Archdiocese of Carthage

Coordinates: 36°48′01″N 10°10′44″E / 36.80028°N 10.17889°E / 36.80028; 10.17889
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Church of Carthage
)
This article is about the ancient archdiocese active until the Islamic occupation (except revival 1884–1964). For its successor, see Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tunis.
Archdiocese of Carthage

Archidioecesis Carthaginensis
Bishopric
Titular archbishop
Vacant since 1979

The Archdiocese of Carthage, also known as the Church of Carthage, was a

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

Latin Christianity"[6][7] 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

Antiquity

Latin Christianity"[6][7] and "the founder of Western theology."[8]

Earliest bishops

Cyprian of Carthage, Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus, bishop of Carthage, Church Father, died in martyrdom in 258.

In Christian traditions, some accounts give as the first bishop of Carthage

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

Ruins of the Basilica called of Saint Cyprian, discovered in 1915.
Saint Perpetua and Saint Felicitas
.
Ruins of the Basilica of Damous El Karita, the largest church building in Carthage, ornamented with more than 100 columns.

In the 3rd century, at the time of Cyprian, the bishops of Carthage exercised a real though not formalized primacy in the

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

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

Council of Carthage (256)
.

A division in the church that came to be known as the

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

Council of Carthage (411),[9]
Donatist communities continued to exist as late as the 6th century.

Successors of Cyprian until before the Vandal invasion

The immediate successors of Cyprian were Lucianus and Carpophorus, but there is disagreement about which of the two was earlier. A bishop Cyrus, mentioned in a lost work by

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

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

Capreolus was bishop of Carthage when the Vandals conquered the province. Unable for that reason to attend the

Council in 525.[9]

Middle Ages

Praetorian prefecture of Africa

The

Patriarch Paul II of Constantinople
(641 to 653). Victor became bishop of Carthage in 646.

Islamic conquest of Mahgreb

Further information: Muslim conquest of the Maghreb

Last resident bishops

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

Two letters of

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

After the

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

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

Innocent IV.[28]

List of bishops
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]
...
  • Stephen
...
  • James (974×983)
...

Titular see

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

References

  1. ISBN 9781438110271
    .
  2. ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. "Africa". Catholic Encyclopedia. (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1913).
  3. ^ François Decret, Early Christianity in North Africa (James Clarke & Co, 25 Dec. 2014) p86.
  4. ^ Leo the Great, Letters89.
  5. ^ Plummer, Alfred (1887). The Church of the Early Fathers: External History. Longmans, Green and Company. pp. 109. church of africa carthage.
  6. ^ a b Benham, William (1887). The Dictionary of Religion. Cassell. pp. 1013.
  7. ^ a b Ekonomou 2007, p. 22.
  8. ^ a b Gonzáles, Justo L. (2010). "The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation". The Story of Christianity. Vol. 1. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 91–93.
  9. ^
    OCLC 609155089
    .
  10. OCLC 1084084
    .
  11. S2CID 195430375
    .
  12. ^ "Cartagine". Enciclopedia Italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti (in Italian). 1931 – via treccani.it.
  13. OCLC 613240276
    .
  14. OCLC 680468850
    .
  15. 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.)
  16. ^ a b Hassett, Maurice M. (1908). "Archdiocese of Carthage" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  17. OCLC 680510498
    .
  18. ^ (Contractus), Hermannus (2008-08-20). "Patrologia Latina, vol. 143, coll. 727–731". Retrieved 2019-01-17.
  19. ^ Primus archiepiscopus et totius Africae maximus metropolitanus est Carthaginiensis episcopus
  20. ^ Mas-Latrie, Louis de (1883). "L'episcopus Gummitanus et la primauté de l'évêque de Carthage". Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes. 44 (44): 77. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  21. ^ 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
  22. ^ Sollier, Joseph F. (1910). "Charles-Martial-Allemand Lavigerie" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  23. ^ Bouchier, E.S. (1913). Life and Letters in Roman Africa. Oxford: Blackwells. p. 117. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
  24. ^ François Decret, Early Christianity in North Africa (James Clarke & Co, 2011) p200.
  25. ^ Der Nahe und Mittlere Osten By Heinz Halm, page 99
  26. ^ Ancient African Christianity: An Introduction to a Unique Context and Tradition By David E. Wilhite, page 332-334
  27. ^ "citing Mohamed Talbi, "Le Christianisme maghrébin", in M. Gervers & R. Bikhazi, Indigenous Christian Communities in Islamic Lands; Toronto, 1990; pp. 344–345".
  28. ISBN 9781843838098
    ., page 103-104
  29. ISBN 9781960069719
    .

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Archdiocese of Carthage.

36°48′01″N 10°10′44″E / 36.80028°N 10.17889°E / 36.80028; 10.17889

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Archdiocese_of_Carthage&oldid=1182529900"