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

Letter 33.

That they were writing a letter in the name of the Church. The matter itself shows that these words, previously missing, must by all means be inserted into the text.

Having acted grandly. Rigaltius says: Magnificently, in keeping with the majesty and discipline of the Christian faith. So Martial, speaking of worldly matters, had said "a grand work" and "grand words". The old glossaries: μεγαλοεργῶς, greatly; μεγαλοεργία, magnificence. Tertullian, "a grand duty". Juvenal, "a grand poem", for a tragic one. Tertullian, "grander stories". "Grandeur of words", Cicero, On Famous Orators, where he speaks of the grandiloquence of Demosthenes. Cyprian himself below, Letter 33: "He spoke sublime words, which bore witness to the Christian faith."

They credited it to the Lord. Whatever had been done well by them they ascribed to divine grace. Or, if the reading of the Bodleian manuscript is to be admitted: they did not set deeds formerly well done against their lapse, as though God, on account of merits, had been a debtor of pardon.

Who deigned to show. Rigaltius says: In dreams. Through a sight. In a vision. Above, Letter 7.

When I recently received that letter. Pamelius says: Missing are both this letter of the lapsed and the one to which he replies; if they were extant, the form of the martyrs' certificate would now be known to us. On the contrary, it is known from Letter 23.

Letter 34.

To Gaius of Didda. Pamelius says: If one may make a guess in an uncertain matter, it seems likely to me that Didda was some village in the diocese of Carthage, and that this Gaius was the presbyter of that place, that is, the one whom we now call pastor or curate; and this because he mentions his deacon. Further, one may conjecture from this that the place was quite obscure, since no mention of it occurs elsewhere.

By offering their oblations. Rigaltius says: For the presbyters and deacons, by communicating with the lapsed untimely and prematurely, had presented their oblations, that is, their prayers and alms, a penance not yet properly sealed, works still raw, and for that reason hardly pleasing to the divine majesty. Evidently the penitents laid upon the presbyters and the deacons and all the brethren the embassies of their supplications, as Tertullian says in the book On Penance. Let what was said in the notes to Letter 5 be consulted; and on the oblation for the dead, what is found in the notes to Letter 2. Further, it may be observed that in Letter 16, where in the copies one commonly reads, "Their name is offered", Latinus Latinius advises reading, and appeals to the authority of a certain Vatican manuscript, "It is offered in their name", which reading indeed seems more fitting.

They intercede with tears. They put an obstacle before them. They hinder. In the way the tribunes interceded; that is, they hindered the matter by the power of their magistracy.

Since many still. This question concerns not only Philumenus, Fortunatus and Favorinus, but very many others who were perhaps worthy of a heavier penalty, since they did not think their place should be reclaimed even late.

Meanwhile let them refrain only from the monthly distribution. Rigaltius says: So Pamelius edited it, whereas previously one read in the printed books, "from the distribution of those measuring"; but in certain manuscripts "from the jurisdiction", in others "aditione". But in some a third reading has been fused from both, which I judge to be the true one: "Meanwhile let them refrain from the designation of monthly recipients." That is, let them not call themselves monthly recipients, let them not be held in the number of the monthly recipients, let them take nothing from the monthly distributions, of which mention will be made in Letter 39. Indeed Pamelius' conjecture is the less to be tolerated in that it most plainly conflicts with the author's meaning. For Cyprian takes care above all that nothing be decided in his absence in the case of Philumenus, Fortunatus and Favorinus, but that, with everything left intact, they be deferred until his return; Pamelius on the contrary, that meanwhile they abstain only from the monthly distribution. As for Cyprian, them from the Church he so

keeps away that he would not have them even called "monthly sharers" (mensurnantes). Of this term, as of "sportulantes", traces in books today are rare. The conjecture of Rigaltius is contradicted not only by Ep. 39 but also by the best codex, the first Bodleian, which expressly has "from the monthly distribution". Further, the conjecture of Latinius has no place either, who advises that we read "by the addition of the monthly sharers", that is, according to the custom of the other presbyters. In Tertullian's age, "each person laid down a modest coin on a monthly day." Money so collected he calls "the deposit of piety", Apology ch. 39. These fugitives seem to have been subjected to the ecclesiastical censure that is called suspension from benefice. But this case seemed to need handling more cautiously, because Cyprian himself, on account of his withdrawal, was pressed by a similar ill will.

Letter 35.

"With foreseen rashness." That is, deliberate. Tertullian in the Apology, ch. 6: "Even concerning your very gods, what your fathers had decreed with foresight, you, these same most obedient men, have rescinded."

"The Lord commanded to act." Namely what is said in Matt. 18:17: If he will not hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican.

"To the privilege of indulgence." Pamelius says: "You see here, Christian reader, the word indulgence used twice, in exactly the same meaning in which we now use it; you have the same repeated twice above in Ep. 20, and also in the following Letter."

