128. metatores (seu mensores castrorum).
129. conpetenter ( ἁρμοδίως ).
130. Rom. xiii, 7.
131. contusi sunt ab iis, quorum nomina flabello invidiae ventilasti. This phrase is repeated a little further on (iii, 7): quorum nomina cotidie, ut supra dixi, flabello invidiae ventilatis. Parmenian had evidently made much use of the names of two Donatists (whom Macarius had put to death), in order to stir up ill feeling against Catholics ( flabello invidiae ). St. Optatus here says that these men had brought their death upon themselves by the injuries that they had inflicted on the soldiers of Macarius.
132. numeros suos (literally the rank and file).
133. vobis provocantibus (to the Emperor).
134. quam plurimos.
135. nam aestimo vos non negare Unitatem summum bonum esse. Cf. 'Scisma summum malum esse et vos negare minime poteritis ' (i,21).
136. inde Deo sacrificium offertur.
137. a sordidis.
138. simpliciter erogatur. Du Pin writes 'id est eo innocue utuntur.'
139. in sapore. Apparently this refers to the use of oil in ordinary life----as we should say, in salads. If this is so, in lumine, which follows, probably does not refer to lamps in churches.
140. These principles may perhaps seem to contradict that which St. Optatus urged, in his first Book, against the Donatist schism, on account of the character of its originators. But even though it must be granted that, under ordinary circumstances, a man's sin does not vitiate the character of his work, yet evil conduct and bad lives clearly discredit the founders of a new religion or sect, who, as is manifest, stand in an altogether exceptional position. Further, in the first book Optatus had argued against the Donatists from Donatist principles. They said that the Catholic Church had apostatised by communicating with Betrayers. Optatus of course denies that this was a fact, and proves not only that the Donatists themselves had communicated with Betrayers, but also that the very founders of their sect were Betrayers. It was an argumentum ad hominem, but in the passage before us, as elsewhere, he argues from the true principle that the character of a workman does no detriment to his work.
141. malos fuisse.
142. male.
143. bene.
144. latro (cf. i, 19, note 9, p. 166).
145. St. Optatus evidently had not heard of the distinction drawn by moralists (which, as soon as one has heard it, clears up the whole difficulty) between that which is intrinsically evil or evil in itself, and can therefore never be done lawfully, and that which is in itself ' indifferent,' and therefore derives its moral character from circumstances and from the intention of the agent.
146. Exod. xx, 13; Deut. v, 17; Matt, v, 21.
147. Deut. xxii, 22; Levit. xx, 10.
148. non occides.
149. occidetis utrosque.
150. peccaret.
151. delinqueret.
152. elegit melius peccatum. The word peccatum like peccaret [supra) is not used here in the real sense of sin----a fault against conscience----but of a fault against an apparently unrestricted Law of God, which was seen to be abrogated by another commandment, and is therefore called loosely peccatum. ' Melius peccatum' is an oratorical trick----an oxymoron. Cf. 'tacitus loquitur' (v, 3 ); 'stulta sapientia' (vi, 1); and (iii, 9): 'ut sartor peccare potuisset.' For this use of peccare cf. Cicero ( Or. 21): 'non modo in vita, sed saepissime et in poematis et in oratione, peccatur'; and again: 'Peccare est tanquam transilire lineas' ( Parad. 3, 1).