Letters 57.1–59.2

Cyprian, Liberalis, Caldonius, Nicomedes, Caecilius, Junius, Marrutius, Felix, Successus, Faustinus, Fortunatus, Victor, Saturninus, another Saturninus, Rogatianus, Tertullus, Lucianus, Sattius, Secundinus, another Saturninus, Eutyches, Ampius, another Saturninus, Aurelius, Priscus, Herculaneus, Victoricus, Quintus, Honoratus, Manthaneus, Hortensianus, Verianus, Iambus, Donatus, Pomponius, Polycarp, Demetrius, another Donatus, Privatianus, Fortunatus, Rogatus, and Monnulus to their brother Cornelius, greeting. We had indeed decided some time ago, dearest brother, having shared counsel with one another, that those who in the onslaught of persecution had been tripped up by the adversary and had lapsed and stained themselves with unlawful sacrifices should do full penance for a long time, and, if the danger of sickness pressed, should receive peace under the stroke of death. For it was not right, nor did fatherly kindness and divine clemency permit, that the church should be closed to those who knock, and that the help of saving hope should be denied to those who grieve and entreat, so that, departing from the world, they would be sent to the Lord without communion and peace; since he himself has permitted and given the law that what is bound on earth should be bound also in heaven, and that those things can be loosed there which were first loosed here in the church. But since we see that the day of another onslaught has begun to draw near again, and we are warned by frequent and continual showings to be armed and ready for the contest which the enemy declares against us, and to prepare with our exhortations the people entrusted to us by divine favor, and to gather within the Lord's camp all the soldiers of Christ who desire arms and demand battle, we have decided, necessity compelling, that peace must be given to those who have not withdrawn from the Lord's church and have not ceased, from the first day of their lapse, to do penance and to lament and to entreat the Lord, and that they must be armed and equipped for the battle that threatens.

For we must obey the showings and just admonitions, so that the sheep may not be deserted in danger by the shepherds, but the whole flock may be gathered into one and the Lord's army be armed for the contest of heavenly warfare. For rightly was the penance of those who grieve drawn out for a longer time, so that the sick were helped at the end, as long as there was quiet and tranquility, which allowed the tears of the mourners to be long deferred and help to be given late to those dying in sickness. But now peace is needed not by the sick but by the strong, and communion is to be given by us not to the dying but to the living, so that we may not leave unarmed and naked those whom we rouse and exhort to battle, but may fortify them with the protection of the blood and body of Christ; and since the Eucharist is made for this, that it may be a safeguard to those who receive it, let us arm those whom we wish to be safe against the adversary with the fortification of the Lord's fullness. For how do we teach or challenge them to shed their blood in confession of the Name, if we deny the blood of Christ to those about to do battle? Or how do we make them fit for the cup of martyrdom, if we do not first admit them to drink the cup of the Lord in the church by the right of communion?

There must be a difference, dearest brother, between those who have either apostatized and, returning to the world they had renounced, live like heathens, or, becoming deserters to the heretics, daily take up parricidal arms against the church, and those who, not withdrawing from the church's threshold and imploring continually and sorrowfully the divine and fatherly comfort, now declare that they are ready for the fight and will stand firm and fight for their Lord's name and for their own salvation. At this time we give peace not to the sleeping but to the watchful; we give peace not for pleasures but for arms; we give peace not for rest but for the battle line. If, as we hear of them and hope and believe, they stand firm and overthrow the adversary together with us in the encounter, we do not regret having granted peace to men so brave; nay, it is the great honor and glory of our episcopate to have given peace to martyrs, so that we priests, who celebrate the sacrifices of God daily, may prepare offerings and victims for God. But if (may the Lord avert it from our brothers) one of the lapsed deceives us, seeking peace deceitfully and receiving communion at the time of the impending battle without intending to fight, he deceives and cheats himself, hiding one thing in his heart and uttering another with his voice. We, as far as it is granted us to see and judge, see each one's face; we cannot search the heart and look into the mind. Of these the searcher and knower of hidden things judges, who will soon come and judge the secrets and hidden things of the heart. The bad ought not to harm the good, but rather the bad should be helped by the good. Nor, therefore, should peace be denied to those who will become martyrs because some will deny, since for this reason peace must be given to all who will do battle, lest through our ignorance the one who is to be crowned in battle begins to be passed over.

