The Presbyters Project

Epistula 59

XIII,6. Honor ergo datur deo quando sic dei maiestas et censura contemnitur, ut cum se ille indignari et irasci sacrificantibus dicat et cum poenas aeternas et supplicia perpetua comminetur, proponatur a sacrilegis atque dicatur ne ira cogitetur dei, ne timeatur iudicium domini, ne pulsetur ad ecclesiam Christi, sed sublata paenitentia nec ulla exomologesi criminis facta, despectis episcopis atque calcatis, pax a presbyteris uerbis fallacibus praedicetur, et ne lapsi surgant aut foris positi ad ecclesiam redeant, communicatio non communicantibus offeratur?

(ed. Diercks 1996: 360-361)

Letter 59

XIII, 6. Is honour, then, given to God when the majesty and decree of God are so condemned, that when He declares that He is indignant and angry with those who sacrifice, and when He threatens eternal penalties and perpetual punishments, it is proposed by the sacrilegious, and said, Let not the wrath of God be considered, let not the judgment of the Lord be feared, let not any knock at the Church of Christ; but repentance being done away with, and no confession of sin being made, the bishops being despised and trodden under foot, let peace be proclaimed by the presbyters in deceitful words; and lest the lapsed should rise up, or those placed without should return to the Church, let communion be offered to those who are not in communion?

(trans. R.E. Wallis, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iv.iv.liv.html)

Place of event:

Region

Latin North Africa

City

Carthage

About the source:

Author: Cyprian
Title: Letters, Epistulae, Epistolae
Origin: Carthage (Latin North Africa)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Cyprian was born probably about AD 200. He converted to Christianity in about 245 and in 248 was elected Bishop of Carthage. Soon after, the Decian persecution began (in 249/250) and Cyprian went into hiding. In 251 he returned to the city. Under Valerian, he was exiled in 257 and executed in 258. The epistolary of Cyprian consists of 81 letters (16 of them by his correspondents, and 6 synodal or collective), the majority of them are from the period of 250-251, when they were the means of Cyprian`s communication with his clergy. They offer us a wide view on the organization of the Church in Carthage in the middle of the third century, her relation with the Church of Rome, on the development of the persecutions, and on the conflicts that they caused inside the Church.

Different numerations of Cyprian's letters exist, I follow the edition of Diercks in Corpus Christianorum.

Edition:

G.F. Diercks ed., Sancti Cypriani Episcopi Epistularium. Epistulae 58-81, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 3C, Turnhout 1996.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Ritual activity - Reconciliation/Administering penance

Public law - Ecclesiastical

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1098, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1098