[224] Matt. xiii. 29.
[225] Phil. i. 15-18.
[226] Wisd. ii. 24, 25.
[227] Matt. xiii. 28, 25.
[228] Matt. xiii. 23; Luke viii. 15.
[229] Rev. ii. 6.
[230] Acts viii. 9-24.
[231] Phil. ii. 21.
[232] 1 Cor. xiii. 5.
[233] Eph. v. 27; _Retract._ ii. 18.
[234] Song of Sol. vi. 8.
[235] Cypr. _Ep._ xi. sec. 1.
[236] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 12.
[237] Luke ix. 49, 50.
[238] Matt. xii. 30.
[239] Gal. ii. 14.
[240] Phil. iii. 15.
[241] Matt. xxiii. 2, 3.
[242] Phil. i. 18; see on ch. vii. 10.
[243] John i. 33.
[244] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 13; 2 Tim. ii. 17.
[245] 1 Cor. xv. 32, 33, 12.
[246] Eph. v. 5.
[247] 2 Tim. ii. 20.
[248] Ps. ii. 9.
[249] Cypr. _Ep._ lv. sec. 21.
[250] 2 Tim. ii. 17-20.
[251] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 13.
[252] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 13; 2 Cor. vi. 14.
[253] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 13; 2 Cor. vi. 14.
[254] 1 John ii. 9.
[255] Phil. i. 15, 16.
[256] Cypr. _l.c._
[257] Cypr. _Ep._ xi. sec. 1.
[258] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 13.
[259] Matt. vii. 23.
[260] Matt. xxv. 41.
[261] Rom. ii. 4.
[262] Ps. lxxxix. 32, 33.
[263] Ecclus. xxx. 23. The words "placentes Deo" are derived from the
Latin version only.
[264] Matt. xxiv. 13.
[265] From a letter of Pope Stephen's, quoted Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec.
14.
[266] Matt. xiii. 21.
[267] 2 Tim. ii. 21.
[268] 2 Tim. ii. 19.
[269] Matt. vii. 23.
[270] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 14.
[271] _Ib._ _de Laps._ sec. 4.
[272] _Ib._ _Ep._ xi. sec. 1.
[273] _Ib._ _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 14.
[274] 1 Cor. ii. 14.
[275] 1 Cor. iii. 3.
[276] 2 Cor. iv. 16.
[277] Photinus, bishop of Sirmium, was condemned and deposed by a
synod held in his own city, in 351, for teaching that there was no
distinction of persons in the Godhead.
[278] Hos. ii. 5-7.
[279] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxxiii. sec. 18.
[280] 1 Cor. xiii. 3.
[281] Cypr. _l.c._
[282] Matt. xii. 30.
[283] 1 Cor. vi. 10.
[284] Gal. v. 19-21.
[285] Eph. v. 5, 6.
[286] 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.
[287] Matt. xi. 24.
[288] Matt. xxv. 41.
[289] John iii. 5.
[290] Another reading, of less authority, is, "Aut catechumeno
sacramentum baptismi præferendum putamus." This does not suit the
sense of the passage, and probably sprung from want of knowledge of
the meaning of the "catechumen's sacrament." It is mentioned in the
third Council of Carthage as "the sacrament of salt" (Conc. Carth. 3,
can. 5). Augustine (_de Peccat. Meritis_, ii. c. 26) says that "what
the catechumens receive, though it be not the body of Christ, yet is
holy, more holy than the food whereby our bodies are sustained, because
it is a sacrament."--Cp. _de Catech. Rudibus_, c. 26. It appears to
have been only a taste of salt, given them as the emblem of purity and
incorruption. See Bingham, _Orig. Eccles._ Book x. c. ii. 16.
[291] Acts x. 44.
[292] Acts viii. 13, 18, 19.
[293] Matt. v. 20.
[294] Acts x. 4, 5.
[295] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 19.
[296] Luke xxiii. 43.
[297] In _Retract._ ii. 18, Augustine expresses a doubt whether the
thief may not have been baptized.
[298] Rom. x. 10.
[299] Matt. iii 6, 13.
[300] Rom. iv. 11, 3.
[301] Gen. xvii. 9-14.
[302] Ex. iv. 24.
[303] John ix. 21.
[304] Acts xix. 3-5.
BOOK FIFTH.
HE EXAMINES THE LAST PART OF THE EPISTLE OF CYPRIAN TO JUBAIANUS,
TOGETHER WITH HIS EPISTLE TO QUINTUS, THE LETTER OF THE AFRICAN SYNOD
TO THE NUMIDIAN BISHOPS, AND CYPRIAN'S EPISTLE TO POMPEIUS.
CHAP. I.--1. We have the testimony of the blessed Cyprian, that the
custom of the Catholic Church is at present retained, when men coming
from the side of heretics or schismatics, if they have received baptism
as consecrated in the words of the gospel, are not baptized afresh. For
he himself proposed to himself the question, and that as coming from
the mouth of brethren either seeking the truth or contending for the
truth. For in the course of the arguments by which he wished to show
that heretics should be baptized again, which we have sufficiently
considered for our present purpose in the former books, he says: "But
some will say, What then will become of those who in times past,
coming to the Church from heresy, were admitted without baptism?"[305]
In this question is involved the shipwreck of the whole cause of the
Donatists, with whom our contest is on this point. For if those had
not really baptism who were thus received on coming from heretics, and
their sins were still upon them, then, when such men were admitted to
communion, either by Cyprian himself, or by those who came before him,
we must acknowledge that one of two things occurred,--either that the
Church perished then and there from the pollution of communion with
such men, or that any one abiding in unity is not injured by even the
notorious sins of other men. But since they cannot say that the Church
then perished through the contamination arising from communion with
those who, as Cyprian says, were admitted into it without baptism,--for
otherwise they cannot maintain the validity of their own origin if
the Church then perished, seeing that the list of consuls proves that
more than forty years elapsed between the martyrdom of Cyprian and the
burning of the sacred books,[306] from which they took occasion to make
a schism, spreading abroad the smoke of their calumnies,--it therefore
is left for them to acknowledge that the unity of Christ is not
polluted by any such communion, even with known offenders. And, after
this confession, they will be unable to discover any reason which will
justify them in maintaining that they were bound to separate from the
churches of the whole world, which, as we read, were equally founded
by the apostles, seeing that, while the others could not have perished
from any admixture of offenders, of whatsoever kind, they, though
they would not have perished if they had remained in unity with them,
brought destruction on themselves in schism, by separating themselves
from their brethren, and breaking the bond of peace. For the sacrilege
of schism is most clearly evident in them, if they had no sufficient
cause for separation. And it is clear that there was no sufficient
cause for separation, if even the presence of notorious offenders
cannot pollute the good while they abide in unity. But that the good,
abiding in unity, are not polluted even by notorious offenders, we
teach on the testimony of Cyprian, who says that "men in past times,
coming to the Church from heresy, were admitted without baptism;" and
yet, if the wickedness of their sacrilege, which was still upon them,
seeing it had not been purged away by baptism, could not pollute and
destroy the holiness of the Church, it cannot perish by any infection
from wicked men. Wherefore, if they allow that Cyprian spoke the truth,
they are convicted of schism on his testimony; if they maintain that he
does not speak truth, let them not use his testimony on the question of
baptism.
* * * * *
CHAP. II.--2. But now that we have begun a disputation with a man of
peace like Cyprian, let us go on. For when he had brought an objection
against himself, which he knew was urged by his brethren, "What then
will become of those who in times past, coming to the Church from
heresy, were admitted without baptism? The Lord," he answers, "is able
of His mercy to grant indulgence, and not to separate from the gifts
of His Church those who, being admitted in all honesty to His Church,
have fallen asleep within the Church." Well indeed has he assumed
that charity can cover the multitude of sins. But if they really had
baptism, and this were not rightly perceived by those who thought that
they should be baptized again, that error was covered by the charity of
unity so long as it contained, not the discord and spirit of the devil,
but merely human infirmity, until, as the apostle says, "if they were
otherwise minded, the Lord should reveal it to them."[307] But woe unto
those who, being torn asunder from unity by a sacrilegious rupture,
either rebaptize, if baptism exists with both us and them, or do not
baptize at all, if baptism exist in the Catholic Church only. Whether,
therefore, they rebaptize, or fail to baptize, they are not in the bond
of peace; wherefore let them apply a remedy to which they please of
these two wounds. But if we admit to the Church without baptism, we are
of the number of those who, as Cyprian has assumed, may receive pardon
because they preserved unity. But if (as is, I think, already clear
from what has been said in the earlier books) Christian baptism can
preserve its integrity even amid the perversity of heretics, then even
though any in those times did rebaptize, yet without departing from the
bond of unity, they might still attain to pardon in virtue of that same
love of peace, through which Cyprian bears witness that those admitted
even without baptism might obtain that they should not be separated
from the gifts of the Church. Further, if it is true that with heretics
and schismatics the baptism of Christ does not exist, how much less
could the sins of others hurt those who were fixed in unity, if even
men's own sins were forgiven when they came to it even without baptism!
For if, according to Cyprian, the bond of unity is of such efficacy,
how could they be hurt by other men's sins, who were unwilling to
separate themselves from unity, if even the unbaptized, who wished to
come to it from heresy, thereby escaped the destruction due to their
own sins?
* * * * *
CHAP. III.--3. But in what Cyprian adds, saying, "Nor yet because men
once have erred must there be always error, since it rather befits wise
and God-fearing men gladly and unhesitatingly to follow truth, when it
is clearly laid before their eyes, than obstinately and persistently to
fight for heretics against their brethren and their fellow-priests,"
he is uttering the most perfect truth; and the man who resists the
manifest truth is opposing himself rather than his neighbours. But, so
far as I can judge, it is perfectly clear and certain, from the many
arguments which I have already adduced, that the baptism of Christ
cannot be invalidated even by the perversity of heretics, when it is
given or received among them. But, granting that it is not yet certain,
at any rate no one who has considered what has been said, even from a
hostile point of view, will assert that the question has been decided
the other way. Therefore we are not striving against manifest truth,
but either, as I think, we are striving in behalf of what is clearly
true, or, at any rate, as those may hold who think that the question
has not yet been solved, we are seeking for the truth. And therefore,
if the truth be other than we think, yet we are receiving those
baptized by heretics with the same honesty of heart with which those
received them whom Cyprian supposed, in virtue of their cleaving to
the unity of the Church, to be capable of pardon. But if the baptism
of Christ, as is indicated by the many arguments used above, can
retain its integrity amid any defect either of life or faith, whether
on the part of those who seem to be within, and yet do not belong to
the members of the one dove, or on the part of those whose severance
from her extends to being openly without, then those who sought its
repetition in those former days deserved the same pardon for their
charity in clinging to unity, which Cyprian thought that those deserved
for charity of the same kind whom he believed to have been admitted
without baptism. They therefore who, without any cause (since, as
Cyprian himself shows, the bad cannot hurt the good in the unity of
the Church), have cut themselves off from the charity which is shown
in this unity, have lost all place of pardon, and whilst they would
incur destruction by the very crime of schism, even though they did
not rebaptize those who had been baptized in the Catholic Church, of
how bitter punishment are they deserving, who are either endeavouring
to give to the Catholics who have it what Cyprian affirms that they
themselves have not, or, as is clear from the facts of the case, are
bringing as a charge against the Catholic Church that she has not what
even they themselves possess?
* * * * *
CHAP. IV.--4. But since now, as I said before, we have begun a
disputation with the epistles of Cyprian, I think that I should not
seem even to him, if he were present, "to be contending obstinately
and persistently in defence of heretics against my brethren and my
fellow-priests," when he learned the powerful reasons which move us to
believe that even among heretics, who are perversely obstinate in their
malignant error, the baptism of Christ is yet in itself most holy,
and most highly to be reverenced. And seeing that he himself, whose
testimony has such weight with us, bears witness that they were wont
in past times to be admitted without a second baptism, I would have
any one, who is induced by Cyprian's arguments to hold it as certain
that heretics ought to be baptized afresh, yet consider that those
who, on account of the weight of the arguments on the other side, are
not as yet persuaded that this should be so, hold the same place as
those in past time, who in all honesty admitted men who were baptized
in heresy on the simple correction of their individual error, and who
were capable of salvation with them in virtue of the bond of unity.
