# Against the Donatists *By Optatus, Catholic bishop of Milevis in Numidia (modern Mila, Algeria). Written in Latin around 370 as a reply to a treatise by Parmenian, the Donatist bishop of Carthage, and revised after 384 with a seventh book. The manuscripts call it* Libri VII *(or* De schismate Donatistarum*)* adversus Parmenianum. *It is the earliest surviving Catholic history of the Donatist schism and the first sustained argument against* schism *rather than heresy. It is best known for the "five endowments" of the Church, the first of which is the* cathedra *of Peter at Rome (2.2). The primary English edition used here is O. R. Vassall-Phillips's translation (Longmans, Green, 1917), which is in the public domain. The modern scholarly translation is Mark Edwards's (Liverpool University Press, 1997). The Latin standard is Karl Ziwsa's critical edition (CSEL 26, 1893).* > **What I actually read.** I read the whole of Vassall-Phillips's 1917 English translation in Roger Pearse's public-domain transcription on tertullian.org: the translator's introduction (pp. i–xxxv), all seven books (pp. 1–310), the introduction to Book VII, the three "Pseudo-Optatus" passages, and the documentary appendix (pp. 321–438). Page numbers below are the 1917 pages, taken from the page markers in that transcription. I spot-checked the transcription against the Internet Archive scan of the same printing ([`theworkofstoptat00philuoft`](https://archive.org/details/theworkofstoptat00philuoft)). All quotations are Vassall-Phillips's English (public domain). Chapter numbers are his, and they follow Ziwsa's. I did **not** read Edwards's 1997 translation, which is in copyright; I took its details from catalog records and the publisher's contents list. I did not collate the Latin, apart from the few Latin phrases that Vassall-Phillips prints in his notes. Related in this vault: the source video note [[Video Summaries/Cameron Riecker/This Literally Ends Protestantism]]. ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | Latin: *S. Optati Milevitani libri VII* (Ziwsa), also called *De schismate Donatistarum* or *Contra Parmenianum Donatistam*. Vassall-Phillips: *The Work of St. Optatus, Bishop of Milevis, against the Donatists, with Appendix*. Edwards: *Optatus: Against the Donatists* | | Author | Optatus, bishop of Milevis (Mileu), Numidia; fl. c. 364–c. 390 | | Date | **First edition c. 364–375**, in six books. Optatus writes that "sixty years and more have passed" since the persecution (1.13, p. 26), and Jerome places the work under Valentinian and Valens (*De viris illustribus* 110). Vassall-Phillips puts it at about 373; the *Catholic Encyclopedia* (Chapman, 1911) at about 366–370. **Second edition after 384.** The list of Roman bishops ends with Siricius, "who to-day is our colleague" (2.3, p. 69), and two later Donatist bishops of Rome are added (2.4). Book VII was probably added at this stage | | Primary English edition | **O. R. Vassall-Phillips**, London and New York: Longmans, Green, 1917. xxxv + 438 pp. *Nihil obstat* and *imprimatur* dated 15 February 1915. LC a17001100; LC class BT1370 .O6; OCLC 844968 ([Open Library OL7118343M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7118343M), work [OL2085399W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2085399W)). It was the first English translation. Contents: Books I–VII (pp. 1–297), Pseudo-Optatus A–C (pp. 298–310), "A hundred noteworthy sayings of St. Optatus" (p. 311), and Appendix I–XVI (pp. 321–438) | | Modern English edition | **Mark Edwards** (trans. and ed.), *Optatus: Against the Donatists*, Liverpool University Press, 1997. Translated Texts for Historians 27. xxxi + 220 pp., 2 maps. ISBN 0-85323-752-2 / 978-0-85323-752-5. LCCN 98117302, OCLC 38496080 ([OL414513M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL414513M); [doi:10.3828/978-0-85323-752-5](https://doi.org/10.3828/978-0-85323-752-5)). It adds a chronology, an introduction, the "Optatan Appendix" (10 documents), a glossary, lists of the bishops of Rome and the Italian bishoprics, and maps | | Latin text | **Karl Ziwsa**, *S. Optati Milevitani libri VII*, CSEL 26, Vienna: F. Tempsky, 1893 (public domain; two Google scans on IA: [`soptatimilevita00ziwsgoog`](https://archive.org/details/soptatimilevita00ziwsgoog), [`soptatimilevita01ziwsgoog`](https://archive.org/details/soptatimilevita01ziwsgoog)). Earlier editions: Cochlaeus 1549 (editio princeps); François Baudouin (Balduinus), Paris 1563 and 1569, reissued 1599; Albaspinaeus 1631; Meric Casaubon, London 1631; L. E. Du Pin, Paris 1700 / Antwerp 1702, reprinted in Migne, *PL* 11. Modern Latin–French edition: Mireille Labrousse, *Traité contre les donatistes*, Sources Chrétiennes 412–413, Cerf, 1995–1996 | | Manuscripts | Six, all incomplete, sigla A, B, C, G, P, R (Vassall-Phillips, pp. xxvii–xxviii). P is the oldest but has only Books I–II. R is best for the rest. C alone keeps part of the documentary appendix | | Structure | Seven books, 28 + 26 + 14 + 9 + 11 + 8 + 5 chapters. Book I ch. 7 gives the original six-book plan. Book VII is a later supplement. Two chapters that the manuscripts place in Book VII (VII.6–7) are printed by Vassall-Phillips as an "Appendix to Book III" (III.13–14) | | Audiobook | None found on Audible or LibriVox | | Cover | [Open Library cover 5634127](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/5634127-L.jpg) (title page of the 1917 edition) | **Where it came up.