Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/663

 CYPRIAN

585

CYPRIAN

mi (ion, and the whole council was to await their re- turn — such was the importance of a papal election. Meantime another message arrived with the news that Novatian, the most eminent among the Roman cIiTgjf, had been made pope. Happily two African prelates, Pompeius and Stephanus, who had been present at the election of Cornelius, arrived also, and were able to testify that he had been validly set "in the place of Peter", when as yet there was no other claimant. It was thus possible to reply to the re- crimination of Novatian's envoys, and a short letter was sent to Rome, explaining the discussion which had taken place in the council. Soon afterwards came the report of Caldonius and Fortunatus together with a letter from Cornelius, in which the latter com- plained somewhat of the delay in recognizing him. Cyprian wrote to Cornelius explaining his prudent conduct. He adtled a letter to the confessors who were the main support of the antipope, leaving it to Cornelius whether it should be delivered or no. He sent also copies of his two treatises, " De U nitate "and "De Lapsis" (this had been composed by him imme- diately after the other"), and he wishes the confessors to read these in order that they may understand what a fearful thing is schism. It is in this copy of the "De Unitate" that Cyprian appears most probably to have added in the margin all alternative version of the fourth chapter. The original passage, as found in most MSS. and as printed in Hartel's edition, rims thus:

" If any will consider this, there is no need of a long treatise and of argimients. The Lord saith to Peter: 'I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will buikl Mj- Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it ; to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and what thou shalt have boimd on earth shall be boimd in heaven, and what thou shalt have loosed shall be loosed in heaven.' Upon one He builds His Church, and though to all His Apostles after His resurrection He gives an equal power and says: 'As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you: Receive the Holy Ghost, who.sesoever sins you shall have remitted they shall be remitted unto them, and whose.soever sins you .shall have retained they shall be retained', yet that He might make imity manifest, He disposed the origin of that unity begin- ning from one. The other Apostles were indeed what Peter was, endowed with a like fellowship both of honour and of power, but the commencement pro- ceeds from one, that the Church may be shown to be one. This one Ch\iroh the Holy Ghost in the person of the Lord designates in the Canticle of Canticles, and says. One is My Dove, My perfect one, one is she to her Mother, one to her that bare her. He that holds not this unity of the Church, does he believe that he holds the Faith? He who strives against and resists the Church, is he confident that he is in the Church?" The substituted passage is as follows: "... boimd in heaven. T'pon one He builds His Church, and to the same He says after His resurrection, 'feed My sheep'. And though to all His Apostles He gave an equal power net did He set up one chair, and disposed the origin and nuinnrr of unity by his authority. The other Apostles were indeed what Peter was, but the primary is girrii to Peter, and the Church and the chair is shown to be one. And all are pastors, but the flock U shown to be one, which is fed by all the Apostles with one mind and heart. He who holds not this imity of the Church, does he think that he holds the faith? He who deserts the chair of Peter, upon whom the Church is founded, is he confident that he is in the Church?"

These .alt<-rnative versions are given one after the other in the chief family of MSS. which contains them, while in simie other families tlie two hiivv. been par- tially or wholl}- combined into one. Tlie combine<I Version is the one which has been printed in many edi-

tions, and has played a large part in controversy with Protestants. It is of course spm'ious in this conflated form, but the alternative form given above is not only found in eighth- and ninth-century MSS., but it is quoted by Bede, by Gregory the Great (in a letter written for his predecessor Pelagius II), and by St. Gelasius ; indeed, it was almost certainly known to St. Jerome and St. Optatus in the fourth century. The evidence of the MSS. would indicate an equally early date. Every expression and thought in the passage can be paralleled from St. Cj-prian's habitual language, and it seems to be now generally admitted that this alternative passage is an alteration made by the au- thor himself when forwarding his work to the Roman confessors. The "one chair" is always in Cyprian the episcopal chair, but in Rome that chair was the chair of Peter, and Cyprian has been careful to em- phasize this point, and to add a reference to the other great Petrine text, the Charge in John, x.xi. The as- sertion of the equality of the Apostles as Apostles re- mains, and the omissions are only for the sake of brev- ity. The old contention that it is a Roman forgery is at all events quite out of the question. Another pas- sage is also altered in all the same MSS. which contain the "interpolation"; it is a paragraph in which the humble and pious conduct of the lapsed "on this hand" (hie) is contrasted in along succession of paral- lels with the pride and wickedness of the schismatics "on that hand" (illie), but in the delicate manner of the treatise the latter are only referred to in a general way. In the "interpolated" MSS. we find that the lapsed, whose cause had now been settled by the coun- cil, are "on that hand" (iltic), whereas the references to the schismatics — meaning the Roman confessors who were supporting Novatian, and to whom the book was being sent — are made as pointed as possible, being brought into the foregroimd by the repeated hie, "on this hand".

Nov.\TiANiSM. — The saint's remonstrance had its effect, and the confessors rallied to Cornelius. But for two or three months the confusion throughout the Catholic Church had been terrible. No other event in these early times shows us so clearly the enormous importance of the papacy in East and West. St. Dionysius of .-Vlexandria joined his great influence to that of the Carthaginian primate, and he was very soon able to write that .\ntioch, Ca>sarea, and Jerusa- lem, Tyre and Laodicea, all Cilicia and Cappadocia, Syria and Arabia, Mesopotamia, Pontus, and Bithy- nia, had returned to union and that their bishops were all in concord (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., VII, v). From this we gauge the area of disturbance. Cyprian says that Novatian "assumed the primacy" (Ep. Ixix, 8) and sent out his new apostles to very many cities; and where in all provinces and cities there were long estab- lished, orthodox bishops, tried in persecution, he dared to create new ones to supplant them, as though he could range through the whole world (Ep. Iv, 24). Such was the power assumed by a third-century anti- pope. Let it be remembered that in the first days of the schism no question of heresy was raised and that Novatian only enunciated his refusal of forgiveness to the lapsed after he had made himself pope. Cy- prian's reasons for holding Cornelius to be the true bishop are fully detailed in Ep. Iv to a bishop, who had at first yielded to Cyprian's argtiments and had commissioned him to inform Cornelius that "he now communicated with him, that is with the Catholic Church", but had afterwards wavered. It is evi- dently implied that if he did not communicate with Cornelius he would be outside the Catholic Church. Writing to the pope, Cyprian apologizes for his delay in acknciwlcilging him; he had at lea.st urged all those who sailrd to Rome to make sure that they acknowl- edged and held the womb and root of the Catholic Church (Ep. xlviii, .3). By this is probably meant "the womb and root which is the Catholic Church",