251–258

Cyprian: the unity of the Church in the episcopate and "no salvation outside the Church"

In response to the schisms Cyprian wrote the treatise On the Unity of the Church: the Church is one, like the sun with many rays, a tree with branches, a river with channels; the schismatic commits spiritual suicide, and "he cannot have God for his Father who does not have the Church for his mother." The unity of the Church lies in the bishops, the successors of the apostles: "the bishop is in the church and the church in the bishop; where there is no bishop there is no church." The episcopate is one not through a "bishop of bishops" but because each bishop holds his part for the whole; each is autonomous in his own church but confirms his authority through union with the others. González considers the doctrine of the Church Cyprian's chief contribution, Lane calls it normative in the West for more than a thousand years.