Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/450

* DONATISTS. 386 DON BENITO. should submit to ba]>tisui, whether they had pre- viously rui-eived that rite or not, althou(h to administer Imptisni n second tiiue was not the praetice of the Cliurch at larf^e. Then,' was :m> another eause at work to pro- duce the Donatist schism, viz. the jealousy of Carthage felt by the Nuraidian cleTf^-, under the lead of their primate, Secundus. Itishop of Tigisis. In 311, after the death of Mensurius, Bishop of Carthage, the Catholic Ca-cilian was chosen as his successor. The strict party and the 'confessors' opposed Ca<-ilian on the ground of his laxity in discipline. They also charged that a Traditor had taken part in his ordination, which was thereby invalidated. The Xuniidian clergy, who were displeased at not having l)een invited to particiiKite in C;rcilian's election, took sides with this opposition, and these coniliined forces proceeded to elect a rival Bishop of Carthage in the ])erson of Majorinus. On his death two years later (313), they elected the man from whom their party name is taken, Dcmatus. called the Great. Thus the Xorth African Church was divided into two hostile camps. At Constanline's command, svnods were held to settle the dispute (Carthage. 311 : Rome, 313; Aries, 31-J), and each time the Donatists lost their case. But their hold upon Xorth Africa continued strong, and at the close of the century they were more niuncmus ther(> than the Catho- lics. Signs of internal weakness, howeTer, were not wanting. The Donatists had been reenforced by various malcontents. esi)ecially by the fanati- cal Circumcelliones (q.v. ), ascetics of poor mor- als and worse manners, and this kiml of support tended to encourage outbreaks of violence. Ko- gatus and a few followers withdrew about 370. and the serious defection of the JIaximianists came in 303. .Ul this weakened the movement and helped prepare the way for its final collapse. The chief instniment in bringing it to an end was Saint Augustine of Hippo. Augustine worked out and applied the Catho-, lie position, which had already l)een pretty clear- ly formulated. Against the Donatists he taught that the Clnirch on earth is a corpus permixliim ; the wheat and the tares must grow together until the harvest. The "holiness' of the Church consists in its possession of sacerdotal power, by which it can transmit divine grace to needy men. At first Augustine sought to win back the schismatics by means of argument. But he later came to Ixdieve in the application of force. Accordingly he ap- proved the Imperial policy of coercion, adopted by Honorius in 40.5. See Augustine, Saint. In 411, a sjnod was held in Carthage, at which the whole subject of Don.itism was debated anew, 280 Catholic bishops opposing 27!) Donatists. The verdict (prearranged) w.as on the side of Catholicism. The Donatists were deprived of civil rights, and a little later they were debarred from holding religious meetings upon pain of death. From this time Donatism rapidly lost its power. .Although adherents of the sect are to be found for two centuries longer, their number and their public influence steadily ih'<reases. The Saracen invasion of the seventh centurj- put an end to the pfiwer of Donati.'.m and Catholicism alike in Xorth Africa. Consult: .ugustine, anti-Donatist writings, in vol. iv. of Thr yirrttp Fathers. 1st series, ed. by Schnflr (BuflTalo, 1880); also his 9.3d Ephlle; Optatus of Mileve, De Schismate Donatistarum, ed. by Ziwsa, in Corp. l^cripl. lU'cUx. I.at.. xxvi. (Vienna, 18!I3| ; Viilter. Uvr i'rspruny (Us Uo- natismus (Freiburg. 1883): llamack, History of Uutima, Kngl. trans. (London, 1898). DONATO DI BETTO BABDI, dd-na'tA di bet't.') bar'di See Dun aili.i.o. DONATXJS. .S-e Donatists. DONA'TUS, .Elius. A w el^k-IIO^vll gram- marian aud commentator, who taught grammar and rhetoric at Rome about a.k. 3.i.>. and was the instructor of Saint .Terome. He wrote treatises, Or Litleris. Si/llabis, I'cdibux tt Tonis: Ite Ocio I'arlibus Uratioiiis : l)c linrhdrismo rt Solir- cisiiio, etc., which form together a pretty com- plete course of Latin grammar, and in the Mid- dle Ages were the only text-liooks used in the schools, so that Oonul came, in the west of Eurojjc, to be synonymous with gnnnmar, or with the elements of any science. The Ilonnt into Ii'eli(iion is the title of a book by an Eng- lish bishop, and there was an old French proverb, Les diahles esluient riicorr d Iciir itoniit (The devils were still in their grammar). The Latin grammar of Douatus has fonued the ground- work of the elementary treatises on that subject to the present day. His was one of the first books in which the art of printing by means of letters cut on wooden blocks was tried, and copies of these Donatuses are reckoned among the greatest of bibliographical curiosities. The best edition of Donatus is in volume iv. of Keil's (Irammatiei Laliui (Leipzig. 1S04). The author also wrote a commentary on Tereme. of which we possess only a part extending to five come- dies, to be found in the edition of Terence by Klotz (2 vols.. I.«ipzig, 1838) : and an impor- tant commentary on the .T.neid anil lleonjirs of Vergil, which exists to-day only in numerous quotations. From this Donatus we must distinguish a later grammarian, Tiberius Ci.audus Donatus, also of the fourth century a.d., author of a commen- tarj-, of little importance, on the .f^neid. DONATJWORTH, do'nou-virt (Cer.. neck of land on the l)anul)e). A town of Bavaria, sit- uated at the conrtuencc of the Wi'lrnitz and the Danulte. about 25 miles north-northwest of .ugs- Inirg (Map: Germany. D 4). It is well built, in the form of an amphitheatre, around the side of a hill, and has the most important monthly livo- stfick market in Bavaria. DonauwJirth rose to the rank of .1 free imjierial city in the fourteenth century. It was deprived of its liberties in 1007 in consequence of the hindrance by its Protestant inhabitants of a Catholic pnx'cssion. and incor- poraleil with Havaria. This higlilianded deal- ing on the |)art of the Catholic povvi'rs in Ger- many was one of the episodes that led up to the Thirty Years' War. Here Marlborough gained a victory over the Bavarians in 1704. and the French over the Austrians in 180.5. Population, in 18110. 3733: in 1000. 4400. DONAWITZ, dn'iiA-vUs. A town of Styria. .ustria. two miles north of I>eobeTi. Its iron and smelting works are important, employing about 2000 men. There are also productive coal-mines. The old pilgrims' church of Freienstein o<'cupie8 an adjacent eminence. Population, in 1800 (com- muned. 8000': in 1000. 13.003. DON BENITO, dAu bft-ne'tA. A town in the Province (jf Hadajoz, Spain, 57 miles cast of the