Early African Church
Encyclopedia
The name Early African Church is given to the Christian
communities inhabiting the region known politically as Roman Africa
, and comprised geographically within the following limits, namely: the Mediterranean littoral
between Cyrenaica
on the east and the river Ampsaga (now the Rummel) on the west; that part of it that faces the Atlantic Ocean
being called Mauretania
. The evangelization of Africa followed much the same lines as those traced by Roman civilization.
always remained independent; the mountainous region to the west of the Aures Mountains (Middle Atlas), and the plateau above the Tell
never became Roman. The high lands of the Sahara
and all the country west of the Atlas range were inhabited by the nomad tribes of the Gaetuli
, and there are neither churches nor definite ecclesiastical organizations to be found there. Christianity filtered in, so to speak, little by little.
Bishoprics were founded among the converts, as the need for them arose; were moved, possibly, from place to place, and disappeared, without leaving a trace of their existence. The historical period of the African Church begins in 180 with groups of martyrs. At a somewhat later date the writings of Tertullian
tell us how rapidly African Christianity had grown. It had passed the Roman military lines, and spread among the peoples to the south and southeast of the Aure. About the year 200 there was a violent persecution at Carthage and in the provinces held by the Romans. We gain information as to its various phases from the martyrdom of St. Perpetua and the treatises of Tertullian. Christianity, however, did not even then cease to make distant conquests; Christian epitaph
s are to be found at Sour el Ghozlane, dated 227, and at Tipasa
, dated 238. These dates are assured. If we rely on texts less definite we may admit that the evangelization of Northern Africa began very early.
By the opening of the 3rd century there was a large Christian population in the towns and even in the country districts, which included not only the poor, but also persons of the highest rank. A council held at Carthage about the year 220 was attended by eighteen bishops from the province of Numidia. Another council, held in the time of Cyprian, about the middle of the 3rd century, was attended by eighty-seven bishop
s. At this period the African Church went through a very grave crisis.
The Emperor Decius published an edict that made many martyrs and confessors, and not a few apostates. A certain bishop, followed by his whole community, was to be seen sacrificing to the gods. The apostates (see Lapsi
) and the timid who had bought a certificate of apostasy for money (see Libellatici) became so numerous as to believe they could lay down the law to the Church, and demand their restoration to ecclesiastical communion
, a state of affairs that gave rise to controversies and deplorable troubles.
Yet the Church of Africa had martyrs, even at such a time. The persecutions at the end of the third, and at the beginning of the fourth, century did not only make martyrs; they also gave rise to a minority that claimed that Christians could deliver the sacred books and the archives of the Church to the officers of the State, without lapsing from the faith. (See Traditors
.)
The accession of Constantine found the African Church torn apart by controversies and heresies; Catholics and Donatists contended not only in polemics, but also in a violent and bloody way. A law of Constantine (318) deprived the Donatists of their churches, most of which they had taken from the Catholics. They had, however, grown so powerful that even such a measure failed to crush them. They were so numerous that a Donatist Council, held at Carthage, in 327, was attended by 270 bishops.
Attempts at reconciliation, suggested by the Emperor Constantius II
, only widened the breach and led to armed repression, an ever-growing disquiet, and an enmity that became increasingly embittered. Yet, in the very midst of these troubles, the Primate of Carthage, Gratus
, declared (in the year 349): "God has restored Africa to religious unity." Julian
's accession (361) and his permission to all religious exiles to return to their homes added to the troubles of the African Church. A Donatist bishop sat in the seceded see of Carthage, in opposition to the orthodox bishop.
One act of violence followed another and begat new conflicts. About this period, Optatus, Bishop of Milevi, began to combat the sect by his writings. A few years later, St. Augustine
, converted at Milan, returned to his native land, and entered the lists against every kind of error. Paganism
had by that time ceased to be a menace to the Church; in 399 the temples were closed at Carthage. Nevertheless the energy and genius of Augustine were abundantly occupied in training the clergy and instructing the faithful, as well as in theological controversy with the heretics. For forty years, from 390 to 430, the Councils of Carthage
(see African Synods), which reunited a great part of the African Episcopate, public discussions with the Donatists, sermons, homilies, scriptural commentaries, followed almost without interval; an unparalleled activity that had commensurate results.
Pelagianism
, which had made great strides in Africa, was condemned at the Council of Carthage in 412. Donatism, also, and Semi-Pelagianism were stricken to death at an hour when political events of the utmost gravity changed the history and the destiny of the African Church. Conflict between Carthage and Rome on the regulation of the African Church came to the fore when Apiarius of Sicca
appeal his excommunication to Rome and thus challenging the authority of Cathage. Count Boniface
had summoned the Vandals
to Africa in 426, and by 429 the invasion was completed. The barbarians advanced rapidly and made themselves masters of cities and provinces. In 430 St. Augustine died, during the siege of Hippo
; nine years later Geiseric, King of the Vandals, took possession of Carthage. Then began for the African Church an era of persecution of a kind hitherto unknown. The Vandals were Arians. Not only did they wish to establish their own Arianism, but they were bent on the destruction of Catholicism.
Churches the invasion had left standing were either transferred to the Arians or withdrawn from the Catholics and closed to public worship. The intervention of the Emperor Zeno
(474-491) and the conclusion of a treaty of peace with Geiseric, were followed by a transient calm. The churches were opened, and the Catholics were allowed to choose a bishop (476), but the death of Geiserich, and the edict of Hunneric, in 484, made matters worse than before. A contemporary writer, Victor of Vita, has told us what we know of this long history of the Vandal persecution. Even in such a condition of peril, the Christians of Africa did not display much courage in the face of oppression.
