²⁶Dio Cassius (lx. p. 669) speaks of Claudius as not expelling the Jews, but only forbidding them to assemble. Probably this was an earlier measure not found sufficiently effective. The expulsion of the "Mathematici" about the same time (Tacitus, Ann. xii. 52) implies a general alarm as to the spread of "Eastern superstitions."

²⁷Still later a Syriac MS. purchased for the University of Cambridge was found to contain a trans. of these two epistles. This has been ed. with notes and a facsimile plate by R. L. Bensley (Camb. Univ. Press).

²⁸ The full title is given at the close of Books i. iii. v.: τῶν κατὰ τὴν ἀληθῆ φιλοσοφίαν γνωστικῶν ὑπομνηάτων στρωματεῖς.

²⁹Bunsen (Anal. Ante-Nic. i. pp. 163 f.) arranges the contents of the books very differently. The evidence is slight; but it does not appear from Photius that the Gospels formed the subject of special annotation, and Bunsen makes the third book Commentarius in Evangelia.

³⁰In one place (xix. 3) H., having quoted some sayings of our Lord, makes the slip of referring to these as "Scripture." It thus clearly appears that the author used written gospels to which he ascribed the authority of Scripture.

³¹For a careful judgment of Eusebius's Life of Constantine, Heinichen's 23rd Meletema may be consulted (vol. iii. p. 754). Cf. also de Broglie, L’Eglise et l’Empire, vol, iii, p. 39.

³²Mr. Whymper has given a good picture of such a phenomenon observed by him after the fatal accident on the first ascent of the Matterhorn (Scrambles amongst the Alps, London, 1871, p. 399).

³³The bishop alone is called sacerdos throughout the Cyprianic correspondence. The presbyter also answers to the Levitic tribe; each congregation (diocese) to "the congregation of Israel."

³⁴Lipsius has shewn conclusively that the consecration of Cornelius was about Mar. 5 (Chronol. d. römischen Bischöfe, p. 18); the usual statement that it was in June introduces endless contradictions into the common account, and has obliged even Pearson to resort to unmanageable hypotheses of long recesses in the first council of Carthage and of several journeys of Novatus to Rome.

³⁵This absence of Cyprian from the trial of his opponent solves difficulties otherwise insoluble. Pearson and Tillemont attribute to the council various adjournments, partly to dispose of the long period required by their false date for Cornelius's election, and partly to give room for the visit to Hadrumetum. Frequenter acto (Ep. 59, xvi.) means largely attended, not, as Pearson and Tillemont, assembled again and again. Lipsius has ingeniously conjectured, to meet the second difficulty, that the council empowered Cyprian to recognize Cornelius after their dissolution, if he were satisfied. But the council, before breaking up, were abundantly satisfied, and directed him to be acknowledged (Ep. 45). So that it is out of the question that afterwards Cyprian should have gone to Hadrumetum and suspended its correspondence with Cornelius.

³⁶It may here clear some difficulties in Cyprian's letters which Maran and others have confused, if we observe that Stephen and Pompey left Rome before Novatian's consecration. It is clear from the sensation they produced that the Novatianist embassy brought the first news of it. The council could "refute and repel" its charges, because, though they had not received (expectavimus) their own commissioner's report (as Maran, V. Cyp. lxi., erroneously), they had been satisfied by Stephen's. Hence supervenerunt, 44 i. (1), means 'came on the top of our expectancy,' not "came after the Novatianist embassy." The council could not as they did, have excommunicated the embassy at once, if up till then they had only received Cornelius's letters, of which they were seeking ratification.

³⁷There is no reason to suppose with Lipsius (p. 204, n.) that any correspondence is lost, except the synodic epistle about Felicissimus, for Ep 44 says expressly that the details will be given vivâ voce.

³⁸Ep. 54, iii. 55 v. 3. To postpone the appearance of the de Lapsis to Nov., as Pearson does, or to any moment after the council was over, is to attribute to Cyprian a publication quite out of date and recommendations already disposed of. Therefore, if "ultio," c. i. is to be pressed to mean the death of Decius (which is not necessary, in spite of the consensus for it), it only shews that ours is a second ed.

³⁹The old date, Oct., is due to the mistake as to Cornelius's election. Jerome calls this synod "Romana Italica Africana," as if it were one with the Carthaginian Synod (de Scr. Ecc. 66, Labbe i. pp. 865–868), and from this phrase Baronius has imagined three councils.

⁴⁰Ep. 64. The synodic letter of the third council characterizes the ground for readmission accepted by the second council as necessitate cogente and that of the first as infirmitate urgente, and blames bp. Theraplus for having neglected both. Ep. 64, therefore, cannot, with Mr. Shepherd (Letter ii. p. 10, following Lombert ap. Pearson Ann. Cyp. p. 45b), be dated before Ep. 57, nor (as Maran) synchronize with it; for they could not censure the neglect of a rule they were in the act of making; and why should only 42 bishops have issued letter 57, out of 66 who issued Ep.? Add to which that 64 is written in a peaceful time, such as began with Aemilian Ap. 253. See further Pearson's arguments, of which one is good, one inadequate.

