A.D. 306. As early as A.D. 306 wide spread dissensions begun to exist among Christians throughout the Roman empire, extending not only through Numidia, but throughout the provinces of Africa. One party sustaining the civil authorities, and the other resisting their encroachments upon religious liberty. It was at this time that Donatus came to the front, as a great leader of the dissenting party, and a class of Christians in Northern Africa, which espoused his views, were called Donatists.
They held to the same doctrines and practices which distinguished the Montanists. They were the same people in faith and practice, and were known by the name, Donatists, for a period of four hundred and fifty years, or down to A.D. 756. Sometimes they were denominated Puritans, as the Novatians were, and for the same reason. Donatus was elected bishop, or pastor, at Carthage in A.D. 306, and was the firmest supporter of his party. This fact alone identifies the Donatists with the Montanists.
A.D. 390. There were in A.D. 390, as many as four hundred separate congregations of Donatists. These were each presided over by a single bishop or pastor. These terms at that time signified the same office. The Donatists, like the Montanists and Novatians, rebaptized all who came over to them from the Catholic party, and hence were called Anabaptists.
A.D. 404. The Catholics had long before this become the dominant party, and backed by State and municipal authority, continually persecuted the true faith, and left no means unused to propagate their own doctrines. So many Catholics had abandoned that faith and united with the Donatists or Montanists, that Emperor Honorius, in 404, ordered them to return to the Catholic church, or be fined, at the same time banishing the pastors of the refractory. These mild measures failing to have the desired effect, more severe measures were adopted. The increased numbers of the Donatists, however, prevented the Catholics from using the extreme measures which were afterwards used for their suppression.
Mr. Orchard says of them:
“The Donatists had hitherto maintained themselves in good reputation, and their affairs were in good state. The Catholics having Augustine as their head, with other zealous adjutors exerted every means for their suppression; but finding their preaching and writing effected very little alteration, they in 404, sent a deputation to the emperor, Honorius, requesting him to enforce those edicts made in previous reigns against the Donatists.—The emperor first imposed a fine on all those who refused to return to the bosom of the church, banishing the pastors of the refractory. The year following severe measures were adopted, but the magistrates were remiss in their execution. This occasioned a council at Carthage, which sent a deputation to the emperor, soliciting the appointment of special officers to execute his edicts with vigor. Though weakened by these measures the Puritans were yet quite strong.”
A.D. 412. In A.D. 412, we find the Donatists persecuted for rebaptizing. The Catholics well knew that a refusal to recognize their baptisms as scriptural was equivalent to a declaration that their churches were not scriptural churches. “The Catholics found by experience that the means hitherto used had been ineffectual against the Donatists. They now prevailed on Honorius and Theodosius, emperors of the east and west, to issue an edict, decreeing, “that the person rebaptizing and the person rebaptized, should be punished with death.”
The Novatians, who, as we have already seen, held to the same doctrines and were identically the same people as the Donatists, were suffering severe persecutions during the same year. Mr. Orchard says: “In 412, Cyril was ordained bishop of Alexandria. One of his first acts was to shut up all the churches of the Novatians, and strip them of everything of value.”
The Donatists not only rebaptized all persons who came over to their faith from the Catholics, but persistently refused to baptize children, “contrary to the practice of the Catholic church.” This opposition to infant baptism greatly incensed the Catholics. An assembly (since called a council), was convened at Mela, in Numidia, at which Augustine presided, with ninety-two ministers present.
A.D. 415. At this Catholic council, in the year 415, the following declaration was made: “We will that whoever denies that little children by baptism are freed from perdition and eternally saved, that they be accursed.” Had the Catholics been able to produce scriptural evidence in support of infant baptism, their bitter denunciations would not have been needed.
All these people known by the names of Montanists, Novatians and Donatists, were distinguished by the following characteristics which marked them as Baptists:
First. Their churches were local, independent bodies.
Second. The terms bishop, and pastor, signified with them, the same office, and they were the servants of the churches.
Third. They admitted none to their membership but baptized believers.
Fourth. They invariably baptized by immersion.
Fifth. They opposed the doctrine of baptismal salvation.
Orchard says of these people: “The Novatians and Donatists very nearly resembled each other in doctrine and discipline; indeed they are charged by Crispin, a French historian, with holding together in the following things: First, For purity of church members, by asserting that none ought to be admitted into the church but such as are visibly true believers and real saints; Secondly, For purity of church discipline; Thirdly, For the independency of each church; and, Fourthly, They baptized again those whose first baptism they had reason to doubt. They were consequently termed Rebaptizers or Anabaptists. Osiander says, our modern Anabaptists were the same with Donatists of old. Fuller, the English church historian, asserts, that the Baptists in England, in his days, were the Donatists new dipped.”
We have now traced the true churches of Christ during the first four centuries, by different names, it is true, but holding to the same principles and doctrines. Indeed we find them continuing for three hundred years longer, or until A.D. 750, by the single name of Donatists. The church at Smyrna continued certainly from A.D. 81 to A.D. 166, for Polycarp was pastor of this church during this whole period of time. Nor have we any reason to believe that the church became extinct at the death of their pastor in 166. Then we have the church at Lyons, with Irenaeus pastor, in A.D. 180, which he continued to serve until A.D. 200.
In A.D. 200 or 215, we find the church at Carthage which continued to exist, as a single church, for a period of two hundred years. These people were called Montanists. Nearly one hundred years before this time, we have found a people called Donatists, beginning about A.D. 306, and continuing for a period of four hundred and fifty years, or until A.D. 756. All this time the same people were called by different names, in different localities, as Novatians, Paterines, Puritans, Cathari, or the pure, and Church of the Martyrs.