On Baptism, against the Donatists 6.19–6.55
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).
Chapter 6
6.19CSEL 51:309–311
Nemesianus autem a Tubunis multa posuit testimonia scripturarum, sed pro sententia catholicae quam declarandam et conmendandam suscepimus multa locutus est nisi forte putandum est, quia non fidit in falsis qui fidit in spe rerum temporalium, sicut omnes auari adque raptores et qui saeculo non factis sed uerbis renuntiant, quales tamen intus et baptizare et baptizari etiam Cyprianus est testis. ipsi sequuntur etiam aues uolantes, quia non adprehendunt quae concupiscunt. deserit autem uias uineae suae et a semita agelli sui errat et ingreditur per auia loca adque arida et terram destinatam siti, consequitur autem manibus infructuosa non haereticus tantum sed omnis qui male uiuit, quia omnis iustitia fructuosa est et omnis iniquitas infructuosa. qui uero aquam alienam de fonte extraneo bibunt, non haeretici tantum sunt, sed omnes qui non uiuunt secundum ea quae docet deus et uiuunt secundum ea quae docet diabolus. nam si de baptismo diceret, non diceret: nec de fonte extraneo biberis, sed: de fonte extraneo non te ablueris. iam uero quod dominus ait: nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et spiritu, non potest introire in regnum dei, quid eum adiuuet ad id quod putat omnino non uideo. aliud est enim omnis qui intrabit in regnum caelorum prius renascitur ex aqua et spiritu, quia nisi renatus fuerit ex aqua et spiritu non intrabit in regnum caelorum, quod dominus dixit et uerum est, aliud autem omnis qui nascitur ex aqua et spiritu intrabit in regnum caelorum, quod utique falsum est. nam et Simon ille magus natus erat ex aqua et spiritu et tamen non intrauit in regnum caelorum; sic fieri potest ut etiam haereticis contingat. aut si non nascitur ex spiritu nisi qui ueraci conuersione mutatur, omnes qui saeculo uerbis et non factis renuntiant non utique de spiritu, sed ex aqua sola nascuntur, qui tamen et intus teste Cypriano sunt. necesse est enim ut unum de duobus concedatur: aut illi qui fallaciter saeculo renuntiant nascuntur de spiritu, quamuis ad perniciem, non ad salutem, adque ita possunt et haeretici, aut si illud, quod scriptum est: sanctus enim spiritus disciplinae effugiet fictum, etiam ad hoc ualet, ut fallaciter saeculo renuntiantes non nascantur de spiritu, potest quis baptizari aqua et non nasci de spiritu et frustra Nemesianus ait: neque spiritus sine aqua operari potest nec aqua sine spiritu. iam uero et alibi saepe dictum est, quomodo fieri possit, ut habeant communiter unum baptisma qui ecclesiam non habent unam, sicut fieri potest in ipsa intus ecclesia, ut non habeant unum spiritum sancti per iustitiam et inmundi per auaritiam et tamen habeant unum baptisma. sic enim dictum est unum corpus id est ecclesia, sicut unus spiritus et unum baptisma. iam cetera quae dixit nostrae potius adsertioni suffragantur, posuit enim ex euangelio testimonium: quod natum est de carne caro est et quod natum est de spiritu spiritus est, quia deus spiritus est et ex deo natus est, et intulit: ergo omnes haeretici et schismatici omnia quaecumque faciunt carnalia sunt dicente apostolo: manifesta sunt enim opera carnis, quae sunt fornicationes, inmunditiae; et cetera quae ibi dicit apostolus, ubi et haereses commemorauit, iste exsecutus est: quoniam quicumque haec faciunt regnum dei non hereditabunt. deinde adiecit et dixit: condemnat itaque apostolus cum omnibus malis et qui diuisionem faciunt, hoc est schismaticos et haereticos. bene quod enumerans opera carnis, inter quae et haereses sunt, inuenit et dixit simul omnia damnantem apostolum. interroget ergo ipse sanctum Cyprianum et audiat ab eo, quam multi etiam intus secundum opera mala carnis uiuunt, quae cum haeresibus damnat apostolus, et tamen baptizant et baptizantur. cur ergo soli haeretici dicuntur baptismum habere non posse, quem habent socii damnationis ipsorum?
