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ℹ️ The Chinese and English alongside are this site's own translation, made directly from the original text on this page (not the CUV or the WEB, which follow the Masoretic Text and a different textual tradition).
This love the Catholic Christian emperors owe to you: that, on account of Christian gentleness, they decree that your sacrileges are not to be punished according to their desert, and, on account of Christian solicitude, that they be not left altogether unpunished. This God works in them, whose mercy, even in these troubles of which you complain, you are unwilling to acknowledge. But we, as far as in us lies, as far as the Lord grants and permits, do not even set in motion against you those laws of the mildest coercion, except that the Catholic Church, on account of the frailty of the weak, that it may be lawful for them without fear to choose what they hold or follow,
may be granted freedom from your terrors; so that, if any of your men should act violently against ours, then you—whom we hold as it were as hostages on the estates and in the cities—may suffer, not such things as your men do, but through ordained judgments, being subject to the laws, may be beaten with pecuniary loss. But if this seems grievous to you, let your men spare you and be quiet; if, however, they who are either under you or with you rage against you by not being quiet, you have no cause to complain of us, who have placed it within your power, or the power of your men, that even those following your heresy may suffer no losses, if the Catholic Church suffers no violence either from you or from your men.
But if any acts of violence are committed against your will, and you being unable to restrain them, you are mercifully and justly admonished by those very losses as to what sort of men you have, by whom you do not think yourselves to be contaminated; and hence you are compelled to understand how empty are the calumnies which you make against the Church of Christ spread throughout the whole world, and no longer to object to us that we persecute you, but rather to your own men—if they prefer both that we be harassed by their violences and that you be crushed by the public laws, rather than that they be restrained from their accustomed frenzy. If indeed you suffer anything odious and pernicious from our men, who do not keep the measure and purpose of Christian charity, I would quickly say that they are not ours—but either will be, if they correct themselves, or are to be separated at the end, if they persist in malice;
we, nevertheless, neither break the nets on account of the bad fish, nor desert the great house on account of the vessels made unto dishonour. But if you also say, by the same rule, that those from whom the Catholic Church suffers such things are not yours, prove your disposition, correct your error, embrace the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. For if neither do those men contaminate you, nor do these men contaminate us, let us not calumniate one another with the crimes of others: let us grow as wheat in one charity, together let us endure the chaff until the winnowing-fan.
Wherefore, if the testimonies of the canonical Scriptures which commend the Church to consist in the communion of the whole world need no interpreter, and you can find no such supports from those same books for your separation established in Africa, neither do you justly complain of persecutions—which she herself endures more grievously the more widely she is spread, and by faith and hope and charity she bears all things, not only such things as your Circumcellions and their like inflict upon her members where they can, but all the scandals of various iniquities teeming throughout the whole world, concerning which the Lord cried out: 'Woe to the world because of scandals.'
For a son persecutes his father more grievously by living wickedly than a father his son by chastising him; and the handmaid persecuted Sarah more grievously through iniquitous pride than Sarah persecuted her through due discipline; and they persecuted the Lord more grievously, concerning whom it was said, 'The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up,' than He persecuted them when He overturned their tables and drove them from the temple with a scourge. What more have you to say? Or is it now pleasing that we bring that last argument of yours into the open? 'Behold,' they say, 'you hold the Church. How do you receive us, if we should wish to cross over to you?' I answer briefly: 'We receive you thus, as the Church which we find in the holy canonical books receives you.'
For, laying aside the animosity of contradiction, with which all those swell who are unwilling to be conquered by the truth of God and are conquered by their own perversity, you can easily understand that the divine sacraments are both in the good and in the evil, but in the former unto salvation, in the latter unto damnation; and although there is so great a difference between those who handle these things worthily and unworthily, yet those very sacraments are the same, availing to the former for reward, to the latter for judgment. Wherefore, when the Lord baptized more than John, as it is written in the Gospel, where the evangelist added, 'although He Himself baptized not, but His disciples'—although there was so great a difference between Peter and Judas, yet there was no difference between the baptism which was given through Peter and that which was given through Judas.
