Circumcellians

Circumcellians a fanatical sort of Donatists in the fourth century, of uncertain origin. From their wandering habits, they were called Circumcelliones (from celle, the cottages of the peasants around which they hovered, cellas circumientes rusticorum). They rambled up and down, plundering, burning houses, and murdering all who resisted them, professing to seek the crown of martyrdom. They called themselves Milites Christi Agonistici. There is no evidence to show that their conduct was approved by the Donatists, but their proceedings brought great odium on that party. — Mosheim, Ch.

Hist. cent. 4, pt. 2, ch. 5, and cent. 5, pt. 2, ch. 5; Gieseler, Ch. History, per. 2, div. 1, § 84; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. 21, 23:See DONATISTS.