Appendix quarta: Oxoniensis editionis selectae in Cyprianum notae; J. M. Routh, notae; J. Trombelli, praefatio in Exhortationem ad poenitentiam

That he was a single deacon. And therefore the sin was committed with graver scandal. The debauchery of a deacon in the Church of Constantinople, under Nectarius, all but overthrew the ancient discipline of penance among the Easterners. See Socrates, book 5, chapter 14.

At his pleasure and his belching. With Rigaltius we judge this reading to be the truest, especially since Pontius spoke in almost the same formula: Far be it that the belching of a man should pass judgement on so most blessed a Martyr. No one is accustomed to indulge in belching except among petty slaves and parasites, with whom everything is permitted: whence that saying of the satirist: If he has belched well, etc.

The deacon being kept away. According to the custom long received in the Church, it was usual to punish the crimes of laymen with excommunication and the other censures of the Church, but those of clerics with deposition. But that in the first three centuries bishops, presbyters and deacons were subject, like laymen, to public penance and the imposition of hands is a manifest fact. Let the reader consult Morinus, On the Administration of the Sacrament of Penance, book 4, chapter 12.

An adulteress not against a husband, but against Christ. Although she has no husband, she is called an adulteress. Every faithful woman is a bride of Christ, but much more so one who has professed virginity.

Letter 5.

I greet you, being safe. When Cyprian had arrived safely at the hiding place he had chosen, it was altogether fitting that, in keeping with that intimate goodwill which existed between himself and the brethren, he should soothe by a letter, as soon as it could be done, their longing caused by his absence, should at any rate inform them of his safety and his affairs, and finally should diligently admonish them about those things which concerned the state of the Church. All these things are most fully accomplished in this Letter. Therefore it seems very likely that this letter was written not only first of all, but also immediately after his withdrawal; it is followed by another of almost the same argument and composed in the same words, namely Letter 6, number 81 in Pamelius. That all those written in this hiding place were 13 in number Cyprian himself testifies in Letter 20, number 15 in Pamelius, and all of them are presented here, although other editors regarded some of them as lost. It may moreover be noted that this Letter appears very rarely in the old manuscript copies, and so it was committed to print very late, namely after all the editions of Erasmus.

The condition of the place does not permit. A riot had been stirred up at Carthage, in which Cyprian was demanded for the lion by the clamour of the people in the circus and the amphitheatre, and finally proscribed, as is stated in Letter 59, number 55 in Pamelius. Below, speaking on the same matter, he says: Would that the condition of my place and rank permitted.

The sum which was collected. The whole capital which, in counted money, once the accounts had been reckoned, belonged to the poor. For just as, when the Church was being born, the prices of things sold for the sake of piety were laid at the feet of the Apostles (Acts 4:35), so thereafter the things which had been dedicated to God were entrusted to the good faith of the bishops: which Justin Martyr reports in the most explicit words in his Apology. That is to say, a division having been made, one part went to the bishop, a second to the clergy, a third to the uses of the poor. When, therefore, Cyprian was hastening into withdrawal, he deposited this money divided among the clerics, so that they might more easily distribute it in turn.

The confessors are to be visited. To visit the sick, or those placed in any other calamity, is rightly reckoned a duty of piety. See Matt. 25:36. But another reason will also appear below why very many flocked in crowds to the martyrs, namely that they might first extort peace from them, and then from the Church. But it should be noted here in passing that in this place, as also elsewhere, Cyprian uses the names of confessor and martyr indiscriminately, whereas, speaking more strictly, only those are to be called martyrs who have suffered for the name of Christ, but confessors those who, without the penalties following, professed themselves Christians before the tribunal.

Who make the offering among the confessors. Before the first

ardours of piety had cooled, Christians partook of the sacred mysteries every day, or at least on Sundays. But the martyrs, who lived constantly under the stroke of suffering, took the greatest pains never to be without that divine viaticum. But since in these solemn rites it was necessary for a deacon to assist the presbyter, so that the presbyter could not approach alone, Cyprian advises that they should take turns, and lessen ill will by changing those who come together. What it is to offer among the confessors we learn from Cyprian, Ep. 34, number 28 in Pamelius: "You have acted soundly and with discipline, dearest brethren, in that, by the counsel of my colleagues who were present, you decided that Gaius, presbyter of Didda, and his deacon must not be admitted to communion: who, by communicating with the lapsed and offering their oblations, have frequently been caught in wicked errors", etc. Here it should be noted in passing that particular deacons were sometimes assigned to presbyters to assist them. To communicate with certain persons and to offer their oblations are indeed different things; but since no one partook of the sacred mysteries who had not first offered a gift to God, whichever of the two expressions is used, this whole sacred office is very often understood. Likewise, although, as St Paul says, Heb. 13:10, we have an altar, yet the sacrifices of Christian piety are utterly removed from the immolations of the Gentiles and the Jews; and some wrongly, on hearing the name of altar, oblation or sacrifice, inappropriately thrust in a bloody victim and a slain offering: the odium of all of which the ancient Fathers vigorously warded off in their apologies.

