CAMPENSES. – A nickname given by St Jerome (Ep., XV) to the Catholic supporters of Bishop Meletius in Antioch, who were persecuted by Valens beginning in 372. After Meletius was exiled for a third time, his followers, deprived of their churches, were forced to hold their gatherings in the countryside around the city (Theodoret, Hist. Ecc., IV, 21), whence the name *campenses*, though they remained exposed to police harassment (cf. F. Cavallera, *Le schisme d'Antioche*, Paris 1905, pp. 133-200; Fliche-Martin-Frutaz, III, p. 269).
The same epithet was applied to adherents of Donatism of African origin but residing in Rome. Organized into an independent church by Bishop Victor of Garba after 320, they could not secure a church within the city and thus celebrated their rites in a cave outside Rome. For this reason, they were also called *campitae*, *montenses*, or *rupitiae*.
