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Feb 11, 2019 · Donatism was a heretical sect of early Christianity, founded by Donatus Magnus, which believed that sanctity was a requisite for church membership and administration of sacraments. Donatists lived primarily in Roman Africa and reached their largest numbers in the 4th and 5th centuries.
In short, the Donatists allegedly believed that their party in North Africa was the only remaining true church. In the late 4th and early 5th centuries, the government, advised by Augustine’s party, developed stricter attempts to coerce the Donatists.
- David E. Wilhite
- 2017
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Donatists were alternately harassed and tolerated by imperial governments, but were convinced that they were the true persecuted body of Christ. Donatist militants engaged in violent actions against pagan shrines.
The Donatists were a schismatic body in the African Church. They refused to accept Caecilian, Bp. of Carthage (consecrated most probably in 311), on the ground that his consecrator had been a traditor in the Diocletianic persecution.
For the orthodox Christians, the Council of Carthage ought to have ended the confrontation; for the Donatists, it became just one more battle in their hundred-year struggle to resist centralization by the Roman state.4 The division between the orthodox Christians and Donatists began during the Persecution of Diocletian (303-05).
- Emily C. Elrod
- 2006
All the other myriad examples of Donatists beliefs made man-ifest in their history, that were often endemic to North African Christianity, e.g., rebaptism, emphasis on/ and pride in martyrdom and purity, insistence on the integrity of the Church and the sacra-ments, episcopal collegiality, and separation from secular authority
May 4, 2023 · The controversy emerged soon after the Diocletian persecution, one side selecting Caecilius as the bishop of Carthage, the other eventually selecting Donatus (and therefore dubbed ‘Donatist’). The schism widened when Constantine supported the former and attempted to enforce his party's status.
