Within two years he had been ordained a priest and was chosen, against his will, as Bishop of Carthage. Cyprian complained that the peace the Church had enjoyed had weakened the spirit of many Christians and had opened the door to converts who did not have the true spirit of faith. When the Decian persecution began, many Christians easily abandoned the Church.
It was their reinstatement that caused the great controversies of the third century, and helped the Church progress in its understanding of the Sacrament of Penance. Ultimately he was condemned. Cyprian held a middle course, holding that those who had actually sacrificed to idols could receive Communion only at death, whereas those who had only bought certificates saying they had sacrificed could be admitted after a more or less lengthy period of penance.
Even this was relaxed during a new persecution. During a plague in Carthage, Cyprian urged Christians to help everyone, including their enemies and persecutors. Cornelius still occupied it. Cyprian entered the battle with a series of encyclicals to the African bishops that was later produced as the book, On the Unity of the Church.
Support for the extreme measures by those who opposed absolution were moderated by Bp. Cyprian's writings raising him in the eyes of the people and increased further by their witness of his self-denying devotion during a great plague and famine that descended on Africa.
After preparing his people for the extension of the persecution to Africa with his De exhortatione martyrii , Bp.
Cyprian set himself as an example when he was brought before the Roman proconsul Aspasius Patermus on August 30 , , by refusing to sacrifice to the pagan gods and firmly professed Christ. Exiled to Curubis, today's Korba Tunisia, Cyprian comforted, as best he could, those of his exiled flock and clergy. A year later, he was returned and kept prisoner in his own villa as a more stringent imperial edict was issued that demanded execution of all Christian clergy.
He was imprisoned on September 13 , at the order of the proconsul, Galerius Maximus. The following day he was questioned again and then sentenced to die by the sword, to which he answered "thanks be to God!
After removing his garments without assistance, he knelt down and prayed. After he blindfolded himself, he was beheaded by the sword on September 14 , Please consider supporting OrthodoxWiki. From OrthodoxWiki. Church unity About the time of the opening of the council , two letters arrived from Rome. One of these, announcing the election of a pope, St. Cornelius , was read by Cyprian to the assembly; the other contained such violent and improbable accusations against the new pope that he thought it better to pass it over.
But two bishops , Caldonius and Fortunatus, were dispatched to Rome for further information, and the whole council was to await their return-such was the importance of a papal election. Meantime another message arrived with the news that Novatian , the most eminent among the Roman clergy , had been made pope.
Happily two African prelates , Pompeius and Stephanus, who had been present at the election of Cornelius , arrived also, and were able to testify that he had been validly set "in the place of Peter", when as yet there was no other claimant.
It was thus possible to reply to the recrimination of Novatian's envoys, and a short letter was sent to Rome , explaining the discussion which had taken place in the council. Soon afterwards came the report of Caldonius and Fortunatus together with a letter from Cornelius , in which the latter complained somewhat of the delay in recognizing him.
Cyprian wrote to Cornelius explaining his prudent conduct. He added a letter to the confessors who were the main support of the antipope , leaving it to Cornelius whether it should be delivered or no. He sent also copies of his two treatises, "De Unitate" and "De Lapsis" this had been composed by him immediately after the other , and he wishes the confessors to read these in order that they may understand what a fearful thing is schism.
It is in this copy of the "De Unitate" that Cyprian appears most probably to have added in the margin an alternative version of the fourth chapter. The original passage, as found in most manuscripts and as printed in Hartel's edition, runs thus: If any will consider this, there is no need of a long treatise and of arguments.
The other Apostles were indeed what Peter was, endowed with a like fellowship both of honour and of power, but the commencement proceeds from one, that the Church may be shown to be one. This one Church the Holy Ghost in the person of the Lord designates in the Canticle of Canticles, and says, One is My Dove, My perfect one, one is she to her mother, one to her that bare her.
He that holds not this unity of the Church , does he believe that he holds the Faith? He who strives against and resists the Church , is he confident that he is in the Church? The substituted passage is as follows:. And though to all His Apostles He gave an equal power yet did He set up one chair , and disposed the origin and manner of unity by his authority.
