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

called, namely "lying beneath" and "laid under". But Cyprian says that they not only kneel before the brethren, but are laid prostrate before the devil.

"I have sent you a book." Rigaltius says: the book On the Lapsed. But that book seems not yet to have been written. And it is likely that by the word "book" Cyprian meant that bundle of letters which he sent across.

"That among all there may be one course of action." Rigaltius says: in a matter, that is, of faith. For in the administration of the Church he says that each one set over it has free choice of his own will, in the Letter to Stephen, Bishop of Rome. The presbyters of Rome themselves to Cyprian, Letter 31: "Let them know that they owe their conscience to God alone as judge." See the closing clauses of the Letters to Stephen and to Jubaianus. Rather, one must strive, as far as can be done, that in the administration of the Church's discipline "there be one course of action". For the ancient Church felt what great disturbances had been caused by the differing custom of celebrating Easter, which set the East at odds with the West. And indeed in this place the dispute was not about any article of faith, but about the administration of discipline, namely of penance.

Letter 26.

"What they have done after the offence." Rigaltius says: what penance for their deed they have done. Above: "Lest they have committed anything for which the Church should blush." "That you examine both the conduct and the works and the merits of each." We have an example of this inquiry in the Letter of Celerinus to Lucian in the case of Numeria and Candida, for whom Celerinus, when about to beg letters or certificates from the eminent and most valiant confessor Lucian to obtain peace, recounts what they did after the offence. "They themselves," he says, "went down to the harbour to meet the confessors who came here from persecution, and brought them up into the city, ministered to sixty-five, and have cherished them in all things up to the present day. For they are all in their care." Another example is supplied by the Letter of Caldonius entreating Cyprian on behalf of certain lapsed, who after they had sacrificed, being tried a second time, were made exiles. "They seem to me, therefore," says Caldonius, "to have washed away their former offence, while they give up possessions and homes and, doing penance, follow Christ; they have left behind possessions which the treasury now holds." And therefore Cyprian replies to Caldonius that he had judged rightly concerning granting peace to the brethren, which true penance and the glory of confessing the Lord had restored to them; "justified by their own words, by which they had before condemned themselves".

Letter 27.

"Whereas Mappalicus the martyr." And yet Lucian did not shrink from saying that Mappalicus had commanded that crude peace which he was conferring everywhere to be given. But he betrayed his shamelessness the more when, admonished by Cyprian, he went on to worse and threatened the bishop himself with excommunication.

"While still placed in prison." Since by the ordinances of the Church he as yet enjoyed no privilege, being not yet crowned. Moreover, that a martyr should after his death bequeath the right of granting peace to an heir, as it were by a last will, was a thing unheard of.

"Of our sect." Pamelius says: Tertullian frequently uses the word "sect" in a good sense for the Christian profession, as may be seen in the books On Flight in Persecution, On the Cloak, and the Apology against the Gentiles. Cyprian imitates him after his custom, both here and in Letter 33 on Celerinus, and in the preface to Book 1 of the Testimonies to Quirinus. So also in Acts 26 the Apostle took αἵρεσιν in a good sense, as Bede witnesses in his Retractation on the Acts. For which in the same place our translator has, not badly, rendered "sect".

"Into the grace." He seems to have omitted on purpose the word χριστοῦ, in which the Greek manuscripts vary: for some have θεοῦ, others Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. For Cyprian reads this passage in the same way in the Letter to Caecilius on the sacrament of the cup. So too Tertullian reads it, Against Heresies, ch. 27.

"To convert the Gospel of Christ." μεταστρέψαι, to pervert.

Letter 28.

"You have initiated the spiritual contest by your virtues." Rigaltius says: "You have begun." A phrase of Tertullian, in the book On Fasting, where "now the household people too began to be enlisted for God, and the restoration of man could be initiated." And in the book On Modesty, where he says of Peter: "He himself initiated the key," that is, began to use the key. Namely, the Gospel of the Lord's word.

"Crowns woven by your own hand." Rigaltius says: In the Corbie copy one reads: "Your crown your hands." Corrupt indeed, but such that a reading can be drawn out of it: "Crowns stitched by your own hand." Yet "woven" does not displease. For the stephanoplokos, the garland-plaiter, who inserts flowers into a band for use as a crown and ties them together, can be said to weave a crown.

"Title." A word constantly found in Tertullian: the title of ambition, of idolatry, of lusts, of duty, of injuries, and very many of that kind. Indeed he quite often has "to entitle" and "entitled".

Letter 29.

