Donatists. The Donatist Church had a known existence of nearly three centuries. The first texts record a disputed election to the see of Carthage in A.D. 312. The last indisputable written evidence is an appeal by Pope Gregory in 596 to the Emperor Maurice for sterner measures to stem the growing influence of Donatism in Numidia.2 The tone of this letter, however, and other indirect evidence suggests that the Donatists held their ground until the arrival of Islam. The persistence of Donatism is remarkable. Other heresies and schisms flourished in North Africa, but only for limited periods. In the mid-fourth century, for instance, we are told by Optatus of Milevis (modern Mila in Dept. of Con-stantine) that the Marcionites and Valentinians, against whom Tertullian had fought, were almost forgotten in Africa.3 Arians, despite the support of the Vandal rulers, Pelagians, and even Manichees4 prospered for a short time and then vanished into obscurity. The Donatists remained. In A.D. 600 as in A.D. 400 their hold over Numidia was unshaken. And yet, except for the question of the validity of sacraments dispensed by non-orthodox (p.3) clerics, no serious theological difference separated them and the Catholics. There was no difference even of ecclesiastical organization, and it had been proved more than once that they had no legal case against their opponents. It was a matter of schism rather than heresy.1 But despite centuries of repression by the authorities and the compelling logic of St. Augustine and other Catholic writers they remained defiant. When every allowance has been made—as Augustine himself made2—for the brilliance of the founder of the Donatist community, Donatus, and for the strength of inertia which could keep the movement in being after its causes had been forgotten, the survival of the Donatists requires an explanation. In Africa, moreover, the comparative abundance of literary and archaeological sources allows the historian to investigate both the ecclesiastical aspect of the schism and the social and economic environment in which the Donatist Church grew up.