The life and times of Saint Cyprian

Front matter

THE

OF

SAINT CYPRIAN

Preface

If this volume at all answers the Author's design, there is one important consideration which the reader ought to carry with him during its perusal.

The Avork was undertaken with a desire to recommend that tone of religion, calm, reverential, implicit, self-sacrificing, and objective, w^hich is well and conveniently called " Catholic," to distinguish it from the bustling, irreverent, neological, selfseeking, and subjective character of the fashionable reUgion of the present day ; and which was happily exemplified in St. Cyprian, and generally, though indeed with glaring, and for our present purpose valuable exceptions, in the Church over which he presided.

Perhaps, too, something of the constitution and polity of the Church, as exemplified in the life and times of St. Cyprian, viii PREFACE.

and of the form and order of its several assemblies and offices, may be profitably contrasted with the impatience of rule and discipline, and the undervaluing of whatever is positive and ritual, which is characteristic of the loudest and most obtrusive party of religionists in the present day.

Now the spirit and form of the Anglican Church is eminently Catholic, in the sense before mentioned. But we may contract a careless habit of judging our Church by its present members ; and forgetting that she every where protests against their laxity and irreverence, we may lay that blame on the sorrowing mother, which ought to fall on the undutiful children. Or again, while we are studying the history of a particular Church and age, for the sake of the "Catholic'' spirit which it embodies, we may be in danger of forgetting, that that spirit may animate very different forms : and so we may hastily condemn our own Church, because we, in our folly and pride, deem the various arrangements which she has made, in wisdom and in love, inconsistent with a primitive character, because they

PREFACE. ix

are not identical with a particular primitive form. This is a grievous error into v^hich those are likely to fall, who are seeking to catholicise the present generation of the sons of the Church by a reference to the ecclesiastical records of any former age. But let us all remember, (and the Author of this volume feels that the warning is necessary for himself, which he presses on others,) that if, in pretence of a Catholic spirit, we touch but the hem of the garment of our own holy brother except with the deepest reverence and piety, we most unequivocally give the lie to our pretensions. There is no one thing which our Church can require, so long as she hath the grace of God with her, so wrong, so opposed to all Catholic form and spirit, as the unfilial judgment, or the imperfect obedience, of any of her sons.

Leeds, Jmie 20, 1840.

Chapter I

Scantiness of strictly personal notices of Cyprian. — Pontius his panegyrist. — Questions ofthe place of Cyprian's birth, — of his age,= — and of his marriage. — His profession and condition as a heathen. — His acquaintance with Caecilius. — - His conversion. — His use of the Scriptures. — His Baptism. — His own account of the spiritual change effected in him at Baptism. — He adopts the name of Caecilius. p. 1

Chapter II

St. Cyprian's writings while a layman. — His Epistle to Donatus, on the Grace of God. — His Treatise on the Vanity of Idols. — The death of Caecilius ; — who appoints Cyprian the guardian of his family. — St. Cyprian a Deacon.— Dionysius of Alexandria. — St. Cyprian a Presbyter. — His three books of Testimonies against the Jews. 23

Chapter III

Cyprian chosen Bishop. — His attempt to escape. — The part of the people in his election. — The constitution of the Church in the Cyprianic age.— The state of morals and of discipline in Cyprian's diocese, and the acts and writings which arose out of the condition of the Church. — The Epistles of Cyprian. — The case of Gerainius Victor: — commemoration of the dead: — the primitive practice a witness against Romish Errors. — The case of the player: — the state of the stage in Cyprian's time. — The case of the rebellious Deacon.— The case of the (rvma-uKroi. — " .Ancient Christianity." 39

Xll CONTENTS.