For that which was given through them was one, although they themselves were not one; and it was Christ's, but of them the one belonged to the members of Christ, the other to the party of the devil. But when John the Baptist and Paul the Apostle were one, because each was the friend of the Bridegroom, yet, because the baptism which was given by John and that which was given by Paul was not one, Paul ordered those who had been baptized with the baptism of John to be baptized with the baptism of Christ. And so that baptism was called John's; but that which was given through Paul was not called the baptism of Paul, but, 'he ordered them,' he says, 'to be baptized in Christ.' Behold, John and Paul are one, and they do not give one thing; behold, Peter and Judas are not one, and they give one thing;
but indeed Peter and Paul are both one and give one thing. Abraham and Cornelius, justified by faith, are one, and did not receive one sacrament; and likewise Cornelius and Simon Magus are not one, and received one sacrament; but indeed Cornelius and that eunuch, whom Philip baptized on the road, are both one and received one sacrament. When, therefore, the sacrament is one, neither diverse givers nor diverse receivers cause that which is one not to be one. But these men, while they wish that which is Christ's to be man's, attempt to persuade things most false and most absurd, so that there are almost as many baptisms as there are men through whom they are given. And so that which the Lord said concerning a man and a man's work:
'A good tree bringeth forth good fruits, and an evil tree bringeth forth evil fruits'—these men attempt to distort to this, that one baptized by a good man is good, and one baptized by an evil man is evil. Whence it follows, even against their will, that one baptized by a better man is better, and one baptized by an inferior man is inferior. From which it comes to pass that those whom, before the Lord's Passion, Jesus Himself did not baptize but His disciples, would have been born much more holily if they had been baptized by Him. For who could even imagine how great the difference was between Himself and His disciples by whom they were being baptized? Did He then begrudge them a holier generation, whom He preferred to be baptized by His disciples, He Himself being here established? And whoever believes this is surely insane.
What, then, did the Lord deign to demonstrate by this very thing, except that what was given was His own, by whomever it was given, and that He Himself baptized—He of whom that friend of the Bridegroom had said, 'This is He that baptizeth'—by whosoever's hands as minister he was baptized who had believed in Him? Paul also says: 'I give thanks to God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I baptized in my own name.' Is he then also to be believed to have begrudged men a better sanctification, if, the better he was, the better those could be baptized who were baptized by him?
Nay, rather, unto this very end the intention of the most cautious and faithful dispenser was vigilant, lest anyone should think himself the more holily baptized because he was baptized by a holier minister, and should attribute to the servant what belonged to the Lord. Since, therefore, both the good and the evil give and receive the sacrament of baptism, and none are built up, regenerated spiritually, into the Body and members of Christ, except the good, assuredly that Church is among the good, to whom it is said: 'As a lily among thorns, so is my Beloved among the daughters.' For among these is he who builds upon the rock, that is, who hears the words of Christ and does them; because to Peter also, confessing Him to be Christ, the Son of God, He thus said: 'And upon this rock I will build my Church.'
She is not, therefore, among those who build upon the sand, that is, who hear the words of Christ and do them not. For He Himself said: 'He that heareth these My words and doeth them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house upon a rock'; and likewise a little after: 'He that heareth,' He says, 'these My words and doeth them not, I will liken him to a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.' Those, therefore, who by the framework of charity have been incorporated into the building established upon the rock, and into the lily gleaming among the thorns, they assuredly shall possess the kingdom of God; but those who build upon the sand, or are reckoned among the thorns—who would doubt that they shall not possess the kingdom of God?
The sacrament of baptism is indeed of no benefit to such people; and yet, on account of their unstable foundation and their barren malice, no injury is to be done even to the sacrament that they possess. Therefore, in that passage from the epistle which the apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, observe without any zeal for contention how rightly it is done that, when we are correcting a heretic's error, if they have this sacrament which they ought to have had, they should receive that which was lacking to them, and that what was already present should not be disapproved and blasphemed.
「The works of the flesh」, he says, 「are manifest, which are fornications, uncleannesses, wantonness, idolatry, sorceries, enmities, contentions, jealousies, angers, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and the like; concerning which I foretell you, as I have foretold, that those who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God.」 All these, therefore, are neither in the lily nor upon the rock; and among these the heretics too are placed.
