The see of St Peter has never been far from crisis. Institutional cover-up of child abuse over the last few decades is rather like the issue of indulgences (a financial scam) on the eve of the Protestant Reformation, an issue that was then a symbol of everything that was wrong with the institutional Church. There are many others, such as women in ministry and leadership and recognition of gender diversity that provoke questions about how any new pope can reform a top-heavy institution so weighed down by the burden of the past.
There were other crises for the early Church in the centuries before Constantine, when it was still an underground movement. Ecclesiastical structures had not yet taken the shape imposed on them in the fourth century, when Christianity started to gain official government support. The most immediate crisis was that of periodic persecution by paranoid authorities. There was a particularly savage repression under the Emperor Decius in 249-51. This in turn led to a serious question for Christian leaders. What should be done about the many Christians who lapsed in their faith, rather than face torture and a painful death?
This difficult issue led to a full-blown schism in the mid third century. The fledgling Christian community in Rome was divided between those who supported the papacy of Novatian (251-8), a theologian who favoured (in varying degrees) a more tolerant approach, upheld by a serious of short-lived popes, each of whom would end up being executed and remembered as martyrs: Cornelius (251-253), Lucius (253-254), Stephen (254-257), and Sixtus (257-258). A good summary is given by J.D.D. Kelly in The Oxford Dictionary of Popes (1986). Following the execution of Novatian , the Roman church was governed for two years by presbyters alone, until a decision was made to elect a successor. They then chose Dionysius (260-268) who set about reorganizing the Christian Church so as to better ensure its survival in the face of government hostility.
A key figure in opposing the rigorism of Novatian was Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200-58), a classically trained orator, who converted to Christianity in around 245. Three years later, he was elected by clergy and people of Carthage to be their bishop, but had to go into hiding to avoid a fresh round of government persecution. He was consecrated bishop just as a savage Ebola-like plague broke out across the Empire. Cyprian has left us a vivid and fascinating account of this experience, in one of his writings, On the Mortality. His message of the need to care for the sick, whoever they were, helped win over many to the Christian movement, thus ensuring its future success.
Cyprian’s greatest challenge as bishop was over the issue of what do with those who lapsed in their faith. His emphasis was on the priority of mercy. He opposed rigorist policies that generated schism, a risk that he saw as in the long term more damaging than heresy.
In one of his other writings, On the Unity of the Catholic Church, Cyprian argued that Christ had given equal power to all of the apostles. While recognising the primacy of St Peter, he did not believe that the bishop of Rome should imitate Emperors in asserting authority over other apostolic churches. He was the first Church Father to theorize what he saw as the metaphysical unity of the ecclesia catholica, describing it as the mother of all who follow Jesus in implementing his vision of God’s kingdom, as demanding mercy and compassion. He thus lay the ground for the Church being identified with Christ’s mother.
Cyprian produced a remarkable body of writings during a decade in which the papacy was in schism. He was himself executed (by the sword, a small mercy granted to Roman citizens). His views about the equality of all the apostles would be quietly forgotten by those Latin Christian bishops who emphasized the authority of the bishop of Rome against those pursued heretical teaching. Augustine cited Cyprian often, because figures like Pelagius themselves looked back to Cyprian for his unflinching emphasis on Christians needing to exercise justice and mercy. Augustine’s teaching about original sin and our dependence on grace reflected a very different vision of human potential.
In the seventh century, Cyprian’s writings might have passed into scholarly oblivion had they not been noticed by an Irish scholar, Cummian (d. 661). He considered them of exceptional value when becoming involved in a debate tearing apart the Irish Church at the time. The issue of the day was whether the Irish should retain a traditional Celtic way of calculating Easter, or adopt a new system followed by Rome and the wider catholic community. Cummian reacted against the narrowness of those who identified with purely Irish tradition, but equally did not support arguments based on the authority of Rome. Instead he looked back to Cyprian to support his understanding of the universality of the Church, symbolized by authority having been given equally to all the apostles.
'Any successor to Pope Francis would do well to recall the diversity of ways of thinking about catholicity as vital to promoting renewal in the Church.'
The ecclesial situation confronted by Pope Francis in our own day is radically different from that of the seventh century. Yet there are still parallels to be drawn. This pope has made a point of choosing cardinals from the peripheries of the Church rather than from established power blocks. Thus he has promoted to the rank of cardinal (one of representation, not one of holy orders), Bishop Mykola Bychok CSsR, Eparch of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Australia and Oceania. Bishop Bychok’s appointment is a small reminder of the universality of the Catholic Church, in communion with Rome even if that Church observes its own ritual traditions. Catholicity is more than just Roman tradition. Cyprian, bishop of a city with a long history of antagonism to Rome, had good reason for emphasizing the universality of the Church.
Any successor to Pope Francis would do well to recall the diversity of ways of thinking about catholicity as vital to promoting renewal in the Church. This must involve much more than reforming existing clerical structures. Sometimes going back to the practice of earlier centuries can help broaden our own perspectives. But we must not stay locked in the past. Any successor to the see of Peter must recognize the contribution not just of underrepresented regions in promoting the Gospel, but of women, as it was even in the time of Phoebe, as St Paul makes clear in his Epistle to the Romans (16:1-2).
Constant J. Mews, former Director of the Centre for Religious Studies at Monash University, is Emeritus Professor in its School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies. He and his colleague, Kathleen B. Neal, have co-edited Addressing Injustice in the Medieval Body Politic (University of Amsterdam Press, 2023) Addressing Injustice in the Medieval Body Politic (degruyter.com), which includes a translation of On the Twelve Abuses of the Age, discussed in this article.
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