Chapter IV

Revolutions in the Roman State. — Their influence on the condition of the Church. — Edicts of Decius. — The persecution commences. — Some retire from Carthage; — among whom St. Cyprian himself, — Cyprian's reasons for retiring. — His care of the Church while absent. — His letter to the Confessors. — The insinuations of the Roman Clergy against Cyprian : and Cyprian's answer to their Epistle.— The progress of the persecution. — The sufferings of Mappalicus, and other Confessors and Martyrs. 76

Chapter V

The number of apostates in the Decian persecution. — The Sacrificati, Thurijicati, and LibellaticL — The discipline of the lapsed. — Its rigour^ — and its occasional relaxation. — The privilege of the Martyrs: — abused in this instance. — The Clergy chiefly in fault. — Cyprian's own determination of the case of the lapsed. 104

Chapter VI

Cyprian's return prevented by a schism in his Church. — The origin of the schism. — Novatus : — his character :— - his crimes. — He is cited to appear before Cyprian. — He escapes under cover of the Decian persecution. — He makes a party, and forsakes the Church. — He obtains the ordination of Felicissimus : — it is questioned by whom. — The five Presbyters companions of Novatus in schism. — Cyprian appoints deputies to put his regulations in force. — The place which voluntary seceders hold, in respect of the Church. — Novatus goes to Rome. — Novatian : — his character. — His secret cabals : — fostered by Novatus. — Election of Cornelius to the See of Rome. — His character. — Novatian's schismatical ordination. — His practices at home and abroad. — The spread of his party. — Novatus returns to Carthage. 126

CONTENTS. Xlll

CHAPTER Ml.

Proceedings touching the election of Cornelias, and the schismatical ordination of Novatian, at Cartha^re; — at Hadrumettium. — The Episcopate of Cornelius finally recognized. — Felicissimus and the five Presbyters excommunicated. — St. Cyprian's letters to the schismatical confessors. — His Treatise De Vnilale Ecclesia. — Letter of Dionysius of Alexandria to Novatian. — A Synod at Carthage, and in Rome. — The return of the schismatical Confessors. — Letters of Cornelius, the Confessors, and Cyprian. — Reflections on the Novatian schism. 157

CHAPTER VHl.

A review of St. Cyprian's Tract De Unilale Ecclesice. 181

CHAPTER IX.

A schism at Carthage. — Its origin. — The surreptitious ordination of Fortunatus. — The schismatics apply to Cornelius for his support: — they are at first repelled, but afterwards too favourably heard. — St. Cyprian expostulates with Cornelius. — The extinction of Fortunatus's party. — Maximus ordained by the Novatians in Carthage. — His faction contemptible. 1 97

CHAPTER X.

Persecution renewed on occasion of the plague. — Cyprian's apologetic letter to Demetrian. — His Epistle to the Thybaritani. — The penitent lapsed admitted to communion, in anticipation of persecution. — The exhortation to Martyrdom. — St. Cyprian's last letter to St. Cornelius. — Death of Cornelius. — Of Lucius. — How far persecution a test of truth. 208

X\r CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XT.

The plague rages at Carthage. — Cyprian's Tract De Mortalilate. — The expectation of the last day in the early Church : -Gibbon's use of it — Cyprian's opinion on the time, person, and character of Antichrist. 250

CHAPTER XII.

Weakness of the Roman empire. — Numidian Christians carried captive by Barbarians. — Collections made in Carthage to redeem them. — Cyprian's Epistle to Csecilius on the mixed cup. — His doctrine applied to half communion, and other errors in the present day. 27^

CHAPTER XIII.

Revolutions in the Roman empire. — Questions of Fidus touching a lapsed Bishop, and the case of infant baptism. — The case of Fortunianus : — of Basilides and Martialis: — of Marcianus of Aries. — The insolence of Pupianus. 304

CHAPTER XIV.

The question of the baptism of heretics, and the controversy arising out of it. — Its origin in Asia Minor : — it is discussed in a Synod at Carthage. — Cyprian's letter to the Bishops of Numidia. — The character of several objections against his rule. — A Synod of seventy-two Bishops aiisembled at Carthage to determine the question. — Cyprian's account to Stephen of the proceedings of the Synod. -^ Cyprian's letter to Jubaianus. 327

CONTENTS. XV

CHAPTER XV.

Stephen, Bishop of Rome, interferes in the controversy about the Baptism of heretics.— Cyprian's Epistle to Pompeius. — The last Council assembled at Carthage to determine the question ; — St, Cyprian's opening Address ; — and several of the more remarkable suffrages — The unanimity of the Council against the judgment of Stephen, and the custom of Rome. — Irenseus and Victor. — Dionysius and Stephen. 35S

CHAPTER XVI.

A general view of the principles involved in the controversy concerning the baptism of heretics. 379

CHAPTER XVII.

