Epistle LXVIII.672    Oxford ed.: Ep. lxvi. From his saying, that he has now discharged his episcopal office for six years (sec. 5), it is plainly evident that he is writing this letter in the time of Stephen. a.d. 254.

To Florentius Pupianus, on Calumniators.

Argument.—Cyprian Clears Himself in the Eyes of Florentius Pupianus from Various Crimes of Which He is Accused by Him; And Argues the Lightness of His Mind, in that He Has So Hastily Trusted Calumniators.

1. Cyprian, who is also called Thascius,673    It is suggested with some probability, that this form of superscription was intended to rebuke the rudeness of Florentius, who, in addressing Cyprian, had used his heathen name of Thascius instead of his baptismal name of Cæcilius, which he had adopted from the presbyter who had been the means of his conversion. to Florentius, who is also Pupianus, his brother, greeting. I had believed, brother, that you were now at length turned to repentance for having either rashly heard or believed in time past things so wicked, so disgraceful, so execrable even among Gentiles, concerning me.  But even now in your letter I perceive that you are still the same as you were before—that you believe the same things concerning me, and that you persist in what you did believe, and, lest by chance the dignity of your eminence and your martyrdom should be stained by communion with me, that you are inquiring carefully into my character; and after God the Judge who makes priests, that you wish to judge—I will not say of me, for what am I?—but of the judgment of God and of Christ. This is not to believe in God—this is to stand forth as a rebel against Christ and His Gospel; so that although He says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and neither of them falls to the ground without the will of my Father,”674    Matt. x. 29. and His majesty and truth prove that even things of little consequence are not done without the consciousness and permission of God, you think that God’s priests are ordained in the Church without His knowledge. For to believe that they who are ordained are unworthy and unchaste, what else is it than to believe that his priests are not appointed in the Church by God, nor through God?

2. Think you that my testimony of myself is better than that of God? when the Lord Himself teaches, and says that testimony is not true, if any one himself appears as a witness concerning himself, for the reason that every one would assuredly favour himself. Nor would any one put forward mischievous and adverse things against himself, but there may be a simple confidence of truth if, in what was announced of us, another is the announcer and witness. “If,” He says, “I bear witness of myself, my testimony is not true; but there is another who beareth witness of me.”675    John v. 31, 32. But if the Lord Himself, who will by and by judge all things, was unwilling to be believed on His own testimony, but preferred to be approved by the judgment and testimony of God the Father, how much more does it behove His servants to observe this, who are not only approved by, but even glory in the judgment and testimony of God! But with you the fabrication of hostile and malignant men has prevailed against the divine decree, and against our conscience resting upon the strength of its faith, as if among lapsed and profane persons placed outside the Church, from whose breasts the Holy Spirit has departed, there could be anything else than a depraved mind and a deceitful tongue, and venomous hatred, and sacrilegious lies, which whosoever believes, must of necessity be found with them when the day of judgment shall come.

3. But with respect to what you have said, that priests should be lowly, because both the Lord and His apostles were lowly; both all the brethren and Gentiles also well know and love my humility; and you also knew and loved it while you were still in the Church, and were in communion with me. But which of us is far from humility: I, who daily serve the brethren, and kindly receive with good-will and gladness every one that comes to the Church; or you, who appoint yourself bishop of a bishop, and judge of a judge,676    [A mild remonstrance against the officious conduct of Stephen, also.] given for the time by God? Although the Lord God says in Deuteronomy, “And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priests or unto the judge who shall be in those days, even that man shall die; and all the people, when they hear, shall fear, and do no more presumptuously.”677    Deut. xvii. 12, 13. And again He speaks to Samuel, and says, “They have not despised thee, but they have despised me.”678    1 Sam. viii. 7. And moreover the Lord, in the Gospel, when it was said to Him, “Answerest thou the high priest so?” guarding the priestly dignity, and teaching that it ought to be maintained, would say nothing against the high priest, but only clearing His own innocence, answered, saying, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?”679    John xviii. 23. The blessed apostle also, when it was said to him, “Revilest thou God’s high priest?” spoke nothing reproachfully against the priest, when he might have lifted up himself boldly against those who had crucified the Lord, and who had already sacrificed God and Christ, and the temple and the priesthood; but even although in false and degraded priests, considering still the mere empty shadow of the priestly name, he said, “I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest; for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.”680    Acts xxiii. 4, 5.