Nor let anyone say: “He who undergoes martyrdom is baptized in his own blood, and he has no need of peace from the bishop, since he will have the peace of his glory and will receive a greater reward from the Lord's favor.” First, he cannot be fit for martyrdom who is not armed for battle by the church; and the mind fails which the Eucharist, when received, does not raise up and kindle. For the Lord says in his gospel: “But when they hand you over, do not think what you will say; for it will be given you in that hour what you will say. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” Since he says that the Spirit of the Father speaks in those who are handed over and set in the confession of the Name, how can he be found ready or fit for confession who has not first, by receiving peace, received the Spirit of the Father, who, strengthening his servants, himself speaks and confesses in us? Then again, if, leaving all his possessions, he flees, and, placed in hiding and solitude, he happens to fall among robbers or dies of fever and sickness, will it not be laid to our charge that so good a soldier, who left all he had and, despising house and parents or children, chose to follow his Lord, dies without peace and without communion? Will not either sluggish negligence or cruel harshness be ascribed to us on the day of judgment, that as shepherds we were willing neither to care in peace for the sheep entrusted and committed to us nor to arm them in battle? Will not the Lord cast in our teeth what he cries out through his prophet, saying: “Behold, you consume the milk and cover yourselves with the wool, and kill what is fat, and do not feed my sheep; what was weak you have not strengthened, and what was sick you have not made strong, and what was broken you have not comforted, and what strayed you have not called back, and what was lost you have not sought, and what was strong you have worn out with labor; and my sheep have been scattered because there are no shepherds, and they have become food for all the beasts of the field, and there was none to seek or call them back. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep from their hands and turn them away, so that they do not feed my sheep; and they will no longer feed them; and I will draw my sheep out of their mouth and feed them with judgment.”

Therefore, lest the sheep entrusted to us by the Lord be demanded back from our mouth, with which we deny peace, with which we set against them the harshness of human cruelty rather than divine and fatherly kindness, we have decided, the Holy Spirit prompting and the Lord admonishing through many clear visions, since the enemy is foretold and shown to be threatening us, to gather the soldiers of Christ within the camp and, after examining each one's case, to give peace to the lapsed, nay rather to supply arms to those who will fight. We believe this will please you too, in consideration of the fatherly mercy. But if any of our colleagues is found who thinks that peace should not be given to the brothers and sisters while the contest presses, he will give account to the Lord on the day of judgment either for his untimely severity or for his inhuman harshness. We have set forth what was in our conscience, as befitted faith and love and care: that the day of the contest has drawn near, that a violent enemy will soon rise against us, that a battle is coming not such as was before but much graver and fiercer; that this has often been shown us by God, and of this we are often warned by the Lord's providence and mercy. Of his help and kindness we who trust in him can be secure, because he who in peace foretells the coming battle to his soldiers will give victory to those who fight in the encounter. We wish you, dearest brother, good health always.

Cyprian to the people residing at Thibaris, greeting. I had indeed intended, dearest brothers, and had it in my plans, if the state of affairs and the conditions of the time permitted, to come to you myself, as you have often wished, and, being present there, to strengthen the brotherhood by such modest exhortation as I can give. But since we are held back by such pressing affairs that we are not given the opportunity of going far from here and of being long absent from the people over whom by divine indulgence we preside, I have meanwhile sent you this letter in my place. For since by the favor of the Lord who instructs us we are often roused and admonished, we ought to bring the concern of our admonition to your conscience too. For you ought to know, and to believe and hold for certain, that the day of affliction has begun to hang over our heads, and that the end of the world and the time of Antichrist have drawn near, so that we may all stand ready for battle and think of nothing but the glory of eternal life and the crown of confessing the Lord; and let us not think that what is coming is like what has passed. A graver and fiercer fight now threatens, for which the soldiers of Christ ought to prepare themselves with uncorrupted faith and robust courage, considering that they drink the cup of Christ's blood daily for this reason: that they too may be able to shed their blood for Christ. For this is to wish to be found with Christ: to imitate what Christ both taught and did, according to the apostle John, who says: “He who says he abides in Christ ought himself also to walk as he walked.” Likewise the apostle Paul exhorts and teaches, saying: “We are children of God; and if children, heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ, provided that we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.”

