However I think that the reading of the Cyprianic interpolation which stands in P is not derived from the interpolation which appears in codex M. Reference to the Texts in Appendix will make the facts clear. It was of course not sufficient for the argument, as it stands in P, to rely on Ecclesia without express mention of Cathedra Petri. Therefore for Ecclesiæ renititur the manipulator has put Cathedram Petri deserit; but he has left et resistit coupled to deserit, thinking this connection of resistit with the accusative over the body of deserit might pass. But the scribe of M knew this coupling to be inadmissible in a good style, and smoothed the difficulty, as any good grammarian would, by leaving out the genuine qui Ecclesiæ renititur et resistit and replacing it by qui cathedram Petri super quam fundata ecclesia est deserit. This seems to be the genesis of the wording in the interpolated part of M. And so P remains the fount of the phrase. Alternative (iii). Whether the text is Pelagius' own or not, its wording convicts it of awkward but intentional manipulation. M had P before him and corrected it. The 'Citation' is indeed a valuable one. Its presence in this Epistle suffices to shew that either 1, the Epistle is not genuine, or that 2, it has been corrupted since it was written, or that 3, Pelagius himself adulterated the 'Citation'a 'Citation' of much value in establishing the text of Cyprian-but to whom? A.D. 252. A.U.C. Coss. Trebonianus CHAPTER V. THE HARVEST OF THE NEW LEGISLATION. I. The softening of the Penances.-SECOND COUNCIL. IN spite of all the care and circumstance which had waited on it, the Rule of restoration for the Lapsed was the work of a class, the most austere and in reality the least tempted. For we must recollect that, although the clergy were most exposed to persecution, yet the sorest of all tempters, reputation, position, and even (if they ever expected a cessation of persecution) worldly advantage, called on them to stand firm as strongly as the same motives invited many of the laity to yield. The Rule was too rigid to be a real aid to human nature and it was therefore injurious to the Church. The Persecution of Gallus (as it may be called for con1005. venience) was a general movement of popular feeling Imp. Cæs. against those who refused to perform the sacrifices ordered C. Vibius by edict for the averting of the spreading Pestilence of the time. Street cries demanded 'Cyprian for the lions'. Manifestations and visions to him and to others gave warning— not wholly justified by the event of sufferings at hand more severe than ever. Of the libellatics condemned to indefinite Veldum suspension many were living in penitence, 'never quitting Gallus P.F. Imp. Cæs. C. Vibius Gallus nianus L. Volusianus 1 Ep. 59. 6. Cf. edicta feralia, 58. 9. pendix p. 57, it is spoken of as a secun- 2 Ostensiones, Ep. 57. 1, 2, 5; and this non-fulfilment is a fair chronological note that such anticipations are not a forgery later than the persecutions. 3 ...non talem qualis fuit sed multo graviorem et acriorem, Ep. 57. 5; cf. 58. I. 223 the threshold of the Church''; some, where the clergy had a Novatianist bias, died unaneled'; some clerical delinquents had quietly resumed their posts, whence no material power was able to dislodge them; many persons had resumed with the name of Christians their old unchristian lives3, and many families of those who despaired of practical restoration to the blessings of the Church had been lost to heresy and even to gentilism. The examination into individual cases had revealed unexpected palliations; men had sacrificed to save families and friends from the 'question'; or had without reflection allowed themselves to be registered as 'sacrificers,' while simply intending to purchase exemption. Cases where there was less excuse deserved no less compassion. At or near to Capsa1 three men named Ninus, Clementian and Florus, after enduring much violence from their own magistrates and the angered populace, were thrown victorious into prison. Dragged out on the arrival of the Proconsul upon his progress", and submitted to repeated tortures in which life was carefully guarded, they 'could not endure till the crown came.' They fell. Then they crept back as miserable penitents to the Church. More than two years after' their 1 Ep. 57. 3. 2 Ep. 68. 1. 3 Ep. 65. 3. Ep. 56. 1. Capsa (Gafsa) lay a little north of the Tritonian Lake in the proconsular province; a rich and very antient town in a beautiful oasis; had been strongly national, suffered horrors under Marius for loyalty to Jugurtha, the Capsitani were still in Pliny's time 6 as much a clan as a Roman town' (non civitas tantum sed etiam natio). Then it was raised to the rank of a 'Colony'; and was one of the two capitals of the Byzacene province under Justinian. See Corp. Inscrr. Latt. VIII. i. p. 22. Pliny's Capsitani refers rather to the natio, Cyprian's Capsensis to the city. 5 The halt at Capsa of an earlier proconsul, C. Bruttius Præsens, father of the unhappy wife of Commodus, consul in 153 and 180 A.D., seems to be marked by the epitaph of his wife. C. I. L., VIII. i. no. 110. 