On the Unity of the Catholic Church · §18 · Cyprian of Carthage

Old Testament examples of divine punishment for rebellion against God's ordering

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Cyprian is continuing his warning against those who break away from the Church, now giving Old Testament examples of divine punishment for those who usurped priestly authority.

So Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who tried to claim for themselves the license of sacrificing against Moses and Aaron the priest, paid the penalty for their attempts at once. The earth, its joints broken, opened into the depth of its bosom; the gaping of the ground as it gave way swallowed them standing and alive. Nor did the anger of an indignant God strike only those who had been the instigators, but the other two hundred and fifty who shared in the same madness and were their companions, joined together with them in the same audacity, were consumed by fire that went out from the Lord in swift vengeance. This warns and shows that whatever wicked people have attempted by human will to destroy God's ordering is done against God. So also King Uzziah, when he carried a censer and violently took the sacrifice to himself against the law of God, refused to obey and yield to Azariah the priest who resisted him. He was confounded by divine indignation and marked on his forehead with the variety of leprosy, marked on that part of the body where those who merit the Lord are signed, because he had offended the Lord. And the sons of Aaron, who placed on the altar strange fire that the Lord had not commanded, were extinguished at once in the sight of the avenging Lord.

Latin

Sic Core et Dathan et Abiron qui sibi contra Moysen et Aaron sacerdotem sacrificandi licentiam uindicare conati sunt poenas statim pro suis conatibus pependerunt. terra conpagibus ruptis in profundum sinus patuit, stantes adque uiuentes recedentis soli hiatus absorbuit, nec tantum eos qui auctores fuerant Dei indignantis ira percussit, sed et ceteros ducentos quinquaginta participes eiusdem furoris et comites qui coagulati cum isdem simul ad audaciam fuerant exiens a Domino ignis properata ultione consumpsit, admonens scilicet et ostendens contra Deum fieri quicquid inprobi fuerint ad destruendam ordinationem Dei humana uoluntate conati. sic et Ozias rex cum turibulum ferens et contra legem Dei sacrificium sibi uiolenter adsumens resistente sibi Azaria sacerdote obtemperare nollet et cedere, diuina indignatione confusus et leprae uarietate in fronte maculatus est, ea parte corporis notatus offenso Domino ubi signantur qui Dominum promerentur. et filii Aaron, qui inposuerunt altari ignem alienum quem non praeceperat Dominus, in conspectu statim Domini uindicantis extincti sunt.

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.