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Archdiocese of Carthage

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Archdiocese of Carthage
Archidioecesis Carthaginensis
Early Christian quarter in ancient Carthage
Early Christian quarter in ancient Carthage
Incumbent
Cyriacus of Carthage (last residing ca. 1070)
Agostino Casaroli (last titular archbishop 1979)
Location
Country Roman Empire
Vandal Kingdom
Byzantine Empire
Umayyad Caliphate
Abbasid Caliphate
Fatimid Caliphate
French protectorate of Tunisia
Tunisia
Ecclesiastical province Early African church
Metropolitan Carthage
Headquarters Carthage
Coordinates 36°51′10″N 10°19′24″E / 36.8528°N 10.3233°E)
Information
Denomination Catholic Church
Sui iuris church Latin Church
Rite African Rite
Established 2nd century
Dissolved In partibus infidelium in 1519
Leadership
Pope Leo XIV
Titular archbishop Vacant since 1979

The Archdiocese of Carthage is a Latin Catholic titular see originally established as a diocese in Carthage, Roman Empire, in the 2nd century. Agrippinus was the first named bishop, appointed around 230 AD.

The diocese, in its earlier form, was to the Early African church what the Diocese of Rome was to the Catholic Church in Italy.[1] The archdiocese used the African Rite, a variant of the Western liturgical rites in Latin language, possibly a local use of the primitive Roman Rite. Famous figures include Saint Perpetua, Saint Felicitas, and their Companions (died c. 203), Tertullian (c. 155–240), Cyprian (c. 200–258), Caecilianus (floruit 311), Saint Aurelius (died 429), and Eugenius of Carthage (died 505). Tertullian and Cyprian are both considered Latin Church Fathers of the Latin Church.

Tertullian, a theologian of part Berber descent, was instrumental in the development of trinitarian theology, and was the first to apply Latin language extensively in his theological writings. As such, Tertullian has been called "the father of Latin Christianity"[2][3] and "the founder of Western theology."[4] Carthage remained an important center of Christianity, hosting several councils of Carthage.

Carthage exercised informal primacy as an archdiocese, being the most important center of Christianity in the whole of Roman Africa, corresponding to most of today's Mediterranean coast and inland of Northern Africa. As such, it enjoyed the title of primate of Africa.

In the 6th century, turbulent controversies in teachings affected the diocese: Donatism, Arianism, Manichaeism, and Pelagianism. Some proponents established their own parallel hierarchies.

The city of Carthage fell to the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb with the Battle of Carthage (698). The episcopal see remained but Christianity declined under persecution. The last resident bishop, Cyriacus of Carthage, was documented in 1076. It became a titular see with bishops appointed beginning in the 16th century, was briefly restored as a residential see in the 19th century, and was again made titular in 1964, being supplanted by the Archdiocese of Tunis. The titular see of Carthage has been vacant since 1979.

History

Background

The temporal importance of the city of Carthage in the Roman Empire had previously been restored by Julius Caesar and Augustus. When Christianity became firmly established around the Roman province of Africa Proconsulare, Carthage became its natural ecclesiastical seat.[5] The Diocese of Carthage was to the Early African church what the Diocese of Rome was to the Catholic Church in Italy.[1] The archdiocese used the African Rite, a variant of the Western liturgical rites in Latin language, possibly a local use of the primitive Roman Rite.

Antiquity

Earliest bishops

In Christian traditions, some accounts give as the first bishop of Carthage Crescens, ordained by Saint Peter, or Speratus, one of the Scillitan Martyrs. Epenetus of Carthage is found in Pseudo-Dorotheus and Pseudo-Hippolytus lists of seventy disciples. The account of the martyrdom of Saint Perpetua and her companions in 203 mentions an Optatus who is generally taken to have been bishop of Carthage, but who may instead have been bishop of Thuburbo Minus. The first certain historically documented bishop of Carthage is Agrippinus around the 230s.[6] Also historically certain is Donatus, the immediate predecessor of Cyprian (249–258).[7]

Primacy

In the 3rd century, at the time of Cyprian, the bishops of Carthage exercised a real though not formalized primacy in the Early African Church.[8] not only in the Roman province of Proconsular Africa in the broadest sense (even when it was divided into three provinces through the establishment of Byzacena and Tripolitania), but also, in some supra-metropolitan form, over the Church in Numidia and Mauretania. The provincial primacy was associated with the senior bishop in the province rather than with a particular see and was of little importance in comparison to the authority of the bishop of Carthage, who could be appealed to directly by the clergy of any province.[8]

Carthage exercised informal primacy as an archdiocese, being the most important center of Christianity in the whole of Roman Africa, corresponding to most of today's Mediterranean coast and inland of Northern Africa. As such, it enjoyed the title of primate of Africa.