⁴¹Not earlier. Ep. 52 ii. Novatus has not yet made a bishop in Carthage. Ep. 59 xi. Maximus is spoken of as sent nuper (a.d. 251) consecrated nunc (the Ep. being subsequent to Id. Mai. a.d. 252). From Ep.55 x. we find they had bishops in many places before Council II. The step, then, had been delayed in Carthage, and this must have been because they still had hopes of Cyprian, which, though misplaced, seem to me not unnatural.

⁴²Dean Milman (Lat. Chr. vol. i. p. 48) apparently missed the fact that there were two anti-bishops, one of each extreme; and also fell into the error of making Fortunatus a Novatianist.

⁴³These were Privatus of Lambaese, condemned by a council of 90 bishops, under Donatus, Cyprian's predecessor; Felix, a pseudo-bishop of Privatus's making; Repostus, a lapsed bishop; Maximus and Jovinus, Sacrificati, whom, from their having been condemned by nine bishops, and then by the first council. I conclude to have been bishops.

⁴⁴Socrates's (v. 19) statement that this was the occasion on which Poenitentiaries were first appointed to hear private confession, seems counter to the whole spirit of the time. Sozomen (vii. 6) represents the Roman mode of penance much later, when the bishop is himself the fellow penitent and the absolver. This contradiction of his statement that Poenitentiaries were an institution in the West as well as the East shews how little was known of the origin or date of the office.

⁴⁵On the death of Cornelius and his sepulture, see Mommsen, Chronog. vom Jahre 354. p. 631; de Rossi, Roma Sott. vol. ii. pp. 66–68; and on the true date of his death, as distinct from his festival, Lipsius, Chron. d. Pap. p. 192.

⁴⁶a.d. 312. The relations of Numidia with Carthage seem unsettled (Hefele, Conciles, vol. i. p. 170).

⁴⁷H. Valois is right, I believe, in thinking this a threat. Routh thinks it was actual excommunication, and Lipsius that he excommunicated Cyprian. Several bishops of the seventh council were very early in the Roman calendar for iv. Id. Sep.

⁴⁸Lipsius's reasons (pp. 219, 220) for dating Iconium so late as a.d. 255 are surely quite insufficient. Eusebius (vii. 3) says Cyprian was πρῶτος τῶν τότε to hold rebaptism, which is a most accurate expression. He has already said that it had been held in very populous churches, and has told us of the old council of Agrippinus which declared it. Asia had quietly continued, Africa had mostly dropped the practice, and Cyprian was the first τῶν τότε to revive it. Lipsius is actually driven by his own special pleading to say there were two synods of Iconium "which must not be confounded," one named by Firmilian, and one by Dionysius—about the baptism of heretics—at the same place—at a very considerable interval—both making exactly the same declaration.

⁴⁹Jerome (Script. Ecc.) says Dionysius took the strict view. He himself seems (Eus. vii. 9) to say the opposite, and cf. vii. 7.

⁵⁰I believe this to be a simple and sufficient account of the circumstances of the correspondence, and Mosheim's and Rettberg's little amusement of inventing lost documents is unnecessary. The letter of Stephanus shewn to Pompeius is the same which Firmilian saw. The legation of course presented the synodal letter, which was meant to be final: accordingly Cyprian (in Sentt. Ep.) speaks of the question as resting henceforth with individual bishops.

⁵¹Of the seventh council Mr. Shepherd says, "Wonderful to say, it has a date." So has the second (Ep. 59, xlii.). Of another event he remarks, "It would have been far more natural to have said a.d. 180, or some such date." It would have been an excessively interesting use of the Christian era, and Mr. Shepherd has doubtless noted the careful dates of other documents, Tertullian's historical allusions, Augustine's letters. The paucity of dates is, however, singular. It may have some connexion with the African hostility, even to civil usages dependent on heathenism, The Donatists at Carthage, a.d. 411, treat the fact that the Acts of the council of Cirta, a.d. 305, commence with the consular date as an evidence against their genuineness. The Catholics reply, that though the Donatists avoid dates, the Catholics use them. But it may be that the Donatists preserve the old puritanic tradition. Cf. Aug. Brev. Coll. c. Don. p. 569, 3ii. diei, cap. xv. § 26, 27. (Athanasius's objection to the date in the creed of Sirmio is of another colour.) For an account of the Romanist assaults on it, see Rettberg, pp. 189, 190. Augustine accepted it, when some wished to make it of Donatist origin, on the ground of its containing so much against Donatism.

⁵² Stephen died, and Cyprian was exiled before the winter of 257.

