Catholic Identity in a Hostile Vandal Context: Insights from the Notitia Provinciarum

Abstract

Abstract Evaluating the Notitia Provinciarum, ambiguities regarding the transmission and the content are to be encountered. This paper attempts to gain a consistent view on this document in respect to facts conveyed and the presumptive historical context and to draw conclusions concerning the identity of Catholics in Vandal Africa. The relationship to the Historia Persecutionis by Victor of Vita and the Liber Fidei Catholicae has been surveyed. Assuming textual consistency of the document, conclusions concerning the contextual location have been drawn from its Incipit and hints inside. Linking it to events as reported in the Historia Persecutionis the meaning of appositions to names has been enlightened and a consistent understanding of the document has been demonstrated. Information regarding the identity of Catholics in Vandal Africa has been deduced from the results of this evaluation due to the fact of differences between the provinces in respect of the appositions. Thus, different views and decisions within the African Catholic Church in regard to Vandal rule and to the relationship to Catholic ecumenical Christianity become evident. In spite of a common confession of faith as documented in the Liber Fidei Catholicae, there was no common posture toward Vandal rule and toward Catholic ecumenical Christianity.