Appian Way Press

Cyprian of Carthage expressed "deep sorrow over the fall of the lapsed" Christians who had sacrificed to idols during persecution. In his work On the Lapsed, he "sharply rebukes the lapsed for having sacrificed to idols at the very first threat from the enemy, instead of withdrawing as Christ advised."

Cyprian strongly opposed the immediate and unauthorized readmission of the lapsed to communion. In Epistle IX, he chastised certain presbyters and deacons who, "too careless about discipline and acting with rash haste," had "already begun to receive the lapsed back." He viewed this as a serious breach of discipline, stating that these presbyters were "forgetting both the Gospel and their own role, and ignoring the Lord’s future judgment and the bishop placed over them, claim full authority for themselves—a thing never done by our predecessors—showing disrespect and contempt for the bishop."

He further condemned those who would "communicate with the lapsed, offering and giving them the eucharist before the fear of persecution has passed, before my return, and almost before the martyrs have even departed." Cyprian emphasized that even if martyrs requested peace for the lapsed, such requests should be subject to proper ecclesiastical process and correction, as "they should be corrected by the advice of the presbyters and deacons, as was always done in the past." He believed that "peace that our Mother, the Church, should first receive through the Lord’s mercy, and that divine protection should bring me back to His Church" was necessary before readmission.

Cyprian also warned his readers to avoid the Novatians, refuting "their heresy with many scriptural passages" in On the Lapsed.