Letters 13.1–19.2

Cyprian to the presbyter Rogatianus and the other confessors, his brothers, greeting. Some time ago, dearest and bravest brothers, I sent you a letter in which I congratulated your faith and courage in exultant words; and now our voice embraces nothing else first than that we should proclaim often and always, with glad heart, the glory of your name. For what could be greater or better in my prayers than when I see the flock of Christ lit up by the honour of your confession? For while all the brothers ought to rejoice in this, the bishop's share in the common joy is the greater. For the glory of the church is the glory of its leader. As much as we grieve over those whom the hostile storm has laid low, so much do we rejoice over you, whom the devil could not overcome.

We exhort you, however, by our common faith, by the true and simple love of our heart toward you, that you who have conquered the adversary in this first encounter hold fast your glory with brave and persevering courage. We are still in the world, still placed in the battle line; we fight daily for our life. We must take pains that after these beginnings there may be growth also, and that what you have already begun to be with happy first steps may be completed in you. It is a small thing to have been able to obtain something; it is more to be able to keep what you have obtained; just as faith itself and saving birth give life not by being received but by being guarded. Nor is it attainment at once, but completion, that keeps a person for God. The Lord taught this by his teaching, saying: “Behold, you have been made well; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you.” Suppose him to say this also to his confessor: “Behold, you have been made a confessor; sin no more, lest something worse happen to you.” Solomon, indeed, and Saul, and many others, as long as they did not walk in the ways of the Lord, could not keep the grace given to them: when the Lord's discipline departed from them, grace departed too.

We must persevere in the narrow and strait road of praise and glory; and while quietness and humility and the tranquillity of good conduct befit all Christians, according to the word of God, which looks to no one but the humble and quiet and the one who trembles at his words, then it is all the more fitting that confessors observe and fulfil this, who have been made an example to the other brothers, to whose conduct the life and actions of all ought to be stirred. For as the Jews were estranged from God, because of whom the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles, so, on the other hand, those are dear to God through whose discipline the name of the Lord is proclaimed with praiseworthy testimony, as it is written, the Lord forewarning and saying: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” And the apostle Paul says: “Shine as lights in the world.” And Peter likewise exhorts: “As strangers,” he says, “and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly desires, which war against the soul, having your conduct good among the Gentiles, so that while they speak against you as evildoers, seeing your good works they may magnify the Lord.” This indeed the greatest part of you takes care to do, to my joy; and made better by the very honour of your confession, it guards and keeps its glory by quiet and good conduct.

But I hear that some are staining your number and destroying the praise of your distinguished name by their depraved conduct; and you yourselves, as lovers and keepers of your praise, ought to rebuke, restrain, and correct them. For with what shame to your name is it sinned, when one lingers drunk and wanton, and another returns to the homeland from which he was exiled, to perish when caught, no longer as a Christian but as a criminal! I hear that some are puffed up and swollen, although it is written: “Do not be high-minded, but fear. For if the Lord did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you either.” Our Lord was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is without voice, so he did not open his mouth. “I am not stubborn,” he says, “nor do I contradict. I have given my back to the scourges and my cheeks to the palms; and I did not turn away my face from the filth of spitting.” And does anyone, living now through him and in him, dare to exalt himself and be proud, forgetful both of the deeds he did and of the commands he has handed down to us, either himself or through his apostles? But if the servant is not greater than his master, let those who follow the Lord imitate his footsteps, humble and quiet and silent, since the lower anyone is, the higher he becomes, as the Lord says: “He who is least among you, he will be great.”

What, then, of this, which ought to seem to you detestable, which we have learned with the deepest groaning and grief of heart: that there are not lacking some who defile the temples of God, and members sanctified and made more illustrious after confession, by their base and infamous lying together, sharing beds promiscuously with women? Even if their conscience is free of actual fornication, this itself is a great crime, that from their scandal examples arise for the ruin of others. There ought also to be no quarrels and rivalries among us, since the Lord has left us his peace, and it is written: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself. But if you bite and accuse one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.” I beg you also to abstain from abuse and reviling, because neither will revilers obtain the kingdom of God; and the tongue that has confessed Christ must be kept unharmed and pure together with its honour. For he who speaks peaceable, good, and just things according to the precept of Christ confesses Christ daily. We had renounced the world when we were baptized; but now truly we renounce the world, when, tempted and proved by God, leaving all that is ours, we have followed the Lord and stand and live in his faith and fear.

