Council of Carthage (419 AD) - on Donatists and the children baptised by Donatists

Concerning the Donatists it seemed good that we should hold counsel with our brethren and fellow priests Siricius and Simplician concerning those infants alone who are baptized by Donatists: lest what they did not do of their own will, when they should be converted to the Church of God with a salutary determination, the error of their parents might prevent their promotion to the ministry of the holy altar.

But when these things had been begun, Honoratus and Urbanus, bishops of Mauritania Sitifensis, said: When some time ago we were sent to your holiness, we laid aside what things had been written on this account, that we might wait for the arrival of our brethren the legates from Numidia. But because not a few days have passed in which they have been looked for and as yet they are not arrived, it is not fitting that we should delay any longer the commands we received from our brother-bishops; and therefore, brethren, receive our story with alacrity of mind. We have heard concerning the faith of the Nicene tractate: True it is that sacrifices are to be forbidden after breakfast, so that they may be offered as is right by those who are fasting, and this has been confirmed then and now.

Of the baptism of infants when there is some doubt of their being already baptized

Item, it seemed good that whenever there were not found reliable witnesses who could testify that without any doubt they were baptized and when the children themselves were not, on account of their tender age, able to answer concerning the giving of the sacraments to them, all such children should be baptized without scruple, lest a hesitation should deprive them of the cleansing of the sacraments. This was urged by the Moorish Legates, our brethren, since they redeem many such from the barbarians.

Likewise it seemed good that whosoever denies that infants newly from their mother's wombs should be baptized, or says that baptism is for remission of sins, but that they derive from Adam no original sin, which needs to be removed by the laver of regeneration, from whence the conclusion follows, that in them the form of baptism for the remission of sins, is to be understood as false and not true, let him be anathema.

For no otherwise can be understood what the Apostle says, "By one man sin has come into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed upon all men in that all have sinned," than the Catholic Church everywhere diffused has always understood it. For on account of this rule of faith (regulam fidei) even infants, who could have committed as yet no sin themselves, therefore are truly baptized for the remission of sins, in order that what in them is the result of generation may be cleansed by regeneration.

Summarizing

Canon 47: regarding infants baptized by Donatists. It states that the "error of their parents" should not block these children from the priesthood later in life

Canon 57: Reaffirms that children baptized by Donatists before they could understand the error can be ordained in the Catholic Church. It notes they received the true sacraments of the Trinity in ignorance

Canon 72: Mandates the baptism of infants when there is doubt about their status. If no witnesses can confirm it and the children are too young to answer, they must be baptized without scruple so they are not deprived of the sacrament. This was often necessary for children redeemed from barbarians

Canon 110: Issues an anathema against anyone who denies that newborn infants should be baptized. It affirms infants are baptized for the remission of sins to cleanse original sin inherited from Adam

The historical consensus among scholars—and the primary source texts from the era—demonstrates that the Donatists fully accepted and practiced infant baptism. They were a schismatic group who held strong against the persecutions of Diocletian but then rejected anyone who had faltered

Augustine of Hippo wrote extensively against the Donatists for decades, detailing every single one of their theological errors and deviations — if they had rejected infant baptism, Augustine would have aggressively attacked them for it but he did not.

Instead, Augustine’s writings show that he and the Donatists agreed on the validity of infant baptism as a practice. His only argument with them was which church had the authority to administer it.

The scholar Dr. Maureen Tilley wrote a book The Bible in Christian North Africa and she translated the Donatists' own writings.

In they book, she wrote

'The controversy was not over the ritual of baptism itself, but over the identity of the true church and the validity of sacraments administered by ministers who had compromised with the state during the persecutions.'

The Donatists did not rebaptize people because they had been baptized as infants. They rebaptized people who were baptized by traditores

During the brutal Diocletianic Persecution (303–305 AD), the Roman authorities issued edicts demanding that Christian clergy hand over their sacred scriptures and liturgical objects to be burned, and that they offer sacrifice to the pagan gods -- those cowards, namely clergy who complied with the Roman magistrates and surrendered the Bibles were labeled traditores by their stricter peers.

When the persecution ended, many of these traditores repented and returned to their leadership positions. In 311 AD, a man named Caecilian was consecrated as the Bishop of Carthage. However, one of the bishops who consecrated him (Felix of Aptungi) was accused of having been a traditor.

A rigorist faction of North African Christians refused to accept Caecilian's authority. Led later by a bishop named Donatus (hence "Donatists"), they claimed that a traditor priest or bishop was completely cut off from the Holy Spirit. Therefore, any sacrament they attempted to perform—whether a baptism, an ordination, or the Eucharist—was completely invalid and empty.

Furthermore, in her analysis of North African theology, Dr. Tilley continuously highlights that the Donatists viewed themselves as the hyper-literal, ultra-traditional continuers of St. Cyprian of Carthage.

Sixty years before the Donatist schism even began, St. Cyprian and 66 bishops gathered at the Council of Carthage (253 AD). In Letter 58 (To Fidus), Cyprian explicitly writes the collective decree of the North African Church regarding newborns: "But in respect of the case of the infants, which you say ought not to be baptized within the second or third day after their birth, and that the law of ancient circumcision should be regarded, so that you think that one who is just born should not be baptized and sanctified within the eighth day... we all rather judged that the mercy and grace of God is to be denied to no born man." ===================================================

The core of Donatism was the belief that the validity of a sacrament depends entirely on the personal holiness and moral standing of the minister performing it.

The Church taught and teaches the opposite -- that the sacrament is not wrought by the righteousness of either the celebrant or the recipient, but by the power of God. - the clergy are merely instruments used by the Holy Spirit. It is Christ who baptizes, Christ who forgives, and Christ who consecrates.

19 years before Constantine was born, 60 years before the Edict of Milan enacted toleration, 72 years before the first Council of Nicaea, 127 years before the Edict of Thessalonika made Catholic Christianity the state religion of the Empire.

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