Phillip Brown: Augustine’s Appropriation of Cyprian’s Tradition of the Tropes

This paper will focus on Augustine appeals for unity in his homilies on John. Within the anti-Donatist polemic (particularly homilies 1-16) we shall see how Augustine utilises Cyprian’s vision of ecclesial unity through the use of illustrative images which present themselves as ‘tropes’. We will explore how Augustine draws upon these ‘tropes’ in order to claim the foundational principal of Cyprian’s call to unity as his own. Through the use of these images, ‘tropes’, Augustine attempts to reconfigure the debate in order to show how Cyprian’s authority rests upon the catholic call for unity, rather for than upon the Donatists justification for separation. The use of the tropes as rhetorical devises for Cyprian as well as Augustine was not only a legitimate form of hermeneutics but also a well-established mode of biblical expedience, something well known to both Cyprian and Augustine. The ‘figures’ of unity in North Africa were powerful in conveying complex arguments in simple terms to the masses. By appropriating the hermeneutical and Rhetorical tools of Cyprian, Augustine is claiming not only the central feature of Cyprian’s concern but also presenting himself as the rightful heir of authority to Cyprian’s legacy. We shall see that by appropriating Cyprian’s images, Augustine develops this ‘tradition of the trope’ to bolster his own position by claiming Cyprian as the foundation of the universal Church as opposed to the regional parti Donati.