"Since it was fitting for me to write through clerics." Rigaltius says: Christian business was conducted so reverently that the bishop would not write to the clergy except through clerics. But it should be observed that already at the time when the Christian people judged matters of the Church together with the clerics, the laity were so far set apart from the clerics that none but clerics carried the bishop's letters. And this perhaps prudently: so that, if it seemed safer, they might also deliver instructions by word of mouth. We observed above that Rigaltius, with little candour, disparages the distinction between the lay people and the clergy. Let what was said there be consulted.

"Next to the clergy." Rigaltius says: There was therefore some dignity, a "proximate" rank next to the clergy, and perhaps a "proximate-designate". And to that dignity, though the least, Cyprian used to appoint by common counsel. These men next to the clergy were modelled on those who served about the emperor in the sacred bureaux; and there is in Book 12 of the Code a title On the proximi of the sacred bureaux. To read publicly in the Church by the bishop's command was a solemn designation to the office of reader. Therefore he at once adds: "Nothing has been done by me in your absence."

"Or just now with the presbyters." Some of the clergy appear to have visited Cyprian in his retreat and by common counsel to have settled the matters which most concerned the state of the Church. He says that Saturus had long since been designated to the office of reader, but that Optatus, a reader, lately assigned to the instruction of the catechumens and renowned for the glory of confession, had now been declared subdeacon. Saint Paul seems formerly to have distinguished, among presbyters, rulers and teachers, 1 Tim. 4:17.

"Among the readers [as] teacher of the hearers." Rigaltius says: So at that time there was learning and teaching even in readers. And rightly so, since they were put in charge of the instruction of the catechumens.

Letter 30.

"By the profession of wicked certificates." Rigaltius says: This Letter shows two kinds of libellatici. One, of those who had written their names in certificates professing the worship of Jupiter and Mars and the other gods of that sort; the other, of those who had not themselves offered certificates with their profession to the heathen authorities, but had received and sealed certificates submitted through others, and perhaps through the authorities themselves. But there was a third kind of libellatici: namely those who, by a certificate given or received, professed that they were Christians and that therefore it was not lawful for them to go up to the Capitol or to sacrifice, but that they paid this fee so as not to do what is not lawful. Of this kind of libellatici it is spoken at Cyprian's Letter to Antonianus. Let what we said on the book On the Lapsed, p. 95, be consulted

"Which very thing they had attested." Rigaltius says: namely, that they had approached the wicked altars. Whence it appears that this kind of libellatici was different from those dealt with in the Letter to Antonianus.

"But also against those who had made [them] received." Rigaltius

says: That is, those who had received the certificates submitted; for thus they had held as accepted and ratified whatever was contained in them. And it was contained in them that he had on that day gone up to the Capitol and offered incense to Jupiter: which, although he had not done it, he had nevertheless brought it about that he was publicly read as having done it: namely by the reading of the certificate, by which he wished to appear to have satisfied the edicts set forth against the Gospel, which was to have deserted the faith pledged to Christ.

The whole Sacrament of faith. Rigaltius says: The whole Christian faith. So Facundus of Hermiane, in book 9 to the Emperor Justinian, says that the sacrament of Christian adoption may be called adoption. So too Cyprian himself in Epistle 51 says "who had formerly been joined by the Sacrament of unanimity": that is, joined by unanimity. No word occurs more often among the ancients; and in none do they allow themselves more licence. This will be treated again presently, towards the end of this Epistle.

He seeks deceitful tricks in excuse. Rigaltius says: These tricks are condemned by Psalm 140.

Penance cut short. Rigaltius says: He calls penance cut short that whose periods the presbyter has shortened by preposterous mercy, and has not allowed to proceed as far as it ought. Even for the diseases of the body to be cured, penance is needed. An intemperate patient makes a cruel physician.

Of the confessors, whom the dignity of their confession has here still shut up in prison. Rigaltius says: It will be useful here to have noted once something about the name of confessors. In the same manner in which the authorities on law, in the question of Servitudes, speak of the confessory action, by which someone claims a servitude for himself, and the negatory, by which someone denies a servitude to the one claiming it: in the same manner the Christian Fathers, in the question of faith, call confessors those who, when interrogated about the faith or religion, boldly assert the name of Christ and affirm that they are Christians; and deniers those who faithlessly desert Christ, and conceal or deny that they are Christians. Meanwhile he seems to play with words who fetches the name of confessor from elsewhere than from the words of our Lord, Matt. 10.

The dignity of confession. Rigaltius says: That is, of a flourishing [confession]: that is, constant, robust, and noble as an example, or, as follows shortly, glorious. Which the divine condescension has raised to so great a summit of glory. This condescension this Epistle a little later has named divine indulgence.

He guards it in that from which he possesses it. Cyprian had said above of the confessors: those martyrs according to the Gospel.

Let them perform the office of advocacy. Rigaltius says: For deserving or obtaining pardon and mercy, let bitter groans and weeping perform the part of advocates.