And let any one, who is led by the past custom of the Church, and by
the subsequent authority of a general Council, and by so many powerful
proofs from holy Scripture, and by much evidence from Cyprian himself,
and by the clear reasoning of truth, to understand that the baptism of
Christ, consecrated in the words of the gospel, cannot be perverted by
the error of any man on earth,--let such an one understand, that they
who then thought otherwise, but yet preserved their charity, can be
saved by the same bond of unity. And herein he should also understand
of those who, in the society of the Church dispersed throughout the
world, could not have been defiled by any tares, by any chaff, so long
as they themselves desired to be fruitful corn, and who therefore
severed themselves from the same bond of unity without any cause
for the divorce, that at any rate, whichever of the two opinions be
true,--that which Cyprian then held, or that which was maintained by
the universal voice of the Catholic Church, which Cyprian did not
abandon,--in either case they, having most openly placed themselves
outside in the plain sacrilege of schism, cannot possibly be saved, and
all that they possess of the holy sacraments, and of the free gifts of
the one legitimate Bridegroom, is of avail, while they continue what
they are, for their confusion rather than the salvation of their souls.
* * * * *
CHAP. V.--5. Wherefore, even if heretics should be truly anxious to
correct their error and come to the Church, for the very reason that
they believed that they had no baptism unless they received it in the
Church, even under these circumstances we should not be bound to yield
to their desire for the repetition of baptism; but rather they should
be taught, on the one hand, that baptism, though perfect in itself,
could in no way profit their perversity if they would not submit to
be corrected; and, on the other hand, that the perfection of baptism
could not be impaired by their perversity, while refusing to be
corrected: and again, that no further perfection is added to baptism
in them because they are submitting to correction; but that, while
they themselves are quitting their iniquity, that which was before
within them to their destruction is now beginning to be of profit
for salvation. For, learning this, they will both recognise the need
of salvation in Catholic unity, and will cease to claim as their own
what is really Christ's, and will not confound the sacrament of truth,
although existing in themselves, with their own individual error.
6. To this we may add a further reason, that men, by a sort of hidden
inspiration from heaven, shrink from any one who for the second
time receives baptism which he had already received in any quarter
whatsoever, insomuch that the very heretics themselves, when their
arguments start with that subject, rub their forehead in perplexity,
and almost all their laity, even those who have grown old in their
body, and have conceived an obstinate animosity against the Catholic
Church, confess that this one point in their system displeases them;
and many who, for the sake of gaining some secular advantage, or
avoiding some disadvantage, wish to secede to them, strive with many
secret efforts that they may have granted to them, as a peculiar and
individual privilege, that they should not be rebaptized; and some,
who are led to place credence in their other vain delusions and false
accusations against the Catholic Church, are recalled to unity by this
one consideration, that they are unwilling to associate with them lest
they should be compelled to be rebaptized. And the Donatists, through
fear of this feeling, which has so thorough possession of all men's
hearts, have consented to acknowledge the baptism which was conferred
among the followers of Maximianus, whom they had condemned, and so to
cut short their own tongues and close their mouths, in preference to
baptizing again so many men of the people of Musti, and Assuræ, and
other districts, whom they received with Felicianus and Prætextatus,
and the others who had been condemned by them and afterwards returned
to them.
* * * * *
CHAP. VI.--7. For when this is done occasionally in the case of
individuals, at great intervals of time and space, the enormity of
the deed is not equally felt; but if all were suddenly to be brought
together who had been baptized in course of time by the aforesaid
followers of Maximianus, either under pressure of the peril of death or
at their Easter solemnities, and it were told them that they must be
baptized again, because what they had already received in the sacrilege
of schism was null and void, they might indeed say what obstinate
perseverance in their error would compel them to say, that they might
hide the rigour and iciness of their hardness under any kind of false
shade of consistency against the warmth of truth. But in fact, because
the party of Maximianus could not bear this, and because the very men
who would have to enforce it could not endure what must needs have been
done in the case of so many men at once, especially as those very men
would be rebaptizing them in the party of Primianus who had already
baptized them in the party of Maximianus, for these reasons their
baptism was received, and the pride of the Donatists was cut short. And
this course they would certainly not have chosen to adopt, had they
not thought that more harm would have been done to their cause by the
offence men would have taken at the repetition of the baptism, than by
the reputation lost in abandoning their defence. And this I would not
say with any idea that we ought to be restrained by consideration of
human feelings, if the truth compelled those who came from heretics to
be baptized afresh. But because the holy Cyprian says, "that heretics
might have been all the more impelled to the necessity of coming over,
if only they were to be rebaptized in the Catholic Church,"[308]
on this account I have wished to place on record the intensity of
the repugnance to this act which is seated deeply in the heart of
nearly every one,--a repugnance which I can believe was inspired by
God Himself, that the Church might be fortified by the instinct of
repugnance against any possible arguments which the weak cannot dispel.
* * * * *
CHAP. VII.--8. Truly, when I look at the actual words of Cyprian, I am
warned to say some things which are very necessary for the solution of
this question. "For if they were to see," he says, "that it was settled
and established by our formal decision and vote, that the baptism with
which they are baptized in heresy is considered just and lawful, they
will think that they are in just and lawful possession of the Church
also, and all its other gifts." He does not say "that they will think
they are in possession," but "in just and lawful possession of the
gifts of the Church." But we say that we cannot allow that they are _in
just and lawful_ possession of baptism. That they are in possession of
it we cannot deny, when we recognise the sacrament of the Lord in the
words of the gospel. They have therefore lawful baptism, but they do
not have it lawfully. For whosoever has it both in Catholic unity, and
living worthily of it, both has lawful baptism and has it lawfully; but
whosoever has it either within the Catholic Church itself, as chaff
mixed with the wheat, or outside, as chaff carried away by the wind,
has indeed lawful baptism, but not lawfully. For he has it as he
uses it. But the man does not use it lawfully who uses it against the
law,--which every one does, who, being baptized, yet leads an abandoned
life, whether inside or without the Church.
* * * * *
CHAP. VIII.--9. Wherefore, as the apostle said of the law, "The law is
good, if a man use it lawfully,"[309] so we may fairly say of baptism,
Baptism is good, if a man use it lawfully. And as they who used the
law unlawfully could not in that case cause that it should not be in
itself good, or make it null and void, so any one who uses baptism
unlawfully, either because he lives in heresy, or because he lives the
worst of lives, yet cannot cause that the baptism should be otherwise
than good, or altogether null and void. And so, when he is converted
either to Catholic unity, or to a mode of living worthy of so great a
sacrament, he begins to have not another and a lawful baptism, but that
same baptism in a lawful manner. Nor does the remission of irrevocable
sins follow on baptism, unless a man not only have lawful baptism, but
have it lawfully; and yet it does not follow that if a man have it not
lawfully, so that his sins are either not remitted, or, being remitted,
are brought on him again, therefore the sacrament of baptism should be
in the baptized person either bad or null and void. For as Judas, to
whom the Lord gave a morsel, gave a place within himself to the devil,
not by receiving what was bad, but by receiving it badly,[310] so each
person, on receiving the sacrament of the Lord, does not cause that
it is bad because he is bad himself, or that he has received nothing
because he has not received it to salvation. For it was none the less
the body of the Lord and the blood of the Lord, even in those to whom
the apostle said, "He that eateth unworthily, eateth and drinketh
damnation to himself."[311] Let the heretics therefore seek in the
Catholic Church not what they have, but what they have not,--that is,
the end of the commandment, without which many holy things may be
possessed, but they cannot profit. "Now, the end of the commandment is
charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith
unfeigned."[312] Let them therefore hasten to the unity and truth of
the Catholic Church, not that they may have the sacrament of washing,
if they have been already bathed in it, although in heresy, but that
they may have it to their health.
* * * * *
CHAP. IX.--10. Now we must see what is said of the baptism of John.
For "we read in the Acts of the Apostles, that those who had already
been baptized with the baptism of John were yet baptized by Paul,"[313]
simply because the baptism of John was not the baptism of Christ, but a
baptism allowed by Christ to John, so as to be called especially John's
baptism; as the same John says, "A man can receive nothing, except it
be given him from heaven."[314] And that he might not possibly seem to
receive this from God the Father in such wise as not to receive it from
the Son, speaking presently of Christ Himself, he says, "Of His fulness
have we all received."[315] But by the grace of a certain dispensation
John received this, which was to last not for long, but only long
enough to prepare for the Lord the way in which he must needs be the
forerunner. And as our Lord was presently to enter on this way with
all humility, and to lead those who humbly followed Him to perfection,
as He washed the feet of His servants,[316] so was He willing to be
baptized with the baptism of a servant.[317] For as He set Himself
to minister to the feet of those whose guide He was Himself, so He
submitted Himself to the gift of John which He Himself had given, that
all might understand what sacrilegious arrogance they would show in
despising the baptism which they ought each of them to receive from
the Lord, when the Lord Himself accepted what He Himself had bestowed
upon a servant, that he might give it as his own; and that when John,
than whom no greater had arisen among them that are born of women,[318]
bore such testimony to Christ, as to confess that he was not worthy to
unloose the latchet of His shoe,[319] Christ might both, by receiving
his baptism, be found to be the humblest among men, and, by taking away
the place for the baptism of John, be believed to be the most high God,
at once the teacher of humility and the giver of exaltation.
11. For to none of the prophets, to no one at all in holy Scripture,
do we read that it was granted to baptize in the water of repentance
for the remission of sins, as it was granted to John; that, causing the
hearts of the people to hang upon him through this marvellous grace,
he might prepare in them the way for Him whom he declared to be so
infinitely greater than himself. But the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses His
Church by such a baptism that on receiving it no other is required;
while John gave a first washing with such a baptism that on receiving
it there was further need of the baptism of the Lord,--not that the
first baptism should be repeated, but that the baptism of Christ, for
whom he was preparing the way, might be further bestowed on those who
had received the baptism of John. For if Christ's humility were not
to be commended to our notice, neither would there be any need of the
baptism of John; again, if the end were in John, after his baptism
there would be no need of the baptism of Christ. But because "Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,"[320]
it was shown by John to whom men should go, and in whom, when they had
reached Him, they should rest. The same John, therefore, set forth
both the exalted nature of the Lord, when he placed Him far before
himself, and His humility, when he baptized Him as the lowest of the
people. But if John had baptized Christ alone, he would be thought to
have been the dispenser of a better baptism, in that with which Christ
alone was baptized, than the baptism of Christ with which Christians
are baptized; and again, if all ought to be baptized first with the
baptism of John, and then with that of Christ, the baptism of Christ
would deservedly seem to be lacking in fulness and perfection, as not
sufficing for salvation. Wherefore the Lord was baptized with the
baptism of John, that He might bend the proud necks of men to His own
health-giving baptism; and He was not alone baptized with it, lest
He should show His own to be inferior to this, with which none but
He Himself had deserved to be baptized; and He did not allow it to
continue longer, lest the one baptism with which He baptizes might seem
to need the other to precede it.
* * * * *
CHAP. X.--12. I ask, therefore, if sins were remitted by the baptism
of John, what more could the baptism of Christ confer on those whom
the Apostle Paul desired to be baptized with the baptism of Christ
after they had received the baptism of John? But if sins were not
remitted by the baptism of John, were those men in the days of Cyprian
better than John, of whom he says himself that they "used to seize on
estates by treacherous frauds, and increase their gains by accumulated
usuries,"[321] through whose administration of baptism the remission of
sins was yet conferred? Or was it because they were contained within
the unity of the Church? What then? Was John not contained within
that unity, the friend of the Bridegroom, the preparer of the way of
the Lord, the baptizer of the Lord Himself? Who will be mad enough to
assert this? Wherefore, although my belief is that John so baptized
with the water of repentance for the remission of sins, that those
who were baptized by him received the expectation of the remission of
their sins, the actual remission taking place in the baptism of the
Lord,--just as the resurrection which is expected at the last day is
fulfilled in hope in us, as the apostle says, that "He hath raised us
up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus;"[322] and again, "For we are saved by hope;"[323] or as again
John himself, while he says, "I indeed baptize you with water unto
repentance, for the remission of your sins,"[324] yet says, on seeing
our Lord, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world,"[325]--nevertheless I am not disposed to contend vehemently
against any one who maintains that sins were remitted even in the
baptism of John, but that some fuller sanctification was conferred
by the baptism of Christ on those whom Paul ordered to be baptized
anew.[326]
* * * * *
CHAP. XI.--13. For we must look at the point which especially concerns
the matter before us (whatever be the nature of the baptism of John,
since it is clear that he belongs to the unity of Christ), viz., what
is the reason for which it was right that men should be baptized again
after receiving the baptism of the holy John, and why they ought not
to be baptized again after receiving the baptism of the covetous
bishops. For no one denies that in the Lord's field John was as wheat,
bearing an hundred-fold, if that be the highest rate of increase;
also no one doubts that covetousness, which is idolatry, is reckoned
in the Lord's harvest among the chaff. Why then is a man baptized
again after receiving baptism from the wheat, and not after receiving
it from the chaff? If it was because he was better than John that
Paul baptized after John, why did not also Cyprian baptize after his
usurious colleagues, than whom he was better beyond all comparison?
