Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 25 part 13/16

Behold how greatly, in the good children of the Church, the love of unity and peace avails — so that those whom they called sacrilegious and profane, admitted without baptism (as they supposed), if they could not amend them as much as they thought, they chose rather to tolerate than, on their account, to break that holy bond, lest for the sake of the tares the wheat also be uprooted together — permitting, as far as in them lay (just as in that most noble judgment of Solomon), that the infant's body be nourished by the false mother rather than be cut in two. Now this both those did who felt more truly about the sacrament of baptism, and those to whom, for the merit of so great charity, God was to reveal it, if on any point they were minded otherwise. Privatianus of Sufetula said:

He who says that heretics have the power to baptize, let him first say who founded heresy. For if heresy is from God, it can also possess the divine indulgence; but if it is not from God, how can it either have the grace of God or confer it upon anyone? To this the following reply is made in just as many words: 'He who says that the malevolent and the envious have the power to baptize, let him first say who founded malevolence and envy. For if malevolence and envy are from God, they too can possess the divine indulgence; but if they are not from God, how can they either have the grace of God or confer it upon anyone?' But just as these words, said in this manner, are most manifestly false, so also are those other words, for the refuting of which these were spoken.

For the malevolent and the envious do baptize, as Cyprian himself concedes, since he testifies that they too are within. So then heretics also can baptize, because baptism is the sacrament of Christ, whereas envy and heresy are works of the devil; yet whoever has these does not thereby bring it about that, if he has the sacrament of Christ, it too should be numbered among the works of the devil. Privatus of Sufes said: 'Those who approve the baptism of heretics — what else do they do than communicate with heretics?' To this the reply is: It is not the baptism of heretics that we approve in heretics, just as it is not the baptism of the greedy, the treacherous, the defrauders, the plunderers, the envious that we approve in them.

For all these men are indeed unjust, but Christ is just, whose sacrament in itself, so far as it pertains to Him, they do not violate by their own iniquity. Otherwise another might say: 'Those who approve the baptism of the unjust — what else do they do than communicate with the unjust?' And if anyone were to object this against the Catholic Church, he would be answered as this man has been answered. Hortensianus of Lares said: 'Let the presumptuous or the abettors of heretics look to it: we vindicate for the Church the one baptism which we know exists nowhere except in the Church. Or how can those baptize anyone in the name of Christ whom Christ Himself declares to be His adversaries?' To this, in a like tenor of words, we thus reply: 'Let the presumptuous or the abettors of the unjust look to it:

'we, wherever it is found, whenever we can, recall to the Church the one baptism which we know belongs to none but the Church. Or how can those baptize anyone in the name of Christ whom Christ Himself declares to be His adversaries?' For to all the unjust He says: I know you not; depart from me, you who work iniquity (Matt. 7:23); and yet, when they baptize, it is not they themselves who baptize, but He of whom John says: This is He who baptizes (John 1:33). Cassius of Macomades said: 'Since there cannot be two baptisms, he who grants baptism to heretics takes it away from himself.

I therefore judge that the tearful and wasting heretics must be baptized, when they have begun to come to the Church, so that, washed by the holy and divine bath and enlightened by the light of life, they may be received into the Church, made not enemies but peaceful, not strangers but of the household of the Lord's faith, not adulterers but sons of God, not children of error but of salvation — excepting those faithful who, having been supplanted, had passed over from the Church to the darkness of heresy, but these are to be restored by the laying on of hands.' Another might say: 'Since there cannot be two baptisms of Christ, he who grants baptism to the unjust takes it away from himself.' But these too would resist us together with them and would say:

'We grant baptism to the unjust — baptism which is not from themselves and in themselves like their iniquity, but from Christ, whose is equity, and whose sacrament even among the unjust is not unjust.' What therefore they would say with us concerning the unjust, let them say to themselves concerning heretics. And so what follows ought rather to have been said thus: 'I therefore judge that the tearful and wasting heretics must NOT be baptized, when they have begun to come to the Church, if they already have the baptism of Christ, but must be corrected from their own perversity.' For it can also be said of the unjust, of whom heretics are a portion:

'I therefore judge that the tearful and wasting unjust, if they are already baptized, must not be baptized when they have begun to come to the Church — that is, to that Rock, outside which are all who hear the words of Christ and do them not — but, already washed by the holy and divine bath, and then also enlightened by the light of life, they are to be received into the Church, made not enemies but peaceful — for the unjust have no peace — not strangers but of the household of the Lord's faith — for to the unjust it is said: How have you turned into the bitterness of a strange vine? (Jer. 2:21) — not adulterers but sons of God — for the unjust are sons of the devil — not children of error but of salvation — for iniquity does not save — that is, into that Rock.