To serve the times. This reading is not only supported by the votes of very many manuscript codices, but is also commended by antiquity. For not only Origen in his Commentary and our author in this place, but also Ignatius in his Epistle to Polycarp seems to have read it thus. The abbreviation κῳ is used equally for κυρίῳ and for καιρῷ; whence perhaps the variant reading took its origin.

Letter 6.

Letter of Cyprian to the martyrs. It matters little that some manuscript codices, and printed ones too, read: To Rogatianus the younger and the other confessors. For these titles are owed to the care and ingenuity of copyists, and the reader can for the most part do without them at no loss. They supposed that Rogatianus the presbyter, the glorious old man, who, receiving the assault of the raging people, prepared the first lodging in the prison and as it were went ahead as a harbinger, had been crowned with martyrdom; and therefore that a letter could not be addressed to him, and so they devised another Rogatianus, as unlike the former as could be, namely a younger one. But it is plain that nothing is said here of Rogatianus the old man except that he had been consigned to prison through a popular tumult; indeed it is rather hinted that he survived as an example, and that he also went ahead, when these things were written. Nor is it anything new that, when a letter is written to several persons jointly, particular mention is made of one of them as occasion offers. Further, if conjectures from the name carry any weight, the Rogatianus who is described here will certainly have been the very one mentioned in the following letter, namely 7, number 36 in Pamelius; Ep. 14, number 6 in Pamelius; and 41, number 38 in Pamelius. As to the time when this letter was sent, let the reader consult what has been most diligently discussed by the most reverend bishop of Chester in the Annals of Cyprian, prefixed to this work.

The kiss of the Lord. The Hebrews devise many things in their theology about the kiss of the Lord; and they profess that Moses departed from among the living in this way. For since in Deut. 34:5 it occurs that Moses died "at the mouth of the Lord" (על פי יהוה), the Rabbis say: "At that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, kissed him and took his soul with a kiss of the mouth." But in this the Jews depart far from the Christians, in that to them a quiet and peaceful death seemed the kiss of the Lord;

but by ours a bloody and violent [death] is reckoned most blessed and most greatly to be desired.

Metator. Vegetius says, book 2, chapter 7: "Those are called metatores in camps who, going ahead, choose a place suitable for the camp." So the Caesarian in Lucan: "Bold, I shall come as camp-marker into the Hesperian fields." Hence it is said most rightly of Rogatianus and Felicissimus that they entered the prison first, as it were as camp-markers.

Letter 7.

The Lord has deigned to show. Cyprian quite often appeals to revelations made to him; but he does this not in order to force dogmas of faith upon others, but to defend his innocence, which was assailed by the envious. His withdrawal was ill spoken of as a shameful flight; he therefore shows that he feared only for the sake of his flock, and that he had complied not with his own inclination but with a divine command. Moreover, it was to his honour among the clergy and people that God deemed him worthy of His conversations and of knowledge of things to come. And this held more especially in the African church, where heretics, and Montanus in particular, were thrusting forward prophecies and revelations with great pomp.

He willed [me] to believe and to grow. At Carthage, that is, where he had been converted to the faith and promoted to the episcopate: fixed to that see as though by roots put down.

From my own portion. See what was said above about the offerings divided into three parts, of which one fell to the bishop. For as to what he had once possessed as a pagan, Pontius teaches us that as soon as he had devoted himself to the Christian faith, having sold off his property to relieve the need of the poor, and dispensing whole estates, he left himself nothing remaining that he might give away anew.

Acolyte. Hesychius says: "Akolouthos: the younger boy. Therapon: the one about the person." It was an office, if any other was, most widely received throughout the whole Church in this age. As concerns the Easterners, the name, drawn from the Greeks, shows that it was in use among them. As to the Roman Church, the letter of Cornelius to Fabius of Antioch, which we shall cite below, abundantly attests it. As to the African, our author will be an ample witness throughout his Letters. But let more on these matters be seen in the notes on the following Letter.

