On the Lapsed 10
Summary: Fear of losing home and property is no excuse, for Scripture and Christ command flight in persecution; the one who withdraws keeps the faith, while the one who stays for his property falls.
Latin text · CSEL 3.1:243–244
Nec est pro dolor iusta aliqua et grauis causa quae tantum facinus excuset. relinquenda erat patria et patrimonii facienda iactura. cui enim non nascenti adque morienti relinquenda quandoque patria et patrimonii sui facienda iactura est? Christus non relinquatur, salutis ac sedis aeternae iactura timeatur. clamat ecce per prophetam Spiritus sanctus: discedite, discedite, exite inde et inmundum nolite tangere: exite de medio eius, separamini qui fertis uasa Domini. et qui uasa sunt Domini ac templum Dei ne inmundum tangere et feralibus cibis pollui uiolarique cogantur, non exeunt de medio nec recedunt? alibi quoque uox auditur e caelo praemonens quid Dei seruos facere oporteret et dicens: exi de ea, populus meus, ne particeps sis delictorum eius et ne perstringaris plagis eius. qui exit et cedit delicti particeps non fit, plagis uero et ipse perstringitur qui socius criminis inuenitur. et ideo Dominus in persecutione secedere et fugere mandauit adque ut id fieret et docuit et fecit. nam cum corona de Dei dignatione descendat nec possit accipi nisi fuerit hora sumendi, quisque in Christo manens interim cedit non fidem denegat sed tempus expectat: qui autem cum non secederet cecidit, negaturus remansit.
English · Claude translation
Nor, alas, is there any just and serious reason that excuses so great a crime. One had to leave one's country and suffer the loss of one's property. Yet for whom, born and dying, must not one's country be left at some time and the loss of one's property suffered? Let not Christ be left; let the loss of salvation and of the eternal dwelling be feared. See, the Holy Spirit cries through the prophet: “Depart, depart, go out from there and touch no unclean thing; go out from her midst, be separated, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.” And do those who are the vessels of the Lord and the temple of God not go out from the midst and withdraw, lest they be forced to touch what is unclean and be polluted and violated by deadly foods? Elsewhere too a voice is heard from heaven, forewarning what the servants of God ought to do and saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins and be struck by her plagues.” He who goes out and withdraws does not become a sharer in the sin; but he who is found an accomplice in the crime is himself struck by the plagues. And therefore the Lord commanded us in persecution to withdraw and flee, and, that this might be done, both taught it and did it. For since the crown comes down by God's favor and cannot be received unless the hour for taking it has come, whoever, abiding in Christ, withdraws for a time does not deny his faith but waits for his time; but he who fell because he did not withdraw remained in order to deny.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Isa 52:11 and Rev 18:4; the allusions are 1 Cor 3:16 and Matt 10:23 (with Christ's own withdrawals, e.g. John 8:59).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (joined words in the digital text): exitede medio → exite de medio.
Cite this passage
Cyprian, Laps. 10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/10/).
Plain text
Cyprian, Laps. 10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/10/).
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