St. Augustine
14Fiat ergo quod promissum est, et infirmorum corda sanentur, ne tanto exemplo, quibus hoc placuerit, ad imitandum periurium aedificentur, quibus autem displicet, iustissime dicant nulli nostrum credendum esse non solum promittenti aliquid sed etiam iuranti. Hinc enim potius cavendae sunt linguae inimicorum, de quibus tamquam iaculis ad interficiendos infirmos maior ille utitur inimicus. Sed absit ut de tali anima speremus aliud quam quod dei timor inspirat et tanta quae in illa est excellentia sanctitatis hortatur. Ego autem, quem dicis etiam prohibere debuisse, fateor, non potui sic sapere, ut tanto vel tumultu vel offensione magis everti vellem ecclesiam cui servio, quam id quod a tali viro nobis offerebatur, accipere.
1Circumcelliones illos et clericos partis Donati, quos
Letters of St. Augustine
Therefore let his promise be fulfilled and the heart14 of the weak brethren be healed, so that this notable precedent may not encourage those who approve of it to commit similar perjury, or those who disapprove of it to say with perfect justice that no one of us is to be believed, not only on promise of anything, but even on oath. In this connexion we ought rather to safeguard ourselves against the tongues of our enemies, which our greater enemy employs like darts to slay the weak. But be it far from us to hope for anything from a soul like his, other than what the fear of God inspires, and its own great, native excellence of holiness exhorts. As for myself, you say I ought actually to have forbidden his oath, but I confess I could not be so minded as to prefer seeing the church I serve overthrown by such an uproarious outbreak to accepting the offer made to me by a man of his standing.
Those Circumcellions and clergy of the Donatist1