A Church ‘without stain or wrinkle’: The Reception and Application of Donatist Arguments in Debates Over Priestly Purity

This article examines the reception and application of arguments developed during Donatist controversy in later debates over clerical celibacy, marriage continence medieval early modern church. It explores collision inspiration institution this context, arguing that sacerdotal celibacy Latin church Reformation both appropriated polemicized history Donatism. The way which spectre lexicon Donatism permeated law practice church, particularly when it came to discipline is a prime example process imbrication by heresy were constructed. As such, exemplifies ways forms religious manifested as dissent, such Donatism, became embedded histories self-fashioning institutional