Donatism
E139781
Donatism was a 4th–5th century Christian movement in North Africa that insisted on the purity and moral integrity of clergy and sacraments, leading to a major schism within the early Church.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Donatism canonical | 3 |
| Donatist Christianity | 1 |
| Meletian schism | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1215604 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Donatism Context triple: [Augustine of Hippo, combated, Donatism]
-
A.
Valentinianism
Valentinianism was a prominent 2nd-century Christian Gnostic movement, founded by Valentinus, that taught a complex cosmology of emanations and salvation through esoteric knowledge.
-
B.
Montanism
Montanism was an early Christian prophetic movement of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, known for its rigorous moral demands, emphasis on new revelations from the Holy Spirit, and association with the theologian Tertullian.
-
C.
Marcionism
Marcionism is a 2nd-century Christian theological movement that rejected the Hebrew Bible and taught a radical distinction between the God of the Old Testament and the God revealed by Jesus.
-
D.
Docetism
Docetism is an early Christian heresy that claimed Christ only seemed to have a physical body and to suffer, denying the true humanity of Jesus.
-
E.
Pelagianism
Pelagianism is a Christian theological doctrine, associated with the monk Pelagius, that emphasizes human free will and denies original sin’s crippling effect on the ability to choose good without divine grace.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Donatism Target entity description: Donatism was a 4th–5th century Christian movement in North Africa that insisted on the purity and moral integrity of clergy and sacraments, leading to a major schism within the early Church.
-
A.
Valentinianism
Valentinianism was a prominent 2nd-century Christian Gnostic movement, founded by Valentinus, that taught a complex cosmology of emanations and salvation through esoteric knowledge.
-
B.
Montanism
Montanism was an early Christian prophetic movement of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, known for its rigorous moral demands, emphasis on new revelations from the Holy Spirit, and association with the theologian Tertullian.
-
C.
Marcionism
Marcionism is a 2nd-century Christian theological movement that rejected the Hebrew Bible and taught a radical distinction between the God of the Old Testament and the God revealed by Jesus.
-
D.
Docetism
Docetism is an early Christian heresy that claimed Christ only seemed to have a physical body and to suffer, denying the true humanity of Jesus.
-
E.
Pelagianism
Pelagianism is a Christian theological doctrine, associated with the monk Pelagius, that emphasizes human free will and denies original sin’s crippling effect on the ability to choose good without divine grace.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Christian movement
ⓘ
heresy ⓘ schismatic movement ⓘ |
| AugustineCritique |
church is a mixed body of saints and sinners
ⓘ
sacraments are effective ex opere operato ⓘ |
| category |
Christian heresy
ⓘ
Early Christian schism ⓘ |
| condemnedAs | heresy by Catholic Church ⓘ |
| condemnedAt |
Council of Arles (314)
ⓘ
Council of Carthage (397) ⓘ
surface form:
Council of Carthage
|
| conflictWith |
Catholic bishops of Carthage
ⓘ
Roman imperial authorities ⓘ |
| coreBelief |
church must be a community of saints, not sinners
ⓘ
invalidity of sacraments administered by unworthy clergy ⓘ necessity of moral purity of clergy ⓘ |
| declineCause |
Vandal and later Islamic conquests of North Africa
ⓘ
imperial repression ⓘ theological defeat by Augustine ⓘ |
| developedFrom | controversy over traditores ⓘ |
| emergedIn | Roman North Africa ⓘ |
| endTime | 5th century ⓘ |
| geographicCenter | Carthage ⓘ |
| historicalContext |
Constantinian era of Christianity
ⓘ
post-Diocletian persecution ⓘ |
| influenced | later debates on sacramental validity ⓘ |
| influencedBy | rigorist tendencies in early Christianity ⓘ |
| languageOfLiturgy | Latin ⓘ |
| mainRegion | North Africa ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Donatus of Casae Nigrae ⓘ |
| notableLeader |
Donatus of Casae Nigrae
ⓘ
Majorinus ⓘ |
| opposedBy |
Augustine of Hippo
ⓘ
Catholic Church worldwide ⓘ
surface form:
Catholic Church
Council of Arles (314) ⓘ
surface form:
Council of Arles
First Council of Nicaea ⓘ
surface form:
Council of Nicaea
|
| persecutedBy |
Roman emperors
ⓘ
imperial legislation against heresy ⓘ |
| positionOnChurch | church must be visibly pure ⓘ |
| positionOnSacraments | sacraments depend on minister’s moral state ⓘ |
| positionOnTraditores | bishops who handed over scriptures are invalid ministers ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
ecclesiology
ⓘ
sacramental theology ⓘ |
| religiousTradition | Christianity ⓘ |
| startTime | 4th century ⓘ |
| strongPresenceIn |
Numidia
ⓘ
rural North Africa ⓘ |
| theologicalOpponent | Augustine of Hippo ⓘ |
| timePeriod | Late Antiquity ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Donatism Description of subject: Donatism was a 4th–5th century Christian movement in North Africa that insisted on the purity and moral integrity of clergy and sacraments, leading to a major schism within the early Church.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Meletian schism
this entity surface form:
Donatist Christianity