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| To Successus on the Tidings Brought from Rome, Telling of the Persecution.
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Epistle LXXXI.3043
| 3043
Oxford ed.: Ep. lxxx. As Cyprian suffered shortly
after, in the month of September, there is no doubt but that this
letter was written near the close of his life. a.d. 258. |
To Successus on the Tidings Brought
from Rome, Telling of the Persecution.
Argument.—Cyprian Tells the Bishop Successus, that in a Severe
Persecution that Had Been Decreed by the Emperor Valerian3044
| 3044
Doubtless with Gallienus. | Xistus the
Bishop Had Suffered at Rome on the Eighth of the Ides of August; And He
Begs Him to Intimate the Same to the Rest of His Colleagues, that Each
One Might Animate His Own Flock to Martyrdom.
1. Cyprian to his brother Successus,
greeting. The reason why I could not write to you immediately,
dearest brother, was that all the clergy, being placed in the very heat
of the contest, were unable in any way to depart hence, all of them
being prepared in accordance with the devotion of their mind for divine
and heavenly glory. But know that those have come whom I had sent
to the City3045
for this
purpose, that they might find out and bring back to us the truth, in
whatever manner it had been decreed respecting us. For many
various and uncertain things are current in men’s opinions.
But the truth concerning them is as follows, that Valerian had sent a
rescript to the Senate, to the effect that bishops and presbyters and
deacons should immediately be punished; but that senators, and men of
importance, and Roman knights,3046
should lose their dignity, and moreover be deprived of their property;
and if, when their means were taken away, they should persist in being
Christians, then they should also lose their heads; but that matrons
should be deprived of their property, and sent into banishment.
Moreover, people of Cæsar’s household, whoever of them had
either confessed before, or should now confess, should have their
property confiscated, and should be sent in chains by assignment to
Cæsar’s estates. The Emperor Valerian also added to
this address a copy of the letters which he sent to the presidents of
the provinces concerning us; which letters we are daily hoping will
come, waiting according to the strength of our faith for the endurance
of suffering, and expecting from the help and mercy of the Lord the
crown of eternal life. But know that Xistus was martyred in the
cemetery on the eighth day of the Ides of August, and with him four
deacons.3047
| 3047 Or,
“and with him Quartus.” | Moreover,
the prefects in the City3048
| 3048
[The modern name, Istamboul (εἰς τὴν
πόλιν), grows out of like usage
in the East. And, as Constantinople was “New Rome,”
this illustrates Irenæus and his convenire, vol. i. p.
460.] | are daily urging on this persecution; so
that, if any are presented to them, they are martyred, and their
property claimed by the treasury.
2. I beg that these things may be made known
by your means to the rest of our colleagues, that everywhere, by their
exhortation, the brotherhood may be strengthened and prepared for the
spiritual conflict, that every one of us may think less of death than
of immortality; and, dedicated to the Lord, with full faith and entire
courage, may rejoice rather than fear in this confession, wherein they
know that the soldiers of God and Christ are not slain, but
crowned. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell in
the Lord.3049
| 3049
[The baptismal question went by default, and was practically
given up by the African Church, amid greater issues. It has never
been dogmatically settled by the Church Catholic: and Roman usage
is evasive (in spite of its own anathemas); for it baptizes
again, sub conditionel. See useful note, Oxford ed. p.
244.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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