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Treatise
III.3211
On the Lapsed.3212
| 3212
Cyprian had frequently promised, that as soon as peace should be
restored to the Church, he would write something definite on the
subject of the lapsed; and in the following treatise he fulfils his
promise. |
Argument.—Having Enlarged Upon the Unlooked-for Peace of the Church,
and the Constancy of the Confessors and Those Who Had Stood Fast in the
Faith; And Then with Extreme Grief Having Pointed to the Downfall of
the Lapsed, and Unfolded the Causes of the Bygone Persecution, Namely,
the Neglect of Discipline, and the Sins of the Faithful; Our Author
Severely Reproaches the Lapsed, That, at the Very First Words of the
Enemy Threatening Them, They Had Sacrificed to Idols, and Had Not
Rather Withdrawn, According to Christ’s Counsel.3213
| 3213 Now
that they had been polluted with sacrifices, contrary to the law of the
Gospel, before their sins were atoned for, before confession of their
crime had been made, they were doing violence to the body and blood of
the Lord, and were extorting communion and peace from certain
presbyters, without the bishop’s judgment. He exhorts them
accordingly, in many words, that,—deterred by the divine
vengeance on certain of the lapsed who had communicated unworthily, and
animated by the example of those, who, although under the bondage of no
crime, either of sacrifice or of certificate, yet, because they had
even thought of these things, confessed with grief and sincerity the
actual sin to God’s priests and made avowal,—they should
confess their sin, to public repentance and full satisfaction. | Lastly,
He Warns His Readers to Avoid the Novatians, Confuting Their Heresy
with Many Scriptures.
1. Behold, beloved brethren, peace is restored to
the Church; and although it lately seemed to incredulous people
difficult, and to traitors impossible, our security is by divine aid
and retribution re-established. Our minds return to gladness; and
the season of affliction and the cloud being dispersed, tranquillity
and serenity have shone forth once more. Praises must be given to
God, and His benefits and gifts must be celebrated with giving of
thanks, although even in the time of persecution our voice has not
ceased to give thanks. For not even an enemy has so much power as
to prevent us, who love the Lord with our whole heart, and life, and
strength, from declaring His blessings and praises always and
everywhere with glory. The day earnestly desired, by the prayers
of all has come; and after the dreadful and loathsome darkness of a
long night, the world has shone forth irradiated by the light of the
Lord.
2. We look with glad countenances upon
confessors illustrious with the heraldry of a good name, and glorious
with the praises of virtue and of faith; clinging to them with holy
kisses, we embrace them long desired with insatiable eagerness.
The white-robed cohort of Christ’s soldiers is here, who in the
fierce conflict have broken the ferocious turbulence of an urgent
persecution, having been prepared for the suffering of the dungeon,
armed for the endurance of death. Bravely you have resisted the
world: you have afforded a glorious spectacle in the sight of
God; you have been an example to your brethren that shall follow
you. That religious voice has named the name of Christ, in whom
it has once confessed that it believed; those illustrious hands, which
had only been accustomed to divine works, have resisted the
sacrilegious sacrifices; those lips, sanctified by heavenly food after
the body and blood of the Lord, have rejected the profane contacts and
the leavings of the idols. Your head has remained free from the
impious and wicked veil3214
with which the captive heads of
those who sacrificed were there veiled; your brow, pure with the sign
of God, could not bear the crown of the devil, but reserved itself for
the Lord’s crown. How joyously does your Mother Church
receive you in her bosom, as you return from the battle! How
blissfully, how gladly, does she open her gates, that in united bands
you may enter, bearing the trophies from a prostrate enemy! With
the triumphing men come women also, who, while contending with the
world, have also overcome their sex; and virgins also come with the
double glory of their warfare, and boys transcending their years with
their virtues.3215
| 3215 Some
read, with very uncertain authority, “with the virtues of
continency.” |
Moreover, also, the rest of the multitude of those who stand fast
follow your glory, and accompany your footsteps with the insignia of
praise, very near to, and almost joined with, your own. In them
also is the same sincerity of heart, the same soundness of a tenacious
faith. Resting on the unshaken roots of the heavenly precepts,
and strengthened by the evangelical traditions, the prescribed
banishment, the destined tortures, the loss of property, the bodily
punishments, have not terrified them. The days for proving their
faith were limited beforehand; but he who remembers that he has
renounced the world knows no day of worldly appointment, neither does
he who hopes for eternity from God calculate the seasons of earth any
more.
3. Let none, my beloved brethren, let none
depreciate this glory; let none by malignant dispraise detract from the
uncorrupted stedfastness of those who have stood. When the day
appointed for denying was gone by, every one who had not professed
within that time not to be a Christian, confessed that he was a
Christian. It is the first title to victory to confess the Lord
under the violence of the hands of the Gentiles. It is the second
step to glory to be withdrawn by a cautious retirement, and to be
reserved for the Lord. The
former is a public, the latter is a private confession. The
former overcomes the judge of this world; the latter, content with God
as its judge, keeps a pure conscience in integrity of heart. In
the former case there is a readier fortitude; in the latter, solicitude
is more secure. The former, as his hour approached, was already
found mature; the latter perhaps was delayed, who, leaving his estate,
withdrew for a while, because he would not deny, but would certainly
confess if he too had been apprehended.
4. One cause of grief saddens these heavenly
crowns of martyrs, these glorious spiritual confessions, these very
great and illustrious virtues of the brethren who stand; which is, that
the hostile violence has torn away a part of our own bowels, and thrown
it away in the destructiveness of its own cruelty. What shall I
do in this matter, beloved brethren? Wavering in the various tide
of feeling, what or how shall I speak? I need tears rather than
words to express the sorrow with which the wound of our body should be
bewailed, with which the manifold loss of a people once numerous should
be lamented. For whose heart is so hard or cruel, who is so
unmindful of brotherly love, as, among the varied ruins of his friends,
and the mournful relics disfigured with all degradation, to be able to
stand and to keep dry eyes, and not in the breaking out of his grief to
express his groanings rather with tears than with words? I
grieve, brethren, I grieve with you; nor does my own integrity and my
personal soundness beguile me to the soothing of my griefs, since it is
the shepherd that is chiefly wounded in the wound of his flock. I
join my breast with each one, and I share in the grievous burden of
sorrow and mourning. I wail with the wailing, I weep with the
weeping, I regard myself as prostrated with those that are
prostrate. My limbs are at the same time stricken with those
darts of the raging enemy; their cruel swords have pierced through my
bowels; my mind could not remain untouched and free from the inroad of
persecution among my downfallen brethren; sympathy has cast me down
also.
