A controversy and split in the North African church in the early 4th Cent, so named after its chief controversialist Bishop Donatus. When Emperor Constantine ended the persecution began by Emperor Diocletian the church became divided over the question of whether those who had lapsed and renounced their faith in the time of the persecution could and should be forgiven and accepted back into the Church. This practical problem was made more complicated by the theological one of who had the authority to forgive in such a case as this. While many bishops were ready to do so, Donatus strenuously objected and rallied a group behind him that kept the controversy alive for centuries.
Emperor Constantine saw the controversy as a peril to the unity of his new imperial powers and sought to bring healing between the two sides. Instead of issuing an imperial order to the two sides he, instead, summoned a council of the bishops of the most important cities arose the Mediterranean to meet in Rome in 313. The council found against the Donatist, a decision the Donatists refused to accept. When Constantine called another council to meet in Arles, in southern France, the following year, this time including bishops from across Europe as well (including a delegation from the British isles, one of the first indications of Christian vibrancy in that land). The council again decided against the Donatists. Provoked by their unreasoning recalcitrance, Constantine was forced to send troops to enforce their return to the mainstream church, resulting in the first persecution of Christians by Christians, and adding only more acrimony to an already acrimonious cauldron. Most Donatists stayed out of the mainstream church. The schism was never healed, the church in North Africa weakened so that, within another four centuries, it would fall easy prey to the Muslim conquest.
Further Reading & Resources:
☰ Daryl J. Pigeon, "Cyprian, Augustine and the Donatist Schism," Ashland Theological Journal 23 (1991): 37-47.
©ALBERITH
020320lch