Division

Cyprian faced opposition within his own diocese over the question of the proper treatment of the lapsi who had fallen away from the Christian faith under persecution.

More than eighty bishops, some from distant frontier regions of Numidia, attended the Council of Carthage (256).

A division in the church that came to be known as the Donatist controversy began in 313 among Christians in North Africa. The Donatists stressed the holiness of the church and refused to accept the authority to administer the sacraments of those who had surrendered the scriptures when they were forbidden under the Emperor Diocletian. The Donatists also opposed the involvement of Emperor Constantine in church affairs in contrast to the majority of Christians who welcomed official imperial recognition.

The occasionally violent controversy has been characterized as a struggle between opponents and supporters of the Roman system. The most articulate North African critic of the Donatist position, which came to be called a heresy, was Augustine, bishop of Hippo Regius. Augustine maintained that the unworthiness of a minister did not affect the validity of the sacraments because their true minister was Christ. In his sermons and books Augustine, who is considered a leading exponent of Christian dogma, evolved a theory of the right of orthodox Christian rulers to use force against schismatics and heretics. Although the dispute was resolved by a decision of an imperial commission in the Council of Carthage (411), Donatist communities continued to exist as late as the 6th century.

Successors of Cyprian until before the Vandal invasion

The immediate successors of Cyprian were Lucianus and Carpophorus, but there is disagreement about which of the two was earlier. A bishop Cyrus, mentioned in a lost work by Augustine, is placed by some before, by others after, the time of Cyprian. There is greater certainty about the 4th-century bishops: Mensurius, bishop by 303, succeeded in 311 by Caecilianus, who was at the First Council of Nicaea and who was opposed by the Donatist bishop Majorinus (311–315). Rufus participated in an anti-Arian council held in Rome in 337 or 340 under Pope Julius I. He was opposed by Donatus Magnus, the true founder of Donatism. Gratus (344– ) was at the Council of Sardica and presided over the Council of Carthage (349). He was opposed by Donatus Magnus and, after his exile and death, by Parmenianus, whom the Donatists chose as his successor. Restitutus accepted the Arian formula at the Council of Rimini in 359 but later repented. Genethlius presided over two councils at Carthage, the second of which was held in 390.

By the end of the 4th century, the settled areas had become Christianized, and some Berber tribes had converted en masse.

The next bishop was Saint Aurelius, who in 421 presided over another council at Carthage and was still alive in 426. His Donatist opponent was Primianus, who had succeeded Parmenianus in about 391. A dispute between Primian and Maximian, a relative of Donatus, resulted in the largest Maximian schism within the Donatist movement.

Bishops under the Vandals

Capreolus was bishop of Carthage when the Vandals conquered the province. Unable for that reason to attend the Council of Ephesus in 431 as chief bishop of Africa, he sent his deacon Basula or Bessula to represent him. In about 437, he was succeeded by Quodvultdeus, whom Gaiseric exiled and who died in Naples. A 15-year vacancy followed. Pope Leo I confirmed the primacy of the bishop of Carthage in 446: "Indeed, after the Roman Bishop, the leading Bishop and metropolitan for all Africa is the Bishop of Carthage."[9]

In 454, Deogratias was ordained bishop of Carthage. He died at the end of 457 or the beginning of 458, and Carthage remained without a bishop for another 24 years. Saint Eugenius was consecrated in around 481, exiled, along with other Catholic bishops, by Huneric in 484, recalled in 487, but in 491 forced to flee to Albi in Gaul, where he died. When the Vandal persecution ended in 523, Bonifacius became bishop of Carthage and held a Council in 525.

Middle Ages

Praetorian prefecture of Africa

The Eastern Roman Empire established its praetorian prefecture of Africa after the reconquest of northwestern Africa during the Vandalic War 533–534. Bonifacius was succeeded by Reparatus, who held firm in the Three Chapters Controversy and in 551 was exiled to Pontus, where he died. He was replaced by Primosus, who accepted the emperor's wishes on the controversy. He was represented at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 by the bishop of Tunis. Publianus was bishop of Carthage from before 566 to after 581. Dominicus is mentioned in letters of Pope Gregory the Great between 592 and 601. Fortunius lived at the time of Pope Theodore I (c. 640) and went to Constantinople in the time of Patriarch Paul II of Constantinople (641 to 653). Victor became bishop of Carthage in 646.

Last resident bishops

At the beginning of the 8th century and at the end of the 9th, Carthage still appears in lists of dioceses over which the Patriarch of Alexandria claimed jurisdiction.

