Out ofWhich There is no Ordinary Possibility of Salvation
The enemy is more to be feared and to be guarded against, when he creeps on us secretly; when, deceiving by the appearance of peace, he steals forward by hidden approaches, whence also he has received the name of the Serpent.4 That is always his subtlety; that is his dark and stealthy artifice for circumventing man. Thus from (he very beginning of the world he deceived; and flattering with lying words, he misled inexperienced souls by an incautious credulity.
Cyprian, The Unity of the Church
We have observed in the past few weeks that two of the great trials the Church has faced since the beginning are persecution from without, and heresy within. Today we will consider a third danger which has often beset the church: schism. What is the difference between heresy and schism?
Three individuals stand out in the third century church: Origen, the most creative and productive theologian of his day; Tertullian, the great apologist and orator; and Cyprian, the very model of a bishop. The quality of the man was most visibly demonstrated in his persistent response to the schism that tore at the church during his lifetime.
Novatian
The Church had been at peace for 38 years when the emperor Decian issued a new edict of persecution in 250AD. During this persecution, Fabian, bishop of Rome, was martyred.
In the absence of an ordained bishop, one of the deacons, a man named Novatian carried on much of the correspondence with the other churches.
Novatian was orthodox in his theology, but he was very harsh in matters of church discipline. He held that failure to confess Christ before men was unpardonable. He was willing to admit lapsari back into the Church only on the basis of a lifelong penance during which they were barred from Communion. It was possible that they might be forgiven by God, but he did not believe there was any basis for declaring that forgiveness in the world.
When the persecution relaxed in 251, the Roman church elected Cornelius as Fabian’s successor by a overwhelming majority. Some days later, Novatian set himself up as anti-pope with the support of a small number of presbyters and deacons who followed his rigorous approach to the lapsed and a number of the confessors. Both parties immediately dispatched messengers to the other bishops announcing their election to the episcopate.
The sect he established continued until at least the seventh century.
Cyprian
We know little of Cyprian’s life prior to his conversion. He seems to have been wealthy and educated, but his friend and biographer, the deacon Pontius, chooses to restrict his information to the glories of life in Christ. He tells us that Cyprian was received as a presbyter almost immediately following his conversion though he regarded himself as being unworthy of the honour.
He was a great admirer of Tertullian, but in his own writings shows a very different character than that of Tertullian.
Retired into the desert during the Decian persecution but continued to pastor his flock and lead the Carthaginian clergy by way of a series of epistles. Many of these epistles deal specifically with the question of how and when the lapsed are to be restored.
Cyprian attempted to articulate a plan of restoration for the lapsed that avoided the problems of lax discipline while still doing justice to the grace of God.
He patiently (and successfully) exhorted those in the Roman church who had followed the party of Novatian to return to the rightly constituted church. His 43rd epistle is a characteristic sample of his demeanor toward them:
Cyprian to Maximus and Nicostratus, and the other confessors, greeting. As you have frequently gathered from my letters, beloved, what honour I have ever observed in my mode of speaking for your confession, and what love for the associated brotherhood; believe, I entreat you, and acquiesce in these my letters, wherein I both write and with simplicity and fidelity consult for you, and for your doings, and for your praise. For it weighs me down and saddens me, and the intolerable grief of a smitten, almost prostrate, spirit seizes me, when I find that you there, contrary to ecclesiastical order, contrary to evangelical law, contrary to the unity of the Catholic institution, had consented that another bishop should be made.2 That is what is neither right nor allowable to be done; that another church should be set up; that Christ's members should be torn asunder; that the one mind and body of the Lord's flock should be lacerated by a divided emulation. I entreat that in you, at all events, that unlawful rending of our brotherhood may not continue; but remembering both your confession and the divine tradition, you may return to the Mother whence you have gone forth; whence you came to the glory of confession with the rejoicing of the same Mother. And think not that you are thus maintaining the Gospel of Christ when you separate yourselves from the flock of Christ, and from His peace and concord; since it is more fitting for glorious and good soldiers to sit down within their own camp, and so placed within to manage and provide for those things which are to be dealt with in common. For as our unanimity and concord ought by no means to be divided, and because we cannot forsake the Church and go outside her to come to you, we beg and entreat you with what exhortations we can, rather to return to the Church your Mother, and to our brotherhood. I bid you, dearest brethren, ever heartily farewell.
