Donatists

The Donatists were a Christian schismatic movement that emerged in North Africa in the early 4th century in the aftermath of the Diocletianic persecutions. The movement formed around the priest Donatus Magnus, whose followers argued that the church must be free of those who had betrayed the faith (the lapsi) and that the integrity of the clergy determined the legitimacy of the church. They adopted the name from Donatus and established a separate episcopal structure in Carthage and surrounding regions.

Donatism held that the church is a visible communion of the holy, and that the validity of sacraments depended on the holiness of the minister administering them. Consequently, ministers who had lapsed or who cooperated with imperial authorities could not validly ordain or administer the sacraments. This led to a rival, purer church that rejected reunion with what they considered the Catholic church governed by compromised bishops.

In the 4th and 5th centuries Donatists organized extensive networks in Carthage, Numidia, and other parts of Africa, holding their own synods and churches. The movement clashed with Catholic Christians and with state authorities, and it became a major arena of theological and political conflict in which Augustine of Hippo played a leading role for the Catholic side, arguing for the continuity of the church and a sacramental theology that emphasized divine grace beyond the minister’s moral state. Imperial and local authorities periodically attempted to suppress Donatism and to enforce unity.

The Donatist controversy shaped early ecclesiology and church–state relations in the Western Church. Although the movement waned in late antiquity, Donatist communities persisted in some regions until the Islamic conquest of the Maghreb in the 7th century.