In the middle of the third century, Cyprian [Jerom, vol. iv. p. 342.], a
man of substance and a rhetorician of Carthage, was converted to
Christianity. He was then fifty years of age; and his learning, virtues,
and devotedness to the cause which he had espoused, very soon raised him
to the dignity, the responsibility, and, in those days, the great
danger, of the Episcopate. (Cyprian is said to have been converted about
A.D. 246, to have been consecrated A.D. 248, and to have suffered
martyrdom A.D. 258.) Many of his writings of undoubted genuineness are
preserved, and they have been appealed to in every age as the works of a
faithful son of the Catholic Church. On the subject of prayer he has
written very powerfully and affectingly; but I find no expression which
can by possibility imply that he practised or countenanced the
invocation of saints and angels. I have carefully examined every
sentence alleged by its most strenuous defenders, and I cannot extract
from them one single grain of evidence which can bear the test of
inquiry. Even did the passages quoted require to be taken in the sense
affixed to them {163} by those advocates, they prove nothing; they do
not bear even remotely upon the subject, whilst I am persuaded that to
every unprejudiced mind a meaning will appear to have been attached to
them which the author did not intend to convey.
The first quotation to which our attention is called is from the close
of his treatise De Habitu Virginum, which contains some very edifying
reflections. In the last clause of that treatise the advocates for the
invocation of saints represent Cyprian as requesting the virgins to
remember him in their prayers at the throne of grace when they shall
have been taken to heaven. "As we have borne the image of Him who is of
the earth, let us also bear the image of him who is from heaven. This
image the virgin-state bears,--integrity bears it, holiness and truth
bear it; rules of discipline mindful of God bear it, retaining justice
with religion, firm in the faith, humble in fear, strong to endure all
things, gentle to receive an injury, readily disposed to pity, with one
mind and with one heart in brotherly peace. All which ye ought, O good
virgins, to observe, to love and fulfil; ye who, retired for the service
of God and Christ, with your greater and better part are going before
towards the Lord to whom you have devoted yourselves. Let those who are
advanced in age exercise rule over the younger; ye younger, offer to
your equals a stimulus; encourage yourselves by mutual exhortations; by
examples emulous of virtue invite each other to glory; remain firm;
conduct yourselves spiritually; gain the end happily. Only remember us
then, when your virgin-state shall begin to be honoured." [Tantum
mementote tunc nostri, cum incipiet in vobis virginitas honorari.--Page
180.] {164}
The second instance, from the close of his letter to Cornelius, puts
before us a beautiful act of friendship and brotherly affection worthy
of every Christian brother's and friend's imitation. But how it can be
applied in supporting the cause of the invocation of saints, I cannot
see. The supporters of that doctrine say that Cyprian suggests to his
friend, still living on earth, that whichever of the two should be first
called away, he should continue when in heaven to pray for the survivor
on earth. Suppose it to be so. That has not any approximation to our
praying to one who is already dead and gone to his reward. But Cyprian
surely intended to convey a very different meaning, namely this, that
the two friends should continue to pray, each in his place, mutually for
each other and for their friends, and relieve each other's wants and
necessities whilst both survived; and whenever death should remove the
one from earth to happiness, the survivor should not forget their bond
of friendship, but should still continue to pray to God for their
brothers and sisters. The passage translated to the letter, runs thus:
"Let us be mutually mindful of each other, with one mind and one heart.
On both sides, let us always pray for each other; let us by mutual love
relieve each other's pressures and distresses; and if either of us from
hence, by the speed of the Divine favour, go on before the {165} other,
let our love persevere before the Lord; for our brothers and sisters
with the Father's mercy let not prayer cease. My desire, most dear
brother, is that you may always prosper." [Epist. 57. Benedict, p.
