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| To Pomponius, Concerning Some Virgins.
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Epistle LXI.2647
| 2647
Oxford ed.: Ep. iv. He suggests the kind of
discipline by which virgins may be kept in their duty, and some matters
concerning the power of excommunication in the Church.
Circa a.d. 249. |
To Pomponius, Concerning Some
Virgins.
Argument.—Cyprian, with Some of His Colleagues, Replies to His
Colleague Pomponius, that Virgins Who Had Determined to Maintain Their
State with Continency and Firmness, But Who Had Yet Subsequently Been
Found in the Same Bed with Men, If They Were Still Found to Be Virgins,
Should Be
Received into Communion and Admitted to the Church. But If
Otherwise, Since They are Adulterous Towards Christ, They Should Be
Compelled to Full Repentance, and Those Who Should Obstinately
Persevere Should Be Ejected from the Church.
1. Cyprian, Cæcilius, Victor, Sedatus,
Tertullus, with the presbyters who were present with them, to Pomponius
their brother, greeting. We have read, dearest brother, your
letter which you sent by Paconius our brother, asking and desiring us
to write again to you, and say what we thought of those virgins who,
after having once determined to continue in their condition, and firmly
to maintain their continency, have afterwards been found to have
remained in the same bed side by side with men; of whom you say that
one is a deacon; and yet that the same virgins who have confessed that
they have slept with men declare that they are chaste.2648
| 2648
[See vol. ii. p. 57, Elucidation II.] |
Concerning which matters, since you have desired our advice, know that
we do not depart from the traditions of the Gospel and of the apostles,
but with constancy and firmness take counsel for our brethren and
sisters, and maintain the discipline of the Church by all the ways of
usefulness and safety, since the Lord speaks, saying, “And I will
give you pastors according to mine heart, and they shall feed you with
discipline.”2649
And again it is written,
“Whoso despiseth discipline is miserable;2650
and in the Psalms also the Holy Spirit
admonishes and instructs us, saying, “Keep discipline, lest haply
the Lord be angry, and ye perish from the right way, when His anger
shall quickly burn against you.”2651
2. In the first place, therefore, dearest
brother, both by overseers and people nothing is to be more eagerly
sought after, than that we who fear God should keep the divine precepts
with every observation of discipline, and should not suffer our
brethren to stray, and to live according to their own fancy and
lust;2652
| 2652
Some editors read here “fructu” for
“ructu;” but Goldhorn observes that a similar collocation
of eructation with error is found in Horace, Ep. ad Pis.,
457. | but that we
should faithfully consult for the life of each one, and not suffer
virgins to dwell with men,—I do not say to sleep together, but to
live together2653
| 2653 [How
coarse and brutal the pagan manners, which even the Gospel could not
immediately refine!] | —since both
their weak sex and their age, still critical, ought to be bridled in
all things and ruled by us, lest an occasion should be given to the
devil who ensnares us, and desires to rage over us, to hurt them, since
the apostle also says, “Do not give place to the
devil.”2654
The ship
is watchfully to be delivered from perilous places, that it may not be
broken among the rocks and cliffs; the baggage must swiftly be taken
out of the fire, before it is burnt up by the flames reaching it.
No one who is near to danger is long safe, nor will the servant of God
be able to escape the devil if he has entangled himself in the
devil’s nets. We must interfere at once with such as these,
that they may be separated while yet they can be separated in
innocence; because by and by they will not be able to be separated by
our interference, after they have become joined together by a very
guilty conscience. Moreover, what a number of serious mischiefs
we see to have arisen hence; and what a multitude of virgins we behold
corrupted by unlawful and dangerous conjunctions of this kind, to our
great grief of mind! But if they have faithfully dedicated
themselves to Christ, let them persevere in modesty and chastity,
without incurring any evil report, and so in courage and steadiness
await the reward of virginity. But if they are unwilling or
unable to persevere, it is better that they should marry, than that by
their crimes they should fall into the fire. Certainly let them
not cause a scandal to the brethren or sisters, since it is written,
“If meat cause my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while
the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.”2655
3. Nor let any one think that she can be
defended by this excuse, that she may be examined and proved whether
she be a virgin; since both the hands and the eyes of the midwives are
often deceived; and if she be found to be a virgin in that particular
in which a woman may be so, yet she may have sinned in some other part
of her body, which may be corrupted and yet cannot be examined.
