Bishop Of Carthage Research Articles

Being Christian in Vandal Africa: The Politics of Orthodoxy in the Post-Imperial West by Robin Whelan

Reviewed by: Being Christian in Vandal Africa: The Politics of Orthodoxy in the Post-Imperial West by Robin Whelan Erika T. Hermanowicz Robin Whelan. Being Christian in Vandal Africa: The Politics of Orthodoxy in the Post-Imperial West. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018. xvi + 301 pp. Augustine died in 430 while the Vandals were besieging Hippo. This coincidence, as well as the fact that of all extant Vandal-era texts, Victor of Vita’s History has exercised great influence over modern readers, crystalized the idea that the break between Roman and Vandal rule in North Africa was sharp and brutal. Recent English-language studies on Vandal Africa, however, including work by J. P. Conant, A. H. Merrills, and R. Miles, have challenged that assumption, and Robin Whelan’s superb contribution to the conversation rewards the reader with a vision of Vandalic Christian Africa that is more déjà vu than departure. Despite a hegemonic shift in Africa and the new court’s affirmation of Homoian Christianity (called Arian by its enemies) over Nicene Christianity (Catholic as self-styled by the Nicenes), the bishops proceeded in ways remarkably similar to predecessors living under Roman rule. Whelan removes the Nicene and Homoian churches from their overdetermined (and strictly rhetorical) dependence on Vandal kings and ethnic identity: Homoian bishops were not obliging extensions of the court, nor were they necessarily of Vandal or “barbarian” origin, just as Nicene bishops were not exclusively identifiable as Roman. Once Whelan extricates churches from false ethnic and royal entanglements, he concludes that the ferocious competition between them was born from commonality, not difference. The most famous Nicene bishops from the Vandal era, Quodvultdeus, bishop of Carthage, and Fulgentius of Ruspe, fretted that believers could not easily tell the two churches apart. Nicene and Homoian churches competed for and claimed the same honors: who had the greater number of bishops; who was more faithful to the legacy of Cyprian; who understood scripture better; [End Page 235] who had received legal recognition from the rulings of emperors and kings. In order to distinguish themselves, these ecclesiastical doppelgängers pushed the other rhetorically into suspect realms of heresy and crime: the Homoians accused the Nicenes of being pagans, and the Nicenes claimed that to the unwary, the Homoian church might resemble the bride of Christ, but she was in fact a soul-devouring whore. These examples suffice to give an idea of the barbs traded, but they also offer reassurance that in terms of the rhetoric deployed, North Africa had not changed much since Roman days. Whelan’s deft handling of episcopal rhetoric is one of many strengths in this well-written and persuasive book. Many of the literary sources he engages are not well known, even to students of Roman Africa, and their (re)introduction to the world is alone worth the price of admission. But Whelan’s work goes far beyond that, exploring (and in many cases, debunking) assumptions regarding the lives and loyalties of elites in post-Roman Africa. Examples: Vandal military uniforms were the court dress, not a declaration of ethnic identity. There is plenty of evidence, despite the courts’ official antipathy toward Nicene Christianity, that Nicene Christians worked at court, and that, exceptions notwithstanding, Vandal kings not only made concessions to the Nicene bishops, but also were fully aware that Nicene Christians occupied important posts and were uninterested in calling them out. Political efficiency superseded religious preferences. Among political elites who had ties to the court, a conscious effort was made to subsume the theological and legal labeling of doctrinal preferences (Homoousian or Homoian, heretic or orthodox) under more general, and generous, terms, such as “pious,” and “a good Christian.” More broadly, people everywhere gave their loyalty to revered martyrs more readily than to specific doctrines. The martyrs were for everyone. Whelan’s point is that the new regime had strong religious preferences, but did not let them get in the way of political expediency and practical existence. Still, Africa was different. The book’s epilogue compares Vandal Africa to Burgundian Gaul, Ostrogothic Italy, and Visigothic Spain. The effort by the Vandal ruling house to unify its territory under one doctrinal allegiance was more...