4. Unless perchance I was a priest to you before the persecution, when you held communion with me, and ceased to be a priest after the persecution!  For the persecution, when it came, lifted you to the highest sublimity of martyrdom. But it depressed me with the burden of proscription, since it was publicly declared, “If any one holds or possesses any of the property of Cæcilius Cyprian, bishop of the Christians;” so that even they who did not believe in God appointing a bishop, could still believe in the devil proscribing a bishop. Nor do I boast of these things, but with grief I bring them forward, since you constitute yourself a judge681    [A mild remonstrance against the officious conduct of Stephen, also.] of God and of Christ, who says to the apostles, and thereby to all chief rulers, who by vicarious ordination succeed to the apostles: “He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that heareth me, heareth Him that sent me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me, and Him that sent me.”682    Luke x. 16.

5. For from this have arisen, and still arise, schisms and heresies, in that the bishop who is one683    [His aphorism, Ecclesia in Episcopo, is here used in another form. “The bishop” here = the episcopate.] and rules over the Church is contemned by the haughty presumption of some persons; and the man who is honoured by God’s condescension, is judged unworthy by men. For what swelling of pride is this, what arrogance of soul, what inflation of mind, to call prelates and priests to one’s own recognition, and unless I may be declared clear in your sight and absolved by your judgment, behold now for six years the brotherhood has neither had a bishop, nor the people a prelate,684    [Præpositum is the word thus translated.] nor the flock a pastor, nor the Church a governor, nor Christ a representative,685    Antistitem. [This word occurs in Tertullian, De Fuga.] nor God a priest! Pupianus must come to the rescue, and give judgment, and declare the decision of God and Christ accepted, that so great a number of the faithful who have been summoned away, under my rule, may not appear to have departed without hope of salvation and of peace; that the new crowd of believers may not be considered to have failed of attaining any grace of baptism and the Holy Spirit by my ministry;686    [In all this his theory comes out; viz., that unity is maintained by communion with one’s lawful bishop, not with any foreign See.] that the peace conferred upon so many lapsed and penitent persons, and the communion vouchsafed by my examination, may not be abrogated by the authority of your judgment. Condescend for once, and deign to pronounce concerning us, and to establish our episcopate by the authority of your recognition, that God and His Christ may thank you, in that by your means a representative and ruler has been restored as well to their altar as to their people.

6. Bees have a king, and cattle a leader, and they keep faith to him. Robbers obey their chief with an obedience full of humility. How much more simple and better than you are the brute cattle and dumb animals, and robbers, although bloody, and raging among swords and weapons! The chief among them is acknowledged and feared, whom no divine judgment has appointed, but on whom an abandoned faction and a guilty band have agreed.

7. You say, indeed, that the scruple into which you have fallen ought to be taken from your mind. You have fallen into it, but it was by your irreligious credulity. You have fallen into it, but it was by your own sacrilegious disposition and will in easily hearkening to unchaste, to impious, to unspeakable things against your brother, against a priest, and in willingly believing them in defending other men’s falsehoods, as if they were your own and your private property; and in not remembering that it is written, “Hedge thine ears with thorns, and hearken not to a wicked tongue;”687    Ecclus. xxviii. 24 (Vulg. 28). and again: “A wicked doer giveth heed to the tongue of the unjust; but a righteous man regards not lying lips.”688    Prov. xvii. 4, LXX. Wherefore have not the martyrs fallen into this scruple, full of the Holy Ghost, and already by their passion near to the presence of God and of His Christ; martyrs who, from their dungeon, directed letters to Cyprian the bishop, acknowledging the priest of God, and bearing witness to him?  Wherefore have not so many bishops, my colleagues, fallen into this scruple, who either, when they departed from the midst of us, were proscribed, or being taken were cast into prison and were in chains; or who, sent away into exile, have gone by an illustrious road to the Lord; or who in some places, condemned to death, have received heavenly crowns from the glorification of the Lord? Wherefore have not they fallen into this scruple, from among that people of ours which is with us, and is by God’s condescension committed to us—so many confessors who have been put to the question and tortured, and glorious by the memory of illustrious wounds and scars; so many chaste virgins, so many praiseworthy widows; finally, all the churches throughout the whole world who are associated with us in the bond of unity? Unless all these, who are in communion with me, as you have written, are polluted with the pollution of my lips, and have lost the hope of eternal life by the contagion of my communion.689    [See sec. 6, note 3, supra.] Pupianus alone, sound, inviolate, holy, modest, who would not associate himself with us, shall dwell alone in paradise and in the kingdom of heaven.

