Christian Heresies of the
Fourth Century:

    Donatists:
    Donatus the Great, a Bishop, considered the Church was not the Church because it was always wrong, they held that the true Church consisted only of the elect, themselves, and declared baptism to be invalid unless conferred by a Donatist... Validity of sacraments depends on character of the minister. St. Augustine fought them hard... there are some of those today, like the followers of Archbishop Lefevre and others.
    Donatism was the error taught by Donatus, bishop of Casae Nigrae that the effectiveness of the sacraments depends on the moral character of the minister.  In other words, if a minister who was involved in a serious enough sin were to baptize a person, that baptism would be considered invalid.
     Donatism developed as a result of the persecution of Christians ordered by Diocletian in 303 in which all churches and sacred scriptures of the Christians were to be destroyed.  In 304 another edict was issued ordering the burning of incense to the idol gods of the Roman empire.  Of course, Christians refused, but it did not curtail the increased persecution.  Many Christians gave up the sacred texts to the persecutors and even betrayed other Christians to the Romans.  These people became known as "traditors," Christians who betrayed other Christians.  (Note:  traditor, not traitor)
     At the consecration of bishop Caecilian of Carthage in 311, one of the three bishops, Felix, bishop of Aptunga, who consecrated Caecilian, had given copies of the Bible to the Roman persecutors.  A group of about 70 bishops formed a synod and declared the consecration of the bishop to be invalid.  Great debate arose concerning the validity of the sacraments (baptism, the Lord's Supper, etc.) by one who had sinned so greatly against other Christians.  
     Ater the death of Caecilian, Aelius Donatus the Great became bishop of Carthage and it is from his name that the movement is called.  The Donatists were gaining "converts" to their cause and a division was arising in the Catholic church.  They began to practice rebaptism which was particularly troublesome to the church at the time and was condemned at the Synod of Arles in 314 since it basically said the authority in the Catholic church was lost.
     The Donatist issue was raised at several ecumenical councils and finally submitted to Emporer Constantine in 316.  In each case the consecration of bishop Caecilian was upheld.  However, persecution fuels emotions and by 350 the Donatists had gained many converts and outnumbered the Orthodox in Africa.  But it was the apologetic by Augustine that turned the tide against the Donatist movement which eventually died out in the next century... they are not death now with Archbishop Lefevre and others.
    The problem with Donatism is that no person is morally pure.  The effectiveness of the baptism or administration of the Lord's supper does not cease to be effective if the moral character of the minister is in question or even demonstrated to be faulty.  Rather, the sacraments are powerful because of what they are, visible representations of spiritual realities.  God is the one who works in and through them and He is not restricted by the moral state of the administrant. Donatism

    Arians:
    The strongest heretical sect in the early Church. Arius, an Alexandrian priest, Jesus was a lesser, created being, denied the divinity of Christ and consequently Virgin Mary was not the Mother of God. The first ecumenical council, that of Nicea, was convened to condemn the heresy... St. Athanasius, was his chief opponent. Mary the Mother of God, the first Dogma on Virgin Mary
    Arianism developed around 320, in Alexandria Egypt concerning the person of Christ and is named after Arius of Alexandar.  For his doctrinal teaching he was exiled to Illyria in 325 after the first ecumenical council at Nicaea condemned his teaching as heresy.  It was the greatest of heresies within the early church that developed a significant following.  Some say, it almost took over the church.
     Arius taught that only God the Father was eternal and too pure and infinite to appear on the earth.  Therefore, God produced Christ the Son out of nothing as the first and greatest creation.  The Son is then the one who created the universe.  Because the Son relationship of the Son to the Father is not one of nature, it is, therefore, adoptive.   God adopted Christ as the Son.  Though Christ was a creation, because of his great position and authority, he was to be worshipped and even looked upon as God.  Some Arians even held that the Holy Spirit was the first and greatest creation of the Son.  
     At Jesus' incarnation, the Arians asserted that the divine quality of the Son, the Logos, took the place of the human and spiritual aspect of Jesus, thereby denying the full and complete incarnation of God the Son, second person of the Trinity.
     In asserting that Christ the Son, as a created thing, was to be worshipped, the Arians were advocating idolatry.  Arianism

    Macedonians:
    Macedonius, a bishop, denied the divinity of the Holy Ghost.

    Appollinarists:
    Apollinaris was a great Bishop, but taught that Christ was divine but not human. Condemned in the Council of Constantinople in 381
    Apollinarianism was the heresy taught by Apollinaris the Younger, bishop of Laodicea in Syria about 361.  He taught that the Logos of God, which became the divine nature of Christ, took the place of the rational human soul of Jesus and that the body of Christ was a glorified form of human nature.  In other words, though Jesus was a man, He did not have a human mind but that the mind of Christ was solely divine.  Apollinaris taught that the two natures of Christ could not coexist within one person.  His solution was to lessen the human nature of Christ.
    Apollinarianism was condemned by the Second General Council at Constantinople in 381.  This heresy denies the true and complete humanity in the person of Jesus which in turn, can jeopardize the value of the atonement since Jesus is declared to be both God and man to atone.  He needed to be God to offer a pure and holy sacrifice of sufficient value and He needed to be a man in order to die for men. 
     Jesus is completely both God and man.  This is known as the Hypostatic Union. Apollinarianism

• "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." (John 1:1,14).

• "for Him dwells all the fullness of deity in bodily form," (Col. 2:9)

    Jovinians:
    Jovinianus, a monk, denied the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Condemned by Pope Siricius in a Council held at Rome in the year 390, and soon after in another Council held by St. Ambrose in Milan. Mary Ever-Virgin, the Second Dogma of Virgin Mary

    Vigilantians:
    Vigilantius, a priest, condemned the veneration of images and relics; the invocation of the Saints; the celibacy of the clergy; and monasticism: and held it useless to pray for the dead.