Cyprian & Lactantius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Letter XX. Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons of Rome, greeting the brethren dwelling there. Since I have learned, dearest brothers, that what has been and is being done here by me is being reported to you with less than complete honesty and fidelity, I have judged it necessary to write you this letter, so that you might understand the reasoning behind how I have acted, governed myself, and applied diligence in this matter. When the disturbance first broke out with sudden force, and the crowd had repeatedly and violently clamored for me, I withdrew for a time, thinking not so much of my own safety as of the public peace of the brethren, lest the sedition that had begun be provoked further by my unseemly presence. Yet though absent in body, I was never absent in spirit, in action, or in counsel from doing what my humble office could do for our brethren according to the Lord's precepts. What I have done is told by the thirteen letters sent to you across that time — none of them omitted counsel where the clergy needed it, encouragement for the confessors, a rebuke for those who had fallen away when one was called for, or my appeal urging the whole brotherhood to beg for God's mercy — so far as my humble powers, under the guidance of the Lord, could strive according to the rule of faith and the fear of God. After the tortures began, whether for brothers already tortured or still shut up awaiting torture, my word reached them to strengthen and comfort them. Likewise, when I learned that those who had defiled their hands and mouths by sacrilegious contact, or had polluted their conscience no less by wicked certificates, were going about everywhere to court the martyrs, and were even corrupting the confessors by importunate and self-serving pleading, with thousands of certificates handed out each day with no distinction made or case examined, contrary to what the gospel required — so I composed letters aimed, so far as my own judgment allowed, at bringing the martyrs and confessors back into line with what the Lord commands. Likewise the presbyters and deacons did not lack priestly firmness in restraining, with our intervention, certain men who, careless of discipline and driven by reckless haste, were on the verge of restoring communion to those who had lapsed. For the people themselves too, we did what we could to steady their minds and instructed them that church discipline should be kept. Afterward, when certain lapsed persons, acting on their own initiative with no one else urging them, took to bold demands and tried to force through, by sheer pressure, the peace the martyrs and confessors had pledged them, I sent word to the clergy twice on this point, with instructions that it be read aloud: that as a stopgap measure for the time being, anyone holding a martyr's certificate who found himself near death should, once he had confessed and had hands laid upon him in penance, be allowed to depart to the Lord bearing the peace the martyrs had granted. In this I laid down no law, nor rashly set myself up as its author. But since honor was owed to the martyrs, and the impulse of those who wished to throw everything into confusion had to be checked, and since besides I had read the letter you had recently sent to our clergy through Crementius the subdeacon, urging that help be given to those who, seized by weakness after their fall, were repentant and desired communion, I thought I should stand by that, in agreement with your judgment, lest our conduct, which ought to be united and of one mind in everything, differ in some point. As for the rest, I have directed that their cases, even where a certificate has been received from the martyrs, be deferred and reserved for my presence, so that when peace has been granted us by the Lord and a greater number of bishops can meet together, we may take counsel with you as well and decide or amend each case. I wish you, dearest brothers, continued good health.
Letter XXI. Celerinus to Lucianus. As I write this to you, brother and lord, I was both glad and sorrowful — glad because I heard that before this world's magistrates you confessed our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by name, or at the very least spoke out in his name; sorrowful, because from the moment I parted from you I was never able to receive any letter from you. And now a double sorrow has fallen on me, because you knew that Montanus, our brother shared with you, was coming to me from the prison, and yet you gave me no word of your welfare or of what is happening with you. But this is apt to befall the servants of God, above all those standing firm in confessing Christ, since I am aware that none of you now gives thought to worldly matters, hoping instead for the crown of heaven. I said to myself, perhaps you had simply forgotten to write to me. For, to speak of myself too, lowly as I am — if I, Celerinus, may be thought worthy to be heard by you as a brother — even when I too was engaged in so glorious a confession, I remembered my oldest brothers, and in my letters I recalled that their former affection for me and mine still stood. Yet, dearest one, I ask the Lord this: that should you still face it, you be washed clean in that sacred blood for Christ our Lord's sake, before my letter finds you in this world; and should it arrive first instead, send word back to me on the matter. May he, then, crown you for the name you confessed — I hold this faith, that though we may never meet again in this present world, we will one day embrace each other in Christ's presence in the world to come. Ask that I too may be found worthy to be crowned along with your company. Know, however, that I am set in great tribulation, and though you are not present with me, I remember our former affection day and night as though you were. God alone knows it. And so I ask that you grant my wish and grieve with me over the death of my sister, who fell in this devastation to Christ's enemy. For she sacrificed and provoked our Lord, as seems plain to us. On her account I have spent, weeping day and night, in sackcloth and ashes, even on the day of Easter joy, the days from then until now, and I continue to spend them so, until the help and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, coming through you or through those lords of mine who shall be crowned, from whom you are to ask it, comes to the aid of so wretched a shipwreck. For I have recalled your former love, in that, while you grieve for our sister, along with the others you well know — namely Numeria and Candida — over whose sin we owe a duty of concern, since they regard us as brothers. It is my conviction that Christ, weighing