Nemesianus of Thubunae set down many testimonies of the Scriptures, but he said much in favour of the Catholic opinion which we have undertaken to declare and commend; unless perhaps it is to be thought that one who trusts in the hope of temporal things does not trust in falsehoods, as do all the greedy and robbers and those who renounce the world not in deeds but in words, such as, Cyprian too testifies, both baptize and are baptized within. They too follow flying birds, because they do not grasp what they desire. And not only the heretic, but everyone who lives badly, forsakes the ways of his own vineyard and strays from the path of his own field and goes through trackless and dry places and a land appointed to thirst, and gathers with his hands what bears no fruit; because all righteousness is fruitful and all iniquity unfruitful. And those who drink strange water from a foreign spring are not only heretics, but all who live not according to what God teaches but according to what the devil teaches. For if he had been speaking of baptism, he would have said not, “and do not drink from a foreign spring,” but, “do not wash in a foreign spring.” Now as for what the Lord says, “Unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God,” I do not see at all how it helps him toward what he thinks. For it is one thing to say, “Everyone who will enter the kingdom of heaven is first reborn of water and the Spirit, because unless he is reborn of water and the Spirit he will not enter the kingdom of heaven,” which the Lord said and is true; and another to say, “Everyone who is born of water and the Spirit will enter the kingdom of heaven,” which is certainly false. For Simon the magician too had been born of water and the Spirit and yet did not enter the kingdom of heaven; so it can happen to heretics too. Or if no one is born of the Spirit except one changed by true conversion, all who renounce the world in words and not in deeds are certainly born not of the Spirit but of water alone; and yet, on Cyprian’s testimony, they are within. For one of two things must be granted: either those who renounce the world deceitfully are born of the Spirit, though to their ruin, not their salvation, and so heretics can be too; or, if what is written, “For the holy Spirit of discipline will flee the deceitful,” avails so far that those who renounce the world deceitfully are not born of the Spirit, then one can be baptized with water and not be born of the Spirit, and Nemesianus says in vain, “For neither can the Spirit work without water, nor water without the Spirit.” And it has been said often elsewhere how it can happen that those who do not have one church have one baptism in common, just as it can happen in the church itself within that those holy through righteousness and those unclean through greed do not have one Spirit and yet have one baptism. For so it was said, “one body,” that is, the church, as “one Spirit and one baptism.” The rest of what he said supports our assertion rather. For he set down a testimony from the gospel, “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit, for God is Spirit, and he is born of God,” and inferred: “So all heretics and schismatics, whatever they do, it is all carnal, as the apostle says: ‘For the works of the flesh are plain, which are sexual immoralities, impurities’”; and the rest of what the apostle says there, where he also mentioned heresies, he went through: “that whoever does these things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Then he added and said: “So the apostle condemns, along with all the wicked, those also who cause division, that is, schismatics and heretics.” It is good that, listing the works of the flesh, among which are heresies, he found and said that the apostle condemns them all together. Let him ask holy Cyprian, then, and hear from him how many even within live according to the evil works of the flesh, which the apostle condemns along with heresies, and yet baptize and are baptized. Why then are heretics alone said to be unable to have baptism, which their companions in condemnation have?
Prov 9:12 (allusion, high confidence) · Prov 9:18 (allusion, high confidence) · John 3:5 (quotation, high confidence) · Acts 8:13 (allusion, high confidence) · Acts 8:21 (allusion, medium confidence) · Eph 4:4–5 (quotation, high confidence) · John 3:6 (quotation, high confidence) · John 4:24 (quotation, high confidence) · Gal 5:19–21 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Nemesianus’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.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 5, following the site’s translation; the Scripture texts in it are Prov 9:12 (LXX addition, “He who trusts in falsehoods …”), Prov 9:18 (LXX addition, “Keep away from strange water …”), John 3:5–6, Eph 4:3–5, and Gal 5:19–21. The opinion itself is not in the staged text; Augustine quotes parts of it.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error; stray asterisk and space in the digital text; stray comma in the digital text; stray full stop in the digital text; stray hyphen in the digital text; word broken and garbled in the digital text; words broken and garbled in the digital text): intus et. baptizare → intus et baptizare; nasci* tur → nascitur; unum. baptisma → unum baptisma; quia, deus → quia deus; sehismatici → schismatici; mani festa sunt enim apera carnis, quae sunt f ornicatione s, i inmunditiae m it ditiae; → manifesta sunt enim opera carnis, quae sunt fornicationes, inmunditiae;; heredi tabu ni → hereditabunt; diu-isionem → diuisionem.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 5 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation); Wis 1:5 (Wisdom of Solomon [in RC, EO, ETH canons]; quotation); Cyprian, Ep. 11.1 (Letters; allusion)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.19 (CSEL 51:309–311; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-19). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-19
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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).
