By Father Ray Ryland, Ph.D., J.D.

Saint vs. Pope

Whose authority prevails?

St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, leader of the Church in North Africa, was one of the most highly regarded bishops of his time. He was martyred in 258. The Church has honored him by including his name in the first Eucharistic Prayer.

Like all faithful Catholics, St. Cyprian believed that all authority and unity in the Church is rooted in Jesus' commission to St. Peter (see Mt 16:18-19). The bishop once wrote: "There is one God, and one Church, and one chair founded by the voice of the Lord upon Peter." He recognized the unerring teaching authority of the pope and his synod.

On one occasion, St. Cyprian wrote scornfully of a group of heretics who had gone to Rome to try to secure the pope's approval of their teaching:

"They dare to set sail and carry letters from schismatic and profane men to the chair of Peter, and the principal church whence the unity of the priesthood has arisen. Nor did they consider that they [the Church of Rome] are the same Romans as those whose faith was publicly praised by the apostle, [they are the ones] to whom unbelief cannot have access" (emphasis added).

St. Cyprian acknowledged -- indeed, relied on -- the pope's universal authority. When Bishop Marcian of Arles became a heretic, the other bishops of his province wrote to the pope, asking him to depose Marcian and give consent to the election of a successor. When for some reason the pope delayed in responding, and St. Cyprian was informed of the situation in Arles, he wrote to the pope, urging him to take the necessary action, which only he, the pope, could take.

Cyprian insisted that the pope should write "letters of plenary authority by means of which, Marcian being excommunicated, another may be substituted in his place."

Erroneous Conclusions

St. Cyprian abhorred the sin of schism. He once asked rhetorically, "He who deserts the chair of Peter, upon which the Church was founded, does he trust that he is in the Church?" Yet the bishop himself drew from this principle an erroneous conclusion that created widespread controversy in the Church of his time.

Cyprian became involved in controversy with the Novatians, a rigorist sect that had elected an anti-pope. Following an earlier Church father, Tertullian (160-225), whom St. Cyprian regarded as his master, the bishop contended that baptism by heretics is invalid, so that those who received heretical baptism must be re-baptized.

He rightly insisted that there is only one Church. But by insisting that no baptism outside the Church can be valid, he limited Our Lord's action of grace to the visible boundaries of the Church. Furthermore, his rejection of heretical baptism sowed seeds of a later heresy, Donatism, which contended that the validity of the sacrament depends on the disposition of the minister of the sacrament.

Finally, St. Cyprian erred in failing to distinguish between the conferral of a sacrament and its effects for sanctity. As St. Augustine later pointed out, Cyprian had failed to acknowledge the character be-stowed by the Sacrament of Bap-tism. The character rendered impossible the repetition of the sacrament.

The Controversy

Even before St. Cyprian began his agitation for re-baptizing those who had received heretical baptism, this novel practice had stirred controversy in the East. Two synods (with no authorization from the pope) had decreed re-baptism following heretical baptism. A prominent Eastern bishop, Firmil-ian, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, had himself re-baptized some who had received baptism from a heretic. Pope Stephen threatened to excommunicate Firmilian and his followers until they came back in line with the apostolic tradition by stopping their practice of re-baptism.

Not all the bishops in North Africa agreed with St. Cyprian. He convoked a synod of 30 bishops, which issued a decree favoring re-baptizing. But a number of bishops dissented from this ruling, so Cyprian was forced to convoke a second synod at Carthage to deal again with the issue of heretical baptism. This synod followed Cyprian's lead and issued decrees rejecting heretical baptism.

In this controversy, the bishop acknowledged that the re-baptizing he advocated was at odds with the Church's tradition. But he believed that tradition to be wrong.

Finally, St. Cyprian turned to Rome, reporting the action of the two synods he had held in Carthage, and including his correspondence with two other bishops in which he tried to justify his position. He argued that individual bishops should be free to decide whether to repeat heretical baptism. Inconsis-tently, though he claimed the issue was purely a matter of discipline, he ardently defended his position as though it were a matter of dogma.

Evidently, the African bishops who dissented from St. Cyprian's position had made it clear they intended to follow the known tradition of Rome. So, before Cyprian re-ceived Pope Stephen's reply, he gathered another and even larger synod at Carthage. This council again voted in favor of re-baptizing persons who had received heretical baptism.

Nevertheless, Pope Stephen firmly up-held the Church's tradition, and called on Cyprian for obedience. The Pope ruled: "If any shall come to you from any heresy whatsoever, let there be no innovation [that is, no re-baptizing] but (let that be observed) which has been handed down -- namely, that hands be laid on such in sign of penitence."

Rome's Rule Is Universal

This is how historian Luke Rivington summarizes the whole episode:

"The partisans of innovation may resist as they please, write letter after letter, assemble councils; [but] five lines from the sovereign Pontiff will become the rule of conduct for the universal Church. Eastern and African bishops, all those who at first had rallied round the contrary opinion, will retrace their steps, and the whole Catholic world will follow the decision of the Bishop of Rome."

Once more, as always, the Church's faith and practice was preserved by a successor of St. Peter. TCA

Father Ray Ryland, Ph.D., J.D, writes our regular column TCA Faith. This is the fourth installment in an occasional series on the history of the papacy. Texts quoted are from (in order) John Collorafi, "Keys Over the Christian World" (unpublished manuscript), pp. 24, 27; and Luke Rivington, "The Primitive Church and the See of Peter" (London: Longmans, Green, 1895), pp. 71, 95, 116.