Two letters of Pope Leo IX on 27 December 1053 show that the diocese of Carthage was still a residential see. The texts are given in the Patrologia Latina of Migne.[10] They were written in reply to consultations regarding a conflict between the bishops of Carthage and Gummi about who was to be considered the metropolitan, with the right to convoke a synod. In each of the two letters, the pope laments that, while in the past Carthage had had a church council of 205 bishops, the number of bishops in the whole territory of Africa was now reduced to five, and that, even among those five, there was jealousy and contention. However, he congratulated the bishops to whom he wrote for submitting the question to the Bishop of Rome, whose consent was required for a definitive decision. The first of the two letters (Letter 83 of the collection) is addressed to Thomas, Bishop of Africa, whom Mesnages deduces to have been the bishop of Carthage.: p. 8 The other letter (Letter 84 of the collection) is addressed to Bishops Petrus and Ioannes, whose sees are not mentioned, and whom the pope congratulates for having supported the rights of the see of Carthage.

In each of the two letters, Pope Leo declares that, after the Bishop of Rome, the first archbishop and chief metropolitan of the whole of Africa is the bishop of Carthage,[11] while the bishop of Gummi, whatever his dignity or power, will act, except for what concerns his own diocese, like the other African bishops, by consultation with the archbishop of Carthage. In the letter addressed to Petrus and Ioannes, Pope Leo adds to his declaration of the position of the bishop of Carthage the eloquent[12] declaration: "... nor can he, for the benefit of any bishop in the whole of Africa lose the privilege received once for all from the holy Roman and apostolic see, but he will hold it until the end of the world as long as the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is invoked there, whether Carthage lie desolate or whether it some day rise glorious again".[13] When in the 19th century the residential see of Carthage was for a while restored, Cardinal Charles-Martial-Allemand Lavigerie had these words inscribed in letters of gold beneath the dome of his great cathedral.[14] The building now belongs the Tunisian state and is used for concerts.

Later, an archbishop of Carthage named Cyriacus was imprisoned by the Arab rulers because of an accusation by some Christians. Pope Gregory VII wrote him a letter of consolation, repeating the hopeful assurances of the primacy of the Church of Carthage, "whether the Church of Carthage should still lie desolate or rise again in glory". By 1076, Cyriacus was set free, but there was only one other bishop in the province. These are the last of whom there is mention in that period of the history of the see.[15][16]

Decline

After the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb, the church gradually died out along with the local Latin dialect. The Islamization of Christian appears to have been quick and the Arab authors paid scant attention to them. Christian graves inscribed with Latin and dated to 10th–11th centuries are known. By the end of 10th century, the number of bishoprics in the Maghreb region was 47 including 10 in southern Tunisia. In 1053, Pope Leo IX commented that only five bishoprics were left in Africa.[17]

Some primary accounts including Arabic ones in 10th century mention persecutions of the Church and measures undertaken by Muslim rulers to suppress it. A schism among the African churches developed by the time of Pope Formosus. In 980, Christians of Carthage contacted Pope Benedict VII, asking to declare Jacob as an archbishop. Leo IX declared the bishop of Carthage as the "first archbishop and metropolitan of all Africa" when a bishop of Gummi in Byzacena declared the region a metropolis. By the time of Gregory VII, the Church was unable to appoint a bishop which traditionally would have only required presence of three other bishops. This was likely due to persecutions and possibly other churches breaking off their communion with Carthage. In 1152, the Muslim rulers ordered the Christians of Tunisia to convert or face death. The only African bishopric mentioned in a list in 1192 published by the Catholic Church in Rome was that of Carthage.[18] Native Christianity is attested in the 15th century, though it was not in communion in with the Catholic church.[19]

The bishop of Morocco Lope Fernandez de Ain was made the head of the Church of Africa, the only church officially allowed to preach in the continent, on 19 December 1246 by Pope Innocent IV.[20]

Modernity

In 1518, the Archdiocese of Carthage was revived as a Catholic titular see. It was briefly restored as a residential episcopal see 1884–1964, after which it was supplanted by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tunis. The last titular Archbishop of Carthage, Agostino Casaroli, remained in office until 1979. Since then, the titular see has remained vacant.

