Old church in North Africa. From the fourth century, the opponents to the re-entry into the ranks of the Christian clergy of those who had yielded during the persecutions gradually separated from the Catholics. The consecration of Ceciliano as bishop, with the participation of Félix de Aptunga, precipitated events. Felix was accused of having committed treason for having delivered the Scriptures to his persecutors.
The main leader of the movement was Donatus, elected as bishop in 313 AD Hence the name of his followers, who constituted the majority of Christians until the time of Augustine of Hippo. The Donatists were harassed by the imperial authorities and there were cases of persecution.
The Donatists practiced the rebaptism of those baptized by priests considered unworthy and glorified martyrdom. The most extreme sectors rejected the authority of the State and were inclined to defend the interests of Roman Africa against the imperial seat.
Donatism maintained a certain influence in the region for some centuries. Its extreme wing is known as ® CIRCUMCELLIONES.
Source: Dictionary of Religions Denominations and Sects
DecEc
A
Donatism, a schismatic movement in North Africa, which is usually dated between 308-310/311, had its remote origin in Diocletian’s edict ordering the delivery of the Scriptures. Those who did so were given the name of traditores (from tradere: to deliver). A group of Catholics refused to accept Ceciliano as bishop of Carthage, arguing that he had been consecrated by a traditor, Felix of Aptunga. The Numidian bishops supported the objectors and consecrated a rival who was soon to be succeeded by Donatus, after whom the schism was named. His supporters were attacked both by the state and by theologians, especially Optatus and Saint >Augustine. The movement remained in North Africa until it disappeared when the Church in this region was destroyed by the Arabs between the 7th and 8th centuries.
At the center of Donatism there was a conflict of personalities, people wishing to escape the suspicion of having been traditionists and very little desire to dialogue. Theologically, Donatism tended to restrict membership of the Church only to >saints and, consequently, to not recognize the value of the sacraments administered by those who were considered sinners. Saint Augustine affirmed the validity of these sacraments and attacked the practice of double baptism that the Donatists carried out with all who joined them. The questions raised in this schism reappear whenever a rigorous attitude is adopted in relation to belonging to the Church. (>Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; >Magisterium; >Dissent).
Christopher O´Donell – Salvador Pié-Ninot, Dictionary of Ecclesiology, San Pablo, Madrid 1987
Source: Dictionary of Ecclesiology
On the death of Mensurius, in 311, three African bishops chose the deacon Ceciliano as his successor, which provoked a contrary reaction from extremist Christians, who argued against Ceciliano his status as traditor. Gathered in Carthage 70 bishops of Numidia, they annulled the election of Ceciliano and in 312 they chose Mayorino, presumably convinced by the bribes of Lucila, a wealthy matron who was at odds with Ceciliano. When Mayorino died shortly, the succession fell to Donato. In 313, the Donatists turned to Constantine for the Gallic bishops to mediate a solution to the problem. In October of that same year, several Gallic and Italian bishops met in Rome, under the presidency of the bishop of the city, Miltiades, deciding in favor of Ceciliano. The Donatists appealed to the authority of a council that was held in Arles in 314 and that, too, brought them an adverse result. In 316 Constantine chose to use force against them, exiling their leaders. However, the schism did not end. In fact, in 321 Constantine issued an edict of toleration allowing exiles to return. In the following quarter of a century, Donato, who shares the opinion of many African Christians opposed to imperial interventions in the life of the Church and who continues to see political power as something anti-Christian and now embedded in the heart of the Christian community, created a whole parallel ecclesial structure, convinced of being the pure church as opposed to the relaxed and semi-apostate. In 347 Constant sent two officials, Macarius and Paulo, to end the schism. Donato opposed that imperial intervention in a religious matter, and Macario’s response was the persecution of Donatism, persecuting the members of the communities and banishing leaders like Donato. By authorizing the return of the exiles in 362 Julian, Parmeniano (d. 391) reorganized the Donatist movement and placed the Catholic sector in a minority and weak position from which it would only emerge at the end of the s. IV with Aurelius of Carthage and Augustine of Hippo who, however, very possibly would not have won the victory if they did not have the military support of the emperor. After the Council of Carthage in 404, Honorius promulgated an edict against the schismatics in 405. In 411, a joint conference of Catholics and Donatists held in Carthage ended with the victory of the former, since the new Donatist leader, Petilian of Constantine, was not only not up to his predecessors Donatus and Parmenian, but also the Catholic side had the entire theological panoply developed by Augustine of Hippo. That setback for the schismatics encouraged Honorius to promulgate another repressive edict against them the following year. In a relatively short time, the Donatist movement was crushed by imperial forces, degenerating in recent years into armed groups dedicated to banditry — such as the circumcellions — whose interest seems to have been more nationalistic and social than religious. See: Augustine of Hippo.
VIDAL MANZANARES, César, Patristic Dictionary, Divine Word, Madrid, 1992
Source: Patristic Dictionary
Schism that was consummated in the Church of North Africa, related to the persecution of 303-305, when the bishops and the clergy had to hand over the books of the Scriptures to the authorities, with socio-economic and religious reflections that overwhelmed the African space, with some repercussions -although in a small number of followers- in Italy, Spain and Gaul, where they are still remembered at the beginning of the 6th century.
The doctrinal question between the Donatists and the Catholics concerned the nature of the Church as a society and its relations with the world. Although it was initially a religious movement that tried to defend and preserve the purity of the Church, referring to Tertullian and Cyprian in particular, and considered Donatus as a reformer or purifier of the Church, Donatism also exploded with a remarkable socio-cultural fascination: From a psychological point of view, Donatism was configured as a protest movement and was directed at the rural classes of North Africa who reluctantly digested the taxation of the administrative reform of Diocletian and Constantine. It began as an attempt to preserve the purity of the faith and the Church against all those who had given in during the persecution: then Donatism continued as a culture and movement protesting against the Constantinian era, strongly linked to the theological traditionalism of the North African Church, frankly puritanical in character. If it did not become the religion of the North Africans, like Monophysitism among the Copts, it is due to the fact that, after the failure of the Gildon revolt (AD 398), the Donatists stumbled upon a Catholic Church which, in addition to Being guided by Saint Augustine, it could count on the repressive power of the Empire and on a solid ecclesial organization. Subsequently, the arrival of the Vandals, the Byzantines, and the definitive decline of North African Christianity with the Islamic irruption prevented any movement of Donatist revival.
G.Bove
Bibl.: WH, C, Frend. Donatism, in DPAC, 1, 633-640; E. Romero Pose, Donatism in non-African regions. Donatists, in DPAC, 1, 640-641; M. Sotomayor y Muro, History of the Church in Spain, 1, Madrid 1979, 193-195; Donatists, in ERC, 3, 29930 1.
PACOMIO, Luciano, Encyclopedic Theological Dictionary, Divine Word, Navarra, 1995
Source: Encyclopedic Theological Dictionary