125. cui corpori certa sunt membra. That which we now call the Matter and Form of the Sacrament.
126. i.e. of the 'body' of Baptism. The 'Minister' has to be chosen, and consequently is external to the 'body' of Baptism. This reminds us of the converse argument that Umbilicus cannot be reckoned as one of the Endowments, because it is not external to the Body of the Church, but is a member ( membrum) of that Body (ii, 8). Evidently St. Optatus looked on the Minister in Baptism as a sort of ' Dos Baptismatis.'
127. The water, the invocation of the Trinity, the Trinity Itself, the Faith never change. They are always one everywhere and are always necessary---- from the first Christian Baptism to the last that shall be administered before the coming of our Lord. Everything else admits of change----the place, the time, the person of the 'Minister.'
128. operarios esse non dominos. The reference clearly is to Luke x, 2: 'Rogate Dominum messis ut mittat operarios in messem suam,' where Challoner's N.T. and both the A.V. and R.V. translate operarios 'labourers' (the old Rheims has workmen ). Consequently I think it better to employ the word labourers here in order to recall the gospel text, though elsewhere, for the sake of lucidity, I translate operarius with reference to Baptism by the theological word Minister.
129. Sacramenta per se esse sancta, non per homines. Harnack writes of these words ( History of Dogma, v, p. 42): 'This is the famous principle of the objectivity of the Sacraments, which became so fundamental for the development of the dogmatics of the Western Church, although it could not be carried out in all its purity in the Roman Church, because in that case it would have destroyed the prerogatives of the clergy.' It is difficult to see what Harnack had in his mind when he wrote this last qualifying sentence. Nothing can be more certain than that the Roman Church has always taught, without any limitation or qualification whatsoever, that the efficacy of the Sacraments is always and everywhere independent of the virtues or vices of those who administer them. Harnack in this passage probably used the words Roman Church as synonymous with Western Church (although this would not appear to be the case at first reading), since he would not wish to suggest that there is any difference in doctrine or practice between any Catholic Church in the West and the Church in Rome. But whilst recognising this, we are none the nearer to a comprehension of his real meaning.
130. Ps. 1, 9.
131. Ps. 1, 4.
132. Is. iv, 4.
133. iii, 2.
134. ' qui non habet quod det, quomodo dat?' This was the great argument of St. Cyprian and his school against the validity of Baptism outside the Church. 'How,' they asked, 'can a man give the Faith which he has not got? No one can give what he has not.' In like manner the Donatists went on to argue that Baptism by a sinner was invalid, for----so they urged----by true Baptism grace is given; but the sinner without grace, cannot give what he has not. To this St. Optatus answers that it is God, not man, who bestows gifts in Baptism.
135. videte Dominum esse datorem. These words are omitted by RBv.
136. qui eiusdem fabricator est mentis.
137. lavacrum vestrum.
138. qualis est ipsa mens.
139. quam habet formam.
140. Is. i, 18.
141. As St. Optatus has said already, man is by God's appointment the necessary (or rather the quasi-necessary) minister of the Sacrament. But God gives His Grace in Baptism directly to the baptised. He does not give it through a man ----that is to say, He does not give it first to the 'Minister,' making him holy, so that this 'Minister,' by his own holiness, gives grace----though this would follow logically from Donatist principles.
142. quod praescribat praesumptionibus vestris.
143. John iv, 13.
144. tota inportunitate. For inportunitas see ii, 18.
145. in poenitentia et remissa peccatorum (cf. i, 9: in remissam peccatorum).
146. John i, 33.
147. Cf. John iii, 26.
148. John iv, 2.
149. ut nos operemur.