The other Apostles were indeed what Peter was, but the primacy is given to Peter, and the Church and the chair is shown to be one. And all are pastors , but the flock is shown to be one, which is fed by all the Apostles with one mind and heart. He that holds not this unity of the Church , does he think that he holds the faith? He who deserts the chair of Peter, upon whom the Church is founded , is he confident that he is in the Church?
These alternative versions are given one after the other in the chief family of manuscripts which contains them, while in some other families the two have been partially or wholly combined into one. The combined version is the one which has been printed in man editions, and has played a large part in controversy with Protestants.
It is of course spurious in this conflated form, but the alternative form given above is not only found in eighth- and ninth-century manuscripts , but it is quoted by Bede , by Gregory the Great in a letter written for his predecessor Pelagius II , and by St.
Gelasius; indeed, it was almost certainly known to St. Jerome and St. Optatus in the fourth century. The evidence of the manuscripts would indicate an equally early date.
Every expression and thought in the passage can be paralleled from St. Cyprian's habitual language, and it seems to be now generally admitted that this alternative passage is an alteration made by the author himself when forwarding his work to the Roman confessors.
The "one chair" is always in Cyprian the episcopal chair, and Cyprian has been careful to emphasize this point, and to add a reference to the other great Petrine text, the Charge in John The assertion of the equality of the Apostles as Apostles remains, and the omissions are only for the sake of brevity. The old contention that it is a Roman forgery is at all events quite out of the question.
Another passage is also altered in all the same manuscripts which contain the "interpolation"; it is a paragraph in which the humble and pious conduct of the lapsed "on this hand hic is contrasted in a long succession of parallels with the pride and wickedness of the schismatics "on that hand" illic , but in the delicate manner of the treatise the latter are only referred to in a general way.
Novatianism The saint's remonstrance had its effect, and the confessors rallied to Cornelius. But for two or three months the confusion throughout the Catholic Church had been terrible. No other event in these early times shows us so clearly the enormous importance of the papacy in East and West.
Dionysius of Alexandria joined his great influence to that of the Carthaginian primate , and he was very soon able to write that Antioch, Caesarea , and Jerusalem , Tyre and Laodicea, all Cilicia and Cappadocia, Syria and Arabia, Mesopotamia, Pontus , and Bithynia, had returned to union and that their bishops were all in concord Eusebius , Church History VII. From this we gauge the area of disturbance. Cyprian says that Novatian "assumed the primacy" Ep.
Such was the power assumed by a third-century antipope. Let it be remembered that in the first days of the schism no question of heresy was raised and that Novatian only enunciated his refusal of forgiveness to the lapsed after he had made himself pope. Cyprian's reasons for holding Cornelius to be the true bishop are fully detailed in Ep. It is evidently implied that if he did not communicate with Cornelius he would be outside the Catholic Church.
Writing to the pope , Cyprian apologizes for his delay in acknowledging him; he had at least urged all those who sailed to Rome to make sure that they acknowledged and held the womb and root of the Catholic Church Ep. By this is probably meant "the womb and root which is the Catholic Church ", but Harnack and many Protestants , as well as many Catholics , find here a statement that the Roman Church is the womb and root.
Cyprian continues that he had waited for a formal report form the bishops who had been sent to Rome , before committing all the bishops of Africa, Numidia, and Mauretania to a decision, in order that, when no doubt could remain all his colleagues "might firmly approve and hold your communion, that is the unity and charity of the Catholic Church ".
It is certain that St. Cyprian held that one who was in communion with an antipope held not the root of the Catholic Church , was not nourished at her breast, drank not at her fountain. So little was the rigorism of Novatian the origin of his schism , that his chief partisan was no other than Novatus, who at Carthage had been reconciling the lapsed indiscriminately without penance.
