Epistola Ad Cives Duos

LETTER I. OF EUGENIUS OF CARTHAGE TO HIS CITIZENS, FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH. To the most beloved and, in the love of Christ, most sweet sons and daughters of the Church entrusted to me by God, Eugenius the bishop. Royal authority has been put forth, and by edict it has commanded us to come to Carthage for the exercise of the Catholic faith. And so, lest I should leave the Church of God in uncertainty, that is, in suspense, when departing from you, or lest I, as a true shepherd, should abandon the sheep of Christ in silence, I have deemed it necessary to direct this letter to your holiness, as my vicar in my place, in which, not without tears, I ask, exhort, warn, and abundantly adjure you, by the majesty of God and the terrible day of judgment, and the terrible clarity of the coming of Christ, that you hold more firmly to the Catholic faith, asserting that the Son is equal to the Father, and that the Holy Spirit has the same divinity with the Father and the Son. Preserve therefore the grace of the one baptism, keeping the anointing of the Chrism. Let no one, after water, return to water, having been reborn from water. For by the will of God, salt is mingled with water, but if it is reduced to water, all its form is immediately emptied. Whence not undeservedly the Lord says in the Gospel: If the salt has become insipid, in what shall it be salted? And certainly this is to become insipid, to wish to season a second time what once done suffices. Have you not heard Christ saying: He who has once been washed has no need of washing again (John 13)?

Therefore, brothers and my sons and daughters in the Lord, do not let my absence sadden you: for if you adhere to Catholic discipline, I shall neither forget you through any distance nor be torn from you by death. Know that whatever has caused me to be separated from you, the palm is with me. If I go into exile, I have the example of the blessed John the Evangelist; if to death’s destruction, for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21). If I return, brothers, God will fulfill your desire. Yet it suffices now that I have not kept silent before you, that I have admonished and instructed you as best I could, and therefore I am free from the blood of all who perish; I know that these letters will be read against them before the tribunal of Christ, when he comes to render to each according to his works. If I return, brothers, I shall see you in this life; if I do not return, I shall see you in the life to come. Yet I say to you: Farewell, pray for us, and fast: for fasting and almsgiving have always inclined the Lord to mercy. Remember that it is written in the Gospel: Do not fear those who kill the body, for they cannot kill the soul; but fear him who, after he has killed the body, has the power also to destroy the soul and cast it into Gehenna (Matthew 10:28).

Here ends the letter of Eugenius; Gregory returns to his own subject. IV. Therefore, the holy Eugenius, brought before the king together with that bishop of the Arians, contended for the Catholic faith. And when he had most powerfully defeated him concerning the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and Christ had moreover shown forth many miracles through him, the same bishop, inflamed by envy, was driven into greater madness. For at that time there were with the holy Eugenius the most prudent and most holy men, Vindemialis and Longinus, bishops equal in rank and not unequal in virtue. For the holy Vindemialis was at that time reported to have raised a dead man, while Longinus restored health to many sick; Eugenius also dispelled not only the blindness of visible eyes but also that of minds. V. Seeing this, that wicked bishop of the Arians, having summoned to himself a certain man deceived by the same error in which he himself lived, said: "I cannot endure that these bishops perform many signs among the people, and that everyone follows them, neglecting me. Now comply with what I command, and, having received fifty gold pieces, go into the square through which we must pass, and, placing your hand over your closed eyes, as I pass by with the others, cry out with great force, saying: 'I beseech you, most blessed Cyrola, high priest of our religion, that, looking upon me, you may manifest your glory and power, so that, opening my eyes, I may deserve to see the light which I have lost.'

Having fulfilled the command, he remained seated in the square, and as the heretic passed by with the saints of God, this man, who intended to mock God, cried out with great force, saying: "Hear me, most blessed Cyrola, hear me, holy priest of God: look upon my blindness. I shall try the remedies which many blind men have often merited from you, which lepers have experienced, which even the dead themselves have perceived. I adjure you, by the very power you possess, to restore the longed-for light to me, for I am stricken with blindness." For, unknowing the truth, he spoke truly: because greed had blinded him, and he thought he could mock the power of Almighty God for money. VI. Then the bishop of the heretics turned aside a little, as if about to triumph in his power, puffed up with vanity and pride, and placed his hand over the man's eyes, saying: "According to our faith, by which we rightly believe in God, let your eyes be opened." And as soon as this impiety burst forth, laughter turned into lamentation, and the bishop's deceit was revealed in public. For such great pain invaded the eyes of that wretched man that he could scarcely hold them shut with his fingers, lest they burst. Finally, the wretch began to cry out and say: "Woe is me, miserable! because I have been seduced by an enemy of the divine law. Woe is me, because I wished to mock God for money, I received fifty gold pieces to perpetrate this crime." And to the bishop he said: "Behold your gold, give me back my light, which I lost through your deceit.

I ask you, most glorious Christians, not to despise a wretch, but quickly to come to the aid of one who is perishing. For I have learned that God is not mocked (Gal. 6:7). VII. Then the saints of God, moved by mercy, said: If you believe, all things are possible for the believer. And he cried out with a loud voice: Let him who has not believed Christ to be the Son of God and the Holy Spirit to have equal substance and divinity with God the Father, suffer this day what I am enduring. And he added: I believe in God the Father Almighty, I believe in Christ Jesus the Son of God equal to the Father, I believe in the Holy Spirit consubstantial and coeternal with the Father and the Son. Hearing this, and each deferring to the other in mutual honor, a holy contention arose among them as to who should place the sign of the blessed cross upon his eyes. Now Vindemialis and Longinus urged Eugenius; but he, on the contrary, entreated them to lay their hands upon the blind man. When they had done this and were holding their hands over his head, Saint Eugenius made the sign of the cross over the blind man's eyes and said: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, the true God, whom we confess as three in one equality and omnipotence, let your eyes be opened. And immediately, the pain having been removed, he returned to his former health. It became most manifest through this man's blindness how the heretic bishop had veiled the eyes of hearts with the wretched cloak of his assertion, so that they were not permitted to contemplate the true light with the eyes of faith. Wretch!