Into that Dove, into that enclosed garden and sealed fountain (Song 4:12), which is recognized only in the wheat and not in the chaff, whether they be separated far from the winnowing wind, or whether, mingled with the grain, they seem to remain until the final winnowing.' In vain, then, did Cassius add: 'excepting those faithful who, in the Church, having been supplanted, had passed over to the darkness of heresy.' For if they too, by withdrawing from the Church, had lost their baptism, then let it be restored even to them; but if they had not lost it, then let what was given through them be acknowledged. Another, Januarius of Vicus Caesaris, said: 'If error does not submit to truth, much more does truth not consent to error.

'And therefore we stand by the Church, over which we preside, so that, vindicating its baptism for it alone, we may baptize those whom the Church has not baptized.' The reply is: Those whom the Church baptizes, that Rock assuredly baptizes, outside which are all who hear the words of Christ and do them not. Let all therefore be baptized who have been baptized by such men. But if this is not done, then, just as in these unjust men, so also in heretics, the baptism of Christ — their iniquity and perversity being condemned or corrected — must be acknowledged and approved. Another, Secundinus of Carpi, said: 'Are heretics Christians or not? If they are Christians, why are they not in the Church of God? If they are not Christians, let them become such. Or to what purpose will be the word of the Lord who says:

Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters (Luke 11:23)? Hence it is plain that upon the sons of strangers and the offspring of Antichrist the Holy Spirit cannot descend merely through the laying on of hands, since it is manifest that heretics have no baptism.' To this the reply is: Are the unjust Christians or not? If they are Christians, why are they not in that Rock upon which the Church is built? — for they hear the words of Christ and do them not; if they are not Christians, let them become such. Or to what purpose will be the word of the Lord who says: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters? For they scatter His sheep who lead them into the ruin of their own morals by a depraved imitation.

Hence it is plain that upon the sons of strangers — for so all the unjust are called — and the offspring of Antichrist — for such are all who oppose Christ — the Holy Spirit cannot descend merely through the laying on of hands, if there is not present a true conversion of heart; since it is manifest that the unjust, so long as they are unjust, can indeed have baptism, but cannot have the salvation whose sacrament baptism is. For let us see whether heretics are described in that Psalm, where it is said thus of the sons of strangers: Lord, deliver me from the hand of the sons of strangers, whose mouth has spoken vanity and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity, whose sons are like new plants established, their daughters adorned like the likeness of a temple;

Their storehouses are full, overflowing from this into that; their sheep are fruitful, multiplying in their goings forth; their oxen are fat. There is no breaking down of the wall, nor going out, nor cry in their streets. They called blessed the people that has these things: blessed the people whose Lord is their God (Ps. 143:11-15). If, then, these are the sons of strangers who place their blessedness in temporal things and the abundance of earthly felicity, and who despise the divine precepts, let us see whether these are not the very ones of whom Cyprian speaks thus, transfiguring them also into himself, so that he shows he is speaking of those with whom he shared the sacraments: 'While we do not hold to the way of the Lord,' he says, 'nor keep the heavenly commandments given us for our salvation.'

'Our Lord did the will of the Father, but we do not do the will of the Lord, being devoted to patrimony and gain, pursuing pride,' and the rest. Now if these men could both have baptism and hand it on, why is it denied that it can be among the sons of strangers? Yet he exhorts them, so that by keeping the heavenly commandments sent to them through the only-begotten Son, they may deserve to be His brethren and the sons of God. Victoricus of Thabraca said: 'If it is lawful for heretics to baptize and to give remission of sins, why do we defame them, so as to call them heretics?' What if another were to say:

'If it is lawful for the unjust to baptize and to give remission of sins, why do we defame them, so as to call them unjust?' What would be answered to this man concerning the unjust, let the same be answered to that man concerning heretics — namely, that the baptism by which they baptize is not theirs, and that it does not follow that whoever has the baptism of Christ is also secure concerning the remission of sins, if he has this only in the sacrament and is not converted by a truthful confession of heart, so that it might be forgiven him who forgives. Another, Felix of Uthina, said: 'It is doubtful to no one, most holy fellow-priests, that human presumption cannot avail so much as the adorable and venerable majesty of our Lord Christ.

