On Baptism, against the Donatists

Contents

Translation in progress.

Reading pages: 1.1–1.14 · 1.15–2.2 · 2.3–2.18 · 2.19–3.20 · 3.21–4.6 · 4.7–4.19 · 4.20–4.33 · 5.1–5.19 · 5.20–5.37 · 5.38–6.17 · 6.19–6.55 · 6.56–7.2 · 7.3–7.71 · 7.72–7.103

1. 1.1Augustine announces that he will treat the question of baptism, answering the Donatists and showing that Cyprian’s authority tells against them.
2. 1.2Baptism and the power to give it are kept by those who leave the church, as the Donatists’ own reception of Felicianus and those he baptized in Maximian’s schism shows; so baptism given in schism is real though not profitable.
3. 1.3The Catholic does not forbid schismatics to give or receive baptism as such, only to do so in schism; someone baptized by a schismatic in extreme necessity while keeping Catholic peace in heart is a Catholic, but one who chooses schism knowingly sins gravely.
4. 1.4Augustine argues that anyone who already prefers the Catholic Church should be baptized in it, since only there is baptism both acknowledged and rightly received, and it is a grave sin to prefer the uncertain to the certain.
5. 1.5Baptism outside the church is like a soldier’s mark held by a deserter, real but wrongly held; those who knowingly receive baptism in schism, meaning to come over later, commit a grave evil even for one day.
6. 1.6Augustine answers the claim that one may receive baptism among the Donatists because both sides admit it exists there; even those baptized there in ignorance are wounded by schism, though less gravely.
7. 1.7The Donatists’ condemnation of the Maximianists and later reception of them with those they had baptized in schism settles the question: baptism can be given outside the church and becomes profitable on reconciliation.
8. 1.8With the main Donatist body under Primian the question is settled; Augustine continues the argument for the smaller Donatist splinter groups, each claiming that true baptism exists only with it.
9. 1.9From the gospel Augustine shows that both sayings, “he who is not with me is against me” and “he who is not against you is for you,” are true: the outsider acting in Christ’s name is to be confirmed in what is sound and corrected in his separation.
10. 1.10Like Cornelius, whose real goods needed incorporation into the church, those baptized by schismatics are healed where they were torn and acknowledged where they were sound; schism is a heavier wound than idolatry.
11. 1.11Like a man with one mortal wound, the schismatic must have the wound of schism treated though his other parts, faith or sacrament, are sound; the sound parts are not to be treated again.
12. 1.12Tongues, prophecy, sacraments, faith, almsgiving, and even martyrdom profit nothing without love, which schismatics lack by breaking unity.
13. 1.13Augustine states the Donatist dilemma: does baptism in the party of Donatus beget sons or not?
14. 1.14The one Catholic Church begets wherever its sacraments are kept, even among the separated, as Sarah’s line through handmaids shows; but not all it begets belong to its unity or are saved.
15. 1.15The Donatists’ second dilemma: if sins are forgiven in their baptism, the Holy Spirit and so the church are with them; if not, Catholics should rebaptize those coming from them.
16. 1.16Augustine turns the question back: if sins are not forgiven where there is no love, how is one baptized in schism reborn, and if they are forgiven, how does the schismatic who hates his brother remain in darkness?
17. 1.17Augustine sets out the case of Simon Magus, truly baptized yet told he had no part with the saints, which the Donatists explain by his later sin.
18. 1.18As one who received baptism in pretence is not rebaptized but cleansed by confession, so one baptized in schism is not rebaptized; his baptism begins to profit for forgiveness when he is reconciled to unity.
19. 1.19If sins forgiven in baptism return at once through pretence, like darkness after passing through light, the same may be said of those baptized outside the church with the church’s baptism.
20. 1.20The parable of the unforgiving servant shows that sins forgiven in baptism return where brotherly hatred persists; baptism forgives all, but the guilt returns at once.
21. 1.21A man baptized in haste while hating his enemy is not rebaptized when he amends; likewise what schismatics share with the church is approved, though it profits them only when they come to unity.
22. 1.22Catholics do not accept “Donatist” baptism, for baptism belongs to God and the church; what is the Donatists’ own is their separation, and what they lack is love.
23. 1.23The church gives birth through baptism both within and outside herself; like Esau and Ishmael, those born who persist in discord are separated, while those who agree with their brothers, like Asher, inherit.
24. 1.24The church has always had natural and spiritual members; the natural belong to the old covenant and the spiritual to the new, and those who advance toward spiritual understanding belong to the new even before they attain it.
25. 1.25The same mother church bore the righteous and the wicked from Abel and Cain onward; Augustine maps the ways she gives birth, by spiritual or carnal ministers, onto Sarah, Hagar, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, and their handmaids.
26. 1.26Flesh is flesh and chaff is chaff whether inside or outside, though no one is to be despaired of; the spiritual never truly go outside, even when expelled, for they remain in unity by love.
27. 1.27On baptism one should believe what the universal church holds; differences held in peace until a universal council decided were covered by love.
28. 1.28Cyprian, who with about eighty African bishops held that those baptized outside the church must be baptized again, never broke communion with those who disagreed; his error was covered by his love and purged by his martyrdom, unlike the Donatists, who imitate his error in schism.
29. 2.1Augustine introduces Book 2, on Cyprian’s authority, and excuses any repetition of what he has said elsewhere.
30. 2.2Against the Donatist appeal to Cyprian’s council, Augustine cites Cyprian’s own praise of Peter, who accepted correction from Paul; if Peter could err about circumcision, Cyprian could err about rebaptism, and the universal church outweighs one province.
31. 2.3Augustine quotes Cyprian’s opening speech at the Council of Carthage (256), in which he judges no one and removes no one from communion for thinking differently.
32. 2.4Augustine distinguishes the canonical Scriptures, which cannot be questioned, from the letters of bishops and the decrees of councils, which can be corrected by wiser men, by plenary councils, and by later councils.
33. 2.5Cyprian, who praised Peter’s acceptance of correction, would readily have yielded to a plenary council had one settled the question in his time, and may perhaps have changed his mind; the bond of unity keeps disputes curable.
34. 2.6Cyprian kept unity with those who disagreed, and his martyrdom shows he would accept the truth; to err is human, to separate diabolical, and God reveals the truth to those who walk in the way of peace.
35. 2.7Whichever opinion on baptism is true, Cyprian and his colleagues stayed in communion with those who thought otherwise, so the Donatists’ separation to avoid communion with the wicked is condemned either way.
36. 2.8If communion with the wicked destroyed the church, it was destroyed in Cyprian’s time and Donatus had no church to come from; if not, the Donatists had no reason to separate.