6 Ep. 56. 2 'coronam non potuisse perferre.' Note use of perfero with an object of the thing to be attained. Corp. Inscrr. Latt. VIII. i. 2803 a, at Lambæsis, 'conjugis absentis reditum perferre nequisti' of a lady dying before his return. 7 Triennium (Ep. 56. 1), a good instance of the inclusive reckoning in vogue. This was before Easter (Apr. 11) A. D. 252, so that even if the proconsul had visited Capsa (which is not May 15, bishop Superius presented them to the new bishop of Capsa, Donatulus', and the five colleagues who had assembled for his consecration, and asked whether their pitiable exclusion might not now be closed. It was agreed to refer the question to the Council which Cyprian had convened for after Easter. And Cyprian on receiving their application did not hesitate to express in warmest terms his conviction in their favour. In very many cases sympathy and policy united their claims for mitigation, and the SECOND COUNCIL, which assembled at least two-and-forty bishops in the May of this year2, ruled 'that all who had so far continued stedfast in penance should be at once readmitted.' Cyprian penned the Synodical Letter which announced the decision to Cornelius. likely) as early as January 250, two 1 The meeting at Capsa was for the 2 Easter fell in A. D. 252 on Ap. 11. De pace lapsis maturius danda is dated 3 Mr Shepherd (Letter ii. p. 10, moment Mr S. should seem to drop his universal scepticism in its favour. We must briefly observe (1) with Pearson that the Conciliar Epistle 57 makes reference to one previous Council, and emanated therefore more probably from a second than a third, but Pearson's (second) observation that it is improbable that so many as 66 bishops should have again met before Easter 252 after their session of A.D. 251, has nothing in it. (3) In Ep. 57. I the relaxation is granted in anticipation of the persecution under Gallus 'necessitate cogente,' but Ep. 64 is written in a calm, such as set in when Æmilian's seizure of empire in April 253 withdrew attention from Christian progress, and was continued by Valerian from June onward upon principle. (4) Ep. 64. I distinctly speaks of the conditions of relaxation granted by the Second Council as having been neglected in the act of Therapius. He had received Victor not only 'nulla infirmitate urgente,' the plea allowed by the First Council, but also 'ac (nulla) necessitate cogente,' i.e. the relaxation granted by the Second. The very words are borrowed from Ep. 57, It may be described as an able answer to his own once sterner language. To his former argument that restitution was 'superfluous in the case of men ready to seal their sincerity 'by martyrdom, since the Baptism of Blood was higher than 'Ecclesiastical Peace,' he replies that it was the Church's 'duty to arm such combatants for that last encounter with the 'protection of the Body and Blood of Christ.' 'Men might 'well faint (he says) who were not animated by the Eucharist.' He remained the guiding spirit of the movement although his policy had so altered,—rather perhaps because it had so altered—and even when its working had evoked one antipope in Rome, and two in Carthage. The letter of Antonian exhibits commonplace bewilderment at the change. At the results of the change Cornelius gazed in horror, Cyprian with an unaffected though not careless contempt1. II. The Effect on Felicissimus and his Party. It happened thus. The effect of the late amnesty upon the Puritans would be to confirm them in their austerity. At the same time their numbers were increased by new and are again expanded in the words 'nunc non infirmis sed fortibus pax necessaria est. (5) Some time then after Easter 253, and before Autumn 254 when the 4th Council was held, we must place the 3rd Council which replied to Fidus. Autumn or September of 253, which is Pearson's conjecture, seems a reasonable time. The 4th and 7th Councils were certainly held at that time of year. Maran's (§ xxiv.) notion (adopted by Hefele) that Fidus was answered by 66 bishops on Id. Mai 252 in the second Council seems unreasonable, for why should only 42 of them have concurred in the Synodic Epistle? It was this Synodic Epistle which actually laid down the conditions for neglect of which Therapius was censured: surely not by the same Council. 1 Satis miratus sum te...aliquantum esse commotum. (Ep. 59. 2.)—Quod autem tibi de Fortunato isto pseudepiscopo non statim scripsi, frater carissime, non ea res erat quæ, &c....nec tamen de hoc [Maximo pseudepiscopo] tibi scripseram quando hæc omnia contemnantur a nobis...(Ep. 59. 9). To conceive (Rettberg § 13, p. 152) that Cornelius repaid the services which Cyprian had rendered him, and now in turn upheld the tottering throne of Carthage, is indeed to misunderstand the circumstances and mistake the men. |