Epistle XIX.148    Oxford ed.: Ep. xxv. a.d. 250.

Cyprian Replies to Caldonius.

Argument.—Cyprian Treats of Nothing Peculiar in This Epistle, Beyond Acquiescing in the Opinion of Caldonius, to Wit, that Peace Should Not Be Refused to Such Lapsed As, by a True Repentance and Confession of the Name of Christ, Have Deserved It, and Have Therefore Returned to Him.

Cyprian to Caldonius, his brother, greeting.  We have received your letter, beloved brother, which is abundantly sensible, and full of honesty and faith. Nor do we wonder that, skilled and exercised as you are in the Scriptures of the Lord, you do everything discreetly and wisely. You have judged quite correctly about granting peace to our brethren, which they, by true penitence and by the glory of a confession of the Lord, have restored to themselves, being justified by their words, by which before they had condemned themselves. Since, then, they have washed away all their sin, and their former stain, by the help of the Lord, has been done away by a more powerful virtue, they ought not to lie any longer under the power of the devil, as it were, prostrate; when, being banished and deprived of all their property, they have lifted themselves up and have begun to stand with Christ. And I wish that the others also would repent after their fall, and be transferred into their former condition; and that you may know how we have dealt with these, in their urgent and eager rashness and importunity to extort peace, I have sent a book149    Probably the treatise, On the Lapsed. to you, with letters to the number of five, that I wrote to the clergy and to the people, and to the martyrs also and confessors, which letters have already been sent to many of our colleagues, and have satisfied them; and they replied that they also agree with me in the same opinion according to the Catholic faith; which very thing do you also communicate to as many of our colleagues as you can, that among all these, may be observed one mode of action and one agreement, according to the Lord’s precepts.150    [A beautiful specimen of obedience to the precept, 1 Pet. v. 5.] I bid you, beloved brother, ever heartily farewell.

EPISTOLA XIX. (Erasm., III, 20. Pamel., XX. Rigalt., Baluz., Paris., XIX. Oxon., Lips., XXV.)RESPONDET CALDONIO.

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ARGUMENTUM.---Nihil peculiare agit hac epistola Cyprianus, quam quod Caldonii sententiae accedit, iis nempe lapsis pacem negandam non esse, qui vera poenitentia et Christi nominis confessione illam meruerint, atque adeo sibi reddiderint.

Cyprianus Caldonio fratri salutem. Accepimus litteras tuas, frater charissime, satis sobrias et integritatis ac fidei plenas. Nec miramur si, exercitatus et in Scripturis Dominicis peritus, caute omnia et consulte geras. Recte autem sensisti circa impertiendam fratribus nostris pacem, quam sibi ipsi vera poenitentia et Dominicae confessionis gloria reddiderunt, 0273C sermonibus suis justificati, quibus se ante damnaverant. Cum ergo abluerint omne delictum, et maculam pristinam assistente sibi Domino potiore 0274A virtute deleverint, jacere ultra sub diabolo quasi prostrati non debent qui extorres facti et bonis suis omnibus spoliati, erexerunt se et cum Christo stare coeperunt. Atque utinam sic et caeteri post lapsum poenitentes in statum pristinum reformentur! quos nunc urgentes et pacem temere atque importune extorquentes quomodo disposuerimus ut scires, librum tibi cum epistolis numero quinque misi, quas ad clerum et ad plebem et ad martyres quoque et confessores feci; quae epistolae jam plurimis collegis nostris missae placuerunt, et rescripserunt se quoque nobiscum in eodem consilio secundum catholicam fidem stare. Quod ipsum etiam tu ad collegas nostros quos potueris transmitte , ut apud omnes unus actus et una consensio, secundum Domini praecepta, 0274B teneatur. Opto te, frater charissime, semper bene valere.