If it was because they were in unity with him that he did not baptize
after such colleagues, neither ought Paul to have baptized after John,
because they were joined together in the same unity. Can it be that
defrauders and extortioners belong to the members of that one dove,
and that he does not belong to it to whom the full power of the Lord
Jesus Christ was shown by the appearance of the Holy Spirit in the form
of a dove?[327] Truly he belongs most closely to it; but the others,
who must be separated from it either by the occasion of some scandal,
or by the winnowing at the last day, do not by any means belong to
it, and yet baptism was repeated after John and not after them. What
then is the cause, except that the baptism which Paul ordered them to
receive was not the same as that which was given at the hands of John?
And so in the same unity of the Church, the baptism of Christ cannot
be repeated though it be given by an usurious minister; but those who
receive the baptism of John, even from the hands of John himself, ought
to be afterwards baptized with the baptism of Christ.
* * * * *
CHAP. XII.--14. Accordingly, I too might use the words of the blessed
Cyprian to turn the hearts of those that hear me to the consideration
of something truly marvellous, if I were to say "that John, who was
accounted greater among the prophets,--he who was filled with divine
grace while yet in his mother's womb; he who was upheld in the spirit
and power of Elias; who was not the adversary, but a forerunner and
herald of the Lord; who not only foretold our Lord in words, but also
showed Him to the sight; who baptized Christ Himself, through whom
all others are baptized,"[328]--he was not worthy to baptize in such
wise that those who were baptized by him should not be baptized again
after him; and shall no one think that a man should be baptized in the
Church after he had been baptized by the covetous, by defrauders, by
extortioners, by usurers? Is not the answer ready to this invidious
question, Why do you think this unmeet, as though either John were
dishonoured, or the covetous man honoured? But His baptism ought not to
be repeated, of whom John says, "The same is He which baptizeth with
the Holy Ghost."[329] For whoever be the minister by whose hands it is
given, it is His baptism of whom it was said, "The same is He which
baptizeth." But neither was the baptism of John himself repeated, when
the Apostle Paul commanded those who had been baptized by him to be
baptized in Christ. For what they had not received from the friend of
the Bridegroom, this it was right that they should receive from the
Bridegroom Himself, of whom that friend had said, "The same is He which
baptizeth with the Holy Ghost."
* * * * *
CHAP. XIII.--15. For the Lord Jesus might, if He had so thought fit,
have given the power of His baptism to some one or more of His chief
servants, whom He had already made His friends, such as those to whom
He says, "Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends;"[330] that,
as Aaron was shown to be the priest by the rod that budded,[331] so in
His Church, when more and greater miracles are performed, the ministers
of more excellent holiness, and the dispensers of His mysteries, might
be made manifest by some sign, as those who alone ought to baptize. But
if this had been done, then though the power of baptizing were given
them by the Lord, yet it would necessarily be called their own baptism,
as in the case of the baptism of John. And so Paul gives thanks to God
that he baptized none of those men who, as though forgetting in whose
name they had been baptized, were for dividing themselves into factions
under the names of different individuals.[332] For when baptism is as
valid at the hands of a contemptible man as it was when given by an
apostle, it is recognised as the baptism neither of this man nor of
that, but of Christ; as John bears witness that he learned, in the case
of the Lord Himself, through the appearance of the dove. For in what
other respect he said, "And I knew Him not," I cannot clearly see. For
if he had not known Him in any sense, he could not have said to Him
when He came to his baptism, "I have need to be baptized of Thee."[333]
What is it, therefore, that he says, "I saw the Spirit descending from
heaven like a dove, and it abode on Him. And I knew Him not: but He
that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same
is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost?"[334] The dove clearly
descended on Him after He was baptized. But while He was yet coming to
be baptized, John had said, "I have need to be baptized of Thee." He
therefore already knew Him. What does he therefore mean by the words,
"I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same
said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and
remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost,"
since this took place after He was baptized, unless it were that he
knew Him in respect of certain attributes, and in respect of others
knew Him not? He knew Him, indeed, as the Son of God, the Bridegroom,
of whose fulness all should receive; but whereas of His fulness he
himself had so received the power of baptizing that it should be called
the baptism of John, he did not know whether He would so give it to
others also, or whether He would have His own baptism in such wise,
that at whose soever hands it was given, whether by a man that brought
forth fruit a hundred-fold, or sixty-fold, or thirty-fold, whether by
the wheat or by the chaff, it should be known to be of Him alone; and
this he learned through the Spirit descending like a dove, and abiding
on Him.
* * * * *
CHAP. XIV.--16. Accordingly we find the apostles using the expressions,
"My glorying,"[335] though it was certainly in the Lord; and "Mine
office,"[336] and "My knowledge,"[337] and "My gospel,"[338] although
it was confessedly bestowed and given by the Lord; but no one of
them ever once said, "My baptism." For neither is the glorying of
all of them equal, nor do they all minister with equal powers, nor
are they all endowed with equal knowledge, and in preaching the
gospel one works more forcibly than another, and so one may be said
to be more learned than another in the doctrine of salvation itself;
but one cannot be said to be more or less baptized than another,
whether he be baptized by a greater or a less worthy minister. So
when "the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like;"[339] if it be strange that it
should be said, "Men were baptized after John, and are not baptized
after heretics," why is it not equally strange that it should be said,
"Men were baptized after John, and are not baptized after the envious,"
seeing that Cyprian himself bears witness in his epistle concerning
envy and malignity that the covetous are of the party of the devil, and
Cyprian himself makes it manifest from the words of the Apostle Paul,
as we have shown above, that in the time of the apostles themselves
there were envious persons in the Church of Christ among the very
preachers of the name of Christ?
* * * * *
CHAP. XV.--17. That therefore the baptism of John was not the same
as the baptism of Christ, has, I think, been shown with sufficient
clearness; and therefore no argument can be drawn from it that baptism
should be repeated after heretics because it was repeated after John:
since John was not a heretic, and could have a baptism, which, though
granted by Christ, was yet not the very baptism of Christ, seeing that
he had the love of Christ; while a heretic can have at once the baptism
of Christ and the perversity of the devil, as another within the Church
may have at once the baptism of Christ and the envy of the devil.
18. But it will be urged that baptism after a heretic is much more
required, because John was not a heretic, and yet baptism was repeated
after him. On this principle, a man may say, much more must we
rebaptize after a drunkard, because John was sober, and yet baptism was
repeated after him. And we shall have no answer to make to such a man,
save that the baptism of Christ was given to those who were baptized
by John, because they had it not; but where men have the baptism of
Christ, no iniquity on their part can possibly effect that the baptism
of Christ should fail to be in them.
19. It is not therefore true that "by baptizing first, the heretic
obtains the right of baptism;"[340] but because he did not baptize
with his own baptism, and though he did not possess the right of
baptizing, yet that which he gave is Christ's, and he who received it
is Christ's. For many things are given wrongfully, and yet they are
not therefore said to be non-existent or not given at all. For neither
does he who renounces the world in word only and not in deed receive
baptism lawfully, and yet he does receive it. For both Cyprian records
that there were such men in the Church in his day, and we ourselves
experience and lament the fact.
20. But it is strange in what sense it can be said that "baptism
and the Church cannot in any way be separated and detached from one
another."[340] For if baptism remains inseparably in him who is
baptized, how can it be that he can be separated from the Church, and
baptism cannot? But it is clear that baptism does remain inseparably
in the baptized person; because into whatever depth of evil, and into
whatever fearful whirlpool of sin the baptized person may fall, even
to the ruin of apostasy, he yet is not bereft of his baptism. And
therefore, if through repentance he returns, it is not given again,
because it is judged that he could not have been without it even in his
sin. But who can ever doubt that a baptized person can be separated
from the Church? For hence all the heresies have proceeded which
deceive by the use of Christian terms.
* * * * *
CHAP. XVI.--Wherefore, since it is manifest that the baptism remains in
the baptized person when he is separated from the Church, the baptism
which is in him is certainly separated with him. And therefore not all
who retain the baptism retain the Church, just as not all who retain
the Church retain eternal life. Or if we say that only those retain the
Church who observe the commandments of God, we at once concede that
there are many who retain baptism, and do not retain the Church.
21. Therefore the heretic is not "the first to seize baptism," since
he has received it from the Church. Nor, though he seceded, could
baptism have been lost by him whom we assert no longer to retain the
Church, and yet allow to retain baptism. Nor does any one "yield his
birthright, and give it to a heretic," because he says that he took
away with him what he could not give lawfully, but what would yet be
according to law when given; or that he no longer has lawfully what yet
is in accordance with law in his possession. But the birthright rests
only in a holy conversation and good life, to which all belong of whom
that bride consists as her members which has no spot or wrinkle,[341]
or that dove that groans amid the wickedness of the many crows,--unless
it be that, while Esau lost his birthright from his lust after a mess
of pottage,[342] we are yet to hold that it is retained by defrauders,
robbers, usurers, envious persons, drunkards, and the like, over whose
existence in the Church of his time Cyprian groaned in his epistles.
Wherefore, either it is not the same thing to retain the Church and to
retain the birthright in divine things, or, if every one who retains
the Church also retains the birthright, then all those wicked ones do
not retain the Church who yet both seem and are allowed by every one
of us to give baptism within the Church; for no one, save the man who
is wholly ignorant of sacred things, would say that they retain the
birthright in sacred things.
* * * * *
CHAP. XVII.--22. But, having considered and handled all these points,
we have now come to that peaceful utterance of Cyprian at the end of
the epistle, with which I am never sated, though I read and re-read
it again and again,--so great is the pleasantness of brotherly love
which breathes forth from it, so great the sweetness of charity in
which it abounds. "These things," he says, "we have written unto you,
dearest brother, shortly, according to our poor ability, prescribing
to or prejudging no one, lest each bishop should not do what he thinks
right, in the free exercise of his own will. We, so far as in us
lies, do not contend on the subject of heretics with our colleagues
and fellow-bishops, with whom we maintain concord and peace in the
Lord; especially as the apostle also says, 'If any man seem to be
contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.'[343]
We observe patiently and gently charity of spirit, the honour of our
brotherhood, the bond of faith, the harmony of the priesthood. For
this reason also, to the best of our poor ability, by the permission
and the inspiration of God we have written this treatise on 'The Good
of Patience,' which we have sent to you in consideration of our mutual
love."[344]
23. There are many things to be considered in these words, wherein the
brightness of Christian charity shines forth in this man, who "loved
the beauty of the Lord's house, and the place of the tabernacle of His
habitation."[345] First, that he did not conceal what he felt; then,
that he set it forth so gently and peacefully, in that he maintained
the peace of the Church with those who thought otherwise, because
he understood how great healthfulness was bound up in the bond of
peace, loving it so much, and maintaining it with sobriety, seeing
and feeling that even men who think differently may entertain their
several sentiments without breach of Christian charity. For he would
not say that he could maintain divine concord or the peace of the
Lord with evil men; for the good man can observe peace towards wicked
men, but he cannot be united with them in the peace which they have
not. Lastly, that prescribing to no one, and prejudging no one, lest
each bishop should not do what he thinks right in the free exercise of
his own will, he has left for us also, whatsoever we may be, a place
for treating peacefully of those things with him. For he is present,
not only in his letters, but by that very charity which existed in
so extraordinary a degree in him, and which can never die. Longing,
therefore, with the aid of his prayers, to cling to and be in union
with him, if I be not hindered by the unmeetness of my sins, I will
learn if I can through his letters with how great peace and comfort the
Lord administered His Church through him; and, putting on the bowels of
humility through the moving influence of his discourse, if, in common
with the Church at large, I entertain any doctrine more true than his,
I will not prefer my heart to his, even in the point in which he,
though holding different views, was yet not severed from the Church
throughout the world. For in that, when that question was yet undecided
for want of full discussion, though his sentiments differed from those
of many of his colleagues, yet he observed so great moderation, that he
would not mutilate the sacred fellowship of the Church of God by any
stain of schism, a greater strength of excellence appeared in him than
would have been shown if, without that virtue, he had held views on
every point not only true, but coinciding with their own. Nor should I
be acting as he would wish, if I were to pretend to prefer his talent
and his fluency of discourse and copiousness of learning to the holy
Council of all nations, whereat he was assuredly present through the
unity of his spirit, especially as he is now placed in such full light
of truth as to see with perfect certainty what he was here seeking in
the spirit of perfect peace. For out of that rich abundance he smiles
at all that here seems eloquence in us, as though it were the first
essay of infancy; there he sees by what rule of piety he acted here,
that nothing should be dearer in the Church to him than unity. There,
too, with unspeakable delight he beholds with what prescient and most
merciful providence the Lord, that He might heal our swellings, "chose
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise,"[346] and, in
the ordering of the members of His Church, placed all things in such
healthful wise, that men should not say that they were chosen to the
help of the gospel for their own talent or learning, of whose source
they yet were ignorant, and so be puffed up with deadly pride. Oh, how
Cyprian rejoices! With how much more perfect calmness does he behold
how greatly it conduces to the health of the human race, that in the
writings even of Christian and pious orators there should be found what
merits blame, and in the writings of the fishermen there should nothing
of the sort be found! And so I, being fully assured of this joy of that
holy soul, neither in any way venture to think or say that my writings
are free from every kind of error, nor, in opposing that opinion of
his, wherein it seemed to him that those who came from among heretics
were to be received otherwise than either they had been in former days,
as he himself bears witness, or are now received, as is the reasonable
custom, confirmed by a general Council of the whole Christian world, do
I set against him my own view, but that of the holy Catholic Church,
which he so loved and loves, in which he brought forth such abundant
fruit with tolerance, whose entirety he himself was not, but in whose
unity he remained; whose root he never left, but, though he already
brought forth fruit from its root, he was purged by the heavenly
Husbandman that he should bring forth more fruit;[347] for whose peace
and safety, that the wheat might not be rooted out together with the
tares, he both reproved with the freedom of truth, and endured with the
grace of charity, so many evils on the part of men who were placed in
unity with himself.