List of bishops

sede vacante
sede vacante
  • Boniface I (523 – c. 535)
  • Reparatus (535–552)
  • Primosus or Primasius (552 – c. 565)
  • Publianus (fl. c. 565–581)
  • Dominicus (fl. 592–601)
  • Licinianus (d. 602)
  • Fortunius
  • Victor[21]
  • Gregory (fl. 646, 668)
  • Maximus (mid-7th century)
  • Felix (late 7th century)
sede vacante: 699?
  • Theophilus, titular or exiled
  • Stephen
  • Boniface II (9th century)
  • James (974×983)

See also

Canonical status and jurisdiction

Carthage is a titular see of the Catholic Church.[22]

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Archdiocese of Carthage (CARTHAGINIENSIS)

The City

The city of Carthage, founded by Phoenician colonists, and long the great opponent of Rome in the duel for supremacy in the civilized world, was destroyed by a Roman army, 146 B. C. A little more than a century later (44 B. C.), a new city composed of Roman colonists was founded by Julius Cæsar on the site of Carthage, and became the capital of the Roman province of Africa Nova, which included the province of Africa Vetus, as well as Numidia. From this date Roman Africa made rapid progress in prosperity and became one of the most flourishing colonies of the empire.

History

The history of African Christianity opens in the year 180 with the accounts of two groups of martyrs who suffered at Scillium, a city of Numidia, and Madaura. Twenty years later a flourishing Church existed in Carthage, already the centre of Christianity in Africa. In his "Apology", written at Carthage about 197, Tertullian states that although but of yesterday the Christians "have filled every place among you [the Gentiles] - cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market-places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palaces, senate, forum; we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods". If the Christians should be in a body desert the cities of Africa, the governing authorities would be "horror-stricken at the solitude" in which they would find themselves, "at a silence so all pervading", a stupor as of a dead world (Apol., xxxvii). Fifteen years later the same author asks the Proconsul Scapula: "What will you make of so many thousands, of such a multitude of men and women, persons of every age, sex and rank, when they present themselves before you? How many fires, how many swords will be required?" And with regard to the Christians of the African capital he inquires: "What will be the anguish of Carthage itself, which you will have to decimate, as each one recognizes there is relatives and companions; as he sees there, it may be, men of your own order, and noble ladies, and all the leading persons of the city, and either kinsmen or friends of those in your own circle? Spare thyself, if not us poor Christians. Spare Carthage, if not thyself" (Ad Scapulam, v). It is clear from this that the Christian religion at the beginning of the third century must have had numerous adherents in all ranks of Carthaginian society; Tertullian, if the contrary were the case, would merely have stultified himself by making a claim which could have been so easily disproved. A council of seventy bishops held at Carthage by Bishop Agrippinus at the epoch (variously dated between 198 and 222), substantially corroborates the testimony of Tertullian as to the general progress of Christianity in Africa in the early years of the third century. It is impossible to say whence came the first preachers of Christianity in Roman Africa. It is worthy of note in this regard, however, that from the moment when African Christianity comes into historical prominence, the bishops of Roman Africa are seen in very close relations with the See of Rome. The faithful of Carthage in particular were "greatly interested in all that happened at Rome; every movement of ideas, every occurrence bearing on discipline, ritual, literature, that took place at Rome was immediately re-echoed at Carthage" (Duchenne, Hist. Anc. De l'Eglise, I, 392; cf. Leclercq, L'Afrique chrét., I, iii). Indeed, during the last decade of the second century the Roman Church was governed by an African, Pope Victor (189–199).

The two greatest names in the history of the Church of Carthage are those of Tertullian and St. Cyprian. The former comes on the scene, in the troubled days of he persecution of Septimius Severus, as an able and valiant defender of his religion. He was born at Carthage, about the year 160. In his youth he devoted himself to the study of law and literature, and thus obtained the intellectual training which was to prove of the greatest service to his future coreligionists. His conversion appears to have been influenced by the heroism of the martyrs, and one of his earliest treatises was an exhortation to those ready to die for the faith (Ad martyres). His first work was a severe arraignment of pagans and polytheism (Ad nationes), and this was followed in a short time (197) by his "Apologeticus", addressed to the imperial authorities. The latter work was calm in tone, "a model of judicial discussion" (Bardenhewer). Unlike previous apologists of Christianity, whose appeals for tolerance were made in the name of reason and humanity, Tertullian, influenced by his legal training, spoke as a jurist convinced of the injustice of the laws under which the Christians were persecuted. The "Apologeticus" was written before the edict of Septimius Severus (202), and consequently, the laws to which the writer took exception were those under which the Christians of the first and second centuries had been convicted. From the year of the martyrdom of Scillium and Madaura (180) the Christians of Africa were not molested by the authorities for nearly two decades. But in 197 or 198 the governors recommenced the legal pursuit of the followers of Christ, who soon filled the prisons of Carthage. Tertullian encouraged the "blessed martyrs designate" by what he termed a contribution to their spiritual sustenance (Ad martyres, i), and at the same time protested against the unjust measures of which they were the victims. But the magistrates took no heed of his protests. Christians were daily condemned to exile, torture, death, and, in at least one instance, to a still more dreaded fate (Apol., 1). In 202 the new anti-Christian legislation of Septimius Severus appeared in the form of an edict which forbade anybody to become a Jew or a Christian. According to Tertullian the Church at this period was recruited chiefly by conversion (fiunt, non nascuntur Christiani, Apol., xviii); the new law, consequently, aimed at cutting off this fertile source of membership, by imposing the death- penalty both on converts and on those who were the instruments of their conversion. Among the martyrs executed at Carthage under the law of Severus were the young matron Vibia Perpetua and the slave Felicitas, the Acts of whose martyrdom, which, perhaps, we owe to Tertullian (Duchesne, op. cit., I, 394), is one of the "jewels of ancient Christian literature". Throughout the trying period inaugurated by the new legislation (202–213), during which the law was enforced with more or less severity according to the disposition of the governor of the moment, Tertullian was the central figure of the Church of Carthage. His rigorism indeed drew him, about the opening year of the persecution, into the sect of the Montanists, but in spite of this lapse he appears not to have lost for many years the confidence of the orthodox; as late as 212 he wrote his letter to the Proconsul Scapula in the name of the Christians of Carthage (Leclercq, op.cit., I, 165). It was only in the following year (213) that he broke definitively with the Church and became the head of an obscure sect, called after him "Tertullianists", which maintained a precarious existence till the age of St. Augustine.

