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Against the Donatists
St Optatus of Milevis, tr. Vassall-Phillips, 1917
Book 1, The Consecration of Caecilian as Bishop of Carthage. The Cause and the Beginning…
The storm of persecution passed over, and subsided. By the disposition of God, Maxentius sent pardon, and liberty was restored to Christians. Botrus and Celestius----so it is said----wishing to be consecrated Bishops at Carthage, arranged that, without inviting1 the Numidians, only the neighbouring bishops should be asked to perform the ceremony at Carthage.2 Then, by the vote of the whole people, Caecilian was chosen, and was consecrated Bishop, Felix of Autumna laying his hand upon him. Botrus and Celestius were disappointed of their hope. The inventory of the gold and silver, as had been ordered by Mensurius, was handed over, in the presence of witnesses, to Caecilian, who was now in possession of the See. The above-mentioned seniors were summoned; but they had swallowed up in the jaws of their avarice, as booty, that which had been entrusted to their keeping. When they were commanded to make restitution, they withdrew from communion with Caecilian. The ambitious intriguers, who had failed to obtain their consecration, did likewise. Lucilla, too, that influential, mischief-making woman,3 who had before been unwilling to brook discipline, together with all her retainers, separated herself from her Bishop. Thus wickedness produced its effect through the meeting together4 of three different causes and sets of persons.
Notes
- operam dederunt ut absentibus Numidis. Literally ‘in the absence of the Numidians.’ But the point is that Botrus and Celestius chose not to invite them. This was part of what they ‘arranged’ (operam dederunt).
- The Bishop of Carthage was not only Metropolitan of the province of Africa Proconsularis, but also Primate of all Africa, including Numidia, Byzacium and the two Mauritanias. As the confines of Numidia came close to Carthage, it was customary for the Bishops of that province to come to Carthage for the election. The other provinces were too far off. On this occasion only the nearest Bishops of Africa Proconsularis were assembled. But the vote of the clergy and people of Carthage, approved by a number of Bishops of the province, sufficed. The absence of the Numidians did not affect the validity of the election.
- potens et factiosa femina.
- tribus convenientibus. Cf. ‘quae convenerint caussae (‘ i, 15.)