Library › St Optatus of Milevis › Against the Donatists

Against the Donatists

St Optatus of Milevis, tr. Vassall-Phillips, 1917

Book 2, The Endowments of the Church are with Catholics; Not with Donatists

The Endowments then are seen to be Five. Since these Endowments belong to the Catholic Church (which is in so many countries already mentioned by us), they cannot be wanting to us here in Africa.

Understand, however late, that you are disobedient sons, that you are boughs broken off from the tree, that you are branches cut off from the vine, that you are a river separated from its source. For that stream which is small and which is derived from another cannot be the source. Nor can the tree be cut off from the branch,¹ since the tree, which has been planted and is alive, has its own roots; whereas the branch, which has been cut off, withers and dies.

Now do you see, my brother Parmenian, now do you recognise, now do you understand, that by your arguments you have fought against yourself?

For it has been proved that we are in the Holy Catholic Church, who have too the Creed of the Trinity²; and it has been shown that, through the Chair of Peter which is ours----through it³ ----the other Endowments also belong to us.

Again, ours is the Sacerdotium, which you have affected to regard as in our case of no account⁴----by way of some excuse for your error and hatred in re-baptising after us----though this you do not after your own people, even when they have been proved guilty of sin; for you have maintained that, if the priest be in sin,⁵ the Endowments are able to work alone.⁶

So----to answer you----we have shown what is heresy, and what is schism, and which is the Holy Church, and that of this Holy Church there has been constituted a Representative,⁷ and that the Catholic Church is the Church which is scattered over the whole world (of which we amongst others are members), and that her Endowments are with her everywhere.⁸ We have also shown in our first Book that we cannot justly be reproached with the crime of Betrayal, and that this crime has been condemned not only by you, but by us also.⁹

Notes

non potest arbor a ramo concidi. G has ‘non potest esse arbor ramus concisus’ (‘nor can the branch which has been cut off be the tree’). This reading is adopted by Du Pin, as being ad mentem scriptoris. But we are not free to choose an easy reading in G against an unexpected, and therefore harder, reading in the other MSS.
apud quos et Symbolum Trinitatis est. This means the Creed which expresses Faith in the Trinity. St. Optatus has in the preceding chapter written of the ‘Sigillum: id est Symbolum Catholicum.’ Cf. also St. Augustine’s work De Fide et Symbolo.
per Cathedram Petri, quae nostra est, per ipsam et ceteras dotes apud nos esse.
The Donatists held that Catholic priests who had been guilty of the wickedness of Betrayal, thereby had lost their sacerdotal powers, and especially that their Bishops could not ordain validly. As a result they dared to deny that the Eucharist consecrated by Catholics was the Body of Christ, and were even guilty of the horrible sacrilege of casting It to dogs (cf. ii, 19).
Other than the sin of Traditio.
quod, si sacerdos in peccato sit, solae possint dotes operari.
et huius Sanctae Ecclesiae constituta est Persona. Persona means first a mask, and thence a representative. … This is made clear by the fact that he is giving a summary of the arguments which he has already brought forward in his book. Now amongst these arguments the representative character of St. Peter and of his Cathedra has, as we have just seen, taken a leading place. Again, no alternative explanation of Persona in this passage has ever been suggested. Further, it is well known that St. Augustine adopted this traditional view, and in several passages has written of St. Peter as representing the whole Catholic Church in his own person: e.g. Gestat enim Petrus Ecclesiae plerumque personam (Sermo de Verb. Evangel. Matt. lxxiv. 10); Petrus a petra cognominatus beatus, Ecclesiae figuram portans, apostolatus principatum tenens etc. (Sermo lxxvi. ut supra); Petrus in multis locis Scripturarum apparet quod personam gestet Ecclesiae (Sermo cxlix. 7 de Verbis Act. cap. x); Nam et ipsum Petrum, cui commendavit oves suas quasi alter alteri, unum Secum facere volebat, ut sic ei oves commendaret, ut esset Ille Caput, ille figuram Corporis portaret, id est, Ecclesiae, et tanquam sponsus et sponsa essent duo in carne una (Sermo de Pastoribus in Ecclesia, xlvi. 30 etc., etc.).
cuius dotes apud illam ubique sunt. ‘The Endowments of the Church are with her everywhere.’ Therefore, the Chair of Peter (according to the expressed mind of Optatus the chief of the Endowments) is with the Catholic Church (as well as the others----the local Bishop, the Holy Spirit, the Faith and the Creed) wherever she may be, in whatever part of the world. … It was idle then for Parmenian to appeal to his Cathedra. It was not the ‘Cathedra unica’; it was not ubique. If in all parts of the world there are Cathedras, if Italy and Asia have succession of Bishops as well as Africa, and if in Africa there are now rival Cathedras, the question arises: ‘Which is the true Cathedra? Where is the true Church?’ To this Optatus gives the answer: …, for ‘the Catholic Church is the Church which is scattered over the whole world and her Endowments are with her everywhere.’
The Donatist argument may be stated as follows in syllogistic form:
Bishops and Priests guilty of the crime of Betrayal can no longer use validly the power of their Orders;
But you Catholics have been guilty of this crime of Betrayal;
Therefore ...
To this Optatus here replies to the Major Premise, ‘Transeat (let it pass, for the sake of argument), but to the Minor Premise, Nego Minorem. We never were Betrayers, and we always condemned the sin of Betrayal.’