Religious Intolerance in the Later Roman Empire - Bad request ...

stated in this law, would have been more difficult to rectify, for either side. More
difficult because it implied some degree of permanence. The experiences of the
councils and other theological disagreements over the course of the fourth century
should have taught the authorities that doctrinal differences were invariably
irreconcilable.
The law also spelt out the offices of ministers in the Donatist church: bishops,
priests and deacons and doubted whether they could even be considered as clerics:
“whether they defame the name of bishop by the assumption of such priestly office,
or, that which is almost the same, they belie religion with the appellation of priests or
also if they call themselves deacons.” 291 Valentinian had thought that Donatist Bishops
were unworthy of the priesthood in his CTh 16.6.1 of 20 February 373, but had not
mentioned other Donatist clerics. By contrast, Constantine's Letter to the Num idian
Bishops had been addressed to all Numidian Bishops, including Donatists. However,
this law of Gratian went further than either Constantine or Valentinian had done, by
suggesting that the Donatist clerics “may not even be considered Christians.” 292
Evidently there was no longer any sentiment that the two Churches might one day be
reconciled. The continuing schism which by this time may have lasted almost seventy
years, had possibly reconciled the authorities to its permanence and therefore, and
without an emperor who had Constantine's unitarian vision, even a pretence of
reconciliation, or of reconciliation on unspecified terms, was discarded.
It may be worthwhile to speculate how much actual rebaptising went on in the
Donatist Church at this time and it seems unlikely that there would have been very
much, unless the Donatists were actively evangelising among the Catholic
population. 293 Therefore the issue of rebaptism may have become little more than a
291 seu illi sacerdotali adsum ption e episcoporum nom en infam at seu, quod proxim um est, presbyterorum
v ocabulo religionem m entiuntur, seu etiam se diaconos
292 cum nec Christiani quidem habeantur, appellant
293 Augustine c. Litt Petil.2.84.184 mentions the “recent” rebaptism of eighty people on Imperial
property. But he mentions this in the context of the Donatists disregarding Imperial laws and in
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