Treatises & Letters 12 part 4/21

Yet I think we must not hasten, nor must anything be done incautiously and hurriedly, lest, while peace is rashly usurped, the offense of the divine indignation be more grievously provoked. The blessed martyrs have written to us concerning certain persons, asking that their requests be examined. When, peace having first been given by the Lord to us all, we shall have begun to return to the Church, individual cases will be examined with you present and judging. Yet I hear that certain of the presbyters, mindful neither of the Gospel nor considering what the martyrs have written to us, nor reserving to the bishop the honor of his priesthood and his chair, have already begun to communicate with the lapsed and to make the offering on their behalf and to give them the Eucharist, when these things ought to be reached in due order.

For whereas in lesser offenses which are not committed against God penance is done for a fitting time, and confession is made after the life of him who does penance has been inspected, and no one can come to communion unless first hands have been laid upon him by the bishop and clergy—how much more in these gravest and most extreme offenses ought all things to be observed cautiously and with moderation according to the discipline of the Lord. This indeed our presbyters and deacons ought to have advised, that they might cherish the sheep entrusted to them and instruct them by divine teaching unto the way of imploring salvation. I know the temper of our people, both their quietness alike and their fear: they would be vigilant in making satisfaction to God and in supplication, had not certain of the presbyters, currying favor, deceived them.

Therefore do you also each one govern, and by counsel and moderation, according to the divine precepts, temper the spirits of the lapsed. Let no one in an unseasonable time pluck the bitter, unripe fruit. Let no one launch his ship, shattered and pierced by the waves, into the deep again before he has carefully repaired it. Let no one hasten to receive and put on a torn tunic, unless he has both seen it mended by a skilled craftsman and received it cleaned by the fuller.

Let them, I beg, patiently hear our counsel; let them await our return, so that when by God's mercy we shall have come to you, with our fellow-bishops convened in greater number, we may, according to the discipline of the Lord and the presence of the confessors and your judgment also, be able to examine the letters and requests of the blessed martyrs. Concerning this I have written letters both to the clergy and to the martyrs and confessors, which I have charged to be read to you, both of them. I wish you, dearest and most longed-for brethren, ever to fare well in the Lord and to remember me. Farewell. CYPRIAN TO THE PRESBYTERS AND DEACONS, HIS BRETHREN, GREETING.

I marvel, dearest brethren, that to my many letters which I have frequently sent to you, you have written back nothing, although the welfare or the necessity of our brotherhood would surely be best directed if, instructed by you, we might refine our counsel for the conduct of affairs.

Yet since I see that the opportunity of coming to you is not yet possible, and that summer has now begun—a season which assails with continual and grievous sicknesses—I think we must make provision for our brethren, so that those who have received certificates (libelli) from the martyrs and can be aided by their prerogative before God, if they are beset by some hardship and by the peril of sickness, may, without awaiting our presence, before whatever presbyter is present—or if no presbyter be found and the departure begins to press, before a deacon also—make confession of their sin, so that, hands being laid upon them unto penance, they may come to the Lord with that peace which the martyrs, by letters made to us, desired to be given.

The rest of the people also who have lapsed, cherish by your presence, and by your consolation revive them, that they may not fall away from the faith and mercy of the Lord. For neither shall those be deserted by the help and aid of the Lord who, meek and humble and truly doing penance, shall have persevered in good repute, but that for them too provision may be made by the divine remedy. To those also who give heed—if there be any forestalled by peril and set at the point of departure—let not your vigilance be lacking; to those imploring the divine grace let not the mercy of the Lord be denied. I wish us, dearest brethren, ever to fare well and to remember me. Salute the whole brotherhood in my name, and admonish them to remember me. Farewell.

CYPRIAN TO THE PRESBYTERS AND DEACONS, HIS BRETHREN, GREETING. I have read your letters, dearest brethren, in which you wrote that your wholesome counsel is not lacking to our brethren, so that, rash haste being laid aside, they may render to God a religious patience, that when we shall have come together into one through His mercy, we may be able to deliberate concerning all matters according to ecclesiastical discipline—especially since it is written: 'Remember whence thou hast fallen, and do penance.' Now he does penance who, mindful of the divine precept, meek and patient and obedient to the priests of God, earns the Lord's favor by his observances and his just works.

