Donatism

Donatism (Latin: Donatismus, Greek: Δονατισμός Donatismos) was a Christian sect within the Roman province of Africa that flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries among Berber Christians. Donatism had its roots in the social pressures among the long-established Christian community of Roman North Africa (present-day Berber countries Algeria and Tunisia), during the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian. The Donatists (named for the Berber Christian bishop Donatus Magnus) were members of an offshoot church which did not follow the same doctrine as some other churches of the rest of Early Christianity in Late Antiquity.

Donatism was an indirect outcome of Diocletian's persecutions. The governor of Africa had been lenient towards the large Christian minority under his rule during the persecutions. He was satisfied when Christians handed over their Scriptures as a token repudiation of their faith. Some Christians acceded to this convenient action. When the persecutions came to an end, however, they were branded traditores, "those who handed (the holy things) over" by their critics, mostly from the poorer classes.