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Cyprian of Carthage, The Epistles of Cyprian
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From the Roman Clergy to the Carthaginian Clergy, About the Retirement of the Blessed Cyprian.
To the Presbyters and Deacons.
To the Clergy, Concerning Prayer to God.
To the Martyrs and Confessors.
To the Martyrs and Confessors Who Sought that Peace Should Be Granted to the Lapsed.
To the Clergy, Concerning Those Who are in Haste to Receive Peace. a.d. 250.
To Moyses and Maximus, and the Rest of the Confessors.
To the Presbyters and Deacons About the Foregoing and the Following Letters.
To Moyses and Maximus and the Rest of the Confessors.
Moyses, Maximus, Nicostratus, and the Other Confessors Answer the Foregoing Letter. a.d. 250.
To the Presbyters and Deacons.
To the Presbyters and Deacons Abiding at Rome.
The Presbyters and Deacons Abiding at Rome, to Cyprian.
To the Carthaginian Clergy, About the Letters Sent to Rome, and Received Thence.
To the Clergy and People, About the Ordination of Aurelius as a Reader.
To the Clergy and People, About the Ordination of Celerinus as Reader.
To the Same, About the Ordination of Numidicus as Presbyter.
To the Clergy, Concerning the Care of the Poor and Strangers.
To the Clergy, Bidding Them Show Every Kindness to the Confessors in Prison.
To Caldonius, Herculanus, and Others, About the Excommunication of Felicissimus.
To the People, Concerning Five Schismatic Presbyters of the Faction of Felicissimus.
To Cornelius, About Cyprian’s Approval of His Ordination, and Concerning Felicissimus.
To the Same, on His Having Sent Letters to the Confessors Whom Novatian Had Seduced.
To the Roman Confessors, that They Should Return to Unity.
To Cornelius, Concerning Polycarp the Adrumetine.
Cornelius to Cyprian, on the Return of the Confessors to Unity.
Cyprian’s Answer to Cornelius, Congratulating Him on the Return of the Confessors from Schism.
Cornelius to Cyprian, Concerning the Faction of Novatian with His Party.
Cyprian’s Answer to Cornelius, Concerning the Crimes of Novatus.
Maximus and the Other Confessors to Cyprian, About Their Return from Schism.
From Cyprian to the Confessors, Congratulating Them on Their Return from Schism.
To Antonianus About Cornelius and Novatian.
To Fortunatus and His Other Colleagues, Concerning Those Who Had Been Overcome by Tortures.
To Cornelius, Concerning Granting Peace to the Lapsed.
To Cornelius, Concerning Fortunatus and Felicissimus, or Against the Heretics.
To the People of Thibaris, Exhorting to Martyrdom.
To Cornelius in Exile, Concerning His Confession.
To Fidus, on the Baptism of Infants.
To the Numidian Bishops, on the Redemption of Their Brethren from Captivity Among the Barbarians.
To Euchratius, About an Actor.
To Pomponius, Concerning Some Virgins.
Cæcilius, on the Sacrament of the Cup of the Lord.
To Epictetus and to the Congregation of Assuræ, Concerning Fortunatianus, Formerly Their Bishop.
To Rogatianus, Concerning the Deacon Who Contended Against the Bishop.
To Father Stephanus, Concerning Marcianus of Arles, Who Had Joined Himself to Novatian.
To the Clergy and People Abiding in Spain, Concerning Basilides and Martial.
To Florentius Pupianus, on Calumniators.
To Januarius and Other Numidian Bishops, on Baptizing Heretics.
To Quintus, Concerning the Baptism of Heretics.
To Stephen, Concerning a Council.
To Jubaianus, Concerning the Baptism of Heretics.
To Pompey, Against the Epistle of Stephen About the Baptism of Heretics.
Firmilian, Bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, to Cyprian, Against the Letter of Stephen. a.d. 256.
To Magnus, on Baptizing the Novatians, and Those Who Obtain Grace on a Sick-Bed.
The Reply of Nemesianus, Dativus, Felix, and Victor, to Cyprian.
The Reply to the Same of Lucius and the Rest of the Martyrs.
The Answer of Felix, Jader, Polianus, and the Rest of the Martyrs, to Cyprian.
Cyprian to Sergius, Rogatianus, and the Other Confessors in Prison.
To Successus on the Tidings Brought from Rome, Telling of the Persecution.
To the Clergy and People Concerning His Retirement, a Little Before His Martyrdom.
Epistle LX.534 Oxford ed.: Ep. ii. Circa a.d. 249.
To Euchratius, About an Actor.
Argument.—He Forbids an Actor, If He Continue in His Disgraceful Calling, from Communicating in the Church. Neither Does He Allow It to Be an Excuse for Him, that He Himself Does Not Practice the Histrionic Art, So Long as He Teaches It to Others; Neither Does He Excuse It Because of the Want of Means, Since Necessaries May Be Supplied to Him from the Resources of the Church; And Therefore, If the Means of the Church There are Not Sufficient, He Recommends Him to Come to Carthage.
