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CORNELIUS TO CYPRIM, ON T OF T CONFESSORS TO UNITTAROUΜΕΝΣ.-Cornelius informa Cypriam of the solemn returnos the confessors to iae chure' and deae bes it. 1. Cornelius in Cyprian his brother, greeting. In pr portion to tho solicitude and anxiety that me sustained in respect of those confessors Who had been circumvented and almost deceivod and alienated froin tho church by the crastand malice of that wily and subile man, was the joy withmhicli me mero affected, and the thanis Which me gave tommioty God and to our Lord Christ, When they, achno ledging their error, and perceiving the polsoned cunning of the malignant man, as ii os a serpent, came bach, as theymith one heari profess, With singlenem os Will to tho churchfrom Whicli they had gone forin. And fimi, inde , our Methren os approved faith, loving mace and destring uni , announced that the s elling pride of these men mas atreadymothod; ' yet there mas no fitting assurance to induce useasily to bellove that they Were thoroughly changed. Butastematas, Urbanus and Sidonius the confessore came to our presbyters, affrming that Maximus the consessor and pre byter, equassy mith themselves, destred to retum into thoch A ; but since many things had preceded this Whicli theyhad contrivia, os Which you also have been made a are fromour c biinops and hom my letters, so that faith could nothastily be reposed in them, me determined in hear smm theirom mouin and confession inose things whicli they had sent by the messengere. Αnd when they came, and Were requiredis the presbytera to ove an account of What they had done, and were chamed mith haring very lately repeMedly sent
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122 THE EPISTLES OF CYPRIAM lotura fuit os calumnies and reproaches, in their name, through ali the churches, and had disturbed nearly ali inochurches; they affirmed that they had been deceived, and that they had not known What was in those letters; Nectarinvithat only through being misted they had also committed
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TNE EPISTLES OF CYPRIAM123 eleeled by Almi ty God, and by Christ our Lord. Wo confess our error; me haVe suffered imposture; we Were deceivedis captious perfidy and loquaci . For although me seemed, as it were, to have held a Lind of communion with a manwho was a schismatic and a heretic, yet our mind was alWayssincere in the church. For we are not ignorant that there isone God; that thero is one Christ the Lord whom me havo consessed, and one Holy Spirit; and that there ought to boono bishop in the catholic church.' Were We not right induced by that confession of their' to allow that What th had consessed besore tho power of the worid they mi tapprove When estabit hed in tho church Τ Whoreforo wobade Maximus the presbyter to tahe his oWn place; the rest me received mith great approbation of the people. But moremitted est things to Nmighu God, in Whose poWer all
3. These things theresore, brother, Written to you in the Same liour, at the fame moment, WE have transmitted; and Ihave sent aWay at once Nicephorus the acolyte, hastening to descend to embarhation, that so, no delay being made, γοu
io Christ our Lord. But We bellove-nay, we confide in itfor certain-that the othera also who have been ranged in this error mill shortly return into tho church When they see thoir leadem acting with us. I thinh, brother, that you oughtto send these letters also to the other churches, that ali mayknow that the crast and prevarication of this schismatic and heretic are from day to day being reduced to nothing. Farowell, dearest brother.
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1. Cyprian to Cornelius his brother, greeting. I professinat I both havo rendered and do render the meatest thantamithout ce ing, dearest brother, to God the Father Almighty, and to His Christ tho Lord and our God and Savio , that tho Aurch is thus divinely protected, and ita uni and hesiness is not constantly nor altogether corrupted by the obstinacy of perfidy and heretical Wichedness. For me havoread your letter, and have exultingly received the greatest joy imm fine fulfilment o our common desim ; to wit, that
Maximus the presbyter, and Urbanus, the consessors, With Sidonius and Macarius, have r entered into the catholicchureli, that is, that they have laid aside their error, andoven up their schismatical, n V, their heretical madness, and have Quot again in the wundnem es satin the homo of
consessed Christ should not aftemards deseri the camp of Christ, and that they might not tempt tho faith os tholacharity and unity, Who had not been overcome in strengthand courage. Behold the sala and unspolied integri of their pratse; behold the uncorrupted and substantiat digni of these confessors, that they have departed imm the desertersand fugitivos, that they have lest the betrvere os tho fiath, and the impugners of the catholic church l With roason didboth tho pooplo and the brotherhood receive them When thoyreturned, as Fou Write, With the greatest joy; since in thoglory os confessors Who had maintained their Hory, and re-
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inmed in unitri there is nono Who does not rechon himself
