The Nicene Age · AD 313–400
Parmenian of Carthage
d. c. 391 · Donatist bishop of Carthage · Target of Optatus · Carthage
The Nicene Age
Who Parmenian of Carthage was
Donatus’s successor as schismatic bishop of Carthage for thirty years, and the ablest apologist the Donatist church produced — a foreigner by origin, he argued the schism’s case in five books and in psalms composed for congregational singing, holding that the true church is the pure alone and its sacraments void outside it. Optatus of Milevis answered him book for book, and Augustine was still refuting him (‘Against the Letter of Parmenian’) after his death. The adversary whose persistence forced the catholic doctrine of church and sacrament into full articulation.
Also listed in the bishops of Carthage and heretics & schismatics.
Common questions
When did Parmenian die?
Parmenian of Carthage is dated d. c. 391 in the archive, which places Parmenian in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
What did Parmenian write?
Parmenian of Carthage has 1 catalogued writing in the archive: Against the Church of the Traditors (with the letter to Tyconius). All are lost, known only from later citation.
Which early sources mention Parmenian?
Parmenian of Carthage is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Optatus of Milevis and Augustine of Hippo. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Parmenian from?
The archive associates Parmenian of Carthage with Carthage.
Writings (1)
Against the Church of the Traditors (with the letter to Tyconius)
The Donatist primate's masterwork — known through the two great replies it provoked[Optatus wrote six books against it; Augustine answered the letter to Tyconius in three more — the refutations survive, the book does not]Lost — known only from later citation.
Primary-source mentions (2)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Against the Donatists I.4–5
c. AD 384You, brother Parmenian — for though you will not have it so, you are our brother — have said that the Church is with you alone; come, let us see where the Church, the one dove, truly is.Optatus of Milevis · source text
Augustine, Against the Letter of Parmenian (the three books of reply)
c. AD 400[Augustine answers Parmenian in three books, quoting the letter as he goes — the only route by which any of Parmenian’s own words survive.]Augustine of Hippo · Against the Letter of Parmenian I–III
Augustine's Contra epistulam Parmeniani, three books written c. AD 400 against the Donatist bishop of Carthage; Parmenian's letter is lost except in the passages Augustine quotes. Critical text: Michael Petschenig, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 51 (1908). No public-domain English translation exists.
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 325 · The Council of Nicaea, AD 325
- AD 339 · The persecution of Shapur II, AD 339
- AD 343 · The Council of Serdica, AD 343
- AD 361 · Julian’s pagan restoration, AD 361
- AD 366 · Damasus and the catacomb epigrams, AD 366
- AD 367 · Athanasius lists the 27 NT books, AD 367
- AD 372 · The martyrdom of Sabbas the Goth, AD 372
- AD 378 · Queen Mavia’s revolt, AD 378
- AD 380 · The Edict of Thessalonica, AD 380
- AD 381 · The Council of Constantinople, AD 381
- AD 381 · The Council of Aquileia, AD 381
- AD 384 · The Altar of Victory petition, AD 384
- AD 390 · Thessalonica and the penance of Theodosius, AD 390
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Parmenian.