2. North African Christianity
2
NORTH AFRICAN CHRISTIANITY
In this section, I want to say something about the time and place in which Tertullian lived and wrote. Pre-Nicene Christianity was very different from that after the Council. North African Christianity had a different flavour to that in Italy, Asia Minor, Syria or elsewhere.
Solid evidence for Christianity in North Africa comes with Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs in 180.
Those who argue for a Jewish origin for Christianity in Carthage put forward evidence to show a Jewish influence on the development of North African Christianity and attempt to find weaknesses in the suggestion that it came from Rome. North African Jews had developed a Latin religious vocabulary for those who could not read Hebrew or Greek, and the fact that Christians used some of these Latin terms is taken as an indication that the first North African Christians had been Jews.
In addition, against the idea that North African Christians came originally from Rome are the arguments that North Africa did not follow the Western practice of only few bishops, that Tertullian had little knowledge of the Roman church and never acknowledged any debt to Rome (as one would expect a daughter church would) and that the African Christians had been influencing Rome rather than the other way around (Telfer 1961:512–17). The more Roman features of North African Christianity are claimed as a later graft upon its Jewish foundations.
On the other hand, while he sees no proof of Christianity coming to Carthage from Rome in what Tertullian wrote in On the Prescriptions of Heretics 36 (Barnes 1985:64– 7), Barnes does not find the evidence about the Jewish origins of North African Christianity convincing, particularly if Jewish communities were only established in the West after the capture of Jerusalem in 70 (Barnes 1985:273–5, 330; Rives 1995:217). Tertullian’s reference to seniores (Apology 39–5) is probably to presbyters rather than to a group of lay elders (which really only emerges in the fourth century) (Shaw 1982:207– 26). Proof for Christian burial in the Jewish cemetery is lacking (Le Bohec 1981:168–9). Some, myself included, are inclined to read a little more into Tertullian’s statement about connections with Rome than Barnes (Rankin 1995:16; Dunn 2001a:408–10, 2003a:12– 15). Even if Carthaginian Christianity was a daughter church of Rome, it was now quite an independent one, as Tertullian’s writings indicate.
If we accept that Apuleius referred to Christianity in Africa in Metamorphoses 9.14 then Christianity must have arrived there by the middle of the second century. The organization of Christianity, its spread into the countryside among local inhabitants and the fact that Tertullian could not be more explicit about its origins, suggest too that Christianity had been present for some time before it emerged into notice (Rives 1995:223–5). It makes sense to think that Christians would have reached Carthage early, given that it was a major harbour in the Mediterranean.
Relying upon Tertullian for evidence of Christian origins in North Africa must remain of limited value. I think the most insightful comment comes from Telfer who suggested that ‘African Christianity knew no single paternity, having resulted from the joining up of Christian groups with different origins’ (Telfer 1961:516). In a cosmopolitan trade centre like Carthage, it would not be a surprise to discover (if that were still possible) that both Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles arrived in Carthage from any number of other locations, sought converts from people from their own homelands and established quite a number of small and independent Christian communities that were probably languagebased or based upon a city of origin. Which community came first or was most dominant seems to be something we shall never know. We also do not know when the various small communities became one Christian community under one bishop. As we shall note later in this introduction, many versions of Christian thinking came to Carthage and found a home. Montanism was embraced by Tertullian; the ideas of Valentinus, Marcion, Hermogenes and Prodicus, however, were the object of Tertullian’s opposition.
In July 180, six or twelve Christians with local names were brought from a neighbouring town to be tried in Carthage before the proconsul, P.Vigellius Saturninus.
We do not know exactly where these martyrs were buried, but there was a basilica dedicated to them somewhere just outside the city limits. The fifth-century Christian, Victor of Vita, recorded the Vandals as handing over to the Arians the Basilica Scillitanorum, perhaps also known as the Basilica Celerinae (History of the Vandal Persecution 1.9), which may simply mean that Celerina was buried in the same basilica. Augustine preached in it on occasion.
We do not know what had happened to bring them to the attention of the authorities but we read nothing about popular agitation against Christians. In the absence of any information to the contrary, it would seem that Christianity returned to obscurity in North Africa after this for the next quarter of a century. This document provides us with an insight into what appears to be, at least according to the surviving records, a characteristic attitude of North African Christians. They were eager for martyrdom. Even though they were obedient to civil authority, it was divine authority that mattered to them. Reaction to persecution rather than theological dispute was always to be an issue of the utmost importance to Christians in this part of the Mediterranean. Martyrs were the role model.
