On the Unity of the Catholic Church · §6 · Cyprian of Carthage

The Church as the one chaste bride and mother; no salvation outside her

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Cyprian is speaking as bishop and author, continuing his argument that the Church is one and that those who break away from her lose Christ and salvation.

The bride of Christ cannot be defiled; she is incorruptible and chaste. She knows one home, and she guards the holiness of one bedchamber with chaste modesty. She keeps us for God; she assigns to the kingdom the children she has borne. Whoever is separated from the Church is joined to an adulteress and is cut off from the promises of the Church. No one who abandons the Church of Christ will arrive at Christ's rewards. He is an outsider, he is profane, he is an enemy. He cannot have God as father who does not have the Church as mother. If anyone outside the ark of Noah could have escaped, then someone outside the Church can escape. The Lord warns and says, "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters" (Matthew 12:30). Whoever breaks the peace and harmony of Christ acts against Christ; whoever gathers elsewhere, outside the Church, scatters the Church of Christ. The Lord says, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30). And again, about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, it is written, "And the three are one" (1 John 5:7-8). Does anyone believe that this unity, which comes from divine steadfastness and coheres with heavenly sacred signs, can be split in the Church and separated by the divorce of clashing wills? Whoever does not hold this unity does not hold God's law, does not hold faith in the Father and the Son, does not hold life and salvation.

Latin

Adulterari non potest sponsa Christi, incorrupta est et pudica. unam domum nouit, unius cubiculi sanctitatem casto pudore custodit. haec nos Deo seruat, haec filios regno quos generauit adsignat. quisque ab ecclesia segregatus adulterae iungitur a promissis ecclesiae separatur, nec perueniet ad Christi praemia qui reliquit ecclesiam Christi. alienus est, profanus est, hostis est. habere non potest Deum patrem qui ecclesiam non habet matrem. si potuit euadere quisque extra arcam Noe fuit, et qui extra ecclesiam foris fuerit euadit. monet Dominus et dicit: qui non est mecum aduersus me est, et qui non mecum colligit spargit. qui pacem Christi et concordiam rumpit aduersus Christum facit: qui alibi praeter ecclesiam colligit Christi ecclesiam spargit. dicit Dominus: ego et pater unum sumus. et iterum de Patre et Filio et Spiritu sancto scriptum est: et tres unum sunt. et quisquam credit hanc unitatem de diuina firmitate uenientem, sacramentis caelestibus cohaerentem scindi in ecclesia posse et uoluntatum conlidentium diuortio separari? hanc unitatem qui non tenet, non tenet Dei legem, non tenet Patris et Filii fidem, uitam non tenet et salutem.

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.