248/249 – 252

Cyprian of Carthage and the controversy over the "lapsed"

The wealthy rhetorician Cyprian converted around 246. Already in 248/249 he was elected bishop of Carthage by popular vote.

During the Decian persecution he went into hiding and governed his community by letters. After the persecution he faced the mass question of readmitting the "lapsed." These were people who had recanted or bought a false certificate of sacrifice.

Confessors issued "letters of peace" (libelli pacis) and demanded immediate, unconditional reconciliation. Against them, Cyprian insisted that the decision on readmitting the lapsed belonged to the bishop. A council at Carthage in 251 decreed that degrees of guilt be distinguished and the penitent readmitted gradually. A council in 252, under threat of renewed persecution, eased the conditions.

In the treatises On the Lapsed and On the Unity of the Church, Cyprian developed the teaching that there is no salvation outside the Church. Her unity, he taught, rests on the concord of bishops. Those who disagreed with his policy split off and set up their own bishop, Fortunatus.