On the Unity of the Catholic Church · §10 · Cyprian of Carthage

Heresies arise from discordant minds; God permits them to test the faithful

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Cyprian is explaining why heresies and schisms occur, arguing that God allows them so that the proven faithful may be revealed, and he begins to describe the self-appointed false leaders who cause them.

This is why heresies have both frequently arisen and still arise: a perverse mind has no peace, and discordant faithlessness does not hold to unity. The Lord permits and allows these things to happen while the choice of one's own freedom remains, so that when the test of truth examines our hearts and minds, the whole faith of the proven may shine with clear light. The Holy Spirit warns us beforehand through the apostle and says: "There must also be heresies, so that those who are proven may be evident among you" (1 Corinthians 11:19). In this way the faithful are tested, and in this way the faithless are exposed. Even before the day of judgment, the souls of the just and the unjust are already divided here, and the chaff is separated from the wheat.

From this come those who, without divine appointment, set themselves over reckless gatherings on their own initiative. They establish themselves as leaders without any law of ordination, and with no one granting them the episcopate they take the name of bishop for themselves. The Holy Spirit points them out in the Psalms as those sitting in the chair of pestilence (Psalm 1:1)—plagues and pestilences of the faith, deceiving with the serpent's mouth, contrivers of truth's corruption, vomiting deadly poisons from their pestilent tongues. Their talk creeps like cancer (2 Timothy 2:17), and their teaching pours a fatal venom into the breasts and hearts of individuals.

Latin

Hinc haereses et factae sunt frequenter et fiunt, dum peruersa mens non habet pacem, dum perfidia discordans non tenet unitatem. fieri uero haec Dominus permittit et patitur manente propriae libertatis arbitrio, ut dum corda et mentes nostras ueritatis discrimen examinat, probatorum fides integra manifesta luce clarescat. per apostolum praemonet Spiritus sanctus et dicit: oportet et haereses esse, ut probati manifesti sint in uobis. sic probantur fideles, sic perfidi deteguntur, sic et ante iudicii diem hic quoque iam iustorum adque iniustorum animae diuiduntur et a frumento paleae separantur. hinc sunt qui se ultro aput temerarios conuenas sine diuina dispositione praeficiunt, qui se praepositos sine ulla ordinationis lege constituunt, qui nemine episcopatum dante episcopi sibi nomen adsumunt: quos designat in psalmis Spiritus sanctus sedentes in pestilentiae cathedra, pestes et lues fidei, serpentis ore fallentes et corrumpendae ueritatis artifices, uenena letalia linguis pestiferis euomentes: quorum sermo ut cancer serpit, quorum tractatus pectoribus et cordibus singulorum mortale uirus infundit.

About this text

Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, writes in 251 against the Novatian schism: the Church Christ founded is one and cannot be divided.

Cyprian of Carthage (c. 200–258) wrote this treatise as bishop of Carthage, addressing the faithful brethren and especially the bishops who preside in the Church. He composed it in 251 to warn Christians against schism and heresy, which he regarded as a subtler and more dangerous attack by the devil than open persecution, and to defend the unity of the Church against those who had broken away from it.

The immediate occasion was the schism of Novatian, which had been stirred up in part by Novatus and other presbyters of Cyprian's own church. Cyprian wrote to keep the Carthaginians from following the breakaway movement. He argues that the Church is one and indivisible, founded by Christ upon Peter as the single source of its unity, and that this unity is preserved through the one episcopate. Schismatics and heretics, even if they claim the name of Christian and suffer death, are cut off from the Church and cannot be saved.

A reader will meet Peter, the apostle upon whom Christ founded the Church, and Paul and John, whose letters and Gospel are quoted on unity, love, and those who went out from the Church. Old Testament figures such as Korah, Dathan, Abiram, Uzziah, Aaron, Ahijah, Rahab, Solomon, and Judas appear as examples of rebellion, division, or prefigurations of the Church. The Lord, Paul, John, the Holy Spirit, Ahijah the prophet, and Scripture all speak in the treatise.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from CSEL 3.1 (1868) (Latin)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.