The Third Council of Carthage having thus confirmed the Decrees of the Two former, notwithstanding the Threats and Menaces of the Bishop of Rome, it was thought adviseable for the Peace of the Church to acquaint him therewith; and at the same time to inform him more particularly of the Reasons, on which their Opinion was grounded. |Deputies sent
to Stephen, how
treated.| Deputies were accordingly dispatched to Rome for that Purpose; but Stephen not only refused to see or hear them, but would not allow any of his Flock to correspond with them, to supply them with the Necessaries of Life, or even to admit them under the same Roof; excluding them not only from his Communion, but from common Hospitality, says, Firmilian, who wrote this very Year[[445]]. |He excommunicates
all who held the
opposite Opinion.| He did not stop here; but, transported with Rage, or Zeal, as Baronius is pleased to style it, he cut off from his Communion all the Bishops who had assisted at the Council, and all those who held the same Opinion, that is, the Bishops of Africa, Numidia, Mauritania, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Galatia, and Egypt[[446]]. But Stephen’s Anathemas proved, as those of Victor’s had done before, bruta fulmina; no Regard was had to them, no, not even by those of his own Party; who, by continuing in Communion with those whom he had cut off from his, sufficiently declared their Thoughts touching his rash and unchristian Conduct. This Dispute, says St. Austin, occasioned no Schism in the Church, the Bishops continuing united in Charity, notwithstanding their Disagreement in Opinion[[447]]. No Thanks to Stephen, who did all that lay in his Power to set the Bishops at Variance, and involve the whole Church in Confusion and Disorder: The Peace of Christ, continues St. Austin, triumphed in their Hearts, and put a Stop to the growing Schism; not in the Heart of Stephen, where Rage, Ambition, and Envy lodged; Guests incompatible with Peace and Charity; but in the Hearts of the other Bishops, who were thereby restrained from following his Example. How many Schisms had been prevented, had Bishops in After-ages trod in the Footsteps of those great Prelates!
Stephen’s Conduct
disapproved by
Dionysius of
Alexandria;
Dionysius, afterwards Pope, and Philemon, both then Presbyters of the Church of Rome, acquainted, no doubt, by Stephen’s Direction, the great Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, with what had passed, hoping to gain him over to their Party, and extort from him an Approbation of Stephen’s Conduct: but that illustrious Prelate, foreseeing, and well weighing, the evil Consequences that might attend it, declared his Sentiments with all the Freedom and Zeal that became a Man of his Rank in the Church. He told them plainly, that the condemning a Practice, which had been established by so many Councils, was what he could by no means approve of; that an Affair of such Consequence required long and mature Deliberation; and that the deciding it over-hastily might raise eternal Disputes, and end at last in a Schism: he therefore begged Stephen, in a Letter, which he writ to him on this Occasion, that he would, upon Reflection, alter his Conduct; and in an Affair upon which so much depended, take different Measures from those which he had hitherto pursued[[448]]. As Stephen wrote to Dionysius, so did St. Cyprian to Firmilian, giving him a particular and candid Account both of Stephen’s Conduct and his own. Firmilian was Bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, and one of the most eminent Prelates at that Time in the Church both for Piety and Learning: he had a singular Veneration for St. Cyprian, maintained with great Zeal the same Cause, and consequently had been equally ill used and excommunicated by Stephen. He therefore received with extraordinary Joy the Letter, which St. Cyprian sent him by Rogatian one of his Deacons, often read it with great Satisfaction[[449]], and answered it with a long Letter[[450]], which is still extant, though St. Cyprian’s to him has been lost long since. |and severely censured
by Firmilian.| In this Letter Firmilian, amazed and provoked at Stephen’s unaccountable Conduct, expresses his Detestation of it in sharper Terms than the Laws of Charity can well allow; for, not content to charge him with sacrificing the Peace of the Church to a petulant Humour, he compares him to Judas, and stigmatizes him with the Epithets of inhuman, audacious, insolent, wicked, impious Schismatic; for he is a true Schismatic, says Firmilian, who departs from the Unity of the Church, which thou hast done, O Stephen; for, by attempting to separate others from thee, thou hast separated thyself from all other Churches. How much Sin hast thou heaped upon thyself by cutting thyself off from so many Flocks[[451]]! Firmilian’s Letter was translated into Latin by St. Cyprian himself, as is manifest from the Style. It was unknown, it seems, to St. Austin; for he never quotes it, nor, in confuting the Opinion of Sr. Cyprian, takes any notice of some Reasons alleged in that Letter to support it.
Stephen dies, but not
a Martyr.
There was no Hope of seeing an End put to this Dispute, so long as Stephen lived; but he dying, his Successor, who was a Man of a quite different Temper, laid the Storm, which his furious and ungovernable Passion had raised. He died on the 2d of August 257. according to the most probable Opinion[[452]]. The Church of Rome, upon the Authority of his Acts, ranks him among the Martyrs; but that Honour is not paid him either by St. Austin, or by Vincentius Lirinensis, who, naming him together with St. Cyprian, as they often do, give constantly the Title of Martyr to the latter, and never to the former. |His Acts fabulous.| As for his Acts, they flatly contradict, in several Points, the most unexceptionable Writers among the Antients[[453]], and therefore by no means deserve the Credit which Baronius would have us give them[[454]]. Even Anastasius seems to have made no Account of them, if in his Time they were yet composed, which may be questioned; for the Account he gives us of Stephen’s Death differs widely from that which we read in those Acts[[455]]. But he had made a bold Attempt towards extending the Power and Authority of the See of Rome, and therefore was to be placed among the Saints for the Encouragement of others. To say he had merited that Honour by his Virtues, either as a Christian or a Bishop, had been carrying the Imposture too far: the only Means therefore left of making him a Saint, was to make him a Martyr, that, by his glorious Death, he might be thought to have deserved what it was manifest from the Records of those Times he had not deserved by his Christian Life. Hence Acts were forged, setting forth his heroic Confession of the Faith before the Emperor, his Sufferings on that Account, the stupendous Miracles he wrought, &c. which, however incredible, might, in Process of Time, by their Antiquity alone, gain Credit with the greater Part of Mankind. |His Reliques.| Stephen was buried in the Cœmetery of Callistus[[456]]; whence his Body was translated about the Year 762. by Paul I. to a Monastery of Greek Monks, which that Pope had built in Rome, as we read in Anastasius[[457]]. How it got from thence to Trani in Apulia nobody knows; but from that City it was conveyed with great Pomp in 1682. to Pisa in Tuscany, where it is still worshiped in a Church bearing the pretended Saint’s Name[[458]]. According to the most probable Opinion, Stephen governed Four Years, and about Six Months.
| Valerian, | SIXTUS II. Twenty-third Bishop of Rome. | Gallienus. |
Year of Christ 257.
Dionysius of Alex-
andria interposes in
the famous Dispute.