* * * * *
CHAP. XVIII.--24. Whence Cyprian himself[348] again admonishes us with
the greatest fulness, that many who were dead in their trespasses and
sins, although they did not belong to the body of Christ, and the
members of that innocent and guileless dove (so that if she alone
baptized, they certainly could not baptize), yet to all appearance
seemed both to be baptized and to baptize within the Church. Since,
therefore, there be dead men within the Church, who either do not
belong at all to that living dove, or at least do not as yet belong
to her; and since there be dead men without, who yet more clearly do
not belong to her at all, or not as yet; and since it is true that
"another man cannot be quickened by one who himself liveth not,"--it
is therefore clear that those who within are baptized by such persons,
if they approach the sacrament with true conversion of heart, are
quickened by Him whose baptism it is. But if they renounce the world in
word and not in deed, as Cyprian declares to be the case with some who
are within, it is then manifest that they are not themselves quickened
unless they be converted, and yet that they have true baptism even
though they be not converted. Whence also it is likewise clear that
those who are dead without, although they neither "live themselves, nor
quicken others," yet have the living baptism, which would profit them
unto life so soon as they should be converted unto peace.
* * * * *
CHAP. XIX.--25. Wherefore, as regards those who received the persons
who came from heresy in the same baptism of Christ with which they
had been baptized outside the Church, and said "that they followed
ancient custom," it is in vain urged against them "that among the
ancients heresies and schisms were yet in their very infancy,[349] so
that those were involved in them who were seceders from the Church,
and had originally been baptized within the Church, so that it was not
necessary that they should be baptized again when they returned and did
penance." For so soon as each several heresy existed, and departed from
the communion of the Catholic Church, it was possible that, I will not
even say the next day, but even on that very day, its votaries might
have baptized some who flocked to them. And therefore if this was the
old custom, that they should be so received into the Church (as could
not be denied even by those who maintained the contrary part in the
discussion), there can be no doubt in the mind of any one who pays
careful attention to the matter, that those also were so received who
had been baptized without in heresy.
26. But I cannot see what show of reason there is in this, that the
name of "erring sheep" should be denied to one whose lot it has been
that, while seeking the salvation which is in Christ, he has fallen
into the error of heretics, and been baptized in their body; while he
is held to have become a sheep already within the body of the Catholic
Church herself, who has renounced the world in words and not in deeds,
and has received baptism in such falseness of heart as this. Or if such
an one also does not become a sheep unless after turning to God with
a true heart, then, as he is not baptized at the time when he becomes
a sheep, if he had been already baptized, but was not yet a sheep; so
he too, who comes from the heretics that he may become a sheep, is
not then to be baptized if he had been already baptized with the same
baptism, though he was not yet a sheep. Wherefore, since even all the
bad that are within--the covetous, the envious, the drunkards, and
those that live contrary to the discipline of Christ--may be deservedly
called liars, and in darkness, and dead, and antichrists, do they yet
therefore not baptize, on the ground that "there can be nothing common
between truth and falsehood, between light and darkness, between death
and immortality, between Antichrist and Christ?"
27. He makes an assumption, then, not "of mere custom," but "of
the reason of truth itself," when he says that the sacrament of
God cannot be turned to error by the error of any men, since it is
declared to exist even in those who have erred. Assuredly the Apostle
John says most plainly, "He that hateth his brother is in darkness
even until now;"[350] and again, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a
murderer;"[351] and why, therefore, do they baptize within the Church
whom Cyprian himself declares to be in the envy of malice?[352]
* * * * *
CHAP. XX. How does a murderer cleanse and sanctify the water?[353] How
can darkness bless the oil? But if God is present in His sacraments
to confirm His words by whomsoever the sacraments may be administered,
then both the sacraments of God are everywhere valid, and evil men whom
they profit not are everywhere perverse.
28. But what kind of argument is this, that "a heretic must be
considered not to have baptism, because he has not the Church?" And it
must be acknowledged that "when he is baptized, he is questioned about
the Church."[354] Just as though the same question about the Church
were not put in baptism to him who within the Church renounces the
world in word and not in deed. As therefore his false answer does not
prevent what he receives from being baptism, so also the false reply
of the other about the holy Church does not prevent what he receives
from being baptism; and as the former, if he afterwards fulfil with
truth what he promised in falsehood, does not receive a second baptism,
but only an amended life, so also in the case of the latter, if he
come afterwards to the Church about which he gave a false answer to
the question put to him, thinking that he had it when he had it not,
the Church herself which he did not possess is given him, but what he
had received is not repeated. But I cannot tell why it should be, that
while God can "sanctify the oil" in answer to the words which proceed
out of the mouth of a murderer, He yet cannot sanctify it on the altar
reared by a heretic, unless it be that He who is not hindered by the
false conversion of the heart of man within the Church is hindered by
the false erection of some wood without from deigning to be present
in His sacraments, though no falseness on the part of men can hinder
Him. If, therefore, what is said in the gospel, that "God heareth not
sinners,"[355] extends so far that the sacraments cannot be celebrated
by a sinner, how then does He hear a murderer praying, either over
the water of baptism, or over the oil, or over the eucharist, or over
the heads of those on whom his hand is laid? All which things are
nevertheless done, and are valid, even at the hands of murderers,
that is, at the hands of those who hate their brethren, even within,
in the Church itself. Since "no one can give what he does not possess
himself," how does a murderer give the Holy Spirit? And yet such an one
even baptizeth within the Church. It is God, therefore, that gives the
Holy Spirit even when a man of this kind is baptizing.
* * * * *
CHAP. XXI.--29. But as to what he says, that "he who comes to the
Church is to be baptized and renewed, that within he may be hallowed
through the holy," what will he do, if within also he meets with those
who are not holy? Or can it be that the murderer is holy? And if the
reason for his being baptized in the Church is that "he should put
off this very thing also that he, being a man that sought to come to
God, fell, through the deceit of error, on one profane," where is he
afterwards to put off this, that he may chance, while seeking a man
of God within the Church itself, to have fallen, through the deceit
of error, on a murderer? If "there cannot be in a man something
that is void and something that is valid," why is it possible that
in a murderer the sacrament should be holy and his heart unholy? If
"whosoever cannot give the Holy Spirit cannot baptize," why does the
murderer baptize within the Church? Or how has the murderer the Holy
Spirit, when every one that has the Holy Spirit is filled with light,
but "he who hates his brother is still in darkness?" If because "there
is one baptism, and one Spirit," therefore they cannot have the one
baptism who have not the one Spirit, why do the innocent man and the
murderer within the Church have the one baptism and not have the one
Spirit? So therefore the heretic and the Catholic may have the one
baptism, and yet not have the one Church, as in the Catholic Church the
innocent man and the murderer may have the one baptism, though they
have not the one Spirit; for as there is one baptism, so there is one
Spirit and one Church. And so the result is, that in each person we
must acknowledge what he already has, and to each person we must give
what he has not. If "nothing can be confirmed and ratified with God
which has been done by those whom God calls His enemies and foes," why
is the baptism confirmed which is given by murderers? Are we not to
call murderers the enemies and foes of the Lord? But "he that hateth
his brother is a murderer." How then did they baptize who hated Paul,
the servant of Jesus Christ, and thereby hated Jesus Himself, since
He Himself said to Saul, "Why persecutest thou me?"[356] when he was
persecuting His servants, and since at the last He Himself shall say,
"Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these that are mine,
ye did it not to me?"[357] Wherefore all who go out from us are not of
us, but not all who are with us are of us; just as when men thresh,
all that flies from the threshing-floor is shown not to be corn, but
not all that remains there is therefore corn. And so John too says,
"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been
of us, they would no doubt have continued with us."[358] Wherefore
God gives the sacrament of grace even through the hands of wicked
men, but the grace itself only by Himself or through His saints. And
therefore He gives remission of sins either of Himself, or through the
members of that dove to whom He says, "Whose soever sins ye remit,
they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are
retained."[359] But since no one can doubt that baptism, which is the
sacrament of the remission of sins, is possessed even by murderers,
who are yet in darkness because the hatred of their brethren is not
excluded from their hearts, therefore either no remission of sins is
given to them if their baptism is accompanied by no change of heart for
the better, or if the sins are remitted, they at once return on them
again. And we learn that the baptism is holy in itself, because it is
of God; and whether it be given or whether it be received by men of
such like character, it cannot be polluted by any perversity of theirs,
either within, or yet outside the Church.
* * * * *
CHAP. XXII.--30. Accordingly we agree with Cyprian that heretics
cannot give remission of sins; but we maintain that they can give
baptism,--which indeed in them, both when they give and when they
receive it, is profitable only to their destruction, as misusing so
great a gift of God; just as also the malicious and envious, whom
Cyprian himself acknowledges to be within the Church, cannot give
remission of sins, while we all confess that they can give baptism.
For if it was said of those who have sinned against us, "If ye
forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses,"[360] how much more impossible is it that their sins
should be forgiven who hate the brethren by whom they are loved, and
are baptized in that very hatred; and yet when they are brought to the
right way, baptism is not given them anew, but that very pardon which
they did not then deserve is granted them in their true conversion? And
so even what Cyprian wrote to Quintus, and what, in conjunction with
his colleagues Liberalis, Caldonius, Junius, and the rest, he wrote to
Saturninus, Maximus, and others, is all found, on due consideration,
to be in no wise meet to be preferred as against the agreement of the
whole Catholic Church, of which they rejoiced that they were members,
and from which they neither cut themselves away nor allowed others
to be cut away who held a contrary opinion, until at length, by the
will of the Lord, it was made manifest, by a general Council many
years afterwards, what was the more perfect way, and that not by the
institution of any novelty, but by confirming what was old.
* * * * *
CHAP. XXIII.--31. Cyprian writes also to Pompeius[361] about this
selfsame matter, and clearly shows in that letter that Stephen, who,
as we learn, was then bishop of the Roman Church, not only did not
agree with him upon the points before us, but even wrote and taught
the opposite views. But Stephen certainly did not "communicate with
heretics," merely because he did not dare to impugn the baptism
of Christ, which he knew remained perfect in the midst of their
perversity. For if none have baptism who entertain false views about
God, it has been proved sufficiently, in my opinion, that this may
happen even within the Church. "The apostles," indeed, "gave no
injunctions on the point;" but the custom, which is opposed to
Cyprian, may be supposed to have had its origin in apostolic tradition,
just as there are many things which are observed by the whole Church,
and therefore are fairly held to have been enjoined by the apostles,
which yet are not mentioned in their writings.