Let us strengthen ourselves by mutual exhortations and advance more and more in the Lord, so that when, in his mercy, he makes the peace he promises to make, we may return to the church new and almost changed, and our brothers or the heathen may receive us corrected in all things and reformed for the better; and those who formerly admired the glory in our courage may now admire the discipline in our conduct. I wish you, dearest brother, good health always.

Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons, his brothers, greeting. I had indeed wished, dearest brothers, to greet our whole clergy by my letter whole and unharmed. But since the hostile storm which has laid low our people for the greatest part has added to our sorrows this further heap, that it has touched even a part of the clergy with its destruction, we pray the Lord that you, whom we know to stand in faith and courage, we may greet safe also in future through the divine mercy. And although reasons pressed me to hasten and come to you myself, first from my desire and longing for you, which is the highest thing in my prayers, and then so that we might together deal with the matters that the common interest demands concerning the governing of the church, and, having examined them with the counsel of many, refine them: yet it seemed better still to keep to my hiding place and quiet for the present, out of regard for other interests which concern the peace and safety of all of us. An account of these will be given to you by our dearest brother Tertullus, who, besides the rest of the care which he devotes earnestly to divine works, was also the author of this advice: that I should be cautious and moderate, and not rashly expose myself to public view, and especially in that place where I had been so often demanded and sought.

Relying therefore on your love and devotion, which I know well enough, I both exhort and charge you by this letter that you, whose presence there is least exposed to ill will and not so dangerous, discharge my office in carrying out what the religious administration requires. Meanwhile let care of the poor be kept as far as possible and in whatever way possible, provided they have stood with unshaken faith and have not left the flock of Christ, so that funds may be supplied to them through your diligence to bear their want, lest what the storm did not do to the faithful, necessity do to those in need. Let more attentive care be given also to the glorious confessors. And although I know that very many of them have been taken in by the prayers and love of the brothers, yet if there are any who lack clothing or funds, as I wrote to you before, when they were still held in prison, let whatever is necessary be supplied to them; only let them know from you, and be instructed, and learn what the church's discipline requires according to the teaching of the Scriptures: that they ought to be humble and modest and quiet, so as to keep the honour of their name; that those who were glorious in voice may be glorious in conduct too; that they make themselves worthy, so that, deserving well of the Lord in all things, they may come to the heavenly crown by the completion of their praise. For more remains than seems accomplished, since it is written: “Before death praise no man”; and again: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life”; and the Lord also says: “He who endures to the end, he will be saved.” Let them imitate the Lord, who at the very time of his passion was not prouder but humbler. For then he washed the feet of his disciples, saying: “If I, your master and lord, have washed your feet, you too ought to wash the feet of others. For I have given you an example, that as I have done, you also should do to others.” Let them likewise follow the teachings of the apostle Paul, who after repeated imprisonment, after scourges, after beasts, remained gentle and humble in all things, and even after the third heaven and paradise claimed nothing insolently for himself, saying: “Nor did we eat bread from anyone for nothing, but working in labour and toil night and day, so as not to burden any of you.”

Convey each of these things, I beg you, to our brothers. And since he who humbles himself will be exalted, now is the time for them to fear the more the adversary who lies in wait, who attacks the stronger the more, and, made fiercer by the very fact that he was conquered, tries to overcome the one who overcame him. The Lord will grant that I may see them and, by wholesome exhortation, settle their minds to keep their glory. For I grieve when I hear that some run about wickedly and insolently, give their time to follies or discords, defile the members of Christ, which have already confessed Christ, by unlawful lying together, and cannot be ruled by deacons or presbyters, but act so that through the depraved and evil conduct of a few the honourable glory of many good confessors is stained; they ought to fear that, condemned by the testimony and judgement of these, they may be deprived of their fellowship. For he, in the end, is the illustrious and true confessor of whom the church is not afterwards ashamed but glories.

As for what our fellow presbyters Donatus, Fortunatus, Novatus, and Gordius wrote to me, I could write back nothing alone, since from the beginning of my episcopate I resolved to do nothing by my own private opinion without your counsel and without the consent of the people. But when by the grace of God I come to you, then we shall deal in common, as mutual honour requires, with the things that have either been done or are to be done. I wish you, dearest and most longed-for brothers, good health always, and that you remember me. Greet warmly from me the brotherhood, whatever of it is with you, and remind them to remember us. Farewell.

