Cyprian of Carthage

c. 200 - 258 CE · Roman African (Carthage) · Patristics, Ecclesiology, Church Discipline and Penance, Sacramental Theology

He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.

Cyprian (c. 200 – 258) was a wealthy and celebrated teacher of rhetoric in Carthage who was baptized in middle life, about 246, gave much of his property to the poor, and within three years was elected bishop by the people over the objections of older presbyters. His letter *To Donatus* describes the conversion as a second birth that made possible what had seemed impossible. Within months of his election the emperor Decius ordered every inhabitant of the empire to sacrifice, and a large part of his church did. Cyprian withdrew into hiding and governed by letter, and came back in 251 to a…

Topics Cyprian of Carthage addresses

• the unity of the Church
• the Church as mother
• the ark outside which no one is saved
• the seamless robe of Christ
• the sun with many rays
• Peter as the origin of unity
• the equal power of the apostles
• the one episcopate held in solidarity
• the bishop in the Church and the Church in the bishop
• no salvation outside the Church
• the Decian persecution and the certificate of sacrifice
• the lapsed: sacrificati and libellatici
• the confessors' letters of peace
• penance and reconciliation of the lapsed
• unworthy communion and divine punishment
• flight in persecution
• martyrdom as the second baptism of blood
• exhortation to martyrdom
• rebaptism of heretics and schismatics
• one baptism belonging to the Church alone
• the Novatianist schism
• the lax party of Felicissimus and Novatus
• episcopal councils and collegial decision
• works and alms as cleansing after baptism

Questions to put to Cyprian of Carthage

The Church as Mother, Ark, and Seamless Robe

• What do you mean when you say the Church is our mother?
• How does the image of Noah's ark capture what the Church is for you?
• Why does the seamless robe of Christ matter so much to your understanding of the Church?
• Can someone who holds the right beliefs but leaves the Church still be saved?
• What's the argument behind saying that even a martyr who dies outside the Church cannot be crowned?

Peter's Chair and the One Episcopate

• Why did Christ build the Church on Peter if all the apostles shared equal power?
• What do you mean when you say the episcopate is one, held by each bishop for the whole?
• How do you understand the bishop of Rome's place among the other bishops?
• What's the difference between honouring Rome as the source of priestly unity and treating its bishop as a judge over all others?
• How does jealousy and envy fit into your account of how schism begins?

The Lapsed, Penance, and Reconciliation

• What's the difference between those who actually sacrificed and those who only bought a certificate, and does it matter for how the Church treats them?
• Why couldn't the letters of peace issued by imprisoned confessors simply readmit the lapsed?
• What role do tears, fasting, and alms play in the penance you require of the fallen?
• How do you answer those who say refusing quick reconciliation is cruel to people who are genuinely sorry?
• Why did you think receiving communion unworthily could bring down divine punishment on the spot?
• How should a council of bishops, rather than any single bishop, decide when the lapsed are received back?

Baptism Outside the Church and the Dispute with Rome

• Why do you say that washing someone in the name of Christ outside the Church is no baptism at all?
• How can a heretic or schismatic give the Holy Spirit if they don't have the Spirit themselves?
• What's wrong with Stephen of Rome's argument that converts should simply be received with a laying on of hands?
• What do you mean when you say custom without truth is the antiquity of error?
• If you disagreed so sharply with Stephen, how did you keep the peace among bishops who saw it differently?

Persecution, Flight, and the Crown of Martyrdom

• How do you justify withdrawing from Carthage during the Decian persecution rather than staying to face arrest?
• What's the difference between a bishop who flees to protect his flock and one who simply abandons them?
• Why do you say martyrdom should be awaited rather than actively sought out?
• What made you insist on confessing before your own people in Carthage rather than being taken to Utica?
• How does the idea of martyrdom as a second baptism relate to your teaching on penance and the lapsed?

Pastoral Care, Prayer, and the World Grown Old

• What does the Lord's Prayer teach us about how Christians should pray together?
• How do works and alms cleanse sins committed after baptism?
• How did you console your congregation when plague was killing Christians and pagans alike?
• What did you mean when you told the pagan critic Demetrianus that the world itself has grown old?
• Why did you think patience was a virtue that needed its own treatise for a church under pressure?

Converse with Cyprian of Carthage on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Cyprian of Carthage's own writing, cited to the page.