La Sibila: Sonido. Imagen. Liturgía. Escena ed. by Maricarmen Gómez Muntané, and Eduardo Carrero Santamaría, and: El Juicio final: Sonido. Imagen. Liturgía. Escena ed. by Maricarmen Gómez Muntané

Reviewed by: La Sibila: Sonido. Imagen. Liturgía. Escena ed. by Maricarmen Gómez Muntané, and Eduardo Carrero Santamaría, and: El Juicio final: Sonido. Imagen. Liturgía. Escena ed. by Maricarmen Gómez Muntané Jane Morlet Hardie Gómez Muntané, Maricarmen, and Eduardo Carrero Santamaría, eds, La Sibila: Sonido. Imagen. Liturgía. Escena, Madrid, Editorial Alpuerto, 2015; paperback; pp. 305; R.R.P. €19.50; ISBN 9788438104897. Gómez Muntané, Maricarmen, ed., El Juicio final: Sonido. Imagen. Liturgía. Escena, Madrid, Editorial Alpuerto, 2017; paperback; pp. 352; R.R.P. €21.00; ISBN 9788438105009. It is not often that a group of scholars, all leaders in their respective disciplines, come together to examine a topic from all angles, leading to an exciting interdisciplinary collaboration. In this case, the twenty often interrelated chapters of the two books here reviewed grew out of two symposia, held respectively at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona in 2014, and at Castelló d'Empúries in 2016. The resulting volumes are bookended by thoughtful observations from central members of the 'team'—Maricarmen Gómez, Eduardo Carrero, and José Enrique Ruiz-Doménec, all from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. Gómez edited the first volume with Eduardo Carrero, and the second alone, and it was indeed through their passion for a true integration of humanistic enquiry and scholarship across disciplinary boundaries that this project took wings. Maricarmen Gómez has been, for many years and through many publications, the primary scholar of and spokesperson for the Song of the Sibyl (Canto de la Sibila) from its earliest documentable beginnings in Spain through to the latest reconstructions and performances of various versions. The Song of the Sibyl refers to a liturgical drama and chant in which the Sibyl prophesies the signs that describe the Apocalypse. The most ancient texts were Greek, better known through a Latin translation attributed to St Augustine in the Middle Ages in the Sermo de Symbolo, but now attributed to Quodvultdeus, Bishop of Carthage from 437 to 453. The earliest known written-down chant comes from a miscellaneous collection from the ninth or tenth century (St Martial of Limoges, F-Pn lat.1154). [End Page 200] Although the introduction of the new Roman breviary in 1568 led to the abolition of the Song of the Sibyl, scholars have continued to revive it, and various versions are now performed in a number of places in Spain and elsewhere. There were and are many versions that have survived over a long period of time, in some cases with a written record, and in others through oral transmission. As Gómez has pointed out, the majority of these versions come from Spain (26) and include six in Catalan, and one in Gallo-Portuguese; and although no two versions are identical in their texts, the chants remain fairly stable. Declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO on 16 November 2010, the Song of the Sibyl has been performed in one guise or another from the Middle Ages up until today. Daniel Rico's magisterial opening chapter in the first book provides a full background to this UNESCO decision and meditates on its meaning, providing a context and paving the way for the complex studies that follow. Inextricably related to the Song of the Sibyl, the Final Judgement (el Juicio Final)—referring to the passage in Matthew (25.31–46) in which Christ will come in all his glory, accompanied by all his angels, and sit on his throne of glory—was a recurrent subject of representation in both the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and manuscript evidence goes back to the first third of the fourteenth century, with the representation of the mystery of the Jour du Jugement (Besançon, Bibl. Municipale, M 579). While the preservation and discovery of the past, musicologically speaking, began with the recovery of manuscript evidence and its interpretation from a technical point of view, scholars today have moved far beyond a linear and single-focused approach. Now, any discussion of music or texts of the past must consider questions of context and meaning. In...

Donatism of History: Recent Questions

Two roads diverged in Roman Africa. One led to the movement that came to be known as Donatism, and the other to the so-called Catholic party. The controversy emerged soon after the Diocletian persecution, one side selecting Caecilius as the bishop of Carthage, the other eventually selecting Donatus (and therefore dubbed ‘Donatist’). The schism widened when Constantine supported the former and attempted to enforce his party's status. Violence sporadically erupted between these two parties for the next century, around which time Augustine led the charge to bring about unity, ultimately through legal and coercive means. The success of this unification, however, and the ultimate fate of the Donatists is open to debate, along with virtually every other datum from this controversy. The debated nature of the controversy, therefore, needs to be closely examined, for just what paradigm one takes from the outset could make all the difference.

