Selected Works

Introduction

INTRODUCTION Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe (c. 467–532), considered the greatest North African theologian after the time of Augustine (died 430), did not possess an original mind, but he propagated and defended the Augustinian heritage against the adversaries of the day, notably, Arians and Pelagians (or at least semi-Pelagians). This volume gives English readers for the first time an opportunity to study a representative selection of the writings of this early sixth-century author as well as presenting the Life for the first time in English. North Africa had been under the rule of the Germanic Vandals for several decades when Fulgentius was born. It may be recalled that they had crossed over from Spain c. 429 and that Hippo Regius was under siege as Augustine lay dying in August of 430. Carthage fell in 439. In 455, a Vandal fleet sacked Rome. The Vandals were Arians, and their regime in North Africa, which was to last for nearly a century , has been portrayed as extremely brutal and harsh for Catholics. The History of the Vandal Persecution by Bishop Victor of Vita has recently been published in English.1 Fulgentius ’s family had been victimized by the Vandals earlier, and, in his own life, he too would suffer persecution and exile. He died only a short time before the Byzantine “liberation.” Life Some things about the biography of Fulgentius are quite definite, viz., that he was in his sixty-fifth year when he died; that he had been a bishop for twenty-five years; that he died on the first of January and was buried the next day; that Felixv 1. Victor of Vita: History of the Vandal Persecution, trans. John Moorhead. Translated Texts for Historians, vol. 10 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1972.) cianus, his successor as bishop of Ruspe, was ordained to the episcopate one year to the day after the burial of Fulgentius. The only problem is that no years are attached to these facts so that our view of the major dates of his life are not firmly tied down to anything. Since the Life is the first of the works to be translated in this volume, there is no point in reviewing all the details of his biography here, but it would be helpful to attempt to pin down some of these dates. We may start with the fact that at this time the ordination of African Catholic priests to the episcopate took place on Sunday. Since the second of January fell on a Sunday in 528 and 533, the date of the death of Fulgentius must have been January 1, 527 or 532. Thus he must have been born in either 462/463 or 467/468 and ordained bishop of Ruspe in 502 or 507. There are reasons for preferring one date to the other, but the majority of scholars today come down in favor of the later dates, giving him a life span of 467 to 532. In this case, he was bishop of Ruspe from 507 to 532. He was born in the inland city of Thelepte in the African province of Byzacena, well south of Carthage, of a prominent family. With a good education and great prospects, he became procurator or tax-collector (of his city ?) at an early age. But he soon turned away from this life and chose the monastery. Most of his biography revolves around his life after this conversion. One other certain date in his life is the year 500. It was in this year that the Ostrogothic king of Italy, Theoderic, made his only visit to Rome. According to the Life, Fulgentius was by chance visiting Rome himself at that moment, a side trip from Sicily where he had been staying with Bishop Eulalius of Syracuse. Having been discouraged by that bishop from pursuing his ambition of proceeding to Egypt to live with the monks there, he returned to Africa, then suffering under the harsh rule of Thrasamund (496–523). Against his will, Abbot (and Bishop) Faustus ordained Fulgentius a priest. A few years later the Catholic bishops who remained decided that they must risk defying the king’s prohibition INTRODUCTION xvi INTRODUCTION xvii against the ordination of new Catholic bishops. Try as he might, Fulgentius was ultimately unable to avoid being chosen as one of these new bishops and c. 507, he was ordained bishop of Ruspe, a town on the Mediterranean coast...