Treatises & Letters 12 part 13/21

What remains, then, but that the Church should yield to the Capitol; and that, with the priests withdrawing and removing the Lord's altar, idols and images with their altars should cross over into the sacred and venerable assembly of our clergy; and that to Novatian there should be furnished more abundant and fuller material for declaiming and inveighing against us, if those who have sacrificed and have publicly denied Christ should begin not only to be entreated and admitted without penance done, but moreover to lord it by the power of their terror? If they ask for peace, let them lay down their arms. If they make satisfaction, why do they threaten? Or if they threaten, let them know that they are not feared by the priests of God.

For neither will antichrist himself, when he begins to come, enter the Church because he threatens; nor is yielding made to his arms and violence because he professes that he will destroy those who resist. The heretics arm us while they think us to be terrified by their threatening; they do not cast us down upon our face, but rather lift us up and inflame us, while they make for the brethren that very peace which is worse than persecution. And we indeed desire that they may not fulfill in fury and crime what they say, lest those who sin by perfidious and cruel words should also transgress in deeds.

We pray and beseech God, whom they cease not to provoke and exasperate, that their hearts may grow gentle, that, their fury laid aside, their minds may return to sanity, that their breasts covered with the darkness of sins may recognize the light of penance, and that they may rather ask that prayers and supplications be poured out for them by the prelate, than themselves pour out the blood of a priest. But if they persist in their fury and cruelly persevere in these their ambushes and parricidal threats, no priest of God is so weak, so prostrate and abject, so feeble through the frailty of human mediocrity, as not to be divinely raised up against the enemies and assailants of God — whose lowliness and infirmity is not animated by the vigor and strength of the protecting Lord.

It is of no concern to us either by whom or when we perish, since we are to receive from the Lord the reward of death and of blood. Theirs is the condition to be wept and lamented, whom the devil so blinds that, not considering the eternal torments of hell, they endeavor to imitate the advent of the now-approaching antichrist.

And although I know, dearest brother, that out of the mutual love which we owe and show to one another, you always read our letters to the most flourishing clergy there presiding with you, and to the most holy and ample people, yet now I both admonish and ask that what you otherwise do of your own accord and with honor, you would do also at my asking: namely, that when this my letter has been read, if any contagion of venomous speech and pestilent sowing had crept in there, it may all be stripped from the ears and hearts of the brethren, and the whole and sincere love of the good may be purged of all the filth of heretical detraction.

But let our most beloved brethren henceforth strongly shun and avoid the words and conversations of those whose talk creeps like a cancer, as the Apostle says: 'Evil communications corrupt good dispositions.' And again: 'A heretical man, after one admonition, avoid; knowing that such a one is perverse and sins, and is condemned by his own self.' And through Solomon the Holy Spirit speaks: 'The perverse man,' he says, 'carries perdition in his own mouth, and in his lips hides fire.' Again He admonishes, saying: 'Hedge your ears with thorns, and do not listen to a wicked tongue.' And again: 'The evil man gives heed to the tongue of the wicked, but the just man does not attend to lying lips.'

Although I know that the brotherhood there, fortified of course by your providence, and also sufficiently cautious through its own vigilance, can neither be taken nor deceived by the poisons of heretics, and that divine instruction and precept prevail among them in proportion to their fear of God; yet, out of abundance, either our solicitude or our charity has persuaded us to write this to you: that no dealings be coupled with such men, that no banquets or conversations be mingled with the wicked, and that we be as separated from them as they are fugitives from the Church — because it is written: 'But if he despise the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican.'

And the blessed Apostle not only admonishes, but also commands, that we withdraw from such men: 'We charge you,' he says, 'in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from all the brethren walking disorderly, and not according to the tradition which they received from us.' There can be no fellowship of faith and faithlessness. He who is not with Christ, who is an adversary of Christ, who is an enemy to His unity and peace, cannot cohere with us. If they come with prayers and satisfactions, let them be heard. If they bring curses and threats, let them be rejected. I wish you, dearest brother, ever to fare well. CYPRIAN TO HIS BROTHER CORNELIUS, GREETING.

We have learned, dearest brother, the glorious testimonies of your faith and virtue, and we have received the honor of your confession with such exultation that we reckon ourselves also partakers and partners in your merits and praises. For since we have both one Church and a joined mind and an undivided concord, what priest does not rejoice in the praises of his fellow-priest as in his own, or what brotherhood does not everywhere take gladness in the joy of the brethren?

