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| Cyprian to Nemesianus and Other Martyrs in the Mines.
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Epistle LXXVI.3004
| 3004
Oxford ed.: Ep. lxxvi. We gather that this was
written in exile from these words, “If the limits of the place
appointed me did not restrain me, banished as I am on account of the
confession of the Name.” a.d.
257. |
Cyprian to Nemesianus and Other Martyrs
in the Mines.3005
| 3005
[Compare vol. iii. p. 693.] |
Argument.—He Extols with Wonderful Commendations the Martyrs in the
Mines, Opposing, in a Beautiful Antithesis, to the Tortures of Each,
the Consolations of Each.
1. Cyprian to Nemesianus, Felix, Lucius, another
Felix, Litteus, Polianus, Victor, Jader, and Dativus, his
fellow-bishops, also to his fellow-presbyters and deacons, and the rest
of the brethren in the mines, martyrs of God the Father Almighty, and
of Jesus Christ our Lord, and of God our preserver, everlasting
greeting. Your glory, indeed, would demand, most blessed and
beloved brethren, that I myself should come to see and to embrace you,
if the limits of the place appointed me did not restrain me, banished
as I am for the sake of the confession of the Name. But in what
way I can, I bring myself into your presence; and even though it is not
permitted me to come to you in body and in movement, yet in love and in
spirit I come expressing my mind in my letter, in which mind I joyfully
exult in those virtues and praises of yours, counting myself a partaker
with you, although not in bodily suffering, yet in community of
love. Could I be silent and restrain my voice in stillness, when
I am made aware of so many and such glorious things concerning my
dearest friends, things with which the divine condescension has
honoured you, so that part of you have already gone before by the consummation of their
martyrdom to receive from their Lord the crown of their deserts?
Part still abide in the dungeons of the prison, or in the mines and in
chains, exhibiting by the very delays of their punishments, greater
examples for the strengthening and arming of the brethren, advancing by
the tediousness of their tortures to more ample titles of merit, to
receive as many payments in heavenly rewards, as days are now counted
in their punishments. I do not marvel, most brave and blessed
brethren, that these things have happened to you in consideration of
the desert of your religion and your faith; that the Lord should thus
have lifted you to the lofty height of glory by the honour of His
glorification, seeing that you have always flourished in His Church,
guarding the tenor of the faith, keeping firmly the Lord’s
commands; in simplicity, innocence; in charity, concord; modesty in
humility, diligence in administration, watchfulness in helping those
that suffer, mercy in cherishing the poor, constancy in defending the
truth, judgment in severity of discipline. And that nothing
should be wanting to the example of good deeds in you, even now, in the
confession of your voice and the suffering of your body, you provoke
the minds of your brethren to divine martyrdom, by exhibiting
yourselves as leaders of virtue, that while the flock follows its
pastors, and imitates what it sees to be done by those set over it, it
may be crowned with the like merits of obedience by the Lord.
2. But that, being first severely beaten
with clubs, and ill-used, you have begun by sufferings of that kind,
the glorious firstlings of your confession, is not a matter to be
execrated by us. For a Christian body is not very greatly
terrified at clubs, seeing all its hope is in the Wood.3006
| 3006
Scil.: “of the cross.” [Fanciful
in logic, but our author may be indulged in his rhetoric.
It was suited to the times.] | The servant
of Christ acknowledges the sacrament of his salvation: redeemed
by wood to life eternal, he is advanced by wood to the crown. But
what wonder if, as golden and silver vessels, you have been committed
to the mine that is the home of gold and silver, except that now the
nature of the mines is changed, and the places which previously had
been accustomed to yield gold and silver have begun to receive
them? Moreover, they have put fetters on your feet, and have
bound your blessed limbs, and the temples of God with disgraceful
chains, as if the spirit also could be bound with the body, or your
gold could be stained by the contact of iron. To men who are
dedicated to God, and attesting their faith with religious courage,
such things are ornaments, not chains; nor do they bind the feet of the
Christians for infamy, but glorify them for a crown. Oh feet
blessedly bound, which are loosed, not by the smith but by the
Lord! Oh feet blessedly bound, which are guided to paradise in
the way of salvation! Oh feet bound for the present time in the
world, that they may be always free with the Lord! Oh feet,
lingering for a while among the fetters and cross-bars,3007
| 3007 [i.e.,
of the stocks.] | but to run quickly
to Christ on a glorious road! Let cruelty, either envious or
malignant, hold you here in its bonds and chains as long as it will,
from this earth and from these sufferings you shall speedily come to
the kingdom of heaven. The body is not cherished in the mines
with couch and cushions, but it is cherished with the refreshment and
solace of Christ. The frame wearied with labours lies prostrate
on the ground, but it is no penalty to lie down with Christ. Your
limbs unbathed, are foul and disfigured with filth and dirt; but within
they are spiritually cleansed, although without the flesh is defiled.
