Cyprian of Carthage, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The Lord commanded us in persecution to depart and to flee, and He both taught that this should be done and did it Himself. The crown is given by the condescension of God and cannot be received until the hour comes for accepting it. Whoever abides in Christ and departs for a while does not deny his faith; he waits for the time. The one who ought to be censured is the man who refused to depart and stayed to deny.1
So I do not take the withdrawal as desertion. A man who leaves his estate and withdraws because he would not deny, and who would certainly have confessed had he been apprehended, stands with the confessors. In On the Lapsed I set him second to the one who overcame the judge of this world, whose hour found him already ripe. The first has the readier fortitude, the second the safer solicitude, and God alone is judge of them both.2
As to awaiting the crown rather than seizing it, the crown is not in our power but in God's condescension. I said this to those who feared that the plague would rob them of martyrdom: you cannot say you have lost what you do not know whether you would have deserved to receive.3 God the searcher of heart and reins sees the virtue that was ready in you and rewards it, and it is one thing for the spirit to be wanting for martyrdom, another for martyrdom to have been wanting for the spirit.
God does not ask our blood but our faith.3 Hence what I laid down for my own people: keep peace and tranquillity, let none stir up a tumult or offer himself to the Gentiles. But when a man is apprehended and delivered up, he must speak, for the Lord abiding in him speaks in that hour, who willed that we should rather confess than merely profess.4
The rule does not change with the man's rank. When the gaolers were sent to bring me to Utica, I withdrew from my gardens for a time, since a bishop ought to confess the Lord in the city where he presides, and the whole people should be glorified by the confession of their prelate in their presence. Whatever the confessor-bishop speaks in that moment, he speaks in the mouth of all.4
I did not hide in order to escape the sword. I hid so that the confession might be made in Carthage and not at Utica. Where I have been preserved, the dignity of confession is not abridged in the bishop. The three youths came safe from the furnace and Daniel from the lions, and martyrdoms deferred do not diminish the merits of confession; they show forth the greatness of divine protection.5
And when the Lord brings such a priest back to the altar, he exhorts the people to take up the arms of confession by his deeds, and not by his words alone.5
The Lord commanded that when we are persecuted in one city we should flee to another.6 A bishop who withdraws so that his presence will not inflame the mob, and governs his church by letters from hiding, has not denied Christ but kept the flock; whoever leaves his property and withdraws rather than deny is already a confessor. The crown is not to be seized: no one should offer himself to the pagans, but when he is taken he must confess, because the Lord speaks in him then.7 A bishop should confess in his own city, before his own people.8910
And therefore the Lord commanded us in the persecution to depart and to flee; and both taught that this should be done, and Himself did it. For as the crown is given of the condescension of God, and cannot be received unless the hour comes for accepting it, whosoever abiding in Christ departs for a while does not deny his faith, but waits for the time; but he who has fallen, after refusing to depart, remained to deny it.Treatise III, On the Lapsed
The former overcomes the judge of this world; the latter, content with God as its judge, keeps a pure conscience in integrity of heart. In the former case there is a readier fortitude; in the latter, solicitude is more secure.Treatise III, On the Lapsed
martyrdom is not in your power, but in the condescension of God; neither can you say that you have lost what you do not know whether you would deserve to receive.... It is one thing for the spirit to be wanting for martyrdom, and another for martyrdom to have been wanting for the spirit.Treatise VII, On the Mortality
it is fit for a bishop, in that city in which he presides over the Church of the Lord, there to confess the Lord, and that the whole people should be glorified by the confession of their prelate in their presence. For whatever, in that moment of confession, the confessor-bishop speaks, he speaks in the mouth of all, by inspiration of God.The Epistles
Among confessors of Christ, martyrdoms deferred do not diminish the merits of confession, but show forth the greatness of divine protection.... In your return the dignity of his confession has not been abridged in the bishop, but the priestly authority has rather increased.The Epistles
And therefore the Lord commanded us in the persecution to depart and to flee; and both taught that this should be done, and Himself did it.Treatise III, On the Lapsed
And therefore it is written, "Hold fast that which thou hast, lest another take thy crown." But assuredly the Lord would not threaten that the crown of righteousness might be taken away, were it not that, when righteousness departs, the crown must also depart. 21.Treatise I, On the Unity of the Church
I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell in the Lord. Epistle LXXXII. To the Clergy and People Concerning His Retirement, a Little Before His Martyrdom. 1. Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons, and all the people, greeting.The Epistles
We have found our parents our murderers; they have denied to us the Church as a Mother; they have denied God as a Father: so that, while we were little, and unforeseeing, and unconscious of such a crime, we were associated by others to the partnership of wickedness, and we were snared by the deceit of others?" 10. Nor is there, alas, any just and weighty reason which excuses such a crime.Treatise III, On the Lapsed
If, while we think and meditate on these things, there should come to us a day of persecution, the soldier of Christ instructed in His precepts and warnings is not fearful for the battle, but is prepared for the crown. I bid you, dearest brethren, ever heartily farewell. Epistle LVI. To Cornelius in Exile, Concerning His Confession. 1. Cyprian to Cornelius his brother, greeting.The Epistles
The act his enemies used against him for eight years and his death in 258 answered; the point on which he departs most plainly from Tertullian.