-- From http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-05/anf05-68.htm#P5457_1665624Persecution resumed under Valerian in 258 AD. Cyprian was beheaded during this persecution, becoming the first Carthaginian bishop to attain the crown of martyrdom.
His great treatise on the topic of schism is titled On the Unity of the Church.
It was written to guard the Carthaginians against the seduction of the Novatianists.
In it his argument is that schism is a greater danger than persecution, for by it the enemy deceives those who are still in darkness into believing that they have come into the light. From Matthew 16 he suggests that one cannot hold to the faith who resists the Church. The Church is one because it proceeds from one source, namely Christ. The Lord allows heresy and schism in His Church that the ability of His people to discern the truth might be developed and so that those who are a danger to the Church might be put out of it. He makes numerous appeals to Scripture, particularly Paul’s instructions regarding unity and the cases of various rebels in the Old Testament.
One of they key passages to which Cyprian appeals is Matthew 16:13-20. This passage and Cyprian’s early use of it figure heavily in the Romanist argument for papal supremacy.
13Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" 14And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock[2] I will build my church, and the gates of hell[3] shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed[4] in heaven." 20Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.Three different opinions have been offered regarding Christ’s declaration “on this rock I will build my church”. None have at any time enjoyed unanimous support in the Church.
The phrase refers to Christ himself. This view has a fairly early origin. It appeals to the predominant use of the rock metaphor in the Old Testament and in Christ’s own preaching. However, it does not do justice to its context. It fails to deal with the pun on Peter’s name or the promise of the keys.
The phrase refers to Peter’s confession of Christ. This was the view of both Luther and Calvin. Calvin regarded it as so obvious that it required no proof. It has been the predominant view among protestants, but it has comparatively little support prior to the Reformation.
The third view is that which Cyprian himself takes. The rock refers to Peter. The naming statement is to be regarded as similar to other name changes (Abram - Abraham, Jacob -Israel, Saul – Paul) indicating God’s granting of a new identity and character to the recipient.
The primary argument against this from the text itself is that Jesus switches from the masculine petros when addressing Peter to the feminine petra in talking about the rock on which He will build His Church. This argument is easily dismissed. In using the word as a name, it would be necessary for it to agree with the gender of the one to whom it was applied, but in using it as a substantive it is proper to revert to its natural gender.
Even taking Cyprian’s view as the correct one, no argument from it can be established for papal supremacy. Paul and John elsewhere refer to all the apostles as the foundation of the Church. Peter willingly submits himself to a council of the Church. Paul publicly rebukes Peter for sin. Beyond that, Christ says nothing of any sort of individual succession where Peter’s honour is concerned.
Cyprian clearly did not see it as an argument for papal supremacy. In his dealings with Cornelius, Cyprian consistently treats him as an equal. When rebuked by Stephen, bishop of Rome, regarding differences over the rebaptism of heretics, Cyprian appealed to bishops in the East. Along with the correspondence related to the question at hand, he sent this treatise. We know nothing of the matter following that. It appears that Rome, perceiving the Eastern churches to be committed to the same practice as Cyprian, simply allowed the matter to drop. Following the death of Cyprian, however, Northern Africa fairly quickly came into line with Western practice.
In one of the great ironies of history, the Donatists appealed to Cyprian’s letters on the subject of rebaptism to justify their own schism.
Deal with Ephesians 2:20, Rev 21 if necessary
We will return to the argument about papal supremacy as it becomes a concern particularly following the decline of the empire in the west.
Other random notes
His 58th epistle deals with the question of whether it is lawful to baptise an infant before the eighth day after it is born. This is significant in that it demonstrates that the connection between circumcision and baptism was recognised very early on. The first controversy surrounding baptism is not whether or not infants should be baptised, but how quickly. That this should be so indicates that infant baptism was already a universal practice.
Discussion Questions
See epistle 31, 40 maybe
Are there contemporary schismatics?
What shall we make of Rome’s insistence that we are schismatics?
Can an individual evidence a schismatic attitude?
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