6.20CSEL 51:311
Ianuarius a Lambese dixit: Secundum scripturarum sanctarum auctoritatem decerno haereticos omnes baptizandos et sic in ecclesiam sanctam admittendos.
Januarius of Lambaesis said: “According to the authority of the holy Scriptures I decree that all heretics are to be baptized and so admitted into the holy church.”
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Januarius of Lambaesis: all heretics are to be baptized on the authority of Scripture.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 6, following the site’s translation.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error (x for z)): baptixandos → baptizandos.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 6 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.20 (CSEL 51:311; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-20). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-20
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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).
6.21CSEL 51:311–312
Huic respondetur: Secundum scripturarum sanctarum auctoritatem decreuit concilium catholicum orbis terrarum etiam in haereticis inuentum baptismum Christi non esse inprobandum. si autem poneret testimonia scripturarum, aut contra nos non esse aut etiam pro nobis esse demonstraremus, sicut ecce qui eum sequitur.
To him the answer is: according to the authority of the holy Scriptures, the Catholic council of the whole world decreed that Christ’s baptism is not to be rejected even when found among heretics. But if he had set down testimonies of the Scriptures, we would show either that they are not against us or even that they are for us, as we do with the one who follows him.
Notes and citation
Summary: Against Januarius: a council of the whole world decreed on Scripture’s authority that Christ’s baptism among heretics is not to be rejected.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray semicolon in the digital text): sequitur.; → sequitur..
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 6 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.21 (CSEL 51:311–312; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-21). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-21
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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).
6.23CSEL 51:312–313
Lucius a Castra Galba ex euangelio posuit testimonium dicente domino: uos estis sal terrae; si autem sal infatuatus fuerit, id quod sallietur ex eo ad nihilum ualebit, nisi ut proiciatur foras et conculcetur ab hominibus. quasi nos dicamus homines ipsos foras proiectos ualere aliquid uel ad suam uel ad aliorum salutem. sed et qui tales intus uidentur non solum spiritaliter foris sunt, sed etiam corporaliter in fine separabuntur. omnes enim tales ad nihil ualent, nec ideo tamen sacramentum baptismatis quod in eis est nihil est. nam et in ipsis qui proiciuntur foras, si resipiscant et redeant, salus eis quae recesserat redit, baptisma uero quia non recesserat non redit. et illud quod ait dominus: ite ergo et docete gentes, baptizantes eos in nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti, non permisit baptizare nisi bonos, quia malis non diceret: si cui dimiseritis peccata dimittentur ei, si cui tenueritis tenebuntur. quomodo ergo intus baptizant mali qui dimittere peccata non possunt? quomodo etiam baptizant malos non mutatos, quorum adhuc peccata super eos sunt, sicut Iohannes dicit: qui odit fratrem suum, in tenebris est usque adhuc? si autem tunc dimittuntur, cum se bonis et iustis per quos in ecclesia peccata dimittuntur, quamuis a malis baptizati sint, intima caritate coniungunt, sic et illi qui forinsecus ueniunt et ad eandem conpaginem corporis Christi interno uinculo pacis accedunt. baptismus tamen Christi in utrisque agnoscendus et in nullis inprobandus est, siue antequam conuertantur, quamuis eis nihil prosit, siue cum conuertuntur ut prosit. cum ipsi ab ecclesia quae una est, inquit, recedendo infatuati contrarii facti sint, fiat sicut scriptum est: domus contrariorum legis debent emundationem, et consequens est, inquit, eos qui a contrariis baptizati inquinati sunt primo purgari et tunc demum baptizari. quid ergo? raptores et homicidae non sunt contrarii legis dicentis: non occides, non furaberis? debent ergo emundationem; quis hoc negauerit? et tamen non solum quicumque a talibus intus baptizantur, sed etiam qui tales non mutati baptizantur, quamuis adhuc purgationem debeant ut mutentur, non tamen amplius cum mutati fuerint baptizantur. tanta uis est in sacramento simplicis baptismi, ut, cum fateamur aliquem baptizatum et adhuc male uiuentem debere mundari, uetemus tamen ulterius baptizari.