All these things we must now consider, so that no one may desire anything from a world already dying, but may follow Christ, who both lives forever and gives life to his servants established in the faith of his name. For the time has come, dearest brothers, which our Lord long ago foretold and taught would come, saying: “The hour will come when everyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God. But they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. But I have said these things to you so that, when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you.” Nor let anyone wonder that we are worn by continual persecutions and often pressed by distressing afflictions, since the Lord foretold that these things would happen in the last times and equipped our warfare with the teaching and exhortation of his word; and his apostle Peter too taught that persecutions happen so that we may be proved, and so that we too may be joined to the love of God by death and sufferings, after the example of the righteous who went before. For he set it down in his letter, saying: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the burning that comes upon you, which happens for your testing, nor fall away as though something new were happening to you; but as often as you share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice in all things, so that at the revelation of his glory you may also rejoice and exult. If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the name of the majesty and power of the Lord rests on you; which on their part is blasphemed, but on ours is honored.” And the apostles taught us what they too had learned from the Lord's precepts and heavenly commands, the Lord himself strengthening us and saying: “There is no one who leaves house or field or parents or brothers or wife or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who does not receive seven times as much in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” And again: “Blessed will you be,” he says, “when men hate you and separate you and cast you out and curse your name as evil for the sake of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and exult; for behold, your reward is great in heaven.”

The Lord wished us to rejoice and exult in persecutions, because when persecutions happen, then the crowns of faith are given, then the soldiers of God are proved, then the heavens lie open to the martyrs. For we did not enlist in the army so as to think only of peace and to shirk and refuse service, since in this very service the Lord, the teacher of humility and endurance and suffering, walked first, so that he did first what he taught should be done, and he who urges us to suffer himself suffered first for us. Let it be before your eyes, dearest brothers, that he who alone received all judgment from the Father, and who will come to judge, has already pronounced the sentence of his judgment and of the coming inquiry, foretelling and testifying that he will confess before his Father those who confess him and deny those who deny him. If we could escape death, we would rightly fear to die. But since a mortal must die, let us embrace the opportunity that comes from the divine promise and favor, and let us accomplish the end of death with the reward of immortality, and not fear to be killed, since it is certain that when we are killed we are crowned.

Nor let anyone, dearest brothers, be troubled when he sees our people put to flight and scattered by fear of persecution, because he does not see the brotherhood gathered or hear the bishops preaching. At such a time all cannot be together, who are not permitted to kill but must be killed. Wherever each of the brothers may be in those days, separated from the flock for a while by the necessity of the time, in body, not in spirit, let him not be moved by the horror of that flight, nor, withdrawing and hiding, be frightened by the solitude of a desert place. He is not alone who has Christ as his companion in flight. He is not alone who, keeping the temple of God, is not without God wherever he may be. And if a robber overpowers him as he flees in the wilderness and the mountains, a wild beast attacks him, hunger or thirst or cold afflicts him, or a tempest and storm drowns him as he hastens over the seas in headlong voyage, Christ watches his soldier fighting wherever he is, and to him who dies because of persecution for the honor of his name he renders the reward that he promised to give in the resurrection. Nor is the glory of martyrdom less for not having perished publicly and among many, since the cause of perishing is to perish for Christ. That witness who proves and crowns the martyrs suffices for the testimony of his martyrdom.

Let us imitate, dearest brothers, righteous Abel, who began martyrdoms when he was the first to be killed for righteousness' sake. Let us imitate Abraham, the friend of God, who did not hesitate to offer his son as a victim with his own hands, obeying God with the faith of devotion. Let us imitate the three youths Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, who, neither frightened by their age nor broken by captivity, when Judea had been conquered and Jerusalem taken, conquered the king in his own kingdom by the power of faith; who, ordered to worship the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had made, proved stronger than both the king's threats and the flames, proclaiming and testifying to their faith with these words: “King Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you on this matter. For the God whom we serve is able to rescue us from the furnace of burning fire, and he will deliver us from your hands; and if not, let it be known to you that we do not serve your gods and do not worship the golden image that you have set up.” They believed that by faith they could escape, but they added “and if not,” so that the king might know that they could also die for the God whom they worshiped. For this is the strength of courage and faith: to believe and know that God can deliver from present death, and yet not to fear death nor give way, so that faith may be proved the more strongly. The uncorrupted and unconquered vigor of the Holy Spirit burst forth through their mouth, so that what the Lord declared in his gospel might appear true, saying: “But when they seize you, do not think what you will say; for it will be given you in that hour what you will say. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” He said that what we can say and answer is given and offered to us by God in that hour, and that it is not we who then speak, but the Spirit of God the Father, who, since he does not depart from or become separated from those who confess, himself both speaks and is crowned in us. So too Daniel, when he was being compelled to worship the idol Bel, which the people and the king then worshiped, burst out, in asserting the honor of his God, with full faith and freedom, saying: “I worship nothing but the Lord my God, who founded heaven and earth.”