1. Cyprian to Euchratius his brother, greeting. From our mutual love and your reverence for me you have thought that I should be consulted, dearest brother, as to my opinion concerning a certain actor, who, being settled among you, still persists in the discredit of the same art of his; and as a master and teacher, not for the instruction, but for the destruction of boys, that which he has unfortunately learnt he also imparts to others: you ask whether such a one ought to communicate with us. This, I think, neither befits the divine majesty nor the discipline of the Gospel, that the modesty and credit of the Church should be polluted by so disgraceful and infamous a contagion. For since, in the law, men are forbidden to put on a woman’s garment, and those that offend in this manner are judged accursed, how much greater is the crime, not only to take women’s garments, but also to express base and effeminate and luxurious gestures, by the teaching of an immodest art.
2. Nor let any one excuse himself that he himself has given up the theatre, while he is still teaching the art to others. For he cannot appear to have given it up who substitutes others in his place, and who, instead of himself alone, supplies many in his stead; against God’s appointment, instructing and teaching in what way a man may be broken down into a woman, and his sex changed by art,535 [In the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, to the disgrace of the pontifical court, the fine music is obtained by recourse to this expedient, inflicted upon children.] and how the devil who pollutes the divine image may be gratified by the sins of a corrupted and enervated body. But if such a one alleges poverty and the necessity of small means, his necessity also can be assisted among the rest who are maintained by the support of the Church; if he be content, that is, with very frugal but innocent food. And let him not think that he is redeemed by an allowance to cease from sinning, since this is an advantage not to us, but to himself. What more he may wish he must seek thence, from such gain as takes men away from the banquet of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and leads them down, sadly and perniciously fattened in this world, to the eternal torments of hunger and thirst; and therefore, as far as you can, recall him from this depravity and disgrace to the way of innocence, and to the hope of eternal life, that he may be content with the maintenance of the Church, sparing indeed, but wholesome. But if the Church with you is not sufficient for this, to afford support for those in need, he may transfer himself to us, and here receive what may be necessary to him for food and clothing, and not teach deadly things to others without the Church, but himself learn wholesome things in the Church. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell.
0362B
ARGUMENTUM.---Histrionem, si in turpi artificio persistat, communicare prohibet in ecclesia. Neque vero excusari debere quod ipse histrionicam non exerceat, quamdiu illam alios docet; aut ob rei familiaris inopiam, cum ecclesiae sumptibus illi alimenta praestari possint; atque adeo, si Ecclesiae Euchratii bona non sufficiant, Carthaginem monet ut veniat.
I. Cyprianus Euchratio fratri salutem. Pro dilectione mutua et verecundia tua, consulendum me existimasti, frater charissime, quid mihi videatur de histrione quodam, qui, apud vos constitutus, in ejusdem 0362C adhuc artis suae dedecore perseverat, et magister et doctor non erudiendorum sed perdendorum puerorum, id quod male didicit caeteris quoque insinuat, an talis debeat communicare nobiscum. Quod puto ego nec majestati divinae nec evangelicae disciplinae congruere, ut pudor et honor Ecclesiae tam turpi et 0363A infami contagione foedetur. Nam, cum in Lege prohibeantur viri induere muliebrem vestem et maledicti ejusmodi judicentur, quanto majoris est criminis, non tantum muliebria indumenta accipere, sed et gestus quoque turpes et molles et muliebres magisterio impudicae artis exprimere?
II. Nec excuset se quisquam si a theatro ipse cessaverit, cum tamen hoc caeteros doceat. Non potest enim videri cessasse qui vicarios substituit et qui pro se uno plures succedaneos suggerit, contra institutionem Dei, erudiens et docens quemadmodum masculus frangatur in feminam et sexus arte mutetur, et diabolo divinum plasma maculanti per corrupti atque enervati corporis delicta placeatur. Quod si penuriam talis et necessitatem paupertatis obtendit, potest, 0363B inter caeteros qui alimentis Ecclesiae sustinentur, hujus quoque necessitas adjuvari, si tamen contentus sit frugalioribus sed innocentibus cibis. Nec putet salario se esse redimendum ut a peccatis cesset, quando hoc non nobis sed sibi praestet. Caeterum, quantum velit inde quaerat qualis quaestus est qui de convivio Abraham et Isaac et Jacob homines rapit, et, male ac perniciose in saeculo saginatos, ad aeternae famis ac sitis supplicia deducit. Et ideo, quantum potes, ab hac eum pravitate et dedecore ad viam innocentiae atque ad spem vitae aeternae revoca, ut sit contentus Ecclesiae sumptibus, parcioribus quidem, sed salutaribus. Quod si illic ecclesia non sufficit ut laborantibus praestet alimenta, poterit se ad nos transferre, et hic quod sibi ad victum 0364A atque ad vestitum necessarium fuerit accipere, nec alios extra ecclesiam mortalia docere, sed ipse salutaria in ecclesia discere. Opto te, frater charissime, semper bene valere.