Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| To the Numidian Bishops, on the Redemption of Their Brethren from Captivity Among the Barbarians.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Epistle LIX.2635
| 2635
Oxford ed.: Ep. lxii. a.d.
253. |
To the Numidian Bishops, on the
Redemption of Their Brethren from Captivity Among the
Barbarians.
Argument.—Cyprian Begins by Deploring the Captivity of the Brethren,
of Which He Had Heard from the Numidian Bishops, and Says that He is
Sending Them a Hundred Thousand Sesterces, Contributed by Brethren and
Sisters and Colleagues.2636
1. Cyprian to Januarius, Maximus, Proculus,
Victor, Modianus, Nemesianus, Nampulus, and Honoratus, his brethren,
greeting. With excessive grief of mind, and not without tears,
dearest brethren, I have read your letter which you wrote to me from
the solicitude of your love, concerning the captivity of our brethren
and sisters. For who would not grieve at misfortunes of that
kind, or who would not consider his brother’s grief his own,
since the Apostle Paul speaks, saying, “Whether one member
suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member rejoice, all the
members rejoice with it;”2637
and in another place he says,
“Who is weak, and I am not weak?”2638
Wherefore now also the captivity
of our brethren must be reckoned as our captivity, and the grief of
those who are endangered is to be esteemed as our grief, since indeed
there is one body of our union; and not love only, but also religion,
ought to instigate and strengthen us to redeem the members of the
brethren.
2. For inasmuch as the Apostle Paul says
again, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”2639
—even although love urged us
less to bring help to the brethren, yet in this place we must have
considered that it was the temples of God which were taken captive, and
that we ought not by long inactivity and neglect of their suffering to
allow the temples of God to be long captive, but to strive with what
powers we can, and to act quickly by our obedience, to deserve well of
Christ our Judge and Lord and God. For as the Apostle Paul says,
“As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ,”2640
Christ is
to be contemplated in our captive brethren, and He is to be redeemed
from the peril of captivity who redeemed us from the peril of death; so
that He who took us out of the jaws of the devil, who abides and dwells
in us, may now Himself be rescued and redeemed from the hands of
barbarians by a sum of money—who redeemed us by His cross and
blood—who suffers these things to happen for this reason, that
our faith may be tried, whether each one of us will do for another what
he would wish to be done for himself, if he himself were held captive
among barbarians. For who that is mindful of humanity, and
reminded of mutual love, if he be a father, will not now consider that
his sons are there; if he be a husband, will not think that his wife is
there kept captive, with as much grief as shame for the marriage
tie? But how great is the general grief among all of us, and
suffering concerning the peril of virgins who are kept there, on whose
behalf we must bewail not only the loss of liberty, but of modesty; and
must lament the bonds of barbarians less than the violence of seducers
and abominable places, lest the members dedicated to Christ, and
devoted for ever in honour of continence by modest. virtue, should be
sullied by the lust and contagion of the insulter.
3. Our brotherhood, considering all these
things according to your letter, and sorrowfully examining, have all
promptly and willingly and liberally gathered together supplies of
money for the brethren, being always indeed, according to the strength
of their faith, prone to the work of God, but now even more stimulated
to salutary works by the consideration of so great a suffering.
For since the Lord in His Gospel says, “I was sick, and ye
visited me,”2641
with how much greater reward for our work will He say now, “I was
captive, and ye redeemed me!” And since again He says,
“I was in prison, and ye came unto me,” how much more will
it be when He begins to say, “I was in the dungeon of captivity,
and I lay shut up and bound among barbarians, and from that prison of
slavery you delivered me,” being about to receive a reward from
the Lord when the day of judgment shall come! Finally, we give
you the warmest thanks that you have wished us to be sharers in your
anxiety,2642
and in so great
and necessary a work—that you have offered us fruitful fields in
which we might cast the seeds of our hope, with the expectation of a
harvest of the most abundant fruits which will proceed from this
heavenly and saving operation. We have then sent you a sum of one
hundred thousand sesterces,2643
| 2643
[An immense contribution, for the times. In our money
reckoned (for temp. Decii) at $3,757. For the Augustan age
it would be $4,294. The text (sestertia) dubious.
Ed. Paris. | which have been collected here in the
Church over which by the Lord’s mercy we preside, by the
contributions of the clergy and people established with us, which you
will there dispense with what diligence you may.
4. And we wish, indeed, that nothing of such a
kind may happen again, and that our brethren, protected by the majesty
of the Lord, may be preserved
safe from perils of this kind. If, however, for the searching out
of the love of our mind, and for the testing of the faith of our heart,
any such thing should happen, do not delay to tell us of it in your
letters, counting it for certain that our church and the whole
fraternity here beseech by their prayers that these things may not
happen again; but if they happen, that they will willingly and
liberally render help. But that you may have in mind in your
prayers our brethren and sisters who have laboured so promptly and
liberally for this needful work, that they may always labour; and that
in return for their good work you may present them in your sacrifices
and prayers, I have subjoined the names of each one; and moreover also
I have added the names of my colleagues and fellow-priests, who
themselves also, as they were present, contributed some little
according to their power, in their own names and the name of their
people. And besides our own amount, I have intimated and sent
their small sums, all of whom, in conformity with the claims of faith
and charity, you ought to remember in your supplications and
prayers.2644
| 2644
[The diptychs are here referred to; that is, lists (read
at the Eucharist) in which benefactors, living or dead, were gratefully
remembered. Anglice, “beadroll.”] | We bid
you, dearest brethren, ever heartily farewell, and remember
us.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