It cannot be sufficiently expressed how great was the exultation here, and how great the joy, when we had learned of your prosperous and brave deeds — that you stood forth there as the leader of confession to the brethren, and yet that the confession of the leader grew by the consent of the brethren; so that, while you go before to glory, you have made many companions of glory, and have persuaded a people to become confessors, since you, the first, were prepared to confess for all: so that we cannot find what we ought first to proclaim in you, whether your prompt and steadfast faith, or the inseparable charity of the brethren. There the virtue of the preceding bishop was publicly approved; the uniting of the following brotherhood was displayed. While among you there is one mind and one voice, the whole Roman Church has confessed.

There shone forth, dearest brother, the faith which the blessed Apostle proclaimed concerning us. This praise of virtue and firmness of strength he was even then foreseeing in the spirit; and, attesting your merits by the proclamation of things to come, while he praises the parents he was challenging the sons. While you are thus of one mind, while you are thus brave, you have given great examples of unanimity and fortitude to the rest of the brethren also. You have taught them greatly to fear God, to cleave firmly to Christ, that the people be joined to the priests in peril, that in persecution brethren be not separated from brethren, that a concord jointly knit can in no wise be conquered, and that whatever is asked together by all, the God of peace grants to the peaceful. The adversary had leapt forth to throw the camp of Christ into confusion by violent terror.

But by the same onset with which he had come, he was repulsed; and as much dread and terror as he brought, so much fortitude and strength did he find. He had believed that he could again supplant the servants of God, and, after his wonted manner, shake them as raw recruits, as though less prepared and less wary. He attacked one first, as a wolf to separate a sheep from the flock, as a hawk to separate a dove from the band of those flying; for he who has not strength enough against all, seeks to circumvent the solitude of individuals.

But, blunted by the faith and vigor alike of the united army, he understood that the soldiers of Christ now watch sober and stand armed for battle, that they cannot be conquered but can die, and that by this very thing they are unconquered, because they do not fear to die; nor do they fight back against their assailants, since it is not lawful for the innocent even to slay the guilty, but they readily yield up both their souls and their blood — so that, while so great a malice and savagery rages in the world, one may the more swiftly withdraw from the evil and the savage. What a glorious spectacle that was under the eyes of God! What joy in the sight of His Christ for His Church — that to the battle which the enemy had tried to bring on, not single soldiers but the whole camp at once went forth!

For it is agreed that all would have come, if they had been able to hear, since whoever heard hastened up speedily and came. How many of the lapsed there were restored by glorious confession, stood firm, and by the very grief of penance were made the braver for battle: so that it appears they were lately overthrown and shaken, and trembled at the fear of an unaccustomed thing, but afterward true faith returned to them, and their strength, gathered from the fear of God, was constantly and firmly braced to all endurance — and they now stood, not for the pardon of a crime, but for the crown of suffering. What of all this, dearest brother, does Novatian say? Does he now at last lay aside his error?

Or rather — as is the way of madmen — is he, by these very good and prosperous fortunes of ours, driven all the more to fury; and the more the glory of love and faith grows here, the more does the madness of dissension and jealousy break out afresh there? Nor does the wretch heal his own wound, but wounds both himself and his followers yet more grievously, his tongue clamoring to the ruin of the brethren and hurling the javelins of venomous eloquence — more harsh by the depravity of worldly philosophy than peace-making by the gentleness of the Lord's wisdom: a deserter of the Church, an enemy of mercy, a slayer of penance, a teacher of pride, a corrupter of truth, a destroyer of charity?

Does he now recognize who is the priest of God, what is the Church and house of Christ, who are the servants of God whom the devil assails, who are the Christians whom antichrist attacks? For he does not seek out those whom he has already subdued, nor exult to overthrow those whom he has already made his own. The enemy and foe of the Church despises and passes by, as captives and vanquished, those whom he has alienated from the Church and led outside; but he goes on to harass those in whom he perceives Christ to dwell.

And yet, even if any such person should be apprehended, there is no reason for him to flatter himself as in a confession of the Name, since it is established that, if men of that sort be slain outside the Church, it is not the crown of faith, but rather the penalty of faithlessness; nor will they dwell among the like-minded in the house of God, whom we see to have withdrawn in the fury of discord from the peaceful and divine house. We plainly exhort you, as much as we can, dearest brother, for the mutual charity by which we cohere with one another, that, since we are instructed by the providence of the admonishing Lord and warned by the salutary counsels of the divine mercy that the day of our struggle and contest is now drawing near, we may not cease to persist in fastings, vigils, and prayers, together with all the people.