Lucius of Castra Galbae set down a testimony from the gospel, the Lord saying: “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, what is salted with it will be good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled by men.” As if we were saying that men themselves, thrown out, are of any use either for their own salvation or others’! But those too who seem to be within while being such are not only outside spiritually but will also be separated bodily at the end. For all such are good for nothing; yet the sacrament of baptism that is in them is not therefore nothing. For in those very ones who are thrown out, if they come to their senses and return, the salvation that had departed returns to them, but baptism, since it had not departed, does not return. And that saying of the Lord, “Go therefore and teach the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” did not permit any but the good to baptize, because he would not say to the wicked, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they will be forgiven him; if you retain anyone’s, they will be retained.” How then do the wicked baptize within, who cannot forgive sins? How too do they baptize unchanged wicked men, whose sins are still upon them, as John says, “He who hates his brother is in darkness even until now”? But if their sins are forgiven when, though baptized by the wicked, they join themselves in inward love to the good and righteous through whom sins are forgiven in the church, so too with those who come from outside and join the same structure of Christ’s body by the inner bond of peace. Yet Christ’s baptism is to be recognized in both and rejected in neither, whether before they are converted, though it profits them nothing, or when they are converted, so that it profits. “Since by withdrawing from the church, which is one,” he says, “they have become tasteless and have been made its opponents, let it be done as it is written: ‘The houses of the opponents of the law need cleansing’; and consequently,” he says, “those who have been defiled by being baptized by opponents must first be cleansed and then at last baptized.” What then? Are not robbers and murderers opponents of the law that says, “You shall not kill, you shall not steal”? They need cleansing, then; who would deny it? And yet not only those who are baptized within by such men, but also such men themselves who are baptized unchanged, though they still need cleansing so as to be changed, are not baptized any more once they are changed. So great is the power in the sacrament of simple baptism that, while we admit that someone who has been baptized and still lives badly needs cleansing, we yet forbid him to be baptized again.
Matt 5:13 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 28:19 (quotation, high confidence) · John 20:23 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 John 2:9 (quotation, high confidence) · Exod 20:13–15 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Against 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.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 7, quoted in part, following the site’s translation; his opinion itself is not in the staged text. Augustine’s text of Matt 5:13 differs slightly from the Sentences. “The houses of the opponents of the law need cleansing” is an unidentified saying, perhaps a paraphrase of Prov 14:9 (LXX) or 14:11; uncertain.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error (x for z); word broken in the digital text): pro-, iectos → proiectos; baptixantes → baptizantes; baptixati inquinati → baptizati inquinati; baptixari. → baptizari..
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 7 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.23 (CSEL 51:312–313; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-23). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-23
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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).
6.24CSEL 51:313–314
Crescens a Cirta dixit: In tanto coetu sanctissimorum consacerdotum lectis litteris Cypriani dilectissimi nostri ad Iubaianum itemque ad Stephanum, quae tantum in se sanctissimorum ex scripturis deificis continent, ut merito omnes per dei gratiam adunati consentire debeamus, censeo ergo omnes haereticos siue schismaticos qui ad catholicam ecclesiam uoluerint uenire non ante ingredi, nisi exorcizati et baptizati fuerint, exceptis his sane qui in ecclesia catholica fuerint ante baptizati; ita tamen per manus inpositionem in paenitentiam ecclesiae reconcilientur.
Crescens of Cirta said: “In so great an assembly of most holy fellow priests, the letters of our dearest Cyprian to Jubaianus and also to Stephen having been read, which contain in themselves so much of the most holy testimonies drawn from the divinely given Scriptures that rightly we all, united by the grace of God, ought to agree, I judge, therefore, that all heretics and schismatics who wish to come to the catholic church may not enter before they have first been exorcized and baptized; excepting of course those who had been baptized before in the catholic church: these, however, are to be reconciled to the church by the laying on of hands in penance.”
Notes and citation
Summary: The 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.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 8, following the site’s translation (Augustine’s text adds “catholic” in the exception).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error; OCR letter error (n for u); OCR letter error (x for z); garbled characters in the digital text): censco → censeo; sine schismaticos → siue schismaticos; eeolesiam → ecclesiam; exorcixati → exorcizati; iupo.;;iNonffm → inpositionem.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 8 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.24 (CSEL 51:313–314; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-24). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-24
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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).
