His Treatises.

        Although some of Cyprian's letters run to considerable length his more massive works were his treatises. They, too, like his letters, sprang from the practical conditions of church life. Twelve of them which may be regarded as genuine have been preserved, but two of these may be dismissed as little more than compilations. One is addressed to Fortunatus, who had asked Cyprian to collect the scripture passages that were calculated to fortify Christian believers in the midst of persecution. Cyprian grouped them under a series of statements, on the emptiness of idolatry, the supremacy of Christ, etc. It was entitled To Fortunatus: On Exhortation to Martyrdom.

        The other was addressed to a certain Quirinus, who seems to have asked Cyprian to summarize the scriptures for him book by book. Cyprian laid down a series of statements of Christian truth following each with a group of the scripture passages teaching it. The first book relates to the relation of the Jews to their scriptures and to the church, the function of the Law, and so forth. The second deals with the nature and work of Christ, presenting the passages of scripture that throw light upon it. The third book was written in response to a later request of Quirinus and presents the practical teachings of Christianity, supported with the appropriate passages of scripture. The work was called To Quarznus: Three Books of Testimonies, to which title was later sometimes added “against the Jews.”[94]

        Of the ten principal treatises, the earliest was that addressed To Donatus, a friend of other days, to whom Cyprian explains what drove him to be a Christian and describes the conditions of life in the pagan world in which he had grown up, its violence, brutality, and depravity, in contrast with the peace and satisfaction he had found in the Christian faith. It was evidently written soon after his conversion, probably in A.D. 246.

        His second treatise, On the Dress of Virgins, was designed to instruct unmarried women in the church who have dedicated themselves to Christ, to dress plainly, avoid jewelry, cosmetics, mixed bathing, boisterous wedding parties, and dyeing their hair, and to tell them how to behave themselves generally. Cyprian was by this time bishop of Carthage, so that the work was probably written in A.D. 249.

        In the third treatise, On the Lapsed, Cyprian praises the martyrs and calls upon those who had failed to acknowledge Christ in the persecution but had offered sacrifice to idols and saved themselves by accepting a libellus or ticket from the authorities, to repent in dust and ashes and give unmistakable evidence of the sincerity of their contrition in the hope that God will forgive them. This treatise, and the next, On the Unity of the Church, were probably written before he returned to Carthage from his withdrawal or flight, and when Felicissimus was making trouble at Carthage, that is, early in A.D. 251. The one On the Lapsed was sent, probably in the summer of that year along with that On the Unity ofthe Church, to the church at Rome, where a movement was on foot, led by Novatian, to refuse the lapsed readmission to the church on any terms.

        The fourth treatise, On the Unity ofthe Church, which Cyprian seems to have brought with him when he returned to Carthage in A.D. 251, was probably later revised, when Novatian broke away from the Roman church, as a rival bishop to Cornelius, whose views on the lapsed he considered too lax. It was Cyprian's contention in this treatise that the guaranty of the unity of the church was the agreement of the bishops. The greatest danger the to church lay not in persecution but in heretical sects. Although the work was primarily conditioned by the spirit in the Carthaginian church precipitated by Felicissimus, it was valid also with some revision for the kindred situation in Rome brought on by Novatian, and so Cyprian sent it in its revised form with the treatise On the Lapsed to Rome, probably in the summer of 251.

        The fifth treatise, On the Lord's Prayer, presents a practical interpretation of the prayer, illustrating it richly from scripture. Cypnan teaches that prayer should be accompanied by acts of charity and discusses the times at which prayer should be offered.

        The sixth treatise, To Demetrianus, an individual otherwise unknown, who had ascribed the disasters and calamities of the times to the Christians' failure to worship the old gods, puts the blame for these things on the pagans instead, who not only refused to worship the true God but persecuted his people. It was probably written after the death of Decius (who, as we have seen, was killed in battle with the Goths), probably late in A.D. 251 or early in 252.

        The seventh, On the Mortality, deals with the pestilence ravageing the country, and indeed the empire in zsz, showing that such things were foretold by Christ and that, although death seems to overtake Christians and pagans alike, it means very different things to them.

        The eighth, On Works and Charity, urges the practice of liberal giving, especially because of the plague of 252.

        The ninth, On the Advantage of Patience, was written in the midst of the controversy with Stephen over rebaptizing heretics and seeks to soften its acerbities. It was written early in A.D. 256.

        The tenth, On Jealousy and Envy, explains the dangers and divisions to which those vices lead and was probably written, like that On the Advantage of Patience, in 256, when the struggle with Rome over the rebaptism of heretics was at its height. It shows what a powerful and searching preacher Cyprian must have been.