** - Video: [This Literally Ends Protestantism.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFHOsClRbQg), *Cameron Riecker*, published 2026-11-03, 2:59. At [0:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFHOsClRbQg&t=25s) Riecker says Optatus's book was "not published until 1549", three years after Luther died, and that the reformers never engaged it. At [1:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFHOsClRbQg&t=82s) he reads the *cathedra Petri* passage (2.2). At [2:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFHOsClRbQg&t=150s) he reads the "keys of the kingdom" challenge (2.4). He argues that the chair of Peter is the decisive mark of the true Church and that this "ends Protestantism". - Requested by Video Summaries on 2026-11-06. The queue note: "Also De Schismate Donatistarum; public-domain Latin and English translations exist." - Vault note: [[Video Summaries/Cameron Riecker/This Literally Ends Protestantism]]. ## 2. Book resources **Reference and catalog pages.** Open Library: [OL2085399W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2085399W) (Vassall-Phillips), [OL2085397W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2085397W) (Edwards). Edwards at the publisher: [Liverpool University Press eBooks, doi:10.3828/978-0-85323-752-5](https://doi.org/10.3828/978-0-85323-752-5) (institutional access). WorldCat: [38496080](https://search.worldcat.org/title/038496080). Background: [Catholic Encyclopedia, "St. Optatus"](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11262b.htm) (John Chapman, 1911; Chapman also corrected Vassall-Phillips's translation in manuscript, p. xxxi); [Wikipedia, Optatus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optatus). **Free (legal).** - **Vassall-Phillips 1917 English: free and public domain.** It was published in 1917, so it is in the US public domain, and the translator died in 1932, so it is also free in life-plus-70 countries. - Read online: [tertullian.org, Early Church Fathers – Additional Texts](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_01_book1.htm) (Roger Pearse's 2006 transcription, one page per book: [I](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_01_book1.htm), [II](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_02_book2.htm), [III](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_03_book3.htm), [IV](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_04_book4.htm), [V](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_05_book5.htm), [VI](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_06_book6.htm), [VII](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_07_book7.htm); [translator's introduction](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_00_intro.htm); [appendix preface](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_08_intro_to_appendix.htm)). It is mirrored at [CCEL](https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/optatus_00_intro.htm). Note that Pearse's own [preface to the online edition](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_00_eintro.htm) is a personal and fairly polemical essay, sympathetic to the Donatists. It is separate from the 1917 book. - Scans: [Internet Archive `theworkofstoptat00philuoft`](https://archive.org/details/theworkofstoptat00philuoft) (University of Toronto copy, full view, PDF/EPUB/text) and [`workofstoptatusb0000orva`](https://archive.org/details/workofstoptatusb0000orva). - Open Library: [OL7118343M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7118343M), which reads from the same IA scan. - **Latin: free and public domain.** Ziwsa, CSEL 26 (1893), on IA (links above). Du Pin 1702 on IA ([`bub_gb_oJkhz2sq3ZYC`](https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_oJkhz2sq3ZYC)) and Baudouin 1569 ([`bub_gb_dMH2j_qEPdkC`](https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_dMH2j_qEPdkC)). - **Edwards 1997: not free.** IA has a scan of the print edition ([`optatusagainstdo0000opta`](https://archive.org/details/optatusagainstdo0000opta)), but it is in the `printdisabled` collection and restricted to qualifying readers. A separate user upload of the Edwards translation on IA ("optatus-edwards") appears to be unauthorized. I am not linking it. - **Labrousse (French, SC 412–413):** IA print-disabled scans only. - **Project Gutenberg:** not on Gutenberg. **Libby/OverDrive, Hoopla:** none found (web search, 2026-11-10). Academic libraries often have Edwards through Liverpool University Press Online. **Paid.** - **Amazon print, Vassall-Phillips reprints.** [Kessinger facsimile, ISBN 0548724199](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0548724199) (480 pp., 2007); [Forgotten Books, ISBN 1331330351](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1331330351); [CreateSpace 2013 edition, ISBN 1482764482](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1482764482) (472 pp.); [CreateSpace 2018 abridged-format edition, ISBN 1717120784](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1717120784) (152 pp., "All Seven Books with Appendixes"; I did not check how the text and notes fit into 152 pages). - **Amazon print, Edwards.