37. 2.9If schismatics received without baptism did not defile Cyprian, unproved traitors could not defile the Donatists; Scripture shows schism punished more severely than idolatry or the burning of a sacred book.
38. 2.10The Donatists answer with Rom 14:4 (“who are you to judge another’s servant?”), though they themselves judge the traitors and the Maximianists, and they press lone Catholics to “become Christians,” which is to teach them to deny that they are Christians.
39. 2.11If schismatics received without rebaptism did not defile Cyprian, nothing can defile the innocent in unity; and the baptism such converts carried began to profit them when they were received by the laying on of hands.
40. 2.12The church’s ancient custom, probably from apostolic tradition, was not to repeat baptism given by heretics; Agrippinus began to corrupt it, and plausible reasons blocked the search for truth.
41. 2.13Cyprian spoke against the custom so as to invite correction while keeping unity; finding no adequate defence of the custom, he rested on the authority of Agrippinus’s earlier council.
42. 2.14Cyprian rested on Agrippinus’s African council, and his own letter to Jubaianus shows that the church’s custom was otherwise; the later universal council outweighs his provincial one.
43. 2.15Since Cyprian was in communion with those who received the baptized without rebaptism, the Donatists must either reject his authority on rebaptism or follow his example of unity; Augustine urges them to repent while God is patient.
44. 2.16The Donatists hate Catholics for telling the truth; to repair the disgrace of their divisions they persecuted the Maximianists through Optatus of Thamugadi and received some back without rebaptism, contradicting their own practice.
45. 2.17Every Donatist answer about the reception of the Maximianists Felicianus and Praetextatus is refuted by their own council and by the proconsular records of their lawsuits.
46. 2.18Augustine urges the Donatists to bring those they rebaptized back to the church, citing Cyprian’s own belief that those admitted without baptism could be pardoned through the bond of unity.
47. 2.19Scripture suggests that lacking baptism is worse than being rebaptized, and the church admits the rebaptized to the altar after penance; as Cyprian hoped for those received without baptism, Catholics hope for pardon for the rebaptized through unity.
48. 2.20In Cyprian’s day the church held either the rebaptized or the unbaptized in unity, and unity saved them; now that the question is settled, the Donatists should return to the church Cyprian never left.
49. 3.1Cyprian’s example of keeping communion with those who received heretics without rebaptism tells for the Catholics, not the Donatists.
50. 3.2Augustine undertakes to answer the arguments of Cyprian and his allies, but even if he could not, he would remain safely in the church in which Cyprian remained with those who disagreed.
51. 3.3Whether or not the church existed while heretics were received without rebaptism, the Donatists are refuted: either they have no origin or no defence for their schism, and they follow neither Cyprian’s example nor his council.
52. 3.4Augustine turns to Cyprian’s council and proposes to examine the letter to Jubaianus, while Cyprian himself guarantees communion to those not yet persuaded.
53. 3.5Cyprian’s speech grants freedom of judgment and inquiry on unsettled questions, and he meant it sincerely; so Catholics may freely examine the question.
54. 3.6Augustine admits he would once have agreed with Cyprian’s letter to Jubaianus but for the authority of the wider church, and asks readers to read the letter, which he will show supports the view that baptism depends on Christ, not on the minister.
55. 3.7Cyprian’s own letter shows that the church’s custom had been to admit converts from heresy without baptism.
56. 3.8Castus of Sicca’s opinion admits that the church’s custom was different.
57. 3.9Libosus of Vaga’s opinion likewise shows that the custom was different.
58. 3.10Zosimus of Tharassa’s appeal to Peter yielding to Paul both shows a different earlier practice and shows that Cyprian too could err.
59. 3.11Felix of Buslacenae’s opinion also shows a different custom.
60. 3.12Honoratus of Thucca’s opinion likewise implies a contrary custom; if truth upholds that custom, its observance in the Catholic Church is vindicated.
61. 3.13Augustine grants that baptism among heretics does not profit and is given wrongly, but distinguishes not having a sacrament from having it unlawfully: the men are to be corrected, the sacraments revered.
62. 3.14Cyprian’s African councils, one of seventy-one bishops, yield to the authority of the universal church of which he was a member.
63. 3.15Against Cyprian’s phrase “profane and adulterous water,” Augustine argues that water over which God’s name is invoked is holy whoever invokes it, as light is not soiled by mud.
64. 3.16That the Novatianists rebaptize is no argument; Catholics do not rebaptize because baptism is Christ’s, not the heretics’, and Cyprian himself received lapsed church members back by penance, not baptism.
65. 3.17Cyprian’s claim that rebaptism went back to Agrippinus shows it was an innovation; if it had been continuous custom, his councils and his colleagues’ appeals to truth over custom would have been unnecessary.
66. 3.18Whether sins are forgiven in heretical baptism and then return, or are not forgiven until reconciliation, the same baptism that works death outside works salvation within, like the fragrance of Christ.
67. 3.19The integrity of the sacrament does not depend on the faith of the recipient: Catholics baptized with defective beliefs, like the carnal Corinthians or a catechumen misled by a heretical book, are corrected, not rebaptized.
68. 3.20If Marcion baptized in the name of the Trinity, the sacrament was entire though his faith was not; the same holds for all with defective beliefs. Jeremiah’s “lying water” means a faithless people, not heretical baptism.
69. 3.21The Holy Spirit is received only in the Catholic Church in the sense of the love poured out by the Spirit, which schismatics lack; the sacrament can exist outside, but love only in unity. The laying on of hands, being prayer, can be repeated.
70. 3.22If only the pure “dove,” the unity of the good, baptizes, how could the greedy bishops Cyprian deplored baptize? Their baptism availed through the prayers of the saints for those in unity; outside unity the sacrament is entire but does not bring forgiveness.
71. 3.23The power to forgive and retain sins given in John 20 belongs to the church’s unity, the dove; greedy bishops baptized but did not forgive sins, which are forgiven to those at peace with the dove, whether baptized inside or outside.
72. 3.24Augustine agrees that usurpers like Dathan and Abiram and the sons of Aaron were punished, and that such crimes are punished unless corrected.
73. 3.25Augustine rejects the weak argument from Philip’s converts but holds that what heretics have from the church is God’s, as God in Hosea recognizes his own gifts in the hands of the unfaithful wife.
74. 3.26True Christians are those who keep Christ’s command of love, as Cyprian did; those without love, inside or outside, are false Christians, like the vessels for dishonour in the great house of 2 Tim 2.
75. 3.27Like the unfaithful wife of Hosea and Ezekiel, who adorned her harlotry with her husband’s gifts, heretics hold the sacraments and Scriptures, which remain God’s; the fornication is to be corrected, the gifts recognized.
