Treatises Attributed to Cyprian on Questionable Authority — Historical footnotes

Let me here call attention to the mischievous use of words common among modern Latins, even the best of them. Thus, Pellicia mentions Cyprian as referring his synodical judgment to “the supreme chair of the Church of Rome.” No need to say that his reference proves nothing of the kind. “Supremacy,” indeed! Consult Bossuet and the Gallicans on that point, even after Trent. The case cited is evidence of the very reverse. Cyprian and his Carthaginian colleagues wished, also, the conspicuous co-operation of their Italian brethren; and so he writes to “Cornelius, our colleague,” who, “with very many comprovincial bishops, having held a council, concurred in the same opinion.” It is an instance of fraternal concurrence on grounds of entire equality; and Cyprian’s courteous invitation to his “colleague” Cornelius and his comprovincials to co-operate, is a striking illustration of the maxim, “Totus apellandus sit orbis, ubi totum orbem causa spectat.” Compare St. Basil’s letters to the Western bishops, in which he reminds them that the Gospel came to them from the East. This is a sort of primacy recognised by St. Paul himself, as it was afterwards, when Jerusalem was recognised as “the mother of all the churches” by a general council, writing to Damasus, bishop of Rome, himself.

Let me here call attention to the mischievous use of words common among modern Latins, even the best of them. Thus, Pellicia mentions Cyprian as referring his synodical judgment to “the supreme chair of the Church of Rome.” No need to say that his reference proves nothing of the kind. “Supremacy,” indeed! Consult Bossuet and the Gallicans on that point, even after Trent. The case cited is evidence of the very reverse. Cyprian and his Carthaginian colleagues wished, also, the conspicuous co-operation of their Italian brethren; and so he writes to “Cornelius, our colleague,” who, “with very many comprovincial bishops, having held a council, concurred in the same opinion.” It is an instance of fraternal concurrence on grounds of entire equality; and Cyprian’s courteous invitation to his “colleague” Cornelius and his comprovincials to co-operate, is a striking illustration of the maxim, “Totus apellandus sit orbis, ubi totum orbem causa spectat.” Compare St. Basil’s letters to the Western bishops, in which he reminds them that the Gospel came to them from the East. This is a sort of primacy recognised by St. Paul himself, as it was afterwards, when Jerusalem was recognised as “the mother of all the churches” by a general council, writing to Damasus, bishop of Rome, himself.

Matt. iii. 10. “Securis ad radicem arboris posita est,” says Cyprian, quoting the Old Latin, with which the Vulgate substantially agrees. A very diligent biblical scholar directs attention to the vulgar abuse of this saying, which turns upon a confusion of the active verb to lay, with the neuter verb to lie. It is quoted as if it read, Lay the axe to the root, and is “interpreted, popularly, as of felling a tree, an incumbrance or a nuisance.…Hence it often makes radical reformers in Church and State, and becomes the motto of many a reckless leader whose way has been to teach, not upward by elevating the ignoble, but downward by sinking the elevated.…There is something similar in Latin: jacio to hurl; and jaceo, to lie, recline, or remain at rest. Beza follows the Vulgate (posita est); but the original is clear,—κεῖται, is laid, or lieth.…It means, The axe is ready; it lieth near the root, in mercy and in menace.…The long-suffering of God waiteth as in the days of Noah…waiteth, i.e., for good fruit.”

Matt. iii. 10. “Securis ad radicem arboris posita est,” says Cyprian, quoting the Old Latin, with which the Vulgate substantially agrees. A very diligent biblical scholar directs attention to the vulgar abuse of this saying, which turns upon a confusion of the active verb to lay, with the neuter verb to lie. It is quoted as if it read, Lay the axe to the root, and is “interpreted, popularly, as of felling a tree, an incumbrance or a nuisance.…Hence it often makes radical reformers in Church and State, and becomes the motto of many a reckless leader whose way has been to teach, not upward by elevating the ignoble, but downward by sinking the elevated.…There is something similar in Latin: jacio to hurl; and jaceo, to lie, recline, or remain at rest. Beza follows the Vulgate (posita est); but the original is clear,—κεῖται, is laid, or lieth.…It means, The axe is ready; it lieth near the root, in mercy and in menace.…The long-suffering of God waiteth as in the days of Noah…waiteth, i.e., for good fruit.”

Matt. iii. 10. “Securis ad radicem arboris posita est,” says Cyprian, quoting the Old Latin, with which the Vulgate substantially agrees. A very diligent biblical scholar directs attention to the vulgar abuse of this saying, which turns upon a confusion of the active verb to lay, with the neuter verb to lie. It is quoted as if it read, Lay the axe to the root, and is “interpreted, popularly, as of felling a tree, an incumbrance or a nuisance.…Hence it often makes radical reformers in Church and State, and becomes the motto of many a reckless leader whose way has been to teach, not upward by elevating the ignoble, but downward by sinking the elevated.…There is something similar in Latin: jacio to hurl; and jaceo, to lie, recline, or remain at rest. Beza follows the Vulgate (posita est); but the original is clear,—κεῖται, is laid, or lieth.…It means, The axe is ready; it lieth near the root, in mercy and in menace.…The long-suffering of God waiteth as in the days of Noah…waiteth, i.e., for good fruit.”

Matt. iii. 10. “Securis ad radicem arboris posita est,” says Cyprian, quoting the Old Latin, with which the Vulgate substantially agrees. A very diligent biblical scholar directs attention to the vulgar abuse of this saying, which turns upon a confusion of the active verb to lay, with the neuter verb to lie. It is quoted as if it read, Lay the axe to the root, and is “interpreted, popularly, as of felling a tree, an incumbrance or a nuisance.…Hence it often makes radical reformers in Church and State, and becomes the motto of many a reckless leader whose way has been to teach, not upward by elevating the ignoble, but downward by sinking the elevated.…There is something similar in Latin: jacio to hurl; and jaceo, to lie, recline, or remain at rest. Beza follows the Vulgate (posita est); but the original is clear,—κεῖται, is laid, or lieth.…It means, The axe is ready; it lieth near the root, in mercy and in menace.…The long-suffering of God waiteth as in the days of Noah…waiteth, i.e., for good fruit.”