** [Paperback, ISBN 0853237522](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0853237522) (Liverpool University Press, Translated Texts for Historians 27). - **Kindle.** [CrossReach Publications edition of the Vassall-Phillips translation, ASIN B09YMGCDSD](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YMGCDSD). It costs little, but the same text is free above. I found no Kindle edition of Edwards. - **Audible.** No audiobook exists. Theologians Press presents the public-domain text online and advertises audio narration; I did not check it. - **Edition note.** For reading, use Vassall-Phillips. It is free, complete, and has heavy notes that give the Latin wherever the meaning is disputed. Be aware that his introduction and notes are openly Catholic apologetic (see section 5). For scholarship, use Edwards: it is a more neutral modern translation with current dating and prosopography. For the Latin, use Ziwsa, or Labrousse for a modern critical text. ## 3. Author biography Almost nothing is known of **Optatus** beyond this book. He was Catholic bishop of **Milevis** (Mileu), in Numidia, now **Mila** in north-eastern Algeria. Augustine lists "Optatus" with Cyprian, Lactantius, Victorinus and Hilary as men who came out of "Egypt" laden with its gold (*De doctrina christiana* 2.40.61), and this is usually taken to mean that he was a convert trained in pagan rhetoric (Chapman 1911). He wrote the first edition of this work under Valentinian and Valens. He was evidently still alive and revising it in the pontificate of Siricius (384–399). Jerome lists him in *De viris illustribus* 110 (392/393), saying he wrote "six books" against "the calumny of the Donatist party". Augustine calls him "Optatus of venerable memory, bishop of Milevis, of the Catholic communion", in the line quoted on the 1917 title page: "Legant qui volunt quae narret et quibus documentis quam multa persuadeat …". Augustine also pairs him with Ambrose as a doctrinal authority. Fulgentius of Ruspe names him with Ambrose and Augustine (Vassall-Phillips, pp. xxiii–xxiv). He has no ancient cult. His name was entered in the Roman Martyrology at **4 June** (Chapman). His adversary **Parmenian** was Donatist bishop of Carthage from about 362 until about 391. Vassall-Phillips gives c. 350, but most modern accounts date his accession to the early 360s. Parmenian succeeded Donatus. Optatus stresses that he was a foreigner: "Have we consecrated a foreigner, not known to our people?" (2.7, p. 83); "ignorance, as a foreigner" (1.5, p. 11). Augustine later answered a different work of his (*Contra epistulam Parmeniani*). Parmenian's treatise against the Catholics is lost and survives only in Optatus's quotations and paraphrases. **The translators.** *Oliver Rodie Vassall-Phillips* (1857–1932) was educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford. He became a Catholic in 1878, made his profession as a Redemptorist (C.Ss.R.) in 1881, and was ordained in 1884. He was a mission preacher and apologist (*The Mustard Tree*, 1912; *The Mother of Christ*, 1920). He died at sea on 8 May 1932, on his way home from South Africa. *Mark J. Edwards* teaches patristics at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). He is the author of *Catholicity and Heresy in the Early Church* (2009) and other books. ## 4. Author interviews and talks Optatus is a fourth-century author, so there are no interviews or lectures. The nearest modern companions: - **Mark Edwards's introduction** to the 1997 translation, and the reviews of it in *Journal of Theological Studies* 50 (1999) ([doi:10.1093/jts/50.1.471-a](https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/50.1.471-a)) and *Journal of Ecclesiastical History* ([Cambridge Core](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-ecclesiastical-history/article/abs/optatus-against-the-donatists-translated-and-edited-by-mark-edwards-translated-texts-for-historians-27-pp-xxxi222-incl-2-maps-liverpool-liverpool-university-press-1997-1250-paper-0-85323-752-2/4B0B1B09680C10206F592A030EBB82C3)). - **Standard histories of Donatism:** W. H. C. Frend, *The Donatist Church* (Oxford, 1952); Brent D. Shaw, *Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine* (Cambridge, 2011); Maureen A. Tilley, *Donatist Martyr Stories* (Liverpool, Translated Texts for Historians 24, 1996), which gives the Donatist side. - **Video:** Cameron Riecker's short (above) is the source of this request. It is a Catholic apologetic reading, not a historical lecture. ## 5. Summary **Thesis.** The Donatists and the Catholics agreed that there is only one Church, and the Donatists claimed to be it. Optatus's question is "Which and where is the One Church?" (2.1). His answer has three parts. First, the schism began with the Donatists' own founders, who were themselves guilty of *traditio* (handing over the Scriptures in the persecution) (Book I). Second, the true Church is the one "scattered all over the world", in communion with the *cathedra* of Peter at Rome and with the churches overseas (Book II). Third, a sacrament's validity comes from the Trinity and the recipient's faith, not from the holiness of the minister: "the Sacraments are holy through themselves, not through men" (5.4, p. 220). So rebaptism is wrong. Unusually for an anti-schism writer, he insists throughout that the Donatists are **brothers**, not heretics: "They therefore are without doubt brothers, though not good brothers" (1.3, p. 6). They share true sacraments: "you have shared true Sacraments with us" (1.12, p. 25). **The plan.