Mindful, therefore, of the danger, we ought not only to observe this, but also to confirm it on behalf of us all, that all heretics who hasten to the bosom of Mother Church be baptized, so that the heretical mind, which has been defiled by long-standing corruption, being purged by the sanctification of the laver, may be reformed for the better.' Perhaps this man, who placed the reason why heretics ought to be baptized in the purging of a long-standing corruption, would spare those who, having rushed into some heresy, had spent but a brief time there and, being quickly corrected, had migrated thence to the Catholic Church.

Then, too, he himself little noticed that it could be said thus: that all the unjust, who hasten to that Rock in which the Church is signified, should be baptized, so that the unjust mind, which was building outside the Rock upon the sand by hearing the words of Christ and not doing them, being purged by the sanctification of the laver, might be reformed for the better; and yet this is not done, if they are already baptized, even if they be proved to have been such when they were baptized — that is, to have renounced the world in words and not in deeds. Quietus of Buruc said: 'We who live by faith ought, with believing observance, to obey those things which have been foretold beforehand for our instruction. For it is written in Solomon: He who is baptized by a dead man, what does his washing profit? (Sir. 34:30)

'This assuredly speaks of those who are dipped by heretics and of those who dip them. For if those who are baptized among them obtain eternal life through the remission of sins, why do they come to the Church? But if nothing of salvation is received from a dead man, and therefore, their former error being recognized, they return with penitence to the truth, they will have to be sanctified by the one life-giving baptism which is in the Catholic Church.' What it is to be baptized by a dead man, without prejudicing a more diligent consideration of that same Scripture, we have already said elsewhere. But I ask why they wish only heretics to be understood as dead, when the Apostle Paul has said generally of sin: The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), and again: To be wise according to the flesh is death (Rom. 8:6).

And since he calls a widow dead who lives in pleasures (1 Tim. 5:6), how are those not dead who renounce the world in words and not in deeds? What, then, does the washing profit of him who is baptized by these, except that he also, if he is such, has indeed the laver, but it profits him nothing unto salvation? But if he by whom one is baptized is such, while the other is truly converted to God in his heart, then he is not baptized by that dead man, but by that Living One of whom it was said: This is He who baptizes (John 1:33) — no matter who is bodily performing the baptism. And as to what he says of heretics: 'For if those who are baptized among them obtain eternal life through the remission of sins, why do they come to the Church?' — the reply is:

'They come for this reason: because, even if they received the baptism of Christ up to the celebration of the sacrament, yet they do not obtain eternal life except through the charity of unity — just as neither do those malevolent and envious men, to whom their sins would not be remitted even if they held hatred against those from whom they suffered injury, because the Truth has said: If you do not forgive, neither will your Father forgive you (Matt. 6:15) — how much more when they hated those to whom they were repaying evil for good!' Nor yet would these men, renouncing the world in words alone and not in deeds, if they were afterward corrected, be baptized again, but they would be sanctified by the one life-giving baptism.

This baptism is indeed in the Catholic Church, but not in it alone — just as it is not in the holy alone who are built upon the Rock and from whom that unique Dove is perfected. Castus of Sicca said: 'He who, despising the truth, presumes to follow custom, is either envious and malignant toward his brethren, to whom the truth is revealed, or ungrateful toward God, by whose inspiration His Church is instructed.' This man, if he were to convince those who thought differently and held that which afterward the whole world, confirmed by a Christian council, upheld — that they were so following custom as to despise the truth — then we ought to dread these words;

But since that custom is found to be both propagated from truth and strengthened by truth, we fear nothing in this opinion. And yet, if those men were envious and malignant toward the brethren, or ungrateful toward God — behold with what kind of men they communicated; behold what kind of men, holding different opinions, they did not (as Cyprian foretold) remove from the right of communion; behold by whom they were not defiled in the preservation of unity; behold how greatly the bond of peace is to be loved; behold what those should consider who slander us concerning the council of our predecessor bishops, whose charity they do not imitate, and by whose example, rightly considered, they are justly condemned.

If it was the custom, as this opinion bears witness, that heretics coming to the Church should be received with the baptism which they had, then either this was rightly done, or else the wicked do not stain the good in unity. If it was rightly done, why do they accuse the whole world because heretics are thus received? But if the wicked do not stain the good in unity, how do they excuse themselves from the crime of a sacrilegious separation? Eucratius of Thenae said: 'Our faith, and the grace of baptism, and the rule of ecclesiastical law, God and our Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled, teaching His apostles with His own mouth, saying: Go, teach the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19).

