Epistle LXIII.599    Oxford ed.: Ep. lxv. a.d. 253.

To Epictetus and to the Congregation of Assuræ, Concerning Fortunatianus, Formerly Their Bishop.

Argument.—He Warns Epictetus and the Congregation of the Assuritans Not to Allow Fortunatianus, a Lapser, But Their Former Bishop, to Return to His Episcopate, as Well for Other Reasons as Because It Had Been Decreed that Lapsed Bishops Should Not Be Admitted to Their Former Rank.

1. Cyprian to Epictetus his brother, and to the people established at Assuræ, greeting. I was gravely and grievously disturbed, dearest brethren, at learning that Fortunatianus, formerly bishop among you, after the sad lapse of his fall, was now wishing to act as if he were sound, and beginning to claim for himself the episcopate. Which thing distressed me; in the first place, on his own account, who, wretched man that he is, being either wholly blinded in the darkness of the devil, or deceived by the sacrilegious persuasion of certain persons; when he ought to be making atonement, and to give himself to the work of entreating the Lord night and day, by tears, and supplications, and prayers, dares still to claim to himself the priesthood which he has betrayed, as if it were right, from the altars of the devil, to approach to the altar of God. Or as if he would not provoke a greater wrath and indignation of the Lord against himself in the day of judgment, who, not being able to be a guide to the brethren in faith and virtue, stands forth as a teacher in perfidy, in boldness, and in temerity; and he who has not taught the brethren to stand bravely in the battle, teaches those who are conquered and prostrate not even to ask for pardon; although the Lord says, “To them have ye poured a drink-offering, and to them have ye offered a meat-offering.  Shall I not be angry for these things? saith the Lord.”600    Isa. lvii. 6. And in another place, “He that sacrificeth to any god, save unto the Lord only, shall be destroyed.”601    Ex. xxii. 20. Moreover, the Lord again speaks, and says, “They have worshipped those whom their own fingers have made: and the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: and I will not forgive them.”602    Isa. ii. 8, 9. In the Apocalypse also, we read the anger of the Lord threatening, and saying, “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God mixed in the cup of His anger; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever; neither shall they have rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image.”603    Apoc. xiv. 9–11.

2. Since, therefore, the Lord threatens these torments, these punishments in the day of judgment, to those who obey the devil and sacrifice to idols, how does he think that he can act as a priest of God who has obeyed and served the priests of the devil; or how does he think that his hand can be transferred to the sacrifice of God and the prayer of the Lord which has been captive to sacrilege and to crime, when in the sacred Scriptures God forbids the priests to approach to sacrifice even if they have been in lighter guilt; and says in Leviticus: “The man in whom there shall be any blemish or stain shall not approach to offer gifts to God?”604    Lev. xxi. 17. Also in Exodus: “And let the priests which come near to the Lord God sanctify themselves, lest perchance the Lord forsake them.”605    Ex. xix. 22. And again: “And when they come near to minister at the altar of the Holy One, they shall not bring sin upon them, lest they die.”606    Ex. xxviii. 43. Those, therefore, who have brought grievous sins upon themselves, that is, who, by sacrificing to idols, have offered sacrilegious sacrifices, cannot claim to themselves the priesthood of God, nor make any prayer for their brethren in His sight; since it is written in the Gospel, “God heareth not a sinner; but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth.”607    John ix. 31. Nevertheless the profound gloom of the falling darkness has so blinded the hearts of some, that they receive no light from the wholesome precepts, but, once turned away from the direct path of the true way, they are hurried headlong and suddenly by the night and error of their sins.608    [2 Thess. ii. 11. Judicial blindness the result of revolt from known truth.]

3. Nor is it wonderful if now those reject our counsels, or the Lord’s precepts, who have denied the Lord.  They desire gifts, and offerings, and gain, for which formerly they watched insatiably. They still long also for suppers and banquets, whose debauch they belched forth in the indigestion lately left to the day, most manifestly proving now that they did not before serve religion, but rather their belly and gain, with profane cupidity. Whence also we perceive and believe that this rebuke has come from God’s searching out, that they might not continue to stand at the altar; and any further, as unchaste persons, to have to do with modesty; as perfidious, to have to do with faith; as profane, with religion; as earthly, with things divine; as sacrilegious, with things sacred. That such persons may not return again to the profanation of the altar, and to the contagion of the brethren, we must keep watch with all our powers, and strive with all our strength, that, as far as in us lies, we may keep them back from this audacity of their wickedness, that they attempt not any longer to act in the character of priest; who, cast down to the lowest pit of death, have gone headlong with the weight of a greater destruction beyond the lapses of the laity.

