Forsake the idols which human error has invented. Be turned to God, whom if you implore He will aid you. Believe in Christ, whom the Father has sent to quicken and restore us. Cease to hurt the servants of God and of Christ with your persecutions, since when they are injured the divine vengeance defends them.

For this reason it is that none of us, when he is apprehended, makes resistance, nor avenges himself against your unrighteous violence, although our people are numerous and plentiful.

Cyprian of Carthage. 1886. “An Adress to Demetrianus.” In Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Novatian, Appendix, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, translated by Robert Ernest Wallis, 5:462. The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.