BR 1720 .C8 B4 1897 Benson, Edward White, 182 9- 1896. Cyprian: his life, his CYPRIAN HIS LIFE . HIS TIMES . HIS WORK CYPRIAN HIS LIFE . HIS TIMES . HIS WORK EDWARD WHITE BENSON, D. D., D. C. L SOMETIME ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY WITH AN INTRODUCTION By THE Right Rev. HENRY C. POTTER, D. D., LL D., D. C. L. BISHOP OF NEW YORK NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1897 Authorized Edition. PREFATORY NOTE. A few days before my father left Addington for Ireland, in the September of last year (1896), he called me into his library, and handed me the proof of the preface of his Cyprian — the book that is here presented — asking me to criticise anything tfiat struck m.e in it. The following day I brought him a paper of minute sugges- tio?is. He went through them with the utmost patience, accepting some, and caref idly justifying the rejection of ot/iers. When he had finished, lie said, " You seetn to find m.y style very obscure!'^ [smiling) "you are not the only person who does." I ventured to say that I thought he ivas too careful to avoid the obvious : " No" he said, " it's not that : I only wish to say the obvious thing without tJie customary periphrases : — it all comes of hours and hours spent with intense enjoyment over Thucydides, weigh- ing t lie force of every adjective and every particle!' I went on to ask whether the Cyprian was really finished, and reminded him. of how more thaji fifteen years before, when he was at Truro, he had come out of his study one evening, and announced that his Cyprian was " practically finished" " Yes" he said, " it is all done: only a few corrections and verifications to make!' I asked whether he was not glad it was done : " / ought to be ; " — he said, a?id began turning over some of the proofs on the table : then he looked up with a smile : " but I am not really glad — my only amusement will be gone!* A nd this was literally true : my father was less capable of " amusing himself!* of resting, than any one I have ever known : iv PREFATORY NOTE. his holidays were merely a change from one intense kind of work to another: if he was in a place of artistic or antiquarian interest, he worked at pictures and churches, as though it were the business of his life : he stored his mind with precise and graphic impressions. In scenes of natural beauty, he studied detail like an artist. At home, when at work, at Lambeth and Addington, he had a ^^ Cyprian" table, where his books and papers lay often untouched for weeks together: late at night, early in the morning, when all his official work had been done with the minute precision so characteristic of him, he stole an hour from, sleep for his beloved book : but I have the authority of tJte Bishop of Winchester, who was with him constantly at all times and places, for saying that not only did he never let his literary work interfere with his official work, or constitute a reason for avoiding a piece of business, or deferring an engagement — bict that he regarded it in the strictest sense as a recreation only. Thirty years ago, when he was Headtnaster of Wellington College, he found that his professional work was so absorbing that he felt himself in danger of losing sight of study, of erudi- tion, of antiquity, and resolved, on the suggestion of his dear friend Bishop Lightfoot, to undertake some definite work, zvhich might provide both a contrast to and an illustration of modern tendencies ajid recent probletns. Year after year, at L incoln, at Truro, at Canterbury, these patient pages have grown : sometimes weeks would be consumed in the elucidation of some minute technical point : he even under- took, a few years ago, a joufney to North Africa to study his topography: of late he has often sig/ied for "six weeks of unbroken leisure ! — / could finish my book." The first hundred and fifty pages were put into print so long ago that when he had reached the end, they required to be entirely revised and PREFATORY NOTE. V rewrittett. But at last it was finished, attd he took the whole book with him to Ireland, most of it in proof and part of it in MS., in order to endeavour to see the end. Two significant efttries in his Diary in the last year of his life may here, I think, with advantage be quoted, to sliow how his hopes were bound up in the book, with how definite a purpose of self-education it liad been pla?med and carried out, and hozv ardently he desired tJiat it should serve true and high ends. Friday, March 6, 1896. Finishing what I really think is the end of my Cyprian : — the examination of the Lists of Bisliops who attended Councils under Cyprian. The test of genuineness which they offer was one of the first things that struck me. J then wrote otd at (sic) the Lists and criticized them. This can certainly not have been later (if so late) than 1865, and I have to-day sent that originally written list and notes, with fresh notes made to-day to the University Press. So that fny ^ copy' is at least 30 years apart in its work. I pray God bless this Cyprian to the good of His Church. If He bless it not, I have spent half my life in building hay and stubble, and the fire must consume it. But please God, may it last. Sunday, March 22, 1896. Have now practically finished a big book, unless I add a few of the Greek comments. If it ever sees the light, jnany will think it a very odd book. Folk are edified in such different ways. But it has edified me, which is what I began it for. To empluisize the event, or " to adorn a tale " would be out of place here : I have merely tried to indicate tJie history of the book, and the significant fact that tJie completion of his ojily literary enterprise coincided so strangely and so majestically with the tertninatiofi of his earthly energies. ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON. Jan. I, 1897. EDITORIAL NOTE. Among the last proofs which my father corrected was found a memorandum to write an Appendix dealing with the Rev. E. W. Watson's valuable Essay on the Style and Language of S. Cyprian in the ' Studia Biblica et Eccle- siastica,' vol. IV. (Oxford, 1896). In all other respects. the book had been completed. Mr Watson has since most kindly verified some compli- cated references from two important codices in the Bodleian. I must here also be allowed to record my sincerest gratitude to my father's dear and honoured friend, M. Alexis Larpent, who gave him invaluable assistance in verifying references and suggesting corrections, compiled the index, and in conjunction with my brother, Mr E. F. Benson, corrected the final proofs. A. C. B. Feb. 12, i{ INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. This volume may seem to have a very slender inter- est to readers of this generation. It deals with the life, times, and work of one of the Christian Fathers, and, with the general student and with many theologians also, the authority or even interest of the Fathers has come to be something dismissed, sometimes, with a smile. That such an estimate is often the result of ignorance, the testimony of a living theologian, whose rare gifts and ample learning command universal recognition, abun- dantly indicates. Says Canon Gore, in his Dissertations on Subjects connected with the Incarnation : " I should be utterly misrepresenting my own feeling if I allowed myself to be understood as disparaging in any way the Fathers as theologians. ... I do not believe that, taken on the whole, so much, whether of theological or moral illumination, is to be gained from any study outside Holy Scripture as is to be gained from the great theologians who are called, and legitimately called, the ' Fathers.' " * Such a judgment prepares us to understand the inter- est of the author of this volume in the life and work of Cyprian. That interest, as these pages will show, he believed to be abundantly justified by the way in which, to use his own words, " a powerful and fascinating per- * Dissertations, etc., p. 214. vii viii INTRODUCTION. sonality dealt masterfully with lasting problems in the Church," and left behind him a theory of the Church's life which is still " a living theory," with power to speak to the perplexities and to rebuke the errors of our own generation. In this, undoubtedly, lay a large element of the at- tractiveness of the teaching and the episcopal adminis- tration of Cyprian to Archbishop Benson. He beheld Christendom vexed by questions which were not new when Cyprian came to Carthage, and which are as vital in their interest and as far reaching in their importance now as then. The great question of Christian unity, to a deep and anxious interest in which the Christian world is more than ever keenly awake to-day, was a question which Cyprian treated with a large vision and in a temper of generous comprehension which in some aspects of them may well surprise the modern student ; while with the papal claims of his own time he dealt with a vigour and conclusiveness which compelled the Roman advocates of those claims in later generations, as Archbishop Benson has shown with masterly and crush- ing conclusiveness, to mutilate and interpolate the orig- inal text of Cyprian with unscrupulous hand, if so they might pervert its plain meaning. If there were no other features of interest in this vol- ume these two would make it of lasting importance to thoughtful minds to-day. Christendom has no graver responsibility than for its divisions — no more urgent duty than to strive to heal them. And all friends of the ultimate triumph of the truth have no more serious con- cern than to watch and to resist those unwarranted claims and pretensions which offer to Christendom a false INTRODUCTION. IX unity upon a false basis. To these, and to those every- where who are the friends of sound learning and of a searching- and candid inquiry in matters of faith and order, this volume will come as a rare boon. To those who knew him and his great career its author will be revealed in its pages in some of his most engaging characteristics. His wide and various learning; his close observation ; his quaint and often picturesque style ; his amazing precision and thoroughness in the minutest research ; his courage when it was called for; and his rare charm and grace of mind and of temper, touching all that he does with a fine lustre of its own — these characteristics those who know and loved him will recognise and welcome in this volume as though, some- how, he had come back to them. H. C. P. DUOBUS MARTINIS ANIM^ PATERN^ SPEI MATURESCENTI IN PACE B. PREFACE. It is a long time since I fixed on the Life and Work of Cyprian for a special study. The reason, I think, was first this. In times which, like ours, were both extraordinarily picturesque and extraordinarily crowded with business, a powerful and fascinating personality appeared to me to have done most to turn the Pagan to the Christian temper, to have dealt masterfully with lasting problems in the Church, to have left behind him a living 'Theory' — so living that the ecclesia principalis has never ceased to fret over it and retouch it. In short he appeared to be among us. He was tempted into the noble and alas ! too fruitful error of arraying the Visible Church in attributes of the Church Invisible. But he said and shewed how men might gravely dissent without one wound to peace. He spoke a watch-word of comprehension which, for lack of the charity which possessed him, we do not receive in the churches, although it must needs precede the Unity we dream of I hope that in this study I have not ever been un- mindful of the present, and yet have not committed what I hold to be a grievous fault in a historian, the reading of the present into the past. I have tried to sketch what I saw. It is only thus that the past can be read into the present — the ' Lesson of History ' learnt. b2 X PREFACE. That we have some need of the Lesson of the Cyprianic times I feel sure. Sure that it might have saved us some of our losses. Still I was not overcareful to point the morals in places where it could escape no thoughtful reader wherein they lie, or what they are. Such simpler morals are of infinite value to a student who draws them out for himself. Not of much value to one who should read them over and think that he had always thought them. As I have dared to take the reader into confidence by placing two names, sacred to me, on a leaf of this book, I may perhaps be allowed to explain why work so long ago commenced is so late committed to the reader's indulgence. At school under Prince Lee the very name of Cyprian had attraction for me. At Trinity Lightfoot and I read the De Unitate together on Sunday evenings in my Freshman's term. At Wellington, at Lincoln, at Truro, at Lambeth, even at this Addington — cara ubi tot cava — minutes only of the day, often of the week, have been all that what I am not ashamed to call a life of labour has left me. Therefore I feel that if my love for the man has surpassed my ability to know him, I may humbly ask that some excuse may be allowed me. If the earlier part of this Life is somewhat thin, that is because I thought it not worth while to bring up its primiticE to the same level and same fulness as those days of Cyprian when the real problems of Church and World were upon him and he wrestling with them. The Texts of the Latin Versions witnessed to in his writings are too special and too large a work to be included here. The smaller type is for student-studies not essential to PREFACE. xi the main course of story or comment, although they often shew the source of the text. Some nevertheless I commend to the general reader who will soon see whether or no they have interest for him. To Prof. Lanciani I owe the map which illustrates the chapter on Xystus. The two others are compiled. They of course owe their accuracy to M. Charles Tissot and to the grand Archaeological Atlas of Tunisie which is being pub- lished by the Minister of Public Instruction and Beaux-Arts. I must express my gratitude to my friend M. Larpent for his minute and learned assistance to me while seeing the work through the Press, and to the University Press itself and the Publishers for their patience. EdW: CaNTUAR: Addington. September, 1896. Page xxi — xxiii XXV — xxxvii CONTENTS. Chronology of the Times and Writings of Cyprian INTRODUCTION. Carthage and her Society CHAPTER I. The Last of the Long Peace. Section I. Cyprian's Preparation in Heathendom ^ n. Cyprian's Preparation under the Church 7 ' That Idols are not Gods ' ^° III. Lay-work '^ 'To DoNATUs' ['The Graceof God'] . . • • '3 IV. Cyprian Deacon ' IQ V. Presbyterate ^ VI. Helps to Laymen's Scripture Studies '^^ 'To QuiRiNus' ['Testimonies'] " VII. Cyprian made Pope of Carthage '^5 Cyprian's Title of Papa' "9 VIII. Cyprian's view of the Authority and the Design of the Episcopate . 31 IX. Divergence of Cyprian's from Modem Views . • • • • 35 X. A Bishop's Work uphill ^^ XI. Discipline— Clerical and Lay ^^ Of Clerics not to be ' Tutores ' +7 Of Christians not to train for the Stage . • • • 5^ XII. The Eighteen Months continued. Virginal Life in Carthage . 51 Xm. Literary Character of the Book 'Of THE Dress OF Virgins' . 57 xiv CONTENTS. CHAPTER II. The Decian Persecution. Section Page I. The Roman Theory of Persecution 60 II. The Outbreak of the Decian Persecution — Rome .... 64 Of Genuineness in Nomenclature ...... 72 On Etecusa and Numeria ... ... 74 III. The Persecution at Carthage.— I. The'Stantes • • • 75 ^. The ' Lapsi' .... 79 On the Form and Contents of the Libelli ..... 82 IV. The Retirement of Cyprian 84 V. Interference of the Church of Rome 87 VI. The Lapsed and the Martyrs 89 VII. The Cyprianic Scheme for Restorative Discipline .... 95 On the ^ Proof ' of Roman Confession which is derived f-om these events .......... 98 VIII. The adopted policy was Carthaginian, not Roman ... 99 On the Thirteen Epistles of which Cyprian sent copies to the Romans .......... 102 IX. Diocesan Disquietudes . . . . • ■ . .106 X. Declaration of Parties — Novatus and Felicissimus . . .108 Budinarius and Sarcinatrix 117 XI. Growth of the Opposition at Rome — The Confessors and Novatian n8 CHAPTER III. Sequel of the Persecution. I. Cyprian's ' FiRST Council of Carthage ' : Question I. The Title of Cornelius 129 Question 2. Decision on Felicissimus . . .131 Question 3. Novatianism 134 Four different Pictures from the year ^ijO . . . 148 Of Cyprian before his own Presbyters . . .148 Of Cyprian before the Roman Presbyters . . . 150 Of Felicissimus as a more faithful representative of the Church 153 Of the Evanescence of Novatus under Ritsckfs Analysis . 154 Question 4. The Decision on the Lapsed . . 156 II. Advance of Novatianism — Return of the Confessors - 159 III. Continued Action against Novatianism — Roman Council of A.D. 251, Antiochene of A.D. 252 ........ 163 Difficulties in identifying Hippolytus, through whom Dionysius wrote to the Romans, with Hippolytus ofPortus 169 Why is Dionysius^ Epistle to the Romans called 5taKoviK-q ? 171 CONTENTS. XV Section Page IV. Constitutional Results of the First Council i?^ V. Corollaries :— Puritanism : Saint-Merit: Flight from Suffering. The 'De Lapsis' i74 MaVs supposed Fragment of Cyprian 179 CHAPTER IV. Cyprian *of the Unity of the Catholic Church.' I. Time and Substance of the Treatise 180 II. Two Questions on Cyprianic Unity, i. Was it a theory of Convic- tion or of Policy? 2. Does it involve Roman Unity? . . 186 Catena of Cyprianic passages on the Unity signified in the Charge to Peter i97 III. The Appeal of the modern Church of Rome to Cyprian on ' The Unity of the Catholic Church ' — by way of Intei-polation . . 200 //ozu to make the best of the Forgeries now . . . .219 Note on the Citation from Pelagius II. 220 CHAPTER V. The Harvest of the New Legislation. I. The softening of the Penances— 'The Second Council' . . 222 II. The Effect on Felicissimus and his Party 225 III. The Legacy of Clerical Appeals under the Law of the Lapsed — 'The Third and Fourth Councils.' Episcopal Cases. The Spanish Appeal against Rome 230 CHAPTER VI. Expansion of Human Feeling and Energy. I. The Church in relation to Physical Suffering : 1. Within itself.— The Berber Raid 236 Of Genuineness Geographical . . ■ • .239 2. The Church in relation to Heathen Suffering. — The Plague 240 3. The Theory.— Unconditional Altruism. 'Of Work AND Almsdeeds' 246 II. Resentment.— ' To Demetrian ' 249 Of the Style of the Demetrian 256 III. The Interpretation of Sorrows 256 'On the Mortality' 260 'To Fortunatus' ['Exhortation TO Martyrdom'] . 264 XVI CONTENTS. Section Page IV. Intelligent Devotion. — * On the Lord's Prayer ' . . . 267 Table shewing the Verbal Debts to Teriullian in CypriarCs Treatise De Dominica Oratione . . . . . -275 On the Characteristics and Genuineness of the De Dominica Oratione .......... 280 Compaq ison ehuidating the Dates ...... 287 V. Ritual— I. The Mixed Cup 289 2. The Age of Baptism 295 Objection to Council III. on account of its Antipelagianism . 297 CHAPTER VII. The Roman Chair. I. The End of Cornelius 298 II. The Sitting of Lucius 304 III. Stephanus. The Church not identified with or represented by Rome 307 1. The Spanish Appeal 311 2. The Gaulish Appeal 314 Intercalary. Presbyters as Members of Administration 323 CHAPTER VIIL The Baptismal Question 331 I. I. The Tradition of Africa .....:.. 335 2. The Tradition of Asia Minor East 339 II. I. Position of the Leaders — Cyprian and Stephen . . . 343 Dates (Council of Iconium and other) .... 347 2. Acts and Documents 349 Fifth Council, First on Baptism 349 Sixth Council, Second on Baptism 351 Did Stephen excommunicate the Bishops of the East 1 . . 354 Dionysius the Great 354 That the7-e is no reason to suppose letters are missing from the Correspondence with Stephen ..... 360 That the Epistle to Potnpey (Ep. 74) and Stephett's Epistle quoted therein are earlier than the Third Council . . 361 That Ep. 72 to Stephen is rightly put down to the Second Council, not the Third ....... 362 That Quietus of Bui-uc who spoke in the Seventh Council is Quintus the Alauretaiiian, Recipient of Yj^. 11 . . 363 CONTENTS. xvii Section Page Seventh Council, Third on Baptism .... 364 Firmilian and his Letter 372 On the Genuineness of the Epistle of Firmilian . . 377 Quotations of Scripture in Firmilian . . . .386 Basil and the Letter of Firmilian . . . . .388 The Nameless Author ' on Rebaptism ' 390 III. The Arguments 399 Cyprian's, i. Objective 401 2. Subjective 405 Baptism in the Name of Christ alone .... 406 3. Historical 408 4. Biblical 411 Stephen's Arguments 413 C« M^ /brr(f ^ 6"/'(f/A^«'j Nihil innovetur nisi . . .421 IV. Ecclesiastical Results. I. The Unbroken Unity 423 1. The Baptismal Councils failed doctrinally — and why 424 3. The Catholic and the Ultramontane Estimate of Cyprian 432 CHAPTER IX. Expansion of Christian Feeling and Energy (resumed). The Secret of Conduct 437 X. 'Of THE Good OF Patience' 437 2. 'Of Jealousy AND Envy' 448 CHAPTER X. The Persecution of Valerian. I. I. The Edict and its occasions ....... 456 Macrian. The 'Uprising of Nations ' 457 On Kephron and the Lands of Kolluthion . . . 463 2. Treatment of Cyprian 464 3. Numidian Bishop-Confessors 471 4. 'To Fortunatus' ['Of Encouragement to Confessor- ship'] 474 5. Rome. Accession of Xystus and his immunity . . . 475 II. I. The Rescript 477 2. Rome. The Exclusion from the Cemeteries . . . .481 3. Memorials of Xystus and his Martyrdom 487 xviii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. Page The Birthday 493 Where was Cyprian Martyr buried ? 509 Where was Cyprian tried and executed ? f,iz The Dress 0/ Cyprian 513 The Soldiers and Officers named in the Trial 516 Of the Massa Candida 517 Acta Proconsularia 518 CHAPTER XII. Aftermath. APPENDICES. A. 'Principalis Ecclesia,' Note on the meaning of Principalis (p. 192) 537 B. Additional note on Libelli and two extant specimens of them (pp. 81—84) 541 C. The Intrigue about yizxiMSAw^ 'ityiX. ViscontPs Letter (i). 111) . 544 D. The Intrigue about the Benedictine Text. Additional note on du Mabaret (p. ■213) 546 E. Text of the Interpolation in De Unitate c. iv. with new collations ........... 547 F. On points in the Chronology ^Valerian's Reign (pp. 456 sqq.) . 552 G. On the nameless Epistle Ad Novatianum and the attribution of it to Xystus (p. 476) 557 H. Exatninatioft of the Lists of the Bishops attending the Councils. {Genuineness. Seniority) 565 I, K. The Cities from which the Bishops came to the Seventh Council on the First of September, A. D. 256 573 L. On S. Cyprian's Day in Kalendars. And how it came to be in England on the 26th instead of the 14th of September . . 610 CONTENTS. XIX MAPS. Page The Cemeteries on the Appian Way near Rome 481 Carthage (Environs of) 509 Proconsular Africa and Numidia to illustrate the writings of Cyprian . . 573 WOODCUTS. Loculus of Fabian 66 Loculus of Cornelius 124 Loculus of Maximus 163 Coins of Cornelia Salonina 300 Ninth Century figures of Cyprian and Cornelius from the Cemetery of Callistus ............ 302 Loculus of Lucius 306 Well of the Legend of Stephen's baptizing in Cemetery of Domitilla . 332 List of Books quoted 621 Index 626 ERRATA. p. 48. Insteac/ 0/ CsedVms, read Cxcilia.nus. p. 120. n. 4, read Privatus of Lambaese had Five adherents,... Five Bishops attended Cornelius at the reconciliation of Maximus. p. 160. Read, the Bishop Evaristus, who had been probably one of Novatian's consecrators. CHRONOLOGY OF THE TIMES AND WRITINGS OF CYPRIAN. xxn CHRONOLOGY OF THE Q T3 •^ O <0' c S - .1: c - < ^ ^ Ors -o y S 3 rO C4 o lO vU a o "*- •^ *-• ■*■ ^•^ t) <« ^ *^ u W k- <; (-; -I- i u u d resby age Rome imed o ucl, j= ^_rt rcera Five Car son a proc U c h mca 'the ed in n pri alens 6 3 O ^tn ■^^M'^> E w a. ■ft. -ft, 'a,.s o5 3 c,S £-g.| Sjr CJ 5 S2 > ^Ut^ rt « 3 Of; - .2 . .. <«"o . . j-'rt •- ia- CN Cy' I ^ §-•= ^ 5 ^ o ^ I ^ -I 7^ I'^VI? 3 S -b ou.o w S *^ /1j trt u ;= .2 « ^ flj ^ ^ h-l T-, C t* o o O o I ^ ^S.-S.o «^ O t^ ^ o u Pi s — . < C T? " .2 J« ^ cS 3 o> u :^ «J2S^:§"~.^ 3-2 2 3 4) 2 3 3 5 o> OS " ^ «o VO ! X ®^ o . ^l. ^>- -CI .».»Ol- < < j| < ;< TIMES AND WRITINGS OF CYPRIAN. XXIU ^ ^ ^ .2 4J c c pa s) • a • ^ §o o • - o^ _ dvovO .rt^ S 2 t: O t^ Rl ■S 3' a, ^S = ^ ^ := "> ° 'S • = W a o c -5 "13 m •2 ^- U CS (J ^ o V. & ^ to "S. — " '^ 3 — u > •- o 2 o c .2 U o ^ u 11 ,. . U U ■<\ ^ ^ 3 J2 a. So < ii S «i s ■^ S 5 = o s = - C3 -" -^ ^ s s o )?^ .2 f^T! HS ^ w, C-3 W Ji^g-3-a, ^-g.2 rt^ l^ >^ — ^ .2 - .£ u) 3 rt 'ii-Ss HM ivj 00 o\ ■ a- < IS t, M B. INTRODUCTION. CARTHAGE AND HER SOCIETY. A SAILING vessel running before a fair wind from Ostia, could reach Carthage on the second day. Yet to the Roman Africa never lost the sense of distance and weirdness. His business transactions with it were enormous. It is all strewn with relics of his factories, yet his scientific notes on it were as weird as the tales of its wild men. Its lion under- stood what was said to him. Its python checked his legion. New species of creatures were continually produced there. His armies trod floors of salt over bottomless pits. He quarried Atlas, his precious tables were made of its wood, yet it was the mountain ' of fable,' the inexhaustible, inexplorable mountain. Even in the sixth century his description of Mt Aures is merely fantastic. He never shook off his feeling about the city which had wrestled with him for the empire of the earth, and had been so foully thrown. He still heard with awe that, where other nations called on their gods, the African breathed only the name of ' Africa ' before a new enterprise. Into this region opened two glorious gates, the valley of Egypt and this other. Through these two must pass and repass all that the Mediter- ranean fetched and carried to or from the infinite Soudan. Through this alone went all that they lent or borrowed from the antient and resourceful civilizations which lay between Sahara and the sea, and all the human hosts which served and violated the multitudinous interests there in- volved. For its coast from the Nile to the Atlantic lay thus. First a low- land of dunes, whose sands invaded the sea in two vast Syrtes, swept by the hurricanes from the Sahara over the rocky rim, and swirling in shoals and quicksands and shifting banks, along ever-shifting currents. Then down upon these, slope after slope, fell the buttress ends of two Alpine chains which, barring breaks and rents, rolled out their snowy ridges side by side to the Atlantic : the northern chain, a vast rampart cresting along over the iron-bound coast which it made ; the southern falling by C2 xxvi INTRODUCTION. plateau after plateau till it plunged its roots in Sahara, and flung its torrents into leagues of salt lakes. Between the twin giant ridges, some- times linked together by cross fells and yokes of lower height, were high plains and hollows full of mountain basins and small streams, so that there were endless rich sheets of land and fertile slopes, and sometimes a succession of fat plains, as on the Medjerda, as well as oases of bewilder- ing fertility out in the deserts. Horses and cattle, cereals, the heaviest wheat and largest yield then known, minerals, unique marbles, palm groves southward and olive woods northward, and mountains of cedars stocked and stored the land. The yield of oil was prodigious, and a third of all the corn consumed in Rome and Italy was grown here. These three lines, the northern slopes, the southern terraces, and the vast central lap, were thick from immemorial time with native villages, most of which grew into towns of which scarcely one was insignificant in its possession of some source of well-being. It was on the brow of the seaward head, between highlands and low- lands, where the ends of the two chains brought the westering shore to a sudden stop and turned it north, — it was in that gate, commanding the mouth of the Medjerda valley, that Carthage had long since sat herself down, Italiam contra, and looked straight north to Rome. So dangerously near it was, that Cato shewed the senators a fresh fig pulled two days before in Carthage, as a token that both could not exist. * * * The end of her power had been the beginning for her of unequalled wealth. When her warships had been towed out to sea and fired she became a neutral, free of the seas, while war kept out of commerce all the maritime peoples of the East for half a century. But that prosperous interval stifled the spirit of a state for which Hannibal had not been ambitious enough, when he sketched an honour- able peace and Africa for a safe dominion. The pursuit of gain thinned their troops and filled them up with mercenaries. The fifty years over, they had nothing but the wish for peace and a readiness to give and keep any required guarantees, to oppose to the stolid animosity of Cato and the craft of Masinissa. It would have been a sore exchange for mankind if semi-orientals scrambling into democracy through constitutional decay had prevailed. But the Roman policy, inspired by both fear and greed, its secret instigation of the barbarian, its simulation of impartiality, has been called by the calmest of historians ' diabolic' It flared out in the atrocities of the siege and the capture. Through seventeen days the city, which lately contained 700,000 people, burnt as ' one funeral pyre.' Then the plough was foolishly dragged about her vitrified walls. * * * A quarter of a century, and her history began again through Caius Gracchus, but in a dreary fashion. She loomed too large still to be left to Phoenician boatmen and Libyan mapalia. The capital was suddenly CARTHAGE AND HER SOCIETY. XXVll repeopled and the lands allotted to Roman colonists, old soldiers, speculating farmers, and hosts of slave labourers. But still jealousy would permit no real development. They had to protect themselves. There was no military station. The walls were never restored, and something forbade the inhabiting of the precinct, so that 'the ruins of Carthage,' in which Marius was seen sitting, were half a mile perhaps from bazaars and basilicas. But all was changed once more when great men and statesmen, a Julius and an Octavius, undertook the thing. Then began a real policy, selfish enough, but a policy which enriched vast classes, created a yeomanry, found a subsistence for every peasant, and fed Italy. Car- thage first, and then the old towns began to receive privileges as municipia and colonies, sometimes titulary, but often with many settlers capable of Romanizing the thick and thickening population. They slid quietly from the administration of Sufetes, 'Judges,' to that of Duumvirs and Decurions. After Trajan's time nearly all towns had received honours and privileges, and took occasion to glorify themselves with little muni- cipal buildings and large market-places, above all with amphitheatres. Many temples and basilicas and arches, though not perfectly pure in taste, were great and stately, as they consecrated themselves in marble to their own Severus, to his Julia, Geta and Caracalla. Wealthy villas, surrounded themselves with dependents and with industries, had to be taken into account in the communal system like small towns, and were less easily dealt with. The Roman farmer of Africa has left his mark. His Moorish suc- cessors, though for civil and religious purposes using the Arabic Kalendar, name the months of their agricultural operations from his Latin. He was proverbial for two points. His daughters worked as well as his sons, and his own implement was the Oculus Domini. He worked and made everyone work. Pliny saw him or his native tenant in Byzacium yoking an old woman with an ass, a practice not dropped until of late. He held his land usually upon a military tenure. The brilliant Third Legion executed works of immense magnitude and of admirable utility, while from its soldier towns it fenced civilization off from the Berber hordes. A few of their clans were more or less ticketed and enrolled, but all were subjects in the eye of the law, generally rebels but subjects. The whole civil and military organization, from the Proconsul's Staff and Office downwards, was without a break, absolutely continuous, in- telligible, minute and instant. We know it from their innumerable monuments as precisely as we know that of counties, parishes and boroughs. Yet a fearful shadow dogged all this national genius and individual vigour, the inherent vice of the Roman spirit, the scornful inhumanity with which uncivilized populations were unhelped and repelled. It was XXVlll INTRODUCTION. this, with its ever-growing train of consequences, this and not the Vandals, which wrought the last wreck. Of material Carthage we have less solid knowledge than of any great city. Carthage has been learnedly rebuilt in the air, its temples and streets mapped and named by departments, but all are as visionary as mirage. Archaeology has spoiled Carthage for museums as Arabs did for harems, and Italian Republics for cathedrals. Until science and system explore what lies interred under cloisters we can know little of a city whose two effacements were not more wonderful than itself in its majesty. When Cyprian was there in the height of his repute, Car- thage is reported by Herodian to have been in population and wealth the equal of Alexandria and second only to Rome. Its beauty matched its rank. The first few steps in it to-day are enough to shew us that these Arab quarters were laid out by no Arab hand. Two streets of great length through its largest dimensions, intersect at right angles, and pass out of the city northward and westward as imperial roads. For the outer city and environs they form base lines each way for many other streets set out at right angles, and frequently interlaced again with convenient diagonals. In the inner city, with its winding edge and cliff, its heights and steeps, the streets still made a singular symmetry of squares and triangles, so that space was rapidly traversed and every awkward plot made serviceable. Most of this literal geometry was Roman, but in the older citadel-region and religious quarters there are traces perhaps of those streets with which, earliest of all world-cities (it was believed), Carthage was laid out in regular plan. In another feature this Inner City resembled modern sea-ports and was unlike ancient ones. The harbour was excavated in regular basins, outer and inner. The outer oblong, for vessels of commerce, the inner, called Cothon, fitted for 220 full-sized triremes. This ran round, or nearly round, a circular island, from which the Punic admiral's quarters had commanded the lake of Tunis and the sea. All was constructed at the one corner which gave a straight shore, south and north, for quays and a short end southward and sheltered for the harbour mouth. Everywhere there was a genius for adaptation visible. At the intersection of the two great streets are the extraordinary reservoirs, Roman too, but on Punic lines. The sub- structure of the citadel — a unique contrivance (except so far as it resembles the sub-structure of the Temple) — is a nest of chambers where water was purified and stood in vast volume. Of the triple wall of the inner city, itself containing stabling and barracks, without believing all that is in Appian, we may believe wonders. At the heart of the isosceles triangle which, as we can perceive, the city shaped out, rose three hundred feet high, the famous Bozrah — climbed CARTHAGE AND HER SOCIETY. XXIX by three streets of rapid gradient — the Byrsa of the legend, and of the most 'truthful and moving' of all siege narratives save one. On the crown of it had been in all Punic time the tutelary temple of Eschmoun, heavily pillared and yellow stuccoed, replaced perhaps in the times we are busy with, by the Corinthian or Ionic temple, of whose columns a few fragments remain. Now it is the chapel of the saint and king who died on the shore below in the arms of Joinville. Here were the Basilicas, where Cyprian pleaded, the great Library he used, the Senate House, the Praetorium facing the sea — and all the home of a State. Close by the inner side of the harbour rises a miniature Byrsa, on which perhaps Caelestis had her shrine — Ashtaroth, the 'abomination of the Sidonians,' and the despair of Virgil, after whom Gracchus tried to re-name the town Junonia. The fragments which thickly strew the ground are all Roman. The Punic city lies below them under a deep layer of calcined earth and wood ash. Nothing of it presses on our eyes but the enormous tufa blocks marked with fire, the bases of the ramparts. Within their northernmost reach but seemingly beyond all old dwellings is the city of the dead, little hills and dells of limestone, Djebel Khaoui, where lie hundreds of thousands. Their places have been sunken, burrowed, and scooped, tenanted, re-tenanted and desecrated again. Thousands of dull monu- ments teach us nothing but names. These date onward from the second Phoenician epoch. Their forefathers had buried in the Inner Town. The ponderous sepulchres of the oldest Phoenician lords are in the sides of Bozrah. Tertullian had shuddered at what he saw disclosed when the Odeon was excavated. Here are Christian emblems, and here are be- headed skeletons with their heads laid carefully upon their laps. And who are these ? Within the ramparts partly, but for miles outside them, stretched the woods and gardens of the Roman peers, an extent of ' Horti ' unmatched at Rome, and across them from the western hills strode the colossal aqueduct. If we did not know that the marble wealth of its structures, so conveniently stratified for a second quarrying, had tempted not only anti-Christian Tunis, but supremely Christian Pisa, we should gaze with blank eyes upon the blank spaces where such marvels have been. Of Amphitheatre and Circus no trace but immense shallow troughs in the soil. Of Theatre, Odeon, Forum itself, scarce a sign. The Christian Fathers did not prophesy in vain, when they declared that these, the most prominent, most imposing institutions of that age, were dissolving the primary institutes of society and nature — respect for Life, for Virtue, for Government, and for Justice itself. About the Amphitheatre Tertullian refuses to reason with Christians. He can consider it an open question only for men still heathen. In the Circus mere madness is king, no XXX INTRODUCTION. authority acknowledged. Cyprian tells them this Theatre is the apo- theosis of sin, this Forum the living spirit of Falseness. It is a strange note of our city that all these have been not ruined but annihilated. Faintly then we may picture to ourselves a material something not wholly unlike what Carthage was. Scarcely any city yields so many scenes. The streets gathering themselves in unique symmetry to the feet of sudden steeps and many-tinted marble heights, or opening full on the glistening quays and the breathless harbour: graceful hills about it crowned with shrines and villas, great levels spreading in chase or garden; low 'difficult hills' with 'artificial passages,' which yoked the neck of its foreland ; the vast lake where navies of commerce and of pleasure rode close to the streets, severed by a thread from the open sea; mountain crests in snow watching from the distances; through all and over all the keen light and intense blue of Africa. More to us than the splendours of the place is the population, its habits and temper. One of its unlikenesses to other capitals was the way in which it was made and kept a city of Peace, luxurious but not idle Peace. The policy of its re-peopling did not suffer it to be a military centre. A third of the Third Legion was always quartered, not at Carthage, but wherever the Proconsul was, and the brilliance of his court was unsurpassed. When Carthage called the Gordians to the Empire, ten years before Cyprian became a Christian, the military ceremonial of Rome was punctiliously represented there, but Maximin taunted the city which would make Emperors, with being kept in order by a handful of lictors, having no weapons but hunting-spears, and no drill but the dance. The population of the rich territory outside was not more martial. They poured in armed only with hatchets and country sticks. It was the more striking because their neighbour Numidia was a land of forts and camps, and, thanks to its marvellous old Masinissa, famous for its native javelin men, who rode without bit or bridle and 'steered' their barbs, the costliest in the world, with cord and switch. Three of the finest of earth's races lived together in its circuit. The Roman, as he is best known, so is he also least patient of a rapid touch. We need say here no more than that of all the vast institutions and organizations of power, rule, pleasure, corruption which we may touch on, he was the creator. The Romans of Carthage did not see themselves, as at home, sending out, as from a source, all the legislative, administrative and executive powers, and receiving the appeals and prayers of all nations, nor yet, as in other capitals, few in number but sovereign through military peace and unswerving law. At Carthage the commerce, wealth and social influence of their preponderating numbers were shared by Punic families Latinized since the last colonizations. If the native race largely supplied CARTHAGE AND HER SOCIETY. XXXI them with slaves, it had also an independent population within the city naturally recruiting itself from the clans. The Berber — by this, its northern name, we may call the earliest uni- versal stock of the continent whom the antients knew by many names — the Berber may be studied now as well as at any of his unrecorded eras. He is unchanged. He is nearly half the population. In large districts he talks 'Libyan' still, which his masteis never allowed on coin or docu- ment, and seldom indeed could speak. He is no child of Shem like the Arab he lives with. His notions are of equality among men, honour for women, village communities (in the hill-tops if possible), neighbourly federation. He is tall, strong, supple, healthful, often 'like a bronze' for form and colour, often fair and blue eyed. We do not know whether he came in by Gibraltar. Before our times he had learnt enough of Roman manners along the seaboard. How the Roman used him and what he made of him in the interior we shall tell by and bye. Of his third century relations to Christianity we know nothing at all. In his time he has learnt the Phoenician, Roman, and Christian religions, and he retains little spots of each. All that was important in them he dropped before Islam. He saw all other races in and will see them out. The administration of law was perforce rigorous. The complicated agrarian and military conditions under which land was incessantly being acquired, leased, sub-let, and transferred by Roman farmers ; antient freeholders and tenants being generally maintained in their rights, and an elaborate corvee system worked with an eye indeed to the benefit of Italian proprietors, yet with a tendency to keep peasant-life tolerable, and not to aggravate traditional service — all this developed highly in 'Africa, nurse of pleaders,' some branches of legal skill. Inscriptions witness to the care with which peasant farmers had their cases heard, and the awards recorded monumentally for future information and security. The moving part of the population consisted, not, as with us, of people making their way up to the metropolis to be lost in it, but of families and masters, often veteran soldiers, halting on their way up the country, and often increasing their Uttle capital by the ingenious use of opportunities which a seaport offered in the way of new arrivals, commodities accessible, and industries in requisition. But finally they were in quest of rich rewarding plots of soil, as near as might be to the countless little towns which were growing out of villages and Punic stations in the plateaux and slopes of Atlas. After a while they and their factors again crowded the quays with their produce, and employed a conflux of foreign sailors, porters, dock-labourers, to which the 'Rhuppapai' of the Piraeus was a small orderly company. Meantime the ultimately ruinous transfers of land were proceeding, by which the superior ownership was concentrating itself under fewer and fewer titles. Farms were therefore ranging themselves more and more XXXll INTRODUCTION. round the bright towns, rich in every natural advantage of water and wood and quarry, while enormous tracts of land were being afforested. All this implied an immense class of lawyers and agents, of architects and engineers, builders of aqueducts and road makers, with Colleges of Surveyors who had never found it convenient to drop the augural system •which gave a Divine sanction to their mensuration. Their verdicts must be no more disputed than those of the magistrates, who similarly sup- ported their excellent character for justice by conjuring tricks, by retaining priestly functions, by a grave acting of religious sentiments which few of them entertained. If there was one thing they disliked, it was having to punish opinions which at first seemed to them only eccentric. Yet the Christians turned even this into a grave necessity. How could there be many races without many gods? Yet these Christians would have but one God, and Him a new one. How could so many races have unity or coherence without the cultus of the one Emperor? Before his bust in the standard of the legion, before his image in the shrine of the domestic cloister, incense went up continually. He might be vile, but he was the Unity of Man. His numen was an earthly Provi- dence— practically more useful than a heavenly one — so useful that after a temporary interruption by Christian Emperors the same cultus revived and still flourishes on the same earthly centre. Among Celts and Africans schools of Latin were a necessity. They naturally became schools of Rhetoric. Spain, Gaul and Africa were each famous, and Augustine admits no rival to Carthage except Rome, for Professors of Oratory and of all the knowledge which oratory demands. Fronto, with his 'gravity,' glorified as 'the Orator' and canonized by Aurelius' lavish friendship, was of Cirta. But as of old it was remarked that Africa had produced ' no astronomer,' so to the last she reared no philosopher. Augustine, who owed so much to its schools, cannot be said to speak of Carthage with affection. Its ' riot of flagitious loves ' which swept away even ' the more sedate,' its stage dancing and scenic shame, and scarcely less the falsity of its rhetorical training and the objects to be effected by that training, made Carthage a blot on his memory. He speaks with yet further horror of street scenes in which he never took part, the abominable ^versiones, which seem to have perpetuated the tradition of those Punic riots in which, as at Alexandria, Polybius says the youths took as much part as the men. But in general her citizens were as 'enamoured ' of Carthage as Pericles -wished his countrymen to be of Athens. The feeling is not ill represented by Apuleius, himself 'a half Gaetulian, half Numidian' from Madaura. He speaks of her schools, her commerce and her religion as the never CARTHAGE AND HER SOCIETY. XXXUl worn out boast of her alumnus. Devotion to her as the one lasting rivalry between two distinguished friends of his own. Cyprian himself, confessing to the full the stains upon his own grave C professional life, yet exclaims as to Carthage itself, ' Where better, where j gladlier might I be than in the place where God willed me to believe and t I grow ? ' {credere et crescere). ♦ # ♦ Of the Phoenician population of Carthage there has been much to imagine, little to know. Scant record but an enduring type. More than sixteen centuries before Christ they had stepped hither, point by point along the Mediterranean coasts on their way to Spain and outward. Here an island, there a foreland or a peninsula had served their turn and made them masters or controllers of the moving currents of wealth. But this was far their noblest settlement. About the eighth century it may have been reorganized, receiving the name which appears on coin and monument, Kart Hadasat, the New City which Cato tried to pronounce in his 'Carthada.' They checked the advance of Cyrene, planting along the edge of the Lesser Syrtis, as far on as the Greater, a chain of advanced posts, whose collective name of Emporia stamps the spirit of their foundation and indicates their wealth. Where there were lagoons they rejoiced, and made them serviceable with quay and aqueduct and causey. These towns they lost and won again and again in conflict with native princes. They cared nothing for the peoples among whom they fared, and nothing for their broad lands. They paid tribute readily to the inland tribes, until the day came when it could be repudiated. A hard unsympathetic spirit marked their rule. They amalgamated no tribes, allied no governments, conciliated no loyalty. Their nearest neighbour, Utica, whose interests seemed identical with those of Carthage, was first to turn on her when her stress came. They had brought a rich material dowry to their new country: — purple murex which on the seabanks of the Isle of Meninx became a source of untold wealth ; olive, vine, artichoke, pomegranate, the date-palm which soon possessed the land. The first of all treatises of gardening was Mago's. They imbedded the city in gardens. That they did not intro- duce deer or boar is just a token of how little to them was the inland. But they almost adored the native horse, and stamped him on their coins with perfect appreciation of his points. They also brought with them worships which had the fascinations of orgy, cruelty and secrecy, worships ever deadliest to the religion of revela- tion. The Romans favoured or adopted the service of the 'Daemon' or 'Genius of the Carthaginians,' Baal or ' Heracles ' or Eschmoun ; as well as of Astarte, Tanit, the ' Juno ' or Virgo Caelestis, of whose observances there are not wanting traces in the Moslem villages of to-day. But everywhere there is the commercial touch. Amongst the most important of our Punic inscriptions are two tariffs which tabulate for Carthage and Marseilles XXxiv INTRODUCTION. the fees and perquisites of sacrifices and the price of victims. Of two Punic words in Augustine, one is 'Mammon,' which he renders 'Lucre,' and he quotes one proverb, 'The Plague asks a coin: give two to be rid of him.' Commerce was their aristocratic Hfe, seacraft and ship-building their ancestral pride. 'Thy benches of ivory; fine linen with broidered work of Egypt thy sail;. ..wise men thy calkers'; so Ezekiel touches in the Tyrian galley, such a ship as sailed with its annual freight of ' First- fruits' from the daughter Carthage. A gainful people, high and low, intriguing and bribing for office, says Polybius, with a bribery which at Rome in his time would have been penal and capital ; ambitious with a passion which Hannibal himself failed to gratify. The character of the race was permanent like its physiognomy ; in both they were Che7iani, as they called themselves to the last, genuine Canaanites. When the last Colonia settled 'within the vestiges of great Carthage,' there were some thousands of Chenani lingering there, safer than among Libyan nomads. They were not ejected. There was nothing to hinder the redevelopment of their antient tastes, but everything to promote them. The Romans who had been so scared when the jackals pulled up the boundary rods were only too glad to adore and to endow the gods in possession. It is not hard, then, to understand how under the Empire the rich and able Chenani prospered, and how their craftsmen, labourers and sailors found more employment than ever on the quays, harbour and lake, where rode fleets of all nations. The memory of their past was written in colossal characters all round them, and would have tended to keep a less supple people separate in the pride both of achievement and of suffering, and probably in a distinct quarter of the city. But of this we hear nothing. And although some great Punic families probably withdrew gradually to their remoter estates, as the Mahomedan gentry now slip away from Algiers even against the wish of the French, yet at any rate in Carthage strong interests promoted fusion. It is more hard to say what hold Christianity took on them. The copious Augustine, who flashes into every corner, finds it needful to call attention to only two Punic words, even incidentally. The second was Messiah. We must not assume from this that the language had receded in the two previous centuries, for Cyprian and TertuUian mention none. The two Sacraments were known among them by beautiful names, meaning Salus and Vita, which Augustine supposes must have come to them through some original Apostolic channel of their own. Yet in the Cyprianic documents, flowing over with sacramental language, there is but one doubtful allusion, 'Laver of Health,' and that is in the retranslation from Firmilian. For official use Punic had been soon disallowed, and in Carthage the Phoenicians soon became bilingual, but the Romans never. In the more CARTHAGE AND HER SOCIETY. XXXV primitive towns alone Punic was talked by the lower orders, and was patriotically kept up by higher circles, together with a little shocking Greek, and no Latin to speak of. That was the case in Tripolis. Forty miles from Hippo it was necessary in the fourth century to place a Punic- speaking Bishop in the town of Fussala, and the saintly Valerius took Augustine for his coadjutor because it was impossible for him as a Greek to teach effectively. , Phoenician then was a living tongue, and it had, we know, an eloquence of its own. Severus was 'very prompt with it' Its old literature was read, and 'the learned found much wisdom in it.' There was a free use by the population of an incorrect Latin, of which we have examples in the Letters of Celerinus and Lucian, and relics in many forms. The anti-Donatist 'Psalm' or Ballad, made to be sung about by the idiotce, was in Latin. It was scoffingly said that if Donatism were the only genuine Christianity, as it claimed to be, only two of the Pente- costal tongues were worth anything, for it talked only Punic and Latin. There is no trace of a Phoenician Christian Literature. Of a hundred and forty or fifty names of Bishops in the Cyprianic papers, not more than a dozen maybe non-Latin, but apparently not more than one may be Punic. All the facts look one way, and they scarcely could be what they are if Christianity at the time we speak of had taken hold of the Phcenician nationality in either its lower or its cultivated strata. The Latin Christian speech which there developed was due to the fact that while the Church in Rome was still a Greek Church, a Church of foreigners, the most advanced classes in Carthage, of Roman origin and Latin tongue, were the most Christian. And when the jurists and the rhetoricians were touched, they were the very men qualified to form with accuracy the new vocabulary of the new subject, and not to be deterred by the necessity for fresh combinations of words when they set out to express truth with strength. The languid literature, for such it had been, was regenerated. * * * Their 'Africa' — for the Roman of Carthage was as proud of that name, which had somehow come in with him and was unknown to the Greeks, as the Londoner is of 'England' — had begun to glory in having saturated itself with all the religions, all the pleasures, 'of the Greeks.' What that meant for morals moralists tell. Salvian groans that the city itself was so little purified by Christianity till the strong, pure Vandals came in. It is enough for us to say that, for the masses, the standard, much more the discipline, of morals went down before the flood, unstemmed by the pious propitiation of 'daemons,' ever multiplying, swarming on every branch of life, while all life was pervaded by a sense of the unreality of God. Exceptions were eminent, possibly numerous. The monuments shew that the old chaste, grave, diligent virtues were in honour. Of the many lecturers in philosophy few, perhaps, were not in some small degree effective in raising the moral tone of their best disciples. Some worked XXXVl INTRODUCTION. a stern, if self-satisfied, code. But when the best was done, the indi- vidual only was moved or raised, and the individual grew daily of less and less account. The one thing desirable, the one thing unattainable by any known method, was a re-casting of Society, such that selfishness should be discounted as an evil, the source of evil, and yet the individual be made of full account. A Society faithful to the Individual, the Individual devoted to the Society. Meantime there had been growing up for more than a century and a half in every grade of society a kind of Union, or rather a kind of 'People,' for this was what they meant to be, although not in any sense a nation. They were uniformly loyal to the Government, save only as to the one article of bearing arms in its service. But averse, even ad- verse, to almost every other influence, rule, tone, opinion, habit and sacred observance of every locality in which they were found. It was understood that they were bound together in a federal network, and their leading officials generally well known, and that by the same official titles in all countries. They sought the individual whom they thought likely to join them. They cared for the stranger. If he became one of them, they made him, wherever he travelled or settled, one of a circle of pledged friends with vowed teachers. God and Life and Death were not the same things to them as to any others. There were daily, and sometimes more frequent gatherings of their local groups. In public life they were irreproachable except for their strange conventions, betraying their new associations by nothing sometimes but a deranged character. Yet the least moral of their neighbours had more than doubts of their secret licentiousness. Few knew the affiliations of their tenets or theories. Historically and 'scholastically' they were bound up with the Jews, but Judaic hostility to them was unsleeping. Admired professors of philosophy considered that, with more or less clearness, their ethical notions were unaccountably sound, but so disfigured by being adapted to fit such hopeless people, and their evidently philosophic Founder so dis- guised behind a wild story and a sacrilegious theory, that if the ethics had no practical effect on them this could not be wondered at. Their unpopularity must rest on some deep contradiction to human principle, or it could not be so instructive and universal. Social harass, popular outbreak, magisterial severity, imperial thunder were perpetually breaking on them, and were less than unavailing; in fact stimulated interest in them and adherence to them. Until lately they had been a non-descript between ethnics and Jews, a Tertium Gejius whom 'our recognized tolerance ' could scarcely be expected to tolerate. Yet people began slowly to be aware that the singular persons whom they knew belonged to an invisible 'majority.' 'We are men of yesterday,' says TertuUian, yet they were 'filling cities, islands, castles, boroughs, council rooms, — even camps, — the tribes, the decuries — palace, senate, forum — CARTHAGE AND HER SOCIETY. XXXVll every place but the temples.' They had come in so insensibly that some of them still plied former callings inconsistent with their principles. Now and then some were seen in the cunei at the habitual spectacles. Here in Africa — at the Gate which all passed through^there was no- doubt such another hospice on the quay as there was at Portus. There were no doubt in the town Basilicas and 'Fabrics,' such as Fabian had,, and built at the same time in Rome. The private estate of their well- known chief was large and beautiful. Then all along both ridges of Atlas, and on to where he dipped to his own ocean, there was not a town where they had not a footing and a constitution, officers and an inner circle ; not a farm where they did not claim a slave, if not a son. Their officials, 'servants,' 'sub-servants' and 'followers,' flitted to and fro with missives and carried monies on ships, through prison doors, among bar- racks and mines. When they were recognized they were gone. Their 'Overseers' convened themselves for deliberation when and where they pleased. Their public death-scenes from time to time were to their sect a kind of grave festival. It was and is vain to try to ascertain where and by what avenues the flood had poured in. Cyprian only knew that the 'sacerdotal unity,' the one order of bishops, traced to the 'primal church' of Rome. Augustine only thought that the Punic Sacraments, called by names not borrowed or rendered from the Latin, traced to some other Apostolic source. That is all. They were there and they were one. The Christians had in fact come into possession as the Phoenicians themselves had come into pos- session of harbours and marts, not like the noisy Roman colonies, but without violence or observation. It is with a few years of this People that we are now to concerri ourselves. CHAPTER I. THE LAST OF THE LONG PEACE. I. Cyprians Preparation in Heathendom. Such was the city and the society in which, possibly after long practice as an advocate, Thascius Cyprianus became the most eminent master of forensic eloquence^; that is to say the leading member of the highest of the professions ^ Of his birthplace or family we know nothing ; both his names^ are almost unique in the nomenclature of antiquity. ^ ...in tantam gloriam venit elo- quentise ut oratoriam quoque doceret Carthagini. Hieron. comm. Jon. c. 3. Cyprianus primum rhetor, deinde pres- byter, ad extremum Carthaginiensis episcopus martyrio coronatur. Euseb. Chronicon II. Olymp. 258. ...et magnam sibi gloriam ex artis ora- torias professione quasierat. Lactant. Div. Inst. V. I. ...tantae vocis tuba quae forensium mendaciorum certamina solebat acuere...suam et aliorum linguas docuerat loqui mendacium. In alia schola, &c. Aug. Serm. 312, c. 4 (4). ^ On the high rank and fortunes at- tained by many advocates and rhetores from and after the second century, see L. Friedlander, Darstelliirtgen axis d. Sittengeschkhte Roms, B. iii. c. 4 § r (1888 — 90, vol. I. pp. 322 — 330) and note in supplement. ' Thascius Cyprianus he is called by the proconsul {Acta Proc. 3, 4, c(. Pontii Vit. Cypr.), and in the singular heading of £p. 66 he styles himself B. i ' Cyprianus qui et Thascius.' After his adoption, according to Jerome (De Viris III.), of the ' cognomentum ' of the presbyter who converted him, he became Thascius Csecilius Cyprianus, and in his proscription (which he him- self quotes Ep. 66) is called Csecilius Cyprianus. But the adoption must be doubtful, since every MS. and ed. Man. reads ' Cseciliani ' as the presbyter's name in the only place where Pontius mentions him (c. 4), and Pontius adds nothing on the subject. The pleasant fancy was likely to occur to biographers. The only recurrence of the prsenomen which I find is in the African Kalendar, which commemorates a 'Tascius Martyr' on Sept. I. Its rarity no doubt leads to the misnomer Tatius ( Tassius, Tarsus) Cyprianus in the Decree of Cone. Rom. I. sttb Gelas., Labbe V. c. 388. The name Cyprianus occurs later, among African Christians possibly called after him — e.g. one of the Fathers in the Carthaginian council of a.d. 416 (Aug. 2 CYPRIAN and when he speaks affectionately of Carthage as the happiest place on earth to him, — ' where God had willed that he should believe and grow up (in the faith)/ he would scarcely have omitted to claim a native interest in the beloved home, had he possessed it\ All that to us is represented by the influence of the press lay in an ancient capital within the power of eloquence. Far from any shade of unreality resting on them the teachers of ^ oratory were courted leaders in society. The publicity of life, the majesty of national audiences, the familiarity of the culti- vated classes with the teaching of the schools, required the orator to be not only perfect in the graces of life, but to be versed in ethical science; to be armed with solid arguments as well as to be facile of invention ; not less convincing than attractive ; in short to be a wit and a student, a poli- tician and an eclectic philosopher. At the age of nearly thirty Cicero was still placing himself under the tuition of the Rhodian Molonl Augustine's fourth ^■Pp- 175, 181) is so named, as is also also Corp. Inscrr. Latt. vol. xiLn. ii"]-] the Deacon who carried the remarkable Q. TASGlvs FORTVNATVS. correspondence between Jerome and From the connection of Cyprus with Augustine (Aug. Epp. 71 et sqq.) ; a Carthage it might have seemed possible Presbyter, to whom Jerome writes as to derive Cyprianus thence if Cyprius Presbyterorum studiosissime,' Ep. 140 had been an ascertained proper name, ('39) (13) 01^ Psalm 89 (90); and a but scarcely otherwise. Pape connects Donatist Bishop (Aug. c. litt. Petil. iii. it with ' Copper.' If derived from c. 34 (40)) ; in C. Insc. Gr. iv. 8954 Cypris it would, as other derivatives of from Bethlehem, 9203, 9412 'E.-i]tcpt]{a)- divine names, ApoUonius, Herculanus, vov; in C./nscrr. LaU.vlu. i. 4S1S,, 22gi &c., be more common. Names given (a Bishop of Bagai), viii. ii. 10539; ^^^ ^^'^"^ ^^^^ goddess come generally from in Procopius as the name of a ' Dux fcede- Aphrodite. ratorum ' in the Vandal and Gothic wars. ^ The birthplace is not really indi- Thus Pape properly calls it a late name. cated by the passages quoted from The origin of both names is unknown. Prudentius Peristeph. xiii. 3 ' est pro- The Mozarabic Vesper Hymn for his prius patriae martyr,' and Suidas, s.v. day begins 'Urbis magister Tasci^,' KapxriSy atatem, thus c. 3 has no relation to his own position, implying old age. Antiquity is not part 'Fascibus ilk oblectatus...iyiV stipatus of the antithesis, and he is contrasting clientium cuneis' are picturesque illus- CjTJrian with those who had heard the trations simply, truth all their lives. Gregory Nazianzen, I, I. HIS PERSON AND PLACE. 5 His personal address was conciliatory yet dignified, his manner affectionate, his expression attractive by a certain grave joyousness. His dress, quiet yet appropriate to his rank, was remarked on as answering to his calm tone of mind \ He never thought it necessary to assume the philo- sopher's pall, which TertuUian had maintained to be the true dress of a Christian, for to him the bared arm and exposed chest seemed rather pretentious than plaint Augus- tine, when acknowledging the benefits he had derived through Cyprian's intercessions, dwells especially on the never-hard- ened tenderness of Jijg.xharact€r. ' Gentle he was when he 'had yet to endure amid various temptations this world's ' perils '.' Even to the last his friendship was claimed by senator and knight, by the oldest heathen houses, and the highest ranks of the province*. Yet wealth and elegance, cultivation and good sense, might have left him the mere ornament of his circle or perhaps of ^ Gravis vultus et Isetus nee severitas when he praises in him rb irepi rrjv tristis nee eomitas nimia...nec cultus ^o-^^a 0t\o(7o<^oi/) it is one of his count- dispar a vultu, temperatus et ipse de less mistakes about him. medio; non ilium superbia saecularis ^ Serm. ^12, c. i. inflaverat, nee tamen prorsus adfec- ■• Pont. Vii. 14. And this heathen tata penuria sordidarat. Pont. VtL 6. respect for him remained. Greg. Naz. Gregory Nazianz. surely had read the sa.ysTd /j^v 6vo/jMTro\inrapaTrd(nKvirpM- passage which he thus beautifully con- vov Kal ov XpuTTiavoh /movou dWa Kai denses, t6 irepl rds ivrev^as v\l/7]\6v re ttju ivavTiav i)fMv T€TayiJ^voii...Or. xxiv. 6/j.ov Kal (piXdu'dpuirov, ws laov dir^x^'-'' ^7- ^^ Peters, p. 38, solemnly works evreXeias Kal avdadeias. Or. xxiv. 13. out, as if from Lactantius, that a niek- '^ De Bono Patientice 2 ' exserti ae se- name ' Coprianus ' was effectually used minudi pectoris,' &c. That is, he con- at Carthage to laugh away Cyprian's demns the mode of wearing the Pallium influence. All that Lactantius says is which Justin kept and which TertuUian Divin. Instt. v. i that he had heard an recommended as ascetic and Christian. accomplished man break this sorry jest, It is represented in the Cemetery of say fifty years at least later. The point Callistus on two figures of teachers of it was that 'so elegant a wit, meant (de Rossi, R. S., vol. 11. p. 349, Tav. for better things, had devoted itself to ^^- 7> 9)- These belong to the middle old wives' fables.' Cf. inter copreas, of the second century, and the fashion Suet. Ti'd. 61. Scurra qui ineopriatur, does not reappear. If Gregory N^i- G/oss. Isidor. ap. M. Martini Lexic. anzen means that Cyprian wore the Philol. (1698) v. 11. pallium (as he seems to do. Or. xxiv. 13, 6 CYPRIAN CALLED FROM THE BAR. the church, but for his instinctive delight in concerting action with others and in gathering influential men about him, a finely developed tact in approaching the right person at the suitable moment, and a real laboriousness in keeping people of weight informed of all they could desire to know. Such habits may belong to men of small conceptions ; if they are the accompaniments of genius, such a genius moves the world. The peculiar expressions of two authorities, one of whom from local opportunities, the other from the character of his investigations, may have seen good reasons for their words, imply that, in somewhat more than the common function of an advocate, he had concerned himself with maintaining polytheism. Whether in processes touching temple endow- ments, or in procedures against Christians, in panegyrics, or in some more speculative way, cannot now be determined, but Jerome distinctly speaks of his having been a ' vindicator^ of idolatry,' and Augustine dwells on ' the garniture of that 'noble eloquence whereby the crumbling doctrines of daemons ' were once undeservedly decorated,' ' that eloquence wherein, ' as from some precious goblet, he once drank pledges to 'deadly errors 2.' The purport of the Christian rites had nevertheless not escaped his earlier observation as a moralist. Like many a noble heathen he had known what it was to rebel against sensual habit. The power of Baptismal Grace had been men- tioned in his hearing and not excited his derision. Yet the suppression of passion and surrender of indulgence was still ^ Comni. in fon. 3 'adsertor idolola- n. 9286) he is styled (mu)LTis exiliis trise,' cf. Optat. i. c. 9 ' adsertoribus ec- (saepe) probatvs et fidei catho- clesiae Catholicje.' So Aug. Cotif. viii. 2 licae adsertor dignvs inventvs. says that Victorinus the rhetorician had As to Cyprian we scarcely dare quote up to an advanced age defended with Gregory Nazianzen for such a fact. But fanatic eloquence (ore terricrepo) the his dai.fj.6vuu riv d€pa.irevTT\s...Ko«aA/»»' began to be used. 'Quis emolumentum gratiae per fidem Rufinus begins his letter to Ursacius, proficientis ostenderet ? ' Pont. Vit. 7. 14 CYPRIAN BAPTIZED. theatre with its unnatural subjects and impure spectacles is the divinisation of lust. In fixing upon the,-arefta as a degradation in comparison of whldi "slaveryTthat * abyss of misery,' may be passed in silence, Cyprian is true to nature. The delight in blood has become a systematized passion. He marks 'the simplicity, ' the manly health and grace, of the youths trained to mutual ' murder under the eyes of their own fathers; the brother waits 'his turn in the den, above which sits the expectant sister; * the mother pays a higher price for the ticket to witness her * child's deathwound on a gala day, and there is not the faintest 'sense of guilt on any conscience\' In thus regarding the unknown individual man and the affections which ought to centre on him as a precious thing, the Christian idea restores something to the world which civilisation had taught an Antonine, an Aurelius to ignore. The appalling proportions of the crime to which every city dedicated its grandest building, may be judged from the fact that when Cyprian became bishop, within two years from this time, the Emperors Philip had just celebrated 'The New Age^,' on the completion of Rome's first thousand years, by the combats of that thousand pair of gladiators, whom the gentle Gordian had provided to adorn his own triumph. Meantime the horrors of priv^te4icentioiisness^from which the veil is from time to time rent by some cause cilebre in which the very evidence is criminal, the corruption and inhuman procedures of the judicature, the degrading com- petition for official rank, and the trembling insecurity of military dominion, stamp the decline of public and domestic morality'. Were those the dreams of despondency and world- 1 Ad Don. 7. The indignation of to the 3rd consulship of the elder Philip, 'the Master' had already boiled over in Euseb. (Chronic. II.) dates it wrongly the De Spectaculis. A.D. 247. Clinton, Fast. Rom. i. pp. 3 A.D. 248. The coins fix the 'mil- 264 — 5, Jul. Capitol. Gord. Tres c. 33. liarium saeculum' or 'novum sseculum' ' Ad Don. 9 — 13. I. III. THE GRACE OF BAPTISM. IS weariness ? The answer is not to be gained by collecting- scandalous anecdotes. But, apart from the end to which all was tending, we might conclude Cyprian's generalisations to be just from his treatment of the courts of law. A successful experienced man here speaks in terms to provoke reply, if reply were possible, on a subject on which declamation would defeat itself, and his shades are as dark as elsewhere \ On other points we can compare the language of the satirists, but it is since the age of Juvenal that the tide of corruption has engulfed the judgment seat. False glitter, intrigues, assassi- nations which swarmed about the persons of numerous petty kings and kingly magistrates, fill the outline which is traced by the violent deaths upon the world's throne, within the last ten years, of eight Emperors, unshielded by either the highest philosophic virtue or the lowest animal ferocity^ Yet wider still the sketch of Cyprian ranges as with statesmanlike instinct he marks the no less fatal symptoms of political dissolution, presented by vast accumulations of locked- up capital, by the abnormal growth of grazing land^ and the gradual elimination of the independent labouring class*. Lastly, — and at Carthage it was probably more complete than at Rome — there was the disruption of the client-bond and the disowning of obligation between rich and poor. What then is the moral, or what the remedy } There is but one ; one calm, one freedom. All that the individual can do is to seek deliverance from this world's * whirlpools,' to approach the ' Gift of God,' and be ' greater than the world ' : to become 'a home of God'' and entertain the indwelliner Spirit®, — not indeed in ascetic retirement, for the hermit-life ^ Ad Don. lo. * De confinio pauperibus exclusis. 2 A.D. 235, Alex. Severus. a.d. 238 Ad Don. 12. Gordianus I., II., Maximinus, Maximus, * Ad Don. 15, mark the expression Pupienus, Balbinus. A.D. 244 Gordia- 'a'ow«»/...quamDominus insedit /^w/// nus III. vice.' * Continuantes saltibus saltus. Ad * Rettberg's ignorance of scripture Don. 12. language betrays his penetration into 1 6 CYPRIAN BAPTIZED. has not yet presented itself as the sole remaining refuge, — but through inner purity, in sweet domestic life, in a round of prayer and study\ Such is the moral of the scene with which the holiday evening closes, — the sober banquet, the sweet chant, the memory stored with Psalms. / All this needed expansion into fuller richer life : yet it / was something when the fortunate man of the world began even thus to live. The conditions of the new problem are stated, though their connection is not yet perceived. On one side the needs of modern life, on the other his own spiritual experience thus far as a pagan. ' I seconded my own be- * setting vices; I despaired of improvement ; I looked on my ' faults as natural and home-born ; I even favoured them. * But so soon as the stain of my former life was wiped ' away by help of the birth-giving wave, and a calm pure light * from above flooded my purged breast ; so soon as I drank of * the spirit from heaven and was restored to new manhood by * a second nativity; then, marvellously, doubts began to clear ; * secrets revealed themselves ; the dark grew light ; seeming ' difficulties gave way ; supposed impossibilities vanished ; I * was able to recognise that what was born after the flesh and ' lived under the rule of sin, was of the earth earthy, while that ' which was animated by the Holy Spirit began to belong to * God I' These mighty experiences of his Baptism support rather than invalidate his biographer's account of the Charity and Purity of his devoted preparation for it. Pontius had known no parallel, he tells us, of such early fruits of Faith, but to Faith he expressly attributes them, and so to the Grace of God, ' although the second birth had not yet illuminated the novice with the whole splendour of the light divined' perceiving this ' tone of mystical union '^ Ad Don. 4. with God' to ^ be grounded on a pan- '^ 'Pro fidei festinatione,' * nondum thdstic view,^ and to be found only 'in secunda nati vitas novum hominem splen- these excited early writings.' dore toto divinse lucis oculaverat,' Pont. ^ Sit tibi vel oratio assidua vel lectio. Vit. 2. There is no need therefore to Ad Donat. 15. attribute to Pontius a semipelagianism ; I. IV, CYPRIAN BAPTIZED. 1/ When Cyprian speaks of his unbaptized life as one of ' darkness, ignorance of self, estrangement,' he is not dwelling on the short interval between conversion and baptism but on his life as a whole. As yet the subtleties were not which would assign the stage of attraction and approach rather to the heathen than to the Christian side of life. Very feeble do they shew beneath the dawn on which Cyprian's gaze was fixed. Divine Grace has fallen as a psychological fact within his personal experience while he contemplates society as barren and corrupting through lack of an inspiration. He will not be long in claiming the regeneration of society from the same source which he already recognises as the renewal of the man. We need not look to him for Theology proper, for doctrinal' refinement, for the metaphysic of Christian definition. We shall find him busy with moral conditions, the work of grace, the bonds of union : the sanctification of life through the sacraments, the remodelling of life through discipline ; the constitution of the church in permanence, the transforming social influences which are to control the application of power 'and wealth, to charge science again with the love of truth, art with the love of beauty, and to create a new benevolence. The ' Charismata of Administrations,' ' helps, governmentsV — these are his field, IV. Cyprian Deacon. The indigence of the Carthaginian poor was, owing to the causes which Cyprian himself had indicated, a constantly deepening gulf Fifty years later treasures were still thrown none to find (with Tillemont Tom. iv. Cyprian of the struggle and the fears of note 4 on S. Cypr.) a contradiction selfwhich preceded it, and of the intense between him and Cyprian, as to whether relief and peace which followed it. the two ' vows ' were before or after ^ ^laKovlai., di>Ti\tj\//eii, Ku^epv-qafis. Baptism. Pontius clearly speaks of i Cor. xii. 5, 28. resolutions formed and kept before it : B. 2 1 8 CYPRIAN AND C^CILIAJST. into it in vain. The first outbreak of the anger of the separatist Donatus against the Catholics, his famous exclama- tion 'What hath Emperor to do with Church ?,' was occasioned by the mission of Paul and Macarius to Carthage from Constans 'with relief for the ik)or'; 'that poverty might be able to breathe, be clothed fed and comforted.' They came 'bringing what we may almost call Treasuries to expend ' upon the poor^* To the sacrifice of his farms in their cause Cyprian did not hesitate to add that of his delightful Gardens. Friends bought them in 2, and insisted on his residing there. Later on he was only too anxious to sell them again. Every- thing shews him to have been free from family ties^ A reasonable interpretation suggests that he entered the order of Deacons. And as we shall have more than one occasion to remark the intimate relations subsisting between a Deacon and some Presbyter to whose labours he was specially attached, so we find him, possibly in this capacity, taking up his quarters in the house of his aged father in the faith, the Presbyter Caecilian*, and by his attention soothing his last ^ Optat. iii. 3. celibacy. Bp. Fell is worse in mis- "^ Pont. Vit. 15. Perhaps Pontius reading what Pontius says of yob''s wife was concerned in this transaction, for so as to prove Cyprian's marriage, he says they were ' de Dei indulgentia Pont. Vit. c. 3 ' Ilium (Job) non tcxoris restituti.' j//a^^/a deflexit.' Fell ad loc. 'conjuga- O. Ritschl, pp. 6, 7, conceives that tus ergo erat Cyprianus.' Let us hope the Horti must have been confiscated that prepossession is less blinding in our later and that Pontius mistakes this for own day. In all his letters from his re- charitable sale now, Pontius' personal tirement there is no reference to a home knowledge seems to present to him no of his own. difficulty, nor yet the question how the * I can give no meaning to the words confiscation was taken off. of Pontius the Deacon ' Erat sane illi 3 There is no token of his ever having etiam de nobis contubemium...Cascili- married. Pontius as a fine writer is ani,' except that assigned to them by obscure. Yet it is inexcusable for Pearson {^An. Cypr. a.d. 247), 'while Baronius {Ann. Eccles. A.D. 250, x.) to still of our body (the diaconate) he had have misunderstood what he says of quarters with Csecilian.' Pont. Vit. 4. Caecilian's wife and children to mean Pontius himself resided vsrith Cyprian Cyprian's family renounced in favour of from before his first retirement till his I. V. CYPRIAN THE PRESBYTER. I9 days^ For Csecilian shortly afterwards died, commending his wife and children to the grateful affection of his convert ^ V. Presbyterate. What we now naturally enquire is the exact character up to this time impressed, in the eyes of the Carthaginian church, upon a layman by his becoming a cleric. Was it official and administrative, or mystical, or didactic, or benevolent ? From Tertullian we may collect answers to these questions with unusual clearness — answers consistent with each other though not always rendered from the same points of view. The position of the clergy had been expressed in terms borrowed from the civil constitution — terms which there is no reason to think were disputed at Carthage as either arrogant or inadequate. The laity were the Commons or Plebes^, the Clergy were the Ordo, that is they were the Senatorial Order in the Church; Ordo being the regular name of the Senate, the Decurions, in the provincial and Italian towns. Cyprian when a layman is called a ' Plebeian ' by Pontius, and he himself addresses letters 'to those who stand fast in the Commons,' and ' to the Commons of Leon and Astorga.' As the senators in court and in basilica had the common-bench (consessus), so had the clergy in the congregation. 'The 'difference between the Order and the Plebes is constituted 'by the authority of the Church, and by the consecration death. See also the relation of Felicis- trary both to the Christian rules which simus toNovatuspp. 102 sqq. Cyprian's withheld ordained persons from taking diaconate seems also implied in Pont. those offices, and to the Roman usage of ^'^- 3> 'Quis enim non omnes honoris appointing the nearest relations. See gradus crederet tali mente credenti?' below pp. 44 sqq. Fechtnip p. 10, n. i 1 Demulsus obsequiis. PonL Vit. 4. needlessly hence infers that he was a 2 Pontius, Vtt. 4, says he made layman still. Cyprian 'pietatis heredem,' not that ' ^Flebs hominum dicas sed Plebes he appointed him curator or tutor to ecclesiarum. Ebrard in Grsecismo.' ihe family. This would have been con- Ducange. 20 WHAT PRESBYTERS WERE. 'of the Office indicated by the sitting together of the * Orders' Tertullian does not attribute to the clergy spiritual descent from the Apostles, nor regard them as having been typified by the Levitical Priesthood, or as occupying their relative position towards the people. But he regards the Office as none the less ' sacerdotal ' although in origin ecclesiastical, and not immediately divine. 'A woman is ' not permitted to speak in the church, nor yet to teach, nor 'baptize, nor offer, nor claim to herself the rights of any ' masculine function, much less of the sacerdotal office V The right of giving baptism belongs to the chief priest, ' that is the bishop,' and heretics offend in the moveable character of their orders and in that they ' enjoin sacerdotal offices to laymen^' Nevertheless the functions of the Order were not significant of any alienation or absorption of the priesthood of believers ; they involved during their exercise only its suspension or dormancy. Where there is a destitution of clergy the sacerdotal powers of the laity revive, to the extent of performing sacramental acts. ' Where there is no Bench ' of the ecclesiastical order you (a layman) offer (the sacrifice) ' and you baptize and are your own sole priest*.' The priesthood had been actually imparted by Christ to all Christians, for 'Jesus the High Priest and Lamb^ of the ^ Differentiam inter Ordinem et Pie- self and his opponents. And this of bem constituit Ecclesiae auctoritas, et course is equally true as to the doctrine Honor per Ordinis consessum sancti- of the exercise of the functions of the ficatus. De Exhort. Cast. 7. Honor is priesthood by the Order only. Ep. 59. like Ordo a constitutional word, signi- 18, note the form ^ congestus.^ fying the Office of any magistrate or ^ De Veland. Virgin. 9. dignity. Bp. Lightfoot in his Disserta- ^ De Prcescript. hceretic. 41. tion on the Christian Ministry [Ep. to * De Exh. Cast. 7. Adeo ubi ec- Philippians p. 154 (1868)] translates clesiastici ordinis non est consessus et thus ' ...the consecration of their rank offers et tinguis et sacerdos es tibi solus, by the assignment of special benches ^ Adopting Scaliger's emendation to the clergy.' The Bishop well ' Nos lesus summus sacerdos et Agnus observes that these passages coming Patris de suo vestiens,' Z>^ i^<7M£ifaw. 7, from a Montanist bear witness to the for the common reading niagnus ; corn- fact that the doctrine of an universal pare Cypr. Ad Fortunat. prcef. 3, of priesthood was common ground to him- which this passage was perhaps the I. V. CyPRIAN THE PRESBYTER. 21 ' Father clothing us from His own [clothing], because they ' that are baptized in Christ have put on Christ, hath made us 'priests to His Father, according to John.' So complete is the sacerdotal character of the Christian layman that he is subject to rules laid down for the Jewish Priesthood : thus, the young man who was not suffered to bury his Jewish father was prohibited because, being a Christian, he was a Priest and could not (according to the law of the Priest) attend the funeral, although Christians may bury Christians because these live still in Christ. Again, 'Assuredly we are ' Priests called by Christ, and therefore bound to single ' marriages only, according to God's ancient law which then 'in its own priests prophesied of us\' The fancifulness of the conclusions does not affect the theory from which he derives them. He argues from what was generally accepted to what he himself advanced. In his time the substantive priesthood of the laity was an understood reality. This it was which was perceived to be fore-shewn in the Levitic priesthood, not that official priesthood of the clergy which was rightly constituted by the authority of the Church. Then there were the beliefs and associations which invested a.d. 247. A.U.C. the order of the Presbyterate at the time when Cyprian was 1000. received by Donatus to their own bench'"*. We shall see how n^' ^^^' they were presently varied. M. Jul. Philippus We shall see too how grave was the business which came Pius Fei. before the ' consessus,' and how necessary that men of affairs panii. should have seats on it. "f^^- "• Imp. Cses. All that his Biographer records of Cyprian as a member M. Jul. Scvcnis of the Bench of Presbyters is that he was no less active in phUippus that office than he had. been as a Plebeian, no less eager to ^^^f'^^^' translate the ancient saints into modern life ^ seed — '...de Agno...\z.i\sMi ipsam et pur- ^ De Monogam. 7, cf. De Exh. Cast. 7. puram misi, quam cum acceperis tuni- '^ Non post multum temporis allectus cam tibi pro voluntate conficies et plus in presbyterium. Hier. de Viris III. 67. ut in domestica tua adque in propria ^ Pont. Vit. 3 "multa sunt quae ad- veste Isetaberis,' &c. hue plebeius, multa quae jam presbyter 22 CYPRIAN 'TO QUIRINUS — VI. Helps to Laymms Scripture Studies. Of that activity in one of its applications we have still a noble instance in at least two of the books of classified texts skilfully grouped under pithy headings, entitled To QuiRINUS, — the 'dear son,' or layman, at whose request they were compiled. Since in Augustine's mention of the books the name of Testimonies is used, and Pelagius compiled his 'Testimonies to the Romans' in imitation and indeed in completion of it, — as he himself stated, — and since this name appears in the earliest manuscript, if not in slightly later ones\ it is pro- bable enough that a title, which so neatly describes the work, was of Cyprian's own giving. It was also vulgarly called 'Against the Jews'; but was perhaps not so much intended for as found to be a serviceable manual in the contemporary controversies-. fecerit, multa quae ad veterum exempla justorum imitatione consimili prose- c\xt\x%..^hcec debentfacere^ dicebat, 'qui Deo placere desiderant.' et sic (per) bonorum omnium exempla decurrens, dum meliores semper imitatur, etiam ipse se fecit imitandum." Cf. Euseb. Chronicon, Ol. 258, 1. ^ Hartel, p. 35, entitles it thus: 'Ad Quirinum (Testimoniorum Libri Tres),' which can represent nothing ancient, and his own note is as follows: "Aug. c. a. epp. Pelag. I. iv. c. 21 (p. 480 d) Cyprianum etiam ipse haeresiarches is- torum Pelagius cum debito honore com- memorat, ubi testimoniorum librum scribens, eum se asserit imitari, ' hoc se ' dicens ' facere ad Romanos quod ille fecerit ad Quirinum^ et ejusdem libri c. 27 merito et ad Quirinum de hac re absolutissimam sententiam proponit cui testimonia divina subjungeret. Hieron, Dial. c. Pelag. c. 32 quumque se imi- tatorem imo expletorem operis beati Cjqiriani scribentis ad Quirinum esse fateatur." The Sessorian MS. (ssec. Vll. Mai, or viii.-ix. Reifferscheid) has ' Testimoniorum incipit ad Quirinum ' ; the word ' explicit ' before ' Testimoni- orum ' refers of course to the preceding treatise. Surely from these facts one would not ' conjecture that the genuine title was ' Ad Quirinum ' merely. Does the note at the end of Bk. in. in MS. L imply that it was sometimes called NuMERi — 'Ad Quirinum numer. lib. III. ex.'? Hartel p. 184. Cf. Caecili Cipriani ad Quirinum liber II. exp incip ad eundem excerpta capitulorum numero Lxx. (Cod. M), Hartel p. 10 1. Here LXX. is in error for cxx. * See on Novatian's controversial books p. 123 and notes. Since out of nearly a hundred passages collected in I. VI. TESTIMONIES.' 23 The first book assembles the chief scriptures which fore- told disobedience and forfeiture of grace on the part of the Jews, and the inheritance of all the Church's privileges by the Gentiles : the substitution of a new Circumcision, Law and Testament for the ancient ones, of a new Baptism, a new j*Yoke': how the old Pastors, the old House of God, the / Temple, and the Sacrifice were to come back in nobler form ; how the cessation of the Priesthood and the succession of Christ as true High Priest^ were predicted and accomplished; how to the Jewish nation there remained now nothing but to purge by baptism the blood of their slain Messiah and to come over to His Church. In the second book Cyprian treats of the Mystery or 'Sacrament of Chrisf^' — the adequate fulfilment of prophecy in Him, and the grandest notes of His Person. The clear- ness and force of these most brief summaries or articles of Christology are very impressive, nor less so the spirit of personal devotion which they breathe. The third book*, separately issued, resembles the others only in arrangement. It is a commonplace-book, meant for rapid and frequent reading, of texts for Quirinus' use on the Christian life, duty and doctrine*: the tone very pure and spiritual. the first book, only twenty come from iii. (7) ; c. II. epp. Pelagg. iv. 9 (25). the New Testament, and these almost all * Salubre et grande compendium... in bearing on the fulfilment of the Old, and breviarium pauca digesta et velociter as each heading notes a contrast of Old perleguntur et frequenter iterantur, Test. with New, it is somewhat less clear to iii. Proem. No. 6 is perhaps the first me than it was to Rettberg pp. 231 sqq. explanation in Latin of misfortvmes as a that Cyprian had no eye to the Jewish divine probation and is the keynote of sects in this compilation. Again, the his treatise on The Mortality. No. 28 last heading, Test. i. 24, gives the point marks the slight tendency which Cyprian of the whole. had to Novatianism before Novatian. ^ Test. i. 17. No. 46 on silence of women seems ^ See Test. Proem. (Hartel p. 36, oddly placed. Rettberg argues that 1. 13) and notes in MSS. A and B at end this book belongs to the early years of of Test. Bk II. (Hartel p. loi). his Christianity from the 'texts against ' Test. iii. tit. 4 is thrice quoted by heretics ' being other than those which hyx^a&'Cva.t Retr.\\.i%dePradest.sanctt. he used afterwards. Unless he refers 24 CYPRIAN 'TO QUIRINUS — TESTIMONIES.' / His touches upon Faith are well worth reflexion — That the very difficulty of the subjects demands that dogma should be simple; that belief is not independent of will; that cause and .effect are proportionate, as elsewhere so in faith; that faith . requires patience as an essential character of itself ^ Cyprian's copious memory, to which Pontius bore witness, receives remarkable illustration from these books. That such a work could be compiled out of Scripture at all by a memory unassisted by concordance or index is surprising. Add to this that the selection is so well made, and that the memory had been so recently introduced to the Bible. He mentions that he had avoided diffuse selection, and confined himself to what a ' moderately good memory ' had suggested '. But all this would be truly unimaginable if he had been debarred from the study of Scripture until he entered on the duties of a presbyter, and had been taught only orally whilst he was a layman ^ Quirinus himself must have been such a layman, for Cyprian seeks to provide him only with profitable 'reading towards forming the first lineaments of his faith.' Yet he assumes that Quirinus will presently *be searching into the ' Scriptures old and new more fully, and reading through the (which I doubt) to what is here said as c. 5 'tarn memoriosa mens.' to Novatianism, I do not know what ^ This ultramontane thesis is deliver- texts he means. But the fact does ed, and Cyprian's study of Scripture appear, I think, from the 281 h heading limited to 'about the inside of a year,' just mentioned standing without the by Peters, p. 80, in the face of Pontius' qualification which he would have added account ( Vit. 2, 3) how Cyprian as a later. layman was teaching others how to use ^ No. 52, Credendi vel non credendi Scripture, and of these very prefaces to libertatem in arbitrio positam. (Com- Quirinus. So Novatian to the Plebes pare Coleridge Aids to Reflection.) No. at Rome, ' Nam qui sincerum Evange- 53, Dei arcana perspici non posse, et Hum. ..non tantum tenetis verum etiam idcirco fidem nostram simplicem esse animose docetis,' De Cib. jhtd. c. i. debere. No. 42, Fidem totum prodesse, Peters alleges the bare fact that the et tantum nos posse quantum credimus. ' Quod Idola ' and the ' ad Donatum ' No. 45, Spem futurorum esse, et ideo contain no quotations ; to which (so far fidem circa ea quas promissa sunt pati- as it is true) the aim of those pamphlets entem esse debere. is an answer in full. • Test. Proem, compare Pont Vit. I. VII. CYPRIAN POPE OF CARTHAGE. 2$ * whole of the volumes of the spiritual books ' and ' equally ' with ourselves be drinking of the same springs of divine * fulness.' To our knowledge of the wording of the actual versions which the African Christian thus studied these books are necessarily a very important contribution. In this light we hope to return to them again. VII. Cyprian made Pope of Carthage. So rapid had been the progress of Cyprian through the Diaconate and in the offices of the Presbyterate* that he was still a Novice^ according to usual account, when the public opinion of the laity^ immediately upon the voidance of the a.d. 248. see of Carthage by the demise of Donatus*, unanimously called *"-^- him to that post. The apostolic warning against the elation Coss. Inip. Cses. M. of a neophyte was afterwards quoted against him. Some Jul. Phi defended the step by the instance of the Vizir of Meroe, Y?Y^.k\x". baptized by an evangelist after an hour's instruction. But P^^th. *^ •/ o max. Oer. others rested on the exceptional character of the man, his max.Carp. mature and gentle wisdom, his vast knowledge, sagacity and imp! Cks. diligence, and that rapid energy, so needed by the stagnant phinpL? church, which swiftly carried him through the circle of in- P- F- Aug. Germ. vestigation and acquirement, and then unrestingly through max.Carp. administrations, reforms, and new creations. ^^^' Cyprian declined the office. His own desire was to see it exercised by one of his elders in years and in the faith'. A small portion of the church, but among them five of the ^ Pont. Vit. 2 ...et praepropera veloci- Vit. 5. tate pietatis paene ante ccepit perfectus ' Suffragium vestrum. — vestra suflfra- esse quam disceret. 3...quis enim non gia, Ep. 43. i, 5. omnes honoris gradus crederet tali * Ep. 59. 6, 10. — On the date see mente credenti? P- 4i> "ote 5. * Adhucneophytus...novellus. Pont. * Antiquioribus cedens. Pont. Vit.i. 26 HIS CONSECRATION. most influential^ members of the bench, held the same view. Some of the firmest friends of his after-life had belonged at first to that minority, but the five presbyters maintained for many years an organized opposition. The mass would now brook neither opposition nor refusal. They surrounded his house and filled the avenues by which it was approached. He concealed himself; he would fain have escaped by a lattice'; but the tumultuous demonstration (a sufficient indication of the present security of the Christian population) lasted until he reappeared and signified his consent, when it was suc- ceeded by rapturous joy. Whether as in some untrustworthy statements concerning Alypius and Ambrose he was carried away and consecrated on the spot, or what further steps were allowed to be neces- sary before his consecration, we do not know. It must remain matter of doubt whether the bishops of his province were summoned to elect him. He him.self enumerates more than once the requisites of a regular episcopate as three, and says that they were regarded in Africa as essentials; firsts the choice of the neighbouring bishops of the province assem- bled at the see^; secondly, the * sufi'rage,' that is, the presence and support of the Plebes at that choice ; thirdly, the judg- ment of God, To these he adds, in vindicating the perfectness of the election of Cornelius at Rome, the tesdmonx of P ^arg<. ^ Ep. 43. 4 ...aetas...auctoritas. — On S. Paul could be considered an ordained their identification see below, p. 1 10, apostle when at Damascus (Acts ix. 25) n. 4. is another matter. ^ Pont. Vit. 5. I hope this is what ^ Ep. 67. 5 '...apud nos quoque et Pontius means by ' potuisset fortasse fere per provincias universas tenetur, ut tunc illi apostolicum illud evenire, quod ad ordinationes rite celebrandas ad earn voluit, ut per fenestram deponeretur, si plebem cui prsepositus ordinatur epis- jam turn apostolo etiam ordinationis copi ejusdem provinciae proximi quique honore similaretur.' Freppel ' il y conveniant, et episcopus deligatur plebe songea un moment, mais son humility praesente...' He also distinguishes the redouta ce trait de ressemblance avec 'episcopatus deferretur' from 'manus Paul.' Rather 'if he was being made ei...imponeretur.' like him in one way, by ordination, he In Ep. 59 it maybe observed that he might (if he had had his own will) have says of himself (6) '...populi universi been made like him in another, by suffragio...m. Cyp. i, considers sant with the life and conversation of the the word /cX^poj to be evidence, bishop elect is said to be 'de universse ^ The Coptic Canon 65 seems to de- fraternitatis suffragio.^ ' Suffragium scribe a distinct appeal to Heaven as sceleris ' is the support which the stern following upon the enquiry w^hether the crime of Brutus gave to his own autho- elected person is of pure character — rity. Quod Idol. 5. ' Suffragia saepe ' And if they all together have witnessed repetita' are the cries with which the that he is such an one according to the mob demanded Cyprian for the lions, truth, God the Father and His only- Pont. Vit. 7. Christ is our Suffragator begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord and in a gloss on Advocatum which in the the Holy Ghost being judge that these common text oi Ep. 55. 18 displaced things are so...' justum in i Joh. ii. i — a word which ° Ep.66. i, 9, to Pupienus; to whom seems to imply the utter disappearance he would take the strongest ground he of any idea of united opinions. The could. So also to Cornelius 59. 6. ' Voies^ in Copt. Can. 65 seem to mean Somewhat similarly an opportunity of I. VII. CYPRIAN THE POPE. ^ 29 Cyprian's title of ' Papa! The Roman clergy in addressing Cyprian and in writing about him style him ' Papa,' * Papas.' or Pope of Carthage, as do also the Confessors of his own city^. This title has been attempted to be explained by the statement that it was a common synonym for ' Bishop,' or that the Romans at least felt no difficulty in extending the title used by their own bishop. Pearson 2, Bingham^, Routh* have added their weight to the belief that all bishops were so called. This however was apparently not the case in the time of Cyprian. By the end of the 5th century no doubt Papa was a common title in distinguished sees. Sidonius ApoUinaris (Bp. 472) speaks of the Popes of Rheims, Lyons, Aries, Vienne, Marseilles and others, usually. Even in the 4th century the name was not uncom- mon. Augustine is frequently addressed as Pope by his correspondents'^, especially by Jerome, and Jerome himself so calls Epiphanius, John of Jerusalem, Athanasius, Chromatius of Aquileia, as well as Anastasius and Damasus Bishops of Rome, and Theophilus of Alexandria^. The Bishops of Alexandria however had the appellation earlier than the rest. Both Athanasius and Arius call Alexander {d. a.d. 326) the * Pope ' of that see, and the first distinct use of the title there is in the instance of Heraclas who probably died in A.D. 246 and is so styled formally by his successor Dionysius the Great'^. It now will seem remarkable that within two or three years of the death of Heraclas Cyprian is called Papa frequently by the Roman clergy and confessors, as well as by the native confessors — especially martyrdom, even when it is rightly (as Ep. 8. i. Didicimus secessisse bene- coming in the order of providence) dictum Papatem Cyprianum. (Cleri avoided by flight, is called an occasion Rom.) when...'corona^(ja'?^7««/jo«i?Z)^/descen- ^ Vind. Epistt. S. Ignat. p. i. c. xi. ^. dat, nee possit accipi...,' Dc Laps. 10. ^ J. Bingham, I. pp. 65 sqq. (1855). ^ Ep. 30. Cypriano Papae Presbyteri ^ Routh, R. S. III. pp. 235, 268. et Diaconi Romje consistentes s. — opta- ' Aug. Ep. 68, 81, 119, 216. mus te, beatissime ac gioriosissime papa, * Hieron. Epp. 81 (66), 86 (70), 88 semper in Domino bene valere...(2'« (j\),2\.%o Contra Johami. Hierosolymit. fine). 4. Ep. 31. Cypriano Papse Moyses et "^ Euseb. Hist. Eccles. vii. 7. Gre- Maximus Presbyteri et Nicostratus et gory of NeocKsarea (Thaumat.) ad- Rufinus et ceteri qui cum eis confes- dresses his Ca«6?«iVa/Z£//^ to (teyowrare) sores s. Haiva. in a.d. 258 (?), but it is difficult Ep. 36. Cypriano Papati Presbyteri to say whether this is a circular letter to et Diacones Romae consistentes s. bishops, or to priests, as Greek priests Ep. 23. Universi Confessores Cy- and hieromonachi are so called, or to a priano Papati s. particular bishop. 30 ' CYPRIAN THE POPE. remarkable when we further observe that the Bishops of Rome with whom so many letters pass to and fro are never once so designated. This corresponds however with the evidence of inscriptions. We iiave from the Roman Catacombs a series of the monumental slabs first laid over the Bishops of Rome in the 3rd century. We have Urban's, who was bishop from A.D. 222 to 230; we have the monu- ment of Anteros who sat in 235 and 236, Fabian's from 236 to 250, Eutychian's from 275 to 283. Again we have that which Damasus placed over Eusebius who died in 309, and that which Damasus made for himself. Yet the first appearances of the title Papa at Rome are in inscriptions to the honour of Marcellinus a.d. 296 — 304 and Damasus 366—384. De Rossi attempts to account for the fact that the third century monuments call the Roman bishop in each case Episcopus and not Papa, by the theory that this name still bore only the sense of affectionate reverence in which it arose, was not yet a recognised title, and therefore not appropriate to a monument. He observes that the earliest inscrip- tional use of the word is with the adjectives meus, suus, noster, and accordingly in the two earliest instances of the Roman bishops, the admirer who erects the inscription calls him '■his papa' in each instance. * By order of his papa Marcellinus this Severus, deacon, made a double chamber^...' 'Furius Dionisius Filocalus inscribed this, adorer and lover of Damasus his papa^.' And of this usage in application even to priests various early examples are given. But the point to be observed is that so very long before any bishop of Rome appears with the title in a7iy sense it is used as_aj52rza/a:Zjiiode_^f_ address to Cyprian by the clergy of Rgme. We have then this curious"^result that when Gregory the Seventh, in 1073, published the edict that the world should have but one Pope^, he appropriated a title not original to his see, which had belonged to the _great African sees far earlier, and in the meantime had been very widely adopted. I believe however that the earliest instance of the use of the name is in connection with the see of Carthage. It seems so improbable that TertuUian should attack a Roman regulation that I must think his De I'udicitia was addressed to the then bishop of Carthage (a.D. 211—220). ^ Cubiculum duplex cum arcisoliis at ^ Furius Dionisius Filocalus scribsit luminare Damasi s pappae cultor atque amatot Jussu p(a)p(ae) sui Marcellini Diaco- (amator). De Rossi, Roma Sott. i. p. nus iste 121, 11. 200, 201. Severus fecit... * [Ennodius xliii., Ixxx. refutes G. B. de Rossi, Inscrr. Chr. Simond's assertion (a^ £««.£//. iv. i) Urb. RomcE, i. p. cxv., 11. that his use of the word is limited to p. 55' the Roman see.] I. VIII. CYPRIAN BISHOP. 3I It is the much condemned assumption of the authority of Episcopus Episcoporum by a predecessor which makes Cyprian in council so anxious to disclaim the appearance of it, as well as the African canons so distinct in repudiating it. Now in chapter 13 Tertullian, with ironical emphasis, calls the bishop in question Bonus pastor et benedictus papa, and Benedictus Papa is the very word used of Cyprian in Ep. 8. i. Because Callistus issued an edict ^ like the one which Tertullian con- demns, it would not follow that he was the only bishop who did so, rather perhaps the reverse. If Papa was originally then of Carthaginian usage, this is but one of many instances in which the African Church led the Latin forms. Lastly, we may observe that if the Roman letters to Cyprian were not genuine, but belonged to the fifth century, or even the fourth, and were written in the interests of the papal see, we should not have had the name Papa carefully attributed by the Romans to Cyprian and entirely withheld by them and by all the letter- writers from the bishop of Rome. VIII. Cyprian's View of the Authority and the Design of the Episcopate. And what then was, in Cyprian's thought, the Office to which he had been called .-• It is evident that we must ascertain this before we can enter into the spirit of his administration. For that office was undertaken by him with clear ideas upon its import, and was not gradually invested with them by mere administrative convenience. There are two main outlines possible. Which of the two was before him .'' Did he find himself called to be chief arbiter and judge of the Christian congregations, the president of their committees, the guardian of their doctrine and customs, of the Scriptures and their interpretation, the principal of those functionaries who for the sake of order, regularly and alone, within a certain district exercfsed, that ^lesthood which in theory 1 Hippol. Refut. omn. hares, ix. i3 (ed. L. Dunker and F. G. Schneidewin) ; cf. Tart, de Pudicit. 13. 32 WHAT A BISHOP WAS TO HIM. belonged equally to all believers ? Had his office thus risen naturally out of the presbyterate, as the presbyterate had grown out of the whole community ? or, if this enquiry sur- passed the curiosity of the age, did he regard himself as delegated to be thdr^iiead-priest by a nation of priests ? Or did he regard his office as something different in kind from all such conceptions of it? as a line traced in the Divine _Plan? indicated and assumed, if not defined, in the New Testament? deducible from it by reasoning, such as evolves from the same writings the doctrine of the Holy Trinity ? as a power not there reduced to terms, but constant in exercise ; endowed with a grace specific, exclusive, efficient ? These questions receive a full answer in Cyprian's writings. As matter of order, the eminence of the rank of the bishop was visible to the Roman world. He was the Chief of the Christian Society; the confiscation of his property was the first, for a time the only, edict of persecuting magistrates. In the assembly from the midst of the separate semicircle of the .presbyters^ rose his chair or Throne, already the universal / jbame and symbol of his authority. He was specially the Preacher'* in his church, the chief instructor. Again he was the principal arbitrator in disputes. As to morals and discipline, whether clerical or lay, he was 'Judge in Christ's - stead ' of disqualifications' from communion, propriety of restoration, suitableness for any office. But in this capacity Cyprian felt at all times bound to act on the principle which in one of his earliest letters he lays down — ' to do nothing ' without the^nformation and advice of presbyters, deacons, - * and laymei^.' 1 Epp. 39. 4. 40, &c. * ...nee episcopo honorem sacerdotii 2 Ep. 55. i4...1egeram et episcopo sui et cathedrae reservantes, Ep. 17. 2. tractante cognoveram. And of false * ...prsesentibus et judicantibus vobis bishops... quorum tractatus...mox\.2Xt. (t.e. plebe). Ep. 17. i, cf. 3.— Cf. Ep. virus infundit. De Unit. 10. One of the 14. 4; 19- -2. Cf. as regards ordination sadnesses of the exile is... quod... nee Ep. 38. i...solemus vos anteconsulere tractantes episcopos audiat. Ep. 58. 4. et mores ac merita singulorum communi I. VIII. WHAT A BISHOP WAS TO CYPRIAN. 33 That which has been for centuries the supreme title of episcopal greatness, the title of Pontiff, he would have rejected with disdain and horror. On Tertullian's lips it had been a . gibe\ In Cyprian's language it was reserved for Caiaphas after the priesthood had passed from him by his condemnation of his own High Priesf^: but that the Bishop was simply the delegate or representative of the people in their sacerdotal aspect is a thought which never took shape from his pen. For him the Bishop is the sacrificing priests Christ was ,' Himself the Ordainer of the Jewish Priesthoods The Priests, of that line were 'our predecessors'.' The Jewish Prie_sthood at last became 'a name and a shade,' on the day when it, crucified Christ*. Its reality passed on to the Christian, bishop ; each congregation (diocese) is ' the congregation of -^ Israel'; the election of the bishop in their presence is made \ in accordance with the Law of Moses^; the lapsed or sinful consilio ponderare. Cf. Ep. 43. 7, Ep. 30. 5 (at Rome). 1 Tert, De Pudicit. i. See below, p. 197. ^ Ep. 3. 1; Ep. 59. 4. So fast did the feeling change that Pontius Vit. c. 9 calls Cyprian 'Christi et Dei pontifex' in contrast with the 'pontifices hujus mundi ' and again c. ii ' Dei pontifex ' simply. * Throughout the letters of Cyprian the bishop is more frequently called sacerdos than episcopus. The word 'sacerdos' is never, I believe, distinctly applied to a presbyter, though once or twice the whole clerical body is spoken of as sacerdotes et ministri. In Ep. 63 (14, 18, 19) at first sight it might seem that the arguments there addressed to 'Sacerdotes' as to the mixture of wine with the water in the Eucharist were addressed to or at least included presbyters, but the open- ing of the letter shews that he confines his remarks to the bishops (episcopi), B. of whom the majority, he says, are correct in practice, but others not so. Again, his own presbyters were not in fault, and it would be contrary to his principles to address the presbyters of another. Even in this epistle there- fore 'sacerdos' means bishop. In Ep. 40 he says Numidicus had been rescued from death at his martyrdom by God, ' ut ...et desolatam per lapsum quorundam presbyterorum nostrorum copiam glo- riosis sacerdotibus ornaret.' This is the general use of the term, as in 'sacerdo- tes et ministri,' and he indeed adds 'et promovebitur quidem...ad ampliorem locum,' sc. episcopatum, so that 'sacer- dos' does not lose here its proper refer- ence. In De Zel. et Liv. 6 it might equally be maintained that the words were distinguished or that they were rhetorically paralleled, * dum obtrectatur sacerdotibus, dum episcopis invidetur.' * Ep. 69. 8. " Ep. 8. I. 6 Ep. 66. 3; 59. 4. 7 Ep. 67. 4. 34 THE ANTIENT BISHOP AND THE MODERN. bishop is prohibited from sacrificing by the3^osaic statute against uncleanness; his communicants are ^ainte^ by his sin\ The presbyterate is the Levitic tribe^ exempt from worldly office, deSarred from worldly callings, living on the offerings of the people, as their predecessors on the tithes, devoted day and night to sacrifice and prayer. So precise is the appli- cation, that the people are to rise at their coming in pursuance of the Levitic direction ^ Again there is another aspect of the same ofifice. The Apostles were bishops. Matthias was ordained a 'bishop.' And'^stitt~The''"5Ish"op~is the Apostle of his flock*. From / the Twelve through successive ordinations he derives that / character^ His order is of divine creation. The diaconate is the institution of his predecessors. He is npt-cmly a Judge. He is Judge in Christ's steads Contempt of his government' is the parent of heresy; it is expressly condemned in the Law, in the books of Samuel, by the example of St Paul and of our Lord. To maintain the same faith and worship and yet invade the office of the -righ^l bishop is identically the sin of Korahl For the Laws about the High Priest are not merely applicable to the Bishops; they were ultimately intended for them, and now they apply to them alone. ^ Ep. 65. 2; 67. I, 9. cedunt, Ep. 66. 4. ^ Ep. I. I. ^ Ep. 59. 5 'vice Christi.' Cyprian's ^ Levit. xix. 32, so interpreted Tes- use of Index not Arbiter is important tim. iii. 85. on account of his legal exactness. * ...apostolos id est episcopos et prse- ^ Ep. 66, Ep. 3, Ep. 59, Ep. 43. positos, Ep. 3. 3. Cf. Ep. 45. 3. The The Scriptures quoted are Deut. xvii. reading 'de ordinando in locum ludae 12, which is cited five times, i Sam. ^/wo/^,' £/. 67. 4 (Hart. p. 738), is not viii. 7. Sir. vii. 29, 31. Acts xxiii. 4, 5. only supported apparently by all MSS., Matth. viii. 4. Jo. xviii. 22, 23. Luc. against edd., but is required by the 'epis- x. 16. coporum et sacerdotum' which follows. ^ Ep. 69. 8. * ...apostolis vicaria ordinatione sue- I. IX. THE BISHOP OF THE THIRD CENTURY. 35 IX. Divergence of Cyprian's from Modern views. In these opinions of Cyprian the first point which invites attention is their dissimilarity to any scheme of the Christian ministry now held. A parallel between that ministry and the three Levitic orders is indeed familiar to us, but not the same parallel which Cyprian draws. Although disobedience to the Bishop is the sin of disobedience to the High Priest, yet his Bishop is not pourtrayed as surrounded first by the Priests, and secondly by the Deacon-Levites. The Order of Bishops with him answers to the ' Priests of God,' the Presbyters are the Tribe of Levi. The New High Priest is Christ eternally^ Secondly, neither would any school now interpret the Mosaic precepts with anything like the literalness which he always uses. For instance, the territorially endowed ministry of all Christendom gives up what was in his eyes an essential resemblance to the house of Levi, their right to maintenance by offerings without land. Third, the method of election to bishoprics is extinct through the whole world. Nowhere do neighbouring bishops meet and, requiring the testimony of the laity over whom he will preside, elect or nominate for them a bishop^ Various as have been the phases through which that election has passed, none can be more alien from the spirit of Cyprian's prescrip- tions than the two which divide the Western Church between them. In one the lay, in the other the ecclesiastical element has reduced its copartner to a shadow : in each the surviving element has merged in a single individual, a single nominator to all sees within his supremacy. Here it is the monarch, there the one bishop of Rome^ Measured by ancient standards neither section could criticise the other, yet to the purposes ^ Ep. I. I, Testi?>i.\. 17. i?^. 63. 14. The bishop of Rome in the praeconisa- ^ Ep. 67. 4, 5. tion of bishops or in appointments by 3 Where concordats exist the laity brief elects and constitutes. nominate in the person o5 the sovereign. 3—2 36 THE BISHOP OF THE THIRD CENTURY. of each no machinery could be better adapted than the present, and ancient standards were not uniform. No mean analogy is that of England, where a minister of the Crown, selected from popular representatives, nominates, the chapters as representatives of the diocesan presbyterate accept or reject, and the comprovincial bishops consecrated Fourth, the presbyters had no voice or vote in the election of the bishop distinct from that of the laity : their influence was great, but in government they scarcely appear as an orders The very name of priesthood (as represented by sacerdotes, sacerdotium) did not descend from the episcopate upon them until after Cyprian wrote. Their then designation, as the Levitic body of the church, similarly descended upon the deacons'. Fifth, while the virtue of Aaron's Priesthood and the grace of Apostleship still flowed, as it were, from a divine source through the world, those who received it were not a college with power to invite or coopt or to increase their numbers at their pleasure. It was the Christian plebesyjhxch. to every individual bishop was the fountain of his honour*. It was they who by the 'aspiration of God' addressed to him the call ^ See Dr Pusey, The Councils of the trace is in //. Cone. Carth. sub Ge- Church, p. loff. nethlio, a.d. 390, Can. II. (Labbe, II. c. ^ Presbyters in Cone. v. de Bap. i, 1244), where to a question put with the are said 'adesse' — 'plurimi Coepiscopi words 'episcopus, presbyter et diaconus' cum Conpresbyteris qui aderant,' Ep. Genethlius himself replies, using 'sa- 71. I. crosanctos antistites, et Dei sacerdotes, ' Perhaps the first use of Levita: for nee non et Levitas.' In this form Au- Deacons is nearly contemporary with relius repeats it Cod. Can. Ecc. Afric. Cyprian's application of Levitica tribus Can. III. (Labbe, II. c. i'26i). In Can. X. (Ep. I. i) to presbyters (a.d. circ. 245) of //. Cone. Carth. and in Can. IV. of Origen, Horn. xii. 3, in Jerem. (Delarue ///. Cone. Carth. A.D. 397 (al. 398) the V. iii. 196 [1740]), and it is in a way form appears in titles only, not in which shews his use of both words to be Canons. And so it spreads, unfamiliar. E? rts oxiv /cai roi^roty roty * A bishop could ordain a lector, a Upevai {deiKvvfu Se toi)s irpej^vr^povs subdeacon, a deacon, even a presbyter, r)ijias) ^ iv roirrots rots wepieffTrjKbai Xaif without more than a nominal reference Xevlrais (X^7w 5^ tovs 8iaK6vovs) afiaprd- to the plebes. But the whole eollegium vei... The first formal use of them I ja«rs...Xoj3a)v...evxa/"«'"'''ai'...^7ri tto- ing to apostolic truth he makes to be Xi> n-oietrat. 05 (TwreX^crai'roj tAj ei>xis three, viz. 'apud quos est (i) ea quoe Kal Tijv evxapiffrlav . . . est ab apostolis ecclesise successio, (2) * ...flaminicse et sediles sacrificant, et id quod est sanum et irreprobabile Tert. de Idolatr. 10. conversationis, (3) et inadulteratum et I. IX. THE ORIGIN OF CYPRIAN'S VIEW. 39 Judaism broadened into Christianity, the inheritance of be- lieving humanity*. The right to approach the Father with prayers and intercessions, the duty of purity, the unworld- liness, which all exercise of the right implied, were sacerdotal characters which none failed to recognise. We have seen, however, that strongly as TertuUian represents this view, he no less strongly recognises the 'priestly discipline^' and the separateness of the office. And ' it seems plain from his mode ' of speaking that such language was not peculiar to himself, 'but passed current in the churches among which he moved^' What is distinctive therefore in Cyprian's theory simply regards the origin of that office. According to him, it is (i) an inheritance from the apostles, (2) and a succession to the Levitic Priesthood, only more glorious in being the fulfilment of that priesthood as of a type. And now, we must observe that from whatever source the theory sprang it wasjnqtan emanation from the pplicj^.oi Cyprian. And although it would be equally inaccurate to say that the policy sprang from the theory, yet the influence of the view in moulding both then and ever since all vigorous church-life which has had any continuity, all Christian organi- zation which has enjoyed any extension, can scarcely be over-estimated. From the very first Cyprian believed that he read that doctrine in Scripture, and in Scripture as a whole. Whencesoever derived, it came to him in his ' novitiate.' We find it in strongest and completest terms in his first epistle and in his first application of texts in the Testimonies. The whole period of his episcopate added nothing to the distinct- ness with which he realised it, although his discussions and his ' visions ' reflected and impressed it^ There is no room for the hypothesis that the exigencies of his position towards thet Novatianists, .towards his own presbyters, or towards ^ Tert. de Monog. 7. ^ jjp, Lightfoot, op. cit. pp. •253, 254. 2 Ibid. 12. •• i5>. 6(). 10. 40 THE REMNANT OF PEACE. the see of Rome, determined or in the least developed his beliefs And whence then did this form of Christian thought originate? I see no proof, and to me it is incredible, that he or other Africans should have derived any such scheme, consciously or unconsciously, frorn -Pa^^an^onstAXutions, which appeared to them all in the light of a purely demoniacal ^rV' and satanic^ystem. Nor yet is it possible that they inherited them from any Judaizing forms of Christianity. For not only is sacerdotalism not one of the characteristics for which Judaizers are ever reprehended ^ but in fact the very essence of Judaism lay in looking back to the literal circumcision, the literal passover, the literal centralising of the church upon Jerusalem. Towards Gentile Priests, towards Levites from the uncircumcision, they had no propension. Neither to heathenism nor to legalistic sects can we trace back the fruitful powerful theory now accepted in Africa. Was it then but an unconscious straining first of language, then of feeling, lastly of thought, which gradually warped with a hieratic distortion offices originally politic and didactic? Did the contemplative study of numerously fulfilled types draw men by a seemingly irresistible attraction to imagine an actual continuity, totally unreal, between a sacrificial priest- hood and what was designed only for a hortatory college ? Or, was the belief a legitimate development of the prin- ciples of the apostolic church, parallel with and analogous to the growing light on cardinal doctrines which similarly nothing but use could illustrate 1 And are all the forms in ^ O. Ritschl (pp. 50, 222, 223) that the conception of the Church which rightly states that the theory was not Cyprian applies to life in his first writ- developed without the events. No ings requires for its potential nucleus practical theory of a polity could be. that theory which the formula so soon But when he says that it broke out consolidates.— [The text was written as a new perception in Ep. 43, he not some years before Ritschl appeared.] only overlooks the early Ep. 33, but ^ Bp. Lightfoot, op. cit. pp. 257sqq. fails to discern what is more important, I. X. THE REMNANT OF PEACE.' 4 1 which it may be said to live among us broken lights of the same truth ? The alternative is an important one. It will be answered by thinkers according to their schools, and cannot be deter- mined by history alone. We shall find further illustrations of it in the progress of the history, but it becomes at this point a debate of metaphysical ^theology. _ X. A Bishop's work uphill. A {e.vj months only were left to the unsuspecting Chris- tians of a 'Thirty-eight years Peace ^' which had assisted the extension of the church without promoting either its devotion or its organization, when, some time between the July of A.D. 248 and the following April*, the figure of the well- a.d. 249. known advocate, now for some time missed from court and ^q(^i',coss. forum, and grown familiar to Christians in the semicircle of -^^V^.^"^ presbyters, took the white linen-covered chair of the illicit nus 11. 11- 1 • > 1 •!• o 11 . L- Nsevius assembly m some merchant prmces basilica^, and the voice Aquilinus. ^ Sulpicius Severus Chronicor. ii. 32 Day, April 15, A.D. 249; for in Ep. 1^, 'interjectis deinde annis viii et xxx after Easter a.d. 250, he mentions that Pax Christianis fiiit,' i.e. from the end he had made Saturus read a Lesson, of Sept. Severus {d. 4 Feb. 211), about with the consent of the clergy, on the which time the ferocities of the pro- two last Easter Days, consul Scapula elicited Tertullian's The Decian persecution began in the fierce 'Ad Scapulam.' Freppel, p. 168, end of A.D. 249, or the very beginning quotes Origen, c. Cels. vii. 26, speaking of A.D. 250. For all that happened Til- of the rapid multiplication of the Chris- lemont allows two years (vol. iv. S. tians. Cypr. Art. vi.). Eighteen months is ^ The 59th epistle was written the utmost possible, and probably the after the 15th of May, the Ides, episcopate began not long after June A.D. 252 {Ep. 59. lo). Cyprian had then a.d. 248. More than four years would been bishop for a 'quadriennium' (ib. be called a quinquennium; in Ep. 56. i 6), i.e. at least for two or three months a 'triennium' is two years and three beyond three years, at most for four months ; in Ep. 43. 4 little more than years. This makes the earliest date a twelvemonth is a 'biennium.' possible for his accession to be June ^ The Basilicse common in great A.D. 248, the latest possible April A.D. houses, and not those of the law-courts, 249. He was certainly bishop on Easter were probably the models of the first 42 THE DISCIPLINE OF PEACE. that had defended the state-religion rose before an altar which, still standing in its old place sixty years laterS seemed to reproach the departing schismatic with the shadows of Cyprian and of Unity. Of his sermons, unless the tract on Patience is a sermon remodelled, not a record has reached us : a singular contrast to the vast monuments of Augustine's preaching. We should have gladly learnt the tenor of that first exhortation which, after the usage of the African bishops, he opened and closed with the double'^ salutation ' In the Name of the Lord,' and have caught the first note of those thirteen years ofjnefikce^ ,able teaching. But there is in the whole man such oneness that we can scarcely question that, as in his letters and pamphlets, so from his bema Christian life was taught as a social science. ' In the quiet time he had served discipline'^ ' is his own epigrammatic tale of his first few months. There was nothing wavering in him, or tentative ; there was no feel- ing for a clue. He entered on restoration and organization with a theory clearly ascertained, and a practical devotion to its consequences. ' The church is one. She holds and owns * all the power of her Spouse and Lord. And in her we pre- ' side. For her honour and her unity we do battle. Her grace ' and her glory we alike maintain with faithful self-devotion. ' We have God's leave to water God's thirsting people. We ' keep the bounds of the springs of lifeV Such was his estimate of his duty and his responsibility. To revive in a worldly laity, with a staff of caballing clergy, the reality --> of their professions and of their offices, to reanimate church / life with half-forgotten forces, was his first task, and in that primitive age no light one. Not only had he from the churches. See R. '^\yccC % Rome and the ^ ...salutatione scilicet geminata. Op- Campagna, Introd. p. 1. That used tat. vii. 6, note p. 162, ed. Albaspi- by Cyprian's congregation was main- naei. Paris, 1631. tained afterwards as a church. ' Ep. 59. 6. ^ Optat.i. 19'erataltareloco suo,'&c. * Ep. 73. it. K / I. X. ^ S THE TRIALS OF PEACE. 43 first to bear ' contumely toward his office*'; not only did opponents, the five presbyters and others, ' turbulent men whom he could scarcely rule^' render his administration diffi- cult ; the glaring abuses of the episcopal office were yet harder to cope with. Socially known as leading men, but unprovided with material independence, or with position equal to that of a provincial magistracy, some bishops were engrossed in agriculture, some absent in commerce, some even engaged in y/- usury^ There was the free-living bishop actually enriched by the opportunities of his post, ready to ^b[ure the faith on the prospect of danger, ready to resume his office when peril was past*. There was the immoral bishop on the verge of excommunication ^ Some were secure in their position though notorious for their frauds in the bazaar, or their complicity in the slave-trade of the Sahara^ Some again were too ignorant to prepare their catechumens for baptism, or to avoid heretical phrases in their public prayers, too indifferent even to abstain from using in their liturgies^ the compositions of well-known heretics. Cold and dark are the shades which are flung athwart the bright tracts and around the glowing lights of the scenes of this early church life. If it was possible for such men to be bishops we can understand how among their presbyters they tolerated the makers of idols and the compounders of incense, or among their laity astrologers* and theatrical trainers^ ^- In that fierce s_u£ge of mingling races, tyrannous classes, inhuman superstitions, the struggle of life and the shock of interests was, upon a comparatively narrow space, tenfold more violent and more unscrupulous than in the most intense ^ Ep. i6. I, 1. privatam mensam sed Dei altare habe- ' Ep. 27. 3: see above I. vii. bat commune Cyprianus.' Ibid. iv. 9 ' De Laps. $, 6. (12); c. Ep. Parnien. iii. 2 (8). Cf. * Ep. 65. 3. Can. 18, 19, 20 Conc.Elib. (305 — 306?), 5 Auct. de Rebaptisvi. to. Can. 13 /. Cone. Carth. (348). * Aug. de Bapt. c. Donatt. vii. 45 ^ A.Mg. de Bapl. c. Donatt.Vu 2^ (47). (89) 'Cum collegis fseneratoribus, insi- ^ Tert. de Idolatr. cc. 7, 9. diesis, fraudatoribus, raptoribus non ^ Ep. 2. 44 CYPRIAN BISHOP. centres of our energies. The new sect had been for the third part of a century not only unharmed but prosperous : that hollowness and insincerity should have grown up in it was inevitable. We can but recognise as they did themselves that the persecution of the church was mercy to the world. We shall find reason to believe that its end was answered. And for the present, we shall see that the troublous years which followed were more favourable by far than profoundest peace could have been to the grand combinations of one master spirit. XI. Discipline — Clerical and Lay. We must now pass in review the measures of Cyprian's eighteen months^ of peace, remembering that, illustrative as they are, they are but a p^elui^ One passing glimpse of what seem active methods shews him to us with a band of the ' Teaching Presbyters,' examining into the qualifications of Readers, testing all who were preparing for the clerical office, and placing the approved in a kind of rank as ' Next the Clergy.' On one such occa- Easter, sion these agree to appoint Optatus one of the Readers to be A.D. 249, . Teacher of Catechumens,' — to do for many what Caecilian had done for Cyprian, but still as a Readerl Again on two ^ Counting from June 248 a.d. — construction. ' Presbyteri doctores ' are See p. 41, note 2. like Aspasius in Passio SS. Perpetuce et ^ Ep. 29 '...quos jam pridem com- Felicit. xiii. ; the Doctores no longer a muni consilio clero proximos feceramus, distinct Order as in Teaching of the quando aut Saturo die Pasch^e semel XII. Apostles id. ■x.v.,oxShepherd of Her- atque iterum lectionem dedimus, aut mas. Vis. III. 5. See Dodwell, Diss. modo cum presbyteris doctoribus lee- Cyp. vi. I cannot think 'die Paschae tores diligenter probaremus, Optatum semel atque iterum lectionem dedimus' inter lectores doctorem audientium con- means ' we gave him two passages to stituimus, examinantes, &c.' In this in- read aloud in examination.' Compare teresting passage there must be some Ep. 38. 