A new history of ecclesiastical writers containing an account of the authors of the several books of the Old and New Testament, of the lives and writings of the primitive fathers, an abridgement and catalogue of their works ... also a compendious history of the councils, with chronological tables of the whole / written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin.

DONATUS, and Vitellius and Macrobius his Disciples.

ST. JEROM, places among the Number of Ecclesiastical Writers, Donatus, Head of the Party of the Donatists in Africa; which in all probability is to be understood of the Bishop of Car∣thage a 1.1. * 1.2 He says, That he wrote many Books concerning his own Sect; and a Book of the Holy Spirit, whose Doctrine was agreeable to that of the Arians. St. Augustin has wrote a Book against a Letter of this Donatus b 1.3, and he assures us in his Book of Heresies, That he was an Eloquent Writer. Gennadius, mentions two other Authors of the same Party: The First is Vitellius, Who wrote, says he, a Book to Defend his Party, upon this Argument, That the Servants of God are hated of the World. This Book adds he, contain'd Excellent Doctrine, if he had not treated the Catholicks as Persecutors. He has written also against the Gentiles, and against the Catholicks, who, as he pretends, basely be∣tray'd the Holy Books in the time of Persecution. There are some other Writings of his, which con∣cern the Discipline of the Church. He flourish'd under Constans, the Son of Constantine.

The Second is Macrobius, a Donatist Priest, who is mention'd in the Writings of Optatus c 1.4, who was afterwards sent to Rome, to be Bishop there of those of his Party. He wrote before his Separation, a Book directed to Confessors and Virgins; which is a Book of Morality, and contains very useful In∣structions, chiefly, to teach one to live in Inviolable Chastity. He flourish'd in Africa, among the Catholicks, and at Rome among the Donatists.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Which is to be understood of the Bishop of Carthage.] There were Two Donati of the same Party, as St. Austin observes, B. I. Retract. ch. 12. The First was Donatus Bishop of Casae nigrae, or Calame, who never was Bishop of Carthage, whatever Albaspinaeus says, and the Second Donatus was Successor to Majorinus, against whom St Austin wrote a Book, call'd a Discourse against the Epistle of Donatus; which was written the last by Donatus, for he compos'd that Epistle which St. Austin refutes; and confirm'd the Faction of the Donatists by his Eloquence.
• * 1.2

  Donat. and Vitell. and Macrob.
• b 1.3

  St. Augustin has wrote a Book against a Letter of this Donatus.] Lib. I. Retract. ch. 21. I have written, says he, a Book against the Epistle of Donatus, who was Bishop of Carthage, next after Majorinus, wherein he pretends, that the Baptism of Jesus Christ is not valid out of his own Communion.
• c 1.4

  Who is mention'd in the Writings of Optatus.] B. II. p. 37. Ye say, says he, speaking to the Donatists, That ye have many of your Party in the City of Rome; This is a Branch of your Error, which proceeds from a Lye, and can't come from the Root of Truth: And if it be demand∣ed of Macrobius, what See he belongs to, he may say that he belongs to the Chair of St. Peter, which perhaps he never saw. How can he enter into the Church where the Sepulchers of St. Peter and St. Paul are? Did he ever offer to do it?