Letter 8.

Of the Roman clergy. Although these words belong to the title of this Letter, which, having been added by a copyist according to his own understanding, can be of no weight or authority, the most learned Rigault seizes the occasion hence to show that the word clerus is wrongly drawn to ecclesiastical persons and to designating men initiated into sacred orders. First of all, he says, klēros signifies three things: the little lot which we use in casting lots; the allotment or drawing of lots, the very action of casting lots; and what falls to each by lot. He adds further that Greek writers on Hebrew matters, and from them Latin ones too, called clerus that which, out of that most ample tract of lands divided at Joshua's command among the eleven tribes of the Hebrews, had fallen to each by allotment. He explains this matter with an example: "The lots having been cast into the urn for the tribe of Benjamin, and the urn shaken, the lot which had come out when the tribe of Benjamin drew was called the lot of Benjamin. And so with the portions of the other eleven tribes." Thence he proceeds: "After Christian truth succeeded the Mosaic figures, and, the Hebrews deserving ill, divine grace was turned to the Gentiles, what the Hellenists had called Ecclesia they also called Clerus." After many things interposed, by which, however, he by no means proves that the Hellenists used clerus as a synonym for denoting the Church, the learned man adduces a passage of St Peter, saying that "the depraved blindness of mortals, Christian simplicity having been neglected, brought back pharisaic pride and smothered heavenly things with earthly." Peter seems to have been the first to transfer the word clerus to Christian matters, in his first canonical Epistle. He exhorts the presbyters

himself a fellow presbyter, that they should feed the flock which God has entrusted to them, providing for the sheep, not from desire of shameful gain, but freely; nor as lording it over the cleri, that is, the Christian people. He complains finally that the pastors themselves have made the name of clergy, which was common to the whole body of the sheep, so much their own that even the very name of the fold was cheapened into the designation of people or commons and laity. Hence there arose already in the age of Tertullian and Cyprian so great a difference between clerics and laity that the laity were not understood under the designation of clergy. What the learned man means by this long discussion is not easy to conjecture. Does it displease him that there are bishops and pastors in the Church? That does not seem so, since he acknowledges that the Lord appointed for His fold pastors, and indeed many of them. And certainly a diversity of things not only admits but even demands a diversity of words. Or, since St Peter addresses the presbyters as fellow presbyters, will it be a sign of neglected Christian simplicity and of pharisaic pride if an apostle or a bishop claims for himself right and power over the ecclesiastical clergy? And as to St Paul's warning in 1 Tim. 5:1, '[do not] rebuke a presbyter'; yet in the same chapter, v. 20, it will be necessary, the Apostle commanding this very thing, to rebuke before all presbyters found guilty of crimes. Or is it a fault that, while the word clergy sometimes includes all Christians, it is sometimes narrowed also to the ministers of the word? But in common usage this holds everywhere. Not only the supreme Deity but also magistrates are called gods; and in Rev. 5:10 all the faithful are styled kings and priests; yet no one would say that secular princes, and those who minister in sacred things of whatever order, wickedly claim those names for themselves. We acknowledge that the lots of the Israelite tribes are called cleri; but that the case of the Levites was far different from that of the remaining tribes the sacred text itself teaches us: Num. 18:20, 'In their land you shall have no inheritance, and there shall be no portion for you among them, for I am your portion and your inheritance in the midst of the sons of Israel.' It is certainly a different thing that the portions of land assigned to the tribes should be called their cleri, and that the Levites themselves, whom the Lord acknowledges as His lot, should be called His clerus. We do not deny that St Peter in his First Epistle called all Christians the Lord's clergy; but that same Peter in Acts 1:17 does not hesitate to call the apostolic office the lot of ministry. Lastly, if it is not enough for Rigault that in the age of Cyprian and even of Tertullian the difference between clerics and laity was so great that the laity were not understood by the word Clergy, Clement of Rome in his Epistle to the Corinthians will testify that this held in the age of the apostles, for he says: 'To the high priest his proper services have been given, and to the priests their proper place has been appointed, and on the Levites their proper ministries are laid; the lay man is bound by the lay ordinances.' etc. But of these things more than enough.

