203. Ps. cxxxii, 2.
204. ubi vobis mandatum est radere capita sacerdotum? This is really important. From this passage in Optatus it is plain that the Donatist sacrilege was no other than the wrongful use of the Rite of Degradation as it is now prescribed in the Roman Pontifical. 'Cum cultello aut vitro abradit leviter caput degradandi dicens: Consecrationem et benedictionem atque unctionem tibi traditam radendo delemus.' So Optatus, with special reference to an unction bestowed upon priests, here accuses the Donatists of scraping the heads of the Catholic priests whom, without any regard for the sanctity of the Holy Oil, they ventured to degrade. (Cf. ii, 25 ad fin. : 'oleum suum defendit Deus,' etc.)
But until now no one seems ever to have imagined that oil was used in any part of the Catholic world either in the ordination of priests or the consecration of Bishops until the sixth century. Thus Duchesne writes ( Origines du culte, x, ad fin .): ' L'onction propre au rit Gallican aura �t� sugg�r�e par l'Ancien Testament. Elle ne para�t pas tr�s ancienne. Quelques indices porteraient � en chercher l'origine dans les Eglises de Bretagne [in fact Gildas alludes to it] qui la pratiquaient d�s le sixi�me si�cle.' Similarly the learned Dr. Hatch writes as follows (Article on Ordination in Smith and Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian Antiquities ):----'This rite [anointing of the hands of priests] is mentioned by two French liturgical writers of the ninth century, Amalarius of Metz (837) and Theodulphus of Orleans (821); the earliest canonist who speaks of it is Burchard of Worms (1025), but the recognised body of canon law distinctly disallows it, quoting a response of Pope Nicholas I to the Archbishop of Bourges in 864, who says that it is not a custom of the Roman Church, and that he has never heard of its being practised in the Christian Church. This must be held conclusive, at any rate as to its not being a general practice in the ninth century; but afterwards it no doubt became general, for Innocent III insists upon it, and objects to the Greeks for their omission of it. It is important to note that even the Pseudo-Isidorian authorities for the rite refer only to Bishops; at the same time they clearly show that the origin of the rite was the growing tendency to institute an analogy of ceremonies between the Old and New Testament.' Dr. Hatch proceeds to remark:----' In addition to the anointing of the hands a group of English and Norman pontificals direct the anointing of the head; so Pontif. Ecgb., S. Dunstan, Caturic, Rotom., Becc, but not elsewhere.' In contradiction to this we see clearly from St. Optatus that the heads of Bishops and probably of priests (the word Sacerdotum here----as we may judge from the context----probably includes Presbyteri as well as Episcopi) were universally anointed in Africa in the fourth century (cf. ii, 25: 'Ne tetigeritis, inquit, unctos meos ').
205. ungi meruit.
206. 1 Kings xv, 11.
207. Ps. lvi, 5.
208. hominum. Ziwsa writes ' omnium non inepte anonymus quidam apud Du Pin proposuit.' Casaubon adopts Du Pin's suggestion.
209. velum facientibus, Ez. xiii, 18.
210. super omne caput. These words are not to be found here in RBvbd; but they are in all the MSS. in i, 2, where St. Optatus quotes the same passage from Ezekiel.
211. invenistis fideles antiquos. Ziwsa says that antiquos here = seniores.
212. in Penance.
213. In the Episcopate.
214. pariter currebatis.
215. Rom. xiv, 4.
216. St. Optatus now passes abruptly back from the singular to the plural number and refers to the whole Donatist party.
217. Cf. 1 Kings xxiv.
218. in caligine clausi aeris. So the MSS. An ingenious suggestion is antri for aeris. Barthius suggests oris, meaning that Saul's face was in the darkness. Casaubon seems inclined to accept oris, but will not admit that oris can mean face. He understands oris speluncae (the mouth of the cave).
219. 1 Kings xxiv, 7. RBvd omit the non. According to this reading it becomes a question: 'Shall I lay my hands? etc'
220. Cf. 2 Kings i.
221. Pss. v, 11 and xiii, 3.
222. Rom. xii, 14.
223. Ps. xiii, 3.
224. in Salomone, omitted by Pb.
225. Wisdom i, 13. We may note that St. Optatus here (as in iv, 8) quotes the Book of Wisdom as canonical Scripture.
226. Ps. civ, 15.