Editing Donatism (section)

==Epithet==
For several centuries during the [[High Middle Ages]] and the [[Reformation]], accusations of Donatism were levelled against church-reform movements which criticized clerical immorality on theological grounds. The early reformers [[John Wycliffe]] and [[Jan Hus]] were accused of Donatism by their theological opponents. Wycliffe taught that the moral corruption of priests invalidated their offices and sacraments, a belief characterizing Donatism.<ref>{{Citation | last = Herring | first = George | title = Introduction To The History of Christianity | place = New York | publisher = [[New York University Press]] | year = 2006 | page = 230}}.</ref> Hus similarly argued that a prelate's moral character determined his ecclesiastical authority, a position his contemporaries compared to Donatism and condemned as [[heresy]] at the [[Council of Constance]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

During the Reformation, Roman Catholic [[Counter-Reformation|Counter-Reformers]] such as [[Johann Eck]] accused the [[Magisterial Reformation|magisterial Reformers]] of Donatism (although the latter had partially distanced themselves from Wycliffe's theology to avoid such a charge).<ref name = "pelikan">{{Citation | last = Pelikan | first = Jaroslav | title = Credo: Historical and Theological Guide to Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition | publisher = [[Yale University Press]] | year = 2003 | page = 474}}.</ref> Magisterial Reformers like [[Ulrich Zwingli]] labeled [[radical Reformation|radical Reformers]], such as the [[Anabaptism|Anabaptists]], as Donatists;<ref>{{cite book| last = Verduin | first = Leonard | title = The Reformers and Their Stepchildren | chapter = 1 | date = March 1995 | publisher = Paternoster Press | isbn= 0-8028-3791-3}}</ref> Roman Catholics were portrayed in Reformation rhetoric as [[Pelagianism|Pelagian]], another early Christian heresy. In [[Eastern Orthodoxy]], the [[Bezpopovtsy]] (priestless) strain of [[Old Believers]] believed that because the Russian bishops acquiesced to [[Patriarch Nikon]]'s reforms they (and the other patriarchs) forfeited any claim to [[apostolic succession]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

Accusations of Donatism remain common in contemporary intra-Christian polemics. Conservative [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]] are sometimes called Donatists by their liberal brethren, referring to their doctrine of church fellowship<ref>{{citation | publisher = Reclaiming Walther | url= http://www.reclaimingwalther.org/articles/pieperohcintro.htm | title = The doctrine of church fellowship}}.</ref> and their position that churches which deny that Jesus' body and blood are eaten during the [[Eucharist]] do not celebrate a valid [[Eucharist|Lord's Supper]].<ref>{{citation | url = http://www.wlsessays.net/handle/123456789/3272 | format = [[PDF]] | title = What Constitutes A Valid Celebration of The Lord's Supper? | first = Paul W | last = Metzger | year = 1986 | publisher = WLS essays}}.</ref>