8. You have written also, that on my account the Church has now a portion of herself in a state of dispersion, although the whole people of the Church are collected, and united, and joined to itself in an undivided concord: they alone have remained without, who even, if they had been within, would have had to be cast out. Nor does the Lord, the protector of His people, and their guardian, suffer the wheat to be snatched from His floor; but the chaff alone can be separated from the Church, since also the apostle says, “For what if some of them have departed from the faith? shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect? God forbid; for God is true, but every man a liar.”690    Rom. iii. 3, 4. And the Lord also in the Gospel, when disciples forsook Him as He spoke, turning to the twelve, said, “Will ye also go away?” then Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the word of eternal life; and we believe, and are sure, that Thou art the Son of the living God.”691    John vi. 67–69. Peter speaks there, on whom the Church was to be built,692    [Not any of his successors, but Peter personally, is thus honoured on the strength of Eph. ii. 20. All the apostles were in this foundation also, Rev. xxi. 14; but the figure excludes successors, who are of the superstructure, necessarily.] teaching and showing in the name of the Church, that although a rebellious and arrogant multitude of those who will not hear and obey may depart, yet the Church does not depart from Christ; and they are the Church who are a people united to the priest, and the flock which adheres to its pastor.693    [In all this his theory comes out; viz., that unity is maintained by communion with one’s lawful bishop, not with any foreign See.] Whence you ought to know that the bishop is in the Church, and the Church in the bishop;694    [See sec. 5, supra.  This is the famous formula of Cyprian’s theory. The whole theory is condensed in what follows.] and if any one be not with the bishop, that he is not in the Church, and that those flatter themselves in vain who creep in, not having peace with God’s priests, and think that they communicate secretly with some; while the Church, which is Catholic and one, is not cut nor divided, but is indeed connected and bound together by the cement of priests who cohere with one another.

9. Wherefore, brother, if you consider God’s majesty who ordains priests, if you will for once have respect to Christ, who by His decree and word, and by His presence, both rules prelates themselves, and rules the Church by prelates; if you will trust, in respect of the innocence of bishops, not human hatred, but the divine judgment; if you will begin even a late repentance for your temerity, and pride, and insolence; if you will most abundantly make satisfaction to God and His Christ whom I serve, and to whom with pure and unstained lips I ceaselessly offer sacrifices, not only in peace, but in persecution; we may have some ground for communion with you, even although there still remain among us respect and fear for the divine censure; so that first I should consult my Lord whether He would permit peace to be granted to you, and you to be received to the communion of His Church by His own showing and admonition.

10. For I remember what has already been manifested to me, nay, what has been prescribed by the authority of our Lord and God to an obedient and fearing servant; and among other things which He condescended to show and to reveal, He also added this:  “Whoso therefore does not believe Christ, who maketh the priest, shall hereafter begin to believe Him who avengeth the priest.” Although I know that to some men dreams seem ridiculous and visions foolish, yet assuredly it is to such as would rather believe in opposition to the priest, than believe the priest. But it is no wonder, since his brethren said of Joseph, “Behold, this dreamer cometh; come now therefore, let us slay him.”695    Gen. xxxvii. 19, 20. [It seems a beautiful coincidence that another Joseph was a “dreamer” (Matt. ii. 20, 23); and in those days, when prophets and prophesyings were hardly yet extinct, we must not too readily call this credulity. Ps. lxxxix. 19, Vulgate.] And afterwards the dreamer attained to what he had dreamed; and his slayers and sellers were put to confusion, so that they, who at first did not believe the words, afterwards believed the deeds. But of those things that you have done, either in persecution or in peace, it is foolish for me to pretend to judge you, since you rather appoint yourself a judge over us. These things, of the pure conscience of my mind, and of my confidence in my Lord and my God, I have written at length. You have my letter, and I yours. In the day of judgment, before the tribunal of Christ, both will be read.

EPISTOLA LXIX. (Erasm., IV, 9. Pamel., Rigalt., Baluz., LXIX. Paris., LVIII. Oxon., Lips., LXVI.)AD FLORENTIUM PUPIANUM, DE OBTRECTATORIBUS.

ARGUMENTUM.---Purgat se apud Florentium Pupianum Cyprianus de variis ab illo objectis criminibus; et animi ejus levitatem arguit, quod tam temere obtrectatoribus crediderit. Ex eo autem quod dicit se jam tum sex annis episcopatu functum, satis constat sub Stephano scriptam.