he who did not enter through the door, that is, through Christ, who is the true door, became more a wolf to the flock than a guardian of it, and with the perversity of his heart he tried to extinguish the peace of faith which he ought to have kindled in the hearts of believers. But the saints of God performed many other signs among the peoples, and there was a single voice of the people saying: True God the Father, true God the Son, true God the Holy Spirit, to be worshipped with one faith, feared with one fear, and venerated with the same honor. For what Cirila asserts is false and manifest to all. VIII. But when King Honoricus saw that the assertions of the saints were being completely stripped of their glorious confidence, and that the sect of error was not being raised up but rather destroyed, and that the fraud of his own bishop had been detected in this crime, he ordered the saints of God to be killed after many tortures, after the rack, after flames, after claws. He ordered the blessed Eugenius to be beheaded, on the condition that if at the hour when the sword was placed upon his neck he did not return to the heretical sect, he would not be killed, lest the Christians venerate him as a martyr, but would be condemned to exile: which is manifestly what happened. For when, with death imminent, he was asked whether he was determined to die for the Catholic faith, he replied: For this is eternal life, to die for justice. Then, with the sword suspended, at

He who was sent into exile to the city of Abigensis in Gaul also ended his present life there. At his tomb now many and very frequent miracles are shown. He ordered the holy Vindemialis to be struck with a sword, which was also carried out in this contest. Octavianus the archdeacon and many thousands of men and women asserting this faith were killed and maimed. But for the love of glory these punishments were nothing to the holy confessors, who, having been vexed in peace, knew well how to dispose themselves in many ways, according to that saying of the Apostle (Rom. 8:18): Because the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which is revealed in us. IX. Many then, erring from the faith and receiving riches, entangled themselves in many sorrows. But a certain bishop named Revocatus was at that time recalled from the Catholic faith. Then also the sun appeared darkened and gloomy, so that scarcely a third part of it shone forth, I believe because of such great crimes and the shedding of innocent blood. Honorius, however, after such a crime, seized by a demon, he who had long been fed on the blood of the saints, tore himself with his own bites, in which torment he ended his unworthy life by a just death. Childericus succeeded him, and when he died, Gelimirus took up the kingdom. He too, overcome by the republic, ended his life and rule, and thus the kingdom of the Vandals fell.

X. To this crypt, in which the body of Saint Amarandus was kept, is joined also that Eugenius, martyr of the Honorifician [Hunerician] persecution, the greatest ornament of the priestly island, whom the passion of either himself or his companions narrates as having been thrust into exile in this city. When he had flourished with great virtues in the world and had already emerged victorious from the torments of martyrdom, he learned, with the Lord revealing it, the time of his calling, by which he would be summoned to glory: knowing especially what was hidden from the peoples, that he was to be a companion of the martyr Amarandus, he directs himself to his tomb, and, prostrate on the ground, poured forth a very long prayer to the Lord: then, with his arms spread out on the pavement, he sent his spirit to heaven, which, gathered by the Christians, was committed to burial in the same crypt we have mentioned. [Then all who stood around him, beating their breasts and giving forth groans, cried out: O cruel death, why do you destroy so many today, while you take from us the presence of our saint? It would be long to recount in detail how many and what great things we have seen shining forth without ceasing at the tomb of the blessed bishop Eugenius. O how many miracles and how great dignity the Lord shows at his tomb! The sick come and are healed, the demoniacs come and are freed, lepers come and are cleansed, the mute come and speak, those with fevers come and are cured.]

XI. On the occasion of his feast, when a great multitude of people had gathered, they brought forth many items for sale in the atrium. A certain maiden, one of the inhabitants of the place, approached the stall, as if to purchase something, and, seeing a garment suitable for her, took it from the merchant. But, quicker than speech, she denied having received the garment she had taken. The merchant, however, insisted, saying: "I placed it in your hand with my own, and you took it eagerly to examine it." As she continued to deny it, the merchant said: "If your stubbornness, spurred by greed, is so great in denying, let the blessed martyr Eugenius judge this. If, at his tomb, with the interposition of an oath, you say that you did not receive it, I will consider the loss I have suffered as nothing." She, promising that she could be absolved of this by an oath, quickly went to the tomb. As she raised her hands to swear, immediately her limbs became stiff and rigid, her feet were fixed to the pavement, her voice stuck in her throat, and her mouth gaped open, empty of speech. Seeing this, the merchant, along with the rest of the people, said: "Prostrate yourself, maiden, before this garment which you took from me. The punishment given through this pontiff Eugenius is enough for you." And saying this, he departed from the place. She, however, remained in this torment for a very long time. Finally, at the martyr's command, she spoke and openly confessed what she had wished to hide in secret.

XII. What are you doing, O wretched avarice? Why do you succumb to seeking the things of others, a mind womanish, not manly? Why does the slight arrow of cupidity pierce the firm breastplate of the mind? What are you gathering, O man, the rusty dregs of gold, when you will burn with them in Gehenna? What good to you are perishable gains, which beget losses of eternal life, according to that word of the Lord: What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, but suffers loss to his own soul? Or what exchange would a man make for his soul? XIII. [O most beloved brothers, fix your hope in the Redeemer alone, and pass over in mind to the eternal homeland. For if you possess nothing by loving in this world, even by possessing all you have left it behind, may He Himself grant us eternal joys, who has bestowed upon us the remedies of eternal peace, Jesus Christ our Lord, who with the eternal Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.]