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.

Augustine and the Use of Force with the Donatists

The story of Augustine and the Donatists is a fascinating one—wherever one lands on various issues.[8] The Catholics and Donatists had co-existed together for some time in North Africa, often with Catholic and Donatist congregations in the very same city, as was the case in Carthage. Emperor Constantine and his sons had struggled to bring unity to the African church, with Constantine’s sons (in A.D. 346-348) officially supporting the Catholics and even engaging in a military campaign against the Donatists.

In A.D. 405, under pressure from Catholics, new pressure was brought against the Donatists when the emperors brought forth the Edict of Unity.[9] This edict, among other things, outlawed rebaptism—which was, in effect, a virtual outlawing of Donatism. The penalties for such baptisms were: (1) confiscation of property of Donatist congregations; and (2) confiscation of property of those who allowed Donatists to congregate on one’s land. The Edict of Unity also included: (1) whipping for persons in the lower classes; (2) removal of the right to bequeath or inherit property in certain situations; (3) freedom for rebaptized slaves; and (4) various sanctions against provincial staff who did not uphold these laws.

Augustine will argue that the efficacy of the sacraments does not in fact depend on the moral or spiritual state of the priest. Share on XAugustine was not a civil servant, but he did eventually approve of the use of such force against the Donatists, for such force could be used by God for their spiritual benefit.^[10] Indeed, to not use force would have actually been to return evil for evil: “For, if anyone sees his enemy out of his mind due to dangerous fevers run toward a cliff, would he not repay evil with evil if he allowed him to run in that way rather than if he took care to catch him and tie him up?”^[11] Those rescued from Donatism would be like those rescued from physical harm: “But once he had recovered his health, he would obviously thank him more profusely to the extent that he had felt that the man had spared him the less.”^[12]

While the Old Testament pictures force being used against God’s enemies, Augustine is happy to grant that such use of force is not to be found in the New Testament. However, in a very interesting move, Augustine turns to Psalm 2 and suggests that the prophecy of Psalm 2—where kings are called to serve the one true King—is being fulfilled in Augustine’s own time. He writes:

But this prophecy was not yet fulfilled: And now, kings, have understanding; you who judge the earth, be warned; serve the Lord in fear (Ps 2:10–11). For what is said a little before in the same psalm was still being fulfilled, Why have the nations raged and the people plotted in vain? The kings of earth have arisen, and the princes have gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed one (Ps 2:1–2).^[13]

Augustine writes:

[N]ow there is being fulfilled what is symbolized a little later by the same king when, after having been converted to honor the true God, he decreed in his kingdom that whoever blasphemed against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would face appropriate punishments. The earlier time of that king, therefore, signified the earlier times of non-believing kings, under whom the Christians suffered instead of the unbelievers, but the later time of that king signified the times of the later kings, who were now believers under whom the non-believers suffered instead of the Christians.^[14]

Augustine admits he has changed his mind on the use of force: “For my opinion originally was that no one should be forced to the unity of Christ, but that we should act with words, fight with arguments, and conquer by reason.”^[15] The main reason Augustine says he changed his mind was that he had seen the good results of the use of force—people returning to the Catholic church (and this in his own city of Thagaste).^[16] He could eventually say: “Let whoever is not found in the Church, then, no longer be questioned; rather, let him either be corrected and converted or be rebuked and not bewail the fact.”^[17]

Augustine and the future

Augustine’s doctrine of the church and sacraments, and his engagement with Donatism, is endlessly fascinating. Augustine certainly sowed the seeds of the Roman Catholic system to come, and his thoughts and writings on Donatism certainly are a part of the building of what will come to be the Roman Catholic sacramental system. The more one lingers on the implications of Augustine’s writings on the church and sacraments, the more one will see that much of later church history can be read as attempts to follow Augustine, to break from his influence, or significantly to rework the thought of the Doctor of Grace.

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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.

^[7] Tractates on the Gospel of John 5.18. Emmanuel J. Cutrone’s “Sacraments” article in Fitzgerald, Augustine Through the Ages is helpful in outlining Augustine on the sacraments.

[8] Cf. Maureen Tilley’s “General Introduction,” in The Donatist Controversy I, vol. 21, The Works of Saint Augustine, translated by Maureen Tilley and Boniface Ramsey, edited by Boniface Ramsey and David G. Hunter (Hyde Park, NY:  New City Press, 2019), 13-25.

[9] Ibid., 22.

^[10] Letter 93 1.

^[11] Letter 93 2.

^[12] Letter 93 2.

^[13] Letter 93 9.

^[14] Letter 93 9. Augustine is referencing Daniel 3:29‒30.

^[15] Letter 93 17.

^[16] Letter 93 17. Many of the arguments in Letter 93 are also found in Letter 185, which Augustine in his Reconsiderations (2.48) renames The Correction of the Donatists.

^[17] Against the Letters of Petilianus 2.85.189.

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