Let us press on with constant groanings and frequent prayers. For these are our heavenly arms, which make us stand and persevere bravely; these are the spiritual fortifications and divine weapons that protect us. Let us be mindful of one another, of one mind and one heart; let us always pray for each other in both places; let us by mutual love relieve one another's burdens and afflictions; and if one of us, by the swiftness of the divine condescension, should go before the other and depart from here first, let our love persist before the Lord, and let prayer for our brothers and sisters not cease before the mercy of the Father. I wish you, dearest brother, ever to fare well. Cyprian, with his colleagues, to Brother Lucius, greeting.

And recently indeed, dearest brother, we congratulated you, when the divine condescension, by a twofold honour in the governance of His Church, made you alike a confessor and a priest. But now also we congratulate you no less, and your companions and the whole brotherhood, because the kindly and bounteous protection of the Lord has brought you back once more to your own people with the same glory and praise, so that the shepherd might be restored to feed the flock, the helmsman to steer the ship, and the ruler to govern the people; and it has become evident that your banishment was thus divinely ordained, not that the bishop, exiled and driven out, should be lacking to the Church, but that he should return to the Church the greater.

For the dignity of martyrdom was not less in the three young men, because, when death was thwarted, they came forth unharmed from the furnace of fire; nor did Daniel stand any less consummate in his praises, because, having been thrown to the lions as their prey, he was protected by the Lord and lived unto glory.

In the confessors of Christ, the martyrdoms that have been deferred do not lessen the merit of the confessors, but display the mighty works of the divine protection. We see represented in you what those brave and illustrious young men proclaimed before the king: that they themselves were indeed ready to burn in the flames rather than serve his gods or adore the image he had made; yet that the God whom they worshipped, and whom we also worship, was mighty to deliver them from the furnace of fire and to free them from the hands of the king and from the punishments at hand.

And we find that this same thing has now come to pass in the faith of your confession and in the Lord's protection over us: that, when you were ready and prompt to undergo every torment, the Lord nevertheless withdrew us from punishment and preserved us for the Church. By your return, the dignity of his confession is not curtailed in the bishop, but rather the priestly authority has increased, so that the prelate may stand at the altar of God who exhorts the people to take up the arms of confession and to undergo martyrdom, not by words but by deeds, and who, with Antichrist threatening, prepares the soldiers for battle, not by the incitement of speech and voice alone, but by the example of faith and virtue.

We understand, dearest brother, and with the whole light of our heart we perceive the saving and holy counsels of the divine majesty: why a sudden persecution lately arose there, why the secular power suddenly burst forth against the Church of Christ and against the bishop Cornelius, the blessed martyr, and against you all; namely, that the Lord, to confound the heretics and beat them back, might show which was the Church, who was its one bishop chosen by divine ordination, who were the presbyters joined with the bishop in priestly honour, who was the united and true people of Christ bound together by the love of the Lord's flock; who they were whom the enemy assailed, and who, on the contrary, were those whom the devil spared as his own.

For the adversary of Christ does not persecute and attack any but the camp and soldiers of Christ. The heretics, once laid low and made his own, he despises and passes over; he seeks to cast down those whom he sees standing. And would that the opportunity were now given, dearest brother, that we who love you with mutual love might be present there at your return, so that we ourselves also, present with the rest, might reap the most joyful fruit of your coming! What exultation will there be of all the brethren, what a throng and embracing of each one running to meet you? They can scarcely be satisfied with clinging kisses; scarcely can the very faces and eyes of the people be sated with beholding the joy of your arrival.

The brotherhood there has begun to recognize how great and how full will be the joy that follows at Christ's coming; and because his coming has now drawn near, a certain image has already gone before us, so that, just as John, his forerunner and harbinger, came preaching that Christ had come, so now, with the bishop, the confessor of the Lord and priest, returning, it may appear that the Lord too is now returning.

