18 Apr 246 AD: Cyprian of Carthage Baptized

18 April 246 A.D.   Cyprian of Carthage baptized.  Later Bishop of Carthage and Martyr of Emperor Valerian's Persecution .

A version is told at: http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/cyprian-baptized-in-carthage-11629618.html

“I am a Christian and cannot sacrifice to the gods. I heartily thank Almighty God who is pleased to set me free from the chains of this body." With these bold words, spoken in front of hundreds of onlookers, Bishop Cyprian of Carthage faced death under Emperor Valerian. Many of the pagans standing by were deeply moved.

Cyprian was well-known to them. As Bishop of Carthage, he was an eminent figure in North Africa. But even before becoming a church leader he had been a notable man.

Born into wealth around 200, Cyprian inherited a large estate. He trained in rhetoric. Curiously it was this training which brought him to Christ. Genuinely gifted as a speaker, he opened his own school. As part of the course, he debated philosophers and Christians. Convinced by the arguments of a Christian elder, he became a convert when he was about 45 years old. "A second birth created me a new man by means of the Spirit breathed from heaven," he wrote. Immediately he applied for admission to the church. With zeal, he gave away his wealth and devoted himself to poverty, celibacy, and Bible studies.

In those days it was popular for Christians to receive baptism at Easter. This has led scholars to argue that Cyprian received baptism on this day, April 18, 246, the Eve of Easter.

Upon the death of Bishop Donatus in 248, less than two years after Cyprian's conversion, and over his protests, the people elected him Bishop of Carthage. Pontius, one of his clergy, wrote an admiring biography telling how Cyprian handled himself. His countenance was joyous, he wrote, and he was a man to be both revered and loved.

But well might Cyprian protest his election! His task was never easy. Many older men felt slighted by his swift ascendancy and envied him his office. Among the clergy were others who neglected their duties. Cyprian disciplined them, and this increased resentment against him. In 250, a persecution by Emperor Decian broke out. The pagans shouted, "Cyprian to the lions!" But the bishop escaped into hiding. His presence in Carthage would intensify persecution, he explained. Writing letters, he tried to hold the church together in his absence. This was not easy, for the Christians who stayed and endured suffering looked down on Cyprian. In 251 Gallus became emperor and Cyprian returned to his church.

Those who had stood firm under suffering called themselves "the confessors." They gained great prestige from this. Others had renounced their faith. These were called the "lapsed." The church split over how to allow the lapsed back in. Cyprian's disagreement with the Bishop of Rome over the issue of the lapsed caused him to write an influential book, Unity of the Church. In it he argued that the church is not the community of those who are already saved. Instead, it is an ark of salvation for all men, a school for sinners. Today many Protestants accept this teaching but refuse to accept Cyprian's other claim that the bishops of the church, as the heirs of the apostles, are the agents through whom God dispenses grace. "He who has not the church for his mother, has not God for his Father," Cyprian wrote. His view is also opposed to that which makes the pope pre-eminent. Protestants argue that where two or three are gathered in Christ's name, Christ is with them and quote Peter to show that every Christian is a priest (1 Peter 2:9).

When a fearsome plague erupted in Carthage in 252-254, the pagans abandoned the sick in the streets. People rushed about in terror. Cyprian told his Christians to care for the sick, including dying pagans. The people obeyed, despite the fact the pagans blamed them for the disease and persecuted them. Soon afterward, Bishop Cyprian was brought before the pro-consul Aspasius Paternus. Aspasius banished him to a town by the sea. When Aspasius died, Cyprian returned to Carthage. He was seized by the new governor and condemned to death. At the place of execution, he knelt in prayer and tied the bandage over his eyes with his own hand. To the executioner he gave a piece of gold. Thus he was beheaded on September 14, 258, retaining his bold confession to the end.

Bibliography:

1.      Adapted from Christian History Institute's Glimpses #162.

2.      Aland, Kurt. Saints and Sinners; men and ideas in the early church. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1970.

3.      Ante-Nicene fathers: translations of the writings of the fathers down to A.D. 325. Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. American reprint of the Edinburgh edition. Revised and chronologically arranged, with brief prefaces and occasional notes, by A. Cleveland Coxe. New York: Scribner's, 1926.

