Treatises & Letters 12 part 9/21

Nor can they remain in the Church of God who have kept neither the divine and ecclesiastical discipline by the conduct of their behaviour nor by the peaceableness of their morals. The orphans despoiled by him, the widows defrauded, the moneys of the Church also denied—these exact from him those punishments which we behold in his frenzy. His own father too died of hunger in the village, and was afterward in death not even buried by him. His wife's womb, struck by a kick, and the offspring expelled by a hastened miscarriage unto parricide. And does he now dare to condemn the hands of those who sacrificed, when he himself is more guilty in his feet, by which the son that was being born was killed? This consciousness of his crimes he had long been dreading.

On account of this he held it for certain that he would not only be removed from the presbytery, but also be barred from communion; and as the brethren pressed him, the day of inquiry was at hand on which his case would be tried among us, had not the persecution come first—which this man, seizing with a certain vow of escaping and gaining advantage from his own condemnation, committed and confounded all these things, so that he who was bound to be cast out of the Church and excluded might forestall the judgment of the priests by a voluntary departure, as though to have forestalled the sentence were to have escaped the penalty. But concerning the rest of the brethren we labour, whom we grieve to have been circumvented by him, that they may flee the pernicious side of this old schemer, that they may escape the deadly snares of the tempter, that they may seek again that Church from which he by divine judgment deserved to be expelled:

and these indeed, with the Lord aiding, through His mercy we trust can return. For none can perish save him who is established to be doomed to perish, since the Lord says in His Gospel: Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up. He who has not been planted by the precepts and admonitions of God the Father shall alone be able to depart from the Church; he alone, having forsaken the bishops, shall remain in frenzy with the schismatics and heretics. But the rest the mercy of God the Father, and the indulgence of Christ our Lord, and our own patience, will unite to us. I pray, most beloved brother, that you may ever fare well. To his brother Cyprian, Maximus, Urbanus, Sidonius, Macarius, greeting.

We are certain, most beloved brother, that you too rejoice together with us in equal prayer, that we, having taken counsel and consulting rather for the advantages and the peace of the Church, with all things set aside and reserved to the judgment of God, have made peace with Cornelius our bishop, and likewise with the whole clergy. With the joy also of the whole Church, with the affection of all inclining toward it, you ought most certainly to know this deed by this our letter. We pray you, most beloved brother, to fare well for many years. Cyprian to Maximus the presbyter, likewise to Urbanus and Sidonius and Macarius the brethren, greeting.

Having read your letter, most beloved brethren, which you wrote to me concerning your return and concerning ecclesiastical peace and brotherly reintegration, I confess that I have rejoiced as greatly as I had rejoiced before, when I learned the glory of your confession and received with congratulation the heavenly and spiritual praise of your warfare. For this also is another confession of your faith and praise: to confess that the Church is one, and not to become a partaker of another's error, or rather depravity; to seek again those same camps from which you went forth, from which you leaped forth with the strongest forces to wage battle and subdue the adversary.

For thither were the trophies to be brought back from the battle-line, whence the arms had been taken up for the battle-line, lest those whom Christ had prepared for glory the Church of Christ should not hold as glorious. But now you also have held, by the Lord's peace, a tenor agreeable to your faith and the law of indivisible charity and concord, and have made by your course an example of love and peace for the rest, so that the truth of the Church and the unity of the Gospel and of the sacrament, which was held by us, might be knit together also by your consent and bond, and the confessors of Christ might not become leaders of error who had stood forth as praiseworthy authors of virtue and honour. Let the rest see how greatly they congratulate you, or how greatly each glories within himself:

for my part, I confess that I both congratulate you sufficiently and glory more than the rest in this your peaceful return and charity. For you ought to hear simply what was in my heart. I grieved vehemently and was gravely tormented, because I could not have communion with those whom I had once begun to love. After the schismatic and heretical error had received you as you came forth from prison, the matter was as though your glory had remained in prison. For the dignity of your name seemed to have stayed seated there, since the soldiers of Christ did not return from prison to the Church, into which they had earlier come with the praise and congratulation of the Church.

For although tares seem to be in the Church, our faith or charity ought not therefore to be hindered, so that, because we discern tares to be in the Church, we ourselves should withdraw from the Church. We must only labour that we may be able to be wheat, so that when the wheat begins to be stored in the Lord's granaries, we may receive fruit for our work and labour. The apostle says in his epistle: But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earthenware, and some indeed unto honour, some unto dishonour. Let us give effort and labour as much as we can, that we may be a vessel of gold or of silver. But to break the earthen vessels is granted to the Lord alone, to whom also a rod of iron has been given.

