fact, every
separate community was regarded as a copy of the one Church, and its
bishop therefore as the representative of God (Christ).]

[Footnote 172: We need only quote one passage here--but see also epp.
69. 3, 7 sq.: 70. 2: 73. 8--ep. 55. 24: "Quod vero ad Novatiani personam
pertinet, scias nos primo in loco nec curiosos esse debere quid ille
doceat, cum foris doceat; quisquis ille est et qualiscunque est,
christianus non est, qui in Christi ecclesia non est." In the famous
sentence (ep. 74. 7; de unit. 6): "habere non potest deum patrem qui
ecclesiam non habet matrem," we must understand the Church held together
by the _sacramentum unitatis_, i.e., by her constitution. Cyprian is
fond of referring to Korah's faction, who nevertheless held the same
faith as Moses.]

[Footnote 173: Epp. 4. 4: 33. 1: "ecclesia super episcopos constituta;"
43. 5: 45. 3: "unitatem a domino et per apostolos nobis successoribus
traditam;" 46. 1: 66. 8: "scire debes episcopum in ecclesia esse et
ecclesiam in episcopo et si qui cum episcopo non sit in ecclesia non
esse;" de unit. 4.]

[Footnote 174: According to Cyprian the bishops are the _sacerdotes_
[Greek: kat' eksochen] and the _iudices vice Christi_. See epp. 59. 5:
66. 3 as well as c. 4: "Christus dicit ad apostolos ac per hoc ad omnes
praepositos, qui apostolis vicaria ordinatione succedunt: qui audit vos
me audit." Ep. 3. 3: "dominus apostolos, i.e., episcopos elegit"; ep.
75. 16.]

[Footnote 175: That is a fundamental idea and in fact the outstanding
feature of the treatise "de unitate." The heretics and schismatics lack
love, whereas the unity of the Church is the product of love, this being
the main Christian virtue. That is the _ideal_ thought on which Cyprian
builds his theory (see also epp. 45. 1: 55. 24: 69. 1 and elsewhere),
and not quite wrongly, in so far as his purpose was to gather and
preserve, and not scatter. The reader may also recall the early
Christian notion that Christendom should be a band of brethren ruled by
love. But this love ceases to have any application to the case of those
who are disobedient to the authority of the bishop and to Christians of
the sterner sort. The appeal which Catholicism makes to love, even at
the present day, in order to justify its secularised and tyrannical
Church, turns in the mouth of hierarchical politicians into hypocrisy,
of which one would like to acquit a man of Cyprian's stamp.]

[Footnote 176: Ep. 43. 5: 55. 24: "