY,
Hohelied-Studien,
Wiesbaden, 1958,
p.
46 : 'Wenn ihm auch die Brautallegorie nicht fremd ist, so hat er sie doch weniger amHohenlied, als an den Psalmen entwickelt'.
 
256
NATHALIE HENRY
I. -
THE
DONATISTS
AND THE
AFRICAN TRADITION
In opposing
the
'exclusive' meaning given
by
Cyprian and the Donatists
to
Sg. 4,12, Augustine makes
an
attack
on the
rigorist tendencies which
had
characterized
the
African Church from
its
beginning
3
. TertuUian had alreadybeen deeply concerned by the discrepancy between the holiness
of
the Churchand
its
members' lack
of
moral purity.
In
his Montanist work
De pudicitia,
he
describes the Church as the 'spotless bride
of
Chiist' (Eph. 5,27) and insists
on
the necessity
for
Christians
to
live
in
accordance with inherent ecclesiasticalpurity
4
. The faithful must keep unstained the purity bestowed
by
baptism andmust live
sine ruga vetustatis, sine macula fornicationis, sine probro vilitatis,
that
is as
'having been utterly purified'
5
. Repentance should take place beforebelieving, before baptism and
not
after. TertuUian considers
as
unpardonablepostbaptismal sins involving idolatry, fornication or murder. For lesser sins
the
Christian should be able to obtain pardon from the bishop or other ecclesiasticalauthority
but the
Church has
no
power
to
forgive
the
three capital sins
;
onlyGod can do so. By such affirmation TertuUian violently criticizes the penitentialdiscipline
of the
African Church
and
especially
an
edictum
of a
pontifexmaximus,
whose name
is not
given, saying that
he
would remit
the
sins
of
adultery
and
fornication
to
those
who had
done penance
6
. Following
the
Montanist tradition, TertuUian opposes the organized Church
or
Church
of
thebishops,
to
the spiritual Church which he calls 'Church
of
the Spirit'
7
. Only thelatter can forgive sins.As his sympathies moved towards Montanism, TertuUian's conception
of
theChurch became that
of a
pure spiritual group,
an
enclosed body
of
impeccablemen and women waiting
for
the end
of
this world. Song
of
Songs
4, 12 is not
3.
W. Fren
d
suggests that the A
f
rican Church inherite
d i
ts
 rigorism
 f
rom the cult o
f
Saturnwhich was
the
pre-Christian national cult. Saturn appeare
d
like
a
tyrant
to his
fa
i
thfu
l
,impos
i
n
g
perio
d
s
of
abstinence an
d
fasting. Sinners ha
d
to
perform
al
l
kin
d
s
of
sacrificesomet
i
mes
i
nclu
d
in
g
that
of
the
i
r own chil
d
ren. See
The Donatisi Church,
Oxfor
d
,
1
985,
pp.
78-86.
4.
Depudicitia
1
8,
CSEL
20, p. 260 (
1
9-20), tr. A.
ROBERTS
an
d
J.
DONALDSON
(ANCL
vo
l
.
18,
E
di
nbur
g
h,
1
870) pp.
1
06-
1
07
: «If moreover, even from a
brother
who
walked idly
(2
Thess.
3, 6) he
[Paul] warns the Thessalon
i
ans
to
w
i
th
d
raw themselves, how much morew
i
tha
l
from
a
fornicator
!
For these are the
d
eliberate ju
dg
ements
of
Christ,
loving
His
Church,
who
has delivered Himself up for
her,
that
he may sanctify
her
(purifying
her
utterly
by the laver of
water)
in the world, that He
may
present the
Church
to Himself glorious, nothaving stain
or
wrinkle
- of
course
after
the laver
-
but that she may be holy and withoutreproach
(Eph.
5,
26-27) ; thereafter, to wit, bein
g
without wrinkle
as a v
i
rgin,
without
stain
(of fornicat
i
on) as a spouse,
without disgrace
(of vileness), as havin
g
been
utterly purified».
5. See footnote above.6.
Depudicitia
1
,
CSEL
20, p. 220 (3-7) : «Pontifex scilicet Maximus, quo
d
est episcopusepiscoporum, e
d
icit : E
g
o
et
moechiae
et
fornicationis
d
elieta paenitentia funct
i
s
di
m
i
tto».J. Quasten thinks that TertuUian is referin
g
here to A
g
rippus, bishop
of
Carthage
(Patrology,
vol. 2, Westminster, 1994, p. 3
1
3).7.
