For being ready for all things, as we all ought to be, they say to the king: 'O King Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee concerning this matter. For there is a God whom we serve, who is able to deliver us from the furnace of burning fire, and out of thy hands, O King, He will deliver us. But if not, be it known unto thee that we serve not thy gods, and the golden image which thou hast set up we do not worship.' Although they both believed, and knew that for their faith they could even be delivered from the present punishment, yet they would not boast of this nor claim it for themselves, saying 'But if not,' lest the virtue of their confession should be the less without the witness of suffering.
They added that God could do all things, yet that they did not trust in this—namely, that they might be willing to be delivered in the present—but rather pondered that glory of liberty and eternal security. Holding fast this same faith, and meditating upon it day and night, let us too with all our heart, ready toward God in contempt of present things, think only upon things to come: the fruit of the eternal kingdom, the embrace and kiss of the Lord, the sight of God.
So that in all things you may follow the presbyter Rogatianus, that glorious old man, who by his devout virtue and divine condescension is making for you a way to the glory of our age; who, together with our brother Felicissimus—ever quiet and sober—receiving the first assault of the raging mob, prepared a lodging for you in prison, and as it were your forerunner now also goes before us. That this may be brought to completion in you we beseech the Lord with unceasing prayers, that to those who press on from beginnings to the highest, He who has made them to confess may also make them to be crowned. I wish you, dearest and most blessed brothers, ever to fare well in the Lord, and to attain to the glory of the heavenly crown. Letter VII. CYPRIAN TO THE PRESBYTERS AND DEACONS, HIS DEAREST BROTHERS, GREETING.
I greet you, dearest brothers, being safe by the grace of God, and longing to come to you soon, that both my desire and yours and that of all the brethren may be satisfied. Yet we ought to take counsel for the common peace, and at times, though with grief of soul, to be absent from you, lest our presence provoke the envy and violence of the heathen, and we become the authors of breaking the peace—we who ought rather to take counsel for the quiet of all. When therefore you shall have written that, things being settled, I ought to come, or if the Lord shall first vouchsafe to show it, then I will come to you. For where could it be either better or more joyful for me than there, where God both willed me to believe and to grow? I beg that you diligently have care of the widows and the sick and all the poor.
But also, if any strangers be in want, supply their expenses out of my own portion which I left with our fellow-presbyter Rogatianus. And lest perchance that whole sum be already disbursed, I have sent to the same man, by the acolyte Naricus, another portion, that the work toward the labouring may be done more liberally and readily. I wish you, dearest brothers, ever to fare well [and to remember us. Salute the brotherhood in my name, and admonish them to be mindful of us]. Letter VIII.
We have learned that the blessed Pope Cyprian has withdrawn from Crementius the subdeacon, who came from you to us for a certain reason; which thing he assuredly did rightly, since he is a person of distinction, and with the contest impending which God has permitted in the world for the sake of wrestling with the adversary together with His servants—willing also to make this struggle manifest to angels and men, that he who conquers may be crowned, while the conquered carries within himself the sentence which has been made plain to us.
And since it lies upon us who are seen to be set as overseers and to keep the flock in the stead of shepherds, that if we be found negligent it shall be said to us what was said also to our predecessors who were so negligent as overseers: 'because we sought not the lost, and corrected not the wandering, and bound not the lame, and ate their milk and were clothed with their wool.' Finally, the Lord Himself too, fulfilling what was written in the Law and the Prophets, teaches saying: 'I am the good shepherd, who lay down my life for my sheep. But the hireling, and he whose own the sheep are not, when he seeth the wolf coming, leaveth them and fleeth, and the wolf scattereth them.' But also to Simon He thus says: 'Lovest thou me?' He answered, 'I love.' He saith to him, 'Feed my sheep.'
This word we recognize made into deed by the very act by which he withdrew, and the rest of the disciples likewise did so. We do not wish therefore, beloved brothers, to be found hirelings, but good shepherds, since you know that no small peril lies upon you, if you have not exhorted our brethren to stand immovable in the faith, lest, going headlong into idolatry, the brotherhood be utterly rooted out.