We have learned that the blessed Pope Cyprian has withdrawn. Rigault says that this withdrawal of Cyprian was by no means free from the reproach of flight among certain members of the Christian brotherhood who had read Tertullian's disputation On Flight in Persecution. Nor do I doubt that the very severity of so great a master so suffused the mind of his disciple, or at least so pricked it with some scruple, that Cyprian strove with great zeal to remove from himself the suspicion of flight. This is urged also by the rather tangled diligence of Pontius his intimate friend; and the following Epistles of Cyprian himself make it plain; and, if we love the truth, this admonition of the Roman clergy, as full of argument as it is disordered, proclaims nothing else more. Very strong is that defence of Cyprian, that he withdrew at the nod, nay at the command, of God. For what is plainer than the divine mandate handed down through Christ to the apostles? When they persecute you in this city, flee into another. But if you deny that the mandate pertained to others than the apostles, who would demand from Cyprian a witness to the Lord's command, to the Holy Spirit, to the divine favour shown towards him too in particular? But his friends also alleged many reasons of human prudence. He was a distinguished person. Cyprian alone displayed the Church; were he removed, the whole brotherhood would go to ruin. The presence of Cyprian alone exasperated the powers hostile to the Christian name. Cyprian alone, above all,

the infuriated populace had demanded for the lion. With him removed for a while, it seemed that the frenzy could be calmed. Indeed, though absent, he nonetheless provided and prompted everything necessary for his Church through procurators or deputies, and through rather frequent letters. That these reasons for withdrawal, then very plausible, served as an example in the following centuries is shown by Augustine's excellent letter to Honoratus, which also offers most wholesome counsel against all the subtleties of that human prudence. Writers on strategy treat a question not unlike this one of ours: whether a general in war is to be praised who does not hesitate to expose his own head to dangers everywhere, bravely and vigorously. The matter admits of this determination: that account must first of all be taken of the general, upon whose removal the safety of the people must necessarily be overthrown; for then the first work of virtue is to preserve the one who preserves all the rest. But where the steadfastness of the whole army depends upon the example of the general, then indeed neither hands nor head are to be spared. Plutarch wisely observed this in the case of Pelopidas.

From Clementius. Below, in the next following letter.

To the subdeacon. Rigaltius complains that thus, little by little and from the smallest beginnings, lordship and the lust of domination entered the Church. The apostles had spoken only of deacons. The age of Cyprian admitted subdeacons; the following age archdeacons, and thereafter archbishops and patriarchs. The apostles had spoken only of bishops and presbyters. Tertullian said that the bishop is the high priest. With Rigaltius' leave, I would believe that the subdiaconate and the other grades in the clergy, lower as well as higher, were introduced into the Church not for pride, for lordship and the lust of domination, but were employed for the necessary uses of Christian piety. What could contribute more to the unity of the African church and to other public advantages than that all the bishops of Africa, Numidia and Mauretania should be subject to the governance of Cyprian alone? And on the other side, as regards the lower grades, if anyone weighs the state of the primitive Church, in which all had to be summoned man by man to the solemn assemblies, and afterwards admitted not without selection and watches; messengers had to be dispatched from time to time not only to neighbouring regions but to those far distant; and constant care had to be taken of the sick, the poor, the catechumens, the lapsed, the martyrs, those in chains, those condemned to the mines, and finally the dead: he will not be surprised that in so many affairs, so dense, so varied, so laborious and full of danger, very many had to be employed to manage them, and that after the bishops, presbyters and deacons, subdeacons, readers, acolytes and doorkeepers were brought in to share in ecclesiastical solicitude. Cornelius, bishop of the Roman Church at this very time, in his letter to Fabius of Antioch, which is found in Eusebius, book 6, chapter 43, relates distinctly how many were established in the clergy in the city: namely, that there were forty-six presbyters, seven deacons, seven subdeacons, forty-two acolytes, and fifty-two exorcists and readers together with doorkeepers. To these he adds that there were more than fifteen hundred widows together with the afflicted, all of whom the grace and loving-kindness of the Master nourishes. Finally he concludes concerning them all: so great a multitude, and one so necessary in the Church, by the providence of God a rich and abounding number, together with a very great and innumerable people. And indeed it would be fair to believe that Carthage, the rival of Rome, did not fall far behind her in those things which pertain to Christian piety either.

For a definite reason, which indeed he would have done rightly. Rigaltius says that these words are to be joined thus: For a definite reason; which indeed he would have done rightly; since he is a distinguished person and with the contest imminent. These seem to be the words of the Carthaginian clergy, written in goodwill and favour towards Cyprian to excuse his withdrawal.