Letter 36.

"They send them back to the bishop." Rigaltius says: "The blessed martyr judged that the sinew of discipline was broken in this, that certificates were solicited from the martyrs, although they could not grant peace, but were accustomed to send each person to his own bishops."

"You, however, brother." Rigaltius says: "They call the bishop of Carthage brother, whom at the beginning of the Letter they named Pope."

"We know the faith of the Church of Carthage." Rigaltius says: "The Romans themselves praise the faith of the Church of Carthage."

"Cast at you through a letter." That is, said insultingly against you.

"But as regards Privatus of Lambaesis." Rigaltius says: "In Ep. 55 he will say that this heretic was condemned in the colony of Lambaesis, for many and grave offences, by the sentence of ninety bishops." Let the 75th vote of the Council of Carthage be consulted.

"A matter of anxiety to us." That is, one about which we are held most anxious, namely the unity of the Church; hence, whenever it happened that heretics were deprived of communion by the decrees of councils, the neighbouring Churches were at once informed.

"For the body of the whole Church, whose members are distributed throughout the various provinces." Rigaltius says: "These words pertain to Cyprian's solicitude for all the Churches, and to that one episcopate, a part of which, he says in the book On the Unity of the Church, is held by each bishop for the whole."

Letter 37.

"The exhortations of divine condescension." In place of these Rigaltius substituted "ornaments"; but since Cyprian says that in the words of Celerinus he had heard the martyrs, it is more to the point that he should add that he perceived exhortations along with them than ornaments.

"We make prayer with many." Rigaltius says: "The sacrifices of prayers were made by the presbyter, who made them on behalf of the people, that is, presented the people's prayers to God." It is just as if he had said: by the public prayer of the Church and by our private prayer.

"Breathing now only heavenly things." Rigaltius says: "In the book On Mortality: Placed in the heavenly camp, he now breathes divine things."

How often you were asked to withdraw from prison. Rigaltius says: The formula of asking was, Save your life. Look to yourself. With these words friends and relatives who were not Christians used to warn and urge their friends or relatives not to perish without cause. So did those men, ignorant of Christian truth and of heavenly things. For discipline did indeed forbid anyone to offer himself of his own accord. For this is the part of a headlong and reckless man; but by the same discipline care is taken that no one should so love his life as to be unwilling to lay it down for the name of Christ. The proconsul himself urged Cyprian, whom the edicts of the Emperors had already ordered to be led away: The princes have ordered you to perform the ceremonies. He answered: I do not do it. The proconsul added and said: Look to yourself. Augustine, On the Passion of St Cyprian the martyr.

The winter season has passed over. I should believe that the truer reading is the one which very many manuscripts commend, the winter has passed over. So Tertullian, Against Marcion, book 1: The whole year a winter. Moreover, we have dealt with that word above.

The dreadful lodging of the prison. Prior says: Tertullian, in chapter 2 of To the Martyrs, thunders forth with the same eloquence, so as to exhort the martyrs to overcome even the perils of the prison, its squalor, its want. And there he calls the prison a place of custody.

To the embrace and kiss of the Lord. Rigaltius says: For the spreading of the Christian name, amid so many and such fierce storms of persecution, which not seldom overthrew the people, and even those set over the people to rule it, the bishop had to labour by every means to have a people and clergy most tenacious of a faith devoted to Christ. Since this could be accomplished by no counsel better than by setting before the confessors of Christ a most immediate felicity, it was resolved, by the prerogative of martyrdom, that all delay in obtaining it could be removed, lest perhaps the hope of obtaining it, deferred to the time of the judgement or of the resurrection, should make the soldiers less vigorous. Therefore martyrs were sent straight from the contest to the crown, that is, to the embrace and kiss of the Lord. Meanwhile, moreover, even before the consummation of martyrdom, it was granted to the best confessors that they might obtain peace for the lapsed, which according to the discipline of the Church they could have hoped for only through the most grievous austerities of a long time. In this Letter, therefore, Cyprian shows the confessors the joys of eternal felicity as most ready at hand, so that by their example he may rouse and kindle the rest to constancy in martyrdom. Of the kiss of the Lord we have treated above. Rigaltius explains this matter as if a most immediate felicity had been set before the confessors of Christ by the counsel and contrivance of the Bishops. They drew this opinion from the sacred Scriptures: Luke 23:43; Phil. 1:23; Rev. 14:14; and elsewhere here and there.

That utterance, made illustrious by the purification of confession. Rigaltius says: I am a Christian. Tertullian, Apology, to the tyrant governor: The man cries out: I am a Christian, which is what he says; you wish to hear what is not. Cyprian speaks of the purification of confession because by the baptism of martyrdom, or the washing of blood shed for Christ, all sins are purged. He calls the utterance illustrious, just as Celerinus, in his Letter to Lucian, speaks of a flowery confession. That is, purple, bloody.

