Chapter 8.—12. In short, we may see how great an evil in itself is envy, which cannot be other than malicious. Let us not look for other testimony. Cyprian himself is sufficient for us, through whose mouth the Lord poured forth so many thunders in most perfect truth, and uttered so many useful precepts about envy and malignity. Let us therefore read the letter of Cyprian about envy and malignity, and see how great an evil it is to
envy those better than ourselves,—an evil whose origin he shows in memorable words to have sprung from the devil himself. "To feel jealousy," he says, "of what you regard as good, and to envy those who are better than yourselves, to some, dearest brethren, seems a light and minute offense."1372
| 1372 Cypr. de Zel. et Liv. c. 1.
|
And again a little later, when he was inquiring into the source and origin of the
evil, he says, "From this the
devil, in the very beginning of the
world,
perished first himself, and led others to
destruction."
1373
And further on in the same chapter: "What an
evil, dearest
brethren, is that by which an
angel fell! by which that exalted and illustrious loftiness was able to be
deceived and
overthrown! by which he was
deceived who was the
deceiver! From that time
envy stalks upon the
earth, when man, about to
perish through
malignity, submits himself to the
teacher of
perdition,—when he who envies
imitates the
devil, as it is written, ‘Through
envy of the
devil came
death into the
world, and they that do hold of his side do find it.’"
1374
How true, how forcible are these words of Cyprian, in an
epistle known throughout the
world, we cannot
fail to recognize. It was truly fitting for Cyprian to argue and
warn most forcibly about
envy and
malignity, from which most
deadly evil he
proved his own
heart to be so
far removed by the
abundance of his
Christian love; by carefully guarding which he remained in the
unity of
communion with his colleagues, who without
ill-feeling
entertained
different views about
baptism, whilst he himself differed in opinion from them, not through any
contention of
ill will, but through human
infirmity, erring in a point which
God, in His own good time, would
reveal to him by reason of his
perseverance in
love. For he says openly, "Judging no one, nor depriving any of the right of
communion if he differ from us. For no one of us setteth himself up as a
bishop of
bishops, or by tyrannical
terror forces his colleagues to a necessity of obeying."
1375
| 1375 Conc. Carth. sub in.
|
And in the end of the
epistle before us he says, "These things I have written to you briefly, dearest
brother, according to my
poor ability, prescribing to or prejudging no one, so as to prevent each
bishop from doing what he thinks right in the free
exercise of his own
judgment. We, so
far as in us
lies, do not
strive on behalf of
heretics with our colleges and fellow-
bishops, with whom we hold the harmony that
God enjoins, and the
peace of our
Lord, especially as the
apostle says, ‘If any man seem to be contentious, we have no such
custom, neither the
churches of
God.’
1376
Christian love in our
souls, the
honor of our fraternity, the
bond of
faith, the harmony of the
priesthood, all these are maintained by us with
patience and
gentleness. For this cause we have also, so
far as our
poor ability admitted, by the permission and
inspiration of the Lord, written now a treatise on the benefit of patience,
1377
| 1377 This treatise is still extant. See Trans. in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. V. 484-490.
|
which we have sent to you in consideration of our mutual affection."
1378
| 1378 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. 26.
|
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