I. Cyprianus, qui et Thascius, Florentio, cui et Pupiano, fratri salutem. Ego te, frater, credideram tandem jam ad poenitentiam converti, quod in praeteritum 0400C tam infanda, tam turpia, tam etiam gentilibus execranda aut audisses de nobis temere aut credidisses. Porro autem etiam nunc in litteris tuis animadverto eumdem te adhuc esse qui prius fueras, eadem te de nobis credere et in eo quod credideris perseverare, et, ne forte claritatis et martyrii tui dignitas nostra communicatione maculetur, in mores nostros diligenter inquirere, et post Deum judicem, 0401A qui sacerdotes facit, te velle, non dicam de me (quantus enim ego sum )! sed de Dei et Christi judicio judicare. Hoc est in Deum non credere, hoc est rebellem adversus Christum et adversus Evangelium ejus existere, ut cum ille dicat: Nonne duo passeres asse vaeneunt? et neuter eorum cadit in terram sine Patris voluntate (Matth. X, 29), et probet majestas ejus et veritas sine conscientia et permissu Dei etiam minora non fieri, tu existimes sacerdotes Dei sine conscientia ejus in Ecclesia ordinari? Nam credere quod indigni et incesti sint qui ordinantur, quid aliud est quam credere quod non a Deo nec per Deum sacerdotes ejus in Ecclesia constituantur?

II. An putas majus esse de me meum quam Dei testimonium, cum Dominus ipse doceat et dicat testimonium 0401B non esse verum si quis ipse de se testis existat, eo quod unusquisque utique sibi faveat , nec contra se aliquis infesta et adversa depromat, fides vero sincera sit veritatis , si in praedicationibus nostris alius sit praedicator ac testis: Si testimonium, inquit, dixero de me, testimonium meum non est verum. Alius est enim qui testis est de me (Joan. V, 31, 32). Quod si ipse Dominus, omnia postmodum judicaturus , noluit de testimonio suo sibi credi, sed maluit de judicio ac testimonio Dei Patris probari, quanto magis hoc servos ejus observare oportet, qui judicio ac testimonio Dei non probantur tantum, sed etiam gloriantur. Praevaluit autem apud te contra divinam sententiam et contra conscientiam nostram, fidei suae viribus nixam, inimicorum et malignorum 0401C commentum, quasi apud lapsos et profanos et extra Ecclesiam positos, de quorum pectoribus excesserit Spiritus sanctus, esse aliud possit nisi mens prava et fallax lingua et odia venenata et sacrilega mendacia; quibus qui credit, cum illis necesse est inveniatur cum judicii dies venerit.

III. Quod vero dixisti sacerdotes humiles esse debere, 0402A quia et Dominus et Apostoli ejus humiles fuerunt, humilitatem meam et fratres omnes et gentiles quoque optime norunt et diligunt; et tu quoque noveras et diligebas, cum adhuc in Ecclesia esses et mecum communicares. Quis autem nostrum longe est ab humilitate, utrumne ego, qui quotidie fratribus servio, et venientes ad Ecclesiam singulos benigne et cum voto et gaudio suscipio? an tu, qui te episcopum episcopi et judicem judicis ad tempus a Deo dati constituis? cum Dominus Deus in Deuteronomio dicat: Et homo quicumque fecerit in superbia ut non exaudiat sacerdotem aut judicem, quicumque fuerit in diebus illis, morietur homo ille, et omnis populus cum audierit timebit, et non agent impie etiam nunc (Deut. XVII, 12, 13). Et iterum ad Samuelem loquitur et dicit: 0402BNon te spreverunt, sed me spreverunt (III Reg. VII, 7). Et adhuc Dominus in Evangelio, cum ei dictum esset, Sic respondes Pontifici, custodiens et docens sacerdotalem honorem servari oportere, contra Pontificem nihil dixerit, sed innocentiam suam tantummodo purgans responderit dicens: Si male locutus sum, exprobra de malo. Si autem bene, quid me caedis (Joan. XVIII)? Item beatus Apostolus, cum ei dictum esset, Sic insilis iu sacerdotem Dei maledicendo (Act. XXIII, 4, 5), nihil contumeliose locutus sit adversus sacerdotem, quando et potuerit se constanter exerere adversus eos qui Dominum crucifixissent et qui jam Deum et Christum et templum et sacerdotium perdidissent ; sed, quamvis in falsis et spoliatis sacerdotibus umbram tamen ipsam inanem sacerdotalis 0402C nominis cogitans dixerit: Nesciebam, fratres, quia pontifex est. Scriptum est enim: Principem populitui non maledices (Exod. XXII, 23).