But in our stead I and my colleagues and the whole brotherhood send you this letter, dearest brother; and, presenting to ourselves our joy by means of an epistle, we express the faithful homage of our love, here too in our sacrifices and prayers not ceasing to give thanks to God the Father and to Christ his Son, our Lord, and likewise to pray and beseech that he who is perfect and makes perfect may guard and perfect in us the glorious crown of your confession; he who perhaps recalled you for this very purpose, lest your glory should be hidden, if the consummated martyrdoms of your confession had taken place abroad. For the victim that offers an example both of virtue and of faith to the brotherhood ought to be sacrificed in the presence of the brethren.

We wish you, dearest brother, ever to fare well. Cyprian to the brothers Januarius, Maximus, Proculus, Victor, Modianus, Nemesianus, Nampulus, and Honoratus, greeting. With the deepest groaning of our soul, and not without tears, we have read your letter, dearest brothers, which you wrote to us in the solicitude of your love concerning the captivity of our brothers and sisters. For who would not grieve in such misfortunes, or who would not reckon a brother's grief as his own, since the apostle Paul speaks and says: 'If one member suffers, the other members suffer with it; and if one member rejoices, the other members rejoice with it.' And in another place he says, 'Who is weak, and I am not weak?'

Wherefore now the captivity of our brothers is to be reckoned our own captivity, and the grief of those in peril is to be counted as our own grief, since indeed there is one body of our union, and not love only but religion itself ought to spur us on and strengthen us to ransom the limbs of the brethren. For when the apostle Paul again says: 'Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?'

Even if love did less to move us to bring help to the brethren, yet in this case it had to be considered that they who have been taken captive are temples of God, and that we ought not to suffer, by long delay and by neglecting our grief, that the temples of God should long be captive; but we should labour with all the strength we can and act swiftly, that we may merit Christ our judge and the Lord our God by our acts of service. For when the apostle Paul says:

'As many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ,' in our captive brothers Christ is to be beheld and to be ransomed from the peril of captivity—he who redeemed us from the peril of death; so that he who delivered us from the jaws of the devil may now himself, who remains and dwells in us, be delivered from the hands of the barbarians and be ransomed with a sum of money—he who redeemed us by his cross and blood; who for this reason suffers these things to happen in the meantime, that our faith may be tested, whether each one does for another what he would wish to be done for himself, if he himself were held captive among the barbarians. For who, mindful of human kinship and admonished of mutual love, if he is a father, would not now reckon his own children to be there?

If he is a husband, would he not reckon his own wife to be held captive there, with grief alike and with the love of the marriage bond? But how great is the common sorrow and torment to us all over the peril of the virgins who are held there, for whom the loss not only of liberty but also of modesty is to be lamented; and not so much the chains of the barbarians as the defilements of panderers and brothels are to be bewailed, lest the members consecrated to Christ and devoted by chaste virtue to the eternal honour of continence be polluted by the contagion of the lust of those who insult them?

Considering all these things according to your letter, and weighing them with grief, our brotherhood here, promptly, gladly, and generously, all bestowed monetary aid upon the brethren—being indeed always inclined to the work of God in proportion to the firmness of their faith, but now the more inflamed to works of salvation by the contemplation of so great a grief. For when the Lord says in his Gospel, 'I was sick, and you visited me,' with how much greater reward of our work will he say, 'I was captive, and you ransomed me.' And when again he says, 'I was in prison, and you visited me,' how much more it is when he shall begin to say:

'I was in the prison of captivity, and I lay shut up and bound among the barbarians, and from that prison of servitude you freed me'—we who are to receive a reward from the Lord when the day of judgment comes. Finally, we give you the greatest thanks that you wished us to be sharers of your solicitude and of so good and necessary a work, in offering us fertile fields in which we might cast the seeds of our hope, looking for a harvest of most abundant fruits, which spring from this heavenly and saving labour.

Now we have sent a hundred thousand sesterces of coin, which here in the church over which by the Lord's indulgence we preside have been gathered by the contribution of the clergy and people abiding with us, which you there will dispense according to your diligence. And we wish indeed that nothing of the kind may happen for the future, and that our brothers, protected by the majesty of the Lord, may be kept safe from perils of this sort. Yet if, to test the love of our soul and to examine the faith of our breast, anything of the kind should occur, do not hesitate to make these things known to us by your letter, holding it for certain and knowing that our church and the whole brotherhood here pray with their prayers that these things may happen no more, and, if they should happen, gladly and generously furnish aid.