96.--Memores nostri invicem simus concordes atque unanimes: utrobique
pro nobis semper oremus, pressuras et angustias mutua caritate
relevemus, et si quis istinc nostrum prior divinæ dignationis celeritate
præcesserit, perseveret apud Dominum nostra dilectio; pro fratribus et
sororibus nostris apud misericordiam Patris non cesset oratio. Opto te,
frater carissime, semper bene valere.--This epistle is by some editors
numbered as the 60th, by others as the 61st, the 7th, and the 69th, &c.]
Whether the above view of this passage be founded in reason or not, it
matters little to the point at issue. Let both these passages be
accepted in the sense assigned to them by some Roman Catholic writers,
yet there is not a shadow of analogy between the language and conduct of
Cyprian, and the language and conduct of those who now invoke saints
departed. In each case Cyprian, still in the body, was addressing
fellow-creatures still sojourning on earth. The very utmost which these
passages could be forced to countenance would be, that the righteous,
when in heaven, may be mindful in their prayers of their friends, who
are still exposed to the dangers from which they have themselves finally
escaped, and who, when both were on earth, requested them to remember
the survivors in their prayers. But this is a question totally different
from our addressing them in supplication and prayer; a difference which
I am most anxious that both myself and my readers should keep in mind
throughout.
In the extract from Cyprian's letter, a modern author having rendered
the single word "utrobique," by the words "in this world and the next" I
am induced to add a few further observations on the passage. (The Latin
original and the version here referred to, will be placed side by side
in the Appendix.) It will, I think, appear to most readers on a careful
examination of the passage, that the expression "utrobique[62]" "on both
sides," or "on both parts," whatever be its precise {166} meaning, so
far from referring to "this world and the next," must evidently be
confined to the condition of both parties now in this life, because it
stands in direct contradistinction to what follows, the supposed case of
the death of either of the two; and because it applies no less to the
mutual relief of each other's sufferings and afflictions during their
joint lives, than to their mutual prayers: it cannot mean that all the
mutual benefits to be derived from their mutual remembrance of each
other, were to come solely through the means of their prayers. They were
doubtless mutually to pray for each other; but, in addition to their
prayers, they were also to relieve each other's pressures and
difficulties with mutual love, and that too before the event afterwards
contemplated, namely, the removal of one of them by death.
[Footnote 62: Utrobique is rendered by Facciolati [Greek:
hekaterothi]--"in utraque parte, utrimque."]
Bishop Fell thus comments on the passage: "The sense seems to be, When
either of us shall die; whether I, who preside at Carthage, or you, who
are presiding at Rome, shall be the survivor, let the prayer to God of
him whose lot shall be to remain the longest among the living,
persevere, and continue." "Meanwhile," continues the Bishop[63], "we by
no means doubt that souls admitted into heaven apply to God, the best
and greatest of Beings, that he would have compassion on those who are
dwelling on the earth. But it does not thence follow, that prayers
should be offered to the saints. THE MAN WHO PETITIONS THEM MAKES THEM
GODS (Deos qui rogat ille facit)." [Oxford, 1682, p. 143.] Rigaltius,
himself {167} a Roman Catholic, doubts whether, when Cyprian wrote this
letter, he had any idea before his mind of saints departed praying for
the living. He translates "utrobique" very much as I have done, "with
reciprocal love, with mutual charity." His last observations on this
passage are very remarkable. After having confessed the sentiments to be
worthy of a Christian, that the saints pray for us, and having argued
that Cyprian could not have thought it necessary to ask a saint to
retain his brotherly kindness in heaven, for he could not be a saint if
he did not continue to love his brethren, he thus concludes: "In truth
it is a pious and faithful saying, That of those who having already put
off mortality are made joint-heirs with Christ, and of those who
surviving on earth will hereafter be joint-heirs with Christ, the Church
is one, and is by the Holy Spirit so well joined together as not to be
torn asunder by the dissolution of the body. They pray to God for us,
and we praise God for them, and thus with mutual affection (utrobique)
we always pray for each other." [Paris, 1666. p. 92.]
