early 5th c.; council – May 411

The Donatist controversy and Augustine's ecclesiology

In the early 5th century Augustine of Hippo waged a theological struggle against Donatism, which equated the Church's holiness and unity with the personal purity of its clergy. Augustine insisted that the validity of the sacraments does not depend on the moral state of the minister, and that schism is a greater sin than tolerating unworthy members within a united Church.

Augustine's arguments received official status at the Council of Carthage in May 411. Later reformers (per B. Warfield's formula) held that the Reformation was "the triumph of Augustine's doctrine of grace over Augustine's doctrine of the Church."