4.      Benson, Edward White. Cyprian: his life, his times, his work. London, New York, Macmillan, 1897.

5.      Chapman, John. "St. Cyprian of Carthage." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1908.

6.      "Cyprian, St." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.

7.      The Library of Christian Classics. Westminster Press, 1956.

(Mr. Andy Underhile): Church Fathers on Depravity

By Mr. Andy Underhile

Church Fathers on Depravity

If you’ve ever entertained the notion that the freedom of the will is something that has been monolithically believed by the Church, then perhaps the contents of this short post will help unburden you of that mistake.


 One does not need to study the Fathers very long to read their declarations on human sinfulness. Paul’s disciple and traveling companion, Clement of Rome, writes, “Let us turn to every age that has passed, and learn that, from generation to generation, the Lord has granted a place of repentance to all such as would be converted unto Him.” (1) And again he says, “And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men…” (2) God must grant repentance, because fallen man is so lost he would never seek it on his own. God does not merely grant forgiveness, but the desire for repentance itself. Paul says, “It is God who works in you both to will and to do” (Phil. 2:13). And notice also that Clement affirms that our calling is made effectual by God’s will.
 

“They who are carnal cannot do spiritual things… unbelief (is incapable of) the deeds of faith.” (3) This is the pronouncement of Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp’s fellow disciple of the Apostle John. Those who are in the state of unbelief cannot repent and believe unless it be granted from above. Faith and repentance are spiritual acts. Those who are in the flesh cannot perform spiritual acts.

In the anonymous Epistle to Diognetus, we read, “having made it manifest that in ourselves we were unable to enter into the kingdom of God, we might through the power of God be made able…Having therefore convinced us in the former time that our nature was unable to attain to life.” (4) The author of this short work clearly affirms that it is only through the power of God that we can attain to life. This is nothing in our nature that can avail.

Irenaeus writes, “For the Lord taught us that no man is capable of knowing God, unless he be taught of God; that is, that God cannot be known without God.” (5) This refers to more than special revelation. Irenaeus means to say that a saving knowledge of God must begin on God’s part. We cannot begin the process.

Explaining how our corruption is such that we must be rendered spiritual by God Himself, Irenaeus attests, “But we do now receive a certain portion of His Spirit, tending towards perfection, and preparing us for incorruption, being little by little accustomed to receive and bear God… This earnest, therefore, thus dwelling in us, renders us spiritual even now.”(6)

 

The great Carthaginian theologian Tertullian quite aptly remarks, “To begin with the passage where He says that He is come to ‘to seek and to save that which is lost.’ What do you suppose that to be which is lost? Man, undoubtedly. The entire man, or only a part of him? The whole man, of course. In fact, since the transgression which caused man's ruin was committed quite as much by the instigation of the soul from concupiscence as by the action of the flesh from actual fruition, it has marked the entire man with the sentence of transgression, and has therefore made him deservedly amenable to perdition.”(7)
 

For the rest, see:

http://andycontramundum.blogspot.com/2010/04/church-fathers-on-depravity.html

Mr. Andy Underhile: Cyprian of Carthage, "Salvation in the Passive Voice"

 

Mr. Andy Underhile, citing Cyprian of Carthage, martyred c. 258.

 

http://andycontramundum.blogspot.com/2010/08/salvation-in-passive-voice.html

 

Salvation in the Passive Voice

 

He writes, “For as I myself was held in bonds by the innumerable errors of my previous life, from which I did not believe that I could by possibility be delivered, so I was disposed to acquiesce in my clinging vices; and because I despaired of better things, I used to indulge my sins as if they were actually parts of me, and indigenous to me. But after that, by the help of the water of new birth, the stain of former years had been washed away, and a light from above, serene and pure, had been infused into my reconciled heart, - after that, by the agency of the Spirit breathed from heaven, a second birth had restored me to a new man; - then, in a wondrous manner, doubtful things at once began to assure themselves to me, hidden things to be revealed, dark things to be enlightened, what before had seemed difficult began to suggest a means of accomplishment, what had been thought impossible, to be capable of being achieved; so that I was enabled to acknowledge that what previously, being born of the flesh, had been living in the practice of sins, was of the earth earthly, but had now begun to be of God, and was animated by the Spirit of holiness.”