IV. Nisi si sacerdos tibi fui ante persecutionem, quando mecum communicabas, post persecutionem sacerdos esse desivi. Persecutio enim veniens te ad summam martyrii sublimitatem provexit, me autem 0403A proscriptionis onere depressit, cum publice legeretur: «Si quis tenet vel possidet de bonis Caecilii Cypriani episcopi Christianorum;» ut etiam qui non credebant Deo episcopum constituenti, vel diabolo crederent episcopum proscribenti. Nec haec jacto, sed dolens profero, cum te judicem Dei constituas et Christi, qui dicit ad Apostolos, ac per hoc ad omnes praepositos qui Apostolis vicaria ordinatione succedunt: Qui audit vos, me audit; et qui me audit, audit cum qui me misit. Et qui rejicit vos, me rejicit et eum qui me misit (Luc. XI).

V. Inde enim schismata et haereses obortae sunt et oriuntur, dum episcopus, qui unus est et Ecclesiae praeest, superba quorumdam praesumptione contemnitur, et homo dignatione Dei honoratus indignus hominibus 0403B judicatur. Quis enim hic est superbiae tumor, quae arrogantia animi, quae mentis inflatio, ad cognitionem suam praepositos et sacerdotes vocare, ac nisi apud te purgati fuerimus et sententia tua absoluti, ecce jam sex annis nec fraternitas habuerit episcopum, nec plebs praepositum, nec grex pasotrem, nec Ecclesia gubernatorem, nec Christus antistitem , nec Deus sacerdotem. Subveniat Pupianus et sententiam dicat et judicium Dei et Christi in acceptum referat, ne tantus fidelium numerus, qui sub nobis arcessitus est, sine spe salutis et pacis exisse videatur, nec novus credentium populus nullam per nos consecutus esse Baptismi et Spiritus sancti gratiam 0404A judicetur, ne tot lapsis et poenitentibus pax data et communicatio nostra examinatione concessa judicii tui auctoritate solvatur. Annue aliquando et dignare pronuntiare de nobis et episcopatum nostrum cognitionis tuae auctoritate firmare, ut Deus et Christus ejus agere tibi gratias possint quod per te sit antistes et rector altari eorum pariter et plebi restitutus.

VI. Apes habent regem et ducem pecudes, et ei fidem servant: latrones mancipi obsequio pleno humilitatis obtemperant. Quanto simpliciores et meliores vobis sunt brutae pecudes et muta animalia, et cruenti licet ac furentes inter gladios atque inter arma praedones? Praepositus illic agnoscitur et timetur quem non sententia divina constituit, sed in quem 0404B factio perdita et nocens caterva consensit.

VII. Dixisti sane scrupulum tibi esse tollendum de animo, in quem incidisti. Incidisti, sed tua credulitate irreligiosa; incidisti, sed tua mente et voluntate sacrilega, dum incesta, dum impia, dum nefanda contra fratrem, contra sacerdotem facile audis, libenter credis, aliena mendacia quasi propria et privata defendis; nec recordaris scriptum esse: Sepi aures tuas spinis, et noli audire linguam nequam (Eccli. XXVIII, 28). Et iterum: Malus obaudit linguae iniquorum, justus autem non intendit labiis mendacibus (Prov. XVII, 4). Quare in hunc scrupulum non inciderunt martyres sancto Spiritu pleni et ad conspectum 0405A Dei et Christi ejus passione jam proximi, qui ad Cyprianum episcopum litteras de carcere direxerunt, sacerdotem Dei agnoscentes et contestantes ei. Quare in hunc scrupulum non inciderunt tot episcopi collegae mei, qui vel cum de medio recederent proscripti sunt, vel apprehensi in carcerem conjecti et in catenis fuerunt, aut qui, in exilium relegati, illustri itinere ad Dominum profecti sunt, aut qui quibusdam locis animadversi coelestes coronas de Domini clarificatione sumpserunt. Quare in hunc scrupulum non inciderunt de plebe ista nostra quae apud nos est, et nobis de Dei dignatione commissa est, tot confessores quaestionati et torti et insignium vulnerum et cicatricum memoria gloriosi, tot virgines integrae, tot laudabiles viduae, ecclesiae denique universae per totum 0405B mundum nobiscum unitatis vinculo copulatae? Nisi si omnes isti communicantes mecum, secundum quod scripsisti, polluto nostro ore polluti sunt et spem vitae aeternae communicationis nostrae contagione perdiderunt. Pupianus solus integer, inviolatus, sanctus, pudicus, qui nobis miscere se noluit, in paradiso atque in regno coelorum solus habitabit.