lem than in heaven, ovqr confessors Who rerum With their
their example For this error had ted away certain os ourbrethren, so that they thought they were folioWing the communion os confessors. When this error Was removed, light mas infused into tho bremis of all, and the catholic churchhas been shown in bo one, and to be able netther to be cutnor divided. Nor can any one norir bo eastly deceived by thetalhativo words of a raging schismatic, since it has been proved
Cornelius to Cyprian his brother, meeting. That nothingmight be Wanting to the futuro punishment of this Wretchedman, When cast dom by the pomers of God, on the expulsion
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126 THE EPISTLES OF CYPRIAMD Du os Maximus, and Longinus, and Machaeus; hs
has risen again; and, as I intimated in my formor letior Which I sent to you by Augendus the confessor, I thinh that Nicostratus, and Novatus, and Evaristus, and Primus, and Dionysius, have atready como thither. Therofore let carebo talion stat it bo mado known to ali our c bis iops and brothren, stat Nicostratus is accused of many crimes, and that not only has ho committed frauds and ptundere on his secular patroness, Whose assairs he managed; but, momover whicli is reserved to him for a perpetuat punishment), he has abstracteii no smali deposita os the church; stat Evaristus has been the author os a schism; and that Zetus has been appotnted bishop in his room, and his successor to the peopleover Whom he had previousty presided. But he contrived greater and worse things by his malico and insatiable Niched-ness than those which he was then alWays practising among his οὐ pe te; so that you may know What hind of loadorsand protectors that schismatic and heretic constantly had
CYPRI 'S ANS R TO CORNELIUS. CONCERNISG THECRIMES OF NOVATUS. ARGUMENT.-m Walses Cornelius, that he had siden him time0 warning, aeeing that the My after the gulis faetion had eome to him he had received Cornelius' letter. Then he deseribes at langth Noratus erimes, and thesehism that had before been stiri ed tu is him in As a. 1. Cyprian to Cornelius his brother, greeting. You have acted, dearest brother, both With diligence and love, in send-ing us in haste Nicephorus the acolyte, who both told us thoglorious gladiaess concerning the return of the confessors,
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much to come into Africa as to escapo thither hom theci , from the conscio ness of his rapines and his fright- fui crimes. And noW a desertor and a fugitivo from thechurch, as is to have changed tho climo mero to change theman, he goes on to boast and announco himself a confessor, although he can no longer either be called or bo a consessor
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returned to the church. This is the fame Novatus Who fidit sowed among us the flames os discord and schism ; who separated somo of the brethrsn here trom the bishop; Who, in the persecution itself, Was to our peοple, as it mere, another persecution, to overthrow the minds of the brethron. Ηo it is Who, without my leave or knowledge, of his o nfactiousness and ambition appotnted his attendant Felici simus a deacon, and with his oWn tempest salting also to Rome to overthrow the church, endeavoured to do similarand equat things there, forcibly separating a part of thepeopte frοm the clergy, and dividing tho concord of tho fraternity that was fi ly knit together and mutuatly lovingone another. Since Rome from her greatness plainly oughtto inhe precedenco Oi Carthage, he there committed stili greaterand graver crimes. He who in the one place had mado adeacon contrary to the church, in the other made a bishop. Nor let any one bo surprised at this in such men. Thomiched are alWays madly carried aWay by their own furious passiona; and after they have committed crimes, they are agitated by the Very consciousness of a depraved mind. Neither can those remain in God's church, Who have notmaintained iis divine and ecclesiastical discipline, either in the conversation os theis life or the peace of thoir character. Orphans despolied by him, Widows defrauded, moneys mor
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sacrifice, When he himseli is mors guttu in his feei, by Which
investigation Was coming on, On Whicli his cause Was to bodoali missi bofore us, is tho persecution had not preVented. Ηe welcoming this, With a sori os destre of escaping and evad-ing condemnation, committed ali these crimes, and wrou tali this stir; so that he who mas to be ejected and excluded from the church, anticipaled the judgment of the priesis is
a voluntary departure, as is to have anticipaled the sentenco were to have escaped the punishment. 4. But in respect to the other brethren, OVer Whom me grieve
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1. Cyprian is Maximus the presbyter, also in Urbanus, and Sidonius, and Macharius, his Methren, meeting. When Iread Dur lettere, dearest brethren, that you Wrote to ma out Dur resum, and about the mace of the taurta, and the brotherly restoration, I confess that I Was as greatly ovenoyod as I had Miore been ovenoyod When I lorent thoglory of your confession, and thanhiully received tissings of