Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 27:1 (NA 2022)
Article: Augustine’s View Of The Church As Revealed In His Use Of Cyprian’s "Contra Donatistas"
Author: Brett Williams

DBSJ 27 (2022) p. 93

Augustine’s View Of The Church As Revealed In His Use Of Cyprian’s Contra Donatistas

Brett Williams1

In the winter of 398, the newly appointed bishop of Hippo traveled on an ecclesiastical mission to the Numidian capital of Cirta. En route near Tibursi and through providential circumstances, the great doctor of the church Augustine (354–430) met with the aging Donatist bishop, Fortunius.2 Though pressed for time, Augustine entered into a respectful but forceful discussion with the revered bishop despite the continual interruption by an unwelcome throng of observers.3 The topic: What is the Church? This discussion was predicated on the ecclesial schism that centered on whether or not lapsi and traditores (those who accused of denying the faith or betraying other believers during the Decian and Diocletian persecutions) could have a role in the church. Out of that fateful meeting arose a series of vehement oral and epistolary debates regarding the purity and nature of the church. The controversy eventually led to the Council of Carthage in 411, as well as the near eradication of the Roman African exclusivism movement.

During this controversy, Donatist bishops regularly cited Cyprian (c. 210–258), the venerable bishop of Carthage (who preceded Donatus [d. c. 355]), to support their views on lapsi and traditores, baptismal and sacramental purity, and the nature of the church. Cyprian’s idea of the church and its definition as a monolithic entity was considered by most authoritative in the late fourth and early fifth centuries.4 Never the acquiescent, Augustine also spent a considerable amount of ink

DBSJ 27 (2022) p. 94

refuting Donatists, particularly in regard to their understanding and use of Cyprian.5 In his lengthy treatise De Baptismo, Contra Donatistas (On Baptism, Against the Donatists), written around 400, Augustine expressed his frustration,

I wrote seven books on baptism in answer to the Donatists, who were endeavoring to defend themselves by the authority of the most blessed bishop and martyr Cyprian. In them I taught that there is nothing as powerful for refuting the Donatists and for closing their mouths completely, so that they may not defend their schism against the Catholic Church, as the letters and life of Cyprian.6

Many of the seven books in the treatise, along with much of Augustine’s othe...