Gems From Saint
Cyprian
Saint Cyprian of Carthage (205-258), Bishop of Carthage. He
was a staunch defender of the Catholic Church and was the first African Bishop
to die a martyr's death. He mentioned the Catholic Church by name, many times in
his prolific writings.
Here are some of his "Gems".
"There is one GOD and one Christ, and one Church, and one Chair founded on Peter
by the Word of the Lord. It is not possible to set up another altar or for there
to be another priesthood besides that one altar and that one priesthood. Whoever
has gathered elsewhere is scattering."
Letter of Cyprian to All His People,
43,40,5, 251 A.D.
"And lest their raging boldness should ever cease, they are striving here also
to distract the members of Christ into schismatical parties, and to cut and tear
the one body of the Catholic Church, so that, running about from door to door,
through the houses of many, or from city to city, through certain districts,
they seek for companions in their obstinacy and error to join to themselves in
their schism."
Epistle XL-2, to Cornelius.
"Cyprian to Cornelius his brother, greeting. I have though it both obligatory on
me, and necessary for you, dearest brother, to write a short letter to the
confessors who are there with you, and, seduced by the obstinacy and depravity
of Novatian and Novatus, have departed from the Church; in which letter I might
induce them, for the sake of our mutual affection, to return to their Mother,
that is, to the Catholic Church."
Epistle XLII, to Cornelius.
"Some persons, however, sometimes disturb men's minds and spirits by their
words, in that they relate things otherwise than is the truth. For we, who
furnish every person who sails hence with a plan that they may sail without any
of-fence, know that we have exhorted them to acknowledge and hold the root and
matrix of the Catholic Church. But since our province is wide-spread, and has
Numidia and Mauritania attached to it; lest a schism made in the city should
confuse the minds of the absent with uncertain opinions, we decided--having
obtained by means of the bishops the truth of the matter, and having got a
greater authority for the proof of your ordination, and so at length every
scruple being got rid of from the breast of every one--that letters should be
sent you by all who were placed anywhere in the province; as in fact is done,
that so the whole of our colleagues might decidedly approve of and maintain both
you and your communion, that is as well to the unity of the Catholic Church as
to its charity. That all which has by God's direction come to pass, and that our
design has under Providence been forwarded, we rejoice."
Epistle XLIV, to
Cornelius
"When this error was removed, light was infused into the breasts of all, and the
Catholic Church has been shown to be one, and to be able neither to be cut nor
divided. Nor can any one now be easily deceived by the talkative words of a
raging schismatic, since it has been proved that good and glorious soldiers of
Christ could not long be detained without the Church by the deceitfulness and
perfidy of others. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily
farewell."
Epistle XLVI-2, to Cornelius
"Cyprian to Antonianus his brother, greeting. I received your first letters,
dearest brother, firmly maintaining the concord of the priestly college, and
adhering to the Catholic Church, in which you intimated that you did not hold
communion with Novatian, but followed my advice, and held one common agreement
with Cornelius our co-bishop. You wrote, moreover, for me to transmit a copy of
those same letters to Cornelius our colleague, so that he might lay aside all
anxiety, and know at once that you held communion with him, that is, with the
Catholic Church."
Epistle LI-1, to Antonianus
"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,"
Epistle LXIII-5, to Epictetus
"Whence you ought to know that the bishop is in the Church, and the Church in
the bishop; 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."
Epistle LXVIII-8, to Florentius Pupianus
"And therefore, because there can be nothing common to falsehood and truth, to
darkness and light, to death and immortality, to Antichrist and Christ, we ought
by all means to maintain the unity of the Catholic Church, and not to give way
to the enemies of faith and truth in any respect."
Epistle LXX-2, to
Quintus
"Wherefore, dearest brother, we ought both firmly to maintain the faith and
truth of the Catholic Church, and to teach, and by all the evangelical and
apostolical precepts to set forth, the plan of the divine dispensation and
unity."
Epistle LXXII-20, to Jubaianus
"But if the baptism of heretics can have the regeneration of the second birth,
those who are baptized among them must be counted not heretics, but children of
God. For the second birth, which occurs in baptism, begets sons of God. But if
the spouse of Christ is one, which is the Catholic Church, it is she herself who
alone bears sons of God. For there are not many spouses of Christ, since the
apostle says, "I have espoused you, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to
Christ;" and, "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget
also thine own people, for the King hath greatly desired thy beauty;" and, "Come
with me, my spouse, from Lebanon; thou shalt come, and shalt pass over from the
source of thy faith; " and, "I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse." We
see that one person is everywhere set forward, because also the spouse is one.
But the synagogue of heretics is not one with us, because the spouse is not an
adulteress and a harlot. Whence also she cannot bear children of God; unless, as
appears to Stephen, heresy indeed brings them forth and exposes them, while the
Church takes them up when exposed, and nourishes those for her own whom she has
not born, although she cannot be the mother of strange children. And therefore
Christ our Lord, setting forth that His spouse is one, and declaring the
sacrament of His unity, says, "He that is not with me is against me, and he that
gathereth not with me scattereth." For if Christ is with us, but the heretics
are not with us, certainly the heretics are in opposition to Christ; and if we
gather with Christ, but the heretics do not gather with us, doubtless they
scatter."
Epistle LXXIV-14, to Firmilian
"But the enemies of the one Catholic Church in which we are, and the adversaries
of us who have succeeded the apostles, asserting for themselves, in opposition
to us, unlawful priesthoods, and setting up profane altars, what else are they
than Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, profane with a like wickedness, and about to
suffer the same punishments which they did, as well as those who agree with
them, just as their partners and abettors perished with a like death to
theirs?"
Epistle LXXIV-16, to Firmilian
"For our Lord Jesus Christ, when He testified in His Gospel that those who were
not with Him were His adversaries, did not point out any species of heresy, but
showed that all whatsoever who were not with Him, and who, not gathering with
Him, were scattering His flock, were His adversaries; saying, "He that is not
with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth." Moreover,
the blessed Apostle John himself distinguished no heresy or schism, neither did
he set down any as specially separated; but he called all who had gone out from
the Church, and who acted in opposition to the Church, antichrists, saying, "Ye
have heard that Antichrist cometh, and even now are come many antichrists;
wherefore we know that this is the last time. They went out from us, but they
were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us."
Whence it appears, that all are adversaries of the Lord and antichrists, who are
known to have departed from charity and from the unity of the Catholic
Church."
Epistle LXXV-1, to Magnus
Cardinal John Newman, a convert from Anglicanism said it
best in regards to historical documents: "To be deep in history is to cease to
be Protestant."
Compiled September 7, 2001
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