5. Yet, beloved brethren, the cause of truth
is to be had in view; nor ought the gloomy darkness of the terrible
persecution so to have blinded the mind and feeling, that there should
remain no light and illumination whence the divine precepts may be
beheld. If the cause of disaster is recognised, there is at once
found a remedy for the wound. The Lord has desired His family to
be proved; and because a long peace had corrupted the
discipline3216
| 3216
[This and the whole passage which follows are cited by
Wordsworth, to illustrate the times that produced a Callistus.
See his Hippol., p. 140.] | that had been
divinely delivered to us, the heavenly rebuke has aroused our faith,
which was giving way, and I had almost said slumbering; and although we
deserved3217
more for our
sins, yet the most merciful Lord has so moderated all things, that all
which has happened has rather seemed a trial than a
persecution.
6. Each one was desirous of increasing his
estate; and forgetful of what believers had either done before in the
times of the apostles, or always ought to do, they, with the insatiable
ardour of covetousness, devoted themselves to the increase of their
property. Among the priests there was no devotedness of religion;
among the ministers3218
| 3218 A
late version gives, “in the ministries.” | there was no sound faith: in
their works there was no mercy; in their manners there was no
discipline. In men, their beards were defaced;3219
| 3219
[Vol. iv. p. 22. Here Cyprian’s “master” seems
to speak again.] | in women, their complexion was
dyed: the eyes were falsified from what God’s hand had made
them; their hair was stained with a falsehood. Crafty frauds were
used to deceive the hearts of the simple, subtle meanings for
circumventing the brethren. They united in the bond of marriage
with unbelievers; they prostituted the members of Christ to the
Gentiles. They would swear not only rashly, but even more, would
swear falsely; would despise those set over them with haughty swelling,
would speak evil of one another with envenomed tongue, would quarrel
with one another with obstinate hatred. Not a few
bishops3220
| 3220 [The
state of things at Rome under Callistus and his predecessor is here
very delicately reflected.] | who ought to
furnish both exhortation and example to others, despising their divine
charge, became agents in secular business, forsook their throne,
deserted their people, wandered about over foreign provinces, hunted
the markets for gainful merchandise, while brethren were starving in
the Church.3221
They
sought to possess money in hoards, they seized estates by crafty
deceits, they increased their gains by multiplying usuries. What
do not such as we deserve to suffer for sins of this kind, when even
already the divine rebuke has forewarned us, and said, “If they
shall forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they shall
profane my statutes, and shall not observe my precepts, I will visit
their offences with a rod, and their sins with
scourges?”3222
7. These things were before declared to us, and
predicted. But we, forgetful of the law and obedience required of
us, have so acted by our sins, that while we despise the Lord’s
commandments, we have come by severer remedies to the correction of our
sin and probation of our faith. Nor indeed have we at last been
converted to the fear of the Lord, so as to undergo patiently
and courageously this our
correction and divine proof. Immediately at the first words of
the threatening foe, the greatest number of the brethren betrayed their
faith, and were cast down, not by the onset of persecution, but cast
themselves down by voluntary lapse. What unheard-of thing, I beg
of you, what new thing had happened, that, as if on the occurrence of
things unknown and unexpected, the obligation to3223
| 3223
“Christi sacramentum.” [Like a panic in an
undisciplined army.] | Christ should be dissolved with
headlong rashness? Have not prophets aforetime, and subsequently
apostles, told of these things? Have not they, full of the Holy
Spirit, predicted the afflictions of the righteous, and always the
injuries of the heathens? Does not the sacred Scripture, which
ever arms our faith and strengthens with a voice from heaven the
servants of God, say, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and
Him only shalt thou serve?”3224
Does it not again show the anger
of the divine indignation, and warn of the fear of punishment
beforehand, when it says, “They worshipped them whom their
fingers have made; and the mean man boweth down, and the great man
humbleth himself, and I will forgive them not?”3225
And again, God speaks, and says,
“He that sacrifices unto any gods, save unto the Lord only, shall
be destroyed.”3226
In the Gospel also subsequently,
the Lord, who instructs by His words and fulfils by His deeds, teaching
what should be done, and doing whatever He had taught, did He not
before admonish us of whatever is now done and shall be done? Did
He not before ordain both for those who deny Him eternal punishments,
and for those that confess Him saving rewards?