Why then, to pass over the rest, do you not baptize after drunkards, after the wanton, after the envious—who shall not possess the kingdom of God, and therefore are not on the rock, and, because they are not on the rock, are beyond doubt not reckoned in the Church, since he says, 「Upon this rock I will build my Church」—and yet you want us to baptize after heretics, who are enumerated among the very same thorns as those who shall not possess the kingdom of God, and in whom the sacraments are likewise present, since they are the same, but do not profit, because, although those things are right, the men themselves are perverse?
Considering and pondering these things without obstinacy, you can easily understand that in each person what is crooked is to be corrected, but what is right is to be approved; and that what is lacking is to be given, while what is present is to be acknowledged. Therefore, when a heretic comes in order to become a Catholic, let him correct his own error, let him not violate the sacrament of Christ, let him receive the bond of peace which he did not have—without which the baptism he had could not profit him. For both are necessary for attaining the kingdom of God: both baptism and righteousness. And in one who despises the baptism of Christ there cannot be righteousness; but baptism can exist even in one who does not have righteousness, though it cannot profit him. For as the Truth said:
「Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven」—so the same Truth said: 「Unless your righteousness abound above that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven」; so that not baptism alone, but righteousness also, may lead to the kingdom, while he to whom either both or one of the two is lacking cannot arrive there. Wherefore, when it is said to the heretics:
「You lack righteousness, which no one can have without charity and the bond of peace」; and when they themselves confess that many have baptism and do not have righteousness—and if they do not confess it, divine Scripture convicts them—I marvel how they suppose that, when we are unwilling to baptize again those who have not their own but Christ's baptism, we are thereby acting as if we judged that nothing was now lacking to them; and that, because baptism is not given to them in the Catholic Church—the baptism which they are found to possess—they think they receive nothing there, where in fact they receive that without which the baptism they have avails them for destruction, not for salvation.
But if they refuse to understand, it suffices us that we hold that Church which is demonstrated by the most manifest testimonies of the holy and canonical Scriptures. Let the heretic now say to me: 「How do you receive me?」 I answer at once: 「As the Church receives, to which Christ bears witness. Can you know better how you ought to be received than our Saviour, the physician of your wound?」 Here perhaps you say: 「Read to me, then, how Christ commanded those to be received who wish to pass over from the heretics to the Church.」 This, openly and evidently, neither do I read nor do you.
For if John had been a heretic and had baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and Paul had commanded men to be baptized after his baptism, you would establish what you say, so that I should have nothing to say against it. Again, if Peter had been baptized by heretics in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—Peter, to whom the Lord says, 「He that is once washed has no need to wash again」—I should establish what I say, so that you would have nothing to say against it.
But now, since we do not find in the Scriptures that any passed over to the Church from the heretics and were received either as I say or as you say, I think that, if some wise man had arisen to whom the Lord Christ bore witness, and he were consulted by us on this question, we ought in no way to doubt to do what he said—lest we be judged to be resisting not so much him as the Lord Christ, by whose testimony he was commended. But Christ bears witness to His Church. Behold, read the Gospel where He says: 「It behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.」
As, therefore, that Church receives throughout all nations, beginning at Jerusalem, so, with all ambiguities and evasions removed, are you to be received. But if you will not, you are struggling—most perniciously against your own salvation—not against me or against any man who wishes to receive you thus, but against the Saviour Himself, since you refuse to believe that you ought to be received in the same way as that Church receives, which He commends by His own testimony—He whom you confess it to be wicked not to believe. But you object: Jeremiah said, 「It has become to me as deceitful water that has no faithfulness.」 He did not speak of that water which you suppose; read diligently.