Yet since you have indicated that certain persons are immoderate and are urgently hastening to receive communion, and you have desired that a rule for this matter be given you by me, I believe I have written fully enough on this point in my recent letter made to you—namely, that those who have received a certificate from the martyrs and can be aided by their help before the Lord in their sins, if they begin to be pressed by some sickness and peril, having made confession and hands being laid upon them by you unto penance, may be remitted to the Lord with the peace promised them by the martyrs. But the rest, who, having received no certificate from the martyrs, stir up odium—since this cause belongs not to a few, nor to one church, nor to one province, but to the whole world—

let them first await, by the Lord's protection, the public peace of the Church herself. For this befits both modesty and discipline and the very life of us all: that the overseers, meeting together with the clergy, in the presence also of the laity who stand firm—to whom too, for their faith and fear, honor must be shown—may be able to dispose all things by the sacred bond of common counsel. For how irreligious it is, and pernicious even to those who hasten, that, whereas men made exiles and driven from their country and despoiled of all their goods have not yet returned to the Church, certain of the lapsed should forestall the confessors themselves and hasten to enter the Church before them.

For if they hasten overmuch, they have in their own power that which they ask, the very time bestowing on them more than what they ask. The battle is still being waged and the contest is daily celebrated. If they who have committed the sin truly and firmly repent, and the heat of faith prevails, he who cannot be deferred can be crowned. I wish you, dearest brethren, ever to fare well and to remember me; salute the whole brotherhood in my name and admonish them to be mindful of me. Farewell. CYPRIAN TO THE PRESBYTERS AND DEACONS ESTABLISHED AT ROME, HIS BRETHREN, GREETING.

Since I have learned, dearest brethren, that what has been and is being done here by us is being reported back to you with less candor and less fidelity, I have judged it necessary to make this letter to you, in which an account of our conduct and our discipline and our diligence may be rendered to you. For, as the Lord's commands instruct, at the very first onset of the disturbance, when the people with violent clamor repeatedly demanded me, considering not so much my own safety as the public quiet of the brethren, I withdrew for a time, lest by our unseemly presence the sedition which had begun should be the more provoked.

Yet though absent in body, I was lacking neither in spirit nor in act nor in my admonitions, but as far as I could in my smallness, I took counsel for our brethren according to the Lord's precepts in whatever I was able. And what I have done, my letters, sent forth as the times required, thirteen in number, which I have transmitted to you, declare to you—in which neither counsel was lacking to the clergy, nor exhortation to the confessors, nor rebuke to the exiles when it was needful, nor to the whole brotherhood our address and persuasion unto imploring the mercy of God, as much as our smallness was able to strive, according to the law of faith and the fear of God, the Lord prompting us.

But after the tortures also came—whether our brethren were now being tortured, or were still shut up that they might be tortured—our word penetrated to strengthen and comfort them. Likewise when I had learned that those who had defiled their hands and mouths with sacrilegious contacts, or had nonetheless polluted their conscience with wicked certificates, were everywhere soliciting the martyrs, and were corrupting the confessors too with importunate and ingratiating entreaty, so that, without any discernment or examination of individuals, thousands of certificates were daily being given out against the law of the Gospel—I made letters by which I might recall the martyrs and confessors, by my counsel as far as I could, to the dominical precepts.

Likewise to the presbyters and deacons the vigor of the priesthood was not lacking, so that certain men, less mindful of discipline and headlong with rash haste, who had already begun to communicate with the lapsed, were restrained by our intervention. To the people themselves also, as far as we could, we composed their spirit, and we instructed them that ecclesiastical discipline should be preserved.

Afterward, however, when certain of the lapsed—whether of their own accord or at another's instigation—with bold demand were putting forth claims, striving to wrest by violent assault the peace promised to them by the martyrs and confessors, concerning this also I twice made letters to the clergy and charged that they be read to them, so that, to mitigate their violence in some way for the time, if any who had received a certificate from the martyrs should depart this world, having made confession and hands being laid upon them unto penance, they might be remitted to the Lord with the peace promised them by the martyrs. Nor in this did I give a law or rashly constitute myself an author of it.

But since it seemed both that honor must be shown to the martyrs and that the assault of those who desired to throw all into confusion must be restrained, and besides, since I had read your writings which you recently made to our clergy through Crementius the subdeacon—that those who, after the lapse, had been seized by sickness and, repenting, desired communion, should be aided—I thought I must stand also with your judgment, lest our action, which ought to be united and to agree in all things, should in any point be at variance.

