in order to know his views, that he may himself come to a determination. We ask every man in good faith, is it thus that the Bishop of Alexandria would have written to the Bishop of Rome, if the latter had enjoyed an authority universally acknowledged, to terminate dogmatic or disciplinary discussions?
We find in the acts of the last council of St. Cyprian a very significant criticism upon the pretensions which the Bishop of Rome had begun to put forth. After having asked the advice of his colleagues, he speaks thus, "Let each one give his opinion without judging any one and without separating from the communion those who are not of his opinion; for none of us sets himself up for a bishop of bishops, nor compels his brethren to obey him by means of tyrannical terror, every bishop having full liberty and complete power; as he cannot be judged by another, neither can he judge another. Let us all wait the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone has the power to appoint us to the government of his Church and to judge our conduct.[1]
It is evident that St. Cyprian had in view Stephen, Bishop of Rome, who had dared to declare those out of his communion who thought otherwise than he did upon the baptism of heretics. The Roman Theologians choose to consider these excommunications by the Bishops of Rome as sentences which separated from the Church those upon whom they fell. But the manner in which the sentence of Victor in the Easter question and that of Stephen in the discussion upon the baptism were considered, proves that they were only regarded as personal acts of the Bishop of Rome, and had no other effect than to sever the relations between him and those who did not share his way of thinking. As for the unity of the Church, that remained intact, for the very simple reason that this unity did not consist in an union with
- ↑ Concil. Carth. St. Cyprian, pp. 329, 330, Bened. edit.
