Yes, it was a controversy between the Donatist sect in Tunisia
and the Bishop of Rome in the early 4th century B.C. The Roman
emperor Constantine the Great unsuccessfully tried to mediate
it.
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The Christians who succumbed to the will of the state during the
great persecution under diocletian
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Donatist
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Donatist Christians did. They insisted that the church must
employ only spiritual sanctions and not force.