32. But it will be urged that it is written of heretics that "they are
condemned of themselves."[362] What then? are they not also condemned
of themselves to whom it was said, "For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself?"[363] But to these the apostle says, "Thou
that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?"[364] and so
forth. And such truly were they who, being bishops and established
in Catholic unity with Cyprian himself, used to plunder estates by
treacherous frauds, preaching all the time to the people the words of
the apostle, who says, "Nor shall extortioners inherit the kingdom of
God."[365]
33. Wherefore I will do no more than run shortly through the other
sentiments founded on the same rules, which are in the aforesaid letter
written to Pompeius. By what authority of holy Scripture is it shown
that it is against the commandment of God that persons coming from the
society of heretics, if they have already there received the baptism
of Christ, are not baptized again? But it is clearly shown that many
pretended Christians, though they are not joined in the same bond of
charity with the saints, without which anything holy that they may
have been able to possess is of no profit to them, yet have baptism in
common with the saints, as has been already sufficiently proved with
the greatest fulness. He says "that the Church, and the Spirit, and
baptism, are mutually incapable of separation from each other, and
therefore" he wishes that "those who are separated from the Church
and the Holy Spirit should be understood to be separated also from
baptism." But if this is the case, then when any one has received
baptism in the Catholic Church, it remains so long in him as he himself
remains in the Church, which is not so. For it is not restored to him
when he returns, just because he did not lose it when he seceded. But
as the disaffected sons have not the Holy Spirit in the same manner as
the beloved sons, and yet they have baptism; so heretics also have not
the Church as Catholics have, and yet they have baptism. "For the Holy
Spirit of discipline will flee deceit,"[366] and yet baptism will not
flee from it. And so, as baptism can continue in one from whom the Holy
Spirit withdraws Himself, so can baptism continue where the Church is
not. But if "the laying on of hands" were not applied to one coming
from heresy, he would be as it were judged to be wholly blameless;
but for the uniting of love, which is the greatest gift of the Holy
Spirit, without which any other holy thing that there may be in a man
is profitless to his salvation, hands are laid on heretics when they
are brought to a knowledge of the truth.[367]
* * * * *
CHAP. XXIV.--34. I remember that I have already discussed at sufficient
length the question of "the temple of God," and how this saying is to
be taken, "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ."[368] For neither are the covetous the temple of God, since it
is written, "What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?"[369]
And Cyprian has adduced the testimony of Paul to the fact that
covetousness is idolatry. But men put on Christ, sometimes so far as to
receive the sacrament, sometimes so much further as to receive holiness
of life. And the first of these is common to good and bad alike; the
second, peculiar to the good and pious. Wherefore, if "baptism cannot
be without the Spirit," then heretics have the Spirit also,--but to
destruction, not to salvation, just as was the case with Saul.[370]
For in the Holy Spirit devils are cast out through the name of Christ,
which even he was able to do who was without the Church, which called
forth a suggestion from the disciples to their Lord.[371] Just as the
covetous have the Holy Spirit, who yet are not the temple of God. For
"what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" If therefore
the covetous have not the Spirit of God, and yet have baptism, it is
possible for baptism to exist without the Spirit of God.
35. If heresy is rendered "unable to engender sons to God through
Christ, because it is not the bride of Christ," neither can that crowd
of evil men established within the Church, since it is also not the
bride of Christ; for the bride of Christ is described as being without
spot or wrinkle.[372] Therefore either not all baptized persons are
the sons of God, or even that which is not the bride can engender the
sons of God. But as it is asked whether "he is spiritually born who has
received the baptism of Christ in the midst of heretics," so it may be
asked whether he is spiritually born who has received the baptism of
Christ in the Catholic Church, without being turned to God in a true
heart, of whom it cannot be said that he has not received baptism.
* * * * *
CHAP. XXV.--36. I am unwilling to go on to handle again what Cyprian
poured forth with signs of irritation against Stephen, as it is,
moreover, quite unnecessary. For they are but the selfsame arguments
which have already been sufficiently discussed; and it is better
to pass over those points which involved the danger of baneful
dissension. But Stephen thought that we should even hold aloof from
those who endeavoured to destroy the primitive custom in the matter of
receiving heretics; whereas Cyprian, moved by the difficulty of the
question itself, and being most largely endowed with the holy bowels
of Christian charity, thought that we ought to remain at unity with
those who differed in opinion from ourselves. Therefore, although he
was not without excitement, though of a truly brotherly kind, in his
indignation, yet the peace of Christ prevailed in their hearts, that in
such a dispute no evil of schism should arise between them. But it was
not found that "hence grew more abundant heresies and schisms," because
what is of Christ in them is approved, and what is of themselves is
condemned; for all the more those who hold this law of rebaptizing were
cut into smaller fragments.
* * * * *
CHAP. XXVI.--37. To go on to what he says, "that a bishop should be
'teachable,'"[373] adding, "But he is teachable who is gentle and meek
to learn; for a bishop ought not only to teach, but to learn as well,
since he is indeed the better teacher who daily grows and advances
by learning better things;"--in these words assuredly the holy man,
endowed with pious charity, sufficiently points out that we should
not hesitate to read his letters in such a sense, that we should feel
no difficulty if the Church should afterwards confirm what had been
discovered by further and longer discussions; because, as there were
many things which the learned Cyprian might teach, so there was still
something which the teachable Cyprian might learn. But the admonition
that he gives us, "that we should go back to the fountain, that is,
to apostolic tradition, and thence turn the channel of truth to our
times," is most excellent, and should be followed without hesitation.
It is handed down to us, therefore, as he himself records, by the
apostles, that there is "one God, and one Christ, and one hope, and one
faith, and one Church, and one baptism."[374] Since then we find that
in the times of the apostles themselves there were some who had not the
one hope, but had the one baptism, the truth is so brought down to us
from the fountain itself, that it is clear to us that it is possible
that though there is one Church, as there is one hope, and one baptism,
they may yet have the one baptism who have not the one Church; just
as even in those early times it was possible that men should have the
one baptism who had not the one hope. For how had they one hope with
the holy and the just, who used to say, "Let us eat and drink, for
to-morrow we die,"[375] asserting that there was no resurrection of the
dead? And yet they were among the very men to whom the same apostle
says, "Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of
Paul?"[376] For he writes most manifestly to them, saying, "How say
some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?"[377]
* * * * *
CHAP. XXVII.--38. And in that the Church is thus described in the Song
of Songs, "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut
up, a fountain sealed: thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates,
with pleasant fruits;"[378] I dare not understand this save of the
holy and just,--not of the covetous, and defrauders, and robbers, and
usurers, and drunkards, and the envious, of whom we yet both learn
most fully from Cyprian's letters, as I have often shown, and teach
ourselves, that they had baptism in common with the just, in common
with whom they certainly had not Christian charity. For I would that
some one would tell me how they "crept into the garden enclosed and the
fountain sealed," of whom Cyprian bears witness that they renounced
the world in word and not in deed, and that yet they were within the
Church. For if they both are themselves there, and are themselves the
bride of Christ, can she then be as she is described, "without spot or
wrinkle,"[379] and is the fair dove defiled with such a portion of her
members? Are these the thorns among which she is a lily, as it is said
in the same Song?[380] So far, therefore, as the lily extends, so far
does "the garden enclosed and the fountain sealed," namely, through all
those just persons who are Jews inwardly in the circumcision of the
heart[381] (for "the king's daughter is all glorious within"[382]),
in whom is the fixed number of the saints predestined before the
foundation of the world. But that multitude of thorns, whether in
secret or in open separation, is pressing on it from without, over
and above the number. "If I would declare them," it is said, "and
speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."[383] The number,
therefore, of the just persons, "who are the called according to His
purpose,"[384] of whom it is said, "The Lord knoweth them that are
His,"[385] is itself "the garden enclosed, the fountain sealed, the
orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits." Of this number some live
according to the Spirit, and enter on the excellent way of charity; and
when they "restore a man that is overtaken in a fault in the spirit of
meekness, they consider themselves, lest they also be tempted."[386]
And when it happens that they also are themselves overtaken, the
affection of charity is but a little checked, and not extinguished; and
again rising up and being kindled afresh, it is restored to its former
course. For they know how to say, "My soul melteth for heaviness:
strengthen thou me according unto Thy word."[387] But when "in anything
they be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto them,"[388]
if they abide in the burning flame of charity, and do not break the
bond of peace. But some who are yet carnal, and full of fleshly
appetites, are instant in working out their progress; and that they may
become fit for heavenly food, they are nourished with the milk of the
holy mysteries, they avoid in the fear of God whatever is manifestly
corrupt even in the opinion of the world, and they strive most
watchfully that they may be less and less delighted with worldly and
temporal matters. They observe most constantly the rule of faith which
has been sought out with diligence; and if in ought they stray from it,
they submit to speedy correction under Catholic authority, although,
in Cyprian's words, they be tossed about, by reason of their fleshly
appetite, with the various conflicts of phantasies. There are some also
who as yet live wickedly, or even lie in heresies or the superstitions
of the Gentiles, and yet even then "the Lord knoweth them that are
His." For, in that unspeakable foreknowledge of God, many who seem to
be without are in reality within, and many who seem to be within yet
really are without. Of all those, therefore, who, if I may so say, are
inwardly and secretly within, is that "enclosed garden" composed, "the
fountain sealed, the orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits."
The divinely imparted gifts of these are partly peculiar to themselves,
as in this world the charity that never faileth, and in the world to
come eternal life; partly they are common with evil and perverse men,
as all the other things in which consist the holy mysteries.
* * * * *
CHAP. XXVIII.--39. Hence, therefore, we have now set before us an
easier and more simple consideration of that ark of which Noah was
the builder and pilot. For Peter says that in the ark of Noah, "few,
that is, eight souls, were saved by water. The like figure whereunto
even baptism doth also now save us, (not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God)."[389]
Wherefore, if those appear to men to be baptized in Catholic unity
who renounce the world in words only and not in deeds, how do they
belong to the mystery of this ark in whom there is not the answer of
a good conscience? Or how are they saved by water, who, making a bad
use of holy baptism, though they seem to be within, yet persevere to
the end of their days in a wicked and abandoned course of life? Or how
can they fail to be saved by water, of whom Cyprian himself records
that they were in time past simply admitted to the Church with the
baptism which they had received in heresy? For the same unity of the
ark saved them, in which no one has been saved except by water. For
Cyprian himself says, "The Lord is able of His mercy to grant pardon,
and not to sever from the gifts of His Church those who, being in
all simplicity admitted to the Church, have fallen asleep within her
pale."[390] If not by water, how in the ark? If not in the ark, how in
the Church? But if in the Church, certainly in the ark; and if in the
ark, certainly by water. It is therefore possible that some who have
been baptized without may be considered, through the foreknowledge of
God, to have been really baptized within, because within the water
begins to be profitable to them unto salvation; nor can they be said to
have been otherwise saved in the ark except by water. And again, some
who seemed to have been baptized within may be considered, through the
same foreknowledge of God, more truly to have been baptized without,
since, by making a bad use of baptism, they die by water, which then
happened to no one who was not outside the ark. Certainly it is clear
that, when we speak of within and without in relation to the Church,
it is the position of the heart that we must consider, not that of the
body, since all who are within in heart are saved in the unity of the
ark through the same water, through which all who are in heart without,
whether they are also in body without or not, die as enemies of unity.
As therefore it was not another but the same water that saved those
who were placed within the ark, and destroyed those who were left
without the ark, so it is not by different baptisms, but by the same,
that good Catholics are saved, and bad Catholics or heretics perish.
But what the most blessed Cyprian thinks of the Catholic Church, and
how the heretics are utterly crushed by his authority, notwithstanding
the much I have already said, I have yet determined to set forth by
itself, if God will, with somewhat greater fulness and perspicuity, so
soon as I shall have first said about his Council what I think is due
from me, which, in God's will, I shall attempt in the following book.
FOOTNOTES:
[305] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. _ad Jubaian._ sec. 20.
[306] See below, Book VII. c. ii.
[307] Phil. iii. 15.
[308] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 21.
[309] 1 Tim. i. 8.
[310] John xiii. 27.
[311] 1 Cor. xi. 29.
[312] 1 Tim. i. 5.
[313] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 21; Acts xix. 3-5.
[314] John iii. 27.
[315] John i. 16.
[316] John xiii. 4, 5.
[317] Matt. iii. 13.
[318] Matt. xi. 11.
[319] John i. 27.
[320] Rom. x. 4.
[321] Cypr. _Serm. de Lapsis_, c. iv.
[322] Eph. ii. 6.
[323] Rom. viii. 24.
[324] Matt. iii. 11.
[325] John i. 29.
[326] Acts xix. 3-5.
