mouth of a fovereign, must have been received CHA P. with applaufe and gratitudes.

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The complaints and mutual accufations which African affailed the throne of Conftantine, as foon as the controverly, death of Maxentius had fubmitted Africa to his A.D. 312, victorious arms, were ill adapted to edify an imperfect profelyte. He learned with furprise, that the provinces of that great country from the confines of Cyrene to the columns of Hercules, were distracted with religious difcord". The fource of the divifion was derived from a double election in the church of Carthage; the second, in rank and opulence, of the ecclefiaftical thrones of the West. Cæcilian and Majorinus were the two rival primates of Africa; and the death of the latter foon made room for Donatus, who by his fuperior abilities and apparent virtues was the firmest fupport of his party.. The advantage which Cæcilian might claim from the priority of his ordination, was deftroyed by the illegal, or at leaft indecent, hafte, with which it had been performed, without expecting the arrival of the

5 Sozomen, 1. i. c. 22. Socrates, 1. i. c. 10. Thefe hiftorians have been fufpected, but I think without reason, of an attachment to the Novatian doctrine. The emperor faid to the bishop, "Acefius, take a ladder, and get up to heaven by yourself.” Most of the Christian fects have, by turns, borrowed the ladder of Acefius.

6 The best materials for this part of ecclefiaftical history may be found in the edition of Optatus Milevitanus, published (Paris, 1700) by M. Dupin, who has enriched it with critical notes, geographical difcuffions, original records, and an accurate. abridgment of the whole controversy. M. de Tillemont has bestowed on the Donatifts the greatest part of a volume (tom. vi. parti.); and I am indebted to him for an ample collection of all the paffages of his favourite St. Auguftin, which relate to thofe heretics.

CHAP. bishops of Numidia. The authority of thefe XXI. bishops, who, to the number of feventy, condemned Cæcilian, and confecrated Majorinus, is again weakened by the infamy of fome of their perfonal characters; and by the female intrigues, facrilegious bargains, and tumultuous proceedings which are imputed to this Numidian council". The bishops of the contending factions maintained, with equal ardour and obftinacy, that their adverfaries were degraded, or at least dishonoured by the odious crime of delivering the Holy Scriptures to the officers of Diocletian. From their mutual reproaches, as well as from the story of this dark tranfaction, it may justly be inferred that the late perfecution had embittered the zeal, without reforming the manners, of the African Chriftians. That divided church was incapable of affording an impartial judicature; the controverfy was folemnly tried in five fucceffive tribunals, which were appointed by the emperor; and the whole proceeding, from the first appeal to the final fentence, lafted above three years. A fevere inquifition, which was taken by the Prætorian vicar, and the proconful of Africa, the report of two epifcopal vifitors who had been fent

4

7 Schifma igitur illo tempore confufæ mulieris iracundia peperit; ambitus nutrivit; avaritia roboravit. Optatus, 1. i. c. 19. The language of Purpurius is that of a furious madman. Dicitur te necaffe filios fororis tuæ duos. Purpuri us refpondit: Putas me terreri à te

occidi; et occido eos qui contra me faciunt. Acta Concil. Cirtenfis, ad calc. Optat. p. 274. When Cæcilian was invited to an affembly of bishops, Purpurius faid to his brethren, or rather to his accomplices, "Let him come hither to receive our imposition of "hands; and we will break his head by way of penance." Optat. 1. i. c.

C. 19.

to

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to Carthage, the decrees of the councils of Rome C H A P. and of Arles, and the fupreme judgment of Conftantine himself in his facred confiftory, were all favourable to the cause of Cæcilian; and he was unanimously acknowledged by the civil and ecclefiaftical powers, as the true and lawful primate of Africa. The honours and eftates of the church were attributed to his fuffragan bishops, and it was not without difficulty, that Conftantine was fatiffied with inflicting the punishment of exile on the principal leaders of the Donatift faction. As their caufe was examined with attention, perhaps it was determined with juftice. Perhaps their complaint was not without foundation, that the credulity of the emperor had been abufed by the infidious arts of his favourite Ofius. The influence of falfehood and corruption might procure the condemnation of the innocent, or aggravate the fentence of the guilty. Such an act, however, of injuftice, if it concluded an importunate difpute, might be numbered among the tranfient evils of a defpotic administration, which are neither felt nor remembered by pofterity.

A.D. 315

But this incident, fo inconfiderable that it fcarcely deferves a place in hiftory, was productive the Doof a memorable fchifm, which afflicted the pro- natifts, vinces of Africa above three hundred years, and was extinguifhed only with Christianity itself. The inflexible zeal of freedom and fanatacism animated the Donatifts to refuse obedience to the ufurpers, whofe election they disputed, and whofe fpiritual powers they denied. Excluded from the civil and religious communion of mankind, they

XXI.

CHA P. they boldly excommunicated the reft of mankind who had embraced the impious party of Cæcilian, and of the Traditors, from whom he derived his pretended ordination. They afferted with confidence, and almoft with exultation, that the Apoftolical fucceffion was interrupted; that all the bishops of Europe and Afia were infected by the contagion of guilt and fchifm; and that the prerogatives of the Catholic church were confined to the chofen portion of the African believers, who alone had preferved inviolate the integrity of their faith and difcipline. This rigid theory was fupported by the most uncharitable conduct. Whenever they acquired a profelyte, even from the diftant provinces of the Eaft, they carefully repeated the facred rites of baptifm and ordination; as they rejected the validity of those which he had already received from the hands of heretics or fchifmatics. Bifhops, virgins, and even fpotlefs infants, were fubjected to the difgrace of a public penance, before they could be admitted to the communion of the Donatifts. If they obtained poffeffion of a church which had been used by their Catholic adverfaries, they purified the unhallowed building with the fame jealous care which a temple of Idols might have required. They washed the pavement, fcraped the walls,

The councils of Arles, of Nice, and of Trent, confirmed the wife and moderate practice of the church of Rome. The Donatifts, however, had the advantage of maintaining the fentiment of Cyprian, and of a confiderable part of the primitive church. Vincentius Lirinefis (p. 332. ap. Tillemont, Mem. Ecclef. tom. vi. p. 138.) has explained why the Donatifts are eternally burning with the Devil, while St. Cyprian reigns in heaven with Jefus Chrift.

burnt

burnt the altar, which was commonly of wood, CHA P. melted the confecrated plate, and caft the Holy xxI. Eucharift to the dogs, with every circumftance of ignominy which could provoke and perpetuate the animofity of religious factions". Notwithftanding this irreconcileable averfion, the two par-. ties, who were mixed and feparated in all the cities of Africa, had the fame language and manners, the fame zeal and learning, the fame faith and worfhip. Profcribed by the civil and ecclefiaftical powers of the empire, the Donatists still maintained in fome provinces, particularly in Numidia, their fuperior numbers; and four hundred bishops acknowledged the jurifdiction of their primate. But the invincible fpirit of the fect fometimes preyed on its own vitals; and the bofom of their fchifmatical church was torn by inteftine divifions. A fourth part of the Donatift bishops followed the independent ftandard of the Maximianifts. The narrow and folitary path which their firft leaders had marked out, continued to deviate from the great fociety of mankind. Even the imperceptible fect of the Rogatians could affirm, without a blufh, that when Chrift fhould defcend to judge the earth, he would find his true religion preferved only in a few nameless villages of the Cæfarean Mauritania 10.

9 See the fixth book of Optatus Milevitanus, p. 91-100.

1 Tillemont, Mem. Ecclefiaftiques, tom. vi. part i. p. 253. He laughs at their partial credulity. He revered Augustin, the great doctor of the fyftem of predestination.

The