He seems to have arrived at Rome just after the election of Cornelius , and his adhesion to the party of rigorism had the curious result of destroying the opposition to Cyprian at Carthage. It is true that Felicissimus fought manfully for a time; he even procured five bishops , all excommunicated and deposed, who consecrated for the party a certain Fortunatus in opposition to St.
Cyprian, in order not to be outdone by the Novatian party, who had already a rival bishop at Carthage. The faction even appealed to St. Cornelius , and Cyprian had to write to the pope a long account of the circumstances, ridiculing their presumption in "sailing to Rome , the primatial Church ecclesia principalis , the Chair of Peter, whence the unity of the Episcopate had its origin, not recollecting that these are the Romans whose faith was praised by St.
Paul Romans , to whom unfaith could have no access". But this embassy was naturally unsuccessful, and the party of Fortunatus and Felicissimus seems to have melted away. The lapsed With regard to the lapsed the council had decided that each case must be judged on its merits, and that libellatici should be restored after varying, but lengthy, terms of penance, whereas those who had actually sacrificed might after life-long penance receive Communion in the hour of death.
But any one who put off sorrow and penance until the hour of sickness must be refused all Communion. The decision was a severe one. A recrudescence of persecution , announced, Cyprian tells us, by numerous visions, caused the assembling of another council in the summer of so Benson and Nelke, but Ritsch and Harnack prefer , in which it was decided to restore at once all those who were doing penance, in order that they might be fortified by the Holy Eucharist against trial.
In this persecution of Gallus and Volusianus, the Church of Rome was again tried, but this time Cyprian was able to congratulate the pope on the firmness shown; the whole Church of Rome , he says, had confessed unanimously, and once again its faith , praised by the Apostle , was celebrated throughout the whole world Ep.
About June , Cornelius was exiled to Centumcellae Civitavecchia , and died there, being counted as a martyr by Cyprian and the rest of the Church. His successor Lucius was at once sent to the same place on his election, but soon was allowed to return, and Cyprian wrote to congratulate him. He died 5 March, , and was succeeded by Stephen, 12 May, Rebaptism of heretics Tertullian had characteristically argued long before, that heretics have not the same God , the same Christ with Catholics , therefore their baptism is null.
The African Church had adopted this view in a council held under a predecessor of Cyprian, Agrippinus , at Carthage. In the East it was also the custom of Cilicia, Cappadocia, and Galatia to rebaptize Montanists who returned to the church. Cyprian's opinion of baptism by heretics was strongly expresses: "Non abluuntur illic homines, sed potius sordidantur, nec purgantur delicta sed immo cumulantur. Non Deo nativitas illa sed diabolo filios generat" Treatise on Unity A certain bishop , Magnus, wrote to ask if the baptism of the Novatians was to be respected Ep.
Cyprian's answer may be of the year ; he denies that they are to be distinguished from any other heretics. Later we find a letter in the same sense, probably of the spring of autumn, according to d'Ales , from a council under Cyprian of thirty-one bishops Ep.
It appears that the bishops of Mauretania did not in this follow the custom of Proconsular Africa and Numidia, and that Pope Stephen sent them a letter approving their adherence to Roman custom. Cyprian, being consulted by a Numidian bishop , Quintus, sent him Ep.
The spring council at Carthage in the following year, , was more numerous than usual, and sixty-one bishops signed the conciliar letter to the pope explaining their reasons for rebaptizing, and claiming that it was a question upon which bishops were free to differ.
This was not Stephen's view, and he immediately issued a decree , couched apparently in very peremptory terms, that no "innovation" was to be made this is taken by some moderns to mean "no new baptism " , but the Roman tradition of merely laying hands on converted heretics in sign of absolution must be everywhere observed, on pain of excommunication.
This letter was evidently addressed to the African bishops , and contained some severe censures on Cyprian himself. Cyprian writes to Jubainus that he is defending the one Church, the Church founded on Peter-Why then is he called a prevaricator of the truth , a traitor to the truth ;?
