Cyprian of Carthage, An Address to Demetrianus

I often despised you, Demetriane, because with a sacrilegious mouth and impious words you kept railing against the one true God. I thought it more fitting to dismiss the ignorance of the erring in silence than to provoke the madness of the demented by speaking. I did not act without the authority of divine teaching, for it is written: "Do not say anything in the ears of the imprudent, lest when he hears he ridicule your sensible words" (Prov. 23:9). And again: "Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you become like him" (Prov. 26:4). We are also commanded to keep the holy within our conscience and not to cast pearls before swine and dogs, with the Lord speaking and saying: "Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn to attack you" (Matt. 7:6). When you often came to me more intent on contradicting than learning, and with loud voices preferred to impose your own thoughts impudently rather than listen patiently to ours, it seemed foolish to engage with you. It would be easier to calm the stormy sea's turbulent waves with shouts than to restrain your rage with discussions. To offer light to the blind, speech to the deaf, and wisdom to the brutish is labor in vain and without effect; the brutish cannot perceive, the blind cannot admit light, and the deaf cannot hear. Considering this, I often kept silent and overcame the impatient with patience, since I could neither teach the unteachable nor restrain the impious with religion nor calm the furious with gentleness.

But when you say that many complain wars arise more frequently, that plagues and famines rage, and that long fair periods are interrupted by rains and showers — all imputed to us because your gods are not worshiped by us — it is no longer proper to remain silent. Lest our silence be seen not as modesty but as diffidence, and while we disdain to refute false accusations we seem to acknowledge the crime, I respond to you, Demetriane, and to the others you may have stirred up against us, sowing hatred with your slanderous words. You have made many companions in the root and origin of your error; yet I believe these can be admitted to our reasoning. For one who is moved to evil by deceitful lies will be much more moved to good by compelling truth. Since you are ignorant of divine knowledge and alien to truth, you should first know that the world has already grown old. It does not stand with the strength it once had, nor does it prevail with its former vigor and robustness. This the world itself testifies even if we remain silent and produce no documents from the holy Scriptures and divine preachings; it proves its own decline by the evidence of its failing things. Rain is not as abundant in winter to nourish seeds; the sun's heat is not as great in summer to ripen fruits; crops are not as joyful in spring, nor is autumn as fertile with tree fruits. Less marble is extracted from excavated, exhausted mountains; less wealth of silver and gold is produced, for the metals are now exhausted. Poor veins shorten day by day and decrease. The farmer fails in the fields, the sailor on the sea, the soldier in the camp, innocence in the forum, justice in judgment, concord in friendships, skill in arts, discipline in morals.

Do you think so great a substance of an aging thing can exist as it could when it was still new and flourishing in youth? Whatever is near its end and declining into old age and extreme weakness must necessarily decrease. Thus the sun at its setting throws its rays with less clear and fiery splendor; with its course declining, the moon is diminished with worn-out horns. The tree once green and fertile becomes sterile and deformed in old age with withering branches. The spring that once flowed abundantly from overflowing veins now, in old age, barely trickles with a slight sweat. This sentence has been given to the world; this is the law of God: that all things that have arisen will decline, all that have grown will grow old, the strong will be weakened, the great diminished, and when weakened and diminished they will come to an end. You impute to Christians that individual things diminish because the world is growing old. What if the old also impute to Christians that they are less strong in old age, that they do not thrive as before in hearing, walking, sight, strength, bodily vigor, and limb mass? Once human life lasted beyond eight hundred and nine hundred years; now it can hardly reach a hundred. We see gray hair in children; hair falls out before it even grows. Age does not end in old age but begins with old age. Thus in its very birth humanity hastens to its end; whatever is now born degenerates because of the world's own old age. So no one should be surprised that individual things in the world have begun to fail, when the whole world is already in decline and at its end.