This writing was attributed by Erasmus, its first editor, to St. Cyprian. In reality it is a forgery, written in 1530 by Erasmus himself to justify the ideas of the humanist reform before both Protestants and Catholics.
Bibl.: Fr. Lezius, Der Verfasser des ps.-cyprianischen Traktates de d. m. Ein Beitrag zur Charakteristik des Erasmus, in Neue Jahrbücher für deutsche Theologie, 4 (1895), pp. 95-110, 184-43. Erik Peterson