In Ep. 65 Cyprian rests this on the Levitical institution and on his own visions. In Ep. 67, vi., however, he speaks of all bishops being agreed on this. In Ep. 72, iii., four years later, the principle extends to presbyters and deacons who had taken part in a heresy or schism. And at first sight it presents a singularly contradictory appearance of laxity that only Novatianists and Donatists held the indelibility of orders to be such that their recanting bishops resumed their functions (Optatus, i. p. 27). There are three cases: (1) Therapius, bp. of Bulla, admits Victor, a lapsed presbyter, without due penance. Fidus, bp., reports this to the third council of 67 bishops (A.D. 253), considering that Victor should be re-excommunicated. The council decline to rescind the boon of "God's priest," but censure Therapius, apparently in his place (Ep. 64—objurgare et instruxisse), for neglecting the terms of the second council without any consultation of the laity. The same letter (ad Fidum, 64) contains an important decision as to age of baptism. [Fidus.] (2) Fortunatus, bp. of Assurae, lapsed, and in his place was elected Epictetus; but the lapsed party (Ep. 65, v. iii.) on their return claimed for him the function and emoluments. The ground of order would have been sufficient; but Cyprian, with his characteristic error, urges the vitiation of any church function discharged by an unworthy minister, and recommends individual canvassing, if necessary, to unite the flock under Epictetus. (3) The most important case is that of Basilides and Martial, in A.D. 254, when the Spanish churches of Leon, Astorga, and Merida appeal to Cyprian against the negligent decision of Stephanus, now bp. of Rome, in favour of the restoration of their lapsed bishops. The letter of the Carthaginian council of 37 bishops, A.D. 254 (Ep. 67), penned by Cyprian, declares the verdict of the bp. of Rome mistaken and to be disregarded. This letter also insists on the duty of a laity to withdraw from communion with a "sacrilegious" or "sinful" bishop, and marks the universal sense that there resided in a congregation no power to make valid the sacramental acts of a nominee who lacked the note of true orders (Ep. 67, iii.; cf. Routh, vol. iii. p. 152).
Practical Organizations and Christian Culture.—(a) Captivity.—During the session of the council an extensive raid was executed by the Berbers, who, severely ruled as they were without any attempt to civilize them, were beginning that steady advance on Numidia which in a few years replaced the whole range of Ferratus in their possession. In 252 their front line reached from Thubunae on the salt marsh to the terebinth forests of Tucca, and they deported large numbers of the Christians of no less than eight sees. Several inscriptions relate to this invasion (see Revue Afric. vols. iv. vii. viii.). About £800 were subscribed by the 60 bishops and Carthaginian community (Ep. 62), and sent to them.
(b) Plague.—But the great field on which the expanding powers of humanity were gathered up and animated by the church was opened by the great plague which reached Carthage in A.D. 252, having travelled two years from Ethiopia through Egypt. Great physical disturbances had preceded it (ad Dem. ii. 1, vii. 5). The eruption and the brain affection which marked the plague of Athens are not recorded of this; nor yet the pulmonary symptoms, which, perhaps, were not developed in the African climate. The other symptoms seem to be identical, and the devastation far more awful, extensive, and enduring. It lasted 20 years; reduced the population of Alexandria by half; destroyed the armies of Valerian before Sapor; kept the Goths off the Thracian border, and for some time killed 5,000 persons daily in Rome (Eutrop. ix. v.; Hist. Aug. Galli, v. p. 177; Dionys. ap. Eus. vii. 22; Greg. Nys. Vit. Greg. Thaum. § 12). The efforts of the Emperors Gallus and Valerian in burying the dead were appreciated, otherwise their efforts were confined to supplications to Saturn and Apollo. (See three types of coins of Gallus in British Museum, and see Cohen, Médailles Impér. vol. iv. p. 270; Bandusi, vol. i. p. 58.) Horrible scenes of desertion and spoliation ensued in Carthage as in Athens (Pontii Vit. Cyp. and Cyp. ad Dem. 10 [8], 11 [9]), when universal physical terror or audacity overpowered all other sentiments. As in Neo-Caesarea and Alexandria so in Carthage, the Christian clergy stood out as the first champions of life, health, and feeling. Cyprian addressed his community in a speech, which it was wished could have been delivered to the city from the rostrum, on the duty and divineness of prayer and help to the persecutors (Respondere Natalibus was his watchword), and then proposed and carried a scheme for the systematic care of the city. Filled with his motives and under his influence rich and poor undertook the parts he assigned, raised a large fund, formed a nursing staff and burial staff, and allowed no religious distinction in their ministrations. But their abstinence from religious processions and sacrifices marked the Christians as enemies of God and man, and the "Overseer of the Christians" was demanded by name for a contest with a lion (Epp. 59, viii.; 66, 44). The terrible work lasted on till his exile five years later, as we must conclude from Pontius's juxtaposition of the events, with his remark that exile was the reward for "withdrawing from human sight a horror like hell."
(c) Ad Demetrianum.—Their chief foe was an aged magistrate (sub ipso exitu Dem. 25 [22]), not the pro-consul (Pearson), but perhaps one of the five primores, formerly an inquirer into the truth of Christianity, in Cyprian's own friendship (i.), now himself an inventor of accusations (c. 2) and tortures, xii. (10). The pamphlet in which Cyprian assails him is much wider in its aim than Tertullian's ad Scapulam; both have the remonstrance against the suppression of the one natural worship, the appeal to the demeanour of the now prevalent sect (pars paene major cujusque civitatis), to the effects of exorcism, and the influence through suffering of the Christians. But while Tertullian for once refrains from denunciation, and is almost gentle in his examples of warning, Cyprian's object is wider; he answers the question, "Whence all this political and this physical misery?" The heathen answer attributed it to the divine