‘The very deceitfulness of devils’: Firmilian and the Doubtful Baptisms of a Woman possessed by Demons

In the mid-third century, a controversy relating to the validity of baptism by the lapsed broke out between Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, and Stephen, bishop of Rome. The former maintained that baptisms carried out by those who later lapsed had no validity, but must be repeated by a priest of whose behaviour there could be no doubt. Stephen maintained that baptisms carried out in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were to be viewed as valid, whoever had carried them out. Cyprian appealed to his fellow bishops for support. In 256, Firmilian, bishop of Caesarea, wrote to him outlining the case of a woman who had for some time baptized and celebrated the eucharist, but who had then been identified as being possessed by demons, casting her earlier actions into question. This essay will analyse the grounds for Firmilian's doubts about the validity of the woman's actions, his proposed response, and the way in which this episode has been used in modern debates about the ordination of women.

Notables et chrétiens : les enseignements des Lettres de Cyprien de Carthage

The letter 1 of Cyprian of Carthage, sent to the community of Furni, can be related to an inscription from Furnos Maius, which makes known — among the civic elite — the Geminii family. It confirms the identification of the bishopric seat suggested by Y. Duval : Furni doesn’t correspond to Furnos Minus. Other inscriptions show how the disciplinary issue mentioned by the bishop of Carthage could arise in the milieu of local notables, in which the clergymen were also chosen.

True Church or True Basilica?: The Song of Songs and Parmenian’s Ecclesiology Revisited

Optatus of Milevis responded to Parmenian, bishop of Carthage’s so-called Donatist party, and scholars long recognized Optatus’s rhetorical tactics as purposeful misrepresentation of Parmenian’s original argument. One motif in Parmenian’s work, however, has not been reread in this critical approach: the church as the Bride of Christ as depicted in the Song of Songs is said to have received six dotes , or “gifts.” Optatus insisted that these only apply to his church, that is, the catholic church. Parmenian, it is argued, originally had his material “church,” or basilica, in mind.

Divine Ordinances and Life-Giving Remedies: Galatians in the Writings of Cyprian of Carthage

ABSTRACT As Bishop of Carthage in the mid-third century, Cyprian was responsible for uniting his flock and keeping them on the path to salvation in the midst of persecution, schism, and plague. Cyprian turned to the Scriptures to answer the questions raised by these crises, and the way he applied them to his own situation reveals the interplay of theology and exegesis. This is particularly evident in his use of Galatians, which is strikingly different from that of modern interpreters. This article examines all of Cyprian's quotations of and allusions to Galatians through the lens of his dominant pastoral concerns: the unity and uniqueness of the church and her sacraments, care for the poor and captive, the necessity of discipline and repentance, and the contrast between present privation and future reward. It categorizes the reading strategies he uses as models, images, maxims, direct application, and indirect application. Cyprian's use of Galatians highlights his paraenetic concern as well as the variety of ways he applies Scripture to the needs of his congregation, exploring different aspects of its meaning. It also makes evident the interplay between his pastoral concerns, his theology, and the text. This is seen not only in the verses he does use but also in those he does not, as he demonstrates a pronounced aversion to quoting verses that cast the law in a negative light.

L'Epistola 70 di Cipriano di Cartagine in versione etiopica

Ethiopic literary tradition numbers hagiographical and magical texts centred on the legendary figure of St. Cyprian the magician, but no Ethiopic version of St. Cyprian’s (bishop of Carthage, † 258 A.D.) works has so far been registered in the current literature. This contribution is devoted to the edition, translation, and philological analysis of the only authentically cyprianic text preserved in Ethiopic: Epistula 70. This «synodal epistle» (254 or 255 A.D.) originates from 3rd century baptismal controversies: Cyprian maintains that it is necessary that all who come from heresy must receive full baptism. Besides the Latin original text, Epistula 70 is preserved in a Greek translation (inserted in Zonara’s and Balsamon’s canonical collections), but no oriental version exists, except for the Ethiopic one. Epistula 70 is preserved in 5 mss. of the Ethiopic Sēnodos: EMML 1843, ff. 58rb–60rb; EMML 2430, ff. 42rc–43rb; BN Zotenberg 121 [Éth. 95], ff. 78va–79va; BAV, Borgiano etiopico 2, ff. 173rb–174vb; Uppsala, University library, O Etiop. 39, ff. 121ra–122rc; the 5 mss. can be classified according to a clear stemma codicum and all of them have been used in the present edition. J.M. Wansleben identified Epistula 70 in 1671, but his discovery has remained neglected till now. Concerning the Vorlage of the Ethiopic translation, there are some clues to a direct dependence on a Greek version, which could be older than that preserved in the byzantine canonical collections.

