642 



CYPRIAN 



CYPRIS 



insects, and being also of beautiful colour and 

 easy polish, Avas formerly much esteemed for the 

 finest kinds of work in wood, even Cupid's arrows 

 being traditionally made of cypress-wood. Some 

 believe that the cypress is the true cedar-wood 

 of Scripture, and it has also been identified by 

 commentators as the gopher wood of Noah's ark. 

 In any case, cypress and cedar have been prized for 

 shipbuilding in the East from the earliest times. 

 The doors of St Peter's at Rome, made of cypress, 

 lasted from the time of Constantine the Great to 

 that of Pope Eugene IV., above 1100 years, and 

 were perfectly sound when at last removed, that 

 brazen ones might be substituted. Medicinal 

 virtues were formerly ascribed both to the wood 

 and seeds of the cypress, and oriental physicians 

 have long been wont to send patients suffering from 

 chest-diseases to breathe the air of cypress-woods, 

 thus curiously anticipating the western practi- 

 tioner. The resin has also had medicinal repute 

 from classic times, while the Turks still use also the 

 fruit and bark. The ethereal oil of cypress-wood 

 was also used by the ancients for embalming, and 

 the coffins of mummies were made of the wood. 



More common in cultivation in Britain is the 

 extremely hardy C. Lawsoniana, a native of Upper 

 California, but of which there are now many 

 varieties. C. fragrans and macrocarpa, from the 

 same region, are also often cultivated, together 

 with C. thyoides, the White Cedar of Canada, and 

 C. nutkaensis (Thiijopsis borealis), the valuable 

 Yellow Cypress of Alaska and Oregon. Among 

 tenderer species are occasionally seen C. litsitanica, 

 the Portugal Cedar, or Cedar of Goa, a native of 

 Goa naturalised in Portugal ; C. torulosa, from the 

 Himalaya ; C. excelsa and others, from Mexico. 

 The pretty little Retinosporas of Japan, now so 

 common in cultivation, forms for some authors 

 only a sub-genus of cypress, or with some of the 

 preceding (e.g. C. nutlcaensis] are separated on 

 account of their two-seeded fruit-scales, as the 

 genus or sub-genus Chamsecyparis. 



Cyprian, ST. Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus, 

 one or the most illustrious Fathers of the church, 

 was born about 200 A.D., probably at Carthage, of 

 heathen parents. After being a teacher of rhetoric at 

 Carthage, he became a Christian, and was baptised 

 probably in 245 or 246. Immediately afterwards 

 he gave to the poor the greater part of his consider- 

 able fortune, and devoted himself assiduously to 

 the study of Scripture and the writings of the 

 church's teachers, especially Tertullian. After 

 being successively a deacon and presbyter, he was 

 made a bishop in 248. His zealous efforts for the 

 restoration of strict discipline soon brought him a 

 host of enemies. In the Decian persecution, which 

 at Carthage was especially severe, the heathen 

 people cried incessantly ' Cyprianum ad leonem ! ' 

 but Cyprian sought safety in flight, in his retire- 

 ment still caring for his flock with the help of two 

 vicarii, and distributing large sums of money 

 among the poor. He returned to Carthage in 251, 

 and the rest of his life was a constant struggle to 

 hold the balance between the two extreme parties 

 the adherents of Felicissimus and Privatus on the 

 one hand, who favoured laxity in the treatment of 

 the Lapsed (o^.v. ), and those who would exercise the 

 utmost severity, such as the followers of Novatianus, 

 on the other. Cyprian was excommunicated by 

 the Roman bishop Stephanus for his opposition 

 to the Roman view of the validity of lay baptism. 

