The Lapsed, The Unity of the Catholic Church #25

Publication Data: New York, NY/Mahwah, NJ: The Newman Press, 1957
Format: hardcover
Number of Pages: 133
Dimensions (l × w × h): 22.2 cm × 14.6 cm × 1.5 cm
ISBN: 0‒8091‒0260‒9

   
St. Cyprian
Translated and Annotated by Maurice Bévenot, S.J.

No. 25 of Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation

“Caecilius Cyprianus was Bishop of Carthage 249–258. In this short period, he led his flock through a two years’ persecution, defended the unity of the Church against two schismatical movements, was the soul of the city’s morale during a devastating plague, had a sharp conflict with the Bishop of Rome over the validity of heretical baptism, and was beheaded, a martyr for the faith, in a second persecution. The two treatises here translated belong to the earlier period of his episcopate, being addresses made to his flock in 251. They deal with the after-effects of the first persecution (that of Decius), which had just finished. During it he had been in hiding, not from any cowardice, but in order that people might have the direction, the support, and the encouragement which his letters to them and to his clergy could alone provide. On his return among them, his first public address was the De lapsis (‘The Lapsed’), in which, while celebrating the return of peace to the Church and rejoicing in the heroism of those martyrs and confessors who had been faithful to Christ, he laid down the obligation of long penance for those who, succumbing to fear or torture, had publicly renounced their faith. [...]The other treatise, De ecclesiae catholicae unitate (‘The Unity of the Catholic Church’), was written within a few months of the first. It is the earliest work on the subject which has survived[...].”
—“INTRODUCTION”

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
TEXT
   The Lapsed
   The Unity of the Catholic Church
NOTES
List of Abbreviations
Notes to the Introduction
   to the ‘The Lapsed’
   to ‘The Unity of the Catholic Church’
INDEX