Epistle LIX.524    Oxford ed.: Ep. lxii. a.d. 253.

To the Numidian Bishops, on the Redemption of Their Brethren from Captivity Among the Barbarians.

Argument.—Cyprian Begins by Deploring the Captivity of the Brethren, of Which He Had Heard from the Numidian Bishops, and Says that He is Sending Them a Hundred Thousand Sesterces, Contributed by Brethren and Sisters and Colleagues.525    It is probable that this captivity was the work of those barbarians against whom Decius went to war and was killed.

1. Cyprian to Januarius, Maximus, Proculus, Victor, Modianus, Nemesianus, Nampulus, and Honoratus, his brethren, greeting. With excessive grief of mind, and not without tears, dearest brethren, I have read your letter which you wrote to me from the solicitude of your love, concerning the captivity of our brethren and sisters. For who would not grieve at misfortunes of that kind, or who would not consider his brother’s grief his own, since the Apostle Paul speaks, saying, “Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member rejoice, all the members rejoice with it;”526    1 Cor. xii. 26. and in another place he says, “Who is weak, and I am not weak?”527    2 Cor. xi. 29. Wherefore now also the captivity of our brethren must be reckoned as our captivity, and the grief of those who are endangered is to be esteemed as our grief, since indeed there is one body of our union; and not love only, but also religion, ought to instigate and strengthen us to redeem the members of the brethren.

2. For inasmuch as the Apostle Paul says again, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”528    1 Cor. iii. 16.—even although love urged us less to bring help to the brethren, yet in this place we must have considered that it was the temples of God which were taken captive, and that we ought not by long inactivity and neglect of their suffering to allow the temples of God to be long captive, but to strive with what powers we can, and to act quickly by our obedience, to deserve well of Christ our Judge and Lord and God. For as the Apostle Paul says, “As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ,”529    Gal. iii. 27. Christ is to be contemplated in our captive brethren, and He is to be redeemed from the peril of captivity who redeemed us from the peril of death; so that He who took us out of the jaws of the devil, who abides and dwells in us, may now Himself be rescued and redeemed from the hands of barbarians by a sum of money—who redeemed us by His cross and blood—who suffers these things to happen for this reason, that our faith may be tried, whether each one of us will do for another what he would wish to be done for himself, if he himself were held captive among barbarians. For who that is mindful of humanity, and reminded of mutual love, if he be a father, will not now consider that his sons are there; if he be a husband, will not think that his wife is there kept captive, with as much grief as shame for the marriage tie? But how great is the general grief among all of us, and suffering concerning the peril of virgins who are kept there, on whose behalf we must bewail not only the loss of liberty, but of modesty; and must lament the bonds of barbarians less than the violence of seducers and abominable places, lest the members dedicated to Christ, and devoted for ever in honour of continence by modest. virtue, should be sullied by the lust and contagion of the insulter.

3.  Our brotherhood, considering all these things according to your letter, and sorrowfully examining, have all promptly and willingly and liberally gathered together supplies of money for the brethren, being always indeed, according to the strength of their faith, prone to the work of God, but now even more stimulated to salutary works by the consideration of so great a suffering.  For since the Lord in His Gospel says, “I was sick, and ye visited me,”530    Matt. xxv. 36. with how much greater reward for our work will He say now, “I was captive, and ye redeemed me!” And since again He says, “I was in prison, and ye came unto me,” how much more will it be when He begins to say, “I was in the dungeon of captivity, and I lay shut up and bound among barbarians, and from that prison of slavery you delivered me,” being about to receive a reward from the Lord when the day of judgment shall come! Finally, we give you the warmest thanks that you have wished us to be sharers in your anxiety,531    [Primitive Christians were grateful for opportunities to distribute gifts. Rom. xii. 13.] and in so great and necessary a work—that you have offered us fruitful fields in which we might cast the seeds of our hope, with the expectation of a harvest of the most abundant fruits which will proceed from this heavenly and saving operation. We have then sent you a sum of one hundred thousand sesterces,532    [An immense contribution, for the times. In our money reckoned (for temp. Decii) at $3,757. For the Augustan age it would be $4,294. The text (sestertia) dubious.  Ed. Paris. which have been collected here in the Church over which by the Lord’s mercy we preside, by the contributions of the clergy and people established with us, which you will there dispense with what diligence you may.

