Antonian's perplexity through vague representations. 117 tracts, which I have lately read here, and which on account of our mutual affection I have already transmitted for your perusal, wherein neither censure is wanting to reprove the lapsed, nor medicine to heal. The unity also of the Catholic Church, my poor ability has expressed as far as it was able. This book I now more than ever trust will be acceptable to you, in that ye now read it so as to approve and love it, inasmuch as what we have written to you in words, ye fulfil in act, when ye return to the Church in the unity of charity and peace. I bid you, dearest and much longed for brethren, ever heartily farewell. EPISTLE LV. Cyprian to Antonianus, his brother, greeting. 1. I received your first letter, dearest brother, firmly upholding the concord of the sacerdotal College, and cleaving to the Catholic Church, wherein you signified that you did not communicate with Novatian, but followed my advice, and agreed with Cornelius our brother-Bishop to hold one uniform course. You wrote also, that I should transmit a copy of the same letter to our colleague Cornelius, that so, laying aside all anxiety, he might know that you held communion with him, that is, with the Catholic Church. There arrived, however, afterwards your second letter, sent by Quintus our brother-Presbyter, in which I perceive that your mind, influenced by a letter of Novatian, has begun to For whereas you had firmly resolved on your course, in harmony with the rest, you have in this letter desired me to write back to you, what heresy Novatian has introduced; or on what principle Cornelius communicates with Trophimus and the sacrificers. As to which, if indeed from solicitude for the faith you are carefully anxious, and diligently search into the truth of a doubtful matter, the anxious suspense of a mind agitated by holy fear is not to be blamed. But since I see that, after the opinion expressed in your first letter, you have been disturbed by a letter from waver. 'de Lapsis and de Eccl. Unit. A. 252. 24. 118 Grounds of strictness with lapsed, during persecution. EPIST. Novatian, I lay this down, dearest brother, in the first place; LV. that men of gravity, once with stedfast firmness founded Mat. 7, on the rock, are not moved, I say not by a light breath, but by a gale or a whirlwind; lest their mind doubtful and uncertain be frequently tossed by various opinions, as it were by the blasts of wind rushing on them, and be changed from their purpose with a certain reprehensible levity. That the letter of Novatian may not occasion this either in you or any other, I will, as you have desired, dearest brother, briefly give you an account of the whole matter. 2. And first of all, since you seem troubled by my conduct too, my own character and cause must be cleared before you, lest any think that I have lightly receded from my purpose; and whereas in the first instance and at the outset I upheld evangelical vigour, I seem to have afterwards bent my mind from discipline and its former strictness, so as to think that peace is to be given laxly to such as have polluted their consciences by accepting certificates, or have been guilty of the abominable sacrifices. Both which courses were adopted by me not without reasons for a long time balanced and pondered. For when the battle was still being fought and the struggle of a glorious contest was hotly raging in the persecution, the courage of the warriors was to be roused by every exhortation, to their utmost energy; and especially the spirits of the lapsed were to be roused strongly with the trumpet, as it were, of my voice, that they might not only follow the way of penitence with prayers and lamentations, but, since an opportunity was offered of renewing the contest and regaining salvation,-that, chided by my voice, they might rather be provoked to the zeal of confession and the glory of martyrdom. In fine, when my Presbyters and Deacons had written to me of certain persons, that they were uncontrolled, and pressed too hastily.to receive communion, writing back to them in an Epistle, now 1 Ep. 19. extant', I added this; "If too they are in so great haste, they have what they require in their own power, the state of things itself offering them more than they ask. The battle is still waging; the lists are daily held; if they truly and firmly repent of the deed, and the fervour of their faith is vehement; whosoever cannot brook delay, may be crowned." Church discipline tempered of severity and tenderness. 119 3. But what was to be determined in the case of the lapsed I deferred; that when quiet and tranquillity had been bestowed, and the Divine mercy should allow the Bishops to meet together, then, the advice of all being given and weighed, we might, on comparison of all things, determine what ought to be done. But if any, before our Council were held, and before sentence given by advice of all, should choose rashly to communicate with the lapsed, that person should be forbidden communion'. Of which also I wrote very fully to 1Ep.34. Rome to the Clergy, then still acting without a Bishop, and 2 Ep.27. to the Confessors, Maximus the Presbyter, and others at Ep. 28. that time imprisoned, now in the Church united with Cornelius. That I wrote this you may learn from their answer; for they thus expressed themselves in their Epistle; Ep. 30. "However, in a business of such vast magnitude we agree with what you also have yourself fully expressed; that the peace of the Church must be awaited, and then, in a full conference of Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons, and Confessors, with those of the laymen also who have stood, account be taken of the lapsed." It was added moreover, Novatian being then the writer, and reciting with his own voice what he had written, and Moyses the Presbyter, at that time a Confessor, now a Martyr, subscribing, that peace should be granted to the lapsed who were sick and at the point of death. Which Epistle was sent throughout the world, and made known to all the Churches and all the brethren. 