ere
to be so great. And he and his brethren requested that the emperor would
appoint a meeting to be held between the parties, in order that they
might talk over their differences, and, if possible, might come to some
agreement.

The emperor consented to do so; and a meeting took place accordingly, at
Carthage, in 411, in the presence of a commissioner named Marcellinus.
Two hundred and eighty-six Catholic bishops found their way to the city
by degrees. But the Donatists, who were two hundred and seventy-nine in
number, entered it in a body, thinking to make all the effect that they
could by the show of a great procession. At the conference (or meeting),
which lasted three days, the Donatists behaved with their usual pride
and insolence. When Marcellinus begged them to sit down, they refused,
because our Lord had stood before Pilate. On being again asked to seat
themselves, they quoted a text from the Psalms, "I will not sit with the
wicked" (_Ps._ xxvi. 5); meaning that the Catholics were the wicked, and
that they themselves were too good to sit in such company. And when
Augustine called them "brethren," they cried out in anger that they did
not own any such brotherhood. They tried to throw difficulties in the
way of arguing the question fairly; but on the third day their shifts
would serve them no longer. Augustine then took the lead among the
Catholics, and showed at great length both how wrongly the Donatists
had behaved in the beginning of their separation from the Church, and
how contrary to Scripture their principles were.

Marcellinus, who had been sent by the emperor to hear both parties, gave
judgment in favour of the Catholics. Such of the Donatist bishops and
clergy as would join the Church were allowed to keep possession of their
places; but the others were to be banished. Augustine had at first been
against the idea of trying to force people in matters of religion. But
he saw that many were brought by these laws to join the Church, and
after a time he came to think that such laws were good and useful; nay,
he even tried to find a Scripture warrant for them in the text "Compel
them to come in" (_St. Luke_ xiv. 23). And thus, unhappily, this great
and good man, was led to lend his name to the grievous error of thinking
that force, or even persecution, may be used rightly, and with good
effect, in matters of religion. It was one of the mistakes to which
people are liable when they form their opinions without