their repentance and the services they have performed among our fellow exiles who came from among you (of whose deeds you yourself will hear from them), will, at the request of you their martyrs, grant them pardon. I have heard, too, that you have received a more glorious ministry. O happy man, receive now the fulfillment of the desire you always cherished, even in your sleep upon the earth. You wished to be cast into prison for his name, and now it has befallen you, just as it is written: may the Lord grant you according to your heart. And now, set as bishop over these very ones, he has acknowledged you as the same minister still. My lord, here is my plea, made through our Lord Jesus Christ himself: carry word to the rest of your fellow confessors, brothers and lords to me as they are, and put this request to them on my behalf. Whichever of you is crowned first should be the one to grant our sisters Numeria and Candida release from that sin. For as to this same Etecusa, I have always called her that — God is our witness — because she paid out money on her own behalf so as not to sacrifice; she is only thought to have gone up as far as the Three Fates and come back down again. That she did not sacrifice, then, I know for certain. Their case has already been heard, and the leaders have ordered that they remain in this state for now, until a bishop is appointed. But I ask that, relying as we do on your sacred prayers and pleas before God, since you stand as both friends of Christ and his witnesses, you extend pardon to them all. I ask, then, dearest lord Lucianus, that you remember me and grant my request. May Christ grant you, then, that sacred crown — a gift bestowed on you both through confession and through a life lived in holiness, the path you have steadily followed, standing as a model for the saints and a testimony to Christ throughout — and that you report this matter to all my lords, your fellow confessors, so that they may grant help from us in this. For you should know, brother and lord, that I make this request not for myself alone; Statius, Severianus, and every confessor who arrived here from your side join in asking the same — those to whose ship the women went down to the harbor, and whom they brought up into the city, and to whom sixty-five of them ministered and have cared for down to this very day; for they are all in their charge. I ought not to burden your holy heart any further, since I know you act with a ready will. Macarius greets you, along with his sisters Cornelia and Emerita, who rejoices over your glorious confession, as do all the brothers; and Saturninus, who himself wrestled with the devil and bravely confessed the name of Christ, and who bravely confessed even under the torment of the claws, and who here too begs and asks earnestly. Your brothers Calpurnius and Maria and all the holy brothers greet you. You should also know that I have written to my lords, your brothers, and I ask that you see fit to read this letter to them.
Letter XXII. Lucianus, if I am worthy to be called a colleague in Christ, to Celerinus his lord, greeting. I received your letter, dearest brother and lord, in which you burdened me so much that, because of your grief, my joy nearly vanished — the joy of at last reading, after so long, the letter I too had longed for, in which you thought me worthy of remembrance; by the kindness of your great humility I rejoiced to read it, you who wrote to me as though I might be worthy to be called your brother — I, who among the lowlier have confessed the name of God with fear. For you, by God's will, not only confessed but by your words and God-inspired speech struck fear into that great serpent, the forerunner of Antichrist, and by them you conquered — words such as, I know, only lovers of the faith and zealots for the discipline of Christ could speak, in which vigor of spirit I know you to live, and I rejoice in it. And now, dearest one, already to be counted among the martyrs, you have chosen to burden us with your letter about our sisters — a matter regarding which I wish we could make remembrance without so grave a crime having been committed; surely we would not now be bowed down under such tears as these. You should know what took place regarding us: while the blessed martyr Paulus still lived, he summoned me and spoke these words: Lucianus, before Christ I tell you, that if anyone asks you for peace after my departure, grant it in my name. And all of us whom the Lord has deigned to call in this great tribulation, by common agreement, have all together granted peace to all. See, then, brother, that this rests partly on what Paulus charged me, and partly on what we all together decided — we who, even prior to this present trial, when the emperor's command condemned us to perish of starvation and thirst, were confined within two cells, yet endured such conditions that neither hunger nor thirst achieved its end; but the heat, from the pressure of our confinement, was so unbearable that no one could endure it. But now we are set in the very glory itself. And so, dearest brother, greet Numeria and Candida, whom, according to the charge of Paulus and the other martyrs — whose names I set down below: Bassus in the stone-quarry, Mappalicus under torture, Fortunio in prison; Paulus from the torture, Fortunata, Victorinus, Victor, Herennius, Credula, Hereda, Donatus, Firmus, Venustus, Fructus, Iulia, Martialis and Ariston, who by God's will died of hunger in prison; and we too, you will hear within days, will join their company. For already, since we were shut up again, it is the eighth day from the day I write this letter to you; and eight days before that, for five days running, we received only a little bread and water by measure. And so, brother, I ask that, just as here, when the Lord grants peace to his church, according to the charge of Paulus and our own decision, after their case has been laid before the bishop and confession made, they may have peace — not only these two, but also those others whom you know concern us. All my colleagues greet you. Greet on our behalf the Lord's confessors present with you — those whose names you gave us, Saturninus and his companions among them, and also my colleague and Maris, Collecta and Emerita, Calpurnius and Maria, Sabina, Spesina, and the sisters Ianuaria, Dativa, Donata. We greet, along with their households, Saturus, Bassianus, and the whole clergy, Uranius, Alexius, Quintianus, Colonica, and everyone else whose name I have left out here, since weariness overtook me — may they pardon that oversight. I wish good health always to Alexius and Getulicus and the money-dealers and the sisters. My sisters Ianuaria and Sophia send you their greeting, and I commend them to your care.
Letter XXIII. All the confessors to Cyprian, their father, greeting. Know that all of us, once we had heard the account of what each had done after his fall, have granted them peace, and we want you to pass this ruling along so that the other bishops likewise come to know of it. We pray that you may have peace along with the holy martyrs. Written in the presence of a member of the clergy, an exorcist and a reader; Lucianus wrote it.
Letter XXIV. Caldonius to Cyprian and his fellow presbyters residing at Carthage, greeting. The pressure of the times makes it so that we do not grant peace rashly. But since it seemed right to write to you, seeing that those who, after having sacrificed, were tested again and driven into exile — these seem to me to have already washed away their offense, in that they give up their possessions and homes and, doing penance, follow Christ. Thus Felix, who served as presbyter under Decimus, my fellow prisoner (I have come to know this same Felix more fully), and his wife Victoria, and Lucius, faithful believers, were driven into exile and left behind possessions which the treasury now holds. And also during the persecution, a woman called Bona, whom her husband dragged forward to make sacrifice, though she kept her conscience unstained since others forced her hands to perform it — she herself began to cry out against it, saying, 'I did not do it, you did it' — she too was driven into exile just the same. So when all of them came before me to request peace, declaring, 'We have regained the faith we once lost; through penance we have openly confessed Christ' — my own view holds that peace should be granted them, yet I have still referred the matter to your shared judgment, lest I appear to presume anything rashly on my own. If, then, anything is decided by common counsel, write to me. Greet our people; yours greet you. I wish you the best of health.
Letter XXV. Cyprian to his brother Caldonius, greeting. We have received your letter, dearest brother, quite sober and full of integrity and faith; nor are we surprised that, being practiced and skilled in the Lord's scriptures, you act in everything with caution and deliberation. You have judged rightly concerning the granting of peace to our brothers, a peace they themselves regained through genuine repentance and the honor of confessing the Lord, vindicated by the very words that had once condemned them. Since, then, they have washed away every offense and blotted out their first stain by a later act of courage, with the Lord standing by them, they should no longer remain fallen beneath the devil's dominion as if prostrate — they who, having been driven into exile and stripped of all their goods, have risen up and begun to stand with Christ. And would that the rest, too, who repent after their fall, might in the same way be restored to their former condition. As for those who now press us and try rashly and importunately to extort peace, so that you might know how we have arranged matters, I have sent you a booklet along with five letters, which I wrote to the clergy, to the people, and also to the martyrs and confessors. These letters, when sent to a good many of our fellow bishops as well, met with their approval, and they have written back that they too stand with us in the same resolve, according to the catholic faith. This same booklet you should likewise forward to whichever of our fellow bishops you are able to reach, so that all of us together might hold to a single practice and a shared accord, in keeping with what the Lord has commanded. I wish you, dearest brother, continued good health.
Letter XXVI. Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons, greeting the brethren. The Lord declares: on whom will I look, if not the person who is humble, quiet, and stands in awe of my words? Though we all ought to be such, all the more ought those to be so who must labor, after a grave fall, to win back the Lord's favor by true repentance and complete humility. I have read, moreover, the letter of all the confessors, which they wished to be made known through me to all our colleagues, and to have it reach those to whom, in cases already settled before us, the peace they themselves have granted might apply. Because this touches on what all of us together must weigh and decide, I do not presume to settle it in advance or treat something so shared as mine alone to determine. And so let us hold for now to the letters I recently sent you, a copy of which I have already sent to many of our colleagues as well; they have written back that they approve of what we have decided, and that you need not depart from it, until, peace having been restored to us by the Lord, we can come together and examine each case individually. But so you can also see the letter my colleague Caldonius sent me and my reply to him, I have enclosed copies of both alongside this one. All of this I ask be read to our brothers, so that they may compose themselves more and more to patience, and not add a further offense to the one already committed, since, while they refuse to let us serve either the gospel or examine their cases according to the letter of all the confessors... I wish you, dearest brothers, good health, and to remember us. Greet the whole body of the brethren.