⁵³It is impossible not to recognize Cyprian's style in it; equally impossible not to see the Gk. [A] in some of its compound phrases and coupled epithets (e.g. i. magnam voluntatis caritatem in unum convenire; iii. velociter currentes, iv. quoniam sermo . . . distribuatur, etc.). [B] In the literal (sometimes awkward) rendering of words: iv. seniores et praepositi (= presbyteri et epicopi) for πρεσβύτεροι καὶ προεστῶτες; vii. praesident majores natu, where Cyprian could not have used presbyteri and yet age is not to the point; fratribus tam longe positis (μακρὰν κειμήνοις); v. inexcusabilem; vi. eos qui Romae sunt; aequaliter quae; vii. possident potestatem; x. nec vexari in aliquo; quamvis ad imaginem veritatis tamen; xxiii. volentibus vivere; xii. Nos etiam illos quos hi qui. [C] Instances where the Gk. is not thoroughly mastered: viii. nisi si his episcopis quibus nunc minor fuit Paulus (? τῶν νῦν); xii. ut per eos qui cum ipsi, etc.; cum unmeaning—observe in ix. patrias of local persecutions in Asia Minor. The remarkable translation of Eph. 4, 3, in xxiv. is in the same words as in three other places of Cyprian, and differs from every other known rendering; even the African Nemesianus in this council uses curantes instead of satisagentes.

⁵⁴This view becomes "Christus baptizandi potestatem episcopis dedit" in the mouth of one of the bishops (Sentt. Ep. 17).

⁵⁵"Qui non habet quomodo dat?" became a catchword of the Donatists. The reply of the Catholics was "Deum esse datorem" (Optat. p. 103).

⁵⁶The basis of this is Tert. de Bapt. xv.

⁵⁷Some required exorcism (Sentt. 7, 8, 31); some declared heretics worse than heathens—a painfully early development.

⁵⁸Animosus, iracundus: again, audacia, insolentia, inhumanitas are some of the sins charged to him.

⁵⁹Of the use they made of Cyprian himself see Aug. contra Crescon. II. xxiii. 40: "Scripta Cypriani nobis tanquam firmamenta canonicae auctoritatis opponitis." Cf. Ep. 93, ad Vincent.; Epp. 108, 9, ad Macrob.

⁶⁰Optatus, b. v. p. 99, well expresses it: "Has res unicuique non ejusdem rei operarius sed credentis fides et Trinitas praestat." By implication he answers many of the detailed difficulties, but the great name of Cyprian visibly restrains him. Again, p. 103: "omnes qui baptizant operarios esse non dominos et sacramenta per se sancta esse non per omines."

⁶¹Besides its use in ordination the imposition of hands had three intentions: (1) Confirmation. (2) Reception of penitents. (3) Exorcism. The 2nd is what Stephen applies here. The 3rd was desired by some extreme partisans.

⁶²Thus the extreme of sacerdotalism was a fixed tenet with our own Puritan divines, who held the minister "to be of the substance of the sacrament." Cf. Hooker, Ec. Pol. V. lxi. 5; Neander, vol. i. p. 540, Bohn tr.

⁶³Morcelli, Africa Christiana, vol. i. p. 21, questions whether the separate Praeses Numidiae was continued long after Septimius, apparently not noticing (Cyp. Ep. 77, ii.) that these confessors were tried before the Praeses.

⁶⁴Pearson supposes a marble-quarry to be their work-place—tenebrae and teter odor fumi indicate mining and smelting rather.

⁶⁵See these calculations in Lipsius, Chron. d. Röm. Bisch. p. 213.

⁶⁶Gibbon strangely seems to have understood the words documentum professionis dedit (i.e. taught how to hold fast our profession) to mean "an account of his behaviour was published for the edification of the Christian world" (Ep. 77).

⁶⁷After 11 months and 12 (6 ?) days' episcopate. Eusebius, by an error, in which he indulges in other instances, ascribes to him years for months both in chronicle and history; and Jerome repeats it from him. So in vii. 15 he seems to speak of him as alive after the edict of restoration. See Lipsius, l.c.

⁶⁸Sic lege "cum eo diacones quattuor."

⁶⁹Nothing is more self-consistent than the language of Ep. 83, or more inconsistent with Gibbon's "recovering that fortitude which his character required."

⁷⁰They are entitled Acta Proconsularia, and so accepted by Pearson and Gibbon. Aug. Serm. 309 seems to quote either this Passio or some earlier document which is now embedded in it. Ep. 77, ii. refers to Cyprian's confession "Apud Acta proconsulis" just after it was made. Does Acta mean merely "trial before"? (Cf. Optat. B. iii. p. 68, apud acta locuti sunt.) If it means "official report," how could a Christian report be so styled, or how could a heathen one give the details with such advantage to the prisoners? Dionysius Alex. refers a carping adversary to the record of his own trial before Aemilian, then prefect of Egypt (Eus. vol. i. p. 384, notes on ὑπεμνηματίσθη).