[327] Matt. iii. 16; John i. 33.
[328] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 22.
[329] John i. 33.
[330] John xv. 15.
[331] Num. xvii. 8.
[332] 1 Cor. i. 12-15.
[333] Matt. iii. 14.
[334] John i. 32, 33.
[335] 1 Cor. ix. 15.
[336] Rom. xi. 13.
[337] Eph. iii. 4.
[338] 2 Tim. ii. 8.
[339] Gal. v. 19-21.
[340] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 22.
[341] Eph. v. 27. Cp. Aug. _Retract._ ii. 18, quoted above, I. xvii. 26.
[342] Gen. xxv. 29-34.
[343] 1 Cor. xi. 16.
[344] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 22.
[345] Ps. xxvi. 8.
[346] 1 Cor. i. 27.
[347] John xv. 2.
[348] In this and the following chapter Augustine is examining the
seventieth epistle of Cyprian to his brother Quintus, bishop in
Mauritania.
[349] Apud veteres hæreses et schismata prima adhuc fuisse initia.
Migne suggests, "hæresis et schismatum"--"there was as yet only the
first beginning of heresy and schisms."
[350] 1 John ii. 9.
[351] 1 John iii. 15.
[352] Cypr. lxxiii. sec. 12.
[353] In this and the next two chapters Augustine is examining the
seventieth epistle of Cyprian, from himself and thirty-one other
bishops, to Januarius, Saturninus, Maximus, and fifteen others.
[354] In the question, "Dost thou believe in eternal life and remission
of sins through the holy Church?" Cypr. _l.c._
[355] John ix. 31.
[356] Acts ix. 4.
[357] Matt. xxv. 45.
[358] 1 John ii. 19.
[359] John xx. 23.
[360] Matt. vi. 15.
[361] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxi., which is examined by Augustine in the
remaining chapters of this book.
[362] Tit. iii. 11.
[363] Rom. ii. 1.
[364] Rom. ii. 21.
[365] 1 Cor. vi. 10.
[366] Wisd. i. 5.
[367] Cyprian, in the laying on of hands, appears to refer to
confirmation, but Augustine interprets it of the restoration of
penitents. Cp. III. xvi. 21.
[368] Gal. iii. 27.
[369] 2 Cor. vi. 16.
[370] 1 Sam. xix. 23.
[371] Mark ix. 38.
[372] Eph. v. 27. Cp. Aug. _Retract._ ii. 18, quoted above, I. xvii. 26.
[373] "Docibilis;" and so the passage (2 Tim. ii. 24) is quoted
frequently by Augustine. The English version, "apt to teach," is more
true to the original, [Greek: didaktikos]
[374] See Eph. iv. 4-6.
[375] 1 Cor. xv. 32.
[376] 1 Cor. i. 13.
[377] 1 Cor. xv. 12.
[378] Cant. iv. 12, 13.
[379] Eph. v. 27.
[380] Cant. ii. 2.
[381] Rom. ii. 29.
[382] Ps. xlv. 14.
[383] Ps. xl. 5.
[384] Rom. viii. 28.
[385] 2 Tim. ii. 19.
[386] See Gal. vi. 1.
[387] Ps. cxix. 28.
[388] See Phil. iii. 15.
[389] Pet. iii. 20, 21.
[390] Cypr. _Ep._ lxxiii. sec. 20.
BOOK SIXTH.
IN WHICH IS CONSIDERED THE COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE, HELD UNDER THE
AUTHORITY AND PRESIDENCY OF CYPRIAN, TO DETERMINE THE QUESTION OF THE
BAPTISM OF HERETICS.
CHAP. I.--1. It might perhaps have been sufficient, that after the
reasons have been so often repeated, and considered, and discussed
with such variety of treatment, supplemented, too, with the addition
of proofs from holy Scripture, and the concurrent testimony of so many
passages from Cyprian himself, even those who are slow of heart should
thus understand, as I believe they do, that the baptism of Christ
cannot be rendered void by any perversity on the part of man, whether
in administering or receiving it. And when we find that in those times,
when the point in question was decided in a manner contrary to ancient
custom, after discussions carried on without violation of Christian
charity and unity, it appeared to certain eminent men even amongst
the servants of Christ, among whom the blessed Cyprian was specially
conspicuous, that the baptism of Christ could not exist among heretics
or schismatics, this simply arose from their not distinguishing the
sacrament from the effect or use of the sacrament; and because its
effect and use was not found among heretics in freeing them from
their sins and setting their hearts right, the sacrament itself was
also thought to be wanting among them. But if we turn our eyes to the
multitude of chaff within the Church, since these also who are perverse
and lead an abandoned life in unity itself appear to have no power
either of giving or retaining remission of sins, seeing that it is not
to the wicked but the good sons that it was said, "Whose soever sins ye
remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain,
they are retained,"[391] yet that such persons both have, and give,
and receive the sacrament of baptism, was sufficiently manifest to the
pastors of the Catholic Church dispersed over the whole world, through
whom the original custom was afterwards confirmed by the authority of
a general Council; so that even the sheep which was straying outside,
and had received the mark of the Lord from false plunderers outside, if
it seek the salvation of Christian unity, is purified from error, is
freed from captivity, is healed of its wound, and yet the mark of the
Lord is recognised rather than rejected in it; since the mark itself
is often impressed both by wolves and on wolves, who seem indeed to be
within the fold, but yet are proved by the fruits of their conduct,
in which they persevere even to the end, not to belong to that sheep
which is one in many; because, according to the foreknowledge of God,
as many sheep wander outside, so many wolves lurk treacherously within,
among whom the Lord yet knoweth them that are His, which hear only the
voice of the Shepherd, even when He calls by the voice of men like the
Pharisees, of whom it was said, "Whatsoever they bid you observe, that
observe and do."[392]
2. For as the spiritual man, keeping "the end of the commandment,"
that is, "charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and
of faith unfeigned,"[393] can see some things less clearly out of a
body which is yet "corruptible and presseth down the soul,"[394] and is
liable to be otherwise minded in some things which God will reveal[395]
to him in His own good time if he abide in the same charity, so in a
carnal and perverse man something good and useful may be found, which
has its origin not in the man himself, but in some other source. For as
in the fruitful branch there is found something which must be purged
that it may bring forth more fruit, so also a grape is often found to
hang on a cane that is barren and dry or fettered. And so, as it is
foolish to love the portions which require purging in the fruitful
branch, whilst he acts wisely who does not reject the sweet fruit
wherever it may hang, so, if any one cuts himself off from unity by
rebaptizing, simply because it seemed to Cyprian that one ought to
baptize again those who came from the heretics, such a man turns aside
from what merits praise in that great man, and follows what requires
correction, and does not even attain to the very thing he follows
after. For Cyprian, while grievously abhorring, in his zeal for God,
all those who severed themselves from unity, thought that thereby they
were separated from baptism itself; while these men, thinking it at
most a slight offence that they themselves are severed from the unity
of Christ, even maintain that His baptism is not in that unity, but
issued forth with them. Therefore they are so far from the fruitfulness
of Cyprian, as not even to be equal to the parts in him which needed
purging.
* * * * *
CHAP. II.--3. Again, if any one not having charity, and walking in
the abandoned paths of a most wicked life, seems to be within whilst
he really is without, and at the same time does not seek for the
repetition of baptism even in the case of heretics, it in no wise helps
his barrenness, because he is not rendered fruitful with his own fruit,
but laden with that of others. But it is possible that some one may
flourish in the root of charity, and may be most rightly minded in the
point in which Cyprian was otherwise minded, and yet there may be more
that is fruitful in Cyprian than in him, more that requires purging
in him than in Cyprian. Not only, therefore, do we not compare bad
Catholics with the blessed Cyprian, but even good Catholics we do not
hastily pronounce to be on an equality with him whom our pious mother
Church counts among the few rare men of surpassing excellence and
grace, although these others may recognise the baptism of Christ even
among heretics, whilst he thought otherwise; so that, by the instance
of Cyprian, who saw one point less clearly, and yet remained most firm
in the unity of the Church, it might be shown more clearly to heretics
what a sacrilegious crime it was to break the bond of peace. For
neither were the blind Pharisees, although they sometimes enjoined what
was right to be done, to be compared to the Apostle Peter, though he at
times enjoined what was not right. But not only is their dryness not to
be compared to his greenness, but even the fruit of others may not be
deemed equal to his fertility. For no one now compels the Gentiles to
Judaize, and yet no one now in the Church, however great his progress
in goodness, may be compared with the apostleship of Peter. Wherefore,
while rendering due reverence, and paying, so far as I can, the fitting
honour to the peaceful bishop and glorious martyr Cyprian, I yet
venture to say that his view concerning the baptism of schismatics and
heretics was contrary to that which was afterwards brought to light
by a decision, not of mine, but of the whole Church, confirmed and
strengthened by the authority of a general Council: just as, while
paying the reverence he deserves to Peter, the first of the apostles
and most eminent of martyrs, I yet venture to say that he did not do
right in compelling the Gentiles to Judaize; for this also I say, not
of my own teaching, but according to the wholesome doctrine of the
Apostle Paul, retained and preserved throughout the whole Church.[396]
4. Therefore, in discussing the opinion of Cyprian, though myself of
far inferior merit to Cyprian, I say that good and bad alike can have,
can give, can receive the sacrament of baptism,--the good, indeed, to
their health and profit; the bad to their destruction and ruin,--whilst
the sacrament itself is of equal perfectness in both of them; and that
it is of no consequence to its equal perfectness in all, how much
worse the man may be that has it among the bad, just as it makes no
difference how much better he may be that has it among the good. And
accordingly it makes no difference either how much worse he may be that
confers it, as it makes no difference how much better he may be; and so
it makes no difference how much worse he may be that receives it, as
it makes no difference how much better he may be. For the sacrament is
equally holy, in virtue of its own excellence, both in those who are
unequally just, and in those who are unequally unjust.
* * * * *
CHAP. III.--5. But I think that we have sufficiently shown, both from
the canon of Scripture, and from the letters of Cyprian himself, that
bad men, while by no means converted to a better mind, can have, and
confer, and receive baptism, of whom it is most clear that they do
not belong to the holy Church of God, though they seem to be within
it, inasmuch as they are covetous, robbers, usurers, envious, evil
thinkers, and the like; whilst she is one dove,[397] modest and chaste,
a bride without spot or wrinkle,[398] a garden enclosed, a fountain
sealed, an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits,[399] with all
similar properties which are attributed to her; and all this can only
be understood to be in the good, and holy, and just,--following, that
is, not only the operations of the gifts of God, which are common to
good and bad alike, but also the inner bond of charity conspicuous in
those who have the Holy Spirit, to whom the Lord says, "Whose soever
sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye
retain, they are retained."[400]
* * * * *
CHAP. IV.--6. And so it is clear that no good ground is shown herein
why the bad man, who has baptism, may not also confer it; and as he
has it to destruction, so he may also confer it to destruction,--not
because this is the character of the thing conferred, nor of the person
conferring, but because it is the character of him on whom it is
conferred. For when a bad man confers it on a good man, that is, on one
in the bond of unity, converted with a true conversion, the wickedness
of him who confers it makes no severance between the good sacrament
which is conferred, and the good member of the Church on whom it is
conferred. And when his sins are forgiven him on his true conversion
to God, they are forgiven by those to whom he is united by his true
conversion. For the same Spirit forgives them, which is given to all
the saints that cling to one another in love, whether they know one
another in the body or not. Similarly when a man's sins are retained,
they are assuredly retained by those from whom he, in whom they are
retained, separates himself by dissimilarity of life, and by the
turning away of a corrupt heart, whether they know him in the body or
not.
* * * * *
CHAP. V.--7. Wherefore all bad men are separated in the spirit from
the good; but if they are separated in the body also by a manifest
dissension, they are made yet worse. But, as it has been said, it
makes no difference to the holiness of baptism how much worse the man
may be that has it, or how much worse he that confers it: yet he that
is separated may confer it, as he that is separated may have it; but
as he has it to destruction, so he may confer it to destruction. But
he on whom he confers it may receive it to his soul's health, if he,
on his part, receive it not in separation; as it has happened to many
that, in a catholic spirit, and with heart not alienated from the
unity of peace, they have, under some pressure of impending death,
turned hastily to some heretic and received from him the baptism of
Christ without any share in his perversity, so that, whether dying
or restored to life, they by no means remain in communion with those
to whom they never passed in heart. But if the recipient himself has
received the baptism in separation, he receives it so much the more
to his destruction, in proportion to the greatness of the good which
he has not received well; and it tends the more to his destruction in
his separation, as it would avail the more to the salvation of one in
unity. And so, if, reforming himself from his perverseness and turning
from his separation, he should come to the Catholic peace, his sins are
remitted through the bond of peace and the same baptism under which his
sins were retained through the sacrilege of separation, because that is
always holy both in the just and the unjust, which is neither increased
by the righteousness nor diminished by the unrighteousness of any man.
