Cyprian & Lactantius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Letter 81. Cyprian, to the presbyters, deacons, and the whole people, greeting. When it was reported to us, dearest brothers, that warrants had been sent out to bring me to Utica, and our dearest friends persuaded me by their counsel to withdraw for a time from our gardens, I agreed, since a just reason intervened for it, on the ground that it is fitting for a bishop to confess the Lord in that very city over whose church he presides, and to bring glory upon the whole people by the confession of their own bishop present among them. For whatever a confessing bishop declares at the very moment of confession, he declares by the inspiration of God, speaking in the mouths of all. But the honor of our so glorious church would be diminished if I, a bishop set over this church, having received sentence at Utica on the charge of confession, were to go from there to the Lord as a martyr in a place not my own, seeing that I long for and desire and owe it, by unceasing prayers and every vow, to confess both for myself and for you among you, and to suffer there, and to go forth from there to the Lord. So here we remain, withdrawn into this hidden retreat, waiting for the proconsul's return to Carthage; once he is back, his own word will tell us what the emperors have decreed touching Christian laypeople and bishops, and only then shall we utter whatever the Lord wills spoken at that hour. You yourselves, dearest brothers, having been schooled by me all along in obedience to what the Lord has commanded, and having so often absorbed this teaching from my own instruction, must hold to peace and stillness — none of you should stir up trouble among the brothers, nor hand himself over to the pagans unbidden. For the one who is seized and handed over ought to speak, since God, set within us, speaks in that hour, he who has willed us rather to confess than to volunteer. As for anything further we ought to do before the proconsul, in judging me, passes sentence touching my confession of God's name, we will settle it under the Lord's guidance when the moment draws near. May the Lord Jesus keep you safe, dearest brothers, and grant that you remain steadfast in his church, and be pleased to preserve you.