Donatism

Donatism was a Christian schism that emerged in Roman North Africa in the early 4th century, centered in Carthage. It took its name from Donatus Magnus, whose followers challenged the authority of the Catholic bishops after the Diocletianic persecutions. Donatists argued that the validity of sacraments depended on the moral character and purity of the minister administering them, and they maintained that the church consists of the holy, requiring exclusion of clergy who had lapsed under persecution. Consequently, they formed parallel North African dioceses and rejected the authority of bishops who had compromised during persecution.

The movement held that the church’s true bishops and churches were those that had remained faithful, and they asserted that sacraments conferred by lapsed or compromised ministers were invalid. This led to a sustained doctrinal and political dispute with the mainstream (Catholic) Church, which argued that the sanctity of the church and the efficacy of the sacraments did not depend solely on the holiness of individual ministers but on God working through the church as a whole.

Responses to Donatism varied over time, with Augustine of Hippo providing a lasting intellectual challenge to the schism. He argued for the unity of the one church and the validity of sacraments administered by legitimate church authorities, even when performed by imperfect ministers, and he emphasized the community’s role over the purity of its members. The Donatist controversy influenced early Christian ecclesiology and the understanding of church discipline for centuries.

Donatism persisted into the 5th and 6th centuries and gradually declined, especially with changing political conditions in North Africa. The movement left a lasting imprint on debates about the nature of the church and the efficacy of sacraments in Christian thought.