15. dum impie persequimini manus nostras, illic, ubi Corpus Christi habitabat.
16. feristis et vestras. The Donatist excuse for sacrilegiously destroying the altars was that Mass had been celebrated there by the hands of Catholics (Betrayers, as they called them); but Mass had been celebrated at those same altars by their own hands as well.
17. hoc modo Iudaeos estis imitati; illi iniecerunt Christo manus in cruce, a vobis percussus est in altari.
18. illic.
19. vel vestris antiquis oblationibus.
20. St. Optatus now, using the singular number, addresses Parmenian personally.
21. St. Optatus here suddenly reverts from the singular to the plural number----apparently from Parmenian in particular to the Donatists in general.
22. 3 Kings xix, 10.
23. res est Dei.
24. cur vota et desideria hominum cum ipsis altaribus confregistis?
25. cur concidistis precibus viam?
26. In this chapter St. Optatus calls the altar successively: 'That which carries the prayers of the people and the members of Christ,' 'the place of the gifts of the brotherhood,' 'the seat of both the Body and Blood of Christ,' 'the dwelling-place during fixed periods of the Body and Blood of Christ,' 'the dwelling place of the Body of Christ,' 'the possession of God,''the place whence the prayer of the people was wont to go up to the ears of God,' 'the Way,' and 'the Ladder' to God.
27. novitatem quaerere in visceribus vetustatis. It has been suggested to read maiestatis instead of vetustatis. But this supposed emendation takes away the contrast with novitatem and the whole point of the analogy, which is sufficiently explained by that which follows immediately.
28. in latenti corpore cutem quasi alteram quaerere.
29. donum, sc. consecrationis.
30. quod unum est. The gift of consecration is bestowed upon the altar as a whole, and in it all its parts. It possesses a unity which may be likened to that of the Church.
31. quodsi sic coniurastis.
32. in ipso ministerio.
33. linteamine.
34. inter ipsa sacramenta.
35. dum pro vestro arbitrio quaeritis puritatem.
36. ad inferos.
37. quasi languere.
38. Christi Sanguinis portatores (RB portitores).
39. hoc tamen inmane facinus a vobis geminatum est.