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DONATISTS

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 411 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DONATISTS , a powerful See also:

sect which arose in the See also:Christian See also:church of See also:northern See also:Africa at the beginning of the 4th See also:century.' In its See also:doctrine it sprang from the same roots, and in its See also:history it had in many things the same See also:character, as the earlier Novatians. The predisposing causes of the Donatist See also:schism were the belief, See also:early introduced into the See also:African church, that the validity of all sacerdotal acts depended upon the See also:personal character of the See also:agent, and the question, arising out of that belief, as to the eligibility for sacerdotal See also:office of the traditores, or those who had delivered up their copies of the Scriptures under the compulsion of the See also:Diocletian persecution; the exciting cause was the See also:election of a successor to Mensurius, See also:bishop of See also:Carthage, who died in 311. Mensurius had held moderate views as to the treatment of the traditores, and accordingly a strong fanatical party had formed itself in Carthage in opposition to him, headed by a wealthy and influential widow named Lucilla, and countenanced by See also:Secundus of Tigisis, episcopus primae sedis in See also:Numidia. There were thus two parties, each anxious to secure the See also:succession to the vacant see. The See also:friends of the See also:late bishop fixed their choice on Caecilian, the See also:archdeacon, and secured his election and his See also:consecration by See also:Felix, the bishop of Aptunga, before the other party were ready for See also:action. It had been customary for the Numidian bishops to be See also:present at the election and consecration of the bishop of Carthage, who as See also:metropolitan of proconsular Africa occupied a position of primacy towards all the African provinces. Caecilian's party, however, had not waited for them, knowing them to be in sympathy with their opponents. Soon after Caecilian's consecration, Secundus sent a See also:commission to Carthage, which appointed an interventor temporarily to administer the bishopric which they regarded as vacant. Then Secundus himself with seventy of the Numidian bishops arrived at Carthage. A See also:synod of Africa was formed, before which Caecilian was summoned; his consecration was declared invalid, on the ground that Felix had been a traditor; and finally, having refused to obey the See also:summons to appear, he was excommunicated, and the See also:lector Majorinus, a dependant of Lucilla's, consecrated in his See also:stead. This synod forbade the African churches to hold communion with Caecilian, the schism became overt, and in a very See also:short See also:time there were See also:rival bishops and rival churches throughout the whole See also:province. It was soon clear, by the exclusion of the " Pars Majorini " from certain privileges conferred on the African church, that the sympathies of See also:Constantine were with the other party (See also:Eusebius, Hist. eccl. x.

6, 7). To investigate the dispute an imperial commission was issued to five Gallic bishops, under the See also:

presidency of See also:Melchiades, bishop of See also:Rome. The number of referees was afterwards increased to twenty, and the See also:case was tried at Rome in 313.2 Ten bishops appeared on each See also:side, the leading re-presentative of the Donatists being See also:Donatus of Casae Nigrae. The decision was entirely in favour of Caecilian, and Donatus was found guilty of various ecclesiastical offences. An See also:appeal was taken and allowed; but the decision of the synod of See also:Arles in 314 not only confirmed the position of Caecilian, but greatly strengthened it by passing a See also:canon that ordination was not 1 There were three prominent men named Donatus connected with the movement—Donatus of Casae Nigrae; Donatus surnamed See also:Magnus, who succeeded Majorinus as the Donatist bishop of Carthage; and Donatus of Bagoi, a See also:leader of the circumcelliones, who was captured and executed c. 35o. The name of the sect was derived from the second of these. The Donatists themselves repudiated the designation, which was applied to them by their opponents as a reproach. They called themselves " Pars Majorini " or " Pars See also:Donati." 2 The Donatist See also:movement affords a valuable See also:illustration of the new importance which the changed position of the church under Constantine gave to the synodal See also:system of ecclesiastical legislation.invalid because performed by a traditor, if otherwise See also:regular. Felix had previously been declared See also:innocent after an examination of records and witnesses at Carthage. A further appeal to the See also:emperor in See also:person was heard at See also:Milan in 316, when all points were finally decided in favour of Caecilian, probably on the See also:advice of See also:Hosius, bishop of See also:Cordova. Henceforward the See also:power of the See also:state was directed to the suppression of the defeated party.

