Two-page assignment

1. Who is Cyprian of Carthage?

2. Who were the lapsi?
3. What is Cyprian's ecclesiology?
Lapsi

Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant
download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $19.99...
(Latin, labi, lapsus).
The regular designation in the third century for Christians who relapsed into heathenism, especially for
those who during the persecutions displayed weakness in the face of torture, and denied the Faith by
sacrificing to the heathen gods or by any other acts. Many of the lapsi, indeed the majority of the very
numerous cases in the great persecutions after the middle of the third century, certainly did not return
to paganism out of conviction: they simply had not the courage to confess the Faith steadfastly when
threatened with temporal losses and severe punishments (banishments, forced labor [smudged in my
version]... death), and their sole desire was to preserve themselves from persecution by an external act of
apostasy, and to save their property, freedom, and life. The obligation of confessing the Christian
Faith under all circumstances and avoiding every act of denial was firmly established in the Church from
Apostolic times.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09001b.htm

From the Latin word for "fallen," the Christians who fell from the faith in the persecution of Decius (249–
251). They were of three kinds: sacrificati, those who offered sacrifice to the pagan gods; thurificati,those
who burned incense at a pagan religious ceremony; and libellatici,those who obtained certificates stating
they had sacrificed, though they had not done so. While there had always been apostates, the lapsiformed
a problem because of their great number and the desire most had of being readmitted to communion in
the Church even while the persecution continued.

Cyprian of Carthage, also known as Saint Cyprian (died September 14, 258) was a bishop of Carthage,
martyr, and an important early Christian writer involved in several notable controversies. He was
probably born in North Africa and he received an excellent classical education before converting to
Christianity.

“ He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother ”
He soon became a bishop but faced controversy for fleeing the city in the face of persecution and then
taking a strict position on the readmission to the Church of those Christians who pledged absolute loyalty
to the Emperor or who had offered pagan sacrifice under duress. During the Novatianist controversy,
however, Cyprian's view played a moderating view between those who wanted no sanctions on those
who had lapsed during persecution and those who insisted that they not be readmitted to the Church. In
a later controversy with Pope Stephen I, Cyprian came out the loser when he insisted that baptism by
duly ordained priests who held heretical views was invalid.

ECCLESIOLOGY OF ST.CYPRIAN
Saint Cyprian of Carthage developed with fearless consistency a doctrine of the complete absence of
Grace in every sect which had separated itself from the True Church. His doctrine is one of the basic
foundation blocks of Orthodox ecclesiology and it stands in direct opposition to the presuppositions of
the ecumenical movement. Moreover, his warnings about the enemies of the Church have traditionally
guided Orthodox in their response to those outside Her fold:
The essence of Saint Cyprian’s reasoning lay "in the conviction that the sacraments are established in the
Church." That is to say, they are effected and can be effected only in the Church, in communion and in
communality. Therefore, every violation of communality and unity in itself leads immediately beyond
the last barrier into some decisive outside. To Saint Cyprian every schism was a departure out of the
Church, out of that sanctified and holy land "where alone rises the baptismal spring, the waters of
salvation."