On the Unity of the Catholic Church · §9 · Cyprian of Carthage

The Dove's Simplicity and the Separation of the Wicked

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Cyprian is explaining how the Holy Spirit's descent as a dove reveals the simplicity and unity that must mark the Church, and why the departure of the wicked is cause for rejoicing.

That is why the Holy Spirit came as a dove: a simple and joyful creature, not bitter with gall, not fierce with bites, not violent with tearing claws. It loves human dwellings, knows the sharing of one house, and when they have young they eat together. When they travel in flight they cling to one another, they pass their life in common company, they recognize the harmony of peace with the kiss of the beak, and they fulfill the law of unanimity in all things. This is the simplicity to be recognized in the Church; this is the love to be maintained, so that the love of the brotherhood may imitate doves, so that gentleness and mildness may equal lambs and sheep. What place does the ferocity of wolves, the madness of dogs, the deadly venom of serpents, and the bloody savagery of beasts have in a Christian heart? We should rejoice when such people are separated from the Church, so that they do not prey upon the doves and sheep of Christ with their savage and poisonous contagion. Bitterness cannot cling and be joined to sweetness, darkness to light, rain to fair weather, battle to peace, barrenness to fruitfulness, dryness to springs, storm to calm. Let no one think that the good can depart from the Church: the wind does not carry away the wheat, nor does a gale overturn a tree founded on a solid root. Empty chaff is tossed by the storm; weak trees are overturned by the blast of the whirlwind. The apostle John curses and strikes these, saying: "They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us" (1 John 2:19).

Latin

Idcirco et m columba uenit Spiritus sanctus: simplex animal et laetum est, non felle amarum, non morsibus saeuum, non unguium laceratione uiolentum, hospitia humana diligere, unius domus consortium nosse, cum generant simul filios edere, cum commeant uolatibus inuicem cohaerere, communi conuersatione uitam suam degere, oris osculo concordiam pacis agnoscere, legem circa omnia unanimitatis inplere. haec est in ecclesia noscenda simplicitas, haec caritas obtinenda, ut columbas dilectio fiaternitat imitetur, ut mansuetudo et lenitas agnis et ouibus aequetur. quid facit in pectore christiano luporum feritas et canum rabies et uenenum letale serpentum et cruenta saeuitia bestiarum? gratulandum est, cum tales de ecclesia separantur, ne columbas, ne oues Christi saeua sua et uenenata contagione praedentur. cohaerere et coniungi non potest amaritudo cum dulcedine, caligo cum lumine, pluuia cum serenitate, pugna cum pace, cum fecunditate sterilitas, cum fontibus siccitas, cum tranquillitate tempestas. nemo existimet bonos de ecclesia posse discedere: triticum non rapit uentus nec arborem solida radice fundatam procella subuertit: inanes paleae tempestate iactantur, inualidae arbores turbinis incursione uertuntur. hos execratur et percutit Iohannes apostolus dicens: ex nobis exierunt, sed non [fuerunt ex nobis. si enim fuissent ex nobis, mansissent nobiscum.

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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