During the last years of Vandal rule in Africa, St. Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe, exercised a fortunate influence over the princes of the Vandal dynasty, who were no longer completely barbaric, but whose culture, wholly Roman and Byzantine, equalled that of their native subjects. Yet the Vandal monarchy, which had lasted for nearly a century, seemed less firmly established than at its beginning. Hilderic
, who succeeded Thrasamund
in 523, was too cultured and too mild a prince to impose his will on others. Gelimer
made an attempt to deprive him of power, and, proclaimed King of the Vandals in 531, marched on Carthage and dethroned Hilderich. His cause appeared to be completely successful, and his authority firmly established, when a Byzantine
fleet appeared off the coast of Africa. The battle of Ad Decimum
(13 September 533) won the initiative for the invading Byzatines. The taking of Carthage, the flight of Gelimer, and the battle of Tricamarum, about the middle of December, completed their destruction and their disappearance.
The victor, Belisarius
, had but to show himself in order to reconquer the greater part of the coast, and to place the cities under the authority of the Emperor Justinian. A council held at Carthage in 534 was attended by 220 bishops representing all the churches. It issued a decree forbidding the public exercise of Arian
worship. The establishment of Byzantine rule, however, was far from restoring unity to the African Church. The Councils of Carthage brought together the bishops of Proconsular Africa, Byzacena
, and Numidia
, but those of Tripolitana and Mauretania were absent. Mauretania had, in fact, regained its political autonomy, during the Vandal period. A native dynasty had been set up, and the Byzantine army of occupation never succeeded in conquering a part of the country so far from their base at Carthage.
The reign of Justinian marks a sad period in the history of the African Church, due to the part taken by the clergy in the matter known as that of the Three Chapters. While one part of the episcopate wasted its time and energies in fruitless theological discussions, others failed of their duty. It was under these circumstances that Pope Gregory the Great sent men to Africa, whose lofty character contributed greatly to increase the prestige of the Roman Church. The notary Hilarus became in some sense a papal legate with authority over the African Bishops. He left them in no doubt as to their duty, instructed or reprimanded them, and summoned councils in the Pope's name. With the help of the metropolitan
of Carthage, he succeeded in restoring unity, peace, and ecclesiastical discipline in the African Church, which drew strength from so fortunate a change even so surely as the See of Rome regained in respect and authority.
This renewal of vigour, however, was not of long duration. The Arabs, who had conquered Egypt
, made their way into Africa. In 642 they occupied Barca
and Cyrenaica
; in 643 they conquered part of the Tripolitana. In 647 the Caliph Othman gave orders for a direct attack on Africa, and an army that had gained a victory at Sbeitla
withdrew on payment of a large ransom. Some years of respite ensued. The African Church showed its firm attachment to orthodoxy by remaining loyal to Pope Martin I
(649-655) in his conflict with the Emperor of Byzantium. The last forty years of the 7th century witnessed the gradual fall of the fragments of Byzantine Africa into the hands of the Arabs. The Berber, or native tribes, which before this had seemed on the way to conversion to the Gospel, passed in a short time, and without resistance, to Islam
. Carthage was taken by the Arabs in 695. Two years later it was re-entered by the Patrician John, but only for a brief period; in 698 Hassan once more took possession of the capital of Northern Africa.
and was still suffering from the aftermath of heresies including the so-called Donatist
heresy, and this contributed to the earlier obliteration of the Church in the present day Maghreb. Some historians contrast this with the strong monastic tradition in Coptic Egypt, which is credited as a factor that allowed the Coptic Church to remain the majority faith in that country until around after the 14th century.
However, new scholarship has appeared that disputes this. There are reports that the Roman Catholic faith persisted in the region from Tripolitania
(present-day western Libya) to present-day Morocco for several centuries after the completion of the Arab conquest by 700. A Christian community is recorded in 1114 in Qal'a in central Algeria. There is also evidence of religious pilgrimages after 850 to tombs of Catholic saints outside of the city of Carthage, and evidence of religious contacts with Christians of Arab Spain. In addition, calendar reforms adopted in Europe at this time were disseminated amongst the indigenous Christians of Tunis, which would have not been possible had there been an absence of contact with Rome.
Local Catholicism came under pressure when the Muslim fundamentalist regimes of the Almohads and Almoravids came into power, and the record shows demands made that the local Christians of Tunis to convert to Islam. We still have reports of Christian inhabitants and a bishop in the city of Kairouan
around 1150 AD - a significant report, since this city was founded by Arab Muslims
around 680 AD as their administrative center after their conquest. A letter in Catholic Church archives from the 14th century shows that there were still four bishoprics left in North Africa, admittedly a sharp decline from the over four hundred bishoprics in existence at the time of the Arab conquest. Berber Christians continued to live in Tunis and Nefzaoua in the south of Tunisia up until the early 15th century, and the first quarter of the 15th century, we even read that the native Christians of Tunis, though much assimilated, extended their church, perhaps because the last Christians from all over the Maghreb had gathered there.
By 1830, when the French came as colonial conquerors to Algeria and Tunis, local Catholicism had been extinguished. The growth of Catholicism in the region after the French conquest was built on European colonizers and settlers (mostly in Algeria), and these immigrants and their descendants for the most part left when the countries of the region became independent.
, an admirable writer, much of whose work we still possess, notwithstanding the lacunae due to lost writings. Such works as the "Passio S. Perpetuae" have been attributed to him, but the great apologist stands so complete that he has no need to borrow from others.
Not that Tertullian is always remarkable for style, ideas, and theology, but he has furnished matter for very suggestive studies. His style, indeed, is often exaggerated, but his faults are those of a period not far removed from the great age of Latin literature. Nor are all his ideas alike novel and original, so that what seems actually to be his own gains in importance on that very account. In contradistinction to the apologists of, and before, his time, Tertullian refused to make Christian apologetics merely defensive; he appealed to the law of the Empire, claimed the right to social existence, and took the offensive.