For we do not exhort you with words alone, but you will be able to learn from the many who come from us to you that all these things we, with God's help, both have done and do, with all carefulness and worldly peril, having before our eyes the fear of God and everlasting punishments rather than the fear of men and a brief injury, not deserting the brotherhood, but exhorting them to stand in the faith and to be ready to go with the Lord. But also those who were ascending to that to which they were being compelled, we have recalled. The Church stands firm in the faith, although some, driven by the very terror—whether because they were persons of distinction, or seized by the fear of men—have fallen:
these indeed, though separated from us, we have not abandoned, but have exhorted and do exhort them to do penance, if by any means they may be able to receive indulgence from Him who is able to grant it, lest, if they be left by us, they become worse. You see therefore, brothers, that you also ought to do this: that even those who have fallen, by your exhortation amending their minds, if they be seized again may confess afresh, so that they may be able to correct their former error; and the other matters which lie upon you, which we ourselves have also subjoined—namely, that if those who have fallen into this temptation begin to be seized by sickness and do penance for their deed and long for communion, by all means they ought to be succoured:
whether widows, or the afflicted who cannot show themselves, or those who are in the prisons, or those shut out from their dwellings—by all means they ought to have those who minister to them. But also catechumens seized by sickness ought not to be deceived, but to be succoured. And what is of the greatest moment: if the bodies of the martyrs or of others be not buried, a grave peril threatens those upon whom this work lies. By whatever occasion therefore this work shall have been performed by any one of you, we are sure that he is reckoned a good servant, so that he who was faithful in the least is set over ten cities. And may God, who grants all things to those who hope in Him, bring it to pass that we all be found in these works.
The brethren who are in chains, and the presbyters, and the whole Church greet you—the Church which also herself watches with the utmost solicitude on behalf of all who call upon the name of the Lord. But we also ask that in mutual turn you be mindful of us. Know moreover that Bassianus has reached us. And we ask you who have the zeal of God to transmit a copy of these letters, by suitable occasions, to whomsoever you can; or make copies of your own, or send a messenger, that they may stand strong and immovable in the faith. We wish you, dearest brothers, ever to fare well. Letter IX. CYPRIAN TO THE PRESBYTERS AND DEACONS ABIDING AT ROME, HIS BROTHERS, GREETING.
When the report among us concerning the departure of the good man, my colleague, was uncertain, dearest brothers, and a doubtful rumour wavered, I received letters sent to me by Crementius the subdeacon, by which I might be most fully instructed concerning his glorious end; and I rejoiced greatly that, in keeping with the integrity of his administration, an honourable consummation also came to pass. Wherein I also congratulate you very much, that you attend his memory with so renowned and illustrious a testimony, so that through you there might become known to us what was for us both glorious concerning the memory of our bishop, and also furnished to us an example of faith and virtue.
For as much as the ruin of an overseer is a pernicious thing toward the falling of those who follow, so much on the contrary is it useful and salutary when a bishop, by the firmness of his faith, presents himself to the brethren as one to be imitated. I have also read letters in which neither who wrote them nor to whom they were written was distinctly expressed. And since in those same letters both the writing and the sense and the very paper moved me, lest anything had been either taken away from the truth or altered, I have sent back to you that same letter as authentic, that you may recognize whether it be the very one which you gave to Crementius the subdeacon to deliver. For it is exceedingly grievous if the truth of a clerical letter has been corrupted by any falsehood and fraud.
Therefore, that we may be able to know this, recognize whether both the writing and the subscription be yours, and write back to us what is the truth. I wish you, dearest brothers, ever to fare well. Letter X. CYPRIAN TO THE MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS OF JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, IN GOD THE FATHER, EVERLASTING GREETING. I exult joyful and congratulate you, most valiant and most blessed brothers, having learned of your faith and virtue, in which Mother Church glories—she who gloried indeed but lately when, the confession standing firm, that punishment was undergone which made the confessors of Christ exiles. Yet the present confession, the stronger it is in suffering, so much the brighter and greater is it in honour. The contest has grown, and so has the glory of the contenders.
You were not held back from the battle-line by fear of torments, but rather by the very torments were the more provoked to the line of battle; strong and steadfast, with ready devotion you went forth to the conflict of the greatest contest. Of whom I have already learned that some are crowned, and some indeed are near to the crown of victory; but all whom the prison has shut in with its glorious band are animated with an equal and like ardour of virtue to wage the contest, as it behoves the soldiers of Christ to be in the divine camp: that no flatteries deceive, no threats terrify, no tortures and torments overcome their incorrupt firmness of faith—for greater is He who is in us than he who is in this world; nor can earthly punishment do more to cast down than divine protection to raise up.
