**Summary of the Book: “The Donatist Movement between Religious Schism and Liberation, 305-411 AD”**
**Author:** Abdelhamid Imran, Professor of Higher Education, History Department
**Specialization:** Ancient History
**Faculty:** Humanities and Social Sciences
**University:** Mohamed Boudiaf University, M’sila
**Published by:** Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments, 2015, as part of the Constantine, Capital of Islamic Culture event
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During the second century AD, Christianity began to penetrate the region and establish a foothold among the locals in major urban centers. It became a representative of the aspirations of the locals and the oppressed classes, with its messages of tolerance, justice, and solidarity among Christian converts, at a time when the official religion was the worship of the emperor. This led the authorities to persecute the Christian converts, considering them renegades who defied the laws of the empire. These persecutions reached their peak following orders from Emperor Diocletian in 305 AD.
With the beginning of Emperor Constantine’s reign in 312 AD, a policy of religious tolerance was adopted, and the ruling and wealthy classes began to convert to Christianity. Christianity was later adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire.
In this context, the Donatist movement emerged as a religious movement in the early fourth century AD, following its schism from the official church, which had become subordinate to secular authority.
This movement appeared after the appointment of Bishop Caecilianus as the Bishop of Carthage, who was accused by his opponents of apostasy, betrayal, and collaboration with the authorities during the persecution of Christians.
The movement, led by Bishop Donatus, opposed the new bishop and the secular authority’s attempt to co-opt Christians. It rejected the appointment of Caecilianus, which Donatists considered illegitimate, and turned into a schismatic movement after the authorities intervened in the dispute and clearly sided with the legitimacy of the new bishop’s election. The Donatists viewed this as interference in the church’s internal affairs.
Initially, the Donatist movement was a religious opposition to the official church in Africa, which had betrayed the common people and aligned itself with secular authority, especially after the aristocratic and influential classes converted to Christianity. The Catholic Church became a protector of Roman settlers, whose exploitation of the locals increased, leading to a loss of the church’s influence after it had been a refuge for the oppressed and downtrodden. Christianity split into two factions: one loyal to the emperor and the other opposed to him.
The Donatists emerged as an independent Christian religious movement that rejected all forms of cooperation with Roman authority and the orders of the emperors. This led to the persecution of its leaders, who became local leaders, especially after the Bishop of Carthage sought condemnation of Donatus by church councils, notably the Council of Arles, which bolstered the Donatists’ resolve to confront secular authority.
The Donatists were increasingly able to recruit the Numidians, transforming from a religious schism to a liberation movement following a series of persecutions by proponents of unity in 347 AD. The Donatist movement became associated with the largest uprising against Roman settlers and landlords, led by rural revolutionaries known as the Circumcellions. It later became linked with the revolts of the Moorish prince Firmus in 372 AD and his brother Gildo in 396 AD, before facing trial at the Council of Carthage, which ruled in 411 AD to strip the Donatists of their churches and properties and to punish anyone who sympathized with them.
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