To make an end----it is impossible fully to narrate |266 all the evil things that you have done; but we may take them for granted in you, who are the leaders of this wrongdoing. Still who could keep silence about those who are now yours----those, that is, whom you have succeeded in drawing to your faction either by party-spirit or by subtle craft ----not only men, but also women? From sheep they have been suddenly made wolves, from being faithful they have become faithless, from being patient full of rage, from lovers of peace lovers of strife, from lovers of simplicity full of craft, from lovers of modesty without shame, once gentle now they are savage, once innocent now they are doers of evil.
After persons of either sex have fallen away to you, they grieve that others are still there, where they were born ; they urge those who are standing firm to follow them in their fall. If they knew that they had gained glory, they would have enjoyed their own happiness in silence. But, desiring to have some consolation for their own wicked departure, they invite others to fall in like manner, and accuse those who are resting in the bosom of Mother Church as |267 though they were slothful and slow. For they are not ashamed to use these words:
'Gaius, Seius, or Gaia, Seia, how long are you staying where you are?'
That is to say:
'You ought now to follow me in my error, you ought now to desert the truth. How long are you staying where you are?'
That is to say:
'Imitate me in my fall, imitate me in my shameful passing over. How long will you be called one of the Faithful? Now desert the Faith. Now learn to do Penance.'
You are bird-catchers, and these men or women are the birds. For there is not only one kind of bird-catchers.
Some there are who with an art that is not artful go to trees resting on deep roots, which are to be found in front of a grove, where the birds fly naturally and sit on real boughs. Amongst them you will find no frauds, no wily devices. These men rely only upon their art and skill in bird-catching.
But I say that you resemble the bird-catcher, who, unlike the rest, is not content to go, after night has departed, before sunrise, to real trees. He carries his tree with him, and makes up into a bundle what will be his grove. Out of which, with all kinds of devices, he fashions a tree that has neither pith nor |268 roots. On this he places false boughs. So that, which had been lately cut down, now receives strange leaves in place of those which it had lost. Some birds he carries with him shut up in a cage. Upon the false branches he places others that have been stuffed to look as though they were alive. The living birds are hid in their cages, the others are seen, like living birds upon the branches. A double fraud is united by the craft of one man. And to deceive the simplicity of the birds that are alive and flying about, those which are certainly dead seem to stretch out their necks and sing, whilst those which are out of sight in their prison are thought to be singing from the throats of the others. Between the appearance on the trees and the sound from the cage one crafty mind does its work. The birds that were already captured capture those that are free, and the birds that are dead slay those that are alive. Such are they whom you have wounded either by re-baptising them, or by making them submit to Penance. These men and women strive with great zeal and labour, that other men and women may perish with them----for fear lest they should perish alone.
[Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered]
1. in divinis Sacramentis quid nefarie feceritis.
2. in quibus et vos obtulistis.
3. in quibus et vota populi et Membra Christi portata sunt.
4. fraternitatis munera.
5. de pace condita.
6. Matt. v, 24.
7. This is the most extraordinary instance of St. Optatus' habit of quoting the Scriptures from memory. That he should, however, have added the words ' ut possit pro te sacerdos offerre' and applied them to the Christian priest and sacrifice shows how unquestioned at the time was the Catholic doctrine on the Mystery of the altar. Had it been otherwise, he would necessarily have been more careful. No one can imagine that such carelessness would be possible at any period when the doctrine of the Eucharistic Sacrifice was questioned amongst Christians.
8. Quid est enim altare nisi sedes et Cor ports et Sanguinis Christi?
9. tantae rei, sc. the altar of God.
10. quid perditorum conductam referam multitudinem et vinum in mercedem sceleris datum?
11. quod ut immundo ore sacrilegis haustibus biberetur, calida de fragmentis altarium facta est.
12. sordidi.
13. illic.
14. cuius illic per certa momenta Corpus et Sanguis habitabat.