The “Great Persecution” begun in 303 by the Roman emperor Diocletian (284-305) has often been regarded as a destructive setback for the development of Christian church libraries and private collections. After thoroughly reviewing the evidence, Henri Leclercq stated that Christian libraries had suffered irremediable damage in 303-304. Another scholar, Carl Wendel, agreed, but was more cautious because he recognized that the largest eastern church libraries at Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Caesarea were not victims of the Great Persecution and that bishops often refused to turn over authentic materials to Roman magistrates. James West fall Thompson believed that Diocletian made a concerted effort to destroy the corpus of Christian literature. However, these conclusions are in need of modification: a review of the implementation of Diocletian’s four edicts against the Christians indicates that there was no systematic destruction of church libraries or private collections of books. In fact, the imperial regulations were frequently circumvented by the Christian clergy or not vigorously en forced by many municipal magistrates and provincial governors. More important than the demolition of buildings or burning of texts, the command to surrender scriptures led to the permanent schism of the Christian communities in Egypt and North Africa that affected these areas for centuries after. A consideration of this aspect will help provide a better understanding of the havoc wrought on Christianity during Diocletian’s persecution from 303 to 305.

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The Circumcellions were activists, linked, at least by Optatus and Saint Augustine, with the Donatists, mainly, if not exclusively, in Numidia, and attested from about A.D. 340. They were mentionedi n an anti-Donatist constitutionof A.D. 412. St Augustine in about 420 was pleased to record that Circumcellions were drifting away from the movement, and settling down to regularw ork as farm abourers, gut that may have just been wishful thinking, and there may still have been Circumcellions active after the Vandals won control of Numidia in 435. They were marked out for punishment again in a decree issued by Hunerici n February 484, but as the formulation matches that of the constitution of 412, the clause may be tralatician and may thus not attest that the Circumcellionsw ere still active.
They are described as being present on estates in turbae, which might suggestt hat they were migrant agricultural workers, like the harvesters known from an epitaph from Mactaris, with its reference to a falcifera turma. Augustine, however, says that they were not engaged in useful work, and that they were not on the land.

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In the year 411 the bishops of Christian North Africa, Augustine among them, assembled in Carthage to debate whether Catholics or Donatists should be recognized as the true Christian church in North Africa. Although most biographies of Augustine and histories of Christianity in North Africa mention this conference, they spend little time on the substance of the discussion which took place between the two parties. Accusations by fourthcentury Catholics, especially Augustine, and remarks by modern commentators often charge the Donatists with delaying the debate on the real issues of the Conference by interventions and procedural motions which served no useful purpose. Even W. H. C. Frend in The Donatist Church, and Peter Brown in his biography of Augustine take Catholic propaganda on this issue at face value.
But there is more to the historical record than the Catholic accusations. Rarely do scholars make use of extant documentary evidence, specifically the proceedings of the Conference itself. The Gesta, a transcription of the stenographic record of the debates, or at least most of them, does exist. It offers one key source for material on the Donatists which has not been filtered through the biases of their victorious Augustinian opponents. Using the Gesta, this essay highlights the substantive issues as they are found in the debates. It also challenges the usual interpretation of the Conference, that the Donatists avoided the issues at stake. The first section of this article reviews the background of the Conference; the second advances some important judicial considerations and applies them to the theological questions of the Conference; the third focuses on the question of persona, the issue at the heart of the Conference. Together they demonstrate how, contrary to received historical wisdom, the Donatists did try to discuss the issues for which the Conference was called, but the differing agenda of both parties prevented not only a resolution of the issues but even a recognition that the parties were addressing the same question.

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De Schismate Donatistarum.

Adversus Parmenianum.

[Caillau, Guillon, Ed.]. 1835.

Opera S. Optati Afri Milevitani & S. Cyrilli Hierosolymitani (1835)

Author: Optatus, Saint, Bishop of Mileve, 4th cent
Publisher: Parisiis : apud Parent-Desbarres
Language: Latin
Call number: ALF-3948
Digitizing sponsor: University of Toronto
Book contributor: PIMS – University of Toronto
Collection: pimslibrary; toronto

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