The thing has been proved by the glorious contest of the brethren, who, made leaders to the rest for the conquering of torments, furnished an example of virtue and faith, having joined battle in the line until the line, conquered, gave way. With what praises then shall I proclaim you, most valiant brothers? With what heralding of voice shall I adorn the strength of your breast and the perseverance of your faith? You endured even to the consummation of glory the most cruel questioning, nor did you yield to the tortures, but rather the tortures yielded to you. The end which the torments did not give to your sufferings, the crowns gave. The grievous mangling persisted long unto this end—not that it might cast down the standing faith, but that it might send the men of God the more swiftly to the Lord.
The wondering multitude of bystanders beheld the heavenly contest of God and the spiritual battle, the conflict of Christ: that His servants stood with free voice, with uncorrupted mind, with divine virtue—naked indeed of worldly weapons, but believing, armed with the arms of faith. The tortured stood stronger than their torturers, and the beaten and mangled limbs overcame the beating and mangling claws. The long-repeated raging stroke could not overcome the unconquerable faith, although, the framework of their bowels being burst, there were tortured in the servants of God now not limbs but wounds. The blood flowed which should quench the burning of persecution, which should lull with glorious gore the flames and fires of Gehenna.
Oh, what a spectacle of the Lord was that—how sublime, how great, how acceptable to the eyes of God by the sacrament and devotion of His soldier! As it is written in the Psalms, the Holy Spirit speaking to us and at once admonishing: 'Precious in the sight of God is the death of His saints.' Precious is this death, which buys immortality at the price of its own blood, which receives the crown of God by the consummation of virtue. How glad was Christ there, how willingly in such servants of His did He both fight and conquer—the protector of faith, and giving to those who believe as much as he who receives believes himself able to take! He was present at His own contest; He raised up, strengthened, animated the warriors and assertors of His name. And He who once for us conquered death, ever conquers in us.
'When they shall deliver you up,' He says, 'take no thought what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you.' The present battle has furnished a proof of the matter. A voice full of the Holy Spirit burst forth from the mouth of the martyr, when the most blessed Mappalicus said to the proconsul amid his torments: 'Thou shalt see a contest tomorrow.' And what he said with the testimony of virtue and faith, the Lord fulfilled. The heavenly contest was displayed, and the servant of God was crowned in the struggle of the promised contest. This is the contest which the prophet Isaiah foretold of old, saying: 'It is no small contest for you with men, since God supplies the contest.'
And to show what this contest should be, he added, saying: 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son, and ye shall call his name Emmanuel.' This is the contest of our faith, in which we engage, by which we conquer, by which we are crowned. This is the contest which the blessed apostle Paul also shows us, in which we must run and attain to the glory of the crown. 'Know ye not,' he says, 'that they who run in the stadium all run indeed, yet one receives the prize? So run that ye may obtain.' And they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible one. Likewise, showing his own contest and promising that he would soon be a victim to the Lord, he says: 'I am now being poured out, and the time of my assumption is at hand.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, that righteous judge, shall render to me in that day; and not to me only, but to all those also who have loved His coming.' This contest, then, foretold of old through the prophets, joined through the Lord, waged through the apostles, Mappalicus promised to the proconsul in his own name and in the name of his colleagues. Nor did the faithful voice fail in its promise. He displayed the battle which he had pledged, and received the palm which he had merited.
This most blessed martyr now, and others partakers of the same encounter and companions—steadfast in faith, patient in pain, victorious in the questioning—that you also may follow the rest, I both wish equally and exhort; that those whom the bond of confession and the lodging of the prison have joined together, the consummation of virtue and the heavenly crown may also join; that you may wipe away by your gladness the tears of Mother Church, who bewails the ruins and funerals of very many, and that you may strengthen the firmness of the others also who stand, by the provocation of your example.
If the battle-line shall call you, if the day of your contest shall come, fight bravely, contend steadfastly, knowing that you contend under the eyes of the present Lord, that by the confession of His name you attain to His glory—who is not such as merely to behold His servants, but Himself wrestles in us, Himself joins battle, Himself in the struggle of our contest both crowns and is crowned alike. But if before the day of your contest peace shall come upon you by the Lord's indulgence, yet there remains for you an unbroken will and a glorious conscience. Nor let any of you be saddened as though less than those who before you, having suffered torments, came to the Lord by a glorious journey, the world conquered and trodden under foot.
