Cyprian (200-258), to Demetrianus:
“It is little, in your account, that your life is stained with a variety of gross vices, with the iniquity of deadly crimes, with the summary of all bloody rapines; that true religion is overturned by false superstitions; that God is neither sought at all, nor feared at all; but over and above this, you weary God’s servants, and those who are dedicated to His majesty and His name, with unjust persecutions. It is not enough that you yourself do not worship God, but, over and above, you persecute those who do worship, with a sacrilegious hostility. You neither worship God, nor do you at all permit Him to be worshiped; and while others who venerate not only those foolish idols and images made by man’s hands, but even portents and monsters besides, are pleasing to you, it is only the worshiper of God who is displeasing to you. The ashes of victims and the piles of cattle everywhere smoke in your temples, and God’s altars are either nowhere or are hidden. Crocodiles, and apes, and stones, and serpents are worshiped by you; and God alone in the earth is not worshiped, or if worshiped, not with impunity.”