6. THE QUESTION WAS…..St.
Cyprian of Carthage, a Bishop in the Early Church, wrote that there was only
one what?
A. One altar
B. One priesthood
Answer…..A and B are correct…. “one altar and one
priesthood.”
St.
Cyprian
wrote: "A second altar and a new priesthood cannot be set up beside the
one altar and the one priesthood" (Epist. lii, 24)
Baptized in 246 A.D., St. Cyprian was a bishop and martyr
of the early Church. He defended the unity of the Church, demonstrating that
unity was dependent on the priesthood, the bishopric and the Chair of Peter
(pope).
"God is one, Christ is one, one is
the Church, and one the chair founded on Peter by the word of the Lord"
(Epist. lxx)
"This unity we
bishops who govern in the Church should firmly uphold and defend, in order to
show that the episcopate itself is one and undivided" (De ecclesiĉ unit.,
v);
"Know that the bishop
is in the Church and the Church in the bishop, and that if anyone is not with
the bishop he is not in the Church. . . . The Catholic Church is one, formed of
the harmonious union of pastors who mutually support one another" (Epist.
lxxvi, 5)
St. Cyprian was like many of the great Christian saints, in
that he observed “chastity, and he gave most of his
revenues to the poor. He sold his property, including his gardens at Carthage.” (Source: Catholic Encyclopedia)
According to Catholic Encyclopedia, St. Cyprian “saw no legitimate reason for schism for "what rascal,
what traitor, what madman would be so misled by the spirit of discord as to
believe that it is permitted to rend, or who would dare rend the Divine unity,
the garment of the Lord, the Church of Jesus Christ?" (De eccl., unit.,
viii);
"The spouse of Christ is chaste and incorruptible.
Whoever leaves the Church to follow an adulteress renounces the promises of the
Church. He that abandons the Church of Christ will not receive the rewards of
Christ. He becomes a stranger, an ungodly man, an enemy. God cannot be a Father
to him to whom the Church is not a mother. As well might one be saved out of
the ark of Noah as out of the Church. . . . He who does not respect its unity
will not respect the law of God; he is without faith in the Father and the Son,
without life, without salvation" (op. cit., viii).
www.newadvent.org/cathen/04583b.htm (Life of St. Cyprian)
www.newadvent.org/cathen/13529a.htm (Definition of Schism)
www.newadvent.org/cathen/12260a.htm (the Papacy)
www.catholic.com/library/church_papacy.asp (Church and Papacy)
www.ewtn.com/faith/teachings/papamenu.htm (The Papacy Menu)
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