For he called the multitude of lying men itself 「deceitful water」 in the prophetic manner, as they are wont to speak figuratively—just as in the Apocalypse we know peoples are called by the name of waters. For Jeremiah speaks thus: 「Why do they who grieve me prevail? My wound is grievous; whence shall I be healed? It has become to me as deceitful water that has no faithfulness.」 He called his wound something made to him as deceitful water; but this same wound he called those who grieved him. For what he says, 「those who grieve me」, this he afterward called 「my wound」; and what he said above, 「prevail」, this he afterward called 「is grievous」. So too you act in that passage where it is written: 「Abstain from strange water, and drink not from a strange fountain.」
For you suppose that this was said of the baptism which is among the heretics, so that it is 「strange water」 because heretics shall not possess the kingdom of God. As though it were not the same among drunkards and among the envious and others of this kind, of whom it is equally said, 「They shall not possess the kingdom of God」; and yet in all such people, if they have been baptized according to the Gospel, the baptism is Christ's, not their own. Hence that water is not strange, though they themselves are strangers, to whom He will say, 「I know you not.」 Why then should I not rather understand the strange water and the strange fountain to be the doctrine of the malignant spirit, by which those alienated from God are deceived and led astray through the ignorance that is in them on account of the blindness of their heart—the Apostle commending this more expressly:
「Now the Spirit manifestly says that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.」 This is the strange water and the strange fountain. For if water is understood in a good sense, and the Holy Spirit, why should not water be understood in a bad sense, and the malignant spirit? For not always, where Scripture names water, does it will this visible sacrament of baptism to be understood, but sometimes this, sometimes something else. For by this visible baptism the Lord's disciples had baptized others also, before the Holy Spirit came upon them according to His promise—of whom nevertheless the same Jesus says: 「If any man thirst, let him come and drink.」
「He that believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.」 And the evangelist continues and explains whence this was said: 「But this,」 he says, 「He spoke of the Spirit which they were about to receive who were to believe in Him; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.」 Behold, He calls the Spirit 「water」—the Spirit which was not yet given—although that water of baptism had already been given to many. Hence also that which likewise you do not understand, which is written:
「Drink water from your own vessels and from the fountains of your own wells; and let the fountain of your water be your own, and let no stranger share it with you; and let not your waters overflow outside for you, but let your waters run in your own streets」—this does not signify the visible baptism, which strangers too can have, that is, those who shall not possess the kingdom of God, but it commends this gift of the Holy Spirit, which belongs properly only to those who shall reign with Christ forever, since 「the charity of God,」 as the Apostle says, 「is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us.」 For that very breadth of heart which charity makes—whence he calls it 「poured out」—is also that of which he speaks thus to the Corinthians:
「Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged」—this is signified by the name of 「streets.」 What therefore we hear openly—「Believe not every spirit, but prove the spirit, whether it is of God」—this we hear figuratively: 「Abstain from strange water, and drink not from a strange fountain.」 And what we hear openly—「The charity of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us」—this we hear figuratively: 「Let the fountain of your water be your own, and let no stranger share it with you.」
For strangers too can have many gifts of God—not only those things common with stones and trees, such as to be and to flourish; nor only those common with cattle, such as to breathe and to perceive; but even greater things, now proper to men, such as reason, speech, countless useful arts, and many other things. Even of those very things which were given to the house of God, strangers have some—that is, those who shall not possess the kingdom of God, to whom it shall be said in the end, 「I know you not」—even when they shall have said, 「In Your name we prophesied and did many mighty works」; for 「though I have,」 he says, 「prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could move mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing.」
This, therefore, is the gift of the Holy Spirit proper to the saints, of which no stranger partakes. This is lacking to all the malignant and to the sons of hell, even if they be baptized with the baptism of Christ, as Simon had been baptized. This is lacking to heretics too; this they receive when, corrected, they come and sincerely embrace the bond of unity. But if they did not receive it, then, even while having the baptism of Christ, they would not possess the kingdom of Christ, because they had not entered to that proper fountain of waters running in the streets of the saints and not running outside—by which fountain the charity of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us.
Cease, therefore, to recall those testimonies which either you do not understand, or which you understand to be for us against yourselves. But if, set down ambiguously, they could be interpreted both for us and for you, they would in no way help your cause, since we too, if we wished to use such things, could use countless testimonies which would likewise not help our cause at all. But clearly such things only sustain a bad cause by causing delays. 「Behold,」 they say, 「water flowed from the Lord's body.」 And what does this help you, O heretic? 「Much,」 he says; 「for baptism signifies that it exists nowhere but in the Lord's body, that is, in the Church.」 You would do better to say:
「From the Lord's body, that is, from the Church」—even if it is now established (which perhaps still needs to be more diligently investigated) that that water signified baptism. For we too say that the baptism which you have is from the Lord's body, that is, from the Church, although you yourselves are not in it, like all who build not upon the rock but upon the sand. Why, then, do you not notice that that water, by which you say baptism was signified, not only was in the Lord's body but even went forth outside from His body, and this through the wound of a persecutor? For neither heretics nor all the wicked would have dragged the sacraments outside with them, if they had kept the integrity of unity in the Lord's body.
