1. Behold, beloved brethren, peace is restored to the Church and although it lately seemed to incredulous people difficult, and to traitors impossibl

 2. We look with glad countenances upon confessors illustrious with the heraldry of a good name, and glorious with the praises of virtue and of faith

 3. Let none, my beloved brethren, let none depreciate this glory let none by malignant dispraise detract from the uncorrupted stedfastness of those w

 4. One cause of grief saddens these heavenly crowns of martyrs, these glorious spiritual confessions, these very great and illustrious virtues of the

 5. Yet, beloved brethren, the cause of truth is to be had in view nor ought the gloomy darkness of the terrible persecution so to have blinded the mi

 6. Each one was desirous of increasing his estate and forgetful of what believers had either done before in the times of the apostles, or always ough

 7. These things were before declared to us, and predicted. But we, forgetful of the law and obedience required of us, have so acted by our sins, that

 8. From some—ah, misery!—all these things have fallen away, and have passed from memory. They indeed did not wait to be apprehended ere they ascended,

 9. But to many their own destruction was not sufficient. With mutual exhortations, people were urged to their ruin death was pledged by turns in the

 10. Nor is there, alas, any just and weighty reason which excuses such a crime. One’s country was to be left, and loss of one’s estate was to be suffe

 11. The truth, brethren, must not be disguised nor must the matter and cause of our wound be concealed. A blind love of one’s own property has deceiv

 12. But how can they follow Christ, who are held back by the chain of their wealth? Or how can they seek heaven, and climb to sublime and lofty height

 13. But (say they) subsequently tortures had come, and severe sufferings were threatening those who resisted. He may complain of tortures who has been

 14. But now, what wounds can those who are overcome show? what gashes of gaping entrails, what tortures of the limbs, in cases where it was not faith

 15. Moreover, beloved brethren, a new kind of devastation has appeared and, as if the storm of persecution had raged too little, there has been added

 16. All these warnings being scorned and contemned,—before their sin is expiated, before confession has been made of their crime, before their conscie

 17. Let no one cheat himself, let no one deceive himself. The Lord alone can have mercy. He alone can bestow pardon for sins which have been committed

 18. But if any one, by an overhurried haste, rashly thinks that he can give remission of sins to all, or dares to rescind the Lord’s precepts, not onl

 19. For Moses also besought for the sins of the people and yet, when he had sought pardon for these sinners, he did not receive it. “I pray Thee,” sa

 20. In the Gospel the Lord speaks, and says, “Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven: but

 21. Unless, perchance, these things have been done without God’s knowledge, or all these things have happened without His permission although Holy Sc

 22. What good can you think of him, what fear can you suppose to have been with him, or what faith, whom neither fear could correct nor persecution it

 23. Receive rather, and admit what we say. Why do your deaf ears not hear the salutary precepts with which we warn you? Why do your blind eyes not see

 24. One of those who of his own will ascended the Capitol to make denial, after he had denied Christ, became dumb. The punishment began from that poin

 25. Learn what occurred when I myself was present and a witness. Some parents who by chance were escaping, being little careful

 26. This much about an infant, which was not yet of an age to speak of the crime committed by others in respect of herself. But the woman who in advan

 27. Nor let those persons flatter themselves that they need repent the less, who, although they have not polluted their hands with abominable sacrific

 28. Moreover, how much are they both greater in faith and better in their fear, who, although bound by no crime of sacrifice to idols or of certificat

 29. I entreat you, beloved brethren, that each one should confess his own sin, while he who has sinned is still in this world, while his confession ma

 30. Do we believe that a man is lamenting with his whole heart, that he is entreating the Lord with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, who

 31. Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, the illustrious and noble youths, even amid the flames and the ardours of a raging furnace, did not desist from maki

 32. These things were done by men, meek, simple, innocent, in deserving well of the majesty of God and now those who have denied the Lord refuse to m

 33. Neither let that imprudent error or vain stupor of some move you, who, although they are involved in so grave a crime, are struck with blindness o

