d under the authority of the emperor at
Carthage in 411. There were present 286 Catholics and 279 Donatist
bishops. Before entering on the proceedings the Catholics pledged
themselves, if defeated, to give up their sees, while in the other event
they promised to recognize the Donatists as bishops on their simply
declaring their adherence to the Catholic church. The latter proposal,
though it was received with scorn at the time, had perhaps ultimately as
much influence as the logic of Augustine in breaking the strength of the
schism. The discussion, which lasted for three days, Augustine and
Aurelius of Carthage being the chief speakers on the one side, and
Primian and Petilian on the other, turned exclusively upon the two
questions that had given rise to the schism--first, the question of
fact, whether Felix of Aptunga who consecrated Caecilian had been a
traditor; and secondly, the question of doctrine, whether a church by
tolerance of unworthy members within its pale lost the essential
attributes of purity and catholicity. The Donatist position, like that
of the Novatians, was that the mark of the true church is to guard the
essential predicate of holiness by excluding all who have committed
mortal sin; the Catholic standpoint was that such holiness is not
destroyed by the presence of unworthy members in the church but rests
upon the divine foundation of the church and upon the gift of the Holy
Spirit and the communication of grace through the priesthood. In the
words of Optatus of Milevi, _sanctitas de sacramentis colligitur, non de
superbia personarum pondera_. And the much wider diffusion of the
orthodox church was also taken as practical confirmation that it alone
possessed what was regarded as the equally essential predicate of
catholicity.

The decision of Marcellinus, the imperial commissioner, was in favour of
the Catholic party on both questions, and it was at once confirmed on an
appeal to the emperor. The severest penal measures were enforced against
the schismatics; in 414 they were denied all civil rights, in 415 the
holding of assemblies was forbidden on pain of death. But they lived on,
suffering with their orthodox brethren in the Vandal invasions of the
5th century, and like them finally disappearing before the Saracen
onslaught two centuries later.

AUTHORITIES.--1. Contemporary sources: Optatus Milevitanus _De
Schismate Donatistarum adversus Parmenianum_, written c. 368 (Dupin's
ed., Paris,