Depudicitia
21,
CSEL
20, p. 271 (9-10). Cf.
QUASTEN,
op. cit.,
p. 331.
 
THE
LILY AND
THE
THORNS
257
found in the remaining writings
of
Tertullian but
it
is very likely that Cyprian,
in
his application
of
the verse
to the
Church
as
opposed
to the
secular world,
had
been influenced by the Tertullianic idea
of
the
Ecclesia
spotless bride
of
Christ
8
.Cyprian uses Sg. 4, 12
in
connection with the problem
of
the
validity of baptismgiven
by
heretics, especially
the
Novatianists. The latter, who themselves alsoinherited Tertullian's rigorism, refused concessions
to
those
who had
compromised during
the
Decían persecution.
The
Novatianists wereexcommunicated. Some gradually returned to the Catholic Church. The problemthen was to decide the terms on which they should be received back and whetheror not those who had received baptism from the hands
of
a Novatianist ministershould undergo
a
second rite
of
baptism. Since
in his
view
its
effect derivedfrom
the
name
of
Christ alone
and
independently
of the
orthodoxy
of the
administrant, Stephen, bishop
of
Rome
from 254
to
257, recognized Novatianistbaptism
as
valid.
He
proposed welcoming those
who had
been baptized
in
heretical churches
by a
simple laying
on of
hands
as a
sign
of
reconciliation
9
.Cyprian and many African bishops refused
to
follow this policy and continuedto demand
a
second rite
of
baptism
in
the case
of
converted schismatics. In hiscorrespondence Cyprian quotes Sg. 4,12
to
justify such a position and writes
:
...He [the Holy Spirit] says again
:
Ά
garden enclosed
is my
sister,
my
spouse
; a
springsealed up,
a
well
of
living water' (Sg.
4,
12
; 4,
15).
But if
the spouse
of
Christ, which
is the
Church,
is a
garden enclosed,
a
thing that is closed up
(res clausa)
cannot lie open
to
strangersand profane persons. And
if it is a
fountain sealed,
he
who, being placed without
if
oris),
has
no access
to the
spring,
can
neither drink thence
nor be
sealed.
And the
well also
of
livingwater,
if it is one and the
same within
(intus),
he who is
placed without
iforis)
cannot
be
quickened
and
sanctified from that water
of
which
it is
only granted
to
those who
are
within
(intus)
to
make any use,
or
to drink
1°.
8. According
to the
Biblia Patristica
only
two
quotations from
the
Song
of
Songs
are
found
in
the whole work
of
Tertullian
:
Sg.
4,
8
is
quoted
in
the
Adversus Marcionem
and Sg.
8,
6
i
n
Fragmenta varia.
See
Biblia Patristica:
des
origines
à
Clément dAlexandrie
et
Tertullien,
Paris, 1975, p. 210. Cyprian knew and utilized
the
work
of
Tertullian
in
many
of
his wr
i
t
i
n
g
s. See R. F.
EVANS,
One
and
holy:
The
Church
in
Latin
Patristic
Thought,
Lon
d
on,
1972,
p. 38 : «It
appears that Cyprian
was an
avid reader
of
Tertullian. Most
of his non-
epistolary writings deal with themes
and
problems
in the
writings
of
Tertullian
and in
theircontent betray dependence
on
that author».9.
See J.
STEVENSON,
A
New
Eusebius,
London, 1987,
p. 238f., n. 214,
«The views
of
Stephen
of
Rome against rebaptism
of
heretics».
10.
Letter LXIX,
II, 1. Ed.
BAYARD
(Saint Cyprien, correspondance,
Paris, 1925, vol.
2)
p.
240,
tr. A.
ROBERTS
and J.
DONALDSON
(ANF,
vol. 5,
Edinburgh, 1990),
pp.
397-398(Epistle LXXV,
2 -
the numbering
of
the letters
is
different from that
of
the Bayard edition).
See
also letter LXXIV,
XI, 2, ed.
BAYARD,
vol. 2, p.
288, tr. A.
ROBERTS
and
J.
DONALDSON
p.
389 (letter LXXIII,
11) :
«The sacrament [baptism]
of
which unity
we see
expressed also
in
the Canticles,
in
the person
of
Christ, who says :
"A
garden enclosed
is
my sister,
my
spouse,a foutain sealed,
a
well
of
living water,
a
garden with the fruit
of
apples". But
if
His
Church
is
a garden enclosed,
and a
fountain sealed, how can
he
who
is not in the
Church enter into
the
same garden,
or
drink from its fountain ?».
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...