Cyprian of Carthage, The Epistles of Cyprian

1. Cyprian to Moyses and Maximus, the presbyters, and to the other confessors, his very beloved brethren, greeting. I had already known from rumour, most brave and blessed brethren, the glory of your faith and virtue, rejoicing greatly and abundantly congratulating you, that the highest condescension of our Lord Jesus Christ should have prepared you for the crown by confession of His name. For you, who have become chiefs and leaders in the battle of our day, have set forward the standard of the celestial warfare; you have made a beginning of the spiritual contest which God has purposed to be now waged by your valour; you, with unshaken strength and unyielding firmness, have broken the first onset of the rising war. Thence have arisen happy openings of the fight; thence have begun good auspices of victory. It happened that here martyrdoms were consummated by tortures. But he who, preceding in the struggle, has been made an example of virtue to the brethren, is on common ground with the martyrs in honour. Hence you have delivered to us garlands woven by your hand, and have pledged your brethren from the cup of salvation.

2. To these glorious beginnings of confession and the omens of a victorious warfare, has been added the maintenance of discipline, which I observed from the vigour of your letter that you lately sent to your colleagues joined with you to the Lord in confession, with anxious admonition, that the sacred precepts of the Gospel and the commandments of life once delivered to us should be kept with firm and rigid observance. Behold another lofty degree of your glory; behold, with confession, a double title to deserving well of God,—to stand with a firm step, and to drive away in this struggle, by the strength of your faith, those who endeavour to make a breach in the Gospel, and bring impious hands to the work of undermining the Lord’s precepts:—to have before afforded the indications of courage, and now to afford lessons of life. The Lord, when, after His resurrection, He sent forth His apostles, charges them, saying, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”176 Matt. xxviii. 18–20. And the Apostle John, remembering this charge, subsequently lays it down in his epistle: “Hereby,” says he, “we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith he knoweth Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”177 1 John ii. 3, 4. You prompt the keeping of these precepts; you observe the divine and heavenly commands. This is to be a confessor of the Lord; this is to be a martyr of Christ,—to keep the firmness of one’s profession inviolate among all evils, and secure. 178 “And not to become a martyr for the Lord’s sake” (or, “by the Lord’s help”), “and to endeavour to overthrow the Lord’s precepts.” Baluz. reads “præter,” but in notes, “propter,” while most mss. read “per Dominum.”For to wish to become a martyr for the Lord, and to try to overthrow the Lord’s precepts; to use against Him the condescension that He has granted you;—to become, as it were, a rebel with arms that you have received from Him;—this is to wish to confess Christ, and to deny Christ’s Gospel. I rejoice, therefore, on your behalf, most brave and faithful brethren; and as much as I congratulate the martyrs there honoured for the glory of their strength, so much do I also equally congratulate you for the crown of the Lord’s discipline. The Lord has shed forth His condescension in manifold kinds of liberality. He has distributed the praises of good soldiers and their spiritual glories in plentiful variety. We also are sharers in your honour; we count your glory our glory, whose times have been brightened by such a felicity, that it should be the fortune of our day to see the proved servants of God and Christ’s soldiers crowned. I bid you, most brave and blessed brethren, ever heartily farewell; and remember me.

EPISTOLA XXV. (Erasm., IV, 3. Pamel., Rigalt., Baluz., XXV. Paris., XXIV. Oxon., Lips., XXVIII.)AD MOYSEN ET MAXIMUM ET CAETEROS CONFESSORES.

0288A

ARGUMENTUM.---Epistola haec est gratulatoria ad confessores Romanos.

I. Cyprianus Moysi et Maximo presbyteris et caeteris confessoribus, dilectissimis fratribus, salutem. Gloriam fidei et virtutis vestrae, fortissimi ac beatissimi fratres, jampridem de opinione cognoveram, laetatus satis et plurimum gratulatus quod vos confessione sui nominis paraverit ad coronam Domini nostri Jesu Christi praecipua dignatio. Vos enim primores et duces ad nostri temporis praelium facti, coelestis militiae signa movistis. Vos spiritale certamen 0288B quod nunc geri Deus voluit vestris virtutibus imbuistis. Vos surgentis belli impetus primos immobili robore atque inconcussa stabilitate fregistis. Inde initia felicia pugnandi orta sunt; inde vincendi auspicia coeperunt. Contigit hic per tormenta consummari martyria. Sed qui in congressione praecedens exemplum virtutis fratribus factus est, cum martyribus in honore communis est. Coronas vestra manu sertas inde huc tradidistis, et de poculo salutari fratribus propinastis.

II. Accessit ad confessionis exordia gloriosa et militiae victricis auspicia disciplinae tenor quem de epistolae vestrae vigore perspeximus, quam modo ad collegas vestros in confessione vobiscum Domino copulatos sollicita admonitione misistis ut Evangelii 0288C sancta praecepta et tradita nobis semel mandata vitalia forti et stabili observatione teneantur. Ecce alius gloriae vestrae sublimis gradus, ecce iterum cum confessione geminatus promerendi Dei titulus, stare firmo gradu, et in hac acie qui Evangelium conantur irrumpere et, praeceptis Domini subruendis manus 0289A impias inferentes , fidei robore submovere, praebuisse ante initia virtutum, nunc et morum magisteria praebere. Dominus post resurrectionem mittens apostolos mandat et dicit: Data est mihi omnis potestas in coelo et in terra. Ite ergo et docete gentes omnes, tingentes eos in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti, docentes eos observare omnia quaecumque praecepi vobis. (Matth. XXVIII, 19). Et Joannes apostolus mandati memor in Epistola sua postmodum ponit : In hoc, inquit, intelligimus quia cognovimus eum, si praecepta ejus custodiamus. Qui dicit quoniam cognovit eum, et mandata ejus non servat, mendax est et veritas in illo non est. (I Joa., II, 3, 4). Haec praecepta custodienda suggeritis, divina et coelestia mandata servatis. Hoc est confessorem Domini, hoc est esse martyrem Christi, servare 0289B vocis suae inviolatam circa omnia, et solidam firmitatem. Nam velle praeter Dominum martyrem fieri et praecepta Domini destruere conari, uti adversus illum dignatione quam tibi dederit, armis ab illo acceptis rebellem quodammodo fieri, hoc est Christum confiteri velle et Evangelium Christi negare. Laetor igitur ex vobis, fortissimi ac fidelissimi fratres; et quantum gratulor martyribus istic honoratis ob virium gloriam, tantum gratulor pariter et vobis ob Dominicae etiam disciplinae coronam. Dignationem suam Dominus multiplici genere largitatis infudit, bonorum militum laudes et glorias spiritales copiosa varietate distribuit. Honoris vestri participes et nos sumus, gloriam vestram nostram gloriam computamus, quorum tempora illustravit tanta felicitas, 0289C ut aetatem nostram videre contingeret probatos servos Dei et Christi milites coronatos. Opto vos , fortissimi ac beatissimi fratres, semper bene valere et nostri meminisse.