Firmilian, St

Firmilian, St.

bishop of Ceesarea, in Cappadocia, was an intimate friend both of Origen (Euseb. 6:27) and Cyprian, with the latter of whom he took part in the controversy relative to the necessity of rebaptizing those who had been baptized by heretics. On this subject he wrote an Epistle to St. Cyprian, which was undoubtedly written in Greek, though the epistle, extant in St. Cyprian's works is in Latin; it is generally allowed to have been translated by Cyprian himself. It is very valuable in disproving the authority of the bishop of Rome is pope in the 3d century. This epistle, which is a very long one, is the sixty-fifth among those of St. Cyprias, and may be found in Oberth-Ur's edition of Cyprian (i, 254) ;. also in Routh, Seript. Eccl. Opuscula (Oxon. 1840, i, 227); and in Migne, Patrol. Lat. vol. iii. Baronius places the death of Firmilian A.D. 272.-Clarke, Succession of Sacred Literature. i, 172; Cave, Hist. Liter. (Geneva, 1720), i, 78; Ceillier, Auteurs Sacrss (Paris, 1865), ii, 435 sq.