Wednesday 15 June 2011

Jane Merdinger: Ecclesiology on Trial: Augustine vs. Emeritus at Caesarea

This paper will examine Augustine’s encounter with Emeritus, the Donatist bishop of Caesarea, in September  418.  Papal business brought Augustine out to Mauretania Caesariensis, but I believe that he also regarded the long trip as his final opportunity to persuade Emeritus – one of his most intransigent rivals – to embrace Catholicism.  My paper will demonstrate that scholars have paid insufficient attention to several historical and ecclesiological factors that prompted Augustine to be sanguine about Emeritus’ possible conversion.  Conciliar acta, proceedings of the Colloquy of 411, writings (or fragments) of Augustine, Cyprian, Tertullian, Tyconius, Emeritus, and Possidius will anchor my arguments.
   Pope Zosimus’ request for Augustine to settle some ecclesiastical matters in Mauretania came at a propitious moment.  The Council of 418 (at Carthage) had just ended.  Though Pelagianism had been the chief topic, the issue of forced conversions of Donatists and their integration into Catholic congregations had also bulked large on the agenda.  By concentrating on Pelagianism, scholars have overlooked important clues regarding the immediate background to Augustine’s mission out west.  I shall also address the Mauretanian Church’s long-standing aversion to rebaptism – the cornerstone of Cyprian’s and Donatus’ ecclesiology.  In one of his letters, Augustine preserves information from the Donatist theologian Tyconius, indicating that for the first forty years of Donatism’s existence, the Mauretanian bishops refused to countenance rebaptism.  Scholars, however, have paid scant attention to such news.     Recent emphasis on Donatism as the authentic African Church has obscured the dissension that characterized the formative years of that sect.  Examination of the Donatist councils of Carthage (336), Cebarsussi (393), and Bagai (394), together with Emeritus’ ripostes at the Colloquy of 411 will reveal the deep ecclesiological fissures in the Donatist Church, which Augustine sought to exploit in his final meeting with Emeritus.   

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