sacrifice to God in the Eucharist, they profess to offer for the one church, but by their rebaptism they really make two churches. Thanking Parmenian for his language about the church, which, however, he claims as applicable to the Catholic church alone, he challenges him to point out any act of persecution on its part. Constantine took pains to restore peace and suppress idolatry, but another emperor, who declared himself an apostate, when he restored idolatry allowed the Donatists to return, a permission for the acceptance of which they ought to blush. It was about this time that the outrages broke out in Africa [FELIX (185); URBANUS], of which when Primosus complained, the Donatist council at Theneste took no notice. They compelled women under vows to disregard them and perform a period of penance, and deposed from his office Donatus bp. of Tysedis. Yet they speak of holiness as if Christ gave it without conditions, and take every opportunity of casting reproach on church ordinances, fulfiling the words of Ezek. xiii. 20.
In bk. iii., after going over some of the former ground, laying the blame of the schism on the Donatists, Optatus applies to them several passages of Scripture, esp. Pss. lxxxvii., cxlvii.; Isa. ii. 3, xxii. 1, 9.
In bk. iv., disclaiming all unfriendly feeling and appealing to the common possessions of both parties, Optatus charges them with infraction of unity by appointment of bishops, proselytism, forbidding social intercourse, and perversely applying to Catholics Scripture passages directed against obstinate heretics, as I. Cor. v. 11, II. John 10.
In bk. v. Optatus returns to the oft-repeated subject of rebaptism. The repetition of baptism, he says, is an insult to the Trinity, worse than the doctrines of Praxeas and the Patripassians. Three elements are requisite: (1) the Trinity, (2) the minister, (3) the faithful receiver; but of these the Donatists exalt the second above the other two. They use as a quotation words not found in Scripture, "How can a man give what he has not received?" (see I. Cor. iv. 7); but in baptism God alone is the giver of grace. As it is not the dyer who changes the colour of his wool, so neither does the minister of himself change the operation of baptism. Of two candidates for baptism, if one refused to renounce while the other consented, there can be no doubt which of them received baptism effectually. By rebaptizing, Donatists rob Christians of their marriage-garment, which suits all ages and conditions of life. The rebaptized will rise no doubt at the last day, but will rise naked, and the voice of the Master will be heard, "Friend, I once knew thee, and gave thee a marriage-garment. Who has despoiled thee of it? Into what trap, amongst what thieves hast thou fallen?"
In bk. vi. he repeats some previous charges, and adds others, how they destroyed altars, the "seats of Christ's Body and Blood," at which they themselves must have offered. They have broken up chalices and sold them to women and even to pagans, yet they quote Hagg. ii. 14; but even impurity of men does not profane the vessels of service (see Num. xvi. 37, 38).
Bk. vii., which is not mentioned by St. Jerome, but which may on good MS. grounds be ascribed to Optatus, is supplementary and answers a fresh Donatist complaint, that if they are the children of "traditors," as Optatus says, they ought to be let alone, and no attempt made to "reconcile" them; but, says Optatus, though their fathers deserved to be excluded, there is no reason why they should be so, for the church repels no baptized persons. Christ allows two sorts of seed to grow in His field, and no bishop has power to do what the apostles could not, viz. Separate them. They might have refused to communicate with Peter because he denied his Lord, yet he retained the keys given him by Christ.
The work of Optatus is more important historically than doctrinally. As a theological treatise it is often loose and rambling, with frequent repetition; but it exposes with clearness and force the inconsistency of the Donatists, and of all who, like them, fix their attention exclusively on the ethical side of religion, estimated by an arbitrary standard of opinion, to the disregard of other conditions of the greatest importance in the constitution of a church. How perversely and inconsistently the Donatists applied this principle in the matter of rebaptism Optatus again and again demonstrates. That there was a doctrine of rebaptism in the African church, to which Cyprian had lent the weight of his authority, there can be no doubt; but with him it was directed against heretics, on the principle that the followers of Marcion, Praxeas, and the like, were in fact not truly Christians and thus their baptism was valueless. But Optatus is never weary of urging that though by their own act Donatists had incurred the charge of schism, the church did not regard them as heretics, and that they ought not to treat as heretical their brethren. Dupin's ed. (1702, fol.) is the groundwork of all subsequent editions. It has been reprinted in vol. xi. of Migne's Patr. Lat., but the map is smaller and less clear than in Dupin's folio, and all documents previous to 362 are in vol. viii. of the Patr. Lat. An account of Optatus and his writings will be found in Ceillier, vol. v. The latest ed. is by Ziwsa (1893), in Corpus Scr. Eccl. Lat. xxvi. (Vienna). See Sparrow Simpson's St. Aug. and Afr. Ch. Divisions (1910), pp. 42 ff.
[H.W.P.]
Origenes. Sources.—The main authority for the details of Origen's Life is Eusebius (H. E. vi.), who collected upwards of 100 letters of Origen (ib. 36). These, together with official documents (ib. 23, 33) and information from those acquainted with Origen (ib. 2, 33), formed the basis of his narrative. His account of the most critical period of Origen's life, his retirement from Alexandria, was given in bk. ii. of his Apology, which he composed with the help of Pamphilus (ib. 23). This unhappily has not been preserved.
Origen's own writings give but few details of his life. But the loss of his letters is irreparable. They would have given a fuller picture of the man, even if they gave little additional information on the outward circumstances of his life.
Of modern authorities, see Tillemont, Mémoires; Lardner, Credibility; Ceillier,
