In a letter to
Secundus, Bishop of
Tigisis, then the
senior bishop of
Numidia, he explains that he had himself had taken the texts from the
church to his own house, and had substituted them for a number of heretical writings, which the authorities had seized without asking for more.[3] But the
proconsul, when informed of the deception refused to search the bishop's private house.
Secundus, in his reply, without blaming Mensurius, somewhat pointedly praised the
martyrs who in his own province had been tortured and put to death for refusing to deliver up the Scriptures and that he himself had replied to the officials who came to search: "I am a Christian and a
bishop, not a traditor." Some such as
Petilian even considered him a
thurificator.
Mensurius also forbade any to be honoured as
martyrs who had given themselves up of their own accord, or who had boasted that they possessed copies of the scriptures which they would not relinquish. Some of these he claimed were criminals and debtors to the state, who thought they might by this means rid themselves of a burdensome life, or else wipe away the remembrance of their misdeeds, or at least gain money and enjoy in prison the luxuries supplied by the kindness of
Christians.[4]
In 308, Mensuris hid the deacon Felix who was accused of slander against the Emperor and defended him in
Rome. After the
acquittal he could not return to
Carthage due to the blockade by
Maxentius. His death outside of
Africa and rejection of his successor
Caecilianus contributed to the
Donatists schisms in Northern Africa.
K. Clancy, When did the Donatist Schism Begin?, in: JThS 28, 1977, 104-109
Emilien Lamirande, La correspondence entre Secundus et Mensurius, in: Œuvres de Saint Augustin 32 (Bibliothèque Augustinienne) 1965, 728
M. Nallino, Un papiro cristiano della raccolta fiorentina. Lettera di Theonas a Mensurio, in: Atene e Roma 11, 1966, 27-30
Jean-Louis Maier, L'épiscopat de l'Afrique romaine, vandale et Byzantine (Bibliotheca Helvetica Romana 11), 1973, 363–364; - ders., Le dossier du donatisme I : Des origines à la mort de Constance II, 303-361 (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 134), 1987, Index
T.D. Barnes, The Beginnings of Donatism, in: JThS NS 26, 1975, 13-22
Serge Lancel, Les débuts du Donatisme: La date du "Protocole de Cirta" et de l'élection épiscopale de Silvanus, in: RevÉAug 25, 1979, 217-229
André Mandouze, Prosopographie de l'Afrique chrétienne 303-533 (Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire 1), 1982, 748-749
Bernhard Kriegbaum, Kirche der Traditoren oder Kirche der Märtyrer. Die Vorgeschichte des Donatismus (Innsbrucker Theologische Studien 16), 1986, 59-148
Pauly-Wissowa XV/1, 960–961; - RGG3 IV, 877; - TRE I, 653–655.