The servant cannot be greater than his lord, nor may anyone claim for himself what the Father has bestowed upon the Son alone—so as to think that he can now openly bring the fan to winnow and cleanse the floor, or by human judgment separate all the tares from the wheat. Proud is that obstinacy, and a sacrilegious presumption, which a depraved frenzy takes upon itself. And while certain men ever demand for themselves more than gentle justice requires, they perish from the Church; and while they insolently exalt themselves, blinded by their own swelling, they lose the light of truth. Wherefore we also, keeping a measured temperament and contemplating the balance of the Lord, and considering the love and mercy of God the Father, after a long and frequent discussion held among ourselves, have weighed out what is to be done with just moderation.

All which things you can thoroughly inspect, having read the tracts which I lately read here and had transmitted for your reading also, out of common affection, wherein for the lapsed there is wanting neither the censure that rebukes nor the medicine that heals. But our littleness has also expressed, as far as it could, the unity of the catholic Church: which little book I trust now pleases you more and more, since you now so read it that you both approve and love it—seeing that what we composed in words you fulfil in deeds, when you return to the Church by the unity of charity and peace. I pray you, most beloved brethren, ever to fare well. Cyprian to his brother Antonianus, greeting.

I have received your first letter, most beloved brother, firmly maintaining the concord of the priestly college and cleaving to the catholic Church, in which you signified that you do not communicate with Novatian, but follow our counsel and hold communion with Cornelius our fellow bishop, and that I should transmit a copy of these same letters to Cornelius our colleague, so that, laying aside all anxiety, he might now know that you communicate with him—that is, with the catholic Church. But indeed there came afterward another letter of yours, sent through Quintus our fellow presbyter, in which I noticed that your mind, moved by Novatian's letters, had begun to waver.

For although you had firmly fixed beforehand both your counsel and your consent, you desired in this letter that I should write back to you what heresy Novatian had introduced, or by what reasoning Cornelius communicates with Trophimus and with those who had offered incense. Now if indeed you anxiously concern yourself with this out of solicitude for the faith, and solicitously explore the truth of a doubtful matter, the suspended anxiety of a mind seething in divine fear is not to be reproved.

Since nevertheless I see that after the first opinion of your letter you were afterward moved by Novatian's letters, this, most beloved brother, I set down in the first place: that grave men, and once founded upon the rock with solid stability, are moved—I will not say by a light breeze—but not even by wind or whirlwind, lest a doubtful and uncertain mind be frequently agitated by various opinions, as it were by certain blasts of assailing winds, and be changed from its purpose with a certain reproach of fickleness. And that Novatian's letters may not do this either with you or with anyone, as you desired, brother, I will briefly set forth to you the account of the matter.

And first indeed, since you seem moved also concerning my own action, both my person and my cause must be cleared before you, lest anyone suppose that I have lightly withdrawn from my purpose, and that, although at first and in the very beginnings I defended evangelical vigour, I should afterward seem to have bent my mind from my former discipline and censure, so as to have thought that peace should be relaxed for those who had stained their conscience with certificates or had committed abominable sacrifices. Both of which were done by me not without a long-balanced and weighed reasoning.

For while the battle-line was still amid the contest, and the conflict of the glorious struggle raged in the persecution, the soldiers' strength had to be roused with full exhortation and complete impetus, and especially the minds of the lapsed had to be animated by a certain trumpet-call of our voice, so that they might pursue the way of penance not only with prayers and lamentations, but, since the occasion of resuming the contest and repairing salvation was being given, might rather be provoked, urged by our voices, to the ardour of confession and the glory of martyrdom. In short, when concerning certain men presbyters and deacons had written to me that they were immoderate and were urging, hastily, that communion be received, writing back to them in my letter, which is extant, I added this also:

that if they make too much haste, they have in their own power what they demand, the very time itself bestowing upon them more than what they demand. The battle-line is still being waged, and the contest is celebrated daily. If one truly and firmly repents of what was committed, and the warmth of faith prevails, he who cannot be deferred can be crowned. But concerning that which had to be determined regarding the case of the lapsed, I deferred it, so that when quiet and tranquillity had been given, and divine indulgence permitted the bishops to come together into one, then, with counsel shared and weighed from the contribution of all, we might determine what ought to be done; and if anyone, before our counsel and before the sentence determined from the counsel of all, should rashly wish to communicate with the lapsed, he himself should be barred from communion.

