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Salvius, Bishop of Membrasa

Wace's Dictionary of Early Christian Biography

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Salvius (3), Donatist bp. of Membrasa ( Medjez el Bab ), one of the 12 ordainers of Maximian. He is mentioned as one who practised rebaptism (Aug. Parm. iii. 22). Refusing to return to the party of Primian, he was displaced, and Restitutus appointed in his stead. Salvius believed that his opponents could not take advantage of the laws against heretics without implicating themselves in its operation (Aug. c. Cresc. iv. 57, 58, 60, 82; Ep. 108. 14; En. Ps. 57. 18; Cod. Theodos. xvi. 5, 22, 25, 26). The action appears to have been brought during the proconsulate of Herodes, a.d. 394, but not to have been decided until that of Seranus, a.d. 398. When the judgment was published, the people of Membresa, by whom Salvius, now an old man, was greatly beloved, appear to have supported him in opposition to the edict; but the people of Abitina, a neighbouring town, took upon themselves, without any official sanction, to execute it, and having attacked Salvius, maltreated him cruelly and ignominiously. Whether this attack caused the death of Salvius we know not, nor do we hear of him again, but his case is often quoted by Augustine when retorting on the Donatists their charge against the Catholics of persecution.

[H.W.P.]