On the Lapsed 9 · Sophia Scriptura

Latin text · CSEL 3.1:243

Ac multis proprius interitus satis non fuit: hortamentis mutuis in exitium populus inpulsus est, mors inuicem letali poculo propinata est. ac ne quid deesset ad criminis cumulum, infantes quoque parentum manibus inpositi uel adtracti amiserunt paruuli quod in primo statim natiuitatis exordio fuerant consecuti. nonne illi, cum iudicii dies uenerit, dicent: nos nihil fecimus nec derelicto cibo et poculo Domini ad profana contagia sponte properauimus: perdidit nos aliena perfidia, parentes sensimus parricidas: illi nobis ecclesiam matrem, illi patrem Deum negauerunt, ut dum parui et inprouidi et tanti facinoris ignari per alios ad consortium criminum iungimur, aliena fraude caperemur?

English · Claude translation

And for many their own ruin was not enough: by mutual exhortations the people were driven to destruction; death was pledged to one another in a lethal cup. And that nothing might be lacking to the heap of crime, infants too, carried in their parents' arms or dragged along, lost as little ones what they had obtained at the very first beginning of their birth. Will they not say, when the day of judgment comes: “We did nothing, nor did we leave the Lord's food and cup and hasten willingly to profane contagion. Another's faithlessness ruined us; we found our parents parricides. They denied for us the church as mother, God as Father, so that, while small and unforeseeing and ignorant of so great a crime, we were joined by others to partnership in their crimes, we were caught by another's deceit”?

About this passage

Source

CSEL 3.1:243 · Wilhelm von Hartel, ed., S. Thasci Caecili Cypriani Opera omnia, Pars 1, CSEL 3.1 (Vienna: Gerold, 1868), 235–264 · Latin text: W. von Hartel (CSEL 3.1, 1868), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in CSEL 3.1. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Latin text of CSEL 3.1; made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 (1886) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Topics

Persecution, Baptism, Eucharist

Notes

Translation notes

“What they had obtained at the very first beginning of their birth” refers to infant baptism. “The Lord's food and cup” is the Eucharist, then given also to infants.

Cite this passage

Cyprian, Laps. 9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/9/).

Plain text

Cyprian, Laps. 9 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/9/).