178. Cf. 1 Cor. i, 10; xii, 25.
179. Ps. xxxiii, 15.
180. quod illis sacrilega flamma conflavit.
181. This is probably what all modern readers of St. Optatus will have been thinking. Nor can we honestly say that St. Optatus is very happy in the reply which he hazards.
182. quasi devotus.
183. Is. xxii, 2.
184. Ibid.
185. in bello Christianorum.
186. Cf. Dan. vii, 3 sq.
187. artificiosa crudelitas.
188. immundis fumabant arae nidoribus.
189. Through illness or old age.
190. Hence those guilty of this sin were called Turificati.
191. omnis locus templum erat ad scel us.
192. inquinabantur.
193. Incruenta parricidia facere cogebantur. The murders by parents of their children's souls were incruenta parricidia. For parricidium cf. note 3, p. 40.
194. Leges divinas (the Holy Scriptures).
195. pigri ----literally slothful. This, however, seems to have been a word of general reproach, applied indifferently by Donatists to Catholics, and by Catholics to Donatists (cf. vi, 8).
196. conpellebantur.
197. ut Deus unus pariter in Ecclesia ab omnibus rogavetur.
198. Is. xxii, 2. The repetition of this text shows the importance attached to it by Optatus. This cannot seem to us moderns anything but extraordinary.
199. inmunda incensa.
200. coactus est.
201. sine bello.
202. imperiosa.