On the Unity of the Catholic Church · §14 · Cyprian of Carthage

No martyrdom or salvation outside the Church's unity and love

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Cyprian is addressing those who have broken away from the Church, arguing that even suffering death for the name of Christ cannot cleanse the guilt of discord or make them martyrs.

Even if such people are killed while confessing the name, this stain is not washed away even by blood. The inexpiable and grave guilt of discord is not cleansed even by suffering. He cannot be a martyr who is not in the Church. He will not be able to reach the kingdom who has abandoned her who is going to reign. Christ gave us peace; he commanded us to be in harmony and of one mind; he charged us to keep the covenants of affection and love uncorrupted and inviolate. He cannot show himself a martyr who has not held to brotherly love. The apostle Paul teaches and bears witness to this when he says: “If I have faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I distribute all my goods as food, and if I hand over my body so that I may burn, but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2-3). “Love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous, is not puffed up, is not provoked, does not act wrongly, does not think evil, loves all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love will never fall away” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). “Never,” he says, “will love fall away.” For this will always be in the kingdom; this will endure forever in the unity of a brotherhood that holds together. Discord cannot reach the kingdom of heaven. No one who has violated Christ’s love by faithless dissension will be able to attain the reward of Christ, who said: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). He who does not have love does not have God. This is the voice of the blessed apostle John: “God,” he says, “is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him” (1 John 4:16). They cannot remain with God who have refused to be of one mind in the Church of God. Though they may burn, handed over to flames and fires, or throw their lives to beasts, that will not be the crown of faith but the punishment of faithlessness, nor the glorious outcome of religious virtue but the ruin of despair. Such a person can be killed, but cannot be crowned. He professes himself a Christian in the same way that the devil often pretends to be Christ, as the Lord himself warns and says: “Many will come in my name, saying: I am Christ, and they will deceive many” (Mark 13:6). Just as that one is not Christ, though he deceives in the name, so neither can he be seen as a Christian who does not remain in Christ’s gospel and in the truth of the faith.

Latin

Tales etiam si occisi in confessione nominis fuerint, macula ista nec sanguine abluitur: inexpiabilis et grauis culpa discordiae nec passione purgatur. esse martyr non potest qui in ecclesia non eat: ad regnum peruenire non poterit qui eam quae regnatura est dereliquit. pacem nobis Christus dedit, concordes adque unanimes esse praecepit, dilectionis et caritatis foedera incorrupta adque inuiolata mandauit: exhibere se non potest martyrem qui fraternam non tenuit caritatem. docet hoc et contestatur Paulus apostolus dicens: et si habuero fidem ita ut montes transferam, caritatem autem non habeam, nihil sum: et si in cibos distribuero omnia mea et si tradidero corpus meum ut ardeam, caritatem autem non habeam, nihil proficio. caritas magnanima est, caritas benigna est, caritas non aemulatur, non inflatur, non inritatur, non agit perperam, non cogitat malum, omnia diligit, omnia credit, omnia sperat, omnia sustinet. caritas numquam excidet. numquam, inquit, excidet caritas. haec enim semper in regno erit, haec in aeternum fraternitatis sibi cohaerentis unitate durabit. ad regnum caelorum non potest peruenire discordia, ad praemium Christi qui dixit: hoc est mandatum meum ut diligatis

inuicem, quemadmodum dilexi uos, pertinere non poterit qui dilectionem Christi perfida dissensione uiolauit. qui caritatem non habet Deum non habet. Iohannis beati apostoli uoxest: Deus, inquit, dilectio est et qui manet in dilectione in Deo manet et Deus in illo manet. cum Deo manere non possunt qui esse in ecclesia Dei unanimes noluerunt. ardeant licet flammis et ignibus traditi uel obiecti bestiis animas suas ponant, non erit illa fidei corona sed poena perfidiae nec religiosae uirtutis exitus gloriosus sed desperationis interitus. occidi talis potest, coronari non potest. sic se christianum esse profitetur, quomodo et Christum diabolus saepe mentitur ipso Domino praemonente et dicente: multi uenient in nomine meo dicentes: ego sum Christus, e.t multos fallent. sicut ille Christus non est, quamuis fallat in nomine, ita nec christianus uideri potest qui non permanet in euangelio eius et fidei ueritate.

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.