2 '...dominico legit.' In Ep. fault, {ox presbyteris cannot be dative: 38. i he speaks of his 'practice' of Dr Hort conjectures that coram may consulting presbyters, deacons and laity have disappeared after cum. Hartel on the fitness of candidates, reads doctorum, which is not a Cyprianic I. XL HIS MONTHS OF PEACE. 45 consecutive Easter Days they assign to Saturus, though not yet a Reader, the Reading of the Lesson. It is not quite possible to say whether all this was new, or old with a new life in it. But this gathering of the best-read presbyters about their bishop in the training of the young clergy was a sure sign of progressive improvement. The monuments of this time are one Treatise and three Letters which the sagacity of Pearson restored to their place as the earliest in the collection. About another, however (the third), he was mistaken \ His first epistle deals with the case of one who had, con- trary to an existing rule, left a clergyman 'Tutor ' by will to his property. It forbids the sacrifices* to be offered for his repose. Geminius Victor of Furni^ near Carthage had in his will nominated as 'Tutor' Geminius Faustinus a presbyter. A statute* of a former council had ruled thus : ' No one is to ' appoint by his will a cleric and minister of God to be a tutor ' or curator, since every one who is honoured with the divine ' priesthood and appointed to the clerical ministry ought only ' to serve the altar and sacrifices and be free for devotions and 'prayers...' 'if any shall have so done, no offering shall be ' made for him nor sacrifice celebrated® for his repose.' Cyprian accordingly enjoins that at Furni there shall be no ' oblation ' for Geminius Victor, or any ' deprecation frequented ' in the church in his name. The next transaction in which we mark the strong, con- siderate ruler, is the answer to Eucratius, the bishop probably of the distant seacoast colony of Thenae or Tain^ It furnishes ^ On Ep. 3 Rogatiano see pp. 234, concilio asacerdotibusdatam,' £/. i. i, 235 and note. 2. Bunsen, Hippolytus and his age, 2 Compare Tert. Monog. lo. vol. II. (1852) p. 223. * About 28 miles west of Carthage ' celebraretur, i.e. no gathering of a which latter had a Porta Fumitana; see congregation of friends for the purpose. Appendix on Cities. z-i. frequentetur 2\%o \m^\\t.^. Ep.i.i. * I avoid the word canon in speaking '^ Ep. 2. Eucratius spoke in the of Councils which had not yet employed council of ten years later in support of t. '...statutum sit' 'formam nuper in the second baptism of heretics. [Sentt. 46 THE DISCIPLINE OF THE CLERGY. an instance of that careful weighing of individual cases which lays the basis of permanent-«fta>ctQienLts^ An Actor, who had left the profligate and corrupting stage^ as a matter of course in obedience to Christian principles, felt no scruple in imparting his skill of voice and gesture to heathen youths or slaves. He had no power to enfranchise, or withdraw them from their profession, why hesitate to improve and elevate, perhaps chasten their performance ? Similar casuistries every day impede practical morality, and the Africa of the third century was rife with them. With the touch of truth Cyprian exposes the man who was ready to form others to take the place from which he had escaped conscience-stricken ; suggests his maintenance, if he really has no other means of living, by the church ; and offers him, if Thenae is too poor, food and clothing at Carthage. The difficulty Eucratius had felt in dealing with the case lay in the absence of any rule excluding from the church elocutionists or others who only trained actors. A genuine fragment belonging to the second half of the third century'"* supplied the omission. ' If one has the mania of theatrical ' shows, or if he has been a declaimer in the theatres, let ' him cease or let him be cast out. If he teach the young '(in theatrical shows) it is good that he should cease. If 'he does not make a trade of it, let him be forgiven^' In A.D. 305 or 306 the Synod of Elvira enacts the rule requiring a converted performer-* to renounce his profession before Epp. •29.) His successors appear in forms the groundwork of that separate Councilsup to A.D. 641. See Appendix collection which now appears as the on Cities. Eighth Book of our Greek text. Bunsen 1 Cf. Bingham {1855), vol. iv. p. 85. {op. cit.). Apost. Constt. viii. c. 32 rdv ^ Bunsen, Hippolytus (1852), vol. II. ^iri (Tkt/v^s ka.v ris ■wpoai-i} a.vr\p t) ywri... p. 314; it is later than Cyprian's letter, 17 Travcrdaduffav rj airo^aXKiaduiaav . if not based upon it. * Cone. Eliberitan. can. 62. Panto- 3 From the Alexandrian form of the niimus synonymous under the Em- Apostolic Constitutions which is still perors with histrio. L. C. Purser ap. extant in the Abyssinian text and Smith, Diet, of Greek and Rom. Anti- Arabic translation therefrom, as well as quities, s.v. (ed. 1891). in the Coptic and Syriac; and which I. XI. THE EARLY LETTERS — TUTELA OF CLERICS. 47 reception into the church, and to be excluded upon any attempt to resume it. In the 'fourth' letter he appears with Caecilius, the senior bishop of the province, and other bishops and presbyters, taking strong measures for the suppression of a shocking fanaticism which allowed a supposed purely spiritual union between certain junior clerics and professed virgins'. In immediate connection with this subject appeared his treatise * Of the DRESS OF VIRGINS.' In these letters the authority of the Bishop of Carthage is invoked or exercised beyond his own diocese, and wears already something of a metropolitic aspect. One more exemplification of the system and appliances of discipline may be mentioned as belonging to this interval, in the investigation before the bishop and assessors of certain charges of cruelty to a father and a wife* which impended over an eminent presbyter, Novatus, the future schismatarch. To this we shall return hereafter. When the persecution was past, Cyprian's calm judgment of his previous experiences was that ' long Peace had cor- ' rupted a divinely delivered discipline ; that Faith had been ' taking her ease and half asleep ^' Of Clerics not to be Tutores. We are bound to take some of these subjects in detail, not only because of their intrinsic interest and importance, but because they afford us the first opportunity of weighing the objections which have been advanced by a clever writer against the genuineness of the Cyprianic letters*. Mr Shepherd repudiates the authenticity of the First Letter and of the canon on which it is based. Against these documents Mr Shepherd argues, that since the Carthaginian councils of a.d. 348 and a.d. 419, in forbidding the exercise of secular offices by the clergy, did not reenact this canon it must have been unknown to them^ He states also that 'the office ^ The ffvv€l(TaKTOi., v. p. 54. £/>. 4. writings ascribed to Cyprian,' by the 2 £/>. 52. 2. Rev. E. J. Shepherd. * De Laps. 5. <* Second letter, p. 35. * ' Letters on the genuineness of the 48 OF CLERICS NOT TO BE TUTORES. * of Tutor was one which a clerk, if he had no legal exemption, was 'compelled to serve.' That again the ministers of Cyprian's and still later times did engage in business (a practice allowed by the fourth council of A.D. 398), and 'were therefore very far from being ' always engaged in serving the altar and sacrifices, and employed in 'prayers and supplications.' That, although the evils which flowed from clerics taking the office of 'Tutor' were so many that Justinian prohibited it, yet they were 'at first' (in Mr S.'s opinion) proper persons to undertake such a charge, and actually did so (since the 17th canon of the 4th council of Carthage orders that, not the bishop himself but, his archpresbyter or archdeacon should take charge of widows and orphans). It is besides 'exceedingly pre- posterous' to imagine that the bishops of Cyprian's age, whom he censures for secularity, should have passed ' any law against secular pursuits,' when meantime even Cyprian himself was 'the victim of such an appointment from his own spiritual father Caecilius,' ' to say 'nothing,' he adds in a note, 'of the wife who was also entrusted ' to him ; and I suspect that a young African widow, probably not ' much out of her teens, would have been quite as serious a charge 'as the children.' It is necessary to quote this passage, not because it is flippant, but because it evinces that the critic has not possessed himself of the most accessible information ^ In the whole argument I do not detect one correct statement. It is well known that the power of a Tutor or Curator had 'respect to the property and pecuniary interests, not the persons of the pupilli ' or wards. He was a trustee. His business was 'the preservation of property"^ during minority'; to guard against the minor's being defrauded: debts could not be recovered, nor were engagements vahd, if incurred by a minor without his sanction. He was also bound to improve the property. The office of Tutor subsisted up to the ward's fourteenth year ; that of Curator between the fourteenth and the twenty-fifth, at which he came of age. There is no reason to suppose that Cyprian was Tutor or Curator of the property of his friend's family. Pontius describes a deathbed scene (accersitione jam proxima) in which Caecilius commended them (commendavit) personally to his convert's affection (pietatis). It was improbable that Cyprian should have been named Tutor in the will, for by blood he was not related to Cascilius, and the usage was so invariable by which the nearest relations and next heirs were appointed Tutors, that it was a special slur if any of 1 E.g. Mr G. Long's article Diet. Gk. called upon 'negotia gerere' and 'aucto- and Rom. Ant. ritatem interponere.' * The res and the pecunia. He was I. XI. THE GENUINENESS OF THE FIRST LETTER. 49 them were passed over^. Incidentally, we observe that in this very letter Geminiiis Victor nominates a relative Geminius Faustinas. Thus much for the legal criticism. Into the possibility of secular-minded men passing an anti-secular statute I need not enter; because the letter speaks of the rule having been made before the age of Cyprian, and being now enforced by him against a secularity which had grown up, as he says elsewhere 2, during the long security. We must now look into the argument from the canons. Granted that at this time the clergy could not live on their allowances, and long afterwards eked their living out by handicraft, by farming, or by literary occupation 3. But the point of canon after canon is this :— That they were not to administer the property of other people. The distinction escaped Mr Shepherd. They are not to be agents or stewards*, nor farm-bailiffs, nor accountants", nor contractors, factors, or managers^, in short, not ' implicati obnoxii alienis negotiis' at all. The reason is not only obvious, but indicated. The opening for peculation, or at least for suspicion, caused the church to be ill spoken of, if they accepted such offices. The grounds for the prohibition of these agencies applied tenfold more to Tutorship of minors with property. The Tutor in Persius^ sighs for the decease of the ward. And while the church as a corporation undertook from the first not only the tutela, but the maintenance of destitute orphans and widows, and appointed her proper officers, Deacons (and after a time Archdeacons), to care for them, it became only the more important that her clergy should not enter into private relations of the kind. Now the Council of a.d. 348, which Mr Shepherd alleges as the earliest forbidding secular employment to the clergy, supplies evidence worth attention that there did exist an earlier rule forbid- ding clergy to exercise tuieia pupUlornm. In that Council (c. 6) the bishops settle that the clergy are not to become agents or factors. They do not exclude them from the office of tutors. One bishop then enquires whether persons already engaged as agents, factors, or tutors, ought to be admitted to orders. The Council allows it (c. 8) ' if they have first wound up and exhibited their accounts and had them approved.' These two canons are only intelligible 1 Te sororis filius...notavit, quum in * /. Cone. Carth. A.D. 348, can. 8. magno numero tutorem liberis non ' Ibid. can. 9. instituit. Cic. pro Sest. 52. s ///, c^„^. Carth. A.D. 397 ? can. 15. ■ Delaps. 5 '...disciplinam pax longa ^ pg^s. Sat. ii. 12 '...pupillumve uti- corruperat.' nam quern proximus haeres Impello » /K Co«of organization when Cyprian suggests to the elder women to assume some position, and to the younger to pay them some deference^ No specific alle- giance seems to be expected from the order even to the bishop, for while his assurance that he addresses them ' affec- tionately rather than officially ' indicates that his official posi- tion was recognised, he adds that he is too conscious of his own inferiority to claim the right to criticized The active duties of all Christian women were theirs, only so much more widely as the fuller leisure allowed — to visit the sick, to frequent the offering of the sacrifice and the preaching of the word'. The visiting of orphans and widows, whether poor or rich ; the visiting of daemoniacs, with continuous prayer and fasting to be enabled to use on their behalf the gift of healing, if they had reason to believe that they had received it ; intercession for the church, for the holiness of its clergy and for its deliverance from false clergy, are employments suggested in the early letters which pass under the name of Clement®. To speak in church, teach, baptize or do any clerical act was ^ Tert. de Vel. Virg. 13; cf. de Or at. nioribus facite magisterium.' I. 17. * '...nee quo...aliquid ad censuram - Ibid. 9. Cf. 3 'Arbitrio permissa licentiae vindicemus,' .^a^. Virg. 3. res erat.' ^ Tert. de Cult. Fern. 3. 11. ^ Hab. Virg. 24 'Provectse annis ju- ® See below, note 3, p. 56. I. XII. THE VIRGINAL LIFE. 53 forbidden as of coursed They entered on the life by private resolution', not by public vow; marriage might be looked on as a departure from holy purpose, but not as violating rule, and in some cases it was right'. The order* of sexagenarian 'Widows,' (who must have married but once and brought up children,) had a seat of honour in the Church', but in Tertullian's time was first seen by permission of the then bishop ' the monstrous marvel ' of a maiden seated among them*, and unlike them sitting unveiled. The meaning of this was that, as girls under the betrothal age of twelve years wore no veils', a claim had been made by certain dedicated virgins to continue the symbolic freedom of the age of innocence, and at least in church^ to lay aside the covering which elsewhere public opinion enforced. They argued too that St Paul had enjoined veils for * women ' or 'wives*' not for the whole sex. They now treated as injurious to themselves the assumption of a veil by any of their sisters, and finally obtained a general rule in their own sense, to the distress of the more retired^". The avowed object was to confer a distinction which should make the order more attractive". The ' work ' was ' secret ' no more. However by general and Scriptural arguments, appeals to the use of other churches, and unhappily to wrecks which had increasingly marked the history of the order, TertuUian seems to have effected the » Tert. o'^ V. K g. 8 Tert, de Orai. 21,22. 2 Decreverint, Ep. 4. i. ^ jrao-a 5e 7W77, k.t.\. i Cor. xi. 5. * Ep. 4. 2. Tertull. disposes of this in Z>^ Ora/. c. 22. * The Viduatus, Tert. de V. V. 9. Jerome dwells in an unadvised sense on ' ...ad quam sedem praeter annos the distinction between 'mulier' and sexaginta non tantum univirae, id est *virgo,' De perpetua Virginit. B. nuptte, aliquando eliguntur, sed et Maries, 20. matres, et quidem educatrices filiorum, ^^ It will be observed that ' to take Tert. de V. V. 9. Their functions {IV. the veil ' meant originally to adopt the Cone. Carth. c. 12) were to baptize usual dress of young women of their and catechize women. own age. « Tert. de V. V. 9. " Tert. de V. V. 14. ' Ibid. II. 16. 54 PERILS. restoration of the usual dress\ Cyprian has no complaint against departures from the rule. And if this be so we may remark here one of the instances in which Tertullian's Montanism was no bar to his catholic influence. Christian women had now refrained as a rule for half a century from public festivals and arena spectacles as well as from temples. But an incipient tendency to reform society appears when the Virgins are desired to stay away from weddings on account of the coarseness of the customs, and from the baths in which both sexes appeared in undress ^ The popularity and sentimental admiration which now attended the order led to vast evils. Even Cyprian with all his moderation ranks the Virgin next to the Martyr. Vanity, exaltation, sense of security, led many, the solitary converts of heathen hearths, or of circles in which Christian doctrines had not yet dissipated heathen indifferentism on such sub- jects, or which shared their blind confidence in the magic of a vow, to seek homes in the houses, and even share the cham- bers of Christian men and clerics who had bound themselves under the same obligation ^ The power of ecstatic feeling may confessedly sometimes overpower even continuous tempta- tion, and Cyprian wishes in dealing with this dreadful scandal not to assume that every such case was one of actual guilts ^ It is, as Bingham, vol. II. p. 404 lous belief that only Christian maidens (ed. 1855), writes, true that Tertullian's then took the bath, object was to induce all virgins to use ^ Ep. 4. the grave habit of matrons; but he ■* ...dum adhuc separari innocentes has also in view a body of virgins, who possint, Ep. 4. ■2. Chrysostom {Contra though they did not live in a society eos qui ap. se habent virg. subintrod.) were distinctly dedicated. De V. V. 16 does assume it, and scouts every ' Nupsisti enim Christo.' Cf. 14. plea of 'Perfection,' 'Philosophy,' 2 Bunsen must have forgotten this * Piety,' or ' Brotherhood.' Gregory of passage, De Hab. Virg. 19, when in Nyssa de Virginitate, 23, and Jerome, Hippolytus and his age, vol. II. p. 273 Ep. zi,ad Eustochium, and Epiphanius, (ed. 1852), he refers an apostolic canon Hceres. 78, ri, agree with him. Basil, to the East on account of this pro- setting aside any such question, treats miscuous bathing. Rettberg's anti- the mere fact as a scandal, deserving monasticism leads him into the ridicu- excommunication, Ep. 55 (198). See I. XII. 'THE DRESS OF VIRGINS.' 55 He however adds to the instant separation a dreadful ordeaP. The repetition of similar griefs for a century and a half in the councils of Carthage, their prevalence in Spain and reappearance in Constantinople^ establish the inevitable dangers of a position which the coenobitic or conventual system arose to fortify. The earliest formation of such societies was intended perhaps to meet the case of homeless virgins^ But at present lacking the finality of a recognised vow, lacking fixity of discipline or prescribed occupation, the Virginal Life was little more than the expression of a fresh intense sentiment^ a revolt against the universal degradation which enveloped city life. Its own corruption is a warning as to the danger of revivals attempted under incomplete conditions. In his treatise upon 'THE DRESS OF THE VIRGINS ' Cyprian is concerned with what seems less important yet in reality lay nearer to the fountain of the mischief. He applies himself not only to the correction of vanity, but to purify and exalt the influence of women on the community. The privacy and subjection of the married limited their influence. That of an order professed yet free to come and go might be almost boundless. Many of the Virgins, as is natural, belonged to the wealthiest class, and, without re- Suicer j. v. Zweiffaicros. In /. Cone. ■* Freppel, p. 159, incorrectly repre- Carth. cc. 3, 4 A.D. 348 excommunica- sents the advice of Cyprian as 'a series tion is pronounced against laics guilty of rules ' preparatory to an expansion of of the practice. It was forbidden by the 'religious' life in better times, and Cone. Niean. 3, by civil law under supports the illusion by construing the Honorius, and again and again by canon interference with the scandals into a for several centuries. See Canon E. prohibition ' to live under the same roof Venables in Diet. Chr. Antiq. s. v. sub- as men ' and a recommendation ' to dis- introductse. linguish themselves from the rest of their ^ Ep. 4. 4. A treatment which Am- sex' by more modest dresses. All that brose, Ep. 5 {Syagrio), condemns in he does require is that they should dress the strongest manner. like other staid Roman ladies of their ^ When Chrysostom speaks of them own age and live in proper homes. So as 'fresh, paradoxical and inexplicable.' Augustine, Ep. in (al. 122), speaks of Op. cit. I. a Sanctimonialis taken captive by bar- ^ ///. Cone. Carlh. can. 33. barians and restored to her parents. $6 'THE DRESS OF VIRGINS.' signing rank or home (which indeed no existing organization enabled them to do), sought in their resolution protection against social corruption with independence and respect among the Christians. To them no occasion presented itself obviously requiring a change in their dress or ornaments. In fashions half Roman, half Tyrian they still 'buried the neck^' in masses of gold chain and pearl, still piled the hair in grape-like clusters, loaded arms and feet with bracelets, outlined the almond-like eye with antimony, dyed the cheeks ' with crimson falsehood,' tipped toes and fingers with henna. A strange sketch of a sister ! Modes against which Cyprian alleges Scripture, sense and feeling. Yet this can have been but a small portion of the picture. We may be sure there was much to reverence and much to love in that which excited in the great organizer, in the world-worn lawyer, such intense enthusiasm. Grave matter for reflection in this essay are the ' reverence and fear' with which he scarce reproves, the self-abasement with which he asks their prayers^ The motives are at once too low and too lofty upon which he lauds their choice of a virgin-life, — the escapes namely from marriage-trouble, their union with Christ, their anticipated superiority in the resur- rection-life. There is latent in these motives a subtle selfish- ness and pride, such as it seems true foresight might have shunned without waiting for experience. But woman's un- approached power in alleviating human wretchedness, and in the revival of aspirations after purity ; the influence of great examples of self-sacrifice upon a sordid and luxurious age ; the effective operation of frequent intercession, are more substantial and less obtruded motives. They were real then, and they are real for ever ; still destined to be at last as effective as they are sound in shaping the nobler monasti- cisms of the future'. ^ De Hab. Virg. 14, 15, ai. ^ The two Epistles to Virgins, extant ' De Hab. Virg. 3, cf. 24. in Syriac, ascribed to Clement of Rome, I. XIII. ITS LITERARY CHARACTER. 57 XIII. Literary character of the Book ' Of the Dress of Virgins' This book is less analogous to TertuUian's very Mon- tanistic tract ' Of the Veiling of the Virgins ' than to that author's two books on the * Apparelling of Women.' Those obligations to eschew frivolity and purify their own society, which Tertullian had drawn out for the sex, are here specialised for a single class. We have found already that the amplest plagiarism was permissible; and, this assumed, there is much literary interest in observing how a master of style like Cyprian deals with the rocky genius of his own ' Master.' A more delicate taste abjures the coarser appeals and modifies, though unable to abandon, the materialism. Thus still, equality with angels is literally begun for those who 'are not given in marriage^'; wool-dyeing is unnatural because there are no purple or scarlet sheep ; hair-dye unlawful because ' we cannot make one hair white or black,' His own sufficiently bold phrase that cosmetic arts are ' the siege and storming of the Truth of the face' is worked up with TertuUian's passionate ' they lay hands upon God.' Like his werefirstprintedin J.J.Wetstein's A^. 7^. as to shew what the dangers of the pro- vol. II. The first is both from its read- fession of Virginity unprotected were ings of Scripture (Bp. Westcott, Canon of before the time of Cyprian. The second Scripttire, p. i86 n. (ed. 1881)), and also epistle is not to Virgins, but prescribing from its topics and omissions (see Wetst. caution and decorum to travelling clerics Proleg. pp. iv — vii), a work of the (somewhat too minutely) exhibits the second century, and probably of the same dangers from another point of first half of it. The pretences to purity view. Freppel (/'^^j ^/o.f/'o/., pp. 214 under similar though less outrageous sqq.) holds these to be genuine, as do conditions {Ep. i. 10) are not accepted, other Roman divines. See Bp. Lightfoot, and are so coupled with warnings Apostolic Fathers, I., Clement, vol. I. against idleness, roaming, pretexts of pp. 407 sqq. (1890). visiting. Scripture reading and exorcizing ^ De Hab. Virg. 22. Cf. 14, 15, 17. 58 CYPRIAN'S MANIPULATION predecessor he ascribes the invention of the toilet, ' woman's world,' to apostate angels who lived before the flood ; but he spares us Tertullian's Byronic picture of spirits sighing for a lost heaven yet scheming an eternal hell for their beloved. He cannot part with 'the evil presage' of the then fashion- able * flame-colour ' of hair, but avoids suggesting the horror of wearing 'the despoilment of the strange woman, of the head devoted to gehenna.' The warning to the innocent though over-drest girl ' thy ' beholder hath in heart gratified his lust ; thou art become a 'sword to him^' is softened into 'though thou fall not thyself ' thou destroyest others, and makest thyself as it were a ' sword and a poison draught to the beholders I' ' Modesty is sacristan and priestess of the shrine ' becomes ' in those shrines the worshippers and priests are we^' So he preserves the fine turn ' Plainly the Christian will ' glory even in the flesh, — but only when it has endured, — torn ' for Christ's sake ; that the spirit may be crowned in it, not ' that it may draw the eyes and sighs of youth after it,' — but preserves it more gracefully, ' If we are to glory in the flesh it ' must plainly be then, when it is tormented in the confession ' of the Name, when woman proves stronger than torturing ' man, when she suffers fires or crosses or sword or wild beasts 'that she may be crowned'*.' The gain and loss of the Master in the disciple's hand are evident ; the chief gain was that he became more readable : but Cyprian's merit was not limited to the turn of a phrase or the smoothing of a ' Postremissimus ' into an ' Extremi et minimi*,' or the inweaving of expressions as beautiful as his ' Law of Innocence*.' To Augustine, who in him and Ambrose finds the leaders of Christian eloquence, though he criticizes severely the richness of his earlier writing, this 1 Tert. de Cult. Fern. 2. 2, * Tert. C. F. 2. a — H. V. 6. 2 £>e Hab. Virg. 9. ' Tert. C. F. 2. \\ — H. V. 3. 3 Tert. C.F.2.i;—H.V.2. « De Hab. Virg. 2. III. OF tertullian's style. 59 treatise must have appeared very perfect in style nishes him with illustrations both of the ' grand ' or style, and of the ' temperate ^' i. It fur-/ ' moving^'/ ^ Viz. de Hab. Virg. 15 Si quis pingendi artifex, to \(> auspicaris. 2 Viz. de Hab. Virg. 3 Nunc to augescit, and 23 Quomodo to end. Aug. de Doctr. Christiana iv. 21 (47, 48, 49), 'Quos duos ex omnibus pro- ponere volui.' The classification (iv. 17 (34)), adopted perhaps from Cic. de Orat. II. xxix. 128, 129, is (i) ut doceat, poterit parva submisse; (2) ut delectet, modica temperate ; (3) ut flectat, magna granditer dicere. In ecclesiastical elo- quence all the topics are 'magna,' but the ' submiss ' style is for instruction, the 'temperate' for praise or blame, the 'grand' for arousing energy. CHAPTER II. THE DECIAN PERSECUTION. TJie Roman Theory of Persecution. The disorder and worldliness which have been described were such as in Cyprian's convictions were past correction from within. Possessed with this idea he was visited by intimations of coming trial which wore a supernatural character^ And it came. The Decian persecution was co- extensive with the Empire, and aimed at the suppression of Christianity by the removal of its leaders. It was not per- ceived that it had passed the stage in which it depended on individuals. But before we enter on this scene of our history, it may be well to lay down the principles upon which harmless people were so cruelly handled on account of their opinions by the law-loving and tolerant state of Rome. The question admits of a less simple answer from the fact that the Christian legists of the Theodosian and Justinian codes have expunged the obsolete statutes. If the chapter of Ulpian 'Of the pro- consul's office,' which recited* the provisions applicable to Christians in the middle of the 3rd century, were extant we should have the answer to our hand. We can however frame one correctly though circuitously. (i). In the first place the Julian Law of Treason included among state offences and in very general terms the holding ^ On the visions of Cyprian and ^ Lactant. Div. Instit.-v. 11. others see infra. II. I. THE DECIAN PERSECUTION. 6l of any assembly with evil intent^; then too it promoted by every means the laying of informations under this head, ad- mitting evidence inadmissible in other cases, that of infamous persons, soldiers, women ^ and of a man's own slaves'. These enactments seem prior to the time of Alexander Severus, or even contemporary with the Antonines, while from Marcus Aurelius dates the post mortem trial for treason and the confiscation of the estate of heirs. Now provincials could secure the freedom of their religious meetings by registration of their cultus as a religio licita. But there was no province for which Christianity could be registered. It was a tertium genus, not ethnic, nor Judaic*; and any other associations for religious rites, save only unions for securing funeral celebrations for their members, were illicit. It is strange to think that the Church must have subsisted for some time at Rome under the external aspect of a Burial Society ; occupied its catacombs, had its staff of fossors, and entombed its martyrs in this light. No clubs except those of very poor persons were allowed to have common funds ; they might not assemble oftener than once a month ; and no per- manent ' Master of sacred rites'' was allowed. The State' was the one society which should engross every religious and social interest beyond those of the family. Monotheism even when licensed was looked on as anti-national and anti- imperial. A monotheistic society tjien, understood to have adherents from all classes of society, branches everywhere, daily meetings, permanent religious chiefs, was on all sides ' Quo {crimine majestatis) tenetur is, * See E. Kenan's excellent account cujus opera dolo malo consilium initum of the restrictions on collegia, Les Ap6- erit...quove coetus conventusve fiat... tres, c. xviii. The following are the Ulp. ap. Dig. xlviii. 4 (i). most important of his citations: Digesta * Dig. xlviii. 4 (7, 8). i. 12, De officio Praefecti urbi ; iii. 4, ' Cod. ix. 8 (4, 6, 7). Quod cujusc. universitatis... ; xlvii. 22, ■* Tertull. ad Nationes i. 8. 20. De collegiis et corporibus. See also Scorpiace 10. Mommsen, De Collegiis et Sodalitatibtis ' Magister sacrorum, cf. Tert. ad Romanorum (1843). Nat. i. 7. 62 THE DECIAN PERSECUTION. amenable to laws of Treason. Delation was easy and en- riched. (2). The application of tests was familiar to the Roman magistracy. While a slave or provincial could be tortured, a freeman, suspect of religious engagements hostile to the State, could be summoned to take part in a sacrificial feast, or at least to offer incense before an imperial statue, to which the least mark of disrespect was treason. Whatever other scruples were allowed for, none might doubt the present divinity of the emperor ; no beliefs could interfere with a mechanical act of obedient veneration. Imperial edicts possessed by the Lex Regia^ the force of Law. Such were issued from time to time to require the general application of this test. It was further competent for any magistrate who feared the growth of a dangerous class in his district, or was pressed by popular feeling, to summon a neighbourhood or any residents in it to take the test under former edicts. This mode of action is exhibited in far the larger number of arrests which led to confessorship and martyrdom. ' Persecution ' of this kind, as the Christians very naturally called it, was incessantly simmering in some province or other, intensified by the policy of one emperor, moderated by the broader policy of another, at times ceasing for years in particular districts. (3). The difficulties of soldiers. To quit the army pre- maturely without approved cause was treason. For a Christian to remain unsuspected or if suspected to avoid disobedience was scarcely possible. The sacrifices to the standards, the military oaths, the religious decorations, the festivities, the wreaths distributed not simply in honour of the emperor but in honour of his divinity, were endless snares. Thus the martyrologies name many soldiers. And if the victims of 1 Quod principi placuit legis habet (i) ; Gaume, Rhjolution, torn. vi. c. i. vigorem utpote cum Lege Regia.. popu- Justinian, Instt. I. tit. 2. On which see lus ei et in eum omne suum imperium et J. B. Moyle's note (ed. 1883), vol. i. potestatem conferat. Ulp. ap. Dig. i. 4 p. 95. II. I. THE THEORY OF PERSECUTION. 63 a town persecution were easily multiplied by report, the deaths of disloyal privates in a regiment would seldom transpire. (4). The application to Christians of repeated torture was represented from such different points of view and involved so singular a dilemma that we must pause to consider the theory of it. It was no new thing. It was constantly applied to slaves and provincials to induce them to confess suspected crime. It was applied to Christians because to be a Christian was equivalent to having gross crimes to confess. A secret society which could not ask for a license, which at Rome pretended to be a burial society, and was evidently much more, lay under charges of hideous unnatural orgies. Then again the usage did not allow confessions wrung out by the first torture to be acted on : it must be repeated lest perhaps the first avowal should have been only obtained by pain\ The confessor confessed his religion at once and con- sistently. Then he was tortured to make him deny it, for denial in this case amounted to a promise to be guilty no more, since it was well understood that denial would involve exclusion from his sect. Thus then to the magistrate torture appeared a lenient discipline for such criminals. He could not understand their declining to be let off so cheaply. He did not consider it a punishment at all, but a condonation of the past while it sufficiently secured the State from a repetition of the offences. The secret crimes whatever they might be were allowed to pass in the account. The magistrate's sense of his own benevolence is quite characteristic of genuine Acts of mar- tyrdom. But to the Christian who knew there were no crimes to be ^ Interrogavi ipsos, an essent Chris- verantes duci jussi. Plin. ad Traj. tiani: confitentes iterum ac tertio in- 96. terrogavi, supplicium minatus: perse- 64 THE OUTBREAK OF THE PERSECUTION. divulged the tortures seemed iniquitous indeed. TertuUian' and Cyprian" justly exclaimed against a ferocity which actually reversed the law, by applying to those who without hesitation confessed the crime of Christianity tortures which in all other cases were reserved for such as denied the legal charge. Finally, as their numbers grew the fruitless attempt at re- pression was aggravated almost to desperation lest the whole system of public worship and of that domestic religion, on which rulers relied for sobriety of morals among a large class of the population, should go down before the undisguised •contempt of men who acknowledged none of the authorised sanctions and were believed to live in private shamelessness. II. The Outbreak of the Decian Persecution. — Rome. Philip had been so tolerant of these Christians that he appeared in their approved legends as a penitent on Easter Eve^. Decius was as antichristian as he was virtuous*. He was, we are told, * in life and in death worthy to be ranked with the Romans of old time^' The luxury of his pre- decessors, the mustering of the Goths, the prevalence of •Christianity, were all alike to him hateful forms of dissolution in society, government and religion. He was to correct, to arrest, to repress them all. His ' knowledge and universal forethought®' failed him in the one great sign of the times. But he knew how to strike. It is amazing that one man, even a Roman emperor, should after thirty-eight years of religious liberty have been able in a moment to deal blows ^ Tert. ApoL ii. 'hoc imperium, cujus authority of Dionysius ap. Eus. vi. 41. magistri estis, civilis non tyrannica do- * Zosimus i. 21 ...yivei irpo^x'*"' *"' minatio est. ' Cf. £p. 31.5 (fonff. ad d^iufiari irpoirlTi. 5i Kal irdcratj Siairpdiruv Cyp.) 'nefarias contra veritatem leges.' ratj dpercus. ^ Ad Demetr. 12. ^ Fl. 'W o\>\2,c\x% Aurelianus c. 42. 3 Euseb. H. E. vi. 34. His pa, 267, 275. * Eus. H. E. vi. 29. B. 5 66 THE CONFESSORS AT ROME. hollow cell.the addition of' Martyr' has been deeply scratched \ Without proper authentication'' or in the vacancy of the see the appellation could not be attached even to so sacred a grave in the catacomb chapel. The age in which martyrs were lightly multiplied was not come. Neither was the fanatic zeal for martyrdom at flood. The Roman Church would not now select one of her leading men for immediate death, and for sixteen months elected no bishop'. The clergy of the metropolis was a regularly organized body, well able to act in concert, and requiring more than a passing notice to enable us to understand their remarkable relations with Carthage and her bishop. The wisdom of the Church was everywhere not to traverse or break up, but to adopt administrative lines and civil areas ^ The letter-cutter of Fabian's in- scription was not a good one like his predecessor's. The letters are unequal, the apices not elegant or exact, the punctuation ugly. The inscription is not a later honorary one, like Anteros's. The abbreviation is unusual, (in an honorary inscription it would have been fiill MAPTTP,) and is weakly cut or rather scratched after the slab was in its place. ' I believe this explanation of de Rossi (/!. S. vol. II. pp. 58 sqq.) to be real. Compare Optat. i. 16 '...et si martyris, sed necdum vindicati,'' and Cyp. Ep. 13. 1. ^ The ultramontane statement of this fact is that 'it appeared to the pagans that the most terrible blow they could inflict on the Church was to hinder the election of a successor to Saint Peter.' Freppel, .S". Cyprien, p. 173. It is needless to say that there is no evidence for any of the three assertions involved. II. II. THE CONFESSORS AT ROME. 67 which had already impressed characters and unities on groups of population. The ' City of God ' thus grew so firmly with its organization in accord with the ideas of the people, that in after-time the ecclesiastical division was often thought to be original. In fact it remained as a sort of original while fresh delimitations succeeded one another on its surface. One of the earliest examples seems to belong to this time. Augustus had divided the City into fourteen Regions, each with its Curator, and for some purposes grouped in pairs*. Alexander Severus (A.D. 232 — 235) amplified the powers and rank of these curators and attached them as a bench for certain causes to the Prefect of the City. Very soon after their reconstitution by Alexander, Fabian (236 — 250) 'divided the Regions to the Deacons".' That is, apparently, he assigned two Regions to each of the Seven Deacons. But he is also said to have created the seven sub- deacons. He thus took the municipal divisions, to which attention had recently been drawn, either singly or in pairs, into the church organization, and also retained the apostolic number of deacons. The Presbyters a few months later^ were forty-six in ^ Diet. Gk. and Roman Antt. II p. 54 1 b- * ' Hie regiones divisit diaconibus. Liberian Catal. ed. Mommsen, op. cit. p. 635. Lib. Pontif. adds 'et fecit septem subdiaconos.' Augustus' cura tors had certain religious functions and were chosen annually by lot (see Sueton. Augzisttts 30 ; Dio Cass. Iv 8). Alexander required them to be consulares (Lamprid. Akx. Sev. 33) Before the appointment of various kinds of governors he put their names up for objections to be made, 'as Christians and Jews did,' he said, ^in prczdicandis sacerdotibus.' Ibid. ^f^. His organization soon passed away, but not so the Christian, which apparently adopted it. See Harnack, On the Origin of the Readership, &'c., and Essay by J. Owen, with supplementary note. London, 1895. When the Felician Catalogue {cod. Bern. Lipsius op. cit. p. 275) has ' Hie (Fabianus) regiones dividit diaconibus et fecit septem subdiaconibus. viiq notariis inrainirent ut gesta martyrum fideliter coUegerent...' may we not remove the stop after ' subdiaconibus ' and render 'and caused them (the deacons) to super- intend seven subdeacons and seven notaries in order to collect the Acts of the martyrs'? 3 Letter of Cornelius, Eus. H. E. vi. 43- 5—2 68 THE DECIAN PERSECUTION. number ; and since in the persecution of Diocletian (half a century later) there were 'upwards of forty basilicas^' it has been concluded too hastily'' that each presbj^er had charge of one basilica. This is contrary to all we know of early organization. Only in the smallest country places were churches anything but collegiate. To each of the deacons there was a subdeacon and six acolytes. Exorcists, readers and door- watchers amounted to fifty-two. Such was the administrative body required for the fifty thousand^ Christians of Rome in the middle of the third century, and such as remained at liberty of the seven* great Treasurers or Visitors, called Deacons, together with the forty or more Presbyters, now took in commission the Episcopal conduct of internal affairs and of the relations with other ^ Optatus, ii. 4. Neander thinks this number must be exaggerated ; but these basilicas were not public buildings, but those which were frequently attached to great houses. — R. Bum, Rome and the Campagna, p. 1. The need for dis- persion and small congregations entirely explains the number. Many of these would be like private chapels, while in the regularly used ones there would be always a consessus. 2 By Routh, Hel. S. vol. III. p. 60. 3 This estimate formed by Bishop Burnet {Travels in Switzerland, Italy... (1685-86), ed. 1724, pp. 217-210), ap- proved by W. Moyle ( IVorks, 11. p. 152) and accepted by Gibbon c. xv. to il- lustrate the insignificance of the Chris- tians, who thus amounted to less than one twentieth of the population, seems to me too large rather than too small. Bur- net estimates from the 1 500 widows, vir- gins and ' thlibomeni ' or afflicted people who received relief. (Cornel, ap. Eus. H. E. vi. 43.) His reckoning is roughly verified by the ascertained proportion, three per cent, at Antioch, of the widows and virgins receiving alms (3000) to the whole number of Christians (100,000). Chrysostom, ed. Bened. vii. pp. 658, 810. The population of Antioch was 200,000, id. II. p. 597. But we must consider that the incessant wars would tend to make the proportion of widows and dependent children larger in the capital. From the monuments also Bp. Lightfoot thinks we might conclude the Christians to be fewer in proportion at this time. Address on Missions, S.P.G. (Macmillan, 1873.) •• A later opportunity will occur for illustrating the importance of these high officers (p. 114). At present we may notice that seven remained at Rome the fixed number of deacons. The college of cardinals retains the form of seven deacons still. Until the 9th century the Elect to the See of Rome was always a priest or deacon, the latter by preference. See Duchesne, Orig. du Culte Chretien, p. 349 n. On the other hand Constantinople in Justinian's time had a hundred deacons. Routh, vol. in. p. 61. II. II. THE CONFESSORS AT ROME. 69 Churches, particularly that of Carthage. Their tone was at first chiefly influenced by the powerful character of one whose stern uncharity severed him at last from a Church which he seemed born to govern, and by others whose rigid counsels sounded more impressively from their dungeon depth, and who were saved to the cause of unity only through the affec- tionate wisdom of Cyprian. Of the first great Puritan, Novatian, we shall have occasion to speak more fully. Two of the Presbyters, the aged Moyses, probably of Jewish birth, and Maximus, whose gravestone possibly still confronts us in the Vatican^; two of the Deacons, Rufinus and Nicostratus, the latter afterwards an active propagator of Novatianism in Cyprian's own diocese, were thrown into prison at the time** of Fabian's execution, along with the laymen' Urbanus, Sidonius, Macarius^ and with one Celerinus, who deserves more than passing mention. This man's story not only is a remarkable illustration of the time, but tessellated together, as it requires to be, out of many distant allusions in scattered letters, it is one of the most interesting proofs of the genuineness of the whole correspondence. It is morally impossible that such a complete tale could be recomposed out of such slight touches, were those touches not truthful ; morally impossible for the most ingenious forger to have constructed a character and then to have dotted it about so fragmentarily as not to support his aim by one cross-reference. It is only by writing out every passage in which his name occurs, comparing these with the African commemorations of confessors, and with a passage of Eusebius^ that we extract the following narrative. Celerinus was a native of Carthage, established in Rome. His grandmother Celerina had died by martyrdom in some 1 The loculus MA3EIM0T nP(e Ep. 37. I ; Ep. 56. I. II. III. STEDFASTNESS AT CARTHAGE. TJ visiting the leaders with uncompromising sternness, while allowing implicit understandings with many of the inoffensive followers. There were, however, many who instantly sacrificed pro- perty and citizenship by voluntary exile : many who sought hiding in the crowds of Rome. The first inmates of the prison at Carthage were a presbyter Rogatian, 'a glorious old man ' who had been left by Cyprian, during his absence, trustee of his charities, and a ' quiet soberminded man ' by name Felicissimus\ These were dragged thither by the multitude. Regular committals soon swelled the number. Women and even lads were imprisoned^ who had met with equal defiance the threats and the kindly persuasions of the magistrates^ They declined to taste the sacrificial victim, or sprinkle the incense, or to put on the liturgic veil. Two terrible cells were assigned to them where hunger, thirst and intense heat soon did their work*. After a short time fifteen persons had perished there, of whom four were women, be- sides one in the quarry, and two under torture. Mappalicus' was one of the latter. His limbs and sides streaming from repeated blows of the torture-claw, he said to the proconsul as he was remanded to the cell, 'To-morrow you shall see a April 17, A.D. 2.^0. contest indeed.' Next day he was tortured again and died. Some scenes were yet more dreadful. Maidens were not spared the Lupanaria^ Subordinates were allowed to invent new tortures^ Numidicus*, a presbyter of the neighbourhood, prepared many for death, and then with his wife was tortured ^ Ep. 6. 4 ; Epp. 7, 41, 4'2, 43- See i, 2. Pearson Ann. Cypr. A.D. 250 s. vi. as * Ep. 22. 2. to the Roman Martyrologies and Ba- ^ Ep. 10. 2. xv Kal. Mai com- ronius following Bede's error in making memorates Mappalicus in Martyrol. Rogatian and Felicissimus Martyrs and African. Morcelli, op. cit. 11. p. 365, assigning a day for their martyrdom, and the date suits this letter, whereas their living example is the « De Mortalitate 15. point of Cyprian's address. ^ Ad Demetrian. 12. 2 Ep. 6. 3. 8 Ep. 40. ^ Blanditia2...voce libera. Ep. 10. A.D. 250. y^ THE DECIAN PERSECUTION. by fire. The wife was actually burnt alive, and he was left for dead, a shower of stones having been hurled upon him at the stake. His daughter found him breathing still ; he was revived, and afterwards enrolled in the presbyterate of the capital. Many were after double torture dismissed, some into banishment^ some to bear the brand for life, as a second * seal in their foreheads^' some to resume former occupations, beggared of all they possessed. Some quailed and fell, who on second thoughts returned to avow their faith, forfeit their all, and undergo their torture'. Bona* was dragged by her husband to the altar, there to justify her reappearance from abroad; but exclaiming 'The act is not mine but yours' as the incense fell from her hand, she was exiled again. No martyrs were more honoured than Castus and ^milius, who May 22, for such recantation were burnt to death^ The devouring passion for martyrdom was still in the future, yet already survivors envied ' The Crowned.' The fervid temperament of Africa was aflame. Rhetoric apostro- phised ' The Happy Prison ! Gloom more brilliant than the Sun himself^ ! ' yet even such rhetoric seems colder to us than the everyday terms of their common speech which called every such death a ' Confession in blossom,' a ' Purple Confession^' Still at the very summit of their enthusiasm their leader never suffered them to forget that enthusiasm was not the solid height itself but only a glory which bathed it, 'He that ' speaketh the things that make for peace and are good and ^ £pp. 14. 21. mon cclxxxv. on their day. This was ^ Pont. Vit. 7 '...tot confessoresfron- May 22, Morcelli, vol. II. p. 368. tium notatarum secunda inscriptione ® Ep. 6. i. signatos et ad exemplum martyrii super- ^ ...in tam florida confessione Ep. 21. stites reservatos...' i; floridiores {i.e. martyres)...floridi- ' Ep. 24. orum ministerium, 21. 3. Rutilorum, * Ep. 24. Ep. 42. • De Lapsis 13, see Augustine's ser- II. III. FAILURE AT CARTHAGE. 79 'just, according to the bidding of Christ, he it is who is the ' daily Confessor of Christ V But how great a step had been gained in human thought and feeling when numbers of delicate and educated persons surrendered all that made life beautiful or even tolerable and accepted all that was hideous and unendurable, simply because immortality had become a certainty, and the revelation of God's character and Christ's presence a reality amid a world of scepticism and vice. The Persecution at Carthage, — 2. The ' Lapsi.' Nevertheless, where these sober truths rose into passionate sentiment there also the sensibilities to suffering and to ridicule were equally high-strung. Nor had the recent life of the Church been so rigorous or disciplined as to make constancy under trial characteristic of its masses. Yet Cyprian, in spite of long forebodings of what under such circumstances would be the result of the worldly habits of the bishops and the gentile associations and extravagance of the laity, was not prepared for the first spectacle upon the arrival of the edict. Even he was appalled at the rush of faithless Christians to the CapitoP or to the Forum to sacrifice amid the jeers of the populace ; their unwillingness to be deferred till morning, when darkness closed upon their throng, their piteous production of children and newly-baptized infants to drop incense from their small fingers. Most of the clergy ^ £/>. 13. 5. 160) upon it. At Cologne the old * De Laps. 8, cf. Ep. 59. 13. The Capitol is still so called. Byrsa or Bozrah. So elsewhere in Compare with the scenes just touched municipia the ' Idolura Capitolii ' is a by Cyprian the painfully graphic narra- recognised term. See Council of El- tive of Alexandrian events by Dionysius. vira, canon 59, and Hefele {H. d. Eus. H. E. vi. 41. ConciL ed. Delarc, vol. I. pp. 159, 80 INCENSERS AND SACRIFICERS. »>/fledS some lapsed'; there remained in the city scarce enough to carry on the daily duty*. Many provincial bishops fled to Rome*. One at least, Repostus of Tuburnuc, carried the main part of his flock back to paganism*. Even in Rome there were fears at one moment lest 'the ' brotherhood should be completely rooted out by this head- ' long return to idolatry'.' Although it may or may not be a literal statement that the lapsed at Carthage were 'the majority of the flock V yet their Bishop may well have felt 'like one sitting amid the ruins of his house.' Thus were being formed the vast classes of 'the Incensers' and 'the SacrificersV whose self-excision from the body of Christ was palpable. The act of the latter class was held the more odious whether from the fuller ceremonial, or from the material pollution ascribed to the victim's flesh. Yet greater perplexity resulted from the conduct of others who, although not stronger to confess their faith, were less bold to abjure it. The constitution of the courts which had to enforce uniformity, and the number of inferior officials employed in a service which attempted to deal with individual beliefs, opened a door to any evasions which friendship, favour, or cupidity could devise. As in the days of Trajan, the approved form of profession was still to take part in sacrifice, but it was possible also to tender allegiance in writing^ The name of one who 'professed' in this ^ Ep. 34. 4. VIII. I, p. 121). G. Wilmanns assigns ^ Ep. 40. the bishops 'Tubumicenses' of A. D. 411 ^ Ep. 29. and 646 to the latter. Morcelli, vol. I. ^ Ep. 30. 8. p. 333, gives them to the former. One * Ep. 59. 10. Tuburnuc was a small would naturally place Cyprian's Re- municipium and Hot-Wells, about 12 postus nearer to him. No trace remains miles south of the Gulf of Tunis, or 22 of any place answering to Hartel's Su- from Carthage. Tissot II. 780 (by in- tunurcensis, or the readings Sutumu- advertence?) makes this see one of censis, Quoturnicensis, Sutun-urcensis,, 'emplacement inconnu,' but in pi. viii. Utunurcensis. marks the place, which is no doubt the ® Ep. 8. 2. see. In Numidia was a Bov^oijpviKa ' -^PP- n. ' ; 14. i- KoXuvia (Ptol.), an oppidum civium Ro- ^ Thurificati, Sacrificati. manorum (Plin.), {Corp. Inscrr. Latt. ' See below the note on the Libelli. II. III. 'LIBELS' OF CONFORMITY. 8l form was subscribed either to a renunciation of Christianity, or to a denial of that crime, or else to a statement of having recently or habitually attended sacrifice, and sometimes (unless Augustine^ has fallen into an unlikely error) to a mere declara- tion of readiness to comply. This document was delivered to a magistrate, entered on the Acta, and finally published in the Forum. In the persecution of Diocletian timid Christians were sometimes represented at the altar by a slave^ or by a heathen friend ; sometimes attendants connived at their slipping past the altars without actually making the ob- lation ^ It would seem that in the Decian persecution too a proxy* sometimes performed the act which the accused after- wards claimed as his own ; while in heartrending cases, which came later to light, the heads of families often dechristianized themselves to deliver wife, children and dependants from beggary and torture^ Venal or kindly fraud provided further a different security from molestation. Certificates at high rates of payment were offered and almost thrust on persons who believed themselves, after a private avowal of their faith, to be simply purchasing exemption from the obligation to con- form. This is a species of confiscation and has seldom given offence"; but it is evident, from the endeavours of Cyprian to awaken penitence on account of them, that the contents of these certificates or 'libels' were not unobjection- able. Indeed it is impossible that they can have sanctioned exemption without some grounds being alleged. Nor can those grounds have been any other than that the certifying ^ Aug. de Bapt. c. Donatt. iv. 4 (6). Routh, op. cit. p. 28. 2 Petr. Alex. cc. 6, 7. The slave, * See note on Libelli, p. 82. if a Christian, received in such a case ' Ep. 55. 13. T&vt.defug. 5, 12, 13. one year's penance and his master three. * On the Montanist view, however, Routh, Rel. S. vol. iv. pp. 29, 30. see Tillemont, Notes sur la PersScut. 3 Petr. Alex. Can. 5. For this of- de Dice, n. iii., vol. ill. p. 702. fence the penance was of six months, B. 6 82 THE LIBELLATICS. magistrate had satisfied himself of the sound paganism of the recipient. The unworthiness of these transactions must not mislead us into conceiving that Christian truth had little hold upon those who were concerned in them\ ' Parliamentary certi- ficates' of conformity were in our strictest age given and received by the strictest Puritans and churchmen without any pretext of fact. Intense devotion to formal truth has to the southern and eastern temperament seemed often not incon- sistent with insensibility to fine veracity. To detect that lurking source of so much false doctrine and false practice was a part of Cyprian's moral office, and he speaks of the tears of sorrow and surprise with which many first recognised the gravity of the fault. Even Peter of Alexandria, in the midst of similar displeasure with the Lapsed under Dio- cletian, cannot forbear, before he passes on to place the sin in its true light, to glance at its aspect as a mockery of heathen power ; calling his flock ' clever, designing children befooling dull ones.' When we are treating of Africans or Romans in the third century we cannot infer that there was no truth of conviction because we find that conviction was dissembled. To them the system came so naturally, that when enquiries began it was found that the numbers of these ' Libellatics ' or certificated persons with whom Cyprian him- self had to deal amounted to some thousands^ 0}i the Form and Contents of the Libelli. I have in the text presented a correct account, I believe, of the various ways in which the vast class of Libellatici arose. The diffi- cuhies raised by various authors have arisen from their assuming that the Libelli were all of one kind, or that there could be any systematic and regular procedure for the evasion of procedure^. ^ De Laps. 27. I'autre.' Dom Maran thought the dis- ^ Ep. 10. 1. tinction was only whether persons had ^ Tillemont (vol. in. p. 702) alone been present or not at the registering of perceived there might be two ways. their names. Vit. Cypr. vi. Rigalt (ap. 'Peut-estre que Ton faisait et Tun et Fell, iff/. 30) that the libelli were decl,ara- II. III. s (ON THE LIBELS.) 83 On the contrary, every conceivable means would of course be adopted. Accounts are not irreconcilable ; they only describe different things. Cyprian's language is accurate to technicality in the use of professional terms. L (i) The libellus which the suspected men tendered is clearly characterized in De Laps. 27, * et ilia professio est denegantis, contes- tatio est christiani quod fiierat'^ abnuentis.' In Ep. 30. 3 '^ Professio libellorum' is again the exhibition or putting in of such statements. Profiteri is elsewhere the technical term, ' Christi negationem sc7-ip- tam profiteri^ Act. SS. Agapes, Chionae, Irenes, &c., Ruinart, Acta Mart., Ratisb. 1859, pp. 424 — 52. Again, contestatio means the plea or statement of his own case made by either party to a suit ; it answers to the Biufioala of the Athenian Courts ; the Roman clergy correctly argue in Ep. 30. 3, that although a man may not have approached the altar, he must take the consequences (tenetur) if he has put in a legal affirmation {contestatus sit) that he had done so. In the above passages a Libellus is plainly a document emanating from the recanting Christian. Such persons are in Peter of Alex- andria (Can. V.) described as giving a libellus, x^poypa^jjo-airef. The nature of the contents of it is indicated in the passage of the De Lapsis 27, ' He has declared himself to have done whatever evil another actually did' {faciendo commisit), which implies a repre- sentative in the sacrificial act. The offence of the Bishop Martial {Ep. 67. 6) who was ' stained with the libellus of idolatry,' is explained by the use of the word con- testatus. In the public proceedings before the Ducenary Procurator (actis publice habitis apud D. P.) he had appeared, and put in a declaration that he had denied Christ and adopted a heathen cultus. He is not accused of having ever actually sacrificed, and the libelli of others, as Augustine says, contained only a declaration of readiness to do so. (2) A second class {sed etiam) are spoken of by Novatian and the Roman clergy in Ep. 30. 3 as having virtually 'given acknow- ledgments, quittances or discharges^' (accepta fecissent), though not tions either of heathenism or of Chris- 4 (6) '...se thurificaturos pro/essi erant.^ tianity, but tendered (the latter with ^ Accepta fecissent is apparently the bribes) only by the people, and not best authenticated reading. Accepta fa- given by magistrates : Fechtrup that cere is a common term (Dirksen, Mann- they were magisterial certificates only. ale, s.v. accepto acceptum). But the Fechtrup's special pleading is matched other reading, arfa/zffr. * -^//- 66. 4 ; 59. 6 ; Pont. Vii. 7. 13, which is given only in Rigalt's ■• Tertull. de Fuga in Persecutione. 'codex remensis,' yet taken into the ' De Laps. 10. The words 'Domi- text by Baluze, and on Ep. 5, where nus in persecutione secedere et fiigere the name is spurious, omitted by Hartel. mandavit ' referring to Matth. x. 23 The scientific construction of history shew that it is not necessary to interpret without evidence is illustrated by O. jE/. 16. 4 '...Dominus, qui ut secederem Ritschl's statement that the place must jussit ' of 'visions, &c.' rather than of have been known to the magistrates, or Scripture, easily discoverable because his corre- * Ep. 34. 4. 86 WORK OF RETIREMENT. useful than his energies, he remained, against all solicitations, to die among his people. And gladly now would he have braved danger in the activity of the presbyterate 'if the conditions of his place and degree had permitted*.' But his presence in Carthage would have attracted danger upon others 2 ; would have provoked riots in the aroused state of heathen feeling'. Tertullus*, the devotee of prisoners and martyrs, was himself the prime mover' and most strenuous advocate of the concealment of Cyprian. Yet such a charm invests even the most rash exposure of life, that there possibly will never be wanting suggestions that the first duty of Cyprian's life was to throw it away. Leaving fanaticism however to its doubts, and scepticism to its sneers on this particular, we pass to the use he made of that life. His pre- eminent work sprang into light before him. Instantly we find him blending a life of devotion and eucharist^ with intensest and widest activity. We find him not only swaying and sustaining the Church of Carthage; he forms and guides the policy of the West. Repelling a singular aggression of the Roman clergy, he suggests to Rome the measures of the Church. The faith and polity of the Church are menaced simultaneously by the two worst dangers : by Indifferentism bidding for popular support with newly invented indulgences and saintly merits, and by Puritanism armed with specious ideals, "^o the victorious^ firmness and sweet persuasiveness of Cyprian it was due that in his age Christianity did not melt into an ethnic religion or freeze into a sect. ^ Ep. 12. I ; cf. Epp. 5. I ; 6. i. nobis oblationes et sacrificia ob com- "^ Epp. 7; 14. I. memorationes eorum.' A painful inci- * Ep. 43. 4. dent of one of his communions is related * Ep. 12. 2. De Laps. 25, see p. 108 infr. ^ Ep. 14. I. "^ ' Victoriosissimus Cyprianus,' Aug. * Ep. 12. 2 *...et celebrentur hie a II. V. ROMAN INTERFERENCE. 87 V. Interference of tJie Church of Rome. We must pursue these lines in detail. Immediately upon his retirement the Roman presbyters and deacons, then holding the administration of their see^ in commission during its vacancy, despatched two letters to Carthage, one detailing to Cyprian himself very fully the glorious martyrdom of their Jan. 20, own bishop, and evidently pointing hints from his example^ ; ' ' ^°' the other exhorting Cyprian's clergy to supply by their devotion the void created by the fugitive^ ' The unfaithful ' shepherds of Ezekiel and the hireling shepherd of the Gospel, ' the Good Shepherd Himself and the faithful pastorate of ' Peter must be their warning and their pattern. They them- ' selves at Rome have reaped the reward of not deserting the ' brotherhood, in the general fidelity of their Church in spite ' of the lapse of some eminent and timorous persons.* This, after the remark that Cyprian's clergy justified his absence as being an ' eminent person/ persecution impending^ Such a sarcasm might perhaps have seemed intelligible had it followed the return of their own envoy, sent with the news of Fabian's martyrdom to Cyprian, and bringing back the startling news of his disappearance. Ultramontane ingenuity has indeed so narrated the facts^ But it was Carthage which had communicated both fact and justification, and unfortunately the two Roman letters were sent together by the same hand, nor can the former, which has not survived, ^ Cf. Ep. 14. 2 '...gerenda ea quae the more exposed.' Ep. 8. i. Hartel administratio religiosa deposcit.' spoils the sense by his comma before 2 Ep. 9. I. 'certa ex causa.' * Thisis^/. 8. That on Fabian is lost. ' Freppel, p. 174. Full of admira- * N. Marshall (London, 1717) cor- tion of his Church's 'traditions of vigil- rectly ' hath retired for a certain reason, ance and universal solicitude ' he mag- wherein you seem to think he hath nanimously sympathises with Cyprian's acted well and rightly, as being a dis- sensitiveness to what might have seemed tinguished person, and standing as such 'an indirect censure.' 88 ROMAN INTERFERENCE. have been less wounding than the latter. Cyprian responds however with fervour to the eulogy on Fabian, but returns to them their other letter with a dignified hope that it may Feb., prove to be a forgery, since it lacks both authentication and A.D. 250. a(j(jj.ggg^ j^jj^j surprises him equally by its matter, its style and even the paper it was written on\ It is indeed a singular document. We might have wished to share Cyprian's sus- picion, did not a later letter of his shew that his delicate doubt was but a criticism of the missive^ It is, when printed according to the genuine text, a remarkable illustration of what has been often pointed out, the deficiency of the Church of Rome at that period in literary cultivation. The inelegance of its style and the incorrectness of its constructions and forms of words place it by the side of the four other epistles^ which emanate from less cultivated persons, and distinguish these from all the rest of the correspondence. No further caustic criticism was provoked. He had awakened them to the sense of his position and their own. Their answer gave him full assurance of support, and with a vigorous letter from the Roman to the Carthaginian Confessors*, came op- portunely and helpfully. Their third Epistle was from the strong, clear, pedantically clear, pen of Novatian^ and was sent after a consultation with ' Bishops Present ' as they were called — neighbouring bishops and bishops then in Rome on ^ Ep. 9. 2. gladly learn what honour was covertly 2 In Ep. 20. 3 he calls it plainly intended for the Church of Rome by 'vestra scripta ' and quotes a passage this composition, upon the theory that from it with a slight improvement in the whole Cyprianic correspondence the wording. Fechtrup (p. 47) ponder- was forged in her interest, ously thinks he had made and now * These two crossed his Ep. 20, see detected the mistake. Ep. 27. 4, and are lost like that on ^ Epp. 21 — 24. The errors are not Fabian. The principal contents of the due to the inaccuracy but to the cor- former are given in Ep. 30. 3, and it rectness of the text, which elsewhere was widely circulated with two of exhibits no such phenomena. See Har- Cyprian's. Their letter to Sicily {Ep. tel's Preface, p. xlviii. Does charta 30. 5) is also lost (see p. 95). ipsa in Ep. 9. 2 further indicate the * Ep. 30 ; compare Ep. 55. 5. On poverty of the scribe? One would Novatian's style see p. 122 and note. II. VI. THE LAPSED. 89 account of the persecution or other causes, for before it was written they had learnt how much they and the Church owed to Cyprian's preservation. It is possible too that the need for seclusion which Novatian^ felt in his own case, as we shall see, had something to do with the change or at least the suppression of opinion from Rome on this subject, so soon as Novatian became their scribe. Their last letter also penned by Novatian is in thorough accord with the vigorous steps which, as we shall see, Cyprian took and proposed to take as difficulties developed^ VI. The Lapsed and tlie Martyrs. For in the meantime mightier issues had blazed out. The merit of confessorship and the remorse of the lapsed had come face to face, and the conception had been entertained that the faithful might mediate for the fallen. Even in Ter- tuUian's time certain penitents had by their intercession pro- cured restoration to communion for others. He intimates a doubt of the validity' of this system in his earliest work, while apparently implying that it was of no long standing; but as a Montanist, however exaggerated his language, he shews that it had become more common under the patronage of the contemporary bishop whom he attacks^ Now, however, the question was no longer one of the dispensation of private sin. No contrast could be stronger than that between the Confessors and the Lapsed, and it was exhibited on a great scale. The sufferers were not only ^ See pp. 121, 122. dam and si forte. ^ Ep. 36; see p. 122, n. 3. •* Jam et in martyras tuos effundis 3 Ad Mart. i. Note the words qtii- banc potestatem. De Pudic. c. 22. 90 THE MARTYRS. faithful to the Church, they were saving its existence \ and at the same time demonstrating that the attractions and the terrors of heathenism were not powerful enough to hold the world. Gratitude to them knew no bounds. Ministers to their wants flocked to the prisons*. Men prayed all night upon the earth that they might themselves be captured so as to attend on those^ who had been tortured. ' The Offering' was made regularly in their cells. From his retirement Cyprian has to recommend less demonstrative sympathy*, and to enjoin that only one presbyter with one deacon should per- form that service, and that these should so succeed one another as not to cause the constant attendance of any to be remarked. Every death among them was communicated to him that he might 'celebrate the oblations and sacrifices' of commemoration, and was calendared for future observance". At Rome the martyred Fabian himself had made the compilation of such registers a duty of the subdeacons with their clerks*. A few years later began under Gregory Thaumaturgus the substitution for pagan feasts of wakes over the martyred remains which he conveyed to various localities''. Thus everywhere the veneration for the martyrs rose in proportion to the magnitude of the interests at stake. Cyprian ^ Ep. 37. 4 '...nutantem multorum Opt. i. 16. The delay necessary for fidem martyrii vestri veritate solidastis.' such enrolment is a probable explana- ^ Ep. 5. 2. tion (as has been already observed) of ^ The only intelligible sense I can the title Martyr being added, though give to ^.21. 3. not much later, to the epigraph of * Hefele suggests that some of the Fabian, about whose martyrdom there calumnies against Csecilian arose from can be no question ; see pp. 65, 66 and his requiring similar prudence. H. des notes. Conciles (ed. Delarc) vol. I. p. 172. ® 'Notarii,' Felkian Catalogue (Lip- ' Ep. 12. 2. From the recitation of sius, op. cit. p. 275). Cf. Pearson, their names in the list or canon arose Minor Theolog. Works, vol. 11. pp. 314, the term 'canonize.' Csecilian, a.d. 315. 312, rebukes Lucilla's veneration for a ' Greg. Nyss. 0pp. t. III. p. 574, ed. relic of a martyr, '...et si martyris, sed Morell. necdum vindicaii^ not yet acktunvledged. II. VI. GROWING VENERATION FOR CONFESSORS. 9I himself, who was not without some apprehension of the coming mischief; who had written so wisely, ' He who 'speaketh things peaceful and kind and righteous after the ' precept of Christ, is every day a Confessor of Christ ' ; who elsewhere so invariably softens Tertullian's rhetoric, himself now exaggerates it even to bad taste* in addressing the confessors. A significant change had taken place even in the common use of terms. Only seventy years before this the sufferers of Lyons and Vienne had, in their last prison, after their last contests with the wild beasts, sharply reproved the application to themselves of the name of Martyr, ascribing it to those alone who had followed to the death ' the Faithful and True Martyr' of the Apocalypse-. At the end of the second century we have indeed a fragment from one who styles himself ' Aurelius Cyrenius Martyr^'; whom, if we rightly un- der^gjttl'ljim, the men of Lyons would have disowned. But Tegt^iliaia , early addressed imprisoned Christians only as ' martyrs designate*' and seems much later to repudiate and ridicn^iJle growing fashion by his question, ' What martyr is ' a ii^yfillct in this world, a petitioner for pence, a victim to * doi^flffi itod money-lender^''' But now Cyprian uses it freely of fdi vftbol are in prisons or in mines®, while 'Confessor,' once res^tj^ri^-fcr those awaiting death, is applied to any sufferer, and 4w*riE0ight is honoured as a ' private confession ^' idS^ «4ptives were in Cyprian's eyes ' the friends of the LoijAjv^f would sit with Him in judgment,' whose inter- cc^cteififcjready avail^ in the unseen world. But the faction ^ Although allowance must be made adopt the common explanation of this for the then freshness of metaphors savage passage. now ttbe,9J^ cannot share Freppel's ^ Epp. 15. i ; 76. 6. traa^jpOits^f) Ep. 10, '...ce langage ^ De Laps. 3. toutSrewSasftit de poesie lyrique.' ^ ...pnerogativa eorum adjuvari apiid 'h^fiibicnaH. E. v. 2. Deum possimt {Ep. 18. i) ; ...adjuvari X^^Kll^^ell. Sac. I. p. 451. apud Dojninwn in delictis suis possunt * Ad Martt. i. [Ep. 19. 2). Rettberg, who belongs to ^ £^ .Mitdia'i. 22. I am unable to that class of historians which thinks in- 92 RECOURSE TO THEIR MEDIATION. which had at all times been unfriendly to him attributed to them such spiritual supremacy on earth as threatened to disorganize the whole fabric of the Church. Among the Lapsed there had at once set in a violent revulsion, a passionate desire to recover or to reassert their place in the forsaken Church. Some reappeared at the tri- bunals, and received sentence of exile^; some, like Castus and .^milius, of torture and death ; some, like the sisters of Celerinus, dedicated themselves to the service of the con- fessors'- ; others entered unmurmuringly on penance of inde- finite duration I Unhappily most preferred to rely on a vicarious and imputed merit. At first a letter from a ' martyr' to a bishop prayed only that the case of a fallen friend might after the restoration of peace be examined into ; a due period of penitence and the imposition of hands being understooH to be at least as necessary as after other open falls. Some, like the torn and tortured Saturninus, forebore even- tikis- ^ti- tion. Mappalicus in dying requested it only for his Bisifcti^nd mother*. b zi^ii^ But the factious presbyters, who in the simplittl^^nd devotion of these men saw so promising a weapaftna]|riinst-. the absent bishop, ventured now to anticipate not sucfls flDi^iry/ only, but even the death of the martyr which alo^fe' ifcftild have given validity to his appeal. Upon the stl'dh^ds of papers signed by still living confessors they ' c^Ctfei^ Ithe names®' of lapsed persons at the Eucharist as of du^ rtdSbred penitents and gave them communion''. Then thedy USibels began to be carelessly drawn: they sometimes spe(^fWiJ)Cfftly rfgoorfJiA sight consists in the ascription of low ^ Ep. i6. 3. nadJ adi motives to great minds, sees in this Ian- ® On Nomen offerre Jbe,3Ai0 cor- guage the bidding for support against rect though not very lucid«ei»ijks of the factious clergy. L'Aubespine, Obsci-vatt. \BixkthiL. I. ^ Ep. 24. § vii. (1623), reprinted in "ftisdEsfitwn of - Ep. 21. 3, 4. Optatus, 1679. (P'ieur's 0]pt^bu9JI676, 3 Ep. 56. 2. p. 21.) A^rt6H>K ^ Ep.1T. I. "> Ep. 34. t. Cf. Ep. i^^ ^y aTras ' Ep. 27. I. On this ground Lucian o^uoC fjMpT'upuv at end of cent. iii. justified his use of the name of Aurelius, Lucian, ap. Routh, R. S. vol. iv. 'quod literas non nosset^', yet it can p. 5. scarcely have been true in his case, ^ Ep. 23. since Aurelius was immediately after ^ ...quasi moderatius aliquid et tem- ordained Lector by Cyprian. Ep. 2,^. I. perantius fieret...epistolam scripsit qua ? ...gregatim... passim... Ep. 27. i. psene omne vinculum fidei...et evangelii •* Ep. 20. 2. Ep. 15. 3. sanctitas et firmitas solveretur. Ep. 27. ' Ep. 27. 3 ' ...circa intellegentiam 2. dominicse lectionis.' 94 THE MISUSE OF MEDIATION SYSTEMATIZED. position by throwing the final responsibility on their bishop — which is not an unfair view\ It may for a moment be worth our while to glance at the modern ultramontane explanation of this step. 'Their 'imprudent charity' says Freppel 'had forgotten that In- * dulgences have for their object to supplement the insufficiency ' of works of satisfaction, but not to replace them,' How was it then that not only Cyprian, but his supposed directors, the Roman presbyters, left after all the definition of an Indul- gence so incomplete ? — No stronger refutation of ultramon- tanism exists than its attempts to write history. » The Lapsed and the Presbyters who encouraged them soon despised the condition that they should satisfy the bishops- ; but beyond the direct evils of the confessors' action lay the unpopularity^ which it ensured for the bishops, if they did their duty. They must presently be seen rejecting Avholesale both penitents and martyrs. Discipline was vio- lated, but harmony too and reverence and affection would have no place under the random domination of merits. It is not surprising that in some of the provincial towns there was something like actual riot"*, and that the Lapsed extorted communion from the weaker presbyters by force. From the Cyprianic correspondence it would seem that these disorders did not exist at Rome. This was no doubt due at least in part to the powerful influence of Novatian in the exactly contrary direction over the confessors whom he commends for maintaining ' Evangelical discipline ' ' and ^ ...quia a multis urguebantur, dum attestation clause 'prsesente de clero ad episcopum illos remittunt, &c. Ep. et exorcista et lectore.' 36. 2. Fechtrup and Ritschl take 'op- ^ Ep. 35. tamus te cum Sanctis martyribus pacem ' Invidia, Epp. 15. 4; 27. 2. Tiabere,' Ep. 23, as a threatening. The * ...impetus per multitudinem, Ep. confessors were too literal so to write. 27. 3. So also it is impossible to credit them * Ep. 30. 4. with parodying the usual forms in the II. VII. CYPRIAN'S SCHEME. 95 who at first adhered to him rather than to the milder Cornelius. These clergy sympathize with Africa and evi- dently with Sicily\ and deplore the revolt not only there but in 'nearly all the world,' but of themselves they state 'we seem so far to have escaped the disorders of the times^' The vacancy of their See was an adequate reason both for postponement and for patience. It was prudently employed, and, as a rule, sensibly accepted. Celerinus was the excep- tion*. Cyprian's correspondents among the Roman confessors take Cyprian's view, urge humility on the Carthaginian mar- tyrs, and at last go beyond him in strictness*. VII. The Cyprianic Sdieme for Restorative Discipline. For Cyprian had lost no time. A distinct policy had become essential. The temper of the Lapsed, the increasing dangers which it threatened, the fitness of conciliating the martyrs'^, and the approach of the feverous malarious autumn of the old world city or the stagnant offensive water of the Lake of Tunis*, would brook no delay on the part of the ^ This seems to be the first mention gus...' Even blood was shed, he pro- of a Christian Church in that island. ceeds. Ep. 30. 5. Seede Rossi, Inscrr. Christ. II. p. 66, ^ Ep. 30. 5, 6. Under Diocletian's 102 — 3, 138; also R. S. 11. p. 201. persecution the Roman church was not Migne, Patr. Lat. xiii. cc. 384, 385. exempt. A page of unwritten history Peter Alex. Can. 5, speaks of confessors is indicated in the epitaphs of Damasus giving remission to the Lapsed under upon the popes Marcellus and Euse- the persecution of Diocletian, but in a bius. He borrows the sentiments and mild form, and he appoints them a pen- words of Cyprian to express the similar ance notwithstanding, rebellion. Dam. Carm. xi. De S. Mar- 3 £p^ •21.3. cello Martyre, 'Veridicus Rector lapsos * Epp. 2-j, 31, 32. (^uia crimina Jiere Pradixit miseris fuit " Notes 3 and 4 on p. 94. omnibus hostis amarus Hmc furor, « Ep. i8. i 'jam aestatem coepisse, hinc odium...' Carm. xii. De S. Euse- tempus infirmitatibus assiduis et gravi- bio Papa, 'Heraclius vetuit lapsos pec- bus infestatum...' Kui-As 5' t\v iin.To\r] cata dolere: Eusebius miseros docuit sua ...iirl \ifiVT} aradepoO xai /Sop^os OSaros, crimina flere. Scinditur in partes vul- Appian, de Rebus Punic, viii. 99. 96 CYPRIAN'S RULES AND PRINCIPLES. church in dealing with the anxious multitudes who besieged her gates. So soon as the Libels appeared he wrote despatches to the confessors at Carthage, to his clergy, and with peculiar warmth and confidence to his laityS to Bishops in all directions ^ to a remarkable group of Roman confessors, and to the Roman clergy^ who were still under the leadership of the able, high-minded and austere Novatian. This man, had he lived in some brief halcyon day when orthodox speculation and asceticism were in the ascendant, might have been a scholastic saint. That, in times of conflict and in the most practical of all cities, some tinge of ambition shot across his higher qualities, made his position false and his memory unenviable. At present however nothing had appeared in him but the clear and somewhat hard decisive- ness which, giving point to his nobler characteristics, made him regarded as the possible head of the Roman church, when Fabian's successor should be elected. Moyses, Maximus and their fellow prisoners were as yet earnestly attached to him. To all whom he now addressed Cyprian proposed one simple method : To reserve the cases of the Lapsed intact, whether the martyrs had given them Letters of Peace or not*, until councils of bishops, assembling both at Carthage and at Rome' on the abatement of persecution, should lay down some general principles of restoration for those who deserved compassion: Then the cases to be heard individually by the bishops with the assistance of their presbyterate, diaconate and 'commons^': Full confession without reserve ^ Epp. 15, 16, and 17. as to the part which the Plebes were to * Ep. 26. have on account of the magnitude of 3 Epp. 27 and 28. the affair, 'consults omnibus Episcopis, * Ep. 20. 3. Presbyteris, Diaconibus, confessoribus, * Epp. 10. 3 ; 55. 4. sed ei ipsis stantibus Laicis, ut in tuis li- ' Ep. 17. 4 Fratribus in plebe con- teris et ipse testyis.' Ep. 17. i '...ex- sistentibus. Ep. 31. 6 puts in the aminabuntur singula praesentibus et strongest light the opinions both* of judicantibus vobis.* Cf. Ep. 30. 5. Cyprian and of the Roman Confessors II. VII. THE CYPRIANIC POLICY. 97 to be required in the presence of those most conversant with the circumstances: Readmission to Communion to be given by the imposed hands of the bishop and clerus : Meantime to concede to mercy and to the martyrs thus much — that any lapsed person in danger of death or in serious trouble, who had been provided with a Libel, might be readmitted to com- munion with imposition of hands by any presbyter, or in desperate cases, even by a deacon^: until general resolutions shall have been come to, all others, who had not obtained Confessors' Letters, must even in the hour of death be commended to the forgiveness of God without earthly com- munion and be assisted in their repentance. It was not for the ordinary officers to restore them to communion without directions from the bishop, or recommendation from martyrs. To all it was still open publicly to recant their denial of Christ, and to abide the issue from the heathen authorities. Thus they would be not merely restored but crowned. The grounds of the course he advised were these : 1. That so general a question should be dealt with upon some general principle not by individual discretion ^ 2. That the Lapsed if restored at once would have fared better than the Constant who had borne the loss of all things. 3. That some regard should be had to the ' prerogative ' of confessorship. These principles he insists upon in his letters and in his pamphlet Of the Lapsed I The concession to confessors is ' Epp. 18. I and 19. 2. ' Freppel calls the De Lapsis a 2 ...non paucorum nee ecclesiae unius resume of the letters: — fairly, but it is nee unius provinciae sed totius orbis of their latest views, for these views haec causa est, Ep. 19. •2, cf. Ep. 30. 5. gradually alter, as we shall see. B. 7 98" ROMAN DEDUCTIONS FROM FACTS. not unnatural*. His assurance of the divine acceptance of the iinaneled penitent is nobly expressed'. 'They that in * gentleness and lowliness and very penitence shall have per- * severed in good works will not be left destitute of the help * and aid of the Lord. They too will be cared for by a divine ' healing.' On the '■Proof of Roman Confession which is derived from these events. Some theory of ' development ' applied to the principles both of discipline and doctrine is no less essential to the progress (and even to the construction) of ecclesiastical than of civil estates. The mis- fortune of Rome is not only that her constructiveness has been in- consequent and has incorporated usages subversive of the original theory, but that she does practically repudiate schemes of 'develop- ment ' erected in her behalf. Her scholars are required to prove her most modem inventions to be primitive. For instance — The word Confession {exomologesis) is still so far from bearing a technical sense in Cyprian, that it is applied in the same page (i) to the Song of the Three Children, (2) to the Monody of Daniel, and (3) to the public acknowledgment of apostasy {de Laps. 28, 31), as well as (4) in Testim. iii. 114 to Confession of sin to God. The word 'Sacerdos' in Cyprian invariably signifies a Bishop. But a judicious limitation of these two terms to the sense of ' sacramental confession ' and ' presbyter or priest ' yields to the ultramontane mind the product of auricular confession as now used in the church of Rome. Is it not Exomologesis before a Sacerdos ? A similar concatenation is made of (i) Cyprian's argfument that * since even ordinary penitents could be restored only through the imposition of hands by bishop and clergy, after less offences than apostasy, the Lapsed cannot be admitted more easily' with (2) his requirement oi exomologesis from the latter class, and (3) with examples drawn from some tender consciences which had revealed a merely contemplated desertion. From these passages is drawn the inference that Cyprian ' demanded sacramental confession of a// the less serious faults ' as ' obligatory ' and ' as extending even to bad thoughts^ ^ ...cumvidereturet honor martyribus ^ Ep. 18. 2. habendus, Ep. lo. 3. Cf. Ep. 18. r. II. VIII. THE POLICY NOT ROMAN BUT CARTHAGINIAN. 99 Again, in extreme cases a presbyter ' without waiting for our pre- sence ' or * even a deacon ' might on approach of death lay his hand on a penitent who has confessed his lapse, and give him that * Peace' which the martyrs had requested for him. This simple natural per- mission is by the ultramontane expanded into the following diffi- culties : (i) that confession to a deacon who was 'not the minister of the sacrament of penance ' was * an act of humility which could not fail to be very meritorious ' ; (2) that ' as indulgences are conferred apart from the sacrament ' so ' at that date apparently deacons had the power to apply to the sick such spiritual favour'; (3) this par- ticular 'spiritual favour' is defined to be 'a remission to the mori- bund of all the temporal pains due to their sins,' ' it was what we call a plenary indulgence accorded in the hour of deaths This then is the way to demonstrate the primitive character of confession private, sacramental, obligatory, extending to the thoughts, and favoured with plenary indulgence. This almost incredible jug- gling is from Freppel's tenth Lecture on S. Cyprian at the Sorbonne, 1863, 4. Fechtrup notes, p. 83, that Exomologesis in Tertullian signifies the whole course and process of public penance ; which is no nearer to the Roman Use (see de Poenitentia, c. 9). VIII. The adopted policy was Carthaginian 7iot Roman. The modern Ultramontane ascribes this policy to ' the * distinguishing wisdom of that church, mother and mistress 'of all others, which indicates to Carthage the only courseV and assigns to Cyprian the merit of ' fully adopting this line of conduct.' The honest Tillemont truthfully wrote ' Cyprian regulates ' in a council the business of the Lapsed, and is followed in it * by Rome and by the whole churchl' There is no possibility of doubt as to the origination of the whole policy. * Freppel's S. Cyprien, pp. 195 — ^ Vol. iv. S. Cyprien, Art. 23. «I5; PP- 235—241- .7—2 ICX) THE POLICY NOT ROMAN » "^ All that the Roman clergymen have to recommend in their first coarse letter^ is mere restoration of the Lapsed if sick and penitent : to the rest they offer no prospect but that of exhortation. Conception of the world-wide. importance of the crisis, conception oi policy they have none. There is no suggestion of investigation by the Bishops, of councils or committees, of the assistance of the laity, of modification of discipline in accordance with circumstances, of reservation until quieter times. Yet these are the important lines. With- out them the plan is featureless. And it is Cyprian who step by step develops them all in the three letters seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth to the Clergy and People of Carthage. In his twentieth he communicates his views and the action he had already taken, to the Roman clergy. He observes that he has seen their letter^ ' recommending the restoration of sick penitents,' and agreed with it, * considering united action very im- portant' This is the commonplace with which he proceeds to develop his own far greater scheme. Less he could not say in introducing it'. As the plainest exposition of it he encloses to them a budget of Thirteen Letters* which he had from his retirement despatched to Carthage, containing his successive comments and instructions upon the progress of affairs, and he adds a connected outline of their purport. He repeats his own three observations which had led him to direct that, while others should be deferred till the councils could be held, those who possessed martyrs' Libels should, ^ Ep. 8. 3, see above, sect. v. tentia, ne actus noster, qui adunatus * Ep. 10. 3. Meaning Ep. 8, iden- esse et consentire circa omnia debet, in tified by the mention of Crementius, &c. aliquo discreparet. platK ceterorum The lost one, named in Ep. 27. 4, had causas, quamvis libello a martyribus not yet reached him. accepto differri mandavi, et in nostram 3 Observe in the same complimen- prczsentiam reservari, ut cum, pace a tary sentence hov? he mentions the quali- Domino nobis data, plures convenire in fications, introduced by himself, which unum caperi7nus,^ d^c. made all the difference : Ep. 20. 3 * Ep. 20. 2. On the Thirteen Letters '...standum putavi et cum vestra sen- see note at close of this section. II. VIII. BUT CARTHAGINIAN. lOr if in peril of death, be restored by the imposition of hands\ He promises the Romans a full share in the? future regu- lation of details*. They in their answer, composed -by Novatian and read aloud to the rest for their signatures, acknowledge the whole scheme to be entirely Cyprian's, and adopt it with a patronising deference. ' He allows them, say 'they, by virtue of their approval to share his credit, to be ' thought of as " coheirs " in his counsels because they reaffirm 'themV 'Too hasty remedies,' such as they had themselves at first advised, are deprecated ; point by point the Cartha- ginian scheme is restated and adopted. They are only solicitous to point out that in their former letter they had themselves 'lucidly' differenced three classes among the Lapsed. The more plain-spoken Confessors of Rome ac- knowledged the debt more candidly and less obsequiously*. Lastly, in a note to them which relates a new presumption of the ' martyrs ' Cyprian adds that, if ' neither his own nor their letters' bring them to their senses, 'we shall act as, according to the gospel, the Lord charged us to act^' The Roman clergy in their last letter, also by Novatian's hand, admiringly acknowledge his ' vigour ' and enforce with arguments, as he wishes, the action that has so far been taken*. ^ £/>p. 17 — 19. •* Ep. 31. I, 6, and cf. £j>. 27. 4. ^ Ut...communicato etiam vobiscum ^ £p. 35. consilio disponere singula et reformare " £p. 36, see p. 122. It touches also possiraus, £/>. 20. 3. topics of Cyprian's in £p. 20. =• £p. 30. I ; see £/>. 55. 5. I02 (OF DOCUMENTS.) On the Thirteen Epistles of which Cyprian sent copies to the Romans. In Epistle 20. 2 Cyprian gives precis of the contents of these his Thirteen Letters, with some chronological notes, in somewhat of the same way in which Pontius ( Vit. c. 7) gives in a few sentences a consecutive outline of Cyprian's Treatises. By writing out this sketch in clauses and lines, and placing opposite to these our own abstract of certain epistles, we shall form an opinion (i) as to whether any of the thirteen are lost, (2) as to the order in which Cyprian himself had them arranged, and wished them to be read. Thus — Cyp. Ep. 20. 2. Et quid egerim locuntur vobis Epistulae pro temporibus emissae numero Tredecim : in quibus nee 'clero' consilium, nee ' eonfessoribus ' exhortatio, nee 'extorribus' quando oportuit objurgatio, nee universae fratemitati ad deprecandam Dei miserieordiam, allo- cutio et persuasio nostra defuit. Posteaquam vero et 'tormenta venerunt,' sive jam tortis fratribus nostris, sive adhuc ut torquerentur 'inclusis,' ad corroborandos eos et confortandos noster sermo penetravit. II. VIII. (OF DOCUMENTS.) IO3 ^PP- 5> 7) U- Three letters to Presbyters and Deacons, on their duty : use his funds : keep the prisons quiet : Ep. 7 regrets own absence, which is for general good : care of widows, sick, poor, foreigners : additional supplies : Ep. 5. 2 speaks of the present as the initia of persecution as in Ep. 6. 4 and Ep. 13. 2 : Ep. 14 is the fullest and strongest about 'pauperes' {and so precedes Ep. 12 q. v. inf. ; its order otherwise unfixed) : quotes Ep. 5. Ep. 6. To Confessors, '...gratulor pariter et exhortor....' Exube- rant joy in their confession : they the first prisoners : note too in- gressi, initiis, and expressions coincident with those of Ep. 5. Ep. 13. To Confessors. Speaks of his former 'exsultantia verba' (i.e. Ep. 6). Exhorts to perseverance. Severe objurgation of faulty confessors, returned extorres and others. Theirs is a prima con- gressio (2). Ep. II. To Presbyters and Deacons, with directions (7) that it be read to the Brethren. One continuous Exhortation to Prayer. He uses the phrase 'tormenta venerunt^' and describes these as devised not to be fatal but to convert. (Fechtrup pp. 39, 40 well argues that this Epistle precedes the severest stage under the pro- consul, but is an advance from the imprisonment and confiscation stage.) From the allusion in Ep. 13. 6 to the vision described in Ep. 1 1. 6, Ep. 13 probably followed Ep. 1 1 in time though not in Cyprian's logical order. Ep. 12. To Presbyters and Deacons. Some have died in prison, not from tortures ; are no less martyrs (Tortures therefore have not been extreme, but might have been — which exactly corresponds with the rest. It belongs to same moment as Ep. 11): refers verbally to Ep. 5. This speaks of having '•often written' about the Poor, '...ut saepe jam scripsi,' which leads to placing not Ep. 5 and Ep. 7 only, but also Ep. 14, somewhere in the group above Ep. 12. Ep. 10. To Martyrs and Confessors. This and remaining Epistles all dwell on Torture as in full use ; only imprisonment or exile having been used hitherto. These then belong to the Visitation of the Proconsul. This is later than April 17, from its mention of Mappalicus' death under torture, whose commemoration is that day in the African Kalendar. This Epistle could not be summarised more exactly than by Cyprian opposite. Various expressions coincide also. ^ Ep, II. I. Compare De Laps. 13 ' Sed tormenta postmodum venerant.' I04 (OF DOCUMENTS.) Item cum comperissem &c. the distribution oflibelli, litteras feci quibus martyres et confessores ad dominica ' praecepta ' revocarem ; Item presbyteris et diaconibus non defuit sacerdotii vigor ut 'quidam' disciplinae minus 'memores,' receiving Lapsed to Communion without authority, comprimerentur. Plebi quoque ipsi...animum composuimus et ut ecclesiastica disciplina servaretur mstruximus. Postmodum vero {the Lapsed having violently extorted communion).. At, hoc etiam BIS ad Clerum litteras feci... si qui 'libello a martyribus accepto' de saeculo excederent 'exomologesi facta' et 'manu eis in paenitentia imposita cum pace' sibi *a martyribus' promissa 'ad Dominum' remitterentur. Sed cum videretur i. necessary to respect Confessors., i. quiet the Lapsed., 3. reconcile sick penitents, he had ordered the libelli to be complied with in this last case, as effecting tJie three points: all other cases to be reserved for a Council when Peace returns. II. VIII. (OF DOCUMENTS.) IO5 Ep. 15. To Martyrs and Confessors. Observe Christ's 'precepts,' i.e. discipline as well as faith, even though presbyters and deacons be rash. This (4) mentions Ep. 16 to the clergy, and Ep. 17 to the laity, as sent same time on same subject. (? June; severities abating.) Ep. 16. To Presbyters and Deacons. Accompanies Ep. 15: is precisely described opposite. Ep. 17. To Laity. Accompanies Ep. 15. A precise account of it opposite. Ep. 18. To Presbyters and Deacons. Dated to late July or August by the ''jam astatem coepisse ' ( i ) and malaria. Postmodum, opposite, places the above earlier ; also accurately excerpted, and expressions correspond. Ep. 19. To Presbyters and Deacons. Accurate precis in Ep. 20, as opposite. It is clear from the above comparison that no letter described by Cyprian is missing from the budget. He wished the Romans to read Ep. 14 \vith Ep. 5 and Ep. 7, and Ep. 13 before Ep. 11, out of their chronology, on account of their subjects. The chronological order stands thus, so far as it determines itself, Epp- 5. 6, 7, II, 13, 14. 12, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Tillemont iv. pp. 66 — 69, 604, 605 and Dom Maran Vit. S. Cypr. ix. have doubts, but Pearson saw that we had all. Fechtrup (pp. 40, 41) agrees with Pearson, and verifies with care and clearness. I06 DIOCESAN DISQUIETUDES. IX. Diocesan Disquietudes. Throughout the earlier part of Cyprian's correspondence is perceptible a reliance upon his laity, a dissatisfaction with his clergy. These omit to answer his letters'. Some act independently of his aims. Some compromise themselves by entire deference to the injunctions of the Confessors'* or adopt them as the strongest barrier against superior authority. In one letter* he throws himself on the Plebes with an almost impassioned appeal. ' My presbyters and deacons should ' have warned them. I know the quietude, the shrinking- *ness of my people. How watchful would they have been * had not certain presbyters in quest of popularity deceived ' them ! Do you then yourselves take the guidance of them, ' one by one. By your own counsel and moderation refrain 'the spirits of the lapsed.' When he has at length obtained the entire concurrence of the Roman clergy, Novatian included*, of their confessors^ and of the whole episcopate African and Italian®, he assumes a stronger tone with his own clergy^ and requires them to circulate the whole correspondence of which he forwards them copies. This was done^ The affair seemed settled for the present. All the Lapsed except death-stricken persons, however armed with Martyrs' papers, even Clergy penitently ready to return to their charge^ were reserved for the de- cision of the organic authority — the united Episcopate. Lastly, in accordance with the severer tone already assumed 1 Ep. i8. I. 7 Ep. 32. 2 Ep. 27. I. « Ep- 55. 5- 3 Ep. 17. 2, 3. * Ep. 34. 4. They were to cease to 4 Ep. 30. draw their monthly dividends, though " Ep. 31. * without prejudice,' until they could be 6 Epp. 25; 26; 43-3; 55- 5; 30- 8. heard. II. IX. DIOCESAN DISQUIETUDES. I07 by certain clergy acting in concert with some bishops who had been visiting Carthage and were in Cyprian's confidence^ notice was duly given of excommunication to be enforced against any who, until that authority should have spoken, should give communion to any of the lapsed except in the cases already provided for*. By the November of the year 250 the persecution was Nov., relaxing at Carthage. The Goths had crossed the Don. ^'^' ^^°' Decius was leaving Rome for his last campaign. It was however still unsafe for Cyprian to return. He therefore commissioned five representatives' for certain important func- tions, which he sketched out and for which he supplied the means, in Carthage and the neighbouring districts. These ?Jan., were three bishops, Caldonius, Herculanus and Victor, with two ^'^' ^^^' presbyters, Numidicus whom, after his already mentioned resuscitation from a horrible martyrdom, Cyprian placed among the clergy of the capital, and lastly Rogatian, the aged confessor, long since charged with the dispersion of Cyprian's fortune. The letter of Caldonius, who acted with firmness, indicates by its incorrectness a scanty and provincial education**. This commission had enough to do, under social conditions which seemed to allow penury no upward road, in distributing alms, in helpfully subsidising confessors whose capital had been confiscated so as to enable them to resume their trades, in selecting persons capable of being employed in functions of the church^ in maintaining communications with ^ e.g: as to the excommunication of ad clerum transmittite....' £p. 41. 2. Gaius of Dida. £j>. 34. i . There is no sign of their removal being ^ Ep. 34. 3. due to the influence of Felicissimus. ^ Epp. 25 ; 26, where they are his The resources were still Cyprian's own, medium of communication with other sumptibus istis. Ep. 41. i. bishops, 'ad collegas nostros' {Ep. 25). * ...abluisse ^x'lorem delictum, and — Ep. 41. I '...vos pro me vicarios.' the Punic Latin extorrentes twice for This epistle is written to them when extorres, &c. with great clumsiness of away from Carthage, either visiting expression. Ep. 24. See Hartel's Pre- the neighbouring bishops or at some face, p. xlviii. He should in consistency gathering of them : ' has litteras meas have kept those readings of T and Tj. fratribus nostris legite et Carthaginem ' Ep. 41. i. I08 DECLARATION OF PARTIES. the provincial bishops, and above all in endeavouring to persuade to patience the restless masses of the Lapsed ^ Superstition was in some quarters beginning to add terror to the anxiety for restoration. Stricken consciences had in many instances induced physical and mental prostration — even death*. One person had become dumb in the moment of denial and so remained. Another had died in the public baths, gnawing the tongue which had tasted the idol sacrifice. On the other hand still more terrible signs indicated the profanity of presumptuous return. An infant girl had rejected the chalice with wailing and convulsions. This occurred in Cyprian's own presence, while celebrating during his retire- ment. It was found that the nurse had taken the child before the magistrates and made it taste the idolatrous wine. A woman who clandestinely presented herself at the liturgy, died in the act of communicating. One who had as usual re- served the sacred Bread at home, was, on opening its receptacle after her lapse, scared by an outburst of flame. A man found it changed to ashes in his very hands. X. Declaration of Parties. Novatus and Felicissimus. The latter class of stories indicates, what was the fact, that the opinion destined to create and to perpetuate real division was already active. Evidently the question which to some was presenting itself was not when, or upon what terms, the Lapsed should be readmitted, but whether it was possible for the church to remit such guilt. Although Cyprian employs these incidents in favour of delay, they are plainly no ema- nation from the party of moderation. Yet he probably apprehended at this moment little peril from the sentiment ^ Ep. 26. "^ De Lapsis, 24, 25, 26. II. X. DECLARATION OF PARTIES. IO9 of Puritanism. It was the party of Laxity which at present appeared to be absorbing into itself every dangerous element. It threatened him indeed from many sides. There were the crowds of Libellatics eager for return. There were meritorious confessors, wounded because their fortitude was not allowed to cover a brother's weakness. But the conscientiously troublesome in both ranks were outvoiced by the worldly and unscrupulous who foamed at restraint. For them the Universal Indulgence franked with the name of the Confessor Paul was title enough to cancel mere episcopal restrictions^ Some * refugees ' who had never left the port, and others who had quickly broken their sentence and come back, skulked awhile as outlaws in low hiding- places*; and emerged, as the severities abated, to claim a voice in church-affairs. Some of the confessors, their heads turned by vanity, courted by female devotees, had sunk into scandalous immorality'. Of the lapsed many had not spent one day in penance, but had braved their shame amid the habits of fashionable and dissipated life*; while (as we have seen) influential persons in the provinces had extorted communion by actual tumult from unwilling clergy. Many of the clergy however were not unwilling^ and they found ready chiefs, although perhaps not at first avowed ones^ in the Five Presbyters who had been all along hostile to Cyprian's election and authority. Under their headship the party grew numerous and bold enough to designate itself, in a manifesto addressed to the bishop himself, as * The Church.' To this he answered characteristically that since the day of the Charge to Peter the Church had been found ^ Ep. 35, compare Ep. 22. 2. who fled and those who were legally 2 Such must be, I think, the meaning banished, of '...aliquis temulentus et lasciviens ^ De Unitate 20. demoratur, alius in earn patriam unde * De Laps. 30. extorris factus est regreditur, ut depre- ' Ep. 17. 2, 3. . hensus non jam quasi Christianus sed ^ Ep. 43. i, -z 'Nunc apparuit Feli- quasi nocens pereat.' Ep. 13. 4. Ex- cissimi factio unde venisset....' See torris is certainly used both of those above, pp. 25, 43. no DECLARATION OF PARTIES. in unity with the Bishop; and still more characteristically that their ' roll of the Lapsed could scarcely be " The Church," since GOD was not the GOD of the dead but of the living.' More welcome letters^ reached him at the same moment. There were many of the Lapsed who had ever since given themselves devotedly to good works in silence. These now assured him that they would never plead their Libels ; that they were living in thankful penance; biding their time for restoration to Peace on his return. They added with that gentle fervour which marked true African Christianity that ' Peace would be more sweet to them if restored in his own ' presence.' ' How 1 hail them/ says Cyprian, ' the Lord is ' my witness ; He has vouchsafed to show what servants like ' these deserve from His goodness.' Then in that methodic way which gave point to all his enthusiasm he requests from each side a list of their signatures, sends to the clergy of Carthage explicit instructions, and to the clergy of Rome, by a subdeacon Fortunatus^ copies of all the papers'. Foremost of the presbyters stood the famous and restless^ ^ Both letters are described in £)>. 33. means 'demand for them.' To conceive I, 2. that stdi has dropped out before tilts is ^ £p. 36. I. monstrous in Latinity, and to translate ^ £pp. 33, 34, 35. The Roman it ^ claim /or themselves liberty to give clergy acknowledging these Ep. 36. 3, them communion prematurely,' equally say there must be some ' qui illos so. So, however, O. Ritschl's laboured arment...&\. in perversum ins true nt es .. . pages, 52, 53. exitiosa deposcant illis properatse com- ^ See p. 47. ' Rerum novarum semper municationisvenena,' and that not 'sine cupidus,' Ep. 52. 2. That the leader instinctu quorundam ' would all have Novatus was one of the Five appears dared ' tam petulanter sibi jam pacem from the whole tenor of the history of vindicare.' It should be unnecessary to the faction more than from particular remark that arment with instruentes passages. Compare however £/>. 14. 4; means provide and furnish, and has no Ep. 59. 9, and what is said of the Five relation to pacem which is simply com- presbyters acting with Felicissimus, Ep. tnunion, and contains no indication of 43. 3, and of Novatus acting wath him, ' weitere aufstandische Bewegungen. ' Ep. 52. 2. That the Five are the original Quorundam refers to the persons of opponents of Cyprian is shewn by the whom Cj^rian had told them, not to his expression ' olim secundum vestra suf- clergy at large. Again 'deposcant Hits'' fragia ' in Ep. 43. 5, and these passages II. X. DECLARATION OF PARTIES. Ill Novatus. To these opponents Cyprian allows on the whole both age and weight of character, yet Novatus had been in poor repute^ and had escaped an investigation' into his conduct only through the breaking out of the persecution. He had been charged with inhuman cruelty towards his own wife and father'. It is true that the assumption of Novatus' guilt, and the attributing his withdrawal to a stricken conscience, as well as general accusations of depravity and unworthy motive, may or may not be due to factious representations. But that an enquiry before Cyprian and assessors was impending over Novatus just before the persecu- tion broke out is surely undeniable. It is a question of fact upon which, if Cyprian's direct statement be not trust- worthy, what evidence is credible*? viewed together leave no doubt as to the application of the words 'idem est Novatus qui apud nos primum dis- cordise incendium seminavit, &c.' Ep. S'Z. 2. Among the rest Pearson (An. Cyp. CCLi. ii.) counts Jovinus and Maximus; but these had lapsed {Ep. 59. 10), which we have no ground for imputing to any of the Five. Pamele includes Repostus and Felix ; but of these one was a lapsed bishop and the second a bishop of some schismatic body. Dom Maran (xvii.) and Rettberg (pp. 97 — 112) fix upon Donatus, Fortu- natus and Gordius, and rightly {Ep. 14. 4) I think. As to Fortimatus (after- wards the pseudo-bishop of the party) there is no doubt {Ep. 59. 9). But that the fifth was either Gaius of Dida {Ep. 34. x) or Augendus {Ep. 42) is a mere guess, and the latter was a deacon {Ep. 44. i). Fell, without any colour, fan- cies that only three presbyters, those named in Ep. 43. 1, remained faithful. Fechtrup conjectures with reason that the petition of Donatus, Fortunatus, Novatus and Gordius was for an im- mediate restoration of some Lapsed ; for Cyprian answers as he always answers that request. But that it al- ready covered a 'feine List' (p. 80) for uniting the strict confessors with the lax party against Cyprian, through his expected refusal, is a little too subtle. The phrases as to the authors of dis- sension in the De Zelo et Livore (6) do not seem to me to apply to this party, and they were written six years later. See on that treatise below. 1 Semper istic episcopis male cogni- tus. Ep. 52. 1. 2 Imminebat cognitionis dies. Ep. 52. 3. cognitio, the technical term of the law. ^ Ep. 52. 2. ■* On Neander's opinion, Hist, of the Christ. Religion and Church, vol. I. p. 312 (Bohn), see p. 130, note 2, infra. If Cyprian had not spoken out as to the unsatisfactory character of Novatus it could never have eluded such ingenuity as Mosheim, Neander, and Rettberg have devoted to clearing him. 112 DECLARATION OF PARTIES. This man, as a Presbyter, had some charge in an important region or ward in the city, called Mons, or the Hill. The Bozra or Byrsa itself rising some two hundred feet above the rest of the town, with the main streets leading up it, and the principal buildings on its plateau, may well have caused distinctions, local and social, like the still remembered * Above Hill' and 'Below Hill' of such cities as Lincoln; and at least no other district can well have occupied that distinctive name\ In managing its church affairs he associated with himself as Deacon an energetic and determined person named 1 This I venture to think must be the simple meaning of '/« Monte, ^ Ep. 41. I and 2. In each place Hartel reads in morle and so Ritschl, &c. But in the latter clause there is no doubt as to the reading, T'having monte and Z montem ; in the former morte T, , w, mortem Z are natural corrections of what seemed obscure; but not so monte for morte, the sense of which would be obvious ; whilst immo ut iQcum, r, immo vitae, fj., indicate both the puzzle of the scribes and that they had monte before them. See also p. 113, note 4. Reference to Monte in Numidia is absurd. Mos- heim and others thought that this ' in Monte' travelled with Novatus to Rome, and gave the Novatianists the name Montenses there. Hefele {Nova- tianisckes Schisma in Wetzer u. Welte's Kirchenlexikon, and H. d. Conciles, ed. Delarc, L. viii. § 105) says that they were so called (and also Montanistce, which is an invention) from confusion with the Montanists. But all this arises from a misinterpretation of Epiphanius. His words are (after he has already enumerated the Montanists in his list) {Ancoratus 13) Ka^apoZ, o2 koX Nava- ratoi, ol KoX Movrijo-iot, ws kv 'VdfiT] KoKovvrai. These ' Puritans ' might be of course either Novatianist or Donatist (differenced by origin only, not doc- trine), and at Rome the Donatists were called Montenses. See Optatus, B. Ii. c. iv., and the passages there quoted by E. Dupin (Paris, 1702, p. 35). Jerome, Chron. 356; adv. Lucif. ad fin.; Aug. Ep- (165) 53, De Unit. Eccl. 3, De Hceresibus 69. Cod. TTieod. L. 16, Tit. 5, xliii. (a.d. 408). There is no trace of any sect but the Donatists being so called, and they from a Mons at Rome, in a grotto of which they had their first church. In the 8th canon of the council held at Rome A.D. 386 the two sects are thus conjoined and distinguished : ' Ut venientes a Novatianis vel Montensibus per manus impositionem suscipiantur ex eo quod rebaptizant ' (Ep. 4 Siricii papse, Labbe, t. 11. c. 1225). Perhaps I may attempt here to emend this canon, since the italicised words mean (as has been seen) the opposite of the fact. They are thus paraphrased by Innocent I. in his letter to Victricius of Rouen (Innoc. i, Ep. 2. 8, Labbe V. III. c. 9), ^prater eos, si qui forte a nobis ad illos transeuntes rebaptizati sunt.^ I propose to read in the Roman canon ^excepto qitos rebaptizant.' For the construction cf. '...excepto divina natura ut humanitas Integra fiat,' S. Isidor., ' Excepto comitibus, &c.' ap. Ducange. II. X. DECLARATION OF PARTIES. II3 Felicissimus*. Cyprian was naturally not consulted as to this appointment, which gave to the party the control of con- siderable funds ; his missives were systematically disregarded by them ; the Lapsed freely admitted and invited to com- munion"; the agreement of the bishops in the arrangement between Rome and Carthage unheeded, and when Cyprian sent out his commission of relief and enquiry', Felicissimus treated it as a deliberate invasion of his diaconal office. He announced publicly that whoever had accepted its benefits, or answered its queries, should be* excluded from participation in the communions and all other benefits of the Hill district. This declaration appeared in his own name, and his leadership was so energetic that the Five are designated as 'his partners,' ' his satellites,' even 'his presbyterate*.' ' His Five Presbyters were as ruinous to the Church,' says Cyprian, with their offers of Communion, ' as the Five Magnates on the Committees of Persecution*.' In vigorous reply to his own vigour Felicissimus with another deacon Augendus was for the time being'' excom- municated by Caldonius and the Commission. Cyprian ? October, speaks of the moral charges against Felicissimus as now advanced upon evidence so grave as alone to constitute grounds for 'suspension' of communion with him. This enquiry is postponed until a proper court can be assembled. Cyprian's instructions to this effect are contained in the same despatch which directed their benevolent labours, and he desires that in forwarding it for the information of the clergy in Carthage Caldonius will append to it the names of the ^ Ep. 52. ■2; cf. -£■/. 59. I, 16. Com- municaturam non esse, qui se sponte pare 'Gaio Didensi presbytero et dia- maluit ab ecclesia separare,' Ep. 41. 2. cono ejus,' Ep. 34. i. Note how in ecclesia answers to in ^ Ep. 43. 2. nionte ; it could not answer to in morte. » See p. 107. * Ep. 43. 3, 5, 7. ^ Ep. 41. 2 ' ...non communicaturos ^ See p. 76, note I. Ep. 43. 3, 7. in Monte secum^ to which the rejoinder ' Ep. 41. 2 'interim.' runs 'sciat se in ecclesia nobiscum com- B. 8 114 DECLARATION OF PARTIES. fautors of the conspiracy. This letter accordingly comes down to us followed by Caldonius' list It gives a glimpse of the lower social classes which entered with living interest into Christianity and its debates, — classes without which the Church's work is not half done. With the two Deacons are named a small manufacturer, a seamstress, a woman who had been tortured, and two refugees. The Five Presbyters are not mentioned ^ The prominence of a Deacon at this period need cause no surprise. Although the time had not yet come when at Rome those officers so far surpassed the presbyters in emolu- ment and dignity, that they looked upon promotion as an injury, or when at Carthage they were described as in ' the third Priesthood'V and needed new canons to remind them of their subordination to the presbyterate as well as to the episcopate, and even of their duty of rendering assistance in the Eucharist^ yet already their control of funds, their knowledge ^ Ep. 42. In Ep. 41. 2 Cyprian formity with his instructions. Scire writes 'has litteras meas...Carthaginem debuisti is epistolary and does not imply ad clerum transmittite aaWf/if nominibus a former communication ; compare Ep. eorum quicunque se Felicissimo junxe- 53 *• ...hoc factum \\\% litteris x\o%\.Ti% cer- rint.' Accordingly Ep. 42 is simply \^\%%\xc^& scire debuisti.'' Translate ' I am as follows. 'Caldonius cum Herculano bound to inform you by a note appended et Victore Collegis item Rogatiano cum by myself.' This Ep. 42 is not ad- Numidico Presbyteris. Abstinuimus a dressed to Cyprian himself therefore, as communicatione Felicissimum et Au- usually understood, but is a transcript genduni, item Repostum de extorribus of the document issued. It naturally et Irenem Rutilorum et Paulam sarcina- bears no address ; the vulgate heading tricem quod ex adnotatione mea scire Cypriano S. is not original, debuisti. item abstinuimus Sophronium On the obscure occupations named et ipsum de extorribus Soliassum budi- see note at end of this section, p. 117. narium.' In this strange little note it On extorres cf. Baluze ad Cypr. Epp. should seem superfluous to say that 14 and 18, quoting C Guyet, 1. 2, p. adtiotatio cannot mean the kind of list 173, Baron. Ad Ann. 25, and his Notes by which a magistrate published the 071 the Roman Martyrology, Jan. 2 ; see names of absentees summoned to appear note 2, p. 109 above, for trial (see Dirksen, Manuale, j.f.). "^ Optat. i. 13 (vid. Casaub. in loc). This is itself a sentence on notorious Hieron. in Ezech. c. 18. offenders and is itself the adnotatio, as ^ IV. Concil. Carth. a.d. 398, cc. 37 appended to Cyprian's despatch in con- — 41. II. X. DECLARATION OF PARTIES. II 5 of business, their intimacy with the secular cares of the laity, the very fact that a district which had many presbyters had but one deacon, gave them the command of many threads of influence. Hence from Spain it is the Deacon of the church of Merida who writes in the name of the church to the bishops of Africa in protest against the return of its lapsed bishop^ and receives their conciliar reply. Cyprian calls the office at Rome (apparently in Cornelius' words) ' the Diaconate of the Holy Administration/ and refers to it as ' the charge of guiding and piloting the Church*.' The Deacon indeed not only had charge of the corporate funds but also acted as the official trustee of Christian widows and orphans^ Hence his opportunity of enriching with both adherents and property any section which he pronounced to be the true church. And it is from such transferences pro- bably that the accusations of ' fraud and rapine ' arise which are so freely showered upon unorthodox Deacons, when darker stains on character rest evidently on hearsay*. There is no ground for assuming that Novatus exaggerated his irregularities by actually conferring orders upon Felicis- simus^ There is no previous or contemporary instance of such a fact, nor the slightest symptom of any presbyterian or anti-episcopalian theory (as members of unepiscopal churches have freely averred*) in the principles or conduct of Novatus and his following. They were in episcopal communion, they took part in the episcopal election at Carthage and opposed the nomination of Cyprian, they presently elected a new '.£/. 67 'Cyprianus...item.iElioDia- Times of S. Cypr. p. 134) that some cono et plebi Emeritae consistentibus.' heretical bishop was called in lacks all 2 Ep. 52. I. See further p. 311 foundation, below, ch. VII. iii. i. * E. de Pressense, H. des Trots ^ Ecclesiasticoe pecuniae ... viduarum Pi-emiers Slides de V ^glise Chret. 2me ac pupillorum deposita, Ep. 52. i. Ser. I. pp. 484599. Neander, op. cit. Ecclesise deposita, Ep. 50. See p. 68, vol. I. p. 313, besides Rettberg, D'Au- n. 4. bign^, Keyser. Fechtrup however ^ Ep. 41. I. rightly says 'nicht eine Spur, nicht em ' G. A. Poole's suggestion {Life and Wort,' p. 81, n. i. 8—2 Il6 DECLARATION OF PARTIES. bishop for themselves and procured his consecration. When Novatus visited Rome, he threw himself into the Episcopal election then proceeding, opposed the candidate who was chosen, and then procured an episcopal consecration for his own nominee'. If in any century of the Church's history the presbyteral parentage of episcopacy was forgotten or undiscovered, and any revival of latent presbyteral claim to assume an episcopal function impossible, it was in the thirds But, again, it is evident from the nature of the frauds attributed to Felicissimus that he was already a Deacon when he joined Novatus, and it was by complicity with him that Novatus became liable to the same accusation^ of wronging the fatherless and widows*. Thus at last we have before us a complete picture of the formation of an Opposition in the third century. The original clerical element of dissatisfaction with the popular choice of the bishop had allied itself with discontent at the bishop's delegating even administrative functions to others, and with a wide-spread conviction that meritorious suffering in the Church's cause established some claim to a voice in her discipline. Lenity to the Lapsed, open admission to Com- munion was the rallying cry, and the rank and file of the party consisted of the multitudinous claimants for restoration with their families. ^ ..illic episcopum fecit, Ep. 52. •z. the reading of Hartel, but the MSS. F, * See Bp. Lightfoot's Dissertation on ' Felicissimum satellitem suum suum the Christian Ministry. diaconem constituit,' and Q, 'Felicissi- ^ Epp- 41- i; 52. 2. mum satellitem snurn suum diaconum * In Epp. 52. 2 this action of Novatus constituit ' are right, and supported by is paralleled with his creation of a the further repetition in M, ' Felicissi- Bishop, which was certainly not without mum satellitem suum suum diaconum the intervention of legitimate bishops. suum constituit.' His offeqce lay in making Felicissimus Fechtrup, pp. no, rii, and n. 4, his deacon, ' nee permittente me nee p. 1 10, says rightly that Novatus sciente,' i.e. inconsulto Cypriano. Com- could not have ventured upon, nor pare ^/. 34. i *Gaio Ttid^nsX presby- Cyprian have failed explicitly to censure, tero et diacono e^'us.'' ' Felicissimum so discrediting a novelty as Orders given satellitem suum diaconum... constituit* is by a presbyter. II. X. DECLARATION OF PARTIES. 117 From the counter extreme we have faintly caught in dark legendary form sterner voices demanding even in easy-going Carthage their perpetual exclusion. In the haughtier Capital this tendency alone had a chance of development. We shall see how singularly this movement was in the very person of Novatus linked to the opposite Carthaginian movement. Our next interest will be to trace the gentle yet commanding policy of Cyprian in subduing the violence of both the separations. Budinarius and Sarcinatrix. {Ep. 42.) [Additional Note on p. 114.] For the reason given in the text the obscure occupations of two of those partisans of Felicissimus are worth considering. 1. Soliassus (itself a name which I have not found in inscriptions) is called Budinarius {budianarius T.), to which we have no clue. Fell con- jectures burdonarius ' mule-keeper,' but Baluze finds no trace of this word. However Sophocles Greek Lexicon of Roman and Byzantine Periods has * BoupSotfi/apios Schol. Arist. Th. 491. Written also ^ovpbowapios Cyrill. Scyth. V. S. 230 A, Leant. Cypr. 1797 C. Also /SopStaj/dptos loann. Mosch. 2988 B.' These forms, considering the Latin termination of the word, seem to make its existence probable. Saumaise {Script. Hist. Aug. p. 408) (ll. p. 578, Lugd. 1671) con- jectures butinarium from butitia which Du Cange indicates, though without examples, as a diminutive of butta, ' a small wine-butt ' or * bottle,' which has many relatives ^ovrriov, fiovms k.t.X. (v. Soph. Lex. S.V.), buttis, butica, buticula (v. Du Cange). And he suggests that it means ' a maker of small vessels or measures ' {e.g. acetabula). Hesy- chius has ^vtIvt] as a Tarentine word for \ayvvoi ^ d/ii's. 2. Paula was a Sarcinatrix. The employment is often mentioned in inscriptions and was one of the offices of the Domus Augusta. See Orelli, Inscrr. 645, (5372), 7275 ; a fine monument ap. Gruter, p. MCXVll. 9 'Fausta Saturnia Sarcinatrix Proculeio Vernae suo puero ingeniosis- simo...' and five inscriptions on p. dlxxx, where two have Greek names and three are libertae ; one is of 'Julia lucunda Aug. 1. sarcinatr(ix) a mundo mulie(bri),' &c. Abp. Lavigerie communicated to de Rossi one ' from Caesarea in Mauretania * Rogata Sarcinatr. Saturno, v. 1. a. s.' {Corp. Inscrr. L. viii. ii. no. 10938). What the office was seems scarcely doubtful if the quotations in Forcellini are compared. Fronto, de Differ., p. 2192 (Putsch) ' Sartrix quae sarcit, sarcinatrix quaa sarcinas servat' ; Nonius, c. i. 276 'Sarcina- trices non ut quidam volant sarcitrices quasi a sarciendo, sed raagis a Il8 GROWTH OF THE OPPOSITION AT ROME. sarcinis quod plurimum vestium sumant.' But as Paulus, Dig. 1. 47, tit. 2, 83 (82), says ' Fullo et sarcinator, qui polienda aut sarcienda vesti- menta accipit,' the grammarians' account (though they are anxious as to the formation of the word) is consistent with the employment being that of a ' seamstress,' or ' mender,' the * sarcinas ' being packs of clothes. So from an old Latin-Greek Glossary in the Library of S. Germain des Pr^s, Du Cange s.v., cf. vol. vil. p. 442 a 1. 9, quotes sarcinatrix iQTrrjTpia, aKearrpia (sic lege), r\ KaXXamarpia. It is COUpled in Dig. 1. 1 5, tit. I, 27 (Gaius) with the employment of a 'textrix' as an 'artificium vulgare.' So in Plaut. Aubil. in. 5, 41 the * sarcinatores ' are named with the 'fuUones,' as also in Gaius Comment. 1. iii. 143, 162, 205. In Lucil. ap. Non. ii. 818 the 'sarcinator' makes a patchwork quilt 'suere centonem.' What the 'machinae' are in Varro, ap. Non. i. 276, ' Homines rusticos in vindemia incondita cantare, sarcinatrices in machinis ' is not so clear. Anyhow the exhibition of the social class is most interesting. XL Grozvth of the Opposition at Rome. The Confessors and Novatian. We have already had occasion to mention a noble group of Confessors who had been committed to the Roman prisons at the time of the execution of Fabian^ Their sufiferings and the sight of each other's tortures were harrowing. Cyprian sent them constant encouragement, and pecuniary help from his own resources^ Among them were two of the seven Deacons of the city, Rufinus, of whom we have no further personal detail, and Nicostratus, who soon passed, never to return, into the ranks of schism. Of the laymen con- fined with them, Urbanus twice underwent the torture; the three Punic friends Sidonius, Macarius and the indomitable Celerinus' are familiar names already. The Presbyter Maxi- mus* was in after years thought worthy to be laid among the bishops in the subterranean chapel of Cornelius ; we * Ep. 28. ' Euseb. vi. 43, et sup. p. 69. 2 Ep. 31. I, 5. 6. ■* pp. 69, 162. II. XI. THE CONFESSORS AND NOVATIAN. 1 19 shall find him inspiring his fellow sufferers to an act of courage morally higher than their confessorship. But the ruling spirit among them during the year 250 was a Pres- byter, who doubtless belonged to the Jewish section of the church of Rome, Moyses. His signature had been attached to the letter in which Novatian and the clergy signified their adhesion to the proposals of Cyprian, and we may not unreasonably conjecture him to be the author of the manly thirty-first epistle^ Had some philosophic magistrate sur- prised in its passage such a document, rating his severities, even while in process, as substantial happiness to the sufferer, and from a dungeon claiming the right to legislate for evidently numerous classes of mankind, he must have ques- tioned with himself not only as to where the chief Good, but where the reality of power resided. Moyses and his fellow-sufferers from the first gave no countenance to the theory that the merits of martyrs or confessors should cross the path of discipline ; aud they earned the gratitude of Cyprian by their remonstrance with those whom they were connected with at Carthage, against the line there pursued-. A year of confinement was nearly past when Cyprian writing them a letter of confidence and comfort, in answer to theirs, by the now liberated and welcome hand of Celerinus, traced out the progress of the four seasons of their spiritual experience, with no small remnants of his older rhetoric ^ It must not be forgotten that such flowers of eloquence were in their freshness then, and that the brightness of a prison-house was a new theme. Some un- known members of the group had already died*, when Moyses after eleven months and eleven days of bondage (such is the Dec.(?)3i, accurate record of the Liberian Chronicle, and one which " ' ^^°" 1 That one wrote for the rest appears ^ Ep. 37. i ' per tales talia.' in the phrase 'non dicam,' Ep. 31. * Ep. 37. 3 'ad osculum Domini 2. venerunt.' - Ep. 28. 2. I20 GROWTH OF THE OPPOSITION AT ROME. even here marks the importance attached to his position) followed them^ to a confessor's grave. With an insight lacking to the rest Moyses had marked Novatian's progress toward an exclusive rigorism, not un- discoverable even in his first epistle, and hardening just as Cyprian softened, after that meeting-points So unchristian- like had seemed to him the ' insane arrogance^ ' of Novatian's tone that at last he had refused to act with him, or possibly to communicate with him and his uncharitable disciples (at this time five presbyters), in the visits which, like other clergy, they paid to the prisoners'*. Moyses may well have ^ Post passionem ejus (Fabii) Moyses et Maximus presbyteri et Nicostratus diaconus comprehensi sunt et in car- cerem sunt missi. Eo tempore super- venit Novatus ex Africa et separavit de ecclesia Novatianum et quosdam con- fessores, postquam Moyses in carcere defunctus est, qui fiiit ibi m. xi. d. xi. (Liberian Catalogue, ap. Lipsius, op. cit. p. 267). Considering that Fabian was martyred on 20 Jan. this looks as if it meant that Moyses died on the last day of the year; the precision of the record is due to the necessity felt for saving the memory of Moyses from the imputation of Novatianism. ^ pp. 108 sqq. ' KartSwj' airov ttjv dpaffOrijra koX tt]v dirdvoiav. Eus. //. E. vi. 43. ^ iKoivwvrjTov iiroLrjepoiJ.^voLS yvunrj. Decius heard of this infringement of the "^ Aur. Victor, de Casaribus, 29. The edict against bishops, not being himself rise of Valens took place in Febr. or at Rome. (2) T\it cemulus princeps v/z.s March 251, Lipsius, 0/. aV. p. ■206; that none but Valens. (3) The events were of Priscus in end of 250; see Tillemont, nearly contemporaneous. If Valens vol. III. pp. 324, 5. had risen in March and Cornelius 3 ...qui [Cornelius] tantum temporis (according to the usual chronology) in sedit exspectans corporis sui camifices. June, Cyprian could not have thus ^P- 55- 9- connected them. * The events are connected by the * ...vim passus est ut episcopatum phrase in Ep. 55. 9 ' ...cum multo pa- coactus exciperet. Ep. 55. 8. tientius et tolerabilius audiret levari " Ep. 55. 24. adversus se (zniulum principeni quam II. XI. PACE REDUCI. i. Decius like his own, of the plunging squadrons at dead of night in the all-devouring morass, of the strenuous emperor's disappearance with his loved son. When the news came at last, and the engulfed princes had been added to the gods of Rome', it would have been too strange if there had not sur- vived enough of human nature to make the Christians trace an Avenger in such tragedies ; but what was new was the acceptance by the mass of them undoubtingly of their own persecution as a Divine and wholesome chastisement. And, says Cyprian, their enemy had not, 'in the darkest hour of the lovers of God,' succeeded for an instant in any place in silencing their constant 'boast of His praise' until once more 'the world shone out in light =^.' Till then security was not assured, but from the day when Decius marched out of the gates the persecution virtually dropped, and ' Peace,' which but a few months before had seemed an impossible blessing, settled tranquilly down upon the Church. We shall not be far wrong if we fix the ordination of March 5, Cornelius to about the 5th of March'. Easter Day in the '^' ^ ...uterque in barbarico interfecti three months and ten days previously sunt, inter Dives relati. Eutrop. ix. 4. (Libenan CataL), in March. ^ ' Mundus eluxit,' De Lapsis, i. The date of the 5th of March for • Ultione divina' can only refer to the the death of Lucius is prettily sup- death of Decius in November. This ported by a depraved text of Liber Pon- little preface must belong to a later tijicalis, which says that ' Cornelius edition, for the treatise was out by the suffered on 5th March, and committed end of March, as we shall see. See the church treasure to the archdeacon below, pp. 156, 175. Stephanus.' The introduction of Ste- 3 ^/. 55. 8. The date of the election phanus shews that Cornelius is here of Cornelius is thus arrived at by Lip- an error for Lucius from whose life in sius, op. cit. p. 18, pp. 206, 207. His the same Pseudo-Damasus comes the successor Lucius died on the 5th March story (Labbe i. c. 739). after having sat eight months and ten The common date, 4th June, assigned days (Liberian Catalo^e) in which the to the election of Cornelius, has dis- three added years are an interpolation. turbed the chronology of the reign of This brings his ordination to June 25, Decius by making it appear that Priscus and (if we allow an average time for the could not have revolted before April, vacancy) places the death of Cornelius and has led even Pearson to construct in June, and his ordination, two years hypotheses of long recesses in the ses- GROWTH OF THE OPPOSITION AT ROME. April, A.D, as I. year 251 was on the 23rd of March, and Cyprian, though unable to keep the Paschal solemnity in his own church, as was the wont of the African bishops', returned very shortly afterwards to Carthage, after fourteen months of absence'"*. It was some expected move" on the part of 'the faction' which postponed his return, or the fear of a demonstration which might rekindle persecution. Nothing unusual seems to have occurred. It was recognised that the execution of the edict was suspended"*, work was instantly resumed with utmost vigour, and the bishops of the province, about the first week of April, began joyfully to muster in the metropolis. sion of the First Council, and of several journeys for Novatus to and from Rome. That date rests however on the mere application of the duration of Cornelius* episcopate (two years three months and ten days) to the r4th of September, which Jerome gives as the historical date of his execution at Rome. Corne- lius was however not put to death, and that day is the real anniversary of the martyrdom of Cyprian, together with whose festival the memorial of Corne- lius was celebrated at Rome on account of their friendship and union. It seems to me possible also that the coincidence of Cornelius' election and Lucius' death on 5th March may have been a cause of error in early calendars. Eusebius, in assigning three years to the pontificate of Cornelius, blunders wretchedly by copying out the odd number of months as if they were the years. Thus, from the statements that Cornelius sate 'a. 11. m. in. d. X., Stephanus a. iii. m. ii. d. xxi., Xystus a. II. m. XI. d. VI.' he derives his statements that they sate respectively three years, two years, and eleven years. He has Lucius more correct. 1 Ep. 56. 3. ^ Biennhim in the loose, over- wrapping time-reckoning of a Roman : Ep. 43. 4. See note 2, p. 41. * ' Malignitas et perfidia.' He dis- tinctly planned his return for after Easter, Ep. 43. i. * Persecutione sopita, cum data esset facultas in unum conveniendi, copiosus episcoporum numerus, Ep. 55. 6. CHAPTER III. SEQUEL OF THE PERSECUTION. I. Cyprians First Council of Carthage. Question i. The Title of Cornelius. Events had so concurred that the first subject which would demand the attention of this, the first Council of Carthage which had met for perhaps half a century ^ was quite other than had been contemplated in the agenda. Cyprian had at the last moment*^ received the despatch from Cornelius announcing his own election. But with it had been delivered a letter of another tenor; — a protest against the choice that had been madel It was from Novatian. The president felt himself called upon to decide whether he should lay both documents before the Council, or if not, which of the two. He was guided, he says, simply by the tone of the communications. One ' had the tone of religious sim- 'plicity; the other rang with the noisy baying of execrations ^ Concil. Agrippinense. sense of Baluze (n. p. 432) whom he ^ Ep. 45. 2 '...jam tunc, fratribus at edits, 'cum ad me talia adversum te plebi,' &c. (Comelium) et compresbyteri tecum * Ep. 45. 2. Dom Maran [^Vita S. considentis(Novatiam)scripta venissent, Cypr. XIX.) takes this letter not to clero et plebi legi praecepi quae religio- have been a protest, but one from Cor- sam simplicitatem sonabant...' nelius: mistakenly, and against the B. 0 JO CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. ' and invectives.' He resolved not to communicate the mass of bitter and offensive charges in writing^ against Cornelius to an audience of partially informed, provincially-educated persons, far from the scene of action, now gathered for deli- beration in files about the Altar^ and surrounded by the excitable laity of the city. Whether even on these forcible motives he should have withheld them is a question ; con- sidering that these councils were the very types of returning freedom, both individually and corporately. We recognise in his act the benevolent despot singularly combined with the scrupulous debater. He took however the politic step of ^ ...ea quae ex diverso in librum mis- sum congesta fuerant, Ep. 45. 2, nothing wonderful. Not as Rettberg (p. 125), •ein ganzes Buch angefullt.' 2 Fratribus {i.e. sacerdotibus) et plebi, Ep. 45. 2 ...longe positos et trans mare constitutos, 45. 2. Hartel confuses this interesting passage by a full stop after ' intimavimus. ' Cyprian says respect for the assembly forbade him to produce the railing accusation 'considerantes pariter et ponderantes quod in tanto fratrum religiosoque conventu considen- tibus Dei sacerdotibus et altari posito nee legi debeat nee audiri.' That is, 'he well weighed what was not fit to be read or listened to in such a place.' Further on he says, 'porro haec fieri debere ostendimus, si quando talia quorundam calumniosa temeritate con- scripta sunt legi apud nos non patimur ' ; that is, 'We recognise this duty if, when people have given vent to such libellous 'spite, we suffer it not to be read before us.' (Cf. Ephes. 4. 29.) In each pas- sage Hartel has expunged the negatives, reading 'rf legi debeat et audiri' and ' apud nos patimur.' Fechtrup thinks the changes destroy the meaning; but they really only present the converse (not the reverse) '\i fieri debere ostendimus is in- terpreted 'we sanction these doings.' Fechtrup (p. 136 and n.) may have found difficulties in quod and in si quando. However Hartel's first reading has scarcely any support, his second none. O. Ritschl (p. 75) makes Cyprian im- part CorneUus' letter '...nur an die Bischofe und zwar in der geheimsten Weise {singulorum auribus intimavi- mus).'' But this phrase merely means that he took care that no one should be ignorant of it : intitiiare has no tint of secrecy about it {e.g. intimaverunt is used of the declaration of the Jews that they had no king but Caesar, Adv. Jud. Hartel, App. p. 139, 15). The thought of secrecy not only takes away the contrast with Cyprian's treatment of Novatian's letter, but he says expressly clero et plebi legi pracepi, Ep. 45. 2. Ritschl has fallen into another strange mistake on '...ea quae ex diverso in librum missum congesta fuerant acerba- tionibus criminosis respuimus' (45. 2), 'den Brief der Gegenpartei will er mit Erbitterung von sich gewiesen haben.' Acerbationibus depends on congesta. Yet Ritschl's whole allegation against Cyprian of unfairness in the treatment of Novatian's despatch and of untruth rests on these two errors and on the meaningless reading retenta in Ep. 48. 3- III. I. QUESTION I. THE TITLE OF CORNELIUS. I3I proposing to despatch two of their own number to Rome as a delegacy to investigate and report. His old friends Caldonius and Fortunatus were selected and took their depar- ture^ Their instructions were to communicate in the first instance with the bishops who had attended the ordination of Cornelius^ and, if satisfied, to procure from them written attestations of its regularity. This unprecedented request for credentials, although com- plied with, exposed Cyprian at Rome to reflections upon his innovating turn. He reasonably replied that the circum- stances were novel, and his procedure a security to the titled The commissioners were further charged to use their best endeavours to recompose the broken harmony of Rome*. One more step was taken to complete the fairness of the neutrality. Communications with Cornelius as bishop were suspended ; letters of church business to the city were ordered to be addressed for the present to its presbyters and deacons'. All Christian travellers Rome-ward bound were cautioned to be circumspect in recognising claims for adherence^ Question 2. Decision on Felicissimus . Pending intelligence from Italy the Council approached their original work. There was this further necessity for the delegacy to Rome — that if Cornelius really favoured, as was reported, the party of laxity at Rome, the position of Felicis- simus might be strengthened indefinitely^ Before conditions ^ Ep. 48. 1 ; Ep. 44. I . see) at Hadrumetum. I do not see how 2 ...qui ordination! tuse affuerant, £/. Lipsius infers {op. cit. p. 204) from Ep. 44. I. 45 that letters to Cornelius had been ' Ep. 45. 3. already written which were now re- * Ep. 45. I. addressed to his Clergy. ' This does not seem to have had ^ Ep. 48. i, 2. any practical efiect except {as we shall ^ Ritschl, pp. 77, 78. 9—2 X32 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. of communion could be determined for the Lapsed, the affair of Felicissimus stood as a preliminary question. For, should it be decided that his reception of repentant renegades with- out terms of penance had been warranted by circumstances, no further discussion on the Lapsed would be required. But if the broad issue should be first decided in the opposite sense to his, it might then be too late to introduce his conduct as a disciplinary question. Condemnation would wear the appear- ance of being based on ex post facto regulation. Whereas his schism really consisted not in the views he had maintained about the Lapsed, (for the question was yet open,) but in the fact that he had re-admitted offenders when the bishops had given notice that their cases were to be reserved to a council. There is large indication that Cyprian was not present at this debate and its decision. An honourable and experienced lawyer would naturally avoid the position of a judge in a case in which he was virtually plaintiff and Felicissimus de- fendant. In writing of it subsequently to Cornelius he does not employ the first person, which is I think his unvarying practice when he records decisions at which he had presided, ' To acquaint you ' (he says) ' with what has passed here in ' relation to the cause of certain presbyters and Felicissimus, 'our colleagues have sent you a letter subscribed with their 'hand, and by their letter you will learn the opinion and ' decision they arrived at after giving audience to the parties \' Lastly, there is intimation of the absence of Cyprian from Carthage at the very conjuncture when, as I conclude, the case of Felicissimus was before them. In company with Liberalis, one of the senior bishops of the province, he visited Hadrumetum^ about eighty miles from Carthage, on I know not what errand. They found the clergy there in official correspondence with Cornelius, .and in accordance with the resolution of the Council (which their absent bishop Polycarp had not yet transmitted to them), ^ Ep. 45. 4. ^ See Appendix on Cities. III. I. QUESTION 2. DECISION ON FELICISSIMUS. I33 desired them to communicate with the Roman Church, not at present through Cornelius, but through its presbyters and deacons. Cornelius took umbrage at this course' ; and cer- tainly the sole moment at which Cyprian could properly have adopted it was precisely this interval elapsing after the departure of Caldonius, before the Council had satisfied them- selves of the validity of Cornelius' position. This they did (as we shall see) sometime before the return of Caldonius, that is to say, just when they were debating the case of Feli- cissimus. Caldonius and Fortunatus had been also provided with a transcript of the previous letters addressed upon this subject of Felicissimus by Cyprian to his laity and his com- missioners. They were read to the laity of Rome, who thus, without direct appeal to them, were put in possession of the case and on their guard against clandestine negotiation ^ That the faction and Felicissimus were immediately con- demned it is almost unnecessary to relate. Cyprian himself does not record it except by implication. But though these, their would-be patrons, were silenced, it was not yet possible to decide upon the future of the tragically situated Deniers of Christ. ' Ep. 48. 1. The above hypothesis of second difficulty {op. at. pp. 203 — 206) the absence of Cyprian from the Council by supposing the Council, before dis- during the trial of his opponent Feli- persing, to have empowered Cyprian, if cissimus solves difficulties to my mind satisfied, to recognise Cornelius in their absolutely insoluble in any other way. name. But we shall see that Pompeius The text exhibits grounds sufficient to and Stephanus, before Caldonius re- recommend it. Pearson and Tillemont turned, abundantly satisfied the Council hold that the Council was prolonged by of the validity of the election, and that various adjournments. But their hypo- on their evidence Cornelius was ac- thesis was framed (i) to dispose of the knowledged (literas nostras ad te di- long period which the false date of Cor- reximus, Ep. 45. i), and publication of nelius' election involved, (2) to allow for the fact ordered. Hence it is incredible this Hadrumetum visit. ' Consilio fre- that after the end of the Council, quenter acto' (^/. 59. 13), which Pear- Cyprian should have suspended the son understands 'assembled again and Hadrumetines' correspondence with again,' means 'largely attended.' Cornelius. Lipsius, though he has corrected ^ £p^ ^^ ^ (Epp. 41, 43.) the election-date, proposes to meet the 134 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. Question 3. Novatianism. For the Council at once became almost a council of war on the more imperial question. Messengers came and went from the field. Seldom has a council sat amid the outbreak and clash of the questions they had to decide. Seldom has a council been more wisely guided: seldom indeed swayed by so tranquil and large-hearted a chief: seldom recalled to consider the whole range of first principles rather than to pursue or recoil from the passion of the hour. What we now study as one of the most famous of treatises was in its first form an Essay or Oration On THE Unity of the Catholic Church^ delivered at this con- juncture^ It must have been rapidly composed, for the occasion of it had not arisen when the prelates first assembled. For them it was in itself an education. In masterly lines and with a colouring sometimes not inferior to TertuUian's he sketched that view of the constitution of the Church which has permanently shaped its history. The great theory and its illustrations must be reserved for fuller consideration pre- sently. Here must be indicated simply the two or three leading principles by which the crisis was skilfully faced, and an intense feeling of personal responsibility for the integrity of the Church evoked in her bishops. Only by distinctness (it is represented) as to the Scripture ideal of Unity may be formed a compact resistance to the insinuating errors of an age whose temptation is the pre- sentment of novel error under Christian forms. The sole V practical bond of union is to be found in a united episcopate. To every member of that order is committed, not only the ^ So the best Mss. call it, and ap- SiMPLiciTATE Pr^latorum. parently Cyprian himself, Ep. 54. 4. ^ The date will be discussed in the In the time of Fulgentius it had re- section on the De Unitate. ceived already the alternative title De III. I. QUESTION 3. NOVATIANISM. 1 35 regulation of his own portion of the church but a joint interest in and responsibility for the totality and oneness of all its parts. Separatism abnegates in the individual the essence and first broad principle of the religion which is a Love expanding into, or rather necessarily expressing itself in Unity. Such were the principles of which the eloquent expression was elicited from Cyprian by the arrival of intelli- gence which we shall now relate. Although Caldonius and his colleague had not returned (remaining in accordance with their instructions in hope of pro- ducing some effect'), two other African bishops, Stephen and Pompey by name, had appeared in the midst of the session fresh from the scene at Rome. They had been present at the consecration of Cornelius^ Aware of the importance of the chiefly clerical agitation against it, and assured of its regu- larity, they had armed themselves with documents drawn up by the consecrating bishops, testimonies from the laity to the life, character and 'discipline^' of the new bishop, and attes- tations to the depositions they were prepared to make at Carthage. In their places they gave their evidence amid universal satisfaction. All the characters of a true election in the third century (as we have already specified them) had concurred ; the majority of the clerics, the suffrage of the laity, the consent of the neighbouring bishops^ Practically nothing could now be gained by the formality of awaiting the return of the Commission. Letters of recognition were addressed to Cornelius'. The tidings were disseminated through all the sees of Africa with the request that they too would acknowledge the new bishop. Scarcely can the ink have dried when four new delegates * Ep. 45. I, 4. to doctrina. His pure celibacy comes ' Epp. 44. I ; 45. I ; cf. Ep. 55. 8. under this head. Impossible that they could, as Ritschl, * Ep. 55. 8. p. 82, imagines, have voted on his ^ ...litteras nostras ad te direximus, election. Ep. 45. r. ' Disciplina is the moral correlative 136 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. from Rome requested audience, a certain Machaeus and Lon- ginus, Augendus a deacon of Novatian's, probably the excom- municated follower of Felicissimus, (not the only member of that party who had taken a new colour at Rome,) and, as their senior, Maximus a Presbyter, not the confessor, but one who soon after pretended to the chair of Cyprian. Their mission was personally to press the charges against Cornelius, and solemnly to announce that Novatian had been conse- crated Bishop of Rome. We must narrate the circumstances of this startling event, which had occurred after the departure from Rome of Stephen and PompeyS and now surprised the Council in the midst of their satisfaction. It seems then that the party of severity, disappointed and perplexed by the election, had been stimulated to action partly by Evaristus, a bishop whom Cornelius regarded as a Circ. prime mover in the enterprise^ But a more important actor ^D*^V' ^^^ appeared at Rome in the person of Novatus. He had ^ It becomes certain that this was the tian's embassy.' For the Council could order of events from the following ob- not have at once suspended the embassy servations. Stephanus and Pompeius from communion as they did, if up till are not said to have brought any news then they had received only Cornelius' except that of Cornelius' consecration. own letters for which they had sought And the sensation in the Council at the ratification. announcement by the Novatianist em- - Ep.$o. The common reading ^z'ar- bassy shews that it brought iht Jirst isttint auctoremschismatis'wonXA.noigwQ news of that of Novatian. Then the him, as Ritschl, p. 71, supposes it would, Council (it is stated Ep. 44. 2) were a position ascribable to Novatian alone, able to refute and repel its charges, Aiictor is properly a promoter, not an although they had not received [exspic- originator. So the confessors accuse tavimus Ep. 44. i) the report of their \htva.%€ist%oi\)€\xigh(Bresis auctores, Ep. own commission (Dom Maran, Vita S. 49. i, for allowing {ut paterentur) the Cypr. XXI. erroneously states the con- consecration of Novatian. Jerome calls trary), because Stephanus and Pom- Novatus 'Auctor' of Novatian (^^ J^zWj peius had produced evidence of the pro- ///. 70). Nevertheless cum auctorc is priety and regularity of the consecra- probably the right reading, for the tion. reading of the two better MSS. cum Supervenerunt, Ep. 44. i, it may be auctorem is nothing but an African observed means 'came on the top of construction. our expectancy,' not 'came after Nova- III. I. QUESTION 3. NOVATIANISM. 1 37 troubles of his own in Carthage ; an enquiry which had long hung over him was now near, and he wished to avoid it, but he crossed the Mediterranean^ with at least some vague purpose of baffling that spirit of the rising time which by- means of the episcopal order was introducing organization amid confusion, and constituting its free representative as- semblies (the only free assemblies be it remembered in the Empire) into a legislative and judicatory power. To prosecute this aim he would have to ally himself at Rome with a body which took the diametrically opposite view upon the readmission of the Lapsed to that which he had supported in Carthage. Policy no doubt shaped his ends as well as his means, yet his joining the exclusive confessors at Rome when fresh from the comprehension- party of Carthage does not perhaps after all stamp him as a mere adventurer. Rather it reveals the true character of his view. The restoration or non-restoration of the Lapsed v/as probably to him indifferent. The question with him was. What should be the working power? In whose hands should the settlement of the terms of church communion be vested .■' The real object of his activity was to resist what he considered the encroachments of episcopal influence, and to retain the regulation of such cases where it had been during the loose chaotic time before Cyprian, namely in the hands of individual clerics. He had no doctrinal view to maintain^ ^ Accompanied perhaps by some of readers, assumes that these statements the excommunicated Felicissimites, since are the growth of polemic rancour, and Augendus, one of them {Ep. 42), re- goes so far as to say that Cyprian would appears from Rome with the first em- himself have been to blame for allowing bassy, Ep. 44. r. (previous to trial it would seem) such a ^ I have omitted the statement that, character among his clergy. This is according to Cyp. Ep. 52. 2, he had that uncritical. It is true that the assump- security of the adventurer — no character tion of Novatus's guilt, the attributing to lose; because at any rate this had of his withdrawal from Carthage to a not come before the Roman confessors. bad conscience, and the general accusa- Neander, indeed, op. cit., vol. i., pp. tions of depravity, may be classed with 312 sqq., with characteristic anxiety the usual violent moral prejudices to place thinkers unprejudiced before against religious opponents, but that an 138 Cyprian's first council of carthage. Hence though a single passage implies that his virtual dread of the trial — to party spite. Pacian is the fountain of this mistake [Ad Sym- pronian. Ep. 3, 6; Galland. Bibl. SS. Pair. vol. VII. p. 263 (1765)]. He quotes part of Cyprian's words, but paraphrases his 'ut judicium sacerdotum voluntaria discessione prsecederet ' by ' Romam ve- nit...et hie latitavit.' But what Cyprian really says is that Novatus avoided excommunication for personal misde- meanours by discession from the church during the persecution, that is to say by getting up, or joining, the party of Felicissimus; from Ep. 41. 2 we see that Felicissimus took the initiative and excommunicated the Cyprianic side (sententiam quam prior dixit). In Ep. 52. 2 Cyprian mentions the voyage in connection with the commencement of the party of Felicissimus, but this is only a rhetorical juxtaposition because he wishes to parallel Novatus's appoint- ment of a Bishop in Rome with his former appointment of a Deacon in Carthage. (2) Again as to the Liberian Catalogue. The words are, under Fa- Bius, '...Post passionem ejus Moyses et Maximus presbyteri et Nicostratus dia- conus comprehensi sunt et in carcerem sunt missi. Eo tempore supervenit Novatus ex Africa et separavit de ec- clesia Novatianum et quosdam con- fessores, postquam Moyses in carcere defunctus est qui fuit ibi m. xi d. xi'; and under Cornelius, '...Sub Epi- scopatu ejus Novatus extra ecclesiam ordinavit Novatianum in urbe Roma et Nicostratum in Africa. Hoc facto con- fessores qui se separaverunt a Cornelio cum Maximo presbytero, qui cum Moyse fuit, ad ecclesiam sunt reversi...,' ap. Lipsius, op. cit., p. 267. Now the ob- ject of these entries, which occupy the main part of the short memoirs, is to record the action of Moyses and Maxi- mus who were commemorated at Rome enquiry into his conduct was impending just before the persecution, is as certain as a fact can be, see p. 1 1 1 sup. Date of Novatus' journey to Rome. Nothing but some singular coincidence could have given us this date minutely. But the determination of the true date of the ordination of Cornelius removes a difficulty which beset Pearson and all earlier chronologers in attempting to fix it. In other points they have misled themselves, (i) Cornelius was supposed to have been consecrated in June 251. (2) It was inferred from the words of the Liberian Catalogue that Novatus had practised with the Roman Confessors as early as January 251. {3) It was inferred from Ep. 52. 2, 3 that he had fled to Rome to avoid the cognitio as to his conduct, which was to come off before the persecution began, i.e. at the latest, in the end of A.D. 249. (4) He was organizing the opposition at Car- thage with Felicissimus towards the end of the persecution — towards March 23, Easter A.D. 250, Ep. 43. 2. (5) He was at Rome after Cornelius' consecration. To reconcile these dates it was necessary to suppose that he had made several voyages to Rome while organizing his party. But surely among his other exertions in the cause of error this would have received some notice, while the inconsistency of his shifting policy at the two centres of his activity would have attracted more observation. How- ever, I hope to be excused for a longer examination of the story, if it were only because Lipsius himself, who detected the date of Cornelius, still imagines from (2) and (3) one voyage immediately on the death of Moyses, one or more earlier, and one after the Council. Lipsius, op. cit., pp. 202, 3, takes Cyprian in 52. 3 to speak of such a voyage, although he sets down the motive assigned for it — III. I. QUESTION 3. NOVATIANISM. 139 change of party was not unnoticed at Carthage*, yet it is not, as might have been expected, urged against him as a palpable refutation. If this election of Cornelius could be overruled at once before being generally accepted or even announced ; if he could establish himself at the right hand of another bishop, — one to whom the eyes of many men of highest character had been directed; if he could then secure for him recognition at Carthage ; he would not only have nothing more to fear on his own account, he would be in the very best position for moderating between the episcopal power, and all who whether upon lax or upon puritan principles desired almost all indi- vidual discipline to be in the hands of the second order. It was thus that Novatus and Felicissimus tried to restrict as Confessors. It was important they should not be claimed as Novatianists, and Cornelius in his letter in Eusebius is anxious to vindicate them. It was need- ful to distinguish them from Nicostratus their companion, who though not made a bishop (as here represented) did re- main a Novatianist. It is impossible to press the first entry into a chronological statement that Novatus made a voyage to Rome immediately after the death of Moyses. Its object is to record that Moyses died as a confessor before No- vatianism began. We therefore conclude that we have no statements whatever implying that Novatus made more than one journey to Rome at this period. If he did not reach Rome till after the election of Cornelius on March 5, where he would find growing disunion (...gliscente et in pejus recrudescente discordia... Ep. 45. t) already, he would still have abundance of time to organize measures before Caldonius arrived in the 2nd or 3rd week of April only to find Novatian on the point of being consecrated. And lastly we must remark that until after the election of Cornelius had taken place no act of Novatus could be described as 'separating the confessors from the church,' for at the worst he could only have been endeavouring to procure the election of another. I conclude there- fore that Novatus came to Rome imme- diately after the ordination of Cornelius on March 5, A.D. iji. It is annoying to find Fechtrup, who has ideas of accuracy, suggesting by the way that Cornelius' consecration may be put ' etwa vierzehn Tage spater ' in order to allow Novatus a fortnight more for mischief at Rome. If Lipsius' calculation, precise in itself, and solving all difficulties, is to be put a fortnight out on such subjective ' Griinde,' chro- nology is indeed vain (Fechtrup p. 107 and note). ^ Ep. 52. 2 '...damnare nunc audet sacrificantium manus,' compare the ear- lier '...nunc se et ad lapsorum pemiciem venenata sua deceptione verterant,' i.e. by indulgence, Ep. 43. 1. I40 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. the terms of communion in their own district, and the view though unscriptural and unconstitutional is intelligible. The spirit of Novatus illustrates itself in those presbyters of our own who, if they could, would repel from communion, celebrate or withhold marriage or funeral rites, or fix the age of confirmation, on their own judgment ; who revolutionise ritual without respect to either Bishop or * Plebes ' ; who admit to vows, direct the persons who take them, and pretend to dispense from them. Maximus and the other newly liberated confessors^ al- ready biassed against Cornelius by the austerity of their own views, now worked upon to believe that he was ready to sacrifice the Church's purity for a spurious charity, and stimulated by the temper of Novatus, determined to elect Novatian^ Their high character rendered it not impossible to procure three country bishops to lay their hands, in the supposed capacity of saviours of the Church, upon his head', and to invest the first Puritan* with the attributes of the first ^ Ep. 54. ■2. Ti/iroj KpaTwi'...ii'ev6/ii(TTo) to succeed to ^ ' ...separavit deecclesia...' Z/'3ma« the episcopate, but Cornelius 011 dis- Catalogue. See p. 138 n. covering that he was plotting his death '^ Corn. ap. Eus. vi. 43. We may put an end to his ambitious designs by dismiss the irate and simple-hearted ordaining him a presbyter.' We must prelate's belief that the rite was per- receive with qualification the statement formed by them in a state of inebriety, of Pacian that he became bishop with- though the assertion illustrates the pos- out consecration {Ep. 2. 3). The con- sibilities of the time. Eulogius, Bp. of temporary language of the confessors Alexandria, A.D. 579, had (Phot. Bibl. and of Cornelius {Ep. 49 and Eus. /. j Pacian's circumstantial expressions ' ab- ■Kepl 'AXe^avdpeiav iwiaKdirovi' ; where sentem...consecrante nullo...per episto- we should, I think, read roi/s irepl lam (confessorum) ' side by side with 'Ah^^avdpov, one of the bishops just Cyp. c/e imitate ecclesice 10, '...nemine named, though even that will not make Episcopatum dante,...' we may suppose sense of the story. 'Novatian was,' he that some little interval occurred be- relates, ' the Archdeacon of Rome ' tween his election and consecration, in (no such office existed before the end which he would be called Episcopus of the 4th century, see Lipsius, op. cit., Romanus, whereas ordinarily the con- p. 120 and note). 'The Archdeacon secration immediately followed, had an established right (6 rrjviKddf * ...6 Noi/droi rijs twv \eyofiivpor]s i) ^ve- (quam est ilia ne idolis immoletur).' K€v ToO fi^ (Txfo'ai fjuxprvpla, Eus. ^ Euseb. //. E. vii. 8. The fourth H. E. vi. 45. The text in Pearson, Baptismal letter to Dionys. Rom. Ann. Cypr. 251, x., defective. Ru- III. I. QUESTION 3. NOVATIANISM. I43 That Cyprian was deeply convinced that ambition had a real hold on the spirit of Novatian and contributed to his action appears in a grave incidental condemnation of him penned six years later. At that distance of time, and after his unanimous councils, the allusion could not be to the opponents of his own election, nor does it in fact characterize that form of opposition. It must be of Novatian that he thinks when he writes of * one who complained of being passed over, ' and would not brook another's preferment, and rebelled out ' of enmity not to the man but to his office,' and again of ' one ' in sheep's clothing who through the coming in of jealousy 'could neither be a peacemaker nor be in charity^' When Maximus and the other delegates of Novatian presented themselves to the Council at Carthage it would have been in any case irregular to admit them to hearing prior to the report of their own commissioners. But by this time as we have seen they had received very full evidence, and were able at once to rebut many of their strenuous assertions. Until the return of the deputies they refused to hear more or to admit them to communicated We must confess however that the delegates and Novatian himself were not wholly without justification if they had anticipated that personally Cyprian might take a different view. It is far from improbable that Novatian may have had before him Cyprian's new book of Testimonies, and seen the heading 'that it is impossible for him whose offence is against GOD to be absolved in the Church'.' At any rate when last they corresponded they had agreed upon ^ De Zelo et Liv. 6. 12. cirt.' It implies a kind of 'suspension' 2 Ep. \^. I '...a communicatione eos only. Absiittere, sometimes with reji- nostra statim cohibendos esse censuimus cere, is the invariable term for excom- etrefutatisz«/tf«>«, (Sr't.' CoAibere seems munication — see de Dom. Or. \^, Epp. to be never used, as Ritschl (pp. 80, 81), 3. 3 ; 41. 2 ; 59. i, 9, 10 ; 68. 2 ; 74. 8. for the purpose of making Cyprian con- ^ Testitn. iii. 28 'non posse in ecclesia tradict himself in consecutive sentences, remitti ei qui in Deum deliquerit.' here understands it 'sofort excommuni- 144 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. two important points. Both had held that the exclusion of the Lapsed should be for a protracted period, to be measured apparently by years. Both had agreed that the Martyrs should have a voice as to the course to be pursued. Nova- tian had now advanced to the conclusion that mere time could not restore their status as churchmen ; he was prepared to act upon the letter of the theory which regarded^ the separation as more properly life-long. Again, if the Mar- tyrs' opinion was to be respected it was no less valuable when it favoured exclusion than if it recommended com- prehension. If he was not aware that his own change of views was an abandonment of catholicity, how could he have expected to find Cyprian now inclining to shorten indefinitely the term of exclusion, or foreseen that the influence of the Car- thaginian Martyrs would be exerted in precisely the opposite direction to that of the Roman ? His ambassadors accord- ingly, after being removed^ from the assembly, appealed with much vehemence to the primate in his church upon the next Station-Day* as well as to the laity. Either then, or on their previous removal from the Council, it was replied that Novatian had placed himself in a position external to the church, and could not return except as a penitent*. They were however bitterly in earnest. One or two of them con- ferred privately with many leading members of the church in the capital, others made the tour of some provincial towns to push the cause'. It was essential to the principles of such a sect that, however few and far between, all the * Pure ' believers should be united in one body. ^ Ritschl holds that though there had describe a session of the Council on ac- gone on in North Africa as well as in count of the presence of an altar (,Ep. Italy a softening of the system of ex- M- i) and of the consessus. It is used elusion, yet exclusion for life was ^till similarly, if Hartel's reading de statione the theory in the instance of Lapse until for destinantem is correct, Ep. 49. 3. the Decian persecution, pp. 15, 16. * Ep. 68. 1. 2 Expulsi, Ep. 50. 6 Ep^ 44. 3. * Ep. 44. 2. Unless statione could III. I. QUESTION 3. NOVATIANISM. I45 It is now worth while, even if somewhat tiresome^ to follow out one intricate example of the minute finish of Cyprian's diplomacy, of his laborious care in conciliation, in the avoidance or removal of misunderstandings. A Presbyter — Primitivus — was first despatched as the bearer of a private communication to Cornelius, briefly giving the heads of the transactions, with instructions to afford per- sonally the fullest explanations^ Such explanations he was actually sent back to obtain, where his information failed, with regard to the suspension at Hadrumetum of the recog- nition of Cornelius' title. Cyprian's reply on this, a model of considerateness towards unduly aggrieved feelings, points to the complete success of the method adopted' and to the final corroboration secured through Caldonius and Fortunatus. However meantime the provisional sending off of Primitivus, which proved to be thus politic, had been at once followed up by the sending of the Subdeacon Mettius with the acolyte Nicephorus in charge of a fuller explanatory despatch^ to meet each point of possible misconstruction ; to enclose fresh copies of Cyprian's earlier letters with a request that these might be laid before the brethren ; further, to announce that ^ The reader may consider as he pro- trace in our collection except the syno- ceeds the hypothesis that these diplo- dical letter about Felicissimus. matic steps, — so far from obvious in the ^ Ep. 48. 2. perusal of the letters, so consistent when * Ep. 45. In c. 4 the MS. reading patiently traced, so dotted up and down, qua de eodem Felicissimo et de presby- a word or two at a time, — are an incident teris ejusdem ad clerutn istic (i.e. here in in a large forgery, an elaborate story Carthage) non et ad plebem scripseram worked out only to be sprinkled in is the opposite of the fact, for Ep. 43 is ineffective, indiscernible fragments. his weighty appeal to the laity on this - ^/). 44. 2. Lipsius (p. 204 n.) says exact subject. Hartel perversely ignores that part of the correspondence here is the printed reading of nee before non, lost. Cyprian expressly says, however, which is essential to the sense, but that 'et quia quibus refutatis et con- dropped by the commonest kind of slip pressi sunt. ..in epistula congerere Ion- after the -ie. In the same line he gum fuit ' will be ' plenissime singula ' chooses the meaningless isdem in pre- detailed by Primitivus, and there is no ference to the equally well supported allusion to any point as having been ejusdem. mentioned in Utters which we do not B. 10 146 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. the whole Province of Proconsular Africa had by this time been informed of the conciliar reaffirmation of the Title of Cornelius ; to communicate the conciliar Resolutions on Felicissimus and his adherents ; and to enclose for the Con- fessors, under cover to their true Bishop, a * Brief Letter \' Finally when the explanation asked for through Primitivus was sent, Cyprian was able to add that the Recognition of Cornelius had been forwarded on from the Province through- out Numidia and Mauretania'*. And now to take up the ' Brief Letter.' The concentration of energy, pathos and doctrine in so few lines is surely mar- vellous'. He touches on the depression with which the news of the Confessors' desertion had crushed him : — ' Against ' God's ordinance, against the Gospel-law, against the unity ' of the Catholic foundation, to have consented to the creation * of another bishop ! that is, to a thing divinely and humanly ' impossible, the founding of a second church, the severing of ^ Epp. 46 and 47. was read to the assembly, and to con- ^ Ep. 45. I 'Sad et per Provinciam ceal it would not have increased the nostravi,' &'c. Then later, Ep. 48. 3, authority. Cyprian's object was to ' Sed quoniam latius fusa est nostra Pro- place beyond doubt the facts of the vincia, habet etiam Nutnidiam et Mau- election whatever they were. So Ep. ritaniam sibi cohserentes, ne in Urbe,' 44. i 'ut eis adventantibus et rei gesta &c. ' Inasmuch as our Province is very veritatem reportantibus, majore anctori- widespread, and has also Numidia and ^a/^... partis adverscE inprobitas frange- Mauritania in close connection with it, retur,' which is exactly parallel ; Ep. therefore, &c.' (Peters, to support a 48. 2 'rebus illic.../w veritate conper- scheme of 'Metropolit, Ober-metropo- tis^ ; 48. 4 '...nunc episcopatus tui et lit, Kirchenprovinze ' &c. wishes to Veritas pariter et dignitas apertissivia make habet mean 'includes' and sibi Itice . . .fundata &%t^ I therefore venture 'united to each other.') The text pro- to propose retecta 'discovered, ascer- ceeds ' placuit ut per episcopos, retenta tained,' instead of retenta. The sense a nobis rei veritate, et ad comproban- would thus be 'we resolved that the dam ordinationem tuam facta auctori- bishops should cause letters to be cir- tate majore, tunc demum scrupulo omni culated among all in all directions here, de singulorum pectoribus excusso, per nowthat we had /^arw/ the real facts, and omnes omnino istic positos litterse fie- were in a better position to confirm your rent.' I cannot translate retenta (Har- ordination, not a scruple at last remain- tel firom MSS. except ft. recente). 'Kept ing in any bosom.' secret' (as O. Ritschl, see p. 130, n. 2) ^ £p^ ^g. cannot be the meaning, for the despatch III. I. QUESTION 3. NOVATIANISM. 147 ' Christ's members, the rending of soul and body in the Lord's ' flock by the sundered rivalries — this is not the way to " assert * the Gospel " of Christ*. And we,' he exclaims, * we cannot ' quit the Church to come out to you ! — Return to your mother * — to your brotherhood.' Dionysius the Great also wrote to them from Alexandria in their alienation'. The Catholic Church could realise then what was meant by this — ' If one member sufifer all the members suffer with it' ^ It is remarkable that the character which seems at this time especially to attach to the word evangelium is that of strictness ox precision. Thus in Ep. 55. 3 and again in De Laps. 15 Cyprian calls the stricter discipline 'Evangeli- cus vigor,' 'Evangelii vigor,' Ep. 55. 6 'Evangelica censura.' So Epp. 67. 8; 30. 4; 27. 4. This must be borne in mind .in rendering such passages as ^ evangelicis \xz.^\'i\ovA>\xi roboratos,' De Laps. 1. The catholic rule to have but one bishop in a city is (still with the same idea of strictness) ' evangelica lex ' Ep. 46 — 'nee ecclesiae jungitur qui ab evangelio separatur,' De Laps. 16. Hence it is not without a characteristic force that in Ep. 30 Novatian uses the terms 'Evangelicadisciplina(three times), evangelicus vigor, evangelicum certa- men (confessorship),' and the substan- tive and adjective twelve times in the first two chapters of Ep. 36, and ad- dresses the book De Cibis Judaicis, to you who 'sine cessatione in Evan- gelic vos perstare monstratis.' After his secession 'evangelium Christi asserere' {,Ep. 46. 2), 'assertores evangelii' {Ep. 44. 3) seems to have been the watchword of his sect. So even in his Greek letter to Fabius, Eus. H. E. vi. 43, Cornelius sarcastically calls Novatian 6 iKdiKijTTjt Tov EvayyeXiov. The still extant type was next succeeded to and exaggerated by the Donatists. They were in the habit of accosting Catholics with ' Es- tote Christiani,' or 'Cai Sei, Caia Seia, adhuc paganus es, aut pagana' (Opt. iii. 11), or ' Bonus homo esses, si non esses traditor ! consule anima; tuse : esto Christianus.' Aug. de Bapt. c. Donatt. ii. 7 (10). ^ Euseb. H. E. vi. 46 ...^rt t^ tov ^ovdrov crvficpepofi^vois yvibfir). 10- FOUR OTHER PICTURES FROM A.D. 250. It is only fair to the Reader that I should now at this point remind him that eminent critics have drawn very different sketches from those above of chief actors in the church affairs of A.D. 250. I present outlines from two portraits of Cyprian by Otto Ritschl and by Adolf Harnack, and, by the former, one of Felicissimus in the character of the True Churchman, and one of a vanishing Novatus. I ought to say that mine were earlier in print, but a short contemplation of these may further clear some points. It is natural that divines in Non-episcopal Confessions should not only search (as we see) for a non-episcopal ordination, but should trace the early wisdom and success of episcopal administration itself either to ignored action on the part of the presbyterate or to masterful ambitions of great prelates on behalf of their order ; or again that they should if possible exhibit instances in which, as one of them naively expresses it, ' things really do go without a Bishop, and go well, if only the Clergy step full in.' If my own judgement of what took place in those times be warped (as I think theirs is) by prepossessions unperceived by myself, it is my sincere desire to have them corrected by fact and document. To these tests I commit the difference without reserve. The first portrait shall be that of Cyprian before his own Presbyters in the time before the Council, by O. RitschP. My abstract will be as just as I can make it. I. Cyprian before his own Presbyters. 'The Roman clergy left responsible in the vacancy of their own 'see, regarded the Carthaginian see as practically vacant through ' Cyprian's retirement, its clergy as responsible like themselves, and ' themselves as responsible for suggesting to them a course like their ' own. They wrote them therefore the Eighth Epistle.' — So far well. ' Next, the Carthaginian clergy out of their perfect loyalty to ^ Otto Ritschl, Cyprian v. Karthago und die Verfassung der Kirche. Erster Theil, Cap. 1. (Gottingen 1885). III. I. CHURCH AFFAIRS A.D. 25O. I49 ' Cyprian communicated the Epistle to him. No faction (whatever ' Cyprian may say) existed among them. ' The Roman Letter and its probable effect were greatly dreaded ' by Cyprian. Even the loyal conduct of his clergy about it placed ' them in a position to make dangerous capital of their magnanimity. ' But its actual effect was also very great. * It moved at least the Four Presbyters {_Ep. 14) to mild views of 'the course to be taken with the Lapsed, and the final result of 'their action was to make Cyprian adopt the milder view. But ' it is probable that the whole body of the Presbyters took this view 'from the first and that they selected Four of themselves to bear 'the brunt of Cyprian's anger. Cyprian was hard on the clergy, 'excusing all others and laying all blame on them. The "radical" ' presbyters who early communicated the Lapsed simply anticipated ' the necessary policy which Cyprian after a time adopted. 'The "Visions of the Martyrs" or Confessors contributed to ' soften his procedure. The offence he took at the Confessors was no ' matter of principle, but only a personal sense of their disrespect. ' Cyprian's attitude however was that of a strong man. He might ' have been expected to employ his money to conciliate those who 'differed from him. But he did not. He treated the Four Presbyters, 'and indeed all, with growing decision. For example; whilst in ' Ep. 5 he uses the language of request ^^peto" &c., afterwards, when 'the great Eighth Epistle might have wrecked their allegiance, he 'boldly in Ep. 14 uses the imperative mood and strain throughout.' To examine the above scheme — and to begin with the last suggestion. This is not literally true. For, if in Ep. 5. 2 he only nsts pe to, in Ep. 14. 3 he uses oro vos, and in Ep. 5. 2 occur the only real imperatives which appear in either — consulite et providete. But in tone there is no tangible difference. It is absurd to treat hortor et mando in Ep. 14. 2 as imperious when the object of them is 'act as plenipotentiaries for me,' vice 7nea ftingamini. But the whole scheme may be characterized as a string of assumed probabilities which have been already negatived by ascertainable facts. The importance assigned to the illiterate Epistle Eight is necessary to the theory but is wholly unwarrantable. A defect of humour has kept the Critic from seeing the sarcastic force of Cyprian's treat- ment of it in Ep. 9. 2 (see pp. Zt, 88 above). But in fact there is no reason to suppose that the Eighth Epistle ever came to the hands of the Carthaginian clergy at all. They never replied to it. They never allude to it. For good reason. It bore no address. It was delivered to Cyprian at the same time by the same hand — Crementius's — which brought him the letter of the same Roman Presbyters about ISO CHURCH AFFAIRS A.D. 250. Fabian's martyrdom, and it was at once returned by him to its authors for reconsideration. It proposed, as we have seen, no sub- stantial plan. Its promoters felt ashamed of it and changed their note. Yet this is the formidable document to the guidance and terror of which we are asked to trace all the leniency of the clergy and nearly the whole policy of Cyprian. As to the effect upon him of the 'Martyrs' Visions' it is enough to observe that the Visions are not said to have been seen by the Martyrs but by other persons, and that the one moral of all the Visions is severely disciplinary and not relaxatory. Again the 'Radical' clergy can in no sense be said to have anticipated the action of Cyprian. They did indeed readmit to communion. But Cyprian's point was not that the Lapsed should be either admitted or repelled, but that they should not be admitted (i) without open repentance, (2) without the formal assent of the Church. These conditions, in which lies the gist of his whole policy, they violated. Ritschl (p. 17) quotes from Ep. 15. i ante actam pcenitentiam, ante exo}/iologesiti.../actam, ante manum...im- positam to prove that Cyprian was not angry at their action but only at their precipitancy. But he omits Cyprian's contra evangelii legem from the same clause, and words cannot express greater indignation than Cyprian's at the absence of enquiry and authority from their procedure. The impossibility of other combinations and conclusions of this scheme — these are the main ones — will I hope be detected from the text and references above. 2. Cyp7-ia?i before the Roman Presbyters. This is our second Portrait-Sketch. We have acknowledged that it is tempting to certain scholars to explore instances in which * things really do go without a Bishop, and go well, if only the Clergy step full in^.' It is tempting even though the vacancy be one of a few months only, and even if the Clergy themselves so little acquiesce in the idea that ' things go well,' that all the time they are lamenting their limitations and longing to get the see filled. Yet we should scarcely have expected that the vacancy of the Roman See, in which its Presbyters so changed their bearing towards Cyprian, and adopted his Policy entire ; a vacancy in which his Kv^fpvrja-is, his wisdom, gentleness and dignity as a bishop come so strongly out, would ^ A. Hamack, op. at. infr. p. 25. geht und gut geht, wenn nur der Klerus 'Dass es wirklich auch ohne Bischof vol! eintritt, kann das Beispiel,' &c. III. I. CHURCH AFFAIRS A.D. 250. 151 be selected as an example of the adequacy of headless, unepiscopal management In an ingenious and learned essay (which appeared many years after the above text was in print) Dr A. Harnack, along with much that is of linguistic importance, and a minute verification of the authorship of Ep. 36, has maintained an interesting thesis to that effect ^ To him * Epistle viii. is the masterly work of at once a Pastor and a 'Statesman (p. 25) — though not a well-educated one. Immediately on * hearing that Carthage had by his own act lost her Bishop, the Roman 'clergy undertook the duty and adopted the style of a Bishop, and issued * orders to the Clergy of that city. It is quite an " Archiepiscopal In- ' struction " (p. 26). They pursued indeed with g^eat political sagacity a 'double policy. To Cyprian they wrote respectfully as Bishop, to the ' Clergy they wrote with the view of getting them to ignore him as ' Bishop and take the reins of government in hand themselves.' (p. 24.) Here we must really pause. There is in Ep. 8 nothing to justify the imputation of machination so mean and cruel, however prudent it may seem to some. The Roman Clergy began mistakenly. But they were in a most difficult position. Without a head themselves and not daring to elect one, they now heard that the Second City of the Empire was headless too, and that by the Bishop's own act. Persecution was afoot and he was gone. It was very natural that they should write to the authorities there without a thought that they were composing 'a pendant {Seitemtiick) to the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians ' (p. 1 5). Cyprian nowhere complains of their doing so — only, in his dignified way, of their tone, Ep. 9 ; and in Ep. 20 says he writes to them not as bound to do so, but because they are under a mistake and misinformed. They could not know that the counsel they sent had been anticipated by Cyprian in much more minuteness ; that for the liberality they recommended towards sufferers and poor, Cyprian had provided the means; that a scheme was begun by Cyprian for dealing with the Lapsed, the ' Martyrs,' and the Premature Restorers, of which they would be glad to borrow all that their own case required ; that from his retirement Cyprian was governing all. When they knew, they changed their note ; but from the first there was no duplicity in their conduct, rather too rough a straightforwardness. The Clergy to whom they wrote had had solemnly committed to them beforehand by Cyprian himself all the powers which the Romans wished them to take. ' Discharge upon the spot both your own parts and mine' {Ep. 5. i). 'I exhort and charge you, who can be upon the spot without 'invidiousness and with less peril, to discharge in my stead whatever 'duties the religious administration demands' {Ep. 14. 2). ^ Adolf Harnack, Die Brief e des gische Abhandlungen (published in romischen Klenis aus der Zeit der honour of Carl von Weizsacker's 70th Sedisvacanz im Jahre -250, ap. Theolo- birthday). Freiburg I. B. 1892. 152 CHURCH AFFAIRS A.D. 250. The Clergy who wrote were performing those very duties, just as the Romans were in the vacancy, but they were only too painfully aware that there were episcopal functions which they themselves were incapable of discharging. They took the best and widest counsel they could, calling in their neighbour bishops and such exiled bishops as were then at Rome, but 'We have thought,' say they, 'that before the appointment of a * bishop we must take no new step, but take a middle line in attending 'to the lapsed, so that in the meantime, while we are waiting for a 'bishop to be given us by God,' — the different classes should be treated thus and thus {Ep. 30. 8). Again, ' We are the more obliged to postpone 'this affair, because since the decease of Fabian of noblest memory we 'have had, owing to the difficulties of circumstances and times, no bishop 'yet appointed to direct all these affairs, and to examine into the cases 'of the lapsed with authority and wisdom.' {Ep. 30. 5.) This is surely not ' oberbischofliche Unterweisung.' (p. 26.) This is not the tone of those who felt that even they themselves possessed the authority which they urge (as we are assured) their brethren to assume. Nevertheless Dr Harnack finds that the great writer of Ep. 8 at once ' identifies the clergy in whose name he writes with the Bishop,' for they speak of ' Our Predecessors,' meaning the Bishops of Rome — ' anteces- sores nostril' The passage referred to is, 'If we are found neglectful, it will be said ' to us as it was also said to our predecessors, who were such neglectful 'prelates {prcepositi)., That we have not sought that which was lost, and ' have not set right the wandering, and not bound up the lame, and were ' eating the milk of them, and clothing ourselves with the wool of them.' {Ep. 8. I.) This would have been strange language to address to primitive bishops of Rome, but of course it was not. It was really addressed by Ezekiel to the Shepherds of Israel, the predecessors of all shepherds^. Dr Harnack admits or admires the ' sarcastic ' or ' cutting' {anziiglich) use made of Scripture texts by the author (p. 25). This text may perhaps serve him to illustrate that criticism, but not to shew that Presbyters of Rome regarded themselves as Successors of the Popes. The representation of the rest of the correspondence takes its colouring from these Principia^. While the letters of Novatian 30 and 36 speak an episcopal language, those of Cyprian exhibit his humiliation. ^ Das Collegium spricht in ihm so, ' Yes, even to the distortion of minor als ware es selber der Bischof, ja es facts like these. It is said that they redet von 'nostri antecessores.' (p. 22.) learnt Cyprian's flight through their 2 Ezek. c. xxxiv. w. 3, 4. Hartel own delegate Bassianus — solicitously has perhaps here deceived Harnack by sent to enquire. Yet all that is said of omitting the reference from both text Bassianus here is that he 'has arrived,' and margin, ad Novat. 14; Hartel, Ep. 8. 3, while it is distinctly said that Append, p. 65. Elsewhere he has it. the (Carthaginian) sub-deacon Clemen- Ill I. CHURCH AFFAIRS A.D. 250. 153 ' Months afterwards Cyprian writes one letter, 20, to secure allies, 'humbled even to speaking of himself as "mea mediocritas" ! {cc. 1, 2) : * writes a second, 27, without waiting for an answer to the first : is silently ' ignored in two Roman letters (see Ep. 27. 4), but takes on him to answer 'both, with much flattery of the Confessors. At last "the ice is broken " ' (p. 30), and Novatian condescends to write no more to the clergy but to * himself. Even then a painful impression is produced by the solicitude ' with which he circulates the Roman missives.' ' What a triumph for the * Roman Clergy ! ' (p. 29). In the last paragraph I have thought it only right to place before readers such a web of ingenuity spun by so distinguished a scholar. It is the meeting-point of the extremes, Presbyterian Teutonism and Ultramontanism. For I need not add that the supposed position is laid down as a truly historical and logical step from episcopacy toward the supremacy of Rome. The only answer which can be of value is an ingenuous statement of the whole contents of the Letters. To this, as I have tried to give it above, and to the Letters themselves I confidently refer for that answer. 3. 0/ Felicissimus as a more faithful representative of the Church. O. Ritschl's Thesis is that the consolidation of the Episcopate was a mere policy framed by an unscrupulous energetic man from moment to moment to meet the exigencies of his position, and his Doctrine of Unity a theory evolved to justify his practice. In de- veloping this thesis he reconstructs the history of the Faction of Felicissimus. It is impossible to give more than an outline of his tedious labour, but the facts must, he maintains, have been these ^ ' Cyprian's Commission and Relief Fund, i.e. his own means, were ' devoted to the creation of a party by bribery and place-giving and to ' the overthrow of the Presbyters' influence at Carthage. Felicissimus ' was probably put forward by the Presbyters to defeat the plan. ' Being only a Deacon his supposed threats cannot have been really 'formidable, and therefore the adherence to him, which was very ex- ' tensive, betokens only the amount of suspicion felt about Cyprian. ' His success actually drove the Commission away from Carthage, and * therefore Cyprian's statement that the pluriini were on his side is ' untrue. ^ Ep. 41 exhibits Cyprian's embarrassment. He would fain ex- ' communicate Felicissimus for his treatment of the Commission, but tius brought the information. Ep. 8. i. Carthaginian cleric and refugee. Bassianus appears from the company ^ pp. 57 — 65. he is mentioned in, Ep. 22. 3, to be a 154 CHURCH AFFAIRS A.D. 250. * that is hopeless ; he falls back on previous offences, and after all 'reserves the decision for his coming council. The true reason for * Felicissimus' excommunication is his simple resistance to Cyprian. * If Augendus adheres to him he is to be excommunicated for this 'alone. Between the others excommunicated the only tie is their 'opposition to Cyprian. The Commission had first applied to the ' Clergy of Carthage to issue an excommunication. As they declined '■to do this, they issued it themselves. In their own opinion therefore ' they must have been always competent to do it, and having three * bishops on their board — the number competent to ordain — competent 'they were. They returned to Carthage, and there added to the 'proscribed two names more {Ep. 42). ' The five hostile presbyters acquired their influence after the ex- *■ communication by the clergy of Gains of Dida. It is seen in the ' refusal oi the same clergy to excommunicate Felicissimus. It comes ' out strongly when the Commission did it in spite of the clergy ; ' they then had with them the majority of the Christians. The five 'were the ^lite of the clergy, and enjoyed that popular confidence ' which Cyprian forfeited by his absence. ' To them Cyprian now attributes the original opposition to his ' episcopate. He kindles good Christians against the Lapsed (such ' is the view of Ep. 43) ; sees that he can never win back the followers 'of Felicissimus, and must rid the Church — and himself — of them. 'Accordingly the Episcopal Council of A.D. 251 excommunicates ' Felicissimus and his followers. ' Thus the Episcopal power is organized in order to fight Cyprian's 'battles, and, in order to afford it a basis, the doctrine of the Unity ' of the Church is developed out of his consciousness.' Of course no practical theory of polity is developed without events, but having already drawn out the real events as accurately as I can (and the evidence is abundant), I can only suggest further that Ritschl's heavy pages be read with the original letters side by side, and with an honest intent to reconcile some and to recognise other of the incidents— if it be possible. 4. Of the Evanescence of Novattis under Ritschl's Analysis. I desire fairly to give the gist of several laborious pages ^ : — 'All our information about Novatus rests upon the statements of * Cyprian. If we reflect on what is credible or historically imaginable ' we cannot admit that Novatus was in Rome supporting Novatian's 1 pp. 68—75. III. I. CHURCH AFFAIRS A.D. 250. 155 ' election. The belief is due to the fact that Cornelius having men- * tioned him in general terms, Cyprian, delighted with a weak parallel * which suggested itself to him, stated that Novatus advanced in ' arithmetical progression from ordaining a Deacon at Carthage to 'consecrating a Bishop at Rome. It is unlikely too that Novatus ' should have left Carthage for fear of proceedings, since he would 'have known that he should be condemned in his absence. Unlikely ' that Cyprian should have warned Cornelius against him, just as he ' was about leaving Rome. Novatus' connection with past turmoil ' in Carthage rests on no proof : it is built up out of the combinations 'of Cyprian's fancy. It is later on when Novatus is named in con- 'nection with them.' And I will categorically touch on these '' criticis7ns^ as they de- serve : — The fact is that Cyprian makes no statements about Novatus in Rome. He comments and moralises freely on what Cornelius tells him. An inventor of statements would never have cast them in a mere allusive form. We do not look for proof in such a case ; the proof is notoriety. The rule of three on Novatus' progress from Carthage to Rome and so from Deacon-making to Bishop- making is a mere play of rhetoric on something told to him. The critic escapes the snares of humour. The fear of judgment going by default is not a common deter- rent from absconding. Why should it deter Novatus? As to his earlier influence against Cyprian, 'agitators' and 'certain persons' are alluded to from the very first. It is the manner of Cyprian and of many early Christian writers not to name adversaries so long as reticence is possible^. And why should Cyprian describe the career of Novatus to Cornelius until he heard that Novatus was busy near to him ? Again, Ritschl finds it of course necessary to expunge^ ac Novati from all manuscripts and editions of Ep. 47. And so Novatus vanishes. But yet again Ritschl himself describes Cyprian as penning Ep. 52. 2 in a state of 'passionate excitement' at the thought of Novatus' return from Rome to Carthage. If that were so. Why had Novatus been to Rome ? What had he there been doing ? And what was he expected to do in Carthage ? Nothing ? ^ See note 4, p. 160. own use when both conjunctions are to - May I point out to students that mean aw;/ (not both...a7ui)'i Compare ^ et Novatiani ac Novati' is Cyprian's ^/. 46 V/ actui or laudibus.' 156 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. Question 4. The Decision on the Lapsed. The primary question before the Council had been what should be the position of the Lapsed ? Its determination had been postponed first to the examination of the case of Felicissimus, and secondly to the unexpected outbreak of division in the election to the Roman bishopric. Both of these nevertheless depended on the solution of the original issue. Though the latter involved questions so much wider, yet its origin was in the identical question before the Council; and its present aspect illustrated the policy of free and early conciliar action such as had been concerted in Africa. The decision on Felicissimus was as we have seen a necessary preliminary to that action. These two decisions indeed had cleared off the extreme views on either side. Neither the lax nor the purist view of Discipline could now be reopened. Cyprian lets us know that the discussion was nevertheless a prolonged and earnest one^ that the basis assumed alike by the advocates of lenity and of severity was an examination of Scripture, and that they conceived as a distinct ideal for their guidance the mercifulness of the character of God^ Cyprian had bestowed deepest attention on the subject. He had developed his conclusions in his elaborate paper On THE Lapsed which he read to an audience who cannot have been less moved by the simple pathos with which it fixed the tragedies passing before their eyes, than they were strengthened by its wisdom and charity®. Nevertheless their leaning was to a course still milder than he suggested, and 1 Ep. 55- 6 ' Scripturis [diu] ex utra- the Roman Council mentioned Ep. 55.6 que parte prolatis,' Ep. 54. 3 ' diu mul- to June or July, tumque tractatu inter nos habito.' ^ Ep. 54. 4, Ep. 55. 5, 6. The libelli ^ The verbal resemblance of 54. 3 read to the Council were the De Lapsis and 55. II, 25 shews that the date of and Z>£ Unitate. See pp. 174, sqq. on the letter to Antonian was very soon the former, after the events, and therefore brings III. I. QUESTION 4. THE DECISION ON THE LAPSED. 1 57 they were much less disposed than he to give the martyrs a voice in their decisions. The primate was loyal to the deliberative power he had evoked. The encyclical which contained the resolutions is lost^ But its gist, and even its minutiae, are extricable from an admirable letter of Cyprian, The Epistle to Antonian is in fact a pamphlet in length not far short of that On the Lapsed. Antonian was an African bishop who, while forwarding letters of adherence to Cornelius, privately acquainted Cyprian with certain difficulties which he had felt in doing so, and received from him, after the Council closed, a restatement of the whole case. It would seem then that Cyprian in council abandoned more than one of his own suggestions. He admitted that the postponement until death of the reconciliation of the Libellatics was a severity only applicable to the very hour of persecution, when retrieval through a new confession was yet an open though terrible way. Certainly if penance was ever so worked in times of 'Peace' this could only be because Lapse was infrequent and Return more infrequent still. After peace had been once restored to a Church which had suffered from Lapse upon a great scale, the sentence of life-long exclusion was felt to be a cruel and an impolitic^ measure. For the utilitarian aspect of the question was a really noble one. In the later struggle with the Donatists Optatus* warns them that the ' Passion for Innocence ' in the Church while practically unattainable could not, even if attained, be higher than the ' Utility of Unity.' Upon the natural tendency towards strictness felt by the unfallen he ^ Such a document is indicated in restoration of the Libellatici only, not Ep. ad Anton. 55. 6. For 'singula of the Lapsed. placitorum capita ' has no relation to ^ Necessitati temporum succubuisse et the form, nor 'ut examinarentur ' to multorum saluti providendum putasse, the contents of De Lapsis. This letter Ep. 55. 7. to Antonian is prior to the Second * Opt. vii. 3. Council, A.D. 252, since it treats of the IS8 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. adds, ' The keys of Heaven were committed to the Apostle * who fell, not to so many who stood firm ; it was ordained ■'that a Sinner should open the gate to Innocence, for an ' Innocent one might have closed it against Sinners.' Considering therefore that penance without hope of miti- gation could have no practical value, but that a return to pagan life or at best an adherence to some more tolerant schism would be its natural result, while on the other hand every spiritual help was requisite for persons who might shortly be exposed again to persecution*, it was by this Council ruled: — I. That an individual examination should be held not only of the facts, but further into the motives or induce- ments which had been presented to the weakness of the Libellatici. II. That the Lapsed who had not sacrificed should be restored after a considerable term of penance, and after public application to their bishop for restoration ^ III. That those who had sacrificed should be restored at the hour of death' if they had continued penitent. IV. That such as had refused penance and public con- fession until they were in fear of death should not then be received*. The Council did not rule, but Cyprian assumes, that one reconciled as a dying man would not be again excluded if he ^ Ep. 55. 6, 7, 14, 15. carissime frater, sicut quibusdam vide- 2 Traheretur diu pa^nitentia et roga- tiir, libellaticos cum sacrificatis sequari retur dolenter paterna dementia, Ep. oportere.' The statement in the text 55. 6. is, I think, accurate. 3 55. 17. Fechtrup, p. I'zg, alleges * Ep. 55. 23. Ep. 55. 6 to establish against Dupin The teaching of Dionysius is exactly and Hefele that Rule I, when applied to the same in the beautiful fragment of ' sacrificati, ' implies that some of these his epistle to Conon piinted in Pitra's might be restored earlier. But although Spicilegium Solesmn. I. p. 15 from the Cyprian says that their fault was of Bodleian cod. Baroccian. CXCVi. fo. 75, various shades, he draws the widest an excerpt of which afterwards passed distinction between them and the Li- for a Canon by a confusion at first with bellatici. 'Nee tu existimes, Ep. 55. 13, Conon. Pitra, op. cit., I. p. xiv. art. v. III. II. QUESTION 4. THE DECISION ON THE LAPSED. 159 recovered. With a humour which he sometimes exercises upon over-rigidity he observes that the man cannot be re- quired to die, or his spiritual guide to insist on his decease, in order to complete the conditions of his restoration. In his own strain he adds that, if GoD Himself respites him this is one more mark of the Divine pity and fatherliness. Added life takes up the pledge of holy life\ The Resolutions were communicated to Cornelius, to Fabius^ patriarch of Antioch, and doubtless to the other great sees, and the Council then broke up. It was the June^ of A.D. 251. II. Advance of Novatianism — Return of The Confessors. Meantime intimation had been sent to Africa by Cornelius that his rivals shewed no disposition to sit tamely down under the rejection of their embassy. A confessor Augendus who conveyed this news was speedily followed by Nicephorus, the acolyte, bearing a private note with fuller particulars of the energetic movement with which Cyprian was to be pressed home^ A second Novatianist delegacy had already started, and in it the principal 'authors' of the movement. Primus and Dionysius we know but by name ; Nicostratus was a freed- man, probably rich ; he had been one of the powerful Seven Deacons of Rome; after sharing the prison of Moyses and Maximus he was now permanently alienated from the ^ Compare Cyprian's handling above. ^ Or July, Lips. pp. 305, 6. Yet Fechtrup, p. 127, mistakenly attributes scarcely so, considering the length the provision to the Council ; and which this would give to the Cartha- points out that other Councils were more ginian Council which met in April, and severe; e.g. Nicsn. can. 13. Arausic. the unhealthy season to which it would I. can. 3. Epaon. can. 36. Perhaps throw the Roman Council, frauds compelled them to be so. * Ep. 50. 2 Eus. vi. 43. Cyp. Epp. 55. 6, 45. 4. l6o CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. Church. He is accused by Cornelius not only of embezzling church funds (which might mean that he had carried sums over to what he held to be the true succession), but also of having defrauded the patroness to whom he owed his free- dom \ Such reports however easily passed into circulation, and perhaps shew little but that he had funds at disposal, just as the accusations of avarice against Novatus have doubtless to do with the pecuniary organization of the sect^. Still more notable delegates were the Bishop Evaristus', who had been one of Novatian's consecrators, and to whom his 'Commons' had instantly elected a successor; and lastly Novatus himself, once more on his own ground, fortified by his success at Rome*. The ground was however less secure behind him than he trusted. Cyprian does not hesitate to ascribe the next act of the drama in some measure to the withdrawal from Rome of his great influence ^ The very day after he reached Carthage with his colleagues, the acolyte of Cornelius sailed into the port, and with the warning we have mentioned he delivered a second letter. He had in fact hurried on board ' the very ' hour, the very moment,' says Cornelius, ' of the conclusion ' of a Station in which Maximus, with his fellow confessors ^ Ep. 50. The Liberian Catalogue observes that the name of Novatian is states that he was made bishop in Africa, never mentioned by Cornelius in any which is possible, but may be due to a letter. He employs various periphrases, confusion with Maximus. and in one place, to avoid speaking of ^ Ep. 50, avaritia Hartel for common his baptism, has ireptxvOels fKa^ev with- reading praviiaie ; cf. Ep. 52. 2. out rb ^dirria-fia (Eus. vi. 43, Routh, * See p. 136. III. p. 67). Cyprian, on the other * The omission of the name of Nova- hand, who had not the bitterness of tian, designated only 'hujus scelerati Cornelius, evidently plays on the con- hominis,' led some to regard this (50) currence of names and acts, 'Nova- letter of Cornelius as a fragment. Cou- tiani et Novati novas...machinas' stant however (Routh, J?. Sac. III. pp. 'Novatus... rerum novarum semper 31 — 33) shewed that to drop the name cupidus.' Ep. 52. i, 2. of objectionable persons was a common * Ep. 52. 2. practice with popes and others. Routh III. II. RESTORATION OF ROMAN CONFESSORS. l6l 'Urban, Sidonius, Macarius and most of their adherents had 'rejoined the main body of the Church'.' A rumour had been rife of this return from the Nova- tianist camp'. Cornelius was characteristically the last person to credit it. At some gathering of presbyters, attended by five bishops but not by Cornelius, Urban and Sidonius appeared to express on the part of Maximus and his party a desire for reunion. Some feeling of distrust decided the clergy to decline to treat with representatives, and a large body of Novatianists agreed to attend. The main ground of ill-will against them was the calumnious nature of the circular letters issued so widely and effectively in their name. They disclaimed the responsibility and even the knowledge of these. ' Nothing had been further from their thoughts than ' an abandonment of the Church. They had been led to ' question simply the title of Cornelius.' Their accusation against themselves was the sanction which they had given to the new ordination. It was not in human nature that they should escape without some invective. They however pressed for pardon without needless humiliation. Nothing further could be determined without the bishop. Upon a second day he convened a full presbytery with the five bishops. Individual opinions were pronounced and re- ^ The date of this must have been says they returned to the Church upon before the Roman Council (see p. his departure from Rome. 163), since otherwise they would have This date disposes of Ritschl's belief been excommunicated, which it does that Novatus himself appeared before not appear that they were, and pos- the Council. The auditis eis which he terior to the Carthaginian Council, since quotes from Ep. 45. 4 refers to \i\^ first Cyprian makes no allusion to it as embassy of which Novatus was not a sitting, in his letters to or about the member. confessors, and he read the account of 2 Rettberg, who is always assuming their return (^/. 51. I ) to the Church, intrigues, relates how Cyprian took not the bishops. It must also have advantage of Novatus' coming to Car- been directly after Novatian's second thage to press them to leave Novatian, embassy, described in the same bundle and succeeded. The notion is simply of letters from Cornelius; for Novatus negatived by possibilities of time, was on that embassy, and Cyprian B. II l62 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. corded*. The confessors, who again appeared, took the same dignified ground as before. Allowances must be made on both sides. They listened to an exhortation to sincerity. But* they simply asked to be received back again without penance or disgrace'. ' They had been imposed upon. Facts had ' been misrepresented to them. They had never intended to ' set up a second bishop. The essential unity of the episcopate ' was clear to them as to others. They had wished for one ' true bishop, and they had not, until undeceived, recognised 'such an one in Cornelius.' Charity and policy alike forbade harshness towards such sufferers and such penitents ; the laity impulsively embraced them, they wept for joy, they broke out into loud thanksgivings. The presbyters opened their circle and took Maximus* back to his old place near the LocuLus OF Maximus. ^ Sententias...quas etsubjectas leges : Ep. 49. 2, verbatim, I believe, like those of the viith Council, a.d. 256. ^ ' Omnibus invicem remissis.' ' De- siderantes...ut exhiberent,' singular con- struction unless hortabamiir, or some such word, has slipped out, Ep. 49. 2. ' I can assign no other force to their requests 'ut ea quae ante fuerant gesta in oblivionem cederent nuUaque eorum mentio haberetur proinde atque si nihil asset vel commissum vel dictum,' &c. taken in conjunction with Ep. 49. 2, Cornelius' statement, 'omnia ante gesta remisimus Deo,' and the point which the confessors made of it in Ep. 53 'omnibus rebus praetermissis et judicio Dei servatis.' •• See de Rossi, Roma Sotterranea, vol. I. pp. 295, 6, Tav. xix. 5, vol. 11. p. 184. Though the name is common, yet it is scarcely likely that another unknown Maximus, also a presbyter, should have found a place, with his name in Greek and in lettering of that age, in the catacomb chapel of, and so close to the side of, the bishop Cor- nelius, whom the influence oithis Maxi- mus so largely contributed to establish. The statement that he was martyred under Valerian, Baron, ad Nov. 19, Baluze ap. Routh, R. S. III. p. 39, is answered by Tillemont, t. 11 1. The Depositio Martirum (Mommsen, op.cit. p. 632) has this entry, Mense Julio vi. Id. 'Et in Maximi [sc. coemeterio] III. III. RESTORATION OF ROMAN CONFESSORS. 1 63 bishop, from whom death itself was no more to part him for ever. The laymen of the schism were desired at once to resume full communion'. This generous treatment probably justified the expecta- tions of Cornelius and made recantation easier to others. The temperate firmness and the serene joy of Cyprian's remonstrance and congratulation to the confessors on their secession and their return place the 46th and 54th letters among the most delicate specimens of the collection, and are alone enough to give Cyprian a foremost rank among wise and loving saints. Nor was Dionysius'' behindhand in greet- ing their returning steps. But to Cyprian the return was more than a glad reunion — more than an incident of the Gospel of Peace. It was a conclusive evidence of the truth of his theory. ' This error being gone,' he exclaims, ' light ' is shed in all hearts : it is demonstrated that the Catholic ' Church is One, and admits neither schism nor division. ' Separation has no note of permanence ^' III. Continued action against Novatianistn — Roman Coimcil of A.D. 251, Antiochene of K.T>. 252. The winding up of the Carthaginian Council brought us (as we saw) to the June (scarcely the July) of A.D. 25 1^ nor a.d. 251. can any long interval® have elapsed before the Roman bishop Silani. Hunc Silanum martirem No- letters, rots a^ois To\noi% ixeTadeixivois vati furati sunt.' There is no cemetery iirl ttjv iKKXrjffiav. of Maximus. Did the Novatianists ^ Ep. 51 ad fin. attempt to claim him still? •• See p. 159. ^ The Nicene Council similarly re- * The date October given by Pearson ceived Novatianist presbyters back to {Annal. Cypr. A.D. 251, xiii.) and their full rank and the Collation of adopted by Fechtrup (p. 139) again Carthage {411) the Donatists. depends on the radical mistake as to * Euseb. vi. 46 mentions his two the time of Cornelius' election. Out II — 2 164 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. with a Council of sixty others from Italy and with many presbyters and deacons, accepted and promulgated the same decisions, and excommunicated Novatian on account of his inhumane doctrines. The right direction of Roman and Italian opinion was (as we have seen) aided by the powerful sympathy of Dionysius. He had followed up his bracing advice to Novatian^ and his reply to Cornelius by a letter, singularly called 'diaconalV addressed to the Romans themselves 'through Hippolytus'' ; a second direct to them 'on peace and likewise on repent- ance ' — that is, on the Restoration of the Lapsed ; one to the Confessors, while still adherents of Novatian*, and two more after their return. It seems to require more knowledge than we possess to enable us to decide whether the Hippolytus, through whom the first letter to the Romans was transmitted, was the great ' Elder"^ ' and philosopher, whose episcopal work though not of this synod, called by Jerome (who 61) knew Eusebius' list of Hippolytus' treats it as almost one with the Car- writings and had 'found' {repperi) thaginian) 'Synodus Romana Italica many more of those which Eusebius (vi. Africana' {Lib. de Vir. Illustr. c. 22) said were to be found (eCpois 6.v). 66), Labbe, l. pp. 865 — 868, misled Both name the irpoy Map/ct'wi'a and the by Baronius, has made three. Cf. 7r/36sd7rdcrosTasai/5^crets 'ad versus omnes Zonaras xii. 20, ed. Dindorf, iii. pp. hsereses.' ^34> ^35- ^ Eus. H. E. vi. 46 ...In hk ry toO ^ Eus. J/. E. vi. 45. Noi/arou avucpepo/j.^vois yvuiixri. * See Note at end of this Section. Mai, Classicorum Auctt. e Vat. Codd. ' Eus. H.E. vi. 46 e|^y Tavry Kai editorum t. X. 1838, p. 484, has a kripa. ri.% ivi.aToKi) rots kv 'Pw^uj; ro\) fragment of Dionysius which, from its Aiovvjlov (piperai Smkopikt) Sia 'Iiriro- peculiar touches on 'Peace,' indicating \ijTov. Toh avToh di aXKijv, k.t.X. a context on that topic, I rather ascribe Jerome, de Viris Illustr. 69 'Diony- to this letter named by Eusebius than sius...in Cypriani et Africanae synodi to one of the three treatises 'on Peni- dogma consentiens (v. p. 356 infr.) de tence' named by Jerome, to which Mai htereticis rebaptizandis ad diversos refers it (viz. ad Fabium Antiock., ad plurimas misit Epistulas, quae usque Laodicenses, ad Armenios). Jerome, de hodie exstant, et ad Fabium, Antio- Vir. III. 69. chenae urbis episcopum, scripsit de * SeeBp.Lightfoot.^/^j'/'^/iV/aM^'rj, paenitentia, et ad Romanos per Hip- pt. I., S. Clement of Rome, vol. II., poly turn alteram, &c.' Jerome (op. cit. p. 435, ed. 1890. III. III. COUNCIL AT ROME. ' 16$ ascertained by Eusebius, or, more strangely, by Jerome*, lay among ' the nationalities ' in the Port of Rome. If this were possible the idea is historically attractive. For though there is no colour for attributing to him actual Novatianism, yet his former attitude towards two prede- cessors of Cornelius, — with whom he 'was at daggers drawn V and whom he so relentlessly depicts, — gave ground enough for his being thought not unlikely to take the Puritan side, as afterwards he was believed to have done'. That position had been a right but very fierce resistance to a low tone of doctrine and morals. Neither side in Rome would now be prompt to appeal to him, charged as they stood the one with laxity, the other with irregularity ; while he, at his great age, with his profound study of the working of sects, was the very man through whom the great Alexandrine would naturally ap- proach the Romans*. Nor would any policy be so likely to secure his cooperation, which was of serious consequence, with the Council. It bears the singular title of 'A Diaconic Epistle through Hippolytus to them in Rome.' Cyprian approved the mingled severity and moderation of the language of the Roman Council, and letters of assent came in from many Italian bishops who had not attended it. Next, in pursuance of its resolutions, (if it had not been rather a subject of the programme ^) a bishop Trofimus, ^ Eus. H.E. vi. 20 ...'In-TriXin-os, kri- the Inscription by Damasus, while Da- pas -wov KoX a.\iTo% vpoecTTios iKKX-rjalat. masus cautiously states that he proceeds Jer. de Virr. III. 61 'cujusdam ecclesiae only on popular belief. 'Hippolytus episcopus, nomen quippe urbis scire non fertur premerent cum jussa tyranni potui.' See Lightfoot, op. cit., p. 434. Presbyter in scisma semper mansisse ' 'At daggers drawn with the heads Novati....H3ec audita refert Damasus of the Roman Church.' Id. p. 412. probat omnia Christus.' De Rossi, ^ Prudentius, Peristeph. xi. 19 'In- Insert. Chrr. Urb. Rom. il. p. 82. venioHippolytum, qui quondam schisma •* On Chronological and other Diffi- Novati Presbyter attigerat, nostra se- culties see Note at end of Section, quenda negans.' Cf. vv. 28 ff. ' It seems to me, though I do not Lightfoot, op. cit., pp. 328, 424, has know that the allusion has been noticed, shewn that Prudentius' account of the that the words '■tractatu cum collegis Novatianism of Hippolytus comes from plurimis habito susceptus est Trofimus * i66 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. who had offered incense in the troubles and been imitated by his flock, was together with them restored to communion by Cornelius. It is not denied that his people's attach- ment to him and the assurance that they would follow his return, eased the reception of Trofimus. But Cyprian, who defends the fact against misrepresentations forwarded by Novatianists to Africa, denies on his own knowledge that he was suffered to resume his Orders*. It is improbable that a lapsed bishop would be obliged or allowed to do public penance. The statement itself that Trofimus 'with penance of entreaty confessed his old fault' is against it, and it is said that he made 'satisfaction,' although it is presently added that 'the return of the brethren made satisfaction for himV i^Ep. 55. ri) must refer to this Roman Council of June or July. * ' Sacerdotii,' Ep. 55. 11, shews that Trofimus was a bishop not a priest (as Fechtrup). ^P- 55- ^2 ' Trofimo et turificatis'' leaves it short of certain whether Tro- fimus himself had gone so far in his lapse. And while in the order of this Epistle the case of the sacrificati is treated separately from his in another section, and the restoration of his Orders is expressly disproved, Ritschl (p. 79) describes him as Sacrificaiiis, as restored corruptly to his Episcopal place, and asks ' What defence is it to allege, like Cyprian, that Trofimus had after the example of former bishops sacrificed himself for his flock, and lapsed in order to keep them together? ' This ridiculous question exhibits Ritschl's rendering of 'conligendis fratribus nos- tris carissimus frater noster necessitate succubuit' {Ep. 55. It). Frater is of course not Trofimus at all but Cor- nelius himself, and the necessiias is the obligation which he felt to receive Trofimus back (though only as a layman) in accordance with precedents, for the sake of recovering with him the whole diocese. In Ep. 67. 6 Cornelius is particularly mentioned as concurring with the whole episcopate in the im- possibility of reinstating lapsed bishops in holy orders. [He restored one of Novatian's consecrators only to Lay- Communion, Cornel, ap. Eus. vi. 43.] A false argument is usually rested on mistakes rather more subtle than these. Fechtrup sees in his restitution the 'special occasion' of Novatian's seces- sion. Rather too acute; since (i) it must have been known in Rome that Trofimus was not restored to Orders, though it was reported in Africa that he was; and (2) his restitution was after the secession, so far as we can tell. ^ Can. Ap. 25 degrades clerics with- out excommunication since one act is not twice punished. [Basil, Ep. 188 (214), applies this to a deacon as being incapable of restoration to orders.] Concil. Eliber. can. 76 fixes penance for deacons, Neocces. can. i for priests, without restoration, Niccen. can. 16 in- volves it for both. Leo I, Ep. 167 (2), III. III. COUNCIL AT ANTIOCH. 167 As for other great centres, Novatian had announced to them his election as he did to Carthage', and not always without effect. His high tone was impressive*. Even Alex- andria had needed a strong remonstrance from its prudent and gentle chief, Dionysius the Greatl To the Egyptian church also at large, and to Conon, bishop of Hermopolis, in particular*, Dionysius addressed papers on the Lapsed and their Repentance, carefully distinguishing for them the different classes of offending'; nor can his letter to Origen on Martyrdom have been unconnected with the discussion. To the Armenians he wrote on the same question with the same precision* as to the Egyptians; again to the Laodicenes under Thelymidres. But about no See was such anxiety imminent as about Antioch. There the Patriarch Fabius had a certain leaning towards the Schisml Dionysius wrote 'much' to him on ' Repentance,' and so free was the East from some of the Western dangers, that he is able to lay great stress on the view taken by the martyrs. 'As they accepted these penitents, 'united with them in prayers, renewed social intercourse with 'them^ so let us; not constituting ourselves critics and re- 'visers of their judgment^' 'Christ Himself — as in the case 'of Serapion*", a lapsed man who was endowed with miraculous 'insight before being restored to communion — has declared His 'acceptance of their contrition.' The arguments of Dionysius were followed up by Cyprian's announcement to Fabius of says custom excludes penance for re- * tSia ypaa/3t ^«'ya> rovrovi «« yf hto-Kovovi (ivai iroXtugf dWa fioi doKovai rav ye vvu biaKOViKcirepoi ytyovfvai Koi ficiWov ocoi t' eV- nopl^dv TTJ TTokfi av tTTfdifKi ', Xenophon, (Econotn. VII. 41 onorap dv- €Tri(mjfiova ra/xteiar koi dicucovias irapaKa^oiKra «jri Aristoph. Plout. 1 1 70 Iv fvdfa>s BiaKopiKos (ivai 8ok^s, may be applied in the same sense to a Letter of practical advice. IV. Constitutional Results of tJie First Council. All these evidences of activity and wide-spread communi- cation are made still more interesting by the observation of certain constitutional points which the decision of the Carthaginian Council involved. We note four such. First, the submission of the views of the primate himself to his Council. They were substantially modified. The course which he proposed to them in the De Lapsis was less lenient than theirs* (although even this was to be still more softened in the course of the next year), and he was aware of the change produced in himself ^ Charged with the inconsistency, he does not deny it. Again the Novatianist deputation appealed from the Council to him as a sympathizer with their rigorism. But in fact purism in him was sub- ordinate to his broader views on Unity. He evoked a spiritual power as wiser, more liberal, stronger and more divine than any solitary utterance, and he remained loyal to it. Seco7idly, Cyprian had in his epistolary proposals assigned weight to the verdict and recommendations of the martyrs in procuring reconciliation. The Council wholly ignores these intercessions. Fifty and sixty years later the Letters of Confessors might, by canons of Elvira and Aries, be ' Ep. 54- 4. " Ep. 55. 3- III. IV. CONSTITUTIONAL RESULTS OF IT. I73 exchanged for Episcopal letters* ; value being thus attached to them while the proper regimen of the Church was formally- supported. But the Council of Carthage is in its reaction strong enough to pass over in silence the 'merits' which had lately threatened all organization. For now comes out the unity of their decisions as against both of the schismatical leaders; since it is definitively settled, thirdly, against Novatian, that there are no remissible offences which it is beyond the power of the regular organization of the Church to remit, hx\^ fourthly , against Felicissimus, that no sanctity", con- ferring authority to assign terms of communion or remit sin, resides in any class or person save in the body of the Church with its authentic administrators ^ The principles then which had now been solidified into legis- lation specifically invested the primaeval Christian institution of episcopacy with all the functions of government, and accord- ingly the private sentiments of the metropolitan were, with his cheerful consent*, overruled, while his past acts as bishop of Carthage were ratified. No representations against a bishop once seated were to be admissible^ The Resolu- tions went forth in the name of the Bishops only. 1 Cone. Eliber. A.D. 305-6, can. 25 ' We must not say the administrators ' omnis qui attulerit literas confessorias, alone. The function of the laity is sublato nomine confessoris, eo quod om- repeatedly, though not very explicitly, nes sub hacnominis gloria passim concu- urged. In £/. 64. i it is an objection to tiant simplices, communicatorise ei dan- one readmission that it was made 'sine dse sunt litterae.' Cone. Arel. (314), can. petitu et conscientia plebis.' 9 ' De his qui confessorum literas affe- •* ...scias me nihil leviter egisse sed... runt, placuit ut, sublatis iis Uteris, alias omnia ad commune concilii nostri con- accipiantcommunicatorias.' Hefelehas silium distulisse...et nunc ab his non not understood the application of these recedere quae semel in concilio nostro de canons. communi conlationeplacuerunt.... Ep. ^ Perhaps the miraculous argument 55. 7. in the De Lapsis from instances of ' Gravitati nostrse negavimus conve- divine anger against the irregularly ad- nire ut colleg?e nostri jam delecti mitted is meant to meet the particular et ordinati...ventilari ultra honorem... feeling which rested on the exceptional pateremur. Ep. 44. 2. sanctity of the martyrs. 174 CYPRIANS FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. And now if we remember that each bishop was the represen- tative of a free election, and their assembly a free assembly of equals, — the only free elections, the only free, the first represen- tative assembly in the world — ^we shall see that Episcopacy had virtually taken its place among Roman Institutions, informed with Roman strength and Roman respect for Law, summing in itself, and disparting to its members powers judicial and executive, reserving to itself all appeals, and originating legis- lation. It was an Institution not only fraught with the ruin of polytheism but rich with the freedom and the order of the coming society. V. Corollaries : — Puritanistn : Saint-Merit : Flight from Suffering. The De Lapsis. Cyprian's Letter to the Confessors on their return contains a passage of about twenty lines which Augustine cites in full no less than three times in separate works \ as containing the absolute Scriptural answer to Puritan separations. It is the earliest exposition of the parable of the Tares, and of S. Paul's image of the Palace with its Vessels precious or vile as accu- rate presentments of the lasting conditions of Church Society. No human right exists to eradicate tares, or to break the poorest earthen vessels in pieces. Freedom to become good corn, or make a golden urn of itself belongs to every soul. The forfeiture of light will ever mark assumptions of the divine judgeship. Against Novatianism, Donatism, and how many long perpetuated species of Puritanism and Calvinism, rudimen- tary inorganic forms of the first reaction of converted spirits ^ To Macrobius, Ep. io8, c. ro. Against the Donatist Cresconius, ii. 43, and Gaudentius, ii. 3. III. V. COROLLARIES FROM FIRST COUNCIL. 1 75 against the kingdom of sin, do these few words bear witness. The Letter was accompanied by an interesting gift : — Copies of his treatises On THE Lapsed and Of the Unity OF THE Catholic Church. Of the latter we shall speak presently. To postpone with Bp. Pearson* the date of the former to November is to attribute to Cyprian a publication out of date at its appearance, and counsels upon which he had already improved. 'The Avenging' of which he speaks in the open- ing is no doubt the destruction of Decius in that November*. But while large parts of the book, as we have it, wear all the marks of an oration', other parts never can have been so delivered, and are plainly to be reasoned out in the study. In fact we have in our hands the edition published some months later ; as we have in several of Cicero's orations ; and to this edition belongs the actual exordium. On the other hand the strong and immediate Apology for Fugitives marks the moment when prejudice against his own retirement has not yet died out*. It is a work of a high order. Its literary form is excellent, but far beyond that praise is the power with which it lifts the contentions of parties and the vexing questions of the moment into a region in which they can be seen as deductions from leading principles, and determined on high grounds. So to rise, so to uplift is to the full as difficult in church politics as in mundane controversies. And the high aim is effected, and the tone sustained without one failure. Its outline may be sketched as follows : — After the close of a persecution an ideal position of p<^ Laps ii., iii. ^ Ann. Cypr. a.d. •251, c. xv. ^ See for example c. 2, when he 2 There is nothing in the overthrow speaks of confessors as present, and of Julius Valens or Priscus which would then addresses them. wear this aspect to Christians of the ^ c. 3. time. XIV. 1/6 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. spiritual influence is occupied by faithful sufferers, even by- voluntary exiles for conscience' sake ; and by those who had been faithful in danger, although not in actual suffering. To the Lapsed sympathy is due ; and his sympathy rings as true as his sense of discipline ; especially with those who had broken down under intensity of torture. Between these and others he draws a broad line. After shewing that Persecution is not without its good and useful service he proceeds to analyse the causes of Lapse which have been so wide-spread and so operative through the whole Church, — and that in spite of forewarnings, of the unnatural horrors of the very act, of all the given opportunities for avoiding it. He concludes that the secret is to be found in the world-leavened spirit of the Church. He next enters upon a close argument (i) with the party xxxvi. Qf jj^x readmission, (2) with the Confessors who promote it, and (3) with those of the Lapsed who seek it ; setting before them deterrent experiences and the dishonesty of the position. He concludes by an exhortation to honesty of confession, to seriousness of repentance and to activity in good works. High hope is yet in store for them. The book on the Lapsed has largely contributed to our narrative. Its teachings concerning the Eucharist, and its evidence upon contemporary Supernaturalism will be dis- cussed each in its own place. Upon Penitential Discipline, its views, equally remote from Protestant and Roman stan- dards, have been exemplified sufficiently. L Yet we may now further remark on the singularity of the relation in which Romanism stands to the Cyprianic view of the influence of interceding saints. Their merit, (Cyprian holds,) may aid sinners in the day of judgment, in the world to come\ But they cannot on earth reverse or disturb the organization and working order of the visible Church. ^ De Lapis, c. 17. III. V. CYPRIAN * OF THE LAPSED.' \^^ Departed martyrs are heard in the Apocalypse still praying to be avenged. How can they in that situation be the defenders of others*.? How ingenious then is the Romish combination of a supposed accumulation of meritorious treasure with its official dispensation by visible authorities! n. His opinion^ that there might be occasions when a man would not be justified in accepting the offered crown of martyrdom, and that flight from persecution in such circum- stances was 'a private confession of Christ as martyrdom is a public one,' must have saved to the Church valuable lives, although the problem of decision in any given case was not the least of the difficulties which arose between Christianity and heathenism. The eloquence of the De Lapsis seems almost perfect. The style has gained in lucidity though still here and there the touches are a little too ornamental. There are few finer passages than the triumphal ode in prose with which he cele- brates ' The White Cohort of Christ,' — the Confessors, men, women and children, restored to the Church after their war- fare. A touching instance of its felt power is an adaptation of two passages from it on an African inscription', Magus Innocent Child. Now thou beginnest existence among the Innocent. How stedfast now is Life to thee. How joyful thou art to be welcomed by thy MotJier the Church on thy return from this world. Let the sighing of our hearts be stilled. Let tlie weeping of our eyes be stayed. ^ De Lapsis, c. i8. turn excipet mater ecclesia cleoc | mun- ^ c. 3, cf. c. lo. do revertentem. conprematur pecto- ^ Pitra, Spicilegium Solesm. vol. IV. rum | gemitus. struatur fletus oculo- p. 536, MAGVS puer innocens | esse rum. The name Magus and a peculiar jam inter innocentis coepisti. | quam ai-rangement of cross and palm branch staviles tivi hsec vita est | quam te le- indicate a Carthaginian origin for the B. 12 178 CYPRIAN'S FIRST COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. Another beautiful passage^ and one which illustrates how the oratory of Cyprian sometimes piles itself up like that of Barrow, is worthy of quotation upon the obliteration of repentance by over hasty communion. ' This is no peace but war. He does not join the Church ' who parts from the Gospel. Why do men call an injury a ' blessing.? Why give to impiety the style of " Pity".-' How ' do they pretend to give communion, when they interrupt the * repentant lamentation of those who have need to weep in- ' deed.-* Such teachers are to the lapsed as hail on corn ; are ' as a star of tempest to trees ; the ravage of pestilence to •flocks and herds; the wildness of the storm to ships at sea. * The solace of everlasting life they steal away ; uproot the ' tree ; creep on with sickly suggestion to deadly infection ; ' wreck the ship ere it enter the harbour. Such easiness yields ' no peace, but annuls it ; gives no communion but hinders 'salvation. It is a fresh persecution, a fresh temptation. Our ' subtle foe employs it in his advances to assail the fallen yet ' again with unperceived devastations : stilling their lamenta- * tion, silencing their sorrows, wiping out the remembrance of ' their sin, hushing the groaning heart, quenching the weeping ' eyes, drowning the entreaties of long and full repentance ' toward a deeply offended Lord, — and all the while it stands ' written, " Remember from whence thou art fallen and re- ' pent. monument itself. The Cyprianic pas- monument. However j/a/wa/ttr is quite sages are £>e Lapsis (•2) Quam vos Cyprianic ; ' Si fontem siccitas statuat' Icvtos excipit mater ecclesia de prcelio ad Denietr. c. 7. The second and revert entes, (16) comprimatur pectorum third lines also of the inscription seem gemitus, statitattir flatus oculorum. It quoted, but I know not whence. has been suggested to correct statuatur [Hartel : Ireto sinu — pectoris.] as in itself absurd fo struatur by the ^ c. 16. III. V. CYPRIAN 'OF THE LAPSED.' 1 79 Mai's supposed Fragtnent of CyPrian. I can find no place among the Cyprianic argnings which could be filled by the fragment KYIIPIANOY Trept fitravolas (Mai, C/ass. Auctt. e Vat. codd. editorum Tomus X. pp. xxix., 485 — 7), nor, I suppose, could Mai, who says ' videtur hie Cyprianus Antiochenus.' For that however there is no colour. The point of the extract is that equal sufferings have no power to equalise the bad and good. Besides, if we except slight touches on S. Paul (which compare with Cyprian [Hartel], p. 304, 26 ; 511, 16 — 18) not one of the Scripture illustrations is Cyprianic in handling. The Frag- ment adduces Pharaoh, the Penitent Thief, Naboth, Ananias, who are never named by Cyprian ; Job is not taken from Cyprian's very distinct point of view ; Zedekiah, also, not in Cyprian, is curiously dealt with, much as in the spurious De Pascha Computus (Hartel, App.^ p. 258, 22; 260, 19). The contrast between Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar is that the former was consigned to feed beasts and the latter to feed with beasts. The realistic contrast between our Lord and the Thief lacks Cyprian's delicacy. Thus the Fragment's first air of resemblance to Cyprian melts away. 12- CHAPTER IV. CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' I. Time and Substance of the Treatise. The two or three leading motives of this victorious essay- were sketched at the point where we had to outline the principles on which the Council acted. The flesh and blood, so to speak, the colour and the warmth, claim nearer attention. The conjuncture at which it was read to the Council^ is discernible. Allusions to Novatian and to his having assumed the episcopate are plain and numerous'*. On the other hand there is no reference to Felicissimus and his fac- tion, a subject which in a paper on unity could not have been avoided unless it had been already disposed of. Allusions there are' to laxity and dissoluteness on the part of former confessors, but without any reference to methods to be adopted towards them, and only in illustration of the posi- tion that confessors (and so Novatian) were not secure from falling away. Thus the publication of the treatise is marked ^ Ep. 54. 4. In de Unitate c. 5 we interitum pro salute, &c. c. 8, uno in have a trace of its original character loco... multos past ores... c. 9, luporum as a Lecture or Essay addressed to feritas. c. 10, episcopi sibi nomen. colleagues: * Quam unitatem tenere c. 13, aemuli sacerdotum (bishops), firmiter et vindicare debemus maxime c. 15, sacramentum profanat. p. 17, episcopi qui \n QCc\QS\2^pmsidemus.' aliud altare. * c. 3, ministros justitiae asserentes... ^ c. •21. \ \ \ IV. I. 'THE PROBLEM OF THE UNITY.' l8l as after the settlement of the question of Felicissimus and before that of Novatian was determined. The position of Novatian was the problem of the hour. Heresy had hitherto been manifold and fantastic. But Schism, — meaning secession upon questions not originally doctrinal, — had been almost unknown. Now, however, be- ginning from the central see, the Church reeled with the new possibility of being cleft in twain upon an enquiry as to whether she possessed disciplinary power for the reconcilia- tion of her own penitents. The rationale of such a separation, its relation to the divinely preconceived economy — 'What such a portent meant.? How God could suffer it ? ' — was the question on many lips. ' It is not (they said) as though a new dogma or mysticism 'attracted the speculative and devout. But with teaching ' identical, amid undoubted holiness of life, we see Altar ' against Altar, Chair against Chair, in the metropolis of the ' world and Church.' This is the problem which Cyprian sets out to solve. ' The characteristic danger of the age when ' Christianity is for the first time widely accepted is the ' presentment of old error under Christian forms. ' Such danger can be detected only by distinct concep- ' tions as to the abode of truth, clearness as to the Scriptural ' idea of unity. These are not far to seek. When the Lord ' gave Peter his commission, " Whatsoever t/iou shalt bind ' shall be bound," and then renewed the commission to ' a// the Apostles, " Whosesoever sins ye remit they are ' remitted," it is obvious that He placed all alike on the ' same level*, yet, by first addressing Peter alone. He indicated 'the Oneness or Unity of the commission^ itself. So ever ^ Hoc erant utique et ceteri apostoli ^ Pacian, £p. 3, c. 11, repeats the quod fuit Petrus, pari consortio prae- illustration with clearness : Ad Petrum diti et honoris et potestatis, sed exor- locutus est Dominus, ad unum, ideo ut dium ab unitate proficiscitur, c. 4. unitatem fundaret ex uno, mox idipsum Then follows the famous interpolation, in commune praecipiens. — of which below. 1 82 'THE UNITY.' ITS BASIS AND HISTORY. 'since, this tangible bond of the Church's unity is her one ' united episcopate, an Apostleship universal yet only one — 'the authority of every bishop perfect in itself and inde- ' pendent, yet not forming with all the others a mere agglo- ' meration of powers, but being a tenure upon a totality, like 'that of a shareholder in some joint property*.' Such is his statement of the historic and existent con- ditions as against the threatening schism. He continues, ' The man who holds not this church unity, does he believe * that he holds the Faith ? He who contends against the ' Church, is he assured that he is within the Church } The 'Old Testament and the Pauline teaching harmonize with 'the Gospel as to this unity. And the episcopate above all ' is bound to exert itself in the maintenance of its own ' indivisible oneness.' Then follows the famous and beautiful passage on the natural analogies of this spiritual unity. 'There is one ' Church which outspreads itself into a multitude (of churches), 'wider and wider in ever increasing fruitfulness ; just as the 'sun has many rays but one only light, and a tree many ' branches yet one only heart, based in the clinging root ; ' and, while many rills flow off from a single fountain-head, ' although a multiplicity of waters is seen streaming away in 'diverse directions from the bounty of its abundant overflow, ' yet unity is preserved in the head-spring. Pluck a ray away ' from the sun's body ! unity admits no division of light. ' Break a bough off a tree ! once broken it will bud no more. ' Cut a rill off from the spring ! the rill cut off dries up. So ' too the Church flooded with the light of the Lord flings rays 'over the whole world. Yet it is one light which diffuses ' itself everywhere ; the unity of the body knows no partition. ' She reaches forth her boughs over the universal earth in the ' richness of her fertility, broadens ever more widely her ' bounteous flowing rivers, and still there is one head, one ^ Episcopatus unus est cujus a sinptlis in solidum pars tenetur. c. 5. IV. I. ITS ANALOGY. ITS VIOLATION. 1 83 'source, one mother, rich in ever succeeding births. Of her ' we are born ; her milk our nurture, her breath our life.' Scripture, he proceeds to shew, teems with examples and illustrations of this unity. * The Sons of Christ are the sons ' of his undefiled spouse. He cannot have God for his father ' who has not the Church for his mother.' The Ark of the Flood, the Seamless Coat, the one Flock, the one House untouched in the fall of Jericho, the one House of the Paschal Lamb, the ' one mind in the House ' of Israel, the Dove-like form and nature' of the Spirit, all are parables illustrating the inferences which we might draw from the Kingdom of Nature, and from the Unity of the Godhead, as well as from the direct injunctions of Christ, S. Paul and S. John^. The application is immediately pointed. ' There are now ' those who withdraw from the Church, and build them alien 'homes. This must be recognised as the departure of alien ' spirits.' A conception of Separatism is now distinctly obtained. ' Heresy itself has its place in relation to unity in the economy ' of God. It is a testing power. It is a prae-judicial separa- ' tion. ' Its promoters first assume preeminence among the ' unthinking, then holy orders, and then the episcopal pre- ' rogative, of which the essential character is that it is a given, ' that it is a transmitted power. They take Christ's special ' Blessing on the United " Two or Three " and apply it to their 'own separatist twos and threes^ as if the Lord meant to ' commend not unity but paucity. They corrupt the Font ^ The gall-lessness attributed to the of S. Prassede {Jnscrr. Christ. U. R. Dove is brought in from Tertullian, De vol, I. p. ^11, no. 937) we have PALVM- Bapt. 8. It receives interesting illus- BVS SINE FEL. Compare iya;«/^/, Act 1 1, tration from contemporary inscriptions. sc. 2, 'But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack In the cemetery of Callistus (de Rossi, gall To make oppression bitter.'. Rom. Soil., vol. II. p. i85,Tav. xxxvii. — - De Unit. cc. 6 — 9. xxxviii. n. 19) a lady is described as * De Unit. cc. 10 — 12. PALVMBA SENE FEL, and in the crypt 1 84 'THE UNITY.' OBLIGATION IS OF ESSENCE OF BELIEF. * of Baptism* — (mark here the earliest appearance of Cyprian's great characteristic error) — 'so that its water stains rather 'than cleanses; they erect a rival altar, they offer a rival ' sacrifice, but it is the sacrifice of jealousy, and so their very ' martyrdoms are wretchedly not crowns but judgments. For * while a Lapse from the faith is purged by the Baptism of ' Blood the religion of the Schismatic is spurious in essence, ' not for any narrower cause but that it fails in the first broad * principle of Christianity, a Loving Union with the brethren. ' Schism is accordingly more fatal than lapsing, and the * schismatic's death under the persecutor is no martyrdom, ' only a penalty and a despair.' He comes to passing events and living persons. The eminent, unnamed, intemperate-tongued, confessor who has established a separate communion, can be none but Novatian. ' Be that confessor who he may, he is not greater, better, dearer ' to God than Solomon once was. Yet he retained God's grace 'only so long as he trode God's path... He is a confessor! ' after confession the peril is more, for the foe is more pro- * voiced. He is a confessor! The more should he stand by * the Gospel, for of the Gospel came his renown. ...He is a con- * fessor ! Let him be lowly and calm, let him be modest with 'discipline in action, like the Christ whose confessor he is. ' He is a confessor — but not so, if afterwards the greatness * and worthiness of Christ be evil spoken of through him\' There is here an undertone of anxiety for the fidelity of confessors at large, which exactly suits the immediate position of Roman affairs, mingling with his thankfulness for the general loyalty^ and echoing the personal appeals already cited ^ He proceeds ' I would indeed, dearest brothers, — I 'counsel, I urge — that, if it be possible, not one of the brothers 'should perish — that the joyful mother should lock to her 'bosom one united people.' If the return of wilful leaders be ^ De Unit. cc. 17, 20, 2i. ^ Ep. 46. 2 c. 22. IV. I. ITS VIOLATION IS UNBELIEF. 1 8$ hopeless, it is still conceivable to him that the mass of the misled should see with their own eyes, and extricate them- selves from personal complications. Lastly, he restates the nature and obligation of unity and the causes which underlie disunion. The unity of the Godhead, of the person of Christ, of the t ideal church, of the faith, must be reproduced in the unity of / the earthly congregation. Agreement is the medium of that/ unity. Sections from the living organism must lose vitality/ The unity of humanity within itself and with God is that in J which alone salvation consists \ ■f^ ' As for the real causes of disunion, its origin is not in the / * theory of this or that teacher. Loss of unity is the natural / ' outcome of an age of recognised, sanctioned, recommended/ / ' selfishness — selfishness which saps belief and moral force / 'together, which undermines that faith whereon rest thai * principles of God-fearing, righteousness, love and hara j ' work, and diminishes the awe of things to come^' This was penetrating doctrine ; went to the heart of things. Which of the churches will master it earliest ? The suitability of the whole argument to the crisis, and its effectiveness, need no illustration. The beauty of its dic- tion is a fit vehicle for the loving holiness and might of its spirit. It searches alike the deeps of the divine word and of the human heart. Again and again its persuasions and its warnings have availed with spirits nobler than the noblest ^ Stripped of its figures this climax a matrice discesserit seorsum vivere et (c. 23) contains the ground of Cyprian's spirare non poterit, substantiam salutis zeal and the essence of his doctrine. amittit.' The passage almost defies translation — Pkh una, Hartel, misled perhaps ' unus Deus est, et Christus unus, et by false collation, on the authority of una ecclesia ejus, et fides una, et plebs PV, a mistake for M (Monacensis) ; and [una] in solidam corporis unitatem con- of V (Veronensis); neither MS. of any cordiae glutino copulata, Scindi unitas value on such a point. WGR omit una non potest, nee corpus unum discidio aSttr plebs. conpaginis separari, divulsis laceratione ^ c. 26. visceribus in frusta discerpi. Quicquid 1 86 CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' which have agonized themselves into separations — yes, and in hours of greater temptation than theirs. II. Two Questions on Cyprianic Unity, i. Was it a theory of Conviction or of Policy f 2. Does it involve Roman Unity f Of the Unity of the Catholic Church Cyprian has been suffered — reverently, I hope, and dutifully, so far as a faithful purpose is able to represent him — to speak for himself Yet the merest outline reveals the defects as well as the merits of his marvellous book. The impossibility of harmonizing his theory, as it stands, with some phenomena of church history is owing to its non- developement of one essential principle. The distinction between a Visible and an Invisible Com- munion upon earth did not present itself to him — still less the true incorporation with the Visible Church itself of mem- bers not entirely sound. We are not called upon to dilate on a topic which has engaged Hooker', but we must notice that it is this same deficiency which in his next great crisis placed Cyprian himself in some danger of separatism. But there arise two further questions which demand candid answers. 1. Was Cyprian's view of the Church as one whole with one proper and characteristic government a sincere doctrine .'' Had he received it ? Had it been a reality to earlier Christian thought } Or, was it only the justification of his practical policy, a tissue of the ingenious suggestions point by point of a difficult position ? 2. Did this theory of Unity rest on, contain, or logically 1 Eccl. Polity, B. III. IV. II. QU. I. WAS THE THEORY A POLICY? I87 lead up to a recognition of a central church authority in the Roman or Petrine see ? The questions are of moment apart from their interest, or their bearing on Cyprian's honesty and on his foresight. The first enquires whether Cyprian was an Expounder or an Inventor of the Oneness of the Church. The second enquires whether Roman Supremacy was an outcome of his teaching on that Oneness. Before the former question can be well answered we must know whether the word Ecclesia had until now described only the individual congregation — or, if more, more only by trans- ference. If that were so, the Cyprianic theory was novel — not more than an engine against Novatian. If it were not so, the course of the enquiry would probably reveal the principle on which Oneness was attributed to an Ideal more complex or more abstract than that of ' parishes.' Now a review of Cyprian's few writings before the Decian persecution is enough to shew in the first instance that the idea then conveyed in the word ' Church ' was not limited to the individual congregation, either with or without its chief pastor. That name is from the first used equally and without distinction of the Congregation, of the Diocese, and of the Whole Body of the Faithful. It is not the case that the former senses are earlier in Cyprian than the latter. The latter sense also appears without effort and without explana- tion, as familiar to all. Thus in the First Book of Testimonies, the Church is the Test. i. New People in contrast with the Jewish. It is the Barren ^i 20. Mother of Old Testament figures, proving more fruitful than the fruitful wife. It is the Sara, the Rachel, the Hannah, whose sons are types of the Christ. It is ' She who hath borne the Seven Sons,' for it was to Seven Churches that St Paul wrote as well as St John. In this one passage two of the senses stand clearly out. In the Second Book the 'Church ' is the * Spouse of Christ' ii. 19. l88 CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' H. V. 3. In the * Dress of Virgins,' the virgins themselves are ' the glorious fruitbearing of the Mother the Church.' H. V. 10. ' The Church had been planted and founded upon Peter.' In these three passages the larger sense alone is possible. Ep. 10.5. In the loth letter, 'Happy is our Church' means specifi- cally the Church of Carthage ; but in the very first letter the Ep. I. I, word is used in both the first and second of the three senses. '■ A certain rule of clerical discipline 'in the Church of the Lord,' which had been laid down in a Council of earlier bishops, is mentioned in the same passage with the direction that certain offenders are not to be prayed for 'in the Church,' that is in the congregation. In the same epistle, Clerks are to have their time free from private business to serve ' the Altar and the Church,' just as in the 3rd (so numbered) it is said Ep. 3. 3. that the disobedience of Deacons to their Presbyter leads to the ' forsaking of the Church and the substitution of a profane Altar.' Ep. 1. 3. In the 2nd letter the Christian who has to give up his profession as a Dramatic Tutor is maintained by 'the pro- vision' and 'at the charges of the Church' seemingly the local church to which he belongs, but is urged to 'learn ' saving things witJiin the Church instead of teaching deathful ' things outside the Church.' It cannot be said then that the use of this word in the sense of ' Congregation ' or ' Diocese ' is earlier than its aggregate sense, and it is needless to point out how, in some of these instances, the eye sees in the Diocese the true image and life of the whole. It is similarly impossible to say that the earliest idea was that of the plebes apart from its governing body. It is no ^/. 63. 13. 'definition' when Cyprian writes 'The Church, that is the ' plebes established in t/ie Church, faithfully and firmly per- ' severing in what it has believed.' It is no definition, for the word to be defined actually recurs within it, and forms part IV. II. 'THE CHURCH' NOT THE ISOLATED CONGREGATION. 189 of the definition so-called'. The question remains, 'What is the Church within which the plebes is thus established .!*' Is it an unorganized, undisciplined, unruled aggregate of indi- viduals } On this the 3rd (so numbered) letter is significant Ep. 3. 3. enough when it says that the Apostles constituted the Deacons ' to be the ministers of their own Episcopate and of the Church.' This imagined ' Definition ' has in it nothing which is inconsistent with other words which really belong to the same period — ' they are the Church — a Commons united Ep. ^d. 8. to a Bishop — a Flock clinging to its Shepherd.' In the 4th letter, one of his very earliest, we find an Ep. 4. 4. exposition of which the hardness and definiteness is never again exceeded. ' If they refuse to be pure in life and habit, ' they cannot be readmitted to the C/mrch ; they cannot count * on life and salvation if they will not obey the Bishops. In ' the old Law he who would not obey the Priest was slain ' with the temporal sword. To be cast out of the Church now ' is to be slain with the spiritual sword. For outside the ' Church they cannot live, inasmuch as the House of God is ' One, and no one can be safe but in the Church.' In the 3rd Book of Testimonies we read, ' Schism not to Test. Hi. ' be made, even if he who departs remain in the one Faith and 'the same Tradition V It is then uncritical and unhistorical to suppose that the thought of the aggregate Church rose later on Cyprian's mind, or grew up gradually out of the idea of the individual Church. From the first it was impossible not to see literally each in the other. It is also equally uncritical to think ^ Ep.6i. Yet Ritschl (p. 91, pp. 241, this Catena, if anyone would give a date 24'2) actually proposes, on account of later than I do to this 3rd Book. See the supposed simplicity and absence of p. 23. But it is clear that this is a organization implied in what he is general precept on schism, and has no pleased to treat as a 'definition,' to reference to Novatianism, and is there- transpose this epistle and place it fore earlier than Novatian. Cyprian among the earliest letters before the would not have allowed that Novatian Decian persecution. remained ' in the one Tradition.' 2 This passage is not necessary to 190 CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' I that there ever was a time when the Church was contem- plated apart from its Ministering Rulers or they from it. Each again was essential to the other. With the passage from the 4th epistle before us, it is impossible to conceive I that the Church appeared to Cyprian to have ever carried I itself on or subsisted without its episcopal order — or ever to ' have been anything but a Unity. We have seen before' what the Bishop was to his own Congregation and ' Diocese.* Was there anything which for the whole Church Catholic corresponded to the Bishop's position in respect of his own Diocese ? The Cyprianic answer is absolutely clear: — What the Bishop was to his own Diocese that the whole united Body of Bishops was to the whole Church. When, in his one sarcastic letter — and sarcastic indeed it is — Cyprian writes to Florentius Puppianus, ' The Church, ' which is " CATHOLIC, ONE," is not split nor divided but ' is certainly knit together and compacted by a cement of ' Bishops fast cleaving each to each other'^,' this grotesque- ness may put more forcibly, but does not express more substantively, the ground which is assumed in the earliest epistles. In the 1st epistle — The Church Law forbidding clerics to engage in secular business ' had been long ago determined ' in the Council of the Bishops ' ; ' the Bishops, our prede- 'cessors, religiously considering and soundly providing for '• this, enacted &c. ' ; ' that so the decree of the Bishops, reli- * giously and needfully passed, may be observed by us.' More palpably still than single phrases can state it, the Roman presbyters assume, in the 8th letter, that in the 1 c. 11. viii. sup. una' without ei is conclusive; and for - Ep, 66. 8 quando ecclesia quae this reason, and because it is assumed ' catholica una' est scissa non sit neque (qua est) as the ground for deduction, divisa, sed sit utique conexa et cohce- I take it to be meant as a quotation rentium sibi invicem sacerdotum glutino from the Baptismal Creed, copulata. The authority for ' catholica IV. II. *AS BISHOP TO DIOCESE SO BISHOPS TO CHURCH.' I9I absence of both Bishops the two churches have to maintain the brotherhood of mutual counsel. In the 3rd (so numbered) — An individual Bishop having laid before the body of Bishops a complaint against a Deacon of his own, Cyprian's reply speaks of ' the Apostles, that is the Bishops and Prelates' — a description of a united college surely, if words can describe one. Lastly — to go no further — the great decision is postponed until all the Bishops of Africa can assemble and make sure of acting in harmony with the Bishops of Italy. The College of Bishops, then, is the very form and sub- stance of the inherited free government, advising by resolu- tion, commanding by mutual consent, yet not even when unanimous constraining a single dissentient bishop \ As the Nicene Fathers did not make but formulated the Nicene Faith, so the characteristic of Cyprian, his merit as some venture to think, is the clear outlining and distinct expression which he gave to the principles which he found in use, and the stedfastness with which he worked the code and submitted himself to it. His characteristic reward was the loyalty of those who felt his loyalty to them, — felt it rendered because they were Bishops in council, though evidently not his peers in learning or in policy. If then the First Question be, Did Cyprian create his theory of government in the Church in order to solve his own problems .'* the answer is that it was far older than Cyprian, although in him it was lit and fired by that sense of Love and feeling after Unity which seemed to Augustine the most special characteristic of the man**. ^ See Cyprian's speech on opening of these criticisms that they force him the seventh Council. to place the 63rd epistle very early (see 2 Ritschl's incredible remarks on p. 189 n.), because the simplicity of this character having been put on, and its language on the Church appears to assumed by Cyprian as a mere weapon him inconsistent with Cyprian's later and instrument, may be read in the ori- views — only, he ought then also to have ginal (pp. 89, 106, 109). It is worthy placed the earliest Epistles and the 192 CYPRIAN ' OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' Our Second Question was, Did the theory of Cyprian demand or lead up to or suggest a single Centre of Church Government — at Rome or elsewhere ? Rome could not but be a centre of thought and feeling. It was not merely the largest, richest or strongest city. It was the head of the civilised world, with a practical reality of power and fitness unattributable to and unimaginable of any other head before or since. Was the Christian Church in it similarly not only the foremost church, but was it the head of the world-Church which was already in existence } We need not stay to enquire whether Cappadocia, Antioch, Jerusalem could so regard it — but was it such to the West.'' was it such even to Carthage ? Principalis^ Ecclesia it was. It had a lofty undeniable primacy among all churches which believed it to be the Foundation of Saint Peter, and to have in it S. Peter's CatJiedra, ascended by his successors. Certainly not less veneration could attach to it than to the Alexandria of S. Mark, or the Ephesus of S. John — say even more — but Wcis it of a different kind or order.-* Did the theory of Cyprian either in itself, or as embodying the Western feeling, whatever this was, towards Rome, sug- gest that this see was a centre of authority or jurisdiction to the Church at large .'' We have seen how each Bishop was held to be a centre of authority and fountain of jurisdiction to his diocese. Did the theory of the Oneness of the Church involve that there should be One See whose influence em- braced all other sees analogously.-' that there should be a Bishop of Bishops .-' The only possible answer is that this conception, so far from being verified or supported by Cyprian's theory, contra- dicts that theory, has overthrown it in practice, and tends to obliterate it. Testimonies (which are not at all de Unit. 5 the words from nemo to cor- ^ simple^ in his sense) very late. He rw/w/a/ are a later interpolation. is compelled further to assert (p. 94) ^ Cyp. Ep. 59. 14. See Appendix without a vestige of authority that in on Principalis Ecclesia, p. 537. IV. II. QV. 2. DOES IT LEAD UP TO THE ROMAN THEORY? I93 1. We shall presently see in detail that in order to adapt even the very language of Cyprian in the passage which they thought the most favourable to their pretensions, the papal apologists have framed, and at all hazards, and against evi- dence full and understood, have stedfastly maintained the grossest forgery in literature. Without the insertion of their phrases the passage means something palpably different. This does not look as if Cyprian here had ever been felt to be on their side. 2. Does Cyprian's practice exemplify the Roman theory .-^ We shall see how the subsequent history of his intercourse with the Roman see exhibits him sometimes, as we should say, rightly in conflict with it, sometimes wrongly ; but in conflict almost always — exhorting the Roman bishop, re- buking him or making excuses for him, or assuring him that he had excommunicated himself by his vain threats of excom- municating others — obeying him never\ 3. But it may perhaps be said, that great men and saints are not always consistent, that his practice may have been inferior to his theory, or even contradictory. The answer to this is that the very mention of the supre- macy of one Pontiff, or the universality of one jurisdiction, is the precise contrary of the Cyprianic statements. The form of government for the whole Church which these enunciate is that of a Body — its whole episcopate. This is a Representa- tive Body. Its members, appointed for life by free election, represent each one diocese*. They give their judgment by suffrages. They have no power of delegation, for Christ constituted t/iem to govern, — not to appoint governors. Purity ^ Cyp. £/>/>■ 68. 2, 3 ; 72. 3 ; 75. perly representative of their congrega- (Firmil.) 2, 3, 6, 17, 24, 25. tions. Cooption by other Bishops is ^ This is no less the case wherever still less satisfactory, while the only they are appointed by the Represen- intolerable plan is that of their ap- tatives of Representatives. Appoint- pointment by one superior of their ment by Presbyters is less after the own order appointed by a few of first model, Presbyters not being pro- themselves. B. 13 194 CYPRIAN *0F THE ONITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' of conduct was essential to the continuance of any one of them in his authority*. No minority among them could be over- borne by a majority, in a matter of administration, even though it were so grave a question as that of Rebaptism. If all but one voted one way, that one could not be overruled in the direction of his diocese. ' These considerations, dear * brother,' writes Cyprian in the name of his sixth Council, ' we ' bring home to your conscience out of regard to the Office * we hold in common and to the simple love we bear you. ' We believe that you too, from the reality of your religious * feeling and faith, approve what is religious as well as true. ' Nevertheless we know there are those who cannot readily 'part with principles once imbibed, or easily alter a view ' of their own, but who, without hurting the bond of peace ' and concord between colleagues, hold to special practices 'once adopted among them — and herein we do no violence ' to anyone and impose no law. For in the administration of ' the Church each several prelate has the free discretion of his ' own will — having to account to the Lord for his action*.' The prelate who is thus allowed the same freedom as the rest of his order in governing his own diocese is Stephanus, Bishop of Rome. No protest of his in answer claimed the right to direct all or any of the rest. 'It remains for us to deliver each our judgment on the ' particular question,' so said Cyprian, opening the seventh of his Councils, ' without judging any, without removing ' any from our communion, whose judgment may differ from ' our own. None of us constitutes himself a bishop over ' bishops, or makes it imperative for his colleagues to obey ' him, through any despotic awe, inasmuch as every bishop 'by leave of his freedom and office, has a free scope of ^ Ep. 67. 3 ' Propter quod plebs ipsa maxime habeat potestatem vel obsequens prseceptis dominicis et Deum eligendi dignos sacerdotes vel indignos metuens a peccatore pmposito (sc. epis- recusandi.' Cf. Ep. 68. 3. copo) separare se debet, nee se ad sacri- " Ep. 72. 3. legi sacerdotis sacrificia miscere, quando I V.II. THE CYPRIANIC AND ROMAN THEORIES CONTRARIES. I95 ' his own, and can no more be judged of another than he ' can himself judge another. We must all alike await the 'judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone by Himself ' hath the office {potestas) of promoting us in the govern- ' ment of His Church, and of judging our course of action V 4. In what then consisted in effect the unity of a body so constituted? It was a practical unity, a moral unity, held together by its own sense of unity, by ' the cement of mutual concord""'.' As problems arose they were to consider them each by itself. The first thing was that they should, with as deliberate consultation as could be had, state their several opinions without favour or fear. If we consider what great effects were produced, what far- reaching and enduring results were secured, through the mere exercise and utterance of this moral, or spiritual, judgment, by men whose divine commission was simply to use this, and to express this, we may perhaps think that an incessant complaining of the unwillingness of imperial assemblies to discuss, decide and give effect to church measures, is at least not primitively church-like. The periods in which the Church has worked its will upon us through civil rule are not times of impressive spirituality. The immeasurably higher enthusiasm and stronger effectiveness which has at- tended its moral judgments under governments as hostile, or as surly, or as indifferent as mere politicians could wish governments to be towards really Christian matters, might encourage the faith of modern churchmen in the value of their one undisputed prerogative. A bishop could not then resist their united voice without hardihood, but if he did, he was unassailable unless vicious- ness or false doctrine were patent in his life or teaching. In ^ VII. Cone. Carth. Prafat. Cypriani. so often to shew the simply moral force ^ Ep. 68. 3. An important passage of its action — which is what it really and often quoted to evince the consti- shews. tutional character of the body, but not 13—2 196 CYPRIAN *0F THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' that case the allegiance of his flock was to be withdrawn. He was to be regarded (says the African primate, with a strong local colouring) as a brigand chief who had got possession of a caravanserai \ The divine reality of such their unity had been taught typically in the respective charges of the Lord to Peter and to the Twelve ^ The authority and power committed is the same to each several apostle. But for the sake of shewing (such is Cyprian's interpretation) that many apostles did not make many churches, but one only, therefore the first decla- ration of the foundation of a universal Church is couched in language addressed to one only — S. Peter. For that one occasion the words are to one, but the meaning is for ever to all. As nothing limited it in space, but the authority belonged to all the apostles, wherever they went, so in time also, after they were departed, nothing limited that authority to Peter's successors among the successors of them all. Though the charge to Peter appears among the earliest of Cyprian's Christian ideas^ as does also the obedience due to bishops*, yet Peter's successors are nowhere mentioned or hinted at by Cyprian as necessary to the Church's Unity^ But the suc- cessors of the other Apostles are. And of them it is said that the power given by Christ to them, in equal measure with S. Peter, passed on to the churches which they established, and to the bishops who everywhere succeeded them^ A headship attributed to the successors of one among them would simply ruin at once the whole theory of the 1 Ep. 68. 3. priest. 2 See Catena of passages on the ' This Ritschl himself confesses. It Unity from Peter, infra p. 197. will be understood that he plays the 3 De Habitti Virgg. 10. dangerous game of maintaining presby- * Ep. 4- 4, where the spiritual sword terianism against episcopacy, by trying is described to be as deadly to the spirit to saddle Cyprian's episcopacy with as the material sword was to the life of the papacy as its necessary deduction, any who disobeyed the ancient high ® Ep. 75. 16, see Catena below. IV.II. THE CYPRIANIC AND ROMAN THEORIES CONTRARIES. I97 unity and of the authority which subsisted in the copiosum corpus sacerdotum — the episcopatus unus, episcoporum multorum concordi numerositate diffusus^. And this is Cyprian's theory. 5. Yet again, as that Body might not rule any one Bishop, it follows a fortiori that any one Bishop could not rule that Body. It is plain that such pretension could never be set up without violating the principle and essence of Cyprian's theory. This theory could not even coexist with the theory of a dominant centre. The two views are mutually exclusive. A singular fate overtook two strong sentences of the early Latin fathers. It is comprehensible how the sentence of Cyprian could be vivisected and injected with corruption till, as we find it, it seemed to yield a sense contrary to its original force, and to the context, and to the whole scheme of the treatise, and to the leading idea of its author. But, that Tertullian's scornful parody of some Bishop of Rome's assumption — ' Po?itifex scilicet maximus, quod est episcopus episcoporimt, edicif,' — should have worked round into be- coming the actual title and style of his successor, exhibits a feat of that brilliant imagination which even itself could never have realised. Catena of Cyprianic passages on the Unity signified in the Charge to Peter. [a.d. 248. Petrus etiam cui oves suas Dominus pascendas tuendasque commendat, super quern posuit et fundavit ecclesiam, aurum quidem et argentum sibi esse negat,... A rhetorical contrast of the facts in Matt. xvi. and Acts iii. not by itself touching the question of Unity.] A.D. 251. Probatio est ad fidem facilis compendio veritatis. Loquitur Dominus ad Petrum: 'ego tibi dico' inquit 'quia tu es Petrus 'et super istam petram asdificabo ecclesiam meam, et portas ' inferorum non vincent earn. Dabo tibi claves regni caelorum : 1 In Cyprian this thought and these Cf. Ep. 68. 3. words are in perennial flow. But Ep. * Tert. de Ptidicit, i. 55. 24 is a strong condensed chapter. 198 CATENA FROM CYPRIAN ON THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH 'et quae ligaveris super terrain erunt ligata et in caelis, et 'quaecumque solveris super terram erunt soluta et in caelis.' Super unum aedificat ecclesiam, et quamvis apostolis omnibus post resurrectionem suam parent potestatem tribuat et dicat : *Sicut misit me pater et ego mitto vos. Accipite Spiritum * Sanctum : si cujus remiseritis peccata, remittentur illi : si * cujus tenueritis tenebuntur,' tamen ut uniiatem manifestaret, unitatis ejusdem originem ab uno incipientem sua auctori- tate disposuit. Hoc erant utique et ceteri apostoli quod fuit Petrus, pari consortio praediti et honoris et potestatis^ sed exor- dium ab imitate proficiscitur, ut ecdesia Christi una monstretur. Whatever may be the value of the argument or illustration, there can in this its genuine shape be no doubt as to the meaning of the passage. The Apostles are all made equal in honour and power by our Lord's commission. Simply to declare the unity of His Church, He, the first time that He gives that commission, gives it to one. Afterwards he .repeats the same commission (as Cyprian under- stood it) to all. The origo, exordium, of unity starts {proficiscitur) from one as a manifestation or demonstration {manifestaret, monstretur) of unity. The same teaching identically appears, with greater or less compression, but with no variation of idea, in all other references to whomsoever addressed : as follows Ep. 43. 5. A.D. 250. {Plebi universes). Deus unus est, et Christus unus et una ecdesia et cathedra una super Petrum Domini voce fundata. The unity is here inferred from the Lord's voice speaking to Peter alone, as set forth in the De Unitate published the year after at the same place. Ep. 45. 3. A.D. 251. {Cornelio Frairi). Hoc enim vel maxime, frater, et laboramus et laborare debemus ut unitatem a Domino &\.per apostolos nobis successoribus traditam, {not vobis nor per Petrum successoribus, but to the bishops as succeeding to that equal authority of the apostles] quantum possumus obtinere curemus, et quod in nobis est palabundas et errantes oves... in ecdesia colligamus. Ep. 48. 3. ,) », {Cornelio Fratri). Communicationem tuam id est catholicas ecdesice unitatem pariter et caritatem [n. b. not honorevi or potestatem.\ Ep, 55. 8. A.D. 252. {AntoniaJto Fratri). The see of Rome is Fabiani locus,, .locus Petri et gradus cathedrae sacerdotalis. Ep. 59. 7. „ „ {Cornelio Fratri). Petrus tamen super quem sedificata ab eodem Domino fuerat ecclesia, unus pro otnnibus loquens, et ecdesice voce respondens ait, ' Domine, ad quem imus V r4. „ „ ...et ad Petri cathedram atque ad ecclesiam principalem unde unitas sacerdotalis exorta est. Ep.66.i. A.D. 254. {Florentio cui et Puppiano Fratri). On same passage as ^_^. 59. 7 'ad quem ibimus &c.' loquitur illic Petrus super quem aedifi- cata fuerat ecdesia, ecdesice nomine docens. AS TYPIFIED IN THE CHARGE TO S. PETER. I99 Ep- 71. 3. A.D. 255. {Quinto Fratri, referred to in Ep. 72 Stephana fratrt). Cyprian here shews what deduction is not to be drawn from the commission of our Lord. Nam nee Petrus, quern primum Dominus elegit et super quern aedificavit ecclesiam suam, cum secum Paulus disceptaret, vin- dicavit sibi aliquid insolenter aut adroganter adsumpsit ut diceret se primattim tenere et obtemperari a novellis et posteris sibi potius oportere.... I.e. Peter did not draw the inference of his primacy from the fact of his selec- tion to be the ' origo ' or ' exordium ' of unity. E-P- 73- 7- A.D. 256. {Jubaiano Fratri). Manifestum est autem ubi et per quos remissa peccatorum dari possit, quae in baptismo scilicet datur. Nam Petro primum Dominus, super quem aedificavit ecclesiam, et unde unitatis origiiiem instituit et ostendit, potestatem istam dedit ut id solveretur [in terris] quod ille solvisset. et post resurrectionem quoque ad apostolos loquitur dicens 'sicut misit me pater et ego mitto vos.' hoc cum dixisset, inspiravit et ait illis 'accipite spiritum sanctum, si cujus remiseritis peccata....' unde intellegimus non nisi in ecclesiae prcBpositis et evangelica lege ac dominica ordinatione fundatis licere baptizare.... In manner precisely parallel to the Dc Unitate he infers that what was first said to one in token of unity was afterwards said to all as their charter of authority — and to none but them. Ep. 75. 16. A.D. 256. {Firtnilianus Cypriano Fratri). Qualis vero error sit et quanta caecitas ejus qui remissionem peccatorum dicit apud synagogas hsereticorum dari posse, nee permanet in fundatnento unius ecclesiae, quae semel a Christo super petram solidata est, hinc intellegi potest quod soli Petro Christus dixerit 'quaecumque ligaveris, ...' et iterum in evangelio [quando] in solos apostolos insufflavit Christus dicens 'accipite spiritum sanctum, si cujus...' potestas ergo peccatorum remittendorum apostolis data est et ecclesiis quas illi a Christo missi constituerunt et episcopis qui eis ordinatione vicaria successerunt. Here similarly Firmilian (who as is well known echoes Cyprian to the letter) holds the voice to Peter to be the token of unity, and the powers to be shared by the apostles, the churches and the successive bishops all alike. 17. A.D. 256. ...banc tam apertam et manifestam Stephani stultitiam quod qui sic de episcopatus sui loco gloriatur et se successionem Petri tenere contendit, super quem fundamenta ecclesiae collo- cata sunt, multas alias petras inducat et ecclesiarum multarum nova aedificia constituat, dum esse illic baptisma sua auc- toritate defendit. I.e. The present bishop of Rome, Stephanus, who so prides himself on his succession, sacrifices the prerogative of himself and all other true bishops by recognising baptism external to the church and them. 200 CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' III. The Appeal of the modern Church of Rome to Cyprian on * The Unity of the Catholic Church ' — by way of Interpolation. Notwithstanding its somewhat technical character, I can- not but present this strange matter as part of the continuous narrative of Cyprian's ' Life and Work,' The conception of his formative influence on the Church of Christ would be at once exaggerated and incomplete without some account taken of an immense power claimed in his name, and exercised through the shadow of his name, by men and societies who have no act or real word of his to shew on their side. In the year 1682 the Galilean Church held that celebrated assembly which affirmed their ancient Liberties, and described in The Four Articles the limits of papal authority. Yet, as Bossuet in the most eloquent perhaps of his harangues had discoursed to them, 'The object of that assembly was Peace' — Peace with Innocent the Eleventh. ' Conserver I'Unite ' was the guiding thought of Bossuet's life\ Their Synodical Letter^ therefore, addressed to the whole French hierarchy, prefaced its protest against that pontiffs usurpations with a confession of their duty to his See. That duty was estab- lished and acknowledged by words borrowed from Cyprian's fourth chapter on Unity — the printed text. It is difficult to exaggerate the effisct of those words even amid the universal indignation which then possessed court. Church and people. The authority of that primaeval voice was once more as conclusive as it had now been for some centuries. It was alleged as conclusive, and was alleged alone. And yet the great orator of Meaux, amid his own array 1 Sermon preche (9 Nov. 1681) a ^ Lettre de I'assemblee du Clerge de I'ouverture de I'assemblee generale du France, tenue en 1682, k tousles Prelats Clerg6 de France, ' Sur I'Unite de de I'figlise Gallicane. Dupin, Liberies r£glise.' de r£glise Gallicane (i860). IV. III. THE ROMAN APPEAL TO THE BOOK. 201 of inconclusive authorities, forbore to marshal this capital and decisive text That very year there appeared the new English edition from which that text was omitted. The words are spurious. The history of their interpola- tion may be distinctly traced even now, and it is as singular as their controversial importance has been unmeasured. It is a history which well may make it the most interesting of literary forgeries. But the Ultramontane is still unconvinced, and as he may long remain so, we lay the evidence before others. The eloquent Mgr. Freppel, Bishop of Angers, late Pro- fessor at the Sorbonne, — in which capacity he delivered his course of lectures on Saint Cyprian, repeats the contention that the giving of the keys to Peter and the charge to feed the flock is ' the charter of investiture of the papacy,' and in support of it asks leave ' to place under our eyes this remark- able passage' of Cyprian. 'Whatever difficulty criticism 'may raise on the authenticity of such or such a word in 'particular' does not affect the argument. 'We have a right 'to maintain a reading which has such numerous and such 'antient testimonies for itself V I quote this merely as a clear statement of the position which Romish argument has taken and still takes as to the passage and as to its value as it stands I It is easy to allege that 'Cyprian only repeats here what he says so many times elsewhere,' but the tenacity with which this place is reprinted and repeated betokens well enough the misgiving as to the other passages being capable of enduring the required mean- ing without the comment of this fabrication'. 1 S. Cyprien. Par M. I'Abbe Frep- » Most old copies of Cyprian bear pel, Prof, k la Faculte de Theologie de witness to the agitations of spirit over Paris 1865 (Cours fait a la Sorbonne), these clauses. Beside me casually is a pp. 277 — 2gi. Maran (Venet. 1758); some lines are 2 See also Prof. Hurler, S. J., .S^". erased and references placed at the Patrum Opusc. I. p. 72. sides. A Pamele, clean throughout 202 CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. The 'numerous and ancient testimonies' consist of (i) the editions which contain the passages, and the manuscripts on which they are supposed to rest. (2) Citations of the passage. Our simplest method is to give the passage in full, exactly as this author reproduces it (as he says) from 'the editions of Manutius (1563) (who first printed it), De PamHe (1568), Rigault (1648), Dom Maran (i726)V " The Lord saith unto Peter, ' I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and what- soever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' And to the same [apostle) He says after His re- surrection 'Feed my sheep.' He builds His Church upon that one, and to him entrusts His sheep to be fed. And although after His resurrection He assigns equal power to all His apostles, and says *As the Father sent me even so send I you, receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whosesoever sins ye remit they shall be remitted unto him, and whosesoever sins ye retain they shall be retained,' nevertheless in order to make the unity manifest. He established one CJiair, and by His own authority appointed the origin of that same unity beginning from one. Certainly the rest of the apostles were that which Peter also was, endued with equal partnership both of honour and office, but the beginning sets out from unity, and Primacy is given to Peter, that one Church of Christ and one Chair may be pointed out; afid all are pastors aftd one flock is except for two very soiled pages here pencil, the other with a knife, with rufHed corners. A Baluze (Paris ^ We must however state that Manu- 1726) has racy passages written out into tius does not give the clause 'he who the margins, and the whole of this deserts the chair of Peter on which the so appears. So of the two Pembroke Church was founded,' nor Maran the Mss., one has the passage scored with a words 'established one chair and.' IV. III. THE ROMAN INTERPOLATIONS. 203 shown t to be fed by all the apostles with one-hearted accord, that one Church of Christ may be pointed out. It is this one Church which the Holy Spirit in the Person of the Lord speaks of in the Song of Songs, saying ' My dove is one, my perfect one, one is she to her mother, elect to her who brought her forth.' He that holds not this unity of the Church, does he believe that he holds the faith .-* He who strives and rebels against the Church, he who deserts the Chair of Peter on which the Church was founded, does he trust that he is in the Church.-* Since the blessed Apostle Paul also...'" The words in italics admittedly must be from the pen of one who taught the cardinal doctrine of the Roman see. If Cyprian wrote them he held that doctrine. There is no dis- guising the fact. Onofrio Panvinio- for instance in his great treatise on the Primacy of Peter places this whole passage from Cyprian 'foremost of the holy Fathers' next after his citations of Scripture, and the words we have printed in italics he has anticipated us by printing in capitals as the crucial and decisive ones. But the reader will observe that, separated from the italicised words, the passage runs smooth and the doctrine is a different one. It is the doctrine of a catholicity perfect in unity without hint of Petrine or of any primacy. As we have already seen, it exhibits a unity indicated (such is the special argument of the passage) by Christ's committing one and the same charge, first to one and then to all of the apostles as peers or equals of that one. Now the indictment we prefer is that every italicised word is a forgery; and a forgery deliberately for three centuries past forced by papal authority in the teeth of evidence upon editors and printers who were at its mercy. The recent ^ See Latin Text in ^/)/^«(/ir (p. 549) et Apostolicce sedis potestate, pp. 3, 4. with collations. Veronse, 1589. 2 O. Panvinio, De primatii Petri 204 CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' labour of Hartel reveals a similar process at work long be- fore upon the manuscripts. The corruptions were always patent, but now we can actually watch the agents. If proven, the interest of our tale is beyond that of literary curiosity or even literary morality. Dukes and Cardinals, Prelates and Masters of the Palace prevailed over broken- hearted scholars. It was a Battle of the Standard, fought that a forgery might not be (as one of the defenders expressed it) 'ravi a I'Eglise.' All that energy, all that diplomacy, — the very tone of this moment — are the best witnesses to the value of the Protestant conviction that, although all Cyprian would have to be read by the light of those phrases could they be saved, Cyprian without them is an irrefragable witness against those assumptions. But our business is now with the literary evidence. The reader may point the moral. We will take the manuscript history of the passage first. The codices of Cyprian^ de Unitate which are older than the tenth century are as follows : The Seguier manuscript at Paris ; so styled from its first known possessor the great Chancellor, from whom it passed to the Prince Bishop Coislin of Metz, thence to the Abbey of S. Germain des Pr^s by his gift, thence after the fire of 1793 to the Library of Paris, where it is now. It is a most precious volume of the Sixth or the Seventh century pre- serving the most genuine readings and oldest forms of words, and it is distinguished in collations as S. The Verona Codex of the Sixth or Seventh century (V), an uncial MS. which was given to Charles Borromeo by the canons of Verona, used by Latinius in preparing his notes for the edition of Manutius, and further known to us by his collations, copies of which were in the hands of Baluze and Rigault, and another copy is extant at Gottingen. A some- what inaccurate collation was also made by R. Rigby for Bp. Fell. Latinius was certain that it was of the Sixth century. ^ Hartel, Praef. ii., iii., v., ix., xii., xiv., xix., xxii., xxiii., Ixxx., Ixxxiv. IV. III. THE INTERPOLATIONS AND THE MANUSCRIPTS. 20$ The Codex Beneventanus (called also Neapolitanus) was one of the best manuscripts \ We are acquainted with it from the collations made by Ant. Agostino Bishop of Alifi and used by Rigault, and those made by Rigby for Bishop Fell. The MS. of Wiirzburg (W) of the Eighth or Ninth century, ascribed by some to the Seventh. The codices Reginensis ii6 (R) and San Gallensis 89 (G), both of the Ninth. In not one of these manuscripts have the italicised words appeared in any shape. Of Trecensis (Q) of the Eighth or Ninth Century, and of Monacensis (M) of the Ninth, we will speak presently. The great scholar Latino Latini, Canon of Viterbo, who died at the age of 80 in 1593, tells us he had seen seven manuscripts (integros) of Cyprian in the Vatican in which all these words were wanting^ Baluze^ says that he had himself seen twenty-seven manuscripts without them. Bishop Fell used four English codices of which none have a trace of our italics*; and besides these four English manuscripts (to which we add a Pembroke codex missed by him^) all have only the additional Post-Resurrection Charge to St Peter, (a mere parallel text,) without any word at all about the Chair, the Primacy of Peter, the Unity of Peter, or the desertion of the Church founded on Peter. These manuscripts are all of the tenth century or later. Baluze® says that the German manuscripts of the time of ^ Hartel, pp. citatis. For a description and new collations ^ Latino Latini, Bibliotheca Sacra et ofthe English manuscripts see Appendix Prof ana a D. Macro (Magri), Romse at end of this volume. 1677, p. 179. ' Viz. Bod. 2, Lambeth, Lincoln, 3 Cypriani Opera. Baluze. Paris, N. C. i, and Pem. 2. [Fell's readings 1726, p. 545. Comm. in loc. of Voss' Mss. have not been re- * Viz. Bod. I, Ebor, New College 2, vised.] Sarum. In spite of these Fell kept the ^ Cypriani Opera. Paris, 1726, p. interpolated post-resurrection charge to 545. Peter. 206 CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' Venericus bishop of Vercelli* seem not to have had these words ; nor are they found in any of the earlier editions (or their numerous reprints) of Cyprian which appeared before that of Manutius in 1563 and which represent to us many manuscripts which have long disappeared'. We must now see what authority there is in favour of the italics against this mass of negative evidence. In 1568 Jacques De Pamele, canon of Bruges, brought out his Cyprian. Ignorant of the facts and of Latini's griefs (of which we shall presently speak), he accepted Manutius' edition as representing the famous Verona manuscript. But as Latini hinted 'he had no nose'; he was absurd enough to think the spurious tract * on Dice-players ' was in Cyprian's style, and careless enough to say that its Latin texts were in Cyprianic form. He surrendered himself to a manuscript' belonging to the abbey of Cambron* in Hainault, which was more interpolated throughout than any known copy. He thought it confirmed the Verona reading. The corruption according to Baluze was found also in an ancient manuscript of Marcello Cervini, afterwards Pope Marcellus II., and this one was used by Onofrio Panvinio^ It was found in a certain Bavarian manuscript which Bishop Fell knew only through Gretser^ who assures us it was ^ A.D. 1078 — 1082. Gams, Series him {Epp. i. p. 309), admires the con- Episcoporttm, p. 825. dition in which we should see ancient 2 Very inaccurate accounts of these authors 'in aliam formam a nativa de- editions are prefixed to the editions of generasse' if they were edited as his Baluzius by Maran and of Fell, and re- friend edits 'contra fidem codicum.' peated in the Oxford translation of Cy- * Codex Cambronensis — ' interpola- prian, p. 151 (Library of the Fathers). tior interpolatissimis' — Hartel. Hartel has examined and given a careful ' Baluze, Cypr. Opera, p. 545 ; Pan- account of them in his ' Praefatio.' \imo, De Prim. Petr. p. 4, only alludes ' Not that manuscripts caused Jacques to ' scripta exemplaria.' De Pamele unreasonable trouble. Lati- ' J. Gretser, de jure et more prohi- nius, in one of his polished letters to bendi, expurgandi^ et abolendi libros IV. III. THE MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE OF THE FORGERIES. 20/ of 'the highest stamp.' We shall however presently know more about it if the reader will only bear in mind that this was evidently the Munich manuscript, — Monacensis or M. The manuscripts which have this passage have it with all the varieties, omissions, and transpositions which uni- versally indicate corruption of text. The oldest which has additions like those in Manutius is one of the tenth century. It belonged to Isaac Voss and is called h : it is copied partly from T, and partly from interpolated manuscripts\ But we may pass it over as we shall meet the corruption higher up the stream. Similarly we need not here concern ourselves about a manuscript of the fifteenth century in the Bodleian* which has a like tale to tell. But there is one^ in the Bodleian of the eleventh, or perhaps the tenth century, which exhibits well the most peculiar and interesting phenomenon connected with the manuscripts. There once existed a manuscript of Cyprian of which three others now extant belonging to the tenth and earlier centuries are copies. These three are the Troyes Codex, — Trecensis, or Q, of the eighth or ninth century ; the Munich codex, — Monacensis, or M, of the ninth ; and the Bodleian just named, of the tenth or eleventh. These three are all copied from copies of one lost manuscript which we may call the Archetype*. hareticos et noxios. (Ingoldstadt, 1603, Monacensis, M, are independent copies Lib. 11., c. 7, p. 303.) He says he fell ofone copy ofthe lost Archetype (Hartel, upon this codex ' in Bavarica bibliotheca p. xxxv). Our Bodleian, which is not — membranaceum...optim3e notae.' See described by Hartel, is not copied from Appendix, p. 549, as to its readings. that same copy of the lost manuscript, ^ Hartel, p. xl. He says ^the same for though it has the interpolations additions,' pp. xi. and xii. n., but almost the same, still its readings de- it is worse than Manutius in reading viate from M and Q, and these devia- 'this unity of Peter's' instead of 'this tions are better and more genuine read- unity of the Church. ' ings. It was copied then from a lost 2 Fell's 'Bod. 3.' manuscript other and better than the 3 Fell's 'Bod. 4,' loth or nth immediate original of M and Q. If cent. with Hartel we call M and Q's lost * The Codex Trecensis, Q, and original we may call the lost 2oS CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' Now it seems almost incredible but it is true that these manuscripts should reveal so minutely as they do the manipulation practised on their forefather. Codices M and Q give the interpolated passage in full, and having come to the end of it with its four inserted clauses they proceed without stop or stay to give the genuine passage without any interpolations at all. First comes the doctored recension which the scribe of the Archetype was intended, by the person who directed him, to substitute for the original. This remodelled paragraph was finished up with an emphatic repetition of the keyword with which it began — ' He built His Church upon One\' But the thrice- fortunate copier supposed this final repeated keyword to be the cue in the original from which he was to go on. Accordingly having copied out his interpolated pattern schedule he went on from those words in the genuine manuscript before him, and wrote out in his simplicity the genuine passage which began with them'^. The Bodleian Codex gives first three interpolated clauses only but in its repetition of the whole passage inserts the fourth inter- polation. If any one asks, How copyists could so flagrantly go on giving a genuine and an interpolated text on the same page, we can only be thankful to the fatuous or cynical fidelity which wrote out what was before it. Many and inferior manuscripts give only the corrupt form. But the double form went on being copied for a long time. For example, the third Bodleian MS. of Fell, as we have mentioned, has still the duplicate form* as late as the fifteenth century, — and what is still more remarkable the Jesuit theologian original of the Bodleian . It words 'That the Church of Christ may is coordinate with Hartel's and be shewn as one.* . * See Appendix f p. 549. Hartel, ^ 'Super unum sedifiraz'iV ecclesiam,' Prsef. pp. x., xi., xliii., notes pp. an, just as others have similarly empha- 213. sized by redoubling them the similar * Bod. 3, Laud Misc. 217. IV. III. INTERPOLATIONS FORCED ON MANUTIUS* TEXT. 2O9 Gretser copies it out double word for word in triumphant fury to demolish Thomas James the 'English Calvinian,' to prove as he says that ' papistae have seen manuscripts \' Thus if there never was a viler fraud than the inventor's, there was never a worse nemesis than the honest obtuseness of his instrument. We must now enquire how interpolations against which the manuscripts bore such conclusive evidence came to be embodied for the first time in the edition of Paulus Manutius in 1563 after all earlier editions and reprints had escaped them^ The son of the great Aldus had been two years settled in Rome, loaded with every kindness, honour, and privilege ; his failing health spared by a staff of able correctors who were assigned to him for the great undertaking of the new Papal press in Greek, Latin and the Vernacular. Cyprian was the first author issued from that press. Charles Borromeo had been truly anxious for the restoration of the text of Cyprian to its primitive integrity. The Verona manuscript had been procured by him for the purpose. The editing of the text was committed to Latino Latini. Besides 'collecting with many watchings and labours' an illustrative commentary on obscure passages, he made accurate collations and prepared a brief critical commentary on the readings^ In one of his private letters'* he complains that after the most conscientious labour upon the text he found that, while passing through the press, not only were Biblical quotations altered to conformity with the Vulgate, but besides, ' whether it was at the mere pleasure of certain ^ Gretser, I.e. p. 303 (Ingoldstadt ascertains that he had of our extant 1603). ones Vat. (0) n. 199 and prob. Mona- " Hartel names 10 edd., and there censis (/t). were at least 20, including reprints of * Ad Andr. Masium (Maes) II. p. Erasmus. 109 [Hartel, p. x., of. p. Ixxx.], and ' Besides the Verona and Benevento Life of Latini prefixed to the Biblio- '(or Naples) codex, Hartel, p. Ixxx., theca. B. 14 2IO CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' * persons or of set design, he knew not, some passages were ' retained contrary to the evidence of the manuscripts, and even * some additions made! Under these circumstances he would not allow his name to be connected with the edition, ' deeming ' it no light crime to conceal the truth or to alter the smallest ' letter/ and withdrew his annotations. In the Bibliotheca Sacra et Profatia, or collected notes of the same critic \ he mentions three epistles of Cyprian first discovered by himself in the MS. then at Saint Salvadore's at Bologna, and in two Vatican MSS., of which epistles the arrogant 8th letter from the Roman Clergy which Cyprian treats contemptuously was one. These he says the superior authorities" would not allow to be published ' un-emended,' and accordingly the 8th epistle does not appear at all in that edition. They refused also to allow the anti-Roman epistle of Firmilian to be ' brought forth out of darkness ' — but in this Latini seems to have acquiesced, ' detesting the man's petulance*.' Upon a remark of Pamelius* censuring a certain reading of Manutius a few lines forward in the De Unitate, he observes ' this ' is one of the alterations which were made neither by me, nor 'by Manutius, but by one who had permission to pervert, ' to add, to cut out, or to corrupt whatever he would, against ' my will.' That our present interpolations were among this per- sonage's manipulations is clear from Latini's statement on the same page, that he had 7iever seen these in any manu- script except ' in a fragment very recently written at Bologna, ' — a small book containing only a few treatises of Cyprian, 'belonging to Vianesius de Albergatis, — and also in a com- 'plete copy at Bologna (from which the said fragment was ' copied) which was itself also written in a recent hand.' There is in the Library at Gottingen^ a copy (brought "^ Bibl. Sacr.et Prof.,^. \-]j^b. « ramel., Cypr. (Antv. 1568), p. * Qui prseerant, I.e. 262 a, note 4. B. S. et P., p. 179 a. 3 B. S. et P., p. 177^. ' Hartel, p. xi. and p. 21311. IV. III. INTERPOLATIONS FORCED ON MANUTIUS' TEXT. 211 from Venice) of the edition of Manutius, with notes written on its margin. Those notes are copies of manuscript notes by Latini. One of these notes says upon this place, ' These ' words were added out of a single manuscript belonging to ' Virosius (a clerical error for Vianesius) of Bologna, now in ' the Vatican, by P. Gabriel the Poenitentiary with the consent ' of the Master of the Sacred Palace.' So close a chain of evidence leaves no doubt as to the time, manner and per- formers of the interpolation. The most competent editor of his age and country felt compelled to resign his work because he was powerless to prevent the Theologues of the Vatican from remodelling his text. But we are not quite at the end of this strange story. In the Council of Trent in the year 1563 the debate was at its height 'whether Bishops have their powers of Divine right or of Papal right^.' The ambiguous canon proposed from Rome, that bishops hold the principal place dependent on the pope, was under discussion with a view to substituting for it, chief under the pope but not dependent. Quotations from Cyprian were rife. About the 20th of June, Carlo Visconti, Bp. of Ventimiglia, the pope's secret minister at Trent, and his spy upon his legates, an experienced diplo- matist and ' man of exact judgment,' received letters from Rome telling him that the new Cyprian had appeared, with the passages which the correctors had expunged from the De Unitate'\ The possible effect on the Council itself was serious. Visconti went straight to Agostino, now bishop of Lerida, a great lawyer, diplomatist and antiquarian, who had received the same intelligence and with it a copy of the new book. He could tell Visconti that Latini himself had many days back communicated the facts to Cardinal Hosio (Osius) ; facts which he thoroughly understood, for it was he who had years before ^ De jure divino, de jure pontificio. - Visconti wrote ' de Authoritate. ' See Sarpi, Books vi., vii., esp. vii. 52. An apt slip. 14 — 2 212 CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' made the collation of the Benevento manuscript. The Agent told the one Legate whom the pope trusted there, Cardinal Simoneta, and on June 22nd advised the Vatican that 'before such an opinion got established ' as that the correctors had been overruled, ' they should find means to remove it ; which ' could be done by giving authority to those words which had ' been published, authenticating them with the testimony and ' approbation of persons who had seen and confronted the ' antient codices V So writes one who had just recorded the 'testimony' of the persons who had 'confronted' the antient codices, — the verdict of the correctors. Even in 1 563 it was a little late for such measures. But the note actually attached to the volume is now full of meaning ^ It ends thus, 'It is not improper if pious and 'catholic interpretations and true senses be applied to the ' writings of the old fathers in order to preserve always the ' unity of the Church which Cyprian in his writings had most ' at heart. Otherwise no end to heresies and schisms.' This must have sounded mysterious to the unsuspecting student of Cyprian ; and they were few who knew that they were meant at once to gloze the gloss and to defend the scholar- ship of the perpetrators. Such is the history of the interpolations in the edition of Manutius where they first appeared. Their appearance in the Benedictine edition is no less remarkable. Baluze had rejected them on the weighty evidence which he states with utmost clearness^ and had printed off the ^ Epp. Car. Vicecomitis, L. xlv. al manuscripts, Latini's account, the 27 Card. Borromeo [Baluze, Miscell. III., codices, the condition of the text temp, p. 472 (Mansi), Lucae 1761 — 1764]. See Venerici Vercell., and the citations (see Appendix, Visconti's Letter, p. 544. below) by Calixtus II., the cardinals in 2 See same Appendix, p. 545. 1408, and the Roman Correctors (see * His witnesses being (as we have p. 218, n. 5) p. 545 (Paris ed. 1726). indicated) the Seguierian and Veronese IV.III. INTERPOLATIONS FORCED ON BENEDICTINE TEXT. 21$ sheets without them. His death in 171 8 interrupted the work which had been committed by order of the Regent Duke of Orleans to the Royal Press. In 1724 it was resumed for completion by the Benedictines of S. Maur at the request of ' Typographiae Regiae Praefectus/ and entrusted to Dom Prudent Maran. Baluze had formerly been banished by Louis XIV. and his property confiscated, for publishing in his History of the House of Auvergne fragments of a cartulary and an obituary which shewed the descent of the Cardinal de Bouillon from a sovereign house in France'. He had been placed in the Index by the court of Rome on account of his Lives of the Popes at Avignon. And now his genuine text of this passage in Cyprian was assailed by J. du Mabaret, Professor in the seminary at Angers, in a dissertation'^ which he submitted to Cardinal Fleury, now Minister, to the dominant Jesuits, and others in the interest of the holy see. The minister named a commission to decide the critical question. It was understood that a diffi- culty with the court of Rome would follow the omission of the passages from an edition issued under the authority of the ministry. It was decided to restore them. The prince of courtiers, the Due d'Antin, of whom it was said that he acted flatteries which others spoke, was charged with the delicate office. He requested Dom Maran to 'confer' with the abbe Targny^ The result of the 'conference' was what printers 1 The accuracy and honesty of Ba- the admirable Camille Le Tellier, abbe luze in that most curious of historical de Louvois, to whom he was 'Theo- disputes are demonstrated by M. Ch. logian,' and after Le Tellier's early Loriquet, 'Le cardinal de Bouillon, death, the confidence of the Cardinal Baluze, Mabillon et Th. Ruinart, &c.' de Rohan, and died in 1737. See Rheims, 1870. Sainte Beuve, Index de /"(jr-/ i?^^a/. The - Lettred'uns9avantd'A.auxAuteurs Latin rendering of Chiniac (see p. 216, des Memoires de Trevoux pour reclamer n. i) confuses the history by a mis- un Passage important de S. Cyprien translation worth noting. 'Cum abbate pret k 6tre enleve par de celebres Edi- Targny (theologo Domini le Tellier teurs. Memoires de Trevoux for Oct. dicti Abbatis de Louvois) tunc in rebus 1726. See Appendix, p. e^^6. ecclesiasticis partes agentis.'' The * Targny enjoyed the confidence of Abbe de Louvois had died in 17 18 and 214 CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' call 'a cancel.' The leaf was reprinted with the interpola- tions inserted, at the expense of typographical as well as moral symmetry, Baluze's note greatly reduced, and a parenthesis incorporated with it stating that 'it had been 'necessary to alter much in Baluze's notes, and that more * would have been altered if it could have been cofivenienily * effected.' The double sense of the words can scarcely be missed \ The sole ground alleged for the reintroduction is that the 'words had appeared in all French editions for 150 years, even in that of Rigault' — the truth being that Rigault in his foot-notes repudiates them and prints the uncorrupt text in full. I perceive — and anyone who will look in the first edition published at Paris in 1726 may perceive — in that magnificent volume the traces of this sad story. On page 195 the interpo- lation has been introduced. In order to make room for it this and the next page have been reprinted with forty-seven lines of type, there being through the rest of the volume only forty- six lines to a page. On these or on the adjoining pages he will find also the traces of the binder's 'guards' by which the separately printed pages have been inserted. The Index seems to yield the same evidence. It fails to register 'cathedra, primatus, pastores, grex' from page 195, apparently because the clauses containing them were foisted into it after the Index had been printed off, although it gives the same words abundantly from other passages, and though other words from the genuine part of that page are given copiously : e.g. ' apostoli ' is quoted from it twice, but not from the forged part. his eloge was delivered at the Academic parentheses are as I give them, des Sciences at Easter 1719. The ^ 'Quin etiam necesse fiat in Baluzii French is 'conferer avec I'abbe Targny Notis non pauca mutare, ac plura essent (Theologien de le Tellier, dit I'Abbe mutata, id si fowwoa'^ fieri potuisset' — de Louvois) qui jouoit alors un role Maran's parenthetic note p. 545 (ed. dans les affaires de I'^glise.' The Paris 1726) on p. 195. IV. III. ORIGIN OF THE FORGERIES. 215 Dom Maran's preface betrays the very moment of the change. For it was made after that preface was actually in print. He there cites the passage with only the early and honest addition 'et iterum eidem post resurrectionem suam...^' and proceeds 'I quote this testimony [of Cyprian's] 'just as it is contained in this edition of Baluze's, but the 'words of Cyprian are read differently in the editions of * Manutius and PameliusV In the notes which are placed in this Paris edition at the end of the volume, it has been found necessary to cancel what must have been far the largest part of Baluze's original note. A whole sheet, a pair of leaves, printed off before his death, had to be entirely removed, viz. pages 545 and 546. In order to preserve the continuity of the paging two leaves which precede and follow the abstracted ones, and which also had to be reprinted, have two page-numbers on each of their two pages. Thus, page 543 is now numbered also 544; what would have been 544 is now 545 and 546, and so on until page 551, when the single numbering of the pages is resumed. Similarly, at the foot of the same leaves, the notations GgggS 3-"d Gggggij which designated the filched sheet have been affixed additionally to their neighbours Fffffij and Hhhhh. Professor Mabaret now had a sight for the first time of Baluze's original note, upon which he penned some elaborate' ^ It is necessary to observe also that sequimur non solum editionibus Manu- Baluze wrote : Super ilium unum sedi- tiana antiquioribus sed etiam codicum ficat...&c. Praef. p. X. manuscriptorum auctoritate ' (Paris ed. 2 Prsef. p. X. 'Hoc testimonium ita 1726, p. 545). The Venice ed. 1758 protuliuthabeturinhacBaluziieditione. (p. 461) adds ' confirmatur.' Sed Cypriani verba aliter leguntur in ^ * ...I'apostilla de point en point,' editionibus Manutii ac Pamelii.' In the Chiniac, as note 3. Mabaret's paper mutilated note the Benedictine editor had the grand title ' Baluzii in Cypriani has left one sentence without a verb — locum Primatus Petro, &=€. primigenia ♦ sed tamen scriptura, quam in contextu Observatio censoria virgula castigata.' 2l6 CYPRIAN AND PELAGIUS PAPA SECUNDUS. annotations which the editors did not consider worth printing \ III. I. What, lastly, is the Origin of the interpolated passages themselves? It will be observed that they are four. To the first, namely 'And to the same apostle, &c.' applies the remark of Latinius that the corrections have crept in from marginal summaries, not all at once but from time to time. This is the oldest of all, occurring in manuscripts which have no other trace of addition. It is simply a second text ad- duced and affirmed to be illustrative of that which Cyprian had quoted. The word ilhun, 'upon that one' apostle, is alone later and polemic. 2. The second interpolation 'established one chair' apparently exists only in the most corrupted manuscripts^ It is omitted even by Maran when replacing the forgeries. It makes nonsense of the argument as regards its order, but may also have been a marginal note. 3 and 4. The opening words 'and the Primacy is given to Peter' of the third interpolation had a similar origin. For in that state, in the form namely, 'Here the primacy is given to Peter,' Cardinal Hosius' mentioned that they existed still in a manuscript of his own, where they found place immedi- ately before the first interpolation. But the rest has a very different origin. The Bishops of Istria had from the time of Vigilius onward contended against the authority of the second Council ^ The history of the Paris edition is Cambronensis. On the source of atque given in the Catalogus Operum Steph. rationem B2 Fern., atque rationem sua Baliizii by P. de Chiniac prefixed to B3B4, atque orationis suae M after Baluze's Capitularia regum Francorum originem, see Appendix on the Inter- Paris 1780, I. pp. 73, 74, and in his polation, p. 550. Histoire des Capitulaires 1779 (the ^ Ap. Pamelii adnot. (Cypr. 1568, same essay and Appendix in French), p. 261) and Lat. Latinius Bibl. S. et P., pp. 226 — 228. p. 178. Latinius here writes Hosius, 2 MQ., B3B4 Pern, and Pamelius's but in his Letters he writes Osius. IV. III. EXTRA PLEAS. 21/ of Constantinople as having virtually censured that of Chal- cedon. In A.D. 585 Pelagius the Second invoked the effective authority of the Exarch Smaragdus of Ravenna and in an Epistle to the Bishops appealed to the 'terrible testimonies of the fathers' — as he may well call his own quotations. Among them Pelagius alleges a passage from Augustine which has never been identified and bears small resemblance to the views of that father. Then, four centuries before its appearance in any known or any evidenced manuscript of Cyprian, Pelagius produces the passage from the De Unitate, with the interpolations which we are now considering, and without the citation from the Canticles. Thus, Aye and Blessed Cyprian too, that noble martyr, in the book which he called after the name of Unity, among other things says thus : ' The beginning sets out from unity : and Primacy is given to ' Peter, that one Church of Christ and one Chair may be pointed ' out : and all are pastors, but one flock is shewn, to be fed by the 'apostles with one-hearted accord,' and a few words later, ' He that 'holds not this Unity of the Church does he believe that he holds 'the faith.'' He who deserts and rebells'^ the Chair of Peter, on ^ which the Church was fotinded, does he trust that he is iti the ' Church r These interpolations can never have been meant as honest paraphrases. The manipulation is too much. However here they appear for the first time, and the inspection of the passages side by side will shew how, down even to their omission of the verse of Canticles, the later recensions of the manuscripts have been formed upon this Epistle of Pelagius. The omissions are as evidence of design no less instructive than the insertions, i. The text which assigns to all the 1 Obsei"ve the retention with an im- itself have been interpolated from manu- possible construction of the genuine scripts of Cyprian. Pelagii Pap£E ii. resistit which better scholars dropped Ep. 6 (2 ad Epp. Istr.) Labbe (ed. Ven. out of their remodelled Cyprianic text. 1729), vol. vi. c. 632. This one fact also prevents our accept- See with ' Note on the Citation from ance of the possibility that the solitary Pelagius II.,' p. ■220, Appendix on manuscript of the loth century which the Interpolation, p. 551. contains the letter of Pelagius may 2l8 CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' apostles the remission of sins is left out, and that which gives the Feeding of the Flock to Peter is substituted for it. 2. Those expressions are left out which indicate that unity begins from one apostle, as being to the corrector's mind inadequate. 3. So also, as irrelevant to his purpose, is the text of Canticles. After this we have the awkward introduction of ' Paul's unity ' because at Rome the later watchword became ' Peter and Paul' ; and the reading kanc et Pauli unitatem. is the attempt to invoke Paul also after Petri had been already adopted. We must also note the force of the earlier interpolation ilium before unum. The contention of Cyprian was that the Church was built on otie. For the corrector's purpose it must be ' that one.' Mgr. Freppel's last argument for the interpolations is that they are cited in the Acts of Alexander III.\ in the Decretum of Gratian'*, and in the Decretum of Ivo of Chartres'. If such quotations in the twelfth century possessed any importance, it would be more worth while to observe on the other hand (with Baluze) that Pope Calixtus II. in a Bulla to Humbald of Lyons*, that the Cardinals of Gregory XII. assembled at Leghorn in A.D. 1408^, and that the Roman ^ Baron. Ann. Eccl. A.D. 1 164, xxix. ^ Baluze, p. 545, and others mention ' Hanc igitur unitatem non tenens Fri- this, but the text is first published in dericus Imperator tenere se fidem ere- Bullaire du Pape Calixte II. by U. didit. Qui Cathedram Petri deserit super Robert, Paris, iSpr (l- p. 307; B. 212, quam fundata est ecclesia quomodo se 5 Jan. 1121). in Ecclesia esse confidit.' But he does ^ Ep. Cardinalium Greg. xii. ad Epis- not give the 'phrase entiere' as Mgr. copos A.D. 1409 (1408), Labbe, vol. xv. Freppel (p. 279 n.) states. p. 1159. Nearly all of c. 4 and s of 2 A.D. 1 151. Cyprian are quoted without one trace of 3 A.D. 1090-1116, Ivo Z^ffr. pars v.c. corruption, although the interpolations 361, where it is thus quoted, '/'i?/rz uni- would have so precisely suited their tatem qui non tenet, tenere se fidem purpose that in default of them they in credit? Q\x\catkedramPetHsM^Gx quam fact introduce a new one of their own fundata est Ecclesia deserit, in Ecclesia inserting ' Episcopatus, ergo summus, se esse confidit ? ' unus esse debet.' [In Bibliotheca Max. IV. III. THE PAPAL PROFIT. 219 Correctors, with the edition of Manutius before them, all gave the passage pure of corruption. And as to the appeal to Gratian who, in the 93rd Distinc- tion \ quotes as from Cyprian the 4th interpolation thus, 'He who deserts the chair of Peter whereon the Church ' was founded, let him not trust that he is in the Church,' it actually yields us a fifth instance of the singular fatality which has haunted the dealers in this forgery, for in another passage Gratian'' cites the 4th and 5th chapters entire from 'the Lord saith to Peter,' not only omitting the phrase he elsewhere cites but absolutely without any trace whatever of any even the earliest corruptions. Singular, hateful, and in its time effective, has been this forgery as a Papal aggression upon history and literature. Its first threads may have been marginal summaries in exaggerated language. Then came an unwarrantable paraphrase and a deliberate mutilation for a political purpose. Then it ap- peared in manuscripts of the author with its indictment round its neck, side by side on the same page with the original which it caricatured. Then it was forced into two grand editions with an interval of a century and a half between them, first by the court of Rome itself, then by the court of France with the fear of Rome before its eyes. TantcB molis erat Romanam condere Sedem. This is the true 'Charter of the Investiture of the Papacy' and as authentic as other documents in that cartulary. How to make the best of the forgeries now. The surrender by some of so important a help suggested to others the endeavour to do without it by weaving together different texts from Pontificia, Rom. 1697, torn. vi. p. 905, ^ Decreti Pars I. Dist. xciii. c. iii. the interpolations are not only not ^ Decreti Pars II. Causa XXIV. omitted but specially insisted on.] See Quaestio i. c. 18. however, Baluze, pp. 545, 546. 220 CYPRIAN 'OF THE UNITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.' Cyprian to shew that this one (in its corrupt state) represented what after all was his real teaching: — an attempt which would never have been thought of if this spurious passage had not first caused him to be thought so powerful a support. This is done with the utmost special pleading by P. Ballerini A.D. 1766 de vi ac ratione pritnatus Romtn. Pontiff, xill. iii. ed. Westhoflf 1845. But a Catena of the passages is given sup. pp. 197 sqq. To any fair mind, Roman or other, I commend them. It is nothing to say that they also have scholars as alive to the forgeries as we are. These forgeries have been important steps in their ascent to power and maintenance of claim. Unreproved and honoured scholars of theirs still uphold their genuineness and reprint them in text-books. Others with superior art like the Rev. L. Rivington avoid quoting the intruded words, but force the whole gist of them, and infallibility besides, if he had been so understood antiently, into the genuine words. If such had been the meaning of Cyprian, the forger would have had no occasion for his craft. Note on the 'Citation' from Pelagiiis II. (p. 217). The 'Citation' from Pelagius II. is of course the decus et colutnen of the Roman proof of the genuineness of the forgery. But there are three alternatives (i), (ii), (iii), which have to be faced. I will call the text (as it stands) of Pelagius II. P, as seeming less to insist upon his personal responsibility for it. We have no external evidence to the authenticity of the first two epistles of Pelagius II. to the Bishops of Istria, beyond the fact that the third alludes to some earlier 'epistles' and 'words of admonition.' Paulus Diaconus (Warnefridus), de gestis Langobardorum ill. 20, men- tions ' an Epistle ' of his (written for him in fact by Gregory when a deacon) on the Tria Capitula, and Gregory Epp. II. 36 mentions 'a Book ' {liber) of Pelagius, on the subject. The ' Book ' is no doubt our long third ' Epistle.' Hence Alternative (i). If the second Epistle were not authentic of course its testimony to the interpolation would be valueless. But assume it to be authentic. There being only one MS. of the Three Epistles^ and that of the xth century; and codex M of Cyprian being of the ixth century; we ought to consider whether P can have been interpolated from M ox its relations. Hence Alternative (ii). In that case again Pelagius would yield no evidence. ^ Given to Baronius by Nicolas Fabre, cc. 434, 891, 895], and now in Paris. Baron. Ann. Eccl. a.d. 586, Pelag. ix., See Catalogus codd. MSS. Bid/. Reg. xxviii. Labbe [Mansi ix. Florent. 1763, P. 3, t. 3, Paris 1744, p. 170. IV. Ill, THE 'citation' FROM PELAGIUS II. 221 However I think that the reading of the Cyprianic interpolation which stands in P is not derived from the interpolation which appears in codex M. Reference to the Texts in Appendix will make the facts clear. It was of course not sufficient for the argument, as it stands in P, to rely on Ecclesice without express mention of Cathedra Petri. Therefore for Ecclesice renititur the manipulator has put Cathedram Petri deserit; but he has left et resistit coupled to deserit^ thinking this connection of resistit with the accusative over the body of deserit might pass. But the scribe of M knew this coupling to be inadmissible in a good style, and smoothed the difficulty, as any good grammarian would, by leaving out the genuine qui Ecclesice renititur et resistit and replacing it by qui cathedram Petri super quam fundata ecclesia est deserit. This seems to be the genesis of the wording in the interpolated part of M. And so P remains the fount of the phrase. Alternative (iii). Whether the text is Pelagius' own or not, its wording convicts it of awkward but intentional manipulation. M had P before him and corrected it. The 'Citation' is indeed a valuable one. Its presence in this Epistle suffices to shew that either i, the Epistle is not genuine, or that 2, it has been corrupted since it was written, or that 3, Pelagius himself adulterated the ' Citation ' — a ' Citation ' of much value in establishing the text of Cyprian — but to whom ? CHAPTER V. THE HARVEST OF THE NEW LEGISLATION. I. The softening of the Penances. — SECOND COUNCIL. In spite of all the care and circumstance which had waited on it, the Rule of restoration for the Lapsed was the work of a class, the most austere and in reality the least tempted. For we must recollect that, although the clergy were most exposed to persecution, yet the sorest of all tempters, repu- tation, position, and even (if they ever expected a cessation of persecution) worldly advantage, called on them to stand firm as strongly as the same motives invited many of the laity to yield. The Rule was too rigid to be a real aid to human nature and it was therefore injurious to the Church. A.D. 252. The Persecution of Gallus (as it may be called for con- 1005. venience) was a general movement of popular feeling Imp. Ctes. against those who refused to perform the sacrifices ordered C. Vibius \^y edict for the averting of the spreading Pestilence of the nianus time. Street cries demanded 'Cyprian for the lions*.' Mani- GallusP.F. . . J . . ^ , . , ., Aug. II. testations and visions to him and to others gave warning — C Vibiifs ^^^ wholly justified by the event ** — of sufferings at hand more Afinius severe than ever^ Of the libellatics condemned to indefinite Gallus Veldum- Suspension many were living in penitence, ' never quitting nianus L. p°P^^""^ 1 Ep. 59. 6. Cf. edicta feralia, 58. 9. ^ Ostensiones, Ep. 57. i, 2, 5; and In ad Nffvatianum 6, Hartel, Ap- this non-fulfilment is a fair chrono- pendix p. 57, it is spoken of as a secun- logical note that such anticipations are dum pmlium, in which they who had not a forgery later than the persecutions. been 'wounded' prima acie id est ^ ...non talem qualis fuit sed multo Deciana persecutione recovered them- graviorem et acriorem, Ep. 57. 5; cf. selves. 58. I. V. I. THE EXAMINATIONS OF THE LAPSED. 223 the threshold of the Church* '; some, where the clergy had a Novatianist bias, died unaneled' ; some clerical delinquents had quietly resumed their posts, whence no material power was able to dislodge them ; many persons had resumed with the name of Christians their old unchristian lives', and many families of those who despaired of practical restoration to the blessings of the Church had been lost to heresy and even to gentilism. The examination into individual cases had revealed unexpected palliations ; men had sacrificed to save families and friends from the 'question'; or had without reflection allowed themselves to be registered as ' sacrificers,' while simply intending to purchase exemption. Cases where there was less excuse deserved no less compassion. At or near to Capsa* three men named Ninus, Clementian and Florus, after enduring much violence from their own magistrates and the angered populace, were thrown victorious into prison. Dragged out on the arrival of the Proconsul upon his progress*, and submitted to repeated tortures in which life was carefully guarded, they ' could not endure till the crown came®.' They fell. Then they crept back as miser- able penitents to the Church. More than two years after^ their ' Ep. 57. 3. to the city. ^ Ep. 68. I. ^ The halt at Capsa of an earlier ^ Ep. 65. 3. proconsul, C. Bruttius Praesens, father * Ep. 56. I. Capsa (Gafsa) lay a of the unhappy wife of Commodus, little north of the Tritonian Lake in the consul in 153 and iSo A.D., seems to be proconsular province ; a rich and very marked by the epitaph of his wife, antient town in a beautiful oasis; had C I. L., viii. i. no. no. been strongly national, suffered horrors ^ Ep. 56. 1 ' coronam non potuisse per- under Marius for loyalty to Jugurtha, ferre.' Note use of /^^y^r^? with an object the Capsitani were still in Pliny's time of the thing to be attained. Corp. Inscrr. 'as much a clan as a Roman town' Za/^ viii. i. •2803a, at Lambassis, 'con- (non civiias tantum sed etiatn na'io). jugis absentisreditum perferre nequisti' Then it was raised to the rank of a of a lady dying before his return. 'Colony'; and was one of the two ' Triennium {Ep. 56. i), a good in- capitals of the Byzacene province under stance of the inclusive reckoning in Justinian. See Corp. Inscrr. Latt. vogue. This was before Easter (Apr. VIII. i. p. 22'. Pliny's Capsitani refers 11) a.d. 252, so that even if the pro- rather to the natio^ Cyprian's Capsensis consul had visited Capsa (which is not 224 SECOND COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE. May IS, A.D. 252. bishop Superius presented them to the new bishop of Capsa, DonatuIusS and the five colleagues who had assembled for his consecration, and asked whether their pitiable exclusion might not now be closed. It was agreed to refer the question to the Council which Cyprian had convened for after Easter. And Cyprian on receiving their application did not hesitate to express in warmest terms his conviction in their favour. In very many cases sympathy and policy united their claims for mitigation, and the SECOND COUNCIL, which assembled at least two-and-forty bishops in the May of this year^ ruled 'that all who had so far continued stedfast in penance should be at once readmitted.' Cyprian penned the Synodical Letter which announced the decision to Cornelius ^ likely) as early as January 350, two years and three months is the longest time possible. See p. 41, n. 2. ^ The meeting at Capsa was for the purpose of ordaining a new bishop. Donatulus is among the Fratres saluted. In A. D. 256 he appears as Bp. of Capsa at vii. Cone. Carth., and was therefore no doubt the person now ordained. ^ Easter fell in A.D. 252 on Ap. ir. The Second Council UNDER Cyprian De pace lapsis t?taturius danda is dated Id. Maij, May 15. — Ep. 59. 10. ^ Mr Shepherd {Letter it. p. 10, following the wake of Lombert ap. Pearson, Ann. Cypr. A.D. 253, ix.) argues that the censure passed upon Therapius {Ep. 64) for readmitting the lapsed presbyter Victor to communion could not have been consistently passed after the relaxation granted by the Second Council, and that accordingly the Council which censured him , which we count Third, placing it about the .September of 253 a.d. {Ep. 64), must have preceded our Second Council of May 252 A.D. which issued Ep. 57. This is so poor an attempt at harmoniz- ing that we can only wonder why for a moment Mr S. should seem to drop his universal scepticism in its favour. We must briefly observe (i ) with Pearson that the Conciliar Epistle 57 makes reference to otie previous Council, and emanated therefore more probably from a second than a third, but Pearson's (second) observation that it is improbable that so many as (s(> bishops should have again met before Easter 252 after their session of a.d. 251, has nothing in it. (3) In Ep. 57. i the relaxa- tion is granted in anticipation of the persecution under Gallus 'necessitate cogente,' but Ep. 64 is written in a calm, such as set in when ^Emilian's seizure of empire in April 253 withdrew attention from Christian progress, and was continued by Valerian from June onward upon principle. (4) Ep. 64. i distinctly speaks of the conditions of relaxation granted by the Second Council as having been neglected in the act of Therapius. He had received Victor not only '■nulla infirmitate urgente,^ i\vQ plea allowed by the First Council, but also 'cu {nulla) necessitate cogente,' i.e. the relaxation granted by the Second. The very words are borrowed from Ep. 57, V. 11. 'DE PACE MATURIUS DANDA.' 22$ It may be described as an able answer to his own once sterner language. To his former argument that restitution was * superfluous in the case of men ready to seal their sincerity ' by martyrdom, since the Baptism of Blood was higher than ' Ecclesiastical Peace,' he replies that ' it was the Church's * duty to arm such combatants for that last encounter with the 'protection of the Body and Blood of Christ' 'Men might ' well faint (he says) who were not animated by the Eucharist.' He remained the guiding spirit of the movement although his policy had so altered, — -rather perhaps because it had so altered — and even when its working had evoked one anti- pope in Rome, and two in Carthage. The letter of Antonian exhibits commonplace bewilderment at the change. At the results of the change Cornelius gazed in horror, Cyprian with an unaffected though not careless contempt \ 11. The Effect on Felicissiimis and his Party. It happened thus. The effect of the late amnesty upon the Puritans would be to confirm them in their austerity. At the same time their numbers were increased by new and are again expanded in the words laid down the conditions for neglect of 'nunc non injirrnis sed fortibus pax which Therapius was censured: surely necessariaest.' (5) Some time then after not by the same Council. Easter 253, and before Autumn 254 ^ Satis miratus sum te... ah quantum when the 4th Council was held, we must esse commotum. {Ep. 59. 2.) — Quod place the 3rd Council which replied to autem tibi de Fortunato isto pseud- Fidus. Autumn or September of 253, episcopo non statim scripsi, frater which is Pearson's conjecture, seems a carissime, non ea res erat quae, &c....nec reasonable time. The 4th and 7th tamen de hoc [Maximo pseudepiscopo] Councils were certainly held at that tibi scripseram quando haec omnia con- time of year. Maran's (§ xxiv.) notion temnantur a r\oh\s. ..{Ep. 59. 9). To (adopted by Hefele) that Fidus was an- conceive (Rettberg § 13, p. 152) that swered by 66 bishops on Id. Mai 252 in Cornelius repaid the services which the second Council seems unreasonable, Cyprian had rendered him, and now for why should only 42 of them have in turn upheld the tottering throne of concurred in the Synodic Epistle? It Carthage, is indeed to misunderstand was this Synodic Epistle which actually the circumstances and mistake the men. B. 15 226 SECOND COUNCIL. ITS EFFECT ON converts from heathenism, and what would be the relation of these to the Church whenever the enlargement of their dogmatic views should incline them to the Catholic body^ was sure presently to become a serious question. They now cast off their last hope of Cyprian and elected and conse- crated the head of their first legation, Maximus, to be their anti-bishop (or more accurately ' anti-pope') at Carthage I Meantime the laxer party perceived that the ground was cut from under their feet, and their leading adherents, never having done penance, found themselves as far as ever from readmission to the Church ; their numbers also had been swelled by disciples who wished for communion on easy terms ^ and all these clamoured for some action on the part of their heads which would give them a tenable position'*. They had been taunted as the 'only unepiscopal body' among pro- fessed Christians'. Accordingly, when Privatus, once bishop of the new great colony of Lambesis®, but some years since ^ Ep. 69. I, Ep. 71. I, 2. s.Qxx^'is.oiQy'^ni.n, Lambese{Sentt. Epp. ^ I think this cannot have been done 6; Ep. 36.4; Ep. 58. 10). The history earlier. In Ep. 5c. 1 Novatus has not of this striking though much spoiled yet made a Bishop in Carthage. In Ep. place, now Lambessa, is beautifully 59. 9 Maximus is spoken of as sent «M/^ worked out by Wilmanns from its in- (viz. A.D. 251) and consecrated «««f, i.e. scriptions, above 1700 in number (Corp. in A.D. 252 (that letter having been writ- Inscr. Latt. viii. i. p. 283). It was a ten this year after the Ides of May, Ep. wholly modern military town, sprung 59. 10, 13). Butin£/. 55. lOadAnton. from the great camp of the Third Legion, we find they had appointed bishops in which, after a.d. 123, Hadrian fixed on many places before the second Council. the north slope of Aurasius or Middle If therefore this step was delayed in Atlas, to keep the continent quiet. In Carthage, it may have been because a.d. 166 it was but a mV«j, but the leave hopes were still entertained of some de- given to the legionaries to have families claration in their favour by Cyprian. increased it immensely, and by A.D. 208 Nor can I think that the hope, though it was a viunicipmm and capital of Nu- misplaced, was unnatural. midia. lis streets and great structures 3 Ep. 59. 15. began shortly before that. Even its * Ep. 59. 15, 16. temples remained under military au- ' Ep. 43. 5. thority, exempt from civic magistrates. « Lambasis more often in inscrip- Analogy leads Wilmanns to believe it tions, and (Hartel) ' in the codices of was made a Colonia when Gordian re- Augustine' (Sentt. Epp.), but in some moved the Legion. That would be be- inscriptions, as uniformly in the manu- tween a.d. 238 and 244. I should infer V. II. THE INDEFINITE IN DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE. 22/ condemned of heresy in a Council of ninety bishops holden at that placed and severely censured by letters from Donatus of Carthage and Fabian of Rome, applied for a fresh hearing by the Council of 252 A.D. and was refused, this party too repaired its own defect by procuring his adhesion in the heat of his mortification. A new coalition of Five* created one of Cyprian's oldest opponents, Fortunatus^ into a second anti-bishop of Carthage. The fault was fatal* and it was followed by instant collapse. Whatever presbyteral standing they had was gone. Whatever hopes they had cherished of a grand general reconciliation with the Church were gone. Their followers were not in the main prepared to accept a new Church and a new bishop. They had thrown away the advantage which numbers gave them ; although those numbers were up to that moment scarcely a minority as compared with the Cyprianic church^. The announcement in Carthage that twenty-five bishops were expected from Numidia to consecrate Fortunatus in Carthage, from Cyprian's wording that it was a literis severissime notatum.' Thus con- Colonia not only when he wrote in A.D. scientiously expressed by an Ultra- 2$7, but many years before when Pri- montane, 'Privat s'etait vu condamner vatus its bishop was condemned, 'Pri- ...par une assemblee de 90 eveques, vatum veterem hsereticum in Lambesi- dont /e pape saint Fabien avait confirme tana colonia ante multos fere annos con- la sentence J' Freppel, p. 295. demnatum ' (,Ep. 58. 10). As that was ^ They were Privatus himself; Felix, in Fabian's time, between 236 and 250, a pseudo-bishop of Privatus' appoint- this casual Cyprianic date exactly fits ment; Repostus, a lapsed bishop pro- in with Wilmanns' observation. Next bably of Tuburnuc (see p. 80, n. 5) ; year 253 the Legion was restored, and Maximus and Jovinus, convicted of the greatness of the place, with its lapse and sacrifice, who (from their hav- 60,000 people, continued till Constan- ing been first condemned by nine bishops tine made Cirta the capital and gave it there by the first Council) were doubtless his own name. Then Lambesis col- bishops. lapsed. In a.d. 364 it had no bishop. ^ Dean Milman took Fortunatus for I may observe that in 252 its bishop ^ Novatianist zx^'Cx-Mx^o'^. It apparently was probably Januarius, as he is a very escaped his observation that there were senior bishop (6th) in 256. Sentt. Epp. /wo anti-popes in Carthage. Lat.Chris- ^ Ep. 59. 10 'nonaginta episcoporum tianity, I. i. sententia condemnatum, antecessorum ■* Ep, 59. 15. etiam nostrorum...Fabiani et Donati * If I rightly understand £/. 59, 15. 15—2 228 THEY FORM A SHORT-LIVED FREE EPISCOPAL CHURCH. the announcement in Rome that they had actually done so, failed to accredit him\ Felicissimus sailed for Rome in the capacity of legate to his new chief or instrument : Cornelius and the milder party might yet be willing by a recognition of Fortunatus to drive Novatianism off the field with numbers. They represented Cyprian's cause as lost. 'They were pre- ' pared to bring him to trial before the church of Carthage. ' His flock were ready to expel him tumultuously from the ' city. If Cornelius refused to hear the documents which ' they submitted, they should feel bound to communicate them *to the Roman laityV Cornelius was disconcerted by the violence of Felicissimus though not imposed upon. He repelled him with spirit, but wrote tartly of Cyprian's neglect in not informing him of the movements of the party. Cyprian in his long-practised tone of business indicates a certain defect in the memory of Cornelius, and apologizes for unavoidable delay on the part of his messenger, the acolyte Felician. His advice is keen and stimulating, and though he opens half sar- castically he is profoundly affected by the prevalent disorders. ' If Sacrificers and deniers of Christ are to be proposed, ' admitted, and then to terrorize, the Church may as well sur- ' render to the Capitol at once; Bishops may be gone and take ' the Lord's altar with them ; idols and images may transfer * themselves and their altars into the assemblage of the clergy.' 'No priest of God is weak enough, abject or prostrate enough, ' nor so enfeebled by the imbecility of mortal incompetency, as ' not to rouse himself against the enemies and assailants of God ' in godlike wise, and feel his lovvness and feebleness inspirited ' by the valour and vigour of the Lord.' The best refutation however was that Cyprian himself was almost worn out by the 1 £p. 59. II. Clear it is that among tinctly before the eye of Cyprian as the the allusions to schism and pseudo- divider of the flock. This alone might bishops in the de Unitate none bear on fix the date of the treatise, the incidents of the two Carthaginian * Ep. 59. r, 16. pretenders. It is Novatian himself who ^ Ep. 59. 2, 3, 18. (in all the chapters viii. to end) is dis- V.II. PURITAN FIBRE MORE LASTING, BUT NOT IMMORTAL. 229 labour of examining and readmitting the fast-recanting ad- herents of Felicissimus and by the anxieties of rejecting those whom the flock (for every case was formally put to them* and considered in their presence) absolutely refused to receive. The Christian public witnessed singular pictures of the brutal insistence of some, the tearful thankfulness of other candidates for restoration^ Mistakes were made. Cyprian confesses that he had disastrously in more than one instance overruled protests against false penitents. It is well worth remarking that in this age the claim for stricter penitential discipline was not sacerdotal or official, but popular. In epochs of suffering it will be always so. These causes then, the decision of the Council, the suicidal policy of a rival episcopacy with no moral basis, and the popular demand for discipline, acted rapidly to break up the party. Cyprian estimated that at the moment when its emissary was intimidating Cornelius at Rome it had suddenly shrunk in Carthage to a congregation inferior in number to the clerical members of the first CounciP. Presently all trace of them is lost. They vanished before more earnest ques- tioners. But Novatianism contained no such seeds of speedy dissolution. Although Cornelius represents to Antioch, to Alexandria* and to Carthage in terms stronger than Cyprian ^ Ep. 59. 18, rc^arj, cf. rogarelegem, as in the East shews how little was magistratum. known of the date or origin of such ^ Ep. 59. 15. The statement of officers. Socrates (v. 19) that this was the ^ ^/. 59. 15, z.^. than the bishops, pres- moment at which Penitentiary Pres- byters and deacons who had been their byters were instituted to hear private 'judges.' Eighty-eight bishops from confessions is counter to the whole all parts of Africa are scarcely likely to view of the time. Sozomen (vii. 16) have been attended on the average by gives an interesting picture of the more than two clerics each at the out- Roman method of penance at a much side. If we add forty as a possible later date in which the bishop is him- number for the presbyters and deacons self the fellow penitent and the ab- of Carthage — it may give us rather more solver. And this direct contradiction than 300 as the relics of the Congrega- of his own statement that Penitentiaries tion of Felicissimus. were an institution in the West as well * Eus. H. E. vi. 43, 46. 230 CLERICAL AND EPISCOPAL SENTENCES. uses of Felicissimus, that Novatian was almost abandoned, still his sect with its episcopal successions endured throughout Christendom far into the sixth century, — a stern Puritan relic of the Decian persecution. It has been well said that ' like ' all unsuccessful opposition it added strength to its triumphant * adversary, and only evoked more commandingly the growing ' theory of Christian Unity.' III. The Legacy of Clerical Appeals under the Law of tJie Lapsed. — The Third and Fourth Councils. The Spanish appeal against Rome. From this point we may with advantage carry our view forward to certain illustrative cases which arose in the course of the next two years, after the main work of reconciliation for such as returned was over. We have notices of three appeals made to the See of Carthage. They are clerical cases. For the clergy, as they were less tempted to fall, so found it harder to return. It was easy for them to achieve a new position in some aggressive sect ; and it was not the wisdom of the Church to confer its functions on the timid or vacillating. We cannot with confidence assert that terms for them were separately considered at the Second Council, yet we find it immediately and generally accepted that lapsed Bishops and Clerks could never be restored to Orders \ Cyprian rests his argument for this'^ not on in- junctions of the Council but on Scripture, drawing the rule from the Levitical institutions, and from visions vouchsafed to himself Yet elsewhere' he says that, in common with himself and all the bishops of the world, Cornelius had concluded this. Not for four years more, until the second Council on Baptism, was the principle of degradation 1 Ep. 55. II. 2 Ep. 65. 3 Ep. 67. 6. V. III. HARVEST OF NEW LEGISLATION — THIRD COUNCIL. 23 1 extended to any presbyters and deacons who had taken part in a heresy or a schism*; and it presents a singular and contradictory appearance of laxity that only Novatianists and Donatists held the mark of orders to be so indelible that bishops returning to them after lapse resumed their functions'. Late in the summer of the next year one of the African bishops, the same Fidus, who, as we shall learn, counted a.d. 253. A.U.C. infants under eight days old too impure for christening', re- 1006. ported to the primate that a lapsed presbyter, Victor by name, ^ssar C^ had after an insufficient period of penance been admitted to Yj!''?^ communion by their colleague Therapius of Bulla*. A few Callus words of this worthy, who spoke in his place of seniority as ^nus L. sixty-first bishop in Cyprian's last Council^ give an idea of p°p^'f^"^ one whose fancy might outrun discretion. ' He who concedes n- * and betrays to heretics,' he then said, ' the Church's (right of) us?] Maxi- ' baptism, what is he but the Judas of Christ's Spouse ? ' But "^"^' if Therapius thought an unsound opinion within the Church a worse betrayal of the Church than apostasy from her, the uncharity of Fidus is in contrast to the spirit of Cyprian. Fidus evidently desired that a new excommunication should overtake Victor. At his good fortune the Third Council of sixty-six a.d. 253, bishops, who met Cyprian probably® in September a.d. 253, were less offended than at the autocratic manner in which ^ Ep. 72. 2. It was a small old (Oros.) Free-Town '^ Cod. Cann. Eccl. Afr. 27 (C. (Plin.) above the vast rich plain of the Justellus, Paris 1614, I. p. 98 ; II. p. 41). Bagradas (Procop. de Bell. Vand. i. L'Aubespine, Observat. V. in Optat. 25). It cannot have been, as Momm- 3 V. infra ch. viii. v. 2. sen seems to suggest, the same as ^ Ep. 64. Baluze (copied by Routh, Bulleria, since a bishop from each R. S. vol. III. p. 144), and Morcelli attended the summons of Huneric to (S.V.), take Bulla vidthout sufficient Carthage in a.d. 484. A sketch in reason to be a different place from A. Graham's Tunisia, p. 188. Bulla Regia. It was in Numidia Pro- ' We cannot attach weight to the consularis, near where the boundary statement of the later MSS. of the Sen- crosses the Bagradas, and over 50 miles tentt. Epp. that he was a confessor, from Hippo Regius on the road to " On the date of this Council see Carthage — now Hammam Darridji. notes 2, 3, p. 224. C. /. Z. VIII. i. p. 157, ii. p. 934. 232 EPISCOPAL CASES. FOURTH COUNCIL. even the now lenient conditions of restoration had been ignored. They would not withdraw the boon which a 'Priest of God' had granted, but a vote of censure was passed upon Therapius (who may be supposed to have been present in his place in Council*) for giving a gratuitous indulgence which the Laity had neither requested nor sanctioned ^ The second case came from Assuras' — a populous inland town, whose ruins lie widespread over height and ravine. The Temple and the Christian Church, which are still, after its gates of the Antonines, the most marked objects there, may well have witnessed the incidents which brought on the appeal. The diocese had already elected Epictetus to the Chair vacated by the idolatrous sacrifice of Fortunatian*, when this traitor bishop, supported by a party of fellow-lapsed, re- claimed the function and emoluments" as his right. Cyprian, whose characteristic mistake was to consider every office of a church vitiated to nullity if discharged by an unworthy minister, urges that view more than the broad ground of order, in answer to an appeal to him from the disquieted flock, and counsels a resort to individual canvassing, if necessary, in order to knit the church firmly together under their authentic bishop. A.D. 254. Par the most important to us however of all cases of 1007. appeal is one which did not come before Cyprian until Cffis.p""^ about September A.D. 254. Its importance lies in the prin- ciples which it reveals as already regulating the intercourse 1 The form of expression may seem Assuras: Senit. Epp. 68 ' ab Assuras'; to warrant this: 'satis fiiit objurgare Corp. Inscrr. Latt. n. 631 inhabitants Therapium collegam nostrum... et in- K%%\!s\\.z.v\ passim ; now Zaw/i/r, but its struxisse^ Ep. 64. i. plain B'hairt Essers. Bruce's drawing ' Ep. 64. of the Temple and arch is in Col. R. L. 3 Ep.6i. Also, like Bulla, inNumidia Playfair's Travels, p. 208. Proconsularis. See N. Davis, Ruined * PameHus erroneously treats this Cities within Numid. and Carth. Ter- man as a Novatianist. Fell follows. ritories,-p. 69, and Sir G. Temple's i5"jr- * Ep. 65. 3 'stipes et oblationes et cursions, vol. II. p. 266. Colonia Julia lucra.' Licinius V. III. SPANISH APPEAL TO CYPRIAN AGAINST ROME. 233 of churches or dioceses. But, reserving for the present the Valerianus development of these principles, we will here relate only the „* striking circumstances of the Lapse and the immediate action p™Lidni^us taken upon it. It is a wild tale, so to speak, of the old Egnatius /-.I • • 1 T« • Gallienus Border Life between Christianity and Paganism. p. f. Aug. The Bishops of Leon and Merida in Spain had accepted testimonials to their orthodoxy as pagans \ The former, Basilides by name, repented and formally abdicated his see when the persecution lulled. He then confessed not only his crime of Lapse, but how in the superstitious terror of some illness he had blasphemed the God of his faith. After this confession he thankfully accepted the position of a Layman. Martial of Merida had long ago enrolled himself in one of those religious colleges which, besides their other celebrations, performed the funeral ritual of their members with all pagan solemnities in cemeteries secured to them by law^ With such rites he interred children of his own. The Chairs of these two men had been filled by other two elected by their own churches and approved by the neigh- bouring prelates. Basilides afterwards recovering from his dejection paid a visit to Rome, and there he and, we must infer. Martial also^ by some fraudulent means procured a declaration from the new pope Stephen that he would hold them still to be the lawful occupants of the two sees. Against this sudden and monstrous utterance the Spanish churches appeal to Cyprian. A FOURTH COUNCIL of seven a.d. 254, and thirty bishops, assembling under him at Carthage*, accept the appeal, reverse the Roman sentence^ and instruct the churches to keep to their righteous course. There is no further reference to the Roman see in the matter. ^ Ep. 67. See above, p. 82. See more fully on this appeal and on 2 Renan, Les Apotres, ch. xviii. p. the affair of Martian of Aries in the 354, gives some interesting details of chapter on Stephen, p. 311. these colleges. ^ £/. 67. 5. ' Simply, 'our colleague Stephen ■* IV. Concil. Carth. sub Cypr. (Sep- was a long vyay off and ignorant of the tember?) a.d. 254. Ep. 67, Synodica. facts and of the truth.' Ep. 67. 5. 234 FOURTH COUNCIL. EPISCOPAL CASES. It is obviously of extreme interest and importance to observe principles not created but unquestioningly acted upon in this cause. The action taken is quite compatible with the thought of Rome as Principalis Ecclesia^ as a centre of * unity,' but irreconcilable with any view of that see as a centre of legislation or jurisdiction, or even as a centre of reference. Meantime we may remember that while the legislation provided for the Lapsed was temporary, the principles which it first brought into strong relief are for all time. And we may still regard our possession of them as our inheritance from the Decian persecution. A less happy forecast attends the case of a 'contumelious' Deacon and a Layman abetting him, which is referred to Carthage by the Bishop Rogatian^ in all likelihood the same who figures in the Councils, Bishop of Nova, deep in Mauretania^ The tone of the letter indicates that he was known to Cyprian ; * Let no man despise thy old age,' he says. He writes however not for himself only but in the name of ' col- leagues,' so that his systematic consultations were at work. The idea of authority is developed and fortified, but it is the same idea as in the fourth epistle, resting on the same precept in Deuteronomy* of reverence and obedience to the High Priest. That means simply, that details had taken time to work out, but that from the first Cyprian held that view which he held last of the identity of internal relations in the two polities of Israel and the Church. The case, says Cyprian, might have been properly dealt with by excommunications on the part of Rogatian himself alone. This is the course which, with his ' colleagues who were ^ Seep. 192, and Appendix^ p. 537. * Deut. xvii. 12, 13. It was pro- ■■' Ep. 3. bably this quotation which determined ' See Appendix on Cities, p. 575. Pearson. V. III. EPISCOPAL CASES. 235 present,' he recommends in the last resort, but he would rather rely on an appeal to good sense and feeling*. It is well and sincerely urged. But here we see excommunication, instead of being kept as the discipline of sin, already looming as an engine for managing the Church. ^ O. Ritschl pointed out (p. 239) which connects it with the time we that argument and allusion in Ep. 3, are discussing. as Pearson counted it, are not of an If the 'colleagues present' are a early stamp ; and I would further Council, and not rather the Occasional observe on the close verbal resem- Board, it was probably the Third Coun- blance between Ep. 3. i, 2 and Epp. cil, for Rogatian attended the Second 59. 4 ; 66. 3 ; and de Unit. 17, 18, and Fourth. CHAPTER VI. EXPANSION OF HUMAN FEELING AND ENERGY. I. The Church in relation to Physical Suffering. I. Within itself — The Berber Raid. Even whilst the Council sate news arrived that many- Christian maidens, wives and children \ had been kidnapped from Numidia by the Berbers. The frontier tribes, quieted last by Severus, were in movement this year and were carry- ing terror into the provinces. Faultily^ and fatally these indigenes^ ages ago rolled back by settlers from Asia and Europe, were being now ruled by fortresses, military colonies, farmers holding by service- tenure, absolute magistrates, without any attempt to interest or incorporate them. Their raids were really waves in their steady return. A.D. 252. In the year 252 there was a concerted general advance. Mauretania felt them. They broke out of Aures* through the grand chain of fortress settlements, harrying the domains ^ Ep. 62. 5. Cyprian appeals to The Rheims MS. is not a good text, fathers and husbands as necessarily Hartel has to set it aside constantly, sympathizing. It was a raid on per- ^ F. Lacroix in the Revue Africaine, sons. In c. 3, p. 699, 1. ^i, I demur vol. vii. p. 363. to Hartel's reading ' vinculi maritalis * There are and were traces of their amore' from the Rheims MS., which name over all North Africa. Tissot, Baluze here sets aside for the better Geogr. de la Prov. d'Afriqiie, i. p. 394. expression "■ pudore vinculi maritalis' of "* See Appendix on Cities, p. 575. the editions which represent lost mss. Coss. VI. 1. 1. THE CHURCH AS TO SUFFERINGS OF HER MEMBERS. 237 of the strongest towns, Thubunae on the Salt Marsh, and the vast soldier-colony of Lambaesis. From the Sahara they came right through the Province itself into the terebinth woods of Tucca and to the great centre of traffic Assuras, little more than a hundred miles from Carthage. The Christian population of at least eight sees was thus lacerated \ As memorials of transactions so fatal ultimately to the church of Africa and to all the civilization which depended on it, clearing the ground as they did for Vandal and for Saracen, there remain in explanation of each other only scattered notices, a few inscriptions, and the sixty-second epistle of Cyprian which went with a ransom ^ This must have been a serious time for the dominion of Africa, though we know nothing direct about it. Not Cyprian but two or three unburied marbles^ tell us how ^ In the fourth century children were relate to the defeats of FARAXEN • constantly redeemed from the Berbers and baptized if unidentified, V. Cone. Carth. c. 6, A.D. 398, Labbe 11. 1455 {Brev. Cone. Hipp. A.D. 393, c. 39, but see also nn. on cc. 38, 39, Hefele, H. d. C. B. VIII. 109), Cod. Caiin. Eeel. Afr. 72, Justell. p. 198 (ed. 1614), Labbe, 11. 1308. (?/ro hinc /^^. huic. ) In A.D. 409 we mark them kidnapping still further north at Sitifis itself, Aug. Ep. cxi. (cxxii.) 7. - An affecting inscription given in Rev. Afr. vii. p. 359 belongs to the year A.D. 247 (Anno Provincire Maure- taniae 208) A p ccviii D M have se- CVNDE PARENTIBVS TVIS DVLCISSIME FLOS IVVENTVTIS AN V A BARBARIS INTEREMPTVS MVCIA AMAk [the last four letters from Wilmanns' cast, who has s after D m, and for v a small L (?), C. I. L. VIII. ii. 9158]. A forgery claiming to be of year 254 with a curious story is given C. I. L. viii. i. p. xxxvii., 30. Other inscriptions, be- longing to the next 30 or 40 years, REBELLIS CVM SATELLITIBVS SVIS, C. I. L. VIII. ii. 9047, the chieftain from whom the Fraxinenses hod. Frcumeen are said to be called, of the quinque- GENTANEI rebelles at Bougie, Salda, C. I. L. VIII. ii. 8924 {Rev. Afr. iv. p. 434), and of Babari at Cherchel, CcESarea. ERASIS FVNDITVS BABA.RIS TRANSTAGNENSIBVS C. I. L. VIII. ii. 9324 {^Rev. Afr. iv. p. 222. Mus. Alg. No. 74). The Quinquegentanei disappear soon after their overthrow by Maximian (Eutrop. ix. 23). The Berbers between Sitifis and Cirta are by Pliny v. 30 (4) and Ptolemy iv. 3 (p. 11 1 b) called Sabarbares, Za^ovp^ovpes, which is said to contain the Numidian prefix Zal> {Revile Africaine, vol. vii. p. 27, &c.), but in either case with v. 1. Sababares, 2a/3oi)j3oi;pes, as in one of the above inscriptions. In Ep.6'2. 3 Barbarorum, &c. would correctly have a capital letter. * Index, Corp. Inscrr. Latt. II. p. 108 1 (published since the previous para- 238 EXPANSION OF HUMAN FEELING AND ENERGY. a year or two later the Bavares under four united native princes wasted Numidia as far up as Milev. There, and again on the Mauretanian frontier, they were violently checked by C. Macrinius Decianus, propraetor. He defeated at the same time other great leagues or clans' of them, as the Quin- quegentanei, who fell on Mauretania itself; and while he claimed the credit of the capture and execution of Faraxen*, almost a chieftain of romance, — like the present Berber chiefs, 'who look as if thawed out of marble statues of Roman emperors',' — it would seem that the actual seizure of him and his whole staff was the exploit of Gargilius Martialis, an officer who had served in Britain and now commanded the loyal Moorish cavalry. Still further west Auzia, now Aiifnale, must have been in peril, for when, in A.D. 260, Gargilius him- self was destroyed by a Berber ambush, Auzia commemorated by a statue his former act of ' valour and vigilance.' The redemption of captives, like the portioning of orphans, had long been among the Romans a favourite work of liberality — ' most worthy of the gravity and greatness of the senatorial order*.' There was nothing specifically Christian, nothing novel in the collection which was promptly made at Carthage for graph and its note i were written), con- ^ The Dux famosissimus (full of siders that the victories of Decian belong legends) of the Fraxinenses must be to the years 253 and 254. He was Faraxen himself. Col. R. L. Playfair, ' Legatus duorum Augustorum Numi- Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce dise,' i.e. of Valerian and Gallien, in (p. 72), says that in the Aures moun- A.D. 260, to which year the movement tains over Lambesis is a high wooded itself belongs. See the inscriptions, C /. and secluded valley called Ti Farasain. L. VIII. i. 2615 (at Lambesis), ii. 9047 Its name, perhaps, may be a record of (Auzia), and compare ii. 9045. Mark this raid. the expressions ' provinciam Numidiam ^ Col. R. L. Playfair, op. cit. p. 70. vastabant,^ '■'\-a.%\^\\%'&z.v2s\xm. decepto.^ ■* Redimi e servitute captos...vulgo ^ Gen. Creuly shews that Babares solitum fieri ab ordine nostro...H3ec included Quinquegentanei and Fraxi- (consuetudo) est gravium hominum nenses, Rev. ArcheoL i86i,p. 51. See atque magnorum. Cic. de Off. ii. 18. also Tissot I. 458, il. 790. 63; cf. 16. 55. VI. 1. 1. THE CHURCH AS TO SUFFERINGS OF HER MEMBERS. 239 the victims, except the number and poverty of the con- tributors. But this novelty was Christian. The motives which they had found irresistible were 'that the captives 'were living shrines of deity; that Christ was in them and * they in Christ ; that such an event was a probation not only ' of sufferers but also of sympathizers ; that all looked for a 'Judgment in which sympathy would be the main subject of ' enquiry.' If He will then say 'I was sick and ye visited me,' much more will the Redeemer say 'I was captive and ye redeemed me.' How full Cyprian's mind was at this moment of these topics we shall recognize as we proceed. Nearly eight hundred^ pounds was subscribed by the community, and by the sitting bishops; by these partly on behalf of their poor churches. The list of donors, sent into Numidia, was accompanied by the request that they might be commemorated at the sacrifices and in private prayers, and with an assurance of further help should the need, as was too likely, recur. Of Genuineness Geographical. A beautiful incidental proof of the genuineness of our documents comes out here. The relief is sent from Carthage to eight Numidian bishops, Januarius, Maximus, Proculus, Victor, Modianus, Ne- mesianus, Nampulus, Honoratus, but there is no mention of their sees. Now in the list of the Council of 256 four of these reappear as bishops of two Numidian sees which are named and two Provincial; viz. Januarius of Lambassis and Nemesianus of Thubunse, Victor of Assuras and Honoratus of Tucca. These towns with Auzia give the geographical line I have indicated, which is itself a sign of accuracy. What forger of another age and country could have marked for himself upon his map a line of barbarian advance and then have forborne to indicate it, but in a wholly unconnected docu- ment have attached to the sees which marked that line the names of some of his fictitious bishops ? Behind this line toward Mt. Aures 1 £/. 62.4 'sestertium centum millia Hartel in reading 'sestertia centum nummum. Gronov. lib. de sest. n. 18' milia nummorum,' nor do Baluze's Hartel. The two xvth century extant quotations prove it to be possible. Mss. of this epistle scarcely justify 240 EXPANSION OF HUMAN FEELING AND ENERGY. lie several Cyprianic sees, such as Thamugadi, Mascula, Theveste, and beyond it Gemellas, Badias, and others ; some of these no doubt were the other four sufferers. In another place I shall shew how the order of the names in Councils (a matter of seniority) corresponds with other indications. 2. The Church in relation to HeatJien Suffering. — The Plague. And now the formation and compacting of the Christian community have for some time engrossed us. Meanwhile changes have passed over the aspect which that community- presented to the world. That community owed and owned a duty to all unconverted humanity — not only a duty to absorb it with all possible rapidity into itself — but a duty also towards the part not within any given time likely to be absorbed. That enquiry into social morals which most taxed the philosophical power of paganism had been overtaken by a code, or the principle of a code, which exempted no man from active benevolence. The doctrine of Grace operating upon and cooperating with the human will to reconstruct character, the embracement of eternal life and reward, the earthly pattern of Christ and the passion of reproducing it, above all the experienced and attested union of the individual spirit with Him during the present existence, placed the Chris- tian, so soon as he began to realize this new range of Ideas, in an attitude of fresh and unexpected energy towards every person and every contingency with which he came in contact. This realization had been to the practical comprehension of the convert Cyprian an affair of perhaps a few weeks \ This realization was what he excelled in impressing on other men. Even the East appreciated this action of his on the community. ' He educated the whole moral tone, dissipated ' undisciplined ignorance of doctrine, brought order to the lives ' of men ^' says Gregory of Nazianzus. We have watched him * Pont. Vit. 3. devalav iKddrjpe, Kal dvSpuv /3foi/j iK6 That deaths should avenge an aristocratic and com- * mercial rapacity which inflicted worse famines than nature } ' That pestilence should linger in cities where its warnings had 'only evoked fresh rebellions against morality V-*' Here he introduces with force a fact of which Demetrian had already heard something — that suck scourges had been unerringly foretold by Prophets as visitations upon suc/t sins, and foretold with this remarkable supplement to their predic- tions, that reformation would be adopted oftly by the few and scorned by the mass. 'And yet,' he finely exclaims, 'ye are indignant at the indignation of God^' Thirdly. He retorts the causes of that divine indignation in a more sounding strain — 'You and your courts are labour- 'ing for the eradication of the only rational and spiritual 'worship extant; labouring to conserve the adoration of inept 'figments and animal monsters. Full of this zeal you actually 'invert the usages of law' against us. But argue with us, con- 'vince us by reason ; — or only come and listen to your own 'demon deities confessing, screaming, flying* from our prayers. 'Then set the unmeaning meanness of your cringing prostra- 'tions against the open-browed, manly, sensible devotions of our 'assemblies. Do you think it conceivable that brute force should 'move us from our position to yours.-' Do you doubt our 'sincerity? The certainty of our conviction as to this world 'and the unseen is best evidenced by our perfect acquiescence 'in your inflictions. Vast as our numbers are in the empire, 'we have never turned on an oppressor. The last persecution 'has indeed for our sake collapsed in the 'crash of empire' 'when treasure, forces and camp were lost with Decius°, — 'but without our act or wish. Once more our conviction is ^ Ad Demetr. xo. regum (17), but the touches leave no 2 Ad Demetr. 9. doubt of the event. The death of the ^ See above, 11. i, p. 61. Decii immediately suspended perse- ^ See p. ID, n. 3. cation. ' We must read minis rerum not 254 EXPANSION OF HUMAN FEELING AND ENERGY. 'evidenced in our acquiescence in the heavenly chastisements 'which we fully share with you. For think you that we claim, 'as spiritual worshippers, exemption.^ Surely no, — on us, with 'our eternal trust, chastisements fall light. To us they come 'in an aspect new-born with us into the world's thought, as a '■probation, as a discipline of strength. In the flesh we are but 'men liable to all things human. We dwell in one house with 'you; we fare as you do; we bear willingly what God in our 'records said long since He must inflict for the wicked's sake. 'Our prosperous days are not here. They are to come. For 'you we grieve and with you, and we intercede unfalteringly 'for your worldly happiness. But the present interruptions of 'that happiness are not only fulfilments. They are forewarn- 'ings also. There is in the distance a divine day; when we 'who in this world are Re-born, and signed with a certain 'sign in a certain blood, shall part from you, and never rejoin 'you. The pleased tormentor of to-day must then become 'the spectacle of the tormented*. By that fear, by the abun- 'dant time and occasion offered for your change, by all the 'dear hopes which, as we know, centre on that change, the 'persecuted appeal to the persecutor in his own behalf Such is in brief what I have called the 'Resentment' of Cyprian. Throughout there is a transparent consciousness that the struggle between Christian and Roman will ere long be contested on more equal terms ^ Already the former are ^ Ad Dem. 24. Gentle as the up- turn fuit martyri, quam magnum, quam shot of the peroration is, and infi- grande solacium, in cruciatibus suis non nitely differenced from the wild threat tormenta propria cogitare, sed tortoris of TertuUian {De Spectac), the bitter- suisuppliciapr3edicare,'aa'/"<7r^««a/. 11. ness of the sights which Cyprian knew Eternal punishment and the eternal pre- of, 'Qui hie nos spectavit...CrviAt\\\xxa servation necessary to make it possible oculorum brevis fructus^ rankles too are stated in awful terms ' Servabuntur, much here. So also candour cannot cum corporibus suis animae infinitis pass over Cyprian's comment on the cruciatibus ad dolorem.' ad Demetr. threat which the fifth Maccabee hurls 24. Romans under persecution might at Antiochus — a comment which in this be reckoned on to discover this century would not be possible in the doctrine, catholic Church 'Quale illud levamen- ^ Wg may compare this with the VI. II. RESENTMENT. 255 proud of their numbers*; already there is hope in speaking out: already there is a conviction that the masses are ready to hear reason': a perception that persecution is the grandest opportunity for the missioner'. Jerome* has echoed a criticism of Lactantius that Cyprian might have met the heathen magistrate more convincingly upon general grounds than by Scripture texts®. It is neces- sary to differ from the prince of critics because (i) the texts, where used as arguments, are alleged, after description of the tokens of Divine anger, only to shew that the visitations had been predicted^ The argument is this. They who could predict them might be presumed to have a key to the right explanation of them. They did predict them as punishments upon idolatry and oppression. This kind of exhibition of prophecies is surely a legitimate allegation to produce before an unbeliever. (2) It is visibly the sequel of arguments which had been touched upon and but half developed in conver- sations. Cyprian shews himself^ aware that Scripture texts are not producible for every purpose. (3) Having to meet just such unfamiliar knowledge as would have adhered to a Demetrian, Cyprian, I observe, does not once quote to him any author of Scripture by name, — always 'a prophet,' 'another prophet saith,' 'God in the Holy Scriptures.' The man's acquaintance with the elements of Christian argument justifies Cyprian precisely in the ground he takes, more passionate conviction of Tertullian ' Rettberg, p. 266 f., taking occasion in the De Corona. by Jerome and conceiving further an ^ Nimius et copiosus noster populus impolicy in addressing a magistrate in xiXci%c\\MX (ad Demetr. 17). language so strong, concludes Deme- * Quos tamen sermonis nostri ad- trian to be a fictitious personage. But mittere credo rationern (ad Denietr. i). the trait of his visiting Cyprian profess- Disceptatione vince, vince ra/w«^ (13). edly to enquire, actually to declaim, 3 ...dum me christianum celebri loco his advanced age, the peculiar mode et populo circumstante pronuntio et vos of citation and other slight fitnesses are et deos vestros clara et publica prcedica- against this. tione confundo... ad Dernetr. 13. ^ Hoc scias esse prcedicttim [adD. 5) : * Ep. 83 (70) ad Magn. ; Lactant. Ipsum audi loquentem (ad D. 6). Divin. Institutt. v. 4. ^ Ad Dernetr . 3. 2S6 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. while it further verifies to us the reality of the circum- stances. 0/ the Style of the ' Demetn'an.' The style of this brochure is elevated, pure and strong. Some of the expressions finely terse and epigrammatic. ' Veneunt judicaturi.' *Deus nee quaeritur nee timetur.' 'Quasi, etsi hostis desit, esse pax inter ipsas togas possit.' Somewhat of a relapse into the early floridity is perceptible in the third and seventh chapters. Twice Cyprian moulds a line of Virgil into his prose {Georg. i. 107) 'herbis siccitate morientibus aestuans campus' (20), and (Georg. i. 154) 'in agro inter cultas et fertiles segetes lolium et avena dominetur' (23)- III. The Interpretatio7i of Sorrows. Exercitia sunt nobis ista non funera. De Mortalitate 16. Diflficulties which arose from within the community were scarcely less perplexing. It seemed as if the Pestilence might work a new lapse of its own. Numbers were dismayed that the scourge of Christ's persecutors should light no less heavily on His friends \ Others shewed the first symptoms of the fanatic spirit, so fatal afterward to Africa, and chafed when death threatened to forestall their martyr-crown ''. Others still liable to be summoned to the tribunal shrank from the cross. To preserve their faith by deluding the tyrant was not an extinct temptation. What was the church of Carthage.? It was an unpopular yet important section of a great city population, overmastered by powerful ideas, unfamiliar as yet with their manifold applications; dragged daily into contact with bitter social hardships, then suddenly made sharers in the world- wide terror of the Plague, then accounted responsible for its mysterious origin ; flung back thus on the old enigmas of 1 De Mortalitate 8. ^ jy^ Mart. 17. VI. III. THE INTERPRETATION OF SORROWS. 257 existence and not exempted from new enigmas in their faith, — such a body needed indeed that some broad and Christian view of this physical calamity should be opened before them. The work of mercy had been organized, but to control these cross currents of feeling required yet greater skill and delicacy. To beard a slanderous tormentor was perhaps a duty, but a harder one was to maintain in a people so tried the gentleness and tranquillity of spirit, the intelligence of devotion, the sense of unity with God which marked the line between the Church and polytheism. In quick succession came out three more of Cyprian's finest Essays. The topics of the pungent pamphlet *on Demetrian' are reviewed from the posi- tive side in the encouraging address 'on the Mortality.' Then we have the noble joyous treatise 'on the Lord's Prayer.' The later 'Exhortation to Confession,' a Scripture manual for Martyrs, must be treated with these as his last teaching in this region. It was in answer to actual calls that the pen of Cyprian was thus busy amid such distractions. Few of the bishops could make adequate answers to the questionings of the times. The laity of the distant ^ town of Thibaris entreated his pre- sence among them. Edicts of Gallus for sacrifice had reached them. Torture had recommenced. There and elsewhere ^ Longe, Ep. 58. i. Unnamed by places it in the Byzacene because its geographers, and not identified until bishop votes among these provincials in 1885 when an inscription Genio Thi- the Council of Carthage {Sentt. Epp. BARIS AuGUSTO Sacrum R P Thib 37). I may mention that there is no D^ {RespJiblica Thibaritanorum Decrelo geographical order of voting there. He [decurionum]) was found near where a adds that their bishop Victorian appears small tributary of the Medjerda leaves twice in the Collation of Carthage A. D. the hills on the south ofthe plain of Bulla 411; C(7f«zV. i. 133 and 187. (Labbe, and of the road to Cirta, at Hemhir vol. ill., pp. 202 and 222.) The name in Ham&met. The ruins of its basilica Cyprianic codices is also read Thebari- standout. (Tissot, pi. 18; vol. II. p. 367.) tanos zxiA Dhibari. At Mohammedia, It is just in Zeugitana where Fell, p. 120, ' once Tabaria' (?), 9 miles from Tunis, by some accident places it ; p. 237, he i.e. in Zeugitana, the name Thibbure identifies it with Tabora in Mauretania has been read on a slab {Rev. Afric. v. Csesariensis. Morcelli says Hardouin I. p. 378). B. 17 March ? 258 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. congregations ceased to assemble, and the bishops to preach ^ Their own bishop Vincent four years later was the most fanatical of all the speakers in the Council of that date, holding heretics to be so much worse than heathens as to need not only Baptism, but a previous Exorcism, if they joined the Church. At present the bishop is only alluded to as silenced. The Lapsed were still unrestored, and no restoration but that of martyrdom was yet recognised I Harassed and unsup- ported many Christians buried themselves in the solitudes of the adjacent Tell, many escaped by sea. And then many were haunted by the apprehension that a lonely death in exile was no true confessorship of Christ. The 'urgency of affairs' in Carthage rendered a visit from A.D. 252, Cyprian hopeless. But he wrote to Thibaris an affectionate and reassuring LETTER*, which contains in germ the scheme of the essays which he next undertook, and some few thoughts which he does not repeat. Had his 'Mortality' and his 'Lord's Prayer' been already composed he would have sent them these as he sent the 'Unity' and the 'Lapsed' to the Roman Confessors. The multiplication of practical needs for his counsel was ever the motive of Cyprian's literary work. In words almost identical with those of his Second Synodical Letter, which followed immediately, having told the Thibari- tans of the warnings which made him feel that they were but at the beginning of sorrows, he reminded them that stages of history which have been predicted in Scripture ought when reached to create no difficulty to Christians. He sketched out for perhaps the first time the full doctrine of probation, and the preparation for a final judgment which it afforded. And then while, as to Demetrian, he insists that endurance without an attempt at retaliation is characteristic of the Christian life ^ Ep. 58. 4. * Ep. 58. 8. ever recommenced (-£/>. 58. 4), and as yet 3 Appropinqu ante jam, imoimminen- the lapsed had not been relieved by the te Galli persecutione, is Pearson's date second council (£/. 58.8). I should date for the epistle {Annal. Cypr. A.D. 252, the letter March A.D. 252. By April the ix.). The tortures and flight had how- council would have been planned. VI. III. THE INTERPRETATION OF SORROWS. 259 on earth*, still the hope of eternal triumph is with real incon- sistency heightened by the meditation of eternal vengeance. We have no right to slur this trait of the thought of the time, but if we think a truer lesson might have been early learnt, yet the succession of ages which have not learnt it should impress on us what is the hardest lesson which Christ set to man. The Lapsed are invited to rearm, and regain their loss. The loneliest Death for Christ is witnessed by Him, and is as glorious as any public martyrdom. We have spoken before of the fine image which in this letter he borrows from the gladiators fighting and dying before the Emperor and the Caesar. 'A combat high and great ! guerdoned gloriously ' with a heavenly crown ! That God should be our spectator ! 'should open His eyes on men whom He has deigned to ' make His sons, and enjoy the spectacle of our contending ! * We give battle ; we fight in wager of the faith ; God our 'spectator, His Angels spectators, Christ a spectator tooV Nothing however is more eloquent than this practical closing application of the Christian armoury from S. Paul. ' Take we also as a covering for our head the Helmet of ' salvation, to fence our ears against the deadly Edicts, our eyes ' from the sight of the abhorred Images ; to fence our brow that ' the Seal of God may be safely kept on it, our lips that the * victorious tongue may acknowledge its Lord Christ. Arm we ' our right hand too with the spiritual Sword — sternly to repel ' the deathly sacrifices, that, unforgetful of the Eucharist, it may, ' as it has received the Lord's Body, so also clasp Himself ^' From such needs then grew the address* 'ON THE Mortality.' Cyprian says it is intended to fortify the more ^ Quibus occidere non licet, occidi Contra Julian. 11. viii. 25, Op. imp/, c. necesse est. Ep. 58, 4. lulian. vi. xiv., Ep. 217. 22, and in de ^ Ep. 58. 8. Did Cyprian know the Pmdestinatione Sanct. xiv. 26 as librum Carmina Sibyllina? See C. Alexandre, ...multis ac paene omnibus qui ecclesias- Oracula Sibyllina (1869, pp. 52 — 54). ticas literas amant laudabiliter notum. 3 Ep. 58. 9. See Pearson (Annal. Cypr. A.D. 252, * The 'Epistle' as Augustine calls xvii.) on the references to it in Chron. it [Contra ii. Epp. Pelagg. iv. viii. 22 Euseb. and in Possidius. and X. 27). He cites it in six places, 17 — 2 26o EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. timid minority of his flock ; and he makes tender excuse for their misconceptions. But it served a far wider purpose. It taught the teachers. The new leading thoughts in the Demetrian were (i) the evidence which Prediction might afford to heathens that the Christian interpretation was true, and (2) the idea of Probation by trouble, as characteristic of Christianity. To his own people he presents the converse of these thoughts. Predictions of chastisement fulfilled are a pledge that promises of joy will be accomplished. The idea of Probation, unrevealed to Plato, unpreached by Cicero, is brought home now as the philosophy of suffering, the interpretation of sorrow. Job, Tobias, Abra- ham* are the new masters of the ruined, the oppressed, the bereaved. One stroke of Providence effects both the Discipline of Love and the Censure of Sin. In the present calamity, the noisome repulsiveness of the plague deepens the trial, and yet what pure woman, what innocent boy would not shrink from this less than from the torturer's polluting fingers'*.? (3) Cruelty and hardness have been denounced already as the main provocations of paganism. And now 'the service of the ' sick, the kindness of kinsfolk, pitif illness to sick slaves, the * self-devotedness of physicians,' these, says he, are among the first subjects 'which the dread and deadly-seeming pestilence comes to look into.' The ecclesiastical belief in a speedy dissolution of the world, the illustrations which it drew from prevailing famines or pestilences, and the class of motives to virtue which it suggested are sometimes treated as retrogressions in philo- sophy, hindrances to the political efficiency of citizens, and interferences with the Hellenic sense of ' Beauty.' But in fact this belief was (as we have seen) carried into the Church from the thought of the day. What the Church really con- tributed was a new way of regarding that belief The inter- pretation which Cyprian and others proposed for universal physical disasters excluded probably all the conceptions with ^ De Mort. 10, 11. ' De Mart. 15. VI. III. THE INTERPRETATION OF SORROWS. 261 which contemporary intellects, whether popular or cultivated, invested these terrific crises, and to us that interpretation ofifers crucial tests of whether the Church was advancing thought and sentiment, and elevating courage, or was parting with a glorious view of nature. Such frightful ills were traced to one or other of about five general causes; to a dualism of conflicting deities, good and malevolent; to a dualism of the beneficent spirit and of matter instinct with mechanic laws; to a necessity controlling deity and matter alike; to fortuitous conditions and fixed sequences in matter itself; to the personal displeasure of deity which willed its own recognition by traditional rites and under popular titles, although such names might not be strictly identified with divine personalities. This last was the more refined version of the popular creed which felt the action of beings vindicating a right to material offerings and to the extermination of atheists. The despair and apathy which these beliefs engendered in the presence of universal suffering are commonplaces with the Greek historian and Roman poet. But the first Christian who touches the subject is led by the Mortality into a region of sublimity and tenderness. On him it enforces (i) absolute confidence in a Paternal care, which through visible correction \ through acknowledged probation ^ through resignation to yet uncomprehended purposes ^ elevates and purifies and calms. (2) It enjoins on him utmost activity, organization, self- devotion in the alleviation of suff"ering and of bereavement*. These effects on Christian thought and practice are deduced from distinctly Christian grounds. These same grounds create in him (3) the conviction that moral causes in society* have an effect on the conditions 1 De Mort. 15. * De Mort. 16. 2 De Mort. i, 9, 15. <* De Mort. 15. 3 De Mort. 11, 18. 262 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. accorded to humanity, not only immediately by the recom- pense earned by the individual's vice or virtue, but mediately by affecting general laws, exterior and physical, through exercise of the moral judgment of God. Not only is a world in order a field for human excellence to expand on and an external instrument for it to utilise, but a world in physical disorder is an instrument of correction, converting selfish and abject thoughts to interior and to wider considerations^ vivi- fying the hypothesis of an existence independent of physical decrepitudes'^, and exciting in those who believe the divine Fatherhood an almost emulous beneficence^ There are germs of further social advance in Cyprian's teaching. Could it have been demonstrated to him that pestilence is (irrespec- tively of interposition) a direct result of the uncivilised squalor which dogs the feet of luxury, he must have emphatically replied by an application (not perhaps yet visible to him) of the doctrine which underlies all his teaching. He would have said that luxury and squalor are both expressions of hideous moral errors. 'Enterprise, administration, humane intercourse, skill in arts^' are to him the signs of an ad- vancing, progressive, youthful world. Waste of the world's resources, content in sordidness, disregard of natural ties, indifference to the meanest, the crushing of small industries, the abolition of small holdings for the sake of grazing farms and deer forests', are to him so many crimes against the world's life. And it is a familiar thought to him that there is so exact an appropriateness in the observed consequences of accumulating evils, that believers in Providence do not err in calling these consequences 'decisions'— ;/Wza^ — ^judgments^. ^ De Mort. 4. ciorum (paraphrase of Isai. Iviii. i). de * De Mort. 2, 11 — 26. Dominica Orat. 33. — Continuantes sal- 3 De Mort. 26. tibus saltus et de confinio pauperibus * Ad Dent. 3. Cf. de Mort. 4, 24. exclusis infinita ac sine terminis rura ^ Egentem et pauperem non vident latius porrigentes. ad Donat. 12. oculi superfiisi nigrore. deOp.etEl. 15. ® Cf. de Laps, r, ad Dem. i, 7, 17. — SufTocationes impotentium commer- VI. III. THE INTERPRETATION OF SORROWS. 263 Not the respect only but the adherence of many a heathen was ere long compelled by the attitude of the Christians ^ and yet failures of faith there were 'in the Home of Faith,' and their bishop marked many incredulities against 'our Master in believing^' Minds fresh from paganism took unexpected turns. He meets them with brightness. 'You, * who because you are Christians expected immunity from this ' visitation, will you, as Christians, claim exemption from the ' scirocco, from ophthalmia, from stranding ships'.* — ' You who ' fret to think that plague may cut you off from martyrdom, ' — know that it is not the martyr's blood but the martyr's ' faith that God asks*.' To others death was dreadful still. These then have yet to fill their imagination with realities which they have coldly accepted. 'Nor are we now without special helps. — A col- ' league of mine, a fellow bishop, lay at the point of death. He ' prayed for a respite. At once a young man stood at his side, ' noble, majestic, of lofty stature and bright countenance, — no ' eye of flesh could have endured to look on him, save eyes * which were closing to this world. There was indignation in 'his spirit, and his voice shook, as he said "Ye fear to suffer. * Ye are unwilling to depart. What shall I do unto you.?" It ' was the voice of one who heeds not our momentary desires ' but our lasting interest. Not for himself, but for us, the ' dying man heard that.' To this tale Cyprian adds what we may well believe, how many times he had himself, 'little and last' though he was, heard the prompting to preach publicly the glorious verities of deaths as it comes by the will of God. 'Let us realize what we mean by the presence of Christ, ' and the eternal society, the increasing hosts of our friends, the ^ Gentiles coguntur ut credant. de * Nee enim sanguinem Deus nostrum Mart. 15. sed fidem quaerit. de Mart. 17. 2 De Mort. 6. ° De Mart. 19, 20. 3 De Mort. 8. 264 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. ' loved, the revered, the sainted who are there\' His voice swells to lyric fervour, and preludes the most majestic of odes*. For him the cheering certainties of exalted life are dashed by no pagan reminiscence, no anticipated mediae- valism. He cannot mourn the departed though much he misses them like distant voyagers'. He cannot brook even the assumption of black garments as a memorial of those who wear immortal white. * Put the terror of death out of doors : dwell on the Undyingness beyond itV It may be difficult to revive the early freshness with which feelings and thoughts, now long grown usual, began to mingle in the older talk along street and quay in Carthage. But it is not hard to say whether the city and the world gained by the change. The 'Exhortation to Martyrdom,' or rather 'to CONFESSORSHIP',' is a Manual of Scripture passages, con- nected by brief remarks, and arranged under thirteen heads for reflexion. It was compiled five years later, after Vale- rian's Edict for persecution, at the request of a layman, Fortunatus by name, and it is, says the author, ' No dis- course, but material for discoursingV — ' Not a garment, but 1 De Mort. 26. Antiqq., s. v.). But the resemblance 2 De Mort. •26. It is difficult to resist here lies in the triple parallelism of the the impression that the Cyprianic 'Illic clauses, and the use of such words as apostolorum gloriosus chorus, illic pro- chorus and numerus, which are not phetarum exsultantium numerus, illic points of the liturgy. martyrum innumerabilis populus' is ^ Non amitti sed praemitti.-.ut navi- something more than a coincidence with gantes solent, desiderari eos debere, the Ambrosian 'Te gloriosus aposto- non plangi. de Mort. 20. lorum chorus, te prophetarum laudabilis * De Mort. 24. numerus, te candidatus martyrum lau- ' The original title was Ad Fortu- dat exercitus.' These are among those natum simply. clauses of the Te Deum which Dr * ...non tam tractatum meum videar Swainson counts as 'closely connected tibi misisse quam materiam tractanti- with the Eucharistic hymn of the bus prsebuisse. ad Fortunatum, 3. liturgy of Jerusalem ' (ZJ/V/. of Christian VI. III. THE INTERPRETATION OF SORROWS. 265 Wool and Purple of the Lamb Himself ready for the weaving*. Its purpose is to assist himself and others in preparing persons for their Second Baptism — ' the Baptism stronger in ' grace, loftier of effect, more precious in honour — the Baptism ' wherein angels are the baptizers, at which God and His Christ * are joyful — the Baptism, after which no man sins^' The very existence of a practical little book like this answers the question whether martyrdoms were very few and scattered. The cheerfulness of Cyprian's own spirit appears in his infer- ence that the very number of the sufferers shews that such endurance cannot be over-difficult or too severe'. The place which the book has in the progress of Cyprian's thought may be recognised. In his 'Unity of the Church' he had accumulated every Scriptural illustration, apt or otherwise, of that doctrine. In this book he developes rather laboriously a new one. The Seven Maccabees whose history he details (as Origen does on the same subject)* are not only patterns to individuals, but also present an image of the Totality (Septenary) of all the Churches, their Mother being ' the First and the One,' ' the Beginning and the Root,' that is to say the Catholic Unity, which was founded by the word of the Lord, and gave all Churches birth^ Again, experience has now carried him beyond that flattery of Confessors which marked former years. Among other applications to the circumstances of the time are these : he observes (i) that when a question arose whether the youngest Maccabean brother should save his life by an act of conformity, no suggestion was made that the merits of the Six Martyrs could plead for him. Again (2) in warning his people against a resort to Libelli, he shews that Eleazar ^ Ad Fortunat. 3. This metaphor ^ Ad Fortunat. 4. makes certain, I think, the conjecture ^ Ad Fortunat. 1 1 fin. of Scaliger on Tert. de Monog. 7, * Grig. Exh. ad Mart. 23. 'Summus sacerdos patris et agnus de ' Ad Fortuitat. 11. suo vestiens.' Codd. magnus. 266 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. declined to do what all the Libellatics had done : (3) he says the true martyrdom is in the spirit ready for martyrdom, whether it be consummated or no ; and the tract closes with the observation that the crown which under persecution is assigned to Martyr- warfare is in ' time of Peace ' bestowed on Conscientiousness. But not even on this sensible moderation rests either the merit of this pamphlet or the indication it gives of what the everyday Cyprian really was like; still less on its own assumed grounds — the nearness of the End, the Advent of Antichrist, the accomplished skill of the Arch-enemy accu- mulated (as it is grotesquely put) in his six-thousand-years conflict with man\ More broad and strong are the well conceived theses ; and marvellous, considering the blankness of all secondary aids, is the command of Scripture. That some degree of conformity to the worship of the vulgar may be allowed to mingle with the higher light is a notion admitted only in churches in which a genuine struggle with the essence of polytheism is not maintained. Cyprian makes the very substance of the martyr-spirit to be a perfect sense of the heinousness of Idolatry under every species, of the aggravated 'difficulty' which it raises in the way of its own forgiveness as sin, and of the necessity for absolute genuineness in all relations with Deity. 1 The quaint idea is caught from Ter- century Anianus also computed 5500, tullian.fl'^ F^/. F?r§-^. I, 'diabolo...adjici- and Panodorus S493. Sulpicius Seve- ente cottidie ad iniquitatis ingenia.' The rus, who brings his history down to A.D. totaling of dates in Hebrew Scriptures 400, also has 'Mundus a Domino con- gives, according to Clinton, 4138 B.C. stitutus est abhinc siivnos jam pcsne sex as a date for Adam. But the LXX. millia.^ Chron. i. 2. The significance makes it, according to Cunninghame, of the 'six thousand years' lay in the 5478 B.C. lulius Africanus shortly Rabbinic belief, which, until the time before Cyprian's time had brought this had long gone by, coloured and usually to 5500, which would make the date distressed the Christian mind, as to the of the edict of Valerian to be the week of millennia and the consummation 5757th year of the world; ' Sex millia of all things. See Lactantius Z^zz/. /«j^ annorumjam psenecomplentur,' a^/br- vii. 14 and the citations in notes there. tunat. 2. In the beginning of the fifth And see Clinton F. R. v. 11. p. 220, VI. IV. ' ON THE lord's PRAYER.' 267 The next most important themes of this text-book are that probationary aspect of suffering, which his mind had long realized ; the certainty of a supporting Providence, and faith as the measure of the support it yields. IV. Intelligent Devotion. *On the Lord's Prayer.' It was not enough to arm the confessor, to nerve the timid, to silence the calumniator. — Common life needed building up. Cyprian saw no nearer or better road to edification than to fill with intelligence the universal Devotion. The recitation of the Prayer of Christ might become mechanical even when times of trial call it not unfrequently to the tongue. They who have seen abroad great naves empty for noble vespers and crowded for the rosary may thence draw the nearest notion of what antient 'Battology' was with its lullaby of spiritual contentment\ The Essay ON the Lord's Prayer is written with precision and with a visible delight. The freshness of his thoughts, the sweetness of his words, the fulness and fitness of his use of Scripture are a delicate fruit indeed to have been pro- duced under the flaming heat of controversy, amid the whirl of organization, in the atmosphere of a plague-stricken city^ There are points where the commentary very closely touches both the historic facts and the spirit of which the facts were a product. We see too how the little treatise both enshrined and Dr Salmon's articles Africanus de preference a I'esprit ' ; although some and Panodorus, in Diet. Christ. Biogr. of the Master's most famous and stir- ^ Matt. vi. 7. ring words are found in that treatise, 2 Mgr. Freppel (p. 341) says well in and few passages of spiritual poetry can comparing this with TertuUian's treatise exceed his last two sections. On the Prayer,... 'une onction douce But it is curious to note how he not et penetrante, une nature plus ouverte only omits the word 'noster' but, I aux impressions de la piete donnaient think, forbears to dwell anywhere on au disciple un avantage sur le maitre, the plural character of the prayer which dans un sujet ou la cceur doit parler means so much to Cyprian. 268 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. and foreshadowed some of the most beautiful phrases of familiar liturgy. The special development from the words * Our Father' of the essential character of Unity and of the inexpiableness by martyrdom of the stain of schism incline me to place this Essay in date close to that 'On Unity/ which in almost the same words states conclusions which only four years later Cyprian expresses in quite other language\ In applying the petition for Bread to the Daily Eucharist the author dwells on the danger of those from whom it is withheld **; 'martyrdom' or confessorship is a familiar thing; it is also a temptation to arrogant assumption^ These thoughts mark the very crisis of the time. The recommendation to 'every single man to prepare himself to surrender worldly wealth ' comes with a special force from one who was parting with his all*. It is the time too when the idea seems ever present to his spirit by which he nerved himself and the rest to meet ' the Mortality' — the inborn power of Christian sons to resemble the Divine Father — a sonship and a resemblance wrought through Baptism. 'We ought to know that when we call ' God " Father" we ought to live as if Sons of God' — ' We that ' ought to be like our Father' — ' What He made us by Second ' Birth such He would have us, as reborn, to continue — born ' of water and Spirits' These belong to the period of Respondere Natalibiis. 1 Compare de Unitate 14 'Tales The same doctrine is stated in jE/). 73. etiamjz occisi in confessione nominis 11 — but in very different phraseology. fuerint, vo.zxmX'X \%\.1l Titc sanguine ablui- ...ut quis coram hominibus Christum tur ; inexpiabilis et gravis culpa dis- confiteatur, ut sanguine suo baptizetur ? cordia nee passione purgatur,' with de Et tamen nee hoc baptisma haeretico Dominica Oratione 24 ' nee si pro no- prodest, quamvis Christum confessus mine occisus fuerit crimen dissensionis extra ecclesiam fuerit occisus, &c. fraterncBpoierit Q\2idtrQ,Si.c Quale de- ^ De Domin. Oral. 18. lictum est quod nee baptismo sanguinis ^ De Domin. Oral. 26. potest ablui! quale crimen est quod * De Domin. Oral. 20. martyrio non potest expiariT ' De Domin. Oral. 11, 12, 17, 23. VI. IV. 'ON THE lord's PRAYER.' 269 The Essay of TertuUian on Prayer has been the model after which Cyprian worked, although in the freest manner. Saint Hilary, while he omits to comment on the Lord's Prayer in the course of the fifth chapter of S. Matthew, preferring to send his readers to Cyprian's Essay, does justice Tertullian's 'most apt volume,' regretting that the unhappy position of its author — ' the later aberration of the man ' — should have prejudiced its acceptance\ Its method and interpretations have been followed by Cyprian into a mysticism unusual to him. And indeed, where TertuUian had only taught that we should, besides the Morning and Evening Prayers, pray thrice daily as debtors to The Three, Cyprian has a mystical expansion upon the perfect trinity of the Three * Hours' with their three-hour intervals — 'a sacrament of the Trinity which was to be re- vealed in the last days,' and this is the earliest passage in which the Latin word ' Trinity ' occurs in this sensed What effect Tertullian's book had taken in the interval between is traceable in the difference of the correctives employed. It is still indeed necessary to check the ' tumul- tuous loquacity ' of persons praying aloud * when we assemble with the brethren and celebrate the Divine Sacrifices with the Priest of God,' but several superstitions have disappeared, which Cyprian could not have failed to rebuke had they still prevailed. Such was the practice of washing the hands before prayer' in strange commemoration of Pilate's surrender of the Lord ; the putting off of the woollen cloak* at the same time; ^ Hilar, in Matt. v. i. is where Theophilus of Antioch A.D. ^ By Tertull. adv. Prax. 2, 3, it is not 180 {aJ Autolych. ii. c. 23) calls the first applied as a name of Deity though the three days of creation before the emer- sense approaches it. In the 7th council gence of the sun and moon an emblem (a.d. •256) Eucratius of Thense uses of the Trinity, it in the distinctest manner in his * See Tert. ^^ Ora/. 11. phrase ^blasphemia Trinitatis^ ; Sentt. * The paenula, 0aiv6Xjjs or ^e\6v7;s. Epp. 29. The earliest Greek use of T^m£i 2/0 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. the sitting down after prayer in imitation of Hermas^ ; the disuse of the Kiss of Peace when fasting, and the abstaining from the Liturgy on Fast days. The disuse of veils by maidens had continued, as we have seen. It was also pro- bably still a question whether it was correct to kneel on the Sabbath, although Cyprian does not notice it. If we consider these ritualistic questions of the Early Church, we need scarcely despair of our own working their own solution. It is characteristic of the tempers of the two authors that Tertullian hailed the Confusion of the Nations as a phase of the Kingdom to come. Cyprian omits this, and, while his note on the second word of the Prayer is his well-known beautiful phrase ' To us, prayer is of the people, and is common to all,' Tertullian who comments on S. Matthew's form of the prayer, here, with S. Luke, drops the word 'Our' and does not even allude to it. Although in reading Cyprian's treatise after his 'Master's' a softened echo of strong words is audible, and the writing out of his riddling epigrams in limpid sense is frequent and deliberate, there is little transcription, as in earlier days, of sentence or phrase. The Scriptural illustrations alone shew markedly the originality of Cyprian's work in a point in which it must have been actually difficult to avoid repetition. Tertullian quotes about sixty places, and Cyprian seventy, and of these latter only about seven seem to be suggested by TertuUian's use of them^ Even these are differently rendered into the vernacular*. ^ Tertull. dc Oral. \6. Herm. '\vo- ' They are these ; Isai.i. i, ap. Tert. K6.\v\f/lS€'—'^.poffev^a^JiAvovfJiov...KalKa^i• de Oral. 2, filiosgenui et illi me non ag- (ravTos. noverunt; ap. de Dca. Orat. 10, filios ^ I.e. judging by the marginal refer- generavi et exaltavi, ipsi autem me spre- ences and doing the best one may with verunt. Mi. 23. 9, ap. Tert. de Orat. 2 Ohler's indices, which for inaccuracy ne quem in terris patrem -vocemus nisi almost rival Dr Routh's. However quem haberaus in caelis; ap. de Dca. Das Neue Testament Tertullian s of Orat. 9, ne \ocemus nobis patrem in Roensch appears to bear out the state- terra, quod scilicet nobis unus pater qui ment. est in caelis. Mt. 26. 41 (Ltu. 22. 46), VI. IV. * ON THE lord's PRAYER.' 2/ 1 Both give and comment upon the third petition as ' Thy will be done in heaven (the heavens) and in earth,' which form also, Augustine says, was more in use, and to be found in a majority of manuscripts \ Accordingly neither annotator finds in this clause any reference to either angelical or physi- cal order. They are obliged to understand heaven and earth as symbols for spirit and flesh within us, or again for heavenly and earthly-minded men. Cyprian expands and somewhat dilutes Tertullian's splendid phrase, ' We are heaven and earth.' He closes thus, ' At Christ's bidding we pray ; and we ask that we * may make our prayer be to the salvation of all, that as ' God's will was done in heaven — that is in us through our ' faith, that we might belong to heaven ; so God's will may ' be done also in earth — that is in them, on their believing^ ; * that so they who are by their first birth earthy may begin * to be heavenly by being born of water and of the Spirit' ap. Tert. de Orat. 8, orate ne tempte- de Dca. Oral. 14, non descendi de cselo mini; de Dca. Orat. 26, ne veniatis in ut faciam voluntatem meam sed volun- temptationem. ^/. 18. 32, ap. Tert. tatem ejus qui misit me. fl'i? C>ra^. 7, dominus debitumremisit; ap. To illustrate panis cottidianus Tert. dc Dca. Orat. 23, dimissum sibi...omne de Orat. 6 quotes yo. 6. 33, 35, and de debitum. Mt.6.^^,a.p.TeTt.. deOrat.6, Dca. Orat. iS ; yo.6. 11. Abraham is nolite de crastino cogitare; ap. de Dca. Tertullian's example of ' probation,' de Orat. 19, nolite in crastinum cogitare. Orat. 8; Job is Cyprian's, de Dca. Orat. For Zc. 22.42, ap.Tert. ^^6)ra^4,Pater, 16. transfer {irapeviyKai, om. el ^oiXei.) po- ^ Aug. dedono ^ersev. Hi. 6. P. Saba- culumistud (^iw. dTT* ^/xou), nisi quod mea tier, Bidl. Sacr. Lat. Vers. Antiq. non sed tua fiat voluntas, de Dca. Orat. Reims, 1743 — 49, v. in., p. 33, says I4puts together yl//. 26. 39 Pater, si fieri that Cyprian has 'sicut' like all other potest, transeat a me calix iste, with Mc. authorities except Tertullian. But this 14. 36 (ref. om. by Hartel) verum tamen is a mistake due to the text of all the non quod ego volo sed quod tu vis ('AX\' printed Cyprians in his time. All the oi5 rf, il//. ttXV oi;x ws)- Jo. \■^l^s.^• great MSS. have 'fiat voluntas tua in Tert. de Orat. 28, veniet hora cum veri caelo et in terra.' dt Dca. Orat. 14. adoratores adorabunt patrem in spiritu 2 See de Dca. Orat. c. 17 'In terra, et veritate; ap. de Dca. Orat. 2 (ref. hoc est in illis credentibus.' Hartel, om. by Hartel), horam venire quando under a misconception explained more veri adoratores adorarent, &c. Jo. fully below {Note on Characteristics, 6. 38, ap. Tert. de Orat. 4, non suam ^c.), changes the unvarying reading sed patris facere se voluntatem; ap. into 'credere nolentibus.' 2/2 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. The clause 'Lead us not into temptation* is explained by Tertullian as 'Suffer us not to be ledV and without a hint of the genuine form Cyprian uses the Master's gloss as his own text of the prayer*. Apparently he was the first, though not the last to do so ; and it illustrates his excessive love of lucidity. Augustine notices his reading, and observes 'and thus do some pray' — among them probably his revered S. Ambrose; and he adds that he 'had nowhere found this in a Greek Gospel,' but that it was in many Latin manuscripts of Africa ^ From his words on 'Deliver us from Evil*'' it is not clear whether he gives Evil a personal sense — The Evil One. ' A ' Malo — we comprise all adversities which the Enemy devises 'against us in this world'; 'We ask God's protection against 'Evil; that gained, we stand quiet and guarded against all ' works of Devil and World.' It looks rather the other way. But scarcely so if we take into account his previous words on the clause about Temptation. ' Here is shewn that the Foe * hath no power against us, except first God give him leave, ' that so all our fear, devotion and observance may turn ' toward God, seeing that the Evil Otie {Malo) hath no licence ^ Id est ne nos patiaris induci ab eo Irish), centt. viii., ix., J. Wordsworth utique qui temptat. Tert. de Oral. c. and H. J. White, Nov. T. I. xi., xili. 8. Elsewhere only Ne nos inducas. de 60.] Sabatier cites this latter form Fug. in Per sec. 2. also from Arnobius, de Deo Trino, ^ De Dca. Oral. 25. See Roensch, 233 d, S. Ambrose, de Sacram., 11. v. N. Test. Tertullian's, p. 600. His re- vi. col. 377 a, 385 c, and S. Augus- ferences are taken from Sabatier. tine, 1. ii. de Serm. Dom. in m. col. 3 A\xg. de dona per sev.s'v. 12. Sabatier 206 a, 212 a, who treats it as an em- (op. cit.) gives it thus as his text of the bodied explanation (videlicet exponen- Versio Antiqua of S. Matt. vi. 13 from tes) and who himself constantly uses the Colbert MS. (r, cent. xii., Paris, Fonds inferos. J. Wordsworth, Old Lat. Bibl. Za/.254)in the form 'ne passus nos fueris Texts, I. p. xxx., xxxi., describes^. 2 as induci,' and from the second S. Ger- not really an Old Latin MS. but a vul- main (cent. ix. or \., g. 2, Fonds Lat. gate text interpolated or mixed, and c 13169) and the S. Gatien MS. (cent. as more distinctly an Old Latin MS. ix., Paris) as ' ne patiaris nos induci.' [They here represent both Ambrose and ['Ne patiaris nos induci,' Book of Ar- the older Africans?] magh and the Rush worth Gospels (also * De Dca. Orat. 27. Cf. 25. VI. IV. 'ON THE lord's PRAYER.' 2/3 'in the matter of temptations, except power be given him 'from God. ..and power is given to the Evil One (Malo) 'against us according to our sins (Is. xlii. 25), and again '"the Lord stirred up Satan" (i K xi. 23,) "an adversary, '"Rezon," against Solomon himself'.' The fulness and the value of this Essay to Church thought are well illustrated not only by Hilary's estimate of it, but by the practical account to which it was soon turned. A century and three-quarters later'^ the monks of Adru- metum were affected with Pelagian leanings. Three of them visited Saint Augustine and spent Easter with him. As evidence of what catholic doctrine really was, he read them this book, and recommended the study of it to the Monastery, which possessed a copy of it By it, he says, 'as by some ' invincible dart were transpierced heretics who were yet for to * come.' Of the three points which catholic truth held fast against Pelagius he found two distinctly laid down in it, (i) That all holiness is a free gift of the grace of God, and (2) That actual sin is committed by the holiest of men. For Cyprian's exposition, Augustine shews, sets forth how gifts of grace are to be sought for them that have none, and power to persevere for those who have received them. The third point (3) — That all men are originally sinful — he shews to have been catholic from Cyprian's Epistle to Fidus. The freedom of that Epistle and of this Treatise from technical language (even the expression original sin not oc- curring in them) vouches for their early date. No fabricator could have extricated himself from terms in which all around him clothed their thoughts. Augustine, with all his fluency and ease, could never have so expressed himself, and as his conceptions hardened and narrowed in his years of contro- ^ De Dca. Orat. 25. 2 p^-^. 427. Aug. Ep. ccxv. B. 18 274 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. versy* his own language and that of his contemporaries be- came too rigid to allow their ideas to be expressed as once they had been. Yet whilst the phraseology familiar since that controversy is wholly wanting, nothing can exceed the strength and depth and definiteness with which (as brought out by Augustine's analysis) one truth breathes from every line — that truth tacitly so forgotten in ever new forms of error — * That all things which relate to character, by which ' we live rightly, are to be asked of our Father in heaven, and ' that to presume on (the strength of our) free-will is to fall ' from grace.' This is but a solitary instance however of the importance of literal and accurate exposition. No less than thirteen times'* in his treatises against Pelagians is Augus- tine able to cite this one small work of him whom, in his high spirits, he calls ' victoriosissimus Cyprianus.' Lastly. The simplicity of its thought as well as of its diction seems fraught with hints for the preacher as to the true method of doctrinal teaching. As to its substance may we not hope that we are ourselves somewhat nearer to Cyprian than to Augustine.^ At least we recognise how much of spiri- tual conflict and misery might have been spared if only the early recognition had lasted on that all good is of God ' the Father of lights,' that 'all holy desires,' even in their first stir, 'proceed from Him,' that all works 'pleasant' to Him are wrought by the grace of Christ and the infusion of His Spirit, that His presence and action are essential to every existence even which we can believe to be real and substantive ; that only that subsists which subsists by Him. ^ See Dr W. Bright's Introduction ' In the Benedictine Index (Venet. to Select Anti-Pelagian Treatises of 1735) add these references: 486 d, 815, St Augustine. 826. TABLE SHOWING THE VERBAL DEBTS TO TERTULLIAN IN CYPRIAN'S TREATISE DE DOMINICA ORATIONE. 18—2 276 TABLE SHEWING THE VERBAL DEBTS TO TERTULLIAN TABLE shewing the verbal debts to Tertullian Tertullianus de Oratione. XVII. Deus autem non vocis sed cordis auditor est. The rest of the chapter of Cyprian strongly, but hardly verb- ally, resembles Tertullian. ,, ne ipsis quidem manibus sublimius elatis sed temperate ac probe elatis \sed qu. levatis], ne vultu quidem in audaciam erecto. justificatior pharisseo procacissimo discessit. II. 'Dominus' . .prsecepit ne quern in terris patrem vocemus nisi quern habemus in caelis. hoc est quod Israeli exprobratur . . (Es. i. 2) . . et oblitos patris denotamus. III. non quod deceat .. quasi si sit et alius de quo., nisi optemus . . Ceterum quando non sanctum et sanctificatum est per semet ipsum nomen dei cum ceteros sanctificet ex semet ipso?... Id petimus ut sanctificetur in nobis qui in illo sumus . . V. Veniat quoque Regnum TUUM...in nobis scilicet. Nam deus quando non regnat ? . . . regni dominici repr3esentatio...optamus ..non diutius servire. IV. non quod aliquis obsistat quominus voluntas dei fiat . . sed in omnibus petimus fieri voluntatem ejus. . . . Quae ut implere possimus, opus est Dei voluntate. ,, Dominus quoque cum substantia passionis infirmitatem carnis demonstrare jam in sua came voluisset, Pater, inquit, transfer poculum istud ; et recor- datus. Nisi quod mea non sed tua fiat voluntas (Lc. xxii. 42). ,, est et ilia Dei voluntas quam Dominus administravit praedicando, operando, sustinendo. ex interpretatione figurata carnis et spiritus nos sumus caelum et terra . . . sensus petitionis ut in nobis fiat voluntas Dei in terris ut possit scilicet fieri et in cselis. Quid autem Deus vult quam incedere nos &c. VI. Panem . . spiritaliter potius intellegamus. Christus enim panis noster est, quia vita Christus et vita panis. Ego sum, inquit, panis vitse . . .Turn quod et corpus ejus in pane censetur ; Hoc est corpus meum. Itaque petendo panem quotidianum perpetuitatem postulamus in Christo et individuitatem a corpore ejus. IN CYPRIAN'S TREATISE DE DOMINICA ORATIONE. 2^^ in CyptHan's Treatise De Dominica Oratione. Cyprianus de Dominica Oratione. 4. quia Deus non vocis sed cordis auditor est. 6. non adlevatis in caelum inpudenter oculis nee manibus insolenter erectis. ,, cum sibi pharisaeus placeret sanctificari hie magis meruit. 9. Dominus . . prsecepit ne vocemus nobis patrem in terra quod scilicet nobis unus pater qui est in caelis. 10. quae vox Judaeos etiam perstringit et percutit . . (Jo. viii. 44; Esai. i. 2).. in quorum exprobrationem . . quia eum dereliquerunt. l^. non quod optemus Deo ut sanctificetur orationibus nostris, sed quod petamus a Deo ut nomen ejus sanctificetur in nobis. Ceterum a quo Deus sanctifi- eatur qui ipse sanctificat ? ... Id petimus et rogamus ut qui in baptismo sanctificati sumus in eo quod esse coepimus perseveremus. 13. regnum etiam dei repnesentari nobis petimus ..' nam Deus quando non regnat ' . . ut qui in saeculo ante servivimus postmodum . . regnemus. 14. nam Deo quis obsistit quominus quod velit faciat? sed quia nobis a diabolo obsistitur quominus per omnia &c. ,, quae ut fiat in nobis *opus est Dei voluntate,' id est ope ejus et protectione, quia nemo suis viribus fortis est, sed &c. ,, Dominus infirmitatem hominis quem portabat ostendens ait, Pater, si fieri potest transeat a me calix iste, et . . . addidit dicens : Veruntamen &c. (Mt. xxvi. 39 with Mc. xiv. 36). 15. voluntas autem Dei est quam Christus et fecit et docuit, — then follows an extremely beautiful passage, Cyprian's own. 16. cum corpus e terra et spiritum possideamus e caelo ipsi 'terra et caelum sumus' et in utroque, id est et corpore et spiritu, 'ut Dei voluntas fiat' oramus . . . hoc precamur et in cselo et in terra voluntatem circa nos Dei fieri : quia haec est voluntas Dei ut . . . 17. petimus ... ut quomodo in caelo, id est in nobis, per fidem nostram voluntas Dei facta est ut essemus e caelo, ita et in terra, hoc est in illis eredentibus, fiat voluntas Dei. 18. quod potest et spiritaliter et simplieiter intellegi, nam panis vitae Christus est, et panis hie omnium non est sed noster est. ..quia Christus eorum qui corpus ejus contingimus panis est. Hunc autem panem dari nobis cottidie postu- lamus ne qui in Christo sumus et eucharistiam ejus cottidie ad cibum salutis accipimus .... abstenti et non communicantes ... a Christ! corpore separemur. 2/8 TABLE SHEWING THE VERBAL DEBTS TO TERTULLIAN VL illius hominis, qui provenientibus fiructibus ampliationem horreorum et longae securitatis spatia cogitavit, is ipsa nocte moritur. VII. consequens erat, ut observata dei liberalitate etiam clementiam ejus pre- caremur. Quid enim alimenta proderunt, si illis reputamur revera quasi taurus ad victimam ? nisi donetur exactio ; sicut illi servo dominus debitum remisit . . Idem servus . . . tortori delegatur. VIII. adjecit ad plenitudinem tam expeditas orationis . . . Ergo respondet clau- sula . . . IX. compendiis pauculorum verborum quot attinguntur . . . Quid minim? Deus solus docere potuit quomodo se vellet orari. Ab ipso igitur ordinata religio orationis &c. I. . . Dei sermo . . Jesus Christus dominus noster nobis discipulis Novi Testa- ment! novam orationis formam determinavit. [Cyprian drops the am- biguous phraseology about Christ being Dei Spiritus.] XXV. observatio etiam horarum quarumdam . . . quae diei interspatia signant tertia sexta nona quas sollemniores in scripturis invenire est. Primus spiritus sanctus congregatis discipulis hora tertia infusus est. Petrus qua die visionem communitatis omnis in illo vasculo expertus est, sexta hora orandi gratia ascenderat in superiora. .ut quod Danieli quoque legimus observatum . . exceptis utique legitimis orationibus quae sine ulla admonitione debentur ingressu lucis ac noctis. IN CYPRIAN'S TREATISE DE DOMINICA ORATIONE. 279 20. saeculares copias cogitantem et se exuberantium fructuum largitate jactantem . . . nocte moriturus. 22. post subsidium cibi petitur et venia delicti ut qui a Deo pascitur in Deo vivat . . ,, si peccata donentur quae debita Dominus appellat. 23. qui servus ... in carcerem religatur [sic H. sed qu. relegatur?]. 27. post ista omnia in consummatione orationis venit clausula universas petitiones et preces nostras collecta brevitate concludens . . 28. quid mirum . . .si oratio talis est quam Deus docuit qui magisterio suo omnem precem nostram salutari sermone breviavit ? . . . Nam cum Dei sermo Dominus noster Jesus Christus omnibus venerit et colligens doctos pariter et indoctos omni sexu atque aetati prrecepta salutis ediderit, prseceptorum suorum fecit grande compendium ut in disciplina cselesti discentium &c. 34. in orationibus vero celebrandis invenimus observasse cum Daniele . . horam tertiam sextam nonam . . . quae horarum spatia jam pridem spiritaliter deter- minantes adoratores Dei statutis et legitimis ad precem temporibus ser- viebant . . hora tertia descendit Spiritus sanctus . . item Petrus hora sexta in tectum superius ascendens signo pariter et voce Dei monentis instructus est, ut omnes ad gratiam salutis admitteret . . . 35. . . recedente item sole ac die cessante necessario rursus orandum est. 280 NOTE ON THE CHARACTERISTICS AND On the Characteristics and Genuineness of tlie De Dominica Oratione. It has been contended that the treatise 'Of the Lord's Prayer' is later than Cyprian, on grounds which I hope to extricate fairly from the dis- cursive handling the question has received. The reply might be scarcely worth making but for the interesting characteristics which come out by the way. It has been alleged I. That the treatise betrays an acquaintance with the commentary of Chromatius of Aquileia who died about 406 A.D. II. That its language on 'Daily Bread' is more 'Sacramental' (i) than that of Chromatius, (ii) than that of Gregory Nyssene or Chrysostom, who probably represent the prevailing view of the fourth century, (iii) and than is consistent with Augustine's doubt as to the sacramental force of the petition^. III. That Venantius Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers in the sixth century, who uses TertuUian's treatise on the Lord's Prayer, does not use that of Cyprian, which his predecessor Hilary had commended 2. 1. On the first head, I will accept for comparison the passages, printed after this note, from Tertullian {de Orat. c. 4), Chromatius [Tractat. xiv. 4 in S. Matt. Ev.), and Cyprian {de Dca. Orat. 14 — 17), on the words 'Fiat Voluntas Tua,' &c. The selection (however undesignedly) is an unfavourable test-passage. Resemblances are likely to be fewer on this petition than elsewhere, since Chromatius is expounding the common reading 'As in heaven so in earth' while the Africans explain their own form 'Thy will be done in heaven and in earth.' The comparison how- ever yields abundant evidence that Chromatius had studied Cyprian, not Cyprian Chromatius. A question is put which, if accurately worked out, would lead us right. ' How could Chromatius, if he were making use of ' Cyprian, have escaped introducing ideas that Cyprian had taken from ^ E. J. Shepherd's Fourth Letter to tione et Gratia; De dono perseverantice ; Dr Maitland, 1853. Ep. 215, which accompanied his book He further observes that if his 'argu- De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio; De Pne- raents are cogent and conclusive,' Cy- destinatione Sanctorum, and Ep. 217, prian becomes 'an important witness in which books at least 14 passages of against many Augustinian writings.' our treatise are quoted, woven in, and That is true. For example the fol- commented on in a way often essential lowing works of Augustine would be to the structure. forgeries in whole or in part — Contra ^ Hilar. Comment, in Matth. c. v. i ; duos Epistolas Pelagianorum ; Contra Venant. Fortunat. Miscell., lib. X. c. i, jfulianum Pelagianum ; De Correp- Exposit. Orationis Domini. GENUINENESS OF THE DE DOMINICA ORATIONE. 28 1 'Tertullian? How account for the elimination of so much that is Ter- 'tullianistic?' The answer is that, condensed and prosaic as Chromatins is, he does not 'escape.' Of the rich profusion of Tertullian's ideas Chromatius reproduces few. But some few he has ; and each one of these has adhering to it something which Cyprian had added. Again not one 'Tertullianistic idea' is reproduced in Chromatius which is not in Cyprian, or without Cyprian's stamp on it. It follows that Chromatius has been acquainted with Tertullian's treatise through Cyprian's — at least, through some treatise which has handled Tertullian on the same subject in the same manner exactly as our De Dominica Oratione does. To confine ourselves for proof to this one short and unfavourable passage : 1. Tertullian is shewing how it is we can sensibly pray for God's irresistible will to be done: 'Fiat Voluntas Tua...non quod aliquis obsistat quominus Voluntas Dei fiat...sed in omnibus petimus fieri Voluntatem Ejus.' Cyprian generally tries to make Tertullian more elegant and more clear. There was an inartificial imperfectness in merely repeating^ instead of incidentally explaining, the words Voluntas Dei fiat, while the rough in omnibus left the difficulty where it was. For the diffi- culty lies exactly in apprehending how the Divine Will can fail to be operative in all. Cyprian therefore has 'Nam Deo quis obsistit quominus quod velit faciat?...sed quia nobis a diabolo obsistitur quominus per omnia noster animus adque actus Deo obsequatur, oramus et petimus ut fiat in nobis Voluntas Dei.' Now Chromatius comes in ; takes Cyprian's quod velit faciatj and whereas Cyprian, with in omnibus before him, had written per omnia in nobis, Chromatius finds the per omnia unnecessary, drops it; retains (Tertullian's and) Cyprian's obsistere and Cyprian's oramus, but gives of all Tertullian's context not a syllable which is not in Cyprian. Says Chromatius ' Non enitn quisquam est qui obsistere et contradicere Deo possit, ne quod velit facial... %t^ ut in nobis voluntas Ejus fiat oramus.^ Anyone of the slightest skill in composition sees that Cyprian is the middle term between Tertullian and Chromatius. 2. Tertullian says God's Will is 'that we should walk after His discipline.' He says nothing about Faith or Believing. Cyprian intro- duces it among many other points, — 'stabilitas in fide,' 'per fidem,' ' credentibus,' — of which last more presently. Chromatius makes it the first point in his definition ' Voluntas Dei est, ut toto corde ei credentes haec quae fieri praecipit impleamus,' and more. Any master of style would, I think, pronounce that a writer working /r«3;« Chromatius must have made more distinct use of his credere and credulitas than the book we ascribe to Cyprian has done. It is absent in Tertullian, oblique in Cyprian, express in Chromatius. And it is so important that once stated it must have been re-stated. 3. Tertullian has here the truly TertuUianesque expression ' ex inter- 282 NOTE ON THE CHARACTERISTICS AND pretatione figurata carnis et spiritus nos sumus caelum et terra.' There he leaves it, downflung for readers to think about. What did he mean by nosf Each individual, compounded of flesh and spirit? or the world of carnally minded and spiritually minded men ? Cyprian explains the petition on the first hypothesis, to mean 'That God's will may be done in our body and in our spirit.' He then gives the other alternative (potest et sic intelligi), viz. that 'quomodo in caelo, id est in nobis, per fidem nostram Voluntas Dei facta est,...ita et in terra, hoc est in illis creden- tibus, fiat Voluntas Dei,' gliding thus into an explanation of the other meaning. 'That they whom just before he describes as qui adhuc terra sunt et necdum ccelestes, &c. may begin esse calestes ex aqua et spiritu nati.' Now both these mystical interpretations have arisen from the Africans' form. To pray that God's Will ' might be done in heaven ' implied to them that Heaven was a region where it was not yet done to perfection. Hence it could not to them (as we saw) mean the Heavenly Hosts, but rather the highest part of man, his regenerate spirit, or else the converted part of the world. This interpretation could not have arisen where the reading ' sicut in caelo ' prevailed — ' caelum ' being then the region where it is done exemplarily in contrast to earth. How does Chromatius proceed ? He has the true reading and he has Cyprian's comment. To him Cyprian's first alternative is out of the question. No man could apply it to the true reading. No man could pray 'that God's will may be done in his flesh as it is in his spirit.' He is obliged to omit this. But the second alternative of Cyprian will fit well enough. There- fore to his own sensible explanation as to the Angels he adds 'Vel certe... 'ut sicut in caelo, id est in Sanctis et ccelestibus hominibus, Dei Voluntas 'impletur ; ita quoque in terra^ id est in his qui necdum credideru7it,' Sec. Here again it is impossible to doubt that Cyprian is the middle term, and that it is owing to no one but him that Chromatius has dropped the first and true idea of what Tertullian meant by making ^heaven and earth ' a figurative equivalent for 'us,' and taken a less harsh suggestion of what it could mean. Tertullian gives his mystic rendering of 'caelum et terra' second of his five points on this petition. Cyprian moves it to last. There Chro- matius has it also, and expunges the poetry which Cyprian had left in. 4. The reader has no doubt noticed a singular variant in the last clause. Where Cyprian has in illis credentibus (undoubtedly the true reading — our three manuscripts of this treatise which are of the first order have no negative), Chromatius has in his qui necdum crediderunt. It is something singular that just this passage should have been lighted on, for did a shadow of doubt linger as to which was the original writer, the evidence that Chromatius has here marked an obscurity in what was before him and avoided it by a turn of expression, would suffice to dispel it. Clearly the two passages are not independent. Whichever is original, the other is a copy. GENUINENESS OF THE DE DOMINICA ORATIONE. 283 Now, no one could have misapprehended the Chromatian prayer that 'God's will may be done in his qui necdum crediderunt^ No one would have reproduced it in the Cyprianic form '/« illis credentibus.' But the Cyprianic form might cause hesitation — *Ut quomodo in caelo, ' id est in nobis per fidem nostram, Voluntas Dei facta est, ut essemus e ' caelo, ita et in terra, hoc est in illis credentibus, fiat Voluntas Dei.' It was natural to see how Cyprian's participle might be misunderstood ; how it might not be perceived that by in illis credentibus Cyprian meant ' in ' them (as opposed to in nobis), upon their believing, being converted or ' beginning to believe,' and since at present they are not believers, simply to express that one point first. Chromatius accordingly puts it into unmistakeable form * qui necdum crediderunt.' Augustine similarly has explained by paraphrase the expression of Cyprian, which would have been needless if a negative had been there. Of course be/ore believing, when men * become heavenly,' they are non-believers ; accordingly he has ^ita et in eis qui non credunt et ob hoc adhuc terra sunt. Quid ergo 'oramus pro nolentibus credere nisi ut Deus in illis operetur et veiled' H. Grave was actually misled as to the participial use and inserted nondutn, f. Morel non, as if 'in illis credentibus' did or could mean 'in those believing,' and Hartel has given us the startling conjecture ' in illis cred^ri? w^'/entibus' — which comes indeed from Augustine, but not from the sentence which paraphrases Cyprian. Cyprian uses participles familiarly in this appositional condensed way, and in the same phrase has 'cajlestes ex aqua et spiritu nati.' There is no indication that Augustine or Chromatius missed the Latin, like the editors ; but since no one would have altered the clear Chromatian into the difficult Cyprianic, it is certain that Chromatius either applied to the Cyprianic the same remedy which other creditable men hit upon, or (if anyone thinks necdum or «£i/entibus genuine) that he had before him an older text than we have a trace of, in which case Augustine, his con- temporary, had it too. In either case our De Dominica Oratione is older than Chromatius and was before his eyes as he wrote I II. We now come to the second objection to the genuineness of Cyprian on the Lord's Prayer — The strength of the Eucharistic lan- guage. (i) This is admitted to be quite in consonance with the 'other ^ De Pradest. Sand. viii. 15. has transferred from their context to ^ I must not drag my readers through new heads {de Oral. 3 and 5, which are a refutation of Mr Shepherd's secondary to be found in de Dca. Oral. 17 and 19). difficulties. Can he be himself serious There are scores of Tertullian's ideas in when he asks us to account for Chro- Cyprian for which Chromatius finds matius not having reproduced two par- no room. The point is, Chromatius ticular passages of TertuUian ? knows no Tertullian except what has However they are two which Cyprian been restamped by Cyprian. 284 NOTE ON THE CHARACTERISTICS AND writings' attributed to Cyprian and with 'that of the suspicious Firmilian.' If Chromatius were less strong (which is not so evident) this would not at that stage of thought be conclusive as to mere earliness of date. 'Christ is our Bread of Life.' 'Our daily Communion is a daily Reception of Him,' ' We pray that we may not through the coming in {intercedente) of any grievous sin be separated from the Body of Christ' — a corpora Chrtsti separemur. Such is the Cyprianic gloss on Tertullian's forceful word ' in asking daily bread we claim continuance in Christ and undividedness from His Body' — indivtduitatem a corpore ejus. Now Chromatius repeats Cyprian almost word for word, substituting inter- veniente for intercedente, a word of double meaning, and peccato, as more general, for graviore delicto. Augustine surely echoes the same gloss when he has ''Sic vivamus ne ab illo altari separemur.' Here as before Cyprian's place in the chain is distinct^ (ii) To pass to the 'conjecture from the commentaries of Gregory of Nyssa and Chrysostom, that in the Oriental church the petition was considered as originally intended by our Lord to express only what it primarily means, and that such was the prevailing interpretation in the fourth century,' which probably ' was the case in the West also.' The truth is that the fathers of the Antioch school had nothing but the realistic explanation to ofifer, because they accepted Origen's erroneous derivation of fniovaios as meaning 'Bread for our Substance,' but rejected, as their wont was, his spiritualised mystic view of ' Substance ' as the Essence of Our Being. The Bread prayed for necessarily was to them only the Nurture of our Material Substance^. The Western current of interpretation steadily kept to the rightly derived rendering ' Daily.' It also never from Tertullian (our earliest witness) onward failed to see an Eucharistic reference here. Jerome's rendering 'supersubstantial' was long before it partially displaced 'daily,' but it was Eucharistic still. Thus then while the Eastern view was realistic in the fourth century' only under a reaction from a mysticism far exceeding that of the West, the view in this treatise occupies the very position which Cyprian should occupy in the universally Eucharistic interpretation of the West. (iii) Augustine's view would be stated accurately thus. In his treatise ' Of the Sermon on the IVIount ' he will not limit the petition to either earthly subsistence or to the Eucharistic gift ; his reasons for not con- fining it to the latter being that Orientals do not receive It 'daily,' and that Occidentals use the prayer many times a day after reception. Nevertheless he allows this as one of the three senses which we may combine; that which he prefers being God's Spiritual Word. Yet in ^ Chromatius' words are : ne aliquo ^ Dr Lightfoot on iiriovaios, App. to interveniente peccato a corpore Domini FresA Revision of New Testatnent, separemur. Tract, xiv. 5. p. 209 &c. (2nd Ed. 1872). GENUINENESS OF THE DE DOMINICA ORATIONE. 285 three different sermons* he gives the prominence to the Eucharistic sense. 'The Faithful know what it is that they receive in the Eucharist' — *so then the Eucharist is our Daily Bread.' The handling of Augus- tine, more analytical and yet more mystical, is distinctly in a later mood than the simply moral tone of Cyprian. On this head it is added* that * It is natural to suppose that the * Sacramental Interpretation [of Daily Bread], when first introduced, • would follow, not precede, the Primary Meaning ; and when it is found to precede it, that the stream of time had rolled further down — ' i.e. as the 'Primary Meaning' precedes the 'Sacramental Interpretation' in Chro- matius and follows after it in the Cyprianic treatise, therefore the latter is a later work. This assumption would make Chromatius early indeed, for TertuUian's authorship of his De Oratiotte is not disputed, and Tertullian gives first the Spiritual and the Sacramental sense and then what he calls the 'Carnal' sense which is Mr Shepherd's 'Primar>- Meaning.' III. Why so late an author as Venantius Fortunatus (whose references would prove nothing as to date) does not, in his unfinished treatise on the Lord's Prayer, refer to Cyprian's expressly, I cannot say, nor need we enquire. He was not bound to use the same materials as his predecessor. And if Hilary's reference to the treatise is no argument for its genuine- ness, surely the silence of Venantius is no argument against it. But I think Venantius is not untinged with Cyprian. On such a subject co- incidences are natural, but some resemblances here seem to be more than coincidences. It must be remembered that Venantius' object is different. He writes very compressedly, but more theologically. For instance, he says in speaking of the word Father, 'we be not sons in the mode of the ' Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, because He was born of His Own ' Substance,... yet through grace of the Only Begotten we have attained to ' be made Adoptive.' So again when Cyprian says the Jews are not Sons^, Venantius says 'the Arian, the Jew, the Photinian, the Manichee, the Sabellian, and other plagues'; and when speaking of the Will of God, goes at length into the question of the erroneousness of the ' Human Will.' Compare however what both say as to the petition 'Hallowed be Thy name ' being a prayer for Perseverance. Or compare the words of de Dca. Orat. 13 on 'Thy Kingdom come,' Potest... ipse Chrtstiis esse regnu7n Dei quern venire cottidie cupimus, cujus advenius SiC. quia in illo regnaturi su7mis, with Ven. Fortunatus (col. 317 A, Migne, Patr. Lat. v, 88) Adveniat regnum iiaan, hoc est Christus Domimis nobis adveniat quern quotidie sanctorum chorus veneranter expectat, in cujus promissione se confidunt justi regnare. Or on 'fiat Voluntas Tua,'^^ Dca. Orat. 14 Nam Deo quis obsistit quotninus quod velit faciatf sed quia nobis a diabolo obsistitur.. ■O'pus est Dei voluntate, id est ope ejus et protectione, quia * Aug. Serm. 56, 57, 58. " Shepherd's Fourth Letter, p. 37. 3 De Dca. Orat. 13. 286 NOTE ON DE DOMINICA ORATION E. nemo suis viribus fortis est sed Dei indulgentia et misericordia tutus est, with Fortun. (col. 317 A and col. 318) Non id fit quia aliquis potuit resistere ejus voluntati ut nonfaceret aliquando quod voluit omnipotens...sed ut in nobis impleatur ejus voluntas ut operetur, qtioniam, adversaria resistenie, nos voluntatem ejus implere non possumus nisi patrocinio ejus muniamur. Or again, observe how in commenting on ccelum et terra we have, be- sides the usual interpretation, the further one that the flesh may do the works of the Spirit, and the expression ' nos videmur facti esse ccelestes per baptismum' — purely Cyprianic and introduced with a softening phrase. In these passages the order of the thoughts is Cyprian's, the peculiarities are Cyprian's, and the TertuUianesque handling of the third petition is recast after Cyprian. There can be little doubt that Fortunatus was in some shape acquainted with Cyprian, though his aim and his touch are different I may observe further that Ambrose^ in his commentary on S. Luke passes in silence the first four verses of chapter xi., omitting the Lord's Prayer altogether. This would seem to be inexplicable except for the existence of some standard treatise. Whether there was such a treatise appears from Hilary's Commentary on Matt. v. i, 'De orationis sacra- ' mento necessitate nos commentandi Cyprianus vir sanctae memoriae * liberarit.' It is easy with a careless sponge to stain a Numidian Marble. It may take a month's work to extract that stain. And when it is done a fanciful retina may see the blur still. In the history of scholarship I know nothing (more honest and nothing) more wanton, than the sharp guesses and insinuations which, without real devotedness in research, without delicacy of perception, only with an imitative ring of criticism, have been syringed over some of the noblest essays of a great author. ^ Ambros. Exposit. Evang. sec. Luc, lib. vii. 87. COMPARISON ELUCIDATING THE DATES. 287 Comparison elucidating the dates. [ The asterisks, obeli, &'c. call attention to the more detached similarities 0/ fihrase.1 Tertullianus, de Oratione, c. 4. I.] Secundum hanc for- mam subjungimus: Fiat vo- luntas tua in cselis et in terra, non quod aliquis obsis- tat, quominus voluntas Dei fiat, et ei successura voluntatis suae oremus, sed in omnibus petimus fieri voluntatem ejus; 2 = C. 5.] Ex interpreta- tione enim figurata cam is et spiritus nos§ sumus caelum et terra, quanquam, etsi simplici- ter intellegendum est, idem tamen est sensus petitionis, ut in nobis fiat voluntas Dei in terris, ut possit scilicet fieri et in caelis. quid autem Deus vult quam incedere nos secundum suam disciplinam**? petimus ergo substantiam et facultatem voluntatis suae subministret nobis, uttt salvi simus et in caelis et in terris, quia summa est voluntatis ejus salus eorum quos adoptavit. 3.] Est et ilia Dei volun- tas quam Dominus adminis- travit praedicando, operando, sustinendo. Si enim ipse pronuntiavitj non suam, sed patris facere se voluntatem, sine dubio, quae faciebat, ea Cyprianus, de Dominica Oratione, cc. 14 — 17. I.] Addimus quoque et dicimus : Ftat voluntas tua in caelo et in terra, non ut Deus facial quod vult, sed ut nos facere possimus quod Deus vult. nam Deo quis obsistit quominus quod velit faciat? sed quia nobis a diabolo ob- sistitur quominus per omnia noster animus adque actus Deo obsequatur, oramus et petimus ut fiat in nobis voluntas Dei : quae ut fiat in nobis* 'opus est Dei voluntate,' id est ope ejus et protectione, quia nemo suis viribus fortis est sed Dei indul- gentia et misericordia tutus est. 2 = T. 5.] Denique et Do- minust infirmitatem hominis quem portabat ostendens ait : pater, si fieri potest, transeat a me calix iste, et exemplum discipulis suis distribuens, ut non voluntatem suam sed Dei faciant, addidit dicens : verum- tamen non quod ego volo sed quod tu vis. et alio loco dicit J: non descend! de caelo ut faciam voluntatem meam sed volunta- tem ejus qui misit me... 3.] Voluntas autem Dei est quam Christus et fecit et docuit. humilitas in conversa- tione, stabilitas in fide, in factis justitia, in operibus mi- sericordia, in moribus discipli- na **, injuriam facere non nosse et factam posse tolerare... Chromatius, Tractal., xiv. 4. I.] Dehinc ait: Fiat vo- luntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra, par quoque et hie in- telligentiae ratio est. non enim quisquam est qui obsis- tere et contradicere Deo possit, ne quod velit faciat ; cum vo- luntate ejus et in caelo et in terra cuncta consistant ; sed, ut in nobis voluntas ejus fiat, oramus. Cyp. 2 = Tert. 5. Not in Chrom.] 3.] Voluntas autem Dei est, ut toto corde ei credentes haec quae fieri prcecipit im- pleamus. de qua voluntate Dei Apostolus testatur dicens: Voluntas Dei est sanctificatio vestra ut abstineatis vos a 288 COMPARISON ELUCIDATING THE DATES. Tertullianus, de Oral., c. 4. ■erat voluntas patris, ad quae nunc nos velut ad exem- plaria provocamur, ut et prse- dicemus et operemur et sus- Cyprianus, lU Dca. Oral., cc. 14 — 17. Chromatius, Tractat., xiv. 4. camalibus concupiscentiis ( i Th. iv. 3). de quo et Domi- nus in Evangelio locutus est exhibere ... in quasstione dxctns: Hac est volitntas patris tineamus ad mortem usque, fiduciam qua congredimur, in mei qui misit me ut omnis qui quae ut implere possimus* opus morte patientiam qua corona- videt Filium et credit in eo est Dei voluntate. mur: ...hocestpraeceptumDei habeat vitam ceternam Qo. vi. facere, hoc est voluntatem 40). patris implere. 4.] Item dicentes, fiat vo- 4.] Fieri autem petimus 4.] Cum ergo dicimus : luntas tua, vel eo nobis bene voluntatem Dei in caelo et in Fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo optamus, quod nihil mali sit terra... nam cum corpus e terra et in terra: hoc oramus, id est in Dei voluntate, etiam si quid et spiritum possideamus e ut sicuti Dei voluntas ab an- pro meritis cuj usque secus in- caelo § ipsi 'terra et caelum gelis fideliter custoditur in cae- rogatur. jam hoc dicto ad sumus,' et in utroque, id est et lis ita quoque a nobis religiosa sufferentiam nosmetipsos prae- corpore et spiritu, ut Dei vo- ac fideli devotione ^ semper monemus. luntas fiat oramus. est enim servetur in terra, quae volun- inter camem et spiritum con- tas ut in nobis rite possit im- luctatio...et idcirco cottidianis pleri, sine intermissione' divi- immo continuis orationibus hoc nae dignationis auxilium pos- . precamur... tulandum est. 5 = T. -2.] Potest et sic 5.] Vel certe Fiat voluntas intellegi...ut quoniam mandat tua sicut in caelo et in terra; sionis infirmitatem carnis de- et monet Dominus etiam ini- ut sicut in caelo, id est in sanc- monstrare jam in sua carne raicos diligere et pro his quo- tis et caelestibus hominibus, voluisset : Pater, inquit, trans- que qui nos persecuntur orare. Dei voluntas impletur; ita fer poculum istud, et recorda- (cf. Tert. 3.) petamus et pro quoque in terra, id est in his tus, nisi quod mea non, sed tua illis qui adhuc terra sunt et nee- qui necdum crediderunt, per fiat voluntas, ipse erat volun- dum caelestes esse cceperunt credulitatem fidei et veritatis tas et potestas patris, et tamen ut et circa illos voluntas Dei cognitionem, ut Dei fiat volun- ad demonstrationem sufferen- fiat... ut precem pro omnium tt tas oramus. tiae debitas voluntati se patris salute faciamus ut quomodo in tradidit. 5 = C. 2.] Dominus t quo- que cum sub instantiam pas- {Reiffersckeid.) caelo, id est in nobis, per fidem nostram voluntas Dei facta est ut essemus e caelo, ita et in terra, hoc est in illis credenti- bus, fiat voluntas Dei, ut qui adhuc sunt prima nativitate terreni incipiant esse cselestes ex aqua et spiritu nati. (Hartel-.) 1-1 Three lines omitted absque sensu, apparently by a printer's slip at first in Grynaeus, Monum. P. Ortkodoxographa, v. II. p. 1 2 14, 1569; La Eigne, Max. Bibl. Vet. Pair. V. V. p. 987, Lugd. 1677; and Galland. B. V.P. vol. VIII. p. 348,Venet. 1772; but given in first Basle Edition 1528, in Braida, Utini, 1816, q.v. and Migne. ^ Hartel's text, except in his infelicitous conjecture credere nolentibus for credentibus, see p. 271, n. 2. VI. V. RITUAL. — THE MIXED CUP. 289 V. Ritual I. The Mixed Cup. The last question ^ which comes within the present cycle of Cyprian's activity was that of Ritual. He has worked out the application of the new Christian principles to the treatment of Suffering ; to the purification of the passions of Resentment and Sorrow ; and to intelligent Communion with the Father. Time brought also round some necessities for clearness in the Ritual in which the new principles had tacitly embodied themselves. A little later, and it assumed such proportions as to dwarf for a time the rest, and to leave the one blot on Cyprian's glory. A material change had been introduced some time before ^ Probably not 'last' chronologi- cally, though Rettberg (p. 145, n. i) wishes to transfer Ep. 6}^ to a date as late as the last persecution, since the expression 'cum mediocritatem nostram semper humili et verecunda moderatione teneamus' Ep. 63. i postulates time for the exhibition of such qualities. Ritschl, pp.241, 242, thinks the claim to modesty and humility more characteristic of the beginnings of an episcopate. There is nothing in this. And in an ad- mittedly late letter, Ep. 66. 3, Cyprian makes the same claim, 'humilitatem meam et fratres omnes et gentiles quo- que norunt et diligunt'; which also the confessors in almost the last letter of all declare to be true; 'omnibus hominibus...inobsequiohumilior...'£'/. 77. I. Ritschl's theories drive him to put Ep. 63 early, because of its supposed definition of ' ecclesiam,' as ' plebem in ecclesia constitutam,' c. 13 — but we have seen that this is no definition. — Cyprian is merely interpreting the water in the mixed chalice to signify the 'ecclesia' 'plebs' or 'populus,' B. (here including of course the Ministry,) in contradistinction to the wine, as representing the Divinity of the Lord. The truth is that the letter bears no note of date except that the semper... teneamus implies some time, (as Rett- berg,) and that ch. 17 'ad collegas nostros litteras dirigamus ut ubique lex evangelica...servetur et ab eo quod Christus et docuit et fecit non receda- tur' implies a well-established position. Persecution seems to be in a simmer- ing state. The doctrine of the sacra- ments and of the priesthood has been very fully thought out. Si Christus Jesus Dominus et Deus noster ipse est summus sacerdos Dei patris&c....utique ille sacerdos vice Christi vere fungitur qui id quod Christus fecit imitatur &c., (14) si sacerdotes Dei et Christi sumus non invenio quem magis sequi quam Deum et Christum debeamus (18). He speaks in obedience to distinct vision and command. On the whole Pear- son's opinion of the place of the Epistle is not ill-founded. 19 290 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. by a number of bishops, and among them perhaps a bishop of Carthage \ into the Eucharistic offering — the adoption of water instead of wine. There is in this no trace ' of religious antipathy to wine, such as had been taught ninety years before by Tatian. Not to say that there is no other indi- cation of such teaching hitherto in Africa, the present was, we clearly learn, the mere social timidity of a simple people ^ Christian wives of heathen husbands, many dependents, and others incurred unworthy suspicions from having the scent of wine about them at an early hour^ A compassionate evasion had suffered them to communicate in water. When scarcity of wine was found to have occasioned the same irregularity at Regensburg, Saint Wolfgang wept so profusely that his recovery was despaired of^ The state- ment that the Norwegians in the fifteenth century received permission from Innocent the Eighth to celebrate in water, ^ Ep.6^. i'...quidam...nonhocfaciunt. 14 inpr3eteritum...antenos...' 17 'siquis de antecessoribus nostris . . . non hoc obser- vavitettenuit.' This word (qttidarn)mn%i be the ground of Pearson's statement that the custom originated with ' some bishop of Carthage,' Ann. Cypr. A.D. 253, iii. But if we consider the very official form of the letter, and its address to the senior bishop of the province, the inference is not, I think, so certain. The mood indicates some particular person. 2 As supposed by F.Miinter, Primord. Eccles. Africans, p. 127; compare M. Leydecker de Statu Eccles. v. de cultu. MUnter quotes, as if it illustrated the point, the 'appendix' c. 52 of Tertul- lian's Prascriptio Hcereticoruni — which appendix is a separate work, not Afri- can. The Hydro-parastatse, Aquarii, or ' Water-offerers ' were in the 4th century a branch of Tatianists, or Encratites ; an Apocrypha-collecting, ascetic, Judaic, Docetic School ; see H. L. Mansel, Gnostic Heresies, pp. 136, 7. Tille- mont, V. II. p. 410. Not one of those unmistakeable marks occurs in Cyp- rian's account. ^ Ep. 63. 17, 18 simplicitati, simpli- citer. •* Suspicions not unjustified, if there were many of those who (as Novatian says) held it un-Christian to drink after eating, ' Videas ergo tales novo genere adhuc jejunos et jam ebrios,' and pos- sibly at the Eucharist, as he speaks of their 'osculum.' This curious pas- sage leaves it uncertain whether (i) they drank overmuch wine at fasting com- munions, or took stimulants before them, or (2) whether Novatian himself in- clined to the use of water in commu- nion, or (3) whether this was simply a foolish defence of actual vice. Nova- tian, de Cibis jfitd. c. vi. ^ Acta S. Wolfgangi Ratisponensis c. 24, ap. Edm. Martene, de Ant. Eccles. Pit. I. iii. Art. vii. 32. VI. V. RITUAL. — THE MIXED CUP. 29I on account of the liability of their wine to sourness, is not only denied but quite improbable \ Cyprian felt impelled to issue an official letter to Caecilius of Biltha, not as an offender, but as senior bishop of the Proconsular Province. Caecilius was one of the most regular attendants in Cyprian's Councils, He had formerly been employed in the suppression of grosser irregularities ' ; and his speech, crossed perhaps with aged virulence, is the first of the unhappy verdicts of the great Council on Baptism. In the letter now addressed to him by Cyprian the wild- ness, it must be admitted, of the Biblical interpretations and the looseness of the logic, is equalled only by the quiet insinuating beauty of its style ^ the soundness of its con- clusions and its value in evidence*. The substance however is to this effect : — That Wine in the Chalice is essential to the evangelical tradition ; to the symbolic sense of the Last Supper ; to the fulfilment of antient types ; and to the faithful representation of the Lord's own act. It is further apparent that Cyprian and his contemporaries would have regarded the admixture of water as being not indeed equally essential with the presence of Wine, yet in its place essential for the fulfilment of those four necessary conditions. 'Drink ye the Wine which I have mingled for you' he quotes from the Book of Proverbs^ and then proceeds 'Wisdom declares her Wine to be mingled; 1 Baluze (p. 477) appears to ac- expressions indicate a time of perse- cept it on authority of Raphael Vola- cution, and that Cyprian had been long terranus, 1. 7, p. 159, though even Bp. in office. DomMaran( F/A C)//r. xxxiii.) Jewel states it hesitatingly on the same. rightly thinks them not cogent. But Controv. w. Harding, vol. I. pp. 137, 222 I cannot agree with him that it is to be Park. Soc. See Baronius, Annul. Eccles. placed after the controversy on Baptism A.D. 1490, c. xxii. had broken out. Cyprian's whole soul ^ p. 47. was then so charged with that subject 3 Aug. de Doctrina Christiana, B. IV. that he could not have gone so near c. xxi. quotes it as a model of the without allusion to it far plainer than 'submissum dicendi genus.' Maran extricates. * Ep. 63. Pearson's reasons for " Prov. ix. 5. assigning it to a.d. 253 are that some 19 — 2 292 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. * foreannounces, that is, with prophetic voice the Lord's Cup * mingled of Water and Wine, that it may appear that in * the Lord's Passion that which had been foretold was done *.' Again 'the Lord taught us by the pattern of His instruc- * tions that the chalice was mingled by conjunction of Wine 'and Water*'; and again 'we find that what He ordered is ' not observed by us, unless we too do the same things which ' the Lord did, and similarly mingling the cup, depart not ' from His Divine instructions ^' — Still such passages cannot fairly be cited as exhibiting a direct decision of Cyprian's that Water absolutely must be used as well as Wine, because the immixture of Water was not the exact question before him ; and incidental judgments ought not to be alleged in controversy as if they were direct. This is clear from another clause of the last cited section. ' In respect of which ' (the incidents of S. Matt. xxvi. 28, 29) we find it was a ' mixed ' chalice which the Lord offered, and that it was the wine ' which He called blood. Hence it appears that Christ's blood ' is not offered if there be no wine in the chalice.' It is true that he plainly says 'wine alone ccamot be offered,' and again ' the cup of the Lord is not water alone nor wine alone,' but he gives his reason for this assertion, so that the assertion will not be valued (except as distinct evidence of practice) by those to whom the reason does not commend itself. This reason is that the water signifies the People (according to the interpretation of the Apocalyptic Seer that the waters are peoples*) while the wine signifies the blood of Christ Himself with Whom His People^ are blended in inseparable union and conjunction. - Ep. 63. 5. A.D. 1439, Decret.ad Armenos (Labbe, 2 Ep. 9. Mansi, vol. xviii., Venet. 1773, <^o^- 3 Ep. 63. 10. H'z, vol. x.xxi. 1798, col. 1056), but it * Apoc. xvii. 15. is combined by them with the reason ' Ep. 63. 13. This account is a- attributed to Alexander Bp. of Rome dopted by the Council of Tribur a.d. a.d. 109 {Ep. i. 4, spurious of course, 895, can. xix. and that of Florence Labbe, Mansi, vol. i. Florent. 1759, VI. V. RITUAL. — THE MIXED CUP. 293 The same union is expressed in the Bread itself to which no consistency could be given but by the use of water. The many grains represent the multitudinous partakers who only receive their unity in the one Loaf, the Bread of Heaven \ coll. 638, 9), namely the miraculous out- flow from the side of Christ. The Council of Trent adopts the interpre- tation of the -water meaning the people, but judiciously drops the appeal to Saint Alexander. (Session 22, ch. 7.) ' In most liturgies, when the water is mixed with the wine some reference is made to the blood and water which flowed from the Lord's side.'... 'The same reason is given generally by the liturgies' : Cheetham, who specifies Ro- man, Mozarabic and Ambrosian as in- stances. This statement may so easily cause important mistakes that it is well to observe that ten principal liturgies, among them the Roman, which direct the mixture, have no allusion to this text. The Syriac Liturgy of S. James, the antient one of Lyons, the Carthusian (perhaps as a survival of antient Lyons) may be added to the other two which have it. The Liturgy of Constantinople pointedly avoids it, for it recites the text (Jo. xix. 34, 35) where the Priest, in the little play which goes on at the Prothesis, stabs the Host 'with the Lance'; the mix- ture of the chalice follows after this. The ^thiopic pointedly avoids it; its illustration is Cana, and though 'the Blood shed on Golgotha' is named the Water is not. The Gregorian and Gela- sian and the Nestorian (Adseus and Maris) do not actually name Water, though the mixture was made, nor do five minor ones given in Renaudot's second volume, pp. 126 — 163 ; two others do, pp. 170, 177; but in none of them, I think, is there any allusion to the ESusion. The parallel must surely have pre- sented itself to Cyprian's "■ memoriosa mens ' and so can scarcely have ap- proved itself to him as being true sym- bolism. He does not however, among the innumerable passages which he bends that way, apply it to Baptism either, as our own Rite does, followring the Sarum Benedictio Fontis (Maskell, Mon. Rit. I. p. 19) which comes from the Gelasian Sacramentary. Muratori, Lit. Rom. Vet. t. I. cc. 569, 570. Tertullian thrice applies it to the distinct baptisms of Water and Blood, de Bapt. 9, 16, de Pudic. 22. The prayer at the mingling in the Roman Missal carries the symbolism to a higher region — from the congrega- tion to humanity itself, but does this by dressing up the beautiful Mattins and Vespers collect of the Nativity in the Gelasian Sacramentary. Muratori (pp. cit.) I. col. 497 ' Deus qui humanse sub- stantive dignitatem et mirabiliter condi- disti et mirabilius reformasti ; da qusesu- mus ut ejus ejfficiamur in divina consortes qui nostrae humanitatis fieri dignatus est particeps Christus Filius tuus.' The Missal alters the great words italicised into 'per hujus aquae et vini mysterium ejus divinitatis esse.' Whichever symbolism be accepted the act itself of w?«^//rt^ seems not to be suitable to any time after the presenta- tion is begun by placing the elements on the irpoOeffLS or credence, or at any rate after their removal from it for the oblation. ^ Ep. 63 . 1 3 ' . . . ut quemadmodum grana multa in unum collecta et conmolita et conmixta panem unum faciunt, sic in Christo qui est panis cjelestis unum sciamus esse corpus cui conjunctus sit 294 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. Nevertheless, though Cyprian has not given even in these words a declaration on the subject, yet since he lays down* that 'the Lord's sacrifice is not celebrated with legitimate conse- ' cration except pur oblation and sacrifice correspond with His ' Passion,' and as ' legitimate consecration' is assumed to consist in doing what ourLorddid.preserving the tradition, representing the Passion, or following its points in symbol, we are compelled to conclude that, although he allowed that the blood of Christ was received through communion in the wine, yet he would not have held that the consecration of wine without water was 'legitimate,' but would have included that practice, however long-standing in any church, under the category of Human Tradition followed in place of Divine Example I Other corollaries of a not unimportant character are immediately inferrible from this Letter-Treatise. The Com- munion of the Congregation is essential. The absence of the Congregation prevents the Commemorative Mixed Chalice which may be offered in the Family after the Evening Meal from being anything of a true Dominicum. Again, the Morning Hour is the only hour at which the Resurrection' (which is the power of the Eucharist) can duly be celebrated ; Christ Himself had offered in the noster numerus et adunatus.' This use of S. Martin's at Tours. 'If by image, which was as his lovers know so mistake the priest has consecrated un- favourite and constant an image with mixed wine, or water without wine. Dean Stanley, is the most antient sym- the wine is held to be sacrament, but holism we have. See the beautiful not the water.' It seems natural that Eucharistic prayer in the Teaching of the Monophysite church of Armenia the xii. Apostles^ c. 9, 'ilffnep rjv tovto (Martene) should consecrate wine only, [? t6] K\d(T/jLa diecTKopiria-fiii'oi' eirdvu tQv but their antiently alleged reason was a 6piv Kal avvax^iv iy^vero ^v, ovtw aw- passage of Chrysostom Horn. 82 {83) in ax9rir(j} ffov i} eKKXijaia dvb rCiv ireparuv Mt. 26, c. 2. For this usage they were TTJs yiji elt T7]v C7]v ^acriXelav. Cf. reproved {with a proper explanation of Constt. Apost. vii. c. 26 which omits their Chrysostom) in the 32nd canon of €7ra»'w Twi* dp^wi/ and has efy aproj for ^J*. the Quini - Sextine Council A.D. 692, ^ Ep. 63. 10. but keep it still. 2 Ep. 63. 14. Baluze, p. 477, cites ^ Ep. 63. 16. an instructive rubric from an antient VI. V. RITUAL. — THE AGE OF BAPTISM. 295 Evening solely in order to mark the close of the old order and to merge the Passover Ritual into ours. Thus in the Celebration of the Eucharist no less than in the Theory of Orders points arise in which no modern community can be strictly said to be at one with the Cyprianic Church. 2. The Age of Baptism. The Ritual of another Sacrament was also now coming a.d. 253. into the field, though not yet in all its import. In September joog.* A.D. 253 or late in the summer of that year^ it was considered ^^^- ^^P* safe to hold the Bishops' meeting omitted at Easter. The Vibius tumult of military faction and perhaps the succession ofoallus Valerian, whose household is described as a ' Church of God V anusT^'^^" so leavened was it with Christianity, gave this breathing- p°jl?^^^°^ space. Sixty-six bishops met in Carthage. 11. rValeri- A record of two of their deliberations is preserved in ug?] Maxi- their letter to Fidus a Bishop. He had found it in his heart """^' to petition that an excommunication prematurely removed from a repentant presbyter might be renewed ^ He also found it in his heart to request that a canon might be passed prohibiting the baptism of infants under eight days old. The mind of the Bishops, Cyprian replies, was ' far other ' than his ; ' not a man agreed with him'; they 'judged that God's pity and grace could be denied to no child of man.' Fidus shrank from bestowing the Kiss of Peace on so young a babe, as if it were yet unclean. Cyprian replies that the fresh handiwork of God claims only deeper reverence : in it we discern, we kiss His own creative hands. It is only to our sight that birth begins existence. To God the soul has lived before. Judaic forms of uncleanness were but types, and are for ever 1 The date of Ep. 64 is discussed ^ Dion. Al. ap. Eus. vii. 10. p. 224. ' Sup. p. 231. 296 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. at an end. Perhaps this Eighth Day itself had been assigned to circumcision in order to give to a carnal rite some touch of spiritual association with the Resurrection Day, the First of the New Week. The first weeping of the ' helpless new-born babe ' sounded to the heathen like a foreboding of the misery of living, to the Christian ear it was a prayer and an appeal. These beautiful thoughts helped the straightforward reasoning to shatter in Christian spirits the petty pleas of Fidus, with whatever of Judaizing lay behind them. With this letter in his hand\ at Carthage upon S. Gaudentius' day, a hundred and sixty years later, in the Basilica where lay Perpetua and Felicitas^ Augustine defen- ded against Pelagius the principles of Infant Baptism. And we may remember in a yet earlier essay how there can be nothing broader and freer than Cyprian's recognition that Christian Baptism is truly a re-assertion of our human Childhood and Sonship to God. " A /I who by the hallowing " force of baptism come to the gift and patritnony of God, " there, by the healthful laver's grace, put off the ' old man,' " are remade by the Holy Spirit, and in a second nativity are " cleansed from the old infectious plague spots'." ^ Aug. de Gestis Pelagii xi. § 2.5. ' De Habitu Virgg. 23 '■Omnes qui- See also contra it. Epistolas Pelagg. lib. dem qui ad divinum munus et patri- IV. c. viii. § 23. monium baptismi sanctificatione per- 2 Basilica Majoram ? Majorini ? Ma- veniunt hominem illic veterem gratia jor. The MSs. of Victor Vitensis A^w/". lavacri salutaris exponunt et innovati Persecut. i. 3 have Majorum, except W Spiritu Sancto a sordibus contagionis (Vindobon. sec. xi.) and L (Berolin. sec. antiques iterata nativitate purgantur.' xii.), but Petschenig has thought fit to ComY>3.rt z\%o De Habitu Virgg. 2 '^ scien- prefer in this place the reading of these tes quod templa Dei sint membra nostra two, Majorevt. The titles of Aug. ab omni fsece contagionis antiqucz la- Sermm. 34 Ad Major es ax\d 165 and 294 vacri vitalis sanctificatione purgata.' support Majorum, but 2 58 has Majorem. I must with most editions and seven of It is impossible not to remember the Baluze's codices, in spite of S, W, D recently explored great Basilica of Car- and Hartel, maintain patrimonium, thage close outside the walls, with its which Goldhorn restores and Baluze nine aisles, its large bapti tery and vast (p. 533) allows. 'Divinum munus et pa- semicircular narthex and tidobate 'mar- trium' is not Cyprianic order or sense, tyrium.' VI. V. RITUAL. — THE AGE OF BAPTISM. 29/ Objection to Council III on account of its Antipelagianism, It has been ironically observed that the question of Fidus 'gives ' Cyprian the opportunity of making a thoroughly antipelagian dis- * course' — a wild statement and misleading to those incapable of following it up. The letter has been treated as spurious on the alleged grounds, first that it resembles the later Canon cx of the African Code, and secondly that its language shews it to be later than the Pelagian controversy^. Now, that cxth canon is against those who object to Infant Baptism, or hold it to be a sort of dramatic fiction, on the ground that there is no original sin^. But Fidus has not a word either for or against the doctrine of Original Sin. He approved of Infant Baptism ; only, for certain small reasons, not till the infant was eight days old. And the answer observes that besides the irrelevance and unkindness of his ideas, the innocent child was at least as worthy of acceptance as a sin-laden man : a not very antipelagian doctrine. Then, as to the language ; it is impossible that it can have been penned after the Pelagian controversy. There is not one technical term in it 3. So far as verbal likeness goes the Cyprianic fathers might have almost seemed rather against the Augustinian thought. This defines original sin to be ^both another's and our own.' They say 'The sins remitted to the infant are the sins of others, not his own.' Thus nothing can be more different than the purview of the canon and the epistle except the language itself; and while no forger after the controversy could have helped using recognised terms, we have in the language of Cyprian just the clear but un technical style which marks the catholic doctrine in an age prior to a controversy*, but which cannot perhaps for ages afterward be recurred to as adequate and used accordingly. ^ Shepherd, pp. 31, 32, and p. 11, birth, letter 2. ■* Precisely the same treatment of the 2 irpoyoviK^ a/iaprla — 6irep ^\Kvaav same doctrines with the same freedom eK TTjy apxO'i-oyovlas. Justel. Cod. Cann. from technicality exists in the tie Op. et Eccles. Afric. 1 10. Eleem. and de Mortalit. ap. Aug. Contra 2 No 'Originale Peccatum,' 'Pecca- ii. Epp. Pelagg. 1. I v. c. viii. § 21, and turn originis' or 'Contagium Peccati. ' seethe list of ancient authors to the same Contagium mortis antiques is the true effect quoted by Routh, R. S. vol. III. but w«i'^£'^«jfa/ consequence of our first pp. 148, 9. CHAPTER VII. THE ROMAN CHAIR. The End of CORNELIUS. We have anticipated by three months at Carthage a great change which had occurred at Rome. Cornelius had been suddenly^ banished to Centumcellae — that Civita Vecchia which has been so fateful for his line. The first intention had been to isolate him. But his apprehension was the signal for a crowd of the Lapsed'^ to revoke and expiate their Denial. They thus justified Cyprian's policy of penance with hope of restitution'. They were hurried away with him as were also the Confessors who had lately escaped to him from the influence of Novatian. Their numbers were such as to im- press at least themselves, and perhaps the government, with the idea that, if they had been so minded, they might have made something at least of a stand. ' It was a con- fessorship of the whole church of Rome^' Such an exile then was a happy reunion of extreme factions, and breathing ^ Repentinapersecutio...saecularis po- gloria donnicionem accepit.' There is testas subito proruperit, Ep. 6i. 3. Cf. no ground for accepting Lipsius' al- ^. 60. 2 'quasi minus paratoset minus teration to pulsus, p. 123. On the cautos. ' contrary a banishment on a large scale * Quot illic Lapsi gloriosa confessione is intended, such as C)^rian describes, sunt restituti... nee jam stare ad criminis ^ Ipso dolore psenitentiae facti ad veniam sed ad passionis coronam, Ep. proelium fortiores, Ep. 60. 2. 60. 2. Confessorem populum, ibid. i. * Adversarius ... intellexit ... Christi CoTapare the LiderianCata^ogT^e,'... con- milites...nec repugnare contra impug- fessores qui se separaverunt a Comelio nantes, cum occidere innocentibus nee cum Maximo presbytero, qui cum Moyse nocentera liceat, Ep. 60. 2. Ecclesia fuit, ad ecclesiam sunt reversi. Post omnis Romana confessa, .^. 60. i. hoc Centumcellis expulsi. Ibi cum VII. I. THE END OF CORNELIUS. 299 this consolation Cornelius died ' with glory ' in June A.D. 253'. The Antipope was too inconspicuous to the Magistracy to be in danger. In Cyprian's eyes his immunity otherwise unexplained ought to have been to him evidence of his Divine rejection. Quid ad hcec Novatianusf The outburst was the open seal of heaven's favour and hell's hostility to the true priest and people, and was clearly designed for this very end'. Cornelius has been ranked as a martyr by the church of Rome since the middle of the fourth century, and his festival kept with Cyprian's on the 14th of September. The state- ment is first found in Jerome^ that 'they suffered on the same day though not in the same year.' In the contemporary sense of the word a Martyr he was, as dying in exile*. Cyprian who in writing to him speaks of his 'glorious witness,' afterward speaks of him and Lucius (who was not a martyr either in our sense of the word) as ^ That the month of his decease must Abraham, a.d. 253 — 4 (Lipsius, op. cit. have been June is shewn above (chap. p. 210). This is a strictly independent II. p. 127 note). Pearson (who is how- testimony in support of the most accu- ever misled by the traditional A/^^w^^r rate catalogues which, giving to his of his legendary martyrdom) argues seat 2 years 3 months and 10 days, justly that the events and changes which bring the year of his death to 253 A.D. occurred after May 15, 252, and before Jerome makes the strange statement his death could not have been crowded ' Rexit ecclesiam sub Gallo Volusiano into the June of 252 — viz. the ordi- duobus annis.' De Viris III. 66. nation of Fortunatus, his voyage, re- Pearson {Anna/. Cypr. 252, xiii.) jection and fresh attempt, with all the accuses the Roman Breviary of placing letters which passed between Cyprian his death under Decius. At present and Cornelius, the latter in security at however it reads Gallo et Volusiano Rome, the former in daily expectation consulibus which though incorrect of death. Again Dionysius of Alex- is Pearson's own. He relied on the andria mentions in a letter to Cornelius faulty (Lipsius, op. cit. p. 209) con- the death of Fabius of Antioch, and sular list of the Liberian Catalogue, the consecration of his successor Deme- - Ep. 60. 3. Ep. 61. 3 'tota cordis trian. (Eus. H. E. vi. 46.) According luce perspicimus, &c.' to the Chronicle of Eusebius this was ^ j)g yifj^ ///. ^c. 66, 67. in the consulship of Valerian and * Sup. p. 91. Gallienus I., or in the year 2272 after 300 THE ROMAN CHAIR. 'planted together in glorious martyrdom,' and again styles him a Blessed Martyr*. However, these terms are familiar enough to us as used of living prisoners or exiles, and by no early authority is he said to have been put to death. His name is not on the Liberian martyr-roll, nor yet in the Deposition of Bishops. All accords with the more modest antient record ' There with glory he took sleep^' His remains were carried to Rome, and were laid near to the older bishops but not among them'. He rested amid the ashes — so it must seem — of his patrician house*, and with his name cut in Latin, and not like his predecessors in Greek®. Salonina, the wife of Gallienus, whom his father Valerian immediately associated with himself, in this* October was both a Cornelia and a Christian ^ We might without over- ^ .£)>/. 60 init.; 68. 5; 61.3; 67. 6; 69. 3. 2 Mommsen, op. cit. p. 636. ^ The old Salzburg traveller notices this. Rossi, R. S. i. p. 180. * See Northcote and Brownlow, Roma Sotterranea I. pp. 352 — 363. ^ Sup. p. 124. Rossi, Roma Sotter- ranea, torn. I. p. 274 ff., tav. iv., 2. All before him and those for fifty years later down to Eutychian are Greek like their liturgy. 8 Corp. Inscrr. Latt. viil. i. 2482. "^ Of the many coins of Cornelia Salonina some remarkable types have on the obverse her throned, sceptred figure, holding in her right hand an olive branch, and with the legend avgvsta IN PACE. This In Pace is elsewhere absolutely limited to Christian memorials. Other coins of hers bear common types. But it is observable that though her husband Gallienus was much given to coinage ' Consecrations ' of his predecessors and of his family except of Valerian, there is no pagan apotheosis of Salo- nina. De Witte, who first commented on this type and assumed it to be later than Salonina's death, doubted this after finding it in two large hoards of coins issued apparently not later than a.d. 265, Did. Christ. Antiq. 'Money'; Stevenson, Diet. Rom. Coins, p. 711. The doubt is, I suppose, because of the incident of ' the Empress's ' danger in a.d. 268 at the Siege of Milan. C. W. King VII. I. THE END OF CORNELIUS. 3OI boldness perhaps conjecture that such a princess was not unconcerned in the locality or the adornment of his repose. This chamber is said in a later story to have been first prepared for him in a crypt on her own estate, on the Appian Way, hard by the cemetery of Callistus, by the lady Lucina called afterwards the Blessed, who was also incorrectly said to have aided Cornelius himself in laying the body of S. Peter in the Vatican and of S. Paul on the Ostian Way. But it was delicately done, whoever brought to his side in death the Presbyter and Confessor Maximus whom Cornelius had brought back to the Catholic Church in life\ The sepulchre of Cornelius ' is with us to this day,' still rich in architectural appointments and shewing trace of some grand sarcophagus to which his bones had been transferred from a simpler but not unnotable grave. We may add that in the fourth century Damasus in his last illness opened the old chapel more to the light and began a staircase for pilgrims'"'. Injured by Lombard invaders it does not see why she should be supposed them ' trientes Saloninianos trecentos ' to have been then alive {Early Christ- perhaps of his Empress, perhaps of his ian Numismatics, p. 47) but I think he son (Treb. Poll. Claud. 17). cannot have noticed that incident; for 1 Sup. page 161. Rossi, Roma Sot- Zonaras vi'ould be worse than he is if he terr. torn. i. p. 291, tav. xix. 5. Lucina, did not mean to connect it with that a rare surname, is found in the Cornelian siege. But on the other hand it seems gens. Rossi, R. S. t. i. p. 314. to me not impossible that Pipara, his ^ Aspice descensu exstructo tenebris- German princess, 'quamperditedilexit,' que fugatis and in honour of whom he and his court Cornell monumenta vides tumulumque wore their hair yellow (Treb. PoUio, Gal- sacratum. lieni duo c. 21), may have been the Hoc opus segroti Damasi prsestantia BatriXKrcra of this camp-story. At any fecit, rate, whether in life or death, Salonina's Esset ut accessus melior, populisque is a Christian legend, without pressing paratum the MS. on some of the exergues to Auxilium Sancti, et valeas si fundere mean Memoruz Sancta. Other indi- puro cations of a Christian influence on this Corde preces, Damasus melior consur- incomprehensible emperor occur in the gere posset text. Quern non lucis amor tenuit mage cura Gallienus once sent a mass of valu- laboris. ables to propitiate Claudius, among This recovery, from several fragments 302 THE ROMAN CHAIR. lq ^ Milt. 1,1 mi?iP%'nr^Jt}' Mf J VII. I. THE END OF CORNELIUS. 303 was restored by Leo III. in the ninth century, and then the tall commanding figures of the brotherly Cornelius and Cyprian were painted on its walls \ It is impossible not to be led a little aside by what has been of undying interest to so many generations. But to return to the facts of Cornelius' death and burial. The inferences from them are clear enough. Dying quietly at Civita Vecchia his death-day had for a time no very marked commemoration. When a festival was sought for him as a Martyr he was conjoined with his friend and brother Cyprian whose day had been long observed at Rome. For so, without any mention of Cornelius, Cyprian's actual death-day appears in the Kalendar of A.D. 354. ' Fourteenth of September, commemoration of Cyprian, Africa. It is kept at Rome in the cemetery of Calistus^' and from Damasus' familiar tags, of bratur to be a corruption of Corneli. the original inscription placed over the To' such lengths will determined critics tomb at Damasus' restoration is one of even now proceed. The unfortunate De Rossi's most ingenious and perfect suggestion is borrowed apparently from triumphs. R. S. I. p. 289 — 291. Muratori, Lit. Rom. Vet. I, col. 39, n. c. ^ Rossi, R. S. t. I. tav. vi. (See Appendix on S. Cyprian's Day, - A.D. 354 'xviii. Kl. Octob. Cy- p. 610.) PRIANI Africa Rom^ celebratur The Felician Catalogue says Cornelius IN Calisti.' was beheaded at the Temple of Mars, With extraordinary violence Rossi and gives the story of Lucina, of which wishes to insert Corneli in Calisti be- the untruth will appear in the history of fore the name of Cyprian, and Momm- Xystus. This catalogue is accordingly sen [Abkand. d.k. S.Ges.d. Wissensch. obliged to omit the older words 'Ibi II. p. 633, note I, iiber den Chrono- cum gloria dormicionem accepit.' Lip- graph vom Jah. 354) would take cele- sius, op. cii. pp. 125, 275. 304 THE ROMAN CHAIR. II. The Sitting of LUCIUS. The whole chronology with its perplexities is unravelled by this disengagement of the decease of Cornelius from its liturgical connection with the fourteenth of September, and its certain replacement, in June A.D. 253. A few days may perhaps be assumed to have elapsed before the twenty-fifth of that same month, on or near to which his successor Lucius came to the Chair for a brief eight months and ten days\ He was immediately banished^ though without depriva- tion of property or rights', and directly afterwards recalled or allowed to return ; with him came home apparently the great mass of exiles. Whether this was some experiment in the working of terror and leniency, or whether it was a result of the divided sentiments of the imperial households we cannot tell. Valerian became severely anti-Christian, but we have just seen that Salonina, the wife of his son Gallienus, who at this juncture, succeeded with him to the honours of Consul, Imperator, Csesar and Augustus, was probably a Christian and of the same great house as the last Bishop; and Gallienus in his rescript of toleration published when he began to reign alone in A.D. 261*, speaks of having already long ago made concessions to the Christians. ^ Cyprian's solitary letter to Lucius ^Nogroundforstatingthathehadbeen ^Ep. 61) indicating only one other, and also previously banished with Cornelius, this lately written and anticipating mar- ^ Relegationem...relegatus {Ep.. 6i. tyrdom for him besides, would mark i), used unquestionably with precision the pontificate as probably short. But by the Old Legist. Lipsius has shewn independently that * Clinton, Fasti Romani, vol. I. pp. the 'iii years' which the Liberian 286,7. Euseb. A^.^. vii. 13 'The relief chronologist prefixes to his ' viii months was to be universal : they are not to be and X days' is a mere blunder, and kept out of their places of worship (dir6 that Eusebius H. E. vii. 2 a"?<^' ^' "'^5' Tdiruy t€iv dprjcrKevai/Mwv) : they may ex- oXots ovTos 6ktu... is right. Lipsius, op. hibitastheirwarrantthisformofrescript: «V. p. 210. The Felician Cat. has 'sedit no one is to molest them : /oat rovro Sirep annos iii menses iii dies iii.' Kara rd i^bv dCivarai. v\xtfallacia {Ep.^l. eloignee de la Mere-£glise.' But the 5) is attributed to him, and these re- true reading is 1.6.-^Krov didKovov k.t.X. ; spectable Spaniards are treated as both the letter is here giving a list of names ; on one platform. and even in this age the phrase in that - The Spanish deacons bore an im- sense would have been rbv dTr6 Bi^vvrjs portant part in the administration of StaKovov. churches. See Concil. Elib. Can. 77 3 See Baluze's not. in loc. Si quis diacenus plebem sine episcopo vel ■* The Council of 254 A.D. must have presbytero, ^c. Neander, op. cit., vol. been held towards autumn. Easter day I. 324, et sup. p. 114. Diaconal pre- was on the 23rd April, Stephanus was sumptions are restrained A.D. 314 at ordained about May 12. Before the Aries, Cann. 15, 18. Council was held Basilides had already The Abbe Duchesne, Pastes £pisc. been at Rome, seen Stephen, and been de tAnc. Gaule, t. I. p. 40, cites from assured by him of the propriety of his the Letter of Vienne and Lyons a.d. resuming his see; the Churches of Leon 177, Eus. H. E. V. 1 '■le (sic) diacre and Astorga had received the decision de Vienne, Thv SiaKovov airb 'Bih'vtji' as and appealed to Cyprian against it. an early sample *d'un diacre charge du VII.III. I. THE SPANISH APPEAL. 313 ever surceased from the episcopate. To Stephen himself the Council submits no representation of its opinion. They make not the most distant allusion to any inherent prerogative of his office as Bishop of Rome*. There is no request that he would reconsider his judgment, or recognise theirs. They simply reverse his verdict and regard their reversal as final. Their long epistle, estimating the many points at issue, treats the decision of the Bishop of Rome as simply and gravely mistaken, and therefore to be set aside. There are then no less than four accounts upon which this Synodical Epistle of A.D. 254 on the affair of Basilides and Martial is im- portant as a witness to the relations subsisting within the congregations and between the congregations of the Church. It creates none. And it does not imply, but distinctly states these relations. I. Its main purport is the distinct accepting and absolute deciding of an appeal from the church of one nation to another in reversal of an ecclesiastical decision by the Bishop of Rome'"*. The sole rule to be recognised in the judgment is that of Scripture. ' There can be no acceptance of person, ' no dispensation can be granted by any human indulgence, ' in matters where divine prescription interposes a veto and ' appoints a law^' II. It assigns to the Laity the right, and insists on their duty, of withdrawing from the communion of a 'sacrilegious' or 'sinful' bishop. 'The Laity mainly have the power in ^ The Donatist Congregations a. D. /V(?jfrj)>//i? C, Rand the corrector of L: 313, in fear of the factions of the all these are of cent, ix (Q cent, viii — Italian Church, appeal to be heard by ix?); all editions had prascriptio until the Bishops of Gaul. They were Hartel, and his choice seems perverse, finally only allowed three, fifteen others Prcescriptio is used elsewhere by Cyp- being Italians. Optat. i, ■23. rian, and /(srjfre)>/w beyond its common 2 Ep. 67. I and 6. use for a fair copy or for a cheque re- ^ Ep. 67. 2 intercedit... prcescriptio. lates rather to the /^rOTJ of a document Mark the hand of the Civilian in all the than to its authority, which is what is terms. We have to choose between required by tribuit legem. Perscriptio Q and the original L, and 314 THE ROMAN CHAIR. 'either choosing worthy Bishops or in rejecting unworthy * ones.' * The Laity must not flatter themselves with the idea * of being untouched by the contagion of his offence if they * communicate with a Bishop that is a sinner.' ' They must 'sever themselves from a sinful prelate*.' III. It marks (beside other things) the presence and testimony of Laity as required, or, as it is here expressed, as ' a thing of divine tradition and apostolic observance,' in the appointment of a Bishop, — ' that he may be chosen in the pre- * sence of the Commons under the eyes of all, and be approved 'as worthy and meet by public judgment and testimony.' * In the presence of the Commons which fully knows the life * of each, and has discerned everyone's line of action through ' intercourse with himV IV. It marks the sense that there resided no power in a Christian congregation which could assign episcopal authority over itself, or commit the celebration of sacra- mental acts to any nominee lacking the note of regular apostolic Orders. The custom is kept for ' the nearest Bishops of the province to meet and the Bishop to be chosen ' not by, but ' in the presence of the Commons.' ' Upon the 'judgment of the Bishops the Episcopate was conferred on 'him, and the hand laid upon him'.' 2. The Gaulish Appeal. The majestic Romanesque portal of the Cathedral of Aries ranks the noble image of her Founder and Patron Trophimus the Ephesian with the protomartyr and the apostles. From at least the ninth century onwards it was unquestioned ^ Ep. 67. 3. Routh, R. S. vol. III. nation in order to the virtue of the pp. 151, 2, correctly, after Erasmus, ministration, and herein we see the treats the passage as referring to sins growth of Cyprian's one characteristic which were Ecclesiastical disqualifica- confusion, tions. It also lays down thsX freedom ^ Ep. 67. 4, 5. from moral defect is essential at ordi- ' Ep. 67. 5. VII. III. 2. THE GAULISH APPEAL. 315 history that he had been installed there by S. Paul on his way to Spain, after consecration to the Bishopric by S. Peter at Rome^ In the middle of the fifth century fewer particulars had been extant The position of Constantinople made it con- venient in the West to begin to rank Metropolitans not by the political importance of their province, but by the sup- posed antiquity of its conversion. Still when Zosimus in A.D. 417 declared the scandalous Patroclus to be the Metro- politan of the Provinces of Vienne, Narbonensis Prima and Narbonensis Secunda, he only affirmed without naming a date that Rome had sent out Trophimus as Chief Bishop, and that from 'his fountain all Provinces of Gaul received the rills of the faith*.' The Bishops of this Province in an appeal to Leo, A.D. 450, framed on Zosimus' words, still claim no more than that it was known at Rome, and generally, that Trophimus had been sent by 'the Blessed Peter the apostle'; but that is the then usual phrase for the See of Rome^ So far, all that stands before us from the fifth century is a local tradition of a Roman Missionary Bishop as Founder. But again there were old diptychs of the church of Aries in which Trophimus was only the second name on the list of Bishops ; and thus, even ^ Stephano V, Papse tributa Epistola ties of the 3rd century between Aries and ad Selvam, &c. Labbe, xi. 550. Ado, Rome were decayed in the 4th, and that Chron. ^t. VI. 59. Transalpine Gaul in practical affairs was 2 ' Summus antistes &c.' ZoAxm Ep. drawn to Milan. Zosimus' act was in V. ad Epp. Gallia:. The successors of counteraction to this. The 'Vicariate' Zosimus, it may be observed, Boniface, of Aries in cent. vi. was isolated and Celestine, and Leo the Great, did not transient, and not effective. Duchesne, feel the necessity, and admitted the Easies £piscopatix de tAncienne Gaule, old rank of Vienne. Symmachus once 1894, I. p. 86.] more rehabilitated Aries. Gregor)' the ^ Quesnel, note on Leon. Magn. Ep. Great speaks of Aries as the channel LXV. 'Preces missae, &c.' But has 'ab of all Gallic Christianity. See Greg. apostolis' the same sense? See Tille- Magn. Epp. v. 53, note c; ed. Bened. mont, Note i, sur S. Denys de Paris, 12, 14. aderant et compresbyteii nostri qui * Repnesentare, ' make to be present.' nobis adsidebant, ^/. I. I. Sed officium meum vestra diligentia ' Ep. 6t. 3 'sacerdotali honore.' reprsesentet, Ep. 12. i. Both words technical. MEMBERS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 325 realised and distributed to the clerics that there might be means in several hands. He had left in the hands of Roga- tian, his commissioner, 'a little sum reaHsed' apparently by some recent sale, and sent him a further portion afterwards \ Out of these funds he requests the presbyters and deacons to care for the poor, the sick and strangers, for Christians in prison, and for the bodies of those who die under torture or confinement". He begs them to make such arrangements for visiting prisons as will least provoke suspicion, and to calendar the dates of martyrdoms and confessors' deaths and communicate them to him for remembrance in his daily Eucharists. In common with the Plebes, this clerical body was usually consulted by Cyprian on the merits of persons proposed for Ordination. They were thus fixed upon 'by counsel in common,' but exceptions, at least during his absence from Carthage, were frequent. He sends to them the names of several men whom without such consultation he had ad- mitted to Orders, some of them to a seat in the Consessus, to daily allowances and the monthly dividend ^ He urges them to promote among the people habits of fasting and prayer for the internal reformation of the Church, and for its outward deliverance ; to instruct the ignorant, ^ Summula...redacta, Ep. 5. r. De byter had his standing allowance out quantitate mea propria... aliam portio- of the church-treasury; besides the nem, Ep. 7. quantitas, technically a same allowance called sportula [cf. lump sum, in C. I. L. viii. i. 262 Ep. i. i 'sportulantium fratrum'], some capital as opposed to usitrcB. In Ep. also had their portion in that divi- 39 (n. 3 inf.) it has no sense of allow- dend which was the remainder of the ances, but is simply even sums. month's expense ; thirdly, out of the ^ Ibid, and Ep. 12. presbyters under him the bishop as ' Epp. 20, 38, 39, 40. Ep. 39. 5 then had a certain number of the '...presbyterii honorem designasse nos gravest who lived and commoned al- illis jam sciatis, ut et sportulis idem cum ways with him,' Hooker Vll, xxiii. 9. presbyteris honorentur, et divisiones Sessuri nobiscum, &c. means not this mensumas sequatis quantitatibus par- (though the fact may be so) but their tiantur, sessuri nobiscum provectis et future place in the consessus, as 'no- corroboratis annis suis....' 'Every pres- biscum sedeat in clero,' Ep. 40. 326 INTERCALARY— PRESBYTERS AS but especially those confessors, in or out of prison, whose spiritual self-satisfaction made them not very amenable \ So far, nothing is enjoined on the Body except a faithful performance of their individual clerical duties. He regrets their imperfect performance of their prison-duties, especially with regard to religious instruction, — duties always hitherto recognised, he says, as their proper work*. Strenuous admonition on their part, he insists, was re- quired. And in virtue of the episcopal energy {sacerdotii vigor ^^ which he had now to exercise from a distance, he endeavoured through them especially to prevent the breaking down of discipline. Do we here find duties of a more governmental character } He declines in the fourteenth epistle to take a step which had been suggested by four of the presbyters, without first receiving counsel from the Body of the presbyters and deacons and being also informed of the judgment of the laity. This step was the restoration of some of the Lapsed to communion. When in spite of his message the four admitted them, he considered that the Body had failed in its duty of repressing them, and he appeals to the laity to keep the Lapsed quiet *. Later on', writing to the laity, he commends the special activity of three of the presbyters, and of the deacons as a body, in encouraging or in deterring the lapsed. There is still no exclusive authority recognised as inherent in the consessus. The disciplinary duties here particularised are of the moral order, and can scarcely amount to more than persuasion. They are capable of being discharged by the laity, failing trustworthy clerics. The only authority which, in Cyprian's opinion, could, as we have seen, decide on the whole wide policy to be pursued was a gathering of co-episcopi, and further they too must have 1 Ep. 14- 1, 1, 3- ^ ^P- H- 4 ; Ep- 17- 2, 3- 8 Epp. IS, i6. * Ep. 43. I. ' Ep. 20. 2. MEMBERS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 327 a common understanding with the bishops of other countries. The only authority which could under that policy decide on the reinstatement of individuals was an assemblage in which both the clergy and the laity of their own Church should with the bishop at their head examine and conclude each case\ In this function the weight of the laity was such that they vetoed some whom Cyprian and others would have restored", while elsewhere he expresses regret at having in some cases overruled them. Their right as laymen to abstain from communion with a Lapsed or a Novatianist Bishop is affirmed again and again'. We found no particular authority assigned to the Clerus in the election of a Bishop. Their part was to bear testimony to the life of the person proposed for election. The laity elected; the neighbouring bishops assented and ordained*. Cyprian's letters to Cornelius, in which the principles of the coming legislation were discussed, were ' always read aloud' by Cornelius to the clerus and the laity together — ' to the most flourishing clergy which sits with thee in ' the foremost rank, and to the most holy and most honour- ' able commons^' Whilst therefore its counsel was of the greatest weight and import in the deliberation with the bishop on all the greater affairs of the Church, we find no trace of authority or jurisdiction belonging to the Consessus as such. The level of moral influence which belongs to it stands markedly apart from the way in which, for instance, excom- munication was inflicted. In Cyprian's absence excommunication was imposed di- rectly by a commission appointed by himself, consisting of three bishops and two presbyters®. It is true that he com- mended the presbyters and deacons of Carthage for resolving 1 Ep. 17, Ss'c. * Ep. 55. 8; Ep. 67. 5. 2 Ep. 59- ' ^P- 59- 19- ' Epp. 65, 67. 6 £p^ ^2. 328 INTERCALARY — PRESBYTERS AS not to communicate with Gaius of Dida, a presbyter, and his deacon, after these had anticipated the Church's making of rules for re-admission, but it must be especially observed that this resolution was taken upon the counsel of colleagues of mine, who had frequently warned Gaius against the step, who were now prcBsentes in Carthage, and thus completed a body like that which Cyprian had presided over in the first Furni case, namely, the clerics of the city {clerici urbici) and bishops, whether of the Province or from beyond seas*. He then adds his own episcopal direction that any, whether home or foreign clergy, who in like manner anticipate the Church's own ruling are to be similarly withdrawn from. To these bishops prcesentes he desires that what he writes on the course to be followed may always be communi- cated at once. They evidently clothe the presbyters and deacons, in the absence of their own bishop, with a sufficient episcopal authority. We may just mark (though without stress) the distinctness with which they are mentioned as contributors to the subscription raised for the Confessor Bishops in the mines'^ ; but an apt instance occurs in the second city of the province, Hadrumetum. Its presbyters and deacons had, in the absence of their bishop, placed themselves in communica- tion with the new Bishop of Rome^, before his title was cleared. Cyprian and another bishop arrive, and are prcB- sentes. Upon their authority communication is suspended. We are now in a position to gain a clearer view of the principles on which the presbyters and deacons of Rome had acted in the vacancy of the see, after Fabian's martyrdom. Even in the eighth letter, in which they describe them- selves as 'we who seem to be set over them, to lead the 1 Ep. 34. I. Dida, otherwise un- at Carthage, 'sad etcollegarumquoqueet known. Morcelli's conjecture 'Idensis' sacerdotum nostrorum, qui et ipsi, cum not likely. It was too far off in Maure- prsesentes essent, ex suo plebis suae tania. nomine, quaedam pro viribus contu- ^ Ep. 62. 5. Cyprian with his own lerunt, nomina addidi.' VTOv veSlov, but there must Bishoprics of Phrygia, f. of H. S. l.c. VIII. I. 2. THE TRADITION OF ASIA MINOR EAST. 341 everything exclusive, was dear to the native mind. But while Augustine remarks that fifty oriental bishops were no evi- dence, though backed by seventy Africans, against the unity of the tradition elsewhere, Iconium and Synnada must both be numbered among the series 'held long ago' and 'in many districts,' of which Dionysius the Great tells ^ his namesake (as yet a presbyter) of Rome that he had heard, and which took the same view as to the reception of Heretics in general. The firm belief which these Councils entertained that they were continuing apostolic usage, while the very need for them is the best evidence that the usage was far from being clear or accepted, may connect itself with the fact that two canons, based, to say the least, on their decisions, appear in the Apostolic Canons. It would not be strange if one of these two were the actual utterance of Iconium*. ^ Before A.D. 258 ; ap. Eus. vii. 7, which is given in full in Note on 'Dates,' p. 347- - Apost. Can. xlv. (Dionys. Exig. xlvi.), 'ETTtcr/coTToi' t) irpeciv iv 'iKovia, Koi 'SvvaBots Koi napa iroXKols tovto edo^tv, nor yet can he mean to deny that the Council of Agrippinus had so ruled in Carthage itself. But if TrpcSror rav rort affects the date of Iconium it must affect the date of Dionysius' Councils, and that of Agrippinus too. Mark too that the Tav rort is in the very next sentence to his distinct expression (vii. 2) (rjT^fiaros ov a-fiiKpov rriviKade dvaKivrjdivros. The fact is, Eusebius means exactly what he says. Asia Minor had quietly continued, Africa had in many parts quietly dropped the practice, and Cyprian was the first rav t6t€, i.e. of his contemporaries ., to moot its reaffirmation. Lipsius is driven by his own special pleading to say that there were two synods at Iconium 'which must not be confounded,' one of A.D. 255 mentioned by Firmilian, and the other much earlier named by Dionysius; both about the baptism of heretics ; both making only the same declara- tion, at considerable interval. Sufficiently improbable. Besides, Fir- milian attended the one he mentions, and he, writing in 256 A.D., speaks of it {Ep. 75. 7) as having been held Jam pridem. Of Roman writers, Baronius and Labbe^ were anxious to believe this synod was held in Stephen's time, and thereby to justify his behaviour to the East. Dr Peters on the same side'* places it 'not in the second, but very early in the third century' in order to enable it to have been misled by the pamphlets of TertuUian, and this induces him to put Synnada earlier still, and at the same time as Agrippinus' Council. The order in which Dionysius names the two synods is rather against the general assumption that Synnada preceded Iconium. The following then are the approximate dates which appear probable an respect of the conditions with which we are acquainted. Zephyrinus Bp. of Rome A.D. 199 — 217, TertuUian becomes Montanist circ. 200. „ writes De Jejunio circ. 209, 10. Council of Agrippinus circ. 213. TertuUian's De Baptismo circ. 214, 15 Callistus Bp. of Rome 217—222, Council of Iconium circ. 230. Council of Synnada ? 231, ^ Baron. Ann. a.d. 258, xiv. ; Labbe whom he quotes; Cone. t. I. p. 769. A.D. 158, in spite of Pagi and Harduin ^ p, ^pg. VIII. II. 2. ACTS AND DOCUMENTS. 349 II. 2. Acts and Documents. Our clearest method will now be first to describe the Documents, and then to draw out by themselves the Argu- ments, which are so often repeated that chronological analysis of the letters would be wasted here\ Magnus, a layman, whom Cyprian treats with respect and affection, writes the first letter — an enquiry whether Nova- tianists should be accounted as other heretics in the need of church-baptism on recantation. In Magnus' circle the old canon was plainly not forgotten, and the plausibility of an exception is obvious. Then followed an application from eighteen bishops of Numidia. These had continued the practice which they and their predecessors had helped Agrippinus to establish'' ; but the movement of the times, especially perhaps among the laity, required fresh consideration. The reply to Magnus came from Cyprian'; that to the Numidians from a Council which he soon convoked, of thirty-three bishops of Africa with the presbyters of Carthage*. This is Cyprian's Fifth Council of Carthage and a.d. 255. A.U.C. First on Baptism, a.d. 255. 1008. The seventieth epistle is their conciliar declaration, con- q^^^ p'^P' firming that of the old Council of Agrippinus, That neither the y^^j^j^^^^^^ baptism nor the confirmation of heretics has any value : That Pius Felix converts from a heresy can only through baptism enter into imp'. Caes. the faith and unity of the Church. Egildus"' This decision seems to have been not unanimously arrived Galllenus Pius Felix ^ We may repeat that the group in- kreis' apparent in it. But as his reply eludes Epp. 69 — 75 and the Sententia to Magnus is rested upon his own view Episcoporum of the Third Council, and and arguments without reference to belongs to the years a.d. 255 and 256. councils, it certainly precedes all the '^ Ep. 70. I. councils. That to Pompeius alludes ' Ep. 69. Rettberg (pp. 190 — 192) {Ep. 74. 12) to the first Council {Ep. assigns to this letter the same date as 70. i) if not to the second, to that which answers Pompeius, Ep. * Ep. 71. i. 74, on account of the same 'Ideen- 350 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. at. Cyprian describes it as the judgment of ' very many fellow-bishops ' ; but he laments the fact that ' certain of our colleagues are guided by some strange confidence' to the other opinion \ Next comes a Mauretanian bishop, one Quintus', enquiring through a compreshyter Lucian ; he is answered by the seventy-first letter, with the seventieth, already in wide circu- lation, enclosed'. The tone of Cyprian is as of one who has suffered slights. It is clear that the tone of the Roman bishop was already becoming injurious; clear also that unanimity had not yet prevailed in Carthage. At this time, without one allusion in it to the embittering controversy, Cyprian published his tract, ' Of the Excellency of Patience,' to be a calming note in the awaking storm. Very little later in date, and similar in purpose, is his ' Jealousy and Envy ' ; equally reticent on passing circum- stance, except for one slight touch upon Novatian. These shall be examined later. Now we need only name them as further illustrations of Cyprian's vision of a new philosophy of moral feeling, adjusted to the new doctrine and proportioned to its standard. And we may think of the angelic spirit of the man who, when passions were rising on every side, read to himself and his combatants lessons so sweet and so stern. ' Ep. 71. I phirimi . . .cetisuerimus of Buruc who spoke in the Seventh here seems to be not equivalent to 'a Council, whom extant MSS. call Quietus, numerous body and all of them, ' because Send. Epp. 2 7 (see Appendix on Lis^s of the phrase describing the objectors, qui- Bishops, p. 565). Morcelli thought so datn de collegis nostris (which is repeated but merely through misreading, for there in Ep. 71. i), is not apparently a mere is no var. lect. Fechtrup confounds him plural equivalent for qui hoc illis patro- (p. 202) with Quintus of Aggya which cinium de sua auctoritate prcestat, who was in the Proconsular Province, must be Stephanus, and who is again ^ £pp^ y^. i, 71. 4. What does meant in Ep. 71.3 pritnatum, &c. (see Peters mean in view of the last reference note 5, p. 351). by saying on p. 513 that we might have ■^ i?/. 71. 4. Quintus and his ^^i??>iJ- expected Cyprian to appeal to the copi are spoken of as illic, and informed Council of Agrippinus and rely on that of the state of things in Africa and Numi- as proof of custom, and that Cyprian's dia which followed Agrippinus' Council. not doing so shews that he was aware I doubt not that Quintus is the Bishop the canon was not acted on? " Ao*^ DOCUMENTS. 35 1 Next year, A.D. 256, the question occupies the Bishops a.d. 156. in their Council before Easter ; the Sixth under Cyprian '^'^' and Second on Baptism. They were seventy-one in ^""^ ^' ' Valerius number \ They formulate into a kind of Canon, applic- Maximus able to clergy who had joined heretical or schismatical Adiius bodies and then recanted, the same practice which they ^^^^"°- had adopted as to lapsed Clerics, namely to restore them simply to Lay-Communion. They decide that baptism is necessary for all converts from the sects. They adopt the terrible phrase of 'the stain of profane water bespotting' those baptized with it ^ We must note that now the prelates of Africa and Numidia^ are sitting together, and are unanimous under Cyprian in re-affirming the old decision of their own prede- cessors under Agrippinus. A synodical letter from them was forwarded to Stephanus at Rome. The letter to the Numidians and the letter to Ouintus were enclosed with it. It is an unconciliatory document, and hints conscious- ness of the offence which it will give*. Stephen had however among Cyprian's bishops those who sympathized with him^: one of these, or, as it has been surmised, Stephen himself through them, circulated an au- thoritative paper, recognising the baptism of even Marcion® by name. A copy of it, with some other arguments, was ^ -^P- 73- !• ' Quidamdecollegisnostris, ^/. 71. 1. 2 Epp. 72. I ; 73. I. Cyprian had used Cf. Quidam de collegis, Senti. Epp. 59. the expression in its fullest strength in Quidam nostri praevaricatores veritatis, De Unitaie, c. 12, and adhered to it in Sentt. Epp. 38, and see note I, p. 350. his first letter, to Magnus {Ep. 69. 16). « Ep. 73. 4. Cf. Aug. de Bapt. c. Do- Optatus endorses it, solely with reference natt.\\\,yi.v'\. {30). Rettberg, p. 178, cites to the Patripassians, Bk v. c. 1. Constant, Epp. pont. p. 226, and agrees 3 In A.D. 312 the relations of Numidia that this document was a copy of Ste- to Carthage were not held to be defi- phen's letter to the East. No evidence, nitively settled. Hefele, B. i. c. iii. Peters thinks that it was the extant § 14- tract De Rebaptismate, which renders * Augustine does not seem to have it doubtful whether he can have read seen this letter, which is strange. that tract through. Jerome mentions it adv. Luciferian, 25. 352 THE BAPTISMS ..xoS. forwarded to Cyprian by Jubaian, a prelate of Mauretania, who felt himself much exercised by their strength. The Mauretanians had not been represented in the old Council of Agrippinus, and the opening now occurred for securing them upon a new one. Cyprian answered these, and in so elabo- rate a form, that at the final Council he read his answer as the complete exposition of his views, supplementing it with Jubaian's grateful and convinced reply. This letter was accompanied to its first destination by copies of the docu- ments that had been sent to Stephen, and a codex of ' The Excellency of Patience.' A deputation of bishops from Cyprian now went to Rome and waited upon Stephen, as bearers either of the last- named or of some separate epistle. Some little graciousness might have made much of so conciliatory an act. But (so at least Firmilian relates the incident amid his condolences*) no audience was allowed them either public or private; and the Roman congregation was desired to shew them no hospitality or attention'^. Nevertheless, the letter was answered', and that in terms appreciative of the importance of the situation and of the greatness of the baptismal gift*, large in charity towards Separatists, and not deigning to argue at length. Stephen asserted in it the apostolic authority of a distinct tradition for the Roman usage", magnified the chair of Peter*, and vituperated Cyprian as 'a false Christ, a false apostle, a treacherous worker^' Lamentable language : yet Cyprian's qualification of dis- sentient colleagues as 'Fautors of Antichrist' and ' Traitors to the Church®' laid him open to it. ^ E/>. 75. 25. and the Africans together, a theory not 2 Labbe, Cone. 1. 1, p. 771, makes this yet ventured on. an embassy of excommunicated Oriental ^ £/>. 74. i. * £/>. 75. 17. bishops. But the reference of the a " E/>. 75. 5, 6 (compare £/>. 73. 13). quibus is to vobiscum {Ep. 75. 25), the * Ep. 75. 17. Africans ; or else to both the Orientals '' Ep. 75. 1*,. * Ep. 69. ro. VIII. II. 2. ACTS AND DOCUMENTS. 353 Stephen however had by this time issued a paper* which awakened a universal storm of indignation and dispute* among the Bishops of the East', or, according to the more guarded statement of Dionysius the Great, among the Bishops of Asia Minor*. He threatened to withdraw from their com- munion. To assume that Stephen had already rebuked these Bishops of the East when Cyprian first mooted in Africa the question of rebaptism" is one of the Roman modes of at once exhibiting his vast jurisdiction and of softening the blameworthiness of his asperity towards so great a saint. But this was not so. The thought contradicts all our docu- ments upon critical examination'. Stephen quarrelled with Cyprian first, and then turned on those who were sure to side with him. No doubt the relations of the Roman bishop with the East must have been somewhat complicated by the pro- pension which the late patriarch of Antioch had exhibited ^ 'EireffTdXKCt /xev otv irp&repov, Euseb. If. E. vii. 5. ' Ep. 75. 24 'Lites enim et dissen- siones quantas parasti per ecclesias totius mundi ? ' 3 Ep. 75. 25. ■* Euseb. vii. 5. ' So Maran and Hefele, B. i. c. ii. § 6. Rettberg agrees. * Apart from the erroneous date 253 which Maran {Vit. Cypr. xxix.) and others have assigned to Stephen's de- nunciation of the Orientals in order to bring it earlier than his controversy with Cyprian (since we now know that Stephen's accession was not earlier than about May 12, 254), the conclusion is against the whole tenor of our docu- ments. 1. How Eusebius writes we have seen (Note on Dates, p. 347). The opening strife is seen by him in Cyprian's movement and Stephen's indignation. 2. Dionysius in the frag- ment of his Second Letter preserves a fragment of his First. In this the words U)S ovhk ^(cetVots KOivwvT^ffuv 5io TTJv avTT]v ra&rrjv alrlav clearly shew Stephen to be already for the same Baptismal cause in collision with some other church : and none but the African is possible. 3. Dionysius' series of letters has one to Stephen in his three years' seat and three to his successor who sate one. It may fairly be inferred that the close of Stephen's time saw the commencement of the correspon- dence. These points are brought out by both Peters and Fechtrup. On the other hand Maran urged a rhetorical phrase of Firmilian's (Ep. 75. 25) 'Stephen quarrels now with the Easterns, now with you' as if it were a chronological note of the order of events. And Peters instead of dealing rationally with the words suggests that probably the vanity of Firmilian caused him the subjective sensation of having been assailed first. B. 23 354 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. toward Novatian, nor was it a meaningless anxiety which lurked under Stephen's complaint of * treachery.' But it was a weakness and an error to urge upon such men an un- reasoned conformity ; to threaten that he would hold no communion with bishops who used second baptism. They had what they thought immemorial usage^ and their recent Councils behind them ; and he but smote a rock. The most conspicuous Churchman of the day, Firmilian, metropolitan of Cappadocia, replied ' Thou hast excommunicated thine own self.' Did Stephen excommunicate the Bishops of the East? Our only original materials for settling whether Stephen carried his threat further z.r& Epp. 74. 8; 75. 24; Dionys. ap. Eus. vii. 5. There is, I think, just critical light enough to arrive at the fact. Supposing Dionysius had written that Stephen cVfcrroXKei on ov Koivamja-oi (as Thucyd. 8. 99 writes e7r€0TaXK«i...0Ti ovtc al vrjes irapftToivro ac.t.X.) even this would not have said more than that he threatened. But he writes eVfoxaXKet o5v ov Koivrnvrjaav, and this subjective wj marks a distinct sub- traction from the actuality of the verb [being used as Henri Estienne says ^ cogitationis vel consilii indicandi causa quo quis aliquid facit vel facere se simulat vel aliis videtur.' Thesaurus G. L. ed. Hase, and Dindorf VIII. col. 2085. L.] (Winer, Gr. Gr. Part ill. 65. 9.) Also Cyprian says Stephen ^ saiC&rdo\.QS...abstinendos putat' {Ep. 74. 8) and Firmilian '•putas omnes a te abstineri posse' (75. 24). Both imply that the note had been sounded, but not that the deed was done. If these passages proved the excommunication they would prove it to be earlier than the Third Council, but Cyprian's speech {Sentt. Epp. Proem.) shews that 'com- pliance' had not then 'been enforced by terror.' '...quisquam nostrum^ there cannot of course mean Africans as against Romans. Dionysius the Great. Two of Stephen's leading presbyters, Philemon and Diony- sius a learned^ successor of his own, in the first instance shared his views and supported his action. Later on they ^ 'A Christo et ab Apostolis,' Ep. ^ X67t6s re koX OaufiaffLos, Eus. vii. 7. 75- 19- VIII. II. 2. ACTS, ETC. — DIONYSIUS THE GREAT. 355 consulted the great Dionysius at Alexandria\ He replied, as he himself observes, at first briefly and then at some length. In the fragment of his letter to Philemon, which Eusebius has preserved, he mentions that from his predecessor Heraclas he had received it as a rule, not to rebaptize returning heretics : but he is here speaking only of such as had been baptized before their error: an exception which even Cyprian allowed'. Clement of Alexandria had however more than doubted the reality of heretical baptism, for he glosses one of the strange phrases interpolated by the Seventy in the ninth chapter of Proverbs 'so wilt thou cross over the water of strangers' by the words 'Wisdom here accounteth the heretic baptism to be no native, genuine water^' But no Egyptian synod had then taken up the question, and determined it. So far from this, that Dionysius of Alexandria in his letter to Xystus of Rome* relates a moving story of his own resistance to the entreaties, tears and prostrations of an aged Catholic who discovered his own Baptism to have been utterly hereti- cal. He encouraged him to have no scruples ; his long life in the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ counter- vailed every incompleteness. He failed to persuade the old man, who dared not communicate and scrupled, as if un- baptized, even to attend the prayers. Yet, although ready to be advised by Xystus, Dionysius could not upon his own convictions give way : so important did he deem it that the relations of communions to each other should not be at the mercy of the weak and scrupulous. Again we must remember ^ I am not clear that they did not letter to Xystus that he mentions the write to Dionysius even in Stephen's fact, and the fuller letters (which re- lifetime. ...(TviJ.\pi^^oLsirp6T€pov Zretpavcp main) are written in Xystus' time. yevo/xivois, koX irepl ti2v avrdv /tot yp6.- ' Euseb. vii. 7. Ep. 74. 12. ^oi/la). Strom. I. xix. imperfect than present — 'were corre- ■• His 5th on Baptism, Euseb. vii. 9. spondents of mine.' But it is in his 23—2 356 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. that his severe language about Novatian is extracted from one of his Baptismal Letters, namely the fourth to his namesake at Rome ; that it is severe on account of the hard separatism of the sectarian, and that one trait of this separatism is that by Rebaptism * he sets at nought the Holy Font\' It seems clear then that he agreed, as did the two Roman presbyters, with Stephen's theory. But he was shocked with his want of delicacy, and addressed to him an earnest entreaty not to be severe upon a practice resting on such authority of old bishops and councils*. We know also that he admitted the Baptism of Montanists, at which Basil' expresses surprise, considering this to be a distinct Heresy about the Godhead. But here Dionysius was better informed. It is difficult then to reconcile with these fragmentary facts which we know, Jerome's statement that Dionysius ' consented to the dogma' of Cyprian*. Still it may be argued that Basil would not have been so surprised as he was at Dionysius, if his view of Montanism had not seemed an exception to his view of other heresies, and that he would have been more surprised if he had admitted the baptism of all. For Basil is mistakenly persuaded that a difference had been already at that early date defined between heretical and schismatical baptism and that the latter was admissible. Perhaps we may infer from all that is before us that Dionysius held a policy not unlike Basil's own about the Kathari : and would have had every country observe its own tradition. While he himself would have accepted Stephen's clientele, he was not willing that Africa and Asia should be interfered with. Such a policy suits the broad and tolerant character of Dionysius' mind and the hypothesis harmonizes the various statements. ^ Euseb. H. E. vii. 8. By the light of ^ aKoiret to /liyedoi rod irpdyfjuiTos, his fifth letter and Cyprian's ' Novatian- Euseb. vii. 5. enses rebaptizare, ' £p. 73. 2, it is plain ' Epist. 188, Canon I. that Rebaptism is meant. * De Vir. Illustr. c. 69. VIII. II. 2. ACTS, ETC. — DIONYSIUS THE GREAT. 35/ His middle position is not that of one who is not strict or whose mind is not made up\ His information increased with his enquiries, but his views and his conduct were con- sistent throughout. His view was that heretics may be validly admitted without second baptism, but that churches which ruled otherwise must not be overruled from without. His con- duct was very decisive. Thanks to Eusebius we possess the outlines and fragments of five Letters which he wrote ' On Baptism' to Rome^ His First was to Stephen; a fulP letter, called forth by one from Stephen, of which the address is not given, but the subject was 'about Helenus of ' Cilicia and Firmilian of Cappadocia and all (the bishops) 'of their provinces and of all the neighbouring tribes.' 'About them' he repeated the censure and the threatening with which he had already approached Cyprian, declaring 'that he would not communicate with them either,' and 'for the self-same cause.' Dionysius addressed him in the in- terests of peace. He delineated the restored tranquillity of the Eastern church. Persecution past ; the Antiochene Patriarch who had leaned to Novatian succeeded by one of comprehensive sympathies; Jerusalem, Caesarea and Tyre, the Syrias and Arabia grateful for Roman beneficence ; Meso- potamia, Pontus, Bithynia — all exulting in brotherly concord. The chord which plainly he hopes to touch in Stephen's heart is the near fulfilment of the Pentecostal foreshadowing. Of Saint Luke's list are wanting only Parthia and Persia, for Egypt and Rome are the correspondents and Africa is the unnamed subject. ' How grievous,' is Dionysius' evident inference, * that such unity should be vexed by threatenings.' Of the three next letters we have spoken already. The candid and enquiring mind of him who was not afraid ^ As Rettberg. must be the same which he himself " Euseb. H. E. vii. 2 — 9. describes in his 'Second on Baptism' ^ 7rXe??//• 82). sected with channels, cross dykes and ^ Sentt. Epp. 8. ditches. Its bishop, Litteus, proves his ' Aug. de Bapt. c. Donatt. vi. vi. (9) ; case by a metaphor from ' the blind perseverantissima tolerantia, ii. 5. leading the blind into the ditch ' {Sentt. B. 24 370 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. 'before us, judging no one, nor removing from his rights * of communion any who may hold different views from our- ' selves. For there is none of us who constitutes himself ' Bishop of Bishops, or pushes his colleagues with a tyrannous ' terror to the necessity of compliance ; since every Bishop * according to the scope of the liberty and office which belongs ' to him has his decision in his own hands, and can no more * be judged by another than he can himself judge his ' neighbour^ but we await one and all the judgment of 'our Lord Jesu Christ, who One and Alone has the power 'both to prefer us in the governing of His Church, and 'to judge our conduct therein'^.' Then every prelate in his seniority' delivered his opinion. We cannot doubt that we ^ Mark Cyprian's studied use of alio and alterum. In the next clause I think the punctuation of all the editions is wrong. The expectemus depends on quando. Sentt. Epp. Proem. 2 The old papal way of handling these thorny phrases was to turn them to account like Baronius by saying that Cyprian 'though not over-respectful' 'alluded of course to the Decree pub- lished by Stephen's Supreme Pontific authority and headed as usual more ma- jorum with the said title of Bishop of Bishops.' [Ann. A.D. 258, xlii.) The middle mode was that of the Franciscans R. Missori (1733) and M. Molkenbuhr (1790) and hapless Archbishop Tizzani (1862), rent by those who fawn on him as ' savant prelat ' and ' docte critique ' (Freppel, p. 429 sqq. Peters, p. 504). According to this mode the controversy is a romance and the records forgeries. The third or modern ultramontane mode is Mgr. Freppel's. He declares with truth, ' It is impossible for me to see any allusion to Stephen in these words.' He then artlessly remarks that Cyprian's 'absolute silence' about Stephen at this Council 'deserves all our attention' and is a 'chose eton- nante' — evidently a token of 'dernier hommage' (p. 425) to the 'Sovereign Pontiff.' So too Dr Peters (pp. 515,516) can see no allusion at all to Stephen. He however happily elucidates for us what Mgr. Freppel left dark — viz. 'who then is the object of Cyprian's allusion ?' It is Cyprian himself. He, as 'the bom President of the Assembly and " Ober- metropolit" of all Africa,' merely dis- claims any purpose of using his own position, which actually was that of a 'Bishop of Bishops,' to check freedom of expression. He further remarks that the Synod was not at all designed to reply to Rome, but was summoned solely to stem the growing opposition of the African bishops to Cyprian — an opposition which exhibited itself in the univer- sally and individually expressed coin- cidence of their views with his. 3 See Routh, R. S. vol. in. p. X91. Erasmus and Manutius. Corrupt Mss. Cambron. ap. Pam^le. In the editions of Erasmus (the first of this Council) and Manutius, and in the much inter- polated cod. Cambronensis (Pamele), the VIII. II. 2. ACTS, ETC.— COUNCIL VII. (III.), THE BISHOPS. 37 1 have the very words of each of those eighty-seven men*: from some a telling argument ; from some a Scripture ; from some an antithesis, an analogy, or a fancy*. Here a rhetorical flourish, there a soloecism, or an unfinished clause^ a re- statement of the opinion in terms of an argument*, or a personal virulence or fanaticism far outshrieking the usual tone*. Two of the juniors adopt the judgment of the majority*, pleading their own inexperience. Such weak- nesses (except perhaps the last) still appear occasionally in title of 'Confessor' is prefixed to the names of twelve of the bishops, viz., 42, 47, 48, 49, 52, 54, 58, 61, 62, 68, 79, 82 ; that of ' Martyr' to 72, 76, 80 ; and 'martyr de schismaticis' to 70, Verulus; that of 'confessor et martyr' to 45 and 87. These titles are not in our manuscripts. Baluze omitted them (Baluze, p. 329 and p. 601), so Morcelli (l. pp. 151, 226), as not belonging to the 'gesta,' as of course they could not, and as not given by Augustine. But though not authentic, they perhaps pre- serve an independent tradition. For example, only four appear of the con- fessor-bishops named in Ep. 76, and the designation of Verulus is interesting. ^ Shepherd doubts. But Cornelius sent in Ep. 49 (2) the sentences of an episcopal conference to Cyprian, 'quas subjectas leges.' In Eus. vii. 29 we have the discussion between Paul of Samo- sata and Malchion taken down in short- hand, iiri(Tr]fj.etovfjL€vojv Taxvypiivai, not 5ia- di^affdai. on which any idea of relation- ship rests. As to modern observations — 'Oirep iy^y paiTTo means 'which book had been inscribed' with the words given, not that the book was a manuscript by Origen. "Ztlxvp^^ does not mean 'a poetical book,' but a book written in sense-lines. Although Eusebius says no- thing of a second sojourn in Cappadocia, there is no ground to question the truth of Palladius' quotation, but the contrary. Origen then was probably in shelter there during the two years (a.d. 235 — 7) of Maximin's persecution of Christian Teachers (Doctores, vel praecipue prop- ter Origenem, says Orosius, Hist. vii. 19 rather boldly) ; or else, being there al- ready at work, he may have been forced into hiding by the measures of Serenian, proconsul. Palladius calls Juliana XoyiurraTjj Kal VLaTOTirrj. The text followed by Meursius, Lugd. Bat. 16 1 6, and the translator Hervetus confuses the story by hiding the Book instead of Origen. ^ ir€pipi{^ovTfs to ayiov iTV(vp.a dno roii irarpos koi tov v'lov. Theodoret, I/. E. 4. 9, p. 314, ed. Gaisf. (Hartel I.e.). 17. quid aliud quam communicat (ri oKKo r\). (Hartel I.e.; cor- rectors inserted agit.) Cf. 23 quid aliud quam... hihxs. 22. nos etiam illos quos hi qui prius in Ecclesia Catholica Episcopi fuerant cannot be an original Latin clause. (? ocrour ol kot 'Ekk. K. eVt- (TKOTTOvt/Tes irore i^airrlcraino.) Cf. S. Luc. ii. 49 Vg. 'in his qucE Patris mei sunt,' eV TOif TOV Ilarpos. 25. ut quid'^0% haereticos...vocamus (ii/a t'C). (Hartel /.<:.) 382 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. Note also 3. quod totum hoc fit divina voluntate. 23. volentibus vivere. 24. ...consilii et sermonis OovX^s xat Xoyou, should be rationis). 25. quae ipse ac merito audire deberet (kqi a|ia)r). 25. bene te valere omnibus «^(Jw...optamus, ut...habeamus nobiscum etiam de longinquo adunatos. C. Instances in which the Greek seems scarcely understood : 2. sed non enhn si = aXX* oi yap tl, where Hartel (p. xli. n.) would after Noltius improve the Latin at the expense of the Greek by eh'am conjectural. 8. nisi si his episcopis qui nunc minor fuit Paulus {rav vvv). 22. ut per eos qui cum ipsi : cutn unmeaning, and Hartel would omit ■qui. {? 0I0VS read as 01 ds.) There is room for differences of judgment, but the above instances to which many might be added are fair, and together evince a Greek original. In c. 10 we may further notice the applicability to the conditions of Asia Minor, and of no other region perhaps, of the use of such words as patrias suas about local persecutions. The remarkable translation in c. 24 of Eph. iv. 2, 3 'sustinentes invicem in dilectione, satis agentes servare unitatem Spiritus in conjunc- tione pacis' is in the same words as in three places of Cyprian, and differs from every other known rendering. Ep. 55. 24; De Unit. 8; De Bono Pat. 15 (wrongly cited by Sabatier as from De Op. et El.). This seems to indicate the use of a version which Cyprian used or made. It is worth observing that even the African Nemesian [Sentt. Epp. 5) quotes the passage as ^ cur antes servare.' The other quotations in the Epistle are either not marked enough to be conclusive, or may have been borrowed from Cyprian's own Baptismal letters. Ritschl has undertaken to dissect the Epistle with a view to shewing that parts of it have been added in Latin by Cyprian or his party to the ■original letter of Firmilian. Even if the operation had been performed with success, what would survive of the Epistle so much more than suffices for the utmost support of Cyprian's views, that any motive for forgery is latent. But the destruction of literary monuments by conceits is so much to be deprecated that it is right to see how baseless the allegations are. Chapter 12. Ritschl decides that this is *von anderer Hand ange- fugt' (p. 132) VIII. II. 2. ACTS AND DOCUMENTS — FIRMILIAN. 383 (i) because the question of the effect of un worthiness is deduced in c. 1 1 from the story of the demoniac woman. (2) because the last words of 12 merely repeat the last words of 11. Now this parallel form belongs to the stating of the Three Dilemmas pointed out below, and the beginnings also are parallel. c. II. Numquid et hoc Stephanus quando apud illos omnino Spiritus Sanctus non est. c. 12. lUud etiam quale est quod vult Stephanus non sit autem illic Spiritus Sanctus. c. 13. Sequiturenim illud quod interrogandi sunt apud quos Spiritus Sanctus non est. (3) because (pp. 128, 9) c. 12 is closely modelled on Ep. 74. 5 only (...sich iibrigens ganz geschickt zu verstecken) and tincti is used for bap- tizati in order to vary the words. (On this see 'Quotations,' p. 387.) Again for the same reason ' si non mentitur apostolus ' is used instead of 'dicit apostolus.' But 'non mentitur' takes S. Paul's words (Gal. i. 20) from the same Epistle here quoted (Gal. iii. 27). And thirdly, quasi possit ...separari is varied with nisi si . . .dividunt and expanded. This varying however runs through nearly the whole Epistle ; only the words are usually more varied. The phenomena are throughout precisely those of a retranslation of a translation, not checked by comparison with the originals. They are familiar to classical tutors. The points are kept, the emphasis is different, the wording sometimes very near, sometimes far away. In this last instance the original force of quasi possit... a Christo Spiritus separari is increased by the retranslation nisi si a Christo Spiritum dividunt. (May I here observe that Nisi si with the Indicative is used in a reductio ad absurdum when it is meant that the opponent is logically proved to be actually in an absurd position, and is not merely warned off his ground by a sight of the consequences ? Compare 75. 11 nisi si...contendunt, 75. 14 nisi si...parit, "j-^. 21 nisi si...praedicant.) To pass from wording to substance. In cc. 11, 12 and 13 Firmilian puts Three Dilemmas to Stephen against his principle that 'baptism in heresy was Christian baptism': (i) Would Stephen say that baptism by a person possessed by a demon was Christian baptism, if administered in regular form .-* (c. 11). (2) The baptized, if S. Paul is true, have 'put on Christ.' According to Stephen, they must still receive imposition of hands within the Church in order to receive the Holy Ghost ; will Stephen then say that Christ is where the Holy Ghost is not? (c. 12). (3) Will Stephen say whether the baptism of heretics is 'of the flesh' or 'of the Spirit'? If it is of the flesh, how does Christian baptism differ from Jewish baptism? If 'of the Spirit,' how is it that they cannot impart the Spirit? (c. 13). 384 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. Or briefly (i) Is there absolutely no limitation to efficacy through unworthiness ? (2) If heretics impart Christ, why not the Spirit? (3) If their baptism is spiritual, what defect in their spiritual status? Of these Three Dilemmas Ritschl proposes to drop out (2), that is ch. 12, on the above frivolous grounds. Chapters 23 — 25 are also charged as a fraudulent addition to Fir- milian's original. They form, it is said, 'a whole' by themselves; the Epistle ended with chapter 22, and chapter 23 begins with introducing a text of Proverbs that has no connection (unvermittelt) (p. 133) with what precedes. Further, certain words in the end of 22 are echoed in the end of 25 (I suppose to create a deceitful similarity, but am not sure why). Now these are the passages : c. 22. ...'And Stephen is not ashamed to maintain this; so that he says remission of sins can be given through them, though they are involved in all manner of sins, as if the Laver of Health could be in the House of Death, c. 23, What place then will there be for that which is written " Keep thee from the strange water, and from a strange fount drink thou not^," if leaving the " sealed fount ^" of the Church you take^ 'strange water' of your own instead, and pollute the Church with profane founts ?' Even if a letter could have ended so abruptly, yet a complete 'whole' does not begin as c. 23 begins. The Proverb certainly has a connection. It is itself the link. It is quoted to support by Scripture the argument that the Laver or Font can be only in the Church. It is quoted by Cyprian in the same connection in Ep. 70. i and thence (like so many other texts) adopted by Firmilian. It is quoted again in the same connection by Nemesian, Sentt. Epp. 5. Again the end of 25 is no repetition of the first words of the above extract, but a strong advance upon them. c. 25. ..'it is manifest that neither can we have baptism in common with heretics with whom we have nothing at all in common. (That is the point reached in 22 and he proceeds) And yet Stephen is not ashamed to afford to such his patronage against the Church, and for the sake of maintaining the cause of heretics to cleave the brotherhood asunder, and, over and above that, to say Cyprian is a false Christ and false apostle and teacher and worker ; and con- scious that all these flaws are in himself, forestalls them by falsely laying to another's charge what he should quite deservedly have said of himself.' ^ The strange (African?) addition to "^ Cant. iv. 12. Prov. ix. 1 8 which appears in LXX. ^ \ must read suscipis with the early and in Ep. 70. i, in Sentt. Epp. 5, corrector of Q. There is no v. 1. as to in Aug. and in Ambrose, but not in the other Presents, the Vulgate. VIII. II. 2. ACTS AND DOCUMENTS — FIRMILIAN. 385 The objection to c. 24 (p. 133) that its expositions are built up out of Epp. Ti. 15 ; 74. 4 and 73. 20 would be of no weight if true. Firmilian's open letter uses up for the pui-pose of reaffirming them most, if not all, of the arguments contained in the two epistles which were submitted for his confirmation. But it does not happen to be true except in mere verbal coincidence, as to the first two passages. The substance of Ep. 73. 15 is the apostolic definition of heresy. That of Ep. 74. 4 is the handling of Stephen's argument derived from the practice of heretics. Neither of these reappear in c. 24. That of Ep. j^. 20 is that Stephen actually misleads the poor heretic who would fain enter the Church by rightful steps. This is repeated (not in c. 24, but) in c. 23 oi Ep. 75. It is asserted (Ritschl, p. 134) that c. 25 contradicts c. 6 as to the course of Stephen's action ; and as c. 6 is interesting in other particulars it may be given so far in full. c. 6. 'That the Roman church does not in all things observe the primitive tradition, and alleges the authority of the Apostles to no purpose, anybody may know from seeing that about the celebration of Easter, and many other "sacraments" of religion, there exist with them some diversities, and all things are not observed there in the same way {ceqxialiter qua) as they are observed at Jerusalem, just as in the other numerous provinces too there are many things varied to suit local and tribal differences {loconim atque hominimi), and yet on this account the peace and unity of the Catholic Church have not at any time been departed from. Stephen has now dared to do this, breaking (that) peace with you which his predecessors have ever kept with you in love and mutual honour.' The supposed contradiction to this is found in the opening of c. 25. ' How diligently hath Stephen fulfilled these the Apostle's commands 'and salutary monitions (those namely of Eph. iv.) keeping "lowliness 'and meekness" in the first rank ! For what is more "lowly and meek" 'than to have differed with so many bishops throughout the whole 'world, breaking the peace with each in various kind of discord, one 'while {viodd) with Eastern bishops, of which (fact) we are confident that 'you too are aware, another while with yourselves who are in the south.' c. 6 then, it is said, makes the breach with Africa the first, while c. 25 places it later than the Eastern quarrel, c. 6 however touches no question of time but only says that the Africans are themselves a living instance of Stephen's quarrelsome pretensions; and c. 25 does not say that his Oriental quarrel preceded in point of time his African quarrel. But if Dionysius and Eusebius (Euseb. H. E. vii. 5) satisfy the reader that the Oriental difficulty was the earlier he will scarcely find his opinion contradicted in 25, and in that case the error would be in Ritschl's genuine chapter. B. 25 386 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. The linguistic objection, that the last word of the epistle adunatos is there applied to the union of Episcopal equals among themselves, whereas Cyprian uses it only of the union of inferiors to superiors, as of the people to their bishops, or of the Church to Christ, absolutely breaks down. Adunatus and adunatio are used by Cyprian of the unitedness of his own action with that of the Roman presbytery, and specially of the equal relation and union among themselves of the congregation \ of the sons of God^, of the true people of Christ. Thrice in chapter 2, which the critic himself calls genuine, of this very epistle, it is used in the same sense, and once even of the union of angels with the Church. Similar is Cyprian's application of the word adunatio to the mutual bond of churches^, and to the 'many grains' of the sacramental loaf*. Lastly, it must be observed that the marks of translation from the Greek are as rife in Ritschl's condemned chapters as in any others. Conclusion. These then are the fruits of (what I believe to be) thorough examination of the objections pushed against the genuineness of Firmilian's epistle. The more general questions raised either prove pointless or lead to further confirmations. The diction is manifestly that of a translation from Greek ; the style rings with Cyprian ; the arguments are Cyprian's own. All fits precisely the conditions of a letter translated under Cyprian's hand or eye from the original of a Greek writer who had studied Cyprian's arguments. The chapters which have been distinguished by a superfine acumen as insertions either cannot be detached from the context without violence to the argument, or are provably not liable to the special charges made, whether historically or linguistically ; and they have the same marked character as the rest. No literary document bears clearer stamp of authenticity and genuine- ness than this interesting translation from such an author by such an author. Quotations of Scripture in Firmilian. Another test may be applied. There are quoted in Ep. 75 (Fir- milian) some 21 passages of Scripture. Twelve of these are also quoted ^ ...plebs adunata, De Dca. Or at. 23. ^ Ep. 62. i. 2 ...filii Dei...respondeant adunati, * Ep. 69. 5; cf. Ep. 60. 1. De Zel. et Liv. 18. 75- H »5 Lc. xi. 23 75- '5 » Cant. iv. 12, 75- 23 )? Prov. ix. 18 VIII. II. 2. ACTS AND DOCUMENTS— FIRMILIAN. 387 in Cyprian's writings. If the renderings of them in Ep. 75 differed appreciably in form or words from Cyprian's renderings, we might doubt whether the translation of the epistle was produced by Cyprian, under Cyprian's direction, or in Africa at all. If on the other hand the render- ings in Ep. 75 corresponded to those given by Cyprian, this resemblance would confirm the other indications of time, place and authorship. We will examine all those citations in Ep. 75 which recur in Cyprian. A. The following quotations appear in the Latin version of Fir- milian's letter in precisely the same wording in which they occur in Cyprian's writings, not only (as two of them do) in the two letters which Firmilian had read, but in his other writings. ^P- 75- 9 quotes Marc. xiii. 6 verbatim as de Unit. 14, and Ep. 73. 16. „ „ Ep. 69. I and Ep. 70. 3. 13 „ „ Ep. 69. 2 and Ep. 74. 11. „ „ £■/. 70. 1 (Nemesiandififerently, Sentt. Epp. 5). „ 75. 24 „ Eph. iv. I — 6 (a long quotation). viz. 2, 3 Ep. 55. 24 and de B. Pat. 15 ; de Unit. 8. 4, 5 de Unit. 4 (except that de Unit. consolidates ' sicut vocati es- tisin unaspe' into 'unaspes' as does Caecilius, Sentt. Epp. I. It is not in fact a ^read- ing'' : our Common Prayer Book does the same). 3, 5 quoted by Nemesian, Sentt. Epp. 5, except curantes. B. In the following, the variations are such as might occur in different MSS. of the same version. The reader may observe that in I Cor. xi. 27 the Firmilian form is nearer to each of two differing forms than they are to each other : Gal. iii. 27, tinguere for baptizare is common both in Cyprian {e.g. Epp. 73. 5 ; 71. i ; 75. 13 which last Ritschl thinks genuine), — and therefore could not serve in 75. 12 as Ritschl says, for a disguise, — and also in TertuUian. The two passages which differ sig- nificantly are both from the Testintonia, which generally presents most variety. Nemesian, Setitt. Epp. 5, quotes two passages which Ep. 75 quotes and in both differs alike from it and from the version in Cyprian. 25 — 2 5S8 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. Ep. 75. 12 quotes Go/, iii. 27 with tincti, Epp. 62. 3 and 74. 5 baptizati. „ 75. 14 „ /"j. xliv. \\...populitui,quiadesideravit. — Testim.xx. if) ...populumtuumet domum patris quoniam concupivit. i> 75- 15 )> I -^^'- "i- 21 sic et nos (v. /. vos). Ep. 69. 2; 74. ir quod et vos. „ 75. 16 „ il//. xvi. 19 quaecunque (first). Ep. 33. i ; de Unit. 4 quae. „ 75. 16 „ Jo. XX. 33 et SI cujus. Epp. 69. 11 ; 73. 7; ^/^ ^'w/V. 4 all omit * et.' „ 75. 20 „ /'/^//. i. 18 adnuntiatur {v. I. annuncietur). Ep. 73. 14 adnuntietur {v. I. -atur). „ 75. 21 ., I Co. xi. 27 quicumque ederit panem aut. Epp. 15. i ; 16. 2 qui ederit panem aut. De laps. 15 qui- cumque ederit panem et. Test. iii. 94 qui- cumque man- ducaverit pa- nem et.... The facts are alike whether the passages occur in Epp. 73 and 74, or in other writings of Cyprian. It seems obvious on careful consideration of all the facts that the quotations are not rendered anew from Firmilian's Greek text, but are simply given from texts then in use in Africa. This independent and minute test then again supports the idea of the version being Cyprianic. Basil and the Letter of Firjnilian. If the following clauses of Basil, £"^/. Classis II.., Ep. 188 canonica Prima {^Atnphilochio), and of Firmilian Ep. 75. 7, 8 are read side by side, as suggested to me by M. Larpent, I believe it will be felt that they are not independent. The resemblances are closer and more parallel than mere treatment from the same point of view could create. VIII. II. 2. BASIL AND THE LETTER OF FIRMILIAN. 389 TlKvl' ets yip rb Hveufjia t4 ayiov i^Xaff^fii]- ffav, MovTav(f Kal IlptaKtWri rr]v rod Ilapa- k\-^ov irpoiT-qyoplav . . ivKprj/xlaavrei. . . ol Kadapol Kal airrol ruv avecrxi-O't'-^y'^v el(n ... * oZ W rrji 'E/c/cXTjcrfos iiro- ffTduTes oi/R^ri iaxov T7)v x^p"' tov ayiov HveO/Maroi i rijy 'EKK\i](Tlai dvaKaOal- pcadai. The correspondences are the more striking because they are so little verbal. There is the constructive heresy of the Montanists ; there are the two classes of heretics and schismatics ; the loss of the power of imparting the Holy Spirit through the loss of the Apostolic Succession ; there is the reference in Basil to some earlier canon, in Firmilian to his contemporary Council of Iconium ; and there is the marked phrase 'The Baptism of the Church.' And all these topics are in the same order. A. Harnack, Gesch. d. alt-Chr. Litteratur bis Eiiseb. I. p. 409 refers to this passage, but does not notice the parallelism. It has been men- tioned above (p. 375) that in de Spiritu Sancto xxix. 29. 74 Basil appeals to Firmilian's doctrine as a standard. The words omitted at the asterisk * couple Cyprian and ' our Firmilian ' together as antient authorities who required the baptism of schismatics equally with heretics. IlXijj/ clXX" eSo^e Toii dpxaiots, Toli Tvepl Kvnpiavov Xtyw Koi ^ipfiikiavov tov ijixirepou TOVTovs Travras fiin yl/'^o) vTTO^aXf If, Kadapovs . . • - ...quod etiam ilH qui Cataphrygas ap- pellantur . . nee patrem possunt habere nee iilium quia nee spiritum sanctum, a quibus si quseramus quem Christum praedicent, respondebunt eum se pnedicare qui miserit spiritum per Montanum et Priscam locutum . . . Sed et ceteri qui- que haeretici, si se ab ecclesia Dei scide- rint, nihil habere potestatis aut gratise possunt quando omnis potestas et gratia in ecclesia constituta sit, ubi prcesident majores natu qui et baptizandi et manum imponendi et ordinandi pos- sident potestatem, haereticum enim sicut ordinare non lieet nee manum im- ponere, ita nee baptizare nee quicquam sanete et spiritaliter gerere, . . . quod totum nos jam pridem in leonio . . . col- leeti .... eonfirmavimus tenendum . . , 8 Jim. . . . nisi eos prius etiam ecclesia baptismo baptizasset. 390 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. The Nameless Author 'ON RebapTISM.' The interest centering on the champion of the winning yet lost cause must not make us forget that so far he alone has registered what of record there is against himself. There must be facts a champion could not record. His councils cannot have been so unlike all others as not to have been scenes of controversy ; his signataries not the only prelates who had opinions ; his bishops not more docile than his presbyters \ He regrets himself that not all, though so many, were with him. In his last Council he seems to absolve some dioceses from compliance. In his opinion worldliness accounted for the disuse of Agrippinus' rebaptismal statute ; but we are well able to see that that effect was at least also producible by thought, by charity, by comprehension of Apostolic principle ; and if a contemporary of this stamp, one who differed 'by a whole sky' from Cyprian, not tradition- ally or overbearingly but philosophically, should have sur- vived, how valuable might be his separate illustration of the Christian reason and spirit in that age. Such a writer, I entertain no doubt, exists for us in ' The Author on Rebaptism.' His pamphlet was found and copied by the Fere Jacques Sirmond from a 'very antient manuscript ' of Cyprian in the library of S. Remi at Rheims, — where it exists no more. It there followed Cyprian's letter to Pompeius^ and was subscribed Ccsctlii Cypriani finivit de rebaptistnate. Rigaut first printed it in 1648 seeing its value, and from its diction concluding it to be ab cevo Cyprianico pariim dis- tans. Then Labbe in 1672 in the Cojicilia, vol. I., and, after making a new collation, Baluze. Hartal has no other materials to edit from (Prsef. p. Ixii.). ^ Ep. 71. I ^piarimi coepiscopi...fut- catores veritatis.' Compare 'episcopos dam.^ 69. 10 'intus in ipsa ecclesia.' plurimos' and quidam in Ep. (>7,. i and 73. 26 'coUegis et coepiscopis.' Sentt. de Mart, j 'etsiaput plurimos... tamen... Epp. 59 ''qtiidam de collegis nostris.' quosdam.' Sentt. Epp. 38 ^quidam nostri praevari- ^ Ep. 74. VIII. II. 2. ACTS, ETC. — THE NAMELESS AUTHOR. 39 1 Labbe says {Synopsis Cone. Apparat. torn. i. p. 83) a MS. of it in the Vatican attributes it to 'Ursinus the Monk an African,' and so names it Pearson accepts this. Baluze also, because the interval be- tween its writing and the Apostles is called (c. vi.) tot sceculorum tanta series^ a phrase inapplicable in the age of Cyprian. Oudin {qui four- mille d'erreurs, as Tillemont says), besides Routh {Rell. Sac. vol. v. p. 283), who quotes Labbe as saying Three manuscripts, accept Ursinus. Such names claim an otherwise superfluous answer. What we know of Ursinus is from Gennadius, presbyter of Marseilles {ob. A.D. 496), in his continuation of Jerome, De Viris Illustribus, c. 27. 'Ursinus (Ursicinus Sirmond) Monachus scripsit adversus eos qui ' rebaptizandos haereticos decemunt, docens nee legitimum esse nee ' Deo dignum rebaptizari illos qui in nomine simpliciter Christi, vel 'in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti quamvis pravo sensu ' baptizantur : sed post Trinitatis et Christi simpUcem confessionem 'sufficere ad salutem manus impositionem catholici sacerdotis.' It is hard to see how this can have been taken for an account of our author. He is plainly not a monk but a bishop. The words legi- timum and Deo dignum point to express reasonings turning on (i) authority, (2) analogy, which are not touched in this book : nor yet the distinction of baptisms in the name of Christ and of the Trinity, nor the possibility of the latter being validly bestowed although pravo sensu, which is an intelligible ground dealt with by Cyprian {Ep. 73- 5)- Neither is a preliminary confession insisted on. Again, would * Catholicus Sacerdos'' have been used in this abstract unless it were in the treatise described.' our author always speaks of Episcopi. Cave {H. L. l. p. 131) suggests that the Vatican subscription is due to some reader of Gennadius, and Tillemont that it would be well to ascertain that the MS. is one of this treatise. I do not know whence comes Cave's account of Ursinus as 'gente Afer' except from the subscription, or his date 440 A.D., but at any rate Ursinus must have written (from Gennadius' statement) at a much later period of the controversy, and probably in its Donatist stage. As to Baluze's remark on the 'tot saeculorum tanta series' indi- cating a later date, the phrase is not of course more literally accurate in 440 than in 250. It belongs to their general leaning to large numbers: the expectation of the end of the world had something to do with making the Christian past seem long ; but apart from that, this very treatise calls the few years of Peter and Paul's mutual knowledge 'tanta tempora'; Cyprian speaks of 'tot haereticorum milia' having entered the African church by rebaptism {Ep. "j^. 3); Optatus, B. V. c. 5, speaks of John as baptizing 'infinita milia homi- num.' Fleury was absurd enough to think Stephanus a possible author. 392 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. Tillemont (in his clever discussion vol. iv. note xl., see also note xxxix.), Du Pin, Maran, Galland, Neander, Hefele, recognise the early date. Cave also, partly on the ground of references to contem- porary persecutions ; but of these, says Oudin, De Scriptt. Eccles. Ant. V. I. p. 1006, Lips. 1722, truly, there is ne ypii quidem. The position of the treatise in the Rheims manuscript is not without its bearing on the date. As literary tokens of his antiquity we may mark the genuine reading of S. John vii. 39 '(The) Holy Ghost was not' before Christ's exaltation. No Latin father reads this un- corrupted. Again, 'The Holy Ghost,' he says, 'came down... not of His own will,' a paraphrase, which heresy early ren- dered impossible, of '...He will not come unto you... I will send Him unto you,' combined perhaps with ' He shall not speak from Himself \...' From a doctrinal point the higher value set upon the Imposition of Hands than on the Baptism itself is a mark of early and not far from TertuUianesque age^ Again, the familiar use of ' Baptism in the name of Christ ' as equivalent to perfect baptism would have been impossible when the dis- tinction had once been thought out between that form and the Invocation of the Holy Trinity. No one could have used the terms as equivalent after Cyprian's correspondence with Stephanus was known. 1 Jo. vii. 39 (ap. Auct. de Reb. c. (S^ s?ec. vii.), Lindisfarn. (Y szec. vii., 14) and xvi. 7, 13 (ap. Auct. c. 6). viii.), Harl. (Z^ ssec. vi., vii.). Cod. Tillemont, who does not recognise either Bezte (dssec.vi.), though it has v\^o\.datus, quotation, says (to some extent rightly) has in eos, Brix. (saec. vi.) not daius but (v. IV. note xl.) that the fourth century in eis. See Bp. Wordsworth of Sarum 'would not have tolerated such expres- and H. J. White, Nov. Test. Latine, sions.' It had in fact already inserted vol. IV. p. 559 (Oxon. 1895). Se8ofi4vov, dod^u or datus. No Latin Routh remarks on the second passage fathers omit the word given except the 'dictum illud non intelligo.' His *edi- translator of Origen, if he may be treated tion,' R. S. vol. V. p. 291, is in the main as independent. The true reading was a wretched reprint of Fell's wretched preserved extensively in Latin Mss. copy, reproducing even nonsensical Thus it is found in Dunelm. (A [Bentl. punctuations. K] S3ec. vii., viii.), Fuld. (F 541—546 ^ Auctor c. 6 ad fin. Cf. Tert. de A.D.), Sangerm. (G saec. ix.), Stonyhurst Bapt. 6, 7, 8. VIII. II. 2. ACTS, ETC. — THE NAMELESS AUTHOR. 393 There is a yet nicer indication. We shall presently see that the Author's theory of the visible Church was in itself adequate to solve Cyprian's difficulty. Yet the Author has no more than an instinctive sense of its truth and of its applicability. He does not drive it home. This is a phe- nomenon which can only occur in contemporary arguments. Two theories exist side by side ; in the next generation one of them will have yielded. At first the discoverer of the true one has rarely learnt its full speculative value : he applies it merely as a test to points of practice. Again, the Author does not meet the great doctrine of ' Unity ' on which every argument of Cyprian's is based. When once a theory has passed out of the essay-stage, in which others as yet compete with it ; when once it has pos- session of the field, no eye can stir without seeing it. No one could have written on Cyprian's subject even a few years later without knowing of this key to his whole position. The absence of any allusion to the doctrine of Unity assigns the Treatise on Rebaptism to the first years of the controversy. How could it have been excluded ever so little later when the forms in which it was cast and the Scriptural symbols in which it was expressed were so taking, so popular, so numerous, and so assailable' .'' Acute in disputation- and fresh in language he writes as one who hopes still to influence the controversy^ He is one 1 It must be remembered that they and not imperfect only but erroneous, occur in the 'Unity' as emphatically as at the very time when they were not in his Letters. only baptized but baptizing others. 2 As an instance of his ability and ^ '...et turbulentis hominibus ut vd desire to look at facts as they are, nunc suum negotium agere incipiant note how, anticipating 'your usual' perstrndere: conseciauris-^\\\x\vsx\}im.^\\2,vci answer (which Cyprian does use in nobis si hoc quoque consilio sano tandem the case of the Samaritans, Ep. 73. 9) voluerint acquiescere.' 'Ut agendi in viz. that 'the disciples held the right ecclesia formam...2<«iwr^ fratribus /«- faith when they were baptized long simumus.^ \Agendi conjecimus, Har- before receiving the Holy Ghost,' he telius et multo ante egomet. Accendi works out how their Messianic beliefs MS., alii tacendi, accedenti, attendi. were then Judaic as to cardinal points, Routh accenseri.] Auctor c. i. In c. 394 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. of the bishops\ To him Cyprian's proposal is in effect a new question, an attempt to alter, to reform very widely the usage of the churches, a step to Novatianism*. He is not an Italian. No Italian could have avoided as he does an appeal to Roman tradition and the Roman pope. His speech is African'. His adversaries are not heretics like the Donatists; they are churchmen and bishops. There is no other date possible for him, unless it can be shewn that there was some other at which there raged a second tempest like ours within the Latin-speaking church, yet one in which there was no re- currence to either the arguments or the refutations of Cyprian. It would indeed be necessary to create a second Cyprian. For no one else can be represented in the unkind sketch which the Author gives of his antagonist, as he sees him abetted by his bishops in imputing their own faulty in- ventions irreverently to the Church their mother. To set against all the heart-burnings and separations that will arise, the sole fruit of the new question is, he says*, the exaltation 'of one single person, whoever that is, so that he may ' be vaingloriously proclaimed among the thoughtless as a * man of great insight and consistency ; and that, whilst 19 he calls the controxeray prasetitem have 'currebant' ; existimarent ut...per- altercationem. severet (c. 9), think that he would con- ^ He contrasts baptism administered tiniu (cf. Optat. iii. c. 4 expectantes '■per nos ' and confirmation following ut venirent, iii. c. 8 dicebatur ut nega- immediately, with baptism adminis- retur Christus, it was ordered that he tered '« minore clero per necessitatem^ should be denied). As peculiarities of c. 10. version note 'absconsa hominum' (c. 2 Super hac nova quaestione c. i. 13), Ro. ii. 16 (not noted by Hartel); Nunc primum lepente ac sine ratione propitius sit tibi (c. 9), Mt. xvi. 22; insurgere c. 6. Hsereticorum... c. i. neque novi te (c. 9), Mt. xxvi. 70. ^ A few of these idioms may be May I here suggest an emendation quoted. Datives, alio (c. 4); solo of c. 2, viz. iK (= Joanne) for se? 'ait (c. 12); — prsestaturus (c. 9); devotans enim Dominus...baptizandos esse non (c. 9); flumina de ventre ejus cur- quemadmodum a se in aqua ad poeni- rebunt (c. 14), this (African) future tentiam sed in Spiritu Sancto.' is demanded by the sense and the ■• Auct. c. i. citation though Routh and Hartel VIII. II. 2. ACTS, ETC. — THE NAMELESS AUTHOR. 395 * enjoying the admiration of heretics^ whose solitary comfort *in perdition is to be seen sinning in company, he may be 'extolled among his copyists and compeers, for having set ' right the errors and defects of all the churches.' This pursuit of logical issues, this tendency to Puritanism, lust of re- modelling, extended ambition are contemporary accusations, not so acrimonious as those of Puppian^, but as surely aimed at Cyprian. The charge of imitating Novatian is exactly what angers Cyprian into the retort that ' Novatian is the Ape of the Church,' and that the way to harden heretics is to patronise and imitate them^ The Author's sneer that ' want of humanity ' is what makes his opponent undervalue custom is familiar*. In the frequent interchange of singular And plural addresses we see the large party, and the leader who is himself the party. Cyprian's use of a favourite text is sharply touched. 'Whereto perhaps you, with your * novelty, may forthwith impatiently answer, as you are wont, 'that the Lord said, Except a man be born again, &c." Even the exquisite writing does not escape. ' How,' he asks sarcastically, ' must the line of disqualification be drawn } ' Why should it be drawn at heresy, more than at immorality ^ ' and then why not at erroneous views — at virtual heresy ? ' at want of skill in imparting these rudiments .'* You must 'at last come to enforcing your ' denuo' baptism if the ' catechising bishop has been imperfect in expression — not ' so ornate and precise as you arel' Finding ourselves then so close to Cyprian in this treatise, ^ Haereticorum stupore prseditus, Nemesian, Sentt. Epp. 5, Auctor c. 3. Auct. I. * ...sed non tarn ornate ut tu et com- ^ Ep. (>^. posite, isti quoque simpliciores homines ' Cyp. Ep. 73. 1 'simiarum more'; 3 mysterium fidei tradant. Dicturus es ' nos non demus stuporem hsereticis pa- enim utique pro tua singulari diligentia trocinii et consensus nostri....' hos quoque denuo baptizandos esse. ^ Auct. 16. Auct. c. 10. It appears to me as cer- ' Quoted four times in Cyprian's tain that Cyprian is here meant as that Epistles, but of course the remark it can never have been written after his cannot be limited to them only. Also martyrdom. 39^. THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. it is natural to ask, Was the Author acquainted with Cyprian's full writings on the subject ? or Had Cyprian himself read the Author ? The questions seem capable of answer. And as answers are deducible from facts lying aside of that main stream of the Argument on which we have not yet embarked,, we may intelligibly complete our review of the Book as a document by producing them here, (i) Did then the Author know Cyprian's later writings on the subject ? There is scarcely a semblance of this. He no- where attacks his very assailable typology. For example Cyprian asks, ' If heretic baptism be so safe, why any church ' reception } If that baptism is a reality, heretics may be ' holy martyrs.' And the Author meets these questions ; but it is simply as floating arguments without any appear- ance of setting treatise against treatise. He was ac- quainted with Cyprian's line of action, with his treatment of the ordinary texts, and with certain pamphlets on both sides'. But he does not fasten on Cyprian's specialities as we know them. His treatise must therefore come quite early in the movement'^ of his day. But another strong personality, besides Cyprian's, seems to be before him, when, analysing Christ's prediction of 'false prophets with miraculous powers,' the Author speaks of * certain powers,' and of ' the false prophesying',' — the term for Montanism — in his own day, and then goes on ' but * certain it is that, because they are not Christ's, they have ' nothing to do with Christ : just as if any one draw away from ' Christ, cleaving only to the Name of Him, he is not much * helped thereby, nay rather is actually borne down by this ' Name ; although he were before time most strong in the faith, ^ His use of ^ut soles,'' cc. 3, 8. — is an answer to Cyp. Ep. 73. 21 on the ^ Scripta atque rescripta, Auctor c. i. profitlessness of martyrdom to heretics. '^ I am unable to see what Fechtrup, * Falso proplutare—fidelissivius — clera p. 207, n. 2, sees: that de Rebapt. 13 aliquo honoratus. Auctor 12. VIII. II. 2. ACTS, ETC. — THE NAMELESS AUTHOR. 397 * or most upright, or held some rank among the clergy, or had ' attained the dignity of confessorship.' Can there be much question as to who was the original of this sketch } And if it is TertuUian the early date is still more distinct. Our impression of the Author's place in the controversy is supported by what appears to be the answer to the next question : — (2) Had Cyprian read the Author .'* When the Author proposes with the air of a new dilemma ' What place can you consistently give to the unbaptized confessor.'*' and when Cyprian describes this exact question as ' the human argumentation of certain persons,' his reference seems to be distinct' and express. When Cyprian says that the apostolic motto ' unum baptisma' must not be construed as a rubrical direction but is a declaration of the oneness of the Christian bond, he seems to assail some such interpretation as the Author adopts, that 'to repeat baptism was contrary to a decree of the Apostles.' Stephen himself had not gone beyond saying 'what we have received from the Apostles,' meaning by tradition ■■'. Again, the specialness of Cyprian's warning against the idea that heretics will be kept away by the required repetition, whereas they will rather be attracted, has the appearance of a reply to some such representation as that in which the Author paints the responsibility of a church which would by ^ Auctor 1 1 ' Quid autem statues licas veritatem, catechutninos nobis op- in personam ejus verbum audientis qui ponunt, si quis ex his antequam in forte adprehensiis in nomine Christi ecclesia baptizetur in confessione nominis statim confessiis ac priusquam baptizari adprehensiis fuerit et occisus, an spem aqua permitteretur ei fuerit punitus, &c. salutis...amittat eo quod ex aqua prius ...quia Dominus...eum...«^/(?//i«V«j est non sit renatus... Sanguine autem sue... exomet...martyrium autem nonnisi in consummari et divinse pollicitationis ipso et per ipsum Dominum possit con- ■ gratiam consequi decIarat...Dominus.' summari' Compare .&>. 73. 22 '...qui- The resemblance is verbal as well as dam quasi evacuare possint humana mental, argumentatione praedicationis evange- - Ep. 73. 13, Auctor 10. 398 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. needless demands deter from spiritual baptism those for whom she holds material baptism to be essentials If then these are fair indications that Cyprian knew the Author's work, can it perhaps be the actual epistle which Jubaian enclosed to Cyprian' ? There is a singular touch here. Cyprian, scouting the idea that one baptized outside the Church need not be baptized into it, as baptized already in Christ's name, says to Jubaian that he will not pass over ' a mention of Marcion ' which he observes in that enclosure'. * Marcion does not hold the same Trinity we hold, the same 'Creator-Father, the same Son in true flesh, and therefore ' Marcion's baptism is not in the true Christ's nameV Now this is precisely the ground which the Author takes in denying to the (Marcionite) heretic the possibility of martyr- dom. ' It is an empty appearance of martyrdom, when the 'man believes in a different God, a different Christ; not the ' omnipotent Creator of Scripture nor the Son of Him^' This seems to be the ' mention of Marcion ' which Cyprian takes up. To the Author's acceptance of heretical baptism he simply opposes his rejection of Marcionite martyrdom. If it be thought that, supposing this to have been Jubaian's enclosure, Cyprian would not have passed silently over its main issue, — namely, that while Baptism proper is a ' Water- Baptism,' like that of John, accompanied by Invocation which has a certain power, ' Spirit-Baptism ' accompanies the Lay- ing on of hands, — the answer is simple. It is because this theory in no way entered into the controversy with Rome. ^ Ep. 73. 24 compared with Auctor on his own side as to the naked solitary ID. Not to accumulate passages, we invocation of Jesus' Name sufficing for may add Auct. 2, John 'desciscens salvation with Firmilian, Ep. 75. 9, a lege id est Moysi atitiquissimo bap- who calls the invocation of the name tismate' compared with Ep. 73. 17, of God or of Christ alone a 'men- the Jews ^legis et Moysi antiquissi- dacium.' mum baptisma fuerant adepti.' And ^ So Dr Peters, pp. 517 sqq. one very interesting instance is the com- ^ Ep. 73. 4. parison of Auctor c. 6 where he is ap- ^ Ep. 73. 5. parently correcting an extreme opinion ' Auct. 13. VIII. III. THE ARGUMENTS. 399 The view is as remote from Stephen's as it is from Cyprian's opinions. The Treatise then seems to yield these interesting facts about itself; that Cyprian was acquainted with it ; that its Author, while certainly acquainted with Cyprian's action and view, was not acquainted with his later or more elaborate writings on the controversy ; that consequently he handled it in its early stage ; that it was not improbably the treatise which Jubaian submitted to Cyprian. Its interest lies not in Cyprian's being careful to answer it. It is a fresh specimen of the life in which he lived. Its argu- ments although they lie aside of the thread of the controversy yet are produced in defence of the prevailing practice. In its way it helped to widen the bond of Christendom at a time when the greatest Christian man living was for contraction. Its interpretation of isolated texts was such as no modern could employ or be affected by. The forced subtle exegesis evolved by an acute mind whilst intent on the letter is in contrast with the large anti-superstitious view which the same mind, rich with Evangelic teaching, took of the most sacred rite. His letter perished, his spirit prevailed. The frequency with which this phenomenon repeats itself in Theology is a great witness that there truly abides in Theology a living spirit, from age to age using, and then dropping, that 'letter' which to the eyes of subsequent generations may seem to have been all of which their fathers were capable. III. TJie Arguments. We may open our review of the Arguments with a fuller statement of that which, at the time when Cyprian began to give his support to the revival of the old discipline of Agrippinus by requiring a Second Baptism, defended the prevailing practice of receiving returned schismatics by 400 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. ' imposition of hands. The Author on Rebaptism, though his particular arguments faded, yet contributed to maintain opinion on the side which finally prevailed. The theory he alleged may have been too subtle to be of popular service at any time, too fanciful to have captivated the solid reason of the Church for any period, and yet in fragments, in scattered lights, by side-strokes, such theories do substantial work. In one sense nothing really dies of which the spirit has entered into the life of the Church, however she may have outgrown the stage at which the form was accepted. This is the line of reasoning by which the Author main- tained the status quo : — ' I. The preaching of John distinguished two baptisms, the one of Spirit, the other of Water. These two are separ- able. When separated they are still integral ; not unmeaning fragments\ The essence of Water-Baptism is the Invocation of the Name of Christ ; even after the gift of the Spirit, that Invocation is a Power ; prior to it, a Beginning which in due time may be completed ^ It has a virtue' which intellectual error cannot destroy ; which may revive after dormancy ; to which mistaken doctrines cannot in its ministrants be worse hindrances than immoral lives. It remains ineffective until the Imposition of Hands gives the Baptism of the Spirit ; although for such as never attain this it must be completed by the Divine Goodness. The Baptism of Blood, again, can- not be less salutary than that of water, although to the heretic it is nothing, because he suffers not in Christ, but only under Christ's Name*. II. Invocation then, or Water-Baptism, must in order to become effective be completed for the heretically baptized by the Spirit-Baptism of the Laying on of Hands^ 1 Auctor cc. 1 — 5, with illustrations 17 'Those Gentiles on whom Christ's from Scripture and from daily life. name has been invoked .. \iz.\& still to - cc. 6, 7. ^ c. 10. "seek the Lord." The case of the ■* Auctor c. II. heretically baptized is here contem- 5 Thus he developes Acts xv. 13 — plated.' c 12. VIII. III. THE ARGUMENTS — CYPRIAN'S I. OBJECTIVE. 4OI III. Both the species of Baptism were represented on the Cross in their Unity, but two baptisms of one species would be unendurable \ IV. There are then three Baptisms — of Water, of Blood, I of the Spirit ; and these three are recognized by S. John*. \ And the Holy Spirit willingly imparts Himself even to the unworthy for certain ends. We should therefore trust Him so to do, adhering to the true rite; and not doing violence by a second Baptism either to the Invocation of Christ or to venerable custom'.' — Such is his thesis*. ] In examining the views of Cyprian, we have to avoid making him responsible for the arguments of his partisans, whose handling in the Seventh Council is at times very discrepant from that of his letters. Firmilian, on the other hand, is a fair representative and sensible summariser. Cyprian's arguments are of remarkable range and fulness. He ignores but one aspect of the question. And that one is capital. The objective entity of the Church, the objective presence of the sanctifying Spirit, the subjectivity of the baptizer and of the baptized are discussed ; historic evidence, biblical declarations, casuistic difficulties are tested. His objective grounds may be arranged thus : — (i) The unity of the Church demands (re)-Baptism. The question with him broadened at once, as we have seen, from the consideration of schism to the consideration of heresy. In the critical point these were identical. The demarcation of ^ Auctor c. 14. invalidate the rite and make it deadly. - I Jo. V. 6 — 8. It becomes 'another Sacrament.' The 3 c. 15. fire mentioned in John's Baptism is ■* The exception which follows is in- metaphoric. But at the first effusion teresting in illustration of what some of Pentecost fire was symbolic, just sects were. 'The conjuring fire' which as physical ' salus ' is the symbol of is shewn upon the water at Simonian spiritual in miracles of healing, c. 16. Baptism is an imposture sufficient to B. 26 402 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. Church from non-Church was distinct'. The representation of sacred acts outside the Church was no equivalent for the reality of sacred acts within it. The inviolate oneness had no outlying dependencies. Although the schismatic" might own ' One Lord ' and claim ' One Faith,' yet the ' One Baptism ' was not his, for the One Baptism implied the One Church, which he renounced. (2) He could not however claim even Unity of Belief/ OnQ Faith,' whilst the Apostles' creed stood in its African form. ' Dost thou believe the Forgiveness of Sins and the Life Everlasting through Holy Church V was on his lips null in the very hour of baptism^ (3) The remissory virtue of the rite in respect of sin shewed it to be a function of the Holy Orders which had no being outside the Church*. So that from the ecclesiastical side it might be said that the whole episcopal authority as the bond of unity, and the whole dignity of the Divine economy and organisation were involved in the question whether the baptism of heretics was to be recognised ^ If it were, then the Church had many centres, and rested not upon one Foun- dation-rock but upon several®. And if that baptism were recognised, untruly and untruthfully, then the unforgiven sins of these strangers must be shared by those who received them^ into a communion which behind the earthly scene knew them not. 1 Ep. 69. 3. « Ep. 75. 17. - Ep. 75. 14, 15, 24, 25. ^ Ep. 73. 19 '...se alienis immo ' Ep. 69. 7; Ep. 70. ^. Kternis peccatis communicare.' Augus- ^ Ep. 73. 7, a view which the mind tine properly observes that Victor of of Fortunatus of Thuccaboris developes Gorduba {Smtt. Epp. 40) goes far be- into 'Jesus Christus...potestatem bapti- yond Cyprian in alleging that such sins zandi episcopis dedit,' Sentt. Epp. 17. must permeate the whole communion Tertullian held the authority to baptize with defilement [Aug. de Bapt. c. Donatt. to be derivable from bishops, but as a vii. iv. (6, 7)], but it is scarcely an ille- matter of order not of essence ; Tertull. gitimate extension of Cyprian's view, de Bapt. 1 7. though inconsistent with other principles * Ep. 72. I. of his. VIII. III. THE ARGUMENTS — CYPRIAN'S I. OBJECTIVE. 403 The separatist teacher has surrendered^ the animating, unifying Spirit, and no personal earnestness of his own could convey that Spirit to his followers by baptizing them*. He illustrates his principle by the ingenious remark that in order to the exercise of this function John Baptist received the Holy Ghost in his mother's womb^; but since John did not impart the Holy Ghost to his baptized crowds, he has to limit the application to his baptism of our Lord ; and similarly he says that the Apostles received the Spirit by the breathing of Christ, that they might be enabled to baptize and give remis- sion of sins, (4) The admission of reconciled separatists to the Church by imparting to them the Holy Ghost by imposition of hajids, which is the usage of even those who recognised their baptism, was a practical declaration that they had not received, but still j needed to receive, that Holy Ghost. For the usage can never be defended from the Apostles laying their hands on the bap- tized Samaritans, since that was a confirming of work initiated by their own Deacon*. But if the schismatic admittedly had not as yet received the Holy Ghost, how should he sanctify the very water for baptism ? or the unction of confirmation ^ ^ ...amiserit Spiritum Sanctum, Ep. mundus est et apud quern sanctus spiritus 70. 2. non est?...ungi quoque necesse est eum 2 Ep. 6g. II. 'Qui non habet quo- qui baptizatus est ut accepto chrismate, modo dat?' became a catchword of the id est unctione, esseuncius Deiet habere Donatists. The reply of the Catholics in se gratiam Christi possit. Porro was ' Deum esse datorem ' : see Op- autem eucharistia est unde baptizati tatus, who solves the question with unguntur oleum in altari sanctificatum. laughter. Sanctificare autem non potuit olei crea- ' ^/. 69. II ^...adhuc esset... in \x\.tro turam qui nee altare habuit nee ec- matris constitutus.' Cf. Luc. i. 156-4 4k clesiam, Ep. 70. i, 2. Cf. Sedatus, Sentt. xotXlas tJiT]Tp6s. — Jo. XX. 21 — 23. ■^/'P- 18 'in quantum aqua sacerdotis * Ep. 73. 9, in connection with Ep. prece in Ecclesia sanctificata abluit de- 69. 6. licta, in tantum hseretico sermone velut ' Oportet mundari et sanctificari cancer infecta cumulat peccata.' In aquam prius a sacerdote ut possit bap- Tertullian (a'l? Bapt. 7) the unction tismo suo peccata hominis qui baptizatur gives the Christian his priesthood. On abluere...quomodo autem mundare et Aug. de Civ. Dei xx. 10, Enarr. II. (2) sanctificare aquam potest qui ipse im- in Ps. xxvi., Enarr. in Ps. xliv. 19, and 26 — 2 404 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. which is the sig^ of the Royalty and Priesthood of every Christian man ? Above all, how should he give the New Birth\ which as the essence of the sacrament is essentially the act of the Spirit ? / (5) Nor yet could their Baptism be regarded as an inchoate I Sacrament, begun without the Spirit, but completed in Him'. ' The washing of water without the Spirit is a mere carnal Judaizing^ rite. Nay, applied as a deceiving semblance, it must be worse. It is a material pollution*. Under sentence, and void of merit, the pretenders can neither 'justify nor sanctify' their bapt^zed^ Who but the holy can hallow'.'' Who but the living give life\'* Jerome, Comnt. in Joel ii. 28 sqq., making it confer our Kingship and Priesthood, see Dr A .J. Mason, Relation of Confirmation to Baptism, 1893, pp. 87, 171. And popularly Prudentius, Psychotnachia, v. 361, 'unguentum re- gale.^ See Bunsen: 'to the (catechu- men's) vow for life and death corre- sponded the unction as Priest and King... The seal of a free pledge, of a responsible act,' Hippolytus and his age, vol. II. pp. 120, I (1854). Ob- serve however that in the Apostolic Con- stitutions, bk. vii. c. 23, it is said that if there is no oil for the anointing before the baptism, nor chrism (fwpov) for the subsequent anointing, water suffices for both ; apxeZ C5wp koL wpbs x/'^o'"' k°-^ irpbs on^\\?X.^) do not deny accuses Erasmus of having written that that the people (whom a criminal priest 'Cyprian seems (in Ep. 67) to feel that baptized) really were baptized.' the sacrifice of a wicked priest avails * Hooker, v. Ixi. 4 n. nothing but rather defiles the people,' 4l6 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. in that one proposition in which Cyprian diflfered from the rest of the West. It was not until Augustine's time that a categorical answer was developed soundly to each separate argument of Cyprian and his bishops : so long did they retain their seeming convincingness almost unbroken, nay had become 'like Scripture'^ to their maintainers. Yet the true solvent had evidently been perceived at once by his opponents, although the minute fragments of Stephen's own language which Cyprian gives us do not contain the exact statement. ' The grace of Baptism ' they said was 'of Christ, not of the human baptizer.' He who baptized did * not give being or add force ' to the Sacrament. This had been almost on the lips of the Numidians when they first told Cyprian of their difficulty as to rebaptizing, ' because,' said they, ' Baptism is One'. That oneness is of the One Lord : but they had allowed themselves to be put off with the super- ficial reply that its oneness was of the one Church, and that to admit non-Church baptism was to admit two baptisms or to recognise more^ The Author on Rebaptism states it with even scornful force, so that it is surprising that he should have let slip for so many subtleties this real answer^ ' Let us, excellent 1 P. 415, note •2. majestatis concedamus operationes pro- " Fechtrup, p. 201, n. 2, in trying to prias, et intellegentes quantum in ea answer Peters is misled by Peters' sit emolumentum libenter ei adquies- wrong reference (p. 512) for his perfectly camus.' right statement. Peters should have This is well expressed by Optatus, cited Ep. 70. I and Ep. 71. i. On the lib. v. c. i ; 'Has res unicuique non other hand Peters is wrong in thinking ejusdem rei operarius sed credentis fides that Cyprian himself has this key to his et Trinitas praestat.' c. 4 ' ...omnes qui own error in Ep. 69. 14. There he baptizant operarios esse, non dominos, does not speak of Christ simply, but of et sacramenta perse esse sancta, non per 'Christ in his Church' as giving equal homines....' Optatus answers by impli- grace to every member of it in Baptism. cation many of Cyprian's arguments. See also 13 of the same Epistle. He But it is visible how the power of his guards himself carefully. great name forbade direct attack. Au- ^ Auctor 10 ' virorum optime, red- gustine first both meets him full and damus et permittamus virtutibus cae- reads the true lesson of his life, Con- lestibus vires suas, et dignationi divinze formity amid Differences. VIII. III. THE ARGUMENTS— STEPHEN'S. 417 'sir,' he writes (as I believe against Cyprian himself), 'render 'and allow to the Powers of Heaven a might of their own, ' and suffer the condescension of the Divine Majesty to have ' its independent operations.' His conception of the visible Church is indeed higher than Cyprian's, and had he learnt how to apply it, would have been of more value than all his arguments besides. ' What,' he asks, — ' unless some higher principle modify the rigidity of ' your strict formula — What is the portion reserved for the ' Christian multitude^ which dies without the imposition of ' hands .-'' — 'What for those bishops themselves,' his irony adds, 'who fail to visit and confirm such as sicken and die in 'the outlying districts of their dioceses^?' Thus on every side, he infers, even within the acknow- ledged pale, even within the entrenched lines of saints and martyrs, there lies a vast verge beyond the operation in full measure of that simple sacerdotal unity, which is nevertheless essential to the general effectuation of the gospel. And what lies beyond the pale }^ It is in the solemn con- sensus which exists as to the adequate and complete sanctifi- cation of that admitted verge or margin that we are to look for analogies which shall solve the new-rising problems sug- gested by the existence of heresy. We cannot subject all truth to the conclusions of a theory which is true up to its limits, but which has limits beyond which nothing is clear save the Love and the Power*. Cyprian's demand for a sanctity in the baptizer in order to 'justify and to sanctify' the baptized^ may well have revolted the Church of Rome as it does the Church of Eng- land. Doubtless he took the terms in a weaker sense than we. 1 Auctor, c. 4 plerique. flow out beyond it?' 2 Dispersis regionibus, c. 5. * 'Salvation is of the Church': True. ' Compare Aug. de Bapt. c. Donatt. ' Nulla salus extra ecclesiam ' : True, if IV. c. vii. (10) 'If within the closed the definition of Ecclesia be so wide as garden of God there are thorns of the to have no constitutional value. Devil, why may not the Spring of Christ ^ Ep. 69. 10. B. 27 41 8 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. But they at least make Stephen's invective intelligible. The structure of the Church, the apostolic teaching, the personal work of Christ seemed to him endangered*. And they were so ; had not theological science arisen to refrain such careless modes of speech. Stephen taught that as one who separates from the Church does not forfeit his own church baptism by his wandering, but when he returns will return in its validity, so neither in the meanwhile does he lose the 'power' which as a baptized man he possessed of imparting Baptism ^o others I And he taught that the child or the heathen who learns Christ through the teaching of the heretic cannot be charged with ' defect or disorder ' in the reception of that sacrament to which he comes with fullest faith*, and which it is the will of God to impart to every creature. Though he is excluded from ' fellowship in holy duties with the visible Church,' — the beata vita as Augustine truly calls it — yet of that visible Church he is still a member. Its true image is the great House with all its variety of vessels, and the Cornfield, capable of including for awhile, nay even of producing, not misbe- lievers only, but misdoers *. These teachings of Stephen on the lasting virtue of Baptism were reaffirmed by Augustine with overflowing illustration, but there is no thought in either that Baptism has in it any spell to countervail separation. That would be not liberality but superstition. Whatever evil is in heresy or schism, or in any form or origin of them, is no more purged by Baptism than any ^ Ep. 75. 25 '...pseudochristum, pseu- very wording to have softened Cyprian, doapostolum, dolosum operarium....' Ep. 70. 2. 2 Usurpare eum potestatem bapti- * Although these illustrations are not zandi posse, Ep. 69. 7. quoted among the fragments of Stephen 3 '...homo ad Deum veniens, dum yet they were already in use. Cyprian sacerdotem quaerit, in sacrilegum fraude had perceived their bearing on the case erroris incurrit.' A quotation (from of the Lapsed, though he now failed to Stephen probably) which ought by its apply them more widely. Ep. 55. «i- VIII. III. THE ARGUMENTS — STEPHEN'S. 419 unrenounced sin. As it is no step to salvation, but away from it, if one obtains baptism by a feigned or inconsistent repent- anceS so if another is baptized a foe" to Unity, to the Peace of Christ, to Charity with His Church, these are not conditions for realising the Remission of Sins. The innermost power of baptism is in both men let and hindered, until it matures in fellowship and unity regained. Both need a change'. Both alike must make a more truthful confession*. But both alike have received a consecration, and a 'Stamp of the Lord*,' which protests to them, which makes for reconciliation. The change they need is not another Consecration, but a fulfilment of the former. With that it begins not to be present, but to be profitable, to minister to salvation®; their sins melt away as they enter within the bond of love^ If policy, convenience, interest, taste, jealousy, self-will, carelessness or the like take a man who knows there is but ' One Baptism ' to seek it from a separatist or to continue with him in his separation, those errors of the soul will work their proper effect; his knowledge will not excuse his in- difference to unity. His Baptism is not for his soul's healths But the faithful believer who receives Baptism from the outside teacher when his only other choice is to die unbap- tized against Christ's word, has remission of his sins and all other benefits. He loses nothing. The symbols are lucid. The flood which upbears the ark is deathful to the despisers. Heaven's rain feeds thorns and tares for destruction as well as wheat for the garner'. Yet ^ Aug. de Bapt. c.Donatt. vii. v. (8) haereticum...habentem dominicum cha- ' verbis non factis renuntiantes.' i. xii. racterem.' (18) 'quid, si ad ipsum Baptismum fictus * De Bapt. c. Donatt. vii. liv. (103) accessit?' 'non incipit adesse quod deerat, sed ' Ibid. I. xiii. (21). prodesse quod inerat.' I. xii. (18) 'ad ^ Ibid. VI. xiv. (23). salutem.' < Ibid. I. xii. (18) 'verax confessio.' "^ Ibid. vi. v. (7). ^ Aug. Ep. 98. 5 (ad Bonifacium) ^ /j^^, yil. iii. (5). *quse consecratio reum quidem facit ® /Wt/. vi. xl. (78). 27 — 2 420 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. Euphrates was not hedged in by Paradise. The river of Eden flowed out into the worlds The Church has within every separated communion a something which is all her own'. By that something she bears sons in them to herself. They are not born to others. When they turn homeward they are wholly hers. The only real blot which Cyprian struck was the vulgar, perhaps we ought to say the African, explanation of the laying on of hands in the act of restoration to the Church. If it had meant a first imparting of the Holy Spirit which 'J schismatics could not impart by their own imposition of hands (for unquestionably they too used this rite), then it might be fairly reasoned that their Baptism equally needed renewal. But in reality it had no such meaning. Stephen explains it clearly as a rite 'unto penitence": even Crescens of Cirta as 'a reconciliation in penitence*.' It was not the ,y imparting of the Spirit for the first time ; it was a renovation by the Spirit, an introduction to Communion of a repentant and enlightened ' Child of God.' For ' a Son of God ' throughout, in spite of his theological errors, Stephen de- clares such an one to have been in the full sense^ And it is this very expression which was most offensive at Carthage, and which is cavilled at even in the synodic letter of their second Council® on baptism. There were three intentions (besides that of ordination) with which the imposition of hands was used. It was used I. for what we call Confirmation. 2. for the Reception ^ of Penitents'^. 3. for Exorcism. The second of these is what Stephen clearly brings out as its true meaning in the ^ De Bapt. c. Dottatt. vi. xxi. (37). utroque nascantur, Ep. i^. i: ' filii ■^ Ibid. I. X. (14). Dei' is evidently a quotation. The ^ In poenitentiam, Ep. 74. i. two sacraments are baptism and laying •* Sentt. Epp. 8. on of hands. ' Ep. 74. 6. Compare 75. 17. ^ In which sense it is used in the " Tunc enim demum plene sanctificari Apostolical Constitutions viii. c. 9 tit. et esse ^ filii Dei' possunt si sacramento x"/'*'^*'^^* '^^^ f^X^ {>iripTui> iv nfxavol^. VIII. III. THE ARGUMENTS— STEPHEN'S. 42I reception of schismatics, while Cyprian maintained that it meant the first, and thereon built a logical claim to have Baptism repeated as Confirmation was repeated. Of his extreme partisans, some would even have made it mean the third*, and so treated the schismatic as a demoniac. To some it has seemed not clear that Stephen meant to exclude ' Confirmation ' from the idea. Still he shews no intention whatever to include it; and he uses terms which give to it the other sense. The doubt arises only from the fact that Cyprian* endeavours to fasten that sense upon him, and that we have no reply from his side. Similarly Firmilian infers unfairly, and quite contrarily to Stephen's actual prin- ciple, that if Baptism with its gracious gifts were communi- cable by heretics, no imposition of hands need be used, but that we might unite with them in their prayer-meetings and at the altar and its sacrificel Note on force 0/ Stephen's ^ Nihil innoT.>etur nisi^ Questions have arisen upon the phrase of Stephen 'Si qui ergo a 'quacunque hseresi venient ad vos nihil in?tovetur nisi quod traditum est, 'ut manus illi imponatur in poenitentiam....' Ep-. 74. i. Does Stephen here (i) contemplate a ' Renewal' (innovetur) of something for the convert, but only such a renewal or repetition as Tradition warrants.'' or (2) does he forbid 'Innovation' in the rites, and require Tradition to be main- tained against it.'' — Does the inttovari xvi^^.w 'renovation' or 'innovation'.'' Mattes ( Tubing. Quartalschrift, 1 849, p. 636, ap. Peters, Fechtrup and Hefele) adopts the first, and argues that as Petiance\i2L.% not occurred before, the thing to be renewed is Confirmation. So Hefele declares (B. i. c. i., § 6) that the second could not have been expressed grammatically ^ Sentt. Epp. 7, 8, 3f, 37. others prove nothing. TheMS. author- " Ep. 73. 6, and so Nemesian, Sentt. ity in Cyprian offers Carpos, and an Epp. 5, and Secundinus Bp. of Carpos, inscription a.d. 350 — 361 has kar • pes Sentt. Epp. 24. which Wilmanns would wrongly correct. I may remark that Tissot t. I. p. 164 C. I. L. viii. i. n. 994. See Appendix would correct the name of this place on Cities, p. 575 infra. Greek geo- (which was nearly opposite to Carthage graphers Kd/sTTTj and KdpTriy. Adj. on the gulf) to Carpi : but one of his Carpitanus, Morcelli, I. p. 121. citations from the maritime Itinerary ' Ep. 75. 17, has a Carpos Carthaginem... and the 422 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. except by 'Nihil innovetur, sed quod traditum est observe tur: Peters takes innovetur to mean renewal in the convert, answering to what is implied in laying hands on the sick, in exorcism, and in penance, and holds that it is called 'innovari' because of the imposition of hands used already in Baptism. This he says is ' Grammatical' Fechtrup (p. 225), who sees that the clause 'ut manus imponatur in poenitentiam'' is the expansion of ^quod traditum est,' and yet the act cannot be said *to be renewed,' having never been done before, feels obliged to say that in the *«/«■ quod traditum est * there is an incorrectness of expression, and that even the best authors often write incorrectly. Fortunately it is only the commentators who fail in grammar. Both in Latin and Greek, par- ticles denoting exception introduce not merely what is an exception under some rule laid down, but also any contradiction of it, even the most positive. Thus in Vulg. Matt. v. 13, 'ad nihilum valet ultra nisi ut mittatur foras' does not mean that vapid salt has a value for the one purpose of being thrown away, but that 'it is of no value and can only be treated so.' — *Et multi leprosi erant in Israel suh Elisaeo propheta : et nemo eorum mundatus est nisi Naaman Syrus' (Luc. iv. 27), ';w Israelite was cleansed, but a non-Israelite was.' So Cyprian .£]^. 63. 13 '...Sic vero ' calix Domini non est aqua sola aut vinum solum nisi utrumque sibi ' misceatur, quo modo nee Corpus Domini potest esse farina sola aut aqua '•sola nisi utrumque adunatum fuerit.' 'Each element is not one substance but a compound.' Hence the passage before us 'nihil innovetur nisi quod traditum est' means, in accordance with usage, 'No innovation is to be made, only tradition must be kept to.' Eusebius {H. E. vii. 3) also had these very words before him when he described Stephen as \jli) 8e1v n vedrepov napa ttjv Kpartjaaaav apx^jBev irapadocriv (iriKaivoTOHflv olofifvos; and Cyprian thus sets them aside, 'quasi is innovet qui unum 'baptismauni ecclesiae vindicat, et non ille utique qui...mendacia profanae 'tinctionis usurpat.' Vincent of Lerins [Conutionit. i. 6), who gives the phrase as 'nihil novandum nisi quod traditum est,' explains it ^non sua posteris tradere sed a majoribus accepta servare.' We conclude therefore with certainty that innovetur does not refer to the renewal of anything, but to innovations in the rite, and that the Imposition of Hands which 'tradition' required was that which appertained to the Reception of a Penitent alone. Hefele, in spite of his view of 'grammar,' admits (in a footnote) that this is the interpretation of Christian Antiquity and that the words so understood became a dictum classicum. VIII. IV. ECCLESIASTICAL RESULTS. L UNBROKEN UNITY. 423 IV. Ecclesiastical Results. I. The Unbroken Unity. Of all the legacy of lessons which this remarkable story leaves us, none more strike home than those which spring from the observation that Cyprian had a real point of contact with Novatianism. We have already seen that the Novatianists perceived it. The central idea with both was that the Church must be attainted by, and therefore cannot tolerate, the admixture of elements foreign to her spirit. Such inadmissible element the Novatianists found in those who, having tasted all her gifts, forsook her and forswore them. In the case of the Lapsed, however, Cyprian detected the fallacy. He would not, like Novatian, leave them to be reconciled in some unpenetrated region. To him they were still the Church's reconcilable chil- dren ; not really such aliens as many wilful offenders within her\ To himself however the bounds of the visible Church were marked by historic lines — lines divinely drawn with perfect definiteness and unfailingly preserved for the guidance and security of all. Without the action of the Catholic ministry of the one episcopate there could be no effective Communion, and no admission within even her outer courts. For who was to admit .-* The moral qualities or the correct beliefs of the individual were irrelevant to the solely constitutional question, Has he been made a member of the visible Church .-' According to Novatian, Renouncement of Communion annulled membership for ever. According to Cyprian, un- catholic Baptism never conferred it. We are not required to appraise the two errors. But the grand difference is here. Cyprian's historic lines, which misunderstood had baffled him, when rightly interpreted corrected him. Novatian with his unsoftened character broke from them without remorse, laid new ones down, and made all converge upon himself. The 1 Ep. 55. 21. 424 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. ECCLESIASTICAL Divine idea which Cyprian saw in History, the Unity and Love which underlay the scheme of it, would not suffer him, though opposing the claims of heretics, to dissolve the ties with one single diocese, much less with all. However erroneously any see and its prelate might decide, it was inconceivable that he should break with the brethren. The heart of Love kept him straight where the logical mind went astray. So Novatian became a sect ; not untruthful, but hard and barren : died after a while and left no seed. The great Church held her way, and every generation as it swept its sands over Cyprian's error bore stronger witness to the power of Cyprian's passion for unity. Whilst he seems almost dearer because he could not be perfect, the perfectness of that passion of his is still unrealised, and too often unfelt. Although the Roman Church took wider views than Cyprian of so great a matter as Man's Sonship to God, yet, as to the possibility and duty of union in diversity, he held a practical theory which Rome never mastered. Augustine, who says he never wearied of re-reading the 'peace-bestowing utterances" of the end of the Epistle to Jubaian^ draws out the noble independence of thought and action which Cyprian willed to maintain without bigotry or exclusion — Every bishop free to judge for himself; none to suffer separation for their thoughts ; therefore everyone to be tender of the bond of peace. Salvo jure communionis diversa sentirc. 2. The Baptismal Councils failed doctrinally — and why ? Unity then was not broken. Yet what is the conclusion to be drawn from the spectacle of these Carthaginian assem- blies } To some it might seem discouraging. Can it be accounted for by the incidents of these assemblies ? 1 De Bapt. c. Donatt. v. xvii. (ii). - Ep. 73. 26. VIII. IV. 2. RESULTS. THE COUNCILS FAILED. — WHY? 425 A Province may be too large to form a real Synod. There are Provinces of to-day whose very extent, forbidding^ even attendances, throws decisions into the hands of a metro- political party. Bishops may be too numerous for the area. There may be more positions of influence than there are men born or drawn to fill them. In such cases the numbers outweigh the able men, or they fall under the power of politic men. A leader who combines fervour with policy sweeps them head- long. But the degree in which these causes as yet existed at Carthage is not sufficient to account for the doctrinal failure. They were exceptionally modified by the independence ex- pected of the bishops and by the earnestness of the times. The Councils were neither deficient nor excessive numeri- cally, nor were they created for the sake of their suffrages, nor were they packed. They were under no State pressure. They were not recalcitrating at any state tribunal. The question was a broad one. They were not trying a teacher or judging a leader. They were looking for principles. Seldom could personal elements be so nearly eliminated. Again, they were really representative. Each bishop was the elect of his flock. None of the Councils was senile or too youthful. The members were not drawn from seminary or cloister. They were men of the world, who in a world of freest discussion had become penetrated with Christian ideas : seldom ordained, sometimes not Christianised till late in life. Their chief was one in whom mental and political ability were rarely blended ; rarely tempered with holiness, self-discipline and sweetness. Such was that house of bishops. The result it reached was uncharitable, anti-scriptural, uncatholic — and it was unanimous. A painful issue. Yet in another respect, the moral is for us encouraging. The mischief was silently healed and per- 426 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. ECCLESIASTICAL fectly. And how ? By no counter-council — for later decrees merely register the reversal — but by the simple working of the Christian Society. Life corrected the error of thought. Is there then no need of Christian assemblies } no hope in them, or of them } Is the Church a polity unique in this sense, that without counsel it can govern itself, without de- liberation meet the changing needs of successive centuries ? To how great an extent even this may hold true we read in the disappearance of the Cyprianic judgments. Nor can any- thing be more consonant with our belief in the indwelling Spirit of the Church ; nothing more full of comfort as we look on bonds still seemingly inextricable, and on steps as yet irretraceable. But nevertheless if no reasonable mind questions the neces- sity of Councils, in spite of the gloomy moral and doctrinal history of whole centuries of them, may it be the case that their constitution has been incomplete, and that the so early ill success of Cyprian's Councils in particular was a primaeval warning of the defect ? The Laity were silent. Yet we cannot but deem that it was among them principally that there were in existence and at work those very principles which so soon not only rose to the surface but overruled for the general good the voices of those councillors. Each Council was a parliament of head officials; a governing body composed of provincial governors, whose irresponsibility, save in the forum of their own con- science, had more and more become Cyprian's axiom and theirs. Were these bodies divinely constituted for the great object of 'guidance into truth'.'' were they the very Church in its * doctrinal capacity,' the living Church to which The Presence was promised ? It has been held that they were and ever are. Yet whatever false strands have been inwoven with Catholic doctrine have been introduced by such bodies alone. These particular judgments were, according to the whole Church VIII. IV. 2. RESULTS. THE COUNCILS FAILED. — WHY? 427 Catholic, greatly perverse. They were even then contrariant to the Church opinion which surrounded them and quietly prevailed over them. That this was so may be inferred from several considerations: i. from the determined unanimity of the Council : the eighty-seven sentences voiced only one oracle. 2. from the avowal of two among the number that they were incompetent to form an opinion, yet they did not abstain from voting, but voted with the majority. 3. from the evidence which the Book on Rebaptism gives of a power- ful and informed opinion existing yet unrepresented. 4. from the silent reversal of the decision. It is true that in and from the second century Synods of Bishops were the rule. But all that we know tends to the conclusion that it was no ' derogation of antient custom to admit others than bishops to be members of a synod \' The custom of admitting laity was dying out under Cyprianl It had been no new experiment of his. The second and even the third centuries preserved traces of their old admission. The intrusion of the words ' and the ' into the text of the Con- ciliar letter of Jerusalem, * The apostles and the presbyters and the brethren greeting...,' shews that at the time when they were added ^ it did not seem so impossible that the laity should have consulted even with apostles ; that they had in reality been consulted appears from the narrative, ' It was determined by the apostles and the elders together with the whole Church^ unless this is thought to be rhetoric. Irenaeus writes a very ^rave decision on the keeping of Easter ' in the name of the ^ Hefele's assertion. Introd. §4, 5. Cann. Eccl. Afr.c. 100, cf. c. 91. Acta ^ It seems that in later African Coun- Purgationis Felicis ap. Optat. ed. Ziwsa cils seniores plebis were at times con- (Vienn. 1893), Appendix t^. 198. suited. This may be a relic of the ^ Acts xv. 23. Tischendorf although early usage, but the shadowy character he retained koX 01. in Ed. 7, omits it in of the facts only illustrates its practical Ed. 8, and it is omitted by Lachmann, disappearance, and does not support Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, and Re- Miinter's view of the democratic aspect vised Vers., with ABX*CD, Vulg. all. ■of that church. Primordia Eccl. Afr. ISo^e = Decretum est, Placuit, Acts xv. (Hafhise, 1829), pp. 41, 51. See Cod. 22. 428 THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION. ECCLESIASTICAL brethren whom he presided over throughout Gaul\' Is it supposed that he had not obtained their judgment? A very early writer' speaks of the formal condemnation of Montanism by Councils, ' The faithful throughout Asia * having met for this purpose, many times, and in many places ' in Asia, and having examined the novel arguments, 'and 'demonstrated their profanity, and having rejected the ' heresy.' It seems impossible that ' the faithful ' should not include the laity, and the question is of doctrine, subtle doc- trine. Origen, in a passage which would not be conclusive if it stood alone, uses an expression which, side by side with others, hints that the consultation of the laity by the bishops,, though disused in his day, had its place in the traditions of the past as well as in reason. * Moses sought the counsel 'of Jethro, though an alien to the Jewish race. But wJiat ' bishop in the present day . . condescends to take the counsel 'of an inferior priest even, much more of a layman, or a 'Gentile^?' He has been showing that the 'counsel of the Gentiles' was to be learnt from their great authors, and apparently some practical way of consulting presbyters and laity was not unknown to him. But the earlier Cyprianic letters themselves are distinct as to the propriety and duty of recognising and including a not silent laity in the Councils of the Church. It cannot be admitted that Cyprian meant to consult the laity on only personal, individual questions, such as enquiries into the fitness of private persons to be restored to com- munion ^ That is very far from what he says when, for ^ Euseb. H. E. v. 24 U Trpoffunov wv Euseb. v. 16 made this clear. i)ye'iT0KaTa.Ti]vTa\\iat>a.5e\tpwviin De Bono Patientue i. - De B. Pat. 2. IX. I. SECRET OF CONDUCT — 'DE BONO PATIENT!^' 439 Accordingly, writing to Jubaian', he says, 'So far as in ' us lies, we are not, for the sake of heretics, going to contend ' with colleagues and fellow-bishops : with them I keep 'Divine concord and the Lord's peace In patience and * gentleness we hold fast by charity of spirit, by the honour ' of our college, by the bond of faith, by concord within the * episcopate. 'To this end I have just composed a small book on * The Good of Patience, to the best of my small powers, under ' the permission and inspiration of the Lord.' Under this simple heading, which appears in the pamphlet itself also*, and which is caught up from a passing touch of Tertullian's^ he develops his new chapter of Christian Ethics. Were it not thus dated and motived by himself*, its determined exclusion of the least provoking allusion — an example of its own teaching not always to be reckoned on in eirenica — might have left both motive and date doubt- ful. That his auditors are subject to persecutions not only from Jews and Gentiles but from separatists also is its nearest reference to circumstances ^ No word about the ' college of bishops ' here, nor of any discord within it. But what is the ^Patience' which Cyprian desires to evoke? Patience was that element which Cicero combines with the Realisation of High Ideals, with Self-Reliance and with Perseverance, to complete the notion of Fortitude. And he thus defines it" : 'It is the voluntary and long-continued ' endurance of hardship and difficulty for ends of honour and ' usefulness.' Was this what Cyprian longed to see becoming a more ^ Ep. 73. 26. word. 'Unde sic Patientiam discere- 2 De B. Pat. 19. mus?' Vit. c. 7. ' Tert. de Pat. i. ^ Bonum ejus {pa- " De B. Pat. 21. tienti(E) etiara qui cseci vivunt summoe ® De Inv. ii. 54 *Fortitudo...ejus virtutis appellatione honorant.' partes : Magnificentia, Fidentia, Pa- * Pontius alludes to it in a single tientia, Perse verantia.' 440 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. active principle in the Church ? No. Martyrdom and Con- fessorship had more than fulfilled this ideal. The Tracts and Epistles of Seneca are not unlike Cyprian's in their purpose of raising the moral tone of society. And in Seneca a certain humanity, a certain spirituality, breaks in upon his Stoic paradox on all sides. He sees * a kinship and a likeness ' between God and good men. He regards the originally good as ' a true progeny ' of God, and their worldly afflictions as ' a lovingly severe edu- cation.' It is in their 'power of Patience' (endurance) that the 'might of virtue is shewn'; and it is 'by Patience that the spirit comes at last to contemn the power of evils \' But Seneca finds the perfection and the reward of Patience in a habitual joyous Pride in self, with a pleasant contempt for undisciplined mindsl He attains to the paradox that herein man has the advantage of God — that while God stands only ' outside the endurance of evils, man stands above that endurance V It was something more than this antique virtue that Cyprian perceived. There was a new thing in the world, a gift of God, the impartment of a something out of God's own nature, and so a certain seal of Sonship *. Patience is of the Father, and ' the sons must not degenerate^ The perfection ' of the sons is the restoration of the original likeness of the ' Father in the manifestation of His patience.' ' Perseverance in Sonship' is the imitation of the Father's patience. What then is the new spirit which now enters into the old word^? 1 Seneca, Dial. I. i. 5; ii. 4, 7; iv. ^ Sen. I?ia/. I. vi. 6. 6j 13. •* Cum Deo virtus ista communis... 2 Sen. Dial. 11. ix. 3 'inde tam erectus Deo auctore, De£. Pat. 3;. ..Dei res, 5. Iretusque est, inde continue gaudio •"' De B. Pat. 3, 5, 20. elatus.' xiv. i 'o quantus inter ista risus ^ Dr Peters gives a wordy, incom- toUendus est ; quanta voluptate implen- petent account of this treatise, which dus animus ex alienorum errorum tu- he characterizes as very easy to under- multu contemplanti quietem suam.' stand, — as it is, if the exceeding diffi- IX. I. SECRET OF CONDUCT — * DE BONO PATIENTIM.' 44 1 Cyprian does not verbally distinguish the aspect of the virtue regarded as t/te power which bears from that of th& power which forbears ; the sufferance of calamity from the repression of the desire to avenge oneself Both unite in his Patientia. In the New Testament we commonly have two words for these two aspects, * endurance ' {hypomone), for the former ; ' long-suffering, tolerance ' {macrothymia), for the latter. ' The former is opposed to cowardice or despondency, the ' other to wrath or revenge. The former is closely allied to ' hope, the latter is commonly connected with mercy\' But in Aristotle the former is the child of unmanliness or cowardice; and Cyprian points out that the philosophies, whether Stoic or Cynic*, which exercised it did not, in theory or in practice, aim at either htimility or mildness, but were essentially self-satisfying and severe ^ But humility and mildness are to the Christian grace essential*. The second aspect of Patience {macrothymia) places itself culty, which Cyprian himself points out, that Humility is thus essential to its of correlating heathen and Christian idea a delicate analysis from Prof. virtues, is ignored. H. Sidgwick's article on Ethics in En- 1 Bp. Lightfoot on Col. i. 11, adding cyd. Brit, (ixth ed.), v. Vlii. p. 591 a: that the distinction is not without ex- 'The far greater prominence (of Hu- ception. mility) under the new dispensation 2 It is Cynicism which TertuUian may be partly referred to the ex- has in view in the parallel passage of press teaching and example of Christ ; his De Fat. ii. ' affectatio humana ca- partly, in so far as the virtue is mani- ninse aequanimitatis stupore formata. ' fested in the renunciation of external •■' De B. Pat. 2. rank and dignity, or the glory of merely ■* Arist. J?Aet. ii. 6 airb avavdpiai yap secular gifts and acquirements, it is 7) deiXlas i) viroixovT)...2.nA classical pa- one aspect of the unworldliness which /rWw/'/a was never clear of the slur. See we have already noticed; while the Tac. Agric. 16 ' (Britanniam) unius deeper humility that represses the claim praslii fortuna veteri patkntue restituit.' of personal merit even in the saint be- Cyprian [De B. Pat. 2) derives both longs to the strict self-examination, the these ideas, of the falsa sapientia and continual sense of imperfection, the of the essential thought of Christian utter reliance on strength not his own, Patience as humilis and mitis, from which characterize the inner moral life Tertullian's passing observations in his of the Christian. Humility in this latter c. xvi. and c. xii. Let me here quote sense 'before God' is an essential con- in support of the view of Cyprian dition of all truly Christian goodness.' 442 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. in no contradiction to Justice. Theophylact* describes 'The Long-suffering man ' as inflicting justice * after abundant deliberation, not in sharp haste, but tardily' — a view which we may illustrate from Plutarch's beautiful book ' Of God's tardy judgments,' where he says that, as a means of pro- ducing likeness to God, the contemplation of God's gentle- ness will not be ineffective, as one observes ' how lingeringly 'and leisurely He does justice even on the wicked, not 'that He is afraid lest He should Himself chastise over 'hastily and have to repent, but because He would cure our ' savagery and vehemence of vengeance, and teach us not ' to spring in anger on those who hurt us, whilst our wrath ' burns and throbs and is convulsed, as if we were glutting 'thirst or famine; but, imitating His mildness and delays, ' orderly, regretfully, and taking into our counsels Time, who ' is least likely to be visited with repentances, so to set our ' hands to justice ^' By this excellent passage we see that what Cyprian adds to the idea is the resolution which, when we ourselves suffer for conscience' sake, commits the whole cause unreservedly to God ; and this it is which makes of Christian patience an active power and an attribute of deity. Tertullian, while giving the same counsel, ends his treatise with one glance at ' the fire beneath ' which awaits ' false patience ' as it awaits all other falsities. But to Cyprian such a thought is not a hope but a dread certainty, and the God to whom he bids the Christian commit his cause is, as he reminds him, One Who has not yet thought it necessary to avenge either Himself or His Slain Son or His persecuted Church. We proceed to speak of the Form in which was brought out the necessity of this fresh Virtue to the Church's life. 1 Theophylact. Bulgar. Ad Galatt. rrira Kal ttji/ /jLiXXTjcriv, ev rd^et Kai fier' V. 22. ^/i/u.eXe£as, rbv ■IJKKTTa fieravolq. irpoaoi- 2 Plut. de sera nitminis vindicta, v. a6fievo» -xfidvov Ix*"''''*^ aiin^ovkou ...dXXd /ufwvjjjvovi TTjy iKtlvov irpq.b- Cf. Thuc. iv. i8. \> IX. I. SECRET OF CONDUCT — ' DE BONO PATIENTIM.' 443 Although it comes to us in the shape of an Essay for devotional study it bears marks of having been originally an Address to some audience \ It begins with thoughts and illustrations derived from his ' Master's ' tract on the same subject, shuns his harsh views, avoids his mistakes, and misses his picturesqueness. It is charged with sweeter and truer notions of Life in God. And in a way quite unlike the specimens of remodelling which we have examined hitherto, it avoids verbal coin- cidences even when they seem inevitable. r yWhile Tertullian starts from himself with a sharp gird at his own feverish impatient nature *, which disqualifies and yet fits him to discourse on the topic, Cyprian begins with his audience, and with the occasion for the virtue of which he is to speak, which they will find in listening to himself [Cyprian proceeds (as we saw) to indicate the need of a new and Christian doctrine concerning a virtue lauded and misrepresented in other systems — a fact about them which c. 2 Tertullian in one breath accepts as homage and resents as impertinence '. j But ours is a Patience of Life, of Action, not of Specula- tion— a part of God's own Nature and Self which passes c. 4 with His Divine Being into all His Sons, and belongs to c. 5 the restoration of the lost likeness. Respondere Natalibus is still Cyprian's motto as in the days of the plague*, and as he lovingly presses home our ^ If any editor has noted this it tram patientiam video esse necessariam, escapes me. Even Augustine calls it ut nee ipsum quod auditis et discitis, an Epistola, c. Duas Epp. Pelagg. iv. sine patientia facere possitis. Tunc viii, (22). Yet the opening phrases enim demum sermo et ratio salutaris indicate that it was orally delivered. efficaciter discitur, si patienter quod They are too fUU, and would be too dicitur andiatur. ' De B. Pat. i. flat, for a metaphor to readers. ' De ^ Semper aeger caloribus impatientiae. patientia locuturus, fratres dilectissimi, Tert. de Pat. i. et utilitates ejus et commoda pmdi- ^ Tert. de Pat. c. i. caturus, unde potius incipiam, quam * Pont. Vit. 9. quod nunc quoque ad audientiam ves- 444 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. Sonship and its obligation, he shews himself a better master of motive than his Master, who, at this section of the subject, only represents to us the obedient patience of our slaves and our animals, and the suitableness of our rendering the like to the Giver of such comforts \ c. 4. The Patience of the Father is displayed through ages in the gifts of nature to the idolatrous nations, in all the delays, all the opportunities He allows : the Patience of c, 6. the Son is shewn in His eternal preparation for man's sal- vation, in every act of His manhood and passion, full of c. 7. power as of suffering, — power which (in exorcism) still visibly tames the spiritual foe — and is displayed too in the opening c. 8. wide of His Church to the return of the sinf idlest. In this last clause we have not merely an allusion to his own con- troversies, but a deliberate broadening out of the spirit of TertuUian, from whom this argument * Of the Patience of c. 9. God ' is wholly derived ^ though much expanded. He concludes this section by alleging from S. Peter and S. John the immense necessity of an Imitation of Christ along with c. 10. the personal Types of His patience offered by Abel and the Patriarchs, by Joseph and Moses, by David in his ' great and marvellous and Christian patience ' with Saul, and by the Martyrs and Prophets of the old Covenant. Here then we must not miss his doctrine that, while ethnic patience before Christ was worse than nothing, Jewish patience was perfect to the full extent to which types can be perfect : Theirs was a prefiguring of His. cc. II— 17. The next main division of the subject is the Necessity and Utility of Patience under the conditions of Humanity 1 Tert. de Pat. iv. in the expression that He was led 'ad "Details of imitation crop up in victimam^ {"]). levi.de Pat.\n.{y/h.\c\x the statement of our Lord's baptism however appears elsewhere in Cyprian's 'a servo' [De B. Pat. 6) in the remark reading of Es. liii. 7 [Testitn. Ii. 15], that He never betrayed Judas' name cf. De B. Pat. 23. Hartel with Cod. throughout his discipleship (6) ; perhaps Seg. reads ad cruceni). IX. I. THE 'PATIENCE' OF TERTULLIAN AND CYPRIAN. 445 in its falP. The tears of the new-born child initiate a state c n. of troubles in which the Christian has the fullest share ; Patience is his one prospect of dealing with them ; nor can he find any other road to such special ' Truth ' and * Free- dom ' as are promised him, nor into that Faith, Hope, and Perseverance, which form the subjective part of his religion ; nor yet find any other rampart of the Purity, Honesty, and c. 14. Innocence which he guards. Of Charity which is Christianity in essence, and of the c. 15. Peacefulness, which so palpably differences Christian from heathen society ^ Patience and Tolerance are the substantial substratum ^ This section of Cyprian's is also built on Tertullian. Far less orderly and regular but far more picturesque and Tert. de striking is Tertullian's handling. Tertullian finds the Necessity for Patience in the obligations of accepting Christ's view of riches, bearing our losses and distributing our largesses Christianly; in the necessity of taking Christ's view of in- viii. juries, though here his hot spirit cannot forego a distinct satisfaction in the surprise and disappointment with which our patience must afflict our enemies ; in the necessity of ix. a nobler view of the death of friends ; in the necessity for x. surrendering all vengeance into the hand of God. We have to bear alike the results of our own misdoing, the plots xi. of the Evil One *, and the corrections of God ; we have to become 'humble and mild.' 1 Augustine, c. Dnas Epp. Pelagg. iv. * Tertullian uses Malus as the equi- viii. (22), points out the irreconcilable- valent of 6 ttovt/p^j. Certemus igitur quae ness of this passage (c. ii)andofc. 17 a Malo infliguntur sustinere. Again: as shewing what Cyprian understood by Quaqua ex parte, aut erroribus nostris, 'all have sinned' with any Pelagian aut Mali insidiis, aut admonitionibus opinion. Domini intervenit usus, ejus officii 2 Compare Cyprian's first experience magna merces.... De Pat. xi., cf. xiv. of this in ad Donatum, 14, with this 'dissecabatur Malus.' On the use in which is his last. general see Bp. Lightfoot on Revision * ...patientiae et tolerantias firmitate. of the N.T. (ed. 3), App. 11. p. 294. {De B. Pat. i6.) 446 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. Tert. de Peacefulness *, Forgivingness, The continuance of Single life after Divorce, Earnestness in Repentance, are the steps of the climax which, like his scholar, he finds and dwells on with delight in S. Paul's perfect analysis of Charity*. And then each has his characteristic corollary : Tertullian strangely — that we have so far spoken only of ' a simple uniform Patience, merely in the heart'; but that she further has a ' multiform function in the body — toiling to deserve xiii. the Divine favour.' This function is Asceticism. 'The 'afflicting of the flesh is a placatory victim unto the Lord ' through the sacrifice of humiliation ; offering squalor with ' stint of rations ' to the Lord ; content with plain food ' and pure water, joining fast to fast, growing into sackcloth ' and ashes.' Of this satisfaction Nebuchadnezzar was an example, though not of the highest order ; and throughout every stage of pain, self-inflicted or enforced by the persecutor, patience is the minister of power. This chapter with its extravagant teachings finds no counterpart in Cyprian, and while it indicates its author's tendencies even in his orthodox years, it instances also how uncatholic fashions in the Catholic Church arise not from her true fathers, but are the inventions of sectarian geniuses. While Tertullian's corollary is the very wildness of self- maceration, Cyprian's is that noble doctrine of Probation of which the English Church philosopher has been the chief c. 17. exponent*. * Tertullian (xii.) speaks of the diffi- sordes' would surely be too violent for culty which a son of impatience finds Tertullian, even if he tolerated the in forgiving seventy times seven times. heathen metaphor of libation, which Cyprian (16) passingly alludes to the he nowhere does, and surely could not. need for forgiving not numerically but I venture to suggest litat. Compare universally. Tert. de Pat. c. x. 'Quem autem ho- ■•' Caritas is Cyprian's rendering, Di- norem litabimus Domino Deo ' ; adv. lectio Tertullian's in i Cor. xiii. 4. Valent. ii. ' Infantes testimonium Christi 3 Tert. de Pat. xiii. 'cum sordes cum sanguine litaverunt.' angustia victus domino libat.'' ^Libare * Cyprian's examples of patience are IX. I. THE * patience' OF TERTULLIAN AND CYPRIAN. 447 The ' Necessity of Patience ' is in TertuUian prefaced, T. dc P. v. and in Cyprian followed up, by an enquiry into the ' Origin,' De B. P. or, as TertuUian has it, the 'Parentage,' of Impatience \ '^^ '^* Both assign its genesis to the same cause — The Devil's Envy of Man. The older writer dwells with acerbity on woman's part in the Fall. All falls are traced to the same source down to Israel's choice of ' profane guiding gods",' to the massacres of prophets, and (says Cyprian) to all the falls of the heretics in his own day. But TertuUian has ^ 1 . de P.sS.. beautiful contrast of the genesis of Patience in the Faith of Abraham and of her perfecting in Christ's doctrine of the Love of Enemies. Yet again Cyprian, rarely borrowing his words', follows De B. p. and enlarges his Master's list of the Effects of Patience in ^'deP.-av. generating the altruism of the Christian communities and their persevering work for the world through every keen discouragement — as 'sons of the Father.' At the last, the Master rises into the most beautiful T.deP.xv. passage in all his writings, impersonating her beauty like a Catherine of Raffaelle. ' Her countenance still and calm, ' brow pure, no wrinkledness from mourning or from anger ' to pucker it, eyebrows evenly smoothed for joyousness, eyes ' downcast in lowliness not unhappiness, lips sealed with all 'the dignity of silence; her complexion that of free hearts ' and innocent ; she shakes her head at the Accuser, her smile ' threatens him ; about her bosom her amice lies white and ' folded close, unpuffed, unruffled ; for she sitteth upon the theLord'spacificcalm,Stephen,Job,and him to employ Job's wife. But with Tobias; Tertullian's (De Pal. xiv.) are fine pathos, after calling him 'Dives in theEsaiasoftradition, Stephen, and Job. censu dominus, et in liberis pater Tertullian's details of the wife and the ditior,' he says 'nee dominus repente /^«/w/£2 are borrowed by Cyprian.but not nee pater est.' De B. Pat. 1^. his strange mistake that Job's children ^ Exordia, Cyprian ; Natales, Ter- were never replaced, and that he as- tuUian. cetically preferred to live alone. C)rprian ^ Profanos deos...itineris sui duces. cannot refrain from supposing that ' T. divitem temperat. — C. coercet Satan's success through Eve encouraged potentiam divitum. 448 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. * throne of that gentlest, kindest Spirit who rolls not in the ' whirlwind, nor blackens in the cloud, but is ever of a tender 'clearness, open and singlehearted, the Spirit whom in his 'third vision, Elias saw. For where God is, there also is His ' foster-child, even Patience.' So he writes, and then, as if impatient of Patience herself, f he dashes suddenly into a wild invective against the 'patience 'l.de Pat. ' of the Gentiles of the earth — a false, a criminal patience, taught I ' them by Satan's self, emulating God. Patient of every shame 'for gold's sake, patient of rivals, plutocrats, dinner-givers — ; 'impatient of God alone...' For this patience there waits ; only fire. ...'We, we must offer the patience of the spirit, I ' the patience of the flesh. We believe in the resurrection of ' flesh and of spirit.' — He ends. Cyprian's conclusion is as different as may be and as characteristic. 'AH retributions to be let alone by man. They De B.Pat, belong to God, saith Prophecy. / have held my peace : shall CC« 2 1 22. I hold my peace for ever^f... The silent Lamb of the Passion cc. 23, 24. is the Judge who will not keep silence. He who avenges riot Himself, who so long avenges not His slain Son — shall His servants, with unscrupulous, unblushful precipitation vindicate themselves before He is vindicated .-' Rather, work on, stedfast in tolerance, and in the "Day of Wrath-" stand with the just and the godfearing.' 2. 'Of Jealousy and Envy.' The Tractate 'of Jealousy and Envy,' which long remained abroad as well as at home a famous and popular 'epistle^' ^ Isai. xlii. 14. E. V. 'I have long earliest theological use of this title. Is time holden my peace ; I have been still it taken from Rom. ii. 5? and refrained myself.' H. Ewald: ' Ich ^ Epistola populis nota, Aug. d. Bapt. schwieg — soil ich auf ewig verstummen c. Donn. iv. viii. (11). — '...librum... an mich halten?' Die Propheten d. Alt. valde optimum,' Hieron. Comment, in Bundes. (1840), v. 11. p. 420. Ep. ad Galatt. 1. iii. c. 5. * '///^ Irce et vindictae Dies^ is the IX. 2. SECRET OF CONDUCT — ' DE ZEI.O ET LIVORE.' 449 belongs to nearly the same time ; but as it is unmen- tioned in the letter to Jubaian it came out probably a little later, although before the recommencement of persecution \ This too is motived by the dread that in the official life of the Church fresh fields were opening to commonplace passions. Their outer activity might be checked by the rules of the society, yet the religion would miss its end if it left Christian hearts to be ridden over so secretly by that mysterious Being whose energy Cyprian recognised in the constant depravation of good as fast as it arose ^ These are some now visible effects of ' blinding jealousy.' 'There is a breaking of the bond of the Lord's peace, a ' violence done to brotherly charity, there is a corrupting ' of truth, a dividing of unity, a dashing into heresies and ' schisms, (and it will continue) so long as there is this cavil- ' ling at chief priests, this envying at the bishops, — any man ' complaining aloud at not having been preferred for conse- ' cration, or disdaining to submit to another's prelacy. Hence ' one "lifts up the heel"; hence one rebels, proud out of jealousy, ' crooked out of rivalry, a foe through enmity and envy not to ' the man but to his office.' Maximus, Felicissimus, Novatus, still more Novatian, may have passed before his mind's eye as he wrote^; but it was the general condition of factiousness which had to be probed in order to be healed. Such is the motive. The purpose then is in continuance of his plan of analysing and developing the new school of life. And in this his last treatise he boldly feels after a more searching and more formative discipline of the conscience than hitherto. He goes to the foundations of spiritual self-knowledge. ^ This may be fairly inferred from Will of Evil, the character of the exhortation in c. ' This passage (c. 6) and that in 16. c. 12 (p. 454) below must I think be - Observe in this treatise the constant taken as a grave incidental judgment on reference of phenomena to a Living Novatian's motives. B. 29 450 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. c. I. It is upon the 'dark and hidden devastation' which 'lurk- ingly affects unwary minds' that he focuses the new light. c. 3. ' The darts rain thickest from the ambushes. The more ' hidden and clandestine the archery the more fatal it is. Let ' us awake to understand it.' And so through the whole treatise. c. 6. It is to 'the recesses of the mind,' 'the unhappiness which is c. 7. * in the secret places of the heart,' 'the wounds deeply lodged c. 9- ' within the hiding-places of the conscience,' that he directs men's own observation. And so with the course of remedy which he applies. It is the inner life of the conscience to which the great organizer addresses himself in the last issue. c. 15. Itisthe 'Deifica Disciplina' — the 'Discipline that divinises' — which must, which only can, complete our soul's 'Birth unto God.' The first question, 'How am I to hold the grace once c. 16. given against the most secret and fatal of inner assaults.?' he answers thus : — By meditations — by exercises spiritual — Reading, Thought, Prayer, Works of Charity. ' For not the ' days of martyrdom alone are the days of coronation for c. 17. 'God's warriors. Peace too has her crowns^' 'But how to attain them ' is the next question, ' if Jealousy and Envy have been long dominant in me'^?' ' It is possible still,' he replies. ' The inner accurate search- ing and weeding of the heart . . The sweetening of bitterness. The Sacrament of the Cross, with its food and wine.. The imitation of good men, or, if at present that seems impossible, sympathy with them, and delight in the happiness of others.' So nearly and so effectively does he reach the idea of an enchiridion that he concludes with suggesting topics for frequent reflection, and especially that one which in all times has been found most potent, ' The Practice of the c. 18. Presence of God.' ^ Divina nativitas. Deifica disciplina '^ ...tu etiam possis qui fueras zelo et (c. 15). Corroborandus, firmandus ani- livore possessus... (c. 17). mus (c. 16). IX. 2. SECRET OF CONDUCT — ' DE ZELO ET LIVORE." 45 1 Superficially unlike, this is in some respects the most Cyprianic of Cyprian's tracts. It is broadly practical, and it is defective in scientific analysis of the passion to be subdued, though he rightly, like Clement of Rome, detects it to be the most fatal of all to Church-life. We will now ascertain his notion as to what Zehcs and Livor are, and conclude with his ideal of the opposite temper: an ideal perhaps never more perfectly realised (never cer- tainly by any controversialist) than in himself \ The Title ' De Zelo et Livore ' leads us to expect some- thing of logical distinction. But the ' et Livore' proves to be rather a substitute for an epithet to explain in what sense he means to use ' Zelus-.' For in Aristotle Zelos has none but a good sense — 'a reasonable quality in reasonable men,' for it is ' a kind of ' pain at a visible presence of good and precious gifts, possible ' for oneself to attain ; a pain not because another hath them, ' but because oneself hath not^' It is this classical sense which CEcumenius well puts when he* calls it ' an enthusiastic move- ' ment of soul towards something, with some attempt to ' resemble what it so earnestly affects.' But such noble emulation may be depraved in two ways, by a desire to engross the perceived good, or by the mere base wish that the owner had it not. This antiently was Phthonos, the ' mean passion of the mean,' ' pain at another's good,' 'apart from any hope of obtaining it"'; or, as Plutarch, ^ Augustine has caught this. Cy- " D. Brutus, who was a lover of un- prian says (c. 13) 'eum posse fcrZ/a/ifw fashionable words, is seemingly the tenere, quisque magnanimus fuerit et only prae-Augustan who uses livor (Cic. benignus et zeli ac livoris alienits.' Epistt. ad Fatn. xx. 10, i). Augustine says, 'Vere decuit Cypria- ■* Rhet. ii. ti. num de zelo ac livore et arguere graviter ■* CEcumen. Comment, in Ep. Cath. et monere, a quo tarn mortifero malo cor Jacob, iii. 14. ejus penitus a//V««;« tanta c«nVa/w abun- ^ Aristot. /. c, and ii. 10, yA) tvo. n dantia comprobavit : qua vigilantissime avrQ, dXXd. 5i' iKelvovs. Cf. ...Xvtttjv custodita, &c.' De Bapt. c. Donatt. IV. eV dXXorptois a.ya.Boh. Diog. Laert. viii. II. vii. i. (in). 29 — 2 452 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. 'simply against those who seem to prosper,... against those who seem to advance in excellence'.' Again Cicero, who proposed for clearness' sake to call the active feeling invidentia, further cleared the definition by adding that the envied well- being is such as to be unhurtful to the envious*. But amid the falling esteem which the new ethics intro- duced for all qualities which tended to emphasize or even pronounce that Ego, which had hitherto been the world's centre, the idea that was in Zeltis declined. At once in S. Paul its workings take rank with those of enmity and con- tention ^ Jerome still notes the double use, the noble and the base. But Cyprian had placed it wholly on the level of Phthonos. He begins by coupling it with Livor and his first words run thus, ' To be jealous {zelare) of the good you see, ' and to envy {invidere) better men is held by some a slight 'and trivial crime"*.' In reality it is one of the deadliest be- cause one of the most secret of our temptations. Its origin, c. 4. he proceeds, like that of Impatience', is in the will of Satan. It was the sight of the Image of God in Man which gave the occasion. ' He, throned in angel majesty, he well-pleasing 'and dear to God, he was foremost to perish and to destroy... ' He brake out into Jealousy {zelus) through malevolent Envy ^ {livor)... Wt snatched from man the grace of his imparted ' immortality, and himself lost all that he once had been.' c. 5. Man had caught the infection ; yet, as Cyprian seems to mean, it was not in the first-fallen that its power appeared. It was in the ' primal hatreds of fresh brotherhood ' ; and down from Abel to the delivery of the Christ ' through envy,' Cyprian touches the great Jewish instances. ^ Plut. de Odio et Invidia, vi. ...roh Cf. iii. 9. 20. ImSXov ^jt' dper-g vpoUvai 8oKovax and caritas, and is Cyprian, as a moralist, uses zelus as the the contrary of the unanimis et viitis most comprehensive term, livor (unkind) character, or invidia (mean) as its immediate de- " Vultus minax . . pallor in facie, in velopment, and amulatio as a specific labiis tremor c. 8. activity. The following are illustrations. ^ Perseverans malum est hominem .Satan's first emotion was zelus : then in- persequi ad Dei gratiam pertinentem, vidia grassatur on earth, and man livore calamitas sine remedio est odisse fe- periturus...diabolum qui zelat imitatur licem. c. 9. (c. 4). Ab invidis nunquam livor ex- ■* Is the rather singular phrase Qu?e ponitur.../«z'/a'«^ in majus incendium sunt Christi gere quia /«/jr ^/ a'zV^ C^rzj^wj livoris ignibus inardescit (c. 7). Zeli ^^^ (c. 10) thegerm of the hymn C/4r?V/^ tenebrse, nubilum livoris, invidice cseci- qui lux es et dies ? tas (c. II). Zelus is the opposite of * Omnem causam et materiam. c. 10. 7nagnanimiias,livoroibenigniias{c. \^). ® Per quem (Cypr.) ...Dominus vera- Again, (i Cor. iii. i — 3) zelus is found cissima intonuit et salubria prsecepit. only in infants in Christ: accordingly it Aug. de Bapt. c. Donatt. iv. viii. (11). 454 EXPANSION OF CHRISTIAN FEELING AND ENERGY. character which Pontius and Augustine from acquaintance and study describe as his own. c. 12. 'We must remember by what name Christ calls His own people, by what title He designates His own flock. Sheep He names them, that Christian innocence may match the inno- cence of sheep. Lambs He calls them, that their simplicity of mind may copy the lamb's simple nature. Why lurks a wolf under sheep's clothing ? Why does one calling himself a Christian falsely defame Christ's flock ? To take upon one Christ's name and not walk by Christ's way, — what is this but the counterfeiting of a Divine name, an abandonment of the road of salvation ? Forasmuch as Himself saith in His teaching, " he cometh unto Life who keepeth the command- ments," and "he is wise that heareth His words and doeth them," and " he too is called the chief doctor in the kingdom of heaven who teacheth and so doeth," — shewing that, what the preacher preacheth well and serviceably shall then profit the preacher, if what is delivered by his lips be fulfilled by deeds following. But what did the Lord oftener instil into His disciples .-' what, among saving warnings and heavenly precepts, hath He bidden us more observe and keep than that "with the same love wherewith He loved His disciples, we should also love one another".'* Now how doth he keep either the peace of the Lord or charity, who through the coming in of jealousy can neither be a peacemaker, nor be in charity '.-'' From this remonstrance he rises still in his delineation of the unearthly spiritual idea of the Christian Life, of the change actually wrought by the New Birth, and of our true c. 13. Sonship to God. He weaves together the Apostle's sayings about the ' mortifying of the deeds of the flesh,' the ' being led by the Spirit,' and being 'God's sons': he argues from them, 'If we have uplifted our eyes from earth to heaven, and c. 14. ' raised to things above and things Divine a heart full of God 1 See p. 449, n. 3. IX. 2. SECRET OF CONDUCT— 'Z?£ ZELO ET LIVORE: 455 ' and of Christ, let us be doing nothing but things worthy of 'God and of Christ' Again he quotes 'Risen with Christ... ' minded of things above... life hid with Christ in God... Christ 'our life one day to appear, and we with Him,' and again he argues, ' We then, who in baptism died and have been buried as to the fleshly sins of the old man, who by heavenly regeneration have risen with Christ, think we and do we the things that are Christ's ! The Apostle tells of " the first man of the earth and of the second man from heaven," of our "bearing the image of the one first, and afterwards of the second." That heavenly image we shall never wear unless we present Christ's likeness in what we have already begun to he. This it is to have changed what you once were and to have begun to be what you were not ; namely, that a Divine nativity shines out in you, that a deifying education responds to your Father God, that, in the honour and praise of living, the God brightens ifi the man... Unto this brightness the Lord shapeth and prepareth us, and the Son of God enwindeth this likeness of God His Father into us.' Then follow his favourite passages in which the Sonship of the Christian is worked out. Then the questions — How to adapt in ourselves the world's necessary life to such a life as this in the world .'* How to set about it, if nothing yet has been effected .'* Of his answers to these we have already spoken. So in these two Papers Cyprian lets the world see what he held to be at once the Secret of Conduct, the true way of Church-Reform, and the Church's Work for the Empire. CHAPTER X. The Persecution of Valerian. I. I, The Edict and its occasions. 'We stood together linked in a band of love and peace against heretical wrong and Gentile pressure.' This is Cyprian's reminiscence of the Council a year after- wards. It indicates that externally there had been difficulties in its way which have left no other trace in the correspond- ence. From indignant words of Pontius we must also infer that some relics of the plague and the gallant service of the Church had lasted through the Council up to the moment of Cyprian's banishment \ But it comes as a surprise to find Cyprian's next letter written from exile to exiled brothers of the Council. A sudden blow has fallen upon a large proportion of the Christian population — a renewal of persecution under which some died early, the heads of the society were expelled, and the youth of neither sex was spared. Dionysius the Great was already in exile too, sent to Kephron by yEmilian himself ^ Just when Africa was the least troubled part of the world, the success of the Third Council on Baptism seems to have been a prelude to destruction. We will shortly speak of the confused circumstances which attended the outbreak. ^ Pontii Vit. ii. ii. See Note on Kephron and the * The Acta Publica are quoted very Lands of Kolluthion, p. 463. fully by Dionysius ap. Euseb. H. E. vij. X. I. I. MACRIANUS. 457 The new persecuting phase of Valerian's life was ascribed to the influence of Macrian*. These were two remarkable men. Valerian's purity and dignity of character had endeared him to Decius. At Decius' fantastic revival of the censorship, the senate, even if primed to choose him, did it with such acclamations as 'Pattern of old times,' 'Censor all his life,' 'Censor from a boy.' Trebellius adds that he would have been elected imperator by universal suffrage if such voting power had existed^ The Christian population honoured him. There were so many of themselves safe in his household, that they affectionately called it 'a Church of God^' In spite of a languid tempera- ment he had been always admired for a characteristic insight in selecting men for great posts*. We have his own sketch of Macrian whom he chose to fill the closest place to himself^ He was made Rationalis, Chancellor of the Imperial Ex- chequer®. Though delicate in health, of luxurious habits, and perhaps crippled in person^, Macrian was a man of the highest force of character and fertility of resource, of distinguished soldiership and influence with the armies in several countries, among them Africa, and of immense wealth. His martial sons were patterns of discipline. Like other agnostics of his time he was deeply impressed by the mysteries of the Egyptian 'Magi,' and is called by Dionysius their 'Archisyna- gogus,' which must at least mean an intimate and a patron*. The family had long kept up a kind of cultus of Alexander ^ Zonaras xii. 24 says his name was Rationibus or Rationalis. Macrinus and his son's Macrianus. But ^ a.va-Kr\pif ri^ a-wfian, Dionysius ap. the coins with the old bearded head Euseb. vii. 10. Zonaras xii. 24 says have MACRIANUS as well as those with ddrepov ire-n-i/ipuTo tQiv (TKeKGiv which per- the young smooth face. haps is not a mere version of Dionysius ■■' Trebell. Pollio, ed. Peter, Valeriani as he has independent information about duo, c. 5. the family. ' Dionys. ap. Euseb. vii. 10. ® Dionysius, ap. Euseb. vii. 10, says ■* Treb. Poll. Regilianus. Nearly all he did not recognise any Divine Ttpbvoia. his generals became emperors. or Kpir^(r/!iMJ^M/a^/6^£'j/a, ed. Merenda, misunderstood. Lightfoot, Apostolic Rome 1754, pp. 226, 136, 249. Fathers, part i. 3". Clement of Rome,\o\. In z/. 5 ^<^«a^«^ need not be amend- H- p- 500. See a similar cause and ed. It would not have offended the ear result p. 491, n. 2. of Damasus. Cf. Carm. 3, Angelus ■* Tantse per urbis ambitum Stipata hsec verba cecinit. Carm. 4, In rebus tendunt agmina. Trinis celebratur viis tantis Trina conjunctio mundi. Festum sacrorum martyrum. H. A. On V. 6 Bp. Lightfoot thinks that it Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus^ I. meant only that Rome claimed them as xc. Lips. 1855. Roman citizens in spite of their Eastern X. II. 2. SS. PETER AND PAUL MOVED TO CATACUMBAS. 485 the Three Roads being the Aurelian and the Ostian, where they suffered, and the Appian which passes Catacumbas. And now we come to the interesting link which rivets these facts to our story. One of those entries in the Kalendar called Hieronymian, which exhibit the Use of Rome in the fourth century, is this : On the twenty-ninth of June at Rome, Birthday of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, of Peter on the Vatican the Aurelian Way, but of Paul on the Ostian Way, of both in Catacumbas; they suffered under Nero, Bassus and Tuscus being Consuls^. The day seems at first as if it were that of their joint martyrdom. But in the early mentions of their deaths no day is named, much less the same day for both. It then suggests itself at once that it is the day of a Deposition, afterwards supposed to be the day of martyrdom. The Depositio Martirmn of A.D. 354 registers the day correctly as a Deposition ; though the scribe, probably thinking that Catacumbas applied to the Vatican, and knowing that now again S. Paul was on the Ostian Way, has confused the entry by inserting the word Osteiise^. The Consulship named shews that it could have nothing to do with the deaths. But it is the very year 258 A.D., when the severe Rescript appeared following the Edict about the Cemeteries. We may be tolerably sure then that June 29, A.D. 258, was the ^ 'lllkal.jul. Romse natale sanctorum hist. Classe, Konigl. Sachsisch. Gesell- apostolorum Petri et Pauli : Petri in sch. d. Wissenschaften Leipz. 1850, Vaticano via Aurelia: Pauli vero in via p. 632), called Liberian, Filocalian or Ostensi : utriusque in Catacumbas : Biicherian catalogue {calendar) from the Passi sub Nerone, Basso et Tusco con- Pope who ordered it, the compiler and sulibus,' Duchesne, Lib. Pontif. i. p. cv. the first editor. It is edited by R. A.Lip- ^ 'ill kl. lul. Petri in Catacumbas et sius also : Chronologie der Rotniscken Pauli Ostense Tusco et Basso cons.' Libe- Bischofe (1869) ; and the List of Popes is rian Catalogue — Depositio martinim. revised from all the published material Mommsen's Uber den Chronographen byBp. Lightfoot, ^/oj//. /a/^^j, part I. vom Jahre 354 (Abhandl. d. philolog.- S. Clement of Rome , l. p. 201 sqq. 486 THE PERSECUTION OF VALERIAN. day when both were removed to their temporary hiding-place in the Catacumbas. It scarcely is venturing into too minute a coincidence should we observe, that, if a fortnight sufficed, as it probably did, for the government couriers to transmit dispatches between Rome and Byzantium, there was a good margin of time between June 29 and August 6 to communicate to Valerian, even if he were further afield, what the Christians were about, and to receive his reply. The removal from their place of execution of the remains of notorious leaders of a dangerous section, which it was always necessary to suspect and impossible to understand, was probably noted, and invested, as it would be in Europe to-day, with political significance. The graves of those criminal Jewish agitators had not ceased to be visited, and now the modern leaders were somehow turning the old names to account. Xystus in this same year translated to the Cemetery of Callistus the Virgin Lucilla and her father Nemesius the Deacon, who had been laid on the Via Latina by Stephen in 2 57\ It is tempting to think that the Emperor may have been induced to sharpen his decree by tidings of the translation. It could not be unknown that the 'trophies' and the cemeteries were tampered with by the Christians after they had been warned off from places dear and long legally secured to them. ' You know even the days of our ' meetings,' says TertuUian^ ' and so we are laid wait for and ' apprehended and in these actual secret congregations we are ' arrested.' The whole proceeding wears the aspect of precaution. There was no knowing what violence might be at hand. And if it could be shewn that the blocking up of passages, the breaking away of staircases, the opening of secret galleries out into the sandpits, which are such marked facts in the history of the cemeteries, belonged partly to the days of Valerian's 1 J, H. Parker, ArchcBol. of Borne, ^ Ad Naiiones, 1. i. c 7. vol. XII. The Catacombs, p. 73. X. II. 3- UNDER XYSTUS. 487 persecution, as well as to those of Diocletian, there would be little or no doubt of the meaning of that proceeding. However this may be we cannot doubt that the Bishop of Rome would have his share in directing the removal of the sacred forms and any other measures of precaution or reverence. And as legislation about cemeteries could no- where apply to anything like the extent that it did at Rome, we may feel sure that such legislation had its origin in Roman difficulties. 3. Memorials of Xystus and his Martyrdom. We have learnt, from Cyprian's own letter, that Xystus was martyred in a cemetery on the sixth of August^ and with him four- (of the seven) Deacons of Rome. There is no uncertainty now as to the place of this tragedy. De Rossi's researches, and what he himself calls his 'extended and complicated comment,' a masterpiece of knowledge, insight and patience, have cleared up endless difficulties^ I. The earliest list of Roman cemeteries calls that of Callistus ' Coemeterium Callisti ad S. Xystiim Via Appia*.' There still stands above ground a small chapel, originally a Schola, in plan a square, with large apses on three sides ; its front, open antiently like an exhedra, to the Via ' Appia- ^ Xystus sat 11 months 12 (?6) days, Pamele, Fell. Lipsius, . 81. features of the topography of Rome and " Audituri ab eo (proconsule) quid still more of Carthage. On what they imperatores super Christianorum lai- implied see Professor Mayor's stores of corum et episcoporum nomine manda- quotation on Juvenal i. 75. verint... Ep. 81. 3 Quotidie sperabat veniri ad se. Act. XL THE BIRTHDAY. 495 to the Governors, and presently he sent two of his military clerks^ to fetch the Bishop quietly over to Utica. But now acting with the coolness of a person used to take his own course in details, even with magistrates, Cyprian was not to be found. He was gone to one of the offered conceal- ments— there to stay until the Proconsul should be able to come to Carthage. He was sure that the summons to Utica meant death. And although he had no fear of death, Cyprian had deliberate views as to the scene of his death. This was no new impulse, no new prudence. Years before he had congratulated Lucius on his return from exile to Rome**, most likely to die there, on this very ground because 'the victim which has to set before the brother- 'hood the pattern of manliness and of faith ought to be 'offered up in the presence of his brethren.' So now from his retreat he writes to his Presbyters, Deacons and Commons, that he only awaits the Proconsul's visit to Carthage, because ' the City in which he presides over the Church of the Lord is 'the place where a Bishop ought to confess his Lord and to ' glorify his whole Commons by the confession of their own ' prelate in their presence.' So to confess, there to suffer, thence to take his departure to his Lord, was now his con- stant prayer ^ Beyond this, he fully felt that something Divine might be breathed into the last words of a Confessor- Bishop. Confession was more after God's mind than the best ^ Commentarii or Commentarienses turion would have been sent, and this were military clerks in the Proconsul's was done the second time, after the Office who kept the journals of pro- present failure. Cf. Ruinart, Pass. ceedings. Their position was among yacobi et Mariani, iv. At Lambasse the highest /'r/«tj)>a/if5, or officers below an altar is erected by ...I'vs. Severmj the rank of Centurion. One of their a coUMKVr xriis m. va/ERl Etrvj« duties was, as we see by later laws /eg. AvG. Pr. Pr (a.D. 152); another (a.d. 371, 380), to schedule prisoners, names the Commentanus of the Ilird their offences, rank and age ; and they Legion there. Corp. Inscrr. Lt. Vlll. i. were responsible for their safe-keeping. 2613; cf. 2586. (Codex Justin. 9, 4, 4, 5). If any ^ Ep. 61. difficulty had been apprehended a cen- * Ep. 81. 496 THE BIRTHDAY. professions. The indwelling God Himself might perhaps use such a moment'. Doubtless the Decian persecution had known such inspira- tions, and there are striking contemporary examples of what they were understood to be. In the year after Cyprian's death Marianus at Cirta, waiting blindfold with many others for the stroke, and 'now filled with the prophetic spirit,' ' strengthened the envy ' with which these holy deaths were viewed, by foretelling the approach of God's avenging scourges. When, at that same time, the clergy of Carthage suffered, Montanus cried with prophetic voice, ' He that sacrificeth to any Gods but the Lord alone will be rooted out' He then charged Heretics to mark the abundance of her Martyrs as a sure note of the true Church ; he charged the Lapsed to submit to the Cyprianic discipline ; the Virgins to maintain their constancy; all to be in obedience to the Bishops ; the Bishops to main- tain among themselves the Cyprianic Unity as the one true bond of the laity. He ended, ' This is the true suffering for ' Christ's sake, namely, to copy Christ in discourse, and to be 'in one's own person the great proof of t/ie faith! Now, should God give Cyprian any such message it would be not for Cyprian's sake but for his people's, and they should hear it. Whenever therefore the Proconsul came, then he would be found. The Proconsul came, and Cyprian was at home in his Horti at once. The Proconsul of course knew nothing of the motives of his movement, and naturally deter- mining not to be again eluded, ordered a sudden descent'' upon the house. The Thascian gardens, as they would be called, lay doubt- less in the vast beautiful quarter which has been all gardens ^ Ep. 8i. It is to this dying inspi- 'in ilia hora.' ration, and not to the apologia at the ^ Pontius Vii. 15 has a platitude on trial, that in the Epistle to Thibaris his own 'repente subitavit' and the 58, 5 Cyprian applies Matth. x. 19 Proconsular Acts c. 2 give the 'repente. ' XL THE BIRTHDAY. 497 and villas, Roman, Arab, European, ever since the 'rare,' 'sparse' native kraals called Mapalia disappeared from it, yet left their name behind. Its rich trees and flowers have seen the great bare hill piled with marble Carthage, then stripped to build Tunis or shipped to Pisa, and they are still there in their glory. The Thascian gardens then cannot have been very far from the Villa of Sextus where the sick Proconsul lay. Early on the 13th September an unexpected chariot drove through them to the villa door, while a guard of soldiers pre- vented other egress\ The chariot brought two ' Principes' as they were styled, — chief centurions. One was a very important officer of the legion, and was, besides, the Pro- consul's own strator or equerry. The other was attached to the prison department. They quietly fetched Cyprian out, lifted him into their chariot and drove away with him between them*. 1 This only can have been the use of bringing soldiers to the villa. - ...principes duo unus strator officii Galerii Maximi proconsulis et alius equistrator a custodiis ejusdem officii. Acta Proc. 2. Anyone must be struck with the exact- ness of the terms used in the A da 2, and the more general but quite correct usage in Pontius. The second centurion of a legion was called/rm^z? coho7-tis prhueps prior or prtnceps prcEtorii, C. I. L. HI. i. ■2917, ii. 5293, ox %\m^\y princeps. His duties required the assistance of an ad- jut or, a librarius and an optio. C. I. L. VIII. i. 2555. The tabula inilitares were in his hands. He was an officer of much consideration. C. I. L. viii. i. 2676, the Princeps of the 3rd Legion builds a temple to Invictus Augustus 'jere sue a solo' at Lambsese. Ibid. 2841, the Princeps of the 3rd legion 'vix. an. LX...' and built a mausoleum at Rome B. 'in praediis suis.' Here we find him able to receive Cyprian and his friends in his house for the night. A strator originally saddled {sternere) the great officer's horse and assisted him to mount. The Governors of im- perial provinces and the Prasfect of the preetorium had stratores personally at- tached to them ; but not so Proconsuls, who were required to employ soldiers in that capacity. (Ulpian, ap. Dig. i, 16, 4, ' Nemo proconsulum stratores suos ha- bere potest sed vice eorum milites mi- nisterio in provinces funguntur.') Inscriptions shew that the dignity of strator was valued and the title retained after the function was laid down. Com- pare Gruteri, Corp. Itiscrr. I. p. 631, n. 8, 'strator consulis.' C. I. L. vii. 78, 'strator consularis' ; viii. i. 2748, 'prae- sidis stratores,' 2957, 'istra/or lega/i'; VIII. ii. 9002, 'strator ejus,' sc. of the Prseses of both Mauritanias. 32 498 THE BIRTHDAY. Everything had fallen in with Cyprian's plan. He should die among his people. As he left his door for the last time his usual ' serious joyousness ' of expression was transfigured by * the manful heart ' to a lofty eagerness and almost mirth- fulness* — which was indeed to break out, like Sir Thomas More's, as the hour drew near. When they reached the Proconsul's they found he was again too ill to proceed with the case^ He remanded the prisoner till next day, but would not risk his returning to his home or even going upon bail to friends. He was com- mitted to the courteous 'free custody' of the first Princeps himself, and in his house within the city* spent the evening as usual with his Deacons and with the higher members of his own household — the household of a Roman gentleman as well as Bishop of Carthage — and with other intimate friends*. In Bollett. dell. Instil, di Corrispon- denza Archeol. i86o, p. 2'2, a monument is erected 'J. Flavio Sereno perfectis- simo viro a cognitionibus Augusti...' by his 'amici et stratores.' C. I. L. viil. i. 2792, a 'signifer' erects a monument to his brother, a 'strator.' With this Princeps... Strator... Officii came another, princeps Eqtiistrator a custodiis, i.e. attached to the department of prisons. So Codex Justin. 9, 4, i, describes those 'qui stratorwxa. fun- guntur officio' and 'ministri eorum' as able to inflict suflFering on prisoners and to protract their detention. This one was however in a very different position from the first, and Pontius only mentions the first, in whose house he was enter- tained for the night. 1 Compare Pont. Vit. 6 and 15, •hilaritatem prseferens vultu corde virtutem.' 2 The sequel shews that Pontius, Vit. 15 was hard upon him in setting down to laziness or caprice the remand in which he saw a special providence. It was expressly assigned to the proconsul to settle {cestimare) whether persons afterarrest should be imprisoned, committed to sureties, to soldiers, or to their own houses, and he was bound to take into consideration the office, estate, or dignity of the person as well as the character of the charge. Digesta, 48, 3. I- ^ ' In vico qui dicitur Satumi, between the Via Venerea and the Via Salutaris.' Act. Proc. 2. We ought indeed to be able to identify a site noted for us so carefully and near to two if not three of the chief temples of Carthage. But the construction of a vast precinct on the crown of the Byrsa and the pursuit of museum objects, even if the advertise- ments of 'Terrains k vendre, a batir ' are fruitless, must long preclude the develop- ment of sites. •* ' Receptum eum tamen et in domo principis constitutum una nocte continuit custodia delicata, ita ut convivse ejus et cari in contubemio ex more fuerimus.' Pont. Vit. 15. Several interesting points XL THE BIRTHDAY. 499 The first convoy had passed so quickly through a quiet quarter to the Proconsul's, that none were aware of it, until Cyprian was again on his way to the house of the Princeps. Then the rumour ran fast. Thascius the famous orator, the benefactor in the plagueS was in custody. It was a spectacle of regret to the pagans, of veneration to the faithful. A vast multitude assembled. The whole Christian ' Commons,' so it was said, watched the house lest the least movement should escape them. Afterwards they realized that they had been keeping the Vigil of the Martyr. One message they received from within in the course of the night, a charge that the maidens who were abroad should be well cared for*. The morrow rose with the broad pure blaze of the African sky without fleck of cloud. The bay was a sea of glass mingled with fire. A wonderful walk lay before him as he turned away to the north-west. The crush of public buildings on the High Byrsa, the narrow streets of tall houses falling down from it on all sides, the mass and the fierce colouring of the immense temples, the vast palaces of base and savage amusement — how long would this order of things last .'' what would become of it, face to face with the Bishops and Councils when they should come to their strength, as even now they represented a New Order well begun ? The City of God rose before him more solid than those material amazing bulwarks, grander than the majesty of Roman Law, more real than the immeasurable force behind it. His path led across the Stadium. As he crossed it his appear. Receptum (technical word) ^ Pont. FiV. 15; cf. ii, illequi fecerat in carcerem {Digesta, 48, 3, i, 2) or boni aliquid pro civitatis saluti. as here in custodiam (ibid. 10). Not ' This was the subject within half a merely * libera custodia' but delicata, century of a special canon. Cone. Eli- which refers to the entertainment. Con- berit. can. xxxv. Labbe, Mansi, Flor. viv(E, in its post-classical sense, of the 1759, ^- "• ^^' "• -^"S- Serm. 309, higher rank of the people of a great 4, treats this as a marked instance of household. Ex more, the style and 'pastoral wakefulness.' habit of Cyprian. 32—2 SOO THE BIRTHDAY. companions thought, if he did not, of a race run and an ex- pectant crown. He had left the Chief Centurion's threshold, looking like a Chief Centurion himself* with a Diviner com- mission*. He moved in the centre of the guard of officers and soldiers, followed by an endlessly gathering army, who looked, says the eyewitness, as if they were ' on the march to take Death by storm.' The Proconsul had actually summoned the populace to the villa of Sextus', so resolved was he that a great blow should be struck, a great example made. The smooth paved road was deep and silent with dust, as they emerged from the dark close streets on the luxuriant plain. Among the date palms ripening for the gathering, and high above the silver olives, on whose fruit the final bloom was just appearing, the cypresses towered black and still. The stubble of the reaped corn was standing deep, the vines had been relieved of their burdens, the grassy slopes were white with the long summer, and the vast carpets of dazzling flowers had faded, all but the invincible dark green asphodel. Beyond the wide and peerless tract of vegetation were the glowing hills, dense with brushwood of cistus and cytisus, myrtle and lentisk, gaps opening into the world's cornfields, and the solemn aqueduct bringing rivers of living water from mountains leagues away. How much of natural things filled the old man's eye we know not — he was beyond caring for little things, but no man knows whether those things are little. Certainly he had not lost that humorous observation which has sometimes caught us unexpectedly in gravest moments. ^ Egressus est domum Principis sed ad Sexti, secundum proeceptum Galeiii Christi et Dei Princeps, Pont. Vit. i6; Maximi proconsulis. compare i8. This became later on, as in Bede's 2 Ex omni parte vallatus, Pont. Vit. Martyrology (i8 Kal. Oct.) and else- i6. where, 'sexto milliario a Carthagine 2 Acta Proc. 3, multa turba convenit juxta mare.' XI. THE BIRTHDAY. $01 They reached the Praetorium. The crowd was great. The hearing was appointed for an open colonnaded court called Atrium Sauciolum}. Again the Proconsul was unable to receive him at once and a more retired room was at his service to rest in. The seat, so it happened, was covered with a white linen cloth like a bishop's chair in the apse. His clothes were soaked through and through with perspiration from such a walk. One of the officers^ whose business was to carry the Proconsul's passwords to the posts, offered him a change of clothes. Humanely but, Pontius thought, not quite disinterestedly. He was a Lapsed Christian and knew the yet innocent store set by Relics'. Cyprian himself only replied, ' Cures for complaints that will be over maybe in the day ! ' At last the Proconsul asked for him. He was hastily ushered in and was face to face with the great governor sitting in his civil dress between the high officers of his staff and leading provincials who formed his council ; behind him six lictors with the rods and axes*; before him a small tripod, or a chafing dish with live coals in it, and a box of incense. It was a brief trial, for Roman courts were rational. He was arraigned on the one count of Sacrilege. As Sacrilege legally covered every violation of or careless ^ Atrium Sancioliim. Acta Proc. 3. not such a place. Criminals would not The only illustration I know of this be beheaded within the house. The mysterious name was pointed out by appropriation of the name to a death- Bp. Fell. In the great Frankish Council chamber must have been altogether at Macon under king Guntramn, A.D. later. 585, any Cleric is forbidden to attend ^ ' Quidam ex Tesserariis, ' Pont. Vit. 'ad locum examinationis reorum' — {i.e. 16; see Diet. Gk. and Rom. Antt. vol. place of torture, cf. Tert. Scorpiace, 7, i. pp. 377, 801. martyria fidei examinatoria) — 'neque ^ Pontius too, Vit. 16, 'sudores jam intersit atrio saueiolo iibi pro reatus sui sanguineos ' is a curious exaggeration. qualitate quispiam iiiterficiendus est.' * Acta Proc. 3, 4. Pont. Vit. 16. Cone. Matisconense, ii. can. xix. ap. Cf. Digesta, i, 16, 14. Labbe, Mansi, Florentise, 1763, t. IX. On the curious insignia ('symbola') col. 956. No Roman court would bear which belonged to the Proconsul of a name meaning 'place of execution'; Africa, see Revue Africaine, vol. viii. Galerius's ' atrium sauciolum ' was clearly p. 323. $02 THE BIRTHDAY. offence against the Divine Law, which Law included expres- sions of the Emperor's will, no Christian lawyer would quibble at the term or pretend that he was not daily and wilfully guilty of it\ The imperial note had as before particularized Cyprian. Galerius spoke. You are Thascius Cyprianus ? Cyprian. I am. Galerius. You have lent yourself to be a pope to persons of sacrilegious views. Cyprian. I have. Galerius. The most hallowed emperors have ordered you to perform the rite. Cyprian. I do not offer. Galerius. Do consider yourself. Cyprian. Do what you are charged to do. In a matter so straightforward there is nothing to consider^. That was all. The Proconsul conferred with his council to make the process technically correct ^ And then, a re- luctant and a very ailing man, he with difficulty yet with sternest concurrence, explained the new criminality and justified the new and necessary penalty. It was simply for being the Bishop of the modern and spreading union that he was to suffer*. 1 Qui Divinae legis sanctitatem aut observations. — Facio is the sacrificial nesciendo confundunt aut negligendo word. He refuses to burn incense. — violant et offendunt sacrilegium com- In r^ ^aw y/w/rt, 'regular, ordinary': so mittunt.-.Disputari de principali judicio justum iter, j. anni, statttra, altitudo non oportet : sacrilegii enim instar est miiri—\\ do not know the word cari- dubitare an is dignus sit quern elegerit moniari elsewhere]. imperator. Cod. yust. 9, 29, i, 2. ^ Any grave decision had to be pro- This is a later exposition of the prin- nounced de consilii sententia. The pro- ciple (Graizan), but the well-known consul was bound to consult them but earlier definitions are more severe. not bound even by a majority of their 2 Consule tibi... nulla est consultatio, opinions. Ada Proc. 3. Quod caro et sanguis •* Ada Proc. 4. 'Sanguine tuo san- diceret stolide (noverat) hoc diabolum «V/wr disciplina.' So Pontius, Vit. 17, dicere subdole, Aug. Serm. 309, 5. ...quod sanguine ejus inciperet disci- Certain translations seem to make plina sanciri. — ' Prior in provincia mar- it well to offer these merely grammatical tyrii primitias dedicavit,' which in 19 XL THE BIRTHDAY. 503 He said, 'Your life has long been led in a sacrilegious ' mode of thought — you have associated yourself with a very * large number of persons in criminal complicity : you have ' constituted yourself an antagonist to the gods of Rome and ' to their sacred observances. Nor have our pious and most ' hallowed princes, Valerian and Gallien the Augusti, and 'Valerian the most noble Caesar^ been able to recal you to ' the obedience of their own ceremonial. And therefore, 'whereas you have been clearly detected^ as the instigator ' and standard-bearer in very bad offences, you shall in your ' own person be a lesson to those ' — they were present — ' whom ' you have by guilt of your own associated with you. Disci- ' pline shall be ratified with your blood.' He then took the prepared tablet and read, ' Our pleasure is that Thascius Cyprianus be executed with the sword.' ' Thanks be to God,' said Cyprian. To the bosom friends who had realized that this was the revealed ' morrow ' and this the sentence suspended in the dream a year ago, every word of the judge seemed beyond himself and spiritual and prophetic in the manner of Caiaphas. It was all true — 'standard-bearer' he was — 'foe of the gods' he was, — and a fresh 'discipline' of martyrdom was inaugu- rated, consecrated. But the Christian multitude broke out in a more human he expands 'sacerdotales coronas in gave him the title of Augustus, and on Africa primus imbueret,' &c. his tomb at Milan he was called Im- ^ This passage answers Eckhel, who perator. Treb. Poll. Valeriani Duo, says (vol. vii. p. 427) that the young c. 8. The young Valerian was 'forma Valerian never became either Augustus conspicuus, verecundia probabilis, eru- or Csesar. But in the British Museum ditione pro setate clarus, moribus perju- there is a beautiful medallion of these cundus,' a contrast to his half-brother three heads with Salonina, inscribed Gallien. ' Pietas Augustorum, Concordia Augus- - 'Deprehensus,' Acta Proc. 4: Cod. torum.' Grueber, Roman Medallions, Theodos. <), 16, 11, quicuraque...audie- Br. Mus. pi. xlvii. 4. Several laws rit, deprehenderit, occupaverit. Paul. of dates 255 — 260 are under their Smtt. 2, 26, 2, deprehenderit. Gaius, names in Codex Justinianus. Gallienus 3, 198, in ipso dehcto deprehendere. 504 THE BIRTHDAY. cry, * And let us be beheaded too — along with him.' There was something like the beginning of a disturbance*. And the great company, whose presence had been invited, moved onwards with him as he left the doors, guarded by a detach- ment of the famous Third Legion, with its centurions and tribunes on either side of him. Their short march, still within the grounds of Sextus, was to a level space surrounded with steep high slopes thick with trees. It was an amphitheatre^ but on a scale too large for distinct seeing, while below the multitude was one mass. Many who were in sympathy (and there were many besides the Christians^) with the great old citizen and friend of the city had climbed into the trees to see the end. They saw the halt. They saw the legionaries enclose a space in the midst of which stood Cyprian with his Deacons, Pontius and others, the Presbyter Julian and Julian the Subdeacon. He undid his shoulder-clasp and took off his white woollen cape ; then at once knelt on the ground, and prostrated himself in prayer. When he rose this seemed the moment in which the looked-for prophecy would be uttered. He had longed, and he had himself expected that his last words on earth would be given to him from above. But now he spoke not. He quietly took off his dalmatic, and gave it to his deacons, and stood upright and silent in his long white and girdled tunic of linen. We should know him very imperfectly if we did not think how his yearning went out to the yearning of his people. No man was more capable of simple moving speech rich with the truth he had loved, and fraught with the full significance of that hour ; and it would have been no wonder if, in that exalted frame of mind, the thoughts that gathered ''■Ada Proc. 5, ' hwmltiis fratrum sem forte prsetereuntem, j/^^/acw/i? the- exortus est. ' atri prospectam, hostiliter invaserunt.* "^ Pont. Vit. 18, 'Ut... sublime specta- So spedacula is constantly the blocks culum prrebeat.' For spedacuhun in of seats. this sense of 'aseeing-place,' cf. Orosius, ^ ' Personae faventes,' Pont. Vit. i^. Hist. iv. I, '...Tarentini Romanam clas- XI. THE BIRTHDAY. $0$ thick upon him had presented themselves to him as the ex- pected message of God. Nothing could so perpetuate the Unity which he had lived for in the Church as that he should place the seal upon it now\ But nothing came to him which he could distinguish from the working of his own mind, nothing which he could recognize as ' given him ' in that moment. He knew that his every word would be accepted as an in- spiration. And he was silent. He might disappoint them but he would not delude them for their good. There was a delay in the arrival of the executioner-. When he appeared Cyprian with his usual largeness of ideas about money desired his friends to give him twenty-five gold pieces ^ The grass before his feet was now strewn by the Christian bystanders who stood nearest with linen cloths and handkerchiefs*. He took a handkerchief, perhaps one of these ; folded it and covered his eyes with it, and began to tie the ends, but ^ So the Martyr Montanus re-enun- avrod, /cat direXdwv d.iriK€(p6.\i(Xiv avrov dated Cyprian's principles, Ruinart, ei> ry (pvXaK-^. — In Senec. c/e Ira, i. 16 Pnssio Montani. the speculator is the executioner (infr. " Speculator. The form spictdator in p. 506, n. 2 on centurion and speculator). ^^A /Vi?r. 5, is due to a wrong derivation At Lambffise are three inscriptions on and is not found in the Inscriptions. speculatorcs of the Third Legion, Cmp. Livyxxxi. 24, using the word to represent Inscrr. Latt. viii. i. ■2603, 2890, 2989; ' /i^w^t^^ww^j ingens uno die emetientes another, 4381, at Seriana calls one of spatium ' incidentally gives the true the same legion rarissivius filius. derivation, a specula — a look-out officer. 3 -phe aureus, equivalent under Au- There were to each legion ten such gustus to the forty-sixth part of a libra officers of the rank ^principales,' next or 126 English grains of gold, had sunk below centurions, who carried the dis- by Gallienus' time to about 70 grains patches very rapidly, and as alert Troy, which in English money would athletic men were also the usual execu- be about iis. 8d., so that the fee which tioners. They carried Caius' dispatches Cyprian gave was nearly ;[^ 15. Maxi- in state to the Senate on his absurd milian gave the speculator his new conquest of Britain, Suet. Calig. 44, and military suit, Ruinart, Acta Sti. Maxi- brought to Vitellius the news of the miliani M. iii. submission of the East from Syria and ■* Acta Proc. 5, linteamina et manu- Judaea, Tac. Hist. ii. 73. For the other alia. Manualis, not a classical word. capacity.seeMarkvi. 27, 28... (TTreKouXa- See infr. The dress of Cyprian, 4, la- Topa kiriTa^ev hexOrivai. T-qv Kejvi}i> fx.'^" Kara- and we shall note below that lacinitE ypr)lffoi.TO tQv /xer' evXa^elas roi/s /S^pous manuales is probably a similar com- ipopovvruv, kolI tj aXX]; koiv^ koI iv bination in the matter of dress. avin}0el\\xit quOcCl COHORS ABEST QUOD OMNIBUS ANNIS PER VICES IN OFFICIUM PR[^Ctf«] SULIS MITTITUR. That is one cohort of the Third Legion from the camp at Lambasse was always in attendance in annual turns on the Proconsul. If we ask why the whole Third Legion was not under the command of the Proconsul, the answer is in Tacitus, Hist. iv. 48. Caligula, insanely jealous of the then Proconsul, took away the control of it and established a Legate to command the Legion and (as we know from elsewhere) the fortresses. The soldiers then who appear in the narrative with their tribunes, centurions, and the other officers so freely named belonged to that cohort of the Third Legion which for that year was appointed to the officium of the Proconsul. Of the Massa Candida. We have seen how Cyprian was summoned to Utica by the Pro- consul, undoubtedly with a view to his execution there. From the different mentions of the group known by this curiosity-wakening name of Massa Candida it has been inferred by Tillemont as well as others that in 258 A.D., on the iSth or 24th August^, a great number of Christians were summoned thither, and martyred. But the accounts cannot be put together, or rather there are none which can be put together. The facts are these, (i) Augustine's Enarration of Ps. 144 (or part of it) is a sermon preached at Utica in the ' Basilica of the Massa Candida-.' He preached Sermon 306 on the solemnity of their 'Natalis'; in Sermon 311, preached at Carthage, in the Memoria of Cyprian on his 'Birthday' (c. 10), he mentions them as ' Uticensis Massa Candida,' and apparently as having been rich and poor together, but not as being specially connected with Cyprian. That he mentions them along with Cyprian is merely because both illustrate his point. In his Enarration on Ps. 49, c. 9, he speaks of ' ...sola in proximo quae dicitur Massa Candida ' 1 Aug. 24th, IX. Kal. Sept. Uticae ^ Heading in Cod. Floriac. 'habitus SS. MM. CCC. Massa; Candidce. Ka- Uticse in basilica Massae Candidse.* No Imdar. Ant. Eccl. Carth.; Aug. i8th reason to doubt this, which agrees with Hieron. Martyrolog. ; 24th Ado ; 24th the allusions. Usuard. 5l8 THE BIRTHDAY. {i.e. perhaps in the neighbouring Utica), and says they were more numerous than 'the 153 fishes' which he is expounding. He says {Serm. 306, c. 2) they were called massa because of their number', and Candida for their martyr-brightness, which demands a Candida conscientia in us. It is apparent that no details were known which he could dwell on. (2) A sermon upon them tastelessly attributed to Augustine, but possibly of his time, speaks oi cruentus percussor,/errum...,cervicem as if they were then supposed to have died by the sword^. (3) Of what Augustine on the spot did not know Prudentius {Peri- steph. 1 3) about the same time in Spain has full particulars. By him our Cyprian is first confounded with Cyprian the magician, Bishop of Antioch. After being brought before the Proconsul he is imprisoned in chains in the dark. His prayer so nerves the Carthaginians that 300 of them being offered their choice between sacrificing or being burnt in a lime-kiln, open at the place where Cyprian was to be executed, all flung themselves into the kiln, and are called Candida from the whiteness of their bodies in the lime as well as that of their souls. Then Cyprian is brought before the Proconsul and beheaded, * rejoicing in their martyrdom.' Thus literally there exists nothing like history. Nothing to shew at what period or in what way the Group suffered. The argument from non- mention is of positive value here. For, if there had been such a large self-martyrdom so early, the advocates of the Circumcellions must have alleged it. And such is the copiousness of Augustine that we must have known both their use of the argument and his answer. Prudentius' tale as it stands is absurd, and where it is attempted to give it more probability by separating it from Cyprian's execution and putting it nearer to his exile, the attempt, the supposition that a mass of people could have been put to death by the Proconsul of Africa im- mediately after Valerian's Edict (or Rescript), is a misconception of the whole idea of the legislation up to this point. It was entirely in the hope of averting such large executions that Valerian's penalties were conceived and directed upon the leaders of the new Society. Acta Proconsular ia. The Acta were certainly older than the Life of Cyprian by Pontius, who was his constant companion and was with him at his death. Pontius quotes from them, and silently but evidently corrects two details in that brief document, so that added to its own accuracy of detail it is scarcely possible for a document to be better accredited. ^ ' De numeri multitudine.' Of. Optat. facere.' Rarely used of people, ii. 26 ad fin. 'massam poenitentium ^ Aug. Serm. Supposit. 317. XI. THE BIRTHDAY. 519 Pontius, c. II, says 'quid sacerdos Dei proconsule interrogante re- spondent, sunt Acta quae referant.' Pontius's expression 'publtcata voce^ c. 18, is not intelligible without the exclamation of the people as given in Acta Procons. 5 init. The tying of the handkerchief is a detail in which Pontius corrects the account of the Acts (see Text, p. 505). So is also his explanation that it was the centurion in command and not the executioner who actually gave the death stroke. (Pont 18 com- pared with Acta 5. Text, p. 506.) The short Passion of Cyprian which Fell gives p. 14 'ex MS. S. Victoris nee non Bodleiano I.' and which Rigault (and apparently Fell) thinks the more antient form is nothing but a piece (c. 2 — 4) of the longer one with abbreviations and interpolations meant to give a more formal appearance, so that it is best presented, as by H artel, merely in the shape of various readings on the genuine Acta. Pontius and Augustine, Sermm. 309, 310, and c. Gaudenthim i. 31, (40) quote only from the longer one phrases and words which have been modified in the shorter and later. CHAPTER XII. AFTERMATH. There is not only interest, there is spiritual reassurance in marking how, like a cloud from Atlas floated into the bright air, Cyprian's error disappears in the warmth of the Church's atmosphere. At Aries, where, in A.D. 314, seven or eight out of thirty- three bishops who signed were Africans, the African custom was quietly overruled. At Nicaea in A.D. 325 the mere enactment that Paulianists were to be baptized shews how peaceably the enactments of Iconium and Synnada had died, just as that of Agrippinus had died before Cyprian revived it. The Church has never been ruled by its canons except for brief instants. Men collect themselves from time to time and formulate for eternity the standard of the hour, and as soon as it is fixed the stream sets away from it again. At Carthage in A.D. 349* the successors of Cyprian's bishops dispersed by acclamation the 87 reasoned fallacies of their fathers. And afterwards Augustine refuted one by one the suffrages given to the man whose wisdom, power and love he literally adored. That there was a seed in his teaching which fanatics ^ Cone. Carth. I. sub Grata. XII. AFTERMATH. 521 could foster to a wild growth, cannot be denied, although Augustine has shewn with what exaggerations the mistake was urged, and what corrections he had himself supplied. But it fell unhappily on a widespread temper, mad for laxities in one direction, mad for exclusion in another, mad for a ceremonial materialism in a third, and a temper charged moreover with political revengefulness. This was Cyprian's unforeseen contribution to Donatism — the invalidation of an ecclesiastical act on account of subjective imperfection in the minister. For the modern doctrine of Intention he has no responsibility. The last of that string of canons which, beginning with, those of Nicsea, was affirmed in the second canon of the Quini-Sext Council in A.D. 692, was ' the canon put forth by ' Cyprian, that was Archbishop of the land of the Africans and ' Martyr, and the Synod of his time, which canon prevailed in ' the places of the aforesaid prelates, and only according to the ' custom delivered to them.' The Greek acceptance of this Council might seem to commit their Church to Cyprian's practice, unless the canon be interpreted as supposing the practice still extant and still limited to Africa. Some inter- pretation must be found for it as it stands, for it is in flat contradiction to part of the ninety-fifth of the same Council, and the usage did not prevail among the Greeks. The canon was however turned into Syriac, accepted by Syrian Churches, and became the ground on which Jacobites rejected the baptism of the orthodox \ A strange irony that the unanimous rulings of the African episcopate should be swept away by the resounding Absit, Absit of their own successors, too impatient of it to speak or vote, and that the vital necessity of baptism by the orthodox should find its final lodgment with the heterodox. Not that human hunger for exclusiveness was appeased even in the greater Churches. The exclusions that had been ^ Renaudot, Liturg. Orient, vol. 11. p. 292. 522 AFTERMATH. set aside as untenable Doctrine were revived on special pleas of Form. The Greeks long denied the validity of all other baptism and accepted only ' trine immersion.' The Romans rebaptize all ' conditionally ' ; that is, upon a theory dating only from Alexander III.\ and rarely put in practice until the sixteenth century. As Hero and Saint Cyprian's personality went through scarcely less strange experiences. Gibbon is charmed to call him 'almost a local deity.' It was not long before every Mediterranean sailor called the September gales Cypriana from his ' Birthday.' It was kept at Rome in the Cemetery of Callistus long before Cornelius himself was honoured by a joint commemoration with him. He was and is the one non- Roman commemorated in the Roman Canon, the one Latin father really recognised by the world-contemning Greeks. But this recognition was more fantastic than their ignorance. Gregory of Nazianzus looses floods of eloquence upon him. Some of his works he knew ; he knew particulars which he could scarcely have derived from anything but memoirs as personal as those of Pontius. Yet he thought that he suf- fered under Decius, that his chief merit was the restoration of accurate definitions of the Holy Trinity ; and he identified him with that Cyprian of Antioch, whose legend, a compound of riotous fancy, pagan theurgy, and new demonology, exer- cised a depraving influence on the popular religion far down into the middle ages. Near three centuries later he had appeared unto many and quieted the indignation of African Catholics at his sea-side church being in the hands of the Arians — 'he would care for himself in his own time.' On his own eve in A.D. 533 Belisarius overthrew the Vandals ten miles from Carthage, and was received in the city with a triumphal welcome. The ' Christians,' Procopius relates, came in, lighted the already prepared lamps, and celebrated the ^ Thomas Aquinas, Snmma Theol. P. III. Q. Ixvi. art. 9. XII. AFTERMATH. 523 day in the sanctuary which the Arian priests had splendidly arrayed for the festival'. To his own contemporaries he seemed for a time scarcely to have quitted them. The faces of confessors and martyrs beamed with the remembrance that they had been Cyprian's disciples^ Almost his very words rose to their lips as at the last moment they spoke of the sufferings of the Church or commended her discipline to their survivors'. One questions Cyprian in his dream 'whether it is pain to die^.-*' Another after torture saw him sitting by the Judge, helping him mount the steps to his side, and then giving him water from a fountain*. That he spoke as the oracles of God, that he was essentially a Ruler, essentially a Comforter — nothing could better express the intense reverence for Cyprian than these three martyr-thoughts. Nor is anything lost if we bring that high-wrought emotional view into comparison with the practical analytic measure of the man. Cyprian was possessed by two overmastering ideas. He burned to make them live and breathe for Christian men as for himself He did more than any man to house them in the life and polity of the world. The ideas were to each other as soul and body. To him they were one fact, one truth. / One was the vital principle, the other was the organism ofj Christendom. I. He was certain that human nature (in which Thucy- dides himself perhaps thought that wickedness was not a permanent, necessary ingredient) could be changed, could be perfectly remoulded. He was convinced that it had in Roman civilization taken the wrong bent ; that not only the ' superb falsities*' of religion but many contemporary institutions which ^ Procop. de Bella Vand. i. 20, 21. "* Id. xxi. See Appendix on S. Cyprian's Day. ' Passio SS. jfacobi et Mariani et 2 Passio SS. Montani et Lucii, xiii. aliorum, vi. * Id. xiv. * Aug. Serm. 312, 5. 524 AFTERMATH. were the life of society were working powerfully for degrada- tion and destruction. He was assured to demonstration that God had marked another line, provided other institutions, offered powers sufficient to conduct nature along another road to another end. It had been revealed that the individual could be enabled to assume and justify his true place in creation, his true dignity, which was that of the 'Sons of God.' This fact realized was enough to dethrone self, to transform thought, to renovate society. In this view all suffering became probation, death often a duty, always a triumph. Every virtue of the world must be born again and live a resurrection-life. His Custodi puellas was felt, strange as that now seems, to be the utterance of a new protective influence^ a new kind of * shepherding.' A plague city need be no more the hell that it had ever been. Perfect altruism would perfect the world. These were no dreams. They were established experi- mental facts. He had in his own person tested the power of the 'illumination,' the 'inundation' of grace. In his own consciousness he had ascertained ^vhat it was to be born of water and the Spirit. Multitudes drank from the Chalice of the Lord a strength without which no man could be expected to stand. II. It was no cloud-land, this lofty spiritual future. It was begun. The New City had 'descended.' There had taken place 'the settlement of a Visible Church, of a society dis- ' tinguished from common ones and from the rest of the world ' by peculiar religious institutions ; by an instituted method of 'instruction and an instituted form of external religion...' 'The very notion of it implied positive institutions, for the ' visibility of the Church consisted in them.' ' It was mere idle wantonness to insist upon knowing * why such particular (institutions) were fixed upon rather than ' others V and among those which offered no justification for ^ Butler's Analogy, Part ii. i. i. XII. AFTERMATH. 525 themselves, but simply lay there in evidence, in a universal sort of way, with the uniformity and with the variety of the phenomena of nature, was the institute of the Overseership, the episcopacy, of the Church. When Cyprian became a Christian and placed himself under it, its authority was no new object, either when vesting in the individual or in the union of con- ciliar action. The individual, elected by the communicant 'commons' of Christ's Church, was their representative as truly as the Tribune was the representative of the commons of Rome. But he was no Bishop until he had received the office through bishops by transmission from regions and times in which (as Bp. Lightfoot clearly shewed in his ex- tremely cautious and discriminating essay) ' its prevalence * in its maturer forms cannot be dissociated from their (the 'Apostles') influence or their sanction V He was Baptizer, Offerer, Teacher, Judge. No one fulfilled any of these func- tions but as his delegate with no further right of transmission, no power to confer even the humblest Orders. The Office carried the thoughts of men (whether con- sciously or not) back to the Origines of the three ruling principles of constitutional governments ; to Democracy, to the power of the Aristoi, to Hierarchy — Levitic or earlier. Up to this point we are dealing only with what Cyprian received. And Cyprian made no fresh invention, introduced no novel action, modified no method. Yet he did more than any man. Far more than Hildebrand with his inventions of investiture and celibacy. It was not that he summoned Councils and set them to solve Church-problems. Councils had met before and determined questions. But so to speak they had worked in the dark. Cyprian formulated the 'Theory,' as Brahe, Copernicus or Newton gave the 'Theory' of the Solar System. He ' constructed the Hypothesis ' ; he ' superinduced the con- ception upon the facts.' The conception was that the one ^ 'The Christian Ministry,' Lightfoot's Ep. to the Philippians, p. 226. 526 AFTERMATH. undividedepiscopate constituted not the authorityj)nl^^^^u|__ the_umtj^_ofthe Church. Then that followed which follows always in science. The conception ' is a secret, which, once 'uttered, cannot be recalled, even though it be despised by ' those to whom it is imparted. As soon as the leading term ' of a new theory has been pronounced and understood, all the ' phenomena change their aspect. There is a standard to 'which we cannot help referring themV Why Cyprian never formulated his seemingly serious and palpable purpose of consulting the laity more sedulously, and what would have been the effect of so doing is hard to say, but what he did leave, his leading term, his standard, remains. And now, whatever exceptions may be taken to his illus- trations, his analogies, his interpretings, whatever qualifica- tions may assert themselves in practice, whatever safeguards or subsidiaries may be required to preserve equilibrium, whatever encroachments may have limited, whatever corrup- tions endangered the institution, still tkat is the 'Theory' which underlies Christendom to-day. In much of Europe it was overridden by a usurpation which secular events favoured and no scruples impeded, — the usurpation by the principal see of a monarchical, autocratic attitude toward the episcopate, obliterating it except in name, only multiplying phantom names when votes are required. In North-west Europe intense reaction threw up in some of its countries a counter system which, for the first time, deliberately dispensed with the Episcopate ; a hardy venture, a risky asseveration that Episcopacy is not necessary even to itself, that it amply resides in Presbytery. But, once per- suaded that there was no Apostolic survival in the Church, successive varieties of management have successfully dotted the globe with truncate communities, generating Ministries for themselves spontaneously, energetic, expansive, sincere. Some of them have sought a Unity in their common repulsion. ^ See Whewell's Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. ii. pp. 59, 50, 53. XII. AFTERMATH. $27 We are not now to enquire whether in either case insta- bility of doctrine has had any connexion with the subversion of the primitive preservative organization. In the later instance there are not wanting voices of anxiety, either from within or from those without who love them unloved, lest even that DidacJie, that Doctrina, that ' Instruction ' in the mysteries of the faith, which it was the first object of Primitive Institutions to secure, should tremble unsafely or slide upon the down-grade. But in either case where should either that Usurpation or this Revolution look for historic justification ? Where but to the age in which the conception of a united Christendom was formulated } ' Yet on the one hand the mind of Cyprian, dwelling on all the phenomena which were to be co-ordinated, was found to have been such a blank on that one central point of Roman supremacy that a determined and sustained attempt had to be made to remodel his language. The authorities had their will, and yet Cyprian remains a hopeless difficulty. Even the glozed extract is inadequate without glozing comments. Or let the supposed teaching be tested by the conduct which it formed. If Cyprian meant Roman Unity in principle, then at least the next succeeding stage of the history of the Church of Carthage, which was devoted to him, must have exhibited some approximation to that form of unity, — especially as one of its first acts was the removal of a barrier by the dropping of his obstinate opinion. But what was the fact } The great scholar and critic whose erudition and accuracy adorn the Roman Communion of to-day shall tell us in his own words, ' By the end of the fourth century the 'Africans were already organized, and formed around the 'Bishop of Carthage a close serried phalanx {faisceau tresserri). 'Carthage was scarcely less autonomous than Alexandria^' On the other hand, whither should the extreme reactionaries ^ M. I'Abbe Duchesne, Pastes ^piscopaux, i. p. 91. 528 AFTERMATH. turn but to the same times of Cyprian in order to find earliest expression given to their views, if Cyprian was really innovating ? If Cyprian's theory was a creation of his mind, violently fitted upon phenomena which did not correspond to it, where should we find the protest and the contradictory phenomena but as the readiest armature of the strong parties which so long opposed him ? The ecclesiastical circumstances, the action of his contemporaries, must have yielded some refutation of his postulates. Step by step we have explored the rock. And we find no ledge whereon may lie the very egg of a presbyteral fancy. Cyprian and his times were as innocent of presbyterian and of congregational, as they were of papal catholi- city. We saw that in the first order of the Christian Ministry, as it then subsisted, the strongest threads of primitive consti- tutions were singularly woven together. The Empire felt how strong that leadership was, though it knew not why, and believed that if only this were eradicated the Christian commons might safely be left their cidtus. As time went on it was perceived that the Imperial magistracy was powerless against a jurisdiction which rested on moral and spiritual convictions in conflict with which its own material sanctions were utterly despised. If that perception had not been taken up and acted on, the Christian Ministry would have remained a magistracy to this day, always either dominant or persecuted. The prospect was impossible. Alliance with the Imperial rule, with all its justice and all its lawfulness, became an impending necessity. Then, all history would predict that alliance with the State could not become an accomplished fact without a practical outburst and shock of worldliness probably of a terrific sort. So it was. But the worldliness was a violence to the principle and motive of the alliance, whose strength was its purity, and Reform would henceforth be the salt of every age. XII. AFTERMATH. 529 But the maintenance of a position unallied with the State and outside it, independent, indifferent, unaggressive, would have involved a faithless worldliness inaccessible to reform. ' The external bonds may be severed for a time,' says Bp. Lightfoot, 'but the State cannot liberate itself from the 'influence of the Church, nor the Church from the influence of 'the State.... Where there is not an alliance there must be a 'collision. Indifference is impossible, and without indifference 'there can be no strict neutrality \' The Donatist cry, * Quid christianis aim regibus^,' was the earliest and earthliest real sectarianism. It gives up Christianity and it gives up the world. It is content to leave one of the world's ' three measures of meal ' un- leavened. It is content that States should have no profession of the Truth of Christ, The kingdoms of this world must perish without ever becoming the kingdom of God and of His Christ. It gives up Christianity. For it confesses that there are powers in the world which Christianity cannot and dare not deal with, gates of hell which must be left to prevail. For the development of the two overmastering ideas in which he dwelt Cyprian possessed marvellous qualifications of character, of trained literary power, of position. The character which endeared him to the laity, and which excited warmer and more affectionate feeling than that of any leader in the antient Church, has been noted again and again in these pages. Exact habits of business suiting a lively innate courtesy kept every authority informed of facts. He was ready to discuss doubts and differences with every earnest and capable enquirer. The generosity possible only to a wealthy man was not curbed by the limits of his wealth until he had denuded himself of his estates. His passion was to work like God in nature ' for good and for bad ' alike. In political ^ Historical Essays, p. 38. ^ Optat. i. 22. B. 34 530 AFTERMATH. and party life within the Church he had a singular power of self-recal. In dealing with the pretentious ' martyrs,' the puritans and the lapsed, he was in each instance on the edge of going too far. In each he recovered himself with dignity and carried the Church along with him by his charity. At last the calm settling for himself when and where he would not be martyred, and where he would, and his silence in the last hour when he and all expected a Divine utterance through him, help us to realize that grave and sweet serenity which his contemporaries thought that his manners, his face, his very dress betokened. His trained literary power appeared not only in his sympathetic approaches, his marshalling of arguments weak or strong, his antithetic point, his rising periods, but in the variety of topics in ethics, doctrine, policy which are grasped and handled by him so lightly, yet so definitely. /We said we might not find in him one of the well-springs of scientific theology. Yet Jerome, that profound and exact critic, considers that he was not a great commentator, only because he was in incessant conflict with the practicalities of so many different situations. The inexhaustible memory of Scripture, the prolific illustrations and adaptations of its language, were to his contemporaries admirable, and to us would be incredible if they were not actual. Of course he contributed to the misleading pile of verbal and mechanical discoveries of symbol. It was almost as true of him as of the Donatists that, as Optatus says, they saw Baptism in every mention of water. But were all those fancies cut away, his argument would seldom disappear. And it was impossible that this error of judgment should not be committed largely when it first began to dawn on men that the world of things and words was all a temporary expression of the eternal. As to theology itself, it must not be forgotten that the simple yet learned straightforwardness of his interpretations made for Augustine a very mine of testimonies against later Separatists as they arose. XII. AFTERMATH. S3 1 The equable grace of his eloquence, 'the calm fountain- like flow,' which the same great judge marks as his character- istic style, almost impedes the recognition of his genius. He was so thoroughly what we call a scholar that he edited for Christians a phraseological lexicon of Cicero \ His diction is not unworthy to be read beside the classical writers of antiquity ; stronger than any who had come between him and them, purer and clearer than any contemporary ; and that not because his ideas were simpler and easier to render, but because no sort of affectation had lodging in his soul. He left what he had not found, a language which Divinity could use as a facile, finely tempered, unbreakable instrument. When Tertullian began to write Theological Latin had to be formed. His free, unhesitating, creative genius rough- hewed a new language out of classical literature and African renderings of Hellenistic Greek. It stands like the masses of a fresh-opened quarry. Out of it Cyprian wrought shapely columns, cornices, capitals in perfect finish. It was like the Eocene record opening into the Pleiocene with more arti- culate forms and forecasts of more to come. Again he had that gift of gifts, the breathing of life into dead or languid phrase. A fiery tongue sat on his brow as on Tertullian's, but of a purer, tenderer radiance. Every Christian Church has learnt of him. The lamp which all runners in the sacred race have received is that which Tertullian lit and Cyprian trimmed. These gifts of character and of genius met in a man who came to Christ from a Pagan position not very analogous to anything in modern life — a foremost man among the great and wealthy rhetoricians. They had the most refined and varied culture of their times, experiences of life in every condition. Their reputa- tions were won before the generals as well as the lawyers ' V. Hartel's PrcEfatio, pp. Ixviii, Ixix. 34—2 532 AFTERMATH. of the Empire, and before the whole populace. Their leaders were at home with Proconsuls and Emperors. For the devotion of his gifts, acquirements and position to the work and life of the New People as they grew in Christ, Carthage offered a fairer, larger field than Rome, because it was at once less officialized and less hopelessly split into classes ; and so it continued, until at last the mis- management of subject races and the degradation of a capital daily reflooded with fresh tides of vice, threw open every door to the barbarian. Of his great gifts the greatest was his Charity. His Charity was no purple patching. In the letters which are sent for the business-like purpose of keeping authorities informed there is always visible the affectionate desire that they should be in the heart of affairs. That on the other hand it was no mere good nature, appears by the vigour with which he can chastise. A quiet amusement lies sup- pressed below the encouragement which he gives to Cornelius in his nervousness about Felicissimus. The dignity with which he returns the presuming letter of the Roman pres- byters, declining to think it can be genuine, and the immor- tality which his sarcasm and indignation have conferred on Florentius Puppianus, make it plain that, if he was charitable, his was charity with a will. He was regarded as a special manifestation of that Grace. So Augustine', 'Praise be to ' Him ! Glory to Him ! who made this man what he was, to ' set forth before His Church the greatness of the evils with * which Charity was to do battle, and the greatness of the 'goodnesses over which Charity was to have precedence, ' and the worthlessness of the Charity of any Christian, ' who would not keep the Unity of Christ. To him that ' Unity was so dear as to make him for very charity not 'spare the bad, and yet for peace' sake endure the bad. ' A man as free in expressing what he felt himself, as ^ Aug. Serm. 312, 6 et passim. XII. AFTERMATH. 533 'he was patient in listening to what he knew his brethren 'felt' But when we try to estimate the working of that Charity of his on the great scale the incongruous puzzle seems at first to be that the same man who so evolved and so used the Theory of Unity should have been the man who afterwards went so near to breaking up, by an opinion, the unity that then was. But indeed in the way of providence that doctrine of his was an actual test of the stability and durableness of his * Unity.' For certain it is that, however uncatholic that one opinion was, however uncatholic the Roman Bishop in his tone concerning it, Cyprian was never parted from the very heart of the Communion of Saints in Christendom. This was the fullest example possible of that great truth which in word and conduct he enunciated : ' That Christian men must 'be able to differ in opinions without forfeitfng or withholding 'from each other the rights of intercommunion\' Wearied and weakened by separations of which the guilt, the loss, and even the suffering can never be truly apportioned as between those who triumph and those who are defeated, the spirit of Christendom has feebly begun to yearn for Reunion in some form, to recognize that a fractured force cannot complete the conquest of Heathendom. Yet each Church is rightly aghast at the thought of purchasing Unity at the cost of Truth. Cyprian does not recommend such barter to his ' most loved colleagues.' What Cyprian meant is summed by Augustine and rounded into one exact and perfect phrase. Salvo jure coni- vnmionis diversa sentire. He means that Schools of Thought are not Communions. He means that the Apostleship 1 Aug. de Bapt. c. Donat. vi. vii. 10. Cyprian : Ep. 72. 3 ; Sentt. Epp. Salvo jure communionis diversa sentire. proam, Ep. 68, fin. The spirit breathes The actual words are gathered from through all Cyprian. 534 AFTERMATH. and the Apostolic Creed are enough. He means that the harmony of mankind, in a world which is a world of Beginnings, never will be a harmony intellectual or meta- physical, but that it may even now be a harmony spiritual and sacramental. Such Unity as the Lord prayed for is a mysterious thing. It is no fantasy, but it answers in no way to the idea that 'one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism ' can be condensed into one Rite, one Code, one Chair. A mysterious thing. Nothing formal, mechanical, or limitable by words. That is evident in His very comparison and apposition of that Unity to the relations which subsist within the Holiest Trinity. No intellectual expression can embrace these relations ; so neither can intellectual Articles of Faith express that Unity which He defines only by likening it to those Divine relations. Nothing can reach it but some mystery, compact of visible and spiritual ; nothing but a Sacrament. A true Unity has to take account equally of Christ's Prayer and of Christ's Laws : of the Prayer which He offered over the sacrifice of Himself, and of the Laws which Himself, our Creator, impressed on the intellectual existence of our race. One centre we have, but the approaches to it from without, the radii of thought, are infinite. In that saying lies enfolded the germ of Christ's Prayer — 'jus coinnitmionis' — and the germ of Christ's natural Law ' divers a sejitire.' The Church which masters that saying, which roots it as the principle of the thought which itself cherishes and en- courages, which fructifies it in the action that itself enterprises, that Church was and is the Church of the Future. APPENDICES. 537 APPENDIX A. Principalis Ecclesia. Note on the meaning of Principalis (p. 192). It is matter of grief when one finds a scholar like Duchesne led by the logic of his position to Xxd.ri^2X& principalis ecclesia ' I'dglise souveraine' {Origines Chretiennes, vol. II. c. xxiv., sect. 6, pp. 427, 436). Postponing the question whether the principalitas originated in the Urbs {Civitas) or the Ecclesia, with other questions not belonging to the plan of this book, we should do well to learn accurately first what the word principalis meant to Romans under the Empire. The word is ixom. princeps, the ordinary title of the Emperor in daily use, and mediaeval or later students may be excused for vaguely con- cluding that it held in it all that was imperial and dominating, the highest idea of authority on earth. But why was it the title of the Emperor.? and ■what notion did it convey to the Roman world .'' Constitutional and philological research leave no doubt on these questions. The theory of the Roman Emperor was that all his powers were con- ferred upon him by virtue of the separate republican offices with which after his nomination he was invested, at first each by itself, but afterwards by one statute {Journal of Philology, xvii. p. 45). This mass of powers was conferred on a person who bore the most unpretending constitutional title, 'a title of courtesy pure and simple' {Diet. Gk. and R. Antt. v. 11. p. 483^). The Republic itself had been familiar with the idea of a princeps civitatis or ' pre-eminent single citizen,' ' the foremost man of the state,' ' and of placing at the head of the Republican system a constitutional ^ In these two paragraphs I have pre- abbreviated from, or in any way repre- ferred to make no statement of my own seating the latter). Journal of Phi- but to define the princeps solely from lology, viii. pp. 323 ff. ; 'On some dis- Professor H. Pelham's learned and com- puted points connected with the "im- prehensive papers, written without any perium" of Augustus and his succes- ■ecclesiastical reference, viz., '■Princeps sors,' zdid. xvii. pp. 2^ ff. ; 'Princeps,' or Princeps Senatus ' (proving that the Dictionary of Gk. and Rom. Antt. 3rd former was an independent title not ed. vol. 11. pp. 483 fF. 538 APPENDIX A. * primate — a first citizen — as the best means of securing administrative 'stability and Republican freedom' (/. of Phil. Vlil. p. 329).— 'The sig- * nificance of the term as accorded by popular consent to Augustus and 'his successors was the same.' And still in the time of Ulpian, 'The 'princeps was only a citizen invested by senate and people with certain * powers.' ' The title did not connote the tenure of any special office or 'prerogative.' 'It implied not only a general pre-eminence as distinct ' from a specific official function, but a constitutional pre-eminence among 'free citizens as opposed to despotic rule (Tac. Hist. iv. 3, ...Ceterum ut 'princeps loquebatur, civilia de se, de republica egregia. Plin. Paneg. ' 55, sedem obtinet principis ne sit domino locus).' * It involved an ex- ' plicit recognition of the continued existence of a free commonwealth.' 'The position was created only for each princeps for his life.' 'The ' principate died with the princeps ' {Diet. Gk. and R. Antt. v. 11. pp. 484, 485)- The term principalis ecclesia, r^yejxoviKrj, was the best and most exact possible to make plain to the constitutional subjects of the Roman Empire what was the position claimed by the Roman Church among Churches. First and highest in a great Republic of Churches, securing administrative unity and freedom, possessing a general pre-eminence as distinct from a special function, a constitutional pre-eminence as opposed to despotic rule. That was the meaning of pri?icipalitas, ptincipaius to any Roman lawyer or citizen. ' Sovereignty,' ' Ruling power ' is exactly what was not included, implied or allowed in the term. All itnperium ox potestas had to be separately and solemnly conferred. So long as the public felt that they had the conferring of each high authority as so many offices, while they called the one who held the many offices nothing but princeps, the first citizen, this name enabled them to believe that they were a republic, not a monarchy. In the case of the See its principatus was undoubted. The pre- rogatives of which the sum was autocracy were never conferred on it, and at first not only not claimed, but repudiated by it. The assumption of them came later, but with that assumption came wide and deep dis- regard for X^io. principatus itself. Let us add some illustrations of the true sense. Princeps Senatus was a well-known position in Rome. At no time did it imply power or authority : simply ' the privilege of delivering his sententia before the rest of the assembled Fathers.' The Princeps Jiiventutis, first of the Equites, had not a tinge of authority. In Africa itself the Principales were a rank to which Sovereignty by no means appertained. They are mentioned after Decwiones and before Gives (probably because they had no special jurisdiction) in an inscription from Sitifis {C.I.L. vill. i. nn. 14, 4224; ii. n. 8480). Augustine PRINCIPALIS ECCLESIA. 539 EP- 139, 4, commends to Marcellinus 'our son' Ruffinus as Cirtensis Principalis^ Augustine in his Epistle 43 to Glorius, Eleusius...lays much stress on the principate of the Church of Rome, '...Romanse ecclesiae in qua semper apostolicae cathedrae viguit principatus' {s. 7), and urges the Donatists to submit to the judgment of Pope Melchiades and his col- league Bishops given on appeal at Rome (j. 14). Then he points out that, supposing that Roman judgment to be wrong, there was still an appeal to a General Council, which might reconsider and reverse the judgment of the Pope and Bishops. ' Ecce putemus illos episcopos, qui Romse ' judicarunt, non bonos judices fuisse : restabat adhuc plenarium universae * Ecclesiae concilium, ubi etiam cum ipsis judicibus causa posset agitari, 'ut si male judicasse convicti essent, eorum sententiae solverentur ' {s. 19}. That distinctly expresses the nature of the principatus. It was exactly not ' sovereign ' in its decisions, great as was the respect to be paid to them. Tertullian, de Anima, cc. 13 — 15, has to determine the purely abstract metaphysical question of whether the anima or the animus in man has to fjyefioviKov, principalitas ubi sit? quid cui prcsestf 'where resides the principalitas ? which is over which?' He renders to TjyenoviKov hy prin- cipaie, the only possible term, fj-yefMcov being the equivalent for princeps. He decides of course that the principa/e is in the anima, of which the animus with its senses and operations is in one view a function ' officium,' in another its furniture or apparatus ' instrumentum.' Next he proceeds to enquire in what ' recess of the body ' the principa/e has its shrine, ' esse consecratum.' There is no analogy drawn or resemblance existent between the metaphysical relations in this most abstract discussion and the practical relations of political or civil ranks, and no one would pretend that the Church is in any sense ' a function,' or ' the furniture,' or ' the apparatus ' of a See. No definition of principalis is sought or given by Tertullian. The meaning of the word is assumed to be known by any Roman reader. What is here supposed to be ascertained is the pre-eminent place of the anima. It is simply shewn that the principale, the foremost, chiefest, pre-eminent rank, belongs to the atiima. This however is the passage of which the Rev. L. Rivington writes {Pritnitive Church a?id See of Peter, 1894, p. 58), 'Since Irensus wrote ' those words about Rome, Tertullian {de Afiim. 13) had defined the word ' as meaning " that which is over anything" as the soul presides over and ^ [Cf. C. I. L. vol. V. ii. n. 7786, Apuleius, in Africa, in this century, it viro innocent! principali civitatis. — vol. is similarly used of men and of the I.x.nn. 259, 1540, 1683. InCod.yusttn. god Serapis, Aletantorph. xi. (261), 7, r6, 41 ; 10, 32 (31), 33, 40, 42, and viii. (175) ; Florid, iv. 21. In no in some inscriptions, it seems like a rank case is there a trace of rule or belonging often to a decurion. In sovereignty.] S40 APPENDIX A. rules the body.' There is (as I have said) no attempt to define^ ; the translation and application of quid cut prceest is too shocking ; there is not a trace of the illustration of soul ruling body. As to 'those words of Irenaeus' c. Hceres. iii, 3, 2, Mr Rivington observes that 'this expression "principal Church" and its Greek equiva- lent occurring in S. Irenaeus... means the ruling Church.' There is a little slip here, as the passage of Irenaeus does not exist in Greek, but the potentior principalitas which he assigns to the Church, not the Bishop, of Rome, means of course what it means everywhere. It means what Strabo xvii. 3 calls 17 npoaraa-la ttjs fj-ye^ovias, the precedence, the presidency, the pre-eminence belonging to the position of princeps. What this was we have seen. Principatus, principalitas embodied the tradition and the hope of Rome. They expected to maintain the idea of undisputed pre-eminence and to exclude inherent autocracy, making all authority and jurisdiction to be only the exercise of various offices specially conferred. They ex- pected. So did the Christians. ^ When Tertullian de PrcBscriptiofii- the word as meaning 'priority in time,' — bits H(zretic. 3 1 claims principalitas for ' sed ab excessu revertar ad principali- Truth as against Heresy, he might tatein veritatis et posteritatem menda- equally well be said to have ' defined ' citatis.' 541 APPENDIX B. Additional note on Libelli (pp. 8 1 — 84). The account of the Libelli, pp. 81 — 84, was constructed many years ago from the various extant references to them. We little thought then to find such actual documents extant after sixteen centuries and a half. But in 1893 ^"d 1894 there appeared two, one in the Brugsch Collection of the Berlin Museum, the other in that of the Archduke Rainer, brought from the province of Faioum, S.W. of Cairo. The former is a papyrus leaf, about 8 inches by 3, much damaged but most skilfully deciphered by Dr Krebs, who acknowledges Dr Harnack's learned assistance in illustrating it ; the fragments of the other have been skilfully pieced together by Prof. K. VVessely^ These documents give us a sharpened sense of the suppression planned by Decius — a policy of ' Thorough,' an application of the great Roman administrative forces to any and every individual in the Empire. The scheme extends formally to little villages (Euseb. H. E. vi. 42, i), and takes in country folks outside them, and their wives. The form in Africa is not likely to have differed from that in Egypt. The date, we shall see, is of the year we are describing. I had concluded formerly ^ that besides the process of Registration there were two kinds of libelli or certificates of sacrifice, one an allowed protest or declaration of innocence put in {traditus) by the person accused of Christianity, the other a certificate received by him {acceptus) from the magistrate that he was satisfied of his paganism. Our second papyrus might have seemed one of the former sort, if it had stood alone, and our first a similar one, attested by the magistrate. But their being in dupli- cate, except for the personal particulars filled in, and their both praying for attestation, shews that what I thought might be different documents were combined in each libellus, the two parts being what was conjectured. ^ The former is described and illus- The second is described by Dr trated with a facsimile by Dr Fritz A. Harnack in the Theolog. Literatur- Krebs in the Sitzungsberichte d. Kongl. zeitung, Leipzig, 17 March, 1894 [from Pretiss. Akademie d. IVis sense haft en zti Sitzungsb.d.Kaiserl.Akad.d.Wissensch. Berlin, 1893, 30 Nov., xlviii. p. 1007; Phil. -Hist. Classe 131 B. Wien, 1894] and there is an article on it in the and by [Dr] A. J. M[ason] in the Theolog. Literaturzeilung, Leipzig, 20 Guardian, March 21, 1894, p. 431. Jan. 1894, by Dr A. Harnack, and one ^ Diet, of Christian Antiquities, s.v. by the Bishop of Salisbury in the Guar- ■Col. Ii. p. 981. dian, Jan. 31, 1894, p. 167. 542 APPENDIX B. I admit also that if there was Registration (which seems essential) it would be the registering of these documents and not a different process. II (Rainer). TOis fiTi tav dvaioiv rjprjyifvois K(t)fjiT)s <})i\a8(\(t)ias irapa avprfKicov crvpov km iracr^dov tov aSeX0ou KOI 8t]p,Tirpias Kui crapaniahos yvvaiK(i)u [rj^fjiciv t^ajrvXetrav aei ^woi'[Tej] ro«r dfois fiifTtXt aafxtv Kai pvv tm TTapovT(ov v/xa)i» Kara ra iTpo(TTa-)(6(vra ncai famcrapfv Kai [roi^v i[fpetci)»'] f[yfv(rapfda Kai] [a^iovfxfu Vfias Vffocij/xetoj] v 6v(Tia>v rjprf- pfvoLS Ku>{pr}s) aXf^{av8pov) vrjaov napa avpr}\{iov) 8ioy(vov{i) (rara- jSovrof OTTO »c(a(/iijr) aik(^av8{pov) ■5 VTjcrov a>s Lo/3 ov\{t]) o^pvi Be^{ia.) Kai ati dvWV TOIS dfOlS 8lfT€- \fV l\t\pfia)V [...] trafirjv Kai a^ia v[pai] viro(rtjpi(o. 66. 8, p. 732, 25. 'Pag. 106, V. -i,^ Loquitur Petrus siiper quern fundata [text sedificata] fuerat ecclesia. Quantum Petro & illius Cathedrae tribuendum censuerit B. Cyprianus, hie, & multis aliis eximiis probat testimoniis. Nee quidquam illi deperit si extant diversae doctorum ad verba Christi expositiones. Omnium tandem Catholicorum scopus & finis eo tendit ut recognoscant unum Christi loco in ecclesia esse relictu pro quo & illius sede & successoribus rogavit ne deficeret fides illius, & universum gregem domi- nicum pasceret. Nee quemquam tnovere debet quod alicubi dicat hoc fuisse ceteros apostolos quod /nit &^ Petrus, pari consortio prceditos honoris 5^ potestatis, [de unit. 4. Manut. p. 139, 32, Hartel, p. 213, 2] quod de cequalitate apostolatus est omnino intelligendum, qui cum apostolis morientibus cessavit nee ad episcopos trasiit qui succedunt apostolis in ministerio episcopalis dignitatis pro sua quisque portione. In solo Petro remansit omnis plenitudo potestatis ad universalem ecclesiae totius guber- nationem, ut catholici doctores acutissime viderunt et comprobarunt. Nee est alienum si priscorum patrian scriptis pice dr' catholicce adhibea?itur interpretationes, Qr^ veri sensus, ad conseruandam semper EcclesicB uni- tate>H, qua B. Cypriano nil fuit in scribendo optabilius. alioqui hcereseum -» schismatum nullusjinis.' Thus in 1563, instantly after and notwithstanding the interpolations, the papal warning against the teaching of the De Unitate has still to be raised. As there could be no more thorough exposition and example of Roman practice, so there can be no keener comment on its futiHty. B- 35 546 APPENDIX D. The Intrigue about tlie Benedictine Text — Additional note on du Mabaret (p. 213). The Abb^ du Mabaret was from 1720 to 1733 Professor of Philosophy and then of Theology at Angers. In 1725, at the age of 28, in a work called Veritatis triumphus he refuted Spinosa, 'Protestantism' and Jan- senism, and proved Papal Infallibility. To the age of 86 he was a pious patient student of 'vast erudition' without a touch of critical method or power. He disallowed the genuineness of Lactantius 'on the deaths of persecutors'; was the compiler of enormous works which never found editor, publisher or patron, and complains that his contributions to Moreri's Dictionnaire Historique are inadequately acknowledged. His one literary success was, as we have seen, the spoiling of Baluze's Cyprian. His feeble 'arguments' on the Interpolation survive among Freppel's. They chiefly rest on the 'Citations.' M. I'Abb^ Arbellot published at Limoges 1867 a pamphlet, now rare, which collects the particulars of his writings, and as far as possible admires him. The following interesting illustrations of the state of feeling at the time were pointed out to me by M. le Vicomte de Cormenin. The 'Sgavant d'A...' of Oct. 1726 {Mhn. de Trevoux for that year, p. 1902) says, ' Personne n'ignore avec combien d'dclat et de force M. 'I'Abbd du Plessis d'Argentr^, aujourd'hui Eveque de Tulles, a soutenu ' I'authenticite de ce passage.' In Feb. 1743 du Mabaret published in the same memoirs his ^loge on du Plessis d'Argentr^. When du Plessis was a young doctor of the Sorbonne he had pub- lished in quarto at Paris in 1702, '■ Eleiiienta Theologies in quibus de 'autoritate et pondere cujuslibet argumenti theologici diligenter et 'accurate disputatur...autore Carolo du Plessis d'Argentrd, socio Sor- 'bonico, e Sacra Facultate Parisiensi Doctore Theologo et Abbate a ' S. Cruce juxta Quinquainpum in Armorica.' The author's estimate of his work was not generally accepted. And in the copy at the Bibliothhque Nationale (Inv. D 3616, D 384) is preserved a printed letter of 8 pp. dated 27 Dec. 1707 which describes the Archbishop of Reims (Charles Maurice Le Tellier, 1668 — 1710) administering to Dr du Plessis what he called a ^Corrections before a great company at his nephew's, the Abbd de Louvois. * He did it for him,' he said, 'in his quality of fellowship with him in the Doctorate.' The Controller of his Household revealed that, if he had not thus met him, the Archbishop's intention had been to dine on Christmas Day at the Sorbonne and there correct him before the Doctors. ' His book was full of ignorance and false principles. Never ' had he read a worse. He had written it only from motives of policy 'to pay court to the Jesuits, and, having attained his object of getting ' himself an Abbey, to get a Bishopric. He himself had been much ' scandalized by the book. The Cardinal de Noailles still more. He ought 'to suppress it.' — He did not. And in 1725 he obtained his bishopric. APPENDIX E. TEXT OF THE INTERPOLATION OF CYPRIAN DE UNITATE C. IV. 35-2 'Bod I,' (Fell) Bodleian Library Oxford, Laud. Misc. 451 loth century fo. AT 199, double columns, well written. 'Of same class as T (Hartel xlv, xlvi) if not a copy of it.' F. M. • Bod 2,' Bodleian cod. 110 12th cent. fo. ff 208, double columns, ' a better MS in some respects than 451 (Bod i) though written by a careless scribe and afterwards much corrected.' J. W. 'The order of contents resembles fx (H. p. xlvi) and /3 (Ivii).* F. M. It is older than either. 'Bod 3,' Bodleian Laud. Misc. 217 15th cent, small 4to. ff 129 rather closely written, full page. '2nd Family. Follows M Q as against T, and Q as against M.' F. M. 'Bod 4,' Bodleian Laud. Misc. 105 loth or nth cent. 4to. ff 163 'seems to be a selection from T M and to agree with the first corrector of T. Considering its resemblance to M Q, with purer readings like T, it may seem a better though more recent representation of the archetype of M Q, coordinate with Hartel < X > and < Y > . *Bod 5 ' (so I venture to call it). Bodleian MS add. C. 15 early loth cent, 'acquired at the Libri sale 1859 : a beautiful MS: has ep. ad Thibarilanos twice over with different texts.' F. M. * Ebor,' not in Library. 'Lam,' Archbishop's Library at Lambeth, Codd. Lamb. 106 13th cent. ' Epistols et tractatus Ixxxv... Codex perpulcher' H. Wharton (ms catal. i688) rubricated, several fine illuminated initials. ' Liber Lanthoni- en^is Ecclie. Qui detinuerit : anatemasit* 'Lin,' Lincoln College Library Oxford n. 47 15th cent. fo. ff 231. Order same as B (v. Hartel p. Ivi) In fronte ' Vespasianus librarius Jlorentimcs hunc libnini Jiorentie transc ribendum cu- ravit' '?copied from one at Florence described by Bandini i. 268, viz. MS laureiit. plut 16 cod 22. Has some good II. but by a care- less scribe as these beautiful mss often are.' J. W. 'NC I,' New College Oxford 130 12th cent, fo. ff 245, 2 col., well writ, 'very interesting MS; seems coordinate with those of the 3rd family, though perhaps independent enough to be regarded as alone of its kind.' F. M. 'NC 2,' New College Oxford 131,2 15th cent. 131, sm. fo. ff 155. 132, sm. fo. ff 137. These two thought to be really one ms ; but some treatises occur in both parts ; the order of treatises in 132 is mainly that of Q; the epp. in 131 do not answer in order to any of Hartel's. F. M. *Pem,' Pembroke College Libraiy Cambridge C 20 (1935) early 13th cent, small fo. ff 89, 2 columns, 36 lines, pale. Italian MS. The initials re- markable. Given by Abp Rotheram, Master in a.d. 1480 to Pem- broke Hall. Has a note ' istuni Ubntni enii in Messana X %d' Vetutiis.' 'Pem2,'Pem.Coll. Lib. Camb., no press mark, 'Petri Blesensis' 12th cent, pencil in marg. catal. not known to Fell; ff 189, of which 143 contain "Passio Cypriani et Epistoiae Ixxiiii,' of which /)f Unitate is one among other treatises. Large beautiful folio, double columns, finely writ, 40 lines to page. 'Sar,' Cathedral Library Salisbury n. 9. 12th cent, 'oblong, well written, injured on outer margin by damp.' For convenience in following the description in Chapter IV, ill I have placed the readings of M Q Bod 3 Bod 4 and Pelagius together. New collations are given of the English manuscripts (on which see Hartel p. Ixxxvi) because Fell's are not accurate. For the collations of Bod i. Bod 2, NC 1, I have to thank the Rev. John Wordsworth (now Bishop of Salisbury) : F. Madan, Esq. of the Bodleian for those of Bod i, Bod 2 also, as well as of Bod 3, Bod 4, NC \ and Line, and for the notes on classification: for transcript of Pern E. H. C. Smith, Esq., for tran- scripts also of Pern and Pern 2, the Rev. E. J. Heriz Smith, Fellow of the College ; of ^arum, the Rev. H. G. White, Chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Salisbury. 549 Text of the Interpolated Passage in Cyp. de Unitate iv. as given in the edition of Paulus Manutius, A.D. 1563 (p. 139). The clause in [ ] is from PamHe ed. 1568 (p. 254), Rigault 1648, and Baluze (Maran) 1726. Loquitur Dominus ad Petrum : Ego tibi dico, inquit, quia tu es Petrus, & super istam petram aedificabo Eccle- siam meam, et portae inferorum non vincent earn. Tibi dabo claves regni caelorum, & quae ligaveris super terram, erunt ligata & in caelis : & quaecunque solveris super terram, 5 erunt soluta & in caelis. Et eidein post resurrectionem suam dicit : Pasce oves nieas. Super ilium unum aedificat Ecclesiam stiatn, & illi pascendas inandat oves snas. Et quamvis apostolis omnibus post resurrectionem suam parem potestatem tribuat & dicat : Sicut misit me pater, et ego mitto vos, accipite 10 Readings of M (Monacensis) from Hartel with which Q (Trecensis) agrees precisely even in corrections ; of Fell's Bod 3, Bod 4 { = Laud Misc. 217 & 105) and of £>. Pelagii Papae ii 1. Et ego B 3. dico tibi M. inquit petre B 4 2. hanc petram edificabo B 3 3. porte {et sic semper e pro ae vel oe) 4. ligaberis B 4, legaveris M 6- legata M. cells B 3 6. Et idem...meas M B 3 {om. suam B 3), et eidem...meas B 4 7. ilium M 2 B 3. dicit] illi (illi perlineatum) B 4. om. unum B 3 B 4. edificavit B 3 8 om. suam M B 3 B 4. et illi pascendas oves mandat suas M B 3 B 4 {om. suas B 3 B 4) 9. om. post resurrectionem suam M B 3 B 4. tribuat potestotem M B 4, tribuit potestatem B 3 10. om. et dicat... manifestaret, insert i?ig Readings of Bod i, Bod 2, Bod 5, Lambeth, Lincoln Coll., New Coll. i, 2, Pembroke Coll. Cam. 1, 2, and Sarum 1. dico tibi Line, in quid petre Pem 2. hanc B 5 Line Sar. edificabo La Pern Pern 2, hedificabo Line 3. porte Sar. inferiorum Line, tibi dabo B i Line, et tibi B 2 Pem Pem 2 NC i, dabo tibi NC 2ut ff 4. celorum Sar La Pem Pem 2. quecunque Pem, que Sar 6. cells Sar Pem, caelo B 5. quecunque Sar Pem 6. cells et idem.. .measB 2 La Pem Pem 2 NC i, cells Sar, caelo B5, celis et eidem...meas Pem Line, om. et Pem, om. et eidem...meas B i Sar 7- om. ilium B I B 2 B s NC t Line Sar La Pem 2. om. unum Pem. edificat Line Sar La, edificat {ma i -avit) ille delet. Pem, aedificavit B 2, edificavit NC i Pem 2 8- om. suam B 2 B 5 La NC i Pem Pem 2. om. suam. ..suas B i Sar, et illi pascendas (tuendasque B 5) oves mandat. Et B 2 NC i 5 so APPENDIX E. Spiritum sanctum : Si cui remiseritis peccata, remittentur illi : si cui tenueritis, tenebuntur : tamen ut unitatem mani- festaret, unam cathedratn constituit, et unitatis ejusdem originem ab uno incipientem sua auctoritate disposuit. Hoc 15 erant utiq, et caeteri apostoli, quod fuit & Petrus, pari consortio praediti & honoris & potestatis, sed *exordium ab unitate proficiscitur, & primatus Petro datur, ut una Ecclesia Christi et cathedra una monstretur : & pastores sunt omties, et grex unus ostenditiir, qui & apostolis omnibus unanimi con- 20 sensione pascattir** \ ut Ecclesia Christi una monstretur, quam unam Ecclesiam etiam in cantico caticorum Spiritus Sanctus ex persona Domini designat et dicit : Una est columba mea, perfecta mea, una est matri suae, electa genitrici suae. * Hanc Ecclesiae unitatem qui non tenet, tenere se fidem credit ? 25 Qui Ecclesiae renititur et resistit, \_qui cathedram Petri super quam fundata est Ecclesia deserit,] in Ecclesia se esse confidit? Readings of M, Q, Boii 3, Boti 4 and £p. Pelagii Papae ii iAe tamen between unam atid cathedram M B 3 B 4 13 om. et B 3. om. ejusdem M B 3 B 4 14. originem] atque orationis suae (atque erased by a second hand) M, atque rationem sua B 3 B 4. om. ab uno incipientem M B 3 B 4 15. utique M B 3 B 4. om. et B4. om. apostoli M B 3 B 4. om. fuit et M, otn. et B 4, om. fuit B 3. om. pari... proficiscitur M B 3 B 4 16. * \st citation in Pelag. begins. 17. sed primatus M B 3 B 4. et/>ro ut B 4 18. om. Christi M B 3 B 4. Xti eccl. Pel. ut M B 3, et M 2 B 4. om. una Pel. monstretur M B 3, monstratur B 4. sed grex M B 3 B 4 Pel. 19. ab/or et M B 3 B 4 Pel. o>n. omnibus Pel. 20. "* in B 4 genuine form begins here, v. inf. otn. ut Ecclesia... genitrici suae M B 3. om. ut Ecclesia. ..confidit B 4 23. * ind cit. in Pelagius commences. 24. et Pauli /or Ecclesias M B 3 25. Qui Ecclesiae renititur et resistit, om. Pel. M B 3. Qui Cathedram Petri. ..deserit ins. M B 3; Qui Cath. P. super quam Ecclesia fundata est deserit et resistit Pel. Here follows in M B 3 the repetition from line 2 of words super unum aedificavit ecclesiam, and then the wlwle passage once more in its genuine form without the in terpola tions. Gretser's collation of his Bavarian Codex {supra p. 206) gives ego dico tibi ; et idem...meas ; <7/«. ilium; otn. [Eccl] suam; suas; om. post resurrectionem suam; parem tribuat potestatem: om. dicat...manifestaret; tamen bettueen unam a;i^ cathedram ; om. ejusdem; orationis suae ; o>n. ab uno incipientem; om. apostoli; et for ut ; sed (grex); ab for ct; om. ut Ecclesia... genitrici suae — alliti perfect correspondence with M (Munich). Pern La Pern 2. apostolus Sar 9. otn. post resurrectionem Pem. om. suam Line, tribuat potes- tatem B 2 La NC I Pem 2 11. cujus remiseritis B i. si cujus B 2 B 5 La Pem 2. et si cui Pem. remittuntur B5 NC 2 Pem 12. om. illi Sar. illis, cujus B i. si cujus Pem. ei; si cujus La B 2 B 5 Sar. ei si cui Pem 2. retinueritis retenta erunt B 2 La Pem 2, retinueritis retenta sunt NC I. tenebuntur !« rrti Line. <5>h. ut Pem. manifestarent NC i 13. w«. unam cath... et B I B 2 B 5 La Line NC i NC2 Pem 2 Sar. unitatis ejus B i. ejus idem (idem in rasiira dem ut udtur scriptuni) Sar 14. originem atque rationem B 2 Pem. incipiente B 5 Line, incipientes Sar. om. ab uno incipientem Pem 16- erasure of a letter betw. caeteri atui apostoli B 2. fuit Petrus B 5 La Pem 2 16. ab unoprof. B i NC 2 17 om. et prim...pascatur Bi B2 Bs La Line NC i NC 2 Pem 2 Sar. MS of Card. Hosius ap Pamel hie for et. Christi ecclesia, Line 18. monstratur Pem, monstraretur Line, monstretur bis Sar. sed grex Pem 19. qui ab Pem 20. om. ut Ecc... genitrici suae Pem. dei NC 2. om. quam. ..genitrici suae NC 2 21. in cantica B i 22. de ecclesia pro designat et Sar 23. matris...genitricis B I B 2 B 5 La Line NC i Pem 2. electa est ex Line, electa est B 2* La NC i Pem 2 24. Petri/i>r Ecclesiae Pem. si Pem. ^w. fidem B 2 La Pem 2 26. <7»j. qui cathedram. ..deserit B I B 2 La Line NC i NC 2 Pem 2 Sar 26. quem fundata Ecclesia est Pem. aecclesia B i [Note Pem om. from, confidit to corrumpat c. 5 oj does also a MS at Bologna not othertvise muck like Pem in this passage, see p. 352]. INTERPOLATION OF DE UNITATE, C. IV. 55 1 So ends the interpolated passage in Manutius, and here in the manuscripts M Q B 3 the whole passage is repeated in its genuine form, following the word confidit. In B 4 the repetition follows pascatur but this Codex leaves out the genuine ' qui Ecclesiae renititur et resistit ' and replaces it by the inteipolated sentence. Thus (Hartel's text) super unum aedificat ecclesiam et quamvis apostolis om- nibus post resurrectionem suam parem potestatem tribuat et dicat : sicut misit me pater et ego mitto uos. accipite Spiritum sanctum : si cuius remiseritis peccata, remittentur illi : si cuius tenueritis, tenebuntur, tamen ut unitatem mani- s festaret, unitatis eiusdem originem ab uno incipientem sua auctoritate disposuit. hoc erant utique et ceteri apostoli quod fuit Petrus, pari consortio praediti et honoris et potestatis, sed exordium ab unitate proficiscitur, ut ecclesia Christi una monstretur. quam unam ecclesiam etiam in cantico canti- 10 corum Spiritus Sanctus ex persona Domini designat et dicit : una est columba mea, perfecta mea, una est matri suae, electa genitrici suae, hanc ecclesise unitatem qui non tenet tenere se fidem credit .'' qui ecclesiae renititur et resistit in ecclesia se esse confidit .■' i , Readings of M, Q, Bod 3, Bod 4 and Ep. Pelagii Papae ii 1. aedificavit M, edificavit B 3. ecclesiam et quamvis super liinra B 4. otn. et B 3 2. resur- reccionem B 3 4- quorum B 3. sicut B 4. remittuntur B 4, dimittentur B 3 5. ilHs M B 3, eis B 4. quorum B 3. unitatem ut B 4. monstraret B 3 6. em in rasura B 4. in- cipiente B 3 B 4 7. erunt Et ceteri B 4. om. et B 3. erat B 3 8. prediti B 3 B 4 9. exoritur B 4 10. ecclesiam in cantica B 4 12. perfecta una B 4. matris B 4. sue B 3. electa est M, electa e genitrice sua contraction mark over e erased B 3 13 genetricis B 4 14- ecclesie B 3. pro 'qui ecciesitp... resistit,' qui cathedram petri super quera fundata ecclesia de.-erit B 4. //artel's collations. 1. dicotibiMR. inquit^w. G 3- dabotibi S, tibi dabo WGMVR 5. &ii.ante\j\) om.S. super] in S 6. om. //art. et eidem...meas cum SWGVR 7. ovt. //art. ilium cum SWGM'RV 8. om. //art. suam...oves suas cum SWGVR 10. sicut bis R', si cui bis R^.rem. accipe S 11. remittuntur R 12. illis M, om. G. manifestet R 13. //art. om. unam cathedram constituit et cz» resistit, in ecclesia se esse confidit. 552 APPENDIX F. A transcript by J. W. from a MS in University Library Bologna (no. 2572, sm. 4°, sac. xiv or first half xv in Italian hand), which belonged formerly to S. Salvadore di Canonici Lateranensi, shews the same curious omission from cottjtdit to corntmpat as Pern, which it does not otherwise resemble. e.g. it has: petram istam — ^post resurrectionem — tribuat potestatem— et cui remiseritis — et si ctii tenueritis— tamen ut unitatem — et ceteri quod fuit et — monstraretur — animi — pas- cantur — super quam — fundata est ecclesia— [/^ has: et tibi — et idem — originem atque rationem — sed exordium]. APPENDIX F. On paints in the CHRONOLOGY of VALERIAN'S reign (pp. 456 sqq.). The confusions of events in Valerian's reign were such that Tillemont felt obliged to take them geographically, not chronologically. The following observations may serve the cause of clearness : — I. The end of Valerian's reign. Niebuhr {Lectt. Rom. Hist. ill. p. 279, London, 1850) is unable to decide whether the catastrophe which ended Valerian's reign was in a.d. 256 or 260. There can be no doubt, looking at the varied indications, that it was in 260. (i) The persecution lasted 42 months (Dionys. ap. Euseb. vii. 10) until Gallienus repealed the edict after Valerian's disappearance. Supposing Cyprian, on Aug. 30, A.D. 257, to have been the first confessor as is probable^ in Africa, the edict can scarcely have appeared earlier than July, when Valerian made his arrangements for the empire, departed for the East, and left Macrian to administer. This brings the end of Valerian's power to the end of A.D. 260. (2) Valerian was proclaimed Augustus in Rhaetia before the end of 253, since his second year of Tribunitian power dates from Jan. i, 254. This makes his reign, ending in his 8th year, to end in 260 (cf. Clinton, F. R. I. p. 284). (3) There are coins of Valerian struck in his eighth Tribuneship, i.e. in 260, at Alex- andria in August, and in Cilicia after October, and enactments bearing his name issued through that year up till September 24th 2 (see Clinton, I.e.). How long he lived in captivity is not known. His son Gallienus made no effort to recover him. He was reported dead at Rome, and deified while still alive in captivity. (Treb. Poll. Gallieni duo., c. 10.) Whether the headings of two laws which bear his name in 262 and 265 are genuine, and if so whether they prove that he was still living is doubtful {Cod. fust. 3, 8, 3 ; 5, 62, 17). 1 ...Quidnos...diceredeberemus prior ^ Codex Justinianus. They maybe apud Acta Proconsulis pronuntiasti et found by the Index to the Corpus Juris tuba canens &c. in acie prima. ..primos Civilis (Berlin, 1880), v. II. p. 494. impetus, Ep. 77. ^, CHRONOLOGY OF VALERIAN. 553 2. The date of the capture of Antioch. The main cause of confusion is difference as to the date of the capture of Antioch by Sapor, Gibbon (c. x. p. 284, ed, Mihnan, 1846) and Niebuhr (/. c. p. 295) place this event after Valerian's capture, in 260, following (they believe) Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. 5, 3), who adds a special note to his particular tale, * These events were in the times of Gallienus,' i.e. 260 on- ward. Zosimus (i. 32) relates how Valerian engaged himself with Succes- sianus in resettling Antioch after its ruin^ The fall of Pityus in 258 was attributed to his withdrawing for that purpose Successianus, who had saved Pityus the year before. Antioch had therefore fallen before 258. Tillemont tries a hopeless compromise by placing its fall late in 258. There is, however, no real contradiction between these late but not careless authorities^. The fact is that Antioch was twice captured by Sapor, once in A.D. 252-3, and again in 260 (v. inf.), having been in the interval restored by Valerian. To this restoration we may refer his coins with the legend restitut. orientis, restitutor orbis^. Zosimus himself (in i. 27, a passage which almost seems to have been overlooked) relates the capture of Antioch by Sapor in the time of Callus, A.D. 252 or before May 253 when vtmiUan was proclaimed. Antioch was unprepared and offered no resistance, and on this occasion, after a great massacre and the destruction of 'every building private or public,' the Persians, ' while the conquest of all Asia lay in their power,' returned immediately home to deposit their masses of captives and spoil. Their method often was destruction and abandonment. The same author writes (i. 36) that, at the later time when he captured Valerian, Sapor 'was ranging over the East and subduing all before him' 1 TO. irepl tV 'AvTi6xei.av Kal tov Eusebii Chronicon is dated A.D. 325, ravrrji oIkkt/iov oIkovohovvtos. Jerome's edition, 378. ^ Considering the lateness of their Aurelius Victor wrote after 350. dates, the evident paucity and fragmen- Ammianus Marcellinus wrote before tary character of their materials and 380. the brevity with which generally they Zosimus fornii after 420. wi-ite, the old historians scarcely merit Georgius Syncellus wrote between the Livish abuse they receive. It can 780 and 800. scarcely be said that the moderns have Zonaras foruit 11 18. been more successful as critics in digest- * \_Restit. orientis; a 'turreted female ' ing even their materials. Consider that (i-e. a city) presents the Emperor with Dionysius Magnus is the only contem- a crown. Restitutor Orbis; the Em- porary \vTiter. peror raises a turreted female. No TrebelUus PoUio wrote his later work ground for the statement that these under Constantine. were struck ':« anticipation of success,' Vopiscus began to write in 291 or 292 as Stevenson, Diet. Rom. Coins, p. and refers to TrebelUus {Divus Aureli- 687.] They commemorate the actual anus, ii.). restoration. 554 APPENDIX F. (firiav TTjv i^av airavra KOTcoTpe^ero) and (iii. 32) that after his (second) capture of Antioch, which this time he had to take by storm (Kara Kpiros), he had * marched across as far as to the Cilician Gates,' when Valerian advancing against him fell into his power (v. infr. sect. 4). The earlier chronicle of Eusebius places the capture of Valerian in 260, and the ravaging {depoptdatur) of Syria, Cilicia i.e. within 'the Gates,' and Cappadocia in 261 (j. anno). This is not inconsistent with Zosimus. Sapor entered Syria not from the south, but from Meso- potamia, made direct for Antioch, and having taken it the second time, ravaged the Syria adjacent to the other two countries and north of Antioch. Thus the earlier authorities agree in the fourth and fifth century. But when we come to the ninth century we find that Georgius Syncellus (ed. Dind. p. 716) thought this 'ravaging of Syria' in 261 must in- clude the taking of Antioch. So he makes the capture of Valerian precede the taking of Antioch, as well as of Tarsus in Cilicia and Caesarea of Cappadocia. This is against the earlier testimonies so far as Antioch is concerned. And it is improbable in itself that Valerian, considering what we know of his dilatory tactics, should anticipate the approach of Sapor and throw himself in his way outside Antioch. But Syncellus himself indicates that there was something wrong in his story, for a few lines earlier he says {I.e. p. 715) 'Sapor overran Syria, came to Antioch, and ravaged all Cappadocia' before the capture of Valerian. He could not have 'come to Antioch' and marched on, leaving such a place in his rear. In the twelfth century we find that Zonaras gives first an account, which agrees with Zosimus and Eusebius ; — the overrunning of Syria followed by the ravage of Cappadocia and then by the siege of Edesa, in attempting to relieve which city Valerian is taken (xii. 23) ^ He then gives another version, which is nothing but a paraphrase^ of Syncellus, and puts together the capture of Antioch, Tarsus and Caesarea as all after Valerian's seizure. The only discrepancy then which remains on close comparison arises from Syncellus's late misinterpretation. It is clear that the two campaigns of Sapor, in each of which Antioch was taken, at an interval of eight years, were quite differently conceived. The object of the first was the sack of Antioch itself. But in the second the annihilation of the re- colonized and restored city was the basis of a vast invasion of the countries north of it. ^ So Aurel. Vict. Epit. 32 'in Meso- Oifievo^ koL ttjv tov irXrjdovs irpodoffiav, potamia bellum gerens.' — Of. de Casa- ^y alvyov 6\L- ribus, 32. yuv dvcupedivTwv. Compare Zonar. xii. ^ In one or two places not even a 2^, ■jrpoB€5(j)Kvyov, 6\lyuv avaipedivTuv. Dind. ed. p. 715 iavrbv irpoiSdu}K€...<7vv- CHRONOLOGY OF VALERIAN. 555 To the second assault belongs (it is said) the picturesque story in Ammianus (xxiii. 5, 3) of the actress suddenly exclaiming from the stage * Is it a dream, or do I see the Persians,' and of the instant overwhelming of the gathered population by the archery ^ 3. Fall of CcBsarea of Cappadocia. Dr Peters^ says 'Valerian hurried to Cappadocia against Sapor in A.D, 258.' No antient authority gives an idea that Valerian 'hurried' (inertia was his characteristic) either in that year or any other, or that Sapor was at that time anywhere near Cappadocia. Valerian set out, as Zosimus says (i. 36), with the view of meeting the *■ Scythians,' then ravaging Bithynia ; only he got no further than Cappa- docia, and returned 'having done nothing but just damage the cities by his transit^.' The fall of Cassarea belongs to that wide sustained campaigning of Sapor (Zosim. i. 36), spoken of under the last head, when, after Antioch ■was taken for the second time, Valerian, as the Eusebian Chronicle rightly gives it, was captured in A.D. 260, and Syria, Cilicia and Cappa- docia were overrun in 261. 4. The Treachery in the capture of Valerian. The capture of Valerian was a tragic but not a politically significant event. It was accompanied by no loss to the Roman armies or adminis- tration. It is agreed by historians that it was effected by treachery, but not so agreed where or what the treachery. It is variously attributed to Sapor, to an unknown general, to Macrian, and to Valerian himself. There is, however, no real difficulty in determining the fact. In the fragment of a contemporary dispatch from some potentate to Sapor with which Trebellius' memoir on ' The Two Valerians ' begins the capture is treated as simply Sapoi-'s craft, ' Look to it lest ill befall you for ^ ' Et hac quidem Gallieni temporihiis incursaverunt is not adequate to such evenerunt^ unless Gallieni is a mistake events, and the text shews sufficient for Gain. The features of the story, — reasons for placing this earlier, the time of peace, the burnt city, - Peters, p. 573. the retiring with vast booty, — exactly fit ^ ...Koi ry irap68({) ixbvov iirirpl^l/ai ris the former fall. But the second does voKus vTri(xrpc\l/€v et's rovviffw. not absolutely refuse them. Moses Chorenensis (cent. iv. — v.), Clinton places this sack of Antioch ffisl. Armeti. 1. ii. c. 72, 73 (ed. in 262 (j. anno) from the notice of that Whiston, 1736, pp. 1967, 8) states on year in Hieronymus' Chron. Parthi the authority of Firmilian that Valerian Mesopotamiatn tenentes Syriam incursa- was informed of the danger in which verunt. But it is impossible to suppose Armenia stood, but did not help, 'ad that the raids of years had been carried regionem nostram tutendam Valerianus on in Syria with the restored Antioch non pervenit, nee diu vitam traxit.' intact in the midst of it. The mere 556 APPENDIX F. having seized the aged emperor and that too by fraud ^.' So Aurelius Victor, * circumvented by the treachery of the king of the Persians, whose name was Sapor^.' Zosimus developes the nature of the treachery. In iii. 32 he mentions that Valerian advanced with his troops against Sapor, but in i. 36 relates that he was not inclined to fight, but proposed by ambassadors to buy off the enemy'. Sapor requested to see the emperor for personal conference on some essential points. Valerian unreflectingly and uncircumspectly set out with a few attendants, thinking to discuss a truce with Sapor, and was suddenly seized*. Thus there is no question among the earlier batch of writers as to whose was the treachery. Still the 'fraus' in Trebellius was misunderstood, and in an interpola- tion in his text, quoted as genuine by Gibbon (c. x. iv. p. 283) and Clinton (l. p. 284) we read * victus est enim a Sapore, rege Persarum, dum ductu ' cujusdam sui ducis, cui summam omnium bellicarum rerum agendarum ' commiserat, seu fraude seu adversa fortuna in ea esset loca deductus, ubi ' nee vigor nee disciplina militaris quin eaperetur quicquam valere potuit^* Here the fraud has been transferred to one of the Roman officers. Then Tillemont {Emp. ill. p. 313) and Pearson {s. anno 260), taking the Trpoe- iiivoK of Dionysius (Euseb. vii. 23)^ to mean 'betrayal,' regard Macrian himself, who was far enough away, as the betrayer. Tillemont observing that, though the passage of Trebellius may not be genuine, it fits the history and Macrian's character ! Yet again the later historians formed another misconception of the treachery. They attach it to the unfortunate Valerian himself. Ac- cording to Georgius Syncellus (p. 715), it is he who, terrified at the mutinous spirit of his hungry troops in Edessa, pretends a battle, and gives himself up to Sapor, having arranged also the betrayal of all his men, but they understood the case in time to escape. Zonaras (xii. 23) gives both stories, paraphrasing the second from Georgius. Thus the two latest authors, who placed the siege of Antioch wrongly, also make the treachery, which was purely Sapor's, to be a plot of Valerian's to betray the Roman army. ^ Vide ne quod senem itnperatorem /SovXijucfos.] cepisti et id quidem fraude male tibi ^ I. 36: 6 U ciiv ovdefiiq. v(it regis, cui nomen Sapor erat, dolo circum- avWafi^dverai napd tQv iroKeiduv. ventus.... Aur. Vict, de Cess. 32. * Sic ap. Csesarum vitae post Sueto- 3 [So also Petrus Patric. (6th cent., nium Tranquillum conscriptse, Lugd. Fragni. 9 ap. C. MUller, Fragmm. His- 155 1 ; Historiae Rom. Scriptores Latini, toricorum Grisc. Paris 185 1, vol. IV. p. de la Roviere 1609; Hist. Augustae 186) xP^'^^o" o4>aTov avvayaywi'...iirl Scriptt. Latt., Sylburg 15S9. /xeydXais 56jr/^««^ 147 /• Hartel had corrected previous Untersuchungen, xill. Band, Heft i, texts by MS. K, and at the latter page Leipzig, 1895. 'Eine bisher nicht adds the readings of Ed. Dav. It was erkannte Schrift des Papstes Sixtus II. first marked as not Cyprian's in Eras- vomjahrea.sj — 8... von Adolf Harnack.' mus' ed. 1520. Cf. Pamel. Gyp. 1568, - Hartal's Cyprian, vol. in., Pars iii. Antv. pp. 434 — 5. Appendix, Opera Spuria, &c., p. 52. ^ There is no other reference to the The Ad Novatianum first appeared not action or tenets of Felicissimites, Ap. in Erasmus' ed. 15 19, as Hartel's note 54, 12. Ed. Dav. has ' infelicissime, ' there, but, as he corrects it {Pntfatio, which certainly cannot be (as Harnack, pp. Ix, Ixi), in the Editio Daventriensis, p. '23 n.) a vocative case. 558 APPENDIX G. Hamack. I. I shall try to represent accurately, but of course shortly, Hamack's Ltl^or'of argument, 'ad Nova- The Treatise opens thus : tianum'? (H. p. 52, 9) 'Cogitanti mihi et intolerabiliter animo aestuanti quid- *nam agere deberem de miserandis fratribus qui vulnerati non propria 'voluntate sed diaboli saevientis inruptione adhuc usque, hoc est per Mongam temporum seriem, agentes poenas darent, ecce ex adverso 'obortus est alius hostis et ipsius paternae pietatis adversarius haereticus ' Novatianus.' Ad Novat. \. This language is appropriate from a highly responsible Bishop who was anxious to restore such Lapsed persons as had remained Penitents a very long time, but who found himself confronted by sudden action on Novatian's part. The words vulnerati ff. shew that he took a more compassionate view of their temptation than was possible earlier. That he took Cyprian's view of the Church itself as the one Ark of Salvation appears in the words (H. p. 55, 3) ' Quae area sola cum his quse secum fuerant liberata est in aqua, at caeteri qui in ea inventi non sunt diluvio perierunt.' Ad Novat. 2, and as the only valid authorized baptizer in (H. p. 55, 23) '...sacramentum baptismatis, quod in salutem generis humani provisum et soli ecclesias caelesti ratione celebrare permissum ' (permissum add. H.). Ad Novat. 3. The limits of date are fixed from the following : (H. p. 56, 18) ' Cataclysmus...ille qui sub Noe factus est figuram persecutionis quae per totum orbem nunc nuper supereffusa ostendit.' Ad Novat. 5. (H. p. 57, 24) ' Duplex ergo ilia emissio [columbae ex area] duplicem 'nobis persecutionis temptationem ostendit : prima in qua qui lapsi sunt 'vieti ceciderunt, secunda in qua hi ipsi qui ceciderunt victores extiterunt. 'NuUi enim nostrum dubium vel incertum est, fratres dile^tissimi, illos 'qui prima acie id est Deciana persecutione vulnerati fuerunt, hos postea ' id est secundo proelio ita fortiter perseverasse, ut contemnentes edicta 'sascularium principum hoc invictum haberent, quod et non metuerunt 'exemplo boni pastoris anitnam suajti tradere, sanguinem fundere nee 'ullam insanientis tyranni saevitiam recusare.' Ad Novat. 6. secundo proelio must mean the persecution of Gallus, which was not over before Aug. 253, but was over when this treatise was written. It can be described by 'nunc nuper,' yet the Penitent Lapsed have been Penitents 'per longam temporum seriem V which would be adequately met by allowing three years or even two since the persecution of Gallus. Even so, some would have been in that condition five years since the ^ Cyprian thought a triennium sufficient. Ep. 56. 2. *AD NOVATIANUM.' 559 beginning of the persecution of Decius. The persecution of Valerian is plainly not begun. It began Aug, 257, but not in earnest, and for Rome not at all till Aug. 258. We have then the limits fixed between Aug. 255 and Aug. (257 or) 258. The locality is interestingly fixed by considering who these Lapsi must have been. They fell in the persecution of Decius ; many retrieved their honour in that of Gallus, but none have been restored. Now the Carthaginian penitents were restored by the Council of May 252, to arm them for the threatened persecution of Gallus. But there is no indication of any such restoration at Rome. Cyprian was pressed by a lax party who would have absorbed the penitents if these were kept out of the Church much longer. But Stephanus was pressed by the Puritan party of Novatianists, who would have absorbed many Catholics if his action had been indulgent. Stephanus had in the case of Marcian of Aries shewn himself unwilling to be hard on Novatianists, and was ready even to admit their Baptism. The Roman policy had been to keep penitents long waiting. There are strong touches of Roman colour also in the Christology which writes that Judas '■ Deum prodtdit' (H. 64, 22. Ad Novat. 14); and in the assumption implied in quoting the baptismal charge as given by Christ ^ Petro sed et ctitris, discipulis^' (H. 56, i. Ad Novat. 3.) Our author then is a Bishop at Rome between Aug. 253 and Aug. 257 or 8, anxious to restore meritorious penitents of long standing, his efibrts frustrated by Novatian's action. It being shewn that neither Stephanus nor Lucius could have written the treatise^ it remains by process of exhaustion that the Bishop in question is Sixtus II., and he had opportunity to write, for it is almost certain that during his eleven months and six days' reign the Christians and he were unmolested at Rome : he and Roman presbyters were in fact peacefully corresponding all the time with Dionysius. Such is the outline of Harnack's argument, and we certainly are grateful to him for taking us on so interesting a quest. II. The historic results which he deduces are still more remarkable. Historical Thus: (i) There must have been in the time of Sixtus a new and '^°"' ^ ' sequences forceful outbreak of Novatianism, led by Novatian himself — 'ecce ex of Sixtus adverso obortus est alius hostis...Novatianus.' Ad Novat. i. It was H. being sufficient to stem the charitable policy of the Church, or at least to ^ ^ ^"' °'' compel it to parley on the question in argument with the ' haereticus.' 1 The words of the charge itself are though the arguments adduced against here compounded of Matth. xxviii. 19 the authorship of Lucius are not very and Mark xvi. 15. strong, yet they are satisfactory in ^ Argument against the authorship the absence of any probabihty on the of Stephanus was superfluous, and other side. 560 APPENDIX G. (2) It becomes clear how the Baptismal Controversy ended at Rome — which, as Harnack says (p. 39), was not known to Augustine himself, — namely by Sixtus' adopting the policy and even the formula^ of Cyprian. This further explains the remark of Dionysius^ to Sixtus that the Roman presbyters, Dionysius and Philemon, )\3.di formerly sided with Stephen {(rvfiylnj(f>ois irporepov l,T((f>av(o yevofievois). (3) Sixtus II. becomes much more than the 'bonus et pacificus sacerdos' of Pontius {Vii. 14) (an expression, we may remark, to which in his mouth it is possible to attach too much significance). (4) A comparison of passages (Ham. pp. 35 ff.) shews the closest dependence of the cu/ Novatiamitn on the de Unitate. Twenty places at least are distinct quotations. Besides this there is (pp. 50 ff.) a constant near resemblance to Cyprian's style and use of words. Sixtus II. was in fact a 'Scholar of the great African Bishop,' a 'slavish copyist' of his treatises 'on Unity' and 'on Work and Almsdeeds' and of some of his Epistles, and he adopted his policy in every particular. In fact in A.D. 257 — 8 Cyprian 'by his writings spiritually lorded it over the Roman See' (pp. 67 f.). The above are Hamack's principal historical inferences. Difficulties I^I- This is beyond question a strikingly new aspect of Rome exhibited in accept- to the eyes of the historical student, and it requires reflexion. Meantime ^"^th ^^ "^ certain difficulties present themselves. author. !• If the Baptismal controversy ended in so round and simple a manner as by Xystus adopting entirely Cyprian's views and language, it is strange that Augustine did not know it, and that others should have given such wild accounts of the reversal. 2. It is strange that no trace of intercourse between Cyprian and Xystus, no mention of either by the other, should have survived or, so far as we know, have ever been known to exist. Cyprian had agents in Rome, and Xystus was corresponding with Dionysius in exile. 3. It is yet more strange, if Xystus thus adopted Cyprian's treat- ment of heretical baptism, that the treatment which prevailed and continued in the Western Church should have been not that of Cyprian and Xystus but that of Stephen. 4. The Roman inclination to appropriate to Peter language of our Lord which is addressed to others is traced by Harnack in the 'rnandat Petro sed et ceteris discipulis ' noticed above. But there is a much more extraordinary instance of that proclivity which for some reason he does not notice. In c II the ad Novatianum quotes at length the conversation between our Lord and Simon the Pharisee over the penitent woman. Three times over our author in his quotation of S. Luke vii. vv. 40, 43, 47 substitutes the name of Peter for that of Simon, in the last verse ^ Ham. p. 66. ^ Euseb. vii. 5. *AD NOVATIANUM.' $61 inserts it. Can this be really Xystus the typical Doctor, he of the Chair, who either confuses Simon Peter with Simon the Pharisee, or thinks to honour the See of Rome by the change ? IV. But there are also other passages which, if this is a genuine letter Indica- of those times, might seem to fall in with an earlier year and person. e^°fer 1. The language about Novatian seems more appropriate to his date, first rise than to a recrudescence. While our author was considering how the Lapsed should be reconciled, * ecce ex adverse abortus est alius hostis et ipsius paternae pietatis adversarius haereticus Novatianus,' c. i, H. 52, 12. This is not the phraseology which would be used about one who had now for over six years been pursuing the same policy. 2. In c. 14 Novatian is scarcely addressed as if his sound teaching in the Church belonged to years ago; and the writer proceeds 'hodie retractas an debeant lapsorum curari vulnera,' H. 64, 10, as if his discussion of the question were new, not of such old standing as by Xystus' time it would have become. 3. In c. I, H. 53, 12 his adherents are called 'suos quos colligit,' not as if they were a long-standing formidable congregation. In c. 2, H. 54, 12 they are ' vel nunc infelicissimi pauci,' just as Cornelius (Euseb. H. E. vi. 43) says that Novatian yeyvfivaa-dai, koI epr^ixov yeyovevai, KaTaKifinavovrav avTov Kad' ^fxtpap eKaanjv rav abiK(^m>. 4. Compare the already quoted 'ecce ex ad verso obortus est alius hostis &c.' and the exclamation of surprise at the attitude of Novatian, 'mirum quot acerba, quot aspera, quot perversa sunt,' c. i, H. 52, 13 with what Cornelius writes of him (Euseb. I.e.), a.lvibi.ov eVtV/KOTroj aairep «'< fiayydvov rivos els to fxeirov pii^deis dvafpaiverai and ap.ri)(^avov ocn]v....Tpo7rT]v v fit dcrefieias koI ^Xaacprjfxias ehKvcravTL, koi TTfoi rov Alex. -tvfc-v^> '> N' ^^ < / Qeov oioaaicaKiav avodiaraTrjv fnficrKVK\r)aavTi- Kai rov ;(pt;(rTOTaTOj' Kvpioi' TjiiStv '\r)crovv H-picrrov as avrjkef) avKO(f>avTovfri, fn\ Trairiv Se tovtois to Xovrpoi/ ddfTovvTi TO dyiov, koi t^v t( npo avToii TviaTiv koI ofioXoyiav dvarpfirovTi. to re TTvevfia TO dyiov i^ avrav, fl Kai Tis rju fXiriS tov irapapLflvat rj (TraveXdelf irpos avTovs, ircwreXas (pvyaSevoirri. 1 am obliged to quote the whole passage in Greek because all turns upon the participial tenses, which are surely most carefully kept apart, and lead, as it seems to me, to a conclusion contrary to Harnack's. — The continuous result is distinguished from the outbreak of the schism. The violent cleavage of the Church, the perversion of a body of believers to irreverent and even blasphemous acts (such as the Eucharistic pledges by which Novatian compacted a following^), the introduction of a doctrine dishonouring to God, — these are told in aorists ; they were one group of actions past, the formation of the heretical schism. But the misrepre- sentation of Christ's compassionate character, the contempt of the font, and perversion of the baptismal confession, the keeping of the Holy Ghost at a distance from those who would repent but are not allowed : ^ We do not doubt the application of holds that it may be a version of his these words. Cyprian shews that there altering the Baptismal Creed. But let was a short interval before it after the us observe that the account is the Decian persecution, which he calls original of Cornelius, describing the 'quies et tranquillitas,' but they were very gestures and words of Novatian. even then under the fear 'impendentis Cornelius had such particulars of his prcelii,' 'urguente certamine,' £p. 57. rexi/dcrAiaTa Kai Troi'T/peiJ/iiaTa from Maxi- 2, 3, 5. mus, Urbanus, Sidonius and Celerinus 2 Harnack, p. 42, thinks this account (Eus. i.e.). of Novatian's Eucharist incredible, but 'AD NOVATIANUM.' 563 these are the continuous operation, not new strokes, of Novatianism, and so are related in the present tense. The passage distinctly differences from each other the first energetic movement and the continuous result. The former it places in past time, but gives no sign of new development or even revival in the time of Xystus. V. There remains one external argument for the book being by Sixtus. The testi- The Prcedestinatus, which belongs to the middle of the fifth century {^g°/>° (so Hamack, pp. 44—49)^, has in its Part I., The Catalogue of Heresies, destinatus. this notice. ' XXXVIII. haeresis est Catharorum qui se ipsos isto nomine quasi propter munditiam superbissime appellarunt, secundas nuptias non admittunt, paenitentiam denegant, Novatum sectantes haereticum, unde etiam Novatiani appellantur. contra hunc beatus Xystus martyr et episcopus et venerabilis Cyprianus martyr Christi tunc Carthaginiensis pontifex scripsit contra Novatum librum de lapsis quod possint per paeni- tentiam recuperare gratiam quam labendo perdiderant, quod Novatus adserebat fieri omnino non posse.' This description of the book '■contra Novatum' is an account exactly to the point of this fragment ad Novatianum, but has no relation to Cyprian's de Lapsis. I suggest that it was the occurrence of these two words de lapsis which caused some erudite scribe to insert all the words '■et venerabilis... ponti/ex.^ Fortunately the word scripsit remains, which by its construction makes the insertion certain. The rest of the statement I must leave for what it is worth. The Catalogue of Heresies is of course admitted by Hamack himself to be much of it quite valueless. But his historic Erkenntniss assures him that its assignment of the authorship of this obscure fragment is correct. VI. Upon the whole, I believe that if this fragment (which does not present many points to lay hold of) is not an historic and theological study but a book genuinely addressed to Novatian, it is the work of a responsible Bishop in or about Rome. But to identify the writer with Xystus is to create a view of that doctor himself, of Rome as under the influence of Cyprian, and of the end of the Baptismal controversy, which is not warranted, but discredited by our other knowledge of the times. ^ [First published by Jacques Sirmond, Part I., The Catalogue of Heresies, is Paris 1643. Printed in Sirmondi Opera full of blunders. Part II. absurdly varia, vol. I. pp. 465 ff. (Paris 1696); professes to be Augustine's. Part III. La Eigne, Max. Bibl. veil. Patr., vol. professes to condemn the Pelagians, x.xvii. p. 543 (Lyon 1677); Galland. but is full of Pelagianism.] In the Bibl. veit. Patr., vol. x. p. 359 (Ven. passage given in the text 'qui se 1774). Book I. edited by Oehler, ipsos ... appellarunt ' is copied from Corpus hcsreseologicum, Berlin, 1856, Augustine, De hares. 30. 36—2 564 APPENDIX G. But there is nothing which would not fall in with the conditions of five or six years earlier, the anxious days in which Cornelius and Cyprian were with great unanimity dealing with the rise of Novatianism and the proper treatment of the Lapsed ; when Cyprian was sending Cornelius his new book de Unitate; and the kinder view of the Lapsed, as 'vulnerati a diabolo,' and not as wilful sinners, had already come in, see Cyprian's Ep. 55. 19 (H. p. 637, 22), Ep. 58. 13 (H. 680, 16) et passim. It might be carried (if so desired) almost to the end of Cornelius's life. It is not inconceivable that the author might be Cornelius ^ Yet its general, abstract style contrasts too much with the detailed, definite, personal style in which he handles Novatian in the letter to Fabius (Euseb. H.E. vi. 43), even allowing for the different situations. I am also loth to impute to him either the confusion between Simon the Pharisee and Simon Peter, or the lengthy, feeble and inextricably confused applications of the flights of Noah's dove to the fall and recovery of the Lapsed. There were other Bishops near to Rome who were quite capable of inditing the book and who (like Hippolytus before this time) may have felt their responsibility for all that went on as even superior to that of the Pope, These observations I make with diffidence, with a lively appreciation of the interest of Dr Harnack's paper, and with gratitude for the inci- dental lights which in brief space he has thrown on the subject and its literature. ^ Erasmus thought so, but only sunt,' as if this could describe the ad through misapprehension of Jerome, Novatianum. F,rasmus's adnotatmncula de Vii-is Illustribus., Ixvi., 'Cornelius (in Fo. 500) prefixed to his Cyprian, ...scripsit epistolam ad Fabium...et 1520; repeated in ed. 1530. aliam de Novatiano et de his qui lapsi 565 APPENDIX H. Examination of the Lists of Bishops attending the Councils. {^Genuineness, Seniority^ There are four lists of Bishops, varying in number from 36 to 86, who were assembled in Councils, or were formally addressed by Councils, from the year 252 to 256 A.D. {Epp. 57, 67, 70, and Sentt. Episc). The African bishops sat by seniority according to Codex Canonum Eccles. Africanae Can. 86, which comes from Concil. Milevit. A.D. 416, Labbe, li. c. 1316, ill. cc. 383, 4. This, as all the bishops there affirmed, represented the tradition. Augustine complains of breaches of the rule, Ep. 59. I. They sate under their primates, and it is evident in the list of the Council of 256 A.D. that they did not sit by provinces from the mixture of Proconsular and Numidian sees. If the Cyprianic lists were genuine, then (i) From an episcopate so large and so widespread, we should expect that in lists so far short of the whole number some names would recur in more than one list, but many would appear only once. Also we should find certain relations among the recurrent names. (2) Names which appeared in more than one list would, when inter- vening non-recurrent names were struck out, stand in nearly the same order in different lists, allowance being made for incidents such as disputable precedence which might arise, for instance, from date of consecration being uncertain or other causes, such as appear in Augustine and the Canon as cited above. (3) The percentage of recurrent names would dwindle in later lists on account of deaths. (4) In a longer list the recurrent names would be more spread out, dotted along its whole length. The later names in a list of 36 might be the later in a list of 86, but if the largest list be the latest it would probably have at the end a number of junior names not occurring in earlier ones. If those conditions were met the genuineness of the lists would be established. In forged lists such conditions would find no place, unless they had been clearly foreseen, and the names arranged upon a skeleton drawn before to ensure the appearances. But the multiplicity and complication of the relations between the names on these lists and in other parts of the Cyprianic correspondence is far too great to have been invented and constructed by any romancer. Disturbances we do find, but small in proportion. Some of them are singular and explicable, while the very presence of other disturbances to which we find no clue, in a case where most is coherent and our knowledge so limited, indicates that at least they are not shaped on a plan. 566 APPENDIX H. TABLE I. The Four Lists. 11°^ Council, A.D. 252, Ep. 57. r Liberalis 1 Caldonius 3 Nicomedes 4 Csecilius 5 Junius 6 Marrutius 7 Felix 8 Successus 9 Faustinas 10 Fortunatus L 1 1 Victor 12 Saturninus L 13 Saturninus IL 1 4 Rogatlanus 1 5 Tertullus 1 6 Lucianus 1 7 Sattius 18 Secundinus 19 Saturninus IIL 20 Eutyches 2 1 Ampius 22 Saturninus IV. 23 Aurelius 24 Priscus 25 Herculaneus 26 Victoricus 27 Quintus 28 Honoratus 29 Manthaneus 30 Hortensianus 3 1 Verianus 32 Iambus 33 Donatus I. 34 Pomponius 35 Poly carpus 36 Demetrius 37 Donatus II. 38 Privatianus 39 Fortunatus II. 40 Rogatus 41 Monnulus IV"" Council, A.D. 254, Ep. 67. 1 Csecilius 2 Primus 3 Polycarpus 4 Nicomedes 5 Lucianus 6 Successus 7 Sedatus 8 Fortunatus 9 Januarius I. xo Secundus 1 1 Pomponius 12 Honoratus 13 Victor 14 Aurelius I. 15 Sattius 16 Petrus 17 Januarius II. 18 Saturninus I. 19 Aurelius II. 20 Venantius 21 Quietus 22 Rogatianus 23 Tenax 24 Felix 25 Faustus 26 Quintus 27 Saturninus II. 28 Lucius 29 Vincentius 30 Libosus 31 Geminius 32 Marcellus 33 Iambus 34 Adelphius 35 Victoricus 36 Paulus V"* Council, A.D. 255, Ep. 7< 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 [22 ^3 24 25 26 27 28 29 .^o 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 Liberalis Caldonius Junius Primus Csecilius Polycarpus Nicomedes Felix Marnitius Successus Lucianus Honoratus Fortunatus Victor I. Donatus I. Lucius Herculanus Pomponius Demetrius Quintus Saturninus I. Januarius I.] Marcus Saturninus II. Donatus II. Rogatianus Sedatus Tertullus Hortensianus Saturninus III. Sattius Januario II. {Ntimidiaii) Saturnino IV. Maximo Victor! II. Victori III. Cassio Proculo Modiano Cittino Gargilio I. Eutichiano Gargilio II. Saturnino V. Nemesiano Nampulo Antoniano Rogatiano Honorato 22 Saturninus IV. oin, Oxon. 25 Herculanus M. 22 Januarius om. Hartel, though in C L M R. LISTS OF BISHOPS. 567 TABLE I. (continued). The Four Lists. VII"» Council, A.D 1. 256, Sentt. Epp. I Caecilius 50 Ahymnus 2 Primus 51 Satuminus I. 3 Polycarpus 52 Saturninus II. 4 Novatus 53 Marcellus 5 Neraesianus 54 Irenaeus 6 Januarius I. 55 Donatus 7 Lucius I. 56 Zosimus 8 Crescens 57 Julian us I. 9 Nicomedes 58 Faustus 10 Monnulus 59 Geminius II Secundinus I. 60 Rogatianus 12 Felix I. 61 Therapius ^3 Polianus 62 Lucius II. 14 Theogenes 63 Felix V. 15 Dativus 64 Satuminus III, 16 Successus 65 Quintus 17 Fortunatus 66 Julianus II. 18 Sedatus 67 Tenax 19 Privatianus 68 Victor II. 20 Privatus 69 Donatulus 21 Hortensianus 70 Verulus 22 Cassius 71 Pudentianus 23 Januarius II. 72 Petrus ^4 Secundinus II. 73 Lucius III. 25 Victoricus 74 Felix VI. 26 Felix II. 75 Pusillus 27 Quietus 76 Salvianus 28 Castus 77 Honoratus 29 Eucratius 78 Victor III. 30 Libosus 79 Claras 31 Leucius 80 Secundianus 32 Eugenius 81 Aurelius II. 33 Felix III. 82 Litteus 34 Januarius III. 83 Natalis 35 Adelphius 84 Pompeius 36 Demetrius 8;; Dioga 37 Vincentius 86 Junius 38 Marcus 39 Sattius 40 Victor I. 41 Aurelius I. 42 Iambus 43 Lucianus 44 Pelagianus 45 lader 46 Felix IV. 47 Paulus 48 Pomponius 49 Venantius 568 APPENDIX H. I. If we turn now to the actual lists given in Table I. side by side, complete as they are found in the MSS. of Cyprian, and again as opposite in Table II., with the omission of names which occur only in one list, and of very common names like Felix, where nothing points to identification, we shall find upon an inspection of the numbers which give their position in each list, that the identified names do follow in the same sequence in each to such an extent as to shew at once the genuineness of the documents and the existence in Cyprian's time of the rule of seniority. An inspection of Table II. will at once shew the force of this argu- ment. The number of names which have their sequence exact is re- markable. LISTS OF BISHOPS. 569 TABLE II. Identical Names in the Lists of the Councils. II"**, A.D. 252, Ep- 57- Liberalis Caldonius Nicomedes Csecilius 5 Junius 6 Marrutius 7 Felix 8 Successus 10 Fortunatus 1 1 Victor IV"», A.D. 354, Ep. 67. 1 Csecilius 2 Primus 3 Polycarpus 4 Nicomedes 6 Successus 7 Sedatus 8 Fortunatus 1 1 Pomponius 13 Victor 17 Januarius I. 18 Saturninus I. 13 Saturninus II. 22 14 Rogatianus 27 29 16 Lucianus 17 Sattius 15 1 8 Secundinus 19 Saturninus III. 23 Aurelius 19 20 21 23 28 25 Herculaneus 26 Victoricus 35 27 Quintus 26 30 Hortensianus 30 31 32 32 Iambus 33 34 36 33 Donatus I. 34 Pomponius 35 Polycarpus 3 36 Demetrius 37 Donatus II. 38 Privatianus 39 Fortunatus II. 41 Monnulus Rogatianus Saturninus II. Vincentius Sattius] Aurelius Venantius Quietus Tenax Lucius Victoricus] Quintus Libosus Geminius Marcellus Iambus Adelphius Paulus V'S A.D. 255, Ep. 70. 1 Liberalis 2 Caldonius 3 Junius 4 Primus 5 Caecilius 6 Polycarpus 7 Nicomedes 8 Felix 9 Marrutius 10 Successus 1 3 Fortunatus 27 Sedatus] 14 Victor I. 1 8 Pomponius VIP", A.D. 256, SentU Epp. 1 Csecilius 2 Primus \ 3 Polycarpus 9 Nicomedesj 12 Felix LI / 16 Successus 1 7 Fortunatus ) 18 Sedatus I 23 19 Demetrius 36 21 Saturninus I. 22 Januarius 23 Marcus 38 24 Saturninus II. 26 Rogatianus 37 1 1 Lucianus 43 31 Sattius 39 24 30 Saturninus III. 41 49 27 1 6 Lucius 17 Herculanus] 25 20 Quintus] 29 Hortensianus 21 30 40 Victor I. Januarius II. 48 Pomponius Demetrius 51 Saturninus I. Marcus 52 Saturninus II. I 60 Rogatianus J Vincentius] Lucianus Sattius Secundinus II.] 64 Saturninus III. Aurelius Venantius Quietus] 67 Tenax 62 Lucius Victoricus] 65 Quintus Hortensianus] Libosus] 59 Geminius 42 Iambus . 35 Adelphius] 47 Paulus ' 53 Marcellus 25 Donatus II.] 55 Donatus 49 Honoratus 77 Honoratus 6 . . . 3 19 . . . 36 1 5 Donatus or 25] 19 Privatianus] 10 Monnulus] 570 APPENDIX H. 2. We next ascertain that of the names which can be identified throughout the lists, 30 occur in the first list of 41 (a.d. 252), or 73*2 per cent. 28 „ „ second „ 36 (a.d. 254), „ 77-8 „ „ 30 „ „ third „ 49 (a.d. 255), „ 61 -2 „ „ 39 „ „ fourth „ 86 (A.D. 256), „ 45-3 „ „ So that the second test as to the diminution is fulfilled, except in the second list, where the percentage rises ^ 3. The third test is seen upon inspection to be fulfilled. After the 77th bishop, Honoratus, or the 78th (which is more doubtful, since the name Victor is so common) no names in the last longest list of 86 corre- spond to names in the other lists. The instances of disturbance are curious, and worth consideration : — (i) In list of Council v. the reversal of the order of Primus and Cascilius, the variation of Junius and Nicomedes on either side of them, and the stability of Polycarp, while as a group these five hold their place. (2) The similar disturbance of Felix and Marrutius in same list. (3) The disturbance of Sedatus and Fortunatus, and in v. the de- pression of Sedatus. (4) The disturbance of Rogatianus and Saturninus II. (5) The alternation visible in the above instances as to pairs of names is extended to groups of four in Councils iv., v., vii., where (IV. ir sqq.) Pomponius, Januarius, Demetrius, Saturninus, are inter- mixed, Victor keeping his place among them; and again (iv. 32 sqq.) Marcellus, Iambus, Adelphius, Paulus, of whom Adelphius is in vii. much higher. (6) Other isolated variations are pointed out by a square bracket ] after the names. (7) At the close of list of Council ll. occurs a very evident depression of seven names e?i ?;iasse. While they are last in this list they (all save one, not again mentioned) occupy very high places in the other lists. These appear without omission below the line at the end of Table II., and are nos. 34 to 41 in the list of Council li. Now 35 Polycarpus was bishop of Hadrumetum. He and his clergy had already addressed Cornelius as duly elected Pope of Rome, before the Council met which was to decide for or against his recognition. When the Council had determined to await the arrival of more authentic in- formation as to the character of the election, Cyprian the Metropolitan and Liberalis the senior bishop visited Hadrumetum together during ^ In this list it will be found that of Carthage, from places within the there is twice as large a proportion of 45 miles radius (v. Appendix on Cities, attendances from the immediate vicinity p. 578). LISTS OF BISHOPS. 571 the pause (pp. 132, 133). The result of that visit was (and Cornelius complained of it accordingly) that the clergy of Hadrumetum in ad- dressing a second ecclesiastical letter to Rome, directed it this time not to Cornelius but to the presbyter and deacons of the city. What was the object of this visit of Cyprian and Liberalis if it was not to induce the bishop and clergy of a city which had been precipitate in its recognition to suspend their judgment? And would the visit have been necessary if Polycarp had been with them at Carthage .'' The presumption is not weak that Polycarp was absent from the first and present at the later sittings, and when we consider the names and numbers which follow, especially such an instance as that of Monnulus, we must assume (it would appear) some formal cause for the anomalous depression of these members below their usual place ; and deferred attendance seems to be at least one rational way of accounting for the fact. (8) In the long hst of the 86 bishops of Council vii. there are two lines of disturbance clearly not accidental, yet without more knowledge inexplicable. a. It will be seen that the bishops numbered 40, 48, 51, 52, 60, 64, 67, 62? 65? are all placed in this list much lower than in the others, but that their seniority amotig themselves is very slightly deranged. b. In same Hst 24, 27, 21, 25, 30, 36, are all much higher than in other lists, but again their seniority among themselves is respected. Notes, (i) The bishop vil. 71, Pudentianus, speaks of his own juniority. (2) It appears that Junius vii. 86 unless he came late can scarcely be the same as v. 3 Junius. (3) In treating vil. 52 as Numidian Tucca, and vtl. ^-j as Proconsular Tucca, Morcelli has transposed them. For vii. ']•] Honoratus is the Numidian by Epp. 62, 70, and answers to 49 in Council v. VII. 52 Saturninus of Tucca (Terebinthina) is the proconsular bishop, and comes in his proper place according to the other lists. (4) I have forborne to collate some of the name of Felix, or to identify VIl. 58 Faustus with IV. 25. (5) On VII. 27 see note on Quietus of Buruc, p. 363. If that view is right then vii. 27 will not be identified with iv. 21 Quietus, but would as Qidntus take the place now given to vii. 65 Quintus. This would be more in order, which would again still further confirm the view taken in that note. 572 APPENDIX H. Lists of Numidian Bishops. Taking out the Numidian bishops by themselves for a similar com- parison we have a similar result. There are about 25 (some uncertain) in the longest list, that of Council vil. ; there are 18 in the superscription of their Epistle 70, and 8 in that of their Epistle 62. All of these earliest eight recur in one of the other two, and all in the same order (with others intervening), except that in the first two Usts Proculus and one Victor change places, and that Nemesian is low in both of these and highest but one in the third. He is also the first named in the two letters 76, ^^ to and from the Numidian Confessor-Bishops. These two however are not formal documents as the others are, and their agreement is more general. Inspection of the following Numidian names found in more than one list will detect the facts. TABLE III. Order of Numidian Bishops in the Headings of Epp. 62 and 70, AND in the Seventh Council, and in the Headings of Epp. 76, 77. Epistle 62 Epistle 70 VIP" Council Epistles 70, 77 (8 Bishops) (: [8 Bishops) (? 25 Bishops) 5 Nemesianus I I I Januarius I Januarius 6 Januarius 7 Lucius 3 12 Felix 2 3 13 Polianus 6 15 Dativus 9 - 2 Maximus 3 Maximus 4 Victor 4 5 Victor Victor 6 Cassius 22 Cassius 3 Proculus 7 Proculus 5 Modianus 8 Modianus 33 Felix ? III. 4 3 6 Nemesianus 14 Nemesianus 7 Nampulus 15 Nampulus 8 Honoratus 18 Honoratus 77 Honoratus 78 Victor III. 7 4 82 Litteus 5 To conclude. In documents of which the coincidences are so subtle yet so substantial as in these Council-Lists, the difficulties so insoluble and yet so evidently capable of being unlocked in whole groups by a little more knowledge, we are sure that we have genuine documents, belonging to the times and scenes which they lay claim to. They are evidently documents, so to speak, which made themselves and took no pains to clear themselves. APPENDICES I, K. The Cities. 574 APPENDIX I. INDEX TO CITIES. PAGE PAGE Abbamaccora ? . . . . 608 (Meninx) 598 Abbir Germaniciana 603, 608 Midili . 608 Aggya 609 Mileou • 584 Ammedera 595 Misgirpa . . 608 Assuras 602 Musula • 595 Ausafa 604 Neapolis . • 579 Ausuaga . . 608 Nova 607 Avitinae 81 ; 609 Obba • 595 Bagai • 591 Octavu 609 Bamacora . 608 Oea . • 596 Biltha . 608 Rucuma . . 608 Bulla Regia • 581 Rusicade . • 584 Buruc 607 Sabrata • 597 a Buslacenis 609 Segermes . • 579 Capsa • 599 Sicca Veneria . . 582 Carpos • 579 Sicilibba . . 581 a Castra Galbae 609 Sufes 601 Cedias • 590 Sufetula 601 Chullabi . 584 Thabraca . . 581 Cibaliana . 609 (Thagaste) 582 Cirta 583 a Thambis 609 Cuicul 584 Thamugadi 589 Dionysiana 608 Tharassa . 608 Fumi 580 Thasualthe 60S Gazaufala . 585 Thelepte . 600 Gemellse . 5 92, 599 Thense 603 Germaniciana . 603 Theveste . 5 88, 593 Girba 598 (Theveste Road) 594 Giru Marcelli ? . 608 Thibaris . 583 Gor . 580 Thimida Regia . 580 a Gurgitibus 609 Thinisa 579 Hadrumetum 606 Thubunae . 592 Hippo Diarrhytus 578 Thuburbo Majus 579 Hippo Regius . =;82 Thuccaboris 580 Horrea Coelia . 606 (Tripolis) . 597 Lamasba . 591 Tucca (Num. & Maui •) • 585 Lambaesis 586 Tucca Terebinthina . 602 Laribus 594 Ululce 608 Leptiminus 605 Uthina 580 Leptis Magna . 596 Utica 578 Luperciana 609 (Uzappa) . 604 Macomades 585 Vada 608 Mactharis . 604 Vaga 58r Marazana . 604 Victoriana 600 Marcelliana ? 608 Vicus Csesaris . 581, 608 Mascula . 591 Zama Regia 605 Membresa 581 575 APPENDIX K. Note on the Cities frotn which tJie Bishops came to the Seventh Council of Cyprian and Third on Baptism on the first of September, A.D, 256* (pp. 366 sqq.). A short sketch has been given in the text of the interests which invested most of these cities under the Empire. But the cities and their ^ Principal Authorities : Inscriptiones Africce Latins, Gust. Wilmanns {Corp. Inscriptt. Latt., vol. vili. i., ii.), fo., Berl., 1881 and Supplementum (Afr. Proc), R. Cagnat et Johan. Schmidt, fo., Berl., 1891. Inscriptions Romaines d''Alg^rie, L. Renier, Paris, i8-i8 ff. Societe Archeologique de la Province de Constantine. Annuaire 1853 fF. Revite Africaine, Alger, Paris, Constantine, 1856 ff. Fouilles a Carthage, M. Beule, 4to., Paris, 1861. Explorations Apigraphicjues et Archeologiqiies en Tutiisie, M. R. Cagnat, 3 fascicules, Paris, 1883 — 1886. Geographie compa7-ee de la ProTjince Romaine d^A/riqtie, C. Tissot (Exploration Scientijique de la Ttmisie), Paris, 1884 — 1888. 1 vols. 4to. and Atlas. Remains of the Roman occupation of N. Africa with special reference to Algeria, Al. Graham [Transactions of R. Inst, of British Architects, vol. i. N. S., Lond., 1885). Travels ifi the Footsteps of Bruce, Col. Sir R. L. Playfair, 4to., Lond., 1887. Various Monographs on Discoveries at Carthage, by le R. P. Delattre, 8vo., Lille (Desclee), 1888— 1890. Trhor de Chronologic, d^Histoire et de Geographie, C*^ de Mas Latrie, fo., Paris, 1889. Untersuchungen iiber die aussere Entwicklung der Afrikanischen Kirche, Dr A. Schwarze, Gdttingen, 1892. Excursions in the Mediterranean, Algeria and Tunis, Sir Grenville T. Temple, Lond., 1835. Four Months in Algeria, 1. W. Blakesley, Svc, Cambridge, 1859. 576 APPENDIX K. occupation of the country are indeed so remarkable that I have cast into the form of a long Note fuller particulars. This Note cannot pretend to originality, although I felt it a duty and found it an intense enjoyment to visit some of these remarkable sites. I have to rely on published investi- gations and, where possible, I have verified the authorities, although mistakes are, I fear, inevitable in summarizing so large a number of statements. Some explorations have been so assiduous and their records so monumental that increasing research will rather increase than lessen their value^. The gratitude of learning will never be withdrawn from Charles Tissot or Gustavus Wilmanns. To recapitulate a few necessary points. The Council of Carthage of the year 256 (September i) is described in contemporaneous minutes as ' The meeting of very many Bishops of the province of Africa, Numidia, Mauritania.' It must not be understood as if the 87 were an approximately even representation of the sees of the continent^. At the most two Mauritanian Bishops, and one whose see Great Sahara, H. B. Tristram, 8vo., London, i86o. Carthage and her Remains, Dr N. Davis, 8vo., London, 1861. Ruined Cities within Numidian and Carthaginian Territory, N. Davis, 8vo., London, 1862. Travels in Tunisia, A. Graham and H. S. Ashbee, imp. 8vo., London, 1887. Maps: Carthage, Caillat, 1877. Perthes (Afrika), West Sahara (i). Central Sahara (2). Spruner-Menke, Atlas antiq. no. xxxi. Afrique Reg. Sep- tentrionale (Service geographique de I'Armee — R. de Lannoy de Bissy), i, 2, 6. Carte de Reconnaissance (Serv. geogr. de I'Armee) Tunisie iii. Environs de la Tunisie et de Carthage, Paris, Depot de la Guerre. Algerie et Tunisie, Pelet, 1 89 1. Above all, the grand Atlas archeologique de la Tunisie (Ministere de rinstruction Publique), Paris, 3 livraisons, 1893-5. A.D. ^ Note that the margin gives the 349. Synodus Carthagin. sub Grate, antient names of the towns from the 393. Synodus Maximianistarum [Con- Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum ; and cilium apud Cabursussi]. the modern names of the towns gene- 397. Synodus Carthaginensis. rally as in Tissot ; the figures are the 4 1 1 dates at which their Bishops appear, mostly in Councils. The date of Cyprian's 419 Council, 256 A. D., is not entered because 484 the Bishops of all the towns treated of were there. Nearly all the other dates 525 belong to the following Councils : 641 A.D. 646 Collatio Carthagine habita inter Catholicos et Donatistas. Synodus Carthaginensis. Collatio Carthagine habita inter Catholicos et Arianos. Concilium Carthaginense. Concilium Byzacenum. IV. Concilia Africana. 256. Synodus Carthaginensis sub Cy- * Poole, Life and Times of Cyprian, priano VII. de Baptismo III. p- 366, 'the far greater part of the 305. Synodus Cirtse Celebrata. Bishops of Africa, Numidia and Mauri- 314. Synodus Arelatensis I. tania.' THE CITIES. 577 was half in Numidia, appear for this vast Province. There were twice as many from the Proconsular Province as from the larger Numidia, and of the 55 who represented the Province 12 came from within five and forty miles of Carthage. The bare roll of the eighty-seven names would be a wonderful witness to the commanding influence of Cyprian, but to review their cities is to realize the material which was being shaped into Christendom, If we could revive but a faint picture of those cities, their number, their beauty, their wealth, resources and administration, we should stand amazed at the power and the policy, the magnificence and the elaboration with which Rome organized so resourceful a continent so wickedly won. But a separate interest still lies in the fact that the Christians had so immediately and so vigorously laid hold on the centres of hfe and activity, and faced on new principles the problems which defied that Roman genius of rule and grew more intricate both in spite of and in consequence of its efforts. Buildings may be mentioned in this Note which belong to a later century than Cyprian's, but already in his time many of the cities were full grown and magnificent, and it is strange to remember how actively heathen growth was going on side by side with Christian growth. In most of these towns which lay so thick in that resourceful region there was a bishop, a stipendiary^ staff of presbyters, organized on a collegiate or quasi-canonical plan of life and work, and a set of deacons administering the more secular affairs and providing for the monetary needs of the Church. Many of these places have ruins of more than one Christian basilica, which no doubt succeeded to private halls, secular rooms, and 'fabricae' like Fabian's, which were used in Cyprian's time. The bishop was everywhere elected by and represented an enlightened and steadily increasing portion of the community. What his powers were, sole or joint, we have seen. He had been brought up like every educated Roman within constant sight of the administration of firm justice, of revenue, of military force, within sound, and possibly in the practice, of eloquence and argumentation, amid the publicity of the wildest pleasures, and with his precise place assigned him in the body politic, under the name but without the least substance of liberty. The only liberty known was that which was being re-formed under the new consti- tution which he himself represented. The Episcopus Christianorum was called sacerdos. There were many sacerdotes in every town : flamens, pontiffs, ministers of the beautiful temples, and countless altars. The higher of these were great civilians and generals who officiated from time to time for an hour of their secular day. Some were hereditary keepers of the gods' homes and of the gods themselves ; some were nominated and lived partly by endowments, partly ^ Epp. I. 1 ; 34. 4; 39. 5; see note 3 on p. 305 sup. B. 37 578 APPENDIX K. on oflferings. But the new sacerdotes had begun to live among them, each at once the elect of men and the successor to powers which 'loved not the world, neither the things which were in the world.' He was the ambassador of One God who had had and was having real dealings with men, touching things inexpressible by the voices of heathen prayer ; things which had nothing to do with prosperity, or material, or disease, which triplet was the hope or fear of the heathen. It was some such person, who with his personal equation as various as tides of life could make it, came glowing with the faith of Christ from each of eighty-six cities to the central chair of the Province. The list runs off merely, as it would seem, according to the seniority of the prelates, with perhaps a queue of late comers. But with a little effort we can cast those cities into groups, we can even now attach somewhat of a living idea to their names. We shall thus appreciate the significance of the list and the force of the thoughts which rise out of it. I will group them as follows, merely for convenience and easy recogni- tion on the map, as they lay in the eye of neighbours or travellers. I. The circle of cities about Carthage. The circle of Cirta. The circle of Mount Aures. The Theveste Road. Three Routes to Carthage from the cities on the Syrtes and upwards. 6. Mauretania. 7. The cities unidentified. I. The Circle of Carthage. First; from the group of sees close round the Metropolis, within a radius of 45 miles, twelve bishops came to the Council. Municipium Utica, with memories of primaeval rivalry with Carthage, still ranked as ka''"coiYnia ^^^ second city of Africa, but was now fast ceding that place to Hadrumetum, Julia iEiia f^^ the Bagradas was silting up its grand military and merchant harbours, Hadriana ° , , r • Augusta and banking the sea out further every year from immense structures ^B'ou^Chater. reared for the health, pleasure, and defence of its many generations. In Bishops in jj miles of fragments we trace Phoenician works almost as extensive and A.D. 303 ; at o Aries 314, more solid than the finest Roman. From Cape Carthage Utica lies full 484', 525', ssI; in view across the curve of the bay, pale against the hills which hide "• ' *■ Bizerte on the northern trend of the coast. Colonia Julia Bizerte, even in its strangely altered name, is HiPPO DiARRHYTUS. Sy^tus.^'^ It occupied picturesquely both banks and the mid-island of the tidal 'inirmi>Sidp- ^dit of its north lake with its garden shores. The fame of neither city lippone seemed ever clear from the unpatriotic memory of havmg deserted B^^ri, '"' Carthage in its extremity, and Hippo was now a poor-spirited, self-con- Bp^'ll^^'i— tained provincial town^, living by its marvellous fisheries, sasi 646. * *' ^ See the pretty sarcastic story of Pliny, Ep. ix. 33. Ant. THE CITIES. 579 From Thinisa, which lay on the coast between the two, came eiVio-ao, Ptol the Bishop Venantius ; from Hippo Petrus, and from Utica Aurelius^ Tun"ei^'i ^'• Tuniza, ' ) ^" From Carthage, looking due east across the glorious gulf, a good B^//^^-^^f^f' way beyond the eastern spur of the Horns of Ben Goumin, Secundinus Colonia would discern his own Carpos^, with its fashionable hot-springs — scene Kipfficfpt'.*' later on of Donatist savagery. Bps^ii Out of sight on the far side of the same eastern promontory lay 484. 52s. 646. Neapolis, the north horn of the gulf then called after it, now Gulf of Co'- J"!'^ ' ... Neapohs. Hammamet — an African Bay of Naples. It was a Carthagmian factory, jVeiei. the nearest African harbour to Sicily^, captured by Agathocles and by 484!'s25',646'. Piso, and an early ' Colonia.' Edrisi saw great ruins of it, but they have all passed into the mean carcase of the Arab town. Its Bishop Junius was the last who spoke in the Council. He speaks of the earlier conciliar decisions as 'what we once for all sanctioned*,' and in each of the former Council-lists his name appears — and as a senior. Some element of either distance or lateness enters into the list of a.d. 257, as the Tripolitan Bishops are all together at the end. Southward a few miles, between Mount Zaghouan and the sea, was Munidpium Segermes, only ruins still to us, not identified until 1884^ Nicomedes Augustum was one of the seniors. //arlT^^' The tiny Oued Meliana, with its deep torrent channel, drains into the Bps-4ii,484, Lake of Tunis a fertile waste once thick with cities. In its upper dale it skirts on the south-east the site of Great Thuburbo^ one of Pliny's Aur^Jiia "'^ 'eight Colonies,' founded by Julius, improved by Commodus. One ofihui^?bo Majus. ^ Sentt. Epp. 49, 72, 4 1. ^ Quod semel censuimus, Sentt. Epp. gpj g,^ 2 Sentt. Epp. 24. On form of name 86. (AHes), 4H| 484- see p. 421, n. 2. ^ Sentt. Epp. 9 — C. I. L. viii. i. ' Thucydides vii. 50. He calls Nea- n. 910, and Suppl. i., p. 1164, mi. polis a 'Ka.pxr\hoviaK6v ifiirdpt-ov; that is, 11170 and 11172. Cf. Bullet, archeol. not one of the Emporia proper which du Cotfi. des Trav. Hist. 1885, p. 162, were the towns on the little Syrtis from 1886, p. 71. Thenas, though those between the two ® Sentt. Epp. 18. No reason to doubt Syrtes are sometimes understood in that the see is Thuburbo majus. Now the word. Morcelli thought Neapolis and in 314 at Aries there is no appear- of Tripoli was here meant, since it ance of two synonymous cities. But in follows the other Tripolitan sees and 411, bishops from 'Thuburbo majus' Leptis Magna. Tissot holds this Nea- and ' minus ' attend the Collation of polis to be only a new quarter of Leptis Carthage. Magna. Still the order is remarkable ; Tuburbis, Flin. Qovfiovp^w, Ptol. although geographical arrangement does Tuburbo Majus, Peut. Tuburb, Thu- not appear (except as above) in the bur, Inscrr. But the great inscription, list, and the non-representation of the by finding which in 1857 M. Tissot greater Neapolis might seem unlikely first identified the place, has Thuburbo, too. like the text of Cyprian. 37—2 58o APPENDIX K. Civitas, s. Respublica Gontana. DrAael Gamra. •Respublica Thimiden- sium Regio- rum.' Sidi Ali-es- Sedfini. Bps. 484, 525> 646. Uthina 'Colonia,' PI. Oufln/o, Pt. Oudena. Bps. 314 (Aries), 411, 525- Tuccabor. Toukkdbeiir. Bps. 41 1, 646. Furni. El- Mssaddin. Bps. a Donat. 411, 525- the noble Roman Cities of Peace, now 'lying among the pots' — fragments of three temples, great Phoenician stones in the fort-walls, and four more 'grand edifices.' Under Genseric and Huneric its martyrs were many. Sedatus, its bishop, thought that * as water was hallowed by the 'bishop's prayer in the church, so it was tainted into a cancer by the * speech of heresy.' Over the Meliana opposite was GOR^ — pure Punic for 'Hospice' — its lands bestridden by the great aqueduct of Carthage. In its lower valley was the ' most splendid commonwealth ' of Thimida Royal — that is, an ancient seat of Numidian kings, and higher up the mountain slopes is another of the earlier Colonies, Uthina. It is difficult to speak of the majesty of its ruins, never rebuilt by Byzantine general nor quarried by Arab. They are all of the best time of Roman art. This apparent indication of its abandonment after the Vandal sack is strengthened by the fact that in A.D. 525 it had no bishop of its own 2. In Tertullian's time the character of its bishop had been a weapon of his against Catholics. When Felix came to Cyprian, its square miles of undulating plateau covered with buildings, as now with relics, required those enormous sets of cisterns, that massy and complicated citadel for its defence, and that perfectly appointed amphi- theatre for its ferocious pleasure. It presented one and all of those social problems which Cyprian saw spread out before Christianity. The Lower Bagradas Valley, of untold agricultural wealth, spreads to the north past Carthage. The river is alternately a brooklet and a wide sudden stream, laden with alluvium. On a buttress of hills overlooking its plain from the north, hung Thuccaboris, 40 miles in a direct line west of Carthage. It still is inhabited meanly in its old insulas on their own foundations, below the great rock cisterns which it bears in its name^, within fortifications of enormous blocks ; for it had its Roman and its Punic quarters, and the native cultus of Caelestis and of Baal as Her- cules Conservator, was served with Imperial temples. The bishop's name was Fortunatus. On the other side of the valley, eight and twenty miles from Carthage, lying on the chord of a long sweep in Hadrian's road to Theveste, and giving its name to the gate by which that road started from Carthage, stood FuRNi*. This was the place in which Cyprian applied his first act 1 Gorduba, Hartel; two of the best Mss. and Aug. have Gor. Two inscrip- tions identify with Henchir Draa el Gamra, and mention its annual magis- trates, perpetual flamen, ordo and de- curiones. 2 Felicissimus episcopus plebis Sede- lensis qui at Utinensis. Syn. Carth. Bonifacii Episcopi, a.d. 525. Labbe, V. 771. * 'Bor' seems to he identical in Hebrew and Punic. Tissot, II. 292 n. * I adopt as probable Tissot's identi- fication of the see with the Furni which THE CITIES. 581 of clergy discipline in the Geminian family. One of that same family was now its bishop. In this same Lower Medjerda Valley, threaded by the great Road, ?''^'l'''''*'c-/ were Sicilibba\ in whose extended ruins are rehcs of good architecture ; Aiouenim. and Membresa, of Punic origin, a difficult unfortified hill-town^, over- J^% *" hanging an elbow of the river, — the key both to its upper valley and to aOcfnat*"' the rich agricultural vale of Vaga. Here it was that, aided by the 419. ^84- invincible north-west gale of the region, Belisarius dispersed the rebel ^^^nt"^' forces of Stotzas. Near Membresa was the yet unfound Avitin^^. The Medjez-ei- three bishops were Sattius, Lucius, Saturninus. Bps.aDo- At Vaga, seated on the high western end of the tract which it com- °f||484,'525; mands, there were no doubt traces of the large Italian population of '^'♦s. which Sallust speaks, connected with its great trade in other commodities gl^^jj^* ^ besides corn. It had been specially made over to Masinissa, and became 404?, 4". the pnncipal centre of Numidian commerce. ^ , . „ Colonta Sep- Through the Upper Medjerda Valley, above Membresa, road and river timia Vaga. nin together until near the Numidian frontier, passing Vicus Augusti, Bps;'4'ii, which some would identify with that otherwise unknown ViCUS C/ESARIS, '*^*' "^^s- which sent Januarius to the Council. It lies some twenty-six miles ?vicus onward, and after yet another twenty-nine is Bulla Regia, which Bps. a sent Therapius. f,°""- 393. ' King's Bulla,' with its massy Punic Byrsa (lately pulled down to Bulla Regia. metal the railway), with crag-defended plateau and a vast water-storage*, {?ifj'rl^'"pi with marshes below prolific of eel and barbel, with hot sulphur baths, Hammam sweet fountains reverently enshrined, theatre and amphitheatre, covers Bps. 390, many acres with its ruins. It was, like Samaria, 'The Head of the ^^'' Fat Valley.' North of Bulla the mountains rise to a height of 3,326 feet at Ain Thabraca, Draham. Thence the 'smiling hills of the Tell' fall in terrace ^■'^^^T^aVka!" slope to the sea level. And due north, where the bewilderingly fertile ?i^/; xabrac and feverous valley of Oued-el-Kebir, the antient partition of Numidia Monast , . , , , Vict. Vit. and the Province, enters the sea, lies Thabraca ^ on mamland and Pers. Vand. I. 32. he here discovered, and not with the the Membresitan Bishop Salvius by the Henchir Ain Fournou 130 miles away, people of Avitinae. Augustin. c. Ep. near Zama Regia. But it is not Parmen. iii. •ig, with c. Crescon. iv. 49 demonstrated. (t. ix. c 77, and note). ^ Al. Sicilibra, Sicilbra, Sicilippa, * Dr Carton, Bullet, archiol. du Sciliba also Itin. Ant. Cf. Itin. Anc. Comite des Trav. Hist, i^gx, p. 212, Fortia d' Urban (r845), p. 12. describes this feature ; not only its public ' 'El* X'^/'^V i/fv^V ■'■f f«i SvaK6\. M. Commodi . . aedilis aatguHs . . conveyed the idea of chastisement for ill viri prxfeciura jure dicundo in revolt as antiently in the case of Capua, colonia Rusicad^wii et in colonia Chul- &c., yet was still desirable as a security. litana et bis in colonia Wlevitana functi 584 APPENDIX K. Colonia Samensis Milevitana. Bps. bef. 375, ?399. 408—25, 484. 553. Colonia Veneria Rusicade. Pkilippe- vilU. Bps. 305, 411. Colonia Minervia ChuUu. Kollo. Bp. 411. as a matter of policy. Yet as a matter of sentiment it remained still and long after ^ The ' Four Cirtensian Colonies ' were Cirta, Rusicade, ChuUu and Mileou, and with them was sometimes associated 'the Fifth Colony of Cuicul^.' The Mileou of to-day was Mileou in its bishop's signature in A.D. 553. It can almost be seen from Constantine, 18 miles away, with the snowy Djirdjura for a background. When Caesar recompensed his strange ally, the Catilinarian P. Sittius Nucerinus, by the grant of West Numidia to his Italian and Spanish volunteers, the exile touchingly dis- figured the unchangeable name of the city into a reminiscence of his own native stream, the Samus. It perhaps never was a very large place, yet its Church life was memorable. Two Councils were held here in 402 to try reconciliation with the Donatists, and in 416 against the Pelagians. Here S. Optatus ruled, and wrote his vigorous and accurate^ history. Of one Bishop Honorius there was a dark story. Another was Severus, in whom was the * large and holy deep of heart.' To another Optatus Augustine wrote on the 'Origin of Souls,' and one was banished with the other bishops by Huneric. Rusicade* was in reality the port of Cirta, thirty-seven miles distant due north. The same reason for which France has re-created it into the fine harbour of Philippeville led Rome to place it under the Legate of Numidia, namely, to insure the most direct communication with them- selves. The area and variety of its ruins seemed to make it not so much a centre as a group of centres. The contractor and the archaeologist have nowhere captured so much prey. Twenty miles west of Philippeville, on the same wide open bay, is CoUo, once ChuUu or ChuUi, which the Greek form KoXXo\//' connects with the Chullabi of the Council — the second city of Numidia. Its purple manufacturers competed with those of Tyre. On till the X7th century A.D. it was the great mart for Kabyle wax and hides and wheat. But mer- chantmen and warships had to make the best of its harbour. CuiCUL was sometimes counted a Fifth Colony with those of quinquennalis, item ioluta contributione a Cirtensib«j iterum in coXonia Mil^z'z- tana patria sua primi III virz ^aminis perpe/ui quod ei ad legitimam qua«/zta- tem pro adfectionum in ordme a.6que in populo mentis suffragio oblatum est ... . C. /. Z. VIII. i. n. 8210. ^ Under Constantine and Constans the Ordo of the Colonia of Milev, one of the Four, erect a statue in the Forum at Cirta '.. . uln honorificentius erigendam credidit...'' C. I. L. vill. i. n. 7013. ^ On the two basilicas of Cirta and the Christian inscriptions see Schwarze, pp. 80, 81. * [See the important discovery of materials described by the Abbe Du- chesne in Acad. d. Inscrr. Nov. 1890.] * The name is thought to be from the Phoenician pharos Hus ikda, ' Headland of fire,' its cases appear as Rusicadis, -i, -em ; it survives in Cape Skikda. THE CITIES. 585 CirtaS seventy-five Roman miles from it (//. Ant.), on the road to Sitifis, RespubUca and close on the frontier of Mauretania. Remains of its Christian basilica rum]"colonia lie among temples, theatre, and triumphal arch (to Severus, Julia Domna Cmcuhtano- and Caracalla). Its bishop at the Council was one of the juniors who Djemtu. J . Bps. 349, voted acquiescently — Pudentianus. 411, 484, 553. Macomades was 43 miles from Cirta, about 25 beyond Sigus, the Con- Macomades, fessors' mine, along the road to Theveste. Traces of fine irrigation, 100 Mcuco/ioSa, acres of ruins, baths, an aisled basilica 100 feet long : so Tissot. Cassius Merekeb- its bishop rather copious and rhetorical in a short space 2. b'^'^'^kV Gazaufala (depraved from Gadiaufala, like Zaritus from Diarrhytus). 406,411,484. It was ' two days' journey from Cirta,' as Procopius says, being about 45 o^uf^a^' miles from it on the road to Carthage. A curious inscription on a it- Ant. native veteran, who had campaigned in Britain, fixes the place and the Procop. spelling^ The Bishop Salvian based his easy inference on the self-evident Bp!'484.'"' proposition ' Haereticos nihil habere constat*.' TUCCA. Unfound. It was 46 miles from Ilgilgilis, 60 from Cuicul^ Oppidum It was 'near the sea.' It 'commanded both river and sea".' It 'was Zaouiat-ei- ' divided between the provinces of Numidia and Mauretania.' Ptolemy fps^^iM counts it Numidian and Pliny Mauretanian. At the collation of 411 484,646- its bishop was Numidian ; in relations with Mileou. Before Huneric, in 484, its bishop was Mauretanian. Hence scholars have thought of two cities and two sees, synonymous. But the conditions are fulfilled if we think of it as a double city, like Buda-Pesth or Mayence, seated on both banks of the Ampsaga, where that stream, pouring down from Cirta, becomes, at its confluence with Oued Endja, the boundary of the two provinces. Their bishop now was Honoratus, who appears as a 1 Cuiculi (It. Ant.) is ablative. Cf. •" Tissot (11. 27) is warrant for the inscr. of A.D. 256 RESP cvicvL DEVOT, finding of the distances (I cannot quite Cagnat, Bull. Arch. Com. Trav. hist. verify them) of the Peutinger Table, 1892, p. 303. Cuiculum is not really which make it at least out of the question proved by C. I. L. viii. i. 8318, that Tucca should have been where 8319. ...FL . p • p . im • CGI. . ciRT • Wilmanns places it, on the mouth of the ET • cvic • PONT • OMNiBVS • Q • HO- Ampsaga. He speaks of the city as on NORiBVS • IN • v • COL • FVNCTVS... ^^ left bank (p. 413), and thinks there- ('Flamen perpetuus nil coloniarumCir- fore the boundary shifted. But the tensium et Cuiculi' ), but Cagnat, difficulty removes itself at the explicit Bull, des Ant. de France, 1889, p. 179, statement : Ravennat. Anonyrni Cosmo- gives 'Miles morans Coiclo ann v et graph: 'Civitas Tuca quae juxta mare menses vim.' magn im dividitur inter... pro vinciam 2 Scntt. Epp. 12. Tissot, II. p. 477. Numidiam et ipsam Mauritaniam Siti- 3 C. /. Z. VIII. n. 4800. fensem' [lll. vii.] This Juxta mare < Sentt. Epp. 76. Procop. de B. fnagnum and Pliny's 'impositam man Vand. ii. 15. et flumini' {H. N. v. i, 2) are fulfilled = Tab. Peut., cf. Tissot, il. pp. 411, ^y the strategic position. 412. 586 APPENDIX K. Numidian in Epistles 62 and 70. against Truth ^. He allows Tradition no standing Ci vitas Lambsesis, Municipium Lanibaesi- tanum, Colonia Lambaesi- tana, Respublica Lambaesis. L ambese. Bps. 240 (Cypr. E/>. 36), 411. 3. The Circle of A tires. Betwixt South Numidia and the Great Desert lies that grand mass of the Southern Atlas which ranks by itself as Aurasius — the range of Aures. Its outer and inner plateaux, most fertile of com and fruit, com- manded by village-clustered crests, its central heights of between seven and eight thousand feet, its almost inaccessible rock castles and camps of refuge^, its copious springs, its endless valleys and ravines, with their perennial waters and cedar forests, made Aures the nursing-ground, the impenetrable warren and impregnable citadel of the Berber tribes and chieftains. The Phoenicians had skirted but not pierced it. To the Romans it was the borderland of danger. Yet it was to Aures that in this con- tinent they devoted their chief attention. They circled it with roads and strong towns, and in its circuit founded model cities on lands higher than Helvellyn, 'most splendid^' even to Roman conceptions. Aures waited and finally reconquered all. From Augustus to Diocletian the Third Legion Augusta held the tribes in check from Lamb^sis*, a camp and city of its own creation. This three centuries was the longest time that any Roman Legion was fixed in one head-quarters. Its history gives us an idea of what a Roman Legion had to do — and further, what massive elements Christianity had to grapple with. Its camp and extant praetorium are a magnificent, a grammatical specimen of a military centre. Outside the camp, detached from it by a considerable space, the town grew up. Hadrian ran a great road 191 Roman miles direct from Carthage to Theveste, en- gineered by his legate P. Metilius Secundus the Propraetor, constructed by the labour of the legion^, and finished a.d. 123. ^ Sentt. Epp. 77 and 52. Tissot, II. p. 619. (See note on Tucca Terebin- thina in 'Three Routes,' Route i, p. 602.) * Masqueray, de M. Aurasio, pp. 13. 53- ^ '...in splendi'issitnis civita«ibdua- bus col • • amug et mu • icipi Lam- bsesitani....' C. I. L. viii. i. 2407. And Theveste was in fact more 'splen- did ' than either Thamugadi or Lam- baesis. * Inscrr. rarely Lambesis, Lambesit- an. The modem French Lambessa in imitation of Tebessa is too barbarous. " A niilliarium found at Carthage (C. /. Z. VIII. ii. 10048) is in- scribed : Imp • Cces . I Divi • Nervae • Nepos | Divi . Traiani • Parthici • F • | Traianus • Hadrianus | Aug . Pont • Max • Trib • | Pot • VII • Cos • III I viam • a • Karthagine | Thevestem • stravit \ Per leg • III • Aug | P • Metilio • Secundo | Leg • Aug • Pr • Pr • I LXXXV I An inscription at Tebessa gives the distance which modem measurements accurately verify: Imp Cses I divi Traiani | Parthici F Divi j Nervae Nepos | Traianus | Had- THE CITIES. 587 They had nearly if not quite finished their permanent stone camp at Lambaesis, having occupied two temporary ones before, when Hadrian visited them in July a.d. 128. He delivered to them a great allocution which stands recorded on a special monument^ He speaks of the number of their works as having in no degree impaired the excellence of their manoeuvring. The town long remained a Vicus only. It was made a Municipium probably when in A.D. 207 Numidia was made a Province. Its citizens were enrolled in Trajan's own tribe Papiria. Severus claimed to be a great reformer, and soldiers held him to be a ^reat corruptor, of military life. Legionaries could not contract valid marriage before, but from him they received the jus conubii with cives Romance and leave to reside with their wives^. At Lambaesis are many traces of the working of the plan, in monuments to the sons and daugh- ters of soldiers, in the curious elsewhere unknown fact that their children by Roman citizen-women were enrolled in a special tribe Pollia of their own, and not in Collina, the tribe of the spurious, and particularly in the gradual covering of the great spaces of the camp itself by large build- ings,— among them numerous scholce for the collegia and military clubs. It is palpable that the legionaries were allowed to live in the town. Around us now spread miles of fragments with immense remains of public buildings, a 'Praetorium' constructed for military pomps beyond our conceiving, arches, temples of singular but somewhat irregular beauty. The triple shrine of ^sculapius, Serapis and Silvanus is on a fantastic yet most elegant ground plan. We know the very years of most of these buildings^. They were all erected, whether in the camp or city (except perhaps the Capitol) by the Legion itself, and the temples them- selves were retained under military guardianship. In the camp was no temple. It will not be thought surprising that these and many more j>articulars of the life of the great head-quarters are known to us when it rianus Aug I Pontif Max Trib | Pot vii 23, 1, 35; 23, 2, 45, 3; 49, 17, 16. Cos III viam | a Carthagine The|vestem But to assert that their children by Mil P cxci I DCCXXX stravit | P. Meti- foreign wives were citizens seems diffi- lio I Secundo leg | Aug Pro Pr | Cos cult. _, . , T^ r\ 'k Ti I r- T T See Wilmanns' essay, giving Momm- Desig Per leg III Aug (C. /. Z. , . ^ , , r & ' I — § SJJ sen's views, C. I. L. viii. L p. 283. ■ "' i°^^4-) The monumental work is Cagnat, Ar- leg III Aug has been erased and re- ^^,^ ^^ VAfrique, Paris, 1892. stored, a fact which will be explamed 3 E.g.-T\,^ great temple of Neptune presently. j^8^ dedicated 158, enlarged 174. Isis C. I. L. VIII. i. n. 2532. and Serapis 158, yEsculapius and Salus 2 Herodianus, iii. 8. Papinian and ^^^^ ^^.^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^.^.^^ ^^ Ulpian, in and just after Severus' time, t -^ j c-i c-i .. j tr ' J ' Jupiter and Silvanus. bilvanus restored speak of their matrimonium as if it „ -, •were in all respects jus turn. Digesta 588 APPENDIX K. is realized that this one place yields to the Corpus over 1600 inscriptions. Probably as many more are built into the French prison walls. The Christians after awhile had at least four basilicas of dates un- known at present. We have already heard of the early Council here of ninety bishops, and of the 'old heretic' Privatus^ Wilmanns and Tissot mention that no Christian inscription has been found. I copied there two large sculptures of the labarum with a and 00 within a wreath, and on one of them the Dove^. It is interesting that the time of Cyprian was a marked period in the history of Lambaesis. He is the only author who tells us that it ever was a Colony 3. From A.D. 238 to 253 the Third Legion was disbanded, and this is thought to be the time when the town rose to that dignity, when the Capitol was founded and the noble temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus built on it. The Legion was restored and replaced by Gallienus and Valerian* in A.D 253, but only for about 40 years, up till the time of Diocletian^ Its bishop appears in our Council, but apparently not in that of 41 1 ^ and as no bishop appears in 484 or ever again, it is likely that after its abandon- ment as the seat of the Legate Propraetor under Constantine it fell into decline. The ceasing of inscriptions tells the same tale. It has seemed worth while to dwell upon Lambaesis on account of the vividness with which its life and its necessary problems for Christianity suggest themselves. But what would be the interest of Thamugadi, what of Theveste, if their story were as clear ? Colonia THEVESTE^ at the north-east corner of the Aures system, is no doubt Teiessa^ the place which the Greeks regarded as the capital of Libya, and as a Bps. 349,411, 'Hundred -gated' city not quite distinguishable from Thebes. Yet in the best Roman age and until Vespasian none but geographers name it. Then, while Lambaesis was the military centre, Theveste was the centre of communication. Eight great roads linked it to Cirta, Sitifis, Lambaesis, ^ Cypr. £/>. 36. 4; E/>. 59. 10, 11. vitem posv|it votvm dedit | dedi- 2 Another, Dr Schwarze, p. 75. cante| vetvrio vetv|riano ^ vc ^ ^ £p. 59. 10 Lambesitana Colonia, LEG | avggg pr pr | agreeing thus with the inscriptions ^ The arguments of Wilmanns for C. I. L. VIII. i. 2661, 2720, 272 1, ii. this will be generally thought stronger 10228, 10229, 10256, 10259. than those of Mommsen against him. * This inscription on a statue base, C. /. Z. viii. i. tit. Lamb(zsis, and which I copied in the Praetorium, re- Momms. C. I. L. vol. viii. i., pp. lates to their return. It is C. 1. L. xxii, xxiii. VIII. i. 2634. ® In spite of Masqueray I must agree DEO I MARTI MLlTli^ | poteJTi with Wilmanns that Lambiensis is not STATW^ I IN HONOREM LEG | III AVG a likely appellative from Lambaesis. VALERlyV^ I GALLlENit VALERIA;^ ] ^ Sentt. Epp. 31, Thebeste MSS. SATTONivs iv|cvNDVS^ pp QVi|pRiMVS Lauresh, Veron. H. LEG RENo|VATA i APVT AQVIJLAM THE CITIES. 589 Tacape, Sufetula and Thysdrus ; Hadrian (we have seen) developed the most important, that to Carthage. A favourable station for Christian pioneering, it has been said, and the remark seems to be borne out by the number and apparently early date of Christian inscriptions^ from that region. Procurators managed imperial estates in the neighbourhood. Settlers on military tenure of knight-service held wide lands, and were protected with elaborate care. They planted out groups of towers throughout the domains, with an eye to the raids from Aures. The scale and splendour of the place are marvellous : its water-works, its baths, its drainage. The careful arrangement of its forum and market with its marble pavement, marble screens, and cloisters, and with stabling for troops of horses. African architecture like African Latin has marked peculiarities, and the fine temple of Jupiter is an excellent instance of them, as is also the quadruple Janus, finer than that of Rome, and again the simple grand basilica with its stately steps and mosaic floor, exactly contemporary with Cyprian, and stopped, three or four centuries later, in actual process of conversion into an immense church and establishment. Rude Christian capitals lie ready to be hoisted, and an immense array of monks' cells in solid masonry has been already added, together with a bishop's house and chapel and a baptistry, the whole defended vainly by the Byzantine ramparts^. The Vandals were driven back, but the spirit of the dry places returned to his gar- nished house, and the Arabs sit marketing by thousands in the dust among their camels, and the ddbris of the city are spread out for miles. The third of these glorious cities, which we must notice, that was so Coionia grandly placed to do the work which Rome conceived to be hers in the Thamu- wild world, was ThamuGADI, Timgad — 'the African Pompeii.' Iif^cla*^"'' Verecunda was a fourth not so much known to us nor represented at Jr^'J^"^ ,. Ihamugadi. Carthage (a see ? Morcelli). Timgad. Thamugadi was founded in A.D. 100 with a true soldier's eye by optaui°' L. Munatius Gallus, Trajan's legate and propraetor, to control the adits to ^^^\^. the very heart of Aures by the veterans of the Thirtieth Legion, Ulpia ^ See Schwarze, pp. 63 ff. feet beneath the altar of the basilica, ^ I gratefully acknowledge the cour- where he expected to find some token tesy of the Abbe Delapart, the accom- of consecration. For fine illustrations plished antiquarian and self- devoted of Lambaesis, Theveste andThamugadis parish priest of Tebessa, of the Com- see Mr Graham's Paper on the 'Remains mandant des Armes, and the Command- of the Roman Occupation of N. Africa,' ant des Indigenes, Captains Martineau Transactions of R. Inst, of Brit. Archi- and Empiroget. One of M. Delapart's terts, vol. I. N.S. part 3 ; Sir L. Play- most singular discoveries is the mosaic fair's Travels ; Duthoit, Soc. Arch, de plaque of a cross placed within an apse Constantine, 1884. and especially Boes- between A and fi, which he found some willwald and Cagnat's Timgad. 590 APPENDIX K. Victrix, as colonists. They were enrolled in the Emperor's own tribe, Papiria, and held a richer, wider territory than any African colony. It is unmentioned except by geographers, until with Bagai it is very much mentioned for its Donatist terrors, and for 'the ten years long groaning of all Africa' under its Bishop Optatus, the *Dux Circumcellionum.' But who shall say what the long groaning of real Africa had been under Roman Africa, or what the misery of the dispossessed and destitute natives who listened to him ? The scene of his harangues in the curia and the forum needs little imagination to complete it. After the dis- appearance of the baffled Vandals it was the Maurusii who poured in, de- populated Timgad, and made it uninhabitable, so that no civilized being might find in it a pretext for even approaching Aures^ It was reoccu- pied by Solomon about A.D. 538 ; not restored, but quarried for his fortifications. The long white streak beneath the mountain brow, which you watch for hours as you approach it, develops at last into an almost perfect city which looks as if roofs and capitals had been taken away a year ago, leaving walls and floors and bases perfect. The whole aspect is that of a city built on a perfectly considered and beautiful plan. Its fine triumphal arch takes you into the long street with its smooth wheel- grooved pavements and shady colonnades towards the north breeze. These lead on to the macellum, to the forum with its cloisters and statuary, and then to the basilica and public offices. A short stroll brings you to the beautiful theatre in the hillside. Ever in your ears is the rush of waters which once poured through these dry troughs, channels and fountains, and charged the vast baths. It is notable that the fine temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was built under a severe Christian Emperor Valentinian I., and that when the Arabs came a new basilica was in building^. Respublica From Theveste the road which encircles the ridges and defiles of Oum^K^ Aures and commands the plateaux and skirts the salt-basins that lie Bp.aDo- northwards, goes west through Cedias, whose ruins as yet serve only to identify it. It was like Mascula a seat of Donatism. Two Christians at some time built a church near, and dedicated it as ' men of Cedias, sinners,' perhaps on their restoration to the Church ^ The road passes ^ Procop. de Bell. Vand. ii. 13, towards Lambsesis. Cagnat ap. Acad, 'civibus sublatis,' perhaps; but 'aequa- d. Inscr. May 1891. verant solo,' no; for that is not its state * This noteworthy record is in C. even now. /. Z. viii. i. n. 2309 ' in • atri • 2 Thimgad is essentially a civil city DOMINI | DfeFQUi feSTSfeRMONi | DON- as Lambaesis is a military one, but laid atus feT navis | ius FfecfeRUNT cfeDi | out with its main streets crossing at feNSfes pfeCKATORfes,' corrected and right angles, Cardo N. and S. towards (?) explained by De Rossi as In no- Constantine, Decumanus E. and W. mine Patris domini dei qui est sermoni. THE CITIES. 591 on through the wide strewn ruins of Mascula, on the north-east spur of Coionia Auras, a critical strategic post, then and now commanding one of the jc^^Ma. main passes of Aures, and covering the direct route from the Tell to ^^- 3°s. Sahara ; to begin with, a great corn and cattle station ^ 525- It communicated v/ith Bagai near the salt lake. Bagai and Timgad Bagai. K'sar the Donatists claimed as all their own. Augustine sarcastically makes one Bpf Do- of them argue 'And ours too is a "Great Congregation." What do you °atust343, think of Thamugade and Bagai^?' Here was held their Council ofUoa, 404.* 310 Bishops in a.d. 394^- Donatus the Circumcellion leader was a 484. ' *"' native of Bagai, and here were perpetrated many of the horrors of the faction*. These places were all revived into Byzantine fortresses by Solomon, but were never likely to hold a country, whose cities had failed, by mere force of arms. Yet they seem all to have retained their Christianity long after the Arabs had exterminated it elsewhere. The bishops of Cedias, Mascula and Bagai were now Secundinus, Clarus and Felix". Facing from Lambcesis towards Sitifis, capital of Mauretania, 21 Resp. mountainous miles would bring you to Lamasba, the last station but one Antoniniana. on the Numidian side of the border, a great depot for the products of the La"r^ba"™ fertile plains beyond. A great inscription on the distribution of water, Lamasua, probably for the use of the numberless oil-mills, is an instance of the Lamasbua, perfection with which the Roman farmers were attended to®. Pusillus, a Merouana. rare name, was their bishop. ^^^' ''"• Westward and then southward, about 62 kilometres more, the road from Lambsesis sweeps round down the stern deep defile which the Romans called ' Hercules' Shoe ' and the Arabs, in amazement at the Donatus et Navigius fecerunt Cedienses '^ Aug. Contr. Crescon. Donat. iv. 10. peccatores. Mommsen's suggestion in ■* Neander, vol. III. p. 271 (Bohn), on patre domini (i.e. in deo) defunctus qui the question whether Donatus a Casis est seems unnatural. Schwarze, p. 69, Nigris and Donatus Magnus were one quotes for Dominiis Deus (of Christ) and the same, says 'Optatus seems to C. I. L. VIII. i. n. 2079: In nomine have knowledge of only one Donatus.' Domini d^i «ostri atque salbatoris Optatus expressly distinguishes them, IHU XPI ; C. I. L. Vill. ii. n. lib. iii. init. and says, 'Donatus Bagai- 8429 In nomine ^ Z>omini Z?ei ; and ensis collected the "insana multitudo."' on S'frwo for A(S7oy Tert. adv. Pi-ax. v. ' Sentt. Epp. 11, 79, 12. It is in- I would therefore emend simply In teresting that from the neighbourhoods Patre Domini Dei qui est sermo Dei, of Cedias, Bagai, Mascula, Theveste • *In the Father of the Lord God Who come the inscriptions with ' Deo laudes,' is the Word of God.' the Donatist greeting adopted instead ^ Masqueray has a treatise Ruittes of the Catholic 'Deo gratias.' See anciennes de Khenchela. Paris, 1879. Schwarze, pp. 69 f. Cf. Schwarze, p. 73. * Sentt. Epp. 75. C. I. L. vlll. i. n. ^ Aug. Enarr. ii. on Psalm xxi. 26. 4440- 484. 592 APPENDIX K. Roman bridge *E1 Kantara'; then it suddenly bursts into that vision of a hundred thousand palm trees which startle every traveller into the sense that he has touched a new zone, and a world in which the sons of Japhet will never be at home. Tubunae From El Kantara, a Roman road, quarried through wonderful de- munic. Bovfiovv, Pt. files and set all along with towers and ruins, turns up to THUBUNiE, the Tobona,*" westernmost frontier town and castle of Numidia, though Wilmanns ^^'- almost assigns it to Mauretania^ Its Nemesian was a very senior bishop Bj)s. 411, and the lengthiest speaker — twice as long as Cyprian. Then from Biskra, about 112 kilom. from Lambaesis^, the inexorable road sets itself back eastward to enchain the precipice walls of Mount Aures on the south, with nothing but the sandy rock of Sahara in front and far beyond the horizons of many days. Out into the desert of Mokran five-and-thirty kilometres south-west of Biskra, the Roman planted his last outpost, the immense and mani- foldly fortified camp of Gemell^e. We shall come to it by another routed Great stations. Ad Badias and others, watched the valleys which poured out their torrents of waters and of Berbers through the mountain posterns. By such a tremendous chain of fortresses, cities and colonies, by 'wardens of the marches' and tenants inheriting and holding lands by military service, by actual 'moss-troopers' in the marshlands, the whole vast frontier was continuously guarded. From Leptis Magna the limites ran westward in this order, Thamel- lensis, Badiensis (then came Aurasius itself, which need not and could not be a limes^), Gemellensis, Tubunensis. A similar line of limites then ran northward to the sea, and behind was Mauretania Caesariensis itself (apparently) all held by this tenure. Alexander Severus had, just before Cyprian's time, taken important measures for the security of the ' limitanei duces et milites and their heredes ' in their 'sola,' and for keep- ing up their stock of cattle and slaves ^ ne desererentur rura vidua barbaricB.' On the colonies and principal towns every delight which could make a Rome in miniature was lavished. Officers of family, augurs, legates, ^ A Thubunas. Sentt. Epp. 5, Tissot, very little of it could be farmed. See II. pp. 512 and 518. his interesting sketch {de Aurasio M., ^ C. I. L. VIII. i. p. 275. pp. 70 ff.) of the limites and their con- ^ See infr. 'Three Routes' — Rte. (i). ditions, as also the laws against extortion ■* Masqueray seems much impressed by these armed farmers. The marsh- and puzzled by the fact. But Aures lands are particularly noticed ('agros was absolutely ringed round with forts limitaneos universos, cum paludibus,') and camps and legions, and certainly in Cod. lib. XI. tit. LIX. (LX.). THE CITIES. 593 proprjetors devoted themselves to the enrichment of the new homes. Thus at Theveste, before A-D. 212, C. Cornelius Egrilianus, an old praefect of the 14th Legion, who belonged to a family which has left many monu- ments at Lambaesis, bequeaths ^5,000, half to found the extant Triumphal Arch, half for gymnastic games in the Thermae on fixed days through the year, as well as sets of large silver and gold vessels for the CapitoL But not amusement only was provided, whether fierce or luxurious. The courts indicate elaborate administrations complete upon the spot. There were curias and rostra and the appointments of an apparent republic. The marriage privileges, the tribal arrangements all were for the purpose of founding not only garrison cities for the marches but com- munities perfect in themselves yet identified in every interest with the Empire. The country probably could not at this time have been held at all, or cultivated to profit if it had not been distributed in vast latifundia to capitalists (often members of the imperial families and even ladies) and by them partly furnished for themselves with fortified country houses (such as we see in the African mosaics) surrounded by large villes, and partly sublet to Roman farmers and contractors ^ It is evident that this civilization cannot have been carried on without the co-operation of vast numbers of native tenants as labourers, as well as poor colonists. To them we must ascribe the abundant traces of small farmsteads in some of the larger and safer valleys. Spots which still are called ' Roman Gardens ' of olives and fruit trees seem as likely to be Berber copies as to be original Roman plantations, which would probably have borne Roman names. When Rome grew Christian the mountaineers too were so soaked with Christian usages that to this day they keep Christmas^. They call the months by Latin names and measure the year, like Christians, by the sun and not by moons. Yet these cities were not at last captured by Vandals, but deliberately desolated by their neighbours the first hour that the invasion called the garrison away. Yes. Civilization and Christianity were unable to overcome animosity of race and wildness of temper. That is how we put it. Rather — Civili- zation and Christianity sate helpless, not knowing or thinking how to deal with the prodigious, multiplying masses of dispossessed, impoverished, harried natives, whom mile by mile soldiers and settlers drove out before them. The Circumcellions had weakened everything long before the Vandals came. They liberated slaves, destroyed account books, broke up villas, drove the gentry round and round in the mills. Their weapons were sticks. They were accompanied by troops of women. Their numbers were everywhere immense — ' such herds,' ' such crowds,' ' so many thousands.' ^ See ap. Masqueray, De Auras. ^ Moolid, 'The Nativity.' Monte, pp. 50, 57. B. 38 594 APPENDIX K. Pertusa, It. Ant. Ad Pertusa. El HaraXria. Bp. 393. Thurris, It. Ant. El Djentel. Bps. 396, a Donat. 411. Thacia, Tab. Peut. ©aa'. CoriJ.' and Holsten 'Muzuca.' On ^ Procopius dwells on the crescent, the otlier hand the only reading in list 38—2 596 APPENDIX K. Colonia Ulpia Trajana Leptis. Leptis Magna, PI. Lebda. Bps.aOonat, 393. a Donat. 411, 484. Oea, Ocea, Colonia, It. Ant. Civitas Ocensis, Oensis, PI. Tripoli. Bps.aDonat. 411, 4S4. Other roads too connected the towns \ but these three Unes striking the coast road, and traversing the inland, would bring up representatives of at least three-and-twenty sees to Carthage. Hadrumetum was about 108 Roman miles from Carthage*, and Great Leptis about 650' by the coast from Hadrumetum. The last hundred miles of this were the sand-deluged coast of the Tripolis, a name which then meant the three early Phoenician Marts of Sabratoun, Oiat, and Lebki*, but which, as its two neighbours decayed, settled upon Oiat or Oea and so remains. The conditions of life in the TripoHs differed much from all that we have been considering. To Livy* Leptis seemed 'the only city' there worth mention. Its con- stitution must have been strong, since in our first century it was still ruled by the old Canaanite 'Judges' or Sufetes^. As Gibeon from Joshua, so Leptis from Bestia sought and obtained instant conditions of peace when the Romans appeared on the soil in the outset of the Jugurthan war. Its enormous imports and exports may be estimated from its antient tribute of an Euboic talent daily to Carthage^, and from the permanent impost with which C. Julius Caesar visited its reception of the shattered Pompeians. The splendour of Oea^ is witnessed still by the grandest Four-fronted Janus extant''. It had been built by a chief magistrate, and dedicated by a proconsul about a century before our date, and was probably surpassed by the edifices with which Septimius Severus adorned this his birthplace. of 484 A.D. (Labbe, v. ■266) and list of 41 1 (Labbe, III. 199) which refers to the province is Muzu'censis. The use of the adjectival form in Cyprian's time has a bearing on the geography, see p. 597, n. 6. ^ From Thenae the first route might be struck at Sufetula. 2 //. Ant.; but //. Petit. 114. 3 //. Ant.; but It. Peut. 632. ■* Hence the Latin appellative Lepci- tanus side by side with Leptitanus. ' Livy xxxiv. 62. * Their notable monument in the British Museum had strange English adventures under our Fourth George and William. Wilmanns, C. /. L. vili. i. p. 3. ^ Liv. xxxiv. 62. Hirtii de B. Afric. c. 97, tricies centena millia pondo olei annually. 8 Sentt. Epp. 83. Coins, Ouiath, Death; Oeath bilath Makar, 'town of Makar,' the Tyrian ' Hercules'; the final t is the Punic feminine. Literary foiins Osa, Qza, Oca, &c. ' It praises itself as ' ex marmore solido' and far surpasses the great Roman specimen in material, construc- tion and decoration. It is Bruce's 'most exquisite and elaborate' sketch, Sir Lambert Playfair's Travels, p. 280. Calpurnius was 'curator muneris publici munerarius, duumvir quinquennalis et flamen perfectus.' Ser. Cornelius Scipio Orfitus was proconsul about 163 a.d. I may remark that if Quintilian,viii.3, is right (and the reading right) in ascrib- ing the first use of Munerarius to Au- gustus, it is interesting that in African inscriptions, in Tertullian and Cyprian, Munerarius occurs several times and Munerator never. THE CITIES. 597 The position of Sabrata appears perhaps in the fact that the cause in sabrata which Apuleius had triumphantly pleaded for himself on the charge of jf '1"^' magic employed in winning his wealthy lady was tried there though all Sa/Spafla, Pt. the parties belonged to Oea. Travellers have seen its amphitheatre, the SabathraP'- marble floor of its temple or basilica, and its pier amid the sand. A Bps.abonat. vast space, apparently never built on, is included in its walls. This may 393?. 4". be what the Punic name of Sabratoun^ is thought to describe — a ' Corn- Market ' of nations. The Tripolis was at our date somewhat more than trilingual, and the fusion of its population was never accomplished, any more than that of its three tongues, Libycized Punic^, Siceliot Greek and Latin. The Tripolis was held together at least ^ by an annual council, but so unsubstantially that Oea about A.D. 70 brought in the Garamantes to help her quarrel with Leptis. It is a mirror for colonists who think it policy to be liberally indifferent to the religion of nations with whom they dwell, or to the barbarism which looks across their pale. Thenceforth the drift of the Sahara sand, successfully resisted for so many ages, was seconded by the drift of Sahara tribes no less multi- tudinous*. Protectors like Count Romanus made resistance to them hopeless. Leptis was destroyed once more by the Ausuritani in A.D. 370, yet bishops of all three towns appeared in 41 1. None however after their banishment by Huneric in 484. So that the towns sank probably soon after that to the condition in which Justinian found them, mounded deep in sand^ His splendid revivals were soon buried again, and of Great Leptis nothing now emerges but white sea-walls and a ghostly likeness to Carthage. The self-governing organization which, adverse to war and unifying as it expanded, had arisen in that antient scene of industrious wealth and anxious splendour, was the salt of their old world. It could not here become the seed of the new. That element in Tripolis was represented at the Council by Natalis of Oea, who with his own suffrage brought the proxies of Pompey of Sabrata and Dioga of Great Leptis six or seven hundred miles, and — as Augustine says — begged the question''. ^ Which is also its other Greek name Wilmanns' protest against any idea of 'A^pdrovov, Scyl. Peripl. no. Procop. confederation. C. I. L. viii. i. p. 2. d. j^dif. vi. 4 'AXXa koX lla^apadav * 'Globi supervenere barbarici.' Am- iT€i.xt-<^a-To ttoXlv, ou Srj Kai \6yov d^iaf mianus at the end of lib. xxviii. relates noWoO iKK\r] t^ 7r6Xet Toi/(CK3 ; but one may modestly point out that the person and the scene are concerned with Numidia. On Nu- midian Tucca see Circle of Cirta, p. 583. * Hatsor, Punic 'precinct.' 'Acsffovpos, Ptol.; Assurae and indecl. ab Assuras //. A7tt. ; Assures, Tab. Peut. ; and ^diL THE CITIES. 603 laid out city ; one of its traceable great gates very perfect, with wall Coionia Julia and inscription adoring Caracalla ; theatre with remarkably long stage ; Zan^r. fine Corinthian portions of its temple. Like Sufes, its two names shew it Bps.aDonat. to be of earliest Punic settling and earliest Roman resettling. 401. 484- Route (2). Oea to Assuras by Thence. And now at Assuras swept in another road which Natalis of Oea might have travelled, if (not turning inland at Gabes) he kept the coast beyond Thenae and turned inland to Thysdrus. He would by this route pass by sees as many as between Capsa and Assuras. The little acropolis of Then^ rises sternly over the sea, the northern- Coionia most of the Emporia. Its port silted up. Its solid city wall two miles in ^u^ta circuit ; nothing within but small stones and potsherds. The great xh^n^mo^- necropolis marks its antiquity of settlement, and in the reign of Augustus rum. it still coined money bearing its old name Tainat in Punic lettering. Yet Bpr4ii, the name is thought to be the Berber of ' date palms ^' '*^'*' 5^^' "54i. Its bishop was now Eucratius — a man of precision and violence. ' Blasphemy of the Trinity ' is his phrase for heretic baptism. The great foss which in A.D. 146 the Romans made to bound their first province ran over the continent from the river Tusca over against Tabraca, and it just took in Thense. From Thysdrus (it sent no bishop to Carthage), at its star of roads, with amphitheatre almost rivalling in size, and studied as if to excel the grandest known, a straight thirty-four Roman miles in two stages would bring our Natalis to Germaniciana. So stands the Itineraiy of An- Germani- tonine^. Many ruins about ; no verifying inscription. It is this place it^nt. which is commonly assumed to have sent Bishop Iambus to the Council^. It was of course a different place from Abbir Germaniciana*, whose col. Assuribus, C. I. L. vill. i. 631 ; ^ Sentt. Epp. 42. ab Assuras, Sentt. Epp. 68; plebi 4 Thg perplexity of Abbirs and Assuras consistenti, Cypr. Ep. 65. Germanicianas is thus resolved by Graham and Ashbee, p. 164, name the Wilmanns, C. I. L. viii. i. p. 102. plain Bled-es-Sers. (? a trace of As- Abbir Majus (coll. 411) and Abbir suras.) Cellense (Municipium Julianum Philip- ^ Then(se), C. I. L. viii. i. n. 2991 ; planum Abbir Cellense) or Cella {Not. Plin., Itin. Ant. Qha., Gaiva, Strab. Epp.) are one city; Abbir 411, 484, S^oivai, Ptol. ttTrd Q^vwv, Seiitt. Epp. Abbir Minus, and Abbir Germaniciana, Grace. Tenitanus, coll. 411, notit. 484. or Germanicianorum, are one city. This Civitatis Thenisiis, Syn. Ep. 649 (ap. may be, but I have failed to find any Wilmanns). Es beam Tha:nat, 'of trace of the name Abbir Minus, the people of Thence,' Punic Inscr. Wilmanns also does not note Augus- Acad. d. Ittscrr. Jan. 1890. tine's Germanicianenses. 2 Tissot, II. p. 588. 6o4 APPENDIX K. Abbir Ger- maniciana. Bps. 411, 419. Marazanx, Marazanis, It. Ant. Bps. 411,484,641. Ci vitas Mactarita- norum. Colonia XX\3l Aurelia_ Mactaris. Col. mxa, Aurelia Augusta Mactaris s. Mactarina. Makter. Bps. a Donat. 411, 484. Civitas Uzappa — Uzappensis. bishop now was Successus^, and which had its bishop also in 411 and in 419 A.D., but has not its site made clear by either itinerary or inscription. The Roman see had under Gregory the Great a patrimony at Ger- maniciana, of which he made the notary and record-keeper, Hilarus, * Rector.' Beyond Germaniciana, twenty-two miles by the Itinerary, lay another great centre of roads, Aquas Regiae, and on a cross road between this and Sufes was Marazana, not visited yet, but its ruins heard of in Arab rumour. In this highland was a Council held, of unknown date, but four of its canons survive^, and its bishops appear in three other crises ; as in this Council of ours Felix^ did — with eleven weighty words. From either Aquae Regiae or Sufes we rise fast among the high plateaux. Mactharis* is 944 feet above the sea". The name has lived orally, though not entered in itineraries nor, until the other day, found in inscription. Yet in the .^lian century Mactharis must have been one of the stateliest of African cities. The ruins cover miles of ground — buildings finished in the noble if not strictly grammatical style of the country. Aqueduct and amphitheatre, arches of triumph, bath and palace, mausolea with stone doors on their pivots, and columbaria". Bruce's beautiful drawings^ prove how fast they disappear, — like the surrounding Aleppo pines which the Turk taxes for pitch and neglects to preserve. Marcus the bishop gave not only his suffrage but a severe side stroke at Stephen. Mactharis lay high on the left of our road from Aquae Regiae, which leads to Ausafa or Uzappa^ Great ruins, lately discovered, partly of the 1 Sentt. Epp. 16. Greg. M. Epp. i. 75, 77; Vita (Joan. Diac.) II. 53. Tissot does not men- tion that Augustine {Ep. iv. 25 1) speaks of Germanicianenses within his own jurisdiction of Hippo. It might be doubtful whether the Roman estates and the bishop at Carthage belonged to the distant or to the nearer place, but that in the Collation of 41 1 and before Huneric in 484 (Labbe, v. 265 A, in. 184 A, the latter in the Numidian list) there appear bishops called Germanien- ses — so that the town may have been Germania, and Germanicianensis only the long drawn out adjective which the Africans affected. ^ Ferrandus, Breviatio Canon. 44, 76, 127, 220. — Harduin, Cone. I. col. 1251. =' Sentt. Epp. 46. •» Sentt. Epp. 38, a Macthari (Hartel), oTri Ma^d/)wv (Gk. vers.), the slip Ma- chari in Cod. Regin., and the modern Mukthert (Play fair) suppose an aspirate in the middle letters. But Cod. Seguier, Mactari; the Episcopal Lists, Mactari- tanus ; C. /. L. Supplem. i. nn. iiSoi, 1 1809 Mactaris, 11813 RP. Col. Mac- taritanas. * Pelet, Notiv. Atl. des Col. Eranf. carte i (1891). ' Necropoles de Mactaris, Cagnat, Bull. arch, du Com. des Trav. hist. 1891, p. 509 sq. ' entierement entouree de necropoles.* ^ Six, reproduced by Sir L. Playfair, pp. 194 ff.; Plan of 'Macteur,' Tissot, II. p. 621. C. I. L. VIII. Suppl. i. n. II 804. * Ausafa, Setitt. Epp. 73; Avffd(p7], THE CITIES. 605 best age ; undisturbed sepulchres, beside a stream still called Ousapha ; Municipium identified by inscriptions and answering to the itinerary. Lucius, bishop, Uzappense. speaks with a quiet piety. ^i.MeUk'.'^' Twenty-three Roman miles to Seggo, and the road sweeps west Bp. a Don. twenty more to Zama Regia, for from Aquae Regiae to Assuras it circles ^anj^ Regia. by the high valleys round some very lofty plateaux and mountain heads. ^1°°'^ There was not an African or Roman in Afinca who did not hold the Hadriana field of Zama to have determined, as Polybius clearly saw * it must do, the za^^Regia. dominion not of Libya or Europe, but of the world. The warring powers, Zafio,ii/, the fortresses and genius of the commanders, and the prize contended for Dji&ma. Bp. 411. had ' trifled former knowmgs. But Zama has little to shew — very broken ground, an eminence among eminences; its old work very solid^, and abundant evidence that at our epoch the place was populous, rich and artistic. Marcellus^ was the bishop. He put the controversy in a nutshell. Another ten miles completed this cross-country route, if we may call it so, from Thenae to Assuras. Thence the Theveste road to Carthage. Route (3). Oea by Thence and Hadrumetuin to Carthage. Another perhaps easier way to Carthage was open to the traveller from Oea when he had reached Thenae. He might go on from Thysdrus to Hadrumetum, either direct or by Leptiminus. Leptis, Leptiminus* was built to the waterside, with a fine road- Leptiminus, stead but difficult to make^ A small city, but splendidly fortified from AeWi?' the days of the first solid fort which sufficed the Phoenicians until it was 't.'emia. ' fixed upon as one of the two residences of the Governor of the Byzacene. ^p^ . , ■^ 4". 404,641. It had sided at once like its larger namesake with Rome when she ap- peared on the ground and reaped its advantage, in being a free and exempt town for ever. Demetrius the bishop^ merely turns the whole question under dis- cussion into an assertion. Zonar. (ap. Tissot), il. p. 575. Found century. Then Leptiminus (indecl.); only in 1884. Baal Usappan, 'citizen Lepteminus; Anonym. Ravennat. Cos- of Usappa.' Punic Inscr. Acad, dcs In- mograph. Leptis minus (Leptis Parva scriptions, Jan. 1890. in Tissot's Index, not antient). ^ Polyb. XV. 9, 3. ' Wilmanns misreads what is said of ^ This agrees with Sallust, yng. 56, this in Stadiasmus, as if the port had who says it was 'magis opere quam been destroyed in the third century. natura munita.' The Christian (Phoenician?) burials ^ Sentt. Epp. 53. at Leptiminus are curious; Schwarze, * Coins until Tiberius A^im (Phce- pp. 54, 55, and 59 and Tafel i. nician), then A^tttis. Leptis (A^ttti;, * Sentt. Epp. 36. Procop.) until iiiKpi. added in the second 6o6 APPENDIX K. Colonia Concordia Ulpia Trajana Augusta Frugifera Hadruine- tina. Colonia _ Concordia Ulpia Hadrume- tum._ Justiniano- polis. Susa, Sousse. Bps. 348, a Donat. 393, 397.411.451 4S3, 551. Horrea Cae- lia. It. Ant. Hergla. Bps. a Donat. 411, 419. Hadrumetum* rose picturesquely, a white pyramid, over its elabo- rately created harbour^ with mighty breakwater and secluded cothon like Carthage. As at Carthage, a massive yellow-coated temple topped the citadel, and a noble suburb overspread the walls. For it came direct from Tyre, — an older settlement than Carthage, — and now was second city of the province. It never had a history, for it was strong, ' frugiferous,' commercial, opulent, and unpatriotic. Czesar had stalked round its triple walls, and knew he could not afford to take them. When the war was over, he would make them pay for their regard to Pompey. It was chief of the seven cities which, at the first scent of danger, had gone over to Rome. Henceforth it is styled a Free City. Trajan made it a colony. Its forts, cisterns, circus, grandly porticoed theatre, and huge edifices of undivined intention date through all its ages. The two events which the critic records of it, its long litigation with Thysdrus over a temple, and its rough reception of Vespasian as Proconsul, are less significant to real history than Cyprian's visit to its clergy and instructions about the Roman see. Its bishop, Polycarp, had perhaps not been in attendance at Carthage before this. He missed no Council of which the list re- mains*, and at this of A.D. 255 he assisted with six sufficient words*. The traveller, leaving Hadrumetum for the north, whether he kept close to the sea or pursued the parallel road a few miles inland, soon saw before him, clear against water and sky, a castle-crowned promontory. This was one of the great grain depots. It gave its name to the small town of quays and magazines which surrounded it, Horrea Qxaax^. This too had a bishop, Tenax, who begins scriptum est, inserts ecclesia una in Eph. iv. 5, and so proves his point easily. Tenax might be taken up by the way, or might join the travellers from Oea further on. The bishop of Segermes^ might also join them at Bibas (Djeradorl or Bir- el-Foouara), and thence the way was short through beautiful Zaghouan ^ 'A5/)t5/i?jy, -firyros, •/j.7it6s,' AdpovfnjTos, 'Adpa/iiJTTi^, -nvTos, -firiToi, -fievTOi. In Greek never aspirate. In Latin medals and inscriptions always, Hadrumetum, -imetum, -ymetum. Elsewhere Adri- metum, -umetum, -3rmetum. In Mysia was also an 'A5pa./Ji&mov, -vTeiov; in Lycia an 'ASpa/iirrrts, and an Arab tribe is called' Ad pafiirai. (W. and P.) 2 Is it presumptuous to think that d\lp.€vos (Stadiasm.c. 1 i6)means with no natural harbour, and not (as Wilmanns) that in the third century its port had disappeared ? For the breakwater must have been serviceable when Justinian repaired it, and in the twelfth century El-Bekri speaks of its fine harbour. * .See p. 569 sup., A.D. 252, £/>. 57; 254, £p. 67; 255, Ep. 70; 256, Setiif. Epp. 3. ■• Sentt. Epp. 3, a senior place. On his low place in Council II. see Ap- pendix, p. 566. ^ Sentt. Epp. d'f The text of Cyprian has (without v. 1.) 'ab Horreis Caeli?e, the Greek CL-Kh 'OpiQv KeWiuv ; ft. Ant., 'Horrea Caslia vicus.' The va riants of the bishops' titles are several at last 'O^peoKlXrj^; and its now con Iracted name is Hergla. — From Hadru metum, 18 miles (It. Ant.). « Above, p. 579. THE CITIES. 607 and Gor and Thuburbo Majus into Carthage^, striking the Theveste road usually at Coreva. 6. Mauretania. The proem of the Council says that there were assembled at it * Bishops very many, out of the Province Africa, Numidia, Mauretania.' Mauretania seems to have been represented, except as claiming to itself a half share in the bishop of Tucca, only by the bishops of BURUC and tBoOpxa, Pt. Nova. Wilmanns thinks Thubunae^ might be claimed for Mauretania, Donat. 411. but does not claim it. Whatever the reasons in favour, they are not the same as for Tucca. BuRUC. There are independent reasons for beheving Quietus"^ to be wrongly read for Quintus, and Quintus to be the correspondent of Cyprian's seventy-first epistle. Quintus was a Mauretanian, ' our col- league established in Mauretania,' and if so BURUC was a Mauretanian see, which from other considerations also is more likely than not*. As for Nova, two bishops, each styled Nobensis, both of Mauretania, Bps. from different cities, presented themselves before Huneric in A.D. 484, "*"' * "*' and were banished. One of them, Mingin, barbarous name, died in exiled Also a bishop from one of them assisted in a.d. 411 at the Col- lation of Carthage. There is no African Nova except in South Egypt, but two cities called Oppidum Novum are in Mauretania. One of these is too far, only It. Ant. 62 Roman miles from Tangiers, 16 13 from Carthage. The other is near Manliana and only about 210 miles beyond the Ptoi. and Numidian frontier. This may be the Nova of our very explicit bishop Rogatianus. 7. TJie Cities Unidentified. [This list seems complete as far as was known up to 1893 ; it is possible th^t fresh identifica- tions have been conjectured or proved since. E. F. Benson.] It only remains to add the names of the sees which yet await dis- covery and identification. The disinterment of inscriptions alone could ^ Route, Tissot, 11. p. 539. Tab. Peut. Mauretanian Burca, and the Burugiaten- Bibae to Onellana (Zaghouan) 16 miles, sis Episcopus of a.d. 411 (Labbe, iii. Onellana to Thuburbo Majus 15. 133 B) may belong to it. Leontius 2 C. I. L. VIII. i. p. 453. Burcensis, A.D. 484 (Labbe, v. 263) is of ^ Note on Quintus appears p. 363 Numidia. Rigault has Buruch, Baluze before the Third Council. Baruch. •* Epp. 71, 72, I. \-a.Sentt. Epp. 27 » Sentt. Epp. 60, 'a Nova.' In Mss. have and editions attest 'Buruc' Labbe, v. 268 B, per stands for peregre; and 'Burug.' It is no way impossible see also 269 B, III. 326 D. Nobensis; that these should be latinised as Buruca, so Nobabarbarensis, Nobagermaniensis, Burugia, and that Ptolemy's BoOp/ca, Nobasparsensis, &c. 6o8 APPENDIX K. set at rest the questions which arise, so that further criticism would be mostly misspent. There is a list of late authorities in Tissot, ir. p. 771, note I. The MS. readings are from Hartel. [? Oiara, Str.] Bp. 484- Bps. 411, 484. Bps. a Do- nat. 411, 484. Bp. 484. Bp. 484. Bps. 411, 484. /« Numidia. Sententia 15 Vada. [Dativus] 23 Vicus Caesaris=V. Augusti? 33 Bamaccora H. Ab amacora Lauresh. Abbamaccora T. {Regin.) ab amaccura Aug. de Bapt. c. Donatt. vi. xl. [Felix] (Vamaccorensis. The reading Coll. Carth. with Pliny v. 4 Bama- cures, a Numidian tribe, shews that B belongs to name. Tissot II. P- 777 gives it among known see-sites, but no more.) 45 Midili H. cod. Seg. Regin. Madili Lauresh. Midila August. de Baptism, contr. Donatt. Vll. ix. [lader] (Numidia by list of 484, and therefore not as Morcelli, ' Pagus Mer- curialis Veteranorum Medilitanorum,' which was found in Prov. Proc. Tiss. II. 591.) (The Bishop's name Iader has a Barbarian look. It occurs else- where only in a Christian inscription at Tebessa, Acad, des Inscrr. Mai 1890, 'lulio laderi patri dulcissimo in pace a w.') 54 ? Ulul^ ('ab Ululis')- More, would identify with ? UUse (Ullitanus, a.d. 484, Labbe v. 265). [Irenaeus] 56 Tharassa H. Tharasa. [Zosimas] 66 Marcelliana, ? Giru Marcelli. QulianusJ In Provincia. Bps. a Do- nat. 411, 525, 646. Bps. 397, 411. 484- Bps. 419. ? 411, Bps. a Do- nat. 393, 397, 411, 484. Bp. 646. Bps. a Do- nat. 393, a Donat. 411 ; 484 (vacant). Bp. a Donat. 411. 16 35 43 48 50 Biltha H. Bilta. Vilta August, de Baptism, contr. Donatt. VI. viii. [Caecilius] Misgirpa H. miscirpa Lauresh. Migirpa August, de Baptism. contr. Donatt. vi. ix. [Primus] Abbir germaniciana H. Abbis Lauresh. germanicipiana Regin. [Successus] Thasualthe H. Thasuate Regin. Thasualte, Thasbalte August, de Baptisrn. contr. Donatt. vi. xlii. PTabalta //. Ant. [? omitted by Tissot] (Byzac). [Adelphius] Rucuma H. rucuna Seg. rucima Lauresh. [Lucianus] Dionysiana (Byzac). [Pomponius] Ausuaga H. ausuago Seg. Ausuagga Lauresh. adausuagga Regin. Auzagga Coll. Carth. [Ahymnus] (Two sees of that name, as Primianus, Donatist bishop at Carthage, explains in the Collation of Carthage A.D. 411, Prima Cognitio 179, Labbe iii. p. 318.) THE CITIES. 609 Sententia 51 Victoriana H. Victorina Seg. (Byzac). [Saturninus] Bps. 393,484, (Oi)t/cTop/o, Pt. in Mauretania Csesariensis...' Victoriana dicitur villa, ^' ab Hippone Regio minus xxx milibus abest,' August, de Civ. Dei 25, 8, 7.) 64 Avitin^, Abitin^. \al. Saturninus] Bps. before 304, 411, 440, Tissot II. 771 infers neighbourhood of Membresa from Aug. <:. 525, 649. Epist. Parvien. iii. 6. (In 411 Bp. of Avitta also present.) *In civitate Abitinensi,' ap. Acta SS. Saturnini, Dativi et aliorum in Africa (a.D. 304), Ruinart Act. Martyr. 65 Aggya H. so August, de Baptism, contr. Donatt. vii. xxix. Bp. 646. acbia Mon. Regin. acdia Lauresh. [Quintus] (? Agensis Ep. Syn. ad Paul. Constant. ? a.d. 646.) 80 a Thambis H. Thanbis Seg. Thambeis August, de Baptism. Bps. a Do- contr. Donatt. vii. xliv. (Tambaiensis 411, Tambeitanus 484) "s^.^^^'*"' (Byzac). [Secundianus] Province Uncertain. 7 A Castra Galbae H. Castro Aug. de Bapt. c. Donatt. vi. xiv. [Lucius] 44 Luperciana. [Pelagianus] 55 Cibaliana, ? Djebeliana Tissot ll. 781 [near Usilla on Lesser Bp. aDonat. Syrtisj. [Donatus] *"' 63 a Buslacenis H. abustiacgenis Lauresh. abustlaccens Reg. abusti lacceni Monac. [al. Felix] (More, conjectures contraction of Bisica Lucana, west of Thuburbo Majus; Tissot II. p. 333. ? Visicensis in Coll. Carth. 411, and in Ep. Syn. ad Patdum Constant. ? A.D. 646. Labbe III. 1880.) 74 a Gurgitibus ? Gurgaitensis (Byzac.) More. \al. Felix] Bp. 484. (The regular form a gurgitibus can scarcely be traced to any proba- ble corruption from Gergis in Byzac. ' Stadiasm. 102 ; Procop. ^dif. vi. 4 ; C. X. Miiller Numismatique de Vancienne Afrique II. p. 35. B. V. Head Historia Numorum p. 735 read Gerg. for Gergis on a medal in Brit. Mus. — but ? CERC (Cercine).') 78 Octavu. [Victor] Bp. 484. (Octabensis in Numidia 484; massacre by Circumcellions, Optat. iii. 4. Octabensis, Octabiensis in Byzacene 484.) 39 6lO APPENDIX L. Readings of Cities in Crawford MS. The following axe the readings of the cities in the Crawford MS. which differ from Hartel's. Hartel's MSS. which they resemble are noted. When no MS. is noted none agrees. A qx ab noted only when necessary. 3 adrimeto 4 thamoga 7 galha 10 girpa ii accedias 7" i^bacai^" 15 badis Z (.<4m^) 17 ad huc«cabori, dhuccabori ZT" 27 buruch editiones aliquot 31 theveste LV 33 abamaccora, ab amacora L 35 thevalthe 40 gor LT {Aug) 4.2 ger maniciana 45 medeli 47 a bobba T {Aug) 48 dionisiana 50 a bausuagga, ausuagga Z ad ausuagga T 51 victoria {OviKTopla Ptol.) 54 Ubulis 62 Membressa Z 63 a bustlacgenis, a bustlacgenis Z abustlaccens T 65 achia 67 orreis caelise 68 asurag 70 rusicca 71 cuiguli 72 hip pomine harit to 76 gazauphala, gazauphalia LT •J1 tucca 78 octaviu 81 chulabi. APPENDIX L. S. Cyprian's Day in Kalendars A nd how it comes to be in England on the 26th instead of the i^th September. This enquiry is not so trivial as it may seem. It is not only archaeo- logically curious as a good instance of the gradual formation of kalendars, but it has a spiritual side, too, of which we will say a word when we have finished ^ S. Cyprian suffered on the 14th of September. Accordingly in the Martyrology of the African Church and in the earlier Roman kalendars this was the day of his commemoration by himself alone. The '■ depositio juartirutn' of Rome in the middle of the fourth century records the memorable fact that, (though his relics were of course not there,) his Day was celebrated in the Cemetery of Callistus. The Missal of the Mozarabic rite and the Sanctorale of its Breviary also give complete evidence how he was at first commemorated alone in the Services, although there have been uncritical and unhistorical guesses hazarded about Cornelius' absence from the Depositio. {Note A.) The first change made was by uniting in the commemoration with ^ In the collation and verification of some of the kalendars I am greatly indebted to M. Larpent. S. CYPRIAN'S DAY IN KALENDARS. 6X1 Cyprian his friend Cornelius, who had died in June 253. The change was made at Rome, and it is notable that the Pope was placed on Cyprian's Day, not Cyprian transferred to his ; but the name of Cornelius is placed first. This is what we find in the Leonian Sacramentary and in a kalendar of the fourth or fifth century from MSS. once at Grasse and Avignon. (^Note B.) The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, commemorated in the West the recovery of that precious relic from the Persians by Heraclius in A.D. 628. The date of the introduction of the Festival is unknown, but it was kept on the 14th September, as if traditionally the day on which the cross was re-erected. The addition of that commemoration, usually in the first place, is the next change in the observance of the day. This we see in the Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries as they stand. {Note c.) For a long time after these, which have the appearance of having been neatly re-edited, kalendars shew themselves to be copied carefully from older ones by the perpetuation of the word Ro7nce after the observance had become universal, and of Karthagbie after Carthage had ceased to be. This continues, though diminishingly, until quite the end of the tenth century. {Note D.) From this period the local origins of the commemorations dis- appear. They are at home everywhere. But at the very same time singular instances occur of the saints themselves too disappearing from the kalendars. This does not, however, mean that they disappeared from the Offices, although it shews the increased appreciation of the Exalta- tion. {Note E.) But all the time the Celebration of Holy Cross Day was growing in popularity and observance, and was also of civil importance as the unre- formed Quarter Day. The commemoration of Cornelius and Cyprian on the same day became inconvenient, and began to be moved to various days. The first to move it was Cardinal Quignon in the Reformed Breviary of 1535, which was allowed to be used by secular clergy who desired it. {Licence of Paid PP. III.., Feb. 5, 1535.) He moved it on to the next day, the 15th. {Note F.) England throughout had the same usage, but with a curious ground- work for future confusions. In the Sarum Breviary Calendar, 1531 (as in the Roman Missal of 1477), Cornelius and Cyprian are omitted, though their commemoration is provided for in the Office itself. Perhaps this was for typographical reasons, but even so it shews that Holy Cross Day had quite overshadowed theirs. And this had occurred in earlier kalendars, English and foreign. Nevertheless the Ambrosian Missal still exhibited the old order — the Saints first. {Note G.) The ordinary entry then has now become XViii Kal. Oct. Exaltatio StcB Crucis SS. Cornelii et Cypriani, and so remains until the Council of Trent, after which, in 1570, the new Roman books appear and remove 39—2 6l2 APPENDIX L. the true and antient commemoration of S. Cyprian as Quignon had done, but to one day later still. {Note H.) The Bull A.D. 1568, * Quod a nobis postulat ratio,' abolishes Quignon's and substitutes the New Breviary. In the first post-tridentine Roman Missal and Breviary Cornelius and Cyprian are transferred to the i6th September. i^Note I.) In the Gelasian Sacramentary stood the error XVI Kal. Oct. (Sept. 16). {Note C.) It is impossible to say vi^hether this error had anything to do with the new selection, but there it was. It is interesting to mark in the caxly Drafts {Note K)for our own Common Prayer (to which Dom Gasquet called attention) that Cranmer did not follow Quignon, but restored Cyprian to his own day without the Exalta- tion, and also in his own handwriting replaced Cornelius, who was at first left out. Sept. 26, with Cyprian and Justina, is dropped in both drafts. But in the Festivale, a collection of Third Lessons for Holydays, in this book, there is a long lesson for this day, composed of extracts from Gregory Nazianzen {Orat. xxiv.), and from the Acta Proconsularia, simplified and with some interpolations, beginning as in Sarum with the examination before Paternus. Cyprian is here identified fully with the magician-bishop of the Justina legend. It must have seemed then that the two Cyprians were one, and that there ought not to be a second day. Archbishop Parker and his Commission for framing our own ' New Calendar' in 1561 had no difficulty as to concurrence of services and increasing of commemorations as there were no collects or lessons for these black letter days, but they returned to the principle of the earliest kalendars to have but one name or event on one day. It was desirable to retain Holy Cross Day, not merely for its historic interest, but on account of the civil functions which depended on it. Where to place Cyprian? We do not know whether they had before them Cranmers drafts, dropping the other Cyprian and Justina on the 26th, restoring Cyprian to his 14th, and adding Cornelius*. But if they had, the drafts were mis- leading because the 'Third Lesson' identified the two Cyprians with each other, and thus gave a colour for choosing the 26th. They had old kalendars before them which omitted the Cyprian from the 1 6th and named a Cyprian alone on the 26th. Further and separately, Dr Wickham Legg has pointed to the mediaeval accumulations of namesakes on the same day. Thus in the Acta Sanctoru7n, taking days at random, e.g. from Feb. 7 — 17 there is not a day which has not two or more saints of the same name. Feb. 14 has two Valentines (BoUand, Acta Sanctt. Febr. vol. II. Antv. 1658). And there are instances in almost every week. 1 They were asked for by the Con- E. Bishop, Edward VI and the Bk. of vocation of 1547. Whether produced Common Prayer , p. 2. is not recorded. F. A. Gasquet and S. CYPRIAN'S DAY IN KALENDARS. 613 Each of these three conditions supplied a fair argument, and probably each had its effect : — 'We must have the 14th for Holy Cross Day, and 'there are abundance of old kalendars which have no mention of S. ' Cyprian on that day. Even if it is his feast we are bound to move him. ' We had better move him, according to precedent, and not arbitrarily, to 'the next S. Cyprian on the 25th. And in all probability those two ' Cyprians are but one.' This was what the Commissioners under Parker did. They left Holy Cross Day paramount on Cyprian's true festival, and translated Cyprian by himself to the 26th. At any rate they substituted a true saint for an intolerable legendary wizard. We said that this enquiry was not trivial, not merely an illustration of the nature of entries in kalendars, but had somewhat of the spiritual to exhibit. We have seen the reverence with which such entries had been made by Cyprian himself {Ep. 12, 2; Ep. 38. 3) ; we have seen the way in which his own commemoration was welcomed in other countries. After that, we have seen the passing away of the original local setting in favour of new interests. But the instance in question shews also the original moral force of commemoration infringed first by the jealous dignity of another Church, then gradually pushed off by an imperial association of little or no moral power but of much superstition, and finally subsiding into a mere application for patronal help. Parallel to and typical of many ideals lowered and lost. Spiritual powers allowed to depart while we cherish material symbols. That persistence of nature against which the Church needs all her energ>'. Note A. * Martyrologiiim Ecdesia Africaruz (Morcelli, Africa Christiana, vol. Ii. P- 372). xviil Kal. Oct. Carthagine S. M. Cypriani Episc. * Depositio viartiriim (ap. Th. Mommsen, Chronogr. v. J. 354, p. 633). {Biicher. Kalendar.) XVI II Kl. Octob. Cypriani AfriccB RomcE celebratur in Calisti. Muratori, Lit. Rom. Vet. I. c. 39 n. (c), makes the unhappy conjecture ' in postremis verbis fortasse excidit nomen Comelii Papse ' in which, alas, De Rossi and Mommsen have followed, the latter dreaming (op. cit. p. 633 n.) that celebratur may be a corruption of Cornelii. * Missale inixtum secundum regidam beati Isidori dictum Mozarabes (ed. Card. Ximenes A.u. 1500) has fo. ccclxxix (verso) the missa In Festo Sancti Cipriani without Cornelius, and fo. ccclxxv (verso) Exaltatio sancte Crucis. (So also ed. A. Lesley, 1755, pp. 379, 375; Migne, Lit. Moz. i. c. 856, 848.) The kalendar has a mass of late entries. 6l4 APPENDIX L. * Breviarium secundum regulas beati hysidori, ed. Card. Ximenes A.D. 1502. Kalendar. XVIII Kls Octobris Exaltatio See »!• VI capparii Cipriani ix Ic. (without Cornelius). * Sanctorale: in Festa Septetnbris, fo. cccc Exaltatio Sancte Crucis....In festo sancti Cipriani e}i. Ad Vesperu....IIymn. Urbis magister tuscie : fo. ccccii... In festo sancti cornelii epi mris... (Ed. Ant. Lorenzana, Matriti, 1775) Kalendar. XVIII Kalendas Octobris Cypriani novem lectionum. Sanctorale p. ccxcii Festa Septetnbris die Xiv in Festo Sancti Cypriani episcopi (without Cornelius). [The kalendar has been corrected by Lorenzana and Exal- tatio and Cornelius rejected. Appendix, p. 17; Migne, II. c. 1341. The obvious slip in printing the September days reappears in Migne, 11. c. 41.] ['Tascise' for ' Tuscise ' Hymn, ad Vesp. correctly, though embodying a peculiar theory of Cyprian's name.] Note B. * The Leonian Sacramentary (Muratori, Littirg. Rom. Vettts, i. c. 404, cod. bef. cent. x.). xviii Kal. Octobris Natale sanctorum Cornelii et Cypriani. * Missale (Gallo-)Gothicum (Muratori, II. c. 629, cod. bef. cent, ix.), in Natale Sanctorum Martyrnm Cornili et Cypriani. * Ant. Kalendarium S. R. E. ex MSS. codd. Grassensis monasterii et S. Andreae Avenionensis (cent, iv or v. ace. to Martene and Durand, Thesaur. nov. Anecdd. vol. v. c. 76, Paris, 1717). die XIV mensis Septembris natal. SS. Cornelii et Cypriani, secundum Lucam cap. CXL (sic) Dicebat...\x%Q^&...generatione. Very curious kalendar ; has no saint later than Sylvester, cent. iv. init. ; no feast or commemoration in Lent; (the loth Council of Toledo, a.u. 656, decrees this 'sicut ex antiquitate regulari cautum est,' ap. Bruns, Cann. Apostt. et Concill. I. p. 298; as Council of Laodicea had done, a.d. 352, canon 51, Bruns, I. p. 78;) no mention of Exaltatio S. Crztcis; no feast of B. V. M. except Assumption, which must be interpolated if (as appears) it is as a whole genuine — for this feast was later than the Annuntiation and the Nativity and was not called at first Assumptio but Transitus, Dormitio, Pausatio. Note C. * The Gelasian Sacramentary (our recension — Muratori, I. c. 667, 8) has LVi In Exaltat. Sanctce Cnicis xvili Kal. Octob. Lvn In Natal. Sanctorwn Comeli et Cypriani xvi Kal. Octob. This XVI is no doubt an antient error corrected without remark in Muratori's Index, I. c. 771. In Exaltatione Sanctce Cruets XVIII Kal. Oct. In natal. Sanctorum Cornelii et Cypriani. Item XVIII Kal. Octob. And in his Kalendar. Gelasianum (Murat. I. c. 49). XVIII Kal. Octob. exaltatio Sanctce Crucis. Item Sanctorum Cornelii et Cypriani. S. CYPRIAN'S DAY IN KALENDARS. 615 But it is a question whether the error had not a remarkable permanent result in the Roman post-tridentine books, see above and Note I infra. * The Gregorian Sacramentary, Muratori, II. c. 119. XVIII Kalendas Octobris id est XI v die Mensis Septemb. Natale Sanctorum Cornelii et Cypriani Item eodem die XIV dicti mensis Septembris Exaltatio Sanctce Crtuis. [How long the association with Cornelius was in spreading from Rome is possibly exemplified in the Vettis Marmoreum S. Eccl. Neapolitaruz Kalen- darium, which is given in Lesley's note on Liturg. Mozarab. Migne, i. c. 855. XIII (?) P.S. Cipr. et exalt. See Crucis.] * Vetustius Occidentalis Ecdesice Martyrologium D. Hieronymo a Cassiodoro, Beda, Walfrido, Notkero, aliisque scriptoribus tributum, Quod nuncupandum esse Romanum a Magno Gregorio descriptum, ab Adone laudatum, Proximioribus saeculis prseteritum et expetitum non leviora argumenta suadent. Franciscus Maria Florentinius nob. Lucensis ex suo prsesertim, ac Patriae Majoris Ecclesise, &c. integre vulgavit. Lucse, mdclxviii. XVIII Kal. Octobris. Exaltatio Sanctce Crucis. RomcE in Cimiterio Via Appia natalis Cornell Episcopi... in Africa civitate Cartagine natalis S. Cypriani Episcopi [? cent, vii, viii, E.G.]. * Martyrologium vetustissimum S. Hieronymi presb. nomine insignitum, ed. D'Achery, Migne, P. L. t. XXX. c. 475: cent. ?vii, viii (ace. to Bede vi or vii Retract, in Act. App. c. i). XVIII Kal. Oct. Exaltatio Sanctce Crucis. Romez via Appia in ccemeterio Calesti natalis Sanctorum Cornelii episcopi et confessoris. In Africa civitate Carthagine natalis sancti Cypriani episcopi et Note D. * ^ Romanutn Parvum,^ so called by Sollier as the source of Ado; 'Vetus Romanum,' Rosweyd; ' venerabile et perantiquum martyrologium' Ado, who first edited it, having found it at Ravenna ; given by the Roman pontiff ' cuidam sto episcopo ' at Aquileia. (Cent, viii or end of vii.) XVIII K. Octob. Romce Cornelii episcopi etmartyris Carthagine Cypriani episcopi et Martyris. Exaltatio Stce Crucis ab Herculio imperatore a Persis Hierosylmam reportata quando et Roma lignus salutiferiim Crucis a Sergio Papa inventum ab omni poptilo veneratur. (Had Rome a rival Cross ?) * Martyrologium Vetus ab annis circiter mille sub nomine Hieronymi com- pactum ex MS. S. Germani Antissiodorensis (cent, viii — ix) (Martene and Durand, Thes. Nov. Anecdott. III. c. 1560). XVIII Calendas Octobris Romce Cornelii, Cypriani martyris, et Salutatio S. Crucis. (If this implies knowledge that Cornelius was not a martyr it represents some much earlier source.) 6l6 APPENDIX L. * Kalendarium Frontonis. *Kal. Romanum nongentis annis antiquius ex MS. Monast. S. Genovefse Parisiensis in monte, aureis characteribus &c. ed.... F.Joannes Fronto [Fronteau] Can. Reg. S. T. Prof, in Mon. S. Genovefae, & in Acad. Paris. Cancellarius ' (Paris, 1552) (A.D. 714 — 741 F.). It seems distinctly Roman. Die XIV mens. Sept. Natal. SS. Corneli Pontif. et Cypriani. Sectind. Luc. cap. CXL (sic) Dicebat... usque... accusarent eum. Die sups, exaltatio S. Crucis secund. yoann. cap. XXI II Erat homo... Nicodemus. ..usque. . .ceternam. This very curious kalendar numbers and calls the Weeks between S. Cyprian's Day and the 4th week before the Nativity '■Hebd. 1. 11. in. iv. v. w.postS. Cypriani Hebd. vil.' (meaning also post S. Cypriani)^. It has close affinity with the above-named Grassense, but Cornelius is not mentioned ; exaltatio S. Cruris has been added, but after S. Cyprian. And it has four Feasts of the Virgin, i. In Octabas Domini [i.e. ?Jan. 11] die supn^s. Natal. S. Marise^. 2. (Mar. 25) adnuntiatio Domini. 3. Die xv mens. Aug. Sollemnia de Pausatione S. Marise. 4. Die ix (?unice) mens. Sep. Nativitas S. Marise. It has often two missce for the same day with the same Epistles and Gospels as Grassense for that which is common to both — only longer. Grassense counts the six Sundays ' Dominica I &c. a Festo Sancti Angeli ' [Michaelis]. * Bedce Martyrologium (as edited by Florus, a.d. 830). XVIII Kalend. Oct. Pomes natale S. Cornelii £piscopi...Item Sancti Cypriani episcopi...7nartyrium consummavit sexto milliario a Carthagine, juxta mare. Eodem die exaltatio Sanctcz Crucis... * His Martyrologium Poeticum agrees. * Martyrologium Gellonense sive Monasterii S. Guillelmi de Deserto O. B. Dicecesis Lutevensis pervetustum, ineunte scilicet sseculo nono anno circiter 804 [ap. D'Achery, Spicilegium, 11. p. 25 (Paris, 1723)]. (Printed at end of old editions of Gelasian and Gregorian Sacramentaries.) XVIII Kal. Octobris Roma (sic). Cornelii et Cypriani Mart Et salutatio Sanctce Crucis. * Rabanus Maurus, A.D. cir. 845, has dropped Roma &c. XVIII ICal. Oct. Sancti Cornelii episcopi. ...Eodem die natale Sancti Episcopi... eodem die exaltatio est Sanctce Crucis. But ' Rome ' and ' Africa ' were still perpetuated to a much later date, at least to the end of the roth century. * Wandalbert^ Deacon and Monk in the diocese of Treves, fl. 854. His Martyrologium in verse gives the Exaltation, Cornelius at Rome and Cyprian at Carthage on this day. (One line versified from Jerome — ' totum Ecclesiae scribunt cujus sacra dicta per orbem,' ap. D'Achery, Spicilegium, 11. p. 38.) 1 So the Mozarabic Breviary dates the September fast by his feast, 'Incipit Officium Jejuniorum Kalendarum [Nov]embriuin, quod observatur tribus diebus ante festum Sancti Cypriani....' Lorenzana, ^rff. G n-; 533 and n.; 538 Aurelius, a young Confessor (Persecution of Decius), 71 ; his name used by Lucia- nus, 93 Aureus, value of the aureus in Gallienus* time, 505, n. INDEX. 627 Baluze, £tienne, his edition of Cyprian published after his death by Dom Maran; the interpolations introduced, 212, 213, 114, 115, 216, n. ; 131, n. Baptism and Baptismal Question (the), 231. 295> 331. sqq. ; Tradition of Africa, 335 ; Tradition of Asia Minor, " East, 339 ; Councils of Iconium and S)ninada (dates), 340, 348; Cyprian's First and Second Council on Baptism, 349, 351 ; Attitude of Stephanus, 351 ; Dionysius of Alexandria, 354 ; Third Council on Baptism, 364 ; Towns which sent their Bishops, 366, sqq. See also Appendix on Cities and Index of same Appendix. — SententicE Episcoporum, authenticity of the document, 371, 372 ; C3T)rian's Arguments on Rebaptism, 401 ; Baptism performed by a demoniac woman, 410; The Councils failed, — why, 424 Baptism by one that is dead, sense of the words, 411 Baptism in the Name of Christ alone, 398 and n. ; 406, 407 Basil, S., 54, n. ; 166, n.; on Dionysius the Great, 356 and n. ; on Firmilian, 375 and n. Basilicse, 41, n. ; 68 and n.; 296, n. Basilides, a lapsed Bishop, 37, n. ; 233. See also Spanish Appeal, 311, sqq. Benson, Edward White (died Oc- tober II, 1896). His 'juvenile lu- cubration ' on the Martyrdom and Commemoration of S. Hippolytus, and Bishop Lightfoot's Comments on it, 169, n. ; his article on Agrippinus, 337. n- Berber Raid (the), 236, sqq. Bieunium, use of the word, 128, n. Birrhus, 514 and nn. See Lacerna Bishops. See Apostolic Succession, Epi- scopate ; see also Examination of the Lists of Bishops attending the Councils, Appendix, 564 ; also Cities from which the Bishops came to the Seventh Coun- cil, Appendix, 573, sqq. Bona (Persecution of Decius), her history, 78 Budinarius, 117 Bulla Regia, a town, 231, n. ; 581 Bunsen, 27, nn.; 28, n. ; 45, n. ; 46, n.; 54, n. ; 72, n. ; 337, n. ; 341, n. ; 404, n, Butler, Bp., on Resentment, 250; see also 524 Byzantium to Rome. Distance, journey from, 479, n. Ccecilianns the presbyter, 7, 9, 18, 19, 48 Ccecilius, Bishop, on junior Clerics and professed virgins, 47, the same as Cae- cilius of BUtha Ccecilius f Bishop of Biltha, 291 Caesarea, 373; date of its fall, 373, n.; 555 Csesariani, sense of the word, 480, n. Caius (Hippolytus himself), 482 Caldonius, a bishop, 84 ; one of Cyprian's five representatives during his retire- ment, 107 ; excommunicates Felicis- simus, 113, 114, n. ; sent to Rome (see 'the Title of Cornelius'), 131, 133, 145. See also Herculanus, Numidicus, Rogatianus, Victor Callistus, the Pope, 31, 308, 336 and n., 348 Callixtus II., Pope, his citation of de Unitate, 218 and n. Canonize (to), origin of the word, 90, n. Capsa, a town, 223, 368, 599 Captives (redemption of), 238 Carpos, a town, 421, n.; 579 Carthage. See Introduction. Carthage and her Society; where "was Cyprian Martyr buried? 509 ; where was Cyprian tried and executed? 512; also 45, n.; 79, n. ; 112, 113, 359, n.; 497, 498, 500 and n. Castus, the Mart)rr, 78 Catacombs, 61, 481, sqq. Celerina, the Martyr, 69, 70 Celerimis (Persecution of Decius), his family; his history, 69, sqq.; 93. See Confessors at Rome Cemeteries, 233, 481, sqq. See also Catacombs and Collegia Chromatius of Aquileia, 280, sqq. Chrysostom, S.John, 54, n.; 284, 294, n. Church of the Future (the), 534 Cirta, a town, 368, 583 Clement of Rome (Epistles to Virgins attributed to), 56, n. Clement of Alexandria, 37, 355 and n. ; 412, n. Clementianus, one of the Lapsed; tri- ennium of penance, 223 Clinical baptism, 121, n.; 404, n. Clypea, a town, 467 Collegia, 61, n. ; 233. See also Ceme- teries and Catacombs Commentarii (Commentarienses), sense of the word, 495, n. Commission of five representatives ap- pointed by Cyprian during his retire- ment, 107. See also Caldonius, Roga- tianus, Herculanus, Victor, Numidicus Conditional Baptism, 522 and n. Confessors at Rome (Persecution of De- cius), 69, sqq. (See also Moyses, Maximus, Rufinus, Nicostratus, Urba- 628 . INDEX. nus, Sidonius, Macarius, Celerinus.) After the death of Moyses (119, no) they place themselves on the side of Novatian, 140, sqq. ; the 'brief letter' of Csrprian, 146; Letter of Dionysius of Alexandria, 147; Restoration of Roman Confessors, 159, sqq.; on Ni- costratus, delegate of Novatian to Car- thage, permanently alienated from the Church, 159, 160 Confirmation, 394, n.; 404, n.; 420, 421 Consessus, 20, 21, 324, 325 and n. Contestatio, use of the word, 372, n. Coprianus, 5, n. Cornelius, the Pope, 70; his character, his family, 124, sqq.; his election (dale discussed), 127 and n.; First Council of Cyprian, the title of Cor- nelius, 129, sqq. ; letters of recognition sent to him — Novatian, the schism, 134, sqq. ; Restoration of Roman Con- fessors, 159, sqq.; Roman Council, 163; his letters, 168 and n.; Felicis- simus goes to Rome as legate of For- tunatus, attitude of Cornelius, 228; Cornelius banished to Centumcellse, 298; his death, 299; date of his death, 299, n.; place of his repose, 301 ; Com- memoration of Cornelius, 303 Cornelius and Cyprian Companion Saints in Kalendar and Collect, 310 and n. See also S. Cyprian's Day in Kalendars, 6io, sqq. Councils of Cyprian. First, 129; Second, 224; Third, 231; Fourth, 233; Fifth (I. on Baptism), 349 ; Sixth (II. on Baptism), 351 ; Seventh (III. on Bap- tism), 364 ; the Baptismal Councils failed doctrinally and why? 424, sqq. Councils. African, but not Cyprianic, 36, n. ; 43, n. ; 49, nn.; 53, n. ; 55, n; 1 14, n. ; 129, n.; 163, n. ; 237, n. ; 520 Councils (not African), quoted. Antioch, 167, 168, 347. 376, nn.; Aries, 173, n. ; 312, n.; 520; Basle, 429, n. ; Con- stance, 415, n.; Elvira, 43, n.; 46, n.; 79, n. ; 166, n.; 173, n. ; 312, n. ; 499, n.; Florence, 292, n.; London,4i5, n. ; Macon, 501 ; Neo-Csesarea, 166, n.; 244, n.; Nicsea, 55, n.; 163, 166, n.; 333. n.; 520 ; Nid, 432, n. ; Orange. 429, n.; Quini-Sext, 294, n.; 521; Trent, 293, n.; Tribur, 292, n. Crementiust a sub-deacon sent to Rome (retirement of Cyprian), 100, n. Crescens, Bishop of Cirta, 37 1, n. ; 420, n. Crimen Majestatis, 61 and n. Curubis (Cyprian deported to), 467 and n. Custodia, use of the word, 499, n. Cyprian, his name, i, n. ; his wealth, 4; at the African bar, 2 — s; his person and place, 5 ; Cyprian Catechumen, 7 ; Influence of Tertullian and Minucius Felix, 9; his first exercise, 9; Quod Idola dii non sint; the Grace of God, 13; Cyprian Deacon, 17; his charity, 18; Cyprian Presbyter, 19, sqq.; Scrip- ture studies. Testimonies, 22, sqq. ; Cyprian Bishop of Carthage, 25, sqq. ; his title of Papa, 29; his view of the Authority and the Design of the Episco- pate, 31, sqq.; his work as a Bishop, 41, sqq. ; Virginal life in Carthage, 5 1 ; The Dress of Virgins, 55 ; his retirement (Persecution of Decius), 84, sqq. ; his scheme for restorative discipline, 95, sqq.; the thirteen Epistles of which Cyprian sent copies to the Romans, 102, sqq. ; his Diocesan disquietudes, and his confidence in the Plebes, 106; his five representatives, 107; Ecclesi- astical parties at Carthage, the Five Presbyters, 108, sqq.; return of Cyprian to Carthage, 128; First Coimcil; Cyprian at Hadrumetum, 129, 132, 133, n. ; Novatian 's delegacies to Car- thage, 143, 159; Cyprian on the return of the Confessors to the Church, 163, 1 74 ; Analysis of the de Lapsis, 174; of the de Unitate Eccksice, 180, sqq.; Catena of Cyprianic passages on the Unity signified in the Charge to Peter, 197, sqq.; Persecution of Gallus, 222; Second Council, 224; softening of the Penance, 224; Maximus and Fortunatus made anti-popes at Carthage, 226, sqq.; Third Council, 231 ; characteristic mistake of Cyprian, 232; Fourth Coun- cil ; Intercourse of Churches and Dio- ceses, 233, 234; Cyprian's Charity during the Berber Raid, 236, sqq. ; the Plague; the work of Cyprian, 240, sqq.; on Work and Alms deeds, 246; ad Demetriatiuni, 249, sqq.; de Morta- litate, 256, sqq. ; Cyprian's Epistle to the people of Thibaris, 258 ; ad Fortu- natum, 264, sqq. (also 474, 475); on the Lord's Prayer, 267, sqq.; Cyprian on the mixed cup, 289, sqq. ; his views on the dignity of the Roman See, 307 ; the Spanish Appeal to Carthage, 311, sqq.; the Gaulish Appeal, 314, sqq.; the Baptismal Question, 331, sqq.; Tradition of Africa, 335; First and Second Council on Baptism, 349, 35 1 ; Attitude of Cyprian towards Stepha- nus, 351, 352; Cyprian's letter to Pompey, 358. sqq.; Third Council on Baptism, 364, sqq. ; speech of C3rprian, INDEX. 629 369; Arguments of Cyprian on Re- baptism, 401, sqq. ,' the Catholic and Ultramontane estimate of Cyprian, 432, sqq.; of the Good of Patience, 437; of Jealousy and Envy, 448, sqq. ; Cyprian sent to exile, 466; Cyprian at Curubis, 467; Cyprian's dream, 469; the Numidian Bishop Confessors, 471, sqq. ; C3T)rian returns to Carthage, 494 ; his horti'y Cyprian condemned to death, 503 ; martyrdom, 505,506; where was Cyprian buried? 509; where was Cyprian tried and executed ? 512; Dress of Cyprian, 513 — 516; Ideal of Cyprian, see Chapter xil. Aftermath, 620, sqq.; S- Cyprian's Day in Ka- lendars, 610, sqq.; Mai's supposed fragment of Cyprian, 179 Cyprian and Cornelius, Companion Saints in Kalendar and Collect, 310 and n. See also S. Cyprian's Day in Kalendars, 610, sqq. Dalmatica, 514 Damasus, the Pope, 30; on Hippolytus, 165, n. ; his inscriptions, 95, n.; 301 and n. ; 483, n. ; 484, n. ; 488, 489, 490, n. Dativus, Bishop of Vada, 471, n. Deacons, Hie (Fabianus) regiones divisit Diaconibus, 67 and n. ; 68 and n. ; (the third priesthood), 114; case of a con- tumelious Deacon, 234; as adminis- trators of churches, 312, n. Decius, the Emperor, 64; the persecu- tion, 64, sqq.; 75, sqq; his death, 127 and n. Demetriamis (ad D.), 249, sqq.; D. per- haps one of the Five Primores, 250, n. ; Tertullian's ad Scapulam compared, 251 ; Style of the 'Demetrian,' 256 Deprehendere, in its legal sense, 503, n. Didache, Teaching of the XII. Apostles, 44, n.; 294, n. ; 410, n. Dionysius the Great, of Alexandria, 29; 79, n. ; 65, 158; on Novatian and Novatianism, 141, 142, 147, 164; his 'diaconal letter' 'through Hippolytus,' 164, 167, 169, 171 ; Baptismal ques- tion, 341, 353, 354, sqq.; on Stephen's liberality, 311; on Firmilian, 375; letters to Xystus, 355, 358; his exile to Kephron, 456, 463 Doctor Audientium, 44, n. Dollinger, 337, n.; 340, n. ; 342, n. Donatulus, Bishop of Capsa, date of his ordination, 224, n. Donatus, fellow neophyte of Cyprian, 4, 13; Ad Donatum, 13, sqq.; 445, n. Donatus, Bishop of Carthage, predeces- sor of Cyprian, 7, 25, 227 Donatus, one of the Five Presbyters, original opponents of Cyprian, i n , n. See also Novatus Dress, of Virgins (of the), 51, sqq.; 57. sqq. Duchesne, Abbe L., 68, n.; on Deacons as administrators of churches, 312, n. ; on the Vicariate of Aries, 315, n. ; on the autonomy of Carthage, 4th century, 527 ; on Principalis Ecclesia, 537 ; also 483, n. ; 484, n.; 485, n.; 490, n. ; 491, n. ; 492, n. Edicta feralia, 222, n. Egnatius, the Martyr, 70 End (nearness of the), 266 and n. Ennodius, 30, n. 3 Epictetus, Bishop of Assuras, elected after the lapse of Fortunatianus, 232 Episcopate. Election and Consecration of Bishops, 27, 35, sqq.; 327; the Order is of Divine creation ; Character derived from the Apostles, 34; Au- thority of the Episcopate, 31, sqq.; 106, 193, 195, 196; Unityof the Episco- pate, i8i, 182; Restoration of Lapsed Bishops, 166 (and n.), 230 ; Bishops and the rights of the Laity, 313, 327 ; Government of churches when the See is vacant or the Bishop absent, 329 Episcopus Episcoporum, 30, 31, 197 Etecusa (Persecution of Decius), 71 ; note on her name, 74 Eucharist (the Holy), 45, 86 and n. ; 90, 92, 108, 225, 248, 259, 268, 284, 285, 289 — 295, 410 and n. Eucratius, Bp. of Thense (the training of actors), 45, 46 Eusebius (questions of dates), 14, n.; 128, n.; 347, 463, 487, n. Evangelium, character of, strictness at- tached to this word (Novatianism), 147 and n. Evaristus, a Bishop, the promoter of Novatianism, 136, i6o Evil (Deliver us from), on the clause, 272 Exomologesis, 98, 99 Exorcism, 10 and n. ; 253, 258, 409, n. Extorres, use of the word, 102, 103, 107, n.; 114, n. Fabian, the Pope, his death, 65 ; F. 'divided the Regions to the Deacons,' 67, 88, 90, 120, 227 Fabius of Antioch, his leaning towards the schism ; letter of Cornelius to him, 167, 168. (See also Council of An- tioch. ) 630 INDEX. Fechtrup, B., 19, n.; 65,11.; 83,11.; 88, n.; 94, n.; Ill, n. ; 115,11.; 116, n.; 130, n,; 158, n.; 163,11.; 166, n.; 336,11.; 342, n.; 396, n.; 416, n. Felicissimus, a layman, one of the earliest Confessors at Carthage in the Persecu- tion of Decius, 77 Felicissimus, a Deacon who joined No- vatus...non communicaturos in Monte secuni...the Five Presbyters *his satellites,* 113 and nn.; was already a Deacon when he joined Novatus, 116. First Council of Carthage: Decision on Felicissimus, 131, 133... 180; his journey to Rome as a legate of Fortu- natus, 228 Felix, Bishop of Bagai, 471, n. Felix, Bishop of (?) Bamaccora, 413, n. ; 471, n. Felix, pseudo bishop of Privatus (of Lambaesis, see name), appointment, 227 Felix III., Pope... Penitential discipline, 167, n. Fidus, a Bishop: his views on penitential discipline and infant Baptism, 231, 295, 296, 297 Firmare concilium, 363, n. Firmilianus, Bishop of Csesarea, his letter to Cyprian, 372, sqq. ; Genuine- ness of this Letter, 377; Greek locJu- tions, 381; Quotations of Scripture in his letter, 386; Origen and Firmi- lian, 374 ; Dionysius of Alexandria on Firmilian, 375; Basil on Firmilian, 375> 388; Firmilian's influence in as- sembling Councils, 376 and n.; Latino Latini on the Letter of Firmilian, 378 Florentini (his Martyrology quoted), 483, n.; 615 Florida (confessio), floridiores...use of the words, 78, n. Florus, one of the Lapsed ; triennium of penance, 223 Fortunatianus, Proconsul at Carthage, Persecution of Decius, 76, n. ForUinatianits, the lapsed Bishop of As- suras, 232 Fortunatus (ad F., Exhortation to Con- fessorship), 264, sqq.; 474, 475 Fortunatus, Bishop of Thuccabor, 402, n. Fortunatus, a Bishop, sent to Rome with Caldonius (see name), 131, 133, 145 Fortunatus, a sub-deacon, sent by Cy- prian to the clergy of Rome, no and n. Fortunatus, one of the original opponents of Cyprian, in, n. ; anti-pope at Car- thage, 227, sqq. ; the Five Bishops who created him anti-pope, 227, n. Fortunatus, Venantius, 280, sqq. Freppel, Mgr., 26, n.; 55, n.; 66, n.; 87, n.; 91, n.; 94, 97, n.; 98, 201, 202, 218, 227, n.; 267, n.; 307, n.; 321, 370, n.; 475, n. Furni, a town, 45, n. ; 580 Gains of Dida and his deacon, 107, 113, n.; 328 Galerius, the Proconsul, 502 Gallienus, the Emperor, 300 ; concessions made long ago to the Christians, 304 and n. ; 458, 460, 477 and n. Gallus (Persecution of), 222 Gaulish Appeal to Carthage (the), 314, sqq. Gemellse, a town, 369, 592, 599 Geminitis, Bishop of Furni, 50 Geminius Victor, of Furni, nominates a presbyter as tutor, 45 — 47 Geminius Faustinus, the presbyter, ap- pointed as tutor, 45, 47 Girba (the isle of Sleninx), 367, 598 Gordius, one of the Five Presbyters, original opponents of Cyprian, in, n. See also Novatus Graecising-Latin Inscriptions, 306 and n. Gratia Dei (de), 13. See Donatus Gratian (Decretum of). Quotations of De Unitate, 219 Gregory of Nyssa, 27, n. ; 54, n. ; 65, n. ; 90. n. ; 242, n. ; 284 Gregory Nazianzen, 3, n. ; 5, n. ; 6, n. ; 8, n. ; II, n. ; 240, n. ; 432, 433, n. Gregory Thaumaturgus, 27, n. ; 29, n. ; 65, n. ; 242, n. Gregory the Great, 315, 515 Gregory of Tours, on Trophimus of Aries, 316 and n. Gretser, his Bavarian manuscript, 206, 207 and n. ; 209 and n. Harnack, Dr A., 67, n. ; 389; see note ' Cyprian before the Roman Presby- ters,' 150. See Appendix, Addi- tional note on Libelii, 541, sqq. and Appendix, On the Nameless Epistle ad Novatianum and the attribution of it to Xystus, 557, sqq. Hartel (readings of his edition of Cyprian), 8,n.; 22, n.; 23, n.; 34, n.; 44, n.; 70,n.; 80, n. ; 85, n. ; 87, n. ; 88, n. ; 107, n. ; 112, n.; 116, n. ; 130, n.; 144, n. ; I45, n. ; 146, n.; 185, n. ; 204, n. ; 205, n.; 206, n.; 207, n.; 208, n. ; 209, n. ; 2to, n. ; 211, n.; 288, n.; 313, n.; 363- 371. "•; 393. "•; 394. n.; 469. n- ! 473' n-; 481, n. ; 531, n. Hefele, on ' votum decisivum ' and INDEX. 631 'votum consultativum ' in Councils, 431, n. Heraclas, his title of Pope, ag Herculanus, a Bbhop, one of C3T)rian's five representatives during his retire- ment, 107. See also Caldonius, Roga- tianus, Victor, Numidicus Heratnianus, a sub-deacon, carries with others Cyprian's letter to the Numidian Bishop Confessors, 473 Hilary, S., 280 and n. ; 286 Hippo Diarrhytus, 367, 578 Hippolytus of Portus, 31, n. ; Difficulties in identifying Hippolytus through whom Dionysius wrote to the Romans with Hippolytus of Portus, 169; on Callistus, 336, n. Hooker, 325, n. ; 334—335 Hort, Dr, 8, n. ; 44, n.; 427, n. Horti (Cyprian's), 18, 494, 496 Hosius, Cardinal, his Codex of de Uni- tate, 111, 216 lader. Bishop of Midili, 471, n. Iconium and Synnada (Councils of), 340 —342, 347. 348 'Idols are not Gods' (That), 10, sqq. Indulgence granted by Lucianus to 'all Lapsed' in the name of 'all Confessors,' 93. 109 Infant Baptism, 231, 295, 296 Intercourse of Churches or Dioceses, 232, 233. See Aftermath, end Interpolations {^de Unitate), 200, sqq. ; 547 Irenseus, on the Episcopate, 38, n. ; 427, 540 yanuarius, Bishop of Lambsesis, 227, n. Jerome, S., i, n. ; 3, 6, n. ; 10, n. ; 12, n.; 21, n. ; 53, n.; 54, n. ; 72. n.; 112, n.; 141, n.; 164, n. ; 255 and n.; 351. n.; 356, n. ; 359, 374, n. ; 391, 404, n.; 448, n. ; 474, n. Jewish priesthood, 33 yovmzis, a lapsed Bishop, 227 jhibaianus, a Bishop of Mauretania, his Letter to Cyprian, 352; Cyprian's Letter to J., 352, 372, 373. n- ; 398. 399 Justin Martyr, 37, 38, n. Kephron and the Lands of Kolluthion, 463, 464 Lacema birrhus, 514 Lacinise manuales, 516 Lactantius, 5, n. ; 255, 266, n. ; 462, n. Laity. See Plebes Lambxsis, a town, 226, n.; 586 Lapsi, 79, sqq. ; the Lapsed and the Mar- tyrs, 89, sqq.; 106, sqq.; 156, sqq.; 164, sqq. ; the treatise De Lapsis, 174, sqq.; 230, 259, 298, 305. See also Spanish Appeal, 311, sqq. Latino Latini, withdraws his annotations from Manutius' edition of Cyprian, 209, 210; on the Letter of Firmilian, 378 Laurentinus, the Martyr, 70 Laurentius, S., Martyr, his dialogue with Xystus, 491 and n. Laying on of hands, 400. Cyprian's and Stephen's explanation. Three inten- tions with which it was used besides that of ordination, 420 and n. Leo I., Pope, 166, n.; 315, nn. Levitica tribus, 36, n. Lex Regia, 62, n. Libelli, 81, 82, 265; additional note, 541. See also Martyrs (Letters from) Liberalis, a Bishop, accompanies Cyprian to Hadrumetum, 132 Lightfoot, Bp., on Hippolytus of Portus, 1 69 and nn. ; on Dionysius' Epistle called diaconic, 171; 1 1 , n. ; 20, n. ; 37, n. ; 38, n.; 39, n.; 40, n. ; 57, n.; 68, n.; ir6, n. ; 164, n. ; 165, nn. ; 284, n. ; 445, n. ; 452, n.; 476, n.; 484, n.; 485, n.; 525, 529 Linea, 516 Lipsius, 65, n. ; 67, n.; 120, n. ; 126, n. (on the date of the election of Corne- lius, 127, n.); 133, n.; 138, n.; 145, n.; 299, n.; 304, n.; 316, n.; 373, n. ; 485, n.; 488, n. Litteus, Bishop of Gemellse, 369 and n. ; .47i..n. Liturgies (mixed cup symbolism), 293, n. Longitnis, a. member of the first Nova- tianist delegacy to Carthage, 136 Lucamis, acolyte, carries with others the letter of Cyprian to the Numidian Bishop-Confessors, 473 Lucianus, a Carthaginian friend of Cele- rinus (see name), Persecution of De- cius, 70, 93. See letters from Martyrs. Grant of a general indulgence to 'all Lapsed' in the name of 'all Confessors,' 93. 109 Ltutus, the Pope, successor of Cornelius, his exile and recall, 304, 305; a 'pre- cept' attributed to him; his treatment of the Lapsed, 305; his death, 306 Mabaret, Abbe du, his letter ap. 'Me- moiresde Trevoux'...the interpolations {de Utiitati) are restored in Baluze's edition, 213, sqq. ; Appendix, 546 Macariiis, Roman Confessor (Persecution of Decius), 69. See Confessors at Rome 632 INDEX. Machaus, a member of the first Nova- tianist delegacy to Carthage, 136 Macrianus, his influence on Valerian, 457, sqq. Mactharis, a town, 369, 004 Magalia, Mapalia, Mappalia, 510, n. Magister Sacrorum, 6r Maptus (Letter of Cyprian to), 349 Majestas. See Crimen Majestatis Manualis, -e, 516. See Laciniae Manutius' edition of Cyprian's works, 209 — 212. Special note, Appendix, 544 MappalicHS, the Martyr, 77, 92 Maran, Dom Prudent, see Baluze ; 213, 214, n.; 215, n. Marcianus, Novatianist Bishop of Aries, 317, sqq. See Gaulish Appeal Marcion, Marcionites, 347, 398 Martialisy a lapsed Bishop, 37, n. ; 233. See also Spanish Appeal, 311, sqq. Martyrs (Acts of the). See Notarii and Eucharist Martyrs (Letters from), see the Lapsed and the Martyrs ; 89, 92, sqq.; 172, 173, n. Massa Candida, 517 Maximus, Roman Presbyter and Con- fessor (Persecution of Decius), 69; joins the schism of Novatian, 140, 141 ; is reconciled to Cornelius and becomes his supporter, 160 — 162; Lo- culus, 69, 162 Maximus, Novatianist Roman Presbyter sent by Novatian to Carthage to an- nounce the election of Novatian as Antipope, 136 ; made Antipope at Carthage, 226 Maximus, acolyte, carries with others Cyprian's Letter to the Numidian Bishop-Confessors, 473 Metator (of Antichrist), sense of the word, 70 Mettius, a sub-deacon sent to Rome with Nicephorus the acolyte, 145 Minucius Felix, 9, sqq. Mixed Cup (the), 289, sqq. Mommsen, 61, n. ; 67, n.; 162, n. ; 231, n. ; 237, n.; 300, n.; 303, n.; 472, n. ; 485, n. ; 488, n.; 491, n. Monnulus, Bishop of Girba, 367 and n. Mons, in Monte, i.e. Bozra, 112 and n. ; 113, n. Moses of Chorene on Firmilian, 375 and Moyses, Roman Presbyter and Confessor (Persecution of Decius), 69, 70; refuses to act with Novatian, 120, sqq.; his death, 119, 120 Munerarii, use of the word, 248 and n. Natalis, Bishop of Oea, 360 Neapolis, a towm, 467 Nemesianus, Bishop of Thubunae, 371, n.; 387; 412; 421, n.; 471, n. Nicephorus, an acolyte, sent to Rome vrith Mettius the sub-deacon, 145 Nicostratus, Deacon, Roman Confessor (Persecution of Decius), 69. See Con- fessors at Rome. N. delegate of No- vatian to Carthage; his character; permanently alienated from the Church, 169' '60 Ninus, one of the Lapsed, triennium of penance, 223 Notarii, 67, n. ; 90, n. See also Acts of the Martyrs Novaiianus, 88 ; his character and talents, 120, sqq.; his works, 123; the schism, 134, sqq.; Novatian's delegacies to Carthage, 136, 143. 159; the Roman Confessors join Novatianus, 140; Maxi- mus the head of the first legation made Antipope at Carthage, 226 Novatianus, on the Nameless Epistle ad Novatianum, and the attribution of it to Xystus. Special note, Appendix, 557 Novatus, Bishop of Thamugadi, 337 Novatus, the presbyter, his life and in- trigues, no. III, sqq.; in Monte or in morte, 112, n. ; Novatus leader of the Five Presbyters, 112 and n. ; did N. confer orders upon Felicissimus, 115 ; his connection with Novatianism, 136, sqq.; his journey to Rome, 137, 138, n. Numeria, see Etecusa Numidian Bishop - Confessors. Persecu- tion of Valerian, 471, sqq. ; their names, 471, n. Niimidicus, a Carthaginian Presbyter (Persecution of Decius), 77; one of Cyprian's five representatives during his retirement, 107. See also Caldo- nius, Herculanus, Rogatianus, Victor Offering sacrifice pro dormitione, 45, 323' n- Otferre nomen, use of the word, 92 and n. Optatus, the reader, made Teacher of Catechumens, 44 Optatus of Milev, 18, n.; 42, n.; 68, n. ; 147, n.; 157 and n.; 231, n.; 313, n.; 394, n. ; 409, n. ; 413, n.; 416, n.; 427, n.; 459, n.; 471, n.; 529, n. Ordo, the clergy, 19 Origen, 36, n.; 41, n.; 65; O. and Fir- milian, 374; O. on Baptism into Christ, INDEX. 633 407; on consultation of the laity by Bishops, 428 and n. Orosius, 504, n. Ostensiones, 222, n. See also Visions of Cyprian Pallium, the philosopher's pall, 5 and n. Pam^le, Jacques de, his edition of Cyp- rian's works, 206, 216, n. 3 Papa, Title of, 29 Paternus, the Proconsul. See Treatment of Cyprian, 464, sqq. Paul of Samosata, 376 and n. /'a«/a Sarcinatrix, 117 Paulinianists, 333, n. ; 520 Paulus, the Confessor, at his request Lucianus begins the system of Indulg- ence to the Lapsed, 93, 109 Pearson, 4, n. ; 18, n.; 29 and n.; 71, n.; 77, n.; 85, n.; 90, n.; 105; 163, n.; 224, n.; 235, n.; 250, n.; 258, n.; 259, n.; 289, n. ; 291, n.; 299, nn. ; 341. n-; 373' n.; 479, n. Pelagius II., Pope, 217; his letters to the Bishops of Istria, 220, 221. See Appendix, 549 — 551. See also Inter- polations {de Unitate) Penitential discipline, 166 and n.; 176, 229, 230, sqq. Perferre coronam, sense of the words, 223, n. Persecutions, Roman theory, 60. See Decius, Gallus, Valerian Peter (the Charge to the Apostle), catena of Cyprianic passages on the unity signified in the Charge to Peter, 197 Peter and Paul (the Apostles), removed to the Catacombs, 484, 485, 486 Peter of Alexandria, S., 81, nn. ; 82, 95. n. Peters, Dr, 5, n. ; 24, n. ; 146, n.; 319, n.; 321, n.; 343, n.; 348; 350, n.; 351, n.; 353. n-; 370, n.; 373, n.; 398, n. ; 409, n.; 416, n.; 434, n. ; 435, nn.; 436; 440, n. ; 459, n. ; 475, n. ; 476, n. Philip, the Emperor, his toleration of the Christians, 64 and n. Plague (the), 240, sqq. Platonia (see also Damasus), 483 and n Plebes, the Commons (the Laity), 19 32, n.; 36, 106, 173, n.; 188, 430, 43 r ; Right of the Laity of with drawing from the Communion of sacri legions or sinful Bishops, 194, n. ; 313 314, 327; the Laity silent in the Bap tismal Councils, 426, sqq. Polianus, Bishop of Milev, 471, n. Polycarpus, Bishop of Hadrumetum, 371. n. B. Pompeius, an African Bishop, present at the Consecration of Cornelius, 135 (also 133. n.) Pompeius, Bishop of Sabrata (Letter of Cyprian to), 358; special note on this Letter, 361 Pomponius, Bishop of Dionysiana, 371, n. Pontianus, the Pope, 169, 170 Pontiff (the title of), 33, 197 Prseceptum, 465, n. ; 492, n. Prserogativa (martyrum), sense of the word, 91, n. Prsescriptio, use of the word, 313 Prsesens, Praesentes, use of the words, 32, n. ; 88, 96, n. ; 328, 329, 430, n. Praeses (of Numidia), 472, n. Prayers, thrice daily, 269 Presbyterian theories with regard to Novatus, 115 and n. ; Presbyterianism, 528 Presbyters, 36, 193, n.; Presbyters as members of the Administration, 323, sqq.; 381 Presbyters (the Five), a faction hostile to Cyprian's election and authority, 25, 26, 109 and n. ; Novatus their leader ; their identification, r 10, n. Priesthood, of the Laity, 20, 37, 38, 404, n. Primitivus, a presbyter, sent to Cornelius, Primores quinque. Commissioners at Car- thage, Persecution of Decius, 76 and n.; "3 Princeps, sense of the word, 537, 538, 404, n. Principalis, Principales, sense and use of the words, 495, 538, 539 Principalis Ecclesia, 192, 234 ; special note, 537 Principalitas, sense and use of the word, 539. 540 and n. Principes, use of the word, 497 Privatus, Bp. of Lambsesis, condemned of heresy, 226, 227 Probation (idea of), 254, 258, sqq. Prophets, 410, n. (the Cappadocian case of a professed prophetess) Prudentius, 2, n. ; 7, n. ; 165, n.; 169, n.; 404, n.; 491, n. Puppiaftus (Letter of Cyprian to), 28, n.; 37 Quadriennium, use of the word, 41, n. Quintus, Mauretanian Bishop, 350; Letter of Cyprian to Q., 350. Special note : that Quietus of Buruch {Send. Epp. 27) is Quintus, Recipient of Ep. 71, 363 Qutrinus, a lay friend of Cypnan ; the Testimonia compiled and classified for 41 634 INDEX. him, as, sqq.; 473; his liberality to the Namidian Bishop-Confessors, 473 Rebaptism. See Baptismal Question Rebaptismate (de), the Nameless Author, 390 ; antiquity of the Treatise, genuine reading of S. John vii. 39, 392 and n, ; arguments, 393, sqq.; did the Author know Cyprian's later writings on Bap- tism ? 396 ; had Cyprian read the Author ? 397 ; possibly the Treatise which Jubaianus submitted to Cyprian, Receptum eum...contmmt..., use of the words, 498, n. Repostus of Tubumuc, apostate Bishop, 80 Repraesentare, 324, n. Resentment (on), 249 Respondere Natalibus, 245 Restoration of Clerics, 166 and nn. ; 230 Rettberg, F.W., 15, n, ; 23, n. ; 54, n. ; 65, n.; Ill, n.; 161, n. ; 225, n.; 255, n. ; 289, n.; 349' n; 35'. "•; 357. n.; 373. n- Ritschl, O., t8, n. ; 40, n.; 85, n.; 94, n.; 125, n.; 130, n.; 135, n.; 143, n.; 144, n. See notes: 'Cyprian before his own presbyters,' 148; ' Felicissimus as a more faithful representative of the Church,' 153; 'Evanescence of No- vatus under Ritschl's analysis,' 154 — 161, n.; i66, n. ; 189, n. ; i9i,n. ; 196, n.; 235, n.; 289, n.; 31 1, n.; 330; 373, n.; on Ep. 74 to Pompeius, 361 ; on Ep. 72 to Stephanus, 362 ; on Ep. 75 (Fir- milian's), 382, sqq. Ritual. See Mixed Cup, Water, Wine, Unction Rivington, Rev. L., 220, 539, 540 Rogatianus, Bishop of Nova, case of a contumelious deacon (Cypr. Ep. 3), 234. 235 Rogatianus, presbyter at Carthage, trustee of Cyprian's charities during his ab- sence, 77, 85 ; one of Cyprian's repre- sentatives during his retirement, 107. See also Caldonius, Herculanus, Numi- dicus, Victor Rogatianus, a deacon, who carried the Letter of Firmilian, 372 Rome (the Church of), under Fabian, 67 ; interference of the C. of R. (Persecution of Decius), 87 ; Cornelius elected, 127; Novatianism, 134, sqq. ; the C. of R. under Lucius, 304, 305 ; under Stepha- nus, 307, sqq. ; the Spanish Appeal to Carthage, 311, sqq. ; the Gaulish Appeal to Carthage, 314, sqq.; tradition on re- baptism of Schismatics, 336 ; the C. of R. under Xystus, 475, sqq. Rome (claims of the Modem Church of R.), 2o8,sqq. See 'Principalis Ecclesia,' Freppel, Peters, Rivington Rossi, G. B. de, 5, n.; 30, n. ; 69, n. ; 72, n.; 95, n.; 125, n.; 162, n.; 183, n.; 300, n.; 301, n. ; 303, n. ; 483, nn.; 484, n.; 487, nn.; 488, n. ; 489, n. ; 490, nn.; 491, n. Rufinus, Deacon, Roman Confessor (Per- secution of Decius), 69. See Confessors at Rome Sabrata, a town, 358, 597 Sacerdos, Sacerdotium, use of the words, 33, n.; 36, 166, n. • Sacrificati (Persecution of Decius), 80, 166, n. See also 223 Sacrilegium, 502, n. Salonina, Cornelia, wife of Gallienus, probably a Christian, 300, 458, n. Salzburg Itinerary, 482, 490, n. Sanctificare, use of the word, 404, n. Sarcinatrix, 117 Saturus, appointed to read the lesson at Easter, 41, n. ; 44, n. ; 45 Scruples (a case recorded by Dionysius of Alexandria), 355 Secretarium, 464 Secundinus, Bishop of Carpos, 421, n. Sedatus, Bishop of Thuburbo, 4O4, n. Seniores Plebis, in later African Councils, 427. n. SentettticE Episcoporum, authenticity of the document, 371, 372 Sexti (ad), 500, 512, 513 Shepherd, Rev. E. J., 47 — 51, 224, 280, 297.364. 371.379 Sicily. First mention of a Christian Church in that island, 95 and n. Sidgwick, H., on Christian Humility, 441, n. Sidonius, Roman Confessor (Persecution of Decius), 69. See Confessors at Rome Signs (the mines of), 473 and n. Sin (original), 273, 297 and n. Slavery, slaves, 14, 81, 252, n.; 260 Soldiers and officers named in Cyprian's trial, 516 Soliassus, budinarius, 117 Sorrows (Interpretation of), 256, &c. Spanish Appeal to Carthage, 311, sqq. See also Basilides and Martialis Spectaculum, use of the word, 504, n. Speculator, 505, n. ; 506, n. Spisina (Espesina), 74 and n. Sportula, '...sportulantium fratrum...,' 325. n. INDEX. 635 Stantes (The), at Carthage (Persecution of Decius), 75, sqq. Stephen V., the Pope, on Trophimus of Aries, 315 and n. Stephanus, the Pope, 307. His charac- ter and policy, 309, sqq. ; Spanish Ap- peal to Carthage, 311; Gaulish Ap- peal, 314; the Baptismal Question, 331, sqq.; Tradition of the Roman Church on Rebaptism of Schismatics, 336; First and Second Council of Cyprian on Baptism, 349, 351; some African Bishops in sjrmpathy with Stephanus, 351 ", a deputation of'' Bishops from Cyprian waits on Ste- phanus, his attitude, 352; he threatens to withdraw from the Communion of the Bishops of Asia Minor, 353; note on ws oil Koivuv-qffuv, 354 ; are Letters missing from the correspondence with Stephanus? 360; special note on the Epistle to Pompey, 362 ; Cyprian's Third Council on Baptism, 364, sqq. ; 370, n. ; argimients of Stephanus on Baptism, 413, sqq.; note on Stephen's 'Nihil innovetur nisi,' 421 Stephanus, an African Bishop, present at the Consecration of Cornelius, his return to Carthage, 135 (also 133, n.) Strator, use of the word, 497, n. Subintroductse, 47, 54, n. Successus, Bishop of Abbir Germaniciana (Letter of Cyprian to), 493 Suffragium, use of the word, 25, n. ; 28, n. Superius, a Bishop (See unknown), 224 Superstitions, 269 Synnada (site of), 340, n. Taylor, Jeremy, on Stephen the Pope, 310; on Stephen and Cyprian, 335 Te Deum (clauses of), 264 Tertium genus, 6r. See also Introduction TertuUian, 'the master,' 9; on the priest- hood of the laity, 20, 38 ; on ' Episcopus Episcoporum,' 30, 31, 197; on Virginal life, 52, sqq.; de Fuga in Persecutione, 85; on the Prayer, 269; Table shew- ing the verbal debts to TertuUian in Cyprian's Treatise de Dominica Ora- tione, i'j6, 277, 278; date of the de Baptismo, 338, 348. TertuUian's de Patientia, 443, sqq.; References: 5,n.; 13, n.; 20 nn.; 21, n. ; 33, n.; 38, n.; 39, n.; 41, n.; 43, n.; 45, n.; 51, n. ; 52, nn.; 53, nn.; 54, n.; 56, n. ; 57.n.; 58, nn.; 59, nn. ; 61, n.; 64, n. ; 85, n.; 89,91; 197, n. ; 250, n.; 251 and n. ; 254, nn. ; 265, n. ; 266, n. ; 267, n. ; 269, nn.;27o, nn. ; 271, nn.; 272, nn.; 283, nn. ; 293, n. ; 339, n. ; 343, n. ; 364, n.; 392, n.; 402, nn.; 403. n.; 404, n. ; 408, n.; 409, n.; 414, n.; 439, nn.; 441, n.; 443, nn. ; 444, nn. ; 445, n.; 446, nn.; 447, nn.; 474, n. ; 501, n.; 509, n. Tertullus, a presbyter of Carthage, advo- cate of the concealment of Cyprian, 86 Thabraca (the island rock of), 367, 581 Thamugadi, a town, 337, 368, 589 Thelepte, a town, 369, 600 Thense, a town, 45 and n. ; 603 Theophilus of Antioch (Introduction of the word 'Trinity'), 269, n. Therapius, Bishop of Bulla, 232 and n. Theveste (road to), 368, 588, 593 Thibaris (the Epistle to the people of), 258 Thibaris, a town, 258, 583 Thirteen Epistles (the), of which Cyprian sent copies to the Romans, special note, 102, 103, 104, 105 Thomas Aquinas, Conditional Baptism, 522, n. Thuburbo, a town, 369, 579 Thurificati (Persecution of Decius), 80, 166, n. Timesitheus, on the name, 3, n. Tinguere, i.e. Baptizare, 387 Tractatus, Tractare, sense of the words, 32, n.; 165, n.; 508, n. Traditor, Traditores (disqualification of, by the Donatists), 415 and n. Traversaria, sense of the word, 472, n. Tria Fata (temple of the), 71, n. Triennium, use of the word, 223, n. Trinity, Tptds (earliest use of the word), 269, n. Trinity, '...sacrament of the Trinity...,' 269 and n. Tripolis, a town, 367, 596, 597 Trqfimus, a lapsed Bishop, restored to the Church as a layman, 166. See also Penitential Discipline Trophimus of Aries, 314, sqq. Tubumuc, a town, 80 and n. Tutores (clerics), 45, 46, 47 Unam Sanctam (Bull), 322, n. Unction (baptism, confirmation), 403, n. Unity of the Catholic Church, Treatise of, 180, sqq.; Codices of de Unitate, 204, sqq. See also Appendix, 547, sqq. Urbanus, Roman Confessor (Persecution of Decius), 69. See Confessors at Rome Ursinus, supposed author of de Rebaptis- mate, 391 6^6 INDEX. Valens, ^mulus, princeps, opportunity afforded for the election of Cornelius, 116, n. Valerian, the Persecution of; the Edict and its occasion, 456, sqq., 459; his departure to the East, 460; the levee of Byzantium, 477, sqq.; the Rescript (its date), 479, and n. ; 480 ; special note on Points in the Chronology of Vale- rian's reign, Appendix, 552 Vatican decrees, 322, n. Veil (to take the), original meaning of the words, 53 and n. Victor, a Bishop, one of Cyprian's five representatives during his retirement, 107. See also Caldonius, Herculanus, Numidicus, Rogatianus Victor, Bishop of Gorduba, 402, n. Victor, Bishop of Octavu, 471, n. Victor, a presbyter readmitted to Com- munion by Therapius, Bishop of Bulla, 224, n.; 231 Viduatus, the Order of Widows; their seat of honour in the church, their functions, 53 and n. Vigil of the Martyr, 499 Vincent of Lerins, 311, n. ; 335, 422 Vincentius, Bishop of Thibaris, 371, n.; 414, n. Virginal life in Carthage, 51, sqq. Virgines (custodi virgines), a word of Cyprian before his death, 499 and n. Visconti, Carlo; his letter concerning the edition of Cyprian (1563), 211, 212. See also Appendix, 544 Visions of Cyprian, 60, 85, n. Ostensiones See also Water (instead of Wine) in the Eucharist, 290 and nn.; water alone cannot be offered and reason why, 292 ; water in Baptism, 403, 404 and n. ; profaned and polluted water, 351 and n.; 404, n. ; 412 and n. Water used instead of oil for consignation of the baptized, 404 n. Westcott, Bishop, 9 n.; 57, n. ; 427, n. William of Malmesbury, 483, n. Wine alone cannot be offered, the reason why, 292 Wordsworth, Bp. Christopher, on the Diaconal Epistle of Hippolytus of Portus, 171 Wordsworth, Bp. John, on Latin MSS. of the Gospel, 272, n. ; 392, n. Work and Alms Deeds (treatise on), 246 Wyclif, 415; Wyclifite proposition con- demned, 415, n. Xystus, the Pope, his Election, 475; his immunity, 477; Memorials of Xystus and his Martyrdom, 487, sqq.; on the Nameless Epistle ad Novatianiim and the attribution of it to Xystus, 557 Zephyrinus, Bishop of Rome (date), 348 Zosimus, Pope, on the Rights of the Metropolitan of Aries, 315 and n. CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY J. AND C. F. CLAY, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. IN COMPUANCE WITH CURRENT COPYRIGHT LAW OCKER & TRAPP INC. AND PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRODUCED THIS REPLACEMENT VOLUME ON WEYERHAEUSER COUGAR OPAQUE NATURAL PAPER, THAT MEETS ANSI/NISO STANDARDS Z39.48-1992 TO REPLACE THE IRREPARABLY DETERIORATED ORIGINAL 2000 1 1 012 01231 6438