What has further to be said of St. Cyprian is reserved for the second part of the Volume, which will contain his Letters. It shall only be added here, that he was converted to the Christian faith about A. D. 246, consecrated A. D. 248, and martyred A.D. 258. The Life of St. Cyprian, by Pontius his Deacon. CYPRIAN, that religious Priest and glorious Witness of God, composed many works, whereby may survive the memory of so worthy a name; the abundant fecundity of his eloquence, and of God's grace in him, so widely spread itself in copiousness and richness of speech, that perchance even to the end of the world he will speak on; and yet, forasmuch as his works and merits claim as a right that they should become an example to us in writing, it has seemed good to draw up this brief summary of it; not as if the life of so great a man were unknown to any of the heathen, but that even to our posterity may be handed on his singular and high example unto an immortal memory. Certainly it were hard, when even laymen and catechumens, who have obtained martyrdom, have been honoured by our forefathers for their very martyrdom's sake,. with a record of many, nay of all details of their passion, in order to our acquaintance with it who were yet unborn, hard were it to pass over Cyprian's passion, so great a Priest and so great a Martyr, who even over and above his martyrdom had lessons to teach; and hard again to hide the deeds which he did in his life. Those in truth were such, so great and wonderful, as to deter me by the very contemplation of their greatness, and to urge me to a confession of my incapacity to do justice to my subject, or to represent his high deeds in correspondent terms, except that the multitude of his achievements tells its own tale without heralding from others. It has to be added, that you too are longing to hear much, or, if possible, the whole concerning him, having a burning desire at least to know his deeds, though his word of mouth be silent. In which respect to say that I am deficient in the resources of eloquence, is to say little. Eloquence itself fails of the means of fully satisfying your longing. Thus we are sorely pressed on either side; by the weight of his excellences, by the importunity of your entreaties. 246. 2. From what shall I commence? where enter upon his A. D. excellences, but from faith as a first principle, and from his heavenly birth? considering that the deeds of a man of God should be reckoned from no other point than that of his being born of God. He might have employments before it, and a heart engaged and imbued with liberal arts; still I pass over all this, as up to this date tending merely to advantage of this life. But after he had learned sacred knowledge and had emerged out of the clouds of this world into the light of spiritual wisdom, whatever I was witness to, whatever I have discovered of his preferable works, I will relate; with the request that those deficiencies of my narrative, which I feel will occur, should be charged upon my ignorance rather than on his fame. tism. 3. While he was yet in the rudiments of his faith, he felti. e. before Bapthat nothing was more fitting towards God than the observance of continence; for the breast became what it should be, and the understanding reached the full capacity of truth, when the lust of the flesh was trampled on with the healthy and unimpaired vigour of sanctity. Who has ever recorded such a marvel? the second birth had not yet given eyes to the new man in the full radiance of divine light, yet he was now conquering the old and previous darkness by the mere outskirts of that light. Next, what is greater still, when he had gained from Scripture certain lessons not according to the measure of his noviciate but with the rapidity of faith, he at once e S. Gregory Nazianzen, in his oration in praise of S. Cyprian, (Orat. 18.) states, that before his conversion he was addicted to magical arts, which he made use of against a Christian female, named Justina, of whom he was enamoured; that she however betook herself to Christ and St. Mary, and the attempt ended in his burning his books, and professing Christianity. Fell rejects the account altogether as a mere fiction, (Monit. in Conf. S. Cypr.); Maranus, the Benedictine Editor, (in vit.) and Tillemont refer it to a Cyprian, i. 3. appropriated to himself what he there read to be profitable in meriting of the Lord. Diverting his property to the maintenance of the indigent, and distributing whole estates in money, he secured two benefits at once, both renouncing the pursuit of this world, than which nothing is more pernicious, and observing mercy;-mercy, which God has preferred even to His sacrifices, in which even he failed who said that he had kept all the commandments of the law, and by which with an vid. infra anticipating haste of piety, he arrived at perfection almost before he had learned how. Who, let me ask, of the ancients, has done this? who of the most esteemed elders in the faith, whose minds and ears have through ever so many years been assailed by the words divine, ventured any thing such as he, this man of an unformed faith and perchance unrecognized profession, did achieve, surpassing the old time by glorious and admirable works? No one reaps as soon as he has sowed. None treads out the vintage from a young plantation. None yet ever sought ripe fruit of bushes freshly planted. In him all things incredible met together. In him the threshing anticipated, (if it can be said, for the thing surpasses belief,) anticipated, I say, the sowing; the vintage the tendril; the fruit, the firm root. 1 Tim. 3, 6. 