4. But if, among these insane persons, their incurable madness shall continue, and, with the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit, the blindness which has begun shall remain in its deep night, our counsel will be to separate individual brethren from their deceitfulness; and, lest any one should run into the toils of their error, to separate them from their contagion. Since neither can the oblation be consecrated where the Holy Spirit is not; nor can the Lord avail to any one by the prayers and supplications of one who himself has done despite to the Lord. But if Fortunatianus, either by the blindness induced by the devil forgetful of his crime, or become a minister and servant of the devil for deceiving the brotherhood, shall persevere in this his madness, do you, as far as in you lies, strive, and in this darkness of the rage of the devil, recall the minds of the brethren from error, that they may not easily consent to the madness of another; that they may not make themselves partakers in the crimes of abandoned men; but being sound, let them maintain the constant tenor of their salvation, and of the integrity preserved and guarded by them.609    Otherwise, “the enduring vigour of that soundness which they have preserved and guarded.”

5. Let the lapsed, however, who acknowledge the greatness of their sin, not depart from entreating the Lord, nor forsake the Catholic Church, which has been appointed one and alone by the Lord; but, continuing in their atonements and entreating the Lord’s mercy, let them knock at the door of the Church, that they may be received there where once they were, and may return to Christ from whom they have departed, and not listen to those who deceive them with a fallacious and deadly seduction; since it is written, “Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience; be not ye therefore partakers with them.”610    Eph. v. 6, 7. Therefore let no one associate himself with the contumacious, and those who do not fear God, and those who entirely with draw from the Church. But if any one should be impatient of entreating the Lord who is offended, and should be unwilling to obey us, but should follow desperate and abandoned men, he must take the blame to himself when the day of judgment shall come. For how shall he be able in that day to entreat the Lord, who has both before this denied Christ, and now also the Church of Christ, and not obeying bishops sound and wholesome and living, has made himself an associate and a partaker with the dying? I bid you, dearest brethren and longed-for, ever heartily farewell.

EPISTOLA LXIV. (Erasm., I, 7. Pamel., Rigalt., Baluz., LXIV. Pariss., LXIII. Oxon., Lips., LXV.)AD EPICTETUM ET PLEBEM ASSURITANORUM, DE FORTUNATIANO QUONDAM EORUM EPISCOPO.

ARGUMENTUM.---Monet Epictetum et plebem Assuritanorum ut Fortunatianum, quondam episcopum, sed 0389B lapsum, ad episcopatum redire non permittant; tum aliis de causis, tum quod statutum esset ne episcopi lapsi ad priorem gradum admitterentur.

I. Cyprianus Epicteto fratri et plebi Assuras consistenti salutem. Graviter et dolenter motus sum, fratres charissimi, quod cognoverim Fortunatianum quondam apud vos episcopum post gravem lapsum ruinae suae pro integro nunc agere velle et episcopatum sibi vindicare coepisse. Quae res contristavit me, primo propter ipsum, qui miser, vel diaboli tenebris in totum excoecatus, vel quorumdam sacrilega persuasione deceptus, cum debeat satisfacere et ad Dominum exorandum diebus ac noctibus lacrymis et orationibus et precibus incumbere, audet sibi adhuc sacerdotium quod prodidit vindicare, quasi post 0389C aras diaboli accedere ad altare Dei fas sit, aut non majorem in se iram et indignationem Domini in die judicii provocet, qui, cum fidei et virtutis dux fratribus esse non potuerit, perfidiae et audaciae et temeritatis 0390A magister existat, et qui non docuit fratres in praelio fortiter stare, doceat eos qui victi et prostrati sunt nec rogare, cum Dominus dicat: Illis fudistis libamina, et illis imposuistis sacrificia; super haec omnia ergo non indignabor? dicit Dominus (Isa. LVII, 6). Et alio loco: Sacrificans diis eradicabitur, nisi Domino soli (Exod. XXII, 19). Item Dominus denuo loquitur et dicit: Adoraverunt eos quos fecerunt digiti eorum, et curvatus est homo et humiliatus est vir, et non laxabo illis (Isa. II, 8, 9). In Apocalypsi quoque legimus iram Domini comminantis et dicentis: Si quis adorat bestiam et imaginem ejus, et accipit notam in fronte sua et in manu, bibet et ipse de vino irae Dei mixto in poculo irae ejus, et punietur igne et sulphure sub oculis sanctorum Angelorum et sub oculis Agni, et fumus de 0390B tormentis eorum in saecula saeculorum ascendet, nec habebunt requiem die ac nocte qui adorant bestiam et imaginem ejus (Apoc. XIV, 9-11).