Plainly the cases of the rest, though a certificate has been received from the martyrs, I have charged to be deferred and reserved for our presence, so that, when peace has been given us by the Lord and many overseers shall have begun to come together into one, having shared counsel also with you, we may be able to dispose or reform each matter. I wish you, dearest brethren, ever to fare well. CELERINUS TO LUCIAN. When I wrote these things to you, my lord brother, I was both rejoicing and sad—rejoicing because I had heard that you, for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, had been held, or had confessed His name in the presence of the magistrates of this world; but sad in this, that from the time when I escorted you I have never been able to receive your letters.

Or even now a twofold sorrow has pressed upon me, that you knew Montanus our common brother was to come from prison to me from you, and yet concerning your welfare, or what is being done with you, you have given me no word. But this is wont to befall the servants of God, especially those who are set in the confession of Christ. For I know that each one now no longer regards the things that are of the world, since he hopes for the heavenly crown. For I said, perhaps you had forgotten to write to me.

For—that I too, from the lowliest, may be called your brother, if I, Celerinus, shall be worthy to be heard—nevertheless, when I too was in so flourishing a confession, I remembered my most ancient brethren, and I made mention of them by my letters, that their former love toward me and mine is now present. Yet I beg, dearest one, of the Lord, that you may first be washed in that holy blood [if you shall first have suffered] for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, before my letter overtakes you in this world; or even now, if it overtake you, that you write back to me concerning these things. So may He crown you whose name you have confessed. For I believe that, although we shall not have seen one another in this world, yet in the world to come we shall embrace one another before Christ. Pray that I too may be worthy to be crowned with your number.

Know, however, that I am set in great tribulation, and as if you were present with me, so do I remember our former love day and night. God alone knows. And therefore I beg that you assent to my desire and grieve with me at the death of my sister, who fell in this devastation against Christ. For she sacrificed and provoked our Lord—which seems manifest to us. For her deed I, weeping on the day of the joy of Easter day and night, in sackcloth and ashes, tearful, have passed my days and pass them even unto this present day, until the help of our Lord Jesus Christ and His mercy, through you or through those my lords who shall have been crowned—from whom you will make request—shall have come to the aid of so wicked a shipwreck.

For I have been reminded of your former love, that, whereas you grieve for all on account of our sister *** whom you too know well—that is, Numeria and Candida—for whose sin, since they have us as their brethren, we ought to keep watch. For I believe that Christ, according to their penance and the works which the exiles who came from you did among our colleagues—from whom you will hear of their works—will now grant pardon to them, at the request of you His martyrs. For I have heard that you have received the ministry of the more flourishing. O happy you! Receive your vows, which you always desired even while sleeping on the earth. You wished to be cast into prison for His name, which now befalls you, as it is written: 'May the Lord give you according to your heart.'

And now, made over them an overseer (antistes) of God, the same minister has acknowledged it. I ask therefore, my lord, and beg through our Lord Jesus Christ, that you report to the rest of your colleagues, your brethren, my lords, and ask of them, that whoever of you shall first be crowned may remit to these our sisters Numeria and Candida such a sin. For this very Etecusa I have always called upon her—God is our witness—because for herself she paid out gifts that she might not sacrifice; but she only seems to have gone up as far as the Tria Fata and from there to have come down. This woman, then, I know did not sacrifice. Their case having now been heard, the overseers ordered them to be thus for the time being, until a bishop should be appointed.

But inasmuch as through your holy prayers and petitions, in which we trust—since you are the friends but also the witnesses of Christ—you may pardon all things: I beg therefore, dearest lord Lucian, that you be mindful of me and assent to my petition. So may Christ grant that holy crown which He has delivered to you, not only in confession but also in holiness, in which you have always run and have always been an example and a witness of the saints, that you may report this deed to all my lords, your brethren the confessors, so that they may receive help from us.

For this, my lord brother, you ought to know: that I ask this not only for them, but also for Statius and Severianus and all the confessors who came hither to us from there, to whom these women themselves went down at the harbor and brought up into the city, in that they ministered to sixty-five and even unto this present day have cherished them in all things. For they are all in their charge. But I ought not to burden that holy heart of yours further, since I know that you work with a ready will.

There salute you Macarius with his sisters Cornelia and Emerita, who rejoices over your flourishing confession, and so of all the brethren; and Saturninus, who himself also wrestled with the devil, who likewise stoutly confessed the name of Christ, who likewise there in the torment of the hooks (claws) stoutly confessed, who likewise here exceedingly asks and begs. There salute you your brothers Calpurnius and Maria and all the holy brethren. For this too you ought to know: that I have written also to my lords your brethren, which letters I beg you would deign to read to them. LUCIAN TO CELERINUS, HIS LORD, IF I SHALL BE WORTHY TO BE CALLED A COLLEAGUE IN CHRIST, GREETING.