Valerian instigated by Macrianus to persecute the Church. — Death of Stephen: — and election of Sixtus. — St. Cyprian summoned before the Proconsul: — his confession: — his banishment: — his vision. — Dionysius of Alexandria also banished. — Cyprian recalled to Carthage by Galerius Maximus. — He retires for a short time when summoned to Utica. — He returns to Carthage, and is brought before the Proconsul. — His examination, — sentence, — and death.

THE

OF

SAINT CYPRIAN.

Chapter I

scantiness of strictly personal notices of cyprian.

pontius his panegyrist. questions of the place of

Cyprian's birth, — of his age, — and of his marriage. — HIS profession and condition as a heathen. — his acquaintance with C^CILIUS. HIS CON- VERSION. HIS USE OF THE SCRIPTURES. HIS BAP- TISM. HIS OWN ACCOUNT OF THE SPIRITUAL CHANGE

EFFECTED IN HIM AT BAPTISM. HE ADOPTS THE NAME

OF CiECILIUS.

The personal history, even of great men, derives its charm not from the splendour and importance of those actions by which they were ennobled, but from the variety of incidents, in which the distinctive peculiarities of their character were displayed. The unity and expression of the whole, which are the sources of our gratification, result not from the greatness of the parts, but from their due proportion and subordination, and from a pervading tone, harmonizing their very minuteness and variety : as the Mosaic must be wrought into an harmonious whole out of pieces infinitely small and diversified, or it will present, not a finished and striking tablet, but a cold and disjointed patchw-ork. Even in the lives of heroes and of .statesmen, the reader is interested not only by the preparations for conflict, the bustle of the encounter, and the elation of success ; but also, and perhaps still more intensely, by the lighter incidents : the child's question or the boy's exploit, a hasty expression of hope or disappointment or impatience, a liking or an antipathy, in short any thing and every thing which may serve to embody a marked trait of personal character, in the record of a trifling incident.

The charm, however, of these minute records, is to be referred to the more splendid incidents, and to the greatness of the whole subject. We are delighted to see one who is elevated to a dim and mysterious height above us, brought down to our level ; identified with the man with whom his neighbours conversed, w^hom his associates admired, and whom his family loved. Hence it is impossible to throw the appropriate charm of biography over the history of a great man, if we possess but few characteristic anecdotes of his private life, and but few unstudied expressions of his personal feeling. With all our effort to keep the same person always in view.

and always the centre of interest, we are still writing History, not Biographj ; and neither splendour of character nor importance of incident can supply the requisite material. They may elevate the pages in which they are recorded to the more exalted order • of ethics or of history, and impart something of the interest appropriate to their new station ; but they cannot invest them wdth the peculiar charm of the story of a life in its varied sameness, in its blended diversity of thoughts, of feeling, and of incident.

It is not inconceivable, that the very greatness of the part which a man has played, may have deprived us of these most valuable materials of his biography. While we are dazzled with splendid actions, we do not discern traits of character; and while we are proclaiming the deeds of high emprize which make the hero, we omit those little incidents which mark the man. Thus the means of gratifying it, are often in the inverse proportion of the interest with which w^e look for indications of the complexion of a mind, which has wrought revolutions in opinions or in empires.

These remarks preceding a life of St. Cyprian are apologetic : for though he was the centre of most important ecclesiastical movements in his own day, and though scarce any single person has ever contributed more to give a colour to

b2 distant ages, so that we cannot repress a curiosity to know more of his individual mind and feelings, we are remarkably destitute of information on these points. His only professed biographer affords us almost no assistance ; and while the public records of his Episcopate are a great part of the history of the Western Church in his day, the sources from which these are derived, though chiefly his own Epistles, are equally deficient in strictly personal notices. An account, therefore, of St. Cyprian's life and times, stands in that middle ground between biography and history, which it is difficult to invest with the appropriate interest of either.

We have no records, and but very scanty intimations, of the incidents in the life of Thascius Cyprian before his conversion to Christianity, though it was doubtless varied by the political events of his day, and coloured with the peculiar energy of his character. Cyprian was not, indeed, without a contemporary biographer. Pontius, his Deacon, his companion in many of his labours and troubles, and, what is more, his affectionate friend and ardent admirer, sought consolation at the death of Cyprian in the pious task of enumerating his actions and recording his virtues. But Pontius was either ignorant of the specific charm of biography, or so conscious of the difficulties before mentioned in the particular case of St.

