Acts of Cyprian (Proconsular Acts) (complete)

In the consulship of the emperor Valerian for the fourth time and of Gallienus for the third, on the third day before the Kalends of September, at Carthage, in the council chamber, the proconsul Paternus 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 practice the Roman religion must acknowledge the Roman ceremonies. I have therefore inquired about your name. What do you answer me?” Cyprian the bishop said: “I am a Christian and a bishop. I know no other gods but the one and true God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. This God we Christians serve; to him we pray day and night for ourselves and for all people and for the safety of the emperors themselves.” The proconsul Paternus said: “Do you persist, then, in this resolve?” Cyprian the bishop answered: “A good resolve, which knows God, cannot be changed.” The proconsul Paternus said: “Can you, then, according to the command of Valerian and Gallienus, go as an exile to the city of Curubis?” Cyprian the bishop said: “I go.” The proconsul Paternus said: “They have deigned to write to me not only about bishops but also about presbyters. I wish therefore to learn from you who the presbyters are who reside in this city.” Cyprian the bishop answered: “By your laws you have rightly and usefully decreed that there should be no informers. So they cannot be uncovered and reported by me. But they will be found in their own cities.” The proconsul Paternus said: “I am making inquiry today in this place.” Cyprian said: “Since our discipline forbids anyone to offer himself of his own accord, and this also displeases your judgment, they cannot offer themselves either; but if you search for them, they will be found.” The proconsul Paternus said: “They will be found by me.” And he added: “They have also commanded that no assemblies be held in any places and that no one enter the cemeteries. If anyone, then, does not observe this so wholesome command, he will be punished with death.” Cyprian the bishop answered: “Do what you have been commanded.”

Then the proconsul Paternus ordered the blessed Cyprian, the bishop, to be deported into exile. And when he had stayed there a long time, the proconsul Galerius Maximus succeeded the proconsul Aspasius Paternus, and ordered the holy bishop Cyprian to be recalled from exile and brought before him. And when Cyprian, the holy martyr chosen by God, had returned from the city of Curubis, to which he had been sent in exile by order of Aspasius Paternus, then proconsul, he stayed by sacred command in his own gardens, and from there he expected daily that they would come for him, as had been shown to him. And while he was staying there, suddenly, on the Ides of September, in the consulship of Tuscus and Bassus, two officers came to him, one a groom of the staff of the proconsul Galerius Maximus, who had succeeded Aspasius Paternus, and the other a mounted guard of the custody of the same staff. They lifted him into a carriage, placed him between them, and took him to the estate of Sextus, where the same proconsul Galerius Maximus had withdrawn to recover his health. And so the same proconsul Galerius Maximus ordered Cyprian to be kept for him until another day. At that time the blessed Cyprian was taken away to the chief officer and groom of the staff of the same Galerius Maximus, the most distinguished proconsul, and stayed with him in his lodging in the street called Saturn's, between the street of Venus and the street of Salus. The whole people of the brothers gathered there. And when the holy Cyprian learned of this, he ordered the girls to be protected, since all of them had stayed in the street before the door of the officer's lodging.

And so on the next day, the eighteenth before the Kalends of October, in the morning, a great crowd gathered at the estate of Sextus according to the order of the proconsul Galerius Maximus. And the same proconsul Galerius Maximus ordered Cyprian to be brought before him that same day as he sat in the Sauciolum hall. When he had been brought before him, the proconsul Galerius Maximus said to Cyprian the bishop: “Are you Thascius Cyprian?” Cyprian the bishop answered: “I am.” The proconsul Galerius Maximus said: “Have you presented yourself as pope to people of sacrilegious mind?” Cyprian the bishop answered: “I have.” The proconsul Galerius Maximus said: “The most sacred emperors have ordered you to perform the ceremonies.” Cyprian the bishop said: “I will not do it.” Galerius Maximus said: “Consider your own interest.” Cyprian the bishop answered: “Do what you have been commanded. In so just a cause there is no need for consideration.”

Galerius Maximus, having conferred with his council, pronounced the sentence reluctantly and with difficulty, in words of this kind: “You have long lived with a sacrilegious mind, you have gathered to yourself very many people of a wicked conspiracy, and you have made yourself an enemy of the Roman gods and the sacred rites; nor have the pious and most sacred emperors Valerian and Gallienus, the Augusti, and Valerian, the most noble Caesar, been able to bring you back to the observance of their ceremonies. And therefore, since you have been caught as the author and standard-bearer of the most wicked crimes, you will yourself be an example to those whom you have gathered to yourself in your crime: by your blood discipline will be established.” And having said this, he read the decree from a tablet: “It is decided that Thascius Cyprian be executed by the sword.” Cyprian the bishop said: “Thanks be to God.” After this sentence the crowd of brothers said: “Let us too be beheaded with him.” Because of this an uproar arose among the brothers, and a great crowd followed him. And so the same Cyprian was led out into the field of Sextus, and there he took off his cloak with its hood, knelt on the ground, and prostrated himself in prayer to the Lord. And when he had taken off his dalmatic and handed it to the deacons, he stood in his linen tunic and began to wait for the executioner. When the executioner had come, he ordered his people to give the executioner twenty-five gold pieces. Linen cloths and napkins were spread before him by the brothers. Then the blessed Cyprian covered his eyes with his own hand. When he could not tie the cloth over his eyes himself, Julian the presbyter and Julian the subdeacon tied it for him. So the blessed Cyprian suffered, and his body was laid out nearby because of the curiosity of the pagans. From there it was taken away by night with tapers and torches to the burial ground of Macrobius Candidianus the procurator, which is on the Mappalian Way near the fish ponds, and was escorted with prayer and great triumph. A few days later the proconsul Galerius Maximus died. The most blessed martyr Cyprian suffered on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of October, under the emperors Valerian and Gallienus, but in the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.