« Vt maiores pagani non sint! » Pouvoir, iconoclasme et action populaire à Carthage au début du Ve siècle (saint Augustin, Sermons 24, 279 et Morin 1)

This article examines two sermons delivered by Saint Augustine at Carthage in June 401. Preached in a context of serious tensions between Christians and pagans as well as within the Catholic community, these sermons are precious documents about the forms of popular action and the involvement of the common people in the religious conflicts of the age. Augustine’s sermon 24 is a discourse designed to calm the fury of the Christian crowd in a dangerous situation for the African bishops assembled in a council at Carthage on 16 June 401. A statue of Hercules, recently restored, had its golden beard “shaved” by the action (or under the pressures) of a Christian mob. People then take possession of the church and the streets not only to protest against the pagans and their idols, but also to demand the active involvement of the clergy in their struggle against idolatry. As a consequence of these manifestations, a leading pagan, who had been explicitly criticized by the Christian mob, joined the Catholic Church. In the sermon 279 and in his post-sermonem Morin 1, preached on Sunday 23 June 401, Augustine takes the defence of the converted before the congregation that refused to accept what seemed to be a simulated and interested conversion. In this text, we analyse the political and religious implications of the manifestations evoked in these sermons and try to explain the motivations and behaviour of their participants.