I have received your letter, my most beloved lord brother, in which you so burdened me that, because of your burdening, so great a joy nearly slipped away—the joy that, after so long a time, I should read the letter which I too was longing for, in which you deigned to make mention of me; by the favor of so great a humility of yours I exulted to read it, you who, writing to me, said: 'If I shall be worthy to be named your brother'—you, of a man who among the lesser ones have confessed the name of God with fear. For you, by God's will, that very greater serpent, the surveyor (forerunner) of Antichrist, you not only confessed but deterred and overcame with those utterances and deifying words by which—I know—you as lovers of the faith and zealous for the discipline of Christ, in which I have known you to live with vivacity and rejoice, have conquered.

Now then, dearest one, already to be reckoned among the martyrs, you have willed to burden us with your letter, in which you signified concerning our sisters, for whom would that it could be done that we might make mention of them without so great a crime having been committed. We should assuredly not lie under such great tears as now. You ought to have known what has been done concerning us. When the blessed martyr Paulus was still in the body, he called me and said to me: 'Lucian, before Christ I say to you, that if anyone after my summoning-away shall ask peace of you, give it in my name.' But also all whom the Lord in so great a tribulation deigned to summon away, we all by common agreement, by letters, granted peace to all.

See therefore, brother, that partly it is what Paulus charged me, partly what we all judged—from the time when, even before this tribulation, when we were ordered according to the emperor's command to be killed by hunger and thirst, and were shut up in two cells, so that *** by hunger and thirst. But also the fire from the hardship of our oppression was so intolerable that no one could bear it. But now we are set in that very brightness. And therefore, dearest brother, salute Numeria and Candida, whom *** according to the precept of Paulus and of the rest of the martyrs, whose names I append: of Bassus in the stone-quarry, of Mappalicus under interrogation, of Fortunio in prison:

Paulus from the interrogation, Fortunata, Victorinus, Victor, Herennius, Credula, Hereda, Donatus, Firmus, Venustus, Fructus, Iulia, Martialis and Ariston, who, by God's will, were killed by hunger in prison: of whom you shall hear within days that we too are to be partners. For already, since we have been shut up a second time, it is eight days as of the day on which I wrote this letter to you. For also eight days before, for five intervening days we received a little bread and water by measure. And therefore, brother, I beg that, just as here, when the Lord shall have begun to give peace to the Church herself, according to the precept of Paulus and our treatise, the case having been set forth before the bishop and confession having been made, they may have peace—not only these, but also those whom you know pertain to our heart.

All my colleagues salute you. Salute the confessors of the Lord who are there with you, whose names you indicated, among whom is Saturninus with his companions, but also my colleague, and Maris, Collecta and Emerita, Calpurnius and Maria, Sabina, Spesina, and the sisters Ianuaria, Dativa, Donata. We salute, with their own people, Saturus, Bassianus and the whole clergy, Uranius, Alexius, Quintianus, Colonica, and all whom I beg—whose names I have not written, because I was so weary. Therefore they ought to pardon. I wish you, Alexius and Getulicus and the silversmiths and the sisters, to fare well. Your sisters Ianuaria and Sophia, whom I commend to you, salute you. ALL THE CONFESSORS TO CYPRIAN THE POPE (FATHER), GREETING.

Know that we all, with whom an account has been established before you of what each has done after the committed sin, have given peace; and we wish this rule to become known through you to the other bishops also. We desire that you have peace with the holy martyrs. In the presence of one of the clergy and an exorcist and a reader, Lucian wrote it. TO CYPRIAN AND THE FELLOW-PRESBYTERS ESTABLISHED AT CARTHAGE, CALDONIUS, GREETING. The necessity of the time makes us not rashly give peace. But since it was fitting to write to you—that, since these who, after they had sacrificed, being tried a second time were made exiles, seem therefore to me to have first washed away their former offense, while they relinquish their possessions and homes and, doing penance, follow Christ.

Therefore Felix, who served the presbytery under Decimus, nearest to me in chains (I have come to know this same Felix more fully), and Victoria his wife and Lucius, the faithful, having been made exiles, have left the possessions which the treasury (fiscus) now holds. But also under persecution that same woman by name Bona, who was dragged by her husband to sacrifice, who did not mingle her conscience—but, those holding her hands sacrificed thus themselves, so she herself began to say against it: 'I did not do it, you did it'—so she too was made an exile.

