Traditors

Philip Schaff says about them: "In this, as in former persecutions, the number of apostates who preferred the earthly life to the heavenly, was very great.

To these was now added also the new class of the traditores, who delivered the holy Scriptures to the heathen authorities, to be burned".

[3] Some church members easily forgave the traditors, but the Donatists demanded clear signs of penance.

[4] The Donatist sect developed particularly in North Africa, where they accused Bishop Felix of Aptunga of having been a traditor.

[citation needed] Held out as a counterexample to the traditors was the venerated Saint Vincent of Saragossa who preferred to suffer martyrdom rather than agree to consign Scripture to the fire.