Except that it is again of greater both danger and shame. Rigaltius says: Tertullian towards the end of the book On Penance.

Not to have sought the help of peace. Rigaltius says: That is, of pardon or indulgence.

But this whole thing in the Sacrament. Rigaltius says: For these are the signs, mysteries and sacraments of a grieving and truly penitent soul: modest petition, bashful request, necessary humility, patience that is not idle, keeping watch at the gates of the heavenly camp, which is the threshold of the Church. Tertullian, in the book On Penance, excellently describes all the sacraments of exomologesis: "Exomologesis, therefore, is a discipline for prostrating and humbling a man, enjoining a manner of life that entices mercy. It prescribes also concerning dress itself and food: to lie in sackcloth and ashes, to darken the body with squalor, to cast down the soul with sorrows, to change the things in which one has sinned by sorrowful treatment; moreover, to know only plain food and drink, to nourish prayers with fasts, to groan, to weep, to cry aloud day and night to the Lord, to fall at the feet of the presbyters, to kneel before the dear ones of God, to enjoin upon all the brethren embassies of one's own supplication." He would do more correctly who should understand by Sacrament simply the Christian law, which above is called the Sacrament of faith. Tertullian also uses this phrase in On the Soul, and elsewhere here and there. Thus the same Tertullian in the Apology, ch. 19, calls the Mosaic law the Jewish Sacrament, to which he opposes ours, that is, the Christian.

Penance having been performed. Although it was provided by the Church that no one should depart without peace, there was nevertheless required some

penance at least performed, and a frequently professed detestation of his own deeds; tears besides, and groans and weeping, which betrayed the signs of a grieving and truly penitent mind. And at last, when sick, he was to be left to the divine mercy, God Himself knowing what He does with such people, and how He weighs the scales of His judgement. In those ages the priest had not yet been appointed judge.

Most blessed and most glorious Pope. Rigault says: So the Roman clergy addresses Cyprian, bishop of Carthage.

Letter 31.

And the other confessors. Rigault says: Eusebius's History, book six, ch. 43, seems to mention these, from a certain letter of Cornelius to Fabius. He says that Novatus at the very beginning took to himself certain excellent men from among the confessors, and that among them were Maximus, a presbyter of the Roman Church, and Urban, who had twice stood forth as confessors; and also Sidonius and Celerinus, who were held very illustrious among the confessors because they had overcome every kind of torture. The title of Christian honour, confessor, is to be noted here.

Not sufficiently fed from among them for the contest with the enemy. Neither gladiators into the arena nor soldiers into battle used to go down without having eaten.

To hold the heavenly kingdom without any delay. The ancients constantly inculcate this privilege of the martyrs.

Their fathers. Pamèle says: A passage patched together from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. For these words, "for so their fathers did to the prophets", are Luke's; but in Matthew are these: "for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

For Him Who loved us. See what was said at book 3 To Quirinus, ch. 18.

To the presbyters, deacons, confessors, and the standing laity themselves. Rigault says: In Cyprian's age there were subdeacons and lectors. Are they omitted here because they are understood under the name of deacons? And why does he append to the deacons, as it were, an order of confessors, when confessors too were to be found among the presbyters and deacons? Was it enough that such confessors among the presbyters and deacons were conspicuous, and that the rest should be taken out of the laity merely for the sake of marking their virtue, so that at last the standing laity should be called that part of the Church which consists in the number of the faithful, from whom confessors, and subdeacons, and deacons, and presbyters would be made?

And again. Perhaps the other reading is more approved, which has "not once only, but also again". But in truth, because a great part of idolatrous worship was taken up with formal funeral rites and mourning, I thought nothing should be changed. So the sense would be: those who once attended idols with weeping should now at last mourn their sins.

A necessity sought of their own accord. Rigault says: A sought necessity is not a necessity, but a sought colour and pretext of necessity, a feigned and simulated necessity.

Letter 32.

Concerning the bishop's foreigners. Rigault says: He holds even foreign bishops in honour and calls them his colleagues, and by canon 19 of Arles a place for sacrificing is given [to them]: "It is resolved that a place be given them to offer." Splendid is the admonition of Avitus of Vienne to Caesarius of Arles, Ep. 9, concerning a certain prelate Maximian: "By however great a length of time or vastness of journey he may leave the dwelling of his native country, he cannot be called a foreign priest where the catholic Church can be found." In which sense it can also be said that the appellation of foreign bishop, one whom the Church obtains from elsewhere than from its own presbyterate or its own country, is not at all shameful. The foreign communion of which the canons speak was so little honourable that it counted as a penalty. But in this place those words, "concerning the bishop's foreigners", seem to denote only such as are staying outside their own diocese, namely those who had come to Carthage for the sake of some business, perhaps ecclesiastical.