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 CARTHAGE

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CARTHAGE

were those under which the Christians of the first and second centuries had been convicted. From the year of the martyrdom of Scillium anil 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 contribu- tion 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. Chris- tians 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 legis- lation 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 conversions (fiunt, non nascuntur Christian), 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 litera- ture". 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 main- tained 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 Thu- burbo 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 con- demned as a heretic Privatus, Bishop of Lambesa. Like Tertullian, Cyprian was a convert to Christian- ity; 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 sacri- fice 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 severe penalties induced large numbers to comply with the law. Many others, however,

E roved themselves worthy of their religion and died eroically. 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 uncompli- mentary 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 them- selves to receive back apostates (lapsi, libettatici) into communion, merely on the recommendation of confessors awaiting martyrdom in prison. The intercession of confessors for the fallen was then cus- tomary, and was always regarded by the bishops as a reason for remitting part of the canonical pen- ance for apostasy. But in Carthage at this time some of the confessors seem to have regarded them- selves as having practically superseded the bishops, and issued letters of communion in a tone of com- mand. One of them, for example, gave a note order- ing the restoration of the bearer and his friends to communion (communicet ille cum stii-s). 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 suc- cess. 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 rigor- ist; he admitted apostates to penance, indeed, but without hope of reconciliation with the Church, even at the point of death. His views, however, were re- ceived with little favour, and eventually, through the efforts of Dionysius of Alexandria, Cyprian, and Pope Cornelius, the Roman confessors from whom he hail derived his prestige deserted his party and were admitted to communion. The attempts to or- ganize 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 Koine baptism conferred by heretics was per se admitted to be valid; in Africa such baptism was regarded as