Donatists

Donatists

The Donatists were a Christian group in North Africa that broke with the the Church of Constantine in 312 over the election of Caecilian as bishop of Carthage.

We are told that they belong to the tradition of early Christianity that produced Montanism and Novatianist movements in Asia Minor and the Melitians in Egypt.1 Donatism was a Christian sect that led to a schism in the Church, in the region of the Church of Carthage, from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid.

Donatists as a sect argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid.

It appears this is an argument presented by their opposition in the early days of the Donatism. At that time it would have been a strawman. They broke with the the Church of Constantine in 312 over the election of Caecilianus as bishop of Carthage.

Caecilianus was also one of only five Western bishops at the First Council of Nicea

Donatism was a heretical sect that challenged the established church, teaching that Christians were called to asceticism and personal purity, and that holiness was proven in one's faithfulness in enduring persecution.