Cyprian of Carthage: source notes

Works: On Works and Almsgiving (Treatise 8). Edition/translation: ANF vol. 5, as on New Advent.

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S1: On Works and Almsgiving 2

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050708.htm
Text: “as in the laver of saving water the fire of Gehenna is extinguished, so by almsgiving and works of righteousness the flame of sins is subdued. And because in baptism remission of sins is granted once for all, constant and ceaseless labour, following the likeness of baptism, once again bestows the mercy of God.” Also: “those who, after the grace of baptism, have become foul, may once more be cleansed.”
Context: Remission is given once for all in baptism. Sins committed after baptism are cleansed by almsgiving and works of righteousness (citing Sir 3:30). This is a non-forensic framework for post-baptismal sin.
Bears on: Q4, Q2
Status: verified (English)

Topic: baptism

See baptism reasoning.

BAP S1: Epistle 58 (64 in some numberings) 2, 5, to Fidus

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050658.htm
Text: “we all rather judge that the mercy and grace of God is not to be refused to any one born of man.” And: “how much rather ought we to shrink from hindering an infant, who, being lately born, has not sinned, except in that, being born after the flesh according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the ancient death at its earliest birth”.
Context: A council of 66 bishops (c. 253). The only question was whether to wait until the eighth day. Whether to baptize infants was not in dispute. The letter grounds infant baptism in the inherited “contagion” from Adam.
Bears on: B2, B1
Status: verified (English)

Topic: eucharist

See eucharist reasoning.

EUC S1: Epistle 62 (63).14

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050662.htm
Text: “that priest truly discharges the office of Christ, who imitates that which Christ did; and he then offers a true and full sacrifice in the Church to God the Father, when he proceeds to offer it according to what he sees Christ Himself to have offered.”
Context: Against using water alone in the cup.
Bears on: E2
Status: verified (English)

Topic: original-sin

See original-sin reasoning.

OSN S1: Epistle 58.5, to Fidus

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050658.htm
Text: “an infant, who, being lately born, has not sinned, except in that, being born after the flesh according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the ancient death at its earliest birth, who approaches the more easily on this very account to the reception of the forgiveness of sins — that to him are remitted, not his own sins, but the sins of another.”
Context: Conciliar (c. 253). “Sins of another” are remitted to infants, so something like inherited guilt is in view, before Augustine.
Bears on: O2
Status: verified (English)

Topic: other-sacraments

See other-sacraments reasoning.

OSR S1: Letter 72.9 (ANF numbering)

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050672.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “Spirit should be invoked and poured out upon them, which now too is done among us, so that they who are baptized in the Church are brought to the prelates of the Church, and by our prayers and by the imposition of hands obtain the Holy Spirit, and are perfected with the Lord’s seal.”
Context: Baptized brought to the bishops.
Bears on: K1
Status: verified (English)

OSR S2: On the Lapsed 28

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050703.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “d better in their fear, who, although bound by no crime of sacrifice to idols or of certificate, yet, since they have even thought of such things, with grief and simplicity confess this very thing to God’s priests, and make the conscientious avowal, put off from them the load of their minds, and seek out the salutary medicine even for slight and moderate wounds, knowing that it is written, God is not mocked.”
Context: Confession even of sins of thought.
Bears on: K2
Status: verified (English)

Topic: church-authority

See church-authority reasoning.

PAP S1: On the Unity of the Church 4 (received text)

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050701.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “Assuredly the rest of the apostles were also the same as was Peter, endowed with a like partnership both of honour and power; but the beginning proceeds from unity.”
Context: Peter as the sign of unity; apostles equal.
Bears on: P1, P2
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine F16

See F16 reasoning.

F16 S1: On the Unity of the Church 6

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050701.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother.”
Context:
Bears on: F16.1
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S02X

See S02X reasoning.

S02X S1: On the Lapsed 25

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050703.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “Still the deacon persisted, and, although against her efforts, forced on her some of the sacrament of the cup.”
Context: A baptised infant at the Eucharist.
Bears on: S02.2
Status: verified (English)

S02X S2: Epistle 58 (ANF numbering) to Fidus

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050658.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “and give us circumcision of the spirit, the eighth day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, and the Lord’s day, went before in the figure; which figure ceased when by and by the truth came, and spiritual circumcision was given to us.”
Context: Cyprian and the African bishops reject waiting for the eighth day before baptising an infant.
Bears on: S02.3
Status: verified (English)

S02X S3: Epistle 58 to Fidus

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050658.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “nd from grace— how much rather ought we to shrink from hindering an infant, who, being lately born, has not sinned, except in that, being born after the flesh according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the ancient death at its earliest birth, who approaches the more easily on this very account to the reception of the forgiveness of sins— that to him are remitted, not his own sins, but the sins of another.”
Context: The reason given for baptising infants at once: inherited death and sin.
Bears on: S02.3
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine T05

See T05 reasoning.

