On the Unity of the Catholic Church · §17 · Cyprian of Carthage

Avoid and flee those separated from the Church

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Cyprian is addressing the faithful, urging them not to be disturbed by the faithlessness of many but to be strengthened by the fact that such defections were foretold, and to avoid those who have separated from the Church.

But let the excessive and abrupt faithlessness of many not move or disturb us. Instead, let it strengthen our faith by the truth of the thing foretold. Just as certain people have begun to be this way because these things were predicted beforehand, so let the rest of the brethren beware of such people, because these things too were predicted beforehand, with the Lord instructing and saying: "But you, beware; behold, I have foretold everything to you" (Mark 13:23). I beg you, avoid people of this kind, and keep their destructive conversations away from your side and from your ears like the contagion of death, as it is written: "Fence your ears with thorns, and do not listen to a wicked tongue" (Sirach 28:24). And again: "Bad conversations corrupt good minds" (1 Corinthians 15:33). The Lord teaches and warns that we must withdraw from such people. "They are blind," he says, "leaders of the blind. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit" (Matthew 15:14). Whoever has been separated from the Church is to be turned away from and fled. Such a person is perverse, and he sins, and he is condemned by himself. Does someone who acts against the priests of Christ, who cuts himself off from the fellowship of his clergy and people, think that he is with Christ? He bears arms against the Church; he fights against God's ordering. He is an enemy of the altar, a rebel against the sacrifice of Christ, faithless in place of faith, sacrilegious in place of religion, a disobedient servant, an impious son, a hostile brother. Despising the bishops and abandoning the priests of God, he dares to set up another altar, to make another prayer with unlawful words, to profane the truth of the Lord's victim through false sacrifices, and does not know that whoever strives against God's ordinance is punished by divine judgment for the audacity of his rashness.

Latin

Non tamen nos moueat aut turbet multorum nimia et abrupta perfidia, sed potius fidem nostram praenuntiatae rei ueritate corroboret. ut quidam tales esse coeperunt, quia haec ante praedicta sunt, ita ceteri fratres ab eiusmodi caueant, quia et haec ante praedicta sunt instruente Domino et dicente: uos autem cauete, ecce praedixi uobis omnia. uitate quaeso uos eiusmodi homines et a latere adque auribus uestris perniciosa conloquia uelut contagium mortis arcete, sicut scriptum est: saepi aures tuas spinis et noli audire linguam nequam. et iterum: conrumpunt ingenia bona confabulationes. pessimae. docet Dominus et admonet a talibus recedendum: caeci sunt, inquit, duces caecorum. caecus autem caecum ducens simul in foueam cadent. auersandus. est talis adque fugiendus quisque fuerit ab ecclesia separatus. peruersus est huiusmodi et peccat et est a semet ipso damnatus. an esse sibi cum Christo uidetur qui aduersum sacerdotes Christi facit, qui se a cleri eius et plebis societate secernit? arma ille contra ecclesiam portat, contra Dei dispositionem repugnat. hostis altaris, aduersus sacrificium Christi rebellis, pro fide perfidus, pro religione sacrilegus, inobsequens seruus, filius impius, frater inimicus contemptis episcopis et Dei sacerdotibus derelictis constituere audet aliud altare, precem alteram inlicitis uocibus facere, dominicae hostiae ueritatem per falsa sacrificia profanare, nec scire quoniam qui contra ordinationem Dei nititur ob temeritatis audaciam diuina animaduersione punitur.

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.