** Optatus sets it out in 1.6–7 (pp. 13–14) in answer to the five main topics of Parmenian's treatise: (1) who the Betrayers and schismatics were; (2) "which is the Church, or where is to be found the One Church"; (3) "that we did not ask for the troops"; (4) "who is the sinner whose sacrifice God repudiates"; (5) Baptism; (6) Parmenian's "ill-considered assumptions and mistakes." Books I–VI follow this plan exactly. Book VII is a later supplement. **Outline (Vassall-Phillips 1917; book subtitles from his contents page; chapter numbers follow Ziwsa; page numbers are 1917 pages).** - **Book I, Who were the Betrayers at the Time of the Persecution; the Causes of the Schism; where and by whom the Schism was made (pp. 1–56; 28 chapters).** - *1–7, Prologue (pp. 1–14).* Christ's parting gift was peace, and the schism broke it. The schismatics are still brothers (Isa. 66:5). He has chosen Parmenian because he is the one Donatist who has "set them down in writing" (1.4, p. 8). This will be a written conference in place of the debate the Donatists refuse. Parmenian's book often argues *for* the Catholics, through the one Flood and the one Circumcision as types of one Baptism, and its praise of the one Church. "Take this calumny out of your book, and you are ours" (1.5, p. 12). Then the plan (1.6–7). - *8–12, Preliminary corrections (pp. 14–25).* Against Parmenian's claim that Christ's flesh was "drowned" and cleansed in the Jordan (1.8). His catalogue of long-dead heretics (Marcion, Praxeas, Sabellius, Valentinus) is padding (1.9). The key distinction between **heretics**, who "have falsified the creed" and have no true sacraments, and **schismatics**, who have true sacraments but have broken unity (1.10–12). Parmenian had denied the endowments to both, and so "turned the sword of judgement upon yourself" (p. 22). The definition: "Catholicism is constituted by a simple and true understanding in the law, by an unique and most true mystery, and by unity of minds" (1.11, p. 23). - *13–20, The origin of the schism (pp. 25–38).* "Sixty years and more" since the persecution. The bishops who confessed to *traditio* at the Council of **Cirta** (13 May, in the house of Urbanus Carisius, under Secundus of Tigisis) include Purpurius of Limata, who admitted killing his sister's sons: "Yes, I did kill them, and not them alone do I kill, but whoever shall act against me" (1.13, p. 27). Then the Carthage story. **Lucilla** is rebuked by the archdeacon Caecilian for kissing a martyr's bone before Communion (1.16). Bishop **Mensurius** leaves the church's treasure with "seniors" before going to court (1.17). **Caecilian** is elected and consecrated by Felix of Autumna (Aptunga). The seniors, who have kept the treasure, and the disappointed candidates Botrus and Celestius join Lucilla: "the Schism was brought to birth by the anger of a disgraced woman, was fed by ambition, and received its strength from avarice" (1.19, p. 34). The Numidian bishops consecrate **Majorinus**, Lucilla's dependant, and "altar was raised against altar" (p. 37). Purpurius's jibe: "let his head be well smacked in Penance" (p. 36). - *21, The gravity of schism (pp. 38–42).* Murder and idolatry were pardoned in Cain and Nineveh, but the schismatics Korah, Dathan and Abiram were swallowed alive (Num. 16). - *22–27, The appeals (pp. 42–55).* The Donatist petition to Constantine for Gallic judges is quoted (1.22). Constantine's reply: "You ask a judgement from me in this world, although I myself am waiting for the Judgement of Christ in the next" (p. 44). The **Roman synod** meets in the House of Fausta on the Lateran on 2 October 313 under **Miltiades**, with nineteen bishops, and acquits Caecilian (1.23–24; the verdict is quoted). Donatus appeals: "Oh, mad daring of their fury! A Bishop has thought fit to appeal to us, as is done in the lawsuits of the Pagans" (1.25, p. 49). The legates Eunomius and Olimpius declare the Catholic Church to be "that which was dispersed all over the world" (1.26). The proconsul Aelianus clears **Felix of Aptunga** of *traditio* (1.27, verdict quoted). - *28, Conclusion (pp. 55–56).* Every charge Parmenian made against Betrayers and schismatics "belongs to yourselves … we who both remain in the Root, and are joined, with all, in the whole [Catholic] world". - **Book II, Which is the One True Catholic Church and where is it to be found? The five Endowments belong to Catholicism; Donatist outrages (pp. 57–119; 26 chapters, no ch. 25).** - *1, Catholic means worldwide (pp. 57–64).* Can the Church exist "in a little piece of Africa, in a corner of one small region" and not in Spain, Gaul, Italy, Pannonia, the "three Syrias" and Egypt? Ps. 2:8 promised Christ "the ends of the earth". The Church "was called Catholic, because she is in accordance with reason, and is scattered all over the world" (p. 59). - *2–5, The first endowment, the cathedra (pp. 64–78).