Cyprian, that he has not adventured to overcome them. We cannot help regretting, that one who had so full an opportunity of acquainting himself with Cyprian's former life and condition, did not think these subjects worthy of his attention. There is certainly more of the piety than of the judgment of a Christian biographer, in the resolution to commence the account of an illustrious convert with his spiritual birth ; as if it was not interesting and profitable to know what a man was before his conversion, as well as what he then became: for surely an acquaintance with his former life and disposition is a necessary element in a comprehensive view even of his Christian character ; and must form a part of our estimate of its importance, as illustrative of the grace of God. The world has recorded this judgment in its appreciation of the Confessions of St. Augustine.

The expression of Pontius is worthy of remark, as giving at the very commencement of his work a clue to its real character. '^ Whence %" says he, " shall I commence his panegyric, but from the dawn of his faith, and from his heavenly birth ?" And in perfect harmony with this exordium, we find Pontius far more earnest in celebrating the praises, than laborious in relating the actions, of Cyprian : in eulogising, than in

illustrating, his character. He professes^ that not only his own eloquence, but even eloquence itself", must fail to paint the virtues of his martyred Bishop in their true colours : he represents the seed-time, the harvest, the budding, and the pressing of the grape, the planting of the tree, and the ripening of the fruit', as all crowded into the same season, in this illustrious convert : he prefers him far before Cornelius, who was baptized by Philip ; and the very oppositions which Cyprian met at his entering on the Episcopate, he represents as providentially occurring, that they might reflect the greater honour on the holy Bishop by his conquest of them''.

Meanwhile we are left to collect as we can from other sources, all the most interesting particulars concerning Cyprian's former life. Where was he born, and when ? What was his lineage and condition ? Was he a married or a single man ? And at what age did he embrace b St. Augustine expresses the same thing by another strange conceit. Cujus reverendi Episcopi et venerandi Martyri^ laudibus nulla lingua sufficeret, nee si se ipse laudaret. Sermo cccxiii. vol. viii. p. 1258. Ed. Bassani, 1807.

^ It is curious to find the modesty of Cyprian, and the admiration of Pontius, expressed under the same image. Exilis ingenii, says Cyprian, (Ep. i. p. 1.) angusta mediocritas tenues admodum fruges parit, nullis ad copiam fcecundi cespitis culminibus ingravescit.

^ Quidam illi restiterunt, etiam ut vinceret, Pontius, y.

OF ST. CYPRIAN.

the faith of Christ ? These are questions which Pontius will not answer for us^, and some of which are still subjects of controversy : not of curious enquiry only, but actually of controversy, such are the interest and importance which they derive from Cyprian's character and position.

Where * Cyprian was born we have no means of discovering, and the time of his birth is equally uncertain ^ A general notion seems to prevail, that he was already an old man before his conversion ; but all the indirect evidence that I can find seems to lead to a different conclusion. His voluntary discipline while a Catechumen, which excited the admiration of Pontius, was more appropriate to one in the vigour of life than to an old man ", and all his actions and writings are replete with the energy of a mature manhood, not yet deprived of the fire of youth.

^ Perhaps, however, we may obscurely collect, that he was not born at Carthage, the scene of his many labours, from this slight negative evidence. Speaking, during Lis temporary retreat, of his desire to revisit Carthage, he asks, *' Where could my time be spent, either more delightfully or more profitably, than where it was the will of God that I should first believe, and continue to grow in the faith ?" Ep. xxxvi. 49. It may be supposed, that if Carthage had been his birth-place, he would have added. Where can I better dwell ? where, if I must suffer, can I better resign my soul to God, than where I first received it at his hands ?

