Former Latin Catholic diocese established in Roman Carthage, now a titular see
The
Archdiocese of Carthage
, also known as the
Church of Carthage
, was a
Latin Catholic
diocese
established in
Carthage
,
Roman Empire
, in the 2nd century.
Agrippin
was the first named bishop, around 230 AD. 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.
[1]
Carthage subsequently 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 honorary title of
patriarch
as well as primate of Africa:
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."
[2]
[3]
[4]
The Church of Carthage thus was to the
Early African church
what the
Church of Rome
was to the
Catholic Church in Italy
.
[5]
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
"
[6]
and "the founder of Western theology."
[8]
Carthage remained an important center of Christianity, hosting several
councils of Carthage
.
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.
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,
Agostino Casaroli
, remained in office until 1979. Subsequent to this, the titular see has remained vacant.
History
[
edit
]
Antiquity
[
edit
]
Earliest bishops
[
edit
]
In Christian traditions, some accounts give as the first bishop of Carthage
Crescens
, ordained by
Saint Peter
, or Speratus, one of the
Scillitan Martyrs
.
[9]
Epenetus of Carthage
is found in
Pseudo-Dorotheus
and
Pseudo-Hippolytus
lists of
seventy disciples
.
[10]
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.
[11]
Also historically certain is Donatus, the immediate predecessor of
Cyprian
(249?258).
[9]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
Primacy
[
edit
]
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
.
[16]
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.
[16]
Division
[
edit
]
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.
[17]
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)
,
[9]
Donatist communities continued to exist as late as the 6th century.
Successors of Cyprian until before the Vandal invasion
[
edit
]
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.
[9]
A dispute between Primian and
Maximian
, a relative of Donatus, resulted in the largest Maximian schism within the Donatist movement.
Bishops under the Vandals
[
edit
]
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, and it was only in 454 that
Saint 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
.
[9]
Middle Ages
[
edit
]
Praetorian prefecture of Africa
[
edit
]
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.
Islamic conquest of Mahgreb
[
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]
Last resident bishops
[
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]
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
.
[18]
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.
[9]
:
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,
[19]
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
[20]
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".
[21]
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.
[22]
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.
[23]
[24]
Decline
[
edit
]
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
.
[25]
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.
[26]
Native Christianity is attested in the 15th century, though it was not in communion in with the Catholic church.
[27]
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
.
[28]
List of bishops
[
edit
]
- sede vacante
- sede vacante
- Boniface
[
it
]
(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 (646??)
[29]
- ...
- ...
- ...
Titular see
[
edit
]
Today, the Archdiocese of Carthage remains as a
titular see
of the
Catholic Church
, albeit vacant. The equivalent contemporary entity for the historical geography in continuous operation would be the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tunis
, established in 1884.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
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
.
- ^
Herbermann, Charles, ed. "Africa".
Catholic Encyclopedia
. (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1913).
- ^
Francois Decret,
Early Christianity in North Africa
(James Clarke & Co, 25 Dec. 2014) p86.
- ^
Leo the Great
,
Letters
89.
- ^
Plummer, Alfred (1887).
The Church of the Early Fathers: External History
. Longmans, Green and Company. pp.
109
.
church of africa carthage.
- ^
a
b
Benham, William
(1887).
The Dictionary of Religion
. Cassell. pp.
1013
.
- ^
a
b
Gonzales, 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.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
:
Mesnage, Joseph;
Toulotte, Anatole
(1912).
L'Afrique chretienne : eveches et ruines antiques
. Description de l'Afrique du Nord. Musees et collections archeologiques de l'Algerie et de la Tunisie (in French). Vol. 17. Paris: E. Leroux. pp. 1?19.
OCLC
609155089
.
- ^
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
:
Cheyne, Thomas K.
; Black, J. Sutherland, eds. (1903).
"Epaenetus"
.
Encyclopaedia Biblica
. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan. col. 1300.
OCLC
1084084
.
- ^
Handl, Andras; 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
.
- ^
"Cartagine"
.
Enciclopedia Italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti
(in Italian). 1931 – via treccani.it.
- ^
Toulotte, Anatole (1892).
"Carthage"
.
Geographie de l'Afrique chretienne
(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.
)
- ^
a
b
Hassett, Maurice M. (1908).
"Archdiocese of Carthage"
. In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
Catholic Encyclopedia
. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^
"First synods at Carthage and Rome on account of Novatianism and the Lapsi (251)"
.
cristoraul.com
. Archived from
the original
on 2014-07-20
. Retrieved
2014-08-29
.
Transcribed from
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain
:
Hefele, Karl J. von
, ed. (1894).
A history of the Christian councils from the original documents, to the close of the council of Nicaea, A.D. 325
. Vol. 1. Translated by William R. Clark (2nd ed.). Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. pp. 93?98.
OCLC
680510498
.
- ^
(Contractus), Hermannus (2008-08-20).
"
Patrologia Latina
, vol. 143, coll. 727?731"
. Retrieved
2019-01-17
.
- ^
Primus archiepiscopus et totius Africae maximus metropolitanus est Carthaginiensis episcopus
- ^
Mas-Latrie, Louis de
(1883).
"L'episcopus Gummitanus et la primaute de l'eveque de Carthage"
.
Bibliotheque de l'ecole des chartes
.
44
(44): 77
. Retrieved
15 January
2015
.
- ^
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
- ^
Sollier, Joseph F. (1910).
"Charles-Martial-Allemand Lavigerie"
. In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
Catholic Encyclopedia
. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^
Bouchier, E.S. (1913).
Life and Letters in Roman Africa
. Oxford: Blackwells. p. 117
. Retrieved
15 January
2015
.
- ^
Francois Decret,
Early Christianity in North Africa
(James Clarke & Co, 2011) p200.
- ^
Der Nahe und Mittlere Osten
By Heinz Halm, page 99
- ^
Ancient African Christianity: An Introduction to a Unique Context and Tradition
By David E. Wilhite, page 332-334
- ^
"citing Mohamed Talbi, "Le Christianisme maghrebin", in M. Gervers & R. Bikhazi,
Indigenous Christian Communities in Islamic Lands
; Toronto, 1990; pp. 344?345"
.
- ^
Olga Cecilia Mendez Gonzalez (April 2013).
Thirteenth Century England XIV: Proceedings of the Aberystwyth and Lampeter Conference, 2011
. Orbis Books.
ISBN
9781843838098
.
, page 103-104
- ^
Curtin, D. P. (February 2020).
Letter to Pope Theodore
. Dalcassian Publishing Company.
ISBN
9781960069719
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Francois 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 litteraire de l'Afrique chretienne depuis les origines jusqu'a l'invasion arabe
(7 volumes : Tertullien et les origines ? saint Cyprien et son temps ? le IV, d'Arnobe a Victorin ? le Donatisme ? saint Optat et les premiers ecrivains donatistes ? la litterature donatiste au temps de saint Augustin ? saint Augustin et le donatisme), Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1920.
External links
[
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]
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