One Mind and One Voice

Cyprian to his brother Cornelius: greetings.

Word has reached us, dearest brother, of the splendid witness your faith and your courage have borne, and we took the honor of your confession with such joy that we count ourselves partners and companions in what you have earned and in the praise you have won. We have one church, one mind, a harmony that is not divided. So what priest does not count a fellow priest’s praises as his own? What company of brothers would not be glad at the gladness of its brothers? [d]

There is no telling how much rejoicing there was here, how much joy, when we heard how well you had done and how bravely — that you had stood out in front of the brothers there as the leader of the confession, and then that the leader’s confession had grown by the agreement of the brothers behind him. You went ahead of them into glory, and by going first you made many of them your companions in it. You were ready to confess on behalf of everyone, and so you talked a whole people into becoming a confessor. We hardly know what to praise in you first: the faith that was ready and made up on the spot, or the love of the brothers that could not be pried apart. Among you the courage of the overseer out in front has been tested in public, and the oneness of the brotherhood behind him has been put on show. With you there is one mind and one voice: the whole Roman church has confessed.

The faith the blessed apostle praised in you, dearest brothers, has blazed out. Even then, in the Spirit, he saw ahead to this praise of courage, this steadiness of strength; he testified to what you had earned by commending what you would one day do, and in praising the parents he spurs on the children. Being of one mind as you are, and as brave as you are, you have given the rest of the brothers great examples of both. You have taught them to fear God deeply and to hold on to Christ hard; that the people should stand in the danger alongside their priests; that brothers should not be cut off from brothers in a persecution; that a harmony once settled cannot be beaten; and that whatever everyone asks for at once, the God of peace grants to the peaceful. [h]

The enemy had sprung out to throw the camp of Christ into confusion by sheer terror. He was driven back and beaten with the same rush he came in with, and he found waiting for him exactly as much bravery and strength as he had brought fear and dread. He had thought he could knock God’s servants over again and rattle them the way he usually does — as if they were beginners with no experience, badly prepared and off their guard. He went for one man first, the way a wolf tries to cut a sheep out of the flock, or a hawk a dove out of the flight; a creature that is not strong enough for all of them looks to make something of a man on his own.

But when he was thrown back by their faith and by the force of the whole army together, he saw that the soldiers of Christ are awake now, standing sober and armed for the fight; that they cannot be beaten, though they can be killed; and that this is exactly what makes them unbeatable, that they are not afraid to die. He saw that they do not strike back at the men who strike them, since it is not permitted to the innocent even to kill the guilty, but hand over their lives and their blood without holding back — so that, with such spite and cruelty raging in the world, they may get away from the evil and the cruel all the sooner.

What a magnificent sight that was, under the eyes of God! What joy for his church, in the sight of Christ, that not single soldiers but the whole camp at once marched out to the battle the enemy had tried to start! Plainly they would all have come if they could have heard, because everyone who did hear came running. How many of the lapsed were put back on their feet there by a splendid confession! They stood their ground bravely, and the very pain of their repentance had made them braver for the fight. It was clear that the other time they had been caught off guard and had shaken at a fear that was new and strange to them, and that afterwards they had come back to themselves; that a true faith, and a strength gathered out of the fear of God, had steadily and firmly braced them to bear anything; and that now they are not standing there for pardon of an offense, but for the crown of their suffering.

What does Novatian say to all this, dearest brother? Is he laying his error aside yet? Or does he do what foolish men usually do, and grow angrier at the very good that comes to us — so that the more the glory of love and faith grows here, the more the madness of discord and envy breaks out fresh over there? Instead of healing his own wound, does the poor man go on cutting himself and his friends deeper: shouting with his tongue to the ruin of the brothers, throwing javelins of poisoned eloquence, harsher in the manner of a wicked worldly philosophy than peaceable in the gentleness of the Lord’s wisdom? A deserter of the church. An enemy of mercy. A destroyer of repentance. A teacher of arrogance. A corrupter of truth. A murderer of love. [m]

Does he see now who the priest of God is; which body is the church and the house of Christ; who God’s servants are, the ones the devil goes after; who the Christians are, the ones the antichrist attacks? He does not hunt the people he has already put down, and he takes no trouble to knock over the ones who are already his. The church’s adversary and enemy looks straight past those he has pulled away from her and marched off as prisoners of war; he goes on harrying the ones he can see Christ living in.

So if one of that sort should happen to be arrested, he has no business congratulating himself as though he had confessed the name. It is plain that when men like that are put to death outside the church, it is no crown for their faith; it is the penalty for their treachery. They will not live in God’s house among those who are of one mind — not men we have watched walk out of that peaceful and divine household in the madness of discord. [p]

We urge you as strongly as we can, dearest brother, by the love that binds the two of us together: the Lord in his foresight is warning us, and the sound advice of God’s mercy is telling us, that the day of our contest and our struggle is already close at hand. So let us not let up in pressing the whole people to fast, to keep watch, to pray. Let us keep at it, groaning without a break and praying over and over. These are our heavenly arms; they are what keep us on our feet and let us hold out bravely. These are the spiritual defenses and the God-given weapons that guard us. [q]

Let us remember each other, in harmony and with one mind. Let each of us always pray for the other. Let us lighten each other’s burdens and troubles by loving each other, so that if God in his kindness takes either of us out of here first, our love may go on in the Lord’s presence, and our prayers for our brothers and sisters not stop before the Father’s mercy. I hope with all my heart that you always keep well, dearest brother.