Councils of Carthage

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Synods of Carthage During the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries the town of Carthage in Africa served as the meeting-place of a large number of church synods, of which, however, only the most important can be treated here.

  • In May 251 a synod, assembled under the presidency of Cyprian to consider the treatment of the lapsi, excommunicated Felicissimus and five other Novatian bishops (Rigorists), and declared that the lapsi should be dealt with, not with indiscriminate severity, but according to the degree of individual guilt. These decisions were confirmed by a synod of Rome in the autumn of the same year. Other Carthaginian synods concerning the lapsi were held in 252 and 254.[1]
  • Two synods, in 255 and 256, held under Cyprian, pronounced against the validity of heretical baptism, thus taking direct issue with Stephen I, bishop of Rome, who promptly repudiated them, and separated himself from the African Church. A third synod, September 256, unanimously reaffirmed the position of the other two. Stephen's pretensions to authority as bishop of bishops were sharply resented, and for some time the relations of the Roman and African Churches were severely strained.[2]
  • About 348 a synod of Orthodox bishops, who had met to record their gratitude for the effective official repression of the Circumcelliones (Donatists), declared against the rebaptism of any one who had been baptized in the name of the Trinity, and adopted twelve canons of clerical discipline.[3]
  • The Council of Carthage, called the third by Denzinge