Abstract

The article deals with the violence applied to the Donatists, trying to answer three questions. The first is the about the development that Augustine experienced which finally led him to approve violence against the Donatists and to adopt the coge intrare as his device. The second question deals with the function Augustine envisaged for the use of violence and coercion in the process of returning heretics to the Catholic Church. Finally it traces the general and fundamental principles in Augustine’s way of thinking on violence. For this third question the article considers Augustine’s passages on coercion and violence in texts in which he speaks about administration of justice and medicine, and about the role of God at the Last Judgment.