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Against the Donatists

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

Book 7, That the Donatists and Not the Catholics Resembled Jamnes and Mambres

Now, to turn to the fact that you have thought fit to take upon yourself the character of Moses, who, as the Apostle Paul tells us, was opposed by Jamnes and Mambres¹ ----if this be so, what is the truth, that may be found with you, which the Catholic Church opposes?

Or, what is there with us which you can prove to be a lie? Is it that we are in one communion with the whole world? Will you be able to prove that this is a lie? Is it that we keep and defend the true and one Creed? Will you be able to prove that this is a lie? Will you be able to prove that the Chair of Peter is a lie----and the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, which were granted him by Christ, with which we are in communion?²

In the very passage of Scripture which you have mentioned, consider the order of the actions of the persons themselves, and pay attention as to which was the first. Yes, surely, Jamnes and Mambres who by their false artifices strove to fight against Moses and the truth, are in the second place. Moses, whose miracles they attempted in vain to impugn, was before them.³

As Moses is the first, so also is the Catholic Church; the first.⁴ As Jamnes and Mambres fought against and opposed Moses, so also do you in rebellion fight against the true Catholic Church.⁵ Why, then, is it that you⁶ have wished to change names between yourselves and us excepting that thou⁷ mightest prove thyself on a level with thy colleagues? For there are some of your party, who, having forgotten, or being ignorant of past times, say against us things which belong of right to those men who, having already fallen away from the Catholic Church,⁸ consecrated Majorinus----that is to say to the authors of Schism and Betrayal. Because they still preserved Peace, before they banished unity,----well-pleasing to God----they were the light of the world, and with reason were they termed the salt of the earth. So long as they taught Peace, they were still called the sons of Peace. Before they were puffed up, they were blessed in their poverty of spirit, and were part of the savour. Whilst they were meek, they were blessed----they were part of the savour. Whilst they were just, they were blessed----they were part of the savour. Whilst they were sons of Peace, they were blessed----they were the whole of the savour. After they bestowed the riches of error upon their breath and lungs⁹ and made the schism, they were seen to be cruel and without mercy; whilst they impiously tore asunder the members of the Church following after wickedness, they held the Kingdom of God in contempt, and, dividing the Church, were unwilling to be in Peace, they became salt that has been spoiled,¹⁰ from which nothing could be seasoned to please God with its sweetness.¹¹ And since your first leaders were thus wicked, some of your colleagues argue in a wrong-headed way,¹² so that they say that those were foolish, who, quitting the Schism, having, however late, recognised the truth and their Mother the Catholic Church, followed after Peace. Some of your party think that these men made a mistake; they consider that, as it were having lost their savour,¹³ they departed from wisdom. From which it is clear that you all make the same mistake in your application of names. For you have compared both Jamnes and Mambres to peace-loving Catholics, and yourselves, who are schismatics, you have compared to Moses----something very far removed from the truth. And some of your foolish colleagues have thought well to pass judgement on the wise, so as to say that the lovers of Peace have become fools and have refused to understand that their own fathers have, through their dissension, lose their savour¹⁴.¹⁵

Notes

Cf. 2 Tim. iii, 8; Ex. vii, 11.
Cathedram Petri et claves regni caelorum a Christo concessas, ubi est nostra societas, numquid poteris adprobare mendacium? (cf. ii, 23: ‘Negare non potes scire te in urbe Roma . . . societate concordat’). The Donatists claimed that they possessed the truth. To this Optatus opposed the authority of the Catholic Church and set out the grounds of Catholic security in three pertinent questions:
(a) Is it a lie (a delusion) to appeal to the fact of communion with the Catholic Church throughout the world? ‘Is it a delusion that we are in one communion with the whole [Catholic] world,?’
(b) Is it a delusion that we keep and guard the Creed? ‘Is it a delusion that we keep and defend the true and one Creed?’
(c) Is the Chair of Peter a delusion? ‘But you cannot deny that you know that Peter established his Chair at Rome.’ Or, is it a delusion that we are in communion with that Chair? Or, is it, perhaps, a delusion that Christ gave the Keys of Heaven to Peter?----the Keys of Heaven which, through our communion with the Chair of Peter, we share (‘ubi est nostra societas’: cf. i, 12; ii, 4; ii, 9).
Is this all a falsehood----a mere delusion? (‘Numquid poteris adprobare mendacium?’)
Such is the argument of Optatus. He appealed just as Catholics appeal to-day (and as they always have appealed):
1. To communion with the Catholic Church in other lands,
2. To the possession of the Creed,
3. To communion with the Chair of Peter.
… This is no freak of the imagination (mendacium). Here beyond all doubt we find and here we possess the great reality.
Moses came first, before Pharaoh, and though Jamnes and Mambres worked the same miracles, yet Moses had precedence and prescriptive right. (Cf. Exod. vii, 11.) St. Optatus here passes to another great argument for the Catholic Church. It is ‘in possession.’
ut Moyses prior est, sic et Catholica prior est.
rebelles contra veram Catholicam militatis (cf. ‘contra Cathedram Petri sacrilegio militatis,’ ii, 5).
plural----Donatists in general.
singular----Parmenian in particular.
iamdudum de Catholica lapsi.
erroris divitias dederunt spiritui et pulmonibus suis.
sal infatuatum. Cf. S. Aug. De Serm. Dom. i, 6: ‘si sal infatuatum fuerit, in quo salietur . . . ergo ad nihilum valet sal infatuatum, nisi ut mittatur foras, et calcetur ab hominibus . . . qui persecutionem timendo infatuatur, calcatur ab hominibus,’ and S. Hilar. in Matt. iv: ‘si sal infatuatum fuerit, ad nihilum valet id quod salietur.’
St. Optatus forgot for a moment that salt does not produce sweetness.
aliter.
quasi infatuatos (with reference to sal infatuatum supra).
infatuatos esse.
Chapters VI and VII have been placed at the end of Book III, to which they belong as an Appendix (v. p. 175-179).