T05 S1: On the Lapsed 25

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050703.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “When, however, the solemnities were finished, and the deacon began to offer the cup to those present, and when, as the rest received it, its turn approached, the little child, by the instinct of the divine majesty, turned away its face, compressed its mouth with resisting lips, and refused the cup.”
Context:
Bears on: T05.2
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine T23

See T23 reasoning.

T23 S1: On the Lapsed 25

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050703.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “When, however, the solemnities were finished, and the deacon began to offer the cup to those present, and when, as the rest received it, its turn approached, the little child, by the instinct of the divine majesty, turned away its face, compressed its mouth with resisting lips, and refused the cup.”
Context: An infant given the cup.
Bears on: T23.2
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S04X

See S04X reasoning.

S04X S1: On the Lapsed 26

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050703.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “And another woman, when she tried with unworthy hands to open her box, in which was the holy (body) of the Lord, was deterred by fire rising from it from daring to touch it.”
Context: A miracle story told to warn the lapsed against receiving communion without penance.
Bears on: S04.3
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S24X

See S24X reasoning.

S24X S1: On the Dress of Virgins 21

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050702.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “The first fruit for the martyrs is a hundred-fold; the second is yours, sixty-fold.”
Context: Cyprian ranks the reward of virgins after that of martyrs.
Bears on: S24.3
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine T09X

See T09X reasoning.

T09X S1: On Mortality 26

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050707.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “We regard paradise as our country — we already begin to consider the patriarchs as our parents: why do we not hasten and run, that we may behold our country, that we may greet our parents? There a great number of our dear ones is awaiting us, and a dense crowd of parents, brothers, children, is longing for us, already assured of their own safety, and still solicitous for our salvation. …”
Context: Cyprian comforts Christians during the plague of the 250s.
Bears on: T09.3
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S03X

See S03X reasoning.

S03X S1: Letter 72 (to Stephen) 1

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050672.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “But further, when they know that there is no baptism without, and that no remission of sins can be given outside the Church, they more eagerly and readily hasten to us, and implore the gifts and benefits of the Church our Mother, assured that they can in no wise attain to the true promise of divine grace unless they first come to the truth of the Church.”
Context: Cyprian reports the African council’s decision to Stephen of Rome (255–256).
Bears on: S03.3
Status: verified (English)

S03X S2: Letter 73, quoting Stephen

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050673.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “nd without foresight wrote, he moreover added this saying: If any one, therefore, come to you from any heresy whatever, let nothing be innovated (or done) which has not been handed down, to wit, that hands be imposed on him for repentance; since the heretics themselves, in their own proper character, do not baptize such as come to them from one another, but only admit them to communion.”
Context: Cyprian quotes Stephen’s ruling in order to answer it.
Bears on: S03.3
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S13X

See S13X reasoning.

S13X S1: On the Lapsed 36

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050703.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “He can mercifully pardon the repenting, the labouring, the beseeching sinner.”
Context: Cyprian on those who denied Christ in the Decian persecution (251).
Bears on: S13.3
Status: verified (English)

Doctrine S17X

See S17X reasoning.

S17X S1: Letter 12 (ANF numbering)

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050612.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “received certificates from the martyrs, and may be assisted by their privilege with God, if they should be seized with any misfortune and peril of sickness, should, without waiting for my presence, before any presbyter who might be present, or if a presbyter should not be found and death begins to be imminent, before even a deacon, be able to make confession of their sin, that, with the imposition of hands upon them …”
Context: Cyprian to his clergy on the lapsed who hold martyrs’ certificates, in danger of death.
Bears on: S17.3
Status: verified (English)

S17X S2: On the Lapsed 17

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050703.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “Man cannot be greater than God, nor can a servant remit or forego by his indulgence what has been committed by a greater crime against the Lord, lest to the person lapsed this be moreover added to his sin, if he be ignorant that it is declared, Cursed is the man that puts his hope in man.”
Context: Cyprian on the limits of the martyrs’ pardons.
Bears on: S17.3
Status: verified (English)

S17X S3: On the Lapsed 18

Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050703.htm (public-domain English translation)
Text: “The martyrs order something to be done; but only if this thing be just and lawful, if it can be done without opposing the Lord Himself by God’s priest, if the consent of the obeying party be easy and yielding, if the moderation of the asking party be religious. …”
Context: Cyprian on when the martyrs’ requests may be granted.
Bears on: S17.3
Status: verified (English)