4. And we wish, indeed, that nothing of such a kind may happen again, and that our brethren, protected by the majesty of the Lord, may be preserved safe from perils of this kind. If, however, for the searching out of the love of our mind, and for the testing of the faith of our heart, any such thing should happen, do not delay to tell us of it in your letters, counting it for certain that our church and the whole fraternity here beseech by their prayers that these things may not happen again; but if they happen, that they will willingly and liberally render help. But that you may have in mind in your prayers our brethren and sisters who have laboured so promptly and liberally for this needful work, that they may always labour; and that in return for their good work you may present them in your sacrifices and prayers, I have subjoined the names of each one; and moreover also I have added the names of my colleagues and fellow-priests, who themselves also, as they were present, contributed some little according to their power, in their own names and the name of their people. And besides our own amount, I have intimated and sent their small sums, all of whom, in conformity with the claims of faith and charity, you ought to remember in your supplications and prayers.533    [The diptychs are here referred to; that is, lists (read at the Eucharist) in which benefactors, living or dead, were gratefully remembered. Anglice, “beadroll.”] We bid you, dearest brethren, ever heartily farewell, and remember us.

EPISTOLA LX. (Pamel., Rigalt., Baluz., LX. Paris., LIX. Oxon., Lips., LXII.)AD EPISCOPOS NUMIDAS, DE REDEMPTIONE FRATRUM EX CAPTIVITATE BARBARORUM.

0359C

ARGUMENTUM.---Deplorata sub initium captivitate fratrum, Cyprianus sibi per episcopos Numidas nuntiata, mittere se dicit sestertiorum centum millia, adscriptis nominibus singulorum tum fratrum et sororum, tum collegarum, qui aliquid contribuerant. Verisimile est autem factam hanc captivitatem ab illis Barbaris, contra quos Decius in bellum profectus, interfectus est. Primi autem recens ediderunt hanc epistolam Manutius et Morelius.

0359D I. Cyprianus Januario, Maximo, Proculo, Victori, Modiano, Nemesiano, Nampulo, et Honorato fratribus 0360A salutem. Cum maximo animi nostri gemitu et non sine lacrymis legimus litteras vestras, fratres charissimi, quas ad nos, pro dilectionis vestrae sollicitudine, de fratrum nostrorum et sororum captivitate fecistis. Quis enim non doleat in ejusmodi casibus, aut quis non dolorem fratris sui suum proprium non computet, cum loquatur apostolus Paulus et dicat: Si patitur unum membrum, compatiuntur et caetera membra; si laetatur membrum unum, collaetantur et caetera membra. (I Cor. XII, 26). Et alio loco: Quis infirmatur, inquit, et non ego infirmor (II Cor. II, 29)? Quare nunc et nobis captivitas fratrum nostra captivitas computanda est, et periclitantium dolor pro nostro dolore numerandus est, cum sit scilicet adunationis nostrae corpus unum, et non tantum dilectio, sed et religio instigare 0360B nos debeat et confortare ad fratrum membra redimenda.