What of the grievous torments of the blessed martyrs in Maccabees, and the manifold punishments of the seven brothers, and the mother encouraging her children in their punishments and dying herself with her children: do they not bear witness to proofs of great courage and faith, and urge us by their sufferings to the triumph of martyrdom? What of the prophets, whom the Holy Spirit quickened to foreknowledge of the future? What of the apostles, whom the Lord chose? Since the righteous are killed for righteousness, have they not taught us also to die? The birth of Christ began at once with the martyrdoms of infants, so that those who were two years old and under were slain for his name. An age not yet able to fight proved fit for the crown. That it might appear that those killed for Christ are innocent, innocent infancy was killed for his name. It was shown that no one is exempt from the danger of persecution, since even such as these became martyrs. But how grave a matter is it for a Christian man, a servant, to be unwilling to suffer when his Lord suffered first; and for us to be unwilling to suffer for our own sins, when he, having no sin of his own, suffered for us! The Son of God suffered to make us sons of God, and the son of man will not suffer in order to remain a son of God! If we labor under the hatred of the world, Christ first endured the hatred of the world; if we bear insults in this world, if exile, if torments, the maker and Lord of the world experienced worse things, who also warns us, saying: “If the world hates you,” he says, “remember that it hated me first. If you were of the world, the world would love what was its own; but because you are not of the world, and I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: the servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” Whatever our Lord and God taught, he also did, so that the disciple who learns and does not do can have no excuse.

Nor let any of us, dearest brothers, be so frightened by fear of the coming persecution or by the threatening arrival of Antichrist as not to be found armed for everything by the gospel's exhortations and the heavenly precepts and warnings. Antichrist comes, but Christ comes after him. The enemy rages and is cruel, but the Lord follows at once to avenge our sufferings and wounds. The adversary is angry and threatens, but there is one who can deliver from his hands. He is to be feared whose wrath no one will be able to escape, as he himself forewarns, saying: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can kill both body and soul in Gehenna.” And again: “He who loves his soul will lose it, and he who hates his soul in this world will keep it for eternal life.” And the Apocalypse instructs and forewarns, saying: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives the mark on his forehead and on his hand, he too will drink of the wine of God's wrath, mixed in the cup of his wrath, and he will be punished with fire and sulfur before the eyes of the holy angels and before the eyes of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torments will go up for ever and ever, and they will have no rest day or night, whoever worships the beast and its image.”

Men are trained and prepared for a worldly contest, and they count it a great glory to their honor if it falls to them to be crowned with the people watching and the emperor present. See a lofty and great contest, glorious with the prize of a heavenly crown, in which God watches us as we strive and, opening his eyes upon those whom he has deigned to make his sons, delights in the spectacle of our contest. God watches us as we do battle and fight in the encounter of faith; his angels watch; Christ too watches. How great is the dignity of glory, how great the happiness, to fight with God presiding and to be crowned with Christ as judge! Let us arm ourselves, dearest brothers, with all our strength and prepare for the contest with uncorrupted mind, sound faith, devoted courage. Let the camp of God advance to the battle line that is declared against us. Let those who stood firm be armed, so that the one who stood firm may not lose what he lately stood for. Let the lapsed too be armed, so that the lapsed may recover what he lost. Let honor call those who stood firm to battle, and sorrow the lapsed. The blessed apostle teaches us to be armed and prepared, saying: “We have no wrestling against flesh and blood, but against the powers and princes of this world and of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore put on the whole armor, so that you may be able to resist in the most evil day, so that, when you have accomplished everything, you may stand, having your loins girded in truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace, taking up the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one, and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Let us take up these arms, let us fortify ourselves with these spiritual and heavenly defenses, so that in the most evil day we may be able to resist and fight back against the devil's threats. Let us put on the breastplate of righteousness, so that the breast may be fortified and safe against the enemy's darts. Let our feet be shod and armed with the gospel's teaching, so that, when the serpent begins to be trodden and crushed by us, it may not be able to bite and trip us. Let us bravely carry the shield of faith, under whose protection whatever the enemy hurls may be quenched. Let us also take the spiritual helmet to cover the head, so that the ears may be fortified, lest they hear the deadly edicts; the eyes fortified, lest they see the detestable images; the forehead fortified, so that the sign of God may be kept unharmed; the mouth fortified, so that the victorious tongue may confess Christ its Lord. Let us arm the right hand too with the spiritual sword, so that it may bravely reject the deadly sacrifices, so that, mindful of the Eucharist, the hand that receives the Lord's body may embrace the Lord himself, and afterward receive from the Lord the reward of heavenly crowns.