His theology is sometimes daring, and even inaccurate; his morality inadmissible through very excess. Some of the treatises that come down to us were written after he separated from the Catholic Church. Yet, whatever verdict may be passed on him, his works remain among the most valuable of Christian antiquity.
The lawyer, Minucius Felix, has shown so much literary skill in his short treatises of a few pages that he has deservedly attained to fame. The correspondence, treatises, and sermons of St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, belong approximately to the middle of the 3rd century, the correspondence forming one of the most valuable sources for the history of Christianity in Africa and the West during his time. His relations with the Church of Rome, the councils of Carthage, his endless disputes with the African bishops, take the place, to some extent, of the lost documents of the period.
St. Cyprian, indeed, although an orator before he became a bishop, is not Tertullian's equal in the matter of style. His treatises are well composed, and written with art; they do not, however, contain that inexhaustible abundance of views and perspectives that are the sole privilege of certain very lofty minds.
Arnobius
, the author of an apology for Christianity, is of a secondary interest; Lactantius
, more cultured and more literary, only belongs to Africa by reason of the richness of his genius. The peculiar bent of his talent is purely Ciceronian, nor was he trained in the schools of his native land. Among these, each of whom has his name and place, there moved others, almost unknown, or hidden under an impenetrable anonymousness. Writings collected among the Spuria of Latin literature have been sometimes attributed to Tertullian, sometimes to St. Cyprian, or even to Pope Victor
, the contemporary of the Emperor Commodus. Other authors, again, such as Maximius of Madaura and Victorinus
, stand, with Optatus of Milevi, in the front rank of African literature in the 4th century, before the appearance of St. Augustine.
The literary labours of St. Augustine are so closely connected with his work as a bishop, that it is difficult, at the present time, to separate one from the other. He wrote not for the sake of writing, but for the sake of doing. From the year 386 onward, his treatises appeared every year. Such profuseness is often detrimental to their literary worth; but what is more injurious, however, was his own carelessness concerning beauty of form, of which he hardly ever seems to think in his solicitude about other things. His aim above all else was to ensure conviction. The result is that we have the few beautiful passages that fell from his pen. It is to the loftiness of his thought, rather than to the culture of his mind, that we owe certain pages which are admirable, but not perfect. The language of Augustine was Latin indeed, but a Latin that had already entered on its decline. His desire was to be understood, not to be admired, which explains the shortcomings of his work in respect of style.
But when from his style we pass to his thoughts, we may admire almost unreservedly. Even here we find occasional traces of bad taste, but it is the taste of his period: florid, fond of glitter, puns, refinements-in a word, of the weaknesses of contemporary Latin.
Of all St. Augustine's vast labours, the most important, as they are among the first Christian writings, are: The "Confessions," the "City of God," and the "Commentary on the Gospel of St. John." As regards theology
, his works gave Christianity an impulse that was felt for centuries. The doctrine of the Trinity supplied him with matter for the most finished exposition to be found among the works of the Doctors of the Church. Other writers, theologians, poets, or historians, are to be met with after St. Augustine's time, but their names, honourable as they are, cannot compare in fame with the great ones we record as belonging to the 3rd and 4th centuries. The endeavour of St. Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe, is to think and write as a faithful disciple of St. Augustine. Dracontius, a meritorious poet, lacks elevation. Only an occasional line deserves a place among the poetry that does not die. Victor of Vita, an impetuous historian, makes us sometimes wish, in presence of his too literary descriptions, for the monotonous simplicity of the chronicles, with their rigorous exactness. In the theological or historical writings of Facundus of Hermiane
, Verecundus, and Victor of Tunnunum, may be found bursts of passion of literary merit, but often of doubtful historical accuracy.
The writings of African authors, e.g., Tertullian and St. Augustine, are full of quotations drawn from the Sacred Scriptures. These fragmentary texts are among the most ancient witnesses to the Latin Bible, and are of great importance, not only in connection with the formation of the style and vocabulary of the Christian writers of Africa, but also in regard to the establishment of the biblical text. Africa is represented at the present day by a group of texts that preserved a version commonly known as the "African Version" of the New Testament. It may now be taken as certain that there never existed in early Christian Africa an official Latin text known to all the Churches, or used by the faithful to the exclusion of all others. The African bishops willingly allowed corrections to be made in a copy of the Sacred Scriptures, or even a reference, when necessary, to the Greek text. With some exceptions, it was the Septuagint text that prevailed, for the Old Testament, until the 4th century. In the case of the New, the MSS. were of the western type. (See Bible, Canon.) On this basis arose a variety of translations and interpretations. The existence of a number of versions of the Bible in Africa does not imply, however, that no one version was more widely used and generally received than the rest, i.e., the version found nearly complete in the works of St. Cyprian. Yet even this version was not without rivals. Apart from discrepancies in two quotations of the same text in the works of two different authors, and sometimes of the same author, we know that of several books of Scripture there were versions wholly independent of each other. At least three different versions of Daniel were used in Africa during the 3rd century. In the middle of the fourth, the Donatist Tychonius uses and collates two versions of the Apocalypse.
, belonging to it. The writings of Tertullian, of St. Cyprian, of St. Augustine are full of valuable indications that indicate the liturgy of Africa presented many characteristic points of contact with the liturgy of the Roman Church. The liturgical year comprised the feasts in honour of Our Lord and a great number of feasts of martyrs, which are offset by certain days of penance. Africa, however, does not seem to have conformed rigorously, in this matter, with what was else customary. The station days. The fast of these days was not continued beyond the third hour after noon. Easter in the African Church had the same character as in other Churches; it continued to draw a part of the year into its orbit by fixing the date of Lent and of the Paschal season, while Pentecost and the Ascension likewise gravitated around it. Christmas and the Epiphany were kept clearly apart, and had fixed dates. The cultus of the martyrs is not always to be distinguished from that of the dead, and it is only by degrees that the line was drawn between the martyrs who were to be invoked and the dead who were to be prayed for. The prayer (petition) for a place of refreshment, refrigerium
, bears witness to the belief of an interchange of help between the living and the departed. In addition, moreover, to the prayer for the dead, we find in Africa the prayer for certain classes of the living. (See African Liturgy.)
were to be among the last of its defenders. The Christian writers almost wholly ignore the native Libyan, or Berber, dialect. St. Augustine, indeed, tells us that this writing was only in use among the nomad tribes.
