MENSURIUS, Bishop of Carthage. - He governed his Church during the difficult years from the Diocletianic persecution (303) to the disastrous rule of Maxentius in Africa (311). He was a man of character, skilled at overcoming the inevitable difficulties of the moment: to the consul Anullinus he handed over certain heretical books, in place of the scriptures that had been demanded.

He energetically disapproved of certain excesses in the exaltation of martyrdom. After the persecution, the rigorists of the Church of Carthage and of that of Numidia accused him of laxism and of having handed over sacred books. He died in 311, during a journey back from Rome, where Maxentius had summoned him because he had refused to hand over the deacon Felix, who had offended him.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: L. Duchesne, Le dossier du donatisme, in Mélange d'archéologie et d'histoire, 10 (1890), p. 589 ff.; H. Leclercq, L'Afrique chrétienne, Paris 1904; the sources (St. Optatus, Zosimus, St. Augustine) are collected and studied by P. Monceaux, Histoire de l'Afrique chrétienne, IV, Paris 1913, and by H. von Soden, Urkunden zur Entstehungsgeschichte des Donatismus (Kleme Texte, 122), Bonn 1913.

@incollection{ec8_mensurio_vescovo_di_cartagine, author = {Romanelli, Emanuele}, title = {Mensurio, vescovo di cartagine}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {696}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/mensurio-vescovo-di-cartagine} }

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Mensurius, Bishop of Carthage

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