4. The Epistle of the Apostle says, that novices should be passed by; lest the drowsiness of heathenism hanging on the scarcely rallied senses, unlearned freshness might offend in aught against God. He was the first, and, I suppose, the sole instance, that greater progress is made by faith than by time. That Eunuch indeed in the Acts of the Apostles is described as being baptized at once by Philip, because he believed with his whole heart; but the parallel does not hold. For the one was both a Jew, and in his way from the Lord's Temple was reading the Prophet Isaiah, and had hope in Christ, though he thought Him not yet come; the other, coming of the unlearned heathen, had as ripe a faith at first, as few perhaps have at last. In a word, there was no delay in his case as to i.e. Bap- the grace of God, no postponement. I have said too little : tism. S. Cyprian himself attributes his change of heart and life to his baptism; and while confessing with Pontius" to sin no more has come of faith," declares also, "after that lifegiving water succoured me, what was dark began to shine, what seemed impossible, now could be achieved." i. 3. 247. he forthwith received the Presbyterate and Priesthood. A.D. Who indeed would not commit all the ranks of honour to such a mind believing? Many are the things he did when yet a layman, many when a Presbyter, many after the example of just men of old, with a close imitation, earning of the Lord, and surrendering himself to all the duties of religion. And whenever he read of any one who had been mentioned with praise by God, this was his ordinary advice, that we should inquire on account of what deeds he had pleased God. If Job, glorious by the testimony of God, is called a true worshipper of God, one to whom no one might be compared on earth, he taught that "one ought to do whatever Job had done before; that, while we too do the same, we may obtain the same testimony of God upon ourselves. Job, despising the ruin of his estate, was so strong in practised virtue, as not to feel even temporal losses of his benevolence. Penury broke him not, nor grief, neither his wife's prayers, nor his bodily sufferings shook his resolution. Virtue remained fixed in her own home; and resignation established upon deep foundations, was moved by no assault of the devil who tempted, from blessing his Lord with a thankful faith even amid adversity. His house was open to any one who came. No widow returned with her lap empty; nor blind, but was guided by him as a companion; nor feeble in step, but was lifted by him as by a carrier; nor helpless under the hand of the powerful, but had him for a champion. These things," he used to say, "must they do who would please God"." And thus running through the specimens of all good men, while he ever imitated the best, he set forth himself also for imitation. 5. He had an intimacy with one among us, a just and memorable man, by name Cæcilius', a Presbyter both by age and order, who had converted him from his wanderings in this world to the acknowledgment of the true divinity: him he loved with full honour and all observance, looking up to him with dutiful veneration, not merely as the friend and brother of his soul, but as though the parent of his new life. it This passage does not occur in any of S. Cyprian's extant Treatises; resembles them in style. f S. Cyprian, adopted as a Christian name, the name of one to whom he owed A.D. 248. And so it was that Cæcilius, comforted by such attentions, was led, and reasonably, to such a fulness of affection, that, on departing from this world, when his summons was near, he commended to him his wife and children, and thus, from making him a member of his communion, in the event made him the heir of his affection. It were long to go through details; it were a toil to enumerate his holy deeds. 6. For evidence of his good works, I suppose this is enough, that by the judgment of God and the good will of the people, he was chosen for the office of the Priesthood, and the rank of the Episcopate, while yet a neophyte, and, as was considered, a novice". Although still in the first days of his faith, and in the rudimental season of his spiritual life, in such sort did his noble disposition shine out, that, resplendent in the brightness at least of hope, though not of office, he promised a full performance of the duties of the priesthood, which was coming on him. Nor will I pass over that special circumstance, how, while the whole people, God influencing, poured itself out in love and honour of him, he on the other hand humbly withdrew himself, yielding to older men, and deeming himself unworthy of the title of such honour, whereby he became the more worthy. For he is but made more worthy, who declines what he deserves. With such emotion was the excited people at that time agitated, longing with spiritual desire, as the event proves, not a Bishop merely; but in him who had hid himself, and whom it was by a divine presage so demanding, seeking, not a Priest only, but a Martyr to come. A numerous brotherhood had beset the doors of his house; solicitous love poured itself around all the approaches. What befel the Apostle might then perhaps have been granted to him, as he wished it, to be let down through a window; had he already shared with the Apostle the honour of ordination. One might see all others to Clerics, however, "by the Canons of the African Church, could not become trustees to the property of their brethren, on the ground that they were bound serve nought but the altar and sacrifice, and to keep their time for supplications and prayers." Fell in Cypr. Epist. 1. vid. Conc. Carthag. A. D. 348. The same rule may be alluded to in Treatise vi.4.infra. "Numerous Bishops, despising their sacred calling, engaged themselves in secular vocations," "divinâ procuratione contemptâ, procuratores rerum secularium fieri." h Vid. 1 Tim. iii. 6. S. Ambrose, Nectarius, Eusebius of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, and others, were made Bishops under the same circumstances. |