Chapter VII. Argument.--Moreover, We Must Be Careful that No One Should Think that This Licence May Be Carried to Such an Extent as that He May Approach to Things Offered to Idols.
But it must be very greatly guarded against in the use of food, and we must be warned lest any should think that liberty is permitted to that degree that even he may approach to what has been offered to idols. For, as far as pertains to God's creation, every creature is clean. But when it has been offered to demons, it is polluted so long as it is offered to the idols; and as soon as this is done, it belongs no longer to God, but to the idol. And when this creature is taken for food, it nourishes the person who so takes it for the demon, not for God, by making him a fellow-guest with the idol, not with Christ, as rightly do the Jews also. [5339] And the meaning of these meats being perceived, and the counsel of the law being considered, and the kindness of the Gospel grace being known, and the rigour of temperance being observed, and the pollution of things offered to idols being rejected, we who keep the rule of truth throughout all things, ought to give thanks to God through Jesus Christ, His Son, our Lord, to whom be praise, and honour, and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
------------------------
A letter written to Cyprian by Novatian the Roman presbyter, in the name of the Roman clergy, will be found translated (Ep. xxx.) at p. 308, this volume.
[5339] Scil. abstain. [But see 1 Cor. viii. 4, etc.]
Appendix.
Acts and Records of the Famous Controversy About the Baptism of Heretics.
------------------------
A Roman Council Celebrated Under Stephen.
From the Synodal Roll.
A divine and sacred provincial synod, gathered together at Rome by Stephen, the blessed martyr and father [5340] which excommunicated those who in an African synod had, without reason, conceded that they who came to the Catholic Church from any heresy should be re-baptized.
Carthaginian Councils.
The Third Carthaginian Council Under Cyprian, on the Baptism of Infants; Held Anno Domini 253.
This document is translated at p. 353, Ep. lviii.
The Fourth Carthaginian Council Under Cyprian; Held Anno Domini 254. About Basilides and Martial, Bishops of Spain, Who Had Received Certificates.
This document is translated at p. 369, Ep. lxvii.
The Fifth Carthaginian Council Under Cyprian, the First About Baptism; Held Anno Domini 255, the Third Year of St. Stephen's Episcopate.
This will be found translated at p. 375, Ep. lxix.
The Sixth Carthaginian Council Under Cyprian, the Second About Baptism, from a Province of Africa and Numidia; Held Anno Domini 256, in the Third Year of Stephen's Episcopate.
This will be found translated at p. 378, Ep. lxxi.
The Seventh Carthaginian Council Under Cyprian, the Third About Baptism, from Three Provinces of Africa; Held Anno Domini 256, in the Third Year of Stephen's Episcopate.
This will be found translated and given in full on p. 565 of the present volume.
[5340] "Papa" [as applied to all bishops. See p. 154, supra.]
[5341] Reference is made to this council in Epistles of Cyprian, No. lxxiii., and at large in Epistles lxix. to lxxiv., pp. 375-396, supra.
Introductory Notice [5342]
to an
Anonymous Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian.
------------------------
The writer of the following treatise was undoubtedly a contemporary of Cyprian, and wrote in the early part of the reign of Valerian (254-256), during an interval of peace to the Church. This much may be collected from the fact that he names one, and only one, persecution after that of Decius--namely, that of Gallus and Volusianus--and speaks of those who had lapsed under the former, as having been stedfast and victorious in the latter. [5343] He is generally believed to have been an African, and Tillemont is only withheld from attributing the work to Cyprian himself by what he judges to be a difference of style. But although from the exordium it may be concluded that the writer was a bishop, yet, from his manifest uncertainty as to the fitting way to treat those who had lapsed, it is evident that Cyprian cannot have been the author; for that prelate, when the persecution of Gallus and Volusianus was just threatening, had already decided upon receiving to communion the penitents who had yielded to temptation under Decius.
Ceillier [5345] says that this treatise was written about the year 255, while Novatian was still alive, [5346] and when the schism of Felicissimus was all but extinct.
Erasmus first published it among the known works of Cyprian in the year 1520.
------------------------
Note.
The American editor subjoins as follows: Cyprian, and Cornelius afterward, had decided, with their councils, that the lapsed should be classed, and dealt with accordingly, as (1) Libellatici, those who had compounded with the heathen, and bought off from offering sacrifice; and (2) Sacrificati, those who had actually offered sacrifice to idols. Different degrees of discipline were awarded, but all were admitted to pardon finally.
[5342] [By Dr. Wallis, editor of vol. xiii., Edinb. series.]
[5343] Ch. (or sec.) 6, p. 659, infra.
[5344] Epistles, liii. p. 336, supra.
[5345] Hist. Gén. des Auteurs, tom. iii. ch. i. art. 4, sec. 2, note 4.
[5346] Ch. (or sec.) 1, p. 657, infra.
A Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian by an Anonymous Bishop.
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That the Hope of Pardon Should Not Be Denied to the Lapsed.