8. This being the case, what bearing has it on so clear a truth, that
many of his fellow-bishops agreed with Cyprian in that opinion, and
advanced their own several opinions on the same side, except that
his charity towards the unity of Christ might become more and more
conspicuous? For if he had been the only one to hold that opinion, with
no one to agree with him, he might have been thought, in remaining, to
have shrunk from the sin of schism, because he found no companions in
his error; but when so many agreed with him, he showed, by remaining
in unity with the rest who thought differently from him, that he
preserved the most sacred bond of universal catholicity, not from any
fear of isolation, but from the love of peace. Wherefore it might
indeed seem now to be superfluous to consider the several opinions of
the other bishops also in that Council; but since those who are slow
in heart think that no answer has been made at all, if to any passage
in any discourse the answer which might be brought to bear on the spot
be given not there but somewhere else, it is better that by reading
much they should be polished into sharpness, than that by understanding
little they should have room left for complaining that the argument has
not been fairly conducted.
* * * * *
CHAP. VI.--9. First, then, let us record for further consideration
the case proposed for decision by Cyprian himself, with which he
initiates the proceedings of the Council, and by which he shows a
peaceful spirit, abounding in the fruitfulness of Christian charity.
"Ye have heard," he says, "most beloved colleagues, what Jubaianus,
our fellow-bishop, has written to me, consulting my poor ability about
the unlawful and profane baptism of heretics, and what I have written
back to him, expressing to him the same opinion that I have expressed
once and again and often, that heretics coming to the Church ought to
be baptized, and sanctified with the baptism of the Church. Another
letter also of Jubaianus has been read to you, in which, agreeably to
his sincere and religious devotion, in answer to our epistle, he not
only expressed his assent to it, but also gratefully acknowledged that
he had received instruction. It remains that we should individually
express our opinions on this same subject, judging no one, and removing
no one from the right of communion if he should entertain a different
opinion. For neither does any one of us set himself up as a bishop of
bishops, or by tyrannical terror force his colleagues to the necessity
of obeying, since every bishop, in the free use of his liberty and
power, has the right of free judgment, and can no more be judged by
another than he can himself judge another. But we are all awaiting the
judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone has the power both of
preferring us in the government of His Church, and of judging of our
actions."[401]
* * * * *
CHAP. VII.--10. I have already, I think, argued to the best of my
power, in the preceding books, in the interests of Catholic unanimity
and counsel, in whose unity these continued as pious members, in reply
not only to the letter which Cyprian wrote to Jubaianus, but also to
that which he sent to Quintus, and that which, in conjunction with
certain of his colleagues, he sent to certain other colleagues, and
that which he sent to Pompeius. Wherefore it seems now to be fitting
to consider also what the others severally thought, and that with the
liberty of which he himself would not deprive us, as he says, "Judging
no one, nor removing any from the right of communion if he entertain
different opinions." And that he did not say this with the object of
arriving at the hidden thoughts of his colleagues, extracted as it were
from their secret lurking-places, but because he really loved peace
and unity, is very easily to be seen from other passages of the same
sort, where he wrote to individuals as to Jubaianus himself. "These
things," he says, "we have written very shortly in answer to you,
most beloved brother, according to our poor ability, not preventing
any one of the bishops, by our writing or judgment, from acting as he
thinks right, having a free exercise of his own judgment." And that
it might not seem that any one, because of his entertaining different
opinions in this same free exercise of his judgment, should be driven
from the society of his brethren, he goes on to say, "We, so far as
lies in us, do not strive on behalf of heretics against our colleagues
and fellow-bishops, with whom we maintain godly unity and the peace
of our Lord;" and a little later he says, "Charity of spirit, respect
for our college, the bond of faith, the harmony of the priesthood, are
by us maintained with patience and gentleness."[402] And so also in
the epistle which he wrote to Magnus, when he was asked whether there
was any difference in the efficacy of baptism by sprinkling or by
immersion, "In this matter," he says, "I am too modest and diffident
to prevent any one by my judgment from thinking as he deems right,
and acting as he thinks."[403] By which discourses he clearly shows
that these subjects were being handled by them at a time when they
were not yet received as decided beyond all question, but were being
investigated with great care as being yet unrevealed. We, therefore,
maintaining on the subject of the identity of all baptisms what must be
acknowledged everywhere to be the custom[404] of the universal Church,
and what is confirmed by the decision of general Councils, and taking
greater confidence also from the words of Cyprian, which allowed me
even then to hold opinions differing from his own without forfeiting
the right of communion, seeing that greater importance and praise were
attached to unity, such as the blessed Cyprian and his colleagues, with
whom he held that Council, maintained with those of different opinions,
disturbing and overthrowing thereby the seditious calumnies of heretics
and schismatics in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, speaking by
His apostle, says, "Forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace;"[405] and again, by
the mouth of the same apostle, "If in anything ye be otherwise minded,
God shall reveal even this unto you,"[406]--we, I say, propose for
consideration and discussion the opinions of the holy bishops, without
violating the bond of unity and peace with them, in maintaining which
we imitate them so far as we can by the aid of the Lord Himself.
* * * * *
CHAP. VIII.--11. Cæcilius of Bilta[407] said: "I know of one baptism
in the one Church, and of none outside the Church. The one will be
where there is true hope and sure faith. For so it is written, 'One
faith, one hope, one baptism.'[408] Not among heretics, where there is
no hope and a false faith; where all things are done by a lie; where
one possessed of a devil exorcises; the question of the sacrament
is asked by one from whose mouth and words proceeds a cancer; the
faithless gives faith; the guilty gives pardon for sins; and Antichrist
baptizes in the name of Christ; one accursed of God blesses; the dead
promises life; the unpeaceful gives peace; the blasphemer calls on God;
the profane administers the priesthood; the sacrilegious sets up the
altar. To all this is added this further evil, that the servant of the
devil dares to celebrate the eucharist. If this be not so, let those
who stand by them prove that all of it is false concerning heretics.
See the kind of things to which the Church is compelled to assent,
being forced to communicate without baptism or the remission of sins.
This, brethren, we ought to shun and avoid, separating ourselves from
so great a sin, and holding to the one baptism which is granted to the
Church alone."[409]
12. To this I answer, that all who even within the Church profess
that they know God, but deny Him in their deeds, such as are the
covetous and envious, and those who, because they hate their brethren,
are pronounced to be murderers, not on my testimony, but on that
of the holy Apostle John,[410]--all these are both devoid of hope,
because they have a bad conscience; and are faithless, because they
do not do what they have vowed to God; and liars, because they make
false professions; and possessed of devils, because they give place
in their heart to the devil and his angels; and their words work
corruption, since they corrupt good manners by evil communications;
and they are infidels, because they laugh at the threats which God
utters against such men; and accursed, because they live wickedly; and
antichrists, because their lives are opposed to Christ; and cursed
of God, since holy Scripture everywhere calls down curses on such
men; and dead, because they are without the life of righteousness;
and unpeaceful, because by their contrary deeds they are at variance
with God's behests; and blasphemous, because by their abandoned
acts despite is done to the name of Christian; and profane, because
they are spiritually shut out from that inner sanctuary of God; and
sacrilegious, because by their evil life they defile the temple of
God within themselves; and servants of the devil, because they do
service to fraud and covetousness, which is idolatry. That of such
a kind are some, nay very many, even within the Church, is testified
both by Paul the apostle and by Cyprian the bishop. Why, then, do they
baptize? Why also are some, who renounce the world in words and not in
deeds, baptized without being converted from a life like this, and not
rebaptized when they are converted? And as to what he says with such
indignation, "See the kind of things to which the Church is compelled
to assent, being forced to communicate without baptism or the remission
of sins," he could never have used such expressions had there not been
the other bishops who elsewhere forced men to such things. Whence also
it is shown that at that time those men held the truer views who did
not depart from the primitive custom, which is since confirmed by the
consent of a general Council. But what does he mean by adding, "This,
brethren, we ought to shun and avoid, separating ourselves from so
great a sin?" For if he means that he is not to do nor to approve of
this, that is another matter; but if he means to condemn and sever from
him those that hold the contrary opinion, he is setting himself against
the earlier words of Cyprian, "Judging no man, nor depriving any of the
right of communion if he differ from us."
* * * * *
CHAP. IX.--13. The elder Felix[411] of Migirpa said: "I think that
every one coming from heresy should be baptized. For in vain does any
one suppose that he has been baptized there, seeing that there is no
baptism save the one true baptism in the Church; for there is one Lord,
and one faith, and one Church, in which rests the one baptism, and
holiness, and the rest. For the things that are practised without have
no power to work salvation."
14. To what Felix of Migirpa said we answer as follows. If the one true
baptism did not exist except in the Church, it surely would not exist
in those who depart from unity. But it does exist in them, since they
do not receive it when they return, simply because they had not lost it
when they departed. But as regards his statement, that "the things that
are practised without have no power to work salvation," I agree with
him, and think that it is quite true; for it is one thing that baptism
should not be there, and another that it should have no power to work
salvation. For when men come to the peace of the Catholic Church, then
what was in them before they joined it, but did not profit them, begins
at once to profit them.
* * * * *
CHAP. X.--15. To the declaration of Polycarp of Adrumetum,[412] that
"those who declare the baptism of heretics to be valid, make ours of
none effect," we answer, if that is the baptism of heretics which
is given by heretics, then that is the baptism of the covetous and
murderers which is given by them within the Church. But if this be not
their baptism, neither is the other the baptism of heretics; and so it
is Christ's, by whomsoever it be given.
* * * * *
CHAP. XI.--16. Novatus of Thamugadis[413] said: "Though we know that
all Scripture gives its testimony respecting saving baptism, yet we
ought to express our belief that heretics and schismatics, coming to
the Church with the semblance of having been baptized, ought to be
baptized in the unfailing fountain; and that therefore, according to
the testimony of the Scriptures, and according to the decree of those
most holy men, our colleagues,[414] all schismatics and heretics who
are converted to the Church ought to be baptized; and that, moreover,
all that seemed to have received ordination should be admitted as
simple laymen."
17. Novatus of Thamugadis has stated what he has done; but he has
brought forward no proofs by which to show that he ought to have acted
as he did. For he has made mention of the testimony of the Scriptures,
and the decree of his colleagues, but he has not adduced out of them
anything which we could consider.
* * * * *
CHAP. XII.--18. Nemesianus of Tubunæ[415] said: "That the baptism
which is given by heretics and schismatics is not true is everywhere
declared in the holy Scriptures, inasmuch as their very prelates are
false Christs and false prophets, as the Lord declares by the mouth of
Solomon, 'Whoso trusteth in lies, the same feedeth the winds; he also
followeth flying birds. For he deserteth the ways of his own vineyard,
and hath strayed from the paths of his own field. For he walketh
through pathless and dry places, and a land destined to thirst; and
he gathereth fruitless weeds in his hands.'[416] And again, 'Abstain
from strange water, and drink not of a strange fountain, that thou
mayest live long, and that years may be added to thy life.'[417] And
in the gospel our Lord Jesus Christ spake with His own voice, saying,
'Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God.'[418] This is the Spirit which from the
beginning 'moved upon the face of the waters.'[419] For neither can
the Spirit act without the water, nor the water without the Spirit.
Ill, therefore, for themselves do some interpret, saying that by
imposition of hands they receive the Holy Ghost, and are received into
the Church, when it is manifest that they ought to be born again by
both sacraments[420] in the Catholic Church. For then indeed will they
be able to become the sons of God, as the apostle says, 'Endeavouring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one
body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your
calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God.'[421] All this the
Catholic Church asserts. And again he says in the gospel, 'That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit
is spirit; for the Spirit is God, and is born of God.'[422] Therefore
all things whatsoever all heretics and schismatics do are carnal, as
the apostle says, 'Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are
these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have
also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God.'[423] The apostle condemns, equally with
all the wicked, those also who cause divisions, that is, schismatics
and heretics. Unless therefore they receive that saving baptism which
is one, and found only in the Catholic Church, they cannot be saved,
but will be condemned with the carnal in the judgment of the Lord."