* Parmenian had listed six *dotes* (endowments); Optatus accepts five. The passage Riecker reads: "You cannot then deny that you do know that upon Peter first in the City of Rome was bestowed the Episcopal Cathedra, on which sat Peter, the Head of all the Apostles (for which reason he was called Cephas), that, in this one Cathedra, unity should be preserved by all, lest the other Apostles might claim—each for himself—separate Cathedras, so that he who should set up a second Cathedra against the unique Cathedra would already be a schismatic and a sinner. Well then, on the one Cathedra, which is the first of the Endowments, Peter was the first to sit" (2.2, pp. 66–68). The Roman succession from Linus to "Damasus Siricius, who to-day is our colleague, with whom 'the whole world,' through the intercourse of letters of peace, agrees with us in one bond of communion" (2.3, pp. 68–69). The list is out of order in places: Alexander is moved to after Soter, and "Anacetus" (Anicetus) is put before Pius. He mocks the Donatist bishops of Rome (Victor of Garba, Boniface, Encolpius, Macrobius, Lucian, Claudian), who were all Africans and met in a cave outside the city, so that they were nicknamed "Mountaineers" (2.4). The video's second quote: "How is it, then, that you strive to usurp for yourselves the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, you who, with your arguments, and audacious sacrilege, war against the Chair of Peter?" (2.4, p. 73). The endowments are joined "as are the fingers on the hand", so whoever has one has all (2.5, p. 78). - *6–9, The other endowments (pp. 78–88).* The second is the **angelus** (bishop). "The Cathedra … draws to itself the ANGEL" (*cathedra ducit ad se angelum*), and communion with the seven churches of Asia (Rev. 1–3) is the test (2.6). The third is the **Spirit**, who "breatheth where He willeth" and cannot be shut up in Africa (2.7). The fourth is the **fountain** (*fons*) and the fifth the **seal** (*sigillum*), meaning the creed (2.8). Parmenian's sixth, the **navel** (*umbilicus*, which he read as the altar), is rejected because a navel is part of the body and not an ornament (2.8, p. 84). The text has a lacuna here, marked with asterisks. Conclusion: "through the Chair of Peter which is ours—through it—the other Endowments also belong to us" (2.9, p. 86). - *10–13, Sacraments, paradise, oblation (pp. 88–93).* In their own Eucharistic prayer the Donatists pray for "the Church, which is One". They are lying, "to call that One, of which you have made Two" (2.12). - *14–26, Donatist violence (pp. 92–119).* This answers Parmenian's charge that the Catholic Church "battens on bloody morsels". Optatus describes the Donatists' return under **Julian** the Apostate, who granted their petition to come back (2.16). Then come killings at Lemella and elsewhere (2.18), Donatist bishops ordering the **Eucharist thrown to dogs**, which then turn on their masters, and an ampulla of chrism thrown away (2.19). Their claim to sinlessness is refuted by 1 John 1:8 (2.20). They depose and "scrape the heads" of Catholic clergy and impose penance on bishops, matrons, boys and virgins (2.21–26). They swear oaths "by" their own bishops (2.22). - **Book III, The Four Reasons on account of which it was not possible to bring about Unity without Severity (pp. 120–179; 12 chapters plus "Appendix to Book III", chs. 13–14).** - The four reasons, from the contents page: the schismatics had built "churches that were not wanted"; **Donatus of Carthage** had appealed to the emperor; **Donatus of Bagai** raised armed bands against the work of unity; and nothing that happened was against God's will. - *1–2 (pp. 120–131).* "Unity was proclaimed," with "exhortations merely", yet "you all 'took to flight'" (3.1, p. 122). The severities were God's punishment for rebaptism. This includes the **ΙΧΘΥΣ** acrostic, "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour" (3.2, p. 124), and an allegory of Isa. 22 applied "to Africa alone". - *3 (pp. 131–143).* The **imperial commissioners Paul and Macarius**, sent by Constans in 347 with alms for the poor. Donatus's outburst: "What has the Emperor to do with the Church?" (p. 131). Optatus's famous reply: "For the State is not in the Church, but the Church is in the State, that is to say, in the Roman Empire" (p. 132). There is a long portrait of the pride of Donatus. - *4 (pp. 143–150).* The **Circumcellions** under their "Captains of the Saints" Axido and Fasir terrorize creditors and landlords. Donatist bishops are "said to have written" to Taurinus, who then held civil authority, asking that these men be punished, and he sent troops through the markets (p. 145). Donatus of Bagai gathers a mob, and Macarius then asks for an armed escort. - *5–12 (pp. 150–175).* "Some evil things are done in an evil way; some evil things are done in a good way" (3.5). The Donatist martyrs Marculus and Donatus are said not to be martyrs (3.6). Macarius is defended with the examples of Moses (Exod. 32), Phinehas and Elijah (3.7). Ezekiel's "whitened wall" is applied to the Donatists, and the repeated attempts at unity are read as its storm, rain and stones: storm under Ursacius, rain under the prefect Gregory, stones under "the makers of unity" (3.10–11, p. 169). Optatus answers the rumour that Catholics would be forced to take the "sacrifice of unity" (3.12). - *13–14, Appendix to Book III (pp. 175–179).