Carthage, Canon 134: The African Council Writes to Boniface of Rome

Canon 134. Here begins the letter sent by the whole African Council to Boniface, bishop of the City of Rome, by the hand of Faustinus the bishop and Philip and Asellus the presbyters, legates of the Roman church. [a] To our most blessed lord and honored brother Boniface, from Aurelius, Valentine of the primate’s see of Numidia, and the others present with us, two hundred and seventeen in number, from the whole council in Africa. [b]

It has pleased the Lord that our humility should write about what our holy brothers Faustinus, our fellow bishop, and Philip and Asellus, our fellow presbyters, have done among us. We write not to Bishop Zosimus of blessed memory, from whom they brought instructions and letters to us, but to your holiness, who have been set in his place by divine authority. So we ought briefly to set out what has been decided by common consent. We do not mean what is contained in the lengthy volumes of the proceedings, in which, though love was kept, we lingered not without some little labor of dispute, deliberating over the things in the proceedings that now bear on the case. How much more gladly he would have received this news, my lord and brother, seeing the matter brought to a more peaceful end, had he still been in the body! Apiarius the presbyter, whose ordination, excommunication and appeal caused no small scandal, not only at Sicca but in the whole African church, has been restored to communion after asking pardon for all his sins. First, our fellow bishop Urban of Sicca without doubt corrected whatever in him seemed to need correcting. For we had to keep in mind the peace and quiet of the church, not only now but in the future. So many evils of this kind had gone before that it was our duty to take care that similar or even graver ones should be prevented from then on. We decided that the presbyter Apiarius should be removed from the church of Sicca, keeping only the honor of his rank, and that he should exercise the office of presbyter wherever else he wished and was able, once he had received a letter to that effect. We granted this without difficulty, at his own request, made in a letter. But before the case was closed in this way, among the other matters we were dealing with in our daily discussions, the nature of the case required us to ask our brothers, Faustinus our fellow bishop and Philip and Asellus our fellow presbyters, to set out what they had been instructed to take up with us, so that it could be entered in the church’s records. They began to make a spoken statement, but when we earnestly asked them to present it in writing instead, they produced the Commonitory. It was read to us and also set down in the proceedings, which they are bringing with them to you. In it they were instructed to take up four matters with us. First, the appeal of bishops to the pontiff of the Roman church. Second, that bishops should not be sailing to the court in an unbecoming way. Third, the hearing of the cases of presbyters and deacons by neighboring bishops, if they had been wrongly excommunicated by their own. And fourth, Bishop Urban, who was to be excommunicated or even sent to Rome unless he corrected what seemed to need correction. Concerning the first and the third of these, that bishops may appeal to Rome and that the cases of clergy should be settled by the bishops of their own provinces, we already took pains last year, in our letter to the same Bishop Zosimus of venerable memory, to let him know that we were willing to observe these provisions for a little while, without any injury to him, until the search for the statutes of the Council of Nicaea was finished. And now we ask your holiness to have the acts and decrees of our fathers at the Council of Nicaea observed by us, and to have carried out there among you the things they brought in the Commonitory, that is: “If a bishop has been accused…” and the rest. (Here follows Canon 7 of Sardica.) [c] Likewise concerning presbyters and deacons: “If any bishop has been quick to anger…” and the rest. (Here follows Canon 17 of Sardica.) [g]

These are the things that have been entered in the proceedings until the most accurate copies of the Nicene Council arrive. If these things are contained there, as the Commonitory that our brothers brought us from the Apostolic See alleged, and if they are even kept in that order by you in Italy, in no way could we be compelled either to endure such treatment as we are unwilling to mention, or to suffer what is unbearable. But we believe, through the mercy of our Lord God, that while your holiness presides over the Roman church we will not have to suffer that arrogance. And there will be kept toward us what ought to be kept with brotherly love toward us, who are raising no dispute. You will also see, by the wisdom and justice that the Most High has given you, what ought to be observed if perhaps the canons of the Council of Nicaea are other than you suppose. For although we have read a great many copies, we have never read in the Latin copies that there were any such decrees as are contained in the Commonitory mentioned above. So too, because we can find them in no Greek text here, we have desired that copies of the decrees be brought to us from the Eastern churches, for it is said that correct copies of the decrees are to be found there. For this purpose we beg your reverence to be so good as to write yourself also to the pontiffs of those parts, that is, of the churches of Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople, and to any others as well if it pleases your holiness, so that from there the same canons decreed by the fathers in the city of Nicaea may come to us. In this way, by the help of the Lord, you would confer this very great benefit on all the churches of the West. For who can doubt that the copies of the Nicene Council gathered in the Greek empire are the most accurate, when, though brought together from such different and such noble Greek churches, they are found to agree when they are compared? Until this is done, we are willing to allow the provisions laid down for us in the Commonitory already mentioned to be observed until the proof arrives: those concerning the appeals of bishops to the pontiff of the Roman church, and concerning the cases of clergy, which should be settled by the bishops of their own provinces. And we trust that your blessedness will help us in this, according to the will of God. As for the rest of the matters dealt with and decided in our synod, since the brothers already named, our fellow bishop Faustinus and the presbyters Philip and Asellus, are carrying the proceedings with them, they will make them known to your holiness, if you are so good as to receive them. And they signed. May our Lord keep you for us for many years, most blessed brother. Alypius, Augustine, Possidius, Marinus and the rest of the bishops, two hundred and seventeen in all, also signed. [h]