Timeline of the history of Afriqa
•1100 BC -- Phoenicians begin colonizing North Africa with the founding of Outih (Utica).
•814 BC -- Qart Hadrasha (Carthage) founded by Tyrian colonists.
•6th c. BC -- Carthaginian control extends to Morocco, Libya, Sardinia, Malta and the Balearic Is. Carthage cooperates with Etruscans to conquer Greek-held Corsica.
•508 BC -- Rome and Carthage sign a treaty to cooperate against the Greeks.
•480 BC -- Sicilian Greeks defeat Carthage at Himera.
•406 BC -- Carthage conquers Selinus and other Greek colonies in western Sicily.
•396 BC -- Greeks defeat Carthage on Sicily. Domestic upheaval in Carthage results in overthrow of the king. Republic established.
•330-323 BC -- City of Carthage at largest extent -- population 200,000.
•310 BC -- Greek king of Syracuse attacks Carthage and plunders the mainland for three years.
•264-241 BC -- First Punic War. Sicily and Sardinia fall to Rome. Carthage retains southern Spain.
•241-238 BC -- Libyan revolt against Carthage.
•218-201 BC -- Second Punic War
•218 BC -- Hannibal Barca besieges Saguntum in Spain.
•202 BC -- L. Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal at Zama.
•149-146 BC -- Third Punic War.
•146 BC -- L. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus destroys Carthage. Carthage becomes a Roman province, Africa Proconsularis.
•118-105 BC -- Numidian kings, Massinissa and Jugurtha fight Roman expansion.
•19 BC -- Virgil's Aeneid is published.
•AD 29 -- Augustus establishes colonia Julia Carthago, a colony for veterans, on the site of Punic Carthage.
•AD 100 -- Carthage is the third largest city in the Roman Empire.
•AD 145-65 -- Antonius Pius constructs a large bath complex.
•AD 160-255 -- St. Tertullian of Carthage, first Christian writer in Latin.
•AD c.200-258 -- St. Cyprian, first bishop of Carthage to be martyred.
•AD 270-335 -- St. Donatus.
•AD 312 -- Caecilian is consecrated bishop of Carthage by Felix of Aptunga, an alleged traditor, precipitating the Majorinian controversies.
St. Donatus of Casae Nigrae
The New Catholic Encyclopedia ©2005 Saint Benedict Press
The New Catholic Encyclopedia ©2005 Saint Benedict Press
Little is known of his earlier life because of the complete loss of his correspondence, and lack of biographical information in his writings. He was born to Berber parents sometime in the late IIIrd century in Numidia. Some sources list his father's name as Liberius, no mention is made of his mother. He first appears in Church records as Donatus of Casae Nigrae in October 313 when Pope Miltiades found him guilty of re-baptizing clergy who had lapsed and of forming a schism within the Church.
In order to trace the origin of the controversy we have to go back to the persecution under Diocletian. The first edict of that emperor against Christians (24 Feb., 303) commanded their churches to be destroyed, their Sacred Books to be delivered up and burnt, while they themselves were outlawed. Severer measures followed in 304, when the fourth edict ordered all to offer incense to the idols under pain of death. After the abdication of Maximian in 305, the persecution seems to have abated in Africa. Until then it was terrible. In Numidia the governor, Florus, was infamous for his cruelty, and, though many officials may have been, like the proconsul Anulinus, unwilling to go further than they were obliged, yet St. Optatus is able to say of the Christians of the whole country that some were confessors, some were martyrs, some fell, only those who were hidden escaped. The exaggerations of the highly strung African character showed themselves. A hundred years earlier St. Tertullian had taught that flight from persecution was not permissible. Some now went beyond this, and voluntarily gave themselves up to martyrdom as Christians. Their motives were, however, not always above suspicion. Mensurius, the Bishop of Carthage, in a letter to Secundus, Bishop of Tigisi, then the senior bishop (primate) of Numidia, declares that he had forbidden any to be honoured as martyrs who had given themselves up of their own accord, or who had boasted that they possessed copies of the Scriptures which they would not relinquish; some of these, he says, were criminals and debtors to the State, who thought they might by this means rid themselves of a burdensome life, or else wipe away the remembrance of their misdeeds, or at least gain money and enjoy in prison the luxuries supplied by the kindness of Christians.
Mensurius explains that he had himself taken the Sacred Books of the Church to his own house, and had substituted a number of heretical writings, which the prosecutors had seized without asking for more; the proconsul, when informed of the deception refused to search the bishop's private house. Secundus, in his reply, without blaming Mensurius, somewhat pointedly praised the martyrs who in his own province had been tortured and put to death for refusing to deliver up the Scriptures; he himself had replied to the officials who came to search: "I am a Christian and a bishop, not a traditor." This word traditor became a technical expression to designate those who had given up the Sacred Books, and also those who had committed the worse crimes of delivering up the sacred vessels and even their own brethren.
It is certain that relations were strained between the confessors in prison at Carthage and their bishop.
