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Against the Donatists
St Optatus of Milevis, tr. Vassall-Phillips, 1917
Book 2, Matrons, Boys and Virgins Were Compelled by the Donatists to Do Penance
Matrons, together with boys and virgins, although they had committed no sin, were compelled by you to learn to do Penance, with you for their instructors, whilst they still remained in possession of their innocence and modesty. Is this a small unhappiness? You have destroyed both sexes; you have harassed all ages. Truly of you has it been said in the thirteenth Psalm:
‘Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known, the fear of God is not before their eyes.’1
You have prescribed Penance for the people. It was not performed voluntarily by any man, but it was enforced by you, nor did you inflict it equally, for the same periods of time, but arranged everything with respect of persons. By your command one person did Penance for a whole year, another for a month, yet another for hardly a day.
If to consent to unity is (as you will have it) a sin, if it is the same fault in all, why is there not the same Penance for the same guilt?
There is no doubt that the people who believe have been called Israel, and that the Faithful, one by one, are the daughters of Israel, that is, those who see God with their mind,2 and have faith in God. Yet you have compelled these people to bend and incline their necks, have joined their heads in a row, and made of them a crowd of penitents.
These are the Faithful over whom God grieves, saying, by the mouth of Ezekiel the Prophet: ‘Woe to you, daughters of Israel who mend pillows,’3 appurtenances of the neck, to place them under the elbow and under the hand----that is, under your elbows and under your hands, when you stretch the veils of Penance over the heads of these men and women.
The extent of your wickedness and rage I have now set forth, and I have pointed out your pride.
It remains to make clear your folly also, but this I will do in my Sixth Book.
Notes
- Ps. xiii, 3.
- Id est qui mente Deum viderint. St. Jerome tells us that it was commonly thought in his time that Israel signifies vir videns Deum. Great names can be quoted for this opinion, and we see in the text that it was taken for granted by St. Optatus. It persisted even to the days of St. Bernard (cf. serm. 5 ad Fest. Omnium Sanctorum), notwithstanding the fact that it had been rejected by St. Jerome (Liber Hebraic. Quaestionum in Genesim, 357)----and rightly, not only on etymological grounds, but also as being opposed to the words of Scripture, which he quotes in his text as follows:---- ‘Vocabitur nomen tuum Israel, quia invaluisti cum Deo, et cum hominibus valebis’ (Gen. xxxiii, 28). The mistake probably arose from the next verse but one:----‘Vocavitque Jacob nomen loci illius Phanuel dicens: Vidi Deum facie ad faciem.’ St. Jerome understands Israel to mean ‘Prince with God’ (Princeps cum Deo). It seems, however, more likely that the true meaning is ‘One who wrestled with God.’ (From Hebrew Sarah = to fight, to strive, and El = God.) Thus the LXX ὅτι ἐνίσχυσας μετὰ Θεοῦ. And this sense is in harmony with the context. The late Professor Driver (see Article on Jacob in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, vol. ii, p. 530) writes: ‘The name Israel, meaning (on the analogy of other names similarly formed) God persists (or perseveres), is interpreted as suggesting the meaning Perseverer with God.’ Professor Driver also tells us that Professor ‘Sayce’s derivation from yashar, to be upright, to direct (!), has nothing to recommend it.’ (The note of exclamation is Driver’s.)
- Vae filiabus Israel, quae sarciunt cervicalia. We have here another mystical reference to Ez. xiii, 18 which runs as follows in the Vulgate: ‘Vae quae consuunt pulvillos sub omni cubito manus; et faciunt cervicalia sub capite universae aetatis ad capiendas animas: et cum caperent animas populi Mei, vivificabant animas eorum.’