This Holy Seed THIS HOLY SEED Robin Daniel As often as you mow us down, the more numerous do we become: The blood of the Christians is seed. For who, when he sees our obstinacy “There is hope for a tree. is not stirred up to find its cause? If it is cut down, it will sprout again, Who, when he has enquired, and its new shoots will not fail.” does not then join our Faith? And who, when he has joined us, “Like a terebinth or an oak, does not desire to suffer, whose stump remains standing when it is felled. That he may gain the whole grace of God? The holy seed is its stump.” 1 Job 14:7; Isaiah 6:13 Tertullian Despite the fiercest opposition, the terror of the greatest persecutions, FOR MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN NORTH AFRICA, Christians have held with unswerving faith HEIRS TO THE SAINTS AND THE MARTYRS. to the belief that Christ has risen, that all men will rise in the age to come, and that the body will live forever. And this belief, proclaimed without fear, has yielded a harvest throughout the world, 2nd edition, 2009 and all the more when the martyrs’ blood ISBN: 978 0 9538565 3 4 Produced in this format by Tamarisk Publications, 2014 was the seed they sowed. email: [email protected] 2 Augustine Text and maps © Robin Daniel, 1992, 2009 Also available in French as L’héritage chrétien en Afrique du Nord (Editions Tamaris, 2008) and in Arabic as (Dar Manhal al Hayat, Beirut, 1999). 1 Apology 50 2 City of God 22:7 2 This Holy Seed This Holy Seed CONTENTS PART THREE – THE AGE OF CYPRIAN (3rd century) 12. Humanity and Humility ……………………………………………………………… 133 Preface …………………………………………………………………………….……….. 6 the life of Cyprian (200-258) 13. Meetings and Ministers ……………………………………………………………… 147 Introduction ………………………………………………………………………….……. 8 leadership in the churches 14. Church in Chains …………………………………………………………………….. 158 Dates ………………………………………………………………………………..…..... 12 persecution under Valerian (253-260); Christians in the Numidian mines; the Massa Candida; the farm at Mugas; Montanus and Flavianus; Maximilian, Marcellus, Names of North African Towns ……………………………………………………....….. 14 Cassianus and the Roman army 15. Conferences and Congregations ………………………..………………….…………. 170 the developing Catholic organization 16. Distance and Diversity ……………………………………………………..………… 181 PART ONE – FIRST FRUITS (1st and 2nd centuries) the inland spread of the Gospel; Carthage, Alexandria and Rome 17. Memories and Martyrs …………………………………………………………….…. 193 1. A Seed is Sown ………………………………………………………………………… 15 the cult of the martyrs; persecution under Diocletian and his successors(284-311); martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas (AD 203); the city of Carthage Salsa; the Edict of Milan AD 313 2. Peoples and Pioneers …………………………………………………………………… 23 18. Conversion and Consecration ………………………………………………………... 202 Phoenicians, Romans, Imazighen the life of Arnobius (260-327); the call of Antony; monasticism 3. Majesty and Mystery …………………………………………………………………… 29 pagan religion in North Africa: animism, magic, Baal, Tanit 4. Treasures and Travellers………………………………………………………………… 41 th th the coming of the Gospel to North Africa PART FOUR – THE AGE OF AUGUSTINE (4 to early 5 century) 19. Purity and Protest ……………………………………………………………………. 211 the growth of the Donatists; the Circumcellions PART TWO – THE AGE OF TERTULLIAN (late 2nd to early 3rd century) 20. Trauma and Tragedy ………………………………………………………………… 228 the fall of the Donatists; Marcellinus and Constantine 5. The World and the Way ……………………………………………………………….... 49 21. Despair and Deliverance ………………………………………………………...…… 241 Christians in a pagan society – attitudes to slavery, idolatry, the emperor, the army, the conversion of Augustine (354-386) marriage, work 22. Servant and Scholar …………………………………………………………….…… 253 6. Loyalty and Love ………………………………………………………………………. 62 the ministry of Augustine I (386-430) – Overseer and Shepherd; clothing; buildings; the Christian community – meetings, the Lord’s Supper, baptism, cheerful giving, art in the Christian community discipline, buildings, art 23. Pastor and Preacher ………………………………………………………………..… 263 7. The Triumph of Truth ……………………………………………………….…….…… 73 the ministry of Augustine II (386-430) – Preacher and Theologian the life of Tertullian (160-230); the Montanists 24. City of Rome and City of God ……………………………………………………..… 273 8. Documents and Doctrines ………………………………………………………….…… 87 the writings of Augustine I – the fall of Rome; parables of salvation the making of the New Testament: the Septuagint; Tertullian’s definition and defence 25. Ceremonies and Celebrations ………………………………………………………… 285 of the Faith; the apostolic churches meetings of the church, the Lord’s Supper; Easter; baptism; Christian marriage; 9. Cross and Crown ……………………………………………………………...…….