'Therefore the false and unjust baptism of heretics must be driven away by us and rejected with all protestation — from whose mouth is expressed poison, not life, nor heavenly grace, but blasphemy of the Trinity. And therefore it is manifest that heretics coming to the Church ought to be baptized with the entire and Catholic baptism, so that, purified from the blasphemy of their presumption, they may be able to be reformed by the glory of the Holy Spirit.' Plainly, if there is no baptism consecrated in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, let it be reckoned that of heretics and, as unjust, be refuted by us with all protestation;

But if we acknowledge that Name in it, then we better distinguish the evangelical words from the error of the heretics, and we approve what is upright in them, and we amend what is faulty. Libosus of Vaga said: 'In the Gospel the Lord says: I am the truth (John 14:6). He did not say: I am custom. Therefore, the truth being made manifest, let custom yield to truth; so that, even if in time past someone in the Church did not baptize heretics, let him now begin to baptize.' This man attempted to show nothing of how it is truth, to which he says custom ought to yield. Yet he helps us more against those who have divided themselves from unity, in that he confesses that this was the custom, than in that he judges that it ought to yield to a truth which he did not demonstrate.

For that is the very custom which, if it admitted the sacrilegious to the altar of Christ without the purgation of baptism and defiled none of the good in unity, then whoever have vainly separated themselves from that same unity — in which they could be polluted by the contagion of no evil men — have committed a manifest sacrilege of schism. But if through that custom all were polluted and perished, then out of what cavern do these men come forth without original truth and with the cunning of calumny? But if the custom was right by which heretics were thus received, let them abandon their fury, let them confess their error, let them come to the Catholic Church — not to be re-dipped by the sacrament of baptism, but to be healed from the wound of division. Leucius of Theveste said:

'I judge that heretics — blasphemous and unjust, who mangle the holy and adorable words of the Scriptures with various interpretations — are to be execrated, and therefore to be exorcized and baptized.' And I too judge that they are to be execrated, but not therefore to be exorcized and baptized. For it is their own fabrication that I execrate, but it is the sacrament of Christ that I venerate. Eugenius of Ammedera said: 'And I too judge this same thing, that heretics are to be baptized.' To this the reply is: But the Church does not judge this — the Church to whom God has already revealed it, even by a plenary council — that at that time some of you were still of a different mind, and, because charity was preserved in you, you remained in unity. Likewise another, Felix of Bamaccura, said:

'And I too, following the authority of the divine Scriptures, judge that heretics are to be baptized, and also those who contend that they have been baptized among schismatics. For if, according to Christ's warning, our fountain is private, let all the adversaries of our Church understand that it cannot belong to a stranger. Nor can he who is the shepherd of one flock impart the water of salvation to two peoples. And therefore it is manifest that neither heretics nor schismatics receive anything heavenly, who dare to accept it from sinful men and from those who are strangers to the Church. When there is no place for the giver, assuredly it profits not the receiver either.'

To this the reply is that the divine Scriptures have nowhere commanded that heretics baptized among heretics should be baptized anew, but have in many places shown that all are strangers to the Church who are not in the Rock and do not belong to the members of that Dove — and yet that they both baptize and are baptized and have, without salvation, the sacrament of salvation. But as for our fountain, which is like the fountain of paradise — that, like it, it flows out even beyond paradise has already been sufficiently said — and that he who is the shepherd of one flock cannot impart the water of salvation to two peoples, that is, to his own and to a stranger: I grant it and agree. But is it therefore the case that, because it is not saving to strangers, it is not itself that water at all?

For the water of the flood was saving to those set within the ark, but outside the ark it was deadly; yet it was the same water. And many strangers — that is, the envious, whom Cyprian says are on the devil's side and shows this from the Scriptures — seem, as it were, to be within, and yet, unless they were outside the ark, they would not die by the water. For baptism, when such men use it wrongly, kills them, as it was to those of whom the Apostle says: the good odor of Christ was unto death (2 Cor. 2:16). Why then do neither schismatics nor heretics receive anything heavenly, as the thorns or tares receive the rain, as those very men who were outside the ark did indeed receive the water coming from the floodgates of heaven, but unto destruction, not unto salvation? And therefore that which he placed at the end:

'When there is no place for the giver, assuredly it profits not the receiver either' — this I do not trouble to refute, because we too say that it profits not the receivers, when they receive in heresy while consenting to heretics. And therefore they come to Catholic peace and truth, not to receive baptism, but that what they had received may begin to profit them. Likewise another, Januarius of Muzula, said: 'I marvel that, since all confess there is one baptism, not all understand the unity of that same baptism. For the Church and heresy are two different things. If heretics have baptism, we do not have it; but if we have it, heretics cannot have it.

