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The Abitinian Martyrs and the Outbreak of the Donatist Schism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2004

ALAN DEARN
Affiliation:
34 Earl Street, Roseville, New South Wales, Australia 2069

Abstract

It is often claimed that the story of the Abitinian martyrs provides evidence relevant to the outbreak of the Donatist schism. However, this interpretation of the text rests upon a number of false assumptions regarding its manuscript tradition and the celebrity of the martyrs it commemorates. Rather than being written in the early fourth century, the text in its extant form was probably written after the Council of Carthage in 411, and perhaps in response to it. It thus does not cast light upon the outbreak of the schism, but rather on the way in which the events of the early fourth century were polemically reinterpreted at a much later date.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

SC=Sources Chrétiennes; VC=Vigiliae Christianae
I would like to thank Averil Cameron and Mark Edwards for their comments on this paper.