Cyprian to the martyrs and confessors, his dearest brothers, greeting. The responsibility of our position and the fear of God compel me, bravest and most blessed martyrs, to admonish you by our letter that the same people by whom the faith of the Lord is kept so devoutly and bravely should also keep the law and discipline of the Lord. For while all the soldiers of Christ ought to guard the precepts of their commander, then it is more fitting that you obey his precepts all the more, since you have been made an example to the rest both of courage and of the fear of God. I had indeed believed that the presbyters and deacons who are present there were admonishing you and instructing you most fully concerning the law of the gospel, as was always done in the past under our predecessors, so that the deacons, going to and from the prison, guided the desires of the martyrs by their counsels and by the precepts of the Scriptures. But now, with the greatest grief of heart, I learn that not only are the divine precepts not being suggested to you there, but that they are rather being obstructed, so that what is done by you yourselves, both cautiously toward God and honourably toward the priest of God, is being undone by certain presbyters. Thinking neither of the fear of God nor of the bishop's honour, although you sent me a letter asking that your desires be examined and that peace be given to certain of the lapsed when, the persecution ended, we should begin to meet together with the clergy and be gathered again, these presbyters there, against the law of the gospel, and against your honourable petition too, before penance has been done, before confession of a most grave and extreme sin has been made, before hands have been laid on them in penance by the bishop and clergy, dare to offer for them and to profane the holy body of the Lord, although it is written: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.”

And to the lapsed indeed pardon can be granted in this: who that is dead would not hurry to be made alive? Who would not hasten to come to his salvation? But it belongs to those set over the church to keep the precept and to instruct those who are either hurrying or ignorant, lest those who ought to be shepherds of the sheep become butchers. For to grant things that turn to destruction is to deceive; the fallen man is not raised up in this way, but, by offending God, is driven the more to ruin. So let them learn even from you what they ought to have taught. Let them reserve your petitions and desires for the bishop, and wait for a ripe and peaceful time to give peace at your request. It must come first that the mother receive peace from the Lord, and then, according to your desires, the peace of the children be dealt with.

And since I hear, bravest and dearest brothers, that you are pressed by the shamelessness of some and that your modesty suffers violence, I beg you with what prayers I can, that, mindful of the gospel and considering what and of what kind were the things your predecessors the martyrs granted in the past, how careful they were in all things, you too weigh the desires of those who petition you carefully and cautiously; that, as friends of the Lord, who will afterwards judge with him, you examine the conduct and works and merits of each, and consider also the kinds and qualities of their sins, lest, if anything should be promised by you or done by us hastily and unworthily, our church should begin to blush even before the heathen themselves. For we are visited and chastened often, and admonished that the Lord's commands should remain uncorrupted and inviolate. And I know that there too among you the divine censure does not cease to instruct very many of you in the church's discipline. All this can be done if you moderate what is asked of you with devout consideration, understanding and restraining those who, showing partiality, either curry favour with your benefits or hunt for the markets of an unlawful trade.

About this I have also written a letter both to the clergy and to the people, both of which I have ordered to be read to you. But you ought also to bring to your diligence and correct this: that you designate by name those to whom you desire peace to be given. For I hear that for some people certificates are being made out in such a way that it is said, “Let so-and-so be in communion with his household,” which was never at all done by the martyrs, so that a vague and blind petition may afterwards heap ill will upon us. For it extends widely when it is said, “so-and-so with his household”: twenty or thirty or more can be presented to us who claim to be relatives, in-laws, freedmen, and members of the household of the one who received the certificate. And therefore I ask that those whom you yourselves see, whom you know, whose penance you see to be close to satisfaction, you designate by name in the certificate, and so send us letters in keeping with faith and discipline. I wish you, bravest and most beloved brothers, good health in the Lord always, and that you remember us. Farewell.

Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons, his brothers, greeting. For a long time I have held my patience, dearest brothers, as though our modest silence might serve the cause of quiet. But since the immoderate and headlong presumption of certain men is trying by its rashness to disturb the honour of the martyrs, the modesty of the confessors, and the tranquillity of the whole people, I must not keep silent any longer, lest too much silence lead to danger for the people and for us alike. For what danger ought we not to fear from offending the Lord, when some of the presbyters, mindful neither of the gospel nor of their own position, and thinking neither of the Lord's future judgement nor of the bishop now set over them, claim everything for themselves, with insult and contempt for the one set over them, a thing never done at all under our predecessors?