[Footnote 63: See the note of the Benedictine editors on this
passage (p. 467), in which they refer to the sentiments of
Rigaltius, Pamelius, and Bishop Fell, whom they call "the most
illustrious Bishop of Oxford."]
I will detain you only by one or two more extracts from Cyprian; one
forming part of the introduction to his Comment on the Lord's Prayer,
which is fitted for the edification of Christians in every age; the
other closing his treatise on Mortality, one of those beautiful
productions by which, during the plague which raged at Carthage in the
year 252, he comforted and exhorted the Christians, that they might meet
death without fear or amazement, in sure and certain hope of eternal
blessedness in heaven. The sentiments in the latter passage will be
responded to by every good Catholic, whether in communion with the
Church of Rome or {168} with the Church of England; whilst in the former
we are reminded, that to pray as Cyprian prayed, we must address
ourselves to God alone in the name and trusting to the merits only of
his blessed Son.
"He who caused us to live, taught us also to pray, with that kindness
evidently by which He deigns to give and confer on us every other
blessing; that when we speak to the Father in the prayer and
supplication which his Son taught, we might the more readily be heard.
He had already foretold, that the hour was coming when the true
worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth; and He
fulfilled what He before promised, that we, who have received the spirit
and truth from his sanctification, may from his instruction offer
adoration truly and spiritually. For what prayer can be more spiritual
than that which is given to us by Christ, by whom even the Holy Spirit
is sent to us? What can be a more true prayer with the Father than that
which came from the lips of the Son, who is Truth? So that to pray
otherwise than He taught, is not only ignorance, but a fault; since He
has himself laid it down and said, Ye reject the Commandment of God to
establish your own traditions. Let us pray then, most beloved brethren,
as our teacher, God, has instructed us. It is a welcome and friendly
prayer to petition God from his own, to mount up to his ears by the
prayer of Christ. Let the Father recognize the words of his Son. When we
offer a prayer let Him who dwelleth inwardly in our breast, Himself be
in our voice; and since we have Him as our advocate with the Father for
our sins, when as sinners we are petitioning for our sins let us put
forth the words of our Advocate." [De Orat. Dom. p. 204.]
"We must consider, (he says at the close of his {169} treatise on the
Mortality [Page 236.],) most beloved brethren, and frequently reflect
that we have renounced the world, and are meanwhile living here as
strangers and pilgrims. Let us embrace the day which assigns each to his
own home ... which restores us to paradise and the kingdom of heaven,
snatched from hence and liberated from the entanglements of the world.
What man, when he is in a foreign country, would not hasten to return to
his native land?... We regard paradise as our country.... We have begun
already to have the patriarchs for our parents. Why do we not hasten and
run that we may see our country, and salute our parents? There a large
number of dear ones are waiting for us, of parents, brothers, children;
a numerous and full crowd are longing for us; already secure of their
own immortality, and still anxious for our safety. To come to the sight
and the embrace of these, how great will be the mutual joy to them and
to us! What a pleasure of the kingdom of heaven is there without the
fear of dying, and with an eternity of living! How consummate and
never-ending a happiness! There is the glorious company of the apostles;
there is the assembly of exulting prophets; there is the unnumbered
family of martyrs crowned for the victory of their struggles and
suffering; there are virgins triumphing, who, by the power of chastity,
have subdued the lusts of the flesh and the body; there are the merciful
recompensed, who with food and bounty to the poor have done the works of
righteousness, who keeping the Lord's commands have transferred their
earthly inheritance into heavenly treasures. To these, O most dearly
beloved brethren, let us hasten with most eager longing; {170} let us
desire that our lot may be to be with these speedily; to come speedily
to Christ. Let God see this to be our thought; let our Lord Christ
behold this to be the purpose of our mind and faith, who will give more
abundant rewards of his glory to them, whose desires for himself have
been the greater."
Such is the evidence of St. Cyprian.
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