Donatism

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The Donatism (named after Donatus of Carthage , 315-355 Primate of the Donatists) was a North African spin-off of the Western Christian church in the 4th and 5th centuries , the own ecclesiology had developed.

It was limited to northwestern Africa .

historical overview

Various individual questions of the Donatist dispute, including the exact direction of the Donatists, are still controversial due to the unsatisfactory source situation in research. The starting point of the Donatist dispute was the last phase of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire and the question of how to deal with people who had at least formally renounced Christianity. At the beginning of the movement, this principle particularly affected Christians who, during the persecution of Christians by Diocletian (303 to 311), had temporarily fallen away ( lapsi ) or fell into disrepute as traditores , as distributors of holy scriptures and objects. When these Christians returned to the Church after the Milan Agreement in 313, the Donatists demanded their expulsion. In particular, they declared invalid all sacraments (baptism, Eucharist, ordination) that had been donated by a priest who had temporarily fallen away, thus reviving positions from the time of the heretic controversy .

In the winter of 312/313 a violent dispute broke out over the bishop of Carthage , Caecilianus, who was to be removed from his office because there was also a traditor named Felix among those who had elected him bishop . The background to the escalation was the changed attitude of the Roman state: Emperor Constantine the Great , who had ruled the west without restrictions since 312, had shortly before decreed that the church's values ​​confiscated during the period of persecution should be restored and that Christian clerics should be given privileges. The question of who was the legitimate representative of the Christians of North Africa suddenly gained enormous explosive power that went beyond purely theological questions.

Caecilianus initially succumbed to his opponents; he was expelled from the Church of Carthage and a new bishop took his place. However, the conflict continued because the followers of Caecilianus did not want to accept this decision. Three times in the following years a petition (first from the supporters of Caecilianus, then from his opponents) was made to Emperor Constantine to settle the dispute. All three times, an independent college of Caecilianus confirmed the legal appointment as bishop. The name Donatist dispute is derived from one of the participants in the conflict, even if he basically had no major role in the conflict: This Donatus was the successor of the first opponent of Caecilianus when he was initially removed from his office. Donatus was banished, like all opponents of Caecilianus in the end.

When the Roman Church took back those who had temporarily fallen away, the Donatists separated from them. The fact that it had meanwhile been proven that no traditor was present at the consecration of Caecilian no longer played a role. At the Council of Arles in 314 , the Donatists suffered a clear defeat, and Constantine joined the assembly's vote. However, the Donatists did not accept the emperor's decision. According to Optatus von Mileve , Donatus has now declared him (whom the Donatists themselves had originally called as judge) to be incompetent with a rhetorical question: “Quid est imperatori cum ecclesia?” (“What has the emperor to do with the church ? ”) Constantine ordered Bishop Caecilianus to intervene against the dissenters, which he did. "For the first time an emperor made the state apparatus available to a cleric to suppress religious secession movements." From then on, the Donatists called themselves the "Church of Martyrs " and declared that anyone who stayed in contact with a sinner was therefore excommunicated .

The center of the movement remained primarily North Africa (Carthage), but its supporters were also found in many other parts of the Roman Empire. The writings of Tertullian and Cyprian , who had already developed a corresponding theological position during the heretic controversy, were of particular importance to them. The extreme and violent tendency of the agonists also belonged to the Donatists . The majority of Christians rejected Donatism, however, and emphasized again that sacraments, especially baptism and priestly ordination, are valid regardless of the personal worthiness of the donor ( Ex opere operato ). Attempts by the Roman emperors to settle the dispute peacefully or by force did not lead to any result.

Even Augustine sat down to 400 as bishop of Hippo with the Donatists apart. In contrast to the purist Donatists, he saw the Christian church as a community full of sinners. In addition, he reports to the Donatist demand for holiness that the saints, as long as they live in the body, always remain subject to sin as human beings, even if only minor offenses are involved. In the year 411 there was a "religious conversation" between Augustine and representatives of Donatism, the so-called collatio . While Augustine had initially pleaded for the Donatists to be diverted from their positions in a good way, he later demanded that one had to use force and force against them in order to save their souls in this way.

The influence of the Donatists in Africa was reduced, but they were also able to hold out under the rule of the Vandals (from 429) and their persecution by the Trinitarians until the reconquest of North Africa under Justinian (534). After that, their track is lost.

literature

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Optatus von Mileve: De schismate Donatistarum adversus Parmeniarum , book 3, chap. 3.
  2. ↑ Pedro Barceló : The Roman Empire in the Religious Change of Late Antiquity. Emperor and bishops in conflict . Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-7917-2529-1 , p. 59.

Web links

  • Donatism. In: Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
  • Sebastian Buck: Donatism. In: Basic knowledge of Christianity. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
  • Donatism. In: Online Dynamic Bibliography. Corporation for Digital Scholarship, accessed October 16, 2019 .