Do boato à lenda. Comunicação informal e fronteiras identitárias nas origens da controvérsia donatista.

Much has been written about the origins of the Donatist controversy as a memory reconstructed in later contexts or, inversely, as a set of facts which, although obscure, could be reconstituted through a critical reading of sources. But the ambiguities in the perceptions of African Christians that were already present at the beginning of the schism and that contributed to the construction of these divergent memories must also be considered. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the different uses of rumours at the outbreak of Donatist controversy and understand the process that raised these stories to the status of beliefs that justified and delimited the identity boundaries between African Christians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]