19. Nemesianus of Tubunæ has advanced many passages of Scripture to
prove his point; but he has in fact said much on behalf of the view
of the Catholic Church, which we have undertaken to set forth and
maintain. Unless, indeed, we must suppose that he does not "trust in
what is false" who trusts in the hope of things temporal, as do all
covetous men and robbers, and those who renounce the world in words
but not in deeds, of whom Cyprian yet bears witness that such men not
only baptize, but even are baptized within the Church.[424] For they
themselves also "follow flying birds,"[425] since they do not attain to
what they desire. But not only the heretic, but every one who leads an
evil life, "deserteth the ways of his own vineyard, and hath strayed
from the paths of his own field. And he walketh through pathless and
dry places, and a land destined to thirst; and he gathereth fruitless
weeds in his hands;" because all justice is fruitful, and all iniquity
is barren. Those, again, who "drink strange water out of a strange
fountain," are found not only among heretics, but among all who do not
live according to the teaching of God, and do live according to the
teaching of the devil. For if he were speaking of baptism, he would not
say, "Do not drink of a strange fountain," but, do not wash thyself
in a strange fountain. Again, I do not see at all what aid he gets
towards proving his point from the words of our Lord, "Except a man be
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God."[426] For it is one thing to say that every one who shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven is first born again of water and the Spirit,
because except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he shall not
enter into the kingdom of heaven, which is the Lord's saying, and is
true; another thing to say that every one who is born of water and
the Spirit shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, which is assuredly
false. For Simon Magus also was born of water and of the Spirit,[427]
and yet he did not enter into the kingdom of heaven; and this may
possibly be the case with heretics as well. Or if only those are born
of the Spirit who are changed with a true conversion, all who renounce
the world in word and not in deed are assuredly not born of the Spirit,
but of water only, and yet they are within the Church, according
to the testimony of Cyprian. For we must perforce grant one of two
things,--either those who renounce the world deceitfully are born of
the Spirit, though it is to their destruction, not to salvation, and
therefore heretics may be so born; or if what is written, that "the
Holy Spirit of discipline will flee deceit,"[428] extends to proving
as much as this, that those who renounce the world deceitfully are not
born of the Spirit, then a man may be baptized with water, and not
born of the Spirit, and Nemesianus says in vain that neither the Spirit
can work without the water, nor the water without the Spirit. Indeed it
has been already often shown how it is possible that men should have
one baptism in common who have not one Church, as it is possible that
in the body of the Church herself those who are sanctified by their
righteousness, and those who are polluted through their covetousness,
may not have the same one Spirit, and yet have the same one baptism.
For it is said "one body," that is, the Church, just as it is said "one
Spirit" and "one baptism." The other arguments which he has adduced
rather favour our position. For he has brought forward a proof from the
gospel, in the words, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit; for the Spirit is God, and
born of God;"[429] and he has advanced the argument that therefore all
things that are done by any heretic or schismatic are carnal, as the
apostle says, "The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;
fornication, uncleanness;" and so he goes through the list which the
apostle there enumerates, amongst which he has reckoned heresies, since
"they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."[430]
Then he goes on to add, that "therefore the apostle condemns with all
wicked men those also who cause division, that is, schismatics and
heretics." And in this he does well, that when he enumerates the works
of the flesh, among which are also heresies, he found and declared
that the apostle condemns them all alike. Let him therefore question
the holy Cyprian himself, and learn from him how many even within the
Church live according to the evil works of the flesh, which the apostle
condemns in common with the heresies, and yet these both baptize and
are baptized. Why then are heretics alone said to be incapable of
possessing baptism, which is possessed by the very partners in their
condemnation?
* * * * *
CHAP. XIII.--20. Januarius of Lambæse[431] said: "Following the
authority of the holy Scriptures, I pronounce that all heretics should
be baptized, and so admitted into the holy Church."[432]
21. To him we answer, that, following the authority of the holy
Scriptures, a universal Council of the whole world decreed that the
baptism of Christ was not to be disavowed, even when found among
heretics. But if he had brought forward any proof from the Scriptures,
we should have shown either that they were not against us, or even that
they were for us, as we proceed to do with him who follows.
* * * * *
CHAP. XIV.--21. Lucius of Castrum Galbæ[433] said: "Since the Lord hath
said in His gospel, 'Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have
lost his savour, that which is salted from it shall be thenceforth
good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of
men;'[434] and seeing that again, after His resurrection, when sending
forth His apostles, He commanded them, saying, 'All power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth: go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost,'[435]--since then it is plain that heretics, that is, the
enemies of Christ, have not the full confession of the sacrament,
also that schismatics cannot reason with spiritual wisdom, since they
themselves, by withdrawing when they have lost their savour from the
Church, which is one, have become contrary to it,[436] let that be done
which is written, 'The houses of those that are opposed to the law must
needs be cleansed;'[437] and it therefore follows that those who have
been polluted by being baptized by men opposed to Christ should first
be cleansed, and only then baptized."
23. Lucius of Castrum Galbæ has brought forward a proof from the
gospel, in the words of the Lord, "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if
the salt have lost his savour, that which is salted from it shall be
good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of
men;" just as though we maintained that men when cast out were of any
profit for the salvation either of themselves or of any one else. But
those also who, though seeming to be within, are yet of such a kind,
not only are without spiritually, but will in the end be separated in
the body also. For all such are profitable for nothing. But it does
not therefore follow that the sacrament of baptism which is in them
is nothing. For even in the very men who are cast out, if they return
to their senses and come back, the salvation which had departed from
them returns; but the baptism does not return, because it never had
departed. And in what the Lord says, "Go therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost," He did not permit any to baptize except the good,
inasmuch as He did not say to the bad, "Whose soever sins ye remit,
they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are
retained."[438] How then do the wicked baptize within, who cannot remit
sins? How also is it that they baptize the wicked whose hearts are not
changed, whose sins are yet upon them, as John says, "He that hateth
his brother is in darkness even until now?"[439] But if the sins of
these men are remitted when they join themselves in the close bonds
of love to the good and just, through whom sins are remitted in the
Church, though they have been baptized by the wicked, so the sins of
those also are remitted who come from without and join themselves by
the inner bond of peace to the same framework of the body of Christ.
Yet the baptism of Christ should be acknowledged in both, and held
invalid in none, whether before they are converted, though then it
profit them nothing, or after they are converted, that so it may profit
them, as he says, "Since they themselves, by withdrawing when they have
lost their savour from the Church, which is one, have become contrary
to it, let that be done which is written, 'The houses of those that are
opposed to the law must needs be cleansed.' And it therefore follows,"
he goes on to say, "that those who have been polluted by being
baptized by men opposed to Christ should first be cleansed, and only
then baptized." What then? Are thieves and murderers not contrary to
the law, which says, "Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal?"[440]
"They must therefore needs be cleansed." Who deny it? And yet not only
those who are baptized by such within the Church, but also those who,
being such themselves, are baptized without being changed in heart,
are nevertheless exempt from further baptism when they are so changed.
So great is the force of the sacrament of mere baptism, that though we
allow that a man who has been baptized and continues to lead an evil
life requires to be cleansed, we yet forbid him to be any more baptized.
* * * * *
CHAP. XV.--24. Crescens of Cirta[441] said: "The letters of our
most beloved Cyprian to Jubaianus, and also to Stephen,[442] having
been read in so large an assembly of our most holy brethren in the
priesthood, containing as they do so large a body of sacred testimony
derived from the Scriptures that give us our God,[443] that we have
every reason to assent to them, being all united by the grace of God,
I give my judgment that all heretics or schismatics who wish to come
to the Catholic Church should not enter therein unless they have been
first exorcised and baptized; with the obvious exception of those who
have been originally baptized in the Catholic Church, these being
reconciled and admitted to the penance of the Church by the imposition
of hands."
25. Here we are warned once more to inquire why he says, "Except,
of course, those who have been originally baptized in the Catholic
Church." Is it because they had not lost what they had before received?
Why then could they not also transmit outside the Church what they
were able to possess outside? Is it that outside it is unlawfully
transmitted? But neither is it lawfully possessed outside, and yet it
is possessed; so it is unlawfully given outside, but yet it is given.
But what is given to the person returning from heresy who had been
baptized inside, is given to the person coming to the Church who had
been baptized outside,--that is, that he may have lawfully inside what
before he had unlawfully outside. But perhaps some one may ask what was
said on this point in the letter of the blessed Cyprian to Stephen,
which is mentioned in this judgment, though not in the opening address
to the Council,--I suppose because it was not considered necessary. For
Crescens stated that the letter itself had been read in the assembly,
which I have no doubt was done, if I am not mistaken, as is customary,
in order that the bishops, being already assembled, might receive some
information at the same time on the subject contained in that letter.
For it certainly has no bearing on the present subject; and I am more
surprised at Crescens having thought fit to mention it at all, than
at its having been passed over in the opening address. But if any
one thinks that I have shrunk from bringing forward something which
has been urged in it that is essential to the present point, let him
read it and see that what I say is true; or if he finds it otherwise,
let him convict me of falsehood. For that letter contains nothing
whatsoever about baptism administered among heretics or schismatics,
which is the subject of our present argument.[444]
* * * * *
CHAP. XVI.--26. Nicomedes of Segermæ[445] said: "My judgment is that
heretics coming to the Church should be baptized, because they can
obtain no remission of sins among sinners outside."
27. The answer to which is: The judgment of the whole Catholic Church
is that heretics, being already baptized with the baptism of Christ,
although in heresy, should not be rebaptized on coming to the Church.
For if there is no remission of sins among sinners, neither can sinners
within the Church remit sins; and yet those who have been baptized by
them are not rebaptized.
* * * * *
CHAP. XVII.--28. Monnulus of Girba[446] said: "The truth of our mother,
the Catholic Church, hath continued, and still continues among us,
brethren, especially in the threefold nature[447] of baptism, as our
Lord says, 'Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'[448] Since, therefore," he goes on
to say, "we know clearly that heretics have neither Father, Son, nor
Holy Ghost, they ought, on coming to our mother, the Church, to be
truly regenerate and baptized, that the cancer which they had, and the
wrath of condemnation, and the destructive energy of error,[449] may be
sanctified by the holy and heavenly laver."
29. To this we answer, That all who are baptized with the baptism that
is consecrated in the words of the gospel have the Father, and the Son,
and the Holy Ghost in the sacrament alone; but that in heart and in
life neither do those have them who live an abandoned and accursed life
within.
* * * * *
CHAP. XVIII.--30. Secundinus of Cediæ[450] said: "Since our Lord Christ
said, 'He that is not with me is against me,'[451] and the Apostle
John declares those who go out from the Church to be antichrists,[452]
without all doubt the enemies of Christ, and those who are called
antichrists, cannot minister the grace of the baptism which gives
salvation; and therefore my judgment is that those who take refuge in
the Church from the snares of heresy should be baptized by us, who of
His condescension are called the friends of God."
31. The answer to which is, That all are the opponents of Christ,
to whom, on their saying, "Lord, have we not in Thy name done many
wonderful things?" with all the rest that is there recorded, He shall
at the last day answer, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work
iniquity,"[453]--all which kind of chaff is destined for the fire, if
it persevere to the last in its wickedness, whether any part of it
fly outside before its winnowing, or whether it seem to be within.
If, therefore, those heretics who come to the Church are to be again
baptized, that they may be baptized by the friends of God, are those
covetous men, those robbers, murderers, the friends of God, or must
those whom they have baptized be baptized afresh?
* * * * *
CHAP. XIX.--32. Felix of Bagai[454] said: "As when the blind leads the
blind, both fall into the ditch,[455] so when a heretic baptizes a
heretic, both fall together into death."
33. This is true, but it does not follow that what he adds is true.
"And therefore," he says, "the heretic must be baptized and brought
to life, lest we who are alive should hold communion with the dead."
Were they not dead who said, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow
we die?"[456] for they did not believe in the resurrection of the
dead. Those then who were corrupted by their evil communications,
and followed them, were not they likewise falling with them into
the pit? And yet among them there were men to whom the apostle was
writing as being already baptized; nor would they, therefore, if they
were corrected, be baptized afresh. Does not the same apostle say,
"To be carnally-minded is death?"[457] and certainly the covetous,
the deceivers, the robbers, in the midst of whom Cyprian himself was
groaning, were carnally-minded. What then? Did the dead hurt him who
was living in unity? or who would say, that because such men had or
gave the baptism of Christ, that it was therefore violated by their
iniquities?
* * * * *
CHAP. XX.--34. Pollianus of Mileum[458] said: "It is right that a
heretic should be baptized in the holy Church."