On Baptism, against the Donatists 7.3–7.71 (On Baptism, against the Donatists)

Augustine of Hippo

On Baptism, against the Donatists 7.3–7.71

Augustine of Hippo · On Baptism, against the Donatists · ca. 400–401 · Hippo Regius · 69 passages

Latin text: Petschenig, CSEL 51 (Latin text: Michael Petschenig, De baptismo (CSEL 51, 1908), digitized by Open Greek and Latin (csel-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0).English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0). Compare: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 4 (1887).

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Chapter 7

7.3CSEL 51:343–345

Huic respondemus: Immo magis mirandum est et magna laude praedicandum, quod tantum isti dilexerint unitatem, ut, quos praeuaricatores ueritatis arbitrabantur, cum eis in unitate perseuerantes ab eis pollui non timerent. nam cum iste dixisset: illud mirandum est quod quidam nostri praeuaricatores ueritatis haereticis suffragantur et christianis aduersantur, uidebatur esse dicturus: propterea decernimus eis non esse communicandum. non hoc dixit, sed ait: propterea decernimus haereticos baptizandos esse, seruans quod pacificus Cyprianus ante praestruxerat dicens: neminem iudicantes aut a iure communionis aliquem si diuersum senserit amouentes. cum ergo Donatistae nobis calumniantur et nos dicunt traditores, si quis existat uel Iudaeus uel paganus, qui lecto isto concilio et nos et ipsos secundum eorum regulas unitatis appellet praeuaricatores, uelim scire ad hoc tam graue crimen refutandum adque diluendum quomodo nobis agenda sit causa communis. isti eos dicunt traditores quos neque illo tempore conuincere potuerunt neque nunc possunt ostendere, et in eodem crimine ipsi esse potius ostenduntur. sed quid ad nos? de istis certe praeuaricatoribus quid dicemus? si enim nos quamuis falso propterea dicimur traditores, quia traditoribus nos in eadem communione successisse criminantur, praeuaricatoribus illis omnes successimus, quia nondum se ab unitate diuiserat pars Donati beati Cypriani temporibus. post passionem quippe eius quadraginta et quod excurrit annis peractis traditio codicum facta est, unde coeperunt appellari traditores. si ergo nos propterea traditores, quia ex traditoribus, sicut opinantur uel confingunt, exorti sumus, ab illis praeuaricatoribus utrique originem ducimus. non est enim quod dicatur non eis communicasse istos, quando suos illos uocant, quod concilium loquitur, quod ipsi maxime proferunt. quidam nostri, inquit, praeuaricatores ueritatis haereticis suffragantur. accedit et testimonium Cypriani satis demonstrantis, quod in eorum communione permanserit, dicendo: neminem iudicantes aut a iure communionis aliquem si diuersum senserit amouentes. ipsi enim erant qui diuersum sentiebant, quos iste praeuaricatores uocat, quia scilicet haereticis suffragabantur sine baptismo eos in ecclesiam recipiendo. eam quoque fuisse consuetudinem, ut sic reciperentur, et ipse Cyprianus multis locis et aliquot episcopi in hoc concilio manifestant. unde apparet, si haeretici non habent baptismum, ecclesiam Christi temporum illorum praeuaricatoribus fuisse plenam, qui eis suffragantes sic eos recipiebant. agatur ergo causa communis aduersus crimen praeuaricationis quod negare non possunt, et ibi agetur nostra aduersus crimen traditionis quod conuincere non potuerunt. sed sic agamus quasi conuicerint. quod utrique responderimus eis qui nobis obiciunt maiorum nostrorum praeuaricationem, hoc nos istis respondebimus qui nobis obiciunt maiorum nostrorum traditionem. si enim per maiorum nostrorum traditionem, unde se isti diuiserunt, nos mortui sumus, ita per maiorum praeuaricationem, qui et nostri et ipsorum parentes fuerunt, et nos et ipsi mortui sumus. sed quia uiuere se dicunt, credunt, quod ad eos non pertineat illa praeuaricatio; ergo nec ad nos illa traditio. et illa quidem praeuaricatio secundum ipsos certa est; secundum nos autem nec anterior praeuaricatio uera est, quia et haereticos dicimus posse habere baptismum Christi, nec posterior traditio, quia in ea causa sunt ipsi superati. non habent ergo isti cur a nobis nefario scelere schismatis separentur, quia nostri maiores si traditores non fuerunt, sicut nos dicimus, non est quod ad nos omnino pertineat; si autem traditores fuerunt, sicut ipsi dicunt, sic ad nos non pertinet quemadmodum nec ad nos nec ad ipsos illi praeuaricatores. ac per hoc quoniam ex maiorum nostrorum iniquitate nullum est crimen nostrum, ex proprio schismate certum est crimen illorum.