8. From some—ah, misery!—all
these things have fallen away, and have passed from memory. They
indeed did not wait to be apprehended ere they ascended, or to be
interrogated ere they denied. Many were conquered before the
battle, prostrated before the attack. Nor did they even leave it
to be said for them, that they seemed to sacrifice to idols
unwillingly. They ran to the market-place of their own accord;
freely they hastened to death, as if they had formerly wished it, as if
they would embrace an opportunity now given which they had always
desired. How many were put off by the magistrates at that time,
when evening was coming on; how many even asked that their destruction
might not be delayed! What violence can such a one plead as an
excuse? How can he purge his crime, when it was he himself who
rather used force to bring about his own ruin? When they came
voluntarily to the Capitol,—when they freely approached to the
obedience of the terrible wickedness,—did not their tread
falter? Did not their sight darken, their heart tremble, their
arms fall helplessly down? Did not their senses fail, their
tongue cleave to their mouth, their speech grow weak? Could the
servant of God stand there, and speak and renounce Christ, when he had
already renounced the devil and the world? Was not that altar,
whither he drew near to perish, to him a funeral pile? Ought he
not to shudder at and flee from the devil’s altar, which he had
seen to smoke, and to be redolent of a foul fœtor, as if it were
the funeral and sepulchre of his life? Why bring with you, O
wretched man, a sacrifice? why immolate a victim? You yourself
have come to the altar an offering; you yourself have come a
victim: there you have immolated your salvation, your hope; there
you have burnt up your faith in those deadly fires.3227
9. But to many their own destruction was not
sufficient. With mutual exhortations, people were urged to their
ruin; death was pledged by turns in the deadly cup. And that
nothing might be wanting to aggravate the crime, infants also, in the
arms of their parents, either carried or conducted, lost, while yet
little ones, what in the very first beginning of their nativity they
had gained.3228
Will
not they, when the day of judgment comes, say, “We have done
nothing;3229
nor have we
forsaken the Lord’s bread and cup to hasten freely to a profane
contact; the faithlessness of others has ruined us. We have found
our parents our murderers; they have denied to us the Church as a
Mother; they have denied God as a Father: so that, while we were
little, and unforeseeing, and unconscious of such a crime, we were
associated by others to the partnership of wickedness, and we were
snared by the deceit of others?”
10. Nor is there, alas, any just and weighty
reason which excuses such a crime. One’s country was to be
left, and loss of one’s estate was to be suffered. Yet to
whom that is born and dies is there not a necessity at some time to
leave his country, and to suffer the loss of his estate? But let
not Christ be forsaken, so that the loss of salvation and of an eternal
home should be feared. Behold, the Holy Spirit cries by the
prophet, “Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch not
the unclean thing; go ye out from the midst of her, and be ye separate,
that bear the vessels of the Lord.”3230
Yet those who are the vessels of
the Lord and the temple of God do not go out from the midst, nor
depart, that they may not be compelled to touch the unclean thing, and
to be polluted and corrupted with deadly food. Elsewhere also a
voice is heard from
heaven, forewarning what is becoming for the servants of God to do,
saying, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of
her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”3231
He who
goes out and departs does not become a partaker of the guilt; but he
will be wounded with the plagues who is found a companion in the
crime. And therefore the Lord commanded us in the persecution to
depart and to flee; and both taught that this should be done, and
Himself did it. For as the crown is given of the condescension of
God, and cannot be received unless the hour comes for accepting it,
whosoever abiding in Christ departs for a while does not deny his
faith, but waits for the time; but he who has fallen, after refusing to
depart, remained to deny it.
11. The truth, brethren, must not be
disguised; nor must the matter and cause of our wound be
concealed. A blind love of one’s own property has deceived
many; nor could they be prepared for, or at ease in, departing when
their wealth fettered them like a chain. Those were the chains to
them that remained—those were the bonds by which both virtue was
retarded, and faith burdened, and the spirit bound, and the soul
hindered; so that they who were involved in earthly things3232
| 3232
According to some, for “things” read
“desires.” | might become a
booty and food for the serpent, which, according to God’s
sentence, feeds upon earth. And therefore the Lord the teacher of
good things, forewarning for the future time, says, “If thou wilt
be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow
me.”3233
If rich
men did this, they would not perish by their riches; if they laid up
treasure in heaven, they would not now have a domestic enemy and
assailant. Heart and mind and feeling would be in heaven, if the
treasure were in heaven; nor could he be overcome by the world who had
nothing in the world whereby he could be overcome.3234
| 3234
Otherwise, “could be bound.” | He would follow the Lord loosed
and free, as did the apostles, and many in the times of the apostles,
and many who forsook both their means and their relatives, and clave to
Christ with undivided ties.
12. But how can they follow Christ, who are
held back by the chain of their wealth? Or how can they seek
heaven, and climb to sublime and lofty heights, who are weighed down by
earthly desires? They think that they possess, when they are
rather possessed; as slaves of their profit, and not lords with respect
to their own money, but rather the bond-slaves of their money.
These times and these men are indicated by the apostle, when he says,
“But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and a snare,
and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction
and in perdition. For the root of all evil is the love of money,
which, while some have coveted, they have erred3235
| 3235
Some substitute, “have made shipwreck of.” | from the faith, and pierced themselves
through with many sorrows.”3236
But with what rewards does the
Lord invite us to contempt of worldly wealth? With what
compensations does He atone for the small and trifling losses of this
present time? “There is no man,” saith He,
“that leaves house, or land, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or
children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, but he shall receive
seven fold3237
even in this
time, but in the world to come life everlasting.”3238
If we
know these things, and have found them out from the truth of the Lord
who promises, not only is not loss of this kind to be feared, but even
to be desired; as the Lord Himself again announces and warns us,
“Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you, and when they shall
separate you from their company, and shall cast you out, and shall
speak of your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake!
Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is
great in heaven.”3239
13. But (say they) subsequently tortures had
come,3240
and severe
sufferings were threatening those who resisted. He may complain
of tortures who has been overcome by tortures; he may offer the excuse
of suffering who has been vanquished in suffering. Such a one may
ask, and say, “I wished indeed to strive bravely, and,
remembering my oath, I took up the arms of devotion and faith; but as I
was struggling in the encounter, varied tortures and long-continued
sufferings overcame me. My mind stood firm, and my faith was
strong, and my soul struggled long, unshaken with the torturing pains;
but when, with the renewed barbarity of the most cruel judge, wearied
out as I was, the scourges were now tearing me,3241
| 3241 Or,
“the scourges were lacerating my already wearied body.” | the clubs bruised me, the rack strained
me, the claw dug into me, the fire roasted me; my flesh deserted me in
the struggle, the weakness of my bodily frame gave way,—not my
mind, but my body, yielded in the suffering.” Such a plea
may readily avail to forgiveness; an apology of that kind may excite
compassion. Thus at one time the Lord forgave Castus and
Æmilius; thus, overcome in the first encounter, they were made
victors in the second battle. So that they who had formerly given
way to the fires became stronger than the fires, and in that in which they had been vanquished
they were conquerors. They entreated not for pity of their tears,
but of their wounds; nor with a lamentable voice alone, but with
laceration and suffering of body. Blood flowed instead of
weeping; and instead of tears, gore poured forth from their
half-scorched entrails.
