Augustine and the Challenge of Donatism

Perhaps one of the most interesting issues that arises when one studies Augustine is the question of Donatism.^[1] The historical roots of Donatism are to be found in the persecution of Christians that took place under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian between A.D. 303 and 305. During these times of persecution, some persons ultimately renounced the faith to evade danger, while other Christians endured persecution—at times to the point of death. But what should be done—if anything—with “traitors” who succumbed to the temptation to renounce the faith, or to hand over copies of Scripture to the authorities to be burned (or even assisted the authorities in other ways), after the persecution had ended?^[2]

The Donatist position is that those who “strayed” during the times of persecution have revealed their true colors: they are not part of the faithful and should not be received back into the church. It might be a bit challenging for the modern reader immediately to see exactly what the problem is with Donatism. The Christian church has always contained within her various renewal movements a desire to call the church back to her “first love.” Do the Donatists perhaps have a valid point?

The heart of the issue concerns the status of the ministry of those persons who had been traditores, “traitors” (the “hander-overs” during the time of persecution). If one had been ordained or baptized by such a “traitor” did one’s ordination or baptism “count”? The Donatists did not recognize such ordination nor such baptisms. Thus, the Donatists did not recognize the ordination of someone ordained by a “traitor,” and would require re-baptism for persons who had been baptized by a traitor. Such questions are, at least, the most pressing and practical questions that emerge in light of a “purifying” movement like Donatism. W. H. C. Frend summarizes the situation:

The Donatist writer of the Acta^[4] records that while in prison the confessors [those persons refusing to hand over the Scriptures] held a meeting among themselves, at which they condemned the traditor clergy in the strongest terms. Even to alter a single letter of the Scriptures was a crime, but contemptuously to destroy the whole at the command of pagan magistrates was to merit eternal punishment in Hell. Whoever, therefore, maintained communion with the traditores, they said, would not participate with them in the joys of Heaven. In making these claims, the confessors were following in the footsteps of the confessor in the Decian persecution [i.e., A.D. 250], but instead merely of assuming the right of pardoning the lapsed, they were now condemning bishops, among them their own Bishop Fundanus. The whole hierarchical principle was being attacked.^[5]

While Augustine did engage in persuasion and activism to try to quell the Donatist movement, and to attempt to win the Donatists back to the traditional Catholic church, we are more concerned here with the nature of his theological response. Most significantly, while the Donatists would argue for a “pure” church, Augustine would argue for a “mixed church” in the here and now, and he utilized the parable of the wheat and tares (Matt 13:24–30) to illustrate that God will separate believer and unbeliever at some future date. It can be argued that for Augustine, only believers in Christ can truly be considered part of the church, but his view is that there is little benefit in making hard and fast judgments in the present on who is truly a member of the body of Christ and who is not.While the Donatists would argue for a “pure” church, Augustine would argue for a “mixed church” in the here and now, and he utilized the parable of the wheat and tares. Share on X

The Efficacy of the Sacraments

But perhaps most important for grasping Augustine’s understanding of the sacraments (and for getting a sense of his influence on the Western tradition that follows him) is his position on the efficacy of the sacraments. For the Donatist, a significant moral failing (i.e., having been a “traitor” during persecution) rendered that minister’s former (and present) priestly work (baptism is particularly in view here) null and void.

What is Augustine’s response? Augustine will argue that the efficacy of the sacraments does not in fact depend on the moral or spiritual state of the priest, because the real or ultimate minister ministering the sacrament is Christ Himself, who ministers through the “lower” or earthly minister. Augustine writes that the person “whom a drunkard baptized, or those whom a murderer baptized, those whom an adulterer baptized, if it were the baptism of Christ, were baptized by Christ.”^[6] Augustine continues: “Jesus, therefore, is still baptizing; and so long as we continue to be baptized, Jesus baptizes. Let a man come without fear to the minister below; for he has a Master above.”^[7] Augustine’s position is that it is not the purity or holiness of the earthly representative of Christ that matters. Rather, it is the work of Christ, which happens by means of those appointed to serve Him.

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Endnotes

^[1] A standard helpful work on the Donatists is W. H. C. Frend, The Donatist Church: A Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952).

^[2] Serge Lancel (Augustine, 164–65) writes of one Gallonius of Thimidia Regia, who was told by Anullinus to surrender his copies of the Scriptures: “When Anullinus asked him to hand over the Scriptures, Gallonius replied that he had hidden them in a place known only to him, and he stuck to his guns even when, on the rack, his flesh was torn with iron claws.” Anullinus would eventually have Gallonius burned at the stake for refusing to hand over the Scriptures.

^[3] For a helpful summary of Donatism, see the article by R. A. Markus, “Donatus, Donatism,” in Fitzgerald, Augustine Through the Ages, 284-87.

^[4] This is the Acta Saturnini. “Acta” would be translated into English as “deeds.” This is a Latin document summarizing the “deeds” (here centered especially on suffering and martyrdom) of certain persons.

^[5] Frend, The Donatist Church, 10.

^[6] Tractates on the Gospel of John 5.18.

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