 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(September 2010) |
Donatus Magnus, also known as Donatus of Casae Nigrae, was the leader of a schismatic Christian sect known as the Donatists in North Africa, Algeria. He is believed to have died in exile around 355.
Little is known of his early life because of the complete loss of his correspondence and written works. He first appears in Church records as Donatus of Casae Nigrae in October 313 when Pope Miltiades found him guilty of re-baptizing clergy who had lapsed and of forming a schism within the Church. Casae was a settlement located on the extreme southern edge of the plains of Numidia, south of Theveste, an area settled by people predominantly of Berber descent.
During the wave of persecutions of Christians by the Roman Emperor Diocletian, in order to avoid torture, exile, or death, some Church leaders turned over their scriptures, liturgical books, and other church goods to the imperial authorities. Such people became known as traditors ("surrenderers").
The schism between the two Christian wings centered on the status of traditor clergy. The Donatists contended that traditores could not be reinstated without being re-baptized and re-ordained to take office. They also contended that church rituals performed by traditors were invalid. Therefore, persons who were baptized, ordained or consecrated should not be recognized by the Church. Donatist thinking was relatively consistent with that of Saint Cyprian, who died a martyr during an earlier wave of persecutions, over half a century earlier.[ citation needed ]
During the Diocletianic Persecution in Carthage there had been many who were imprisoned, some of whom were voluntary martyrs. These people claimed falsely to be in possession of Church property which they refused to give up to officials. The Bishop of Carthage, Mensurius, who was very much opposed to what he considered the fanaticism of the voluntary martyrs, sent his Archdeacon, Caecilian, to the prison to disperse by force the militant crowds gathered in support of volunteer martyrs. This action by Caecilian created many enemies in Carthage who were staunchly opposed to him.
Upon the death of Bishop Mensurius of Carthage in 311, Caecilian was chosen as his successor. Caecilian was consecrated Bishop of Carthage and Primate of North Africa by Bishop Felix of Aptungi. There were those who believed that Felix was a traditor. Secundus of Tigisis, primate of Numidia, held a council of 70 bishops at Cirta which declared the ordination of Caecilian to be invalid, since it was done by a traditor. Caecilian, who by then held the basilica, did not attend the council, but sent word that if his consecration as bishop was not valid, then let it be done again. At Carthage it was well known that Caecilian was the choice of the people, and it was not believed that Felix of Aptonga had given up the Sacred Books. [1]
The council then determined that Majorinus should be consecrated as bishop. Soon there were many cities with two bishops, one in communion with Caecilian, the other with Majorinus. Majorinus died shortly after, and Donatus was chosen to take his place. [1] Donatus was consecrated in 313 AD as Bishop of Carthage and Primate of North Africa, the leader of the Christian sect which came to be known as the Donatist sect.
The supporters of Donatus appealed to the Emperor, requesting the issue be judged by the bishops of Gaul, since under Constantine's father there had been no persecution in Gaul and therefore no traditors. Instead he referred the matter to Pope Miltiades, himself of Berber descent.
Miltiades summoned Caecilian to the Lateran with ten bishops of his accusers and ten of his own communion. He then called a synod and appointed an additional 15 Italian bishops, [2] as well as three of the chief bishops of Gaul, Reticius of Autun, Maternus of Cologne, and Marinus of Arles. [1]
The Lateran Council was held for three days from 2–4 October 313. [3] The process was modeled on Roman civil proceedings, with Miltiades insisting on strict rules of evidence and argument. The written accusations against Caecilian were disregarded, as being anonymous and unproved. This frustrated the Donatists who left the council without presenting their case, which led Miltiades to rule in favour of Caecilian by default. [4] The council ended after only three sessions. The pope retained Caecilian as bishop of Carthage and condemned Donatus' teachings of rebaptism of bishops and priests. [3]
The Donatists again appealed to the Emperor, who responded by convening the Council of Arles in 314 but it too ruled against the Donatists. [5] The adverse rulings failed to stop the continuing spread of Donatism across North Africa. Around 400 Donatist Bishop Petilianus of Constantine claimed that Miltiades, his successor Sylvester I and others surrendered sacred texts and offered incense to Roman deities.
