58. Montenses. Mountaineers----from this 'cave,' which was made to look like a little mountain. St. Jerome writes ( In Chronico ad annum Christi 336): 'Quidam sectatores Donati etiam Montenses vocant eo quod ecclesiam Romae primum in monte habere caeperunt.'
59. ubi sederet, i.e. on whose Chair (Cathedra) he sat.
60. illic fuisse, i.e. on his Chair.
61. St. Optatus will soon make great play with this Cathedra Pestilentiae (Ps. i, 1), which he declares to belong to the Donatists.
The Chair of Pestilence is ranged by him against the Chair of Peter. For 'Cathedra Pestilentiae' we may compare St. Ambrose ( comm. in cap. xxiii Matthaei ): 'Quod autem ait super Cathedram Moysis . . . per Cathedram legis doctrinam ostendit. Ergo et illud quod dicitur in Psalmo "In Cathedra Pestilentiae non sedit," . . . doctrinam debemus accipere.'
62. Principem scilicet nostrum, in contrast to Victor, who was the first 'Mountaineer' Bishop of Rome, or perhaps to the originators of the Schism, with whom Optatus often taunts the Donatists as being their Principes.
63. Claves regni coelorum tibi dabo, etportae inferorum non vincent eas.
64. Unde est ergo, quod claves regni coelorum vobis usurpare contenditis, qui contra Cathedram Petri vestris praesumptionibus et audaci sacrilegio militatis? (Rvb have audaciis) . It may well be noted that Optatus accused the Donatists of 'audacious sacrilege' (audax sacrilegium) in 'warring against' the Chair of Peter. Their 'warring' consisted, according to Optatus, in claiming the keys argumentatively for themselves----thus justifying themselves in remaining out of communion with the Holy See----and in ignoring the Judgement of Pope Miltiades. Cf. i, 24, 25. Mr. Denny ( Papalism, n. 873) quotes this passage, but translates usurpare ' obtain,' and omits altogether vestris praesumptionibus et audaci sacrilegio. (For praesumptionibus cf. i, 7: 'de inconsideratis praesumptionibus et erroribus vestris'; v, 4: 'quod praescribas praesumptionibus vestris'; vii.. 1: 'praesumptiones vestrae.')
65. Ps. i, x.
66. I Cor. i; 13.
67. quam fugaverunt pacem ( Pax here as elsewhere = the Unity of the Church. Cf. i, 1; vi, 1 etc.).
68. Ps. xxxiii, 15.
69. Ezek. xviii, 3-20.
70. Cf. vii, 1 where the argument is elaborated, with reference to this passage in Ezekiel, contrasted with Exodus xx, 5.
71. Ps. i, 1.
72. Luke ii, 14.
73. Isaiah lx, 17.
74. Ps. lxxxiv, 9.
75. Ps. lxxv, 3.
76. Ps. lxxi, 3.
77. John xiv, 27.
78. 'qui pacem seret, pacem et metet.' The reference is to 2 Cor. ix, 6, where the Vulgate reads: 'Qui parce seminat, parce et metet.' Parce is in accordance both with the Greek φειδομένως and with the context. Evidently, therefore, St. Optatus cannot be quoting from any Latin version, unknown to us, but the mistake is due simply to a slip of his memory. In the same way he will immediately supply the words 'In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,' which is probably a reminiscence of 2 Cor. iii, 14.
79. St. Optatus is no doubt thinking of St. Paul's epistles in general, but he probably had especially in his mind Col. iii, 15, where the O.L. reading of D and G gives us 'Pax Christi abundet in cordibus vestris.'
80. G alone amongst the MSS omits this sentence.
81. Ps. xxxiii, 15.