Cyprian of Carthage, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The two questions are one, and I answer them together as I did in the treatise. The Church is one as God is one: a single head, a single source, and one mother, fruitful and abundant, from whose womb we are born, by whose milk we are nourished, by whose spirit we are animated.1 The spouse of Christ cannot be an adulteress. She knows one home and keeps one couch undefiled, and whoever is separated from her and joined to an adulteress is cut off from the promises of the Church.
He cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother. If anyone could escape who was outside Noah's ark, then he may escape who is outside the Church.1 Notice whom this is aimed at. It does not concern the pagan who never heard the Gospel, whom I invite while there is time. It concerns men who knew the Church and made another altar against her, who forge false priesthoods and sacrilegious sacrifices.
If the Lord's sentence counts a mere despiser of the Church as a heathen and a publican, much more must rebels and enemies be so counted.2 The Holy Spirit says in the Song of Songs that the Church is a garden enclosed and a fountain sealed. He who stands outside has no access to the spring and can neither drink from it nor be sealed.2 Peter set forth the same thing when he made the one ark of Noah the type of the one Church and said that baptism saves in that likeness.2
Now to the man who dies for Christ outside her. I have said it as plainly as I could. Even if such men were slain in confession of the Name, the stain is not washed away by blood. The inexpiable and grave fault of discord is not purged even by suffering.3 He cannot be a martyr who is not in the Church, and he cannot attain the kingdom who forsakes that which shall reign there.
Christ gave us peace and bade us be of one mind. Paul says that though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profits me nothing.3 Charity never faileth, because she will endure forever in the unity of a brotherhood linked to herself. He who has not charity has not God.3 Though such men burn in flames or are thrown to the beasts, that will not be the crown of faith but the punishment of perfidy.
Such a one may be slain; crowned he cannot be.3 The reason is that the schismatic does not abandon a society. He tears the robe of Christ, which was woven throughout and not divided even by the soldiers who possessed it. By that sign the Lord declared the unity of the Church.4 Who is so insane with the madness of discord as to believe that God's unity can be divided?
There is one flock and one shepherd. The flesh of the Lamb must be eaten in one house and not sent abroad, and the household of Rahab was saved only within her door: whoever went out of it, his blood was upon his own head.4 There is no other home for believers than the one Church.4 The one who leaves is not cast out by the bishop. He deserts of his own accord and is condemned by himself, guilty of his own ruin.5 Even he who has obtained grace within the Church and then departs carries his blood upon himself.5
The Church is one as God is one and Christ is one: a mother from whose womb we are born, an ark outside which no one escaped the flood, a robe woven from the top that cannot be torn.6 Whoever separates himself from her, however sound his creed and however brave his death, is a stranger, profane and an enemy; he may be killed for Christ, but he cannot be crowned, because the sin of breaking the Church is not washed away even by blood. There is no salvation out of the Church, and the Church is the people united to its bishop.78910
she is one mother, plentiful in the results of fruitfulness: from her womb we are born, by her milk we are nourished, by her spirit we are animated.Treatise I, On the Unity of the Church
if the spouse of Christ, which is the Church, is a garden enclosed; a thing that is closed up cannot lie open to strangers and profane persons. And if it is a fountain sealed, he who, being placed without has no access to the spring, can neither drink thence nor be sealed.The Epistles
Even if such men were slain in confession of the Name, that stain is not even washed away by blood: the inexpiable and grave fault of discord is not even purged by suffering. He cannot be a martyr who is not in the Church.Treatise I, On the Unity of the Church
His robe, woven and united throughout, is not divided by those who possess it; undivided, united, connected, it shows the coherent concord of our people who put on Christ. By the sacrament and sign of His garment, He has declared the unity of the Church.Treatise I, On the Unity of the Church
that man will be guilty of his own ruin, who, not being cast out by the bishop, but of his own accord deserting from the Church is by heretical presumption condemned of himself.The Epistles
Her fruitful abundance spreads her branches over the whole world. She broadly expands her rivers, liberally flowing, yet her head is one, her source one; and she is one mother, plentiful in the results of fruitfulness: from her womb we are born, by her milk we are nourished, by her spirit we are animated. 6. The spouse of Christ cannot be adulterous; she is uncorrupted and pure.Treatise I, On the Unity of the Church
She is the only one of her mother, elect of her that bare her." Does he who does not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the faith?Treatise I, On the Unity of the Church
Illuminated by the true light of the Gospel, shone upon with the Lord's pure and white brightness, they are as praiseworthy in maintaining the peace of Christ, as they have been victorious in their combat with the devil. 23.Treatise I, On the Unity of the Church
For that man will be guilty of his own ruin, who, not being cast out by the bishop, but of his own accord deserting from the Church is by heretical presumption condemned of himself. 5.The Epistles
"But if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." Now if they who despise the Church are counted heathens and publicans, much more certainly is it necessary that rebels and enemies, who forge false altars, and lawless priesthoods, and sacrilegious sacrifices, and corrupted names, should be counted among heathens and publicans; since they who sin less, and are only…The Epistles
The most quoted sentence of his work and the hardest; the root of a Western formula that later centuries narrowed, softened and turned against the very bishops who held it.