From this time to the election of St. Cyprian (249) little is known of the Church of Carthage. The Acts of Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas mention a certain Optatus, who was Bishop either of Carthage or Thuburbo minus. Agrippinus, already mentioned, was Bishop of Carthage about 197, and the immediate predecessor of St. Cyprian was Donatus, who presided over a council of ninety African bishops which condemned as a heretic Privatus, Bishop of Lambesa. Like Tertullian, Cyprian was a convert to Christianity; he was baptized at Carthage about 246. The period of his episcopate (249–258) is one of the most important, as well as the best known, in the annals of Christianity in Africa. A year after his elevation the edict of the Emperor Decius against the Christians was promulgated, and its appearance was the signal for wholesale apostasy. During the long interval of peace since the persecution of Severus the fervour of the Christians of Carthage had suffered a notable decline. The time was therefore favourable for effecting the emperor's purpose, which was to compel the Christians to renounce their faith and offer sacrifice on the altars of the gods. In the early stages of the persecution capital punishment was not resorted to, except in the case of bishops, but the mere threat of even less sever penalties induced large numbers to comply with the law. Many others, however, proved themselves worthy of their religion and died heroically.

At the beginning of the storm, Cyprian, knowing that as bishop he would be one of the first victims, and judging that in a time so perilous it was his duty for the moment to preserve his life for the good of his flock, retired to a secure refuge. His motives were not, however, correctly construed by some of his people, and even the Roman priests who directed the chief Church of Christendom after the martyrdom of Pope Fabian (236–250) made a rather uncomplimentary allusion, in a letter to the clergy of Carthage, to "the Good Shepherd and the hireling". Cyprian was naturally offended at the tone of this missive, and easily proved to the satisfaction of the Romans that they had misjudged him. But the difficulties which arose in Carthage itself during his retirement were not so easily overcome. In the absence of the bishop five priests hostile to him took it upon themselves to receive back apostates (lapsi, libellatici) into communion, merely on the recommendation of confessors awaiting martyrdom in prison. The intercession of confessors for the fallen was then customary, and was always regarded by the bishops as a reason for remitting part of the canonical penance for apostasy. But in Carthage at this time some of the confessors seem to have regarded themselves as having practically superseded the bishops, and issued letters of communion in a tone of command. One of them, for example, gave a note ordering the restoration of the bearer and his friends to communion (communicet ille cum suis). Cyprian objected to this usurpation of his authority, which, if not resisted, would destroy the Church's discipline, and he was supported in this attitude by the clergy and confessors of the Roman Church. On this Novatus, one of the rebellious priests, set out for Rome to obtain, if possible, support for his party. But the schismatical envoy at first met with no success. Eventually, however, he won over the priest Novatian and some of the Roman confessors. The object of the alliance was to elect a "confessors' pope", who would support a "confessors' bishop", to be elected in Carthage in opposition to Cyprian. The allies were, however, defeated at the outset by the election of Pope Cornelius, who was on the side of Cyprian. But this check did not at all dispose them to yield; they proceeded to elect an antipope in the person of Novatian. Meanwhile Cyprian had returned to Carthage, where he convened a council of African bishops for the purpose of dealing with the question of the lapsi. The decision of the council was moderate: all apostates who repented their fall were admitted to penance, which should last a greater or less time according to the degree of their guilt. The decree to this effect was confirmed by a Roman council under Pope Cornelius. But now, curiously enough, Novatian, who had taken the part of the laxists of Carthage, became a rigorist; he admitted apostates to penance, indeed, but without hope of reconciliation with the Church, even at the point of death. His views, however, were received with little favour, and eventually, through the efforts of Dionysius of Alexandria, Cyprian, and Pope Cornelius, the Roman confessors from whom he had derived his prestige deserted his party and were admitted to communion. The attempts to organize a schism in Carthage were no more successful. Cyprian was supported by all the bishops of Africa, with five exceptions, three of whom were apostates and two heretics.

