Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
Search Presbyter Records
Search Evidence Records
Print:
ID
ER 774
Optatus of Milevis denonunces the attacks of the Donatists against the Catholics, stating that they targeted the presbyters and bishops as the leaders of the people. Optatus of Milevis, "Against the Donatists", North Africa, AD 364/367.
Book 2
 
21.  [...] Nam omnia quae a uobis aut fiunt aut facta sunt, quis poterit explicare? Sic cuncta malignitate quadam ordinasse uos constat ut in una specie operis uestri species alias impleretis, ut dum presbyter aut episcopus deicitur, sic populus caperetur. Quando posset turba hominum stare quae rectorem suum a uobis elisum esse conspiceret? [...]
 
(ed. Ziwsa 1893: 57)
Book 2
 
21. [...] For who can recount all the things that either happen or have happened because of you? It is patent that you have managed everything with a certain malignity, so that under deeds of one kind you contrive to do other kinds, with the result that, when a presbyter or bishop is cast down, the people is thereby taken captive. When could a crowd of people stand firm, having seen its director destroyed by you? [...]
 
(trans M. Edwards 1997: 50)

Place of event:

Region
  • Latin North Africa

About the source:

Author: Optatus of Milevis
Title: Against the Donatists, Contra Parmenianum Donatistam, Contra Donatistas, Against Parmenian the Donatist, De Schismate Donatistarum, On the Donatist Schism
Origin: Milevis (Latin North Africa)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
Optatus, the Catholic bishop of Milevis in North Africa, wrote his only book between 364 and 367. It answers the treatise written by Parmenian, the Donatist bishop of Carthage. It provides theological arguments against the Donatists and presents the history of the conflict from the beginning to the middle of the fourth century.
Edition:
K. Ziwsa ed., S. Optati Milevitani libri VII accedunt decem monumenta vetera ad Donatistarum historia pertinentia, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 26, Prague-Wien-Leipzig 1893.
 
Translation:
Optatus: Against the Donatists, translated and edited by Mark Edwards, Liverpool 1997.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
    Relation with - Heretic/Schismatic
      Equal prerogatives of presbyters and bishops
        Conflict - Violence
          Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER774, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=774
          Record by: Stanisław Adamiak
          last edited: 2017-01-17 12:08:03
          Contact
          Privacy policy
          FAQ
          About the project
          Team