1A fragment of a letter addressed to Cyprian recalls the writer's school friendship with him and their shared study of rhetoric.
2A spurious letter rebukes Cyprian for teaching that those baptized by heretics must be rebaptized, and urges him to withdraw his writings.
3A spurious synodal letter rules that clergy who handed over the Scriptures in persecution (traditores) may not serve at the altar, while those who only pretended to do so are pardoned and those who surrendered them unasked are reduced to lay communion.
4A spurious letter consoles a father on the death of his daughter, arguing that Christian hope in the resurrection forbids excessive mourning, since she has gone home to God.
About this work
Author
Anonymous
Attribution
spurious · Four letters printed in the appendix of Cyprian's works: Donatus to Cyprian (1, a fragment), Pope Cornelius to Cyprian (2), Cyprian to the people of Carthage (3), and Cyprian to Turasius (4). Their authenticity is not accepted; they are not the letters of Cyprian's own collection.
Standing
Not honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by the Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant traditions. Anonymous or pseudonymous work read and used in the church of its time.
Date
uncertain (disputed) · Date and authorship are disputed.
Written at
Unknown (disputed)
Language
Latin
Genre
letter
Reference system
letter (Hartel's numbering of the appendix letters 1–4, CSEL 3.3)
SBL abbreviation
Ep.Not yet checked
Text from
Wilhelm von Hartel, ed., S. Thasci Caecili Cypriani Opera omnia, Pars 3, CSEL 3.3 (Vienna: Gerold, 1871) (Printed edition in the public domain; digital text CC BY-SA 4.0)