Apiarius of Sicca was an African Christian priest convicted by the Bishops of
Africa of numerous unspecified crimes in the early 5th century AD, and
excommunicated by Bishop Urbanus of
Sicca Veneria.
Appeal to the bishop of Rome
In 418, Apiarius appealed his convictions directly to
Pope Zosimus (Term of Office: March 417-December 418), bypassing the
African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
Bishops appeals system. Pope Zosimus, citing what he claimed was a
canon of the
concil of Nicea, sent
legates to assess the charges.
However, the African bishops cast doubt on the authenticity of the canon used, i.e. "When a bishop thinks he has been unjustly deposed by his colleagues he may appeal to Rome, and the Roman bishop shall have the business decided by judices in partibus". The African bishops were right, since the canon was not one of the Nicene canons, but rather a canon from the Latin version of the
Sardica canons.
"the affair of the priest Apiarius, where the legitimacy of the appeals to
Rome was called into question, prompted the need for a collection of oriental canons and the constitution of two dossiers (one, too hastily gathered, at the end of the
Council of Carthage in May 419; the other, compiled more at leisure, and therefore more complete, which was transmitted to Rome at the end of 419). This ''Codex Apiarii causae'' is in itself a testimony to the importance that
Africa, like
Rome, attached to the legislative provisions of the past, and therefore in a certain sense to tradition."
Pope Boniface I (Term of Office: December 418-423) took over the appeal by Apiarius of Sicca in 418 at the death of Pope Zosimus. In 419, the Bishops of Africa sent the copies of the Nicene canons obtained from Alexandria and Constantinople to justify their position that the Nicene canons did not permit Pope Zosimus' actions.
Jugement
"
the council at Carthage in 425, Apiarius pleaded guilty to all the charges, putting end to the jurisdictional conundrum."
Legacy
The controversy over the right of a bishop to appeal directly to the
bishop of Rome outlasted Pope Boniface and was still the subject of correspondence during the term of
Celestine I (Term of Office: 423-432), successor to Boniface.
See also
*
Papal primacy
*
Papal supremacy
Papal supremacy is the doctrine of the Catholic Church that the Pope, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, the visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful, and as pastor of the ...
References
External links
*
*
5th-century bishops in Roman North Africa
{{portal bar, Biography, Catholicism, Africa