This also I wrote most fully to Rome, to the clergy then still acting without a bishop, and to the confessors Maximus the presbyter and the rest then established in custody, now joined in the Church with Cornelius—which that I wrote you can know from their rescripts. For in their letter they set it thus: although in so great a business it pleases us, what you yourself also have handled, that first the peace of the Church is to be maintained, and then thus, with a sharing of counsels held with the bishops, presbyters, deacons, confessors, and likewise with the laity who stand fast, the case of the lapsed is to be handled.

There was added moreover, with Novatian then writing and reciting with his own voice what he had written, and with the presbyter Moyses—then still a confessor, now already a martyr—subscribing, that to the lapsed who were sick and established at the point of death, peace should be given. These letters were sent throughout the whole world, and were carried to the knowledge of all the churches and of all the brethren. Yet according to what had been determined beforehand, with the persecution lulled,

when the opportunity of coming together into one was given, a copious number of bishops, whom their own faith and the Lord's protection had kept whole and unharmed, came together into one; and, with the Scriptures brought forth at length from both sides, we weighed out a measured temperament with wholesome moderation: so that neither should the hope of communion and peace be wholly denied to the lapsed, lest they fail the more through despair, and, because the Church was closed to them, follow the world and live after the manner of the heathen; nor yet again should evangelical censure be loosed, so that they should rashly leap forth to communion; but that penance should be drawn out for a long time, and paternal clemency entreated with grief, and the causes and wills and necessities of individuals be examined—according to what is contained in the little book which I am confident has reached you, where the several heads of the decrees are written down.

And if the number of bishops in Africa seemed less than sufficient, we wrote also to Rome upon this matter, to Cornelius our colleague, who himself too, with very many fellow bishops, having held a council, consented unto the same sentence with us, with equal gravity and wholesome moderation.

Concerning which it was now necessary for me to write to you, that you may know that I have acted in nothing lightly, but according to what I had earlier comprehended in my letters, have deferred all things to the common counsel of our council, and have communicated indeed with none of the lapsed earlier, while there was still occasion whereby the lapsed might receive not only indulgence but also a crown; yet afterward, as both the concord of the college and the advantage of gathering together the brotherhood and of healing the wound required, have yielded to the necessity of the times and thought that the salvation of many must be provided for; and now do not depart from those things which were once approved in our council by common consultation—although many things are bandied about by the voices of many, and lies brought forth from the mouth of the devil against the priests of God are everywhere flung about to rupture the concord of catholic unity.

But it behoves you, as a good brother and a like-minded fellow priest, not easily to receive what the malicious and apostates say, but to weigh what your colleagues, modest and grave men, do, by an examination of our life and discipline. I come now, most beloved brother, to the person of Cornelius our colleague, that you may more truly know Cornelius along with us—not from the lie of the malicious and the detractors, but from the judgment of God who made him bishop, and from the testimony of the fellow bishops, whose whole number throughout the entire world consented with concordant unanimity.

For as to the fact that it commends Cornelius our dearly beloved to God and to Christ and to His Church, and likewise to all his fellow priests, by a praiseworthy testimony—this man did not come suddenly to the episcopate, but, promoted through all the ecclesiastical offices and having often deserved well of the Lord in the divine administrations, he ascended to the lofty summit of the priesthood through all the grades of religion.

Then thereafter he neither sought nor wished the episcopate itself, nor did he invade it as do the rest whom the swelling of their own arrogance and pride puffs up; but, quiet otherwise and modest, and such as those are wont to be who are divinely chosen for this place, for the modesty of his virginal continence and for the humility of his inborn and well-guarded bashfulness, he did not, as certain men do, use force that he might become bishop, but he himself suffered force, that he might receive the episcopate under compulsion. And he was made bishop by very many of our colleagues who were then present in the city of Rome, who sent to us honourable and praiseworthy letters, illustrious by the testimony of their commendation, concerning his ordination.

Cornelius, moreover, was made bishop by the judgment of God and of His Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the suffrage of the people who were then present, by the college of aged priests and good men—when no one had been made before him, when the place of Fabian, that is, the place of Peter and the rank of the priestly chair, lay vacant; which being occupied and confirmed by the will of God and by the consent of us all, whoever now wishes to become bishop must of necessity be made outside, nor can he have ecclesiastical ordination who does not hold the unity of the Church. Whoever he may be, however much he boasts of himself and claims very much for himself, he is profane, he is an alien, he is outside.

