The “Life” of Cyprian.

        Much light is thrown upon the work and martyrdom of Cyprian by a short eulogistic Life of him written soon after his death, probably as early as 259, by his deacon Pontius. There is also an account of his trial and death written very little later, on the basis of the official report of them. Eusebius gores us some information about him in his Church History (vi. 43. 3; vii. 3), and Jerome deals with him in On Illustrious Men 67.

        The Life by Pontius runs through the questions dealt with in the treatises so accurately that a collection of them, and probably of the letters, must have lain before the deacon when he wrote. The famous Cheltenham list of the books of scripture, found by Mommsen in a tenth-century manuscript in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps in Cheltenham, England, in 1885 (though composed as early as A.D. 359), includes also a list of the works of Cyprian-fourteen treatises and thirty-four or thirty-five letters, concluding with the Life of Cyprian. The length of each work is given in stichoi, or lines of sixteen syllables. Only one of the treatises is missing-the compilation addressed To Quirinus — and only two of the many spurious pieces that were eventually ascribed to Cyprian have crept into the list-Against the Jews and 1 Praise of Martyrdom.

        These pseudo-Cyprianic treatises are quite as numerous as the genuine ones, and, for their own sake as well as for their connection with Cyprian's name, they call for mention here. The most famous is the one entitled That Idols Are Not Gods (Quod idols dii non sint), a blast against idolatry, beginning with the sweeping statement that the heathen gods are simply ancient kings who have been deified, a doctrine reminiscent of Wisd. 14:15-20. This work is of interest for its manifest use of the Octavius of Minucius Felix, in Parts I and II, chapters 1-9, and Tertullian's Apologeticus in Part III, chapters 10-15. An effort has been made to show it to be the work of Novatian, but there is little basis for this, although it is a work of the latter part of the third century.

        Another famous old Latin treatise that has been ascribed to Cyprian is that Against Dice-Throwers (Ad Aleatores). Harnack gave reasons for assigning it to Victor, bishop of Rome A.D. 189-99, of whom Jerome said that he was the earliest Latin Christian writer, but Koch has placed it in North Africa about 300.

        A third is the chronological work composed early in A.D. 243 to correct Hippolytus, faulty formula for determining the date of Easter (De Pascha coutputus). A fourth, To Novatian, Harnack would assign to the Roman bishop Xystus II, A.D. 257-58, but most scholars despair of identifying its author. A fifth, In Praise of Martyrdom, is in the form of a sermon, and may possibly have been written by Novatian, about the end of 249 the beginning of 250, before he became a schismatic.

        Ten other works have at various times been assigned, thoug on insufficient grounds, to Cyprian:

On the Trinity (really a work of Novatian).

On Shows (probably also Novatian's).

On the Advantage of Modesty (probably by Novatian).

Against the Jews (probably by Novatian).

On Rebaptism, which Harnack assigns to a Roman Ursinus, in the conflict

between Cyprian and Stephen

On Mounts Sinai and Zion

On Repentance

On the Singleness ofthe Clergy (De singularitate clericorum)

To Vigilius the Bishop: On the Unbelief of the Jews

Cyprian's Feast (probably written about A.D. 400 in southern Gaul by another

Cyprian, who also composed a poem covering the Hexateuch).