The Election of Primian and Its Consequences, Mid 390S

chapter 3 The Election of Primian and Its Consequences, Mid 390s

Whilst Augustine, as a young bishop in the mid-390s, was briskly acquiring sta- tus as a veteran anti-Donatist campaigner, history was presenting the Catholic side with an event that would define the internal dynamics of the Donatist Church in the 390s and early 400s, and this largely in a negative sense. This event was the ascension of Primian of Carthage,1 successor to the famed Dona- tist bishop, Parmenian. Primian would go on to serve as Donatist primate in a period of transition perhaps unmatched in the history of that Church. Under his tenure, he would oversee a decade (the 390s) in which Donatism would consolidate its hegemony, ecclesiastically and politically, almost making it the undisputed Church in Roman North Africa,2 much to the displeasure of Augus- tine and other nascent Catholic insurgents. But by the first decade of the fifth century, the Donatist Church had suf- fered a number of setbacks at the hands of Roman imperial authorities and also because of the proselytising efforts of the Catholics, essentially putting the Donatist Church in a defensive posture concerning its own existence. One therefore cannot help asking how this series of events transpired so quickly and how the Donatist fortunes reversed so rapidly. Was there a link between the leadership of Primian and the gradual eradication of Donatism as a struc- tured organisation distinguishable from the Catholics? To answer these questions, in this chapter I examine contemporary evidence that might shed light on the reception of Primian’s election as bishop of Carthage within the context of Augustine’s anti-Donatist campaign. Specifi- cally, I discuss the degree to which the controversy over Primian’s election was a polemical gateway (locus polemicus) for Augustine, the main opponent of the Donatists, as he embarked on his own prolonged anti-Donatist agenda. As a corollary, I analyse whether, as suggested by B. Kriegbaum,3 Primian can be

1 Reigned c. 392–411/12(?); Mandouze, Prosopographie de l’Afrique Chrétienne, s.v. ‘Primianus 1’, 905–13. 2 Frend referred to this epoch as the ‘culminating point’ in Donatist history in The Donatist Church, 223. 3 B. Kriegbaum, ‘Die Donatistischen Konzilien von Cebarsussa (393) and Bagai (394)’, Zeitschrift für Katholische Theologie 124 (2002), 267.

The Election of Primian 81 considered responsible for the decline of Donatism, and whether his election as Donatist primate ushered in the beginning of the end of Donatism as an entity independent of the Christianity found in other parts of the empire at that time. But first some preliminary remarks are in order. Any discussion of the cir- cumstances surrounding Primian’s election is rendered tendentious in view of the fact that the historical record is rather limited. The evidence we do have, such as a number of surviving specimens of Donatist literature and ideas, are tainted by the pro-Catholic bias of Augustine, Donatism’s greatest historical definer.4 This bias likewise extends to overly-negative descriptions of Primian himself found in modern research and literature, making him the quintessen- tial cad of antiquity.5 Also, whilst at this stage I endeavour to identify the causal relationship between the election of Primian and the suppression of Donatism, it is disingenuous to assign complete blame to the bishop6 and infelicitous to

4 James Alexander, ‘Donatistae’, in Augustinus-Lexikon, vol. 2, ed. C. Mayer (Basel: Schwabe & Co., 1999), 631. 5 A plethora of examples exist and a few examples from recent research are as follows (au- thor followed by abbreviated title): (1) those summarising Primian with a highly negative tone: Gerald Bonner, ‘a man of violence rather than a leader or diplomat’, St Augustine of Hippo: Life and Controversies (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 1986), 247; Frend, ‘man of extreme views and ruthless violence’, (The Donatist Church, 213); Kriegbaum, ‘Zu einem guten Teil scheint Primian selbst für den Niedergang des Donatismus um die Wende vom 4. zum 5. Jh. Verantwortlich gewesen zu sein,’ ‘Die Donatistischen Konzilien von Cebarsussa (393) and Bagai (394),’ 267; and then (2) those who posit a neutral assessment of Primian (the majority view): Willis, Saint Augustine and the Donatist Church, 31–35; Arne Hogrefe, Umstrittene Ver- gangenheit: Historische Argumente in der Auseinandersetzung Augustins met den Donatisten (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009), 24–37 & 102–06, Jean.-Louis Maier, Le dossier du Donatisme. 1: Des origines à la mort de Constance ii (303–61), Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 134 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1987), 73–92; Mandouze, Prosopog- raphie de l’Afrique Chrétienne, 905–11; Matthew Gaumer, ‘The Evolution of Donatist Theology as Response to a Changing Late Antique Milieu’, Augustiniana 58/3–4 (2008), 216–18, Erika Hermanowicz, Possidius of Calama: A Study of the North African Episcopate (New York: Ox- ford University Press, 2008), 126; no mention is made to Primian in the most popular works of Brown (Augustine of Hippo: A Biography) nor O’Donnell (Augustine: A New Biography; and (3) those with a positive rendition of Primian’s career: Pamela Bright, ‘learned and passionate’, (‘Donatist Bishops’ in Augustine Through the Ages, An Encyclopedia, ed. A. Fitzgerald (Grand Rapids, mi: Wm. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999), 283); Tilley, ‘a talented orator and gifted theo- logian (though not enough to counterbalance his lack of pastoral sensitivity)’, (The Bible in Christian North Africa), 133. 6 There were a number of external factors that led to the decline of Donatism (laid out in Chris Botha, ‘The Extinction of the Church in North Africa’, Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 57 (1986), 24–25), such as: Donatism could not overcome the tension between indigenisation