[1] Goldfasts are the ember-fasts, on the three ember-days of each of
the four seasons of the year; possibly called "goldfasts" because on
these days rents were collected. See _Realencyklopadie_, 5: 780, 9.
[2] The fasts enjoined upon a people by a public edict or ban. The
term "ban" as here used does not denote the Church's excommunication,
but an authoritative proclamation.
[3] The Tatianists, followers of Tatian, who lived in Syria in the
middle of the second century. Tatian, apparently basing his view of
marriage upon 1 Cor. 7:5, ascribes the institution of marriage and the
whole Old Testament Law to the devil. Eusebius held that Tatian was
the founder of a sect known as the _Encratites_, or _Abstainers_.
Modern historians see in the _Encratites_ groups of ascetic Christians
found frequently in the early Church, somewhat similar to the later
monks and nuns, so that Harnack can write that Tatian "joined the
Encratites." _Dogmengeschichte_3, I, 227 n. See _Realencyklopadie_3,
19, 386-394 on Tatian; 5, 392 f. on the Encratites.
[4] The Manicheans, strictly speaking not a Christian sect, but a
rival religious community, which made inroads upon the Christian
Church. Founded by the Babylonian Mani, who was born in the third
century, they taught the inherent evil of all matter, and consequently
had many fasts, averaging seven days in each month, while the
"perfect" among them abstained from meat, wine and marriage. See
_Realencyklopadie_ 3, 12, 193-228; von Orelli, _Religionsgeschichte_,
279-291.
[5] The Greek _anathema_ Luther here translates _ein Bann_, "let him
be a ban." This explains the reference to the ban below.
[6] _Stehet untereuch_, whereas above Luther writes _ist inwendig in
euch_.
[7] _Contra Epistolam Manichaei_, vi, _Paris Ed._, 1839, 28: 185: _Ego
vero Evangelic non crederem, nisi me ecclesiae catholicae commoveret
anctoritas_. On the preceding page Augustine had written: "If the
claim of truth be shown to be so evident that it cannot be called into
question, it is to be preferred before all those things by which I am
held in the Catholic faith."
[8] O raging madness, worthy of our age!