E01030: Augustine of Hippo, in his treatise Against the Letter of Parmenian, states that the Donatists celebrate the feasts of the members of their sect who were either punished by secular authorities or killed themselves by jumping off cliffs. Written in Latin in Hippo Regius (North Africa), c. 400.

Augustine, Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.6.29

Quales turbas isti auertentes a Christi unitate et ad suum nomen conuertere cupientes interim temporalia supplicia schismatis sui conferre audent passionibus martyrum, ut eis poenarum suarum natalicia celebrentur magno conuentu hominum furiosorum, quorum e numero illi sunt, qui etiam nullo persequente se ipsos ultro per montium abrupta praecipitant, ut malam uitam peiore morte consumant.

'Since they [the Donatists] tear such crowds from the unity of Christ and want to convert them to their own name, they dare to compare the secular punishments (temporalia supplicia) inflicted on their schism with the passions of martyrs, and the feasts (natalitia) which commemorate these punishments are celebrated with great gatherings of insane men. To their number belong also those who, when nobody was persecuting them, by their own will threw themselves down from the cliffs and so completed a bad life with an even worse death.'

Text: Petschenig 1908. Translation: Robert Wiśniewski.