Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 1304
The clergy of Rome participates in the election of their bishop, Cornelius, in AD 251. Account of Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (North Africa), Letter 55, AD 252.
Epistula  55
 
VIII,4. [...] Factus est autem Cornelius episcopus de Dei et Christi eius iudicio, de clericorum paene omnium testimonio, de plebis quae tunc adfuit suffragio, de sacerdotum antiquorum et bonorum uirorum collegio, cum nemo ante se factus esset, cum Fabiani locus, id est cum locus Petri et gradus cathedrae sacerdotalis uacaret.
 
(ed. Diercks 1994: 265)
Letter 55
 
VIII,4. [...] Moreover, Cornelius was made bishop by the judgment of God and of His Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the suffrage of the people who were then present, and by the assembly of ancient priests and good men, when no one had been made so before him, when the place of Fabian, that is, when the place of Peter and the degree of the sacerdotal throne was vacant.
 

Discussion:

This is part of the letter to Bishop Antonius [1272], in which Cyprian explains the validity of the election of Cornelius against his detractors, especially Novatian, who was ordained bishop against Cornelius.

Place of event:

Region
  • Rome
City
  • Rome

About the source:

Author: Cyprian
Title: Letters, Epistulae, Epistolae
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
Cyprian was born probably about AD 200. He converted to Christianity in about 245 and in 248 was elected Bishop of Carthage. Soon after, the Decian persecution began (in 249/250) and Cyprian went into hiding. In 251 he returned to the city. Under Valerian, he was exiled in 257 and executed in 258. The epistolary of Cyprian consists of 81 letters (16 of them by his correspondents, and 6 synodal or collective), the majority of them are from the period of 250-251, when they were the means of Cyprian`s communication with his clergy. They offer us a wide view on the organization of the Church in Carthage in the middle of the third century, her relation with the Church of Rome, on the development of the persecutions, and on the conflicts that they caused inside the Church.
Different numerations of Cyprian's letters exist, I follow the edition of Diercks in Corpus Christianorum.
Edition:
G.F. Diercks ed., Sancti Cypriani Episcopi Epistularium. Epistulae 1-57, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 3B, Turnhout 1994.
Bibliography:
 
 

Categories:

Ecclesiastical administration - Election of Church authorities
    Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1304, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1304