Donatist

The Donatist movement was a branch of Christianity in north Africa which began in 311 C.E. and flourished for a century until the Council Carthage in 411. Named for

Background

The Donastist movement's roots can be found in the persecution of the Christian church under Emperor Diocletian. On February 24, 303 the Emperor banned the Christian religion and commanded both the destruction of the churches and the buring of Christian scriptures. In 304, he issued an edicting declaring the Christians must be willing to offer incense at the altars of the state or face death. The persecution lasted only a brief time in Africa but it was particularly severe there. Many martyrs met their death as a result, some willingly informing authorities that they possessed sacred scriptures but refused to give them up. Mensurius, the Bishop of Carthage, forbade such practices and admitted to handing over "heretical" scriptures to the authorities while hiding legitimate scriptures in his home. On the other handSecundus, the Bishop of Numidia praised the martyrs of his province who had been put to death for refusing to deliver up the scriptures. He declared himself "not a traditor"—a term refering to those who had cooperated with authorities by giving them either holy scriptures, sacred church vessels, or the names and persons of fellow Christians.

Some of the Christians of Carthage and other cities broke off relations with Mensurius, considering him, rightly or wrongly, a traditor. Minutes of state investations indeed show that some bishops cooperated with the state, being willing to hand over all that the state required, except, in some cases, their fellow Christians.

By 305 the persecution had abated and a church council, or synod, was held at the African city of Cirta. Bishop Secundus, however, launched an investigation to ensure that there were no traditores present. Shockingly, it was determined that most of the bishops present fell under one definition or another of the term. Later, when Mensurius died in 311, his archdeacon, Cæcilianus, succeeded him, but without consultation with the Secundus and the nother Numidian bishops. Numidian bishops felt much offended at the slight shown to them, and allied themselves with the rigorists. Secundus now convened another synod, and when Cæcilianus failed to appear to defend himself, he was deposed and excommunicated. The synod elected Majorinus in his place as Bishop of Catharge. When Majorinus himself soon died in 313, his successor would be Donatus. It is from this Donatus that the Donatist schism received its name.

Cathage, the captial city, now had two bishops and two competing congregations. The schism soon spread throughout the whole province, with a majority of the people, as well as a sizeable number of bishops, supporting Donatus. Outside of Africa, however, the bishops generally recognized Cæcilianus.

The Donatist churches

Donatist primary disagreement with the rest of the Church was over the treatment of those who renounced their faith during the Persecution (303–305) of Diocletian, a disagreement that had implications both for the Church's understanding of the Sacrament of Penance and of the other sacraments in general.

The rest of the Church was far more forgiving of these people than the Donatists were. The Donatists refused to accept the sacraments and spiritual authority of the priests and bishops who had fallen away from the faith during the persecution. Many church leaders had gone so far as to turn Christians over to Roman authorities and had handed over sacred religious texts to authorities to be publicly burned. These people were called traditors ("people who had handed over"). These traditors had returned to positions of authority under Constantine, and the Donatists proclaimed that any sacraments celebrated by these priests and bishops were invalid.

The first question, therefore, was whether the Sacrament of Penance can effect a reconciliation whereby the apostate, or in some cases specifically the traditor, may be returned to full communion. The Catholic position was that the sacrament was for precisely such cases, though at the time the Church still followed the discipline of public penance whereby a penitent for such a grievous offense would spend years, even decades, first outside the doors of the church begging for the prayers of those entering, then kneeling inside the church building during services, then standing with the congregation, and finally receiving the Eucharist again in a long progress toward full reconciliation. The Donatists held that such a crime, after the forgiveness of Baptism, rendered one unfit for further membership in the Church, a position of extreme rigorism.

The second question was the validity of sacraments confected by priests and bishops who had been apostates under the persecution. The Donatists held that all such sacraments were invalid: by their sinful act, such clerics had rendered themselves incapable of celebrating valid sacraments. This is known as ex opere operandi — Latin for "from the work of the one doing the working," that is, that the validity of the sacrament depends upon the worthyness and holiness of the minister confecting it. The Catholic position was (and is) ex opera operato, "from the work having been worked" in other words, that the validity of the sacrament depends upon the holiness of God, the minister being a mere instrument of God's work, so that any priest or bishop, even one in a state of mortal sin, who speaks the formula of the sacrament with valid matter and the intent of causing the sacrament to occur acts validly. Hence, to the Donatists, a priest who had been an apostate but who repented could speak the words of consecration forever, but he could no longer confect the Eucharist. To the Catholics, a person who received the Eucharist from the hands of even an unrepentant sinning priest still received Christ's Body and Blood, their own sacramental life being undamaged by the priests faults.

As a result, many towns were divided between Donatist and non-Donatist congregations. The sect had particularly developed and grown in North Africa. Constantine, as emperor, began to get involved in the dispute, and in 314 he called a council at Arles in France; the issue was debated and the decision went against the Donatists. The Donatists refused to accept the decision of the council, their distaste for bishops who had collaborated with Rome came out of their broader view of the Roman empire.

After the Constantinian shift, when other Christians accepted the emperor as a leader in the church, the Donatists continued to see the emperor as the devil. In particular, the birth of the Donatist movement came out of opposition to the appointment of Caecilian as bishop of Carthage in 312, because of his pro-government stance. In 317 Constantine sent troops to deal with the Donatists in Carthage, for the first time Christian persecuting Christian. It resulted in banishments and even executions. It failed completely and Constantine had to withdraw and cancel the persecutions in 321.

More laws against the Donatists were issued by Valentinian I, after the defeat of the Donatist usurper Firmus in Northern Africa.

Donatists were more than just an opposition movement. They also had a distinctive worship style, emphasizing ‘mystical union of the righteous inspired by the Holy Spirit and instructed by the Bible. Anabaptists and other church traditions have looked to Donatists as historical predecessors because of their opposition to the union of state and church, their emphasis on discipleship and, in some cases, their commitment to nonviolence and social justice. Like those in the Radical Reformation in the 16th century, the Donatists saw the Catholics as impure and corrupted.

The Donatists also drew their beliefs from the writings of Tertullian and Cyprian.

Augustine campaigned against this heterodox belief throughout his tenure as bishop of Hippo, and through his efforts the Catholic Church gained the upper hand. His view, which was also the majority view within the Church, was that it was the office of priest, not the personal character of the incumbent, that gave validity to the celebration of the sacraments.

In 409, Marcellinus of Carthage, Emperor Honorius's secretary of state, decreed the group heretical and demanded that they give up their churches. They were harshly persecuted by the Roman authorities, and even Augustine protested at their treatment.

Nevertheless, his successes were reversed when the Vandals conquered North Africa. Donatism survived the Vandal occupation and the Byzantine reconquest under Justinian I. It is unknown how long this belief persisted into the Muslim period, but some Christian historians believe the Donatist schism and the discord it caused in the Christian community made the takeover of the region by Islam easier.^{[citation needed]}