Letters 59.18–62.4

Or must the dignity of the catholic church, dearest brother, and the faithful and uncorrupted majesty of the people placed within it, and priestly authority and power too, be laid aside for this: that those placed outside the church should say that they wish to judge the head of the church, the wounded judge the sound, the injured the whole, the lapsed the one who stands, the guilty the judge, the sacrilegious the priest? What remains but that the church should yield to the Capitol, and, the priests withdrawing and removing the Lord's altar, images and idols with their altars should pass into the sacred and venerable assembly of our clergy, and fuller and richer material be supplied to Novatian for declaiming against us and reproaching us, if those who sacrificed and publicly denied Christ should begin not only to be entreated and admitted without doing penance, but, further still, to domineer 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 God's priests. For not even Antichrist, when he begins to come, will enter the church because he threatens, nor is it yielded to his arms and violence because he declares he will destroy those who resist. The heretics arm us when they think we are frightened by their threatening; they do not cast us down on our faces, but rather raise and fire us up, while they make peace itself worse than persecution for the brothers. We do indeed pray that they may not fulfill in crime what they speak in fury, that those who sin in faithless and cruel words may not offend in deeds too. We pray and entreat God, whom they do not cease to provoke and exasperate, that their hearts may soften, that, laying aside their fury, their minds may return to soundness, that breasts covered with the darkness of sins may recognize the light of penance, and that they may rather ask that the prayers and supplications of the bishop be poured out for them than themselves pour out the blood of the priest. But if they remain in their fury and cruelly persevere in these plots and parricidal threats of theirs, no priest of God is so weak, so fallen and cast down, so feeble with the infirmity of human mediocrity, that he is not raised up by God against the enemies and assailants of God, and that his lowliness and weakness are not quickened by the vigor and strength of the protecting Lord. It makes no difference to us by whom or when we perish, since we shall receive from the Lord the reward of death and blood. Theirs is a condition to be wept and lamented, whom the devil so blinds that, not thinking of the eternal punishments of Gehenna, they try to imitate the coming of Antichrist, already drawing near.

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

For the rest, let our dearest brothers firmly turn aside from and avoid the words and conversations of those whose speech creeps like a cancer, as the apostle says: “Evil conversations corrupt good dispositions.” And again: “Avoid a heretical man after one reproof, knowing that such a one is perverse and sins and is condemned by himself.” And the Holy Spirit speaks through Solomon: “The perverse man,” he says, “carries destruction in his mouth and hides fire in his lips.” Likewise he warns again, saying: “Hedge your ears with thorns, and do not hear a wicked tongue.” And again: “The wicked man listens to the tongue of the unjust, but the righteous does not attend to lying lips.” Although I know that our brotherhood there, fortified by your foresight and also cautious enough by its own vigilance, cannot be caught or deceived by the poisons of heretics, and that divine teachings and precepts prevail with them as much as they have fear of God, yet either our anxiety or our love has persuaded us, out of abundance, to write this to you, so that no dealings may be joined with such men, no feasts or conversations mingled with the wicked, and that we may be as separated from them as they are fugitives from the church; for it is written: “But if he despises the church, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector.” And the blessed apostle does not only advise but commands that such men be shunned: “We command you,” he says, “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to withdraw from all brothers who walk 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 Christ's adversary, who is an enemy of his unity and peace, cannot cleave to us. If they come with prayers and satisfactions, let them be heard; if they heap curses and threats, let them be rejected. I wish you, dearest brother, good health always.

Cyprian to his brother Cornelius, greeting. We have learned, dearest brother, the glorious testimonies of your faith and courage, and have received the honor of your confession with such exultation that we count ourselves also sharers and partners in your merits and praises. For since we have one church, a mind joined together, and an undivided concord, what priest does not rejoice in the praises of his fellow priest as in his own, or what brotherhood is not glad everywhere in the joy of its brothers? It cannot be adequately expressed how great was the exultation here and how great the joy when we learned of your prosperous and brave deeds: that you stood out there as the leader of confession for the brothers, and that the leader's confession was increased by the brothers' agreement, so that, while you go before to glory, you have made many companions of glory and persuaded the people to become confessors, being ready to confess first on behalf of all; so that we do not find what we ought to praise first in you, your ready and steadfast faith or the inseparable love of the brothers. There the courage of the bishop going before has been publicly proved; the union of the brotherhood following has been shown. While among you there is one mind and one voice, the whole Roman church has confessed.

