Cyprian & Lactantius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Letter XXX. To Cyprian, from the presbyters and deacons resident at Rome, greeting. A mind conscious of its own uprightness, sustained by the vigor of gospel discipline, and rendered by heaven's decrees a truthful witness before itself, is wont to rest content with God alone as its judge, seeking no praise from another and fearing no accusation from another; yet doubly worthy of praise are those who, knowing that their conscience owes account to God alone as judge, still desire that their own deeds be approved by their own brethren as well. That you act so, brother Cyprian, is no wonder, since out of your modesty and inborn diligence you wished us to be found sharers of your plans rather than mere assessors of them, so that in your undertakings, as we gave our approval, we might find praise alongside you, and might be joint heirs of your good counsels because we could also stand as their confirmers. For we shall all be believed to have worked as one, since we are all discovered bound together by one and the same agreement of censure and discipline. What indeed suits peace so well, or is so needful amid the warfare of persecution, as holding fast the strictness owed to divine vigor? Whoever slackens it must forever drift on an unsteady course, tossed here and there by the shifting, uncertain storms of affairs, and, as if the rudder of counsel had been wrenched from his grip, will run the ship of the Church's welfare aground upon the rocks; so it becomes plain that the Church's welfare can be secured in no way other than by beating back, as though they were hostile waves, those who act against her, and by keeping ever safe, like a saving rudder amid the tempest, the settled reasoning of discipline itself. Nor is this a policy newly devised by us now, nor have these defenses against wrongdoers arrived among us all at once as fresh remedies; rather, this severity of ours is old, our faith is old, and, we read, our discipline is old as well � for the apostle would never have spoken such lofty praise of us, declaring that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world, had this very vigor not already, from that time forward, drawn the roots of its faith out of those earlier days. To have fallen short of praise and glory of that kind would be the heaviest of charges. It is a lesser disgrace never to have won the herald's praise at all than to have tumbled down from praise's summit. It is a smaller fault to have gone unhonored by good testimony than to have thrown away the honor of good testimonies once held. It is a lighter matter to have lain obscure and unpraised, with one's virtues intact, than, disinherited from the faith, to have squandered one's own praises. For whatever is put forward to someone's glory, unless guarded by anxious and careful labor, swells instead into reproach for the gravest crime. That we speak the truth here, our earlier letter has already shown, in which we laid before you, in a clear statement, our judgment against those who had betrayed themselves as faithless through the unlawful profession of wicked certificates, as though by this act they seemed to have slipped free of the devil's entangling snares � when in fact they were held fast by that very deed, no less than if they had actually gone up to the impious altars, since by doing this they had themselves borne witness to it; and likewise against those who accepted such certificates as valid even though they had not been present at the making of them, since by having them written up through an agent in this way, they had, in effect, made themselves present. For the one who procured that a thing be done bears no immunity from the crime, nor is he a stranger to the offense whose consent, though the crime was not committed by his own hand, is nonetheless publicly read out; and since the whole sacrament of the faith is understood to rest wholly on confessing the name of Christ, whoever looks for deceitful tricks as his excuse has thereby denied it, and whoever wishes to appear to have satisfied the edicts or laws set up against the gospel has, by that very wish to seem obedient, already obeyed. Nor have we shown you any less clearly our conviction and agreement concerning those who had defiled their hands and mouths with unlawful sacrifices, their minds having been defiled beforehand, which is precisely how their hands and mouths too came to be defiled. Never let it happen that the Roman Church should surrender her vigor through such irreverent ease, or, overturning the majesty of the faith, unstring the sinews of her strictness, so that, while the ruin of the fallen brethren not only still lies prostrate but continues to spread, remedies granted too hastily for their reconciliation would of course do no good, and new wounds would be pressed by a false mercy upon the old wounds of their transgression � with the result that these wretched men would be robbed of even repentance itself, to their own deeper ruin. For how can the medicine of pardon make any progress if the physician himself, cutting repentance short, grants relief to the danger, merely covering the wound instead of allowing the necessary passage of time to draw a scar over it? That is not healing � to speak plainly, it is killing. You also have letters from the confessors themselves � those whom the honor of their confession still keeps shut up here in prison, and whose faith has already crowned them gloriously once in the gospel's contest � letters agreeing with ours, in which they too have laid out the strictness of gospel discipline and have called back unlawful petitions from the Church's sense of shame, lest, by granting these too readily, they should fail to easily mend the ruins of gospel discipline � especially since it would suit no one more than those who had handed themselves over to be racked and torn apart for the gospel by raging men, to keep unstained the dignity belonging to the full measure of gospel vigor, lest they should rightly forfeit the honor of martyrdom by choosing, at the very moment of martyrdom, to betray the gospel. For whoever fails to keep watch, in the very matter through which he possesses something, over what he holds � violating the source from which he holds it � loses what he once possessed. On this score we owe you, and gladly render, the greatest thanks: that you lit up the darkness of their prison with your letters, that you came to them however you were able to gain entry, that you refreshed spirits already made strong by their own faith and confession with your words of encouragement and your letters, that by praising their happy state as it deserved you kindled in them a still hotter longing for heaven's glory, that you drove forward those already inclined, and that, as we believe and hope, you armed them with the strength of your words to come off as victors � so that, although all this seems to spring from the faith of those confessing and from God's own generosity, they may nonetheless appear, in some measure, indebted to you even within their martyrdom. But to come back to the point from which our discourse seemed to have wandered: enclosed you will find the letters we likewise sent to Sicily. Yet a greater necessity presses us to delay action in this matter, since, after the passing of that man of most noble memory, Fabian, no bishop has yet been appointed among us, owing to the hardship of the times and circumstances, to moderate all these questions and to be able, with authority and counsel, to render an account concerning those who have lapsed. And in so vast a matter, it seems best to us, just as you yourself have likewise proposed, that the peace of the Church be upheld first, and only afterward, through a joint deliberation of bishops, presbyters, deacons, confessors, and likewise the laity who have stood firm, should the case of the lapsed be taken up. For it strikes us as both invidious and burdensome not to examine, through the judgment of many, what appears to have been committed by many, and instead to hand down a single verdict, when so great a crime is noted to have spread abroad through so many � since no decree can stand firm unless it is seen to carry the agreement of the majority. Look at nearly the whole world laid waste, with the remnants and wreckage of the fallen strewn everywhere; and for that very reason so weighty a deliberation is required, in proportion to how widely the offense appears to have spread. The remedy must not fall short of the wound, nor the cures fall short of the deaths, so that just as those who fell, fell because in blind rashness they were far too careless, so those striving now to set this matter right should exercise every restraint of counsel, lest anything done otherwise than it ought be judged null and void by all. With one single counsel, then, with the same prayers and the same tears, let both we who up to now seem to have escaped the ruin of this present time, and those who seem to have fallen into these calamities of the age, beseech the divine majesty and beg peace for the name of the Church. Let us cherish one another, guard one another, and arm one another with mutual vows. Let us pray that the lapsed be raised up again; let us pray that those standing firm not be tempted all the way to ruin; let us pray that those reported to have fallen, recognizing the magnitude of their offense, come to understand that they ought not to demand a remedy that is instant and premature. Let us pray that the effect of pardon may follow upon the lapsed only after their repentance, and that, having acknowledged their crime, they be willing meanwhile to grant us patience, and not further disturb the Church's still unsettled state, lest they should appear to have themselves kindled an inward persecution against us, adding to the heap of their offenses the further charge of restlessness � for modesty suits best those whose immodest mind stands condemned in their own offenses. Let them knock at the doors, certainly, but let them by no means break them down. Let them draw near to the threshold of the Church, but let them by no means vault over it. Let them stand guard at the gates of the heavenly encampment, but armed with the modesty by which they may understand that they had once deserted. Let them take up again the trumpet of their prayers, but not one sounding the call to battle. Let them equip themselves with the weapons of modesty, and take up again the shield of faith which, in denying Christ, they had cast away out of fear of death � yet let them believe that they now stand armed against the enemy, the devil, and not against the Church, who mourns their fall. A modest petition, a humble plea, a necessary humility, and a patience that is not idle, will profit them greatly. Let them dispatch tears as envoys of their sorrow; let groans drawn up from the depths of the heart serve as their advocate, giving proof of grief and shame for the crime committed. Indeed, if they truly shudder at the enormity of the disgrace committed, if with a truly healing hand they probe the deadly wound of their heart, their conscience, and the winding depths of that injury, let them even feel shame in asking � since it carries even greater peril and disgrace not to have sought the help of peace at all. But let all of this proceed under solemn obligation, with the very terms of the petition tempered to the demands of the time, with a humble request and a submissive prayer: for the one who is petitioned ought to be softened, not provoked, and just as divine mercy must be kept in view, so divine judgment must be kept in view as well; Scripture itself joins the two: on one page, because you asked me, I forgave you the whole of your debt, and on another, anyone who disowns me in front of other people will in turn be disowned by me in front of my Father and his angels. God gives freely, yet that same generosity makes him no less exacting and watchful over what he has commanded; and just as he calls men to the banquet, so too he casts out, bound hand and foot, beyond the gathering of the saints, the one who has no wedding garment. Heaven he has made ready, but hell too he has made ready. He has made ready refreshments, but eternal punishments too he has made ready. He has made ready light beyond reach, but he has likewise made ready the vast, unending darkness of endless night. Seeking to hold to the measure of this tempering, both for those nearby and for those whom the heat of this persecution had cast down from other, distant provinces, we judged that nothing should be altered before a bishop is appointed, but we believed that care for the lapsed should meanwhile be handled with moderation, so that, while we wait for the bishop God will grant us, the case of those able to bear delay should remain in suspense; but for those whose approaching end allows their life no further delay, if, having performed penance and having often declared their detestation of their own deeds, they have shown through tears, through groans, through weeping, the marks of a grieving and truly repentant soul, since no hope of living, humanly speaking, remains to them � only then should help be extended, carefully and cautiously, leaving to God alone the choice of what becomes of such people and the true reckoning of his own verdict; while we, for our part, take anxious pains that wicked men should not praise us for an excessive readiness, nor truly repentant men accuse us of a harshness that seems cruel. We pray, most blessed and most glorious pope, that you may always fare well in the Lord and remember us.