For it was on occasion of the first antipope, an effort, that is, within the See of Peter itself to arm the episcopal power at its very source against itself, to set an altar up against the legitimate altar, and to divide the sacraments of the Church from the Bride whose dowry they are, that S. Cyprian wrote his treatise on the Unity of the Church. "It was for the purpose of reminding his brethren that unity is the first element of the Christian state, and that those who break off from the principle of unity, which is lodged in the episcopate, even though they be confessors and martyrs, have no portion in the hopes of the gospel."(281) This definite purpose, so unlike that state of leisure and tranquillity in which Origen answered by thought and learning a speculative attack, will account for the very remarkable precision and force of S. Cyprian's language.
"The enemy," he says, "detected and down-fallen by the advent of Christ, now that light is come to the nations--seeing his idols left--has made heresies and schisms, wherewith to subvert faith, to corrupt truth, and to rend unity." But this will all be in vain if men will look to the Head, and keep to the doctrine of the Master. For the truth may be quickly stated.(282) "The Lord saith unto Peter: I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. To him again, after His resurrection, He says: Feed my sheep. Upon him, being one, He builds His Church; and though He gives to all the Apostles an equal power, and says: As my Father sent Me, even so send I you; receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit, they shall be remitted to him, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they shall be retained;--yet in order to manifest unity, He has by His own authority so placed the source of the same unity as to begin from one. Certainly the other Apostles also were what Peter was, endued with an equal fellowship both of honour and power; but a commencement is made from unity, that the Church may be set before us as one: which one Church in the Canticle of Canticles doth the Holy Spirit design and name in the Person of our Lord: My dove, my spotless one is but one; she is the only one of her mother, elect of her that bare her.