14. But now, what wounds can those who are
overcome show? what gashes of gaping entrails, what tortures of the
limbs, in cases where it was not faith that fell in the encounter, but
faithlessness that anticipated the struggle? Nor does the
necessity of the crime excuse the person compelled, where the crime is
committed of free will. Nor do I say this in such a way as that I
would burden the cases of the brethren, but that I may rather instigate
the brethren to a prayer of atonement. For, as it is written,
“They who call you happy cause you to err, and destroy the paths
of your feet,”3242
he who soothes the sinner with
flattering blandishments furnishes the stimulus to sin; nor does he
repress, but nourishes wrong-doing. But he who, with braver
counsels, rebukes at the same time that he instructs a brother, urges
him onward to salvation. “As many as I love,” saith
the Lord, “I rebuke and chasten.”3243
And thus also it behoves the
Lord’s priest not to mislead by deceiving concessions, but to
provide with salutary remedies. He is an unskilful physician who
handles the swelling edges of wounds with a tender hand, and, by
retaining the poison shut up in the deep recesses of the body,
increases it. The wound must be opened, and cut, and healed by
the stronger remedy of cutting out the corrupting parts. The sick
man may cry out, may vociferate, and may complain, in impatience of the
pain; but he will afterwards give thanks when he has felt that he is
cured.
15. Moreover, beloved brethren, a new kind
of devastation has appeared; and, as if the storm of persecution had
raged too little, there has been added to the heap, under the title of
mercy, a deceiving mischief and a fair-seeming calamity. Contrary
to the vigour of the Gospel, contrary to the law of the Lord and God,
by the temerity of some, communion is relaxed to heedless
persons,—a vain and false peace, dangerous to those who grant it,
and likely to avail nothing to those who receive it. They do not
seek for the patience necessary to health nor the true medicine derived
from atonement. Penitence is driven forth from their breasts, and
the memory of their very grave and extreme sin is taken away. The
wounds of the dying are covered over, and the deadly blow that is
planted in the deep and secret entrails is concealed by a dissimulated
suffering. Returning from the altars of the devil, they draw near
to the holy place of the Lord, with hands filthy and reeking with
smell, still almost breathing of the plague-bearing idol-meats; and
even with jaws still exhaling their crime, and reeking with the fatal
contact, they intrude on the body of the Lord, although the sacred
Scripture stands in their way, and cries, saying, “Every one that
is clean shall eat of the flesh; and whatever soul eateth of the flesh
of the saving sacrifice, which is the Lord’s, having his
uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from his
people.”3244
Also, the apostle testifies, and says, “Ye cannot drink the cup
of the Lord and the cup of devils; ye cannot be partakers of the
Lord’s table and of the table of devils.”3245
He threatens, moreover, the
stubborn and froward, and denounces them, saying, “Whosoever
eateth the bread or drinketh the cup of the Lord unworthily, is guilty
of the body and blood of the Lord.”3246
16. All these warnings being scorned and
contemned,—before their sin is expiated, before confession has
been made of their crime, before their conscience has been purged by
sacrifice and by the hand of the priest,3247
| 3247 By
some, the rest of the sentence after this word (“priest”)
is placed at the beginning of the paragraph, after the word
“contemned.” | before the offence of an angry and
threatening Lord has been appeased, violence is done to His body and
blood; and they sin now against their Lord more with their hand and
mouth than when they denied their Lord. They think that that is
peace which some with deceiving words are blazoning forth:3248
that is
not peace, but war; and he is not joined to the Church who is separated
from the Gospel. Why do they call an injury a kindness? Why
do they call impiety by the name of piety? Why do they hinder
those who ought to weep continually and to entreat their Lord, from the
sorrowing of repentance, and pretend to receive them to
communion? This is the same kind of thing to the lapsed as hail
to the harvests; as the stormy star to the trees; as the destruction of
pestilence to the herds; as the raging tempest to shipping. They
take away the consolation of eternal hope; they overturn the tree from
the roots; they creep on to a deadly contagion with their pestilent
words; they dash the ship on the rocks, so that it may not reach to the
harbour. Such a facility does not grant peace, but takes it away;
nor does it give communion, but it hinders from salvation. This
is another persecution, and another temptation, by which the crafty
enemy still further assaults the lapsed; attacking them by a secret
corruption, that their lamentation may be hushed, that their
grief may be silent, that the memory of their sin may pass away, that
the groaning of their heart may be repressed, that the weeping of their
eyes may be quenched; nor long and full penitence deprecate the Lord so
grievously offended, although it is written, “Remember from
whence thou art fallen, and repent.”3249
17. Let no one cheat himself, let no one
deceive himself. The Lord alone can have mercy. He alone
can bestow pardon for sins which have been committed against Himself,
who bare our sins, who sorrowed for us, whom God delivered up for our
sins. Man cannot be greater than God, nor can a servant remit or
forego by his indulgence what has been committed by a greater crime
against the Lord, lest to the person lapsed this be moreover added to
his sin, if he be ignorant that it is declared, “Cursed is the
man that putteth his hope in man.”3250
| 3250
Jer. xvii. 5. [Here is an emphatic repudiation
of what produced mediæval indulgences, saint-worship, and
Mariolatry. Of the latter, so pre-eminently the system of modern
Rome, not a syllable in all these Fathers. “Quam
ritus eccles. nescit.” Bernard, Ep. clxxiv., Opp..,
i. 389.] | The Lord must be besought.
The Lord must be appeased by our atonement, who has said, that him that
denieth Him He will deny, who alone has received all judgment from His
Father. We believe, indeed, that the merits of martyrs and the
works of the righteous are of great avail with the Judge; but that will
be when the day of judgment shall come;3251
| 3251 [All
the whole base on which “indulgences” and the like rest, is
here shown to be worthless.] | when, after the conclusion of this life
and the world, His people shall stand before the tribunal of
Christ.