In March 203, a small group of newly initiated Christians, who had been baptized while under house arrest, and their catechist met a grizzly end as public entertainment in the amphitheatre of Carthage. We still possess an edited account of their imprisonment and execution (one in Latin and another in Greek), which contains material recorded by two of the victims (the catechist Saturus and a young wife and mother from a respectable family, Vibia Pereptua), known as The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas. It is a possibility, although a very remote one in some scholars’ opinions, that Tertullian was the editor of this passio. This is an enormously important document and has been used to gain insight into social, political and religious history, as well as feminism and psychology.
We find in it evidence for the catechumenate as a means of initiating those attracted to Christianity. In this group, there were both men and women, all of whom are described as young (Perpetua being twenty-two years old). They came from across the social spectrum: Perpetua was well-born, whereas Revocatus and Felicitas were both slaves (Passion 2). Although Perpetua and an unnamed brother were both catechumens, the rest of the family were probably not. Her Christianity angered and perplexed her father (who most definitely was not Christian) so much so that they were barely on speaking terms (Passion 3), yet he pleaded with her to avoid bringing shame on her family and to think of her new-born child (Passion 5–6). The group was moved from house arrest to prison after their baptism and the rest of the Christian community tried to take care of their needs through the deacons Tertius and Pomponius (Passion 3). Their catechist had not been arrested with the others but surrendered himself to the authorities to join his former catechumens (Passion 4).
Both Perpetua and Saturus made a record of visions they received while imprisoned, an indication of their literacy and status. In her first vision, Perpetua follows Saturus up a booby-trapped ladder, treading on the head of a dragon on the way (a possible reference to Ps 90 [91]: 13). At the top of the ladder was a garden, and old shepherd who gave her sheep’s milk to drink, which she interpreted as a prediction of passion (Passion 4). In her second vision, her dead younger brother Dinocrates was revealed to her to be in suffering, from which he was delivered after Perpetua prayed in her next vision (Passion 7–8). In the fourth vision, Perpetua was escorted to the amphitheatre by the deacon Pomponius, where she fought naked with an Egyptian, in the guise of a man and won a branch for her victory (Passion 10). In Saturus’ vision, he and Perpetua were led after death into a bright light and a garden where they received the homage of angels and met other martyrs. Outside the garden, alone, were Optatus the bishop and Aspasius the presbyter, who fell to their knees and begged the martyrs to restore peace between them. Perpetua spoke to them in Greek and the angels admonished them to settle their quarrels and quell the factions that divided their community (Passion 11–13).
In their trial, before the procurator Hilarianus, we are told that Perpetua refused to offer the sacrifice for the emperor’s welfare and that the procurator asked her whether she was a Christian (Passion 6). Her positive answer was enough to secure her condemnation.
The rest of the passio is a graphic account of the death. In prison, they had secured the conversion of their warden (Passion 16). The martyrs are described as joyful in the face of death. They refused to be dressed in the robes of pagan priests. The spectacle involved them being pitted against wild animals like bears, leopards and boars. Perpetua and Felicitas faced a wild heifer. After being mauled, they were finished off by the sword, Perpetua guiding the sword of her inexperienced executioner into her own throat (Passion 18–21).
This all occurred while the emperor Septimius Severus was in Africa, probably at Lepcis (Birley 1988:153–4). Other persecutions occurred during his reign (193–211). This raises the frequently asked question of the authenticity of a general edict against Christianity being issued by Severus, as is asserted in some of the ancient literature (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 6.1.1; [Aelius Spartianus], Augustan History—Life of Severus 17.1). Although both sides of the argument have not proven their cases convincingly, I would conclude that it seems unlikely that such an edict existed. The persecutions remained too sporadic and Christian literature too positive about Severus (Tertullian, To Scapula 4.3–6) to believe that it did. If Perpetua was arrested under it then why was her brother not arrested as well? We do not know why this group was arrested in the first place, but it does seem that they had not been sought out as part of a coordinated campaign. Persecutions, when they did occur, were sporadic and localized.
The martyrs were buried in the Basilica Maiorum to the north of the city on top of a small, grassy hill between what is now the American war cemetery and the beachside suburbs of northern Carthage. Today, the site is barely recognizable and is not signposted. It is a tragedy for one of the truly remarkable women of early Christianity (Ennabli 1982).
A generation or two after Tertullian, we know that there were numerous bishops scattered throughout the provinces of North Africa. The area was highly urbanized, with hundreds of cities and towns, even though many of them were quite small (about 2,000– 3,000 people). Yet many people lived outside these urban settlements in the countryside, many on the vast agricultural estates that provided the agricultural lifeline upon which Rome depended, in situations where they benefited little from town amenities.