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
communities inhabiting the region known politically as Roman Africa
Roman Africa
Roman Africa may mean:*the Roman Africa province*the history of Africa during the Roman era, see North Africa during Antiquity#Roman era...
, and comprised geographically within the following limits, namely: the Mediterranean littoral
Littoral
The littoral zone is that part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore. In coastal environments the littoral zone extends from the high water mark, which is rarely inundated, to shoreline areas that are permanently submerged. It always includes this intertidal zone and is often used to...
between Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya.Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it was part of the Creta et Cyrenaica province during the Roman period, later divided in Libia Pentapolis and Libia Sicca...
on the east and the river Ampsaga (now the Rummel) on the west; that part of it that faces the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
being called Mauretania
Mauretania
Mauretania is a part of the historical Ancient Libyan land in North Africa. It corresponds to present day Morocco and a part of western Algeria...
. The evangelization of Africa followed much the same lines as those traced by Roman civilization.
History up to the Arab Conquest
The delimitation of the ecclesiastical boundaries of the African Church is a matter of great difficulty. Again and again the Roman political authority rearranged the provincial divisions, and on various occasions the ecclesiastical authorities conformed the limits of their respective jurisdictions to those of the civil power. These limits, however, were not only liable to successive rectification, but in some cases they were not even clearly marked. Parts of MauretaniaMauretania
Mauretania is a part of the historical Ancient Libyan land in North Africa. It corresponds to present day Morocco and a part of western Algeria...
always remained independent; the mountainous region to the west of the Aures Mountains (Middle Atlas), and the plateau above the Tell
Tell
A tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides.-Archaeology:A tell is a hill created by different civilizations living and...
never became Roman. The high lands of the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
and all the country west of the Atlas range were inhabited by the nomad tribes of the Gaetuli
Gaetulia
Gaetuli was the Romanised name of an ancient Berber tribe inhabiting Getulia, covering the desert region south of the Atlas Mountains, bordering the Sahara. Other sources place Getulia in pre-Roman times along the Mediterranean coasts of what is now Algeria and Tunisia, and north of the Atlas...
, and there are neither churches nor definite ecclesiastical organizations to be found there. Christianity filtered in, so to speak, little by little.
Bishoprics were founded among the converts, as the need for them arose; were moved, possibly, from place to place, and disappeared, without leaving a trace of their existence. The historical period of the African Church begins in 180 with groups of martyrs. At a somewhat later date the writings of Tertullian
Tertullian
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
tell us how rapidly African Christianity had grown. It had passed the Roman military lines, and spread among the peoples to the south and southeast of the Aure. About the year 200 there was a violent persecution at Carthage and in the provinces held by the Romans. We gain information as to its various phases from the martyrdom of St. Perpetua and the treatises of Tertullian. Christianity, however, did not even then cease to make distant conquests; Christian epitaph
Epitaph
An epitaph is a short text honoring a deceased person, strictly speaking that is inscribed on their tombstone or plaque, but also used figuratively. Some are specified by the dead person beforehand, others chosen by those responsible for the burial...
s are to be found at Sour el Ghozlane, dated 227, and at Tipasa
Tipasa
Tipaza is a Berber-speaking town on the coast of Algeria, capital of the Tipaza province. The modern town, founded in 1857, is remarkable chiefly for its sandy beach, and ancient ruins.-Ancient history:...
, dated 238. These dates are assured. If we rely on texts less definite we may admit that the evangelization of Northern Africa began very early.
By the opening of the 3rd century there was a large Christian population in the towns and even in the country districts, which included not only the poor, but also persons of the highest rank. A council held at Carthage about the year 220 was attended by eighteen bishops from the province of Numidia. Another council, held in the time of Cyprian, about the middle of the 3rd century, was attended by eighty-seven bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s. At this period the African Church went through a very grave crisis.
The Emperor Decius published an edict that made many martyrs and confessors, and not a few apostates. A certain bishop, followed by his whole community, was to be seen sacrificing to the gods. The apostates (see Lapsi
Lapsi (Christian)
Lapsi was the name given to apostates in the early Christian Church, when Christians were persecuted by the Roman authorities to renounce their faith. It also means those who have lapsed or fallen away from their faith and decide later in life to come back to it.-Sacrificati:Those who had actually...
) and the timid who had bought a certificate of apostasy for money (see Libellatici) became so numerous as to believe they could lay down the law to the Church, and demand their restoration to ecclesiastical communion
Communion (Christian)
The term communion is derived from Latin communio . The corresponding term in Greek is κοινωνία, which is often translated as "fellowship". In Christianity, the basic meaning of the term communion is an especially close relationship of Christians, as individuals or as a Church, with God and with...
, a state of affairs that gave rise to controversies and deplorable troubles.
Yet the Church of Africa had martyrs, even at such a time. The persecutions at the end of the third, and at the beginning of the fourth, century did not only make martyrs; they also gave rise to a minority that claimed that Christians could deliver the sacred books and the archives of the Church to the officers of the State, without lapsing from the faith. (See Traditors
Traditors
Traditor, pl.traditores , is a term meaning the one who had handed over. This refers to bishops and other Christians who turned over sacred scriptures or betrayed their fellow Christians to the Roman authorities under threat of persecution...
.)