And would that they claimed everything for themselves without laying low the salvation of our brothers! I could overlook and bear the insults to our episcopate, as I have always overlooked and borne them. But this is no time for overlooking, when our brotherhood is being deceived by some of you, who, while they wish to win applause without any principle of restoring salvation, rather harm the lapsed. For that the sin which the persecution compelled them to commit is the greatest, even those who committed it know, since our Lord and Judge has said: “Whoever confesses me before men, I too will confess him before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me, I too will deny him”; and again he said: “All sins and blasphemies will be forgiven the sons of men; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”; and likewise the blessed apostle said: “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot share in the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” He who withholds these things from our brothers deceives the wretched, so that those who could, by doing true penance, make satisfaction by their prayers and works to God, as to a Father and merciful, are led astray, so that they perish the more, and those who could raise themselves fall further. For while in lesser sins sinners do penance for a just time, and come to confession according to the order of discipline, and receive the right of communion through the laying on of hands of the bishop and clergy, now, at an unripe time, while persecution still continues, before the peace of the church itself has been restored, they are admitted to communion, and offering is made in their name, and, before penance is done, before confession is made, before hands are laid on them by the bishop and clergy, the Eucharist is given to them, although it is written: “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.”

But now those are not guilty who have kept the law of Scripture less well; those will be guilty who preside and do not suggest these things to the brothers, so that, instructed by their leaders, they may do all things with the fear of God and with the observance given and prescribed by him. Further, they expose the blessed martyrs to ill will, and set the glorious servants of God at odds with the priest of God. For whereas the martyrs, mindful of our position, sent me a letter and asked that their desires be examined and peace be given at the time when our mother herself has first received peace from the Lord's mercy and the divine protection has brought us back to his church, these men, setting aside the honour which the blessed martyrs with the confessors keep for us, despising the Lord's law and the observance which the same martyrs and confessors command to be kept, before the fear of persecution is quenched, before our return, almost before the very departure of the martyrs, hold communion with the lapsed, offer, and give them the Eucharist; when, even if the martyrs, in the heat of glory, considering Scripture less closely, desired anything more against the Lord's law, they ought to have been admonished by the presbyters and deacons suggesting better, as was always done in the past.

And so the divine censure does not cease to chasten us, by night or by day. Besides visions by night, by day also the innocent age of boys among us is filled with the Holy Spirit, and in ecstasy sees with the eyes, and hears and speaks, those things by which the Lord deigns to warn and instruct us. And you will hear everything when the Lord, who ordered me to withdraw, brings me back to you. Meanwhile let certain rash, heedless, and swollen men among you, who do not regard man, at least fear God, knowing that if they persist further in the same things, I will use that admonition which the Lord bids me use, so that meanwhile they are forbidden to offer, and will have to plead their case before us and before the confessors themselves and before the whole people, when, with the Lord's permission, we begin to be gathered again into the bosom of mother church. About this I have written a letter to the martyrs and confessors and to the people, both of which I have ordered to be read to you. I wish you, dearest and most longed-for brothers, good health in the Lord always, and that you remember us. Farewell.

Cyprian to the brothers among the people, greeting. That you groan and grieve over the falls of our brothers I know from myself, dearest brothers, since I too groan and grieve with you for each one, and suffer and feel what the blessed apostle says: “Who is weak,” he says, “and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?” And again he put it in his letter, saying: “If one member suffers, the other members suffer with it; and if one member rejoices, the other members rejoice with it.” I suffer with, I grieve with our brothers, who, having lapsed and been laid low by the assault of persecution, dragging part of our own heart with them, have inflicted on us equal pain with their wounds; to these the divine mercy is able to give healing. Yet I do not think we should hurry, or do anything incautiously and hastily, lest while peace is rashly usurped, the displeasure of divine indignation be more gravely provoked. The blessed martyrs have written to us about certain people, asking that their desires be examined. When peace has first been given to us all by the Lord and we begin to return to the church, each case will be examined in your presence and with your judgement.

I hear, however, that some of the presbyters, neither mindful of the gospel nor considering what the martyrs have written to us nor reserving to the bishop the honour of his priesthood and chair, have already begun to hold communion with the lapsed, to offer for them, and to give them the Eucharist, whereas one ought to come to these things in due order. For while in lesser sins, which are not committed against God, penance is done for a just time, and confession is made after the life of the penitent has been examined, and no one can come to communion unless hands have first been laid on him by the bishop and clergy, how much more in these most grave and extreme sins ought everything to be observed cautiously and with moderation according to the Lord's discipline! This indeed our presbyters and deacons ought to have urged, so as to cherish the sheep entrusted to them and instruct them by the divine teaching in the way of seeking salvation by prayer. I know both the quietness and the fear of our people: they would be watchful in making satisfaction to God and in prayer, had not certain of the presbyters deceived them to win their favour.

