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 CARTHAGE

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CARTHAGE

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 Aries (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 persecu- tion 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 Caecilian as Bishop of Carthage (311) by Felix of Aptunga, who was falsely accused of 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 disorganiza- tion 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. he 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 ecclesi- astical 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 Maure- tanias each obtained an episcopua primal sedis. These later primatial sees were, however, of little impor- tance; their metropolitans presided over the pro- vincial synods, appointed delegates to the annual councils of Carthage, received the appeals of the clergy of their provinces, and gave letters of travel Qittera formata > 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 pre- ferred, 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 con- ferred by heretics came up for discussion and was decided in the negative. After this date more than twenty councils were held in Carthage, the most im- portant 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 martyr- dom 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; Kirchen- lex., II, 1998; Duchesne, op. cit., I, xx) is as fol- lows: between 258 and 311 Carpophorus, Lucian, and Mensurius; Ca>cilian (311 till after 325); Gratus, at Council of Sardica (344-), presided at Council of Carthage (349) ; Restitutio, at Council of Rimini (359); Aurelius (391), presided at Council of Carthage (421); Capreolus (431); Quodvultdeus (437): Deo- gratias (454-458); Eugenius (481. exiled 496); Boni- face (523-535); Repartatus (535, banished 551): Primosus, or Primasius (553 till after 565) ; Publianus (581 1; 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 archiepisco-

Sal See of Carthage was restored by Leo XIII (19 fov., 18S4) and confided to Archbishop (later Car- dinal) Lavigerie, to whose zeal it was owing that since 1S75 the ancient site of Carthage became again a centre of Christian life (see Baunard, Le Cardinal La- vigerie, Paris, 1S9S, 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 dedi- cated 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 (1S73) 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 (run b) and fourteen vicariates. It was also owing to Cardinal Lavigerie that tin' fatuous 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 dis- covered. Apart from the light thrown by these ex- cavations on the Phoenician and Roman life of ancient

Carthage, the discoveries of Father Delattre have greatly increased our kn<>« ledge of t lie early Christian life of Africa, particularly in the fourth and fifth cen-