On the Lapsed 6
Summary: Cyprian lists the sins that provoked the persecution: greed, vanity, fraud, marriage with unbelievers, perjury, quarreling, and bishops who neglected their people for business and usury.
Latin text · CSEL 3.1:240–241
Studebant augendo patrimonio singuli et obliti quid credentes aut sub apostolis ante fecissent aut semper facere deberent insatiabili cupiditatis ardore ampliandis facultatibus incubabant. non in sacerdotibus religio deuota, non in ministeriis fides integra, non in operibus misericordia, non in moribus disciplina. corrupta barba in uiris, in feminis forma fucata: adulterati post Dei manus oculi, capilli mendacio colorati. ad decipienda corda simplicum callidae fraudes, circumueniendis fratribus subdolae uoluntates. iungere cum infidelibus uinculum matrimonii, prostituere gentilibus membra Christi. non iurare tantum temere sed adhuc et peierare, praepositos superbo tumore contemnere, uenenato sibi ore maledicere, odiis pertinacibus inuicem dissidere. episcopi plurimi quos et hortamento esse oportet ceteris et exemplo diuina procuratione contempta procuratores regum saecularium fieri, derelicta cathedra, plebe deserta per alienas prouincias oberrantes negotiationis quaestuosae nundinas aucupari. esurientibus in ecclesia fratribus habere argentum largiter uelle, fundos insidiosis fraudibus rapere, usuris multiplicantibus faenus augere. quid non perpeti tales pro peccatis eiusmodi mereremur, cum iam pridem praemonuerit ac dixerit censura diuina: si dereliquerint legem meam et in iudiciis meis non ambulauerint, si iustificationes meas profanauerint et praecepta mea non obseruauerint, uisitabo in uirga facinora eorum et in flagellis delicta eorum.
English · Claude translation
Each was intent on increasing his property; and, forgetting what believers had done before under the apostles or what they ought always to do, they brooded with an insatiable ardor of greed on enlarging their means. There was no devout religion in the priests, no sound faith in the ministers, no mercy in works, no discipline in morals. In men, beards defaced; in women, beauty painted; eyes adulterated after God's hands had made them; hair colored with a lie. Crafty frauds to deceive the hearts of the simple, deceitful designs to cheat brothers. Joining the bond of marriage with unbelievers, prostituting the members of Christ to Gentiles. Not only swearing rashly but even perjuring themselves; despising those set over them with proud arrogance; cursing one another with poisonous mouths; quarreling with one another in stubborn hatreds. Very many bishops, who ought to be an encouragement and example to the rest, despising their divine stewardship, became stewards of worldly kings; leaving their chair, deserting their people, wandering through other provinces, they hunted the markets for profitable trade. While brothers in the church went hungry, they wanted to have money in abundance, to seize estates by treacherous frauds, to increase their gains by multiplying interest. What should we not deserve to suffer for sins of this kind, when the divine censure had long ago warned us and said, “If they forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, if they profane my statutes and do not keep my precepts, I will visit their crimes with the rod and their sins with scourges”?
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “Priests” (sacerdotes) refers in Cyprian chiefly to bishops; “ministers” to deacons and other clergy. The quotation is Ps 89:30–32 (88:31–33 LXX). The allusions are 2 Cor 6:14 and 1 Cor 6:15.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (dropped letter in the digital text): quaetuosae → quaestuosae.
Cite this passage
Cyprian, Laps. 6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/6/).
Plain text
Cyprian, Laps. 6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/6/).
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