Donatist

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A member of a Christian sect in North Africa that rejected the validity of sacraments performed by priests who had renounced their faith during persecution
2. An adherent to a religious movement emphasizing the purity of the church and the sanctity of the sacraments, established in the 4th century
3. Someone who aligns with the beliefs of a faction within early Christianity that opposed the ecclesiastical authority of those considered unworthy due to their past actions

Etymology: The Donatists were a Christian movement in North Africa that split from the wider church during the persecution under the emperor Diocletian in the early 300s. Clergy who had handed over scriptures to Roman authorities were regarded by many as having lost their standing, and the movement insisted that sacraments administered by such tainted priests were invalid. Its name comes from Donatus, one of its leaders, whose name gave rise to the Medieval Latin "Donatista" that became the term for his followers. The movement's central argument was that the church should be a community of the pure, and that a sacrament's power depended on the moral worth of the minister. Opponents, including the bishop Augustine of Hippo, argued that grace flowed from Christ rather than from the priest, a position that became orthodox doctrine. The dispute ran for much of the fourth century and beyond, and it produced a lasting principle about sacraments in the church.