Epistle LIII.
To Cornelius, Concerning Granting Peace
to the Lapsed.
Argument.—Cyprian Announces This Decree of the Bishops in the Name
of the Whole Synod to Father Cornelius; And Therefore This Letter is
Not So Much the Letter of Cyprian Himself, as that of the Entire
African Synod.
Cyprian, Liberalis, Caldonius, Nicomedes, Cæcilius, Junius, Marrutius, Felix, Successus, Faustinus, Fortunatus, Victor, Saturninus, another Saturninus, Rogatianus, Tertullus, Lucianus, Eutyches, Amplus, Sattius, Secundinus, another Saturninus, Aurelius, Priscus, Herculanus, Victoricus, Quintus, Honoratus, Montanus, Hortensianus, Verianus, Iambus, Donatus, Pompeius, Polycarpus, Demetrius, another Donatus, Privatianus, another Fortunatus, Rogatus and Monulus, to Cornelius their brother, greeting.
1. We had indeed decided some time ago, dearest
brother, having mutually taken counsel one with another, that they who, in the fierceness of persecution, had been overthrown by the adversary, and had lapsed, and had polluted themselves with unlawful sacrifices, should undergo a long and full repentance; and if the risk of sickness should be urgent, should receive peace on the very point of death. For it was not right, neither did the love of the Father nor divine mercy allow, that the Church should be closed to those that knock, or the help of the hope of salvation be denied to those who mourn and entreat, so that when they pass from this world, they should be dismissed to their Lord without communion and peace; since He Himself who gave the law, that things which were bound on earth should also be bound in heaven, allowed, moreover, that things might be loosed there which were here first loosed in the Church. But now, when we see that the day of another trouble is again beginning to draw near, and are admonished by frequent and repeated intimations that we should be prepared and armed for the struggle which the enemy announces to us, that we should also prepare the people committed to us by divine condescension, by our exhortations, and gather together from all parts all the soldiers of Christ who desire arms, and are anxious for the battle within the Lord’s camp: under the compulsion of this necessity, we have decided that peace is to be given to those who have not withdrawn from the Church of the Lord, but have not ceased from the first day of their lapse to repent, and to lament, and to beseech the Lord; and we have decided that they ought to be armed and equipped for the battle which is at hand.
2. For we must comply with fitting
intimations and admonitions, that the sheep may not be deserted in
danger by the shepherds, but that the whole flock may be gathered
together into one place, and the Lord’s army may be arrived for
the contest of the heavenly warfare. For the repentance of the
mourners was reasonably prolonged for a more protracted time, help only
being afforded to the sick in their departure, so long as peace and
tranquillity prevailed, which permitted the long postponement of the
tears of the mourners, and late assistance in sickness to the
dying. But now indeed peace is necessary, not for the sick, but
for the strong; nor is communion to be granted by us to the dying, but
to the living, that we may not leave those whom we stir up and exhort
to the battle unarmed and naked, but may fortify them with the
protection of Christ’s body and blood. And, as the
Eucharist is appointed for this very purpose that it may be a safeguard
to the receivers, it is needful that we may arm those whom we
wish to be safe against the adversary with the protection of the
Lord’s abundance. For how do we teach or provoke them to
shed their blood in confession of His name, if we deny to those who are
about to enter on the warfare the blood of Christ? Or how do we
make them fit for the cup of martyrdom, if we do not first admit them
to drink, in the Church, the cup of the Lord by the right of communion?