Abstract
The letters of Cyprian provide an authentic and rich source of general historical information. They also give first hand account of events that disturbed his times—the situation of the Lapsi, the schism of Novation, the baptismal controversy, and the trials and terrors of the Roman persecutions. |The purpose of this investigation is to study the actual characteristics of the Decian persecution, and its effects upon the African Church as revealed in Cyprian's letters. |The first chapter describes very briefly the important events in Cyprian's life. The prestige the saint enjoyed not only in his own diocese but throughout the whole of Roman Africa is likewise touched upon. |The second chapter treats of conditions in the African Church prior to the Decian persecution. Instances are cited which show how sin and pleasures coupled with an insatiable quest for wealth had replaced fidelity to God in the lives of the greater number of Christians. Later, during the persecution, this lack of discipline led to wholesale defections from the faith. |The actual characteristics of the persecution are dealt with at length in chapter three. Passages from Cyprian’s letters are cited which heat depict the inhuman treatment of the Christians and the different types of punishments inflicted upon them. |The fourth chapter which treats of the apostasies has an important hearing on our subject, for it throws light on the great numbers who, either through fear or voluntary abjuration, offered incense to the heathen gods and participated in the sacrifices offered to them. Cyprian’s treatise De Lapsis is quoted particularly with reference to the moral and spiritual condition of the Church in the third century.