Epistle LXXXI. [3043]
To Successus on the Tidings Brought from Rome, Telling of the Persecution.
Argument.--Cyprian Tells the Bishop Successus, that in a Severe Persecution that Had Been Decreed by the Emperor Valerian [3044] Xistus the Bishop Had Suffered at Rome on the Eighth of the Ides of August; And He Begs Him to Intimate the Same to the Rest of His Colleagues, that Each One Might Animate His Own Flock to Martyrdom.
1. Cyprian to his brother Successus, greeting. The reason why I could not write to you immediately, dearest brother, was that all the clergy, being placed in the very heat of the contest, were unable in any way to depart hence, all of them being prepared in accordance with the devotion of their mind for divine and heavenly glory. But know that those have come whom I had sent to the City [3045] for this purpose, that they might find out and bring back to us the truth, in whatever manner it had been decreed respecting us. For many various and uncertain things are current in men's opinions. But the truth concerning them is as follows, that Valerian had sent a rescript to the Senate, to the effect that bishops and presbyters and deacons should immediately be punished; but that senators, and men of importance, and Roman knights, [3046] should lose their dignity, and moreover be deprived of their property; and if, when their means were taken away, they should persist in being Christians, then they should also lose their heads; but that matrons should be deprived of their property, and sent into banishment. Moreover, people of Cæsar's household, whoever of them had either confessed before, or should now confess, should have their property confiscated, and should be sent in chains by assignment to Cæsar's estates. The Emperor Valerian also added to this address a copy of the letters which he sent to the presidents of the provinces concerning us; which letters we are daily hoping will come, waiting according to the strength of our faith for the endurance of suffering, and expecting from the help and mercy of the Lord the crown of eternal life. But know that Xistus was martyred in the cemetery on the eighth day of the Ides of August, and with him four deacons. [3047] Moreover, the prefects in the City [3048] are daily urging on this persecution; so that, if any are presented to them, they are martyred, and their property claimed by the treasury.
2. I beg that these things may be made known by your means to the rest of our colleagues, that everywhere, by their exhortation, the brotherhood may be strengthened and prepared for the spiritual conflict, that every one of us may think less of death than of immortality; and, dedicated to the Lord, with full faith and entire courage, may rejoice rather than fear in this confession, wherein they know that the soldiers of God and Christ are not slain, but crowned. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell in the Lord. [3049]
[3043] Oxford ed.: Ep. lxxx. As Cyprian suffered shortly after, in the month of September, there is no doubt but that this letter was written near the close of his life. a.d. 258.
[3044] Doubtless with Gallienus.
[3045] [Of Rome.]
[3046] [Elucidation XX.]
[3047] Or, "and with him Quartus."
[3048] [The modern name, Istamboul (eis ten polin), grows out of like usage in the East. And, as Constantinople was "New Rome," this illustrates Irenæus and his convenire, vol. i. p. 460.]
[3049] [The baptismal question went by default, and was practically given up by the African Church, amid greater issues. It has never been dogmatically settled by the Church Catholic: and Roman usage is evasive (in spite of its own anathemas); for it baptizes again, sub conditionel. See useful note, Oxford ed. p. 244.]
Epistle LXXXII. [3050]
To the Clergy and People Concerning His Retirement, a Little Before His Martyrdom.
Argument.--When, Near the End of His Life, Cyprian, on Returning to His Gardens, Was Told that Messengers Were Sent to Take Him for Punishment to Utica, He Withdrew. And Lest It Should Be Thought that He Had Done So from Fear of Death, He Gives the Reason in This Letter, Viz., that He Might Undergo His Martyrdom Nowhere Else Than at Carthage, in the Sight of His Own People. a.d. 258.
1. Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons, and all the people, greeting. When it had been told to us, dearest brethren, that the gaolers [3051] had been sent to bring me to Utica, and I had been persuaded by the counsel of those dearest to me to withdraw for a time from my gardens, as a just reason was afforded I consented. For the reason that it is fit for a bishop, in that city in which he presides over the Church of the Lord, there to confess the Lord, and that the whole people should be glorified by the confession of their prelate in their presence. For whatever, in that moment of confession, the confessor-bishop speaks, he speaks in the mouth of all, by inspiration of God. [3052] But the honour of our Church, glorious as it is, will be mutilated if I, a bishop placed over another church, receiving my sentence or my confession at Utica, should go thence as a martyr to the Lord, when indeed, both for my own sake and yours, I pray with continual supplications, and with all my desires entreat, that I may confess among you, and there suffer, and thence depart to the Lord even as I ought. Therefore here in a hidden retreat I await the arrival of the proconsul returning to Carthage, that I may hear from him what the emperors have commanded upon the subject of Christian laymen and bishops, and may say what the Lord will wish to be said at that hour.
2. But do you, dearest brethren, according to the discipline which you have ever received from me out of the Lord's commands, and according to what you have so very often learnt from my discourse, keep peace and tranquillity; nor let any of you stir up any tumult for the brethren, or voluntarily offer himself to the Gentiles. For when apprehended and delivered up, he ought to speak, inasmuch as the Lord abiding in us speaks in that hour, who willed that we should rather confess than profess. But for the rest, what it is fitting that we should observe before the proconsul passes sentence on me for the confession of the name of God, we will with the instruction of the Lord arrange in common. [3053] May our Lord make you, dearest brethren, to remain safe in His Church, and condescend to keep you. So be it through His mercy.