Founded upon the rock with sturdy mass. Rigaltius says: So in Letter 4, grave men, and once for all founded upon the rock with solid stability.

Letter 38.

In clerical ordinations. Rigaltius says: To ordain, to make men officers, in Lampridius: Alexander Severus, whenever he wished either to give governors to the provinces or to ordain procurators or accountants, used to publish their names, and said that it was a grievous thing that, when the Christians did this in proclaiming the priests who are to be ordained, it should not be done in the case of the governors of provinces.

To weigh by common counsel. Rigaltius says: Above: What had long since been begun by the common counsel of all of us has, under pressure of necessity, been carried forward.

Sublime words. Rigaltius says: Just as Persius spoke of the grand words of Cato about to die. Sublime words, which have sublimely confessed Christ. Such as are those of the Roman martyr in Prudentius.

To come to the pulpit after the scaffold. Rigaltius says,

That Roman martyr: Hear, all of you, I cry from afar, I proclaim, I send forth my voice from the catasta, raised up higher. Catasta, a scaffold generally of wood, is a Roman word, says Casaubon, but of Greek, or rather Sicilian, origin, with reference to that line of Persius, lest another be more outstanding at having patted plump Cappadocians on the hard catasta. Martial said tabulata. Martyrs set on an iron catasta were there conspicuous to the multitude of the gentiles. Hence it was most glorious for Aurelius to have come from that catasta, where he had most bravely confessed Christ, to a similar structure in the Church, so as to make the divine readings resound in the sight of the brethren. Lectors in the Church recited the sacred readings from the pulpit, or from the ambo. Hence also that phrase in the ecclesiastical writers, he is set on the ambo, on the display-stand. The following letter will say that glorious faces, namely those of the confessors, are set in a higher place, while still in the order of lectors.

And since joy always hastens. Rigaltius says, What follows from here is most corrupt in Pamelius's edition. We have emended it from the Verona and Corbie manuscripts: And since joy always hastens, and gladness cannot bear delays, on the Lord's day he read for us in the meantime, that is, he made an auspicious beginning of peace, while he dedicates his reading. This, then, is Cyprian's meaning: Our Aurelius, ordained lector by us, ought to have begun that office of his at the Church. But since he has arrived here, returned so gloriously from martyrdom, he certainly had to be received by us with the greatest gladness: And since joy always hastens, and gladness cannot bear delays, in the meantime, until he presents himself to you in peace, God willing, he will read here among us on the Lord's days. That is, he will do among us what he would have had to do at the Church if he were enjoying peace, namely once the furies of the persecutions had been calmed. And he made an auspicious beginning of the Church's most longed-for peace among us, while among us he dedicated to the Church that new office of reading of his.

May He soon restore to His people their priest also unharmed. Rigaltius says, That is, me, Cyprian, your bishop and priest. Modestly he calls himself only priest. But in Cyprian's manner of speaking, the sacerdos is the bishop.

Letter 39.

Granting leave to the good confessors. Rigaltius says, Leave to remain still for a while in the world, as above: having received leave after their glory, to flourish in the praise of the Church. For this purpose withdrawn by the Lord from the midst of death, as below, in this letter.

We refer it to you. In the sense in which one is said to refer a matter to the senate: namely, that what has been done may be held ratified by your vote; at least as regards the more profitable exercise of his office.

And when he hesitated to consent. Rigaltius says, Cyprian in exile writes to the presbyters, deacons and people of his Church that, together with his colleagues who happened to be present at the time, he has ordained as lector Celerinus, renowned for many virtues. When Celerinus, out of his modesty and sense of shame, was declining and hesitating over the office offered him, the Church appeared to him in his sleep to compel him, so that he should no longer delay to comply with Cyprian's persuasion. Cyprian therefore says that by his own persuasion he had adopted Celerinus into the clergy, but that the Church, whose authority is greater, had compelled and constrained him. Here too Cyprian's skill should be noted, in using the force of visions so gently.

Their feet bound in the stocks. Priorius says, I remember having noted at some point that the nervus was an instrument of the torturers with which they bound the feet and legs of Christians; it was of wood and divided by many holes, so that the limbs might be more easily racked, with such force indeed that they were very often dislocated. Plutarch, On the God of Socrates: bound as to the feet in the wood, with feet bound in the stocks.

Sacrifices always for them. Rigaltius says, The Greeks celebrated panegyrics in honour of brave men who had removed a tyrant or had otherwise fought successfully for their country, so that by this example they might rouse the minds of their people to splendid deeds. Christians, in anniversary rites, offer praises to God, commemorating the names of those who for the faith pledged to Christ bravely underwent martyrdom. See the Notes on Letter 2. Perhaps what Tertullian has in On the Soldier's Crown bears on this.