To the same correspondent he sends Epp. He sends also a copy of his newly written treatise "De Bono Patientiae". To Pompeius, who had asked to see a copy of Stephen's rescript , he writes with great violence : "As you read it, you will note his error more and more clearly: in approving the baptism of all the heresies , he has heaped into his own breast the sins of all of them; a fine tradition indeed! What blindness of mind, what depravity!
In September, , a yet larger council assembled at Carthage. All agreed with Cyprian; Stephen was not mentioned; and some writers have even supposed that the council met before Stephen's letter was received so Ritschl , Grisar, Ernst, Bardenhewer.
Cyprian did not wish the responsibility to be all his own. He declared that no one made himself a bishop of bishops , and that all must give their true opinion. The vote of each was therefore given in a short speech, and the minutes have come down to us in the Cyprianic correspondence under the title of "Sententiae Episcoporum". But the messengers sent to Rome with this document were refused an audience and even denied all hospitality by the pope.
They returned incontinently to Carthage , and Cyprian tried for support from the East. He wrote to the famous Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, Firmilian, sending him the treatise "De Unitate" and the correspondence on the baptismal question.
By the middle of November Firmilian's reply had arrived, and it has come down to us in a translation made at the time in Africa. Its tone is, if possible, more violent than that of Cyprian. After this we know no more of the controversy. Stephen died on 27 August, , and was succeeded by Sixtus II , who certainly communicated with Cyprian, and is called by Pontius "a good and peace-loving bishop ". Probably when it was seen at Rome that the East was largely committed to the same wrong practice, the question was tacitly dropped.
It should be remembered that, though Stephen had demanded unquestioning obedience, he had apparently, like Cyprian, considered the matter as a point of discipline.
Cyprian supports his view by a wrong inference from the unity of the Church , and no one thought of the principle afterwards taught by St. Augustine , that, since Christ is always the principal agent, the validity of the sacrament is independent of the unworthiness of the minister: Ipse est qui baptizat.
Yet this is what is implied in Stephen's insistence upon nothing more than the correct form, "because baptism is given in the name of Christ", and "the effect is due to the majesty of the Name". The laying on of hands enjoined by Stephen is repeatedly said to be in poenitentiam , yet Cyprian goes on to argue that the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands is not the new birth, but must be subsequent to it and implies it.
But the passage Ep. Cyprian seems to consider the laying on of hands in penance to be a giving of the Holy Ghost. In the East the custom of rebaptizing heretics had perhaps arisen from the fact that so many heretics disbelieved in the Holy Trinity , and possibly did not even use the right form and matter. For centuries the practice persisted, at least in the case of some of the heresies.
But in the West to rebaptize was regarded as heretical , and Africa came into line soon after St. Augustine , St. Jerome , and St. But Cyprian's unfortunate letters became the chief support of the puritanism of the Donatists. Augustine in his "De Baptismo" goes through them one by one. He will not dwell on the violent words quae in Stephanum irritatus effudit , and expresses his confidence that Cyprian's glorious martyrdom will have atoned for his excess.
Appeals to Rome Ep. The pope will certainly have been already informed of this by Faustinus and by the other bishops of the province. Cyprian urges: You ought to send very full letters to our fellow-bishops in Gaul , not to allow the obstinate and proud Marcianus any more to insult our fellowship Therefore send letters to the province and to the people of Arles, by which, Marcianus having been excommunicated , another shall be substituted in his place For though we are many shepherds, yet we feed one flock.
It seems incontestable that Cyprian is here explaining to the pope why he ventured to interfere, and that he attributes to the pope the power of deposing Marcanus and ordering a fresh election. We should compare his witness that Novatian usurped a similar power as antipope. Another letter dates perhaps somewhat later.
It emanates form a council of thirty seven bishops , and was obviously composed by Cyprian. It relates that the bishops Felix and Sabinus had come to Carthage to complain. They had been legitimately ordained by the bishops of the province in the place of the former bishops , Basilides and Martialis, who had both accepted libelli in the persecution. Basilides had further blasphemed God , in sickness, had confessed his blasphemy , had voluntarily resigned his bishopric , and had been thankful to be allowed lay communion.
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