Ά garden locked is my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed’ says the Song of Songs. The Donatists used this verse to justify their refusal to open the gates to the Christians who had been traitors during the persecution of Diocletian (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 separation from the rest of the world and from the schismatic groups which appeared after the persecution of Decius (250). To refute such an exegesis, Augustine was led to examine closely the text of the Song of Songs. He argues that the bride of the Song of Songs is not the Donatist Church. The Donatists, he says, are mistaken in their definition of the Church’s spotlessness. The loved one is the Catholic Church which, despite its sinners, remains pure and virgin.

Nathalie Henry
Revue des Études Augustiniennes, 42 (1996), 255-266

Nathalie Henry. Augustine’s Refutation of the Donatist Exegesis of the Song of Songs.