When therefore all of them sought peace from me, saying, 'We have recovered the faith which we had lost; doing penance, we have publicly confessed Christ,' although it seemed to me that they ought to receive peace, yet I have deferred them to your counsel, lest I should appear to presume rashly upon anything. If, then, anything be agreed upon by common counsel, write to me. Greet our people. Your people greet you. I wish you all the greatest happiness and health. Cyprian to Caldonius his brother, greeting. We have received your letter, dearest brother, soberly enough and full of integrity and faith. Nor do we wonder if, being practised and skilled in the Lord's Scriptures, you conduct all things cautiously and advisedly.

You have judged rightly concerning the imparting of peace to our brethren—peace which they have restored to themselves by true penance and by the glory of confessing the Lord, being justified by those very words by which they had before condemned themselves. Therefore, since they have washed away every offence and, with the Lord standing by them, have blotted out their first stain by their later valour, they ought not to lie any longer beneath the devil as though prostrate—they who, made exiles and stripped of all their goods, have raised themselves up and begun to stand with Christ. And would that the others also, who repent after their fall, might thus be restored to their former state.

How I have arranged matters concerning those who now press upon us and rashly and importunately wrest peace from us—that you might know—I have sent you a book together with five letters in number, which I have written to the clergy, to the people, and also to the martyrs and confessors; which letters, sent also to very many of our colleagues, have met their approval, and they have written back that they too stand with us in the same counsel according to the catholic faith. This very thing do you also transmit to those of our colleagues whom you can, so that one course of action and one consensus may be maintained among all according to the precepts of the Lord. I wish you, dearest brother, ever to fare well. Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons, the brethren, greeting. The Lord speaks and says:

'Upon whom shall I look, save upon the humble and the quiet and him who trembles at my words?' Though we all ought to be such, yet much more ought they to be of this sort who must labour, that after a grievous fall they may, by true penance and complete humility, be able to win the Lord's favour. I have read also the letter of all the confessors, which they wished to be made known through me to all the colleagues, and that the peace granted by them should reach those concerning whom the account of what they have done after their offence has been established with us. Since this matter regards the counsel and judgement of us all, I dare not prejudge it, nor claim for myself alone a common concern. And therefore let us for the present abide by the letters which I lately wrote to you, a copy of which I have already sent to many of my colleagues as well;

who have written back that what we have determined pleases them, and that there should be no withdrawing to you until, when peace has been restored to us by the Lord, we are able to come together into one and examine the cases of individuals. But that you might know both what my colleague Caldonius has written to me and what I have written back to him, I have joined to my letter a copy of each. All this I beg to be read to our brethren who have been sent as delegates, that they may more and more be disposed to patience, and may not add yet another offence to their former offence—since meanwhile they suffer us neither to serve the Gospel nor to have their cases examined according to the letter of all the confessors. I wish you, dearest brethren, to fare well and to remember us. Greet the whole brotherhood.

Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons, the brethren residing at Rome, greeting. After the letter had been made to you, dearest brethren, in which our course of action was set forth and the reason of our discipline and diligence, however small, was declared, something further has occurred which ought not itself to be hidden from you.

For our brother Lucianus, himself also one of the confessors—fervent indeed in faith and robust in valour, but too little grounded in the reading of the Lord's word—attempted certain things unskilfully. Setting himself up as an author some while ago, he caused certificates written by his hand to be given out in bundles to many in the name of Paulus; whereas the martyr Mappalicus, cautious and modest, mindful of the law and of discipline, made no writings against the Gospel, but only, moved by domestic affection, charged that peace be granted to his mother and sister who had lapsed; Saturninus too, after his torments, while still confined in prison, issued no letters of this kind.

But Lucianus, not only while Paulus was still confined in prison did he everywhere give out certificates written by his own hand in his name, but even after Paulus's death he persisted in doing the same under his name, saying that this had been charged to him by him, and not knowing that obedience is owed to the Lord rather than to a fellow-servant. In the name of Aurelius too, a young man who had endured torments, many certificates were given out, written by the hand of the same Lucianus, because that man did not know letters. That some resistance might be offered to this matter, I wrote letters to them which I have transmitted to you under the former epistle, in which I have not ceased to ask and to urge that the rule of the Lord's law and of the Gospel be maintained.