Augustine in His Own Words
bishops, who met in Arles in 314, and finally to Constantine himself. Each time Caecilian was vindicated.
Undaunted, Donatus and the opposition not only survived, but prospered. In the famous phrase of Optatus of Milevis, "altar was raised against altar."4 There emerged, in town after town, rival churches and rival clergies. Two bodies of Christians, indistinguishable in worship and creed, faced each other in communities across North Africa. The government moved against the Donatists briefly and inconsistently, but when it did, it was heavy-handed. There were property seizures, onerous fines, brief exiles of leaders, and episodes of police brutality. In 346, Constantine's son, the Emperor Constans, sent two imperial notaries, Macarius and Paul, to address complaints from both sides. They threw their favor to the Catholics and, for a few brutal years, proscribed the Donatists. A government-enforced Catholic unity became the order of the day. Donatus himself was exiled to Gaul and died a few years later. These "Macarian times" became the stuff of legend in Donatist circles.
Catholics, too, suffered violence, notably from roving bands of Circumcellions. The term literally means "around the cells." They arose in the 340s and seem, as best scholars can reconstruct it, to have been loosely organized migrant farm laborers who combined economic grievances, religious fervor, and violence (not unlike certain peasant revolts in the Middle Ages).5 Attacks were sporadic, some against landowners and tax collectors, some against Catholic clergy or Donatist defectors. The Circumcellions were known for a deep devotion to the cult of the martyrs. Their violence provoked sharp government reprisals, and those who died in these mêlées were heralded by some as "martyrs." Certain Donatist bishops enlisted Circumcellions as bodyguards; others were more wary and kept them at arm's length or disavowed them altogether.
The Donatists emerged in the 360s as the establishment church, a comfortable and prosperous majority. Catholics were strongest in the Romanized cities along the coast. In cities inland, as well as in farming communities, especially in Numidia and the Mauretanias, Donatists held strong sway. From the 360s to the 390s, they enjoyed moderate, stable leadership under Donatus's successor, Parmenian (bp. 361–391). After his death the tide began turning to the Catholic side. Donatists suffered a brief but scandalous schism between Parmenian's successor, Primian, and Maximinus, a relative of Donatus. In 397, Optatus of Thamugadi and other Donatist bishops threw their
4. Optatus of Milevis, De schismate Donatistarum 1.15, 19 (CSEL 26:18, 21). See Mark Edwards, trans. and ed., Optatus: Against the Donatists, Translated Texts for Historians 27 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1997). Augustine takes up the phrase and uses it as a regular refrain; see, e.g., Psalmus contra partem Donati 23, 30, 293; ep. 43.4. 5. For recent interpretations, see Claude Lepelley, "Circumcelliones," Aug-Lex 1:930–35.