The Lord is the searcher of the reins and the heart; He discerns hidden things and beholds secret things. To merit the crown from Him, the testimony alone of Him who is to judge suffices. Both things therefore, dearest brothers, are alike sublime and illustrious: the one more secure, to hasten to the Lord by the consummation of victory; the other more joyful, to flourish in the praise of the Church, a furlough being received after glory. O blessed Church of ours, which the honour of divine condescension thus illuminates, which in our times the glorious blood of the martyrs makes illustrious! She was white before in the works of the brethren; now she is made purple in the gore of the martyrs. Among her flowers neither lilies nor roses are lacking. Let each now contend for the most ample dignity of either honour.
Let them receive crowns either white from work or purple from suffering. In the heavenly camps both peace and the battle-line have their own flowers, with which the soldier of Christ may be crowned for glory. I wish you, most valiant and most blessed brothers, ever to fare well in the Lord and to be mindful of us. Farewell. Letter XI. CYPRIAN TO THE PRESBYTERS AND DEACONS, HIS BROTHERS, GREETING. Although I know, dearest brothers, that by the fear which each of us owes to God you too are there instantly applying yourselves to assiduous prayers and earnest supplications, yet I myself also admonish your devout solicitude that, to appease and entreat God, we groan not with voice alone, but with fastings and tears and every kind of supplication.
For it must be understood and confessed that the so turbulent devastation of this affliction, which has laid waste our flock for the most part and still even now lays it waste, has come according to our sins, in that we hold not the way of the Lord nor keep the heavenly commandments given to us for salvation. Our Lord did the will of the Father, and we do not the will of God—being eager for patrimony and gain, following pride, given over to rivalry and dissension, careless of simplicity and faith, renouncing the world in words only and not in deeds, each one pleasing himself and displeasing to all. We are scourged therefore as we deserve, since it is written:
'But that servant who knows the will of his lord and obeys not his will shall be beaten with many stripes.' But what stripes, what scourgings do we not deserve, when not even the confessors, who ought to have been by their example a pattern of good morals to the rest, keep discipline? And so, while the swollen and immodest boasting of his confession insolently exalts some, torments have come—and torments without end of the torturer, without issue of condemnation, without solace of death; torments which do not easily release to the crown, but torture so long as they may cast down—unless perchance someone, withdrawn by divine condescension, has prevailed amid the very tortures, attaining glory not by the term of his punishment but by the swiftness of his dying.
These things we suffer for our offence and by our desert, as the divine censure forewarned, saying: 'If they shall have forsaken my law and walked not in my judgments, if they shall have profaned my justifications and observed not my precepts, I will visit their misdeeds with a rod and their offences with stripes.' Rods therefore and stripes we feel, who please not God with good deeds nor make satisfaction for our sins. Let us beg the mercy of God from our inmost heart and with all our mind, since He also added, saying: 'But my mercy I will not scatter away from them.' Let us ask, and we receive:
and if there be delay and slowness in receiving, since we have grievously offended, let us knock, because to him that knocks it is opened—if only our prayers and groanings and tears knock at the door, on which it behoves us to persist and to linger, and if the prayer be of one accord. For as to what the more persuaded and compelled me to write these letters to you, you ought to know that—as the Lord vouchsafes to show and reveal—it was said in a vision: 'Ask, and ye obtain'; then afterward the people standing by were commanded to ask for certain persons pointed out to them, but in the asking there were discordant voices and disparate wills, and this displeased Him exceedingly who had said:
'Ask, and ye obtain'—because the people's inequality was discordant, nor was there one and simple consent of the brethren and joined concord, whereas it is written: 'God maketh those of one mind to dwell in a house,' and in the Acts of the Apostles we read: 'But the multitude of those who had believed acted with one soul and mind,' and the Lord has commanded with His own voice, saying: 'This is my commandment, that ye love one another,' and again: 'I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth concerning anything whatsoever ye shall ask, it shall be done for you by my Father who is in heaven.' But if two of one mind can do so much, what if there were unanimity among all?
For if, according to the peace which the Lord has given us, it agreed among all the brethren, we should long since have obtained from the divine mercy what we ask, nor should we be tossed so long in this peril of our salvation and faith; nay rather, these evils would not have come upon the brethren, had the brotherhood been animated into one. For that also was shown: that the master of the household was sitting, with a young man sitting at his right hand, who, anxious and with a certain indignation somewhat sad, sat holding his cheek with his hand, with a mournful countenance. But another, standing on the left side, was carrying a net, which he threatened to cast so as to catch the surrounding people.