The years 255–257 witnessed a controversy between Rome and Carthage on a question of discipline which for a short time produced strained relations between these two great centres of Latin Christianity. The trouble arose over the different modes in vogue in Rome and in Africa of receiving into communion persons baptized in heretical sects. In Rome baptism conferred by heretics was per se admitted to be valid; in Africa such baptism was regarded a wholly invalid. The matter was allowed to drop after the death of Pope Stephen (2 August, 257). Africans and Romans preserved their respective practices till the fourth century, when the former, at the Synod of Arles (314), agreed to conform to the Roman custom (Hefele, Hist. Of the Councils, I, 188). Cyprian died a martyr in the persecution of Valerian, September, 258.

From this date to the outbreak of the last persecution under Diocletian, in 303, very little is known of the history of the Church of Carthage. Two of the bishops who succeeded St. Cyprian, Carpophorus and Lucian, in this period of forty-five years are mentioned by Optatus, but nothing is related of them save their names. The worldly spirit which had been the cause of so many defections in the African Church of St. Cyprian's age was equally in evidence in the early part of the fourth century. A new form of apostasy characterized this persecution. In large numbers Christians betrayed their faith by giving up to the civil authorities copies of the Scriptures and the liturgical utensils. These renegades, who received the name of "traditors", were indirectly the cause of the gravest division that had yet been seen in Christendom. The Donatist schism originated in the consecration of Cæcilian as Bishop of Carthage (311) by Felix of Aptunga, who was falsely accused as having been a traditor. Its effects on the Church of Africa were disastrous. The obstinacy of the Donatists kept the schism alive for more than a century, and it was only the intervention of the Emperor Honorius in 405 that dealt it a death-blow. The civil penalties then inflicted on the schismatics brought them back to the Church in large numbers, although the sect still existed in 429, when Carthage was taken by the Vandals.

The Vandal occupation of Africa, which lasted over a century (429–534), was a period of severe trial to the Catholics of that country. The disorganization of the African Church was arrested by the re-conquest under Justinian of this portion of the empire, but the heresies which, during the sixth and seventh centuries, proved so fruitful in dissensions affected this portion of Christendom like the rest. The final catastrophe came with the fall of Carthage into the hands of the Arabs in 698. From this time the once flourishing church of Africa is rarely heard of. Apostasy became the order of the day, and in 1053 only five bishops remained in the former pro-consulate.

PRIMACY OF CARTHAGE

In the time of St. Cyprian the Bishops of Carthage exercised a real though not official primacy in the African Church. Roman Africa at this period consisted of three provinces: (1) the province of Africa proper, which comprised the proconsulate, Byzacena and Tripoli; (2) Numidia; (3) Mauretania. These three civil divisions formed in the middle of the third century but one ecclesiastical province. In 305 a Primate of Numidia is mentioned for the first time, and in the course of the fourth century Byzacena, Tripoli, and the Mauretanias each obtained an episcopus primæ sedis. These later primatial sees were, however, of little importance; their metropolitans presided over the provincial synods, appointed delegates to the annual councils of Carthage, received the appeals of the clergy of their provinces, and gave letters of travel (litteræ formatæ) to the bishops of their jurisdiction who wished to visit Italy (Synod of Hippo, 393, can. xxvii). The provincial clergy had the right, if they preferred, to ignore their immediate metropolitan and appeal directly to the Primate of Carthage. At first the provincial primacy devolved ipso facto on the senior bishop of the province, but as this method proved a source of dispute the synod of Hippo of 393 (can. iv) decreed that in case of difference of opinion among the provincial bishops the primate should be "appointed in accordance with the advice of the Bishop of Carthage". It was the right of the Bishop of Carthage also to determine, a year in advance, the date for the celebration of Easter.

COUNCILS OF CARTHAGE

The earliest council of Carthage of which we know was held about 198 (?); seventy bishops, presided over by the Bishop of Carthage, Agrippinus, were present. According to Cyprian the question of the validity of baptism conferred by heretics came up for discussion and was decided in the negative. Afer this date more than twenty councils were held in Carthage, the most important of which were: (1) those under St. Cyprian relative to the lapsi, Novatianism, and the rebaptism of heretics; and (2) the synods of 412, 416, and 418 which condemned the doctrines of Pelagius. (See AFRICAN SYNODS.)

BISHOPS OF CARTHAGE

The Acts of the martyrdom of Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas mentioned, as noted above, a Bishop Optatus, who, if he was a Bishop of Carthage, as is generally supposed, is the first known incumbent of this see. It is possible, however, that Optatus was Bishop of Thuburbo minus, and, if so, Agrippinus, who was bishop in 197, heads the list of Bishops of Carthage. From this date to the election of St. Cyprian (249) we know of only two Bishops of Carthage, Cyrus and Donatus. After St. Cyprian (249–258) the succession so far as known (cf. Leclercq, op.cit., II, Appendix; Kirchenlex., II, 1998; Duchesne, op.cit. I, xx) is as follows: between 258 and 311 Carpophorus, Lucian, and Mensurius; Cæcilian (311 till after 325); Gratus, at Council of Sardica (344 -), presided at Council of Carthage (349); Restitutus, at Council of Rimini (359); Aurelius (391), presided at Council of Carthage (421); Capreolus (431); Quodvultdeus (437); Deogratias (454 - 458); Eugenius (481, exiled 496); Boniface (523–535); Repartatus (535, banished 551); Primosus or Primasius (553 till after 565); Publianus (581); Dominicus (591); Fortunius (632); Victor (635). After this date no Bishop of Carthage is heard of till the middle of the eleventh century.

After eight centuries of abeyance the archiepiscopal See of Carthage was restored by Leo XIII (19 Nov., 1884) and confided to Archbishop (later Cardinal) Lavigerie, to whose zeal it was owing that since 1875 the ancient site of Carthage became again a centre of Christian life (see Baunard, Le Cardinal Lavigerie, Paris, 1898, passim). The territory of the new archdiocese, hitherto administered by Italian Capuchins, was enlarged by papal decree 31 March, 1885, and now includes the entire Regency (French Protectorate) of Tunis. By another decree of 28 March, 1886 the eighteen titular canons of the new chapter and their successors enjoy the dignity of papal chamberlains. A magnificent cathedral was dedicated by Cardinal Lavigerie (15 May, 1890) on the famous Hill of Byrsa, in honour of St. Louis IX of France; connected with it are several charitable and educational institutions. A council of Carthage was held 20 April, 1890, in which the decrees of the Council of Algiers (1873) were renewed and applied to the new ecclesiastical province. The archdiocese counts at present about 35,000 Catholics in a Mohammedan population of 1,600,000; it has fifty-four parishes (cures) and fourteen vicariates. It was also owing to Cardinal Lavigerie that the famous excavations on the site of ancient Carthage were begun about 1880 by one of his missionaries, Father Delattre. They were originally carried on at the cardinal's expense, and for some time the church of St. Louis served as a museum for the preservation of the antiquities discovered. Apart from the light thrown by these excavations on the Phoenician and Roman life of ancient Carthage, the discoveries of Father Delattre have greatly increased our knowledge of the early Christian life of Africa, particularly in the fourth and fifth centuries. Many Christian epitaphs and inscriptions have been made known, the Christian architecture of the period has been illustrated by the ground-plans of ancient basilicas, some of them quite famous in Christian antiquity (e.g. the Basilica Major of Carthage), while Christian burial customs and domestic life have had fresh light thrown on them; in a word, the importance of these excavations for our knowledge of Christian antiquity is second only to that of De Rossi's epoch-making discoveries at Rome.

Leclercq, L'Afrique chrétienne (Paris, 1904); Afrique in Dict. D'Archéol. et de Liturgie (Paris, 1903); Duchesne, Histoire ancienne de l'eglise (Paris, 1906), I; Neher in Kirchenlex., s.v.; Gsell, Monuments antiques de l'Algérie (Paris, 1901); Healy, The Valerian Persecution (Boston, 1905); Benson, Cyprian, his Life, his Times, his Work (New York, 1897).

For the modern period: Lavigerie, De l'utilité d'une mission archéologique permanente à Carthage (Algiers, 1881); Delattre, L'Epigraphie Chrétienne à Carthage (Paris, 1881); Lampes chrétiennes in Revue de l'art chrétien (1890); L'Archéologie chrétienne à Carthage (Paris, 1886); La basilique de Damous-el-Karita (Paris, 1892); and numerous contributions to Cosmos and Revue de l'art chrétien, also the local Bulletins of the archæological societies of Constantine, Hippo, and Oran, the Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques, and the Nuovo Bulletino di archeologia cristiana; Babelon, Carthage (Paris, 1896); Wieland, Ein Ausflug ins altchristliche Afrika (Stuttgart, 1900); and Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, 1899), 601–14 (translation of the article of Ph. Berger in Revue des deux mondes, CLIII, 1899).

