Donatism
Does a sacrament fail if the priest who gives it is unworthy?
Donatism, named for Donatus, taught that the validity of the sacraments depends on the moral purity of the minister who performs them, so that an unworthy clergyman's acts would be void. Augustine opposed this, arguing that Christ, not the minister, is the true source of a sacrament's grace. The movement was condemned, and the controversy prompted Augustine's enduring doctrine of sacramental validity apart from the minister's holiness.
How it traveled
- The Church History of EusebiusCaesarea · c. 339 CEexplains
- Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the DonatistHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- On Baptism, Against the DonatistsHippo Regius · c. 430 CEapplies
- Letters of St. AugustinHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- The Correction of the DonatistsHippo Regius · c. 430 CEapplies
- Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New TestamentHippo Regius · c. 430 CEapplies
- Expositions on the Book of PsalmsHippo Regius · c. 430 CEchallenges
- A Treatise on the Soul and its OriginHippo Regius · c. 430 CEapplies
- Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. JohnHippo Regius · c. 430 CEchallenges
- A Work on the Proceedings of PelagiusHippo Regius · c. 430 CEapplies
- The Commonitory of Vincent of Lérins, For the Antiquity and Universality of the Catholic Faith Against the Profane Novelties of All HeresiesLérins · c. 445 CEapplies
- The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the GreatRome · c. 604 CEapplies
- The Canons of the Synods of Sardica, Carthage, Constantinople, and Carthage Under St. Cyprian, Which Canons Were Received by the Council in Trullo and Ratified by II. NiceConstantinople (Istanbul) · c. 692 CEapplies
- Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90)Paris · c. 1274 CEchallenges
- Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic ChurchGeneva · c. 1564 CEchallenges
Key passages(20)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 26.—60. Petilianus said: "For if you mix what is false with what is true, falsehood often imitates the truth by treading in its steps. Just in the same way a picture imitates the true man of n
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On Baptism, Against the Donatists · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 6.—7. What then, ye Donatists, what have ye to say to this? If our opinion about baptism is true, yet all who thought differently in the time of Cyprian were not cut off from the unity of the
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 27.—32. But this is not what we are now inquiring. Let him rather answer (what he wanders off into the most irrelevant matters in order to avoid answering) by what means the conscience of the
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
78. Augustin answered: certainly you had proposed thoroughly to investigate the baptism in the name of the Trinity, and you had set us to listen with much attention; but following, as it would seem, w
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
170. Augustin answered: Certainly those of whom you speak are false brethren, of whom the apostle thus complains in another place, where he is extolling the natural sincerity of Timothy: "I have no ma
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
46. And when we ask of you which of your party you can prove to have been slain by us, I indeed can remember no law issued by the emperors to the effect that you should be put to death. Those indeed w
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 4.—5. Wherefore, if they were in error, and would have perished had they not been corrected, who wished to be of Paul, what must we suppose to be the hope of those who wished to be of Donatus?
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Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
Letter LXXXIX. (a.d. 406.) To Festus, My Lord Well Beloved, My Son Honourable and Worthy of Esteem, Augustin Sends Greeting in the Lord. 1. If, on behalf of error and inexcusable dissension, and fa
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Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
Letter LXI. (a.d. 401.) To His well-Beloved and honourable Brother Theodorus, Bishop Augustin Sends Greeting in the Lord. 1. I have resolved to commit to writing in this letter what I said when you
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Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
Letter LXXVI. (a.d. 402.) 1. Hear, O Donatists, what the Catholic Church says to you: “O ye sons of men, how long will ye be slow of heart? why will ye love vanity, and follow after lies?”Lord, hath
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On Baptism, Against the Donatists · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 3.—4. There are two propositions, moreover, which we affirm,—that baptism exists in the Catholic Church, and that in it alone can it be rightly received,—both of which the Donatists deny. Like
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
17. Since therefore thy devotedness perceives that this command of ours is most explicit, do thou make haste to restore to them, as quickly as possible, everything which formerly belonged to the said
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
John i. 33. Cp. Contra Cresconium, Book II. 25-30: "Ita mortui sunt, ut neque super terras, neque in requie sanctorum vivant." Benedictines suggest as an emendation "quod Deus illi comes erat," as i
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Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
7. For this end the mercy of the Lord appointed that both we and your bishops met at Carthage in a conference which had repeated meetings, and was largely attended, and reasoned together in the most o
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Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
25. With how much greater force, moreover, may we say to you what we are accustomed to say to all the Donatists: If any can have good grounds (which indeed none can have) for separating themselves fro
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Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament · Augustine of Hippo
Sermon LXXXVIII. [CXXXVIII. Ben.] On the words of the Gospel, John x. 14, “I am the good shepherd,” etc. Against the Donatists. 1. We have heard the Lord Jesus setting forth to us the office of a g
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A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 2 [II.]—Why Victor Assumed the Name of Vincentius. The Names of Evil Men Ought Never to Be Assumed by Other Persons. The first thing which caused me some anxiety about you was the title which
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
Book III. In this book Augustin refutes the second letterwhich Petilianus wrote to him after having seen the first of Augustin’s earlier books. This letter had been full of violent language; and Augu
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 37.—43. Furthermore, according to our tenets, neither he of whom Petilianus said that he was cast forth by us for the sin of the men of Sodom, another being appointed in his place, and that af
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 41.—49. Lastly, he has ended his epistle with an exhortation and warning to his own party, that they should not be deceived by us, and with a lamentation over those of our party, that we had m
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