filius Dei et sanctitati suae anteposuit et majestati") ; he points out various miracles in which faith was the acting principle (v, 8). He looks upon immersion, anointing, and the imposition of hands, which he finds portended in Christ's baptism (iv, 7), as parts of the sacrament of baptism. He denies the efficacy of bap- tism performed by heretics, because of the absence of the Trinitarian creed (" ha;reticorum morbidi fontes"), while he considers baptism performed by schismatics as valid and efficacious, and condemns its being renewed (v, 1). He also declares positively that those converts who were permitted to renew the vows of baptism pre- viously taken by them should not be anointed, as he says to Parmenianus, '• Quod a vobis unctum est, tale servamus, quale suscipimus" (vii, 3). He was the first to hold to the indelible character of baptism, afterwards established bj' Augustine. His views concerning the Lord's Supper are also of importance : he considers it as a sacrifice offered for the universal Church (ii, 12), but on the other hand he does not name the body and blood of Christ, but the offering of the community. He calls the altar the place where the gifts of the brotherhood are brought to show the peace of the Church ; the place for the prayers of the community and the members of Christ (i. e. the community presenting itself to God in its gifts, and constituting the body of Christ) ; and when he speaks of the Eucharist itself, he says that the Al- mighty descends upon the altar, as does the Holy Spirit, at the prayers of the faithful ; at the altar many find eternal salvation, and the hope of immortality. In his work Optatus uses especially the allegorical method of interpretation, which, like most of the writers of his time, he even abuses. His style is heavy, and wholly wanting in elegance; and in dialectic talent and inge- nuity he is far behind Augustine. That Optatus was highly considered in the North-African Church is shoAvn by what Augustine relates of him {Erevicid. collation. cap. XX, No. 38). On the third day of the Synod of Car- thage, in 411, the Donatistic bishops asserted that bishop Cecilianus of Carthage had been condemned by the emper- or Constantine I, basing themselves on the statement in Optatus's work (i, 26). This passage, however, said only that Cecilianus had, at the investigation of his schis- matic enemies, and for the sake of restoring peace in the Church, been banished by the emperor to Brescia. The editio princeps of the six books of Optatus was printed by F. Behem {Apud S. Victorem propt 3Iogimtiani), 1549, fob, under the inspection of Joannes Cochlfeus, from a MS. belonging to the Hospital of St. Nicholas, near Treves. The text, which there appears under a very corrupt and mutilated form, was corrected in a multitude of passages by Balduinus, first from a single new MS, (Paris, 1653, 8vo, with the seventh book added in small type), and afterwards from two additional codices (ibid, 1659, 8vo). The second of these impressions remained the standard until the appearance of the elaborate edi- tion by Dupin (ibid. 1700, fol. ; Amst. 1701, fol. ; Antw. 1702, fol.) ; the last, in point of arrangement, is supe- rior to all the others. That of Casaubon (Lond. 1631, 8vo) is of no particular value; that of L'Aubespine, bishop of Orleans (Paris, 1631, fol.), is altogether worth- less. Galland, in his Bibl. Patr. v, 462 (Venet. 1769, fol.), has followed the text of Dupin, selected the most important of his critical notes, adopted his distribution of the Monumenta Vetera ad Donatistanan Flistoriain pertinentia, and brought together much useful matter in his Prole fjomena, cap. xviii, p. xxix. See Jerome, De Viris ill. p. 110; Honor, p. 1, 3 ; Triiliem, p. 76; Augustine, De Doctrin. Christ, ii, 40 ; Lardner, Credi- hility of Gospel History, cap. cv ; Fundus, De L. L. veget, Senect. cap. x, § 56-63 ; Schiinemann, Bibl. Putr. Lat, vol. i, § 16 : Biihr, Gesch. der Pom. Lit. suppl. pt. ii, § 65 ; Tillemont, Hist, des Empereuis, iv, 364 ; Wernsdorf, Dissert, in Poet. Lat. min. ; Milman, Hist, of Christian- ity; Blosheim, Eccles. Hist. vol. i; Alzog, Patrologie, § 62; Shepherd, Hixt. Ch. of Rome, p. 176,^222, 524 sq. ; Herzog, Reul-Encyklopddie, x, 665 ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog.
OPTBIISM
390
OPUS OPERANTIS
Generale. xxxviii, 723 ; Smith, Did. of Greek and Roman Biog. and Mythol. s. v. (J. N. P.)
Optimism (from Lat. optimus, best) is the doctrine that the existing order in this universe, notwithstanding the possibility of imperfection and sin, is nevertheless, as a whole, the most perfect that could have been ordered by a wise Creator, and the best which it is possible for man to conceive. In other words, optimism looks upon exist- ence as a great good ; but the advocates of this school have differed, one class contenting themselves with maintaining the absolute position that, although God was not by any means bound to create the most perfect order of things, j'et the existing order is de facto the best; because it is by contact with evil that we learn the value of good, just as the child's consciousness to good, to duty, and to what is ethically right is roused by the preceptor through painful punishments ; in short, that the blessedness of optimism man must attain for himself through suffering and by his own efforts. Another class of Optimists, however, contend not only this, but, in addition, that the perfection and wisdom of Almighty God could produce none other than the most perfect order of things possible ; and that, though God foresaw the suffering and moral evil of the world as in- evitable, it was yet more consistent with his goodness to create than not to create, supposing the latter possi- ble ; in other words, it appears to be in unison with his perfection, and especially with his goodness, to call beings into existence to confer on them as far as possi- ble the enjoyment of life and the capability of attain- ing perfection, and that therefore the motive for creation appears stronger than for non-creation. See Necessity ;