Assuredly the mere lying together, the mere embracing, the very talking
together, and the act of kissing, and the disgraceful and foul slumber
of two persons lying together, how much of dishonour and crime does it
confess! If a husband come upon his wife, and see her lying with
another man, is he not angry and raging, and by the passion of his rage
does he not perhaps take his sword into his hand? And what shall
Christ and our Lord and Judge think, when He sees His virgin, dedicated
to Him, and destined for His holiness, lying with another? How
indignant and angry is He, and what penalties does He threaten against
such unchaste connections! whose spiritual sword and the coming day of
judgment, that every one of the brethren may be able to escape, we
ought with all our counsel to provide and to strive. And since it
behoves all by all means to keep discipline,2656
much more is it right that overseers and
deacons should be careful for this, that they may afford an example and
instruction to others concerning their conversation and
character. For how can they direct the integrity and continence
of others, if the corruptions and teachings of sin begin to proceed
from themselves?
4. And therefore you have acted advisedly
and with vigour, dearest brother, in excommunicating the deacon who has
often abode with a virgin; and, moreover, the others who had been used
to sleep with virgins. But if they have repented of this their
unlawful lying together, and have mutually withdrawn from one another,
let the virgins meantime be carefully inspected by midwives; and if
they should be found virgins, let them be received to communion, and
admitted to the Church; yet with this threatening, that if subsequently
they should return to the same men, or if they should dwell together
with the same men in one house or under the same roof, they should be
ejected with a severer censure, nor should such be afterwards easily
received into the Church. But if any one of them be found to be
corrupted, let her abundantly repent, because she who has been guilty
of this crime is an adulteress, not (indeed) against a husband, but
against Christ; and therefore, a due time being appointed, let her
afterwards, when confession has been made, return to the Church.
But if they obstinately persevere, and do not mutually separate
themselves, let them know that, with this their immodest obstinacy,
they can never be admitted by us into the Church, lest they should
begin to set an example to others to go to ruin by their crimes.
Nor let them think that the way of life or of salvation is still open
to them, if they have refused to obey the bishops and priests, since in
Deuteronomy the Lord God says, “And the man that will do
presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest or judge,
whosoever he shall be in those days, that man shall die, and all the
people shall hear and fear, and do no more
presumptuously.”2657
God commanded those who did not
obey His priests to be slain, and those who did not hearken to His
judges who were appointed for the time. And then indeed they were
slain with the sword, when the circumcision of the flesh was yet in
force; but now that circumcision has begun to be of the spirit among
God’s faithful servants, the proud and contumacious are slain
with the sword of the Spirit, in that they are cast out of the
Church. For they cannot live out of it, since the house of God is
one, and there can be no salvation to any except in the Church.
But the divine Scripture testifies that the undisciplined perish,
because they do not listen to, nor obey wholesome precepts; for it
says, “An undisciplined man loveth not him that correcteth
him. But they who hate reproof shall be consumed with
disgrace.”2658
5. Therefore, dearest brother, endeavour
that the undisciplined should not be consumed and perish, that as much
as you can, by your salutary counsels, you should rule the brotherhood,
and take counsel of each one with a view to his salvation. Strait
and narrow is the way through which we enter into life, but excellent
and great is the reward when we enter into glory. Let those who
have once made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven2659
| 2659
[The frightful condition of heathen society inspired the effort to
maintain celibacy, but all this suggests the divine wisdom and clemency
in restricting it to the few. Matt. xix. 11.] | please God in
all things, and not offend God’s priests nor the Lord’s
Church by the scandal of their wickedness. And if, for the
present, certain of our brethren seem to be made sorry by us, let us
nevertheless remain in our wholesome persuasion, knowing that an
apostle also has said, “Am I therefore become your enemy because
I tell you the truth?”2660
But if they shall obey us, we have
gained our brethren, and have formed them as well to salvation as to
dignity by our address. But if some of the perverse persons
refuse to obey, let us follow the same apostle, who says, “If I
please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”2661
If we
cannot please some, so as to make them please Christ, let us assuredly,
as far as we can, please Christ our Lord and God, by observing His
precepts. I bid you, brother beloved and much longed-for,
heartily farewell in the Lord.2662
| 2662
[The horrible subject of this letter is treated in a valuable
note (k) in the Oxford trans., p 7. It began earlier (see
Hermas) than that learned annotator supposes; but the silence of
Minucius Felix, and the pagan objector of his story, as to this
specific reproach, suggests that it was of rare occurrence. Vol.
ii. p. 235.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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