During his tenure of some 40 years Donatus oversaw the expansion of the Donatist Christian sect but struggled unsuccessfully against the Roman Christian wing to obtain Church recognition as the legitimate Primate of North Africa. This effort failed because the Donatists were unable to prove to a series of the councils that considered the case that Caecilian had been a traditor or that his consecration was invalid because he was consecrated as bishop by a traditor.
The issue was complicated because there it was not only Catholic bishops who were suspected of being traditores; some Donatist bishops were also suspected of the same, in contradiction to their sect's basic teaching. Further, bishops suspected of being traditores refused to be challenged.
Donatus succeeded in expanding the Donatist sect in spite of lack of success in removing Caecilian from office, in large part due to the unpopularity of Caecilian and the Roman administration - particularly amongst the rural population. Donatist priests and bishops were much closer to the rural agricultural population which consisted of Roman farmers and the Berber and Phoenician descendants of the indigenous people who lived there before the Romans conquered North Africa.
Most Donatist clergy in rural Numidia spoke the vernacular languages (Old Libyan and Eastern Berber languages or Punic) as well as Latin, whereas the Catholic clergy usually spoke only Latin.
In 347 Donatus was exiled to Gaul until his death c. 355. At the time when Donatus' tenure ended, the Donatist Church was the dominant Christian Church in North Africa – but suffered from internal dissensions as well as the actions of the Catholic Church aimed at reincorporating the sect and thus unifying North African Christianity.
The Circumcellions were bands of nomadic anti-Roman rebels, Punic-speaking bandits from the lower strata of society, who supported Donatism and were sometimes led by Donatist clergy. However, they broke out of control, attacking Roman landlords and colonists and redistributing goods. Their support for the Donatists caused the Donatists to be identified with them, leading officials to take punitive action against the Donatist Church.
Further, the Donatist church splintered into two main groups, reducing its effectiveness as a church.
Protestant historians have noted the parallel between the Donatist debates and Reformation debates that broke out in Europe over a millennium later, leading to the formation of Protestant churches.[ citation needed ]
Pope Miltiades, also known as Melchiades the African, was the bishop of Rome from 311 to his death on 10 or 11 January 314. It was during his pontificate that Emperor Constantine the Great issued the Edict of Milan (313), giving Christianity legal status within the Roman Empire. The pope also received the palace of Empress Fausta where the Lateran Palace, the papal seat and residence of the papal administration, would be built. At the Lateran Council, during the schism with the Church of Carthage, Miltiades condemned the rebaptism of apostatised bishops and priests, a teaching of Donatus Magnus.
Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the Church, in the region of the Church 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. Donatism had its roots in the long-established Christian community of the Roman province Africa Proconsularis and Mauretania Tingitana, in the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian. Named after the Berber Christian bishop Donatus Magnus, Donatism flourished during the fourth and fifth centuries. Donatism mainly spread among the indigenous Berber population, and Donatists were able to blend Christianity with many of the Berber local customs.
Ex opere operato is a Latin phrase meaning "from the work performed" and, in reference to sacraments, signifies that they derive their efficacy, not from the minister or recipient, but from the sacrament considered independently of the merits of the minister or the recipient. According to the ex opere operato interpretation of the sacraments, any positive effect comes not from their worthiness or faith but from the sacrament as an instrument of God.
Marcellinus of Carthage was a Christian martyr and saint who died in 413. He was secretary of state of the Western Roman Empire under Roman emperor Honorius and a close friend of Augustine of Hippo, as well as a correspondent of Saint Jerome. Saint Augustine dedicated the first books of his landmark The City of God to Marcellinus in 413.
The name Early African Church is given to the Christian communities inhabiting the region known politically as Roman Africa, and comprised geographically somewhat around the area of the Roman Diocese of Africa, namely: the Mediterranean littoral between Cyrenaica on the east and the river Ampsaga on the west; that part of it that faces the Atlantic Ocean being called Mauretania, in addition to Byzacena. Thus corresponding somewhat to contemporary Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. The evangelization of Africa followed much the same lines as those traced by Roman civilization. From the late fifth and early sixth century, the region included several Christian Berber kingdoms.
Traditor, plural: traditores (Latin), is a term meaning "the one(s) who had handed over" and defined by Merriam-Webster as "one of the Christians giving up to the officers of the law the Scriptures, the sacred vessels, or the names of their brethren during the Roman persecutions". It refers to bishops and other Christians who turned over sacred scriptures or betrayed their fellow Christians to the Roman authorities under threat of persecution. During the Diocletianic Persecution between AD 303 and 305, many church leaders had gone as far as turning in Christians to the authorities and "handed over" sacred religious texts to authorities to be burned. Philip Schaff says about them: "In this, as in former persecutions, the number of apostates who preferred the earthly life to the heavenly, was very great. To these was now added also the new class of the traditores, who delivered the holy Scriptures to the heathen authorities, to be burned".
Mensurius was a bishop of Carthage in the early 4th century during the early Christian Church.
Caecilianus, or Caecilian, was archdeacon and then bishop of Carthage in 311 AD. His appointment as Bishop led to the Donatist Controversy of the Late Roman Empire. He was also one of only five Western bishops at the First Council of Nicea.
The Primate of Africa is an honorific title in the Roman Catholic church, but in early Christianity was the leading bishop (primas) in Africa except for Mauretania which was under the bishop of Rome and Egypt which was suffragan to Alexandria.
Calama was a colonia in the Roman province of Numidia situated where Guelma in Algeria now stands.
The Archdiocese of Carthage, also known as the Church of Carthage, was a Latin Catholic diocese established in Carthage, Roman Empire, in the 2nd century. Agrippin was the first named bishop, around 230 AD. The temporal importance of the city of Carthage in the Roman Empire had previously been restored by Julius Caesar and Augustus. When Christianity became firmly established around the Roman province of Africa Proconsulare, Carthage became its natural ecclesiastical seat. Carthage subsequently exercised informal primacy as an archdiocese, being the most important center of Christianity in the whole of Roman Africa, corresponding to most of today's Mediterranean coast and inland of Northern Africa. As such, it enjoyed honorary title of patriarch as well as primate of Africa: Pope Leo I confirmed the primacy of the bishop of Carthage in 446: "Indeed, after the Roman Bishop, the leading Bishop and metropolitan for all Africa is the Bishop of Carthage."
Secundus of Tigisis was an early church leader and primate of Numidia. He was a leading organiser of the early Donatist movement in Carthage.
Majorinus was the leader of a schismatic Christian sect in Roman North Africa known as the Donatists.
Felix, Bishop of Aptunga, in proconsular Africa was a 4th-century churchman, at the center of the Donatist controversy.
Gaguari is a former diocese of North Africa and since 1933 a titular bishopric. The location of the former diocese is for the moment unknown. Under Roman hegemony, the bishop belonged to the province of Byzacène. This province was located in North Africa. The exact location of Gaguari can not be determined for the current state of research. However, everything leads us to believe that the bishopric site localizes to the current Sahel of Tunisia.
Marcarius was an imperial notary sent in 340 to enforce an imperial edict against the Donatist community, in Bagai, Numidia, Roman North Africa.
Bagai was a Roman–Berber city in the province of Africa Proconsularis. It must have been of some reasonable size, as it was also the seat of an ancient Catholic bishopric. The ancient city has been identified with ruins at Ksar-Bagaï outside of Baghai, in the Aurès Mountains of the El Hamma District in Khenchela Province, Algeria.
Parmenian was a North African Donatist bishop, the successor of Donatus in the Donatist bishopric of Carthage. He wrote several works defending the rigorist views of the Donatists and is recognized as "the most famous Donatist writer of his day", but none of his writings have survived.
Petilianus was an eminent Donatist of the 5th century Roman North Africa, who is known to history through the letters he wrote to the Catholic Bishop Augustine of Hippo and discourses in Augustine's replies. Although most of what we know of him comes from Augustine, his main theology seems to have been "that the true church was only composed of those who were repentant."
The First Council of Cirta was a synod of bishops called by Secundus of Tigisis, the Primate of Numidia in AD 303 or 305.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Donatists". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
