Early Christianity

against a background of competition. Just before he composed
On the Unity of the Catholic Church, Christians (along with the
rest of the empire’s population) had been ordered to perform sacri-
fice to the pagan gods (see pp. 194–5). Many had refused and
were imprisoned; some of these were executed and came to be
regarded as ‘martyrs’, witnesses for the faith. Others, however,
either succumbed to the demand to offer sacrifice or fled into
hiding in fear of their lives. When the crisis abated, there was a
vigorous debate about whether those Christians who had lapsed,
either by sacrificing or by running away, should be readmitted
into the church. This was a question that concerned Cyprian very
directly, for he himself had hidden from the imperial authorities.
It was a move that disappointed many Christians, not just at
Carthage, but also in Rome. The result was a schism that divided
the church of Carthage into rival factions and threatened a split
with the church of Rome. As the recriminations piled up, Cyprian
felt bound to defend his actions. Against his opponents he asserted
that the church should be united and that this unity was the
responsibility of its bishops.
Thus the emphasis on Christian unity in the writings of
Irenaeus and Cyprian was a response to patent manifestations
of disunity that they themselves faced on matters of faith and the
integrity of the church as an institution. What is more, that unity
was held in tension by a demonstrable tendency towards frag-
mentation and diversity in terms of organization, ritual practice,
and belief. Thus the disagreements and differences that had
confronted the bishops assembled for the council of Nicaea were
nothing new: they were typical of early Christianity.

Organization and personnel

Members of most Christian churches today – and outside
observers of them – are familiar with some form of hierarchy of
persons established in positions of authority. These may be called,
at the lower end of the scale, deacons, ministers, priests, and
vicars; at the upper end there may be bishops and archbishops.

ORTHODOXY AND ORGANIZATION IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY

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