On Gamblers
In this homily, which forms part of the large body of works falsely attributed to St. Cyprian, a bishop, after a strong opening on the responsibility of shepherds of souls, vigorously condemns the game of dice as a source of countless evils, as an invention of the devil, declaring that those devoted to it do not deserve the name of Christian, urging instead that one entrust one’s money to Christ by giving it as alms to the poor of the Church.
The pamphlet is of historical interest, particularly unjust, as one of the oldest documents of ancient Christian oratory and of Vulgar Latin. The silence of the earliest witnesses and the peculiarities of language and style prevent its attribution to Cyprian; with the abandonment of Harnack’s initial thesis, which attributed it to Pope St. Victor, it is now dated between 260 and 300.