donation party

A party or number of persons a embling at the house of one person, as of a pastor or clergyman, each bringing a present. For the difference between donation and gift , see GIFT. Don'-a-tişm, s. [Low Latin Donatism us ; Fr. Don at is me .] Ch. Hist. The doctrines or principles of the Donatists (q. v.). Don'-a-tist, s. [Low Lat. Donatista ; Fr. Dona tiste.] Ch. Hist.: One of a sect of schismatics in Africa, the followers of Donatus, bishop of Casa Nigra, in Numidia. The sect arose in A. D. 311, when Cæcilianus was elected bishop of Carthage, and consecrated by the African bishops alone, without the concurrence of those of Numidia. The people, resenting this, refused to acknowledge Cæcilianus, and set up Major in us, who was then consecrated by Donatus. The Donatists held that Christ, though of the same substance with the Father, yet was le than the Father; they also denied the infallibility of the church, which they said had fallen away in many particulars. They were condemned in a council held at Rome A. D. 313, also in another at Arles in the following year; and a third time, in A. D. 316, at Milan, before Const an tine the Great. At the end of the fourth century they had a large number of churches, but soon after began to decline, owing to a schism among themselves, occasioned by the elec. tion of two bishops in the room of Parmenian, the succe or of Donatus, and also through the zealous opposition of St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo. They were finally suppre ed in the sixth century by Pope Gregory the Great.