* Why Macarius, even if guilty, was rightly admitted to communion: no accuser came forward. - This is the book modern readers find hardest. Even Vassall-Phillips calls Optatus's appeal to God's will "exceedingly regrettable" (Introduction, p. xv). - **Book IV, An Answer is made to certain Arguments of Parmenian, drawn from various Passages in the Old Testament (pp. 180–202; 9 chapters).** Who is "the sinner" whose sacrifice God rejects? Optatus reads Ps. 49(50):16–20 against the Donatists, phrase by phrase. They despise discipline by rejecting peace and rebaptizing (4.4). They slander their brothers from the pulpit (4.5). They are "thieves" who steal souls from God (4.6). He also discusses "Let not the oil of the sinner anoint My head" (4.7, read as Christ's voice), "children of adulterers" (Wis. 3:16 and 4:3, taken of heretics; 4.8), and Jeremiah's "broken cisterns" (Jer. 2:13, of the idolatrous Jews; 4.9). In 4.2 the Lord's Prayer is proof that the two sides cannot be wholly divided: "We pray for you … and you pray for us, even though you do not wish it" (p. 183). - **Book V, Baptism: Men are the Ministers, but God cleanses (pp. 203–245; 11 chapters).** This is the theological core. On Parmenian's own figures there was one Flood and one Circumcision, so there is one Baptism (5.1). "In Baptism the work is done by the Trinity, not by the person of the Minister" (5.2). There are three elements, the Trinity, the believer's faith and the minister. The first two "remain always unchangeable"; the minister's office "alone is liable to change". "All who baptise are labourers, not lords, and … the Sacraments are holy through themselves, not through men" (5.4, pp. 217–220). Christ did not rebaptize those whom John had baptized (5.5). Against the Donatist maxim that no one can give what he does not have, Optatus calls it a saying "brought in from the street" and not found in Scripture (5.6, p. 230). God is the giver (5.7). He discusses the faith of the recipient (5.8) and rejects Parmenian's use of Naaman the Syrian and of the Marriage Feast, with its wedding garment (5.9–10). The closing argument: if the Donatists cannot rebaptize the dead, why rebaptize the living (5.11)? Chapman (1911) calls this his "well known" statement of the objective efficacy of the sacraments *ex opere operato*, a term from later theology. - **Book VI, Donatist Sacrileges against Altars, Chalices, Virgins and the Dead (pp. 246–268; 8 chapters).** The Donatists broke, scraped or carried off altars: "For what is an altar excepting the seat of both the Body and the Blood of Christ?" (6.1, p. 247). The wooden altars were burned to heat the wine for hired mobs. They melted down and sold chalices (6.2). Their excuse, Haggai 2:13 on contagion, is refuted (6.3). They took the veils from consecrated virgins and made them take new ones (6.4), seized books and vessels (6.5), washed church walls with salt water (6.6), and refused Catholics burial in cemeteries (6.7). The work originally ended with the **bird-catcher** simile (6.8, pp. 265–268): the Donatists are fowlers with a fake tree, stuffed decoys on it and caged birds singing, so that "the birds that were already captured capture those that are free, and the birds that are dead slay those that are alive." - **Book VII, The Children of the Betrayers may now, for the Sake of Unity, be received back into the Catholic Communion (pp. 275–297, plus Pseudo-Optatus pp. 298–310; 5 chapters).** This is the later supplement. The Donatists of today are not guilty of their fathers' *traditio*, so they can be received more easily (7.1). The Church on earth is a mixed field of wheat and tares, and good and evil "must be borne with to the Day of Judgement" (7.2). Peter denied Christ, yet "for the sake of unity, blessed Peter … both deserved to be placed over all the Apostles, and alone received the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, which he was to communicate to the rest" (7.3, p. 284; Latin *bono unitatis … claves regni caelorum communicandas ceteris solus accepit*, a contested phrase that Vassall-Phillips's note discusses). The "flies that are soon to die" of Eccl. 10:1 apply to the Donatists (7.4). So do Jannes and Mambres, Moses' opponents, since "as Moses is first, so the Catholic Church is first" (*Catholica prior est*; 7.5). - *Pseudo-Optatus A, B, C.* Three passages found in only some manuscripts that excuse *traditio*. Du Pin and Vassall-Phillips reject them as interpolations. Ziwsa thought they might be Optatus's own retraction (Introduction to Book VII, pp. 269–274). - **Documentary appendix (pp. 321–438).** Optatus says he attached the original documents (1.14, 1.20, 1.26). Only part of the dossier survives, in manuscript C, with large gaps. Vassall-Phillips translates sixteen documents: the trial of **Felix of Aptunga** (314 per Vassall-Phillips; often dated 315); the proceedings before **Zenophilus** (320), which convicted the Donatist bishop Silvanus of Cirta; letters of Constantine (to Aelafius, the Catholic bishops, the Donatist bishops, Celsus, Probianus, Anulinus, Miltiades, the Numidian bishops); the Council of **Arles** to Pope Silvester (314); the **Acts of Cirta** (305); and Anulinus's report. Edwards prints ten of them as "the Optatan Appendix". **Key ideas.** - **Schism is not heresy.** Schismatics keep the creed and the sacraments, so their baptism must not be repeated. They are still "brothers", and they can be received back. - **Catholicity is geographic and relational.