287 ST. CYPRIAN. THASCIUS CECILIUS CYPRIAN was born at Carthage, in the declining part of the foregoing century, though the particular year cannot be ascertained. Who or what his parents were is unknown. Cardinal Baronius (not to mention others) makes him descended of a rich honourable family, and himself to have been one of the chief of the senatorian order;' and this upon the authority of Nazianzen, who indeed affirms it; but then he certainly forgot that in very few lines before he had exploded as a fabulous mistake, the confounding our Cyprian with another of the same name, of whom Nazianzen unquestionably meant it. For besides our Carthaginian Cyprian, there was another born at Antioch, a person of great learning and eminency, who travelled through Greece, Phrygia, Egypt, India, Chaldea, &c. famous for the study and the arts of magic, by which he sought to compass the affections of Justina, a noble Chris ' Ad Ann. 250, n. v. vid. not. ad, Martyrol. Rom. Sept. 26, p. 600. Orat. in laud. S. Cypr. p. 275. tian virgin at Antioch. By her prayers and endeavours he was converted, baptized, made first sexton, then deacon of that church, was endued with miraculous powers, and afterwards consecrated bishop of that church, and at last having been miserably tormented at Antioch, was sent to Dioclesian himself then at Nicomedia, by whose command, together with Justina, sent thither, also at the same time from Damascus, he was beheaded. To prove that our Cyprian was not he described by Nazianzen, were a vain and needless attempt, the accounts concerning them being so vastly different, both as to their country, education, manner of life, episcopal charge, the time, place, and companions of their death, that it is plainly impossible to reconcile them. But of this enough. St. Cyprian's education was ingenuous, polished by study and the liberal arts,' though principally he addicted himself to the study of oratory and eloquence, wherein he made such vast improvements, that publicly and with great applause he taught rhetoric at Carthage. All which time he lived in great pomp and plenty, in honour and power, his garb splendid, his retinue stately; never going abroad (as himself tells us) but he was thronged with a crowd of clients and followers.3 The far greatest part of his life he passed among the errors of the Gentile religion, and was at least upon the borders of old age when he was rescued from the vassalage of inveterate customs, the darkness of idolatry, and the errors and vices of his past Pont. Diac. in Vit. Cypr. non longe ab init. 2 Hier. descript. in Cypriano. 3 Ad Donat. Epist. i. p. 2. life, as himself intimates in his epistle to Donatus.' He was converted to Christianity by the arguments and importunities of Cæcilius a presbyter of Carthage, a person whom ever after he loved as a friend, and reverenced as a father.2 And so mutual an endearment was there between them, that Cyprian in honour to him assumed the title of Cæcilius; and the other at his death made him his executor, and committed his wife and children to his sole care and tutelage. Being yet a catechumen he gave early instances of a great and generous piety; professed a strict and severe temperance and sobriety, accounting it one of the best preparations for the entertainment of the truth, to subdue and tread down all irregular appetites and inclinations. His estate, at least the greatest part of it, he sold, and distributed among the necessities of the poor, at once triumphing over the love of the world, and exercising that great duty of mercy and charity, which God values above all the ritual devotions in the world, So that by the speedy progress of his piety (says Pontius his friend and deacon) he became almost a perfect Christian, before he had learned the rules of Christianity. Being fully instructed in the rudiments of the Christian faith, he was baptized, when the mighty assistances which he received from above, perfectly dispelled all doubts, enlightened all obscurities, and enabled him with ease to do things, which before he looked upon as impossible to be discharged. Not long after, he was called to the inferior ecclesiastic offices, and then advanced to the degree of presbyter, wherein he so admirably behaved himself, that he was quickly summoned to the highest order and honour in the church. Donatus his immediate predecessor in the see of Carthage (as his own words seem to imply1) being dead, the general vogue both of clergy and people (Felicissimus the presbyter and some very few of his party only dissenting) was for Cyprian to succeed him. But the great modesty and humility of the man made him fly from the first approaches of the news: he thought himself unfit for so weighty and honourable an employment, and therefore desired that a more worthy person, and some of his seniors in the faith might possess the place. His declining it did but set so much the keener an edge upon the desires and expectations of the people; his doors were immediately crowded, and all passages of escape blocked up; he would indeed have fled out at the window, but finding it in vain, he unwillingly yielded, the people in the meanwhile impatiently waiting, divided between hope and fear, till seeing him come forth, they received him with an universal joy and satisfaction. This charge he entered upon ann. 248, as himself plainly intimates, when in his letter to Cornelius he tells him he had been four years bishop of Carthage which epistle was written not long after the beginning of Cornelius's pontificate, ann. 251. The entrance upon his care and government was calm and peaceable, but he had not been long in it before a storm overtook him, and upon what occa Epist. lv. p. 82. 3 P. Diac. p. 12. 2 Ib. xl. p. 53. sion I know not, he was publicly proscribed by the name of Cæcilius Cyprian, bishop of the Christians, and every man commanded not to hide or conceal his goods. And not satisfied with this, they frequently called out, that he might be thrown to the lions.' So that being warned by a divine admonition and command from God, (as he pleads for himself,) and lest by his resolute defiance of the public sentence he should provoke his adversaries to fall more severely upon the whole church, he thought good at present to withdraw himself, hoping that malice would cool and die, and the fire go out when the fuel that kindled it was taken away.3 During this recess, though absent in body, yet was he present in spirit, supplying the want of his presence by letters, (whereof he wrote no less than thirty-eight,) by pious counsels, grave admonitions, frequent reproofs, earnest exhortations, and especially by hearty prayers to heaven for the welfare and prosperity of the church. That which created him the greatest trouble, was the case of the lapsed, whom some presbyters, without the knowledge and consent of the bishop, rashly admitted to the communion of the church upon very easy terms. Cyprian, a stiff asserter of ecclesiastic discipline, and the rights of his place, would not brook this, but by several letters not only complained of it, but endeavoured to reform it, not sparing the martyrs themselves, who presuming upon their great merits in the cause of religion, took upon them to give libels of peace to the Epist. lxix. p. 117; Ep. Iv. p. 80. Vid. Pont. de vit. Cypr. p. 12. Epist. ix. p. 22. 4 Loc. citat. 3 Ep. xiv. p. 27. |