[3050] Oxford ed.: Ep. lxxxi. [Cyprian's contest with Stephen is practically valueless as to the point at issue between them (see supra, p. 396), but it throws a flood of light on the questions raised by papal pretensions. It also illuminates the anti-Nicene doctrine of unity.]
[3051] Or, "commissaries."
[3052] [Matt. x. 19. There is something sublime in the martyr's reliance upon this word of Jesus. See sec. 2, infra, and Elucidation XXII.]
[3053] [Recur to the passion of this holy martyr as related by Pontius, his deacon, p. 390. Stephen had broken communion with him (see p. 390 note) and the African provinces, which had no effect upon his Catholic status. (See letter of Firmillian, p. 391 note.) But, on the Roman theory, this glorious martyr died in schism. He is, nevertheless, a canonized saint in the Roman Calendar. Elucidation XXII.]
Elucidations.
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I.
(The presbyterate and the priesthood, p. 268.)
Here is an instance of a usage just becoming common to the East and West,--to give the name of priesthood to the chief ministry as distinguished from the presbyterate. So in Chrysostom passim, but notably in his treatise peri hierosunes. The scriptural warrant for this usage is derived, dialectically, from the universal priesthood of Christians (1 Pet. ii. 5), from the Old-Testament prophecies of the Christian ministry (Isa. lxvi. 21), and from the culmination of the sacerdotium in the chief ministry of St. Paul. Over and against the Mosaic priesthood he is supposed to assert his own priestly charisma in the Epistle to the Romans, [3054] where he says, "I have therefore my glorying in Christ Jesus" (i.e., the Great High Priest), "in things pertaining to God;" that is (according to the Heb. v. 1), "as a high priest taken from among men, in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins." He asserts himself, therefore, as a better priest than those of the Law, "because of the grace that was given me of God, that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus unto the Gentiles, ministering in sacrifice [3055] the Gospel of God." He then (according to this theory) adopts the language and the idea of Malachi, and adds, "that the oblation of the Gentiles might be acceptable," etc.; i.e., the pure ninchah, or oblation of bread and wine, commemorative of the one "and only propitiatory sacrifice of Calvary."
These ideas run through all the primitive liturgies, [3056] which we are soon to reach in this series. It is no part of my plan to vindicate them, but only to state them. It will be felt by many that these were at least exaggerated views of the apostle's ministry,--of the principle underlying his phrase, eis to einai me leitourgon...hierourgounta to euangelion ; but let nobody read into these primitive expressions concerning a commemoration of the one only propitiatory sacrifice "once offered," the monstrous doctrine of the Council of Trent, which, reduced to its mildest form, [3057] is as follows: "The sacrifice of the Mass is, and ought to be considered, one and the same sacrifice with that of the Cross...which being the case, it must be taught, without any hesitation, that (as the holy Council of Trent hath moreover explained) the sacred and holy sacrifice of the Mass is not only a sacrifice of praise and eucharist, or a mere commemoration of the sacrifice effected on the Cross, but also truly a propitiatory sacrifice, by which God is appeased, and rendered propitious to us." That such was not the doctrine of the Latin churches, even in the ninth century, sufficiently appears from the treatise of Ratramn; but it is not less apparent from the ancient liturgies themselves, and even from many primitive features which glitter like gold-dust amid the dross of the Roman missal itself.
II.
(To do nothing on my own private opinion, p. 283.)
Note this golden principle which runs through all the epistles and treatises of our large-minded and free-spirited author, "A primordio episcopatus mei statuerim nihil, sine consilio vestro, et sine consensu plebis meæprivata sententia gerere." When, in the midst of persecution, he could not convoke his council, he apologizes, as will appear hereafter, [3058] even for taking measures requisite to the emergency without such counsel. Such was his duty according to the primitive discipline, no doubt; but our author knew well that a relaxing of discipline in exceptional circumstances is the fruitful source of corruption. He is jealous against himself:--
"Twill be recorded for a precedent;
And many an error, by the same example
Will rush into the Church."
It is instructive to find the views of Baxter harmonizing with those of Cyprian. He speaks for himself and his brethren as not opposed to episcopacy, but only to "the engrossing (by prelates) of the sole power of ordination and jurisdiction...excluding wholly the pastors of particular churches from all share in it." This is a sound Cyprianic remonstrance; [3059] but Cyprian always includes the plebs as well as the "pastors." In short, if Ignatius, his Gamaliel, teaches primarily, "Do nothing without the bishop," he not less reiterates his own maxim, "Let bishops do nothing without the presbytery and the people."
Here it must be noted, however, that the primitive Fathers never speak of the episcopate as a development of the presbyterate, as do the Middle-Age writers and the schoolmen. It was the policy of these to write down the bishops to mere presbyters, for the purpose of exalting the papacy, which they made the only episcopate and the universal apostolate. The Universal Bishop might, then, appoint presbyters to be his local vicars, and to bear a titular episcopate, as such,--the name of an office, and not an order. The episcopate was no longer, as with Ignatius and Cyprian, the apostolic office from which the presbyterate and diaconate were precipitated, but, rather, an ecclesiastical sublimate of the presbyterate. By this theory no bishop in the Latin communion can deal with the Bishop of Rome as Cyprian did,--on terms of equality, and as a co-bishop or colleague in a common episcopate. Such is the school doctrine: and the Council of Trent made it dogma, abolishing the order of bishops as such, and defining that there are only three Holy Orders; viz., presbyters, deacons, and sub-deacons. [3060] The order of bishops is thus reduced to a merely ecclesiastical order in "the hierarchy," a vicariate of the papacy.