Three Letters to Sympronianus

Contents

Reading pages: 1.0–3.0 · 3.1–3.14 · 3.15–3.27

1. 1.0The heading and greeting of Pacian's first letter to Sympronian.
2. 1.1Pacian complains that Sympronian has not said what he holds, lists the many heresies, and notes that Sympronian sides with those who reject penance.
3. 1.2Pacian lists the authorities of the Montanists, asks Sympronian to state his position plainly, and says no one can be persuaded against his will.
4. 1.3Pacian argues that the name Catholic was needed to distinguish the one church from the heresies and is sanctioned by Cyprian and the bishops of the whole world.
5. 1.4Pacian explains that Christian is his name and Catholic his surname, and interprets Catholic as “one everywhere” or “obedience in all things.”
6. 1.5Pacian argues from the prophets, the Psalms, David, Nebuchadnezzar, the parables, the letters to the seven churches, and Paul that God offers penance to the baptized who sin.
7. 1.6Pacian argues that the power to bind and loose given to the apostles has passed to the bishops along with baptism and chrism.
8. 1.7Pacian defends the bishop’s authority to forgive as derived from the apostles and says the pardon of penance is granted only after long and careful testing.
9. 2.0The heading and greeting of Pacian's second letter to Sympronian.
10. 2.1Pacian promises to answer Sympronian without malice, though he finds his questions crafty, and first comments on his covering letter.
11. 2.2Pacian denies that his first letter was bitter and restates his account of the name Catholic, which Sympronian himself accepts.
12. 2.3Pacian rejects Sympronian’s insulting names for Cyprian’s people and presses him to admit that his sect is called Novatian.
13. 2.4Pacian defends his use of a line of Virgil by Paul’s quotations of pagan poets and mocks Sympronian’s appeal to the Muses.
14. 2.5Pacian answers the charge that Catholics brought imperial persecution on the Novatians: Christian rulers acted on their own, as rulers in Scripture defended the righteous.
15. 2.6Pacian answers Sympronian’s preference for winning over pleasing with Paul’s rejection of contentiousness.
16. 2.7Pacian denies that Novatian was a martyr, recounts his schism against Cornelius from Cyprian’s letters, and argues that suffering outside the church’s peace is no martyrdom.
17. 2.8Pacian warns Sympronian against Novatian’s pride, contrasting it with the intercession of Moses and Paul for sinners, and announces his treatise on penance.
18. 3.0The heading and greeting of Pacian's third letter, his answer to the Novatian treatise.
19. 3.1Pacian sums up the Novatian treatise (no repentance after baptism; the church cannot forgive mortal sin) and asks by what authority Novatian, so late, could teach a new gospel.
20. 3.2Pacian accepts the Novatians’ definition of the church and adds the Scriptural images of the church that fit the Catholic view.
21. 3.3Pacian argues that the Novatians, separated from the church, have neither its baptism nor its Spirit, and that receiving the lapsed did not make the whole church apostate, since each dies for his own sin.
22. 3.4Pacian interprets the images of the church as body, temple, virgin, and spotless bride to show that heretics, not repentant sinners, are the church’s spot and wrinkle.
23. 3.5Pacian shows from Cyprian’s letter to Antonianus that Novatian himself, before the schism, wrote the Roman letter allowing peace to dying lapsed Christians.
24. 3.6Pacian tells how Novatus, fleeing trial at Carthage, urged the disappointed Novatian at Rome to set himself up as a rival bishop to Cornelius.
25. 3.7Pacian answers that bishops who discipline penitents do not acknowledge deniers but correct them, and that it is God, through them, who forgives.
26. 3.8Pacian distinguishes baptism, a free gift, from penance, a labour of the few who fall, and argues that Scripture calls the baptized to repentance.
27. 3.9Pacian answers that offering penance does not encourage sin, since penance is hard, and that Christ who died for sinners remains their advocate after baptism.
28. 3.10Pacian cites Peter’s repentance after his denial and Thomas’s confession after his doubt as examples of believers restored by repentance.
29. 3.11Pacian refutes the Novatian claim that the power to bind and loose applied only to catechumens, appealing to Matt 16 and 18.
30. 3.12Pacian distinguishes private forgiveness of a brother from the church’s power to loose any sin, arguing from Matt 18.
31. 3.13Pacian argues that the parables of the lost sheep, coin, and son, though first spoken to tax collectors and sinners, apply to the whole church as their figure.
32. 3.14Pacian applies the figures of the parables to the church: the lost sheep, coin, and son stand for the sinner who repents.
33. 3.15Pacian answers that mourning for sin is not limited to martyrs and that the unforgivable sin is ascribing the Spirit’s works to the devil, so every other sin may be forgiven the penitent.
34. 3.16Pacian answers the texts on the barren branch, Eli’s saying, and the “sin unto death” by arguing that they concern unrepented sins, and that God changes his sentence for those who repent.
35. 3.17Pacian argues that the commands to cut off the offending hand and to remove the evil person concern those who persist in sin and lead others astray, not penitents.
36. 3.18Pacian argues that Paul’s handing over of the incestuous man to Satan was for his amendment, excluded only him, and was followed by his forgiveness in 2 Corinthians.
37. 3.19Pacian turns the Novatian charges of laxity back on them, pointing to the disreputable men they received, and reads “lay hands hastily on no one” as allowing reconciliation after penance.
38. 3.20Pacian answers the example of Achar by asking whether the Novatians would revive the whole Mosaic penal law, and cites Christ’s mercy to sinners and Paul’s teaching on bearing one another’s burdens.
39. 3.21Pacian mocks the Novatians’ claim to sinlessness, describes the church as a gentle dove and a mixed ark, and applies Paul’s words about Jannes and Mambres to them.
40. 3.22Pacian calls the heretical congregation the adulterous woman and shows that Cyprian’s On the Lapsed, cited by Sympronian, concerns those who refuse to repent.
41. 3.23Pacian answers that Moses did obtain mercy for Israel after the golden calf, since God relented at his prayer, though the people had not yet repented.
42. 3.24Pacian argues that the saints’ intercession fails only for the unrepentant, cites Noah, Job, Daniel, Lot, and Paul, and appeals to Cyprian and to Tertullian’s catholic writing on repentance.
43. 3.25Pacian develops the images of the queen’s many-coloured robe and the fruitful vine to describe the church’s diversity, and contrasts its multitude with the few Novatians.
44. 3.26Pacian argues that the Catholic church, not the Novatians, has kept to the apostolic foundation, and that the great house of God keeps humble vessels as Christ keeps sinners.
45. 3.27Pacian closes by urging Sympronian to join the worldwide Catholic church, citing Scripture on the multitude of God’s people, and promises a further letter.