St. Stephen I, Pope of Rome, reposed on this day in 257. St. Stephen became the overseer of the Christian community of the city of Rome after the persecution under Emperor Decius (250–251). Certain rigorists, some of whom were confessors of the faith, denied the Christian community the right to reinstate those who had participated in idolatry or even formally obtained a certificate stating that they had done so (libeli). All Christian divisions revolve around the interpretation of Holy Scripture. This time, Hebrew 6:5-6 could have served as a starting point for the controversy. The followers of the Roman presbyter Novatus refused to accept the so-called lapsi back into Catholic (i.e., universal) Church. At the same time, St. Stephen, Bishop of Rome, and St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, disagreed with this attitude. (The restoration of St. Peter as an Apostle by the Lord is a reference point here.) While both bishops were ready to accept the lapsed back into the Church, they disagreed on how to receive the Novatians. The learned Fr. Ambrose (Pogodin), godfather to Fr. Seraphim (Eugene Rose), wrote about this moment in history: “Some insisted that they be received only through baptism, i.e., not to recognize their previous baptism as valid even though it was correct in form (i.e., corresponding to the baptism performed in the Orthodox Church). Others maintained a more tolerant view, accepting as valid that baptism, which was performed by some heretics, since it was performed in the name of the Holy Trinity, and did not require that those coming into Orthodoxy from heresy be re-baptized. A stricter line was taken by Tertullian (himself a Montanist), St. Cyprian of Carthage, Firmilian of Caesarea, and Elanus of Tarsus. St. Cyprian, a proponent of the strict line, convoked two councils in this matter (255–256) and insisted that heretics be received by no other way than baptism. St. Stephen, Pope of Rome (253–257) could be considered to hold a more tolerant view, and his position, according to the famous Hefele, was supported by Eastern bishops. At the same time as St. Cyprian along with a council of 71 bishops insisted that heretics lack any grace and for this reason their sacred acts are invalid, Pope St. Stephen received penitent heretics with the laying of a bishop’s hand on their heads. He did this in accord with the tolerant practice, which was held by other Western bishops. […] Having learned about the decrees of the Council in Carthage under St. Cyprian’s chairmanship, which demanded the re-baptism of heretics coming into the Church, at first Pope St. Stephen demanded a repeal of these decrees, threatening excommunication and, since the repeals did not take place, he later excommunicated St. Cyprian” (Source: Archimandrite Ambrose [Pogodin], “On the Question of the Order of Reception of Persons into the Orthodox Church, Coming to Her from Other Christian Churches.” Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad.) In codifying Church Law, the Council in Trullo (691–692) included the ruling of Cyprian’s Council of 256, which required the baptism of schismatics; yet Trullo defined the local, rather than the universal, significance of the decree: “We confirm also all the other sacred canons which have been set forth by the holy and blessed Fathers […] and also the canon set forth by Cyprian, formerly archbishop and martyr of the land of the Africans, and by the council under him, which canon has remained in force only in the regions of aforesaid bishops, in accordance with the custom handed down to them” (The Council in Trullo Revisited, eds. G. Nedungatt and M. Featherstone, Kanonika 6 [Rome: Pontificio Istituto Orientale, 1995], 66, 68.) In 374, St. Basil the Great, in his letter to St. Amphilochios, Bishop of Ikonium (modern-day Konya in Turkey) reflected on this diversity of approaches. This passage of his letter is known now as his Canon 1. |
