appeals, which were ultimately successful, were addressed by Cyprian to the Roman confessors to detach themselves from the schism in which they found themselves involved. The original work before the council, the restoration of the lapsed, had been facilitated by the two episodes, which had cleared off the extreme parties on either side. They now listened to Cyprian's treatise on the lapsed; but they inclined to a course even milder than he suggested, while they were less disposed than he to give the "Martyres" any voice in the decisions.[1] Their encyclical is lost, but the particulars are extricable from his Letter to Antonian (Ep. 55), which, since it treats only of the restoration of the libellatici, not of the lapsed, must be earlier than the second council, A.D. 252, and from the verbal resemblance of Ep. 54 (3) to 55 (v.) must be very near the event. We thence gather that they resolved—(1) On an individual examination of the libellatici; (2) Episcopal restoration of non-sacrificers after penance (Ep. 55, v.); (3) Of sacrificers if penitents at death (55, xiv.); (4) No restoration of those who deferred penance till death (55, xix.) A Roman synod was held in June or July[2] by 60 bishops of Italy, who accepted these decisions, and excommunicated Novatian. Cornelius announced the facts in four (so Tillemont correctly) Greek (so Valois correctly) letters to Antioch (Eus. vi. 43), with two (non-extant) of Cyprian. Briefly to sum up the constitutional results of this first council of Carthage: 1. The views of the primate are submitted to those of the council; he admits the change (Ep. 55, iii.). 2. The intercession and merits of the martyrs, as affecting the conditions of restoration, are set aside entirely. 3. On the other hand (as against Novatian), no offences are considered to be beyond the regular power of the church to remit. 4. (against Felicissimus). No power except that of the authentic organization can fix terms of communion. It will be at once seen that the free council of bishops had taken position as a Christian institution, exercising supreme governmental functions, and had laid clear lines as to where church authority resided. They further ruled that there could be no subsequent canvassing of the claims of a bishop once ordained. The resolutions were issued in the name of the bishops only.
The Reconciliation of the Novatianist Confessors at Rome.—A second embassy of Novatianists followed the report of the first, in order to press Cyprian home—Primus, Dionysius, Nicostratus, Evaristus, and above all, Novatus; to whose leaving Rome Cyprian does not hesitate partly to ascribe his own next success (Ep. 52 (2), ii.). Cyprian's letters to the Novatianist confessors are among the most beautiful and skilful in the collection; and Augustine cites no less than three times a passage from the letter on their return as embodying the absolute scriptural answer to puritan separations. It is the first exposition of the parable of the Tares, and St. Paul's image of the Great House. Prevailed on by the arguments used to them, and shocked by the consequences of their action, the whole party, with numerous adherents, returned to the Catholic side, and were publicly and magnanimously received, like the leaders of the same sect at Nicaea, and the Donatists at Carthage, and the Arians at Alexandria, without forfeit of dignity (Epp. 49, 52, 53, 46, 54, 51). To Cyprian this was more than an occasion of Christian joy. It was the triumph of his theory (Ep. 51 ad fin.). The date of this event may be accurately determined as being after the Carthaginian council (since Cyprian does not mention this as sitting, in his letters on the confessors, and he read the account of their recantation to the church, Ep. 51, not to the bishops), but prior to the Roman council, or else they would have been excommunicated by it, which they evidently were not; and since Cyprian says they recanted on the departure of Novatus, it was after the second embassy had left Rome.
Treatise on Unity.—The principles of this treatise, read in the council, and sent to the Roman confessors (Ep. 54), so shape all Cyprian's policy, that it is best to notice it here. It indicates its date minutely by allusions to the severe party (Novatian's) (iii. ministros, etc., viii, uno in loco, etc., ix. feritas, x. confessor, xi. episcopi nomen, xiii. aemuli), and by the absence of allusion to the lax party (Felicissimus), whose schism must have been noticed in such a paper if the question had not been concluded. In c. v. its original form as an address to bishops is traceable. The first appearance of Cyprian's characteristic error about baptism occurs in c. xi. Its first problem is the existence of schism (as distinct from heresy), "altar against altar," with freedom from corrupt doctrines and lives. The sole security is the ascertainment of the seat of authority and bond of unity. This is indicated by Christ's commission given once to Peter alone, yet again to all the apostles in the same terms. The oneness of the commission and the equality of the commissioned were thus emphasized. The apostleship, continued for ever in the episcopate, is thus universal, yet one: each bishop's authority perfect and independent, yet not forming with the others a mere agglomerate, but being a full tenure on a totality, like that of a shareholder in a joint-stock property. "Episcopatus unus est cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur." It is in the above definition, c. iv., that the famous interpolation has been made, which Roman authorities (Mgr. Freppel, late Professor at the Sorbonne, S. Cyprien et l’Egl. d’Afr. lect. 12; Prof. Hurter, of Innspruck, SS. PP. Opuscula, v. i. p. 72) even now feel it important to retain. The loss of it suggested the endeavour to make up for it by weaving together other texts from Cyprian to prove that this one after all represented his
- ↑ Ep. 54, iii. 55 v. 3. To postpone the appearance of the de Lapsis to Nov., as Pearson does, or to any moment after the council was over, is to attribute to Cyprian a publication quite out of date and recommendations already disposed of. Therefore, if "ultio," c. i. is to be pressed to mean the death of Decius (which is not necessary, in spite of the consensus for it), it only shews that ours is a second ed.
- ↑ The old date, Oct., is due to the mistake as to Cornelius's election. Jerome calls this synod "Romana Italica Africana," as if it were one with the Carthaginian Synod (de Scr. Ecc. 66, Labbe i. pp. 865‒868), and from this phrase Baronius has imagined three councils.
