Abstract

From time immemorial, some governments had been using state machineries to clamp down on some sects or movements whose religious activities were considered inimical to peaceful existence of the citizenry. This action is exemplified in different measures made by both the Jewish and Roman authorities against the Christians in the ancient times. In recent years, Indian government used many repressive measures against some religions, most especially Sikhism. The concern of this paper is to articulate the fact that though the actions stated are not strange to human history, but it is totally surprising to have ecclesial authorities collaborating with external forces to persecute some Christians in minority group because of ideological differences.  Therefore the paper seeks to re-examine St. Augustine’s conviction that to achieve ecclesiastical unity, the Donatists should be forced back to the Catholic fold through government machinery. This exercise becomes imperative with a view to determining the level of unity and peace that such strategy has achieved and to showcase how freedom to practise one’s religion, one of the fundamental human rights declared by the United Nations has been trampled upon in ecclesiastical history. This work is anchored on Bestrand Russell’s concept that religion should be recognized for maintaining order and security in the society. Historical and phenomenological approaches were employed for the collection of data

Keywords

Augustine, Donatist, Religious Coercion, Human Rights, Nigerian Pluralistic Society