76. 3.28The church’s custom has been to approve what is divine and entire among heretics and correct what is their own; the rest of the letter to Jubaianus is left for the next book.
77. 4.1As the rivers of paradise flow outside it while its happiness stays within, so the church’s baptism can exist outside the church, but the blessed life is found only within.
78. 4.2What heretics have from the church is not theirs and does not save them outside unity; baptism, like the church, cannot be corrupted, though the greedy within the church also baptize and are baptized.
79. 4.3Cyprian’s own letter on prayer complains of church members who renounce the world in words, not deeds; such men are baptized without a good conscience, yet are within the church.
80. 4.4Wicked members within the church, like those Cyprian describes, are not members of the spotless dove, yet their baptism is not repeated when they convert; so too with those openly outside, some of whom may yet become members.
81. 4.5If heretics cannot forgive sins, neither can wicked ministers within the church; baptism is Christ’s in both and profits neither until they are corrected.
82. 4.6Neither the heretic nor the greedy Catholic becomes a temple of God, since greed is idolatry; yet neither is unbaptized, for the sacrament consecrated by the gospel words remains holy.
83. 4.7Augustine agrees that truth outranks custom and knowing sin outranks ignorant sin, but asks why the baptism of an ignorant heretic is rejected while that of a knowingly greedy Catholic, an idolater by Paul’s and Cyprian’s own reckoning, is accepted.
84. 4.8Cyprian’s denial that the apostles handed down the custom shows that others in his day claimed they had; the custom was strong and Agrippinus’s council a recent innovation, and seeing what Cyprian did not see does not make anyone his superior.
85. 4.9Scripture records neither the admission nor the rebaptism of converts from heretics; the custom, of untraceable origin, is rightly held apostolic, and now has the backing of a plenary council and of truth.
86. 4.10Cyprian rightly says Phil 1:18 concerns envious preachers within the church, not heretics; but if those within can have the devil’s envy, those outside can have Christ’s baptism, and the envious, lacking peace, were not truly in unity.
87. 4.11Cyprian’s treatise on jealousy and envy shows how great an evil envy is; free of it himself, he kept communion with those who differed on baptism, as his council speech and the end of his letter to Jubaianus show.
88. 4.12Cyprian bore with plainly wicked, greedy fellow bishops as well as with good colleagues who differed, for the sake of unity, as Paul bore with the envious.
89. 4.13The devil has his tares within the church, so Christ may have his sacraments outside; like rain falling on wheat and tares alike, the sacrament is heavenly whoever receives it.
90. 4.14Whether the wicked within convert more easily has no bearing on rebaptism; converts from outside sometimes surpass the wicked within, and there is wheat outside and tares within.
91. 4.15Division is the surest sign of lost love, but many who have lost love stay inside only for worldly advantage.
92. 4.16Since the wicked within, on the devil’s side, still give and receive holy baptism, what matters is not who gives or receives but what is given; some act against the church within, while some outside act in Christ’s name.
93. 4.17Some teach error with love, like Peter and Cyprian, and some teach truth without love, like the Pharisees; men’s perversity is to be corrected, but the sacraments, which are Christ’s, are recognized wherever found.
94. 4.18Cyprian argues that the apostles curse heretics, whose word creeps like a cancer; but Cyprian’s own letter to Antonianus places such men, the vessels for dishonour of 2 Tim 2, within the great house of the church, and their cancer did not violate baptism.
95. 4.19Unrighteousness and darkness exist inside the church too, as Cyprian admits of Paul’s envious rivals; that such men baptize within shows that the sacrament’s holiness cannot be polluted.
96. 4.20Enemies of God and antichrists exist within the church too and still perform sacred acts; Cyprian’s statement about adversaries applies to both, and the Lord will separate the chaff at the end.
97. 4.21No one is to be despaired of while God’s patience calls to repentance; the grace of salvation is not obtained by many even within, and Cyprian’s own warning about what is done “in Christ’s name” applies to the greedy bishops within.
98. 4.22Against Cyprian’s argument that blasphemers of the Father cannot baptize in Christ, Augustine notes that many baptized within, including those baptized as infants, held false ideas of God; error is corrected, but the true sacrament is not repeated.
99. 4.23Of two men holding the same error, the one baptized outside is worse because of division, unless the other stays inside for worldly gain; in neither is the sacrament repeated, for it is God’s gift.
100. 4.24Augustine agrees with Cyprian that martyrdom outside the church does not profit, because love is lacking, but the same is true of the loveless within, who still give true baptism; baptism, like the gospel, can be common to Catholics and heretics.
101. 4.25Paul lists heresy among many works of the flesh that exclude from God’s kingdom; a morally upright heretic is excluded, but so is a Catholic guilty of the other vices.
102. 4.26Each of the vices Paul lists, not only heresy, excludes from the kingdom; punishments differ in degree, but all excluded go to the left hand and the eternal fire.
103. 4.27Augustine will not judge whether a wicked Catholic is worse than a morally upright heretic; vices cluster, but the sacrament is God’s and is the same, and good, in both, as light is the same in good and bad eyes.
104. 4.28A good catechumen may be better than a wicked baptized man, as Cornelius was better than Simon, without slighting baptism; baptism and true conversion are both needed for the kingdom, and baptism received outside is not to be disapproved.
105. 4.29Like suffering, faith and conversion of heart can supply the lack of baptism when necessity, not contempt, prevents it, as with the thief on the cross; but Cornelius was baptized after receiving the Spirit, and Christ received John’s baptism to show that no one may despise the sacrament.
106. 4.30The sacrament is entire in itself even in the wicked; as the thief was saved without the sacrament, so infants are saved by the sacrament without the faith they cannot yet have, as the whole church holds.
107. 4.31Infant baptism, held by the whole church from apostolic tradition, is illuminated by circumcision: as Abraham’s faith preceded his sign and Isaac’s sign preceded his faith, so baptized infants receive the sacrament first, and grace supplies their inability to confess; sponsors answer for them.
108. 4.32Sacrament and conversion of heart are distinct but both needed; either may be lacking without guilt through necessity, but not through contempt. Heretics are corrected without violating the sacrament they have.
109. 4.33The remaining points of the letter to Jubaianus, on past custom and John’s baptism, are deferred to the next book.
110. 5.1Cyprian’s own testimony that converts from heresy had formerly been admitted without baptism proves that communion with the wicked does not destroy the church, so the Donatists had no cause for schism.