But you see also how profound this is, and hidden with how great a depth of mystery. Now let it suffice; cease to argue with such things. All things of this kind which you may bring forward are either for us, or—to concede much to your cause—it is uncertain for whom they are; but you gladly linger in obscurities, lest you be forced to confess the clear ones. Behold, I entreat the Church: what do you suffer? Behold the Church, commended and set forth, foretold and demonstrated by so many most manifest testimonies of the holy Scriptures: 「As we have heard, so also have we seen.」 Why do you evade the question of how you are to be received? Why do you refuse to be received in the way that she receives, to whom He bears witness who could not lie?
Show that the canonical Scriptures openly said that he who has been baptized among heretics in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit must be baptized in the Catholic Church. But if you cannot teach this, then teach that for this communion of yours—that is, the party of Donatus, where you learned this—some open and manifest testimony is borne by the canonical Scriptures, and I will confess that we must pass over to you, and that heretics are not to be received otherwise than as the Church receives them in which you are, because it is declared by such testimony. Why do you seethe, why are you troubled? You do not find in the canonical Scriptures that which we most justly demand of you. For as to what you are wont to say—「Where do you feed, where do you lie down at noon?」—you see what sort of thing it is, and how far it is not for you.
Do not, therefore, seek such things; for even if the party of Donatus were in the regions of the north, which are contrary to the southern regions, it would say that this was said of itself: 「The mountains of Zion, the sides of the north, the city of the great King.」 For the city of the great King is surely nothing but the Church, and this sounds forth the Church more indubitably than that saying, 「Where do you feed, where do you lie down at noon?」 But perhaps the heretic Marcion would use that testimony—he who is said to have been from Pontus, which regions are toward the north. Again, if the party of Donatus were in the west, it would say that this was said of itself: 「Make a way for Him who ascends over the sunset; the Lord is His name.」 For perhaps it would say it is more sublime to 「ascend over the sunset」 than to 「lie down at noon.」
These things are mystical, they are hidden, they are figurative; we demand of you something manifest, which needs no interpreter. I therefore receive you thus, in the same way that she receives the seed of Abraham, in whom all nations are blessed. This perhaps would be obscure, had not Paul opened up the seed of Abraham, which is Christ. I receive you thus, as she receives that barren woman, whose sons are more than of her that has a husband—which would be obscure, had not Paul said that she is the Church, our mother, to whom it is said, 「The Lord who delivered you shall Himself be called the God of the whole earth,」 to whom it is said, 「Your land is the whole world」—as she receives that queen, of whom it is said in the Psalms, 「The queen stood at Your right hand,」 and to whom it is said:
「Instead of your fathers, sons are born to you: you shall make them princes over all the earth.」 Finally, not to recall many things, I receive you thus, as the Church receives throughout all nations, beginning at Jerusalem—as the Church receives, which is a witness to Christ in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and Samaria and unto the whole earth. For He receives you who said this of her, who showed her by such words, lest anyone should doubt concerning her. I receive you thus, in the same way that the wheat sown in the field is received, which grows with the tares until the harvest; for these are the sons of the kingdom, but the field is the world, and the harvest is the end of the age. The Lord expounded it; it is the Gospel; they are the Lord's words; they are manifest.
I could say to you: 「I receive you thus, in the very way that you yourselves received those whom Praetextatus and Felicianus, condemned by you, baptized outside your communion—against which fact you have absolutely nothing to say in contradiction.」 But I will rather say this, which most invincibly avails against the Maximianists themselves, who utterly defeated you on the two testimonies especially—those which you are wont to use most unskilfully and yet most frequently—both concerning fewness and concerning the noonday. This, then, I will say, which may extinguish all of you, as though you rose up equally against us: