History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A. D. 100-325

For the space of ten years, ending with his triumphant martyrdom, Cyprian administered

the episcopal office in Carthage with exemplary energy, wisdom, and fidelity, and that in a most

stormy time, amidst persecutions from without and schismatic agitations within. The persecution

under Valerian brought his active labors to a close. He was sent into exile for eleven months, then

tried before the Proconsul, and condemned to be beheaded. When the sentence was pronounced,

he said: "Thanks be to God," knelt in prayer, tied the bandage over his eyes with his own hand,

gave to the executioner a gold piece, and died with the dignity and composure of a hero. His friends

removed and buried his body by night. Two chapels were erected on the spots of his death and

burial. The anniversary of his death was long observed; and five sermons of Augustin still remain

in memory of Cyprian’s martyrdom, Sept. 14, 258.

II. Character and Position.

As Origen was the ablest scholar, and Tertullian the strongest writer, so Cyprian was the

greatest bishop, of the third century. He was born to be a prince in the church. In executive talent,

he even surpassed all the Roman bishops of his time; and he bore himself towards them, also, as

"frater" and "collega," in the spirit of full equality. Augustin calls him by, eminence, "the catholic

bishop and catholic martyr;" and Vincentius of Lirinum, "the light of all saints, all martyrs, and all

bishops." His stamp of character was more that of Peter than either of Paul or John.

His peculiar importance falls not so much in the field of theology, where he lacks originality

and depth, as in church organization and discipline. While Tertullian dealt mainly with heretics,

Cyprian directed his polemics against schismatics, among whom he had to condemn, though he

never does in fact, his venerated teacher, who died a Montanist. Yet his own conduct was not

perfectly consistent with his position; for in the controversy on heretical baptism he himself exhibited

his master’s spirit of opposition to Rome. He set a limit to his own exclusive catholic principle of

tradition by the truly Protestant maxims: "Consuetudo sine veritate vetustas erroris est, and, Non

est de consuetudine praescribendum, sed ratione vincendum." In him the idea of the old catholic

hierarchy and episcopal autocracy, both in its affinity and in its conflict with the idea of the papacy,

was personally embodied, so to speak, and became flesh and blood. The unity of the church, as the

vehicle and medium of all salvation, was the thought of his life and the passion of his heart. But

he contended with the same zeal for an independent episcopate as for a Roman primacy; and the

authority of his name has been therefore as often employed against the papacy as in its favor. On

both sides he was the faithful organ of the churchly spirit of the age.

It were great injustice to attribute his high churchly principle to pride and ambition, though

temptations to this spirit unquestionably beset a prominent position like his. Such principles are,

entirely compatible with sincere personal humility before God. It was the deep conviction of the

divine authority, and the heavy responsibility of the episcopate, which lay it the bottom both of his

first "nolo episcopari, " and of subsequent hierarchical feeling. He was as conscientious in

discharging the duties, as he was jealous in maintaining the rights, of his office. Notwithstanding

his high conception of the dignity of a bishop, he took counsel of his presbyters in everything, and

respected the rights of his people. He knew how to combine strictness and moderation, dignity and

gentleness, and to inspire love and confidence as well as esteem and veneration. He took upon

himself, like a father, the care of the widows and orphans, the poor and sick. During the great

pestilence of 252 he showed the most self-sacrificing fidelity to his flock, and love for his enemies.

He forsook his congregation, indeed, in the Decian persecution, but only, as he expressly assured

them, in pursuance of a divine admonition, and in order to direct them during his fourteen months

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Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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of exile by pastoral epistles. His conduct exposed him to the charge of cowardice. In the Valerian

persecution he completely washed away the stain of that flight with the blood of his calm and

cheerful martyrdom.

He exercised first rigid discipline, but at a later period—not in perfect consistency—he

moderated his disciplinary principles in prudent accommodation to the exigencies of the times.

With Tertullian he prohibited all display of female dress, which only deformed the work of the

Creator; and he warmly opposed all participation in heathen amusements,—even refusing a converted

play-actor permission to give instruction in declamation and pantomime. He lived in a simple,

ascetic way, under a sense of the perishableness of all earthly things, and in view of the solemn

eternity, in which alone also the questions and strifes of the church militant would be perfectly

settled. "Only above," says he in his tract De Mortalitate, which be composed during the pestilence,

"only above are true peace, sure repose, constant, firm, and eternal security; there is our dwelling,

there our home. Who would not fain hasten to reach it? There a great multitude of beloved awaits

us; the numerous host of fathers, brethren, and children. There is a glorious choir of apostles there

the number of exulting prophets; there the countless multitude of martyrs, crowned with victory

after warfare and suffering; there triumphing virgins; there the merciful enjoying their reward.

Thither let us hasten with longing desire; let us wish to be soon with them, soon with Christ. After

the earthly comes the heavenly; after the small follows the great after perishableness, eternity."

III. His writings.

As an author, Cyprian is far less original, fertile and vigorous than Tertullian, but is clearer,

more moderate, and more elegant and rhetorical in his style. He wrote independently only on the

doctrines of the church, the priesthood, and sacrifice.

(1.) His most important works relate to practical questions on church government and

discipline. Among these is his tract on the Unity of the Church (A. D. 251), that "magna charta"

of the old catholic high-church spirit, the commanding importance of which we have already

considered. Then eighty-one Epistles,

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 some very long, to various bishops, to the clergy and

the churches of Africa and of Rome, to the confessors, to the lapsed, &c.; comprising also some

letters from others in reply, as from Cornelius of Rome and Firmilian of Caesarea. They give us a

very graphic picture of his pastoral labors, and of the whole church life of that day. To the same

class belongs also his treatise: De Lapsis (A. D. 250) against loose penitential discipline.

(2.) Besides these he wrote a series of moral works, On the Grace of God (246); On the

Lord’s Prayer (252); On Mortality (252); against worldly-mindedness and pride of dress in

consecrated virgins (De Habitu Virginum); a glowing call to Martyrdom; an exhortation to liberality

(De Opere el Eleemosynis, between 254 and 256), with a touch of the "opus operatum" doctrine;

and two beautiful tracts written during his controversy with pope Stephanus: De Bono Patienti, and

De Zelo et Livore (about 256), in which he exhorts the excited minds to patience and moderation.

(3.) Least important are his two apologetic works, the product of his Christian pupilage.

One is directed against heathenism (de Idolorum Vanitate), and is borrowed in great part, often

verbally, from Tertullian and Minucius Felix. The other, against Judaism (Testimonia adversus

Judaeos), also contains no new thoughts, but furnishes a careful collection of Scriptural proofs of

the Messiahship and divinity of Jesus.

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The order of them varies in different editions occasioning frequent confusion in citation.

527

Philip Schaff

History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene

Christianity. A.D. 100-325.

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