Augustine in His Own Words (continued)
chapter 7
Controversies (II)
Against the Donatists
The Christians of Hippo who in 391 seized and ordained Augustine called themselves "Catholics." They had good claim to the title. Their church was allied with and recognized by a worldwide communion of Christian churches across the Empire. But in 391 Catholics were a local minority, not only in Hippo, but also across the provinces of Numidia and the Mauretanias. For much of the fourth century, the majority church of North Africa was Donatist. Donatists claimed that they—and they alone—were the one true Church, a Church "without spot or wrinkle" (Eph 5:27), the true descendants of the Church of the martyrs, the Church who alone possessed the Holy Spirit, and the only one whose Spirit-charged waters of baptism could cleanse sinners of their sins. In their view, Catholics, whether locally or worldwide, were not real Christians; Catholics were the "church of Judas," a demonic parody of authentic Christianity.1 Catholic baptism, far from cleansing one of sin, only polluted one's soul with new layers of filth. This rivalry between Catholic and Donatist was often bitter and, at times, violent. It affected the most ordinary things. As Augustine told his Donatist counterpart in Hippo, "husbands and wives agree about their bed and disagree about the altar of Christ."2
The schism dated back nearly a century, to the empire-wide persecution under the Emperor Diocletian in 303. Diocletian had ordered Christians to turn over their sacred books to local officials to be burned. Some clergy refused, of course, and were arrested, jailed, and, in some cases, martyred.
1. On Donatist theology, see Serge Lancel and James S. Alexander, "Donatistae," Aug-Lex, 2:606–38; Maureen A. Tilley, The Bible in Christian North Africa: The Donatist World (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997).
2. Ep. 33.5 (CCL 31:122); trans. Parsons, FOTC 12:129. Augustine's relative Severinus was a Donatist: see ep. 52.