MENSURIO, bishop of CARTAGINE. — He governed his Church during the difficult years from the Diocletian persecution (303) to the disastrous rule of Maxentius in Africa (311). He was a man of character, skilled in overcoming the inevitable difficulties of the time: to the consul Anulinus he handed over certain heretical books, instead of the Scriptures demanded.
He vigorously disapproved of certain excesses in the exaltation of martyrdom. After the persecution, the rigorists of the Church of Carthage and of that of Numidia accused him of laxity and of having handed over sacred books. He died in 311, while returning from Rome, whither Maxentius had summoned him because he had refused to surrender the deacon Felice, who had offended him.
BIBL.: L. Duchesne, Le dossier du donatisme, in Mélange d'archéologie et d'histoire, 10 (1890), p. 589 ff.; H. Leclercq, L'Afrique chrétienne, Paris 1904; the sources (St. Ottato, Zosimo, St. Agostino) are collected and studied by P. Monceaux, Histoire de l'Afrique chrétienne, IV, Paris 1913 and by H. von Soden, Urkunden zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Donatismus (Kleme Texte, 122), Bonn 1913.