[don-uh-tist, doh-nuh-] 
| a member of a Christian sect that developed in northern Africa in a.d. 311 and maintained that it alone constituted the whole and only true church and that baptisms and ordinations of the orthodox clergy were invalid. |
| Don·a·tist (dŏn'ə-tĭst, dō'nə-) n. A member of a rigoristic, schismatic Christian sect, strongly opposed by Saint Augustine, that arose in North Africa in the fourth century A.D. and believed in sanctity as requisite for church membership and administration of all sacraments. [Medieval Latin Donatista, after Donatus, fourth-century A.D. ecclesiastic and rival claimant of the bishopric of Carthage.] Don'a·tism n. |
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