Cyprian (d. 258)

Major work

•          On the Unity of the Church

Importance

•         Bishop of the church in Carthage during period of fierce persecution

•         The second most important Latin-speaking leader of the church after Tertullian

•          Important and influential in the area of ecclesiology; his views shaped the church’s ecclesiology through Augustine and the Middle Ages

•          Argued that the unity of church was Episcopal not theological

•          Condemned Novatian schism

•         Famous statements: “He is not a Christian who is not in Christ’s church”;   “He cannot have God for his father who has not the church for his mother”; “There is no salvation outside the church.”

•          Important to development of the Mass

•          Was martyred in 258