Donatism

thumb|Saint Augustine disputes with the Donatists (Charles-André van Loo, sec. XVIII) Donatism was a schism from the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Carthage from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid. Quotes Quaerite, Donatistae, si nescitis, quaerite ab Ierusalem per terrena itinera in circuitu usque in Illyricum quot mansiones sint: si tot Ecclesias computemus, dicite quemadmodum per Africanas contentiones perire potuerunt. Ad Corinthios, ad Ephesios, ad Philippenses, ad Thessalonicenses, ad Colossenses vos solas Apostoli epistulas in lectione, nos autem et epistulas in lectione ac fide et ipsas Ecclesias in communione retinemus. PL 43, 414 Ask, O ye Donatists, if ye know it not, ask how many stopping-places there were in the Apostle’s journeys round about unto Illyricum. Add up the number of the churches, and tell me how they have perished through our African strife. Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Collosae - you have only the letters of the Apostles to read which he addressed to them. We read the letters, we preserve the faith. We are in communion with the churches. (ch.12:31) Saint Augustine of Hippo, :Ad Catholicos Epistula contra Donatistas (Letter to the Catholics against the Donatists), or De Unitate Ecclesiae (On the Unity of the Church), Ad Catholicos epistola contra Donatistas vulgo De Unitate Ecclesiae liber unus. Latin text in Migne, Patrologia Latina (PL), 43:391–446. Variant: Epistula ad Catholicos de secta Donatistarum. A.C. Headlam regards these words as “the argument of the whole treatise” See, [http://www.archive.org/details/doctrineofchurch00headuoft The Doctrine of the Church and Christian Reunion: Being the Bampton Lectures for the Year 1920], Rev. Arthur Cayley Headlam, D.D., London, John Murray, p. 152. The Gospel and Catholic Church, (1936, reissue ed. 2009), Michael Ramsey, Hendrickson Publishers; 1598563890 9781598563894, p. 131. Can. 8. Si quis dixerit, per ipsa novae Legis sacramenta ex opere operato non conferri gratiam, sed solam fidem divinae promissionis ad gratiam consequendam sufficere: an. s. CANON VIII.-If any one saith, that by the said sacraments of the New Law grace is not conferred through the act performed, but that faith alone in the divine promise suffices for the obtaining of grace; let him be anathema. w:Concil of Trent, Seventh Session (March 3, 1547), Decree On the Sacraments in General, Canon 8 (Denz 1601-1613 in Latin), translated into English on papalencyclicals.net). Can. 12. Si quis dixerit, ministrum in peccato mortali exsistentem, modo omnia essentialia, quae ad sacramentum conficiendum aut conferendum pertinent, servaverit, non conficere aut conferre sacramentum : an. s. (cf: DS 1154). CANON XII.-If any one saith, that a minister, being in mortal sin,-if so be that he observe all the essentials which belong to the effecting, or conferring of, the sacrament,-neither effects, nor confers the sacrament; let him be anathema. w:Concil of Trent, Seventh Session (March 3, 1547), Decree On the Sacraments in General, Canon 12 (Denz 1601-1613 in Latin), translated into English on papalencyclicals.net). Joined by fanatics of all kinds and the dregs of society, the Donatists indulged in all sorts of excesses, avoided contact with Catholics, going so far as to wash the places where they had been in order to purify them, and roamed the countryside begging. “Genus hominum otiosum ab utilibus operibus... maxime in agris territans, ab agris vacans et victus sui causa villas circumiens rusticorum, unde et circumcellionum nomen accepit.” (Note of the Author)</ref> exorcising, inflicting horrible tortures on themselves, as we will see later that the holy men and maraboutsA term from Islam with multiple meanings, including that of local saints who are the object of popular worship. of Islam did. q:it:Aldobrandino Malvezzi, L'Italia e l'Islam in Libia, Fratelli Treves Editori, Firenze-Milano, 1913 (In Italian). Ch. III, p. 137 For several decades, [...], Donatism was political opposition, religious rivalry, and a practical attitude, rather than a theoretical position and abstract system. The orthodox did not even have the desire or the means to refute it methodically. Political power opposed it for them, but they never tired of petulantly calling on it for help. q:it:Ernesto Buonaiuti, Il cristianesimo nell'Africa romana, Gius. Laterza & Figli, Bari, 1928 (in Italian). Part II, Ch. V, p. 322. If Donatism is in direct continuity with pre-Constantinian Christianity, it should not imagine that it represents the only church. The church of Christ has the promise of universality, while the Donatist church has not crossed the ethnic and territorial boundaries of Africa. Furthermore, after a heroic period of confessions and martyrdom, the Donatist church, especially during the period of the Moorish uprisings, came to contract the same disfiguring blemishes that it discovers in the official community. q:it:Ernesto Buonaiuti, Il cristianesimo nell'Africa romana, Gius. Laterza & Figli, Bari, 1928 (in Italian). Part II, Ch. V, p. 336. References See also Augustine of Hippo External links Category:Christian theology