Majorinus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Majorinus was the leader of a schismatic Christian sect in Roman North Africa known as the Donatists.
Very little is known of his early life, as Donatist writings were mostly destroyed in the following years. What we can garner of his life and beliefs is accessed through what his enemies said against him. He had been a reader or a lector[1] in the church at Carthage, during the time that Caecilianus had been an archdeacon and Mensurius was bishop. He seems to have also had some domestic office in the household of a Roman noblewoman Lucilla.
In 311 Majorinus was chosen as bishop of Carthage by a council of 70 bishops in Cirta led by Secundus of Tigisis.[2] Secundus was the primate of Numidia and as such was meant to be consulted prior to the appointment of Caecilianus,[3] and this appointment was intended to depose Caecilianus. Caecilianus had been the understudy of the recently deceased Bishop Mensurius considered by many to be a traditor during the Diocletianic Persecution, though Mensurius denied the charges,[4] saying instead that he had hidden Christians and church property.[5] The council, however, held that Mensurius was traditor and that sacraments administered by Caecilianus were thus invalid.[6] The situation was further complicated by the fact that Caecilianus was consecrated by Felix of Aptunga, another traditor.[7][8] However rather than depose Caecilianus, his appointment created a 300-year-long schism in North African Christendom that would radically shape the intellectual life of Christianity.
