In the first three decades of the sixth century ad, the Nicene Church was clearly under great pressure from not only the Vandal monarchy but also the increasingly organized Arian establishment. There seems to have been a general recognition within the Nicene ecclesiastical hierarchy that new tactics would be required to counter the threat posed by the Arians, and in particular that those who had lapsed were to be won back by gentle encouragement not chastisement or threats.150 Along with his letters of advice and encouragement, Fulgentius worked hard to communicate the importance of resistance to the Catholic flock. He prepared sermons written in sermo humilis, plain Latin that could be easily understood by less-educated members of the congregation, and even produced an anti-Arian rhyming psalm, as his hero Augustine of Hippo had once done against the Donatists.151
In ad 523 an unexpected respite came in the form of the new Vandal king Hilderic, who was praised in the Life of Fulgentius for his ‘marvellous goodness’ (mirabilis bonitas).152 Going against the dying wishes of his predecessor, Thrasamund, Hilderic recalled all of the Nicene bishops from exile, granted them freedom of worship and restored much of their property to them. He also allowed the appointment of a new bishop of Carthage as well the resumption of episcopal elections for the multitude of see that lay unfilled due to the policies of his predecessor.153 According to his biographer, Fulgentius returned to Carthage with the other exiled bishops to a hero’s welcome, before going back in triumph to his home province of Byzacena.154 The African Nicene Church took full advantage of its new freedoms and held two provincial councils in Byzacena in 523 and a general synod at Carthage in 525. For the first time for a very long period, new Nicene churches were consecrated in Africa Proconsularis, including a new basilica in the town of Furnos Maius built by the Homoousian bishop Symeon in 528.155
However, despite the triumphal tone of the Nicene restoration, the years of exile and repression had inflicted considerable damage on its infrastructure, authority and internal cohesion. The proceedings of the Byzacenan Council at lunci in ad 523 and the General Council at Carthage in ad 525 shine a light on the severity of the problems which now faced the church.156 These were the first Nicene ecclesiastical meetings to be held in Vandal Africa for nearly 40 years, and there was much to be done. At Iunci, the assembled bishops deliberated over the boundaries of ecclesiastical jurisdiction between Byzacena and Tripolitania. They also adjudged a dispute between their Primate, Liberatus, and the abbot of a monastery, Peter, before finding in the former’s favour and confirming the authority of bishops over monks in their dioceses. It appears that the monasteries in Byzacena, which had operated for so long without the interference of the pastoral church, were far from enthusiastic about allowing bishops to assert their traditional authority over them. In the Council of Carthage, however, this decision was reversed by the assembled bishops. Of those present, only three bishops were from Byzacena, and Liberatus was conspicuous among the absentees.
Boniface, the new bishop of Carthage, had attempted to impose his primacy over the bishops of Byzacena by sending a letter to their council at Iunci establishing the date of Easter for that year. However, when it came to decisions over jurisdiction, it was certainly not clear that Liberatus and the other Byzacenan bishops were willing to accept his authority.157
It is striking how few delegates from outside Africa Proconsularis attended the Carthage conference: nine from Numidia, three from Byzacena, two from Tripolitania and just one from Mauretania. This might suggest that the authority of Carthage was not immediately welcomed in the other African provinces, but practical issues of transport and travel would certainly have played their part in keeping the numbers of bishops from distant dioceses down. It should also be noted that the 37 bishops who attended from Africa Proconsularis itself compares poorly with the 164 who had attended the council held at Carthage in 439.158 Clearly many sees were yet to be filled after falling vacant in the preceding years.
It was not just council documents that highlight the damage inflicted on the African Nicene Church. After returning home to Byzacena, Fulgentius’ considerable energies seem to have been taken up with restoring ecclesiastical discipline in his see of Ruspe. Divisions that had arisen between monks and clerics were partly healed by the appointment of a brother from his own monastery into pastoral roles. The lifestyle of these new priests and their congregations was also strictly controlled in an effort to maintain ecclesiastical discipline:
Each week, he set the Fast on Wednesday and Friday for all clergy and widows, as well as for whomever of the laity was able. All were commanded to be present at the vigils each day as well as at morning and evening prayers. Some turbulent souls he lashed with words, but others whose faults were public he had beaten with blows. Thus he attacked the vices of all with salutary words, so that while not mentioning names, he would cause all to be afraid and because of that salutary fear to abandon their hidden sins.159
Indeed, we might well want to view the Life of Fulgentius by the Carthaginian deacon Ferrandus, from which this extract derives, with its emphasis on its hero’s devotion to ascetic practice and pastoral duties, as exhortation for a damaged African Nicene Church to start restoring itself, rather like Possidius’ biography of Augustine a century before.
In another sign of the problems that now beset the Nicene Church, Fulgentius became embroiled in a dispute over episcopal precedence with another Byzacenan bishop, Quodvultdeus.160 Even on his death, the protracted wrangling over who should be his successor meant that the bishopric of Ruspe would remain embarrassingly vacant for a whole year. Indeed, even 11 years later the triumphal tone of the Byzantine conquest would be quickly muted by a growing awareness on the part of Justinian and his officials that the African Catholic Church, rather than being united in adversity, was in fact a deeply troubled and divided body.
World History
