The Early Conception of a Catholic Church, 3rd century
It is clear that differences of opinion developed among the early Christians in regard to religious beliefs and practices, the result of which led to an increase in the number of sects. The Church denounced all who departed from the generally accepted or orthodox beliefs as heretics who were destroying the unity of the Church. This conception of one all-embracing Church to which all should be forced to belong was accepted by the Roman emperors after Constantine. The account given here is by Cyprian (3rd century), the bishop of Carthage.
The old enemy of mankind was vanquished and overcome at the advent of Christ’s kingdom. He saw his idols forsaken and his fanes and temples deserted for the altars of Christ; so he devised new wiles by which he might deceive the unwary Christian under the very name of Christianity itself. He invented heresies and schisms; and by these he hath overthrown the faith, corrupted the truth, and broken the unity of the Church. Those whom he cannot keep back in the darkness of the old way, he entraps and deceives by error in the new path. He snatches men from the Church herself; and while they think they have now drawn near to the light and have escaped the night of heathenism, he casts over them in their ignorance yet other shades, so that they call themselves Christians, and yet do not abide in the Gospel and the precepts and the law of Christ. They think they have the light, and yet walk in the darkness. . . .
Our Lord said to Peter: “I also say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” He thus erected his Church upon one [foundation]. And though after his resurrection he gave equal powers to all the apostles, saying, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. . . . Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained,” nevertheless, that he might manifest unity he established one Church, and by his own authority determined that in its origin this unity should proceed from one [source or person]. . . .
He who holds not this unity of the Church, does he believe that he holds the faith? He who struggles against the Church and resists her, does he believe that he is a member of the Church? . . . The episcopate is one: it is shared among individuals, yet each possesses the entire authority. The Church also is one, though she is widely extended among the multitude. As there are many rays of the sun, but one light; and many branches of a tree, but one strength lying in its tenacious root; and since from one spring flow many streams, yet the unity is preserved in the source. Separate a ray of the sun from its body of light, its unity does not permit a division of the light; break a branch from the tree, when broken it will not be able to bud; cut off the stream from its fountain, and that which is cut off dries up. Thus the Church sheds forth her rays over the whole world; yet it is one light which is everywhere diffused. . . .
Whoever is separated from the Church is separated from the promises of the Church; nor can he who forsakes the Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger; he is profane; he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for his father who has not the Church for his mother. If any one could escape who was outside the ark of Noah, then he also may escape who shall be outside of the Church. . . . These heretics appoint themselves prelates without proper ordination, and assume the name of bishops, although no one gives them the episcopate. . . . They sit in the seat of pestilence, are plagues and spots of the faith, deceiving with serpent’s tongue and artful in corrupting the truth, vomiting forth deadly poisons from pestilential tongues; whose speech doth creep like a cancer, whose discourse forms a deadly poison in the heart and breast of every one.
Though such a man should suffer death for confessing the name of Christ, his guilt is not washed away by blood, nor is the grievous and inexpiable sin of discord wiped out by suffering. He who is without the Church cannot be a martyr. He cannot reach the kingdom of heaven. . . . Though they are given over to the flames and burn in the fires, though cast to the wild beasts, they lay down their lives, this shall not be a crown of faith, but a punishment of faithlessness. Such a man may be killed, but not crowned. . . .