The accession of Constantine found the African Church torn apart by controversies and heresies; Catholics and Donatists contended not only in polemics, but also in a violent and bloody way. A law of Constantine (318) deprived the Donatists of their churches, most of which they had taken from the Catholics. They had, however, grown so powerful that even such a measure failed to crush them. They were so numerous that a Donatist Council, held at Carthage, in 327, was attended by 270 bishops.
Attempts at reconciliation, suggested by the Emperor Constantius II
Constantius II
Constantius II , was Roman Emperor from 337 to 361. The second son of Constantine I and Fausta, he ascended to the throne with his brothers Constantine II and Constans upon their father's death....
, only widened the breach and led to armed repression, an ever-growing disquiet, and an enmity that became increasingly embittered. Yet, in the very midst of these troubles, the Primate of Carthage, Gratus
Gratus
Gratus, a soldier of Caligula's bodyguard, who, after the assassination of that emperor, discovered and drew Claudius from his hiding-place in the palace, and presented him to the soldiers as a Germanicus, the proper heir to the empire....
, declared (in the year 349): "God has restored Africa to religious unity." Julian
Julian
Julian is a common male given name in Britain, United States, Ireland, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, France , Spain, Latin America and elsewhere....
's accession (361) and his permission to all religious exiles to return to their homes added to the troubles of the African Church. A Donatist bishop sat in the seceded see of Carthage, in opposition to the orthodox bishop.
One act of violence followed another and begat new conflicts. About this period, Optatus, Bishop of Milevi, began to combat the sect by his writings. A few years later, St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
, converted at Milan, returned to his native land, and entered the lists against every kind of error. Paganism
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
had by that time ceased to be a menace to the Church; in 399 the temples were closed at Carthage. Nevertheless the energy and genius of Augustine were abundantly occupied in training the clergy and instructing the faithful, as well as in theological controversy with the heretics. For forty years, from 390 to 430, the Councils of Carthage
Councils of Carthage
Councils of Carthage, also referred to as Synods of Carthage were church synods held during the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries in the town of Carthage in Africa...
(see African Synods), which reunited a great part of the African Episcopate, public discussions with the Donatists, sermons, homilies, scriptural commentaries, followed almost without interval; an unparalleled activity that had commensurate results.
Pelagianism
Pelagianism
Pelagianism is a theological theory named after Pelagius , although he denied, at least at some point in his life, many of the doctrines associated with his name. It is the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without...
, which had made great strides in Africa, was condemned at the Council of Carthage in 412. Donatism, also, and Semi-Pelagianism were stricken to death at an hour when political events of the utmost gravity changed the history and the destiny of the African Church. Conflict between Carthage and Rome on the regulation of the African Church came to the fore when Apiarius of Sicca
Apiarius of Sicca
Apiarius of Sicca was an African priest convicted by the Bishops of Africa of numerous unspecified crimes in the early 5th century AD, and excommunicated by Bishop Urbanus of Sicca Veneria. In 418 Apiarius appealed his convictions directly to Pope Zosimus by-passing the African Bishops appeals...
appeal his excommunication to Rome and thus challenging the authority of Cathage. Count Boniface
Bonifacius
Comes Bonifacius was a Roman general and governor of the Diocese of Africa. Along with his rival, Flavius Aëtius, he is sometimes termed "the last of the Romans."...
had summoned the Vandals
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
to Africa in 426, and by 429 the invasion was completed. The barbarians advanced rapidly and made themselves masters of cities and provinces. In 430 St. Augustine died, during the siege of Hippo
Hippo Regius
Hippo Regius is the ancient name of the modern city of Annaba, in Algeria. Under this name, it was a major city in Roman Africa, hosting several early Christian councils, and was the home of the philosopher and theologian Augustine of Hippo...
; nine years later Geiseric, King of the Vandals, took possession of Carthage. Then began for the African Church an era of persecution of a kind hitherto unknown. The Vandals were Arians. Not only did they wish to establish their own Arianism, but they were bent on the destruction of Catholicism.
Churches the invasion had left standing were either transferred to the Arians or withdrawn from the Catholics and closed to public worship. The intervention of the Emperor Zeno
Zeno (emperor)
Zeno , originally named Tarasis, was Byzantine Emperor from 474 to 475 and again from 476 to 491. Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his reign, which nevertheless succeeded to some extent in foreign issues...
(474-491) and the conclusion of a treaty of peace with Geiseric, were followed by a transient calm. The churches were opened, and the Catholics were allowed to choose a bishop (476), but the death of Geiserich, and the edict of Hunneric, in 484, made matters worse than before. A contemporary writer, Victor of Vita, has told us what we know of this long history of the Vandal persecution. Even in such a condition of peril, the Christians of Africa did not display much courage in the face of oppression.
During the last years of Vandal rule in Africa, St. Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe, exercised a fortunate influence over the princes of the Vandal dynasty, who were no longer completely barbaric, but whose culture, wholly Roman and Byzantine, equalled that of their native subjects. Yet the Vandal monarchy, which had lasted for nearly a century, seemed less firmly established than at its beginning. Hilderic
Hilderic
Hilderic was the penultimate king of the Vandals and Alans in North Africa in Late Antiquity . Although dead by the time the Vandal kingdom was overthrown in 534, he nevertheless played a key role in that event....
, who succeeded Thrasamund
Thrasamund
Thrasamund , King of the Vandals and Alans , was the fourth king of the north African Kingdom of the Vandals, and reigned longer than any other Vandal king in Africa other than his grandfather Genseric....
in 523, was too cultured and too mild a prince to impose his will on others. Gelimer
Gelimer
Gelimer , King of the Vandals and Alans , was the last ruler of the North African Kingdom of the Vandals...
made an attempt to deprive him of power, and, proclaimed King of the Vandals in 531, marched on Carthage and dethroned Hilderich. His cause appeared to be completely successful, and his authority firmly established, when a Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
fleet appeared off the coast of Africa. The battle of Ad Decimum
Battle of Ad Decimum
The Battle of Ad Decimum took place on September 13, 533 between the armies of the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, and the Eastern Roman Empire , under the command of general Belisarius. This event and events in the following year are sometimes jointly referred to as the Battle of Carthage, one...
