144 FOREIGN CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



ment ( ! ), the capability, and the opportunity to steep themselves in 

 guilt. Frozen hearted anomaly ! his is a frightful hypothesis, like 

 blotting the sun out of creation, it is depriving earth of all that is 

 beautiful, and life of all that is soothing ; but fortunately for man it is 

 but an hypothesis, and one which no speciousness of argument, no inge- 

 nuity of position, no numerical trickery can ever establish. 



Thasoius CeBciUus Cyprianus, Bischof von Karthago, dargestellt nach 

 seinem Leben und Wirken ; von Friederich Wilhelm Rettberg. 8vo. 

 Gottingen. — Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus, Bishop of Carthage ; 

 being a delineation of his Life and Acts, by Frederick William 

 Rettberg. Gottingen. 



A highly interesting portraiture, which more than any other church 

 monographic, invites especial attention, from its bringing under our 

 view a man, not more distinguished for his extensive acquirements, his 

 penetrating and original views of Christian theology, than for the im- 

 portant influence he has exercised on the external condition and the 

 social constitution of the Christian Church, from the third century 

 downwards. It was he who first suggested the idea of a spiritual 

 monarchy exercising universal sway over the Christian world. The 

 general notion among Protestants, that unhallowed ambition, employing 

 the deepest calculations to obtain its ends, had alone given rise to 

 hierarchical tendencies, is confuted by the unprejudiced and impartial 

 delineation of the personal character and the acts of Cyprian, founded on 

 historical sources and the Bishop's own letters. His elevated qualities, 

 as well as the rough side of his character, such as the circumstances 

 of the times, and of his office developed, are graphically pourtrayed. 

 Though we desire to do justice to the motives and the good intentions 

 of the man, it cannot be denied that he departed from the path of pure 

 and primitive Christianity. We learn, also, in this work, that the Bishop 

 of Rome was so far from being acknowledged by the other Churches in 

 the third century as Primate in the sense in which the Roman conclave 

 understand it, that there existed not even a coherent plan to raise the 

 Roman See over the rest. Cyprian has incurred much censure for 

 having fled from his See at Carthage, and concealed himself in obscure 

 retirement during the persecution that raged at this period. The secu- 

 rity of some sects demanded martyrdom, and his flight was deemed 

 infidel cowardice. It is probable, however, that he was unwilling to 

 make a sacrifice of his life, which, under the then circumstances, could 

 not by its example have a beneficial influence on his flock ; nay, this 

 view of his motives is rendered certain, as he subsequently actually 

 suffered martyrdom with great constancy, and thus washed away the 

 reproach of a want of Christian intrepidity. Among Cyprian's works 

 his moral and ascetic works deserve the preference. Like St. Augustin, 

 there is seated in his soul a deep conviction of the utter demoralisation 

 of man. The dogmas of the world, the devil, and hell, are analysed by 

 him with peculiar predeliction ; yet less theoretically than with an osten- 

 tatious display of glowing and terrific imagery. In his exhortations, 

 truth and error are singularly mingled ; as a specimen of his logic and 

 style of address, we will cite the remarkable grounds in which he cen- 

 sures luxury of dress, especially in young women. He discovers in every 

 ornament and embellishment of the body inventions of the devil. The 

 human frame was formed by God, says he, devoid of all adornment ; 

 he, therefore, who would presume to improve and alter it by ornament, 

 lords it over the Creator, and disfigures his >vork. The ears of men 