Il termine „Sacramentum” nell`accezione cristiana. La testimonianza di san Cipriano

In the second half of the second century, spreading throughout the Latin milieu, the Church, in particular in the Africa Proconsularis, faced a necessity to coin its own theological language. In opposition to the κοινή διάλεκτος the classical Latin did not have an appropriate terminology to render the new content being borne by the revealed religion. This process had begun with the translation of the Bible, spreading gradually along with the growth of Latin theologicalliterature, largely owed to Tertullian. His contribution in this field had also Saint Cyprian, bishop of Carthage and martyr, who was characterized by the great sense of responsibility and philological balance.One may acknowledge two directions the process advanced: to invent neologisms and to adapt classical terminology to the new meanings. The term sacramentum belongs to the latter set of christianized classical terms. In the pre-Christian Latin that term belonged to juridical-military jargon and meant a promise, soldier’s allegiance, an obligation, or an initiation confirmed by an oath. As adopted by Christians, since the second century onwards was assuming different semantics, and as an equivalent of Biblical μυστήριον, became gradually one of the key-terms of the Latin Church.The present research puts the question about the reasons that caused these two terms to identify with one another and that led to broaden the semantic field sacramentum by referring to different aspects of redemptive presence of Christ, in particular as sacramentum Christi, which is used to render the economy of salvation.In this respect the testimony of Cyprian is very important for the history of the Latin theology as it allows us to discover a better understanding of the term at the beginning of its use; the term, which passed to the later inheritance of theological tradition.

‘I, Who Knew that I was Privileged to Converse with the Lord…’: Christian Women and Religious Authority in Third-Century North Africa

This article considers the authority of female confessors in the early church. Beginning with a discussion of the role of Perpetua as portrayed in The Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas, it then places the evidence relating to Perpetua in the context of the correspondence of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage during the Decian persecution, fifty years later. It concludes that female confessors could and did exercise authority, and that they were considered capable of granting absolution. However, in North Africa, the authority of female confessors seems to have been distinct from that of deacons and presbyters.

Model doskonałego chrześcijanina w pismach św. Cypriana z Kartaginy

The article shows the model of the perfect Christian depicted by the Bishop of Carthage, St. Cyprian. This model is particularly interesting since it was formed during the persecution, which had a major impact on shaping the image of the perfect Christian. This paper consists of three main parts: the first - St. bishop Cyprian of Carthage and his time – in which the circumstances of his pastoral work and his works are given, the other - Perfection for all - shows a model of perfection that St. Cyprian proposed to all believers, and in the third part, the martyrs - „a fruit a hundredfold” of perfection - are portrayed. To them Cyprian admitted the highest degree of Christian perfection. For bishop Cyprian the Christian-martyrs, who perfectly fulfilled God’s commandments in everyday life and in the most perfect way they united themself with Christ in the suffering and in the death, were primarily a perfect model of the Christians. And this model of perfect Christianmartyr for decades after Cyprian - till the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great - was the main model of a perfect Christian.

Cyprian of Carthage

Cyprian served as bishop of Carthage from 248 until his martyrdom in 258. He guided the African Christian church through crises of persecution and division. His theology places the episcopal college at the centre of the church, as the guarantor of its unity, purity, and sanctifying power. His thought proved a troublesome guide for the African church as it negotiated the transition from persecuted to established church.