But there is no doubt that the Church alone possesses the baptism of Christ, which alone possesses both the grace of Christ and the truth.' Another might similarly say, and similarly not say what is true: 'I marvel that, since all confess there is one baptism, not all understand the unity of that same baptism. For justice and iniquity are two different things. If the unjust have baptism, the just do not have it; but if the just have it, the unjust cannot have it. But there is no doubt that the just alone possess the baptism of Christ, who alone possess both the grace of Christ and the truth.' This is certainly false, even by their own admission.

For those envious men also, who are on the devil's side and set within — as Cyprian says — and who were most well known to the Apostle Paul, did have baptism, and yet did not belong to the members of that Dove which is safe within the Rock. Adelphius of Thasvalte said: 'Without cause do certain men, with a false and invidious word, assail the truth, so as to say that we re-baptize, whereas the Church does not re-baptize heretics, but baptizes them.' On the contrary, in truth, it does not now re-baptize, because it baptizes none but those who have not been baptized — and this earlier custom, the truth being more diligently examined, a later council also confirmed. Demetrius of Leptis Minor said: 'We guard the one baptism, we who vindicate for the Catholic Church alone its own property.

But those who say that heretics truly and legitimately baptize are themselves the ones who make not one baptism, but many baptisms. For since there are many heresies, according to their number the baptisms too will be reckoned.' To this the reply is: If it is so, then let as many baptisms be numbered as there are works of the flesh, of which the Apostle says: for those who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:21) — among which heresies too are numbered. And so many of their works are tolerated within, as it were in the chaff, and yet the one baptism is common to all, which is violated by no work of iniquity. Vincentius of Thibaris said: 'We know those heretics to be worse than the heathen.

'If, being converted, they wish to come to God, they surely have the rule of truth, which the Lord by divine precept enjoined upon the apostles, saying: Go, in my name lay on hands, cast out demons (cf. Mark 16:17-18); and in another place: Go and teach the nations, dipping them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). Therefore, first by the laying on of hands in exorcism, second by the regeneration of baptism, then can they come to the promise of Christ; but otherwise it ought not to be done.' From what rule he says that heretics are worse than the heathen, I do not know, since the Lord says: If he will not hear even the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican (Matt. 18:17). Is a heretic worse even than such a one? I do not resist at all.

Yet not on that account, because the man himself is worse than the heathen — that is, than the Gentile and pagan — is the sacrament of Christ also, if he has any, mingled with his vices and morals and, corrupted by that same intermixture, perishes. For those who withdraw from the Church and become not only followers but even founders of heresies, if they withdraw already baptized, although according to that rule they are worse than the heathen, yet they have baptism; for if, being corrected, they return, they do not receive what, had they lost it, they surely would receive. It can therefore happen that someone is worse than a heathen, and yet in him the sacrament of Christ not only exists, but is also no worse than in a holy and just man.

For even though, as far as it lies in that man, he did not keep it but violated it in mind and will, yet, as far as it pertains to the sacrament itself, it remained whole and inviolate even with its contemner and repudiator. Were not the Sodomites heathen — that is, Gentiles? Worse, then, were the Jews, to whom the Lord says: It shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment than for you (Matt. 11:24), and to whom the prophet says:

You have justified Sodom (Ezek. 16:51) — that is, 'in comparison with you, Sodom has been made just.' Yet were the divine sacraments which were among the Jews therefore such as they themselves were — those sacraments which the Lord Himself also received, and to whose celebration He sent the lepers whom He had cleansed (Luke 17:14), and at which, as Zacharias was ministering, an angel stood by and announced that his sacrifice in the temple had been heard (Luke 1:11)? These same sacraments existed both among the good men of that time and among the wicked, who were worse than the heathen, since in wickedness they were preferred above the Sodomites; and yet those sacraments were, in both alike, whole and divine.

For even the Gentiles themselves, if they were able to have anything divine and right in their teachings, our holy men did not disapprove of it, although those men, on account of their superstitions and idolatry and pride and other ruinous morals, were to be detested and, unless they were corrected, to be punished by the divine judgment. For the Apostle Paul, among the Athenians, when he was saying certain things about God, bore witness that some of them had said something of the kind (Acts 17:28), which assuredly, if they came to Christ, would be acknowledged in them, not disapproved; and holy Cyprian uses such men as witnesses against those same heathen.