An Insolent Deacon

Cyprian to his brother Rogatianus: greetings. [a]

My colleagues who were with me and I were deeply and painfully distressed, dearest brother, when we read your letter — the one in which you complained about your deacon: that he had forgotten your standing as a priest, that he had lost sight of his own office and service, and that he had provoked you with insults and injuries. You for your part acted worthily, and with the humility you always show us, in bringing your complaint about him to us instead — even though you had the power to punish him on the spot, by the full force of the overseer’s office and the authority of your chair. You could have been sure that all of us, your colleagues, would have been satisfied with whatever you did by your priestly power against an insolent deacon. For against men of this kind you have God’s own commands.

The Lord God says in Deuteronomy: “And the man who acts presumptuously and will not listen to the priest or to the judge, whoever he may be in those days — that man will die; and all the people, when they hear of it, will be afraid, and will act irreverently no more.” And so that we may know that this voice of God went out with his true and highest majesty, to honor his priests and to avenge them: when three of the ministers — Korah, Dathan, and Abiram — dared to be proud, and to lift their necks against Aaron the priest, and to make themselves the equals of the priest set over them, the earth opened and swallowed them down, and they paid at once for their sacrilegious daring. And not they alone. Two hundred and fifty others who had joined them in their boldness were burned up by a fire that broke out from the Lord — proof that God’s priests are avenged by the God who makes priests.

In the book of Kings too, when Samuel the priest was despised by the Jewish people on account of his age — as you are now — the Lord cried out in anger and said: “They have not rejected you; they have rejected me.” And to avenge it he set Saul over them as king, who wore them down with heavy injuries, trampled the people, and pressed their pride flat with every kind of insult and penalty — so that the priest they had despised might be avenged by God’s own vengeance on a proud people.

Solomon too, settled in the Holy Spirit, gives witness and teaches what priestly authority and power are. He says: “Fear the Lord with all your soul, and reverence his priests.” And again: “Honor God with all your soul, and honor his priests.”

With those instructions in mind, the blessed apostle Paul — in the passage we read in the Acts of the Apostles — when it was said to him, “Is this how you insult God’s high priest?” answered and said: “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest; for it is written, You shall not speak evil of the ruler of your people.”

And our Lord Jesus Christ himself — our King and Judge and God — kept up the honor due to priests and high priests right down to the very day of his suffering, even though they kept neither the fear of God nor any acknowledgment of Christ. When he had cleansed the man with leprosy he said to him, “Go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift.” With that same humility which taught us also to be humble, he still called the man a priest when he knew he was sacrilegious.

So too under the very sting of his suffering. He had taken a blow, and it was said to him, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” He said nothing insulting against the person of the high priest. He only maintained his own innocence: “If I have spoken wrongly, give evidence of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike me?” He did all of it humbly and patiently, so that we might have a pattern of humility and patience. By showing himself what he was toward false priests, he taught that true priests are to be honored rightly and fully.

But deacons ought to remember that the Lord chose apostles — that is, overseers and men set over the church — while the apostles, after the Lord went up into heaven, appointed deacons for themselves as servants of their own office and of the church. But if we may dare anything against God, who makes overseers, then deacons may dare against us too, by whom they are made. So the deacon you write about ought to repent of his boldness, acknowledge the honor that belongs to the priest, and give full and humble satisfaction to the overseer set over him.

For this is where heretics begin, and this is the source and the whole effort of ill-minded schismatics: to please themselves, and with swollen arrogance to look down on the man set over them. This is how they leave the church. This is how an unholy altar is set up outside. This is how they rebel against the peace of Christ and against God’s appointing and God’s unity.

But if he goes on harassing and provoking you with his insults, you must use the power of your office against him: either strip him of his rank or cut him off from the church. If the apostle Paul, writing to Timothy, said, “Let no one look down on your youth,” how much more ought it to be said to you by your colleagues, “Let no one look down on your age”? And since you write that someone has attached himself to this same deacon of yours and shares in his pride and boldness, you may check him too, or cut him off — and any others who show themselves to be of the same mind and act against God’s priest. Unless, as we urge and advise, they would rather see that they have sinned, make amends, and let us keep to our own purpose. For what we ask and want is to overcome the reproaches and injuries of individual men by kindness and patience, rather than to punish them by our priestly power.

I wish you always well, dearest brother, from my heart. Farewell.