This week in Christian history: Scottish Archbishop murdered, Donatists given toleration

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, April 30, 2023

Constantine grants Donatists toleration – May 5, 321

Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, as depicted in a Medieval mosaic at Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. | Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the anniversary of when Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, best known for legalizing Christianity, agreed to extend toleration to a Christian sect known as the Donatists.

Named after their leader Donatus and based primarily in North Africa, the sect believed that Christians had to pursue a strict lifestyle and that sacraments were invalid if administered by individuals whose faith had waivered during earlier persecutions.

Initially, beginning in 316, Constantine had persecuted the Donatists, considering them heretical and thus outside of his earlier decision to grant religious toleration to Christians.

However, in 321, he opted to reverse various measures against the Donatists, allowing exiled clergy to return and to lift certain legal restrictions on their congregations.

“Revenge was now God’s alone,” wrote historian Emily Elrod. “It was clear to Constantine that persecution and political maneuvering would not beat the Donatists; the traditions of the masses were not so easily changed.”