jan 1, 419 - Council of Carthage (419)

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When Apiarius of Sicca, a priest excommunicated by the African Church, went to Rome for reinstatement in 419, Pope Zosimus sent envoys to Africa in order to investigate. A council was called in Carthage to deny the papal jurisdiction. When the envoys tried to defend the pope's authority by quoting the Canons of the Council of Nicaea, Saint Augustine and Saint Aurelius condemned Pope Zosimus for interfering with the African Church's jurisdiction by falsifying the text of Canon 5. The African church leadership told Rome that Nicaea indeed "gave no authority for appeals by priests against their episcopal superiors." They further warned Pope Zosimus, and later Pope Celestine I, not to "introduce the empty pride of the world into the Church of Christ" and to "keep their Roman noses out of African affairs". The Council ruled that no bishop may call himself "Prince of Bishops" or "Supreme Bishop" or any other title which suggests Supremacy (Canon 39). It also ruled that if any of the African clergy dared to appeal to Rome, "the same was ipso facto cast out of the clergy".

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