Donatism

Donatism was a schismatic movement that divided early North African Christianity throughout the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries. The movement, named after one of its most prominent leaders, Donatus the Great (c. 310-355), specifically denied the validity of sacraments performed by "sinful" (i.e., apostate) clergy. Such a belief was simultaneously moral and ecclesiological: the "true" Church—and, by extension, its clergy and rites—was necessarily holy and therefore juxtaposed with the sinfulness of apostasy. Although Donatism was formally censured at the Council of Arles (314), the strongest theological rejection of the movement came from Augustine nearly a century later. Rather than root the holiness of the Church and the efficacy of its sacraments in the moral purity of its clergy, Augustine contended that sacramental sanctity was fundamentally rooted in Christ's righteousness, in which the Church participates by faith. Practically speaking, Augustine's teaching—that the sacraments are valid ex opere operato ("from the work performed"), not ex opere operantis ("from the work of the performer")—repudiated the Donatist argument that sacraments performed by a "sinful" celebrant needed to be repeated under "pure" clergy.