111. 5.2Cyprian trusted that the love of unity could cover the error of admitting people without baptism; equally it covered the error of those who rebaptized while staying in unity, but the Donatists, outside unity, have no such remedy.
112. 5.3Catholics are not resisting plain truth but contending for it or still seeking it; either way, as Cyprian trusted for those admitted without baptism, unity covers error, while the Donatists, having separated without cause, have lost all room for pardon.
113. 5.4Whichever view of baptism is true, those who held either while keeping unity could be saved, but the Donatists, who left unity without cause, cannot be saved while in schism.
114. 5.5Even converts who think they lack baptism should not be rebaptized but taught that their baptism, unharmed by their error, now begins to profit them.
115. 5.6Rebaptism is so widely detested, by a hidden divine inspiration, that even Donatist laity dislike it and the Donatists accepted the Maximianists’ baptism rather than rebaptize their people.
116. 5.7The Donatists accepted the Maximianists’ baptism because mass rebaptism would have provoked horror; against Cyprian’s claim that rebaptism draws heretics, Augustine notes the general, God-given horror at it.
117. 5.8Cyprian warned against counting heretics’ baptism “just and lawful”; Augustine distinguishes having a lawful baptism from having it lawfully, which heretics and wicked Catholics alike do not.
118. 5.9Like the law, baptism is good if used lawfully; misuse does not make it evil or void, as the eucharist received unworthily by Judas or the Corinthians remained the Lord’s body; heretics should seek in the church the love they lack.
119. 5.10Paul baptized those who had John’s baptism because John’s was not Christ’s baptism but a temporary gift to prepare the way; Christ received it to teach humility.
120. 5.11John alone was given a baptism of repentance to prepare for Christ; Christ received it to teach humility, but others received it too, and it ceased, lest Christ’s baptism seem inferior or insufficient.
121. 5.12If John’s baptism did not forgive sins while that of greedy bishops in Cyprian’s day did, the difference cannot be unity, since John was in unity; Augustine holds that John’s baptism forgave sins in hope, but will not dispute the point.
122. 5.13Since baptism was repeated after holy John but not after greedy bishops in unity, the reason can only be that John’s baptism was not Christ’s, which cannot be repeated whoever gives it.
123. 5.14Using Cyprian’s praise of John, Augustine shows that it is no dishonour to John that his baptism was followed by Christ’s, since Christ’s baptism belongs to Christ whoever administers it, and John’s was not repeated but completed.
124. 5.15Christ kept the power of his baptism to himself, so that it is his whoever ministers it; this is what John learned from the dove, not knowing before whether Christ would hand over his baptism as he had given John his.
125. 5.16Apostles speak of “my gospel” but never “my baptism,” since no one is more or less baptized; if baptism after John but not after heretics is a marvel, so is baptism after John but not after the envious, who were within the church.
126. 5.17Since John’s baptism was not Christ’s, baptism after John proves nothing about baptism after heretics, who can have Christ’s baptism with the devil’s perversity.
127. 5.18The argument “all the more after a heretic” would equally require rebaptism after a drunkard; the only answer is that John’s converts lacked Christ’s baptism, while those who have it keep it whatever their perversity.
128. 5.19A heretic does not gain the right to baptism by baptizing first; he gives Christ’s baptism without right, as those within who renounce the world only in words receive it without right but truly.
129. 5.20Against Cyprian’s claim that baptism and the church cannot be separated, Augustine notes that baptism remains in the baptized even in apostasy, and the baptized can leave the church, so baptism can be outside it.
130. 5.21The heretic does not “seize” baptism first, for he took it from the church; the true first place, the birthright, lies in holy living, which the wicked within the church lack though they give and have baptism.
131. 5.22Augustine quotes with delight the peaceable close of Cyprian’s letter to Jubaianus, which leaves each bishop free and keeps concord with those who differ.
132. 5.23Augustine praises Cyprian’s love of unity, which let him differ without schism; Cyprian now sees the truth in heaven, and Augustine sets against his opinion not his own but that of the Catholic Church, admitting that his own writings, unlike the apostles’, are not free from error.
133. 5.24Cyprian shows that many dead in sin within the church baptize and are baptized, yet Christ’s living baptism is in them; so too the dead outside have a living baptism that will profit them if they turn to peace.
134. 5.25Against Cyprian’s claim that the old custom applied only to those first baptized in the church, Augustine notes that every heresy could baptize from its first day, so the old custom must have covered those baptized outside.
135. 5.26Against Cyprian’s distinction between the straying sheep and the stranger who must be baptized to become a sheep, Augustine notes that insincere Catholics are not sheep either, yet are not rebaptized when they convert; and the wicked within baptize though “nothing is common to falsehood and truth.”
136. 5.27Since envious murderers in John’s sense baptized within the church, Cyprian’s question how the unclean can sanctify water or bless oil is answered: God is present to his sacraments whoever ministers them.
137. 5.28The baptismal question about the church does not void heretical baptism any more than an insincere Catholic’s false answer voids his; and since murderers within the church validly baptize, consecrate oil, and celebrate the eucharist, God, not the minister, gives the Spirit.
138. 5.29The arguments of Cyprian’s council against heretical baptism apply equally to murderers, that is, haters of their brothers, within the church, who still baptize validly; God gives the sacrament through the wicked but grace only through himself and his saints.
139. 5.30Heretics, like the envious within, can give baptism but not forgiveness; Cyprian’s letters to Quintus and the synodal letter to Saturninus and others cannot be set against the whole Catholic Church, from which their authors never separated.
140. 5.31Cyprian’s letter to Pompeius shows that Stephen of Rome opposed him; the custom Stephen upheld, though not written, is rightly believed to come from apostolic tradition.
141. 5.32If heretics are self-condemned (Titus 3:11), so are the greedy bishops in Cyprian’s communion who preached against robbery while robbing.
142. 5.33Answering Cyprian’s letter to Pompeius, Augustine denies any Scripture forbids receiving those baptized by heretics, and that baptism is inseparable from church and Spirit: it remains even where the Spirit withdraws; hands are laid on converts for the bond of love.
143. 5.34Putting on Christ may mean receiving the sacrament, common to good and bad, or holiness of life, proper to the good; either heretics have the Spirit to their ruin, like Saul, or baptism can exist without the Spirit, as in the greedy.
144. 5.35If heresy cannot beget God’s sons because it is not Christ’s spotless bride, neither can the wicked within; the question of spiritual birth arises for insincere Catholics too, who are nevertheless baptized.
145. 5.36Augustine passes over Cyprian’s heated words against Stephen; Stephen would have excommunicated innovators, but Cyprian kept unity, and the peace of Christ prevented schism; the rebaptizers, not Catholics, have split into fragments.
