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8 Credibility of the Gospel History.
soon'' after Easter, Cyprian came out of the place of his
retirement, and returned to Carthage, In the' month of
May, in the same year, he held a council for regulating- some
affairs of the church, particularly the treatment of such as
had lapsed in the persecution : and in the year following'"
a second council, in which the same affair was farther considered
and regulated. There were, beside these, several
other councils held at Carthage in the time of this bishop of
that city ; three of which were engaged about the question
of the baptism of heretics, in which Cyprian differed from
Stephen bishop of Rome, and some others. Cyprian was of
opinion, that" all baptism out of the catholic church was
null and void, and that they who had received such baptism
only ought to be baptized when they come over from heretics
to the church. What was Stephen's opinion is" disputed
whether he held that baptism by all sorts of heretics m as
valid, and that they who came from them needed not to be
baptized ; or, whether he maintained the validity of that
baptism only which was performed in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The most remarkable of these
three councils was the last, at which were^ present eighty-
five or eighty-seven bishops, beside presbyters, and others.
It was held in 256, and the acts of it are still in being. Of
these councils I give no farther account, that I may have
the more room to show the excellent conduct of Cyprian in
some other matters, which deserve particular notice in this
place.
About this time a pestilential distemper wasted the Roman
Empire, raging in some part of it for several years.
Some learned men think it begun in the reign of Decius,
and increased very much under Gall us, about the year 252,
in whose time it is placed byi Eusebius in his Chronicle,
k Vid. Ann. Cypr. p. 48. n. 3. ' Ann. Cypr, ib. n. 5. Conf. Pagi,
251. n. 17, 18, 21. "' Ann. Cypr. p. 35. n. 6, 7. Vid. etiamCypr. Ep.
59. al. 55. et conf. Pagi, 252. n. 8. " visum est ei cum ferme
octoginta coepiscopis suis Africanarum ecclesiarum, omnem hominein, qui
extra ecclesiae catholicae communionem baptizatus fuisset, oportere ad ecclesiam
venientem denuo baptizari. August, de Bap. cotitr. Donat. 1. i. cap. 18. p. 93,
94. T. ix. Bened. Ecce in unitate video Cyprianum et alios collegas ejus, qui
facto concilio censuerunt oranes, qui extra ccclesiaj communionem fuerint bap-
tizati, baptismum non habere ; et ideo eis dandum esse, cum veniunt. Ib. 1. ii.
c. 6. p. 100. D. Conf. Cypr. ad Jub. Ep. 73. et Cone. Carth.
" Vid. Tillemont, Mem. Ecc. T. iv. St. Cyprien, art. 42, et note xxxix. Du
Pin. Bibl. St. Cyprien, Basn. Ann. 256. n. 3, 4. Pagi Crit. in Bar. 256. n. 4,5, 6.
p There were present eighty-five bishops, one of which had two proxies, who,
at the same time he voted himself, gave in also the votes of two absent bishops,
according to the power they had given him. The number of votes therefore
was in all eighty-seven. "i Sub hoc [Callo] pestilens morbus multas
;