 He rejected this doctrine as making the sacra- 

 ment merely mechanical, and laid stress on the 

 personal piety of the priesthood and their special 

 authority for its administration, asserting that 

 baptism could only be a reality when accompanied 

 ' with the full and entire faith both of the giver 

 and receiver.' At a synod at Carthage in 256, 



he maintained that the Roman bishop, spite of 

 the primacy of Peter, could not claim a judicial 

 authority over other bishops. His principle, that 

 ' a priest of God, holding the gospel and keeping 

 the commandments of Christ, may oe put to death, 

 but cannot be overcome,' Cyprian himself illus- 

 trated, on the 14th September 258, when he 

 suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Valerian. 



His character and conduct nave been very 

 variously judged. Both in his own and later 

 times he has been accused of cowardice and pride. 

 His zeal, fidelity, and self-denial were undeni- 

 able, and his courageous martyrdom frees him 

 from the reproach of cowardice. His writings are 

 all directed to practical ends. The earliest com- 

 plete editions of his works are by Erasmus ( Basel, 

 1520), Pamelius (Antwerp, 1568^, and Bishop Fell 

 ( Oxford, 1682 ) ; and the best is that of Hartel ( 3 vols. 

 Vienna, 1868-71 ). They consist of a collection of 

 Epistles, and a series of treatises, which are them 

 selves pastoral epistles of a bishop to his flock 

 (see the translation by Wallis, 2 vols. 1869). His 

 best-known work, De Catholiccc Ecclesice Unitate, 

 laid the foundation of the hierarchical conception 

 of the church. Cyprian holds that the unity of 

 the church is founded upon the episcopate, not of 

 Rome, but of the universal Church. In the Church 

 alone can salvation be obtained ( ' he cannot have 

 God for his Father, who has not the church as 

 his mother ' ). See the Lives by Poole ( Oxford, 

 1840), Peters (Ratisbon, 1877), and Fechtrup 

 (Munich, 1878) ; and Archbishop Benson's Cyprian: 

 his Life, his Times, his Work (1897). 



Cyprinidae ( ' carps ' ), a large family of fresh- 

 water bony fishes in the order Physostomi, with 

 open swim-bladders. Barbel, Bream, Carp, Chub, 

 Dace, Gold-fish, Gudgeon, Minnow, Roach, Tench, 

 are familiar examples. They are distinguished from 

 their neighbours oy their small toothless mouths, 

 naked head, usually scaled body, and by the absence 

 of the adipose fin. The family includes over a 

 hundred genera, and eight times as many species. 

 They are widely distributed, most abundant in 

 north temperate regions, absent from Australia 

 and South America. They are voracious, very 

 fertile, and frequently hibernate. See CARP, &c. 



Cyprinodontidie ( ' toothed carps ' ), a family 

 of small bony fishes in the order Physostomi, with 

 open swim-bladders. They are allied to carps 

 (Cyprinidae), but the mouth bears teeth, the head 

 and body are scaled, and there are never barbules. 

 The family includes twenty genera and over a 

 hundred species, widely distributed in the warm 

 and tropical zones, both fresh-water and marine. 

 They are in most cases viviparous, and the males 

 are generally smaller than the females. The 

 majority are carnivorous, but several forms are 

 known as mud-eaters. Cyprinodon, Fundulus, 

 Anableps (q.v.), and Precilia are the more import- 

 ant genera. 



Cypripedium, or SLIPPER-ORCHIS. See OR- 

 CHIDS. 



Cypris, a very common small fresh-water 

 crustacean, type of a family (Cypridae) in the 

 order Ostracoda. Like other ostracods, this small 

 'Water-flea' (q.v.) has an unsegmented body, 

 seven pairs of appendages, a rudimentary abdomen, 

 and a bivalve mollusc-like shell inclosing all. The x 

 shell of cypris is daintv and elastic ; the posterior 

 antennae bear a long tuft of bristles on their second 

 joint ; the second pair of maxillae have a small gill- 

 appendage ; the posterior limbs are very irregular. 

 Various species of cypris are readily found in fresh- 

 water pools, in Avliich they swim very actively ; 

 the largest form (C. pubera) measures 2 - 7 milli- 

 metres in length. The reproductive relations are 

 of some general interest. Some species e.g. C. 



