Epistola ad Cyprianum Papam

Novatian, a presbyter of Rome, to Saint Cyprian, a letter written in the name of the Roman clergy. ARGUMENT.— He first commends himself to God, and then to the brethren; the faith of the Romans praised by the Apostle. The crime of the libellatici is near to the crime of the deniers. Receiving the lapsed with excessive leniency is the utmost cruelty. The letters of the confessors contributed greatly to preserving ecclesiastical discipline. Cyprian’s letters were also useful to the confessors. The peace of the Church and the constituted bishop must be awaited before peace is given to the lapsed. Let the lapsed knock at the doors of the Church, but not break them down. To Cyprian the Pope, the presbyters and deacons abiding at Rome send greetings. I. Although a mind well conscious of itself, and supported by the vigor of evangelical discipline, and made a true witness to itself in heavenly decrees, is accustomed to be content with God alone as judge, and neither to seek praise from another nor to fear accusations, yet those are worthy of double praise who, while they know that they owe their conscience to God alone as judge, nevertheless desire their actions to be approved also by the brethren themselves. That you, brother Cyprian, do this is not surprising; for, on account of your modesty and innate diligence, you have wished us to be found not so much judges as participants in your counsels: so that in your deeds we might find praise with you, by approving them, and we might be able to be co-heirs, because also affirmers, of your good counsels.

For we are all believed to have acted as one, in that we are found to be united in the same consensus of censure and discipline. For what is more fitting, either in peace or so necessary in the storms of persecution, than to maintain the due severity of divine vigor? For he who has relaxed it must always wander in an unstable course of events, and be scattered hither and thither by the various and uncertain tempests of affairs, and, as if the helm of counsels were wrested from his hands, dash the ship of ecclesiastical safety upon the rocks: so that it appears that the safety of the Church can be provided for in no other way, unless those who act against it, like some adverse waves, are repelled; and the always preserved reason of discipline itself, like some saving helm in a storm, is kept. II. Nor has this counsel been recently thought out by us, nor have these sudden aids against the wicked now come upon us, but this severity among us is ancient, the faith is ancient, the discipline is read to be ancient. For the Apostle would not have uttered such great praises of us, saying: "For your faith is proclaimed in the whole world" (Rom. 1:8), unless this vigor had already from that time borrowed its roots of faith from those times, of which praises and glory to have been degenerate is the greatest crime. For it is a lesser disgrace never to have attained to the proclamation of praise, than to have fallen from the height of praise.

It is a lesser crime never to have been honored with a good testimony than to have lost the honor of good testimonies. It is a lesser thing to have lain inglorious without praise for virtues than, having been disinherited from the faith, to have lost one's own praises; for those things which are uttered to the glory of someone, unless they are preserved with anxious and careful effort, swell into the envy of a very great crime. III. That we do not say this falsely, our earlier letter (II) proved, in which we set forth our judgment to you with clear exposition against those who had betrayed themselves as faithless by the unlawful profession of nefarious certificates, as if they seemed about to escape the ensnaring snares of the devil, being held no less than if they had approached the nefarious altars, by this very fact that they had testified against themselves; and also against those who had accepted them, although they were not present when they were made, since they had certainly made their presence by ordering that they be so written. For he who commanded that it be done is not free from the crime; nor is he a stranger to the crime by whose consent, although the crime was not committed by him, it is nevertheless publicly read; and since the whole sacrament of faith is understood to be comprised in the confession of the name of Christ, he who seeks deceitful tricks in excuse has denied; and he who wishes to appear to have satisfied the edicts or laws set against the Gospel, by this very fact has already obeyed, because he wished to appear to have obeyed.

Nor have we failed to show our faith and agreement also against those who had polluted their hands and mouths with illicit sacrifices, having first polluted their own minds, from which indeed the hands and mouths themselves became polluted. For far be it from the Roman Church to lay aside its vigor with such profane ease, and to dissolve the sinews of severity by overturning the majesty of faith; so that, while the ruins of the overthrown brothers not only lie but also fall, too hasty remedies of communions—certainly not beneficial—are offered, and new wounds are inflicted upon old wounds of transgression through false mercy, so that repentance is snatched away from the wretched for their greater ruin. For how can the medicine of indulgence be effective, if the physician himself, by cutting off repentance, indulges the dangers, if he merely covers the wound and does not allow the necessary remedies of time to form a scar? This is not to heal, but, if we wish to speak the truth, to kill.

IV. Although you also have letters from the Confessors, whom the dignity of their confession still holds here in prison and whose faith has already once crowned them in glorious confession for the evangelical contest, letters that concur with ours, in which they have set forth the severity of evangelical discipline and have recalled illicit petitions from the Church's sense of shame. Unless they had done this, the ruin of evangelical discipline would not easily be repaired, especially since no one more than they would it be fitting to preserve the unimpaired tenor and dignity of evangelical vigor, those who had handed themselves over to be tortured and mangled for the Gospel, lest they deservedly lose the honor of martyrdom if, in the opportunity of martyrdom, they had wished to be prevaricators of the Gospel: for one who does not guard what he has, in that from which he possesses it, while he violates that from which he possesses it, loses that which he possessed.

