Roman Primacy according to the Africans. Prehistory, Content and Historical Consequences
Abstract
The article deals with the Roman primacy according to the Africans of the III-VII centuries. The curve of the history it draws is simple. Of the African thought on the subject Cyprian was the voice more or less definitive, close to Irenaeus of Lyons, who was perhaps one of his inspirers, but on another plane. Tertullian, between them, had shown his specific character. For Cyprian, promoter of what in our century was to be called “ecclesiology of communion”, the Apostle Peter was the first one invested by Christ to manifest the unity, and the Roman Church, who retains the memory of Peter, is the centre of the catholic communion : Peter did not have more than the other Apostles and the pre-eminence of the Roman Church does not means she enjoys a superior doctrinal or disciplinary authority. Optatus of Milevis and even Augustine were as a matter of fact, with original nuances, and adaptations with regard to Cyprian, successors of him, and successors who, until the VI century, had themselves descendants in Africa. The African ecclesiology did not stop during the Early Middle Ages, then, later, in the modern period, to exert its influence. It may today play a role within the Roman Catholic Church and in the ecumenical dialogue, between Churches having a historic episcopate.
