Saint Cyprian baptized when he was 35, We have his life written by Pontius, his deacon, an eye-witness to his principal actions; also two-fold genuine copies of extracts from the Precidial Acts of his two examinations, and of his martyrdom. The saint’s epistles furnishes us with ample memoirs. See his life compiled by Tillemont, t. 3, and best by Dom. Maran, the Maurist monk, prefixed to the edition of this father’s works, prepared by Baluze, before his death, but published by Maran in 1726.
The Cyprianic annals of Bishop Pearson, and some of Dodwell’s Dissertations, printed in the Oxford edition, are of great service. Maran has corrected several mistakes, particularly relating to the schism of Novatus, into which Pearson, Tillemont, and all who had wrote before him, had been led. See also the life of St. Cyprian compiled in French by M. Lombert, who printed a French translation of all his works in 1672. Another elegant translation of the same was printed at Rouen in 1716, with learned remarks; and Suysken the Bollandist, t. 3, Sept. p. 191.
THASCIUS CYPRIAN was a native of Carthage, his father being one of the principal senators of that city. He made great improvements in philosophy and all the liberal arts, applied himself to the study of oratory and eloquence with great success, and was made public professor of rhetoric at Carthage. This employment was anciently most honourable, and all this time he lived suitably to the rank of his birth, in great pomp and plenty; in honour and power, wearing a splendid attire, and never stirring abroad without a pompous retinue, and a crowd of clients and followers waiting upon him. He tells us in his book to Donatus, that he had lived a long time amidst the fasces, which were the Roman emblem of the supreme magistracy; but he deplores that he was then a slave to vice and evil habits. The far greater part of his life he passed in the errors of paganism, and he was upon the borders of old age when he was rescued from the darkness of idolatry, and the servitude of vice and errors.
There resided at Carthage a holy old priest, whose name was Cecilius. With him Cyprian contracted an acquaintance, and by his discourses on the excellency of the Christian religion, he began to relish exceedingly its divine truths, and the sanctity of its precepts; but still his carnal heart made strong efforts in favour of the world and his passions. He describes, in his book to Donatus, the struggle which he felt within himself, as follows: “I lay,” says he, “in darkness, and I floated on the boisterous sea of this world a stranger to the light, and uncertain where to fix my feet.
I then thought what I was told of a second birth, and the method of salvation by it, propounded by the divine goodness, extremely hard and impracticable. I could not conceive how a man could receive the principles of a new life from the sacred laver of regeneration, cease to be what he was before, become quite a new person, and though still retaining the same bodily constitution, put off the old man, and be entirely renewed in the spirit of his mind; for how (thought I with myself) is so great an alteration possible or practicable? How shall I do to leave off on a sudden, and in an instant, radicated customs, in which I am grown old? How can one who remains still in the midst of those objects which have so long struck and charmed his senses, strip himself of all his former inclinations and inveterate habits? These time and continuance have made natural to me, and they are closely rivetted in the very frame of my being. When is it known that a person is transformed into an example of constant frugality and sobriety, who has been always accustomed to sumptuous and dainty fare, to live in plenty, and to indulge his appetites without restraint?
How rarely does a man become content with plain apparel and unornamented dress who hath been used to sparkle in gold and jewels, and embroidered garments! The man of ambitious views, who pleases himself, and glories in the ensigns of power and authority, can never love an inglorious private life. In like manner, there is almost a necessity, that wine should engage, that pride should swell, that anger should inflame, that greediness of gain should devour, that ambition should amuse and please, and that lust should tyrannize over a man who hath long indulged such inclinations.
These, and such as these, were frequently my soliloquies; for, as I was deeply entangled and ensnared in the errors of my former life, which I judged it impossible for me ever to disengage myself from, I gave way to the solicitation of my usual vices, added strength to them by indulgence, and despairing of any possible cure, hugged the chain which had become natural to me, so that I looked upon it as a part of myself; but as soon as the life-giving waters of baptism had washed out the spots of my soul, my heart had received the light of the heavenly truth, the Spirit of God had descended upon me, and I was thence become a new creature, presently all my difficulties were surprisingly cleared, my doubts were resolved, and all my former darkness was dispelled.
Things appeared easy to me, which before I looked upon as difficult and discouraging: I was convinced that I was able to do and suffer all that which heretofore had seemed impossible. I then saw that the earthly principle which I derived from my first birth, exposed me to sin and death; but that the new principle which I had received from the Spirit of God, in his spiritual birth, gave me new ideas and inclinations, and directed all my views to God.” He goes on professing all this to have been in him the pure gift and mercy of God, and ascribing it wholly to the power of his grace; which, he adds, we are bound continually to ask with earnestness and humility, as by it alone we are enabled to will and to do.
