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| To the Clergy and People Concerning His Retirement, a Little Before His Martyrdom.
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Epistle LXXXII.3050
| 3050
Oxford ed.: Ep. lxxxi. [Cyprian’s contest with
Stephen is practically valueless as to the point at issue between them
(see supra, p. 396), but it throws a flood of light on the
questions raised by papal pretensions. It also illuminates the
anti-Nicene doctrine of unity.] |
To the Clergy and People Concerning His
Retirement, a Little Before His Martyrdom.
Argument.—When, Near the End of His Life, Cyprian, on Returning to
His Gardens, Was Told that Messengers Were Sent to Take Him for
Punishment to Utica, He Withdrew. And Lest It Should Be Thought
that He Had Done So from Fear of Death, He Gives the Reason in This
Letter, Viz., that He Might Undergo His Martyrdom Nowhere Else Than at
Carthage, in the Sight of His Own People. a.d. 258.
1. Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons,
and all the people, greeting. When it had been told to us,
dearest brethren, that the gaolers3051
had been sent to bring me to Utica, and I
had been persuaded by
the counsel of those dearest to me to withdraw for a time from my
gardens, as a just reason was afforded I consented. For the
reason that it is fit for a bishop, in that city in which he presides
over the Church of the Lord, there to confess the Lord, and that the
whole people should be glorified by the confession of their prelate in
their presence. For whatever, in that moment of confession, the
confessor-bishop speaks, he speaks in the mouth of all, by inspiration
of God.3052
| 3052
[Matt. x. 19. There is something sublime
in the martyr’s reliance upon this word of Jesus. See sec.
2, infra, and Elucidation XXII.] | But the
honour of our Church, glorious as it is, will be mutilated if I, a
bishop placed over another church, receiving my sentence or my
confession at Utica, should go thence as a martyr to the Lord, when
indeed, both for my own sake and yours, I pray with continual
supplications, and with all my desires entreat, that I may confess
among you, and there suffer, and thence depart to the Lord even as I
ought. Therefore here in a hidden retreat I await the arrival of
the proconsul returning to Carthage, that I may hear from him what the
emperors have commanded upon the subject of Christian laymen and
bishops, and may say what the Lord will wish to be said at that
hour.
2. But do you, dearest brethren, according
to the discipline which you have ever received from me out of the
Lord’s commands, and according to what you have so very often
learnt from my discourse, keep peace and tranquillity; nor let any of
you stir up any tumult for the brethren, or voluntarily offer himself
to the Gentiles. For when apprehended and delivered up, he ought
to speak, inasmuch as the Lord abiding in us speaks in that hour, who
willed that we should rather confess than profess. But for the
rest, what it is fitting that we should observe before the proconsul
passes sentence on me for the confession of the name of God, we will
with the instruction of the Lord arrange in common.3053
| 3053
[Recur to the passion of this holy martyr as related by Pontius,
his deacon, p. 390. Stephen had broken communion with him (see p.
390 note) and the African provinces, which had no effect upon his
Catholic status. (See letter of Firmillian, p. 391
note.) But, on the Roman theory, this glorious martyr died
in schism. He is, nevertheless, a canonized saint in the Roman
Calendar. Elucidation XXII.] | May our Lord make you, dearest
brethren, to remain safe in His Church, and condescend to keep
you. So be it through His mercy.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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