ASCO Core Values

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) membership is strong, diverse, respected, and growing. With approximately 450 new members each quarter, ASCO has grown to more than 23,500 members, one quarter of whom are international members from over 100 countries. The membership, Board of Directors, and 22 committees are supported by close to 200 full-time staff and a foundation. In conjunction with ASCO’s 40th anniversary and in acknowledgment of ASCO’s tremendous growth, the 2003 Board of Directors re-examined ASCO’s 1999 Strategic Plan, consisting of a mission statement, organizational goals and objectives, and core values. In this context, the Board asked the Ethics Committee for advice on refining ASCO’s Core Values. The Ethics Committee decided, with Board approval, to reaffirm the Core Values from 1999, but to rephrase them in order to articulate them more clearly to our members, associates, and patients. In this article, the Ethics Committee reports this Board-approved restatement of the Core Values. Practitioners of medicine and medical research face particular challenges today. Medicine must retain its essential character of caring for the sick and relieving human suffering, while acting as a responsible steward of society’s limited resources. Medical research must retain its integrity by focusing on the discovery of truth and the improvement of outcomes, whether funded by for-profit or not-for-profit sponsors. As medical practitioners and researchers discover more powerful tools, both must ask, “Even though we can, should we?” Core values—fundamental, enduring, deeply held beliefs—anchor our decisions in a changing world. Core values are not new to medicine. Although the contemporary literature on core values, often directed primarily at corporations, is informative, medicine’s core values are “ancient virtues distilled over time.” The fifth century BC Hippocratic corpus began this distillation. While discussing a series of clinical cases, Hippocrates coined the famous ethical dictum, “As to diseases, make a habit of two things—to help and not to harm,” demonstrating the integration of the practice of medicine and ethics. The early Hippocratic descriptions of physician decorum are not merely prescriptions of proper etiquette, but rather always include acting virtuously; a decorous physician embodies integrity. These same themes, care for the patient and integrity in all actions, are echoed throughout medicine, from Galen (the second century Roman physician), to Cyprian (the third century bishop of Carthage), to Avicenna (the tenth century Islamic physician), to Maimonides (the twelfth century Jewish physician), to Percival and Gregory (the late eighteenth century British physicians). Nor is this a Western phenomenon. Both Buddhism and Confucianism extol the virtue of compassion for those who suffer. “These similarities across very different cultures and eras make one wonder whether there may not be some inherent and universal moral atmosphere that surrounds the work of caring for the sick and pervades that work, regardless of culturally diverse moral systems.” ASCO stands in this ancient medical tradition with our restatement of Core Values. ASCO has also joined with our contemporary peers in an endorsement of an articulation of the principles and commitments associated with medical professionalism.

The White Crown of Works: Cyprian's Early Pastoral Ministry of Almsgiving in Carthage

In a letter from Cyprian, bishop of Carthage in the middle of the third century, written while he was in hiding during the Decian persecution to the imprisoned confessors in Carthage, there is mention of two crowns, two colors and two flowers. The letter can be dated to the middle of April 250. Cyprian wanted to console those in prison that they would not be failures if they failed to be martyred. Those who were not martyred could receive equal renown through their confession as those who were martyred. As much as martyrdom was highly prized among African Christians, Cyprian wanted to assure the imprisoned confessors that it was not the only way to please God. In the past (ante), in a time undoubtedly before persecution, one could be clad in white for good works, just as now one could be clad in crimson for martyrdom. For those who were not going to die a martyr's death and win the crimson crown for suffering or the flower of warfare, Cyprian seemed to say that the confession of their faith could now be counted as a good work for which the reward was the white crown or the flower of peace.

Quelques aspects de l’administration des provinces romaines d’Afrique avant la conquête vandale

1. The Theodosian Code was compiled between 429 and 437. During these years the commissioners made much use of the archives in Africa, particularly those in Carthage when they were collecting those imperial constitutions which were retained in the new code. The fact that they were able to use these archives shows that in this region, which was not affected by the Vandals until 439, the records were well stocked and well maintained. 2. There is further evidence which shows that institutions were functioning normally: the Acts of the conference between the Catholics and Donatists at Carthage in 411, a passage from Salvian’s De Gubernatione Dei (probably informed about Africa by refugees he met in Marseilles), and testimony from Quodvultdeus, the exiled bishop of Carthage. 3. The Notitia Dignitatum, drawn up in 401, was partly revised for the West under Valentinian III. This document is not a theoretical organisational chart, and it provides evidence that in Africa a civil and military organisation was still...