146. 5.37Cyprian’s ideal of the teachable bishop permits learning from the later church; going back to apostolic tradition, as he urges, shows that some in Corinth had one baptism without one hope, so heretics can have one baptism without one church.
147. 5.38The “garden enclosed” of the Song is the fixed number of the predestined righteous, some of whom are now outside the church or even pagans, while many inside are thorns; their own gifts are love and eternal life, but the sacraments are shared with the wicked.
148. 5.39The ark of Noah, Cyprian’s figure of the one church, shows that those admitted with heretical baptism were saved through water in it, while wicked Catholics drown in the same water; within and outside are matters of the heart, and the same baptism saves or destroys.
149. 6.1Cyprian and others failed to distinguish the sacrament from its effect; the wicked within the church, who have and give baptism without forgiveness, made it clear that the Lord’s mark on a stray sheep is to be recognized, not repeated.
150. 6.2As the spiritual can err and the carnal can hold good things from elsewhere, so the Donatists imitate Cyprian’s error without his love, and do not even equal his “prunings.”
151. 6.3Even good Catholics who hold the right view on baptism are not Cyprian’s equals, as no one today is Peter’s equal though no one now judaizes; Augustine honours Cyprian while saying, with the universal church, that he erred.
152. 6.4Augustine states his thesis: baptism is had, given, and received by good and bad alike, equally entire and holy in all, profiting the good and harming the bad.
153. 6.5The wicked who have baptism, though they appear within, do not belong to the holy church, the spotless dove and enclosed garden, which consists of the good who have the Spirit and love.
154. 6.6A wicked man can hand on baptism; when it is given to one truly converted, the giver’s wickedness is overcome, and the Holy Spirit in the communion of saints forgives his sins.
155. 6.7Baptism given by a separated man can profit a recipient who is not separated in heart, as in emergencies; received in separation it harms, but on reconciliation the same baptism brings forgiveness.
156. 6.8The many bishops who agreed with Cyprian only show his love of unity the more, since he kept communion not for lack of supporters; Augustine will nevertheless go through each bishop’s opinion for the slower readers.
157. 6.9Augustine quotes again Cyprian’s opening speech to the Council of Carthage of 256.
158. 6.10Having answered Cyprian’s letters, Augustine turns to the individual opinions of the council, using the freedom Cyprian granted, as his letters to Jubaianus and Magnus show, and keeping unity with those bishops.
159. 6.11The opinion of Caecilius of Biltha: there is one baptism, in the church alone, and heretics, who are liars, demoniacs, and antichrists, cannot give it.
160. 6.12Every charge Caecilius brings against heretics applies to wicked members within the church, who still baptize; his complaint shows that other bishops held the older custom, and he may not separate from them, by Cyprian’s own rule.
161. 6.14Against the bishop of Misgirpa, Augustine notes that baptism is not given again to returning schismatics, so it exists outside; he agrees that it has no saving effect there until they come to Catholic peace.
162. 6.15Against Polycarp of Hadrumetum: if heretical baptism is the heretics’, the baptism of greedy and murderous ministers within is theirs; since it is not, baptism anywhere is Christ’s.
163. 6.17Novatus of Thamugadi stated his practice but gave no argument from Scripture or decree.
164. 6.19Nemesianus’s texts on trusting falsehoods and drinking from a foreign spring apply to all who live wickedly, not only heretics; John 3:5 does not mean all baptized enter the kingdom (Simon Magus did not); and Paul condemns the works of the flesh within the church too, yet those who do them baptize.
165. 6.20The opinion of Januarius of Lambaesis: all heretics are to be baptized on the authority of Scripture.
166. 6.21Against Januarius: a council of the whole world decreed on Scripture’s authority that Christ’s baptism among heretics is not to be rejected.
167. 6.23Against Lucius of Castra Galbae: those thrown out like tasteless salt are useless, but their baptism is not nothing; robbers and murderers within the church are also “opponents of the law” needing cleansing, yet are not rebaptized when corrected.
168. 6.24The opinion of Crescens of Cirta: heretics and schismatics must be exorcized and baptized, except those first baptized in the Catholic Church, who are reconciled by the laying on of hands.
169. 6.25Crescens’s exception for those first baptized in the church implies that baptism is kept outside and so can be given outside; the letter to Stephen he mentions has nothing on heretical baptism.
170. 6.26The opinion of Nicomedes of Segermes: heretics must be baptized because there is no remission of sins among sinners outside.
171. 6.27Against Nicomedes: sinners within the church do not forgive sins either, yet those they baptize are not rebaptized.
172. 6.28The opinion of Monnulus of Girba: heretics have neither Father, Son, nor Spirit, and so must be born again in the church’s baptism.
173. 6.29Against Monnulus: all baptized with the gospel words have the Trinity in the sacrament, but not in heart and life, which even the wicked within lack.
174. 6.30The opinion of Secundinus of Cedias: enemies of Christ and antichrists cannot give saving baptism, so those fleeing heretics must be baptized by the friends of God.
175. 6.31Against Secundinus: all the wicked, inside or outside, are adversaries of Christ; if baptism must be given by friends of God, those baptized by the wicked within would need rebaptism.
176. 6.32The opinion of Felix of Bagai: a heretic baptizing a heretic, like the blind leading the blind, falls with him into death.
177. 6.33Against Felix of Bagai: the Corinthians who denied the resurrection were spiritually dead yet baptized, and the greedy around Cyprian were “dead,” yet their baptism was not violated nor did they harm him in unity.
178. 6.34The opinion of Pollianus of Milevis: a heretic should be baptized in the church.
179. 6.35Augustine answers Pollianus just as briefly: Christ’s baptism should not be rejected in Christ’s church.
180. 6.36The opinion of Theogenes of Hippo Regius: we believe in the one baptism which is in the holy church.
181. 6.37Theogenes’ opinion is acceptable as worded, since it does not say baptism is in the church “alone”; like the Euphrates, which is in paradise but also flows outside it, baptism is in the church without being only there.
182. 6.38The opinion of Dativus of Vada: as far as possible, no communion with a heretic not baptized in the church.
183. 6.39Against Dativus: a man baptized while hating his brother lacks forgiveness yet is not rebaptized; and Dativus’s “as far as it lies with us” shows that he stayed in communion with those who received heretics, for the sake of unity.
184. 6.40The opinion of Successus of Abbir Germaniciana: if heretics cannot give the Spirit, they cannot baptize.
185. 6.41Augustine turns Successus’s argument on murderers, that is, haters of their brothers within the church, who baptized in Cyprian’s day without their baptism being repeated.