And when he who saw it wondered what this was, it was said to him that the young man who thus sat at the right hand was grieved and pained that his precepts were not observed, but that the one on the left exulted that an occasion was given him to receive from the master of the household power to rage. This was shown long before the storm of this devastation arose. And we see fulfilled what had been shown: that, while we despise the Lord's precepts, while we keep not the saving commandments of the law given us, the enemy received the faculty of harming, and covered with the cast of his net those less armed and less wary for resistance. Let us pray instantly and groan with assiduous prayers.
For know that this also was lately reproached to us by a vision, dearest brothers: that we slumber in our prayers and pray not vigilantly. And surely God, who loves the one whom He rebukes, when He rebukes, rebukes to this end that He may amend, and amends to this end that He may save. Let us therefore shake off and break the bonds of sleep, and pray instantly and vigilantly, as Paul the apostle enjoins, saying: 'Continue in prayer, watching therein.' For the apostles too ceased not to pray day and night, and the Lord Himself also, the master of discipline and the way of our example, prayed frequently and vigilantly, as we read in the Gospel: 'He went out into the mountain to pray, and continued all night in the prayer of God.'
And indeed what he prayed, he prayed on our behalf, since he himself was no sinner but bore our sins. So fully did he intercede for us that we read in another place: 'And the Lord said to Peter: Behold, Satan has demanded to sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.' But if for our sake and for our offences he both labours and watches and prays, how much more ought we to press on in prayer, and to pray, and first to entreat the Lord himself, and then through him to make satisfaction to God the Father?
We have an advocate and intercessor for our sins, Jesus Christ our Lord and God, if only we repent of having sinned in time past, and, confessing and acknowledging our offences by which we now offend the Lord, promise henceforth to walk in his ways and to fear his precepts. The Father both corrects us and protects us, provided we stand firm in the faith and, amid pressures and straits, cleave steadfastly to his Christ, as it is written: 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?' None of these things can separate those who believe; nothing can tear away those who cleave to his body and blood.
This persecution is a testing, and indeed a testing of our sin. God has willed to shake us out and to prove us, as he has always proved his own; nor yet in his provings has help ever been wanting to those who believe. Indeed, to his least servant, set even amid sins though they be many, and unworthy of his regard, he yet, out of his goodness toward us, deigned to give a command. 'Tell him,' he said, 'let him be secure, for peace is coming; but that there is meanwhile a little delay, because some still remain who are to be proved.' We are also admonished by divine bestowals concerning sparing food and sober drink, namely lest a breast already lifted up by heavenly vigour be unnerved by worldly allurement, or lest a mind weighed down by more lavish feasting be less wakeful unto the prayers of supplication.
These several matters I ought not to disguise, nor to keep hidden in my conscience alone, for by them each one of us may be both instructed and governed. Do not, then, keep this letter hidden among yourselves, but propose it to be read to the brethren. For to intercept those things by which the Lord deigns to admonish and instruct us belongs to one who would not have his brother admonished and instructed. Let them know that we are being proved by our Lord, and let them not, through the struggle of the present pressure, fall away from the faith with which we once believed in him; let each one recognize his own offences, and even now lay aside the manner of life of the old man. For no one who looks back, and sets his hand upon the plough, is fit for the kingdom of God.
In short, Lot's wife, who had been delivered, looked back contrary to the precept, and lost that which she had escaped. Let us look not to the things behind, to which the devil recalls us, but to the things before, to which Christ calls us. Let us lift up our eyes to heaven, lest the earth deceive us with its delights and allurements. Let each one pray to God, not for himself alone, but for all the brethren, as the Lord taught us to pray, where he enjoins not a private prayer upon individuals, but, praying with a common and concordant supplication, he commanded that prayer be made for all. If the Lord shall behold us humble and quiet, bound to one another, fearful concerning his wrath, corrected and amended by the present tribulation, he will keep us safe from the assaults of the enemy.
Discipline has gone before; pardon also will follow. Let us only, without ceasing, ask and with faith receive, and let us, simple and of one mind, entreat the Lord, entreating alike with groaning and with weeping, as those ought to entreat who are set amid the ruins of those who lament and the remnants of those who fear, amid the numerous slaughter of the languishing and the scanty steadfastness of those who stand.