DONATISTS
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DONATISTS
seems that after violence had begun, the envoys or-
dered the Donatists to unite with tlie Church wlietlier
they willed or no. Many o( the bishops took to flight
with their partisans; a few joined the Catholics; the
rest were banished. Donatus the Great died in exile.
A Donatist named Vitellius composed a book to show
that the servants of God are hated by the world.
A solemn ilass was celebrated in each place where the union was completed, and the Donatists set about a rumour that images (obviously of the emperor) were to be placed on the altar and worshipped. As nothing of the sort was found to he done, and as the envoys merely made a speech in favour of unity, it seems that the reunion was effected with less violence than might have been expected. The Catholics and their bishops praised God for the peace that ensued, though they declared that they had no responsibility for the action of Paulus and Macarius. In the following year Gra- tus, the Catholic Bishop of Carthage, held a council, in which the reiteration of baptism was forbidden, while, to please the rallied Donatists, traditors were con- dermied anew. It was forbidden to honour suicides as martyrs.
The Re.stor.\tion of Donatism by Julian. — The peace was happy for Africa, and the forcible means by which it was obtained were justified by the violence of the sectaries. But the accession of Julian the Apos- tate in 361 changed the face of affairs. Delighted to throw Christianity into confusion, Julian allowed the Catholic bishops who had been exiled by Constantius to return to the sees which the Arians were occupying. The Donatists, who had been banished by Constans, were similarly allowed to return at their own petition, and received back their basilicas. Scenes of violence were the result of this policy both in the East and the West. "Your fury", WTote St. Optatus, "returned to Africa at the same moment that the de\'il was set free", for the same emperor restored supremacy to paganism and the Donatists to Africa. The decree of Julian was considered so discreditable to them, that the Emperor Honorius in -105 had it posted up t lu-ough- out -Urica for their shame. St. Optatus gives a vehe- ment catalogue of the excesses committed by the Do- natists on their return. They invaded the basilicas with arms; they committed so many murders that a report of them was sent to the emperor. Under the orders of two bishops, a party attacked the basilica of Lemellof; they stripped off the roof, pelted with tUes the deacons who were round the altar, and killed two of them. In Mauretania riots signalized the return of the Donatists. In Xumidia two bishops availed them- selves of the complaisance of the magistrates to throw a peaceful population into confusion, expelling the faith- ful, wounding the men, and not sparing the women and children. Since they did not admit the validity of the sacraments administered by traditors, when they seized the churches they cast the Holy Eucharist to the dogs; but the dogs, inflamed with madness, at^ tacked their own mast ers. An ampulla of chrism thrown out of a window was found unl^roken on the rocks. Two bishops were guilty of rape; one of these seized the aged Catholic bishop, and condemned him to pul> lie penance. -All Catholics whom they could force to join their party were made penitents, even clerics of every rank, and children, contrary to the law of the Church, some for a year, some for a month, some but for a day. In taking possession of a basilica, they de- stroyed the altar, or removed it, or at least scraped the surface. They sometimes broke up the chalices, and sold the materials. They washed pavements, walls, and columns. Not content with recovering their churches, they employed pagan functionaries to ob- tain fo" thorn possession of the sacred vessels, furni- ture, altar-linen, and especially the books (how did they purify the books? asks St. Optatus), sometimes le;iving t he ( 'atholic congregation with no books at all. The cemeteries were closed to the Catholic dead.
The revolt of Firmus, a Mauretanian chieftain who
defied the Roman power and eventually assumed the
style of emperor (366-72), was undoubtedly supported
by many Donatists. The imperial laws against them
^vere strengthened by Valentinian in 373 and by Gra-
tian, who wrote in 377 to the vicar of prefects, Flavian
(himself a Donatist), ordering all the basilicas of the
schismatics to be given up to the Catholics. St.
Augustine shows that even the churches which the
Donatists themselves had built were included. The
same emperor required Claudian, the Donatist bishop
at Rome, to return to .-Vfrica; as he refused to obey, a
Roman council had him driven a himdred miles from
the city. It is probable that the Catholic Bishop of
Carthage, Genethlius, caused the laws to be mildly ad-
ministered in Africa.
St. Optatus. — The Catholic champion, St. Optatus, Bishop of Milevis, puljlished his great work " De schis- mate Donatistarum" in answer to that of the Dona- tist Bishop of Carthage, Parmenianus, under Valen- tinian and Valens, 364-75 (so St. Jerome). Optatus himself tells us that he was writing after the death of Julian (363) and more than sixty years after the be- ginning of the schism (he means the persecution of 303). The form which we possess is a second edition, brought up to date by the author after the accession of Pope Siricius (Dec, 384), with a seventh book added to the original six. In the first book he de- scribes the origin and growth of the schism; in the sec- ond he shows the notes of the true Church; in the third he defends the Catholics from the charge of persecu- ting, with especial reference to the days of Macarius. In the fourth book he refutes Parmenianus's proofs from Scripture that the sacrifice of a sinner is polluted. In the fifth book he shows the validity of baptism even when conferred by sinners, for it is conferred by Christ, the minister being the instrument only. This is the first important statement of the doctrine that the grace of the sacraments is derived from the opus operaium of Christ independently of the worthiness of the minister. In the sixth book he describes the vio- lence of the Donatists and the sacrilegious way in which they had treated Catholic altars. In the sev- enth book he treats chiefly of unity and of reunion, and returns to the subject of Macarius.
He calls Parmenianus "brother", and wishes to treat the Donatists as brethren, since they were not heretics. Like some other Fathers, he holds that only pagans and heretics go to hell; schismatics and all Catholics will eventually be saved after a necessary purgatory. This is the more curious, because before liirn and after him in Africa Cj^prian and Augustine both taught that schism is as bad as heresy, if not worse. St. Optatus was much venerated by St. Augustine and later by St. Fulgentius. He WTites with vehemence, sometimes with violence, in spite of his protestations of friendliness; but he is carried away by his indignation. His style is forcible and effective, often concise and epigrammatic. To this work he appended a collection of documents contain- ing the evidence for the history he had related. This dossier had certainly been formed much earlier, at all events before the peace of 347, and not long after the latest document it contains, which is dated Feb., 330; the rest are not later than 321, and may possibly have been put together as early as that year. Unfortu- nately these important historical testimonies hav& come down to us only in a single mutilated MS., the archetype of which was also incomplete. The collec- tion was freely used at the conference of 411 and is often quoted at some length by St. Augustine, who has preserved many interesting portions which would otherwise be unknown to us.
The Maxiiiianists. — Before Augustine took up the mantle of Optatus together with a doulile portion of his spirit, the Catholics had gained new and victorious arguments from the divisions among the Donatists