And since after the first there can be no second, whoever is made after one who alone ought to exist is no longer a second but is nothing at all. Then, after an episcopate that was neither canvassed for nor extorted, but received from the will of God who makes priests, consider how great the virtue in the very man on whom that episcopate was conferred, how great the strength of soul, what firmness of faith — which we, with a single heart, ought both to perceive thoroughly and to praise: that he sat undaunted at Rome in the priestly chair at that very time when a hostile tyrant was threatening God's priests with things speakable and unspeakable, when he would far more patiently and tolerably hear that a rival prince was being raised up against himself than that a priest of God was being appointed at Rome.

Is not this man, dearest brother, to be proclaimed with the highest testimony of virtue and faith? Is he not to be counted among the glorious confessors and martyrs — he who sat for so long a time awaiting the executioners of his own body and the avengers of the raging tyrant, who would assail Cornelius with the sword as he resisted the deadly edicts and trod down with the vigour of his faith the threats and torments and tortures, or crucify him, or roast him with fire, or rend his vitals and limbs with any unheard-of kind of punishment?

Even though the majesty of the protecting Lord and his goodness protected the priest whom he had willed to be made, once he was made, nevertheless Cornelius, so far as concerns his own devotion and fear of God, suffered whatever he could possibly suffer, and by his priesthood he first conquered the tyrant who was afterwards conquered by arms and war. But as for the fact that certain dishonourable and grave charges are flung about concerning him, I would not have you wonder, since you know that it is ever the devil's work to mangle the servants of God with lies and to defame a glorious name with false opinions, so that those who shine with the light of their own conscience may be befouled by the rumours of others.

But know that our colleagues have made inquiry and most truly ascertained that he was stained with no blemish of a certificate, as certain men noisily allege, nor did he share a sacrilegious communion with bishops who had sacrificed, but he joined to us only those whose case had been heard and whose innocence had been proved. For concerning Trofimus too, about whom you desired to be written to, the matter is not as rumour and the lie of malicious men have brought it to you. For, just as our predecessors also often did, our dearest brother yielded to necessity for the sake of gathering back our brethren.

And since, together with Trofimus, the greater part of the people had withdrawn, now that Trofimus has returned to the church, and has given satisfaction, and by the penitence of his entreaty confesses his former error, and with full humility and satisfaction recalls the brotherhood which he had lately drawn away — his prayers have been heard, and there has been admitted into the church of the Lord not so much Trofimus as the very great number of the brethren who had been with Trofimus, who would none of them have returned to the church had they not come accompanied by Trofimus. Therefore, after a deliberation was held there with very many of our colleagues, Trofimus was received, on whose behalf the return of the brethren and the salvation of many restored made satisfaction.

Yet Trofimus was so admitted that he should communicate as a layman, not — as the letters of malicious men have reported to you — as though he were usurping the place of the priesthood. But as for the report brought to you that Cornelius communicates indiscriminately with those who have sacrificed, this too arises from the feigned rumours of apostates. For neither can those who depart praise us, nor ought we to expect to please those who, displeasing us and rebels against the church, violently press on to solicit the brethren away from the church. Wherefore, dearest brother, whatever is flung about both concerning Cornelius and concerning us, neither readily hear nor believe. For if any are seized by infirmities, help is given them in their peril, as was agreed.

But after help has been given and peace has been granted to those in danger, they cannot be choked by us, or crushed, or driven to the issue of death by our force and hand — as though, because peace is granted to the dying, those who have received peace must therefore die — when rather in this there appears a sign of divine mercy and fatherly gentleness, that those who receive the pledge of life in the peace granted should here too be kept for life, the peace having been received. And therefore, if, peace having been received, a passage onward is granted by God, no one ought to make this a charge against the priests, since it has once for all pleased the brethren that help be given to those in danger.

Nor do you suppose, dearest brother, as it seems to certain men, that those who hold certificates ought to be put on a level with those who have sacrificed, when even among those very persons who have sacrificed the circumstances and the cause are frequently diverse.

For he is not to be made equal who at once leaped forward of his own will to the abominable sacrifice, and he who, having struggled and contended long, came to that deadly deed only under compulsion; nor he who betrayed both himself and all his own, and he who, himself going forward to the crisis on behalf of all, by the compact of his own peril shielded his wife and children and his whole household; nor he who drove his tenants or his friends to the crime, and he who spared his tenants and tillers, and received also very many brethren who, exiled and fugitive, were retreating into his roofs and lodgings, displaying and offering to the Lord many living and unharmed souls to plead on behalf of one that was wounded.

