On the Unity of the Catholic Church 14
Summary: A schismatic who dies for the name is not a martyr, since without charity and unity even martyrdom profits nothing.
Latin text · CSEL 3.1:222–223
Tales etiam si occisi in confessione nominis fuerint, macula ista nec sanguine abluitur: inexpiabilis et grauis culpa discordiae nec passione purgatur. esse martyr non potest qui in ecclesia non est: ad regnum peruenire non poterit qui eam quae regnatura est dereliquit. pacem nobis Christus dedit, concordes adque unanimes esse praecepit, dilectionis et caritatis foedera incorrupta adque inuiolata mandauit: exhibere se non potest martyrem qui fraternam non tenuit caritatem. docet hoc et contestatur Paulus apostolus dicens: et si habuero fidem ita ut montes transferam, caritatem autem non habeam, nihil sum: et si in cibos distribuero omnia mea et si tradidero corpus meum ut ardeam, caritatem autem non habeam, nihil proficio. caritas magnanima est, caritas benigna est, caritas non aemulatur, non inflatur, non inritatur, non agit perperam, non cogitat malum, omnia diligit, omnia credit, omnia sperat, omnia sustinet. caritas numquam excidet. numquam, inquit, excidet caritas. haec enim semper in regno erit, haec in aeternum fraternitatis sibi cohaerentis unitate durabit. ad regnum caelorum non potest peruenire discordia, ad praemium Christi qui dixit: hoc est mandatum meum ut diligatis inuicem, quemadmodum dilexi uos, pertinere non poterit qui dilectionem Christi perfida dissensione uiolauit. qui caritatem non habet Deum non habet. Iohannis beati apostoli uox est: Deus, inquit, dilectio est et qui manet in dilectione in Deo manet et Deus in illo manet. cum Deo manere non possunt qui esse in ecclesia Dei unanimes noluerunt. ardeant licet flammis et ignibus traditi uel obiecti bestiis animas suas ponant, non erit illa fidei corona sed poena perfidiae nec religiosae uirtutis exitus gloriosus sed desperationis interitus. occidi talis potest, coronari non potest. sic se christianum esse profitetur, quomodo et Christum diabolus saepe mentitur ipso Domino praemonente et dicente: multi uenient in nomine meo dicentes: ego sum Christus, et multos fallent. sicut ille Christus non est, quamuis fallat in nomine, ita nec christianus uideri potest qui non permanet in euangelio eius et fidei ueritate.
English · Claude translation
Such men, even if they are killed in confession of the name, that stain is not washed away even by blood: the inexpiable and grievous guilt of discord is not purged even by suffering. He cannot be a martyr who is not in the church; he will not be able to reach the kingdom who has forsaken her who is to reign. Christ gave us peace; he commanded us to be of one heart and one mind; he enjoined us to keep the covenants of love and charity uncorrupted and inviolate. He cannot show himself a martyr who has not kept brotherly charity. Paul the apostle teaches and bears witness to this, saying: "And if I have faith so that I remove mountains, but do not have charity, I am nothing; and if I give all my goods for food, and if I hand over my body to be burned, but do not have charity, I gain nothing. Charity is great-hearted, charity is kind, charity is not jealous, is not puffed up, is not provoked, does not act wrongly, thinks no evil; it loves all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Charity will never fail." "Never," he says, "will charity fail." For it will always be in the kingdom; it will endure forever in the unity of a brotherhood that holds together. Discord cannot reach the kingdom of heaven; he who has violated the love of Christ by faithless dissension cannot have part in the reward of Christ, who said: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." He who does not have charity does not have God. It is the voice of the blessed apostle John: "God," he says, "is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." They cannot abide with God who would not be of one mind in the church of God. Though they burn, given over to flames and fires, or lay down their lives thrown to the beasts, that will not be the crown of faith but the punishment of faithlessness, not the glorious end of religious virtue but the death of despair. Such a man can be killed; he cannot be crowned. He professes himself a Christian in the same way that the devil often falsely claims to be Christ, as the Lord himself forewarns and says: "Many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many." As he is not Christ, although he deceives in the name, so he cannot be regarded as a Christian who does not remain in his gospel and in the truth of faith.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are 1 Cor 13:2–5, 7–8; John 15:12; 1 John 4:16; Matt 24:5.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR: "a" for "s".; OCR: stray period.; OCR: words run together.): ecclesia non eat → ecclesia non est; uoxest → uox est; e.t multos → et multos.
Cite this passage
Cyprian, Unit. eccl. 14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-unitate/14/).
Plain text
Cyprian, Unit. eccl. 14 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-unitate/14/).
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