178. neque volentis, neque currentis, sed ad Dei gratiam pertinentis. The reference is of course to Rom. ix, 16. But here once again one suspects that St. Optatus is trusting to his memory, and quoting by heart. The Vulgate has not ad Dei gratiam pertinentis, but miserentis Dei. This is a literal translation of the Greek.
179. Leviticus xi, 45.
180. Cf. 1 John i, 8 (supra).
181. It was the false boast of the Donatists that they could forgive the sins of other men, because they were themselves without sin.
182. St. Optatus has already told us (cf. i, 10) that Parmenian had asserted that 'the unclean could not cleanse, nor the guilty grant pardon, nor could one who had been condemned absolve from sin.' He now retorts this argument: 'You absolve. On your own principles no sinner can absolve. Therefore you are forced to assert that you are without sin, but if you say that you are without sin, the truth is not in you.'
183. etenim inter vicina momenta.
184. debita. (Cf. iii, 4: 'debita etiam maxima perdere.')
185. Luke xviii, 9 seq.
186. O insanus furor, o punienda et damnanda superbia! For O RBvbd read hoc.
187. Du Pin supplies humilitas, but it is not in the MSS.
188. dum . . . deicitur. Ziwsa says that deicitur here = a loco removetur.
189. When the Donatists seized the churches of the Catholics, they washed down their walls, with grotesque and superstitious ceremonies, thus to impress upon the minds of the ignorant people that the very material buildings had been profaned by Catholic worship (cf. vi, 6).]
190. nonnullorum animi iugulati sunt.
191. sub nube, with reference to 'obscura luna' (in the quotation from Psalm x, that follows immediately).
192. Ps. x, 3: ad sagittandos obscura luna (Vulgate ut sagittent in obscura ).
193. inter Poenitentiae tormenta servare.
194. You strip the Catholic Bishops of their office and make them endure a living death amongst those doing Penance.
195. paupertate sensus sui, id; est 'You have made simple people believe, contrary to the truth, that their Bishops were unworthy.'
196. illi = the Bishops.
197. malitiae vectibus.
198. Ps. x, 4.
199. Cf. Ps. lxxxiv, 12.
200. Ps. ix, 23, 24. Verse 23 is only found in PG (in P in a corrupt form----'dum superbium pius . . . conpraehenditur in consiliis quae cogitat'; it is corrected in G).
201. bene nominant.
202. Ps. civ, 15: Ne tetigeritis unctos Meos, neque in prophetas Meos manum miseritis. The Vulgate reads: in prophetas Meos nolite malignari.