II. Cum ergo haec tormenta, haec supplicia in die judicii Dominus comminetur iis qui diabolo obtemperant et idolis sacrificant, quomodo se putat posse agere pro Dei sacerdote qui obtemperavit et servivit diaboli sacerdotibus? aut quomodo putat manum suam transferri posse ad Dei sacrificium et precem Domini quae captiva fuerit sacrilegio et crimini, quando in Scripturis divinis Deus ad sacrificium prohibeat accedere sacerdotes etiam in leviori crimine constitutos, et in Levitico dicat (XXI, 17): Homo in quo fuerit vitium et macula non accedet offerre dona Deo. Item in Exodo (XIX, 22): Et sacerdotes 0390C qui accedunt ad Dominum Deum sanctificentur, ne forte derelinquat illos Dominus. Et iterum: Et cum accedunt ministrare ad altare sancti, non adducent in se delictum, ne moriantur (Ibid. XXIX, 43). Qui ergo 0391A gravia in se delicta adduxerunt, id est, qui idolis sacrificando sacrilega sacrificia fecerunt, sacerdotium Dei sibi vindicare non possunt, nec ullam in conspectu ejus precem pro fratribus facere, quando in Evangelio scriptum sit: Deus peccatorem non audit; sed si quis Deum coluerit et voluntatem ejus fecerit, illum audit (Joan. IX, 31). Quamvis sic quorumdam pectora tenebrarum ingruentium profunda caligo caecaverit, ut de praeceptis salubribus nihil lucis admittant, sed se mel a recto limite veri itineris aversi, per praeceps et per abruptum criminum suorum nocte atque errore rapiantur.

III. Nec mirum si consilia nostra aut Domini praecepta nunc abnuunt qui Dominnm negaverunt: stipes et oblationes et lucra desiderant, quibus prius insatiabiles 0391B incubabant; et coenis atque epulis etiam nunc inhiant, quarum crapulam superstite nuper in dies cruditate ructabant, nunc manifestissime comprobantes nec ante se religioni, sed ventri potius et quaestui profana cupiditate servisse. Unde et ipsam venisse perspicimus et credimus de Dei exploratione censuram, ne apud altare consistere et contrectare ulterius perseverarent pudorem incesti, fidem perfidi, religionem profani, divina terreni, sancta sacrilegi. Quod ne tales ad altaris impiamenta et contagia fratrum denuo redeant, omnibus viribus excubandum 0392A est, et omni vigore nitendum ut quantum possumus ab hac eos sui sceleris audacia retundamus, ne adhuc agere pro sacerdote conentur qui ad mortis extrema dejecti, ultra lapsos laicos ruinae majoris pondere proruerunt.

IV. Si vero apud insanos furor insanabilis perseverarit, et, recedente Spiritu sancto, quae coepit caecitas in sua nocte permanserit, consilium nobis erit singulos fratres ab eorum fallacia separare, et, ne quis in laqueos erroris incurrat, ab eorum contagione secernere, quando nec oblatio sanctificari illic possit ubi Spiritus sanctus non sit, nec cuiquam Dominus per ejus orationes et preces prosit qui Dominum ipse violavit. Quod si Fortunatianus, aut immemor criminis sui per diaboli caecitatem, aut minister et servus diabol 0392B factus ad decipiendam fraternitatem, in hoc suo furore permanserit, vos quantum potestis elaborate, et in hac caligine diaboli saevientis fratrum mentes ab errore revocate, ne alienae dementiae facile consentiant, ne se desperatorum delictis participes faciant, sed teneant integri salutis suae et integritatis conservatae a se et custoditae perpetuum tenorem.

V. Lapsi vero magnitudinem delicti sui cognoscentes, a deprecando Domino non recedant, nec Ecclesiam catholicam, quae una et sola est a Domino constituta, derelinquant; sed, satisfactionibus immorantes 0393A et Domini misericordiam deprecantes, ad Ecclesiam pulsent, ut recipi illic possint ubi fuerunt, et ad Christum redeant, a quo recesserunt. Nec audiant eos qui se fallaci et mortali seductione decipiunt, cum scriptum sit: Nemo vos decipiat inanibus verbis. Propterea enim venit ira Dei super filios contumaciae. Nolite ergo esse participes eorum (Ephes. V, 6, 7). Ergo contumaces et Deum non timentes et ab Ecclesia in totum recedentes nemo comitetur. Quod si quis impatiens fuerit ad deprecandum Dominum qui offensus est, et nobis obtemperare noluerit, sed desperatos et perditos secutus fuerit, sibi imputabit cum judicii dies venerit. Quomodo enim deprecari in die illo Dominum poterit qui et ante hoc Christum et nunc quoque Ecclesiam Christi negavit et, episcopis 0393B sanis et integris et viventibus non obtemperans, comitem se et participem morientibus praebuit? Opto vos, fratres charissimi ac desiderantissimi, semper bene valere.