Persistent Donatists were no longer merely heretics; they were rebels and incurred the See also:

confiscation of their church See also:property and the See also:forfeiture of their See also:civil rights. The See also:attempt to destroy the sect by force had the result of intensifying its fanaticism. Majorinus, the Donatist bishop of Carthage, died in 315, and was succeeded by Donatus, surnamed Magnus, a See also:man of See also:great force of character, under whose See also:influence the schism gained fresh strength from the opposition it en-countered. Force was met with force; the Circumcelliones, bands of fugitive slaves and vagrant (circum cellas) peasants, attached themselves to the Donatists, and their violence reached such a height as to threaten civil See also:war. In 321 Constantine, seeing probably that he had been wrong in abandoning his usual policy of See also:toleration, sought to retrace his steps by granting the Donatists See also:liberty to See also:act according to their consciences, and declaring that the points in dispute between them and the orthodox should be See also:left to the See also:judgment of See also:God. This See also:wise policy, to which he consistently adhered to the See also:close of his reign, was not followed by his son and successor See also:Constans, who, after repeated attempts to win over the sect by bribes, resorted to persecution. The renewed excesses of the Circumcelliones, among whom were ranged fugitive slaves, debtors and See also:political malcontents of all kinds, had given to the Donatist schism a revolutionary aspect; and its forcible suppression may therefore have seemed to Constans even more necessary for the preservation of the See also:empire than for the vindication of orthodoxy. The power which they had been the first to invoke having thus declared so emphatically and persistently against them, the Donatists revived the old See also:world-See also:alien See also:Christianity of the days of persecution, and repeated See also:Tertullian's question, " What has the emperor to do with the church?" (Quid est imperatori cum See also:ecclesia ?) Such an attitude aggravated the lawlessness of the Circumcellion adherents of the sect, and their outrages were in turn made the See also:justification for the most rigorous See also:measures against the whole Donatist party indiscriminately. Many of their bishops See also:fell victims to the persecution, and Donatus (Magnus) and several others were banished from their See also:sees. With the See also:accession of See also:Julian (361) an entire See also:change took See also:place in the treatment of the Donatists. Their churches were restored and their bishops reinstated (Parmenianus succeeding the deceased Donatus at Carthage), with the natural result of greatly increasing both the See also:numbers and the See also:enthusiasm of the party. A return to the earlier policy of repression was made under Valentinian I. and See also:Gratian, by whom the Donatist churches were again closed, and all their assemblies forbidden.

It was not, however, until the commencement of the 5th century that the sect began to decline, owing largely to the rise among them of a See also:

group of moderate and scholarly men like the grammarian Tychonius, who vainly strove to overcome the more fanatical See also:section. Against the See also:house thus divided against itself both state and church directed not unsuccessful assaults. In 405 an See also:edict was issued by the emperor See also:Honorius commanding the Donatists, under the severest penalties, to return to the See also:Catholic church. On the other See also:hand, See also:Augustine, bishop of See also:Hippo, after several years' negotiation, arranged a great See also:conference between the Donatists and the orthodox, which was held under the authority of the emperor at Carthage in 411. There were present 286 Catholics and 27g Donatist bishops. Before entering on the proceedings the Catholics pledged themselves, if defeated, to give up their sees, while in the other event they promised to recognize the Donatists as bishops on their simply declaring their adherence to the Catholic church. The latter proposal, though it was received with scorn at the time, had perhaps ultimately as much influence as the See also:logic of Augustine in breaking the strength of the schism. The discussion, which lasted for three -days, Augustine and Aurelius of Carthage being the See also:chief speakers on the one side, and Primian and Petilian on the other, turned exclusively upon the two questions that had given rise to the schism—first, the question of fact, whether Felix of Aptunga who consecrated Caecilian had been a traditor; and secondly, the question of doctrine, whether a church by tolerance of unworthy members within its See also:pale lost the essential attributes of purity and catholicity. The Donatist position, like that of the Novatians, was that the See also:mark of the true church is to guard the essential predicate of holiness by excluding all who have committed mortal See also:sin; the Catholic standpoint was that such holiness is not destroyed by the presence of unworthy members in the church but rests upon the divine See also:foundation of the church and upon the See also:gift of the See also:Holy Spirit and the communication of See also:grace through the priesthood. In the words of Optatus of Milevi, sanctitas de sacramentis colligitur, non desuperbia personarum pondera. And the much wider See also:diffusion of the orthodox church was also taken as See also:practical See also:confirmation that it alone possessed what was regarded as the equally essential predicate of catholicity. The decision of See also:Marcellinus, the imperial See also:commissioner, was in favour of the Catholic party on both questions, and it was at once confirmed on an appeal to the emperor.

The severest penal measures were enforced against the schismatics; in 414 they were denied all civil rights, in 415 the holding of assemblies was forbidden on See also:

pain of See also:death. But they lived on, suffering with their orthodox brethren in the Vandal invasions of the 5th century, and like them finally disappearing before the Saracen onslaught two centuries later.

End of Article: DONATISTS

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