Letter 43: Cyprian to Maximus, Nicostratus, and the other confessors, greetings.

Cyprian to Maximus, Nicostratus, and the other confessors, greetings. As you have often gathered from my letters, beloved, I have always held your confession in the highest honor, and have loved the bond of brotherhood we share. Trust, then, the letters I now write to you — I set down what I have to say in simplicity and faithful concern for you, for what you have done, and for the praise you have earned. What weighs on me and saddens me — what strikes my wounded spirit with a grief I can barely endure — is this: that you there, contrary to all church order, contrary to the law of the Gospel, contrary to the unity of the Catholic institution, should have agreed to the appointment of another bishop. That cannot be right. It cannot be allowed. To set up a second church, to tear apart the members of Christ, to lacerate the one mind and body of the Lord's flock in a rivalry of division — this is not what your confession calls you to. I beg you: let this unlawful tearing apart of our brotherhood end — at least from your side. Remember your confession. Remember the divine tradition. Come back to the Mother from whom you set out, from whom you went forth with her joy into the glory of your confession. And do not think you are defending the Gospel of Christ by separating yourselves from the flock of Christ, from his peace and his concord. It is more fitting for glorious and good soldiers to stand within their own camp, and to provide and plan from within for what the battle requires.

Epistle 43