The Circumcellions: The Christian Suicide Cult

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

Christianity, like any old religion, has had its share of extremists, and few comes as extreme as their own suicide fighters, the Circumcellions.  The Circumcellions roamed Northern Africa, killing people, torturing them, and pillaging, in the name of Christianity, until they were killed.  They were bands of Roman Christian radicals in Numidia and nearby regions of North Africa in the early to mid-4^th century.  They were considered heretical by the Catholic Church.  They condemned poverty and slavery, and advocated canceling debt and freeing slaves.  They started out as a movement to fight oppression. 

The origin of the term “Circumcellions” is uncertain.  It may have been coined as a mockery name by their critics who referred to them as “circum cellas euntes”, “they go around larders”.  This referred to their habit of moving about among the peasants, living on those they sought to indoctrinate.  They were viewed as parasites of the poor.  They preferred to be known as ἀγωνιστικι Χρίστος (agonistici Christos), “fighters" for Christ”.  “Agonistici” are not to be confused with “agnostic”; the former is from “ἀγων” (agon), “to contest”, and latter is from “γνῶσις” (gnosis), “knowledge”. 

The Circumcellions first appeared around 317 CE.  They were primarily active in Numidia, and Mauretania Sitifensis.  They promoted social reform along with an eschatological doctrine that became progressively more radical.  Biship Optatus, the Bishop of Milevis, in Numidia, then, is remembered for his writings against Donatism.  However, he did write that around 340 CE, the Circumcellions started an uprising directed at creditors and slave owners.  They regarded as martyrs those among them killed when the disturbance was put down.  Bishop Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis likened them to a rustic mob encouraging violence against landlords. 

They considered martyrdom the true Christian virtue, and disagreed with the Episcopal See of Carthage on the primacy of chastity, sobriety, humility, and charity.  They sought death by conflict.  Members would assault Roman legionaries or armed travellers with simple wooden clubs to provoke them into martyring them.  Other members interrupted courts of law and would verbally provoke the judge to order their immediate execution, a normal punishment for contempt of court. 

They avoided the use of blades because of a literalist understanding of this passage: 

John 18:11

¹¹ Whereupon Jesus said to Peter, “Put thy sword back into its sheath.  Am I not to drink that cup which my Father himself has appointed for me?” 

¹¹ εἶπεν οὖν ὁ Ἰησοῦς τῷ Πέτρῳ: βάλε τὴν μάχαιραν εἰς τὴν θήκην: τὸ ποτήριον ὃ δέδωκέν μοι ὁ πατὴρ, οὐ μὴ πίω αὐτό; 

¹¹ Dixit ergo Jesus Petro: Mitte gladium tuum in vaginam. Calicem, quem dedit mihi Pater, non bibam illum? 

The Circumcellions used clubs, which they called “Israelites”.  Using their “Israelites”, the Circumcellions would attack random travellers, shouting “Laudate Deum!”, “Praise God!”.  The motive behind these random beatings was to provoke the victims into killing them, so they would die a martyr's death.  Other members of the sect had other ways of committing suicide, from drowning to jumping from heights, to even self-immolation at the stake.  The one method that was completely off limits was hanging, because that was how Judas Iscariot killed himself. 

They were popular when they started freeing slaves and turning them on their former masters.  There was sympathy among the masses.  This dissipated when they got out of hand, and in their lust for violence, started attacking the peasantry, engaging in torture, rape, arson, and worse, fueled by alcohol and other forms of intoxicants.  They formed bands that roamed the land armed with all manner of weapons, including, in the end, bladed weapons.  They started attacking anyone that did not belong to their cult.  They robbed, they blinded scribes, and desecrated places of worship, while claiming to be the real Christians. 

The other Donatist sects, themselves declared heretical by the Catholic Church, condemned the Circumcellions.  The entire movement was outlawed by 411 CE.  It would be another 20 years before the movement faded into history.