In 311 Maxentius obtained dominion over Africa, and a deacon of Carthage, Felix, was accused of writing a defamatory letter against the tyrant. Mensurius was said to have concealed his deacon in his house and was summoned to Rome. He was acquitted, but died on his return journey. Before his departure from Africa, he had given the gold and silver ornaments of the church to the care of certain old men, and had also consigned an inventory of these effects to an aged woman, who was to deliver it to the next bishop. Maxentius gave liberty to the Christians, so that it was possible for an election to be held at Carthage. The bishop of Carthage, like the pope, was commonly consecrated by a neighbouring bishop, assisted by a number of others from the vicinity. He was primate not only of the proconsular province, but of the other provinces of North Africa, including Numidia, Byzacene, Tripolitana, and the two Mauretanias, which were all governed by the vicar of prefects. In each of these provinces the local primacy was attached to no town, but was held by the senior bishop, until St. Gregory the Great made the office elective. St. Optatus implies that the bishops of Numidia, many of whom were at no great distance from Carthage, had expected that they would have a voice in the election; but two priests, Botrus and Caelestius, who each expected to be elected, had managed that only a small number of bishops should be present. Caecilian, the deacon who had been so obnoxious to the martyrs, was duly chosen by the whole people, placed in the chair of Mensurius, and consecrated by Felix, Bishop of Aptonga or Abtughi. The old men who had charge of the treasure of the church were obliged to give it up; they joined with Botrus and Caelestius in refusing to acknowledge the new bishop. They were assisted by a rich lady named Lucilla, who had a grudge against Caecilian because he had rebuked her habit of kissing the bone of an uncanonized martyr immediately before receiving Holy Communion.
Secundus, Primate of Numidia and Bishop of Tigisi, was presently invited to Carthage by the rigorist party. He came, attended by 70 bishops, and cited Caecilianus before them. Felix of Aptunga was denounced as a traditor and consequently it was claimed that any ordination performed by him was invalid.
Caecilianus himself was charged with unnecessary and heartless severity to those who had visited the confessors in prison; he was denounced as a "tyrannus" and a "carnifex" - "butcher." He declined to appear before an assembly so prejudiced; but professed his willingness to satisfy them on all personal matters, and offered, if right was on their side, to lay down his episcopal office, and submit to re-ordination.
Secundus and the Numidian bishops answered by excommunicating him and his party, and ordaining as bishop the reader Majorinus, a member of Lucilla's household.
Both parties confidently anticipated the support of the state; but Constantine I, now emperor of this part of the Roman world, took the side of the Caecilianus. In his largesse to the Christians of the province, and in his edicts favourable to the church there, he expressly stipulated that the party of Majorinus should be excluded: their views were, in his opinion, the "madness" of men of "unsound mind." The rigoristic party appealed to the justice of the emperor, and courted full inquiry to be conducted in Gaul — at a distance from the spot where passions and convictions were so strong and one-sided.
A Council in Rome met in 313 AD. presided over by Pope Miltiades who had as his assessors the bishops of Cologne, Arles and seventeen others. Caecilianus appeared with ten bishops; Donatus, Bishop of Casae Nigrae, in Numidia, headed the party of Majorinus. The personal charges against Caecilianus were examined and dismissed, and his party proclaimed the representatives of the orthodox Catholic church; Donatus himself was declared to have violated the laws of the church, and his followers were to be allowed to retain their dignity and office only on condition of reunion with Caecilianus' party. The bitterness of this decision was modified by Caecilianus' friendly proposal of compromise; but his advances were rejected, and the cry of injustice raised. It was wrong, the rigorists pleaded, that the opinion of twenty should overrule that of seventy; and they demanded first that imperial commissioners should investigate matters at Carthage itself, and that then a council should be summoned to examine their report, and decide upon its information.
Constantine met their wish. Jurists went to Carthage, collected documents, tabulated the statements of witnesses, and laid their report before the bishops assembled at the Council of Arles in 314 A.D. This council, presided over by Marinus, bishop of Arles, and composed of about 200 persons, was the most important ecclesiastical assembly the Christian world had yet seen; and its decisions have been of permanent value to the church. As regarded Caecilianus personally, the validity of his ordination was confirmed, the charge raised against his consecrator, Felix, was proved baseless; and in regard to this wider issues were debated such as the status and meaning of traditor, proof or disproof of and ordination by traditors, when valid or not. Canons on baptism and re-baptism of great importance were passed.
It was during the Council of Arles, that Donatus had his vision. During a dream, Donatus found himself standing before the crucified Peter, weeping before him. As Donatus was moved to tears by the sight, Peter spoke, "Is this not enough for a man who denied his Lord?" Then, Jesus stood before him and said, "I suffered my passion alone, abandoned by my own apostles. Yet on the very man who denied me three times, I made him the rock to build the Church. Such is my mercy. Your fervor is strong, and I ask of you to be my apostle of mercy."
After his ecstasy, Donatus' rigor was softened. Using his famed eloquence, he had managed to sway his party to accept the permanence of Baptism, and passionately proclaimed the importance of God's mercy, insisting that a renewal of vows was enough. The threat of schism subsided, and as a sign of gratitude, Donatus was made Caecilianus' successor after his death.
During his episcopate, Donatus wrote his famous, "On Mercy and the Passion" which is symbolic of the African fervor and mercy the region is known for. Donatus founded the first monastery in Carthage and is often credited for developing the monastic tradition in Africa as the Desert Fathers had done before him. Donatus died in 362 AD during the reign of Julian the Apostate.
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