 34. Flee from such men as much as you can avoid with a wholesome caution those who adhere to their mischievous contact. Their word doth eat as doth a

 35. But you, beloved brethren, whose fear is ready towards God, and whose mind, although it is placed in the midst of lapse, is mindful of its misery,

 36. If a man make prayer with his whole heart, if he groan with the true lamentations and tears of repentance, if he incline the Lord to pardon of his

25. Learn what occurred when I myself was present and a witness.58    [What Cyprian testifies as of his own knowledge, we must accept as fact, however it be accounted for. For the rest, we may believe that the terrible excitements of the times led him to accept as real the exaggerated stories which became current. In our own days “the faith-cure” excites a like credulity.] Some parents who by chance were escaping, being little careful59    Some read, “of themselves;” others, “of their belongings.” on account of their terror, left a little daughter under the care of a wet-nurse. The nurse gave up the forsaken child to the magistrates. They gave it, in the presence of an idol whither the people flocked (because it was not yet able to eat flesh on account of its years), bread mingled with wine, which however itself was the remainder of what had been used in the immolation of those that had perished. Subsequently the mother recovered her child. But the girl was no more able to speak, or to indicate the crime that had been committed, than she had before been able to understand or to prevent it. Therefore it happened unawares in their ignorance, that when we were sacrificing, the mother brought it in with her. Moreover, the girl mingled with the saints, became impatient of our prayer and supplications, and was at one moment shaken with weeping, and at another tossed about like a wave of the sea by the violent excitement of her mind; as if by the compulsion of a torturer the soul of that still tender child confessed a consciousness of the fact with such signs as it could. When, however, the solemnities were finished, and the deacon began to offer the cup to those present, and when, as the rest received it, its turn approached, the little child, by the instinct of the divine majesty, turned away its face, compressed its mouth with resisting lips, and refused the cup.60    [Infant communion.] Still the deacon persisted, and, although against her efforts, forced on her some of the sacrament of the cup. Then there followed a sobbing and vomiting. In a profane body and mouth the Eucharist could not remain; the draught sanctified in the blood of the Lord burst forth from the polluted stomach. So great is the Lord’s power, so great is His majesty. The secrets of darkness were disclosed under His light, and not even hidden crimes deceived God’s priest.

XXV. Praesente ac teste me ipso accipite quid evenerit. Parentes forte fugientes, dum trepidi minus consulunt, sub nutricis alimento parvulam filiam reliquerunt; 0485A relictam nutrix detulit ad magistratus. Illi ei, apud idolum quo populus confluebat, quod carnem necdum posset edere per aetatem, panem mero mixtum, quod tamen et ipsum de immolatione pereuntium supererat, tradiderunt. Recepit filiam postmodum mater. Sed facinus puella commissum tam loqui et indicare non potuit, quam nec intelligere prius potuit nec arcere. Ignoratione igitur obreptum est ut sacrificantibus nobis eam secum mater inferret. Sed enim puella mixta cum sanctis, precis nostrae et orationis impatiens, nunc ploratu concuti, nunc mentis aestu coepit fluctuabunda jactari, et velut tortore cogente, quibus poterat indiciis conscientiam facti in simplicibus adhuc annis rudis anima fatebatur. Ubi vero solemnibus adimpletis calicem diaconus offerre praesentibus coepit, et accipientibus caeteris locus ejus 0485B advenit, faciem suam parvula instinctu divinae majestatis avertere, os labiis obturantibus premere, calicem recusare. Perstitit tamen diaconus, et reluctanti licet de sacramento calicis infudit. Tunc sequitur singultus et vomitus. In corpore atque ore violato Eucharistia permanere non potuit. Sanctificatus in 0486A Domini sanguine potus de pollutis visceribus erupit. Tanta est potestas Domini, tanta majestas! Secreta tenebrarum sub ejus luce detecta sunt, sacerdotem Dei nec occulta crimina fefellerunt.