The faith which the blessed apostle proclaimed of you has shone out, dearest brother. Even then he foresaw in the Spirit this praise of courage and firmness of strength, and, bearing witness to your merits by proclaiming the future, while he praised the parents he was challenging the children. Being thus of one mind and brave, you have given great examples of unanimity and bravery to the other brothers too. You have taught grandly to fear God, to cling firmly to Christ, for the people to be joined to the priests in danger, for brothers not to be separated from brothers in persecution; that concord united together cannot be conquered at all; that whatever is asked by all together, the God of peace grants to the peaceable. The adversary had leapt out to throw the camp of Christ into confusion with violent terror. But with the same onset with which he came he was driven back, and as much fear and terror as he brought, so much fortitude and strength he found. He had believed that he could again trip up the servants of God and shake them in his usual way, as if they were raw recruits, less prepared and less wary. Attacking one first, like a wolf he had tried to set the sheep apart from the flock, like a hawk to separate the dove from the flying band; for he who has not strength enough against all seeks to take advantage of the solitude of individuals. But beaten back by the faith and vigor alike of an army united, he understood that the soldiers of Christ are now watchful and sober and stand armed for battle; that they cannot be conquered, that they can die, and that by this very fact they are unconquered, because they do not fear to die; and that they do not fight back against their assailants, since it is not lawful for the innocent to kill even the guilty, but readily hand over both their lives and their blood, so that, while so much malice and cruelty rages in the world, they may withdraw the more quickly from the malicious and cruel. What a glorious spectacle that was under the eyes of God, what joy for his church in the sight of Christ, that not single soldiers but the whole camp together went out to the battle which the enemy had tried to bring on! For it is clear that all would have come if they could have heard, since whoever heard ran up in haste and came. How many of the lapsed were restored there by a glorious confession! They stood brave, and were made braver for the battle by the very grief of their penance, so that it appears that lately they had been taken by surprise and had trembled in fear of a new and unaccustomed thing, but that afterward true faith returned to them and their strength, gathered from the fear of God, was firmly and steadily strengthened for all endurance, and that they now stand not for pardon of their crime but for the crown of suffering.

What does Novatian say to this, dearest brother? Does he now lay aside his error? Or rather, as is the way of madmen, has he been driven to greater fury by our very blessings and successes, and, the more the glory of love and faith grows here, does the insanity of dissension and jealousy break out afresh there? Does the wretch not heal his own wound, but wound himself and his followers still more grievously, raging with his tongue to the ruin of the brothers and hurling the darts of poisoned eloquence, harsh with the perversity of worldly philosophy rather than peaceable with the gentleness of the Lord's wisdom: deserter of the church, enemy of mercy, slayer of penance, teacher of pride, corrupter of truth, destroyer of love? Does he now recognize who is the priest of God, which 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 long to overthrow those whom he has already made his own. The foe and enemy of the church despises and passes by, as captives and conquered, those whom he has estranged from the church and led outside; he goes on to harass those in whom he sees Christ dwelling.

And yet, even if any of such men has been arrested, there is no reason for him to flatter himself as if in the confession of the Name, since it is clear that, if such men are killed outside the church, it is not the crown of faith but rather the punishment of faithlessness, and that those will not dwell in the house of God among those of one mind whom we see to have withdrawn from the peaceful and divine house in the fury of discord.

