Life of Cyprian 2

In the fourth consulship of the Emperor Valerian and the third of Gallienus, on the third day before the Kalends of September, at Carthage in the council-chamber, Paternus the proconsul said to Cyprian the bishop: 'The most sacred Emperors Valerian and Gallienus have deigned to send me letters, in which they have commanded that those who do not observe the Roman religion ought to acknowledge the Roman ceremonies. I have therefore made inquiry concerning your name. What do you answer me?' Cyprian the bishop said: 'I am a Christian and a bishop. I know no other gods save the one and true God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them. This God we Christians serve;

Him we beseech day and night for ourselves and for all men, and for the safety of the Emperors themselves.' Paternus the proconsul said: 'Do you then persevere in this resolve?' Cyprian the bishop answered: 'A good will, which knows God, cannot be changed.' Paternus the proconsul said: 'Can you then, according to the command of Valerian and Gallienus, go forth as an exile to the city of Curubis?' Cyprian the bishop said: 'I go forth.' Paternus the proconsul said: 'They have deigned to write to me not only concerning the bishops, but also concerning the presbyters. I wish therefore to learn from you who are the presbyters that reside in this city.' Cyprian the bishop answered: 'By your laws you have rightly and usefully decreed that there should be no informers.

And so they cannot be disclosed and denounced by me. But in their own cities they will be found.' Paternus the proconsul said: 'I shall make inquiry in this place today.' Cyprian said: 'Since discipline forbids that anyone should offer himself unbidden, and since this would displease your own censure also, they cannot offer themselves; but, sought out by you, they will be found.' Paternus the proconsul said: 'They shall be found by me.' And he added: 'They have also commanded that in no places should assemblies be held, nor should they enter the cemeteries. If anyone therefore does not observe this so wholesome command, he shall be beheaded.' Cyprian the bishop answered: 'Do what you have been commanded.' Then Paternus the proconsul ordered the blessed bishop Cyprian to be deported into exile.

And when he had tarried there a long while, Galerius Maximus the proconsul succeeded Aspasius Paternus as proconsul, and he ordered holy Cyprian the bishop, recalled from exile, to be presented before him. And when Cyprian, the holy martyr chosen by God, had returned from the city of Curubis, in which he had then been given over to exile by the command of Aspasius Paternus, then proconsul, he abode by sacred command in his own gardens, and from thence he daily expected that men would come to him, as it had been shown to him. And while he was lingering there, suddenly, on the Ides of September, in the consulship of Tuscus and Bassus, there came to him two magistrates: one an attendant of the staff of Galerius Maximus the proconsul, who had succeeded Aspasius Paternus, and the other a mounted attendant from the guards of the same staff.

And they lifted him into a carriage and placed him in the midst, and brought him to Sexti, where the same Galerius Maximus the proconsul had withdrawn for the sake of recovering his good health. And so the same Galerius Maximus the proconsul ordered Cyprian to be kept for himself unto another day. And at that time the blessed Cyprian, having been led to the chief attendant and orderly of the staff of Galerius Maximus the proconsul, a most illustrious man, withdrew, and remained in his lodging together with him in the village which is called Saturni, between the Venerea and the Salutaria. Thither the whole people of the brethren came together. And when holy Cyprian had learned this, he ordered the maidens to be guarded, since all had remained in the village before the door of the chief attendant's lodging.

And so the next day, on the eighteenth before the Kalends of October, early in the morning a great crowd assembled at Sexti, according to the command of Galerius Maximus the proconsul. And so the same Galerius Maximus the proconsul, on that same day, ordered Cyprian to be brought before him as he sat in the Saucioline hall. And when he had been brought forward, Galerius Maximus the proconsul said to Cyprian the bishop: 'Are you Thascius Cyprian?' Cyprian the bishop answered: 'I am.' Galerius Maximus the proconsul said: 'Have you presented yourself as a pope to men of sacrilegious mind?' Cyprian the bishop answered: 'I have.' Galerius Maximus the proconsul said: 'The most sacred Emperors have commanded you to perform the ceremonies.' Cyprian the bishop said: 'I do not do so.' Galerius Maximus said: 'Take thought for yourself.' Cyprian the bishop answered:

'Do what you have been commanded. In a matter so just there is no deliberation.' Galerius Maximus, having conferred with the council, scarcely and with difficulty pronounced sentence in words of this kind: 'You have long lived with a sacrilegious mind, and have gathered to yourself very many men of a nefarious conspiracy, and have set yourself up as an enemy to the Roman gods and the sacred religions; nor have the pious and most sacred princes Valerian and Gallienus the Augusti, and Valerian the most noble Caesar, been able to recall you to the observance of their ceremonies. And therefore, since you have been caught as the author and standard-bearer of most wicked crimes, you shall yourself be an example to those whom by your wickedness you have gathered with yourself: by your blood the discipline shall be ratified.' And when these things had been said, he recited the decree from a tablet:

'It is decreed that Thascius Cyprian be executed by the sword.' Cyprian the bishop said: 'Thanks be to God.' But after this sentence the crowd of the brethren said: 'Let us also be beheaded with him.' On this account an uproar of the brethren arose, and a great crowd followed him. And so the same Cyprian was led forth into the field of Sexti, and there he stripped himself of his birrus cloak, and bent his knee upon the ground, and prostrated himself in prayer before the Lord. And when he had stripped off his dalmatic and handed it to the deacons, he stood in his linen tunic and began to await the executioner. And when the executioner had come, he ordered his own people to give that executioner twenty-five gold pieces. And linen cloths and napkins were thrown down before him by the brethren. After this.

the blessed Cyprian covered his eyes with his own hand. And when he could not tie the napkin-strips for himself, Julian the presbyter and Julian the subdeacon tied them for him. Thus the blessed Cyprian suffered, and his body was laid nearby on account of the curiosity of the heathen. Thence it was taken away by night and conducted, with tapers and torches, with prayer and great triumph, to the burial-grounds of Macrobius Candidianus the procurator, which are on the Mappalian Way near the fish-ponds. But a few days afterward Galerius Maximus the proconsul died.

Now the most blessed Cyprian the martyr suffered on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of October, under the Emperors Valerian and Gallienus, but in the reign of our true Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.