To him we answer: rather, it is more surprising and to be proclaimed with great praise that these men so loved unity that, persevering in unity with those whom they thought betrayers of the truth, they did not fear to be polluted by them. For when he had said, “What is surprising is that some of our own, betrayers of the truth, support heretics and oppose Christians,” he seemed about to say, “Therefore we decree that we must not hold communion with them.” He did not say this, but said, “Therefore we decree that heretics are to be baptized,” keeping what the peaceable Cyprian had laid down beforehand, saying, “judging no one and removing no one from the right of communion if he thinks differently.” Since, then, the Donatists slander us and call us traitors, if some Jew or pagan appeared who, having read this council, called both us and them betrayers of unity by their own rules, I should like to know how we would have to plead our common case in order to refute and wash away so grave a charge. They call those traitors whom they could neither convict at that time nor can show now, and they themselves are rather shown to be in the same crime. But what is that to us? What shall we say, certainly, about these betrayers? For if we are called traitors, however falsely, because they charge that we succeeded traitors in the same communion, we have all succeeded those betrayers, since the party of Donatus had not yet divided itself from unity in the times of blessed Cyprian. For it was after more than forty years had passed since his passion that the handing over of the books took place, from which men began to be called traitors. If then we are traitors because we arose from traitors, as they suppose or invent, both of us derive our origin from those betrayers. For it cannot be said that these men did not hold communion with them, when he calls them “our own,” as the council says, which they themselves bring forward most of all. “Some of our own,” he says, “betrayers of the truth, support heretics.” Added to this is the testimony of Cyprian, showing well enough that he remained in communion with them, by saying, “judging no one and removing no one from the right of communion if he thinks differently.” For they were the ones who thought differently, whom this man calls betrayers, because, namely, they supported heretics by receiving them into the church without baptism. That this was the custom, that they should be received so, Cyprian himself shows in many places, and some bishops in this council. From which it appears that, if heretics do not have baptism, the church of Christ of those times was full of betrayers, who supported them by receiving them so. Let a common case, then, be pleaded against the charge of betrayal, which they cannot deny, and there our case will be pleaded against the charge of handing over the books, which they could not prove. But let us plead as if they had proved it. What we would both answer to those who throw at us the betrayal of our forefathers, that we will answer these men who throw at us the handing over by our forefathers. For if we are dead through the handing over by our forefathers, from whom these men divided themselves, then through the betrayal of the forefathers who were parents both of us and of them, both we and they are dead. But since they say they live, they believe that that betrayal does not concern them; then neither does that handing over concern us. And that betrayal, according to them, is certain; but according to us neither the earlier betrayal is real, since we say that heretics too can have Christ’s baptism, nor the later handing over, since in that case they themselves were defeated. So these men have no reason to separate themselves from us by the abominable crime of schism; for if our forefathers were not traitors, as we say, there is nothing that concerns us at all; but if they were traitors, as they say, it concerns us no more than those betrayers concern either us or them. And so, since no crime of ours comes from the iniquity of our forefathers, their crime from their own schism is certain.

Notes and citation

Summary: Marcus did not break communion with those he called betrayers of the truth; since both Catholics and Donatists descend from that church, if the Donatists are not tainted by those “betrayers,” Catholics are not tainted by alleged traitors, and the Donatists’ schism is inexcusable.

Quotations from Sentences 38 and the preface. “Betrayers” renders praeuaricatores; “traitors” renders traditores, those who handed over the Scriptures in the persecution of 303.

Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 38 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation); Cyprian, Sent. 0 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)

Topics: Baptism, Heresy, Persecution

Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 7.3 (CSEL 51:343–345; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/7-3). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/7-3

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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Petschenig, CSEL 51 (1908) (digital text; corrections logged); compared afterwards with NPNF¹ 4 (King, 1887).

7.4CSEL 51:345–346

Satius a Sicilibba dixit: Si haereticis in baptismo suo peccata donantur, sine causa ad ecclesiam ueniunt. nam cum in die iudicii peccata sint quae puniuntur, nihil est quod timere possint haeretici de iudicio Christi, si sunt remissionem peccatorum consecuti.

Sattius of Sicilibba said: “If sins are forgiven heretics in their own baptism, they come to the church without cause. For since on the day of judgment it is sins that are punished, heretics have nothing to fear from the judgment of Christ if they have obtained remission of sins.”

Notes and citation

Summary: The opinion of Sattius of Sicilibba: if heretics’ baptism forgave sins, they would have no reason to come to the church.

Sentences of the Council of Carthage 39, following the site’s translation.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (OCR letter error; OCR letter errors): sito → suo; dic indicii → die iudicii; de indicio Christi → de iudicio Christi.

Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 39 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)

Topics: Baptism, Heresy, Eschatology

Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 7.4 (CSEL 51:345–346; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/7-4). (abbreviation not yet checked)

Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/7-4

BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON (whole work; this passage's key: sophiascriptura-augustine-baptismo-7-4) · Report an error

Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin of Petschenig, CSEL 51 (1908) (digital text; corrections logged); compared afterwards with NPNF¹ 4 (King, 1887).

7.5CSEL 51:346

Et haec poterat etiam nostra esse sententia; uiderit autem auctor eius quo animo dicta sit. uerbis tamen ita modificata est, ut non me pigeat eo animo consentire adque suscribere, quo et ego sentio baptismum quidem Christi haereticos posse habere, sed remissionem peccatorum non habere. non autem ait: si haeretici baptizant aut baptizantur, sed: si haereticis, inquit, in baptismo suo peccata donantur, sine causa ad ecclesiam ueniunt. namque pro haereticis ponamus illos, quos in ecclesia nouerat Cyprianus saeculo uerbis solis et non factis renuntiantes: totidem uerbis possumus hanc sententiam etiam nos uerissime dicere: si fallaciter conuersis in baptismo suo peccata donantur, sine causa ad ueram conuersionem postea perducuntur. nam cum in die iudicii peccata sint quae puniuntur, nihil est quod timere possint qui saeculo uerbis solis et non factis renuntiarunt de iudicio Christi, si sunt remissionem peccatorum consecuti. sed ista ratiocinatio tali conexione perficitur, ut adiungamus dicentes: debent autem timere Christi iudicium et ueraci corde aliquando conuerti; quod cum fecerint, non eos utique necesse est iterum baptizari. potuerunt igitur accipere baptismum et remissionem non accipere peccatorum aut remissis peccatis continuo rursus onerari. sic ergo et haeretici.

This too could be our opinion; let its author see in what spirit it was said. But in its words it is so measured that I am not reluctant to agree with it and subscribe to it in the sense in which I too hold that heretics can indeed have Christ’s baptism, but not have remission of sins. For he does not say, “If heretics baptize or are baptized,” but, “If sins are forgiven heretics in their own baptism, they come to the church without cause.” For let us put in place of heretics those whom Cyprian knew to be in the church, renouncing the world in words only and not in deeds: in as many words we too can say this opinion most truly: “If sins are forgiven to the falsely converted in their baptism, they are afterward brought to true conversion without cause. For since on the day of judgment it is sins that are punished, those who renounced the world in words only and not in deeds have nothing to fear from the judgment of Christ if they have obtained remission of sins.” But this reasoning is completed by a connection such that we add, saying: “But they ought to fear Christ’s judgment and at some time be converted with a truthful heart; and when they have done this, they certainly need not be baptized again.” So they could receive baptism and not receive remission of sins, or, their sins forgiven, be at once burdened again. So too, then, with heretics.

Notes and citation

Summary: Sattius’s words can be accepted: heretics have baptism but not remission of sins; the same is true of the falsely converted within, who are not rebaptized when they truly convert.

Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 39 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation); Cyprian, Ep. 11.1 (Letters; allusion)