18. But if any one, by an overhurried haste,
rashly thinks that he can give remission of sins to all,3252
or dares to
rescind the Lord’s precepts, not only does it in no respect
advantage the lapsed, but it does them harm. Not to have observed
His judgment is to have provoked His wrath, and to think that the mercy
of God must not first of all be entreated, and, despising the Lord, to
presume on His power.3253
| 3253
“On his facility;” v. l. | Under the altar of God the souls
of the slain martyrs cry with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O
Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood upon
those who dwell on the earth?”3254
And they are bidden to rest, and
still to keep patience. And does any one think that, in
opposition to the Judge, a man can become of avail3255
for the general remission and pardon of
sins, or that he can shield others before he himself is
vindicated? The martyrs order something to be done;3256
| 3256
[i.e., the confessors awaiting martyrdom. See vol. iv. p. 693,
note 2.] | but only if this
thing be just and lawful, if it can be done without opposing the Lord
Himself by God’s priest, if the consent of the obeying party be
easy and yielding, if the moderation of the asking party be
religious. The martyrs order something to be done; but if what
they order be not written in the law of the Lord, we must first know
that they have obtained what they ask from God, and then do what they
command. For that may not always appear to be immediately
conceded by the divine majesty, which has been promised by man’s
undertaking.
19. For Moses also besought for the sins of
the people; and yet, when he had sought pardon for these sinners, he
did not receive it. “I pray Thee,” said he, “O
Lord, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of
gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin, forgive it; but if
not, blot me out of the book which Thou hast written. And the
Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot
out of my book.”3257
He, the friend of God; he who had
often spoken face to face with the Lord, could not obtain what he
asked, nor could appease the wrath of an indignant God by his
entreaty. God praises Jeremiah, and announces, saying,
“Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou
camest out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations.”3258
And to the same man He saith,
when he often entreated and prayed for the sins of the people,
“Pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer
for them; for I will not hear them in the time wherein they call on me,
in the time of their affliction.”3259
But who was more righteous than
Noah, who, when the earth was filled with sins, was alone found
righteous on the earth? Who more glorious than Daniel? Who
more strong for suffering martyrdom in firmness of faith, more happy in
God’s condescension, who so many times, both when he was in
conflict conquered, and, when he had conquered, lived on? Was any
more ready in good works than Job, braver in temptations, more patient
in sufferings, more submissive in his fear, more true in his
faith? And yet God said that He would not grant to them if they
were to seek. When the prophet Ezekiel entreated for the sin of
the people, “Whatsoever land,” said He, “shall sin
against me by trespassing grievously, I will stretch out mine hand upon
it, and will break the staff of bread thereof, and will send famine
upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it. Though these
three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver
neither sons nor daughters; but they only should be delivered
themselves.”3260
Thus, not everything that is asked
is in the pre-judgment of the asker, but in the free will of the giver;
neither can human judgment claim to itself or usurp anything, unless
the divine pleasure approve.
20. In the Gospel the Lord speaks, and says,
“Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess
before my Father which is in heaven: but he that denieth me, him
will I also deny.”3261
If He does not deny him that
denies, neither does He confess him that confesses; the Gospel cannot
be sound in one part and waver in another. Either both must stand
firm, or both must lose the force of truth. If they who deny
shall not be guilty of a crime, neither shall they who confess receive
the reward of a virtue. Again, if faith which has conquered be
crowned, it is of necessity that faithlessness which is conquered
should be punished. Thus the martyrs can either do nothing if the
Gospel may be broken; or if the Gospel cannot be broken, they can do
nothing against the Gospel, since they become martyrs on account of the
Gospel. Let no one, beloved brethren, let no one decry the
dignity of martyrs, let no one degrade their glories and their
crowns. The strength of their uncorrupted faith abides sound; nor
can he either say or do anything against Christ, whose hope, and faith,
and virtue, and glory, are all in Christ: those cannot be the
authority for the bishops doing anything against God’s command,
who themselves have done God’s command. Is any one greater
than God, or more merciful than God’s goodness, that he should
either wish that undone which God has suffered to be done, or, as if
God had too little power to protect His Church, should think that we
could be preserved by his help?
21. Unless, perchance, these things have
been done without God’s knowledge, or all these things have
happened without His permission; although Holy Scripture teaches the
indocile, and admonishes the unmindful, where it speaks, saying,
“Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to those who made a booty
of him? Did not the Lord against whom they sinned, and would not
walk in His ways, neither were obedient unto His law? And He has
poured upon them the fury of His anger.”3262
And elsewhere it testifies and
says, “Is the Lord’s hand shortened, that it cannot save;
or His ear heavy, that it cannot hear? But your iniquities
separate between you and your God; and because of your sins He hath hid
His face from you, that He may not have mercy.”3263
Let us rather consider our
offences, revolving our doings and the secrets of our mind; let us
weigh the deserts of our conscience; let it come back upon our heart
that we have not walked in the Lord’s ways, and have cast away
God’s law, and have never been willing to keep His precepts and
saving counsels.
22. What good can you think of him, what
fear can you suppose to have been with him, or what faith, whom neither
fear could correct nor persecution itself could reform? His high
and rigid neck, even when it has fallen, is unbent; his swelling and
haughty soul is not broken, even when it is conquered. Prostrate,
he threatens those who stand; and wounded, the sound. And because
he may not at once receive the body of the Lord in his polluted hands,
the sacrilegious one is angry with the priests. And—oh your
excessive madness, O frantic one—you are angry with him who
endeavours to avert the anger of God from you; you threaten him who
beseeches the divine mercy on your behalf, who feels your wound which
you yourself do not feel, who sheds tears for you, which perhaps you
never shed yourself. You are still aggravating and enhancing your
crime; and while you yourself are implacable3264
against the ministers and
priests3265
of God, do you
think that the Lord can be appeased concerning you?
