Letter 48: You acted with both care and love, dear brother, in sending us Nicephorus the acolyte in such haste.

Cyprian to his brother Cornelius, greetings. You acted with both care and love, dear brother, in sending us Nicephorus the acolyte in such haste. He brought us the joyful news of the confessors' return, and at the same time gave us a thorough account of the new and dangerous devices of Novatian and Novatus against the Church of Christ. As it happens, the day before, that wicked faction of heretical wickedness had arrived here — already destroyed itself and ready to destroy any who joined it. The very next day, Nicephorus arrived with your letter. From this we both learned, and have begun to teach and warn others: that Evaristus has ceased to be even a layman, let alone a bishop. Expelled from his see and from his people, an exile from the Church of Christ, he ranges far and wide through foreign provinces; having himself made shipwreck of truth and faith, he is now preparing similar wrecks for those who are foolish enough to follow him. As for Nicostratus: he lost the diaconate of his sacred ministry because he had committed sacrilegious fraud against the Church's money, denying deposits belonging to widows and orphans. He came to Africa not so much for any purpose as to escape the city and the consciousness of his robberies and his frightful crimes. He is a deserter and a fugitive from the Church, as if changing the climate could change the conscience. But you know all this, dear brother. What we must do is stand firm and make it known to all what manner of men these are — and what manner of thing is this schism that they have built their names on.

Epistle 48