Cyprian of Carthage, On the Lapsed 9
For many, their own destruction was not enough. Driven to ruin by mutual urgings, the people offered death to one another in a lethal cup; and, so that nothing would be lacking to complete the accumulation of the crime, infants also lost what they had gained at the very beginning of their birth, either placed or drawn by their parents' hands. Will they not say when the day of judgment comes: We did nothing evil, nor did we spontaneously rush to profane contaminations after abandoning the food and cup of the Lord. Foreign treachery destroyed us; we recognized our parents as parricides. They denied us the Church as mother, they denied us God as father; so that, while we were small, imprudent, and unaware of so great a crime, we were joined to a partnership of crimes through others and captured by foreign fraud.
Latin
Ac multis proprius interitus satis non fuit. Hortamentis mutuis in exitium populus impulsus est, mors invicem lethali poculo propinata est; ac, ne quid deesset ad criminis cumulum, infantes quoque, parentum manibus vel impositi vel attracti, amiserunt parvuli quod in primo statim nativitatis exordio fuerant consecuti. Nonne illi cum judicii dies venerit dicent: Nos nihil mali fecimus, nec, derelicto cibo et poculo Domini, ad profana contagia sponte properavimus. Perdidit nos aliena perfidia, parentes sensimus parricidas. Illi nobis Ecclesiam matrem, illi patrem Deum negaverunt; ut, dum, parvi et improvidi et tanti facinoris ignari, per alios ad consortium criminum jungimur, aliena fraude caperemur.