** The true Church is identified by communion: with the churches overseas, with the seven churches of Asia, and above all with Peter's *cathedra* at Rome. It is not identified by the moral purity of its local clergy. - **The sacraments are God's work.** The Trinity and faith are constant, and the minister is a "labourer, not lord". - **History as evidence.** He builds his case on documents: the Acts of Cirta, the Roman synod, the trial of Felix. This made him the main early historian of Donatism and Augustine's source. - **Church and State.** "The Church is in the State", together with his defence of the imperial "work of unity", is an early Christian justification of state coercion against dissenting Christians. **Reception, in brief.** Augustine drew heavily on Optatus's history and arguments in his own anti-Donatist works (Harnack, quoted by Vassall-Phillips, p. vi), and the documents were read out at the Conference of Carthage in 411. The work survived in a few manuscripts. It was printed only in 1549, and then edited repeatedly in the age of controversy, including by the Anglican Meric Casaubon (1631). Catholic apologists have long used 2.2–3 as patristic evidence for Roman primacy; Vassall-Phillips's introduction says so openly ("what need we say more than those three words of St. Optatus—'Catholica prior est'", p. xiii). Protestant and historical readers stress other points. His argument for Rome is really an argument from the worldwide communion that Rome stood for. He also counts the seven churches of Asia and the "shrines of the Apostles". And Book III justifies coercion. Roger Pearse's online preface is a frankly pro-Donatist example of this second reading. ## 6. Fact-check Overall verdict: **mixed**. The book's bibliographic and historical facts are solid, and the video quotes the text accurately. The video's framing claims, that the reformers never engaged it and that Optatus "ends Protestantism", are overstated or are theological inference rather than history. | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | Optatus wrote c. 370 against Parmenian, in six books, later seven | Supported | Jerome, *De vir. ill.* 110 (six books, under Valentinian and Valens); internal dating 1.13 ("sixty years and more"); Siricius in 2.3 implies a revision after 384; Vassall-Phillips pp. xxi–xxiii; Chapman 1911 | | First printed in 1549, three years after Luther's death (1546) (video, 0:25) | Supported | Editio princeps by Johannes Cochlaeus, 1549 (Chapman 1911: "Mainz, 1549"). Vassall-Phillips p. xxviii says "Metz" and calls Cochlaeus "a Canon of Warsaw", but Cochlaeus was a canon of Breslau (Wrocław). These look like slips in the 1917 text, which I confirmed in the IA scan. Luther died on 18 February 1546 | | The reformers never engaged Optatus (video, 0:25) | Unverified / overstated | Riecker hedges this himself. Luther died before the printing, but Optatus's case reached the sixteenth century through Augustine, whose anti-Donatist works the reformers knew well. After 1549 the text was edited by François Baudouin (1563, 1569), a jurist who moved between the Reformed and Catholic camps, and by the Anglican Meric Casaubon (1631) | | Jerome and Augustine praised him (video, 0:15) | Partly supported | Augustine praises him ("venerabilis memoriae … Optatus", title-page epigraph; paired with Ambrose). Jerome only *lists* him (*De vir. ill.* 110), without praise | | A Roman synod in 313 under a pope ruled against the Donatists | Supported | 1.23–24: 2 October 313, House of Fausta on the Lateran, Miltiades and 18 other bishops. Caecilian was acquitted and Donatus condemned for rebaptizing and for imposing penance on bishops | | Five endowments, the first being Peter's Roman cathedra (video, 1:08–1:55) | Supported, with nuance | 2.2–2.9. The list of *dotes* was Parmenian's (six); Optatus accepts five (cathedra, angelus, spiritus, fons, sigillum) and rejects the navel | | The video's two quotations | Supported | They match Vassall-Phillips 2.2 (pp. 66–68) and 2.4 (p. 73) closely; Riecker paraphrases lightly | | Donatists held that only the holy can validly confer sacraments | Supported (fair summary) | Their maxim, as Optatus reports it, that no one gives what he does not have (5.6), and "this gift … belongs to him who gives" (5.7). The original charge was *traditio* by Caecilian's consecrator (1.19–20) | | Optatus treats the Donatists as heretics outside the Church | Not in the text | He treats them as **schismatics with true sacraments** and calls them "brothers" (1.3, 1.10–12, 4.2) | | Without the chair of Peter there is no true Church, so Protestantism "ends" (video, 1:55–2:59) | Theological inference | Optatus does make communion with Peter's *cathedra* the first mark (2.2, 2.9). Applying that to sixteenth-century churches is Riecker's argument, not a historical finding. Optatus also grounds catholicity in worldwide extent and communion with the churches of Asia (2.1, 2.6) | | Augustine was heavily influenced by Optatus | Supported | Harnack, quoted by Vassall-Phillips, p. vi; Augustine cites Optatus's documents and history; Frend 1952 | | Vassall-Phillips 1917 was the first English translation | Supported | His preface, p. v (a French translation of 1564 existed); Edwards's blurb: "the first since 1917" | | Book VII is genuine | Mostly supported | It is in all manuscripts and accepted by Ziwsa, Du Pin and Vassall-Phillips, except for passages A–C, which are generally rejected as interpolations (Introduction to Book VII) | | The Church-in-the-State line is Optatus's own | Supported | 3.3, p. 132: "the State is not in the Church, but the Church is in the State, that is to say, in the Roman Empire" | ## 7. Citations and references **What the book draws on.