CAMPENSES. – A nickname given by St. Jerome (Ep., XV) to the Catholics of Antioch who were adherents of Bishop Meletius and persecuted by Valens beginning in 372. When Meletius was exiled for a third time, his faithful, deprived of their churches, were forced to hold their assemblies in the countryside surrounding the city (Theodoret, Hist. Eccl., IV, 21), whence the name c.; nevertheless, they remained exposed to harassment by the police (cf. F. Cavallera, Le schisme d'Antioche, Paris 1905, pp. 133–200; Fliche-Martin-Frutaz, III, p. 269).
The same designation was applied to the adherents of Donatism who were of African origin but resident in Rome. Organized as an autonomous church by Bishop Victor Garbensis after 320, and unable to use their own church in the City, they celebrated their ceremonies in a cave outside the city. For this reason they were also called campitae, montenses, rupitae.