 

For the rest, see:

 

http://andycontramundum.blogspot.com/2010/08/salvation-in-passive-voice.html

(1662 BCP) 26 Sept: Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200 to Sept. 258)

26 September.  Cyprian of Carthage. 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

A few things:  (1) brief-bio from http://www.eskimo.com/~lhowell/bcp1662/notes/saints.html#Cyprian (2) a wiki-bio, and (3) at the end, an online resource for Mr. (Bp). Cyprian’s writings in English.

From http://www.eskimo.com/~lhowell/bcp1662/notes/saints.html#Cyprian, we read:  St. Cyprian, Archbishop, the great Bishop of Carthage, exercising a kind of metropolitan jurisdiction (from A.D. 248-258). He was of high education and rank, converted in his manhood, and soon after raised to the Episcopate; notable as the great upholder and establisher in the Western Church of Episcopal dignity and authority, in staunch resistance to the growing claims of Rome; stern alike against Puritanism and laxity in the restoration of those who had "lapsed" under persecution; maintaining even the need of rebaptism of those baptized by heretics, which was rigidly opposed by the Bishop of Rome, and disallowed by subsequent Church authority; a great ruler of unbounded influence and popularity; a writer of great vigor of thought and perfection of style; finally a martyr under the persecution of Galerius in 258. -- September 26th.

From Wiki-bio, we read below:

Cyprian (Latin: Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus) (c. 200 – September 14, 258) was bishop of Carthage and an important Early Christian writer, many of whose Latin works are extant. He was born around the beginning of the 3rd century in North Africa, perhaps at Carthage, where he received a classical education. After converting to Christianity, he became a bishop in 249 and eventually died a martyr at Carthage.

Early life

Cyprian was born sometime in the early third century. He was a leading member of legal fraternity in Carthage, He was well into middle age when he was converted to Christianity and baptised.^[1] The site of his eventual martyrdom was his own villa. Before becoming a Christian, he was an orator, "pleader in the courts", and a teacher of rhetoric.^[2] The date of his conversion is unknown, but after his baptism about 245–248 he gave away a portion of his wealth to the poor of Carthage, as befitted a man of his status.

His original name was Thascius; he took the additional name Caecilius in memory of the presbyter to whom he owed his conversion. In the early days of his conversion he wrote an Epistola ad Donatum de gratia Dei and the Testimoniorum Libri III that adhere closely to the models of Tertullian, who influenced his style and thinking.

His contested election as bishop of Carthage

Not long after his baptism he was ordained deacon, and soon afterward presbyter; and some time between July 248 and April 249 he was chosen bishop of Carthage, a popular choice among the poor who remembered his patronage as demonstrating good equestrian style, while a portion of the presbytery opposed it, for all Cyprian's wealth and learning and diplomacy and literary talents. Moreover, the opposition within the church community at Carthage did not dissolve during his episcopacy.

Soon, however, the entire community was put to an unwanted test. Christians in North Africa had not suffered persecution for many years; the church was assured and lax. Early in 250 the "Decian persecution" began. Measures were first taken demanding that the bishops and officers of the church sacrifice to the emperor. The proconsul on circuit, and five commissioners for each town, administered the edict; but, when the proconsul reached Carthage, Cyprian had fled.

It is quite evident in the writings of the church fathers from various dioceses that the Christian community was divided on this occasion, among those who stood firm in civil disobedience, and those who buckled, submitting in word or in deed to the order of sacrifice and receiving a ticket or receipt called a "libellus." Cyprian's secret departure from Carthage was interpreted by his enemies as cowardice and infidelity, and they hastened to accuse him at Rome. The Roman clergy wrote to Cyprian in terms of disapproval. Cyprian rejoined that he fled in accordance with visions and the divine command. From his place of refuge he ruled his flock with earnestness and zeal, using a faithful deacon as his intermediary.