Oh, what and how great a day will come, dearest brothers, when the Lord begins to review his people and, by the examination of divine inquiry, to recognize the merits of each; to send the guilty into Gehenna and condemn our persecutors to the perpetual burning of penal flame, but to pay us the reward of faith and devotion! What will be the glory and how great the joy to be admitted to see God, to be honored so as to receive with Christ, your Lord God, the joy of eternal salvation and light; to greet Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs and apostles and prophets and martyrs; to rejoice with the righteous and the friends of God in the kingdom of heaven in the delight of the immortality granted; to receive there what eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered the heart of man! For the apostle proclaims that we receive greater things than what we either do or suffer here, saying: “The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come which will be revealed in us.” When that revelation comes, when the glory of God shines upon us, we shall be as blessed and joyful, honored by the Lord's favor, as those will remain guilty and wretched who, deserters of God or rebels against God, have done the devil's will, so that they must be tormented together with him in unquenchable fire.

Let these things, dearest brothers, cling to your hearts. Let this be the preparation of our arms, this our meditation by day and night: to have before our eyes and always to turn over in our thoughts and feelings the punishments of the wicked and the rewards and merits of the righteous, what the Lord threatens to those who deny for punishment, and what, on the other hand, he promises to those who confess for glory. If the day of persecution comes upon us while we think and meditate on these things, the soldier of Christ, taught by his precepts and warnings, does not tremble at the fight, but is ready for the crown. I wish you, dearest brothers, good health always.

Cyprian to his brother Cornelius, greeting. I have read your letter, dearest brother, which you sent by our brother Saturus the acolyte, full enough of brotherly love, church discipline, and priestly severity, in which you indicated that Felicissimus, the enemy of Christ, who was not newly but long ago excluded for his very many and very grave crimes, and condemned by the sentence not only of myself but of very many fellow bishops, has been rejected by you there; and that, when he came surrounded by a band and faction of desperate men, he was driven from the church with the full vigor with which bishops ought to act; the church from which he, together with those like him, was long ago driven by the majesty of God and the severity of Christ our Lord and judge, so that the author of schism and division, the embezzler of money entrusted to him, the seducer of virgins, the ravager and corrupter of many marriages, might no longer violate the bride of Christ, uncorrupted, holy, and chaste, with the disgrace of his presence and his shameless and unchaste contagion.

But when I read the other letter, brother, which you attached to the first, I was greatly surprised, since I noticed that you had been somewhat shaken by the threats and terrors of those who had come, since, as you wrote, they had assailed you, threatening in utter desperation that, if you did not accept the letter they had brought, they would read it publicly and utter many shameful and disgraceful things worthy of their mouth. If the matter stands so, dearest brother, that the audacity of the most wicked is feared, and what the bad cannot achieve by right and equity they accomplish by rashness and desperation, it is all over with the vigor of the episcopate and with the lofty and divine power of governing the church; nor can we any longer endure or even be Christians, if it has come to this, that we are afraid of the threats and plots of the lost. For heathens and Jews threaten too, and heretics, and all whose hearts and minds the devil has besieged testify daily with raging voice to their poisoned fury. Yet we must not therefore give way because they threaten, nor is the adversary and enemy therefore greater than Christ because he claims and takes so much for himself in the world. The strength of faith ought to remain unmoved with us, dearest brother, and a steady and unshaken courage ought to withstand all the assaults and onsets of the barking waves like a rock set in their way, by its strength and mass. Nor does it matter from where terror or danger comes to a bishop, who lives exposed to terrors and dangers and yet is made glorious by those very terrors and dangers. For we ought not to think of and look only to the threats of heathens or Jews, since we see that the Lord himself was seized by brothers and betrayed by one whom he himself had chosen among the apostles; that at the very beginning of the world it was none other than a brother who killed righteous Abel; that a hostile brother pursued Jacob as he fled; that the boy Joseph was sold by his brothers selling him; and that we read in the gospel too the prophecy that enemies would rather be of one's own household, and that those who were first joined in the sacrament of unanimity would betray one another. It makes no difference who betrays or rages, since God permits us to be betrayed and to be crowned. Nor is it disgrace to us to suffer from brothers what Christ suffered, nor glory to them to do what Judas did. But what self-exaltation it is, what swollen, puffed-up, and empty boasting of those who threaten, to threaten me there in my absence, when here they have me present in their power! We do not fear the abuse with which they daily tear themselves and their own life; we do not shudder at the clubs and stones and swords that they fling about in parricidal words. As far as in them lies, such men are murderers before God. Yet they cannot kill unless the Lord permits them to kill. And while we must die once, they by their hatred and words and sins destroy themselves daily.