An Account of My Withdrawal

Cyprian to his brothers the elders and deacons assembled at Rome: greetings. [a]

I have learned, dearly loved brothers, that what I have done and am still doing has been reported to you in a way that was less than plain and less than truthful. So I thought it necessary to write you this letter, and in it to give you an account of what I have done, of my discipline, and of my diligence.

As the Lord’s commands teach, the moment the first violence of the trouble broke out and the crowd demanded me again and again with violent shouting, I withdrew for a time. I was thinking less of my own safety than of the public peace of the brothers, so that my presence, pressed too boldly, would not stir up further the tumult that had already begun. Yet though I was absent in body, I was not absent in spirit, or in what I did, or in the advice I gave. As far as my poor abilities allowed, I failed my brothers in no help that my counsel could give them, and I gave it according to the Lord’s instructions.

What I did is declared to you by these thirteen letters, sent out at different times, which I have forwarded to you. Nothing was left out of them, so far as the law of faith and the fear of God and the Lord’s help let my poor abilities attempt it: counsel to the clergy, encouragement to the confessors, rebuke where rebuke was needed to the exiles, and my appeals and persuasions to the whole brotherhood, that they should beg for the mercy of God. Afterward, when the tortures came, my words reached both the brothers who were being tortured and those who were still only in prison waiting for torture, to strengthen them and to comfort them.

Then I found that men who had defiled their hands and mouths by touching what was sacrificed, and men who had stained their consciences no less by taking out wicked certificates, were everywhere pressing the martyrs for favors and corrupting the confessors with insistent and excessive requests. Certificates were being handed out by the thousand every day, with no sorting of cases and no examination of the men themselves — against the law of the Gospel. So I wrote letters recalling the martyrs and confessors, as far as my advice could recall them, to the Lord’s commands.

Toward the elders and deacons as well, the force of the priestly office was not lacking. Some of them, with too little regard for discipline and in reckless haste, had already begun to admit the lapsed to communion, and my intervention held them back. Among the people, too, I have done what I could to quiet their minds, and I have taught them to keep the church’s discipline.

Later some of the lapsed — on their own initiative, or because somebody put them up to it — broke out with a bold demand, as though they meant to extort by sheer force the peace that the martyrs and confessors had promised them. About this too I wrote twice to the clergy, and I ordered the letter to be read to them. To take the edge off their violence somehow for the time being, I allowed this: if anyone who had received a certificate from the martyrs was leaving this life, then, once he had made his confession and had hands laid on him for repentance, he should be sent to the Lord with the peace the martyrs had promised him.

I was not laying down a law in this, or rashly setting myself up as the author of the ruling. It seemed right both that the martyrs should be honored and that the fury of men who were eager to throw everything into confusion should be checked. Besides, I had read the letter you recently wrote here to my clergy by Crementius the subdeacon, saying that help should be given to any who, after their lapse, were struck with illness and asked in repentance for communion. I judged it best to stand by your judgment, so that our proceedings — which ought to be united and to agree in everything — should not differ at any point.

As for the rest of the cases, even where the men had received certificates from the martyrs, I ordered them all to be put off and held over until I could be present myself. Then, when the Lord has given us peace and a number of overseers have begun to gather in one place, we will be able to settle and correct everything, with the benefit of your advice as well. Dearly loved brothers, I wish you well always, with all my heart.