We earnestly exhort you, as much as we can, dearest brother, by the mutual love in which we cleave to one another, that, since we are instructed by the providence of the Lord who warns us and admonished by the wholesome counsels of divine mercy that the day of our contest and struggle is now drawing near, we should not cease, with all the people, to persist in fasts, vigils, and prayers. Let us devote ourselves to continual groanings and frequent supplications. For these are our heavenly arms, which make us stand and persevere bravely; these are the spiritual defenses and divine weapons that protect. Let us be mindful of one another, harmonious and of one mind; let us always pray for one another on both sides; let us relieve afflictions and distresses by mutual love; and if one of us goes from here first by the swiftness of divine favor, let our love continue before the Lord, and let our prayer for our brothers and sisters not cease before the mercy of the Father. I wish you, dearest brother, good health always.

Cyprian with his colleagues to his brother Lucius, greeting. Only lately, dearest brother, we congratulated you, when divine favor, with a double honor, appointed you both confessor and priest in the administration of his church. But now too we congratulate you no less, and your companions and the whole brotherhood, because the kind and bountiful protection of the Lord has brought you back again to your own people with the same glory and praise, so that the shepherd has been restored to feed the flock, the helmsman to steer the ship, the ruler to govern the people; and it appears that your banishment was so arranged by God, not that the bishop, banished and driven out, should be lacking to the church, but that he should return to the church greater.

For the dignity of martyrdom was not less in the three youths because, death being cheated, they came out of the furnace of fire unharmed; nor did Daniel prove unfinished in his praises because, having been thrown to the lions as prey, he lived, protected by the Lord, for glory. In the confessors of Christ, martyrdoms deferred do not lessen the merit of the confessors but show the mighty works of divine protection. We see enacted in you what the brave and illustrious youths proclaimed before the king: that they were ready to burn in the flames rather than serve his gods or worship the image he had made, but that the God whom they worshiped, and whom we also worship, was able to take them out of the furnace of fire and deliver them from the king's hands and from present punishments. This we find now done in the faith of your confession and in the Lord's protection over you: that, although you were ready and prepared to undergo every punishment, the Lord nevertheless withdrew you from punishment and kept you for the church. In your return the dignity of his confession has not been cut short in the bishop, but rather priestly authority has grown, so that a bishop stands at God's altar who exhorts the people to take up the arms of confession and to undergo martyrdom not by words but by deeds, and, with Antichrist at hand, prepares soldiers for battle not only by the incitement of speech and voice but by the example of faith and courage.

We understand, dearest brother, and perceive with the whole light of our heart the saving and holy counsels of the divine majesty: why the sudden persecution recently broke out there, why the secular power suddenly burst forth against the church of Christ and against Bishop Cornelius, the blessed martyr, and against all of you: it was so that, to confound and beat back the heretics, the Lord 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 honor, who was the united and true people of Christ, bound together by the love of the Lord's flock; who were those whom the enemy would harass, and who, on the other hand, those whom the devil would spare as his own. For the adversary of Christ persecutes and attacks only the camp and soldiers of Christ. The heretics, once laid low and made his own, he despises and passes by. He seeks to throw down those whom he sees standing.

And would that the opportunity were now given us, dearest brother, who love you with mutual love, to be present there at your return, so that we too, being present, might with the others gather the most joyful fruit of your coming. What exultation of all the brothers there, what running together and embracing of each one meeting you! Hardly can the kisses of those clinging to you be satisfied; hardly can the very faces and eyes of the people be sated with seeing, from the joy of your coming. There the brotherhood began to know what and how great will be the joy that will follow when Christ comes; since his coming has drawn near quickly, a kind of image of it has already gone before in you, so that, as John his forerunner and herald came and preached that Christ had come, so now, as a bishop, confessor of the Lord and priest, returns, it may appear that the Lord too is now returning. In our stead, dearest brother, I and my colleagues and the whole brotherhood send you this letter, and, making present our joy to ourselves by letter, we show the faithful service of love; here too in our sacrifices and prayers we do not cease to give thanks to God the Father and to Christ his Son our Lord, and to pray and ask alike that he who is perfect and makes perfect may keep and perfect in you the glorious crown of your confession; who perhaps also called you back for this purpose, that the glory might not be hidden, if the martyrdoms that complete your confession were accomplished abroad. For the victim that offers the brotherhood an example of courage and faith ought to be sacrificed in the presence of the brothers. We wish you, dearest brother, good health always.