Now, that you may keep in mind in your prayers our brothers and sisters who have promptly and gladly laboured at this so necessary work, that they may always so labour, and that you may render them in turn the recompense of a good work in your sacrifices and prayers, I have appended the names of the individuals; and the names of our colleagues also and of our priests, who themselves likewise, when they were present, each contributed something according to their means in their own name and that of their people, I have added; and besides our own proper sum, I have indicated and sent their little sums as well; all of whom, as faith and love demand, you ought to remember in your prayers and supplications. We wish you, dearest brothers, ever to fare well in the Lord, and to remember us.

Cyprian to brother Caecilius, greeting. Although I know, dearest brother, that very many bishops, set by divine condescension over the Lord's churches throughout the whole world, hold to the rule of evangelical truth and of the Lord's tradition, and do not depart, by any human and novel institution, from that which Christ the Master both commanded and did; nevertheless, since some, whether through ignorance or simplicity, in sanctifying the cup of the Lord and ministering it to the people, do not do that which Jesus Christ the Lord and

our God, the author and teacher of this sacrifice, did and taught, I have judged it both religious and necessary to write to you concerning this matter, so that, if anyone is still held in this error, he may, when the light of truth is perceived, return to the root and origin of the Lord's tradition. And do not think, dearest brother, that we are writing our own and human notions, or that we are presumptuously and audaciously assuming this to ourselves, since we always hold our own modest standing with humble and bashful moderation. But when something is enjoined at God's inspiration and command, it is necessary that the faithful servant obey his master, excused before all, in that he assumes nothing arrogantly to himself, since he is compelled to fear the offence of his master, if he does not do what is commanded.

Know, then, that we have been admonished that in offering the cup the Lord's tradition be observed, and that nothing else be done by us than what the Lord first did for us, namely, that the cup which is offered in commemoration of him be offered mixed with wine. For since Christ says, 'I am the true vine,' the blood of Christ is assuredly not water, but wine. Nor can his blood, by which we are redeemed and given life, be seen to be in the cup, when wine is lacking to the cup, by which the blood of Christ is shown forth, which is proclaimed by the mystery and testimony of all the Scriptures.

For we find that this same thing was prefigured even in Genesis, concerning the sacrament of Noah, and that there a figure of the Lord's passion existed: in that he drank wine, that he was made drunk, that he was uncovered in his house, that he lay reclining with his thighs naked and exposed, that that nakedness of the father was noted by the middle son and indeed reported abroad, but covered by the two, the elder and the younger; and the other things which it is not necessary to pursue, since it is enough to grasp this alone, that Noah, showing forth a type of the truth to come, drank not water but wine, and thus expressed the image of the Lord's passion. Likewise in the priest Melchizedek we see the sacrament of the Lord's sacrifice prefigured, according to that which the divine Scripture testifies and says:

'And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine. Now he was a priest of the Most High God, and he blessed Abraham.' But that Melchizedek bore the type of Christ, the Holy Spirit declares in the Psalms, speaking in the person of the Father to the Son: 'Before the morning star I begot you. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.' Which order assuredly is this, coming from that sacrifice and descending thence: that Melchizedek was a priest of the Most High God, that he offered bread and wine, that he blessed Abraham. For who is more a priest of the Most High God than our Lord Jesus Christ, who offered a sacrifice to God the Father, and offered this same thing that Melchizedek had offered, that is, bread and wine, namely his own body and blood?

And concerning Abraham, that preceding blessing pertained to our people. For if Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, assuredly whoever believes God and lives by faith is found righteous, and is shown to have been long ago blessed and justified in faithful Abraham, as the blessed apostle Paul proves, saying: 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. You know therefore that those who are of faith, these are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God justifies the nations by faith, foretold to Abraham that all nations should be blessed in him. Therefore those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.'

Whence in the Gospel we find that out of the stones sons of Abraham are raised up, that is, gathered from the nations. And when the Lord praised Zacchaeus, he answered and said: 'Salvation has been made to this house today, for he too is a son of Abraham.' So that, then, in Genesis the blessing concerning Abraham might be duly celebrated through Melchizedek the priest, there precedes the image of the sacrifice, established namely in bread and wine; which thing the Lord, perfecting and fulfilling, offered bread and a cup mingled with wine, and he who is the fullness fulfilled the truth of the prefigured image. But also through Solomon the Holy Spirit shows forth beforehand a type of the Lord's sacrifice, making mention of the immolated victim and of bread and wine, and also of the altar and of the apostles.