Such a life as induced some to invent the evidences of his noble descent is more honourable to Cyprian^ than the most ancient and dignified pedigree could have been : yet there is a real elevation in rank and ancestral nobility, w^hich harmonises well with whatever is great and good ; it is only, therefore, for want of sufficient evidence, that I reject the notion of Baronius, founded on a passage of Gregory Nazianzen, that Cyprian was of noble birth, and of senatorial rank. Of the personal consideration, however, of Cyprian in the profession of oratory we have clearer evidence. Lactantius, who prefers him above all those who had employed a cultivated mind in the defence of Christianity'^, tells us of the distinction which he had gained as a master of Rhetoric : and Cyprian himself seems to refer to his own personal condition before his baptism, when he describes, in his Epistle to Donatus, the pomp of place, and the crowd of clients, by which a distinguished public character is surrounded. St. Augustine mentions his wealth : and here again, his own account seems to infer as much ; for all those allurements of pleasure and of sin which he represents as opposing the greatest obstacles to the reception of Christianity, and which he mentions in such a manner as scarce to admit a doubt that he was speaking from his own experience, are such as the rich only are acquainted

^ Lactantius, lib. v, p, 2S1. Ed. Cantab. 1685,

OF ST. CYPRIAN.

with. Ease and luxury: vestments of gold and purple; the pomp and the projects, the passions and the pursuits, of the great and wealthy, had all combined to enslave the ardent mind of Cyprian, and to keep him still in the Egyptian bondage of heathenism and vice. Nor yet at the time that he wrote his Epistle to Donatus on occasion of their baptism, had he w^holly ceased to relish the advantages of an honourable wealth. His rural retreat, which he evidently describes as it was then before his eyes, and filling his mind with images of beauty, was not unworthy of a Cicero or a Pliny; nor the use which he made of it of a Christian philosopher. '' The season and the place," says he, ^* both alike invite us to serious conversation ; the cool breezes that fan the face of the earth, gemmed with flow^ers, and this lovely arbour, excluding every obtrusive step and curious gaze, but admitting the free light and the whispering breeze through the hanging branches of the vine, invite us to the communion of Christian souls ; and while we despise the pleasures of sense as an end, lead us gracefully and naturally to something higher '."

But the most honourable memorial of Cyprian's wealth, is the sale of his estates for the benefit of the poor, and the supply of their penury, out of his private fortune. To the Christian duty of almsgiving, it seems more than probable that he * See Ep. i. p, 1.

soon after sacrificed that rural retreat in which we have seen him delighting : for Pontius speaks of his " gardens/' which were providentially restored to him in his last sufferings, though he had sold them long before for charitable uses. To these gardens he retired after his baptism, and from them he went to meet his martyrdom.

Opposite parties find an object in giving Cyprian a wife''. As the polemical importance of the question, whether he was married or no, is quite distinct from its biographical interest ; and as there is no direct evidence of the fact, while all the presumptive evidence is against it ; we may be excused in concluding, that Cyprian had no wife at the time of his conversion, and probably had never been married.

Such then, so far as we can collect, was Thascius Cyprian. His mind was matured both by years and study, but yet unchilled with the frosts of age. He had a soul ready to sacrifice wealth, interest, and ease to religion, and a sense of duty ;

^ Milner goes yet farther, and gives his imaginary wife an imaginary character, in order to enhance as it seems to him the character of Cyprian. '' In vain/' says the Historian, (?) " his wife opposed his Christian spirit of liberality." In truth, the liberality of Cyprian would have been scarcely just, and altogether imprudent, if he had to provide for others, as well as himself In the passage from the life of Cyprian by Pontius which has given rise to these misstatements, the biographer is speaking not of Cyprian and his wife, but of Job and his wife. The passage is given at page 14< of this volume.

and family he had none. He was of good repute for his successful practice of an honourable and lucrative profession ; and he was rewarded by the possession of the fruits of his labour and reputation. The highest powers^ unblessed from above^ are unworthy of the office, for which Cyprian was designed ; and by God's grace a more moderate share of talents and acquirements may adorn the highest station : but God does condescend to employ the talents of his creatures ; and He had marked out Cyprian for His work, and by the ruling of His providence He had formed his mind, his character, and his circumstances accordingly.

It was surely providential, that Cyprian contracted an intimacy, which soon ripened into no common affection, with Caecilius, an aged Presbyter ' of the Church of Carthage. This friendship with a Christian Priest was the means of Cyprian's conversion, which took place, as he himself informs us, at Carthage, and, as it seems most probable, very early in the year of grace 246. We may perhaps collect from St. Jerome, that the book of Jonah was especially instrumental to his conversion. " Let us," says St. Jerome, in his commentary on the third chapter of Jonah, " set before us the example of St. Cyprian, who was before an advocate of idolatry, and had arrived at so great reputation as a

' Caecilius et aetate tunc, et honore Presbyter. Pontius.

orator, as to teach rhetoric in Carthage: but having heard this preaching of Jonah, was converted, and repented ; and attained to such a height of virtue, as to preach Christ publicly, and to submit his neck to the sword for His sake."

Nor is this either the only or the strongest intimation that Cyprian, before his ordination, and even before his baptism, was freely permitted to study the holy Scriptures. Those who know how painfully the concession of the Scriptures to the laity in some countries has been extorted from the Church of Rome, and who have not escaped the vulgar error, that Rome really follows antiquity as she pretends, may wonder to find, that in Cyprian's days the Bible was not a sealed book even to Catechumens. We of the Anglican Church, following the principles of Catholic antiquity, encourage that godly custom, and use the practice of the ancient Church, not merely as an argument, but as an argument a fortiori. If the laity and new converts in Cyprian's time were encouraged in this custom, much more should they be now. For though it is impossible that the Church could then have provided so ample commentaries upon the Scriptures ; and though Neophytes, fresh from the ranks of heathenism, could scarce be so well prepared for their interpretation, as all in Christian countries ought to be ; and though, therefore, if it were true now to say with Rome, that more evil than good w^ould arise from the reading of the Scriptures by the hiity'", it were much more true to have said so in the days of Cyprian : yet the use of the sacred volume was then fully indulged to the laity, and even to Catechumens. When only a Presbyter, we shall find Cyprian recommending to Quirinus, whom he calls his son, and who was probably therefore, and indeed almost certainly, a layman, a careful study of holy writ : and he himself, while only a Catechumen, read the Scriptures with constant and anxious attention ; and bringing to bear upon them the strength and the resources of a powerful and cultivated mind, he profited greatly by their perusal ; nor need we adopt the assertion of Pontius, at least in its literal sense, that the first approach of the

•" The Romanist adduces the unnumbered heresies which have arisen from the rash interpretation of the Scriptures by individuals : but let us only remember the fact, that almost every heresy has originated not from the laity, but from the clergy ; and if we dared act upon such an indication of expediency, we may retort upon them their reasoning, and say, that if from the laity, then much more from the clergy, should the holy Scriptures be taken. But man is not wiser than God : and those Scriptures which were originally written as much to and for the laity as the clergy ; some of which were actually addressed to individuals not clerical but lay, were surely adapted to the laity, and are not to be taken from them without impiety ; as they cannot be without absurdity, except by those who would uphold a system contradicted by those inspired writings.

divine light left in him no darkness at all, to shew that he was early prepared, as well in the knowledge of sacred things, as in the character of a Christian, for all the offices of the sacred Ministry. Even his earliest works, some of which were perhaps written while he was yet" a layman, attest the progress which he had made in the true use of the Scriptures ; and we have a beautiful picture of the practical account ta which he turned these divine lessons, from the pencil of his affectionate biographer. ^' When he read of any who had received commendation from God, he would recommend the enquiry. Wherefore was it that God was well pleased with them ? If Job, glorious in the testimony of God, was declared to be a true worshipper of God, and one to whom none other upon earth might be compared, he would exhort us to do that which Job also did ; that while we follow the example of Job, we may receive the like testimony from God. Making light of the necessary expenses of his household. Job advanced to so great elevation of virtue, that he felt not the sacrifice which he made of temporal wealth, in the cause of piety. He was unbroken by penury and by grief: the persuasions of his wife could not move him ; and he bore the afflictions of his own body unshaken. His manly virtue stood unmoved in its own place ; and the deep root of his devotion remained firmly fixed. To no temptation of the devil did he yield, nor did he cease to thank God, in faith and gratitude, even in the midst of all his misfortunes. His house was ever open to the stranger. No widow was sent away unprovided ; no blind man was undirected or unattended by him. He was a staff to the lame, and his hand was the protection of the poor and helpless. And so ought we to do, Cyprian was accustomed to say, if we would please God. /And so would he run through all the records of the saints of old ; and while he studied to imitate the best, he himself became worthy of imitation."