Donatus ‘paene totam Africam decepit’. How?

Jerome was writing De viris illustribus in c. 393, and his verdict on Donatus of Carthage conceded that he had indeed ‘deceived nearly the whole of Africa’, an aim echoed by Augustine in his satirical anti-Donatist poem composed the same year. In fact, the year 393 had not been a good one for the Donatists. The high-handed acts of the new bishop of Carthage, Primian (391–412+), had provoked a schism among moderate and traditional members of the Church in proconsular Africa and Zeugitana (modern Tunisia). About one hundred bishops from these provinces had rallied to the cause of Maximian, a deacon in the Church at Carthage who was also a descendant of Donatus himself. In the meantime, the Catholic Church, condemned to minority status since the reign of Julian (361–3), had begun to reassert itself through Aurelius, its new bishop of Carthage (392–430). In 393 it held an important council at Hippo where Augustine, even though only a presbyter, had been the preacher.

The Program of the Leningrad Joseph Pyxis

The program of an Early Christian pyxis with scenes of the patriarch Joseph, now in the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, can be explained by reference to patristic sources rather than to the apocryphal Jewish legends cited in earlier literature on the object. The stories represented on the pyxis are here seen to have been used as metaphors for both the Eucharist and the divine gift of grace in sermons by St. Ambrose and Quodvultdeus, Bishop of Carthage, written in response to the controversy over the definition of grace engendered by Pelagianism in the late 4th through mid-5th centuries. Contemporary preoccupation with this issue in Italy and North Africa provides an appropriate context for the carving of the pyxis and accordingly may suggest a reattribution of the ivory, formerly given to 6th-century Constantinople.

I.—The Christian Antiquities of Tripolitania

In late antiquity, as under the earlier Empire, Tripolitania was a small and somewhat isolated territory. The creation of a separate province of Tripolitania, in the closing years of the third century, was no more than the official recognition of an established geographical fact. There continued to be important military and cultural links with the provinces to the west; but the natural isolation of the territory was inevitably increased by the decline in public security; and although the church came under the primacy of the bishop of Carthage, the records of the church councils bear eloquent witness to the hazards and difficulties of travel from such outlying districts. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the surviving Christian antiquities of Tripolitania exhibit a robust regionalism; or that artistically, with the single exception of the mosaic in the church that Justinian built at Sabratha, none is of outstanding intrinsic merit.

Greek Mysteries in the Confession of St. Cyprian

Precisely a hundred years ago Preller called attention to a curious passage in the Confession of St. Cyprian describing certain Greek mysteries and printed the text adding a few brief notes. This Cyprian was a famous magician who was converted to Christianity, the prototype of Dr. Faust, and is often confused with his namesake, the bishop of Carthage. His legend became very popular, there are Greek, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, and Arabic versions, and it has been much discussed. The Confession, so called because in it Cyprian speaks in his own words, was originally independent and later, but before Eudocia's metaphrasis, was inserted between the first book, the Conversion, and the third book, the Martyrdom, of the Greek version. The Empress Eudocia who married Theodosius II in A.D. 421 put the legend into verse, presumably in her old age; she included the Confession, which also was known to Gregory Nazianzen who in A.D. 379 delivered a sermon on St. Cyprian.4 This is valuable because it determines the time in which the Confession was composed, somewhat before A.D. 379. Thus it is roughly contemporary with the Neoplatonic circle of the Emperor Julian and was written at a time when paganism was still a living reality, a fact which adds to the importance of the passage.

Notes on Cyprian's De habitu virginum, Its Source and Influence

The chief purpose of this paper is to discuss the influence which the De habitu virginum of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage in the middle of the third century, may have exerted upon the De virginitate of Aldhelm, the earliest outstanding writer of seventh-century England. Cyprian himself was strongly influenced by Tertullian, as Sister Angela Elizabeth Keenan thoroughly demonstrated in her doctoral dissertation. Incidentally, Sister Angela Elizabeth refers to Aldhelm's quoting from chapter five of De habitu virginum. This reference led me to find out whether there might be other instances of Cyprian's influence on the De virginitate.