Donatist Controversy

Background

During the persecution begun in 303 by the Roman emperor Diocletian, clergy who surrendered copies of the Scriptures to the authorities were called traditores ("those who handed over"). When the persecution ended, the North African church faced the question of whether such men could resume their ministry and whether the baptisms and ordinations they had performed were valid. North Africa had a strong tradition, dating back to Cyprian, bishop of Carthage in the third century, of refusing to recognize baptism received outside the church.

Course of Events

• c. 311: Caecilian was installed as bishop of Carthage. Felix of Aptunga, one of the bishops who consecrated him, was accused of being a traditor. The bishops of Numidia regarded the consecration as invalid and set up Majorinus as a rival bishop. This party is called the Donatists, after Donatus, who succeeded Majorinus.
• 313–316: The Council of Rome in 313 and the Council of Arles in 314 ruled in favor of Caecilian, and Emperor Constantine reached the same judgment in 316. Thereafter the Donatists, though alternately suppressed and tolerated by the state, remained a major force in North Africa.
• Late fourth to early fifth century: Optatus of Milevis and Augustine, bishop of Hippo, wrote treatises refuting the Donatists.
• 411: At the Conference of Carthage, presided over by the imperial official Marcellinus, the Catholic side was declared victorious, and the Donatists were subsequently outlawed by imperial decree.

Issues

The Donatists held that the church must be a community of holy people and that sacraments administered by apostate clergy were without effect. Accordingly, they rebaptized those who came over to them after being baptized by the other side. Augustine countered that because it is Christ who truly administers the sacraments, they are valid regardless of the worthiness of the minister. He also held that the church on earth is a mixed body of the righteous and sinners. In support he cited the parable of the tares (Matthew 13:24-30) and the parable of the net (Matthew 13:47-50), maintaining that the separation of the wheat from the tares belongs to the time of the Last Judgment.

Outcome and Influence

The Donatists are thought to have survived for some time even after the Vandals took control of North Africa in the fifth century, but when they disappeared is uncertain. The principle that the character of the minister does not determine the efficacy of the sacrament became a foundation of Western sacramental theology and carried over into the sacramental understanding of the Roman Catholic Church. Within Protestantism, chapter 27 of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Article 26 of the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles express the same principle. John Calvin criticized the Anabaptists, who had separated in the name of a pure church, by comparing them to the Donatists.

Assessment

• Presbyterians, Anglicans, and others generally accept Augustine's conclusions regarding the efficacy of the sacraments.
• Within traditions that emphasize a church of regenerate believers, such as the Anabaptists and Baptists, some have reassessed the Donatists, pointing to their emphasis on the purity of the church and on church discipline and to their position as a minority that resisted state power.
• Augustine's approval of state coercion against the Donatists has been criticized for later being used to justify the punishment of heretics.
• Historians hold that, in addition to theological issues, social and ethnic factors in North Africa also contributed to the schism.
• In Korea, the dispute after liberation over how to deal with ministers who had taken part in Shinto shrine worship, along with the separation of the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Kosin), is sometimes explained by comparison with this controversy. Some point out, however, that differences in era and issues make a direct correspondence difficult.