(13 September 533) won the initiative for the invading Byzatines. The taking of Carthage, the flight of Gelimer, and the battle of Tricamarum, about the middle of December, completed their destruction and their disappearance.
The victor, Belisarius
Belisarius
Flavius Belisarius was a general of the Byzantine Empire. He was instrumental to Emperor Justinian's ambitious project of reconquering much of the Mediterranean territory of the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century previously....
, had but to show himself in order to reconquer the greater part of the coast, and to place the cities under the authority of the Emperor Justinian. A council held at Carthage in 534 was attended by 220 bishops representing all the churches. It issued a decree forbidding the public exercise of Arian
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
worship. The establishment of Byzantine rule, however, was far from restoring unity to the African Church. The Councils of Carthage brought together the bishops of Proconsular Africa, Byzacena
Byzacena
Byzacena was a Roman province in what is now Tunisia.At the end of the third century AD, the Emperor Diocletian divided the great Roman province of Africa Proconsularis into three smaller provinces: Zeugitana in the north, still governed by a proconsul and referred to as Proconsularis, Byzacena,...
, and Numidia
Numidia
Numidia was an ancient Berber kingdom in part of present-day Eastern Algeria and Western Tunisia in North Africa. It is known today as the Chawi-land, the land of the Chawi people , the direct descendants of the historical Numidians or the Massyles The kingdom began as a sovereign state and later...
, but those of Tripolitana and Mauretania were absent. Mauretania had, in fact, regained its political autonomy, during the Vandal period. A native dynasty had been set up, and the Byzantine army of occupation never succeeded in conquering a part of the country so far from their base at Carthage.
The reign of Justinian marks a sad period in the history of the African Church, due to the part taken by the clergy in the matter known as that of the Three Chapters. While one part of the episcopate wasted its time and energies in fruitless theological discussions, others failed of their duty. It was under these circumstances that Pope Gregory the Great sent men to Africa, whose lofty character contributed greatly to increase the prestige of the Roman Church. The notary Hilarus became in some sense a papal legate with authority over the African Bishops. He left them in no doubt as to their duty, instructed or reprimanded them, and summoned councils in the Pope's name. With the help of the metropolitan
Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...
of Carthage, he succeeded in restoring unity, peace, and ecclesiastical discipline in the African Church, which drew strength from so fortunate a change even so surely as the See of Rome regained in respect and authority.
This renewal of vigour, however, was not of long duration. The Arabs, who had conquered Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, made their way into Africa. In 642 they occupied Barca
Barca
Barce was an ancient Greek colony and later Roman, Byzantine, city in North Africa. It occupied the coastal area of what is modern day Libya...
and Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica
Cyrenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya.Also known as Pentapolis in antiquity, it was part of the Creta et Cyrenaica province during the Roman period, later divided in Libia Pentapolis and Libia Sicca...
; in 643 they conquered part of the Tripolitana. In 647 the Caliph Othman gave orders for a direct attack on Africa, and an army that had gained a victory at Sbeitla
Sbeitla
Sbeitla is a small town in north-central Tunisia. Nearby are the Roman ruins of Sufetula, containing the best preserved Forum temples in Tunisia...
withdrew on payment of a large ransom. Some years of respite ensued. The African Church showed its firm attachment to orthodoxy by remaining loyal to Pope Martin I
Pope Martin I
Pope Martin I, born near Todi, Umbria in the place now named after him , was pope from 649 to 653, succeeding Pope Theodore I in July 5, 649. The only pope during the Byzantine Papacy whose election was not approved by a iussio from Constantinople, Martin I was abducted by Constans II and died in...
(649-655) in his conflict with the Emperor of Byzantium. The last forty years of the 7th century witnessed the gradual fall of the fragments of Byzantine Africa into the hands of the Arabs. The Berber, or native tribes, which before this had seemed on the way to conversion to the Gospel, passed in a short time, and without resistance, to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Carthage was taken by the Arabs in 695. Two years later it was re-entered by the Patrician John, but only for a brief period; in 698 Hassan once more took possession of the capital of Northern Africa.
Fate of indigenous Christianity in northwest Africa after the Arab conquest
The conventional historical view is that the conquest of North Africa by the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate between AD 647–709 effectively ended Christianity in Northern Africa for several centuries. A prevailing view is that the Church at that time lacked the backbone of a monastic traditionMonasticism
Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...
and was still suffering from the aftermath of heresies including the so-called Donatist
Donatist
Donatism was a Christian sect within the Roman province of Africa that flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries. It had its roots in the social pressures among the long-established Christian community of Roman North Africa , during the persecutions of Christians under Diocletian...
heresy, and this contributed to the earlier obliteration of the Church in the present day Maghreb. Some historians contrast this with the strong monastic tradition in Coptic Egypt, which is credited as a factor that allowed the Coptic Church to remain the majority faith in that country until around after the 14th century.
However, new scholarship has appeared that disputes this. There are reports that the Roman Catholic faith persisted in the region from Tripolitania
Tripolitania
Tripolitania or Tripolitana is a historic region and former province of Libya.Tripolitania was a separate Italian colony from 1927 to 1934...
(present-day western Libya) to present-day Morocco for several centuries after the completion of the Arab conquest by 700. A Christian community is recorded in 1114 in Qal'a in central Algeria. There is also evidence of religious pilgrimages after 850 to tombs of Catholic saints outside of the city of Carthage, and evidence of religious contacts with Christians of Arab Spain. In addition, calendar reforms adopted in Europe at this time were disseminated amongst the indigenous Christians of Tunis, which would have not been possible had there been an absence of contact with Rome.