186. 6.42The opinion of Fortunatus of Thuccabori: Christ gave the power of baptizing to bishops of the church built on Peter, not to heretics.
187. 6.43Fortunatus’s argument could equally exclude the wicked within, who build on sand, yet they baptize; being outside does not change what is given, and if baptism could not be given outside it could not be kept outside either.
188. 6.44The church is on the rock; those who hear Christ’s words without doing them build on sand and are outside the church, though they seem within, yet they baptize and are baptized.
189. 6.45No one fulfils every word of the Sermon on the Mount, but the sermon itself provides the remedy of forgiving others; those without love, like the envious within, build on sand and are outside the church.
190. 6.46The opinion of Sedatus of Thuburbo: water infected by heretical speech heaps up sins, and those dipped in it must receive the church’s baptism.
191. 6.47Faulty prayers over the water, common even among Catholics, do not void baptism, because the gospel words consecrate it and God sanctifies his own sacrament; Christ’s baptism with the gospel words is the same everywhere.
192. 6.48Sedatus’s “peaceable strength” echoes Cyprian’s refusal to excommunicate; both sides bore with each other rather than break unity, like the true mother before Solomon.
193. 6.49The opinion of Privatianus of Sufetula: heresy is not from God and cannot have or give God’s grace.
194. 6.50Privatianus’s argument would equally deny baptism to the malicious and envious within, who do baptize; baptism is Christ’s, heresy and envy the devil’s.
195. 6.51The opinion of Privatus of Sufes: to approve heretics’ baptism is to hold communion with heretics.
196. 6.52Approving Christ’s baptism in heretics is not approving the heretics’ baptism, any more than approving it in the wicked within is communion with their wickedness.
197. 6.53The opinion of Hortensianus of Lares: the one baptism is the church’s, and Christ’s adversaries cannot baptize in his name.
198. 6.54The baptism that belongs to the church is to be called back wherever found; Christ calls all the wicked his adversaries, yet when they baptize, Christ baptizes.
199. 6.55The opinion of Cassius of Macomades: there cannot be two baptisms, so heretics are to be baptized, except former church members, who are restored by the laying on of hands.
200. 6.56Cassius’s words, adapted, apply to the wicked within, who are already baptized and need only correction; his exception for former members undercuts his case, for if they kept baptism, what they gave must be recognized.
201. 6.57The opinion of Januarius of Vicus Caesaris: claiming baptism for the church alone, we baptize those the church has not baptized.
202. 6.58If only the church, the rock, baptizes, those baptized by the wicked within, who are off the rock, would need rebaptism; since they do not, heretics’ baptism must be recognized too.
203. 6.59The opinion of Secundinus of Carpi: heretics, not being in the church, must become Christians; the Spirit cannot come on them by laying on of hands alone.
204. 6.60Secundinus’s argument applies to the wicked within, “strange sons” in the sense of Ps 144, whom Cyprian describes in his own church; they have and give baptism, so it can exist in strange sons.
205. 6.61The opinion of Victoricus of Thabraca: if heretics can baptize and forgive, why call them heretics?
206. 6.62Victoricus’s question would apply to the wicked within too; the baptism is not theirs, and having the sacrament does not guarantee forgiveness without true conversion.
207. 6.63The opinion of Felix of Uthina: heretics coming to the church must be baptized, so that minds long corrupted may be cleansed.
208. 6.64Felix’s reason, long corruption, would not apply to short-term heretics and would equally require rebaptizing the wicked within, which is not done.
209. 6.65The opinion of Quietus of Buruc: Sirach’s “baptized by a dead man” refers to heretics, whose converts must receive the church’s life-giving baptism.
210. 6.66If baptism by a “dead man” means by sinners, it applies to all sinners within, yet Christ, the living one, baptizes; heretics come to the church for the eternal life given only through the love of unity, and the one life-giving baptism is in the Catholic Church but not only there.
211. 6.67The opinion of Castus of Sicca: to follow custom against revealed truth is envy toward the brothers or ingratitude toward God.
212. 6.68Castus’s words confirm that receiving heretics without rebaptism was the custom; either it was right, or the wicked do not stain the good in unity, and either way the Donatists are condemned.
213. 6.69The opinion of Eucratius of Thenae: heretics’ baptism, blaspheming the Trinity, must be refuted, and they must be baptized in the church.
214. 6.70Baptism without the Trinitarian name is to be rejected; where the name is present, the gospel words are to be distinguished from heretical error and approved.
215. 6.71The opinion of Libosus of Vaga: Christ is truth, not custom, so the custom of not baptizing heretics must yield.
216. 6.72Libosus admits that the custom was not to rebaptize; whether that custom was right or wrong, the Donatists’ separation is unjustified, and they should come to be healed of schism, not rebaptized.
217. 6.73The opinion of Leucius of Theveste: heretics who tear apart Scripture are to be abhorred, exorcized, and baptized.
218. 6.74Augustine agrees heretics are to be abhorred, but not rebaptized: their invention is abhorred, Christ’s sacrament revered.
219. 6.75The opinion of Eugenius of Ammaedara: heretics are to be baptized.
220. 6.76The church, through a plenary council, has since judged otherwise, and those who then differed remained in unity through love.
221. 6.77The opinion of Felix of Bamaccora: the church’s fountain is private, and neither heretics nor schismatics can receive anything heavenly from those outside.
222. 6.78Like the water of paradise and of the flood, the church’s baptism is the same everywhere, saving within the ark and deadly outside; heretics receive it but to their ruin, and come to the church for it to profit them.
223. 6.79The opinion of Januarius of Muzula: since church and heresy are different, both cannot have the one baptism.
224. 6.80Januarius’s argument, applied to righteous and wicked, is plainly false, for the envious within had baptism; so it is false of church and heresy too.
225. 6.81The opinion of Adelphius of Thasvalte: the church does not rebaptize heretics but baptizes them.
226. 6.82It is the present church that truly does not rebaptize, since it baptizes only the unbaptized, as the later council confirmed.
227. 6.83The opinion of Demetrius of Leptis Minor: accepting heretical baptism multiplies baptisms by the number of heresies.
228. 6.84If baptisms multiplied by heresies, they would multiply by every work of the flesh tolerated within the church; yet baptism is one.
229. 6.85The opinion of Vincentius of Thibaris: heretics, worse than heathens, must be exorcized and then baptized.
230. 6.86Even if heretics are worse than heathens, their sacrament is not corrupted, as the sacraments of the Jews, whom Scripture calls worse than Sodom, remained divine and were used by Christ and Zechariah.
231. 6.87The saints, including Paul at Athens and Cyprian citing Ostanes, Plato, and Hermes, approved what was true even among pagans; so what is Christ’s among heretics should be recognized while their errors are corrected.
