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During the first centuries of the Christian era, North Africa, from its large, cosmopolitan cities to its most remote rural areas, proved to be an especially fertile ground for the Christian Gospel. Three of the greatest Christian figures of this time were North African. In this article, we will discover the life of Cyprian, the greatest bishop of Carthage.
Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus was born in Carthage, around 210, in a wealthy family of Amazigh origins. As a young man, he studied law, became a lawyer, and taught rhetoric. Before his conversion, he was known as an influential member of a Carthaginian legal fraternity.
He became a Christian around 35 years of age. After his baptism, he sold his house and gave the money to the poor, following church teaching for rich believers. His friends were so impressed by this that they bought back the house and returned it to him.
Two years after his conversion, around 248, the bishop of Carthage died and Cyprian was chosen to succeed him. He originally refused, as he saw himself as unworthy of this responsibility, but then finally accepted. While he was very popular with the faithful, the Carthaginian clergy disapproved the nomination of a recent convert, who hadn’t served with them for many years. They would continue to oppose him during his episcopate. Despite this, Cyprian became one of the most influential bishops of his time.
Shortly after his nomination, persecution broke out: the new Emperor Decius ordered all his subjects to sacrifice to the Roman gods, leaving Christians the choice between denying their faith or martyrdom. Cyprian went into hiding, while still writing letters encouraging the believers to stand firm in their faith. When accused of being a coward, he argued that he hadn’t fled to save his own life, but so that the believers would not remain without a shepherd in the middle of persecution.
After each wave of persecution, the Christian church was faced with a difficult decision: what should be done of the lapsi (“fallen”), the believers who had given in to pressure and denied their faith, but who now regretted it and wished to be restored by the church? To find an agreement, Cyprian decided to convene a church council, bringing together all the bishops in Roman Africa to discuss this issue. The council chose a middle way between the more lenient party, who wished to immediately restore the lapsi as soon as they repented, and the intransigent party, who refused any possibility of restoration: the lapsi would need to undergo a longer or shorter time of penance, during which their bishop would follow up with them, to make sure that they were sincere. This decision allowed Cyprian and the other bishops to manage each situation on a case by case basis. Cyprian specifically insisted on the distinction between those who recanted to save their life, their family, or to escape torture, and those who sacrificed to the idols of their own free will, while they were not in danger. The council also ruled that those who repented and were restored would never again be allowed to have responsibilities in the church.
At this time, groups of Christians who disagreed with Cyprian, on the lapsi or on other issues, started meeting outside the official church. For Cyprian, those schismatics broke the unity of the Church and thus separated themselves from the truth, as he wrote in one of his main books, On the unity of the Church : “Nobody can have God as a father if he does not also have the Church as a mother.” For this reason, he chose to re-baptize believers who left those independent churches to join the established church, because he believed that baptisms administered outside the established church were invalid. On this issue, he got in conflict with bishop Stephen of Rome, who held the view that those believers were already baptized and thus could be immediately admitted into the established church. Cyprian defended his position firmly, both out of doctrinal conviction and because he refused to let another bishop impinge on his prerogatives.
Cyprian’s position on this issue is based on his understanding of the Church as a sacred institution established by Christ himself, from which one could not separate oneself without incurring God’s wrath. He did not distinguish the universal Church, composed of all believers worldwide, and the institutional church, with its bishops and administrative structures. Cyprian’s teaching remains fundamental to Catholic theology today.
Cyprian also played a major role in church institutionalization: while before, Christian churches were rather informal assemblies where every member could contribute according to his gifts, Cyprian put in place a hierarchy and structured administration, strongly inspired from Roman administration, with at its head the bishop, seen as Christ’s representative. However, Cyprian strongly believed in the autonomy of the church in every city and region: he saw all bishops as equals and believed none of them had authority over others, not even the bishop of a great city like Carthage over other African bishops. His conflict with Stephen of Rome shows that he would have refused any claim by the bishop of the imperial capital to the status of universal bishop.
Apart from persecution, Cyprian’s episcopate was marked by another major crisis: the plague. While the population of Carthage and the whole Empire was decimated, Cyprian and the Christians in the city were helping the sick, whether they were Christian or not. Cyprian also wrote a book, On mortality, to explain why God allows men to be hit by such epidemics. Cyprian’s behavior during the plague contributed a lot to his popularity.
By the end of 256, persecution started again. Cyprian appeared before the Roman proconsul, and refused to deny his faith by sacrificing to idols. He was exiled to Curubis (Korba), from where he continued to encourage and comfort the faithful. After one year, he was allowed to return to Carthage, only to be imprisoned in his own house. Finally, after a new imperial edict ordering the execution of all Christian bishops was published, he was condemned to be beheaded, and publicly executed on 14 September 258. A large crowd had come together for his execution, to honor him. Before he died, he gave 25 gold coins to his executioner.