… 100 miracles persecution under Marcus Aurelius and Commodus (177-192), and Severus (202-204); 26. Creeds and Controversies …………………………………………………………..… 295 sufferings in Gaul; martyrdom of Polycarp, Speratus and friends in Scillium, the writings of Augustine II – Arianism, Pelagianism, providence Leonides and Origen 27. Advice and Admonition ……………………………………………………...………. 309 10. Trial and Testimony ………………………………………………………….……… 110 preaching of Augustine in the church at Hippo persecution under Decius (249-251); testimony of Celerinus, Aurelius, Numidicus; 28. Fashions and Frailties ………………………………………………………...……… 319 reasons for persecution errors and corruptions; relations with the church in Rome 11. Grace and Glory …………………………………………………………..…………. 122 the Christians’ response to persecution 3 4 This Holy Seed This Holy Seed PART FIVE – LAST HARVEST? (mid 5th century onwards) PREFACE 29. Confusion and Collapse …………………………………………………………...… 331 Vandal invasion (430-533); Byzantine reconquest (533-670) The dating of events in early North Africa is the subject of continuing scholarly 30. Conquerors and Colonists …………………………………………………………… 339 debate, and we have attempted to note the most generally accepted dates. The Arab invasion and settlement (670-1400); the Christian remnant 31. Purpose and Providence ………………………………………………………...…… 354 numbering of Cyprian’s letters follows that of the Eerdmans edition of the Ante- the hand of God in the history of the Church Nicene Fathers series, volume 5. For Augustine’s letters and sermons, we have 32. Renewal and Resurrection ……………………………………………………...…… 363 followed the numbering of the Benedictine Latin texts. The Eerdmans’ Nicene and a word to my brothers and sisters in North Africa – the aim of the churches; Post-Nicene Fathers series arranges Augustine’s sermons somewhat differently, the treasure of God; the promise of life but also notes the Benedictine numbering. Biblical quotations are from the New International Version, except where otherwise noted. Terminology is a matter of greater difficulty. Certain words which originated with the Greek- and Latin-speaking Christians of the first and second centuries APPENDICES were still being used by their successors in the Middle Ages; some are still current i. The Imazighen of North Africa ………………………………………...……………… 371 today. The earliest Christians did not always use those words in the same sense as those who came after them. The medieval Roman Catholic Church, in particular, ii. Creeds ………………………………………………………...………………………. 382 with its hierarchy of religious officials and its liturgical formulae, continued to use ancient Latin terms although the practices and beliefs which they represented had iii. Foreknowledge and Freewill …………………………………….…………………… 384 by then evolved to such an extent that the apostles would hardly have recognized them. iv. The Name of Jesus …………………………………………………………………… 388 For this reason we have avoided certain traditional words that might be misleading, and adopted equivalents which may convey more accurately the Questions for Discussion ………………………………………………………………… 392 meaning understood during the period we are studying. We refer, for example, to Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………..……. 396 “overseers” rather than “bishops”. Despite its derivation from the early Greek episkopos and Latin episcopus, the word “bishop” does not today evoke the role or Map: Western North Africa, 3rd Century AD …………………………………….…….… 401 activity of an episkopos in a North African church of the first and second centuries. For the same reason we refer to “elders” rather than “presbyters”, and to “helpers” Map: Eastern North Africa, 3rd Century AD ……………………………………….….…. 402 rather than “deacons”. For convenience, a small “o” is used for the “overseers” who were jointly responsible for the early churches, and a capital “O” for the solitary “Overseer” who often replaced them from the third century onwards. We have also avoided words with a modern denominational connotation. The early churches were neither Roman Catholic, nor Protestant, and they knew nothing of customs and beliefs adopted in later centuries. In place of the term “ordination”, for example (with all this implies to the modern reader), we simply refer to people being appointed to positions of leadership, or oversight, in the churches. We avoid speaking of “monks” and “nuns”, because the communities of celibate Christians in the early days bore little resemblance to their medieval successors. The word “conference” is used for the occasional gatherings of Overseers, in preference to the more traditional “council”, because the former conjures up in the modern mind a better idea of what actually took place on those occasions. The word “church” with a small letter is used of any local fellowship of believers. The word “Church” with