Local Catholicism came under pressure when the Muslim fundamentalist regimes of the Almohads and Almoravids came into power, and the record shows demands made that the local Christians of Tunis to convert to Islam. We still have reports of Christian inhabitants and a bishop in the city of Kairouan
Kairouan
Kairouan , also known as Kirwan or al-Qayrawan , is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia. Referred to as the Islamic Cultural Capital, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was founded by the Arabs around 670...
around 1150 AD - a significant report, since this city was founded by Arab Muslims
Arab Muslims
Arab Muslims are adherents of the religion of Islam who identify linguistically, culturally, or genealogically as Arabs. They greatly outnumber other ethnic groups in the Middle East. Muslims who are not Arabs are called mawali by Arab Muslims....
around 680 AD as their administrative center after their conquest. A letter in Catholic Church archives from the 14th century shows that there were still four bishoprics left in North Africa, admittedly a sharp decline from the over four hundred bishoprics in existence at the time of the Arab conquest. Berber Christians continued to live in Tunis and Nefzaoua in the south of Tunisia up until the early 15th century, and the first quarter of the 15th century, we even read that the native Christians of Tunis, though much assimilated, extended their church, perhaps because the last Christians from all over the Maghreb had gathered there.
By 1830, when the French came as colonial conquerors to Algeria and Tunis, local Catholicism had been extinguished. The growth of Catholicism in the region after the French conquest was built on European colonizers and settlers (mostly in Algeria), and these immigrants and their descendants for the most part left when the countries of the region became independent.
Christian Literature of Africa
The ecclesiastical literature of Christian Africa is the most important of Latin Christian literatures. The first name that presents itself is TertullianTertullian
Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...
, an admirable writer, much of whose work we still possess, notwithstanding the lacunae due to lost writings. Such works as the "Passio S. Perpetuae" have been attributed to him, but the great apologist stands so complete that he has no need to borrow from others.
Not that Tertullian is always remarkable for style, ideas, and theology, but he has furnished matter for very suggestive studies. His style, indeed, is often exaggerated, but his faults are those of a period not far removed from the great age of Latin literature. Nor are all his ideas alike novel and original, so that what seems actually to be his own gains in importance on that very account. In contradistinction to the apologists of, and before, his time, Tertullian refused to make Christian apologetics merely defensive; he appealed to the law of the Empire, claimed the right to social existence, and took the offensive.
His theology is sometimes daring, and even inaccurate; his morality inadmissible through very excess. Some of the treatises that come down to us were written after he separated from the Catholic Church. Yet, whatever verdict may be passed on him, his works remain among the most valuable of Christian antiquity.
The lawyer, Minucius Felix, has shown so much literary skill in his short treatises of a few pages that he has deservedly attained to fame. The correspondence, treatises, and sermons of St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, belong approximately to the middle of the 3rd century, the correspondence forming one of the most valuable sources for the history of Christianity in Africa and the West during his time. His relations with the Church of Rome, the councils of Carthage, his endless disputes with the African bishops, take the place, to some extent, of the lost documents of the period.
St. Cyprian, indeed, although an orator before he became a bishop, is not Tertullian's equal in the matter of style. His treatises are well composed, and written with art; they do not, however, contain that inexhaustible abundance of views and perspectives that are the sole privilege of certain very lofty minds.
Arnobius
Arnobius
Arnobius of Sicca was an Early Christian apologist, during the reign of Diocletian . According to Jerome's Chronicle, Arnobius, before his conversion, was a distinguished Numidian rhetorician at Sicca Veneria , a major Christian center in Proconsular Africa, and owed his conversion to a...
, the author of an apology for Christianity, is of a secondary interest; Lactantius
Lactantius
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian author who became an advisor to the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his religious policy as it developed, and tutor to his son.-Biography:...
, more cultured and more literary, only belongs to Africa by reason of the richness of his genius. The peculiar bent of his talent is purely Ciceronian, nor was he trained in the schools of his native land. Among these, each of whom has his name and place, there moved others, almost unknown, or hidden under an impenetrable anonymousness. Writings collected among the Spuria of Latin literature have been sometimes attributed to Tertullian, sometimes to St. Cyprian, or even to Pope Victor
Pope Victor
Pope Victor has been the papal name of three popes of the Roman Catholic Church.* Pope Victor I * Pope Victor II * Pope Victor III There were also two antipopes called Victor IV.* Antipope Victor IV...
, the contemporary of the Emperor Commodus. Other authors, again, such as Maximius of Madaura and Victorinus
Victorinus
Marcus Piavonius Victorinus was emperor of the secessionist Gallic Empire from 269 to 271, following the brief reign of Marius. He was murdered by a jealous husband whose wife he tried to seduce.-Reign:...
, stand, with Optatus of Milevi, in the front rank of African literature in the 4th century, before the appearance of St. Augustine.
The literary labours of St. Augustine are so closely connected with his work as a bishop, that it is difficult, at the present time, to separate one from the other. He wrote not for the sake of writing, but for the sake of doing. From the year 386 onward, his treatises appeared every year. Such profuseness is often detrimental to their literary worth; but what is more injurious, however, was his own carelessness concerning beauty of form, of which he hardly ever seems to think in his solicitude about other things. His aim above all else was to ensure conviction. The result is that we have the few beautiful passages that fell from his pen. It is to the loftiness of his thought, rather than to the culture of his mind, that we owe certain pages which are admirable, but not perfect. The language of Augustine was Latin indeed, but a Latin that had already entered on its decline. His desire was to be understood, not to be admired, which explains the shortcomings of his work in respect of style.