1. While I was meditating and impatiently tossing in my mind what I ought to do concerning those pitiable brethren who, wounded, not of their own will, but by the onset of a raging devil, have lived until now, that is, through a long course of time, in the endurance of their punishment; lo, there appeared opposed to me another enemy, and the adversary of his own paternal affection--the heretic Novatian--who not only, as it is signified in the Gospel, passed by the prostrate wounded man, as did the priest or the Levite, but by an ingenious and novel cruelty rather would slay the wounded man, by taking away the hope of salvation, by denying the mercy of his Father, by rejecting the repentance of his brother. Marvellous, how bitter, how harsh, how perverse are many things! But one more easily perceives the straw in another's eye than the beam in one's own. Let not the abrupt madness of that perfidious heretic move or disturb us however, beloved brethren, who, although he is placed in such great guilt of dissension and schism, and is separated from the Church, with sacrilegious temerity does not shrink from hurling back his charges upon us: for although he is now by himself made unclean, defiled with the filth of sacrilege, he contends that we are so. And although it is written that the dogs should remain without, and the apostle has taught that these same dogs must be shunned, as we read, for he says, "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers," [5347] he does not cease stirring up his frenzy with barkings, after the manner of wolves seeking the gloomy darkness, where with his brutal cruelty he may easily rend in his dark caves the sheep snatched away from the Shepherd. Certainly he declares that he and his friends whom he collects are gold. Nor do we doubt but that deserters of the Church who have become apostates could now easily be converted into gold, but it must be that gold in which the first sins of the people of Israel were designated. But the gold and silver vessels which were wrested from the Egyptians continue in the Lord's power, that is, in Christ's Church; in which house if thou hadst continued, Novatian, thou hadst perchance been also a precious vessel; but now thou neither perceivest nor complainest that thou art changed into chaff and straw.
2. Why, therefore, shouldst thou be lifted up with vain things? Thou wilt gain loss rather than profit. Why, from the very fact that thou art become poorer, believest thou thyself rich? Hear in the Apocalypse the Lord's voice rebuking thee with righteous reproaches: "Thou sayest," says He, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and blind, and poor, and naked." [5348] Let him think for certain that he possesses these riches of poverty, whoever he may be, that, forsaking the Church of Christ, with his darkened reason does not shrink from being turned to those rash leaders of schisms and authors of dissension, whom John calls antichrists, whom the Evangelist likens to chaff, whom the Lord Christ characterizes as thieves and robbers, as He Himself declares in the Gospel, saying that "he who entereth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but goeth down by some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." [5349] Moreover, in the same He also says, "All who have come are thieves and robbers." [5350] Who are such but the deserters of the faith, and the transgressors of God's Church, who strive against God's ordinance; whom the Holy Spirit rightly rebukes by the prophet, saying, "Ye have taken counsel, but not by me; and have made a confederacy, but not by my Spirit, to add sin to sin." [5351] What now can those most perverse friends of Novatian, even now the most unhappy [5352] few, reply to these things, who have broken forth to such a folly of madness as to have no reverence either for God or man? Among them, shamelessly, and without any law of ordination, the episcopate is sought after; but among us in its own Sees, and in those of the throne delivered to it by God, it is renounced. [5353] There the Truth says, "They reject me, that they may sacrifice to me; nor do they offer the holy oblations of the children of Israel, nor do they approach to offer the holy of holies, but they shall receive their ignominy in the error wherein they have erred." [5354] Let it be enough in a few words to have proved what they are. Hear, therefore, O Novatians, among whom the heavenly Scriptures are read rather than understood; well, if they are not interpolated. [5355] For your ears are closed, and your hearts darkened, seeing that ye admit no light from spiritual and saving warnings; as Isaiah says, "The servants of God are blinded." [5356] And deservedly blinded, because the desire of schismatics is not in the law; which law points out to us the one and only Church in that ark to wit, which was fashioned, by the providence of God, under Noah before the deluge, in which--to answer you quickly, O Novatian--we find that there were shut up not only clean animals, but also unclean; which ark was saved alone, with those who were in it, whereas the other things which were not found therein perished in the deluge. From that ark there were loosed two birds, a raven and a dove; and this raven truly bore the figure or type of impure men, and men who would be in perpetual darkness through the world's broad road, and of apostates who should arise, feeding on unclean things, and not turning themselves eventually to the Church; and as we read, we find that it was sent forth, and returned no more. Whoever should be found to resemble this bird, then, that is, the impure spirit, will no more be able to return to the Church, seeing that the Lord will forbid them, even if they should wish it, as He commanded Moses, saying, "Everything leprous [5357] and impure, cast abroad outside the camp." [5358] But the dove sent forth that returned, is signified by the man who does not delay, because he would have no rest for his feet. And Noah received it into the ark; and when it was sent forth again on the seventh day, received it, bearing in its mouth an olive leaf.
3. And I, beloved brethren,--as I not heedlessly meditate these things, and not in harmony with human wisdom, but as it is permitted to our minds by the condescension of the heavenly Lord, needfully and pertinently to conceive,--say that that dove signifies to us of itself a double type. Formerly, that is, from the beginning of the divine administration, it suggests its own figure, the first indeed and chief--that is, the figure of the Spirit. And by its mouth the sacrament of baptism which is provided for the salvation of the human race, and that by the heavenly plan it is celebrated in the Church only. [5359] Moreover, three times sent forth from the ark, flying about through the air over the water, it already signified the sacraments of our Church. Whence also the Lord Christ charges upon Peter, and moreover also upon the rest of His disciples, "Go ye and preach the Gospel to the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." [5360] That is, that that same Trinity which operated figuratively in Noah's days through the dove, now operates in the Church spiritually through the disciples.