Epistle LX.534    Oxford ed.: Ep. ii. Circa a.d. 249.

To Euchratius, About an Actor.

Argument.—He Forbids an Actor, If He Continue in His Disgraceful Calling, from Communicating in the Church. Neither Does He Allow It to Be an Excuse for Him, that He Himself Does Not Practice the Histrionic Art, So Long as He Teaches It to Others; Neither Does He Excuse It Because of the Want of Means, Since Necessaries May Be Supplied to Him from the Resources of the Church; And Therefore, If the Means of the Church There are Not Sufficient, He Recommends Him to Come to Carthage.

1. Cyprian to Euchratius his brother, greeting. From our mutual love and your reverence for me you have thought that I should be consulted, dearest brother, as to my opinion concerning a certain actor, who, being settled among you, still persists in the discredit of the same art of his; and as a master and teacher, not for the instruction, but for the destruction of boys, that which he has unfortunately learnt he also imparts to others: you ask whether such a one ought to communicate with us. This, I think, neither befits the divine majesty nor the discipline of the Gospel, that the modesty and credit of the Church should be polluted by so disgraceful and infamous a contagion. For since, in the law, men are forbidden to put on a woman’s garment, and those that offend in this manner are judged accursed, how much greater is the crime, not only to take women’s garments, but also to express base and effeminate and luxurious gestures, by the teaching of an immodest art.

2. Nor let any one excuse himself that he himself has given up the theatre, while he is still teaching the art to others. For he cannot appear to have given it up who substitutes others in his place, and who, instead of himself alone, supplies many in his stead; against God’s appointment, instructing and teaching in what way a man may be broken down into a woman, and his sex changed by art,535    [In the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, to the disgrace of the pontifical court, the fine music is obtained by recourse to this expedient, inflicted upon children.] and how the devil who pollutes the divine image may be gratified by the sins of a corrupted and enervated body. But if such a one alleges poverty and the necessity of small means, his necessity also can be assisted among the rest who are maintained by the support of the Church; if he be content, that is, with very frugal but innocent food. And let him not think that he is redeemed by an allowance to cease from sinning, since this is an advantage not to us, but to himself.  What more he may wish he must seek thence, from such gain as takes men away from the banquet of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and leads them down, sadly and perniciously fattened in this world, to the eternal torments of hunger and thirst; and therefore, as far as you can, recall him from this depravity and disgrace to the way of innocence, and to the hope of eternal life, that he may be content with the maintenance of the Church, sparing indeed, but wholesome. But if the Church with you is not sufficient for this, to afford support for those in need, he may transfer himself to us, and here receive what may be necessary to him for food and clothing, and not teach deadly things to others without the Church, but himself learn wholesome things in the Church. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell.

EPISTOLA LXI. (Erasm., I, 10. Pamel., Rigalt., Baluz., LXI. Paris., LX Oxon., Lips., II.)AD EUCHRATIUM, DE HISTRIONE.

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ARGUMENTUM.---Histrionem, si in turpi artificio persistat, communicare prohibet in ecclesia. Neque vero excusari debere quod ipse histrionicam non exerceat, quamdiu illam alios docet; aut ob rei familiaris inopiam, cum ecclesiae sumptibus illi alimenta praestari possint; atque adeo, si Ecclesiae Euchratii bona non sufficiant, Carthaginem monet ut veniat.

I. Cyprianus Euchratio fratri salutem. Pro dilectione mutua et verecundia tua, consulendum me existimasti, frater charissime, quid mihi videatur de histrione quodam, qui, apud vos constitutus, in ejusdem 0362C adhuc artis suae dedecore perseverat, et magister et doctor non erudiendorum sed perdendorum puerorum, id quod male didicit caeteris quoque insinuat, an talis debeat communicare nobiscum. Quod puto ego nec majestati divinae nec evangelicae disciplinae congruere, ut pudor et honor Ecclesiae tam turpi et 0363A infami contagione foedetur. Nam, cum in Lege prohibeantur viri induere muliebrem vestem et maledicti ejusmodi judicentur, quanto majoris est criminis, non tantum muliebria indumenta accipere, sed et gestus quoque turpes et molles et muliebres magisterio impudicae artis exprimere?

II. Nec excuset se quisquam si a theatro ipse cessaverit, cum tamen hoc caeteros doceat. Non potest enim videri cessasse qui vicarios substituit et qui pro se uno plures succedaneos suggerit, contra institutionem Dei, erudiens et docens quemadmodum masculus frangatur in feminam et sexus arte mutetur, et diabolo divinum plasma maculanti per corrupti atque enervati corporis delicta placeatur. Quod si penuriam talis et necessitatem paupertatis obtendit, potest, 0363B inter caeteros qui alimentis Ecclesiae sustinentur, hujus quoque necessitas adjuvari, si tamen contentus sit frugalioribus sed innocentibus cibis. Nec putet salario se esse redimendum ut a peccatis cesset, quando hoc non nobis sed sibi praestet. Caeterum, quantum velit inde quaerat qualis quaestus est qui de convivio Abraham et Isaac et Jacob homines rapit, et, male ac perniciose in saeculo saginatos, ad aeternae famis ac sitis supplicia deducit. Et ideo, quantum potes, ab hac eum pravitate et dedecore ad viam innocentiae atque ad spem vitae aeternae revoca, ut sit contentus Ecclesiae sumptibus, parcioribus quidem, sed salutaribus. Quod si illic ecclesia non sufficit ut laborantibus praestet alimenta, poterit se ad nos transferre, et hic quod sibi ad victum 0364A atque ad vestitum necessarium fuerit accipere, nec alios extra ecclesiam mortalia docere, sed ipse salutaria in ecclesia discere. Opto te, frater charissime, semper bene valere.