232. 7.1Augustine resumes the review of the council’s opinions, asking Cyprian’s prayers and comparing the Donatists, who use his authority against unity, with the Nazarenes, who perpetuate the error from which Paul recalled Peter.
233. 7.2The opinion of Marcus of Mactaris: it is surprising that some of the bishops’ own colleagues betray the truth by supporting heretics.
234. 7.3Marcus 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.
235. 7.4The opinion of Sattius of Sicilibba: if heretics’ baptism forgave sins, they would have no reason to come to the church.
236. 7.5Sattius’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.
237. 7.6The opinion of Victor of Gorduba: admitting a heretic without baptism fails to cleanse him and defiles Christians.
238. 7.7Heretics have the church’s baptism, like the water of paradise in Egypt; Cyprian himself rejected the idea that communion with those received without rebaptism defiles, or else the whole church of the old custom would have been defiled.
239. 7.8The opinion of Aurelius of Utica: communion with heretics not baptized in the church is sharing in others’ sins.
240. 7.9If communion with those received without rebaptism shares in their sins, Cyprian himself shared in them and the church perished; sharing in sins means consent, and heretics need rebaptism no more than the envious within.
241. 7.10The opinion of Iambus of Germaniciana: approving heretics’ baptism disapproves the church’s.
242. 7.11Catholics approve not heretics’ baptism but Christ’s in them; if those outside the church are soiled, so are those within who are off the rock, yet both are truly washed.
243. 7.12The opinion of Lucianus of Rucuma: as light and darkness are divided, Catholics and heretics have nothing in common.
244. 7.13If light and darkness cannot share anything, neither can the righteous and the unrighteous within the church, yet they share baptism.
245. 7.14The opinion of Pelagianus of Luperciana: if heresy is not the church, the church’s baptism cannot be among heretics.
246. 7.15As the water of paradise flows into Egypt, which is not paradise, and baptism exists among those who build on sand, so the church’s baptism can exist among heretics.
247. 7.16The opinion of Iader of Midili: one baptism exists only in the Catholic Church, so heretics must be baptized.
248. 7.17Iader’s claim would be false of the wicked within, who are off the rock yet baptized; so it is false of heretics.
249. 7.18The opinion of Felix of Marazana: one baptism, belonging only to the Catholic Church.
250. 7.19Felix’s claim would be like saying only the righteous may baptize, which is false; the unrighteous within are not members of the spotless church, yet they baptize.
251. 7.20The opinion of Paul of Obba: God is true, so the truth of baptism cannot be among heretics, among whom God is not.
252. 7.21God is not among the greedy, who are idolaters, yet baptism is; so baptism can be among heretics too.
253. 7.22The opinion of Pomponius of Dionysiana: heretics, lacking the power to bind and loose, cannot baptize or forgive.
254. 7.23Haters of their brothers within the church lack the power to forgive, yet they baptize, as Paul and Cyprian acknowledged.
255. 7.24The opinion of Venantius of Thinisa: sharing the church’s baptism with heretics betrays Christ’s bride to adulterers.
256. 7.25Insincere converts within the church have adulterous minds, yet Cyprian shared baptism with them; recognizing the bridegroom’s gift on an adulteress does not betray the bride.
257. 7.26The opinion of Ahymmus of Ausuaga: allowing heretics to baptize makes two baptisms.
258. 7.27Righteous and unrighteous ministers give one and the same baptism, Christ’s, so recognizing heretics’ baptism does not make two baptisms.
259. 7.28The opinion of Saturninus of Victoriana: if heretics may baptize, they are excused, and Christ and the apostle would not call them adversaries and antichrists.
260. 7.29Heretics, like defrauders within, baptize unlawfully but truly; recognizing Christ’s baptism in them does not excuse them, and both are adversaries of Christ.
261. 7.30The opinion of Saturninus of Thucca: Marcion blasphemes the Creator whom even pagans confess, yet some approve his baptism.
262. 7.31Saturninus himself admits that pagans rightly confess the Creator, which would be approved in a convert; so in a Marcionite the integrity of baptism should be recognized and his errors corrected.
263. 7.32The opinion of Marcellus of Zama: not baptizing a heretic is communion with a sinner.
264. 7.33If Marcellus were right, the bishops who kept communion with those who did not rebaptize also communed with sinners and the church perished; the Donatists quote Cyprian without his patience.
265. 7.34The opinion of Irenaeus of Ululi: not baptizing heretics makes heresy greater than the church.
266. 7.35Irenaeus’s argument applied to a greedy man shows its falsity.
267. 7.36The opinion of Donatus of Cibaliana: one must prove the church is among heretics before claiming baptism is there.
268. 7.37Baptism, the sacrament of grace, is among heretics, but its grace, the forgiveness of sins, is not; as good and bad share baptism without sharing hope, heretics can share baptism without the church.
269. 7.38The opinion of Zosimus of Tharassa: once truth is revealed, error must yield, as Peter yielded to Paul.
270. 7.39Augustine accepts Zosimus’s principle: error yielded to truth when the plenary council confirmed the old custom; Cyprian, like Peter, could err.
271. 7.40The opinion of Julian of Telepte: only if heresy were from heaven could it give baptism.
272. 7.41Julian’s argument would deny baptism to the greedy, who in fact give it.
273. 7.42The opinion of Faustus of Timida Regia: defending heretics’ baptism makes them Christians and Catholics heretics.
274. 7.43Not rebaptizing a man baptized while hating his brother does not make murderers righteous; likewise with heretics.
275. 7.44The opinion of Geminius of Furni: some colleagues may put heretics above themselves, but the council keeps its decree to baptize them.
276. 7.45Geminius admits that colleagues disagreed, yet unity held; they did not prefer heretics but recognized Christ’s baptism in them, as in the wicked within.
277. 7.46The opinion of Rogatianus of Nova: heresy, founded by the devil, cannot have Christ’s baptism.
278. 7.47The envious within belong to the devil’s part yet have Christ’s baptism.
279. 7.48The opinion of Therapius of Bulla: conceding baptism to heretics is acting as a Judas to Christ’s bride.
280. 7.49By the council’s own words, those who did not rebaptize were Judases, yet Cyprian held communion with them; so by Donatist logic all, including the Donatists, are traitors, whereas Catholics hold that the wicked do not harm the good in unity.
281. 7.50The opinion of Lucius of Membressa: God does not hear a sinner, so a sinner cannot be heard in baptism.
282. 7.51Sinners within the church, whom Cyprian tolerated, baptize; so God’s not hearing sinners does not void baptism.
