is incident, so inconsiderable that it scarcely deserves a place
in history, was productive of a memorable schism which afflicted the
provinces of Africa above three hundred years, and was extinguished only
with Christianity itself. The inflexible zeal of freedom and fanaticism
animated the Donatists to refuse obedience to the usurpers, whose
election they disputed, and whose spiritual powers they denied.
Excluded from the civil and religious communion of mankind, they boldly
excommunicated the rest of mankind, who had embraced the impious party
of Caecilian, and of the Traditors, from which he derived his pretended
ordination. They asserted with confidence, and almost with exultation,
that the Apostolical succession was interrupted; that all the bishops of
Europe and Asia were infected by the contagion of guilt and schism; and
that the prerogatives of the Catholic church were confined to the chosen
portion of the African believers, who alone had preserved inviolate the
integrity of their faith and discipline. This rigid theory was supported
by the most uncharitable conduct. Whenever they acquired a proselyte,
even from the distant provinces of the East, they carefully repeated
the sacred rites of baptism [8] and ordination; as they rejected the
validity of those which he had already received from the hands of
heretics or schismatics. Bishops, virgins, and even spotless infants,
were subjected to the disgrace of a public penance, before they could be
admitted to the communion of the Donatists. If they obtained possession
of a church which had been used by their Catholic adversaries, they
purified the unhallowed building with the same zealous care which a
temple of idols might have required. They washed the pavement, scraped
the walls, burnt the altar, which was commonly of wood, melted the
consecrated plate, and cast the Holy Eucharist to the dogs, with
every circumstance of ignominy which could provoke and perpetuate the
animosity of religious factions. [9] Notwithstanding this irreconcilable
aversion, the two parties, who were mixed and separated in all the
cities of Africa, had the same language and manners, the same zeal
and learning, the same faith and worship. Proscribed by the civil and
ecclesiastical powers of the empire, the Donatists still maintained in
some provinces, particularly in Numidia, their superior numbers; and
four hundred bishops acknowledged the jurisdiction of their primate. But
the invincible spir