A Problem of Tradition

Non est ergo, frater charissime, quod aliquis existimet sequendam esse quorumdam consuetudinem, si qui in praeteritum in calice Dominico aquam solam offerendam putaverunt. Quaerendum est enim ipsi quem sint secuti. Nam, si in sacrifico quod Christus obtulit, non nisi Christus sequendus est, utique id nos obaudire et facere oportet quod Christus fecit et quod feciendum esse mandavit, quando ipse in Evangelico dicat: Si feceitis quod  mando vobis, iam non dico vos servos, sed amicos. Et quod Christus debeat solus audiri, Pater etiam de coelo contestatur dicens: Hic est filius meus dilectissimus in quo bene sensi, ipsum audite. Quare, si solus Christus audiendus est, non debemus attendere quid alius ante nos faciendum esse putaverit, sed quid qui ante omnes est Christus feceit. Neque enim hominis consuetudinem sequi oportet, sed Dei veritatem, cum per Esaiam prophetam Deus loquatur et dicat: Sine causa autem colunt me, mandata et doctrinas hominum docentes. Et iterum Dominus in Evangelico hoc idem repetat dicens: Rejicitis mandatum Dei, ut traditionem vestram statuatis. Sed et alio in loco ponit et dicit: Qui solverit unum ex mandatis istis minimis, et sic docuerit homines, minimus vocabitur in regno coelorum. Quod si nec minima de mandatis Dominicis licet solvere, quanto magis tam magna, tam grandia, tam ad ipsum Dominicae passionis et nostrae redemptionis sacramentum pertinentia fas non est infringere, aut in aliud quam quod divinitus institutum sit humana traditione mutare? Nam si Jesus Christus Dominus et Deus noster ipse et summus sacerdos Dei Patris, et sacrificium Patri se ipsum primus obtulit et hoc fieri in sui commemorationem praecepit, utique ille sacerdos vice Christi vere fungitur qui id quod Christus fecit imitatur, et sacrificium verum et plenum tunc offert in Ecclesia Deo Patri, si sic incipiat offerre secundum quod ipsum Christum videat obtulisse. Sanctus Cyprianus, Epistola LXIII, Ad Caecilium

There is then no reason, dearest brother, for any one to think that the custom of certain persons should be followed who in the past have thought to offer water alone in the cup of the Lord. Certainly we must inquire whom they have followed. For if in the sacrifice which Christ offered no one is to be followed but Christ, assuredly it is fitting that we obey and do that which Christ did and what He commanded to be done, since He Himself says in the Gospel, 'If you do what I command you, henceforth I call you not servants but friends.'  And that it should be that Christ alone should be heard the Father also testifies from heaven, saying, 'This is my well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, listen to Him.'  Thus if Christ alone must be heard we ought not to give heed to what another before us may have  thought was to be done but rather what Christ, who is before all, first did. Neither is it right to follow the practice of man but rather the truth of God, since God speaks by Isaiah the prophet, and says, 'In vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men.'  And again the Lord in the Gospel repeats this same and says, 'You reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition.' Moreover, in another place He establishes it, saying, 'Whosoever shall break the least of these commandments and shall teach men to do so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.'  But if we may not break even the least of the Lord's commandments, how much more is it forbidden to infringe such important ones, so great, so pertaining to the very sacrament of our Lord's passion and our own redemption, or to change it by human tradition into anything else than what was divinely appointed? For if Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, is Himself the chief priest of God the Father, and has first offered Himself a sacrifice to the Father, and has commanded this to be done in commemoration of Himself, certainly that priest truly discharges the office of Christ who imitates that which Christ did, and he then offers a true and full sacrifice in the Church to God the Father when he proceeds to offer it according to what he sees Christ Himself to have offered. Saint Cyprian, Letter 63, To Caecilius