ABSTRACT
Cyprian’s interpretation of the laxist schism as a demonic attack on the church turned the revolt into an opportunity for the penitents to exhibit their loyalty to Christ and thus reverse their failure in the imperial persecution. This identification of submission and fidelity to the church as a form of confession of Christ rested upon a belief that Christ had conferred the power to bind and loosen upon Peter and his successor bishops. Thus the laxist altar and eucharistic communion set up against that over which the bishop presided was a rejection of divine ordinance. The rigorist schism at Rome, in which the church divided between Cornelius and Novatian, raised the question of legitimate succession from one bishop to the next. As these two schisms developed, moreover, Cyprian was faced with first a Novatianist and then a laxist rival, each of whom claimed to be the true bishop of Carthage. The unity of the local church, built upon its bishop and the eucharistic communion gathered under his leadership, became the focus of the debate. The understanding of the universal communion of bishops, its common power to sanctify, and its shared responsibility for governing the church grew out of the debate about the local church; it will be considered in chapter 8. The present study will consider first the divisions within the church in Carthage during and immediately after the persecution. Attention will turn next to the problem of competing bishops in a single city which began in Rome and then spread to Africa. A statement of Cyprian’s understanding of the unity of the local church will conclude this chapter.
