Dilatory Donatists or Procrastinating Catholics: The Trial at the Conference of Carthage
Author: Maureen A. Tilley
Source: Church History, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Mar., 1991), pp. 7-19

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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