The Donatist Schism and the Council of Arles

The account of how the division began comes from Optatus, a bishop of Caecilian’s communion who wrote some sixty years later against the other side. During the Great Persecution under Diocletian, he says, some bishops in Africa gave up the Scriptures to the authorities; the Latin word for such men is traditores, “handers-over” (Optatus, Against the Donatists 1.13). When the persecution ended, Caecilian was elected bishop of Carthage and consecrated by Felix of Aptunga. Optatus relates that a party in the city, supported by bishops from Numidia, alleged that Felix had been a traditor, declared the consecration void and set up a rival bishop, Majorinus (Optatus, Against the Donatists 1.18–20).

Constantine, now ruling Africa, sent money to Caecilian’s clergy and exempted them from public duties (Eusebius, Church History 10.6–7). The opponents handed the proconsul a dossier of charges for the emperor (Augustine, Letter 88.2) and asked him for judges from Gaul (Optatus, Against the Donatists 1.22). Constantine referred the case to Miltiades, bishop of Rome, with three Gallic bishops (Eusebius, Church History 10.5.18–20). By Optatus’s account nineteen bishops met at the Lateran on 2 October 313, cleared Caecilian and condemned Donatus, who led the accusers (Optatus, Against the Donatists 1.23–24).

The losing party complained that the judges had been few and hasty. Constantine then ordered bishops from many provinces to assemble at Arles by 1 August (Eusebius, Church History 10.5.21–24). The council reported to Silvester of Rome that the accusers had been “condemned or rejected” (Council of Arles (314) letter to Silvester). Its canons ruled that clergy proved from public records to have handed over the Scriptures were to be removed, but that ordinations they had performed stood (Council of Arles (314) canon 14 (13)); that converts from heresy who had been baptised in the name of the Trinity were not to be baptised again, against the custom of the Africans (Council of Arles (314) canon 9 (8)); and that Easter should be kept on one day everywhere and no bishop should consecrate another by himself (Council of Arles (314) canons 1 and 20).

The accusers appealed from the bishops to the emperor himself. Constantine wrote that they were asking judgement of a man who himself awaited the judgement of Christ (Optatus, Against the Donatists Appendix 5). He heard the case all the same, and Augustine, also an opponent, writing from the records eighty to ninety years later, says that he pronounced Caecilian innocent (Augustine, Letter 43.20) and ordered the property of the dissidents’ congregations confiscated (Augustine, Letter 88.3). A proconsular inquiry, Optatus adds, cleared Felix (Optatus, Against the Donatists 1.27).

The division did not end. The party took its name from Donatus of Carthage; Jerome, no friend of his, writes that he “deceived almost all Africa, and especially Numidia” (Jerome, On Illustrious Men 93). In 406 the Catholic clergy of Hippo were still writing to a Donatist bishop, complaining of attacks by his followers and defending the imperial laws against his party (Augustine, Letter 88.6–9). In this case a Christian emperor was asked to settle a dispute between bishops, and did so by convening councils. And a council ruled that an ordination is not undone by the fault of the bishop who performed it, and that baptism in the name of the Trinity is not repeated.