Cyprian to Januarius, Maximus, Proculus, Victor, Modianus, Nemesianus, Nampulus, and Honoratus, his brothers, greeting. With the deepest groaning of our spirit, and not without tears, we have read your letter, dearest brothers, which in the care of your love you wrote to us about the captivity of our brothers and sisters. For who would not grieve at such misfortunes, or who would not count 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: “Who is weak,” he says, “and I am not weak?” Therefore now the captivity of our brothers must be counted as our captivity, and the grief of those in danger reckoned as our grief, since there is, of course, one body of our union, and not only love but religion ought to urge and strengthen us to redeem the members who are our brothers.

For since the apostle Paul says again: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”, even if love had driven us less to bring help to the brothers, yet we should have considered in this case that it is temples of God that have been captured, and that we ought not, by long delay and neglected grief, to allow the temples of God to be captive for long, but to labor with what strength we can and act quickly, so that we may win the favor of Christ our judge and our Lord God by our services. For since the apostle Paul says, “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” in our captive brothers Christ must be seen and redeemed from the danger of captivity, who redeemed us from the danger of death; so that he who took us out of the jaws of the devil, he himself who remains and dwells in us, may now be taken out of the hands of the barbarians, and he who redeemed us by the cross and blood may be redeemed with a sum of money. He allows these things to happen meanwhile for this reason, that our faith may be tested, whether each one will do for another what he would wish done for himself if he himself were held captive among the barbarians. For who, mindful of humanity and reminded of mutual love, if he is a father, would not reckon that his own sons are there now; if he is a husband, would not think, with grief and with the love of the marriage bond alike, that his own wife is held captive there? And how great is the common sorrow and torment of all of us over the danger of the virgins who are held there, for whom not only the loss of liberty but of chastity must be mourned, and not so much the chains of the barbarians as the violations of pimps and brothels must be wept for, lest members dedicated to Christ and devoted by chaste virtue to the eternal honor of continence be defiled by the contagion of insulting lust!

Considering all these things here, according to your letter, and sorrowfully examining them, our brotherhood all readily, willingly, and generously contributed money in aid for the brothers, always inclined indeed to God's work according to the firmness of their faith, but now even more fired to saving works by the contemplation of so great a grief. For since the Lord says in his gospel, “I was sick, and you visited me,” with how much greater reward for our work will he say, “I was a captive, and you redeemed me”! And since he says again, “I was in prison, and you visited me,” how much more it is when he begins to say, “I was in the prison of captivity, and I lay shut up and bound among the barbarians, and from that prison of slavery you set me free,” when the day of judgment comes and we are to receive the reward from the Lord! Finally, we give you the greatest thanks for wishing us to be partners in your care and in so good and necessary a work, so that you offered us fruitful fields in which to cast the seeds of our hope, expecting a harvest of the most abundant fruits that come from this heavenly and saving work. We have sent one hundred thousand sesterces, which were collected here in the church over which by the Lord's indulgence we preside, by the contribution of the clergy and the people residing with us; you will dispense them there with your usual diligence.

And we wish indeed that nothing of the kind may happen hereafter, and that our brothers, protected by the Lord's majesty, may be kept unharmed from such dangers. If, however, to test the love of our mind and examine the faith of our heart, any such thing should happen, do not hesitate to report it to us by your letters, holding for certain and knowing that our church and the whole brotherhood here pray that these things may not happen again, and, if they do happen, will willingly and generously supply aid. And so that you may keep in mind in your prayers our brothers and sisters who have worked readily and willingly at this so necessary work, that they may always work, and may repay them for their good work in your sacrifices and prayers, I have added below the names of each; and I have also added the names of our colleagues and fellow priests, who, being present, themselves also contributed something according to their means in their own name and their people's; and besides our own amount I have indicated and sent their small sums too. You ought to remember all of them in your prayers and supplications, as faith and love require. We wish you, dearest brothers, good health always in the Lord, and that you remember us.