On the Unity of the Catholic Church · §23 · Cyprian of Carthage

Exhortation to separate from schismatics and hold to the one Church

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Cyprian, having praised the faithful confessors, now urges the whole people to withdraw from the leaders of schism and to recognize that the Church's unity cannot be divided without loss of salvation.

I wish, dearly beloved brothers, and I counsel and urge you as well, that if it can be done, none of the brothers should perish, and that the mother, rejoicing, should enclose the one body of the agreeing people in her bosom. But if the saving counsel cannot recall certain leaders of schisms and authors of division who persist in blind and obstinate madness to the way of salvation, then the rest of you—whether captured by simplicity, led astray by error, or deceived by the cunning of some fraudulent cleverness—free yourselves from the snares of deceit, free your wandering steps from error, and recognize the straight road of the heavenly way.

The voice of the apostle is a solemn warning: “We command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to withdraw from all brothers who walk disorderly and not according to the tradition they received from us” (2 Thessalonians 3:6). And again he says: “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them” (Ephesians 5:6–7).

We must withdraw from those who sin—or rather, we must flee from them—so that no one who joins himself to those who walk badly and travels along the paths of error and crime may wander from the way of the true path and be held guilty of the same crime himself. There is one God and one Christ and one Church of his and one faith and one people joined into the solid unity of the body by the glue of harmony. Unity cannot be split, nor can one body be separated by the breaking of its structure, torn apart into pieces by the laceration of its organs. Whatever has departed from the mother will not be able to live and breathe on its own; it loses the substance of salvation.

Latin

Opto equidem, dilectissimi fratres, et consulo pariter et suadeo, ut si fieri potest nemo de fratribus pereat et consentientis populi corpus unum gremio suo gaudens mater includat. si tamen quosdam schismatum duces et dissensionis auctores in caeca et obstinata dementia permanentes non potuerit ad salutis uiam consilium salubre reuocare, ceteri tamen uel simplicitate capti uel errore inducti uel aliqua fallentis astutiae calliditate decepti a fallaciae uos laqueis soluite, uagantes gressus ab erroribus liberate, iter rectum uiae caelestis adgnoscite. contestantis apostoli uox est: praecipimus uobis in nomine Domini Iesu Christi ut recedatis ab omnibus fratribus ambulantibus inordinate et non secundum traditionem quam acceperunt a nobis. et iterum dicit: nemo uos decipiat inanibus uerbis: propterea enim uenit ira Dei super filios contumaciae. nolite ergo esse participes eorum. recedendum est a delinquentibus uel immo fugiendum, ne dum quis male ambulantibus iungitur et per itinera erroris et criminis graditur, a uia ueri itineris exerrans pari crimine et ipse teneatur. unus Deus est et Christus unus et una ecclesia eius et fides una et plebs una in solidam corporis unitatem concordiae glutino copulata. scindi unitas non potest nec corpus unum discidio conpaginis separari, diuulsis laceratione uisceribus in frusta discerpi. quicquid a matrice discesserit . seorsum uiuere et spirare non poterit, substantiam salutis amittit.

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)

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