Cyprian of Carthage, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The Church may receive them. Hope of communion and peace is not to be wholly denied to the lapsed, lest they fail still more through despair, and, with the Church closed to them, live as heathens. Nor is the censure of the Gospel to be relaxed, so that they rush rashly to communion. The Scriptures were brought forward on both sides, and we balanced the decision with wholesome moderation: repentance is to be long protracted, the paternal clemency sorrowfully besought, and the case, the wishes and the necessities of each person examined.1
Mercy is not a thing I invent. The Lord rebukes and spares in the same breath; he threatens that he may correct, and corrects that he may preserve. He who wills that none should perish desires that sinners repent and by repentance return to life.2 As to who decides, the answer is the bishops, assembled in council, and not any single party. When the presbyters pressed me, I put off deciding until quiet should be granted and the bishops could gather in one place, so that counsel, compared and weighed among all, might determine what was to be done.
Whoever, before that council and before the opinion fixed by the advice of all, rashly communicates with the lapsed is himself to be withheld from communion.3 I wrote the same to the clergy at Rome, who then had no bishop, and to the confessors, and they answered that the peace of the Church must first be kept, and that the case of the lapsed be dealt with in an assembly of bishop, presbyters, deacons and confessors, together with the laity who stood fast.4
The martyrs' letters I honour, and I do not cast them aside. The blessed martyrs wrote to me about certain persons, asking that their wishes be examined, and I answered that when peace is given us by the Lord, and we begin to return to the Church, the wishes of each shall be looked into in your presence and with your judgment.5 I would examine them in company with many of my co-bishops, called together according to the Lord's discipline, and in the presence of the confessors.6
A confessor's letter is a petition, and the examination of it belongs to the bishops. It does not bind them. Nor does the hasty peace profit the lapsed. Certain presbyters, forgetting the Gospel and not reserving to the bishop the honour of his priesthood, began to communicate with them and to give them the eucharist out of due course. If even lesser sins must run their appointed time of penitence, and none comes to communion until the hands of the bishop and clergy are laid upon him, how much more in these gravest of sins must we proceed with caution and moderation.7
Let no one pluck the unripe fruit, nor put on a rent tunic before he has seen it mended by a skilful workman.8 The rigorists err from the other side, and I give them no more ground than the hasty. I wonder that some are so obstinate as to think repentance is not to be granted to the lapsed, or pardon denied to the penitent, when the Lord says, "Remember whence thou art fallen, and repent." Those who bar the door still did not tear themselves from the assembly of their co-bishops.9
Where the bond of concord stands, every bishop disposes his own acts and will give account of them to the Lord.10 What I reproach in Novatian's party is that they raised a conventicle outside the Church and set up a false bishop against the bishops, taking from the lapsed all hope of satisfaction.11 Where the severity of some splits the unity of the bishops, it is no longer severity but schism.
Those who sacrificed or bought certificates denied Christ and are outside the communion. A martyr's letter cannot buy them back, because the martyrs pray and only God forgives, and a peace given in haste is a second persecution that keeps them from the repentance that could save them. They are to do penance with tears, fasting and alms, under the bishop, and the bishops in council decide when they are received: the certified after penance, the sacrificers at death, and all the penitent when a new battle calls them. Novatian, who refuses them peace forever, errs as much as those who give it free.12131415
neither should hope of communion and peace be wholly denied to the lapsed, lest they should fail still more through desperation, and, because the Church was closed to them, should, like the world, live as heathens; nor yet, on the other hand, should the censure of the Gospel be relaxedThe Epistles
assuredly He who wills that none should perish, desires that sinners should repent, and by repentance should return again to life.The Epistles
if any one, before our council, and before the opinion decided upon by the advice of all, should rashly wish to communicate with the lapsed, he himself should be withheld from communion.The Epistles
the peace of the Church must first be maintained; then, that an assembly for counsel being gathered together, with bishop, presbyters, deacons, and confessors, as well as with the laity who stand fast, we should deal with the case of the lapsed.The Epistles
The blessed martyrs have written to me about certain persons, requesting that their wishes may be examined into. When, as soon as peace is given to us all by the Lord, we shall begin to return to the Church, then the wishes of each one shall be looked into in your presence, and with your judgment.The Epistles
I, with many of my co-bishops, being called together according to the Lord's discipline, and in the presence of the confessors, and with your opinion also, may be able to examine the letters and the wishes of the blessed martyrs.The Epistles
nor reserving to the bishop the honour of his priesthood and of his dignity, have already begun to communicate with the lapsed... how much more ought all such matters as these to be observed with caution and moderation, according to the discipline of the Lord, in these gravest and extremest sins!The Epistles
Let no one pluck the unripe fruit at a time as yet premature... Let none be in haste to accept and to put on a rent tunic, unless he has seen it mended by a skilful workmanThe Epistles
I wonder that some are so obstinate as to think that repentance is not to be granted to the lapsed, or to suppose that pardon is to be denied to the penitent, when it is written, 'Remember whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works,'The Epistles
Still they did not withdraw from the assembly of their co-bishops, nor break the unity of the Catholic Church by the persistency of their severity or censure... every bishop disposes and directs his own acts, and will have to give an account of his purposes to the Lord.The Epistles
that they had taken away from the lapsed the hope of satisfaction and repentance... that they had set up outside for themselves--outside the Church, and opposed to the Church, a conventicle of their abandoned factionThe Epistles
For although previously you had settled your opinion and consent firmly, you desired in these letters that I should write to you once more what heresy Novatian had introduced, or on what grounds Cornelius holds communion with Trophimus and the sacrificers.The Epistles
But the evil ought not to stand in the way of the good, but rather the evil ought to be assisted by the good. Neither is peace, therefore, to be denied to those who are about to endure martyrdom, because there are some who will refuse it, since for this purpose peace should be granted to all who are about to enter upon the warfare, that through our ignorance he may not be the first one to be passed over, who in the…The Epistles
For neither can they praise us who depart from us, nor ought we to expect to please them, who, while they displease us, and revolt against the Church, violently persist in soliciting brethren away from the Church. Wherefore, dearest brethren, do not with facility either hear or believe whatever is currently rumoured against Cornelius and about me. 13.The Epistles
But if certain lapsed ones claim to be the Church, and if the Church be among them and in them, what is left but for us to ask of these very persons that they would deign to admit us into the Church?The Epistles
The middle course that created the Church's penitential discipline, attacked in his lifetime from both sides, and the work for which he is remembered as the bishop before he is remembered as the martyr.