Donatists

(don'ah-tists.) (Eccl. Hist.) A sect of the Christian Church in Africa, formed in 313 by Donatus, bishop of Carthage. The D. held that theirs was the only pure church, and that baptism and ordination, unle conferred by their hands, were invalid and inoperative. They made themselves formidable by inciting peasants who had imbibed their doctrines to rise, in 348, in insurrection against the imperial authority. Martyrdom was eagerly sought by them, and they voluntarily gave themselves up to the executioner. Severe but ineffectual laws were pa ed against the sect in 316, and it received sentence of condemnation from the Council of Carthage in 411; but it, neverthele , continued to exist till the 7th century, when the country pa ed under Saracen rule. Donauwerth, (don'ou-vairt,) a small town of S. Germany, in Bavaria, on the Danube, 24 m. from Augsburg. In 1704, the Duke of Marl borough routed the Bavarians at this place; and here, too, in 1805, the German army defeated the French under Marshal Soult. [s. 297]