** Scripture, read heavily as allegory (Song of Songs, Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Haggai and others). Cyprian, whose ecclesiology Optatus uses while rejecting his view of rebaptism. Tertullian, Victorinus of Pettau and Zephyrinus, named as earlier refuters of heretics (1.9). Above all, the dossier of documents attached as the appendix: the Acts of Cirta, Constantine's letters, the Roman synod, the Acts of the vindication of Caecilian and of Felix, and the proceedings of Eunomius and Olimpius. Edwards and Duchesne reconstruct the dossier's original contents (Vassall-Phillips, pp. 322–323). **Related works.** Augustine, *Contra epistulam Parmeniani*, *De baptismo*, *Breviculus collationis cum Donatistis*; the *Gesta collationis Carthaginensis* (411); Tilley, *Donatist Martyr Stories* (1996); Frend, *The Donatist Church* (1952); Shaw, *Sacred Violence* (2011); Monceaux, *Histoire littéraire de l'Afrique chrétienne*, vol. 5, *Saint Optat et les premiers écrivains donatistes* (1920; [IA microform](https://archive.org/details/MN41561ucmf_0)); Labrousse, SC 412–413 (1995–1996). In this vault: [[Video Summaries/Cameron Riecker/This Literally Ends Protestantism]]. **Links this note used:** - Text: [tertullian.org Optatus pages](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_01_book1.htm) (books I–VII, introduction, Book VII introduction, appendices I–XVI); [online-edition preface (Pearse 2006)](https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/optatus_00_eintro.htm); [CCEL mirror](https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/optatus_00_intro.htm); [IA 1917 scan](https://archive.org/details/theworkofstoptat00philuoft) and [its text layer](https://archive.org/stream/theworkofstoptat00philuoft/theworkofstoptat00philuoft_djvu.txt); [IA `workofstoptatusb0000orva`](https://archive.org/details/workofstoptatusb0000orva); [Ziwsa CSEL 26 (scan 1)](https://archive.org/details/soptatimilevita00ziwsgoog), [(scan 2)](https://archive.org/details/soptatimilevita01ziwsgoog); [Du Pin 1702](https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_oJkhz2sq3ZYC); [Baudouin 1569](https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_dMH2j_qEPdkC); [IA Edwards scan (print-disabled)](https://archive.org/details/optatusagainstdo0000opta). - Catalogs: [Open Library OL2085399W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2085399W); [OL7118343M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7118343M); [OL2085397W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2085397W); [OL414513M](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL414513M); [cover 5634127](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/5634127-L.jpg); [WorldCat 38496080](https://search.worldcat.org/title/038496080); [LUP doi:10.3828/978-0-85323-752-5](https://doi.org/10.3828/978-0-85323-752-5); [Google Books (Edwards)](https://books.google.com/books/about/Optatus_Against_the_Donatists.html?id=_A6ZUkHcadIC); [OBNB](https://obnb.uk/p8800167-optatus-against-the-donatists). - Shops: [Amazon Edwards 0853237522](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0853237522); [Kessinger 0548724199](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0548724199); [Forgotten Books 1331330351](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1331330351); [CreateSpace 1482764482](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1482764482); [CreateSpace 1717120784](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1717120784); [Kindle B09YMGCDSD](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YMGCDSD); [Theologians Press](https://theologianspress.org/fathers/patristic-optatus-of-milevis/against-the-donatists). - Background: [Catholic Encyclopedia, St. Optatus](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11262b.htm); [Wikipedia, Optatus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optatus); [Wikipedia, Synod of Rome (313)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synod_of_Rome_(313)); [Vassall-Phillips (Sant'Alfonso e dintorni)](https://www.santalfonsoedintorni.it/vassall-phillips-oliver-rodie-redentorista-2.html); [Who Was Who entry](https://doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u218488); reviews of Edwards in [*JTS*](https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/50.1.471-a) and [*JEH*](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-ecclesiastical-history/article/abs/optatus-against-the-donatists-translated-and-edited-by-mark-edwards-translated-texts-for-historians-27-pp-xxxi222-incl-2-maps-liverpool-liverpool-university-press-1997-1250-paper-0-85323-752-2/4B0B1B09680C10206F592A030EBB82C3). - Source video: [This Literally Ends Protestantism.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFHOsClRbQg); [[Video Summaries/Cameron Riecker/This Literally Ends Protestantism]].