283. 7.52The opinion of Felix of Buslacenae: reason and truth must prevail over custom.
284. 7.53Felix admits the custom but does not show the truth; the custom, confirmed by a plenary council, is rightly held.
285. 7.54The opinion of Saturninus of Avitinae: antichrists cannot give Christ’s grace.
286. 7.55The same reasoning would deny baptism to haters of their brothers, called murderers, who nevertheless baptize.
287. 7.56The opinion of Quintus of Aggya: heretics have nothing to give.
288. 7.57Heretics who leave the church keep its baptism, as their not receiving it again on return shows, so they have something to give.
289. 7.58The opinion of Julian of Marcelliana: baptism can no more serve Christian and heretic than a man can serve God and mammon.
290. 7.59Baptism is ministered to and by the good and the wicked alike, to salvation or judgment; so too to Christians and heretics.
291. 7.60The opinion attributed to Tenax of Horrea Caeliae: baptism is the church’s, and cannot be where the church is not.
292. 7.61Baptism exists among those who build on sand, off the rock that is the church; so it can exist where the church is not.
293. 7.62The opinion attributed to Victor of Assuras: baptism cannot be where God, Christ, and the church are not.
294. 7.63Baptism exists even on the sand, among the wicked within, where neither church nor God dwells.
295. 7.64The opinion of Donatulus of Capsa: heretics have obtained nothing outside and should be baptized.
296. 7.65Heretics obtain nothing for salvation outside, but they do receive the sacrament, which is common to good and bad.
297. 7.66The opinion of Verulus of Rusicade: heretics cannot give what they do not have, and schismatics have lost what they had.
298. 7.67Those who leave keep baptism, so they can give it.
299. 7.68The opinion of Pudentianus of Cuicul: as a new bishop he waited for his elders, and agrees that converts from heresy be baptized.
300. 7.69Pudentianus is answered by the replies to the bishops whose judgment he followed.
301. 7.70The opinion of Peter of Hippo Diarrhytus: since baptism is one, in the church, those dipped outside must be baptized.
302. 7.71The one baptism remains one in those who leave; what is recognized in returning members should be recognized in those they baptized outside.
303. 7.72The opinion of Lucius of Ausafa: since all is one, whatever heretics have done must be annulled and their converts baptized.
304. 7.73If baptism by the wicked within is not annulled when they convert, neither is heretics’; those on sand and on rock share one baptism though not one hope.
305. 7.74The opinion of Felix of Gurgites: those baptized unlawfully outside should receive baptism lawfully in the church.
306. 7.75Those baptized unlawfully begin to have the same baptism lawfully, as an insincere Catholic is justified under the same baptism when he truly converts.
307. 7.76The opinion of Pusillus of Lamasba: saving baptism exists only in the Catholic Church; all outside is pretence.
308. 7.77Baptism is saving only in the Catholic Church, but can exist outside; as there is pretence within the church, so something catholic can be outside it.
309. 7.78The opinion of Salvianus of Gazaufala: heretics have nothing and come to receive it.
310. 7.79The founders of heresies left the church with the baptism they had received; so heretics can have something, to their ruin.
311. 7.80The opinion of Honoratus of Thucca: truth, not custom, requires that heretics be baptized.
312. 7.81Honoratus too witnesses to the custom; heretics come not because they received nothing outside but so that what they received may profit them.
313. 7.82The opinion of Victor of Octavu: as a new bishop he follows his elders, that converts from heresy be baptized.
314. 7.83Victor is answered by the replies to those he followed.
315. 7.84The opinion of Clarus of Mascula: only the apostles’ successors have the power to baptize; heretics have neither the power nor the church.
316. 7.85Wicked bishops within, who are outside the rock, have not truly succeeded the apostles, yet they baptize.
317. 7.86The opinion of Secundianus of Thambeae: heretics not baptized in the church would blame the bishops at the judgment.
318. 7.87Converts receive in the church the remission of sins they could not have outside the dove, as lost Catholics too lack it; yet such men have and give the one baptism.
319. 7.88The opinion of Aurelius of Chullabi: if John forbids even greeting heretics, they cannot be admitted to the church without its baptism.
320. 7.89John’s prohibition concerns those who keep a false teaching, not converts who leave it; Paul’s stricter rule about greedy brothers did not stop Cyprian sharing God’s altar with greedy colleagues.
321. 7.90The opinion of Litteus of Gemellae: blind heretics cannot enlighten, so their baptism is not valid.
322. 7.91Heretics’ baptism does not save while they are heretics, any more than that of haters within, who are in darkness yet have and give baptism.
323. 7.92The opinion of Natalis of Oea, also for Pompeius of Sabratha and Dioga of Leptis Magna: no communion with heretics not baptized by the church.
324. 7.93Natalis’s words can stand, since the baptism heretics have, consecrated by the gospel words, is the church’s baptism.
325. 7.94The opinion of Junius of Neapolis: he holds to the decision to baptize heretics.
326. 7.95Junius gave no reason or Scripture and needs no long reply.
327. 7.96Cyprian’s own closing opinion: his view is in the letter to Jubaianus, that heretics, adversaries and antichrists, must be baptized with the church’s one baptism.
328. 7.97Cyprian’s letter to Magnus says only those of one heart and mind dwell in the church; then Paul’s envious rivals, who were within but not of one heart, were not in the church, yet they baptized validly.
329. 7.98Cyprian’s passage on the one-hearted house of God, signified by the eucharistic bread and wine, excludes the envious, yet they, known to Paul, baptized; so the sacrament can be held and given by those not in the church.
330. 7.99Some are in God’s house as the house itself, the holy and faithful united in love; others are in it like chaff, vessels for dishonour; and heretics and schismatics have gone out from it, separated even in body.
331. 7.100Augustine sorts the ways baptism is had and given profitably or unprofitably: by the true house of God, by the deceitful, by vessels for dishonour within, and by heretics outside; for all, it profits only when they cleave to the holy house.
332. 7.101Augustine raises unsettled questions: baptism given by an unbaptized person, received in pretence, or given in jest on the stage to someone suddenly moved to faith; in the church, a deceitful baptism is not repeated if discovered.
333. 7.102On unsettled questions Augustine will not judge rashly; his own view would be that baptism received anywhere with the gospel words, without pretence and with some faith, is real though unprofitable without love; a baptism given wholly in jest he would leave to divine revelation sought in council.
334. 7.103Augustine concludes: Cyprian and his colleagues showed how unity is to be loved, tolerating disagreement rather than making schism; heretics, like the wicked within, have and give baptism, which profits them only on correction; Catholics, with Cyprian, are built on the rock.