Donatist

The Donatists viewed themselves,

and not what was known as the Catholic Church,

as the true Church.

They lived in the Roman province of Africa and flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries.

They held that the church must be a church of saints, not sinners,

and baptism, administered by traditores

(Christians who surrendered the Scriptures to the authorities who outlawed possession of them) were invalid.

In 313, a commission appointed by Pope Miltiades found against the Donatists,

but they continued to exist, viewing themselves,

and not what was known as the Catholic Church,

as the true Church.

They drew upon African regional sentiment,

while the Catholic party had the support of Rome.

They were still a force at the time of Augustine of Hippo at the end of the fourth century,

and disappeared only after the Arab conquest of the 7th-8th century.

The primary disagreement between Donatists

and the Catholic Church was that they must be a church of saints,

over the treatment of those who renounced their faith

during the persecution under the Roman emperor Diocletian (303–305),

The Catholic Church was far more forgiving of these people than the Donatists.

The Donatists refused to accept the spiritual authority of the priests and bishops

who had fallen away from the faith during the persecution.

During the persecution some Church leaders had gone so far as to turn Christians over to Roman authorities

and had handed over 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.

Many towns were divided between Donatist and non-Donatist congregations.

The sect had particularly developed and grown in northern Africa.

Constantine, as emperor, began to get involved in the dispute, and in 314 he called the Council of Arles;

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 317 Constantine sent troops to deal with the Donatists in Carthage,

for the first time Catholics persecuting Christians.

It resulted in banishments, but ultimately failed, and Constantine had to withdraw and end the persecutions in 321.

More laws against the Donatists were issued by Valentinian I.

Augustine of Hippo campaigned against this belief throughout his tenure as Bishop of Hippo,

and through his efforts the Catholic Church gained the upper hand.

In 409, Marcellinus of Carthage, Emperor Honorius's secretary of state,

decreed the Donatists heretical and demanded that they give up their churches.

This was made possible after Augustine, with legal documents,

proved that Emperor Constantine had chosen the Catholic Church

over the Donatists as the official church of the empire.

As a result the Donatists were harshly persecuted by the Roman authorities,

and even Augustine protested at their treatment.

However, Augustine did not express his full protest,

as he thought that the Donatists had themselves perverted God's grace.

Nevertheless, his successes were reversed when the Vandals conquered North Africa.

Donatism survived the Vandal occupation and the Byzantine reconquest under Justinian I.

Some Christian historians believe the Donatist and the discord it caused in the Catholic community

made the Arab conquest of the region in the 7th century easier.

During and after the Reformation, the word "Donatist"

was commonly used as an incriminating label

to refer to the radical reformers such as the Anabaptists.

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