Controversy over the lapsed

The persecution was especially severe at Carthage, according to Church sources. Many Christians fell away, and were thereafter referred to as "lapsi", but afterwards asked to be received again into the Church. Their requests were granted early, with no regard being paid to the demand of Cyprian and his faithful among the Carthaginian clergy, who insisted upon earnest repentance. The confessors among the more liberal group intervened to allow hundreds of the lapsed to return to the Church.

Though he had remained in seclusion himself, Cyprian now censured all laxity toward the lapsed, refused absolution to them except in case of mortal sickness, and desired to postpone the question of their re-admission to the Church to quieter times. A schism broke out in Carthage. Felicissimus, who had been ordained deacon by the presbyter Novatus during the absence of Cyprian, opposed all steps taken by Cyprian's representatives. Cyprian deposed and excommunicated him and his supporter Augendius. Felicissimus was upheld by Novatus and four other presbyters, and a determined opposition was thus organized.

When, after an absence of fourteen months, Cyprian returned to his diocese, he defended leaving his post in letters to the other North African bishops and a tract "De lapsis," and called a council of North African bishops at Carthage to consider the treatment of the lapsed and the apparent schism of Felicissimus (251). The council in the main sided with Cyprian and condemned Felicissimus, though no acts of this council survive. The "libellatici" were to be restored at once upon sincere repentance; but such as had taken part in heathen sacrifices could be received back into the Church only when on the point of death. Afterward this regulation was essentially mitigated, and even these were restored if they repented immediately after a sudden fall and eagerly sought absolution; though clerics who had fallen were to be deposed and could not be restored to their functions.

In Carthage the followers of Felicissimus elected Fortunatus as bishop in opposition to Cyprian, while in Rome the followers of the Roman presbyter Novatian, who also refused absolution to all the lapsed, elected their man as bishop of Rome, in opposition to Cornelius. The Novatianists secured the election of a rival bishop of their own at Carthage, Maximus by name. Novatus now left Felicissimus and followed the Novatian party.

But these extremes strengthened the firm but moderating influence exhibited in Cyprian's writings, and the following of his opponents grew less and less. He rose still higher in the favor of the people when they witnessed his self-denying devotion during the time of a great plague and famine.

He comforted his brethren by writing his "De mortalitate," and in his "De eleemosynis" exhorted them to active charity towards the poor, while he set the best pattern by his own life. He defended Christianity and the Christians in the apologia "Ad Demetrianum," directed against a certain Demetrius and the reproach of the heathens that Christians were the cause of the public calamities.

Persecution under Valerian

At the end of 256 a new persecution of the Christians under Emperor Valerian I broke out, and both Pope Stephen I and his successor, Pope Sixtus II, suffered martyrdom at Rome.

In Africa Cyprian courageously prepared his people for the expected edict of persecution by his "De exhortatione martyrii," and himself set an example when he was brought before the Roman proconsul Aspasius Paternus (August 30, 257). He refused to sacrifice to the pagan deities and firmly professed Christ.

The consul banished him to Curubis, modern Korba, whence he comforted to the best of his ability his flock and his banished clergy. In a vision he saw his approaching fate. When a year had passed he was recalled and kept practically a prisoner in his own villa, in expectation of severer measures after a new and more stringent imperial edict arrived, demanding the execution of all Christian clerics, according to reports of it by Christian writers.

On September 13, 258, he was imprisoned at the behest of the new proconsul, Galerius Maximus. The day following he was examined for the last time and sentenced to die by the sword. His only answer was "Thanks be to God!" The execution was carried out at once in an open place near the city. A vast multitude followed Cyprian on his last journey. He removed his garments without assistance, knelt down, and prayed. After he blindfolded himself, he was beheaded by the sword.

The body was interred by Christian hands near the place of execution, and over it, as well as on the actual scene of his death, churches were afterward erected, which, however, were destroyed by the Vandals. Charlemagne is said to have had the bones transferred to France, and Lyons, Arles, Venice, Compiegne, and Roenay in Flanders claim the possession of the martyr's relics.

Writings

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Cyprian

Cyprian's works were edited in volumes 3 and 4 of the Patrologia Latina. Besides a number of epistles, which are partly collected with the answers of those to whom they were written, Cyprian wrote a number of treatises, some of which have also the character of pastoral letters.