23. Receive rather, and admit what we
say. Why do your deaf ears not hear the salutary precepts with
which we warn you? Why do your blind eyes not see the way of
repentance which we point out? Why does your stricken and
alienated mind not perceive the lively remedies which we both learn and
teach from the heavenly Scriptures?3266
| 3266
[There can be no doubt where Cyprian would have been found in the
times of Savonarola. See Perrens, Vie, etc., tom. ii. p.
350.] | Or if some unbelievers have little
faith in future events, let them be terrified with present ones.
Lo, what punishments do we behold of those who have denied! what sad
deaths of theirs do we bewail! Not even here can they be without
punishment, although the day of punishment has not yet arrived.
Some are punished in the meantime, that others may be corrected.
The torments of a few are the examples of all.
24. One of those who of his own will
ascended the Capitol to make denial, after he had denied Christ, became
dumb. The punishment began from that point whence the crime also
began;3267
| 3267
[See p. 340, note 2, supra.] | so that now he
could not ask, since he had no words for entreating mercy.3268
| 3268
Otherwise, “for the mercifulness of prayers.” |
Another, who was in the baths, (for this was wanting to her crime and
to her misfortunes, that she even went at once to the baths, when she
had lost the grace of the laver of life); there, unclean as she
was, was seized by an
unclean spirit,3269
| 3269
Some read, “and fell down.” | and tore
with her teeth the tongue with which she had either impiously eaten or
spoken. After the wicked food had been taken, the madness of the
mouth was armed to its own destruction. She herself was her own
executioner, nor did she long continue to live afterwards:
tortured with pangs of the belly and bowels, she expired.
25. Learn what occurred when I myself was
present and a witness.3270
| 3270
[What Cyprian testifies as of his own knowledge, we must accept as
fact, however it be accounted for. For the rest, we may believe
that the terrible excitements of the times led him to accept as real
the exaggerated stories which became current. In our own days
“the faith-cure” excites a like credulity.] | Some parents who by chance were
escaping, being little careful3271
| 3271 Some
read, “of themselves;” others, “of their
belongings.” | on account of their terror, left a
little daughter under the care of a wet-nurse. The nurse gave up
the forsaken child to the magistrates. They gave it, in the
presence of an idol whither the people flocked (because it was not yet
able to eat flesh on account of its years), bread mingled with wine,
which however itself was the remainder of what had been used in the
immolation of those that had perished. Subsequently the mother
recovered her child. But the girl was no more able to speak, or
to indicate the crime that had been committed, than she had before been
able to understand or to prevent it. Therefore it happened
unawares in their ignorance, that when we were sacrificing, the mother
brought it in with her. Moreover, the girl mingled with the
saints, became impatient of our prayer and supplications, and was at
one moment shaken with weeping, and at another tossed about like a wave
of the sea by the violent excitement of her mind; as if by the
compulsion of a torturer the soul of that still tender child confessed
a consciousness of the fact with such signs as it could. When,
however, the solemnities were finished, and the deacon began to offer
the cup to those present, and when, as the rest received it, its turn
approached, the little child, by the instinct of the divine majesty,
turned away its face, compressed its mouth with resisting lips, and
refused the cup.3272
Still
the deacon persisted, and, although against her efforts, forced on her
some of the sacrament of the cup. Then there followed a sobbing
and vomiting. In a profane body and mouth the Eucharist could not
remain; the draught sanctified in the blood of the Lord burst forth
from the polluted stomach. So great is the Lord’s power, so
great is His majesty. The secrets of darkness were disclosed
under His light, and not even hidden crimes deceived God’s
priest.
26. This much about an infant, which was not
yet of an age to speak of the crime committed by others in respect of
herself. But the woman who in advanced life and of more mature
age secretly crept in among us when we were sacrificing, received not
food, but a sword for herself; and as if taking some deadly
poison3273
into her jaws
and body, began presently to be tortured, and to become stiffened with
frenzy; and suffering the misery no longer of persecution, but of her
crime, shivering and trembling, she fell down. The crime of her
dissimulated conscience was not long unpunished or concealed. She
who had deceived man, felt that God was taking vengeance. And
another woman, when she tried with unworthy hands to open her
box,3274
| 3274
[They carried the sacred bread in this manner to invalids at
home. The idea of “worshipping the host,” therefore,
could not have been possible.] | in which was
the holy (body) of the Lord, was deterred by fire rising from it from
daring to touch it. And when one,3275
| 3275
Or, “a certain one.” | who himself was defiled, dared with
the rest to receive secretly a part of the sacrifice celebrated by the
priest; he could not eat nor handle the holy of the Lord, but found in
his hands3276
when opened
that he had a cinder. Thus by the experience of one it was shown
that the Lord withdraws when He is denied; nor does that which is
received benefit the undeserving for salvation, since saving grace is
changed by the departure of the sanctity into a cinder. How many
there are daily who do not repent nor make confession of the
consciousness of their crime, who are filled with unclean
spirits!3277
| 3277
[Luke xi. 20. The whole of scriptural
teachings concerning these, requires renewed study. Consult
Tillotson, Works, ii. 508, ed. 1722.] | How
many are shaken even to unsoundness of mind and idiotcy by the raging
of madness! Nor is there any need to go through the deaths of
individuals, since through the manifold lapses occurring in the world
the punishment of their sins is as varied as the multitude of sinners
is abundant. Let each one consider not what another has suffered,
but what he himself deserves to suffer; nor think that he has escaped
if his punishment delay for a time, since he ought to fear it the more
that the wrath of God the judge has reserved it for Himself.
