On the Lapsed 15
Summary: Cyprian attacks those who readmit the lapsed to communion without penance, a false peace that lets them receive the Lord's body with hands still defiled by idol sacrifice.
Latin text · CSEL 3.1:247–248
Emersit enim, fratres dilectissimi, nouum genus cladis et quasi parum persecutionis procella saeuierit, accessit ad cumulum sub misericordiae titulo malum fallens et blanda pernicies. contra euangelii uigorem, contra Domini ac Dei legem temeritate quorundam laxatur incautis conmunicatio, inrita et falsa pax, periculosa dantibus et nihil accipientibus profutura. non quaerunt sanitatis patientiam nec ueram de satisfactione medicinam: paenitentia de pectoribus exclusa est, grauissimi extremique delicti memoria sublata est. operiuntur morientium uulnera et plaga letalis altis et profundis uisceribus infixa dissimulato dolore contegitur. a diaboli aris reuertentes ad sanctum Domini sordidis et infectis nidore manibus accedunt, mortiferos idolorum cibos adhuc paene ructantes exhalantibus etiam nunc scelus suum faucibus et contagia funesta redolentibus Domini corpus inuadunt, quando occurrat scriptura diuina et clamet et dicat: omnis mundus manducabit carnem, et anima quaecumque manducauerit ex carne sacrificii salutaris quod est Domini, et inmunditia ipsius super ipsum est, peribit anima illa de populo suo, apostolus item testetur et dicat: non potestis calicem Domini bibere et calicem daemoniorum: non potestis mensae Domini conmunicare et mensae daemoniorum, idem contumacibus et peruicacibus conminetur et denuntiet dicens: quicumque ederit panem et biberit calicem Domini indigne reus erit corporis et sanguinis Domini.
English · Claude translation
For a new kind of disaster has emerged, dearest brothers, and, as if the storm of persecution had raged too little, there has been added to the heap, under the title of mercy, a deceiving evil and a flattering destruction. Against the vigor of the gospel, against the law of the Lord and God, by the rashness of certain people, communion is being relaxed for the unwary: a void and false peace, dangerous to those who give it and of no benefit to those who receive it. They do not seek the patience of healing nor the true medicine of satisfaction; penance is shut out of their hearts; the memory of the gravest and ultimate sin has been taken away. The wounds of the dying are covered over, and the deadly blow lodged in the deep inward parts is concealed, the pain disguised. Returning from the altars of the devil, they approach the holy thing of the Lord with hands filthy and tainted with the reek; still almost belching the deadly food of idols, with jaws even now exhaling their crime and smelling of the fatal contagion, they break in upon the body of the Lord, when the divine Scripture confronts them and cries out and says, “Everyone who is clean shall eat the flesh; and whatever soul eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of salvation, which is the Lord's, while his uncleanness is upon him, that soul shall perish from his people”; and when the apostle likewise testifies and says, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot share in the table of the Lord and the table of demons”; and when he threatens and warns the stubborn and obstinate, saying, “Whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Penance” here renders paenitentia in the sense of the church's penitential discipline. The quotations are Lev 7:19–20, 1 Cor 10:21, and 1 Cor 11:27. The digital text's “omnismundus” is divided.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (joined words in the digital text): omnismundus → omnis mundus.
Cite this passage
Cyprian, Laps. 15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/15/).
Plain text
Cyprian, Laps. 15 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/15/).
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