In this place we owe and render to you the greatest and most abundant thanks, because you have illuminated the darkness of their prison with your letters, because you have come to them in whatever way you were able to enter, because you have refreshed their spirits, strong in their own faith and confession, with your addresses and letters, because you have pursued their felicities with fitting praises and kindled them to a much more ardent desire for heavenly glory, because you have urged them forward, because, as we believe and hope, you have animated future victors with the strength of your speech: so that, although all this seems to come from the faith of the confessors and from divine indulgence, yet they appear to have become in some measure debtors to you in their martyrdom. But so that the discourse may return to the point from which it seemed to have digressed, you will have appended what letters we also sent to Sicily. VI. Although a greater necessity for deferring this matter weighs upon us, for whom, after the death of the man of most noble memory, Fabianus, a bishop has not yet been appointed due to the difficulties of circumstances and times, who might govern all these things and be able to take account of those who have lapsed with authority and counsel.

Although in so great a matter it pleases us that you yourself have already treated it—that the peace of the Church should be sustained first, and then, after a consultation of the bishops, presbyters, deacons, confessors, and also the steadfast laity has been held, the case of the lapsed should be dealt with—nevertheless, it seems to us both invidious and burdensome to examine through few what appears to have been committed through many, and to pronounce a single sentence when so great a crime is noted to have gone forth diffused through many; since no decree can be firm which will not be seen to have had the consent of the majority. Behold the whole world almost laid waste, and the remains and ruins of the fallen lying everywhere, and therefore so great a council is to be sought as the offense appears to have been widely spread. Let the medicine not be smaller than the wound is, let the remedies not be less than the deaths: so that, just as those who fell fell because with blind rashness they were too incautious, so those who strive to arrange this should use every moderation of counsel, lest anything, not done as it ought, be judged void by all.

Therefore, with one and the same counsel, with the same prayers and tears, both we who up to now seem to have escaped the ruins of this time, and those who appear to have fallen into these disasters of the time, beseeching the divine majesty, let us ask for peace for the name of the Church. Let us cherish, guard, and arm one another with mutual prayers. Let us pray for the lapsed, that they may be raised up. Let us pray for those who stand, that they may not be tempted to the point of ruin. Let us pray that those who are reported to have fallen, recognizing the magnitude of their offense, may understand that they should not desire a momentary or premature remedy. Let us pray that the effect of indulgence may follow the lapsed and their penance, so that, having understood their crime, they may be willing to grant us patience in the meantime. Let them not disturb the still fluctuating state of the Church, lest they seem to have kindled an internal persecution for us, and add to the heap of their crimes the fact that they were also restless. For modesty is especially fitting for those whose shameless mind is condemned in their pleasures.

Let them knock at the doors, but let them not break them down. Let them approach the threshold of the Church, but let them not leap over it. Let them keep watch at the gates of the heavenly camp, but armed with the modesty by which they understand that they have been deserters. Let them take up again the trumpet of their prayers, but let it not sound the war-call. Let them arm themselves, indeed, with the weapons of modesty, and let them take up again the shield which, by denying the faith through fear of death, they had abandoned; but let them believe themselves to be armed now against the enemy the devil, not against the Church, which grieves for their fall. A modest request, a bashful entreaty, necessary humility, and patience that is not idle will profit them greatly. Let them send tears as envoys for their griefs; let groans drawn from the depths of the heart, proving the sorrow and shame of the committed crime, serve as their advocacy. Indeed, if they shudder at the magnitude of the admitted disgrace, if they truly treat with a healing hand the lethal wound of their breast and conscience and the deep recesses of the sinuous injury, let them blush even to ask; except that it is again a matter of greater danger and shame not to have sought the help of peace. But all this is in the sacrament, in the law of the request itself, with a tempering of time and circumstance, with a humble request, with a submissive prayer: because he who is asked ought to be bent, not provoked; and just as divine mercy must be regarded, so too must divine censure be regarded; and as it is written (Matthew 18:32): "I have forgiven you every debt because you asked me," so it is written (Luke

He who has denied me before men, I also will deny him before my Father and before his angels. For God, as He is indulgent, so also is He a diligent exactor of His own precepts; and just as He invites to the banquet, so too does He cast out, with hands and feet bound, outside the assembly of the saints, one who does not have the attire of the wedding. He has prepared heaven, but He has also prepared Tartarus. He has prepared refreshments, but He has also prepared eternal punishments. He has prepared inaccessible light, but He has also prepared the vast and everlasting darkness of perpetual night.

Seeking to maintain this moderate course for a long time, and indeed many of us, and indeed with certain bishops neighboring and near to us, and those whom the heat of this persecution had driven out from other provinces far away, we thought that nothing should be innovated before the appointment of a bishop, but that the care of the lapsed should be moderately tempered; so that, in the meantime, while we await a bishop to be given to us by God, the case of those who can endure the delay of postponement be held in suspense; but for those whose life's end, pressing upon them, cannot bear delay, after they have performed penance and frequently professed their detestation of their own deeds, if they have given signs of a grieving and truly penitent soul through tears, through groans, through weeping, when no hope of living according to man remains, then only, cautiously and solicitously, help is to be given, with God Himself knowing what He will do concerning such persons, and how He will examine the weights of His own judgment; we, however, anxiously taking care that neither do dishonest men praise our ready facility, nor do truly penitent men accuse our, as it were, harsh cruelty. We wish you, most blessed and most glorious Pope, always to fare well in the Lord and to remember us.