On the Lapsed 22
Summary: Some of the lapsed, unrepentant and proud, rage against the clergy for refusing them the Eucharist, though these are the very ones praying for their forgiveness.
Latin text · CSEL 3.1:253–254
Quid de eo boni sentias, quem timorem fuisse aput eum, quam fidem credas, quem corrigere nec metus potuit, quem persecutio ipsa non reformauit? alta et recta ceruix nec quia cecidit inflexa est: tumens animus et superbus nec quia uictus est fractus est. iacens stantibus et integris uulneratus minatur et quod non statim Domini corpus inquinatis manibus accipiat aut ore polluto Domini sanguinem bibat, sacerdotibus sacrilegus irascitur. adque — o tuam nimiam, furiose, dementiam! — irasceris ei qui abs te iram Dei auertere nititur, ei minaris qui pro te Domini misericordiam deprecatur, qui uulnus tuum sentit quod ipse non sentis, qui pro te lacrimas fundit quas ipse forsitan non fundis. oneras adhuc crimen et cumulas et cum ipse sis inplacabilis ad antistites et sacerdotes Dei, putas circa te Dominum posse placari?
English · Claude translation
What good could you think of him, what fear could you believe there was in him, what faith, whom neither fear could correct nor persecution itself reform? His neck is high and straight, and has not bent because he has fallen; his mind is swollen and proud, and has not been broken because he has been conquered. Lying fallen, he threatens those who stand; wounded, he threatens the unwounded; and because he does not at once receive the Lord's body in defiled hands or drink the Lord's blood with polluted mouth, the sacrilegious man is angry with the priests. And (O your excessive madness, raving man!) you are angry with him who strives to turn God's anger away from you; you threaten him who entreats the Lord's mercy for you, who feels your wound which you yourself do not feel, who sheds tears for you which perhaps you yourself do not shed. You still load and heap up your crime; and while you yourself are implacable toward the bishops and priests of God, do you think the Lord can be appeased toward you?
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Bishops and priests” renders antistites et sacerdotes, both terms referring chiefly to bishops.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray punctuation in the digital text): placari?,. → placari?.
Cite this passage
Cyprian, Laps. 22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/22/).
Plain text
Cyprian, Laps. 22 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/22/).
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