VIII. Scripsisti quoque quod Ecclesia nunc propter me portionem sui in disperso habeat, quando omnis Ecclesiae populus et collectus sit et adunatus et individua concordia sibi junctus, soli illi foris remanserint qui, etsi intus essent, ejiciendi fuerant, nec patiatur Dominus, populi sui protector et tutor, triticum de area sua diripi, sed solae possint paleae de Ecclesia separari, quando et Apostolus dicat: 0405CQuid enim si exciderunt a fide quidam illorum? 0406ANumquid infidelitas illorum fidem Dei evacuavit? Absit. Est enim Deus verax, omnis autem homo mendax (Rom. III, 3, 4). Et Dominus quoque in Evangelio, cum eum loquentem discipuli derelinquerent, conversus ad duodecim dixit: Numquid et vos vultis ire? Respondit ei Petrus dicens: Domine, ad quem ibimus ? Verbum vitaeaeternae habes: et nos credimus et cognovimus quoniam tu 'es Filius Dei vivi (Joan. VI, 67). Loquitur illic Petrus, super quem aedificanda fuerat Ecclesia, Ecclesiae nomine docens et ostendens quia, etsi contumax ac superba obaudire nolentium multitudo discedat, Ecclesia tamen a Christo non recedit, et illi sunt Ecclesia plebs sacerdoti adunata et pastori suo grex adhaerens. Unde scire debes episcopum in Ecclesia esse et Ecclesiam in episcopo, 0406B et si quis cum episcopo non sit, in Ecclesia non esse; et frustra sibi blandiri eos qui pacem cum sacerdotibus Dei non habentes obrepunt et latenter apud quosdam communicare se credunt, quando Ecclesia, quae catholica et una est, scissa non sit neque divisa, sed sit utique connexa et cohaerentium sibi invicem sacerdotum glutino copulata.

IX. Quamobrem, frater, si majestatem Dei, qui sacerdotes ordinat, cogitaveris; si Christum , qui arbitrio et nutu ac praesentia sua et praepositos ipsos et Ecclesiam cum praepositis gubernat, aliquando respexeris, si de innocentia sacerdotum, non humano odio, sed divino judicio credideris, si temeritatis et superbiae atque insolentiae tuae agere vel sero poenitentiam coeperis, si Deo et Christo ejus, quibus servio 0406C et quibus puro atque immaculato ore sacrificia 0407A et in persecutione pariter et in pace indesinenter offero, plenissime satisfeceris, communicationis tuae poterimus habere rationem, manente tamen apud nos divinae censurae respectu et metu, ut prius Dominum meum consulam an tibi pacem dari et te ad communicationem Ecclesiae suae admitti sua ostensione et admonitione permittat.

X. Memini enim quid jam mihi sit ostensum, immo quid sit servo obsequenti et timenti de Dominica et Divina auctoritate praeceptum; qui, inter caetera quae ostendere et revelare dignatus est, et hoc addidit: «Itaque qui Christo non credit sacerdotem facienti, et postea credere incipiet sacerdotem vindicanti.» Quamquam sciam somnia ridicula et visiones ineptas quibusdam videri, sed utique illis 0407B qui malunt contra sacerdotes credere quam sacerdoti. Sed nihil mirum, quando de Joseph fratres sui dixerunt: Ecce somniator ille venit: nunc ergo venite, occidamus illum (Gen. XXXVII, 19, 20), et somniator postea quod somniaverat consecutus sit, et occisores ac venditores confusi sint; ut qui verbis prius non credidissent, factis postmodum crederent. De iis autem quae tu egisti vel in persecutione vel in pace stultum est ut velim te judicare, quando tu magis judicem te nostri constitueris. Haec pro animi mei pura conscientia et pro Domini et Dei mei fiducia rescripsi. Habes tu litteras meas, et ego tuas. In die judicii ante tribunal Christi utrumque recitabitur .