A parity-check matrix for a q-ary repeated-root cyclic code is derived using the Hasse derivative. Then the minimum distance of a q-ary repeated-root cyclic code is expressed in terms of the minimum distance of a certain simple-root cyclic code. With the help of this result, several binary repeated-root cyclic codes of lengths up to n=62 are shown to contain the largest known number of codewords for their given length and minimum distance. The relative minimum distance d/sub min//n of q-ary repeated-root cyclic codes of rate r>or=R is proven to tend to zero as the largest multiplicity of a root of the generator g(x) increases to infinity. It is further shown that repeated-root cycle codes cannot be asymptotically better than simple-root cyclic codes.>