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Plummer, Alfred (1887). The Church of the Early Fathers: External History. Longmans, Green and Company. pp. 109. “church of africa carthage.”
  2. Back to citation Benham, William (1887). The Dictionary of Religion. Cassell. pp. 1013.
  3. Back to citation Ekonomou 2007, p. 22.
  4. Back to citation Gonzáles, Justo L. (2010). "The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation". The Story of Christianity. Vol. 1. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 91–93.
  5. Back to citation Bunson, Matthew (2002). "Carthage". Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire. Facts on File library of world history (Rev. ed.). New York: Facts On File. pp. 97–98. ISBN 9781438110271.
  6. Back to citation Handl, András; Dupont, Anthony. "Who was Agrippinus? Identifying the First Known Bishop of Carthage". Church History and Religious Culture. 98: 344–366. doi:10.1163/18712428-09803001. S2CID 195430375.
  7. Back to citation "Cartagine". Enciclopedia Italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti (in Italian). 1931 – via treccani.it; Toulotte, Anatole (1892). "Carthage". Géographie de l'Afrique chrétienne (in French). Vol. 1. Rennes: impr. de Oberthur. pp. 73–100. OCLC 613240276; Morcelli, Stefano Antonio (1816). "Africa Christiana: in tres partes tributa". Africa christiana. Vol. 1. Brescia: ex officina Bettoniana. pp. 48–58. OCLC 680468850; Gams, Pius Bonifacius (1957) [1873]. "Carthago". Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae: quotquot innotuerunt a beato Petro Apostolo (in Latin). Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt. p. 463. OCLC 895344169.
    Gams "ignored a number of scattered dissertations which would have rectified, on a multitude of points, his uncertain chronology" and Leclercq suggests that "larger information must be sought in extensive documentary works." (Leclercq, Henri (1909). "Pius Bonifacius Gams". Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6.)
  8. Back to citation occurrence 8.0 Back to citation occurrence 8.1 Hassett, Maurice M. (1908). "Archdiocese of Carthage". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  9. Back to citation Herbermann, Charles, ed. "Africa". Catholic Encyclopedia. (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1913); François Decret, Early Christianity in North Africa (James Clarke & Co, 25 Dec. 2014) p86; Leo the Great, Letters 89.
  10. Back to citation (Contractus), Hermannus (2008-08-20). "Patrologia Latina, vol. 143, coll. 727–731". Retrieved 2019-01-17.
  11. Back to citation Primus archiepiscopus et totius Africae maximus metropolitanus est Carthaginiensis episcopus
  12. Back to citation Mas-Latrie, Louis de (1883). "L'episcopus Gummitanus et la primauté de l'évêque de Carthage". Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes. 44 (44): 77. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  13. Back to citation nec pro aliquo episcopo in tota Africa potest perdere privilegium semel susceptum a sancta Romana et apostolica sede: sed obtinebit illud usque in finem saeculi, et donec in ea invocabitur nomen Domini nostri Iesu Christi, sive deserta iaceat Carthago, sive gloriosa resurgat aliquando
  14. Back to citation Sollier, Joseph F. (1910). "Charles-Martial-Allemand Lavigerie". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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  17. Back to citation Der Nahe und Mittlere Osten By Heinz Halm, page 99
  18. Back to citation Ancient African Christianity: An Introduction to a Unique Context and Tradition By David E. Wilhite, page 332-334
  19. Back to citation "The Last Christians of North-West Africa: Some lessons for Orthodoxy today; citing Mohamed Talbi, "Le Christianisme maghrébin", in M. Gervers & R. Bikhazi, Indigenous Christian Communities in Islamic Lands; Toronto, 1990; pp. 344–345".
  20. Back to citation Olga Cecilia Méndez González (April 2013). Thirteenth Century England XIV: Proceedings of the Aberystwyth and Lampeter Conference, 2011. Orbis Books. ISBN 9781843838098., page 103-104
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Bibliography

  • François Decret, Le christianisme en Afrique du Nord ancienne, Seuil, Paris, 1996 (ISBN 2020227746)
  • Ekonomou, Andrew J. (2007). Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590–752. Lexington Books.
  • Paul Monceaux, Histoire littéraire de l'Afrique chrétienne depuis les origines jusqu'à l'invasion arabe (7 volumes: Tertullien et les origines – saint Cyprien et son temps – le IV, d'Arnobe à Victorin – le Donatisme – saint Optat et les premiers écrivains donatistes – la littérature donatiste au temps de saint Augustin – saint Augustin et le donatisme), Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1920.

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