On the Unity of the Catholic Church 11

Latin text · CSEL 3.1:219–220

Contra eiusmodi clamat Dominus, ab his refrenat et reuocat errantem plebem suam dicens: nolite audire sermones pseudoprophetarum, quoniam uisiones cordis eorum frustrantur eos. locuntur sed non ab ore Domini. dicunt eis qui abiciunt uerbum Dei: pax erit uobis et omnibus ambulantibus in uoluntatibus suis, omnis qui ambulat errore cordis sui non uenient super te mala. non locutus sum ad eos, et ipsi prophetauerunt. si stetissent in substantia mea et audissent uerba mea et si docuissent populum meum, conuertissem eos a malis cogitationibus eorum. hos eosdem denuo Dominus designat et denotat dicens: me dereliquerunt fontem aquae uitae et effoderunt sibi lacus detritos qui non possunt aquam portare. quando aliud baptisma praeter unum esse non possit, baptizare se opinantur: uitae fonte deserto uitalis et salutaris aquae gratiam pollicentur. non abluuntur illic homines sed potius sordidantur, nec purgantur delicta sed immo cumulantur. non Deo natiuitas illa sed diabolo filios generat. per mendacium nati ueritatis promissa non capiunt: de perfidia procreati fidei gratiam perdunt. ad pacis praemium uenire non possunt qui pacem Domini discordiae furore ruperunt.

English · Claude translation

Against such the Lord cries out; from them he restrains and calls back his erring people, saying: "Do not listen to the words of the false prophets, for the visions of their heart deceive them. They speak, but not from the mouth of the Lord. They say to those who cast away the word of God: 'Peace shall be yours and all who walk in their own wills'; to everyone who walks in the error of his heart: 'No evils shall come upon you.' I did not speak to them, and they prophesied. If they had stood in my substance and heard my words and taught my people, I would have turned them from their evil thoughts." The Lord again designates and marks these same people, saying: "They have forsaken me, the fountain of the water of life, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns, which cannot hold water." Although there can be no other baptism besides the one, they think that they baptize; having forsaken the fountain of life, they promise the grace of living and saving water. Men are not washed there but rather defiled, nor are sins purged but rather heaped up. That birth begets sons not for God but for the devil. Born through a lie, they do not receive the promises of truth; begotten of faithlessness, they lose the grace of faith. Those cannot come to the reward of peace who have broken the Lord's peace by the fury of discord.

About this passage

Source

CSEL 3.1:219–220 · Wilhelm von Hartel, ed., S. Thasci Caecili Cypriani Opera omnia, Pars 1, CSEL 3.1 (Vienna: Gerold, 1868), 209–233 · Latin text: W. von Hartel (CSEL 3.1, 1868), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in CSEL 3.1. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Latin text of CSEL 3.1; made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 (1886) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Scripture

Jer 23:16–17 · quotation, high confidence
Jer 23:21–22 · quotation, high confidence
Jer 2:13 · quotation, high confidence
Eph 4:5 · allusion, medium confidence

Topics

Heresy, Baptism

Notes

Translation notes

The quotations are Jer 23:16–17, 21–22 and Jer 2:13; "one baptism" is Eph 4:5. Cyprian held that baptism given outside the church is invalid.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR: "n" for "u".): andissent → audissent.

Cite this passage

Cyprian, Unit. eccl. 11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-unitate/11/).

Plain text

Cyprian, Unit. eccl. 11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-unitate/11/).