There the bread is scarce; but man liveth not by bread alone, but
by the word of God. Shivering, you want clothing; but he who puts
on Christ is both abundantly clothed and adorned. The hair of
your half-shorn head3008
| 3008 [As of
convict criminals. An honourable tonsure.] |
seems repulsive; but since Christ is the head of the man, anything
whatever must needs become that head which is illustrious on account of
Christ’s name. All that deformity, detestable and foul to
Gentiles, with what splendour shall it be recompensed! This
temporal and brief suffering, how shall it be exchanged for the reward
of a bright and eternal honour, when, according to the word of the
blessed apostle, “the Lord shall change the body of our
humiliation, that it may be fashioned like to the body of His
brightness!”3009
3. But there cannot be felt any loss of
either religion or faith, most beloved brethren, in the fact that now
there is given no opportunity there to God’s priests for offering
and celebrating the divine sacrifices; yea, you celebrate and offer a
sacrifice to God equally3010
| 3010
[This is very strong language, and absolutely disproves
transubstantiation and “the eucharistic God” of Dufresne,
Med., iii.] |
precious and glorious, and that will greatly profit you for the
retribution of heavenly rewards, since the sacred Scripture speaks,
saying, “The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit; a contrite and
humbled heart God doth not despise.”3011
You offer this sacrifice to God; you
celebrate this sacrifice without intermission day and night, being made
victims to God, and exhibiting yourselves as holy and unspotted
offerings, as the apostle exhorts and says, “I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. And be not
conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect
will of God.”3012
4. For this it is which especially pleases
God; it is this wherein our works with greater deserts are successful
in earning God’s good-will; this it is which alone the obedience
of our faith and devotion can render to the Lord for His great and
saving benefits, as the Holy Spirit declares and witnesses in the
Psalms: “What shall I render,” says He, “to the
Lord for all His benefits towards me? I will take the cup of
salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. Precious in
the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”3013
Who would
not gladly and readily receive the cup of salvation? Who would
not with joy and gladness desire that in which he himself also may
render somewhat unto His Lord? Who would not bravely and
unfalteringly receive a death precious in the sight of the Lord, to
please His eyes, who, looking down from above upon us who are placed in
the conflict for His name, approves the willing, assists the
struggling, crowns the conquering with the recompense of patience,
goodness, and affection, rewarding in us whatever He Himself has
bestowed, and honouring what He has accomplished?
5. For that it is His doing that we conquer,
and that we attain by the subduing of the adversary to the palm of the
greatest contest, the Lord declares and teaches in His Gospel, saying,
“But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye
shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall
speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father
which speaketh in you.”3014
And again: “Settle it
therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer;
for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which your adversaries shall
not be able to resist.”3015
In which, indeed, is both the great
confidence of believers, and the gravest fault of the faithless, that
they do not trust Him who promises to give His help to those who
confess Him, and do not on the other hand fear Him who threatens
eternal punishment to those who deny Him.
6. All which things, most brave and faithful
soldiers of Christ, you have suggested to your brethren, fulfilling in
deeds what ye have previously taught in words, hereafter to be greatest
in the kingdom of heaven, as the Lord promises and says,
“Whosoever shall do and teach so, shall be called the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven.”3016
Moreover, a manifold portion of the
people, following your example, have confessed alike with you, and
alike have been crowned, associated with you in the bond of the
strongest charity, and separated from their prelates neither by the
prison nor by the mines; in the number of whom neither are there
wanting virgins in whom the hundred-fold are added to the fruit of
sixty-fold, and whom a double glory has advanced to the heavenly
crown. In boys also a courage greater than their age has
surpassed their years in the praise of their confession, so that every
sex and every age should adorn the blessed flock of your
martyrdom.3017
| 3017 [No
one can read these obiter dicta of our author without assurance
that the martyrs were a numerous army, beyond what is generally
allowed. “A noble army, men and boys” (Heber).] |
7. What now must be the vigour, beloved
brethren, of your victorious consciousness, what the loftiness of your
mind, what exultation in feeling, what triumph in your breast, that
every one of you stands near to the promised reward of God, are secure
from the judgment of God, walk in the mines with a body captive indeed,
but with a heart reigning, that you know Christ is present with you,
rejoicing in the endurance of His servants, who are ascending by His
footsteps and in His paths to the eternal kingdoms! You daily
expect with joy the saving day of your departure; and already about to
withdraw from the world, you are hastening to the rewards of martyrdom,
and to the divine homes, to behold after this darkness of the world the
purest light, and to receive a glory greater than all sufferings and
conflicts, as the apostle witnesses, and says, “The sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that
shall be revealed in us.”3018
And because now your word is more
effectual in prayers, and supplication is more quick to obtain what is
sought for in afflictions, seek more eagerly, and ask that the divine
condescension would consummate the confession of all of us; that from
this darkness and these snares of the world God would set us also free
with you, sound and glorious; that we who here are united in the bond
of charity and peace, and have stood together against the wrongs of
heretics and the oppressions of the heathens, may rejoice together in
the heavenly kingdom. I bid you, most blessed and most beloved
brethren, ever farewell in the Lord, and always and everywhere remember
me.3019
| 3019 [See
next letter. I cannot conceive of any Christian as not profoundly
touched and edified by this eloquent and scriptural letter of a martyr
to martyrs in a period of fiery trial. They truly believed what
is written, “to die is gain.” Phil. i. 21.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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