Donatist
one of a sect of schismatics in Africa, the followers of Donatus, Bishop of Casa Nigra, in Numidia. The sect arose in A. D. 311, when Cæcilianus was elected Bishop of Carthage, and consecrated by the African bishops alone, without the concurrence of those of Numidia. The people, resenting this, refused to acknowledge Cæcilianus, and set up Majorinus, who was then consecrated The Donatists held that by Donatus.
Christ, though of the same substance with the Father, yet was less than the Father; they also denied the infallibility of the Church, which they said had fallen away in many particulars. They were condemned in a council held at Rome A. D. 313, also in another at Arles in the following year; and a third time, in A. D. 316, at Milan, before Constantine the Great. At the end of the 4th century they had a large number of churches, but soon after began to decline, owing to a schism among themselves, occasioned DONATUS by the election of two bishops in the room of Parmenian, the successor of Donatus, and also through the zealous opposition of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. They were finally suppressed in the 6th century by Pope Gregory the Great. a a