His most important work is his "De unitate ecclesiae." In it, he states: "He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother; . . . he who gathereth elsewhere than in the Church scatters the Church of Christ" (vi.); "nor is there any other home to believers but the one Church" (ix.).

The following works are of doubtful authenticity: De spectaculis ("On Public Games"); De bono pudicitiae ("The Virtue of Modesty"); De idolorum vanitate ("On the Vanity of Images," written by Novatian); De laude martyrii ("In Praise of Martyrdom"); Adversus aleatores; De duobus montibus Sina et Sion (On the Two Mountains Sinai and Zion); Adversus Judaeos; and the Cena Cypriani ("Cyprian's Banquet", which enjoyed wide circulation in the Middle Ages). The treatise entitled De duplici martyrio ad Fortunatum and attributed to Cyprian was not only published by Erasmus, but probably also composed by him.

The Plague of Cyprian is named after him due to his description of it.

St Cyprian's first writing starts out as a speech he made to his friends. It is called, Ad Donatum. It speaks out against the Roman Government and gladiator shows. He says that the only refuge from these evils is the prayerful life of a Christian. St. Cyprian was the first great Latin writer among the Christians. Until the days of Jerome and Augustine, Cyprian's writings had no rivals in the West.^[3]

Feast Day in the Anglican/Episcopal Church is September 13.^{[citation needed]}

Notes

1.      Jump up ^ (1996) Dictionary of Saints London: The Brochampton Press, ISBN 1860193315

2.      Jump up ^ Michael Walsh, ed. "Butler's Lives of the Saints," New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991, p. 289.

3.      Jump up ^ Chapman, John. "St. Cyprian of Carthage." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 15 Jan. 2013

The Catholic Church celebrates his feasts together with that of his good friend Pope St. Cornelius on September 16.

References

• Brent, Allen, editor and translator, "St Cyprian of Carthage: Selected Treatises," St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2007, ISBN 0-88141-312-7
• Brent, Allen, editor and translator, "St Cyprian of Carthage: Selected Letters," St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2007, ISBN 0-88141-313-5
• Campbell, Phillip, editor, "The Complete works of Saint Cyprian" Evolution Publishing, 2013, ISBN 1-935228-11-0
• Daniel, Robin, "This Holy Seed: Faith, Hope and Love in the Early Churches of North Africa," (Chester, Tamarisk Publications, 2010: from www.opaltrust.org) ISBN 095385634
• Christian Classics Ethereal Library: Cyprian texts
• J.M. Tebes, "Cyprian of Carthage: Christianity and Social World in the 3rd. century", Cuadernos de Teología 19, (2000) (Spanish)

External links

·         Cyprian and Roman Carthage by Allen Brent (Cambridge, 2010).

• Pontius the Deacon (Pontius Diaconis), "The Life and Passion of Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr"
• "The Plague of AD 251"
• Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Cyprian
• Works by Cyprian at the IntraText Digital Library, with concordance and frequency lists
• Acta proconsularia S. Cypriani
• Multilanguage Opera Omnia

English Translations of Mr. (Bp.) Cyprian are available at: http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/20_30_0200-0258-_Cyprianus_Carthaginensis,_Sanctus.html

Some Wiki-quotes from Cyprian:

Quotes

• Habere non potest Deum patrem qui ecclesiam non habet matrem.
• No one can have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.
• De Ecclesiae Catholicae Unitate (AD 251), ch. vi.
• Salus extra ecclesiam non est.
• There is no salvation outside the Church.
• Letter to Jubaianus (AD 256), Letter 73

• For the helmsman is recognized in the tempest; in the warfare the soldier is proved.
• Treatise VII - On the Mortality
• It is a persistent evil to persecute a man who belongs to the grace of God. It is a calamity without remedy to hate the happy.
• Treatise on Jealousy and Envy ch. ix
• Think not that you are thus maintaining the Gospel of Christ when you separate yourselves from the flock of Christ.
• Letter to the Roman Confessors, that they should return to unity Letter 43.
• Men imitate the gods whom they adore, and to such miserable beings their crimes become their religion.
• Letter to Donatus Letter 1, ch. viii