27. Nor let those persons flatter themselves
that they need repent the less, who, although they have not polluted
their hands with abominable sacrifices, yet have defiled their
conscience with certificates.3278
| 3278
[The kindly but unwise interposition of the confessors in their
behalf. See vol. iii. p. 693, note 2.] | That profession of one who
denies, is the testimony of a Christian disowning what he had
been. He says that he has done what another has actually
committed; and although it is written, “Ye cannot serve two
masters,”3279
he has
served an earthly master in that he has obeyed his edict; he has been more
obedient to human authority than to God. It matters not whether
he has published what he has done with less either of disgrace or of
guilt among men. Be that as it may, he will not be able to escape
and avoid God his judge, seeing that the Holy Spirit says in the
Psalms, “Thine eyes did see my substance, that it was imperfect,
and in Thy book shall all men be written.”3280
And again: “Man
seeth the outward appearance, but God seeth the heart.”3281
The Lord
Himself also forewarns and prepares us, saying, “And all the
churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and the
heart.”3282
He
looks into the hidden and secret things, and considers those things
which are concealed; nor can any one evade the eyes of the Lord, who
says, “I am a God at hand, and not a God afar off. If a man
be hidden in secret places, shall not I therefore see him? Do not
I fill heaven and earth?”3283
He sees the heart and mind of
every person; and He will judge not alone of our deeds, but even of our
words and thoughts. He looks into the minds, and the wills, and
conceptions of all men, in the very lurking-places of the heart that is
still closed up.
28. Moreover, how much are they both greater
in faith and better in their fear, who, although bound by no crime of
sacrifice to idols or of certificate, yet, since they have even
thought of such things, with grief and simplicity confess this very
thing to God’s priests, and make the conscientious avowal, put
off from them the load of their minds, and seek out the salutary
medicine even for slight and moderate wounds, knowing that it is
written, “God is not mocked.”3284
God cannot be mocked, nor
deceived, nor deluded by any deceptive cunning. Yea, he sins the
more, who, thinking that God is like man, believes that he evades the
penalty of his crime if he has not openly admitted his crime.
Christ says in His precepts, “Whosoever shall be ashamed of me,
of him shall the Son of man be ashamed.”3285
And does he think that he is a
Christian, who is either ashamed or afraid to be a Christian? How
can he be one with Christ, who either blushes or fears to belong to
Christ? He will certainly have sinned less, by not seeing the
idols, and not profaning the sanctity of the faith under the eyes of a
people standing round and insulting, and not polluting his hands by the
deadly sacrifices, nor defiling his lips with the wicked food.
This is advantageous to this extent, that the fault is less, not that
the conscience is guiltless. He can more easily attain to pardon
of his crime, yet he is not free from crime; and let him not cease to
carry out his repentance, and to entreat the Lord’s mercy, lest
what seems to be less in the quality of his fault, should be increased
by his neglect of atonement.
29. I entreat you, beloved brethren, that
each one should confess his own sin, while he who has sinned is still
in this world, while his confession may be received, while the
satisfaction and remission made by the priests are pleasing to the
Lord.3286
| 3286
[See sec. 32, p. 446, infra. Note, not after this
life.] | Let us
turn to the Lord with our whole heart, and, expressing our repentance
for our sin with true grief, let us entreat God’s mercy.
Let our soul lie low before Him. Let our mourning atone to
Him. Let all our hope lean upon Him. He Himself tells us in
what manner we ought to ask. “Turn ye,” He says,
“to me with all your heart, and at the same time with fasting,
and with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts, and not your
garments.”3287
Let
us return to the Lord with our whole heart. Let us appease His
wrath and indignation with fastings, with weeping, with mourning, as He
Himself admonishes us.
30. Do we believe that a man is lamenting
with his whole heart, that he is entreating the Lord with fasting, and
with weeping, and with mourning, who from the first day of his sin
daily frequents the bathing-places with women; who, feeding at rich
banquets, and puffed out with fuller dainties, belches forth on the
next day his indigestions, and does not dispense of his meat and drink
so as to aid the necessity of the poor? How does he who walks
with joyous and glad step mourn for his death? And although it is
written, “Ye shall not mar the figure of your
beard,”3288
he plucks
out his beard, and dresses his hair; and does he now study to please
any one who displeases God? Or does she groan and lament who has
time to put on the clothing of precious apparel, and not to consider
the robe of Christ which she has lost; to receive valuable ornaments
and richly wrought necklaces, and not to bewail the loss of divine and
heavenly ornament? Although thou clothest thyself in foreign
garments and silken robes, thou art naked; although thou adornest
thyself to excess both in pearls, and gems, and gold, yet without the
adornment of Christ thou art unsightly. And you who stain your
hair, now at least cease in the midst of sorrows; and you who paint the
edges of your eyes with a line drawn around them of black powder, now
at least wash your eyes with tears. If you had lost any dear one
of your friends by the death incident to mortality, you would groan
grievously, and weep with disordered countenance, with changed
dress, with neglected hair,
with clouded face, with dejected appearance, you would show the signs
of grief. Miserable creature, you have lost your soul;
spiritually dead here, you are continuing to live to yourself, and
although yourself walking about, you have begun to carry your own death
with you. And do you not bitterly moan; do you not continually
groan; do you not hide yourself, either for shame of your sin or for
continuance of your lamentation? Behold, these are still worse
wounds of sinning; behold, these are greater crimes—to have
sinned, and not to make atonement—to have committed crimes, and
not to bewail your crimes.
31. Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, the
illustrious and noble youths, even amid the flames and the ardours of a
raging furnace, did not desist from making public confession to
God. Although possessed of a good conscience, and having often
deserved well of the Lord by obedience of faith and fear, yet they did
not cease from maintaining their humility, and from making atonement to
the Lord, even amid the glorious martyrdoms of their virtues. The
sacred Scripture speaks, saying, “Azarias stood up and prayed,
and, opening his mouth, made confession before God together with his
companions in the midst of the fire.”3289
Daniel also, after the
manifold grace of his faith and innocency, after the condescension of
the Lord often repeated in respect of his virtues and praises, strives
by fastings still further to deserve well of God, wraps himself in
sackcloth and ashes, sorrowfully making confession, and saying,
“O Lord God, great, and strong, and dreadful, keeping Thy
covenant and mercy for them that love Thee and keep Thy commandments,
we have sinned, we have committed iniquity, and have done
wickedly: we have transgressed, and departed from Thy precepts,
and from Thy judgments; neither have we hearkened to the words of Thy
servants the prophets, which they spake in Thy name to our kings, and
to all the nations, and to all the earth. O Lord,
righteousness3290
| 3290
Some add, “to Thee, glory.” | belongs unto
Thee, but unto us confusion.”3291
32. These things were done by men, meek,
simple, innocent, in deserving well of the majesty of God; and now
those who have denied the Lord refuse to make atonement to the Lord,
and to entreat Him. I beg you, brethren, acquiesce in wholesome
remedies, obey better counsels, associate your tears with our tears,
join your groans with ours; we beseech you in order that we may beseech
God for you: we turn our very prayers to you first; our prayers
with which we pray3292
| 3292
[Sec. 29, supra. “While still in this
world.”] | God for you that He would pity
you. Repent abundantly, prove the sorrow of a grieving and
lamenting mind.
33. Neither let that imprudent error or vain
stupor of some move you, who, although they are involved in so grave a
crime, are struck with blindness of mind, so that they neither
understand nor lament their sins. This is the greater visitation
of an angry God; as it is written, “And God gave them the spirit
of deadness.”3293
And again: “They
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And
for this cause God shall send them the working of error, that they
should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”3294
Unrighteously pleasing themselves, and mad with the alienation of a
hardened mind, they despise the Lord’s precepts, neglect the
medicine for their wound, and will not repent. Thoughtless before
their sin was acknowledged, after their sin they are obstinate; neither
stedfast before, nor suppliant afterwards: when they ought to
have stood fast, they fell; when they ought to fall and prostrate
themselves to God, they think they stand fast. They have taken
peace for themselves of their own accord when nobody granted it;
seduced by false promises, and linked with apostates and unbelievers,
they take hold of error instead of truth: they regard a communion as
valid with those who are not communicants; they believe men against
God, although they have not believed God against men.
34. Flee from such men as much as you can;
avoid with a wholesome caution those who adhere to their mischievous
contact. Their word doth eat as doth a cancer;3295
their conversation advances like a
contagion; their noxious and envenomed persuasion kills worse than
persecution itself. In such a case there remains only penitence
which can make atonement. But they who take away repentance for a
crime, close the way of atonement. Thus it happens that, while by
the rashness of some a false safety is either promised or trusted, the
hope of true safety is taken away.
35. But you, beloved brethren, whose fear is ready
towards God, and whose mind, although it is placed in the midst of
lapse, is mindful of its misery, do you in repentance and grief look
into your sins; acknowledge the very grave sin of your conscience; open
the eyes of your heart to the understanding of your sin, neither
despairing of the Lord’s mercy nor yet at once claiming His
pardon. God, in proportion as with the affection of a Father He
is always indulgent and good, in the same proportion is to be dreaded
with the majesty of a judge. Even as we have sinned greatly, so let us greatly
lament. To a deep wound let there not be wanting a long and
careful treatment; let not the repentance be less than the sin.
Think you that the Lord can be quickly appeased, whom with faithless
words you have denied, to whom you have rather preferred your worldly
estate, whose temple you have violated with a sacrilegious
contact? Think you that He will easily have mercy upon you whom
you have declared not to be your God? You must pray more eagerly
and entreat; you must spend the day in grief; wear out nights in
watchings and weepings; occupy all your time in wailful lamentations;
lying stretched on the ground, you must cling close to the ashes, be
surrounded with sackcloth and filth; after losing the raiment of
Christ, you must be willing now to have no clothing; after the
devil’s meat, you must prefer fasting; be earnest in righteous
works, whereby sins may be purged; frequently apply yourself to
almsgiving, whereby souls are freed from death.3296
What the adversary took from you,
let Christ receive; nor ought your estate now either to be held or
loved, by which you have been both deceived and conquered. Wealth
must be avoided as an enemy; must be fled from as a robber; must be
dreaded by its possessors as a sword and as poison.3297
| 3297
Instead of “and a poison,” some read, “and
sold.” | To this end only so much as
remains should be of service, that by it the crime and the fault may be
redeemed. Let good works be done without delay, and largely; let
all your estate be laid out for the healing of your wound; let us lend
of our wealth and our means to the Lord, who shall judge concerning
us. Thus faith flourished in the time of the apostles; thus the
first people of believers kept Christ’s commands: they were
prompt, they were liberal, they gave their all to be distributed by the
apostles; and yet they were not redeeming sins of such a character as
these.
36. If a man make prayer with his whole
heart, if he groan with the true lamentations and tears of repentance,
if he incline the Lord to pardon of his sin by righteous and continual
works, he who expressed His mercy in these words may pity such
men: “When you turn and lament, then shall you be saved,
and shall know where you have been.”3298
And again: “I have
no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord, but that he
should return and live.”3299
And Joel the prophet declares
the mercy of the Lord in the Lord’s own admonition, when he
says: “Turn ye to the Lord your God, for He is merciful and
gracious, and patient, and of great mercy, and repenteth Him with
respect to the evil that He hath inflicted.”3300
He can show mercy; He can turn
back His judgment. He can mercifully pardon the repenting, the
labouring, the beseeching sinner. He can regard as effectual
whatever, in behalf of such as these, either martyrs have besought or
priests have done. Or if any one move Him still more by his own
atonement, if he appease His anger, if he appease the wrath of an
indignant God by righteous entreaty, He gives arms again whereby the
vanquished may be armed; He restores and confirms the strength whereby
the refreshed faith may be invigorated. The soldier will seek his
contest anew; he will repeat the fight, he will provoke the enemy, and
indeed by his very suffering he is made braver for the battle. He
who has thus made atonement to God; he who by repentance for his deed,
who by shame for his sin, has conceived more both of virtue and of
faith from the very grief of his fall, heard and aided by the Lord,
shall make the Church which he had lately saddened glad, and shall now
deserve of the Lord not only pardon, but a crown.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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