nded in regard of Basil, Gregory, Nazianzen, Leo,
Chrysostom, who have published telling sermons on Lent and
prescribed days of fasting as things already in customary use?
Men who have sold their souls for gold, lust, drunkenness and
ambitious display, can they be other than most hostile to Basil,
Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, whose excellent books are in the
hands of all, treating of the institute, rule, and virtues of
monks? Men who have carried the human will into captivity, who
have abolished Christian funerals, who have burnt the relics of
Saints, can they possibly be reconciled to Augustine, who has
composed three books on Free Will, one on Care for the Dead,
besides sundry sermons and a long chapter in a noble work on the
Miracles wrought at the Basilicas and Monuments of the Martyrs?
Men who measure faith by their own quips and quirks, must they
not be angry with Augustine, of whom there is extant a remarkable
Letter against a Manichean, in which he professes himself to
assent to Antiquity, to Consent, to Perpetuity of Succession, and
to the Church which, alone among so many heresies, claims by
prescriptive right the name of Catholic?

Optatus, Bishop of Milevis, refutes the Donatist faction by
appeal to Catholic communion: he accuses their wickedness by
appeal to the decree of Melchiades: he convicts their heresy by
reference to the order of succession of Roman Pontiffs: he lays
open their frenzy in their defilement of the Eucharist and of
schism: he abhors their sacrilege in their breaking of altars "on
which the members of Christ are borne," and their pollution of
chalices "which have held the blood of Christ." I greatly desire
to know what they think of Optatus, whom Augustine mentions as a
venerable Catholic Bishop, the equal of Ambrose and of Cyprian;
and Fulgentius as a holy and faithful interpreter of Paul, like
unto Augustine and Ambrose. They sing in their churches the Creed
of Athanasius. Do they stand by him? That grave anchor who has
written an elaborate book in praise of the Egyptian hermit
Antony, and who with the Synod of Alexandria suppliantly appealed
to the judgment of the Apostolic See, the See of St. Peter. How
often does Prudentius in his Hymns pray to the martyrs whose
praises he sings! how often at their ashes and bones does he
venerate the King of Martyrs! Will they approve his proceeding?
Jerome writes against Vigilantius in defence of the relics of the
Saints and the honours paid t