Ancient Testimonies Concerning Optatus and His Books

Do we not see with how much gold and silver and raiment that most sweet doctor and most blessed martyr Cyprian departed from Egypt; how much Lactantius, how much Victorinus, Optatus, Hilary, to say nothing of the living.

Let those who wish read what the bishop of Milevis, Optatus of venerable memory, of Catholic communion, narrates and by what proofs he persuades in so many matters: whether concerning Lucilla, a woman most wealthy and most factious at that time, whom the holy Caecilianus, still a deacon, had offended for the sake of Church discipline; or concerning the other associates of her faction, whether thieves of Church silver, or those grieving that they had not attained the episcopate and pursuing with whatever snares they could the one preferred over them, Caecilianus; or concerning the Numidian bishops whom that faction had summoned to the ruin of Caecilianus, so that, with him deposed, another might be ordained for them. These things are contained in the first book of Optatus.

Nor do we therefore say that we ought to be believed, because Optatus of Milevis or Ambrose of Milan commended that very thing which we hold.

But the Donatist bishops, repulsed from this point, as though about to bring forward something most powerful, requested that Optatus be read, which they had also requested before, from which they said they would prove that Caecilianus had been condemned by the emperor. They demanded most insistently that Optatus be read. Optatus was recited, with the Donatists reciting the passage where he says: At the same time Donatus requested that he be permitted to return and to come to Carthage; then it was suggested to the emperor by his suggester Philumenus that, for the sake of peace, Caecilianus be kept at Brescia, and so it was done.

Since in these words of Optatus no condemnation of Caecilianus whatsoever could be found, as they had promised they would demonstrate, the judge ordered the entire page to be recited, so that from the words before and after, the intention of the one who had written might be known; and it was recited by the office: Caecilianus was pronounced innocent by the sentences of all the aforementioned; and when this was being recited the Donatists said that they had not requested this to be read, fuming against those who could not restrain their laughter, when they heard what an openly self-incriminating passage they had brought forward.

The holy bishop of Milevis, in the sixth book against Parmenianus, testifies that Paul gave counsel concerning virgins as a work of supererogation, in these words: For virginity is a matter of will, not of necessity, and the rest which is found below, book VI, p. 94, and ch. 15. Nor indeed is one departing from truth in this supererogation of the Apostle, whether what the holy Ambrose, or what the holy Augustine, or what the holy Optatus held may also be held by us with the truth of faith kept safe.

Optatus, an African, bishop of Milevis, wrote under Valens against the calumny of the Donatist party.

At Milevis in Numidia, of the holy bishop Optatus, conspicuous for learning and holiness.