But when from his style we pass to his thoughts, we may admire almost unreservedly. Even here we find occasional traces of bad taste, but it is the taste of his period: florid, fond of glitter, puns, refinements-in a word, of the weaknesses of contemporary Latin.
Of all St. Augustine's vast labours, the most important, as they are among the first Christian writings, are: The "Confessions," the "City of God," and the "Commentary on the Gospel of St. John." As regards theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, his works gave Christianity an impulse that was felt for centuries. The doctrine of the Trinity supplied him with matter for the most finished exposition to be found among the works of the Doctors of the Church. Other writers, theologians, poets, or historians, are to be met with after St. Augustine's time, but their names, honourable as they are, cannot compare in fame with the great ones we record as belonging to the 3rd and 4th centuries. The endeavour of St. Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe, is to think and write as a faithful disciple of St. Augustine. Dracontius, a meritorious poet, lacks elevation. Only an occasional line deserves a place among the poetry that does not die. Victor of Vita, an impetuous historian, makes us sometimes wish, in presence of his too literary descriptions, for the monotonous simplicity of the chronicles, with their rigorous exactness. In the theological or historical writings of Facundus of Hermiane
Facundus of Hermiane
Facundus of Hermiane was a 6th-centuryChristian author, and Bishop of Hermiane in Africa.About his career little is known. His place in history is due entirely to the opposition which he offered to the condemnation of the "Three Chapters"...
, Verecundus, and Victor of Tunnunum, may be found bursts of passion of literary merit, but often of doubtful historical accuracy.
The writings of African authors, e.g., Tertullian and St. Augustine, are full of quotations drawn from the Sacred Scriptures. These fragmentary texts are among the most ancient witnesses to the Latin Bible, and are of great importance, not only in connection with the formation of the style and vocabulary of the Christian writers of Africa, but also in regard to the establishment of the biblical text. Africa is represented at the present day by a group of texts that preserved a version commonly known as the "African Version" of the New Testament. It may now be taken as certain that there never existed in early Christian Africa an official Latin text known to all the Churches, or used by the faithful to the exclusion of all others. The African bishops willingly allowed corrections to be made in a copy of the Sacred Scriptures, or even a reference, when necessary, to the Greek text. With some exceptions, it was the Septuagint text that prevailed, for the Old Testament, until the 4th century. In the case of the New, the MSS. were of the western type. (See Bible, Canon.) On this basis arose a variety of translations and interpretations. The existence of a number of versions of the Bible in Africa does not imply, however, that no one version was more widely used and generally received than the rest, i.e., the version found nearly complete in the works of St. Cyprian. Yet even this version was not without rivals. Apart from discrepancies in two quotations of the same text in the works of two different authors, and sometimes of the same author, we know that of several books of Scripture there were versions wholly independent of each other. At least three different versions of Daniel were used in Africa during the 3rd century. In the middle of the fourth, the Donatist Tychonius uses and collates two versions of the Apocalypse.
Liturgy
The liturgy of the African Church is known to us from the writings of the Fathers, but there exists no complete work, no liturgical bookLiturgical book
A liturgical book is a book published by the authority of a church, that contains the text and directions for the liturgy of its official religious services.-Roman Catholic:...
, belonging to it. The writings of Tertullian, of St. Cyprian, of St. Augustine are full of valuable indications that indicate the liturgy of Africa presented many characteristic points of contact with the liturgy of the Roman Church. The liturgical year comprised the feasts in honour of Our Lord and a great number of feasts of martyrs, which are offset by certain days of penance. Africa, however, does not seem to have conformed rigorously, in this matter, with what was else customary. The station days. The fast of these days was not continued beyond the third hour after noon. Easter in the African Church had the same character as in other Churches; it continued to draw a part of the year into its orbit by fixing the date of Lent and of the Paschal season, while Pentecost and the Ascension likewise gravitated around it. Christmas and the Epiphany were kept clearly apart, and had fixed dates. The cultus of the martyrs is not always to be distinguished from that of the dead, and it is only by degrees that the line was drawn between the martyrs who were to be invoked and the dead who were to be prayed for. The prayer (petition) for a place of refreshment, refrigerium
Refrigerium
The Latin word refrigerium literally means ‘refreshment’, and is the origin of the English noun ‘refrigerator’ . In ancient Rome, the word refrigerium referred specifically to a commemorative meal for the dead consumed in a graveyard. These meals were held on the day of burial, then again on the...
, bears witness to the belief of an interchange of help between the living and the departed. In addition, moreover, to the prayer for the dead, we find in Africa the prayer for certain classes of the living. (See African Liturgy.)
Dialects
Several languages were used simultaneously by the people of Africa; the northern part seems at first to have been a Latin-speaking country. Indeed, previous to, and during the 1st centuries of, our era we find there a flourishing Latin literature, many schools, and famous rhetoricians. However, Greek was currently spoken at Carthage in the 2nd century; some of Tertullian's treatises were written also in Greek. The steady advance of Roman civilization caused the neglect and abandonment of that tongue. At the beginning of the 3rd century an African, chosen at random, would have expressed himself more easily in Greek than in Latin; two hundred years later, St. Augustine and the poet Dracontius had at best but a slight knowledge of Greek. As to local dialects, we know little. No work of Christian literature written in Punic has come down to us, though there can be no doubt that the clergy and faithful used a language much spoken in Carthage and in the coast towns of the Proconsular Province. The lower and middle classes spoke Punic, and the CircumcellionsCircumcellions
The circumcellions were bands of heretical Christian extremists in North Africa in the early- to mid-4th century. They preferred to be known as agonistici . They were initially concerned with remedying social grievances, but they became linked with the Donatist sect. They condemned property and...
were to be among the last of its defenders. The Christian writers almost wholly ignore the native Libyan, or Berber, dialect. St. Augustine, indeed, tells us that this writing was only in use among the nomad tribes.