To us who seem to be set over [the flock]. Rigaltius says: When Fabian had departed from the living, and Cyprian had withdrawn, both sees were vacant, the Roman and the Carthaginian. In each place, therefore, the clergy had taken up the care of its own Church, and the Carthaginian clergy had written a letter to the Roman about that withdrawal of their Cyprian; the Roman, writing back to the Carthaginian, says: Since it is incumbent on us, who

seem to be set over [it], and in the shepherd's stead to guard the flock, if we are found negligent, it will be said to us, etc. Since these words are common, and refer to a care common to both sides, they signify a courteous and modest solicitude, most fitting to Christian charity, rather than the pride of some command or power. Of lesser (indeed, of greater, EDD.) moment is what he adds, that no sane person would deny that the honour of the Roman See was already long ago pre-eminent and first. For the letter sent by the Carthaginian clergy to the Roman [clergy] concerning Cyprian's withdrawal renders, as it were, an account; and the words of the Romans which follow here, We do not wish, therefore, to find you hirelings, although they are exhortatory rather than imperative, and counsels rather than commands, sufficiently indicate that the Roman [clergy] was already at that time the stronger, even with respect to the pontifical See.

To our predecessors. That is, to the priests of the Jews. On the words which follow, We have not corrected the one who strays, Rigaltius says: Tertullian renders it thus: what was driven out you have not turned back. In the book On Modesty.

The lame. Rigaltius says: Tertullian has "crushed", the Septuagint συντετριμμένον, Ps. 145: Who heals their infirmities, and binds up their bruises.

By the very act by which he withdrew. Rigaltius says: By the deed of Peter, who, when Christ had been seized by the Jews, did not properly flee, but withdrew, or went away, or retired. For, as it is in the Gospel, he followed Christ, but at a long distance, which gave the appearance of flight; and so in the Gospel we read that all the disciples, having abandoned Christ, fled. This letter of the Roman clergy, however, seems to burden Peter all the more in that it says: And the other disciples did likewise. As if following the example of Peter. And this the Romans twist against Cyprian's withdrawal, not without the reproach of flight. Under the same odium of the name of flight, at this very time, there laboured one who shared his dignity and his studies, the great glory of Egypt, Dionysius of Alexandria: he indeed defends himself in like manner, saying that he had sought a hiding place on being warned by a divine voice: But I speak also before God, and He Himself knows that I do not lie, that it was not by deciding anything on my own account, nor without God, that I made my flight; and more to this effect in Eusebius, book 6, ch. 40.

Going up to that to which they were being compelled. They shrink from expressing the crime itself in plain words. Rigaltius says that they went up to the Capitol to put incense into the censer. So in the book On the Lapsed: They had not even waited until they should go up when arrested, so that they might deny when questioned. And a little after: When one came of one's own accord to the Capitol, did not the step falter? And in the same book: One of those who of his own accord went up to the Capitol to deny. Canon 59 of the Council of Elvira: That no Christian go up to the idol of the Capitol for the purpose of sacrificing. The codex of Latinius presents the matter otherwise, namely that the presbyters of the Roman Church, observing that weak Christians, driven by fear, were going up to the Capitol, giving them courage by timely admonitions, had called them back to the Church. What is said below in the printed editions, that those seized by the fear of men had turned back, does not seem to fit the context.

That Church bravely in the faith. Retaining the reading of Pamelius, Rigaltius notes that by this boasting of their own fortitude the Romans cast odium upon the Carthaginians. And indeed Tertullian, himself a Carthaginian, proclaims the prerogative of the Roman faith in the book On the Prescriptions: But if you are near Italy, he says, you have Rome, whence authority is at hand for us also. How happy is that Church, into which the Apostles poured out their whole doctrine together with their blood! And in the fourth book Against Marcion: Let us see what the Romans too, close at hand, sound forth. But the reading of Latinius attributes the praise of fortitude not to the Roman Church, but to the clergy.

If in any way they could receive indulgence. Rigaltius says: the indulgence of penance. Moreover, those words, from Him Who is able to grant it, are added because the Church had not yet admitted idolaters to penance by any decree, although it did so soon afterwards.

Whether widows, or the afflicted. Rigaltius says: Guillaume Morel first published this letter, and did not indicate whence he had the exemplar. It is not found, however, in the manuscript