Does Anyone Know Anything About the Donatists?

Donatists are only mentioned four times in Carroll’s “Trail of Blood” and never with any specificity. Donatists do play a significant role in Carroll’s trail because they bridge the gap between the early Montanists and the Paulicians.

To have nothing detailed said about them in his book is striking given that the Donatists span from 400 CE to 800 CE. Apart from the Paulicians, there is no more prominent group mentioned given that all of these Proto-Baptists are considered Ana-Baptists by Carroll. What do Baptist Successionists and Landmark Baptists believe about the Donatists? According to Landmark Baptist, Phil Stringer, Donatists “joined the Montanists in separating from organized Christianity.” [^1] Stringer goes on to say:

A new wave of independent churches took place in Northern Africa. Most of these churches broke fellowship with the established church over the qualifications for bishops, pay from the state for the clergy, purity in the church, and the final authority in solving disputes between the church and state. The movement began to be known by the name of one of its most able leaders, Donates, pastor of the church at Carthage. [^2]

This is a gross misrepresentation of the Donatists and the entire situation in Northern Africa during the Fourth Century. Due to the absence of references in his book and the complete detachment from the historical record, one can only conclude that this narrative was either handed down orally as part of a Landmark Baptist tradition or was invented to fit the narrative. No other possible conclusion seems rational.

Thomas Strouse, in his “I Will Build My Church”, describes the situation a little differently than Stringer:

In Northern Africa, specifically Carthage, the church elected Caecilian as bishop, who represented the weak party in the church. Because the stronger party opposed the traditor, or a compromiser in the time of persecution, Caecilian’s election was refused because he delivered Christian writings to the pagans during the Diocletian persecution. Consequently, a succession occurred by a number of churches which took on the name of the prominent bishop, Donates, in AD 311.

Carroll offers no historical context on the Donatists. Stringer offers the “Baghdad Bob” rendition of history. Once again, Strouse, at least, attempts to be somewhat complete in his answer. However, there is much more to the history of the Donatists that bears telling lest the reader leaves behind yet a fourth source without gaining a clear historical understanding of this notable group.

Sic Semper Traditors

During the last great persecution of the Christian church by Emperor Diocletian in 303-305 CE, Roman authorities forced Christians to surrender their scriptures and those who read them in the church. The persecution had subsided by 305. It was short lived, but severe in Africa. The Bishop of Carthage, Mensurius, admitted to surrendering “heretical” scriptures while supposedly hiding true scripture. Caecilianus, his archdeacon, allegedly prevented Christians in Carthage from gathering for worship. Meanwhile, the bishop of Numidia, Secudus, declared himself, “not a traditor”. He had acted honorably and had not surrendered scriptures, cooperated with authorities, nor betrayed any brother. A synod was held to determine if any traditors were present. Most of the bishops had, in some way, become a traditor. Their compromise was inexcusable to the others. This led to a schism in the Carthaginian church in 311, when a bishop of Carthage was appointed who was a traditor. The Donatists appointed a rival bishop, Majorinus. The movement would come to be named by his successor, Donatus, who became bishop in 313 and remained a bishop at Carthage until his death in 355 despite being exiled numerous times. This led to Carthage having two bishops and a split across the province. Donatus and his followers had popularity in Africa while Caecilianus was recognized elsewhere. ^3

Traditor, Lovest Thou Me?

The Donatist schism in Africa flourished just one hundred years, until the conference at Carthage in 411, after which its importance waned. ^4
In 409, Marcellinus of Carthage declared the Donatists heretics. At the Council of Carthage in 411, Augustine of Hippo was one of the biggest opponents of the Donatists. This resulted in the Donatists being banned and eventually losing their civil rights in 414 and banned from worship under penalty of death. Ultimately, the division of the Donatists was a result of their rebellion against the state first and the church second because they saw the Catholic Church as having compromised.

What was the heresy of the Donatists? They questioned the legitimacy of the sacraments administered by traditors and lapse priests. To the Donatists, it was unthinkable that a priest who had denied the faith or even handed over the sacred scriptures could simply return to service for the Lord whom they had denied. The thought of the Donatists was that any sacraments: baptisms, the Lord’s Supper, marriages, and ordinations were invalid because they were administered by apostates. Donatists believed that it was not possible for these traditors to be restored to the faith after their crime. Traditors were unfit for membership in the Church. Even more tragic is that anyone they had ministered to was also invalid under the Donatist heresy.

Were all traditors apostate or were some true believers that succumbed to a moment of fear? For the Donatists, there was no case-by-base analysis. To them, all were apostate. There was no return and no restoration. It is easy to criticize 1600 years removed from the situation, but one can only wonder if there were some who did as Peter and went out and wept bitterly and when confronted, instead of lying, honestly and sincerely admitted to their error and sought forgiveness with genuine repentance? This will remain one of those questions in the category of how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie roll pop: the world may never know. By the Donatist standard, there is not a human being who is fit to serve the Lord. No one is righteous (Romans 3:23). A perfect sanctification is unattainable.

An Intramural Conflict

This is not a group that was completely separated from the Catholic Church. How does one get excommunicated from a group to which he has never belonged? These Donatists were part of the same church as the traditors. They considered themselves the same body. These men were bishops in the same church. This was not an outside group that is watching from the sidelines. There was one church and one leadership.

Carroll, Stringer, Strouse, and others claim that Baptist are not Protestants. They claim that Baptists did not come out of the “Catholic” Church. The message is that they were never a part of that Church. And yet, they claim their lineage flows through the Donatists and the Donatists clearly were a part of the Church that these Baptists reject. The Donatists are very similar to Luther. They sought to reform from within. The Donatists, were by definition, both Reformers and Protestant. Therefore, Carroll and those after him have successfully proven the hypothesis of this author and demonstrated that Baptists did come out of the same church as everyone else. There is no separate, secret, unbroken line going back to John the Baptist. A rational, literal view of history naturally concludes that Carroll’s “The Trail of Blood” is self-refuting using only the Donatists.

[^1]: Stringer, “The Faithful Baptist Witness”, p64

[^2]: Stringer, “The Faithful Baptist Witness”, p64