NORTH AFRICAN CHURCH.
Region and Population (§1).
Entrance and Growth of Christianity (§ 2).
Organization of Christianity (§ 3).
Schism, Doctrines, and Persecutions (§ 4).
Final Conflicts with Heathenism; Fall under Islam (§5).
Grouped with the Mediterranean countries by
reason of its position, boundary, and peculiarity of
population, North Africa became the theater of a
political, religious, and economic development which
quite early brought this country into
i. Region relations with the Roman Empire, and,
and Pop- in turn, with the Roman Church.
ulation. Bounded north and west by the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; south and east by the Sahara and the Libyan Desert; separated from the rest of Africa, the region comprising modern Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli appears like a land by itself. Hence it was called Lesser Africa, while among the Arabs it bore the designation Djezirat el Maghreb, " Island of the West." The term Atlantide points to the Atlas range and its bearings upon the structure of the country and the character of its soil. On the west, this range ultimately subsides into the plain of the Bagradas, chief stream of North Africa; thus also affording the principal channel of entrance for external civilizations. The population shows three component elements: the Berbers, a term commonly applied to the native races; the Phenician invasion, which spread especially over the coast regions, founding also many small town-communities within the country; and the Roman colonization, as to the brilliant results of which more than one African Pompeii affords knowledge.
Christianity must have reached Africa in the first century; in Tertullian's time the Christians were already quite numerous. In the way of entrance gates, besides Carthage, other coast towns were also available, and expansion or propagation in the interior was facilitated by the military roads,
North African Church North, Frank Mason
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
penetrating the entire district. Possibly Roman soldiers and officials were largely the pioneers of Christianity, a suggestion favored by the strong military element in the church language of Africa. Though Tertullian names but four towns besides Carthage with Christian congregations (Hadrumetum, Thysdrus, Lambasis, headquarters of the third legion, and Uthina), there were Christians by that time also in Mauretania. But 2. Entrance the Christian element must have and Growth grown very considerably from that of Chris- period until 249, seeing that Cyprian
tianity. (Epist., lxxiii. 3) speaks of "so many thousand heretics." With reference to the source, every indication points to Rome. North Africa furnished a peculiarly productive soil for Christianity. Under the expansion of the great landed Roman estates, the sometime free cultivators lapsed more and more into the condition of bondmen; thus forming, together with the slaves, the great body among whom the Gospel found willing acceptance, from whom also those hordes were subsequently recruited, who, as wandering monastics, made common cause with the Donatists. The religious elements already on the ground were opposed by Christianity. Tertullian and Cyprian discountenanced the veneration accorded to the Berber princes. Still greater danger came from the Punic religion, stained as it was by bloody human sacrifices and immoral rites. In relation to the Punic religion, again, there manifested itself the great adaptability of Roman paganism: Phenician Baal becomes Roman Saturn; Astarte (Tanit) became " The Great Goddess," " Celestial Diana," " Great Goddess Virgin Celestial." The Punic language maintained itself long beside the Latin; but the Bible was translated into neither the Punic nor the Berber tongue. Indeed, by using the Latin language Christianity rendered the Romans an important auxiliary service in colonization.
The gradual spread of Christianity over North Africa, advancing from Africa Proconsularis across Numidia, was closely attended with the formation of numerous congregations; and just as 3. Organ- their political connection lay with ization of Rome, so did their ecclesiastical organi- Christianity. zation reflect the like influence. Six provinces were formed in the reign of Diocletian; Proconsularis (Zeugitana), Byzacium (Byzacena), Numidia, Tripolis, Mauretania Sitifensis, and Mauretania Caesareensis, and with these the contemporary church provinces coincided. At the head of each stood the primate, a rank held by the eldest bishop of the province, who bore the designation senex, except in Proconsularis, where the primate was constantly associated with Carthage, the metropolitan see. The Christians endured many troubles from the Arian Vandals, at Carthage and in the Proconsularis, who sequestrated churches and possessions. Anotherfactor of influence on the state of the church was the spread of the Moors, who during the Vandal period recaptured a large part of the earlier Roman possessions. The number of congregations under direct episcopal control was considerable. Of such there were, in Augustine's time, at least .500, although the installation of bishops in the country
districts and smaller towns was forbidden. The great number of bishops has been explained by the Africans' municipal bent and by the many rural towns. On the large landed estates, besides, even the separate " castles " sometimes had bishops of their own. It is possible also that, owing to the conflict between Catholics and Donatists, in many places rival bishops were set up. Where there was no bishop, the congregation was led by a presbyter, assisted by a deacon. For better ecclesiastical cure, Carthage came to be divided into regions, after the precedent of Rome. The organization and scope of episcopal power involve the adjunct of that ecclesiastical " penitentiary " which began with Tertullian and reached its termination under Cyprian. As defender of the primitive Christian theory of morality, and as Montanist, Tertullian opposed the innovation that was introduced at Rome by Calixtus, whereby sins of lewdness, previously classed with idolatry and murder as mortal sins, were reckoned with pardonable sins. In Cyprian there arose for the North African Church a bishop who, on the one hand, compatibly with Rome, both terminated the influence of the remaining clergy and of the congregation, as " reinforcing " the bishop's, but on the other hand stoutly and successfully guarded, in opposition to Rome, the independence of the African Church, and himself became practically, if not legally, the primate of the Church in North Africa. This was owing alike to his towering personality, and to the importance accruing to the bishop of the capital of the country. Contributing to this end were the general synods, which were held over and above the provincial synods, the latter embracing either single, or several collective, provinces. Peculiar to the Church of North Africa are the seniores plebis (" elders of the people "), who may be regarded as a sort of congregational leaders. They are distinguished, on the one side, from clerics ; but, on the other side, they are designated as ecclesiastici veri, "men of the Church."
The tranquil development of church affairs was disturbed by many divisions and sects, which found a favorable soil in North Africa. The Montanists (see Montanism) and Manicheans (q.v.) won to their
cause the two principal theologians of
4. Schism, the country, the Montanists gaining
Doctrines, Cyprian, and the Manicheans, fora time,
and Per- Augustine. It was Donatism, how-
secutions. ever, which inflicted the deepest
wounds upon the African Church, and the Donatist movement not only produced a Numidian national Church, but also spread over the other provinces. For more than a century after the year 312, this great schism divided the North African Church into two camps, at times of nearly equal strength. The significance of the North African Church in relation to the development of Christian doctrine is best ascertained from the writings of Tertullian, on whom Cyprian depends, and from St. Augustine's works. There were also such active apologists as Arnobius and Lactantius. Some insight into the moral status is afforded by Tertullian (De speclacidis; De pcenitcntia, and De puiliritia) and Cyprian (Ail Donatum; De hnbilu rirgittum); as also by St. Augustine's " Confessions," A val-