4. However, according to what had been before determined, when the persecution was lulled, and opportunity given for meeting together, a large number of Bishops, whom their own faith and the protection of the Lord had preserved uninjured and safe, met together, and the Divine Scriptures being adduced on both sides, we balanced our resolution with wholesome moderation; so that neither should hope of communion and peace be altogether denied to the lapsed, lest through desperation they should fall away still further, and because the Church was shut against them, following the world, should live as heathens; nor yet on the other hand should evangelical strictness be relaxed, so that they might rush in haste to communion; but that penance should be long protracted, and the Fatherly clemency entreated with 4 120 Concurrence of other parts of the Church sought. EPIST. mourning, and the cases, and purposes, and exigencies of LV. each be examined; as is expressed in a tract', which I trust A. 252. has reached you, where the several heads of our determinations are collected together. one of 5. And lest the number of Bishops in Africa should seem insufficient, we wrote to Rome also on this subject to our colleague Cornelius, who himself likewise, in a Council held with very many" of our co-Prelates, agreed in the same opinion with us, with like solemnity and wholesome moderation. Whereof it has now become necessary to write to you, that you may know that I did nothing lightly, but, according to what I had before comprised in my Epistles, deferred every thing to the common decision of our Council, and in the mean time communicated with no the lapsed, so long as there was opportunity whereby the lapsed might obtain not only pardon, but even a crown. But afterwards, as the agreement of our College, and the benefit from recovering the brotherhood and healing the wound required, I submitted to the necessity of the times, and thought right to provide for the safety of many, and now not to recede from these things, which have once in our Council by common consent been determined; notwithstanding that many things are tossed to and fro by the voices of many, and lies against the priests of God, uttered from the devil's mouth, are scattered every where to break the concord of Catholic unity. But it behoves you as a good brother and a fellow-Bishop loving peace, not readily to receive what malignants and apostates say; but to weigh what your Colleagues, moderate and grave men, do, from an examination of our lives and discipline. 6. I come now, dearest brother, to the character of Cornelius our colleague; that you, with us, may more truly know Cornelius, not from the lies of malignants and detractors, but from the judgment of the Lord God, Who made him a Bishop, and from the testimony of his fellow-Bishops, the whole number of whom throughout the whole world have unanimously agreed. For,-which, with praise and honour, commends our beloved Cornelius to God and Christ and His 121 tian. Humility and orderly appointment of Cornelius. Church, and also to all his fellow-Prelates, he did not on a sudden arrive at the Episcopate, but promoted through all ecclesiastical offices, and having often deserved well of the Lord in Divine Services, he mounted to the lofty summit of the Priesthood', along all the steps of holy duty. Moreover, 'Episcohe neither himself asked nor wished for the Episcopate, nor, pate. as others, whom the swelling of their own arrogance and Novapride inflates, seized it; but quiet in all respects and meek, and such as they are wont to be, who are chosen of God to this office, agreeably to the retirement of his virgin-continency, and to the humility of his innate and guarded modesty, he does not, as some, use violence to be made a Bishop; but himself suffered violence so as to receive the Episcopate by compulsion. And he was made Bishop by very many of our Colleagues then present in the city of Rome, who sent to us letters, touching his ordination, remarkable for their high and honourable testimony and praise. Cornelius, moreover, was made Bishop by the judgment of God and His Christ, by the testimony of almost all the Clergy, by the suffrages of the people who were then present, and by the College of ancient Priests and good men; at a time when no one had been made before him, when the place of Fabian, that is, when the place. of Peter and the rank of the sacerdotal chair, was vacant. This therefore being filled by the will of God, and ratified by the consent of all of us, whosoever would thenceforward be made Bishop, must necessarily be made without; nor can he have ordination of the Church, who does not maintain the unity of the Church. Whosoever he be, although greatly boasting of himself, and claiming very much for himself, he is profane, an alien, without the pale. And since after the first there cannot be a second, whosoever is made after one, who ought to be alone, is no longer second, but none at all. 7. Moreover, after he had taken on him the Episcopate, not by canvassing nor by force, but by the will of God, Who maketh priests, what an excellent courage was there in the very taking of his Episcopate! what strength of mind! what firmness of faith! which we ought with simple heart both thoroughly to consider and commend-that he sat fearless at Rome in the sacerdotal. chair, at that time when a tyrant, a persecutor of the Priests |