Episcopal Elections in Cyprian: Clerical and Lay Participation

Abstract

THE DEACON Pontius, the first biographer of the martyr-bishop of Carthage, wrote devotedly that Cyprian will probably never cease to speak even to the end of the world. The words of Pontius appear to have been prophetic, since Cyprian has had to date significant influence on the development of the Christian Church. He has been repeatedly appealed to as an authority by other Church Fathers, by medieval theologians, by both the Reformers and their opponents, by countless generations of Christian leaders and preachers, and by present-day ecumenists in almost all Christian denominations. Cyprian's enduring popularity is due in no small measure, as Quasten observes, to those noble qualities of heart that attract charity and gentleness, prudence and spirit of union. In the Roman Catholic communion today the writings of Cyprian are referred to with increasing frequency and approval. This is especially evident in contemporary research on the nature of episcopal ministry and on the coresponsibility of all levels of Church membership. The witness of Cyprian is important at time when demands are being made for structural reform and greater democratization of the Roman Church. Cyprian furnished valuable information on the practical operation of shared responsibility in the election of bishops. He stated emphatically that the entire community—clergy, laity, and neighboring bishops— should participate in the selection of episcopal leaders. In this he anticipated the important assertion made by Leo the Great two centuries later: Qui praefuturus est omnibus, eligi debet ab omnibus. Cyprian's consistency in recognizing the popular voice in the election of bishops is particularly remarkable when compared with his teaching on the elevated status of the episcopacy. He was, as Monceaux has noted, a man of authority, who staunchly affirmed that bishop's actions could only be judged by the Lord; yet no other early Christian writer, before or