Apiarius of Sicca

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Apiarius was a Christian priest from the North African Sicca Veneria . He was at the center of the so-called Apiarius affair , which led to violent clashes between the African Church and the Roman papacy between 418 and 426 , which tried to expand its leading position in the Catholic Church.

prehistory

Apiarius was probably excommunicated at the beginning of the year 418 by his superior Bishop Urban of Sicca because of his offensive way of life. However, he turned to Pope Zosimus in Rome to have his sentence lifted or mitigated. Around the same time, perhaps also in response to this action by the Apiarius, a council of the African Church on May 1, 418 had expressly forbidden clerics of the rank of priest or less to appeal ad transmarinum , i.e. to the Roman bishop, in disputes .

First papal intervention

Just like his predecessor Pope Innocent I , Zosimus also tried to expand the supremacy of the Roman bishop over the church as a whole. He had also previously stood against the North African Church in the conflict over the clerics Caelestius and Pelagius , although in this case he had given in to the resistance. Now he sought the conflict again by making himself the advocate of Apiarius and sending three ambassadors, including Faustinus of Potenza, to Africa. They carried a letter from the Pope with them, in which he declared the invocation of Rome by a presbyter to be legal, with reference to supposedly Nicean canons , and demanded that Apiarius be reinstated in the priesthood. He also threatened the Bishop of Sicca with excommunication if he defied his orders.

In the case of Apiarius, the African bishops initially showed concession. He was allowed to remain a priest, but was removed from Sicca. Urban promised improvement wherever it was needed, as required.

The cited texts of the Council of Nicaea, on the other hand, aroused rejection from the African bishops, as they clearly regulated the right only of bishops to appeal to Rome and that of presbyters to appeal to the neighboring bishops. The present case was not included. In addition, they could not find in their own copies of the Nicaean resolutions the provisions on which the Pope relied. They therefore replied to Zosimus that they would request copies of the original resolutions from Nicaea and examine them.

Synod of Carthage 419

This happened after another synod in Carthage on May 26, 419. As it turned out, it was actually resolutions of the Council of Serdica that the Pope had passed off as Nicene. At this synod, the bishops rejected the request of the Roman ambassadors that the Pope should decide on the legality of the texts presented. Clergymen, including presbyters, were expressly forbidden to turn to courts across the sea in disputes. It was unequivocally determined:

"Ad transmarinum autem qui putaverit appellandum, a nullo intra eadem provincia in communione suscipiatur."

"But anyone who believes that they may appeal to courts in overseas areas should not be accepted into the community by anyone in Africa."

After the negotiations were over, they wrote a letter to the Pope, after Zosimus' death it was Boniface I , in which they protested sharply against the interference of the Roman bishop and complained about the presumptuous behavior of his ambassadors.

Second papal intervention

A few years later, in 424 or 425, it was again Apiarius who gave rise to a new confrontation between the North African and Roman churches. Again he, who was now living in Thabraca , was excommunicated by a synod because of his way of life, again he called on the Pope - now it was Celestine I - for help, and again this sent Faustinus as ambassador to address the case at a synod clarify.

Synod of Carthage 424/425

When the negotiations were over after three days, during which Apiarius admitted his mistakes after long denial, the African bishops wrote an extremely harsh letter in which they forbade both Roman embassies and the acceptance of transmarine appeals in the future the Pope. The letter, which became known as the Optaremus letter after its inception , insists on the independence of the African ecclesiastical jurisdiction without diplomatic consideration. It ends with an expression of hope that we will not have to deal with the envoy Faustinus again:

"Nam de fratre nostro Faustino ... securi sumus, quod cum probitate ac moderatione tuae sanctitatis salva fraterna caritas ulterius in Africa minime sustinere patiatur."

"But as far as our brother Faustinus is concerned ... we are sure that by virtue of the justice and the measured sense of Your Holiness - without prejudice to brotherly love - Africa will from now on be spared him."

literature

  • Giovanni Domenico Mansi : Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, Vol. 4 , Florence, 1760
  • Myron Wojtowytsch: Papacy and Councils from the Beginnings to Leo I , Popes and Papacy, Volume 17, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7772-8121-2
  • Brent D. Shaw: Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine , Cambridge 2011, ISBN 978-0-521-19605-5
  • E. Glenn Hinson: The Early Church: Origins to the Dawn of the Middle Ages , Nashville 1996, ISBN 0-687-00603-1
  • Henry Chadwick: The Church in the Ancient World , Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-11-002268-0
  • JE Merdinger: Rome and the African Church in the Time of Augustine , New Haven & London 1997, ISBN 978-0-300-10528-5

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Myron Wojtowytsch: Papacy and Councils of the beginnings to Leo I , Pope and the Papacy, Volume 17, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7772-8121-2 , S. 368
  2. ↑ Brent D. Shaw: Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine , Cambridge 2011, ISBN 978-0-521-19605-5 , p. 405
  3. ↑ a b c Myron Wojtowytsch: Papacy and Councils from the Beginnings to Leo I , Popes and Papacy, Volume 17, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7772-8121-2 , p. 254
  4. ↑ a b Myron Wojtowytsch: Papacy and Councils from the Beginnings to Leo I , Popes and Papacy, Volume 17, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7772-8121-2 , p. 255
  5. ^ Giovanni Domenico Mansi : Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, Vol. 4 , Florence, 1760, pp. 419-434
  6. ^ Giovanni Domenico Mansi : Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, Vol. 4 , Florence, 1760, pp. 431f.
  7. ↑ Myron Wojtowytsch: Papacy and Councils from the Beginnings to Leo I , Päpste und Papstum, Volume 17, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7772-8121-2 , p. 257
  8. ↑ Myron Wojtowytsch: Papacy and Councils from the Beginnings to Leo I , Popes and Papacy, Volume 17, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7772-8121-2 , p. 256
  9. ↑ Brent D. Shaw: Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine , Cambridge 2011, ISBN 978-0-521-19605-5 , p. 406
  10. ^ Giovanni Domenico Mansi : Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, Vol. 4 , Florence, 1760, pp. 477-516
  11. ↑ a b Letter of the Carthaginian Synod v. J. 424 to the Pope (accessed January 17, 2015)
  12. ↑ Myron Wojtowytsch: Papacy and Councils from the Beginnings to Leo I , Popes and Papacy, Volume 17, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7772-8121-2 , p. 259
  13. ^ Giovanni Domenico Mansi : Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, Vol. 4 , Florence, 1760, pp. 515f.
  14. ↑ Myron Wojtowytsch: Papacy and Councils from the Beginnings to Leo I , Päpste und Papstum, Volume 17, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7772-8121-2 , p. 258

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Apiarius of Sicca
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Christian priest from the North African Sicca Veneria
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century
DATE OF DEATH after 425