1/7/2024 0 Comments North africa epiphany city![]() At this period the African Church went through a very grave crisis. Another council, held in the time of Cyprian, about the middle of the 3rd century, was attended by eighty-seven bishops. A council held at Carthage about the year 235 was presided over by the earliest known bishop of Carthage, Agrippinus, and was attended by eighteen bishops from the province of Numidia. If we rely on texts less definite we may admit that the evangelization of Northern Africa began very early.īy the opening of the 3rd century there was a large Christian population in the towns and even in the country districts, which included not only the poor, but also persons of the highest rank. Christianity, however, did not even then cease to make distant conquests Christian epitaphs are to be found at Sour El-Ghozlane, dated 227, and at Tipasa, dated 238. Perpetua and the treatises of Tertullian. We gain information as to its various phases from the martyrdom of St. About the year 200 there was a violent persecution at Carthage and in the provinces held by the Romans. It had passed the Roman military lines, and spread among the peoples to the south and southeast of the Aure. At a somewhat later date the writings of Tertullian tell us how rapidly African Christianity had grown. The historical period of the African Church begins in 180 with groups of martyrs. Christianity filtered in, so to speak, little by little.īishoprics were founded among the converts, as the need for them arose were moved, possibly, from place to place, and disappeared, without leaving a trace of their existence. The high lands of the Sahara and all the country west of the Atlas range were inhabited by the nomad tribes of the Gaetuli, and there are neither churches nor definite ecclesiastical organizations to be found there. Parts of Mauretania always remained independent the mountainous region to the west of the Aurès Mountains (Middle Atlas), and the plateau above the Tell never became Roman. These limits, however, were not only liable to successive rectification, but in some cases they were not even clearly marked. Again and again the Roman political authority rearranged the provincial divisions, and on various occasions the ecclesiastical authorities conformed the limits of their respective jurisdictions to those of the civil power. The delimitation of the ecclesiastical boundaries of the African Church is a matter of great difficulty.
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