Do you, then, each of you, guide them, and by your counsel and moderation calm the minds of the lapsed according to the divine precepts. Let no one pluck bitter fruit at an unseasonable time. Let no one commit his ship, shaken and holed by the waves, to the deep again before he has carefully repaired it. Let no one hurry to take and put on a torn tunic unless he has seen it mended by a skilled craftsman and received it back cleaned by the fuller. Let them hear our counsel patiently, I beg, and await our return, so that when by God's mercy we have come to you, with many fellow bishops called together, we may examine the letters and desires of the blessed martyrs according to the Lord's discipline, in the presence of the confessors and with your opinion too. About this I have written a letter both to the clergy and to the martyrs and confessors, both of which I have ordered to be read to you. I wish you, dearest and most longed-for brothers, good health in the Lord always, and that you remember us. Farewell.

Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons, his brothers, greeting. I am surprised, dearest brothers, that you have written nothing back to my many letters which I have frequently sent you, since the interest or need of our brotherhood is surely best governed if, informed by you, we can refine our plan for what is to be done. But since I see that there is not yet an opportunity of coming to you, and that summer has already begun, a season that is beset with continual and serious illnesses, I think we must meet the needs of our brothers: those who have received certificates from the martyrs and can be helped by their privilege before God, if they are overtaken by any misfortune and danger of illness, may, without waiting for our presence, make confession of their sin before any presbyter who is present, or, if no presbyter can be found and death begins to press, before a deacon too, so that, hands having been laid on them for penance, they may go to the Lord with the peace which the martyrs, in their letters to us, desired to be given them.

The rest of the people too who have lapsed, cherish by your presence, and revive by your comfort, so that they do not fail from faith and from the Lord's mercy. For those who persevere, gentle and humble and truly doing penance, in good works will not be abandoned by the Lord's help and aid, so as not to be provided for by the divine remedy as well. To catechumens too, if any are overtaken by danger and placed at the point of death, let your watchfulness not be lacking; let the Lord's mercy not be denied to those who implore the divine grace. I wish you, dearest brothers, good health always, and that you remember us. Greet the whole brotherhood in my name and remind them to remember us. Farewell.

Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons, his brothers, greeting. I have read your letter, dearest brothers, in which you wrote that your wholesome counsel is not lacking to our brothers, so that, laying aside rash haste, they may offer God a devout patience, so that when by his mercy we come together, we may deal with every kind of case according to church discipline, especially since it is written: “Remember from where you have fallen, and repent.” He does penance who, mindful of the divine precept, gentle and patient and obedient to the priests of God, earns the Lord's favour by his obedience and just works.

Since, however, you have indicated that some are immoderate and are pressing hastily to receive communion, and you wished a rule to be given you by me on this matter, I believe I wrote fully enough on this in my last letter to you: that those who have received a certificate from the martyrs and can be helped by their aid before the Lord in their sins, if they begin to be oppressed by some illness and danger, should, confession having been made and hands laid on them by you for penance, be sent on to the Lord with the peace promised them by the martyrs. But the others, who, without having received any certificate from the martyrs, are stirring up ill will, since this is the case not of a few, nor of one church or one province, but of the whole world, let them wait first for the public peace of the church itself, through the Lord's protection. For this befits the modesty and the discipline and the very life of all of us: that the leaders, meeting with the clergy, and in the presence also of the people who have stood firm, to whom honour must also be paid for their faith and fear, may arrange everything with the devout care of common counsel. Besides, how irreligious it is, and ruinous even to those who are in haste, that while the confessors, made exiles, driven from their homeland, and stripped of all their goods, have not yet returned to the church, some of the lapsed hurry to get ahead of the confessors themselves and enter the church first! If they are in too great a hurry, they have in their own power what they ask, and the times themselves grant them more than they ask. The battle is still being waged, and the contest is celebrated daily. If they truly and firmly repent of what they have done, and the warmth of faith prevails, he who cannot be put off can be crowned. I wish you, dearest brothers, good health always, and that you remember us. Greet the whole brotherhood in my name and remind them to be mindful of us. Farewell.