II. Nam, cum denuo apostolus Paulus dicat, Nescitis quia templum Dei estis, et Spiritus Dei habitat in vobis (I Cor. III, 16)? etiamsi charitas nos minus adigeret ad opem fratribus ferendam, considerandum tamen hoc in loco fuit Dei templa esse quae capta sunt, nec pati nos longa cessatione et neglecto dolore debere ut diu Dei templa captiva sint, sed quibus possumus viribus elaborare et velociter gerere ut Christum judicem et Dominum et Deum nostrum promereamur obsequiis nostris. Nam, cum dicat Paulus apostolus, Quotquot in Christo baptizati estis, Christum induistis (Gal. III, 27), in captivis fratribus nostris contemplandus est Christus, et redimendus de periculo captivitatis 0360C qui nos redemit de periculo mortis; ut qui nos de diaboli faucibus exuit, nunc ipse qui manet et habitat in nobis, de barbarorum manibus exuatur, et redimatur nummaria quantitate qui nos cruce redemit et sanguine; qui idcirco haec fieri interim patitur ut fides nostra tentetur an faciat unusquisque pro altero quod pro se fieri vellet, si apud barbaros teneretur ipse captivus. Quis enim, non humanitatis memor et mutuae dilectionis admonitus, si pater est, illic esse nunc filios suos computet, si maritus est, uxorem suam illic captivam teneri cum dolore pariter ac pudore vinculi maritalis existimet? Quantus vero communis omnibus nobis moeror atque cruciatus est de periculo virginum quae illic tenentur! pro quibus non tantum libertatis, sed et pudoris jactura plangenda 0360D est, nec tam vincula barbarorum quam lenonum et lupanarium stupra deflenda sunt, ne membra Christo dicata et in aeternum continentiae honore 0361A pudica virtute devota insultantium libidine et contagione foedentur.

III. Quae omnia istic, secundum litteras vestras, fraternitas nostra cogitans et dolenter examinans, prompte omnes et libenter ac largiter subsidia nummaria fratribus contulerunt, semper quidem secundum fidei suae firmitatem ad opus Dei proni, nunc tamen magis ad opera salutaria contemplatione tanti doloris accensi. Nam, cum Dominus in Evangelio suo dicat, Infirmus fui, et visitastis me, quanto nunc quoque cum majore operis nostri mercede dicturus est: Captivus fui, et redemistis me (Matth. XXV, 36). Et cum denuo dicat, In carcere fui, et venistis ad me, quanto plus est cum coeperit dicere: «In carcere captivitatis fui, et clausus et vinctus apud barbaros jacui, 0361B et de carcere illo servitutis liberastis me,» cum judicii dies venerit praemium de Domino recepturi? Denique maximas vobis gratias agimus quod nos vestrae sollicitudinis et tam bonae ac necessariae operationis participes esse voluistis, ut offerretis nobis agros uberes, in quibus spei nostrae semina mitteremus, expectaturi messem de amplissimis fructibus qui de hac coelesti et salutari operatione proveniunt. Misimus autem sestertia centum millia nummorum, quae istic in ecclesia cui de Domini indulgentia praesumus, cleri et plebis apud nos consistentis collatione collecta sunt, quae vos illic pro vestra diligentia dispensabitis.

IV. Et optamus quidem nihil tale de caetero fieri et fratres nostros, Domini majestate protectos, ab ejusmodi 0361C periculis incolumes reservari. Si tamen, ad explorandam nostri animi charitatem et examinandam nostri pectoris fidem, tale aliquid acciderit, nolite cunctari nuntiare haec nobis litteris vestris, pro certo habentes ecclesiam nostram et fraternitatem istic universam ne haec ultra fiant precibus orare; si facta 0362A fuerint, libenter et largiter subsidia praestare. Ut autem fratres nostros ac sorores, qui ad hoc opus tam necessarium prompte ac libenter operati sunt, ut semper operentur, in mente habeatis in orationibus vestris, et eis vicem boni operis in sacrificiis et precibus repraesentetis, subdidi nomina singulorum, sed et collegarum quoque et consacerdotum nostrorum, qui et ipsi, cum praesentes essent, et suo et plebis suae nomine quaedam pro viribus contulerunt, nomina addidi; et praeter quantitatem propriam nostram, eorum quoque summulas significavi et misi, quorum omnium secundum quod fides et charitas exigit, in orationibus et precibus vestris meminisse debetis. Optamus vos, fratres charissimi, semper bene valere et nostri meminisse.