Since, therefore, even among those who have sacrificed there is much diversity, what unkindness it is, and what bitter harshness, to join those who hold certificates with those who have sacrificed, when he to whom a certificate has been issued may say: 'I had previously read, and learned from the teaching of the bishop, that one must not sacrifice to idols, nor ought a servant of God to worship images; and therefore, lest I do this which was not lawful, when the occasion of a certificate was offered — which I would not even have accepted unless the occasion had been shown me — I either went to the magistrate myself, or, when another was going, I gave instruction: that I am a Christian, that it is not lawful for me to sacrifice, that I cannot come to the altars of the devil, that I give this fee for the very purpose that I may not do what is unlawful.'

Yet now even this man who is stained by a certificate, after he has learned at our admonition that he ought not to have done even this — although his hand be pure and no contagion of unholy food has polluted his mouth, yet his conscience is polluted — weeps when he hears us, and laments, and is now admonished of what he has done amiss, and, deceived not so much by crime as by error, testifies that for the rest he is now instructed and prepared. If we reject the penitence of such men, who possess some confidence of a tolerable conscience, at once, together with their wife and children whom they had kept unharmed, they are snatched away into heresy or schism at the devil's invitation;

and it will be charged against us in the day of judgment that we did not care for the wounded sheep, and that on account of one wounded we lost many that were whole. And whereas the Lord, leaving the ninety-nine sound, sought out the one that strayed and was weary, and, having found it, himself carried it on his own shoulders — we not only do not seek the weary, but even drive away those who come; and whereas the false prophets do not now cease to ravage and tear the flock of Christ, we would give occasion to the dogs and wolves, so that those whom the hostile persecution did not destroy, we should destroy by our harshness and inhumanity. And where will be, dearest brother, that which the Apostle says: 'I please all men in all things, not seeking what is profitable to myself, but what is profitable to many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.' And again:

'I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak.' And again: 'If one member suffers, all the other members suffer with it; and if one member rejoices, all the other members rejoice with it.' The reasoning of the philosophers and Stoics is another thing, dearest brother — they who say that all sins are equal, and that a man of weight ought not easily to be bent. But between Christians and philosophers there is the greatest difference. And since the Apostle says, 'See that no one plunders you through philosophy and vain deceit,' we must shun those things which come not from God's mercy, but descend from the presumption of a harsher philosophy. But concerning Moses we read it said in the Scriptures: 'And Moses was a man exceedingly meek.' And the Lord in his Gospel says:

'Be merciful, even as your Father has had mercy upon you.' And again: 'They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick.' What healing can he practise who says, 'I cure only the sound, who have no need of a physician'? Our aid, our remedy, we ought to offer to the wounded. And let us not think them dead, but rather that they lie half-alive, those whom we see wounded by the deadly persecution; for if they were wholly dead, never afterwards would confessors and martyrs be made out of these same men. But since there is in them that which, with penitence following, may grow strong again unto faith, and strength is armed out of penitence — which strength

cannot be armed if anyone fail through despair, if, harshly and cruelly cut off from the church, he turn himself to the ways of the heathen and to worldly works, or, rejected from the church, pass over to the heretics and schismatics, where, even if he be afterwards slain for the Name, being constituted outside the church and divided from unity and from charity, he will not be able to be crowned in death. And therefore it has pleased us, dearest brother, that, the cases of individuals being examined, those who hold certificates be admitted in the meantime, and that those who have sacrificed be helped at their departure, since confession of sins exists not among the dead, nor can anyone be compelled by us to penitence, if the fruit of penitence be withdrawn. If the battle come first, he will be found strengthened by us, armed for the battle;

but if before the battle infirmity should press hard, he departs with the solace of peace and communion. For neither do we prejudge the Lord who is to judge, so as to prevent that, if he find the full and just penitence of the sinner, he then ratify what shall here have been decreed by us. But if anyone deceive us by a pretence of penitence, God who is not mocked and who beholds the heart of man will judge concerning those things which we have less clearly discerned, and the Lord will amend the sentence of his servants — provided only that we, brother, ought to remember that it is written: 'A brother helping a brother shall be exalted'; and that the Apostle also has said: