diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index d65665e..3b2e04e 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -85,15 +85,7 @@
 
   # - Let the cryptography master builds fail because they might be triggered by
   #   cryptography changes beyond our control.
-  # - Also allow OS X and 0.9.8 to fail at the moment while we fix these new
-  #   build configurations.
-  # - Also allow lint to fail while we fix existing lint.
-  # - We alloy pypy to fail until Travis fixes their infrastructure to a pypy
-  #   with a recent enought CFFI library to run cryptography 1.0+.
   allow_failures:
-  - language: generic
-    os: osx
-    env: TOXENV=py27 OSX_OPENSSL=homebrew
   - env: TOXENV=py26-cryptographyMaster
   - env: TOXENV=py27-cryptographyMaster
   - env: TOXENV=py33-cryptographyMaster
diff --git a/doc/api/ssl.rst b/doc/api/ssl.rst
index ad4fd05..e3fe8c9 100644
--- a/doc/api/ssl.rst
+++ b/doc/api/ssl.rst
@@ -333,11 +333,7 @@
     later using the :py:meth:`get_app_data` method.
 
 
-.. py:method:: Context.set_cipher_list(ciphers)
-
-    Set the list of ciphers to be used in this context. See the OpenSSL manual for
-    more information (e.g. :manpage:`ciphers(1)`)
-
+.. automethod:: Context.set_cipher_list
 
 .. py:method:: Context.set_info_callback(callback)
 
@@ -592,11 +588,7 @@
     Retrieve application data as set by :py:meth:`set_app_data`.
 
 
-.. py:method:: Connection.get_cipher_list()
-
-    Retrieve the list of ciphers used by the Connection object. WARNING: This API
-    has changed. It used to take an optional parameter and just return a string,
-    but now it returns the entire list in one go.
+.. automethod:: Connection.get_cipher_list
 
 
 .. py:method:: Connection.get_protocol_version()
@@ -610,7 +602,7 @@
 
     Retrieve the version of the SSL or TLS protocol used by the Connection as
     a unicode string. For example, it will return ``TLSv1`` for connections
-    made over TLS version 1, or ``Unknown`` for connections that were not 
+    made over TLS version 1, or ``Unknown`` for connections that were not
     successfully established.
 
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 2edb712..510359d 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 #
 
 """
-Installation script for the OpenSSL module.
+Installation script for the OpenSSL package.
 """
 
 import codecs
diff --git a/src/OpenSSL/SSL.py b/src/OpenSSL/SSL.py
index 0dbabc1..10116ed 100644
--- a/src/OpenSSL/SSL.py
+++ b/src/OpenSSL/SSL.py
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 from weakref import WeakValueDictionary
 from errno import errorcode
 
-from six import text_type as _text_type
 from six import binary_type as _binary_type
 from six import integer_types as integer_types
 from six import int2byte, indexbytes
@@ -15,6 +14,7 @@
     lib as _lib,
     exception_from_error_queue as _exception_from_error_queue,
     native as _native,
+    make_assert as _make_assert,
     text_to_bytes_and_warn as _text_to_bytes_and_warn,
     path_string as _path_string,
     UNSPECIFIED as _UNSPECIFIED,
@@ -148,6 +148,7 @@
 
 
 _raise_current_error = partial(_exception_from_error_queue, Error)
+_openssl_assert = _make_assert(Error)
 
 
 class WantReadError(Error):
@@ -441,7 +442,7 @@
 
 class Context(object):
     """
-    :py:obj:`OpenSSL.SSL.Context` instances define the parameters for setting
+    :class:`OpenSSL.SSL.Context` instances define the parameters for setting
     up new SSL connections.
     """
     _methods = {
@@ -808,20 +809,22 @@
 
     def set_cipher_list(self, cipher_list):
         """
-        Change the cipher list
+        Set the list of ciphers to be used in this context.
 
-        :param cipher_list: A cipher list, see ciphers(1)
+        See the OpenSSL manual for more information (e.g.
+        :manpage:`ciphers(1)`).
+
+        :param bytes cipher_list: An OpenSSL cipher string.
         :return: None
         """
-        if isinstance(cipher_list, _text_type):
-            cipher_list = cipher_list.encode("ascii")
+        cipher_list = _text_to_bytes_and_warn("cipher_list", cipher_list)
 
         if not isinstance(cipher_list, bytes):
-            raise TypeError("cipher_list must be bytes or unicode")
+            raise TypeError("cipher_list must be a byte string.")
 
-        result = _lib.SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list(self._context, cipher_list)
-        if not result:
-            _raise_current_error()
+        _openssl_assert(
+            _lib.SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list(self._context, cipher_list) == 1
+        )
 
     def set_client_ca_list(self, certificate_authorities):
         """
@@ -1498,9 +1501,9 @@
 
     def get_cipher_list(self):
         """
-        Get the session cipher list
+        Retrieve the list of ciphers used by the Connection object.
 
-        :return: A list of cipher strings
+        :return: A list of native cipher strings.
         """
         ciphers = []
         for i in count():
diff --git a/src/OpenSSL/_util.py b/src/OpenSSL/_util.py
index 074ef3d..b68b11e 100644
--- a/src/OpenSSL/_util.py
+++ b/src/OpenSSL/_util.py
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
-from warnings import warn
 import sys
+import warnings
 
 from six import PY3, binary_type, text_type
 
 from cryptography.hazmat.bindings.openssl.binding import Binding
+
+
 binding = Binding()
 binding.init_static_locks()
 ffi = binding.ffi
@@ -47,6 +49,21 @@
     raise exception_type(errors)
 
 
+def make_assert(error):
+    """
+    Create an assert function that uses :func:`exception_from_error_queue` to
+    raise an exception wrapped by *error*.
+    """
+    def openssl_assert(ok):
+        """
+        If ok is not true-ish, retrieve the error from OpenSSL and raise it.
+        """
+        if ok is not True:
+            exception_from_error_queue(error)
+
+    return openssl_assert
+
+
 def native(s):
     """
     Convert :py:class:`bytes` or :py:class:`unicode` to the native
@@ -116,7 +133,7 @@
         returned.
     """
     if isinstance(obj, text_type):
-        warn(
+        warnings.warn(
             _TEXT_WARNING.format(label),
             category=DeprecationWarning,
             stacklevel=3
diff --git a/tests/test_ssl.py b/tests/test_ssl.py
index ecdb40c..433fa2c 100644
--- a/tests/test_ssl.py
+++ b/tests/test_ssl.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # See LICENSE for details.
 
 """
-Unit tests for :py:obj:`OpenSSL.SSL`.
+Unit tests for :mod:`OpenSSL.SSL`.
 """
 
 from gc import collect, get_referrers
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 
 import pytest
 
-from six import PY3, text_type, u
+from six import PY3, text_type
 
 from OpenSSL.crypto import TYPE_RSA, FILETYPE_PEM
 from OpenSSL.crypto import PKey, X509, X509Extension, X509Store
@@ -347,6 +347,44 @@
         self.assertEqual(len(versions), 5)
 
 
+@pytest.fixture
+def context():
+    """
+    A simple TLS 1.0 context.
+    """
+    return Context(TLSv1_METHOD)
+
+
+class TestContext(object):
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("cipher_string", [
+        b"hello world:AES128-SHA",
+        u"hello world:AES128-SHA",
+    ])
+    def test_set_cipher_list(self, context, cipher_string):
+        """
+        :meth:`Context.set_cipher_list` accepts both byte and unicode strings
+        for naming the ciphers which connections created with the context
+        object will be able to choose from.
+        """
+        context.set_cipher_list(cipher_string)
+        conn = Connection(context, None)
+
+        assert "AES128-SHA" in conn.get_cipher_list()
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize("cipher_list,error", [
+        (object(), TypeError),
+        ("imaginary-cipher", Error),
+    ])
+    def test_set_cipher_list_wrong_args(self, context, cipher_list, error):
+        """
+        :meth:`Context.set_cipher_list` raises :exc:`TypeError` when passed a
+        non-string argument and raises :exc:`OpenSSL.SSL.Error` when passed an
+        incorrect cipher list string.
+        """
+        with pytest.raises(error):
+            context.set_cipher_list(cipher_list)
+
+
 class ContextTests(TestCase, _LoopbackMixin):
     """
     Unit tests for :py:obj:`OpenSSL.SSL.Context`.
@@ -1394,44 +1432,6 @@
             # exception.
             context.set_tmp_ecdh(curve)
 
-    def test_set_cipher_list_bytes(self):
-        """
-        :py:obj:`Context.set_cipher_list` accepts a :py:obj:`bytes` naming the
-        ciphers which connections created with the context object will be able
-        to choose from.
-        """
-        context = Context(TLSv1_METHOD)
-        context.set_cipher_list(b"hello world:EXP-RC4-MD5")
-        conn = Connection(context, None)
-        self.assertEquals(conn.get_cipher_list(), ["EXP-RC4-MD5"])
-
-    def test_set_cipher_list_text(self):
-        """
-        :py:obj:`Context.set_cipher_list` accepts a :py:obj:`unicode` naming
-        the ciphers which connections created with the context object will be
-        able to choose from.
-        """
-        context = Context(TLSv1_METHOD)
-        context.set_cipher_list(u("hello world:EXP-RC4-MD5"))
-        conn = Connection(context, None)
-        self.assertEquals(conn.get_cipher_list(), ["EXP-RC4-MD5"])
-
-    def test_set_cipher_list_wrong_args(self):
-        """
-        :py:obj:`Context.set_cipher_list` raises :py:obj:`TypeError` when
-        passed zero arguments or more than one argument or when passed a
-        non-string single argument and raises :py:obj:`OpenSSL.SSL.Error` when
-        passed an incorrect cipher list string.
-        """
-        context = Context(TLSv1_METHOD)
-        self.assertRaises(TypeError, context.set_cipher_list)
-        self.assertRaises(TypeError, context.set_cipher_list, object())
-        self.assertRaises(
-            TypeError, context.set_cipher_list, b"EXP-RC4-MD5", object()
-        )
-
-        self.assertRaises(Error, context.set_cipher_list, "imaginary-cipher")
-
     def test_set_session_cache_mode_wrong_args(self):
         """
         :py:obj:`Context.set_session_cache_mode` raises :py:obj:`TypeError` if
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index cf4912b..2d41636 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
     openssl version
     python -c "import OpenSSL.SSL; print(OpenSSL.SSL.SSLeay_version(OpenSSL.SSL.SSLEAY_VERSION))"
     python -c "import cryptography; print(cryptography.__version__)"
-    coverage run --parallel -m pytest tests
+    coverage run --parallel -m pytest {posargs}
 
 [testenv:py27-twistedMaster]
 deps =