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218 a teacher of rhetoric ("in tantam gloriam venit eloquentiae ut oratoriam quoque doceret Carthagini," Hieron. Comm. Jon. c. 3, and cf. Aug. Serm. 312, § 4). It is not quite clear what is meant by Jerome in speaking of him as a former "adsertor idololatriae," and Augustine as "having decorated the crumbling doctrines of demons." His style is very polished, and, as Augustine points out, became more simple and beautiful with time, and (as his critic believed) with the purer taste of Christianity. He edited for Christians the phraseological dictionary of Cicero (see Hartel's praef. ad fin.). His systematic habits and powers of business contributed greatly to his success as the first of church organizers. His address was dignified, conciliatory, affectionate; his looks attractive by their grave joyousness. He never assumed the philosopher's pall, which Tertullian his "master" maintained to be the only dress for Christians; he thought its plainness pretentious. Augustine speaks of the tradition of his gentleness, and he never lost the friendship of heathens of high rank (Pont. 14). He was wealthy, his landed property considerable, and his house and gardens beautiful (Pont. Vit. ad Don. i. xv. xvi.).

His conversion was then important in the series of men of letters and law who were at this time added to the church, and who so markedly surpass in style and culture their heathen contemporaries. Pearson rightly sets aside the inference of Baronius (from De Dei gratia) that Cyprian was old at his conversion, but that he was so seems to be stated, however obscurely, by Pontius (c. 2, "adhuc rudis fidei et cui nondum forsitan crederetur supergressus vetustatis actatem"). Christian doctrines, especially that of regeneration, had previously excited his wonder, but not his derision (ad Don. iii. iv.). He was converted by an aged presbyter, Caecilian. During his catechesis he analysed and conversed with the circle about him on Scripture Lives, devoted himself to chastity, and sold some estates and distributed the proceeds to the poor. He composed, in his Quod Idola dii non sint, a Christian assault on Polytheism, freely compiling the 1st and 2nd sections of his tract from Minucius, § 20‒27, § 18, § 32, and his 3rd section from Tertullian's Apology, § 21‒23, with some traces of Tert. de Anima naturaliter Christiana. A comparison of this pamphlet with the originals well illustrates his ideal of style. He mainly retains the very language, but erases whatever seemed rugged, ambiguous, or strained. He maintains a historical kernel of mythology, points out the low character of indigenous Roman worship; illustrates the activity of deluding daemons from the scenes at exorcisms, of which, however, he scarcely seems (as Tertullian does) to have been an eyewitness. He contrasts this with the doctrine of Divine unity, which he describes nobly, but illustrates infelicitously. The history of Judaism, its rejection of its Messiah, and the effects which Christianity is producing in the individual and commencing on society bring him to his new standpoint. He is perhaps the first writer who uses the continuous sufferings of believers as evidence of their credibility. This restatement and co-ordination of previous arguments was probably not ineffective, but as yet Cyprian exhibits no conception that Christianity is to be a world-regenerating power. He deliberately excludes providence from history (Quod Id. v.).

At the Easter following, the season most observed in Africa for this purpose, he was probably baptized, and to the autumn after we refer the ad Donatum, a monologue, a brief Tusculan held in his own villa, on The Grace of God. It already exhibits Cyprian not as a spiritual analyst or subtle theologian, but irrefragable in his appeals to the distinctly New Life which has appeared in the world, amid the contemporary degradations—the repudiation of the responsibility of wealth, the disruption of the client-bond, the aspect of the criminal classes, the pauperization of the mass, and the systematic corruption by theatre and arena. For the present, however, withdrawal from the world into Christian circles is the only remedy in which he can hope. "Divine Grace" is an ascertained psychological fact, and this, though as yet narrow in application, is the subject of the treatise.

He soon after sold, for the benefit of the poor, his horti, which some wealthy friends bought up afterwards and presented to him again. Meantime he resided with Caecilian. We can only understand the expression of Pontius (who lived similarly as a deacon with Cyprian), "erat sane illi etiam de nobis contubernium . . . Caeciliani," to mean that he was at that time "of our body," the diaconate. We find other instances of the closeness of this bond. Baronius and Bp. Fell are equally inexcusable in understanding what is said of Caecilian's family and of Job's wife as having any bearing upon the question of Cyprian's celibacy. There is no indication of his having been married. Caecilian at his death commended his family to him, although not as officially curator or tutor, which would have contradicted both Christian and Roman usage.

His Ordination.—His activity while a member of the ordo or concessus of presbyters is noticed, but he was yet a neophyte when he became bishop. The step was justified on the ground of his exceptional character, but the opposition organized by five presbyters was now and always a serious difficulty to him. The Plebes would listen to no refusal, and frustrated an attempt to escape. He subsequently rests his title (Ep. 43, Ep. 66, Vit.) on their suffrages, and on the "judicium Dei," with the consensus of his fellow bishops. In ordinary cases he treats the election by neighbour bishops as necessary to a valid episcopate (Ep. 57, v.; Ep. 59, vii.; Ep. 66). From this time Cyprian is usually addressed both by others and by the Roman clergy as Papa, though the title is not attributed to the bp. of Rome until long after. An earlier instance of the use of the name occurs at Alexandria, but probably the first application of the name is traceable to Carthage. Some time between July 248 and April 249 Cyprian became bishop, a few months before the close of the "thirty years' peace" of the church.

His Theory of the Episcopal Office seems to have been his own already, and as it supplies the key to his conception of church government may be stated at once. The episcopate 