Claiming Peace as Already Given

Cyprian to the elders and deacons staying at Rome, my brothers: greetings. [a]

Both the love we share and the case itself require, dearest brothers, that I keep nothing back from you of what is being done here among us, so that we may hold to one common plan for the good governing of the church.

For after I wrote you the letter I sent by Saturus the reader and Optatus the sub-deacon, certain of the lapsed banded together and, in their recklessness, wrote to me — men who refuse to repent and to make amends to God. They did not ask that peace be given them. They claimed it as already given, on the ground that Paulus, they say, has given peace to everyone. You will read this in their own letter, of which I have sent you a copy, along with the short answer I made them in the meantime.

And so that you may know as well what sort of letter I wrote to the clergy afterward, I have sent you a copy of that too.

But if in the end their recklessness is not held in check, either by my letters or by yours, and will not give way to sound advice, then I will take the steps the Lord has commanded to be taken in his Gospel.

I wish you always well, dearest brothers, with all my heart. Farewell.