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| To Rogatianus the Presbyter, and the Other Confessors. A.D. 250.
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Epistle VI.2154
| 2154 Oxford
ed.; Ep. xiii. [Rogatian was a bishop afterwards.] |
To Rogatianus the Presbyter, and the
Other Confessors. a.d. 250.
Argument.—He Exhorts Rogatianus and the Other Confessors to Maintain
Discipline, that None Who Had Confessed Christ in Word Should Seem to
Deny Him in Deed; Casually Rebuking Some of Them, Who, Being Exiled on
Account of the Faith, Were Not Afraid to Return Unbidden into Their
Country.
1. Cyprian to the presbyter Rogatianus, and to the
other confessors, his brethren, greeting. I had both heretofore, dearly beloved and
bravest brethren, sent you a letter, in which I congratulated your
faith and virtue with exulting words, and now my voice has no other
object, first of all, than with joyous mind, repeatedly and always to
announce the glory of your name. For what can I wish greater or
better in my prayers than to see the flock of Christ enlightened by the
honour of your confession? For although all the brethren ought to
rejoice in this, yet, in the common gladness, the share of the bishop
is the greatest. For the glory of the Church is the glory of the
bishop.2155
| 2155 A
beautiful aphorism. See below, note 8, this page.] | In
proportion as we grieve over those whom a hostile persecution has cast
down, in the same proportion we rejoice over you whom the devil has not
been able to overcome.
2. Yet I exhort you by our common faith, by
the true and simple love of my heart towards you, that, having overcome
the adversary in this first encounter, you should hold fast your glory
with a brave and persevering virtue. We are still in the world;
we are still placed in the battle-field; we fight daily for our
lives. Care must be taken, that after such beginnings as these
there should also come an increase, and that what you have begun to be
with such a blessed commencement should be consummated in you. It
is a slight thing to have been able to attain anything; it is more to
be able to keep what you have attained; even as faith itself and saving
birth makes alive, not by being received, but by being preserved.
Nor is it actually the attainment, but the perfecting, that keeps a man
for God. The Lord taught this in His instruction when He said,
“Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing
come unto thee.”2156
Conceive of Him as saying this also
to His confessor, “Lo thou art made a confessor; sin no more,
lest a worse thing come unto thee.” Solomon also, and Saul,
and many others, so long as they walked in the Lord’s ways, were
able to keep the grace given to them. When the discipline of the
Lord was forsaken by them, grace also forsook them.
3. We must persevere in the straight and
narrow road of praise and glory; and since peacefulness and humility
and the tranquillity of a good life is fitting for all Christians,
according to the word of the Lord, who looks to none other man than
“to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth
at”2157
His word, it the
more behoves you confessors, who have been made an example to the rest
of the brethren, to observe and fulfil this, as being those whose
characters should provoke to imitation the life and conduct of
all. For as the Jews were alienated from God, as those on whose
account “the name of God is blasphemed among the
Gentiles,”2158
so on the
other hand those are dear to God through whose conformity to discipline
the name of God is declared with a testimony of praise, as it is
written, the Lord Himself forewarning and saying, “Let your light
so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven.”2159
And Paul the apostle says,
“Shine as lights in the world.”2160
And similarly Peter exhorts:
“As strangers,” says he, “and pilgrims, abstain from
fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your conversation
honest among the Gentiles; that whereas they speak against you as
evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold,
glorify the Lord.”2161
This, indeed, the greatest part of
you, I rejoice to say, are careful for; and, made better by the honour
of your confession itself, guard and preserve its glory by tranquil and
virtuous lives.
4. But I hear that some infect your number,
and destroy the praise of a distinguished name by their corrupt
conversation; whom you yourselves, even as being lovers and guardians
of your own praise, should rebuke and check and correct. For what
a disgrace is suffered by your name, when one spends his days in
intoxication and debauchery,2162
another returns to that country whence he was banished, to perish when
arrested, not now as being a Christian, but as being a
criminal!2163
I hear
that some are puffed up and are arrogant, although it is written,
“Be not high-minded, but fear: for if God spared not the
natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not
thee.”2164
Our Lord
“was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before her
shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.”2165
“I am not rebellious,”
says He, “neither do I gainsay. I gave my back to the
smiters, and my cheeks to the palms of their hands. I hid not my
face from the filthiness of spitting.”2166
And dares any one now, who lives by
and in this very One, lift up himself and be haughty, forgetful, as
well of the deeds which He did, as of the commands which He left to us
either by Himself or by His apostles? But if “the servant
is not greater than his Lord,”2167
let those who follow the Lord humbly and peacefully and
silently tread in His steps, since the lower one is, the more exalted
he may become; as says the Lord, “He that is least among you, the
same shall be great.”2168
5. What, then, is that—how execrable
should it appear to you—which I have learnt with extreme anguish
and grief of mind, to wit, that there are not wanting those who defile
the temples of God, and the members sanctified after confession and
made glorious,2169
| 2169
“Illustrata.” The Oxford translation has
“bathed in light.” | with a
disgraceful and infamous concubinage, associating their beds
promiscuously with women’s! In which, even if there be no
pollution of their conscience, there is a great guilt in this very
thing, that by their offence originate examples for the ruin of
others.2170
| 2170 [That
is, if they have not actually committed the great sin themselves, yet,
etc. See vol. ii. p. 57.] | There ought
also to be no contentions and emulations among you, since the Lord left
to us His peace, and it is written, “Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.”2171
“But if ye bite and find
fault with one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of
another.”2172
From
abuse and revilings also I entreat you to abstain, for “revilers
do not attain the kingdom of God;”2173
and the tongue which has confessed
Christ should be preserved sound and pure with its honour. For he
who, according to Christ’s precept, speaks things peaceable and
good and just, daily confesses Christ. We had renounced the world
when we were baptized; but we have now indeed renounced the world when
tried and approved by God, we leave all that we have, and have followed
the Lord, and stand and live in His faith and fear.
6. Let us confirm one another by mutual
exhortations, and let us more and more go forward in the Lord; so that
when of His mercy He shall have made that peace which He promises to
give, we may return to the Church new and almost changed men, and may
be received, whether by our brethren or by the heathen, in all things
corrected and renewed for the better; and those who formerly admired
our glory in our courage may now admire the discipline in our
lives.2174
| 2174
The following is found only in one ms. Its genuineness is therefore doubted by
some: “And although I have most fully written to our
clergy, both lately when you were still kept in prison, and now also
again, to supply whatever was needful, either for your clothing or for
your food, yet I myself have also sent you from the small means of my
own which I had with me, 250 pieces; and another 250 I had also sent
before. Victor also, who from a reader has become a deacon, and
is with me, sent you 175. But I rejoice when I know that very
many of our brethren of their love are striving with each other, and
are aiding your necessities with their contributions.” | I bid
you, beloved brethren, ever heartily farewell; and be mindful of
me.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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