PREFACE.

THE Treatises of St. Cyprian may suitably be preceded by the short Memoir of his life written by his Deacon Pontius, and the Proconsular Acts of his Martyrdom.

The Memoir is recommended to our attention, not so much by any special excellence in itself, as by the circumstance that it is written by one who was about the Bishop's person, who attended him in exile, and who was a witness of his death. The reader need scarcely be reminded, that the Deacon in St. Cyprian's age, as afterwards, was the personal attendant and minister of the Bishop; thus St. Laurence is celebrated as Deacon or Archdeacon to Sextus or Xystus, Bishop of Rome and Martyr, the contemporary of St. Cyprian; and St. Athanasius as Deacon to Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, in the Council of Nicæa.

The Proconsular Acts are considered to be the substance of the original, with the incidental additions of subsequent times".

What has further to be said of St. Cyprian is reserved for the second part of the Volume, which will contain his Letters. It shall only be added here, that he was converted to the Christian faith about A. D. 246, consecrated A. D. 248, and martyred A. D. 258.

The Life of St. Cyprian, by Pontius his Deacon.

CYPRIAN, that religious Priest and glorious Witness of God, composed many works, whereby may survive the memory of so worthy a name; the abundant fecundity of his eloquence, and of God's grace in him, so widely spread itself in copiousness and richness of speech, that perchance even to the end of the world he will speak on; and yet, forasmuch as his works and merits claim as a right that they should become an example to us in writing, it has seemed good to draw up this brief summary of it; not as if the life of so great a man were unknown to any of the heathen, but that even to our posterity may be handed on his singular and high example unto an immortal memory. Certainly it were hard, when even laymen and catechumens, who have obtained martyrdom, have been honoured by our forefathers for their very martyrdom's sake, with a record of many, nay of all details of their passion, in order to our acquaintance with it who were yet unborn, hard were it to pass over Cyprian's passion, so great a Priest and so great a Martyr, who even over and above his martyrdom had lessons to teach; and hard again to hide the deeds which he did in his life. Those in truth were such, so great and wonderful, as to deter me by the very contemplation of their greatness, and to urge me to a confession of my incapacity to do justice to my subject, or to represent his high deeds in correspondent terms, except that the multitude of his achievements tells its own tale without heralding from others. It has to be added, that you too are longing to hear much, or, if possible, the whole concerning him, having a burning desire at least to know his deeds, though his word of mouth be silent. In which respect to say that I am deficient in the resources of