6.25CSEL 51:314–315
Hic ammonemur iterum quaerere cur dixerit: exceptis his sane qui in ecclesia catholica fuerint ante baptizati. an quia non amiserant quod intus acceperant? ergo, quod habere foris poterant, cur non et tradere poterant? an inlicite foris traditur? sed neque licite foris habetur et tamen habetur; sic inlicite foris datur, sed tamen datur. quod autem praestatur redeunti qui intus acceperat, hoc praestatur uenienti qui foris acceperat, id est ut licite intus habeat quod inlicite foris habebat. sed aliquis forsitan quaerat, quid de hac re (habeat) beati Cypriani epistula ad Stephanum, cuius in hac sententia commemoratio facta est, cum in exordio concilii non sit commemorata, credo quia non putatum est necessarium. nam et ipsam in isto coetu consacerdotum lectam esse dixit, quod factum omnino non dubito, quantum arbitror, ut fieri solet, quo possent iam congregati episcopi etiam de illa causa simul aliquid cognoscere quae illa epistula continetur. nam prorsus ad quaestionem praesentem non pertinet et magis miror, cur eam iste commemorare uoluerit, quam cur in exordio concilii commemoratio eius praetermissa sit. quodsi quisquam arbitratur me aliquid noluisse in medium proferre quod in ea positum est praesenti causae necessarium, legat eam et sciat uerum esse quod dico; aut si aliud inuenerit redarguat. prorsus enim illa epistula de baptismo aput haereticos uel schismaticos dato, unde nunc agimus, nihil habet.
Here we are reminded again to ask why he said, “excepting of course those who had been baptized before in the catholic church.” Is it because they had not lost what they had received within? Then why could they not also hand on what they could have outside? Or is it handed on unlawfully outside? But neither is it lawfully had outside, and yet it is had; so it is given unlawfully outside, but still it is given. And what is granted to one returning who had received within is granted to one coming who had received outside, namely, that he may have lawfully within what he had unlawfully outside. But someone may perhaps ask what blessed Cyprian’s letter to Stephen, which is mentioned in this opinion, contains on this matter, since it is not mentioned at the opening of the council; I suppose because it was not thought necessary. For he said it too was read in this assembly of fellow priests, which I do not doubt at all was done, as I think, as usually happens, so that the bishops, now gathered, might also learn something together about the case contained in that letter. For it does not bear on the present question at all, and I wonder more why he wished to mention it than why mention of it was left out at the opening of the council. But if anyone thinks I did not wish to bring forward something in it necessary to the present case, let him read it and know that what I say is true; or if he finds otherwise, let him refute me. For that letter has nothing whatever on baptism given among heretics or schismatics, which is what we are treating now.
Textual problem in this passage: see the notes.
Notes and citation
Summary: Crescens’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.
- The letter of Cyprian to Stephen is probably Letter 72, which does deal with heretical baptism; Augustine may have had in mind another letter (Letter 68, on Marcian of Arles). Uncertain.
- The editor supplies “habeat.”
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error): schismatieos → schismaticos.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 8 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation); Cyprian, Ep. 72.1 (Letters; allusion)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.25 (CSEL 51:314–315; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-25). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-25
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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).
6.26CSEL 51:315
Nicomedes a Segermis dixit: Mea sententia haec est ut haeretici ad ecclesiam uenientes baptizentur, eo quod nullam foris aput peccatores remissionem peccatorum consequantur.
Nicomedes of Segermes said: “My opinion is this, that heretics coming to the church should be baptized, because outside, among sinners, they can obtain no remission of sins.”
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Nicomedes of Segermes: heretics must be baptized because there is no remission of sins among sinners outside.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 9, following the site’s translation.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 9 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.26 (CSEL 51:315; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-26). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-26
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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).
6.27CSEL 51:315
Cui respondetur: Uniuersae ecclesiae catholicae sententia haec est, ut haeretici, quamuis in haeresi, iam Christi baptismo baptizati ad ecclesiam uenientes non baptizentur. si enim nulla est aput peccatores remissio peccatorum, nec intus peccatores peccata dimittunt et tamen ab eis baptizati non rebaptizantur.
To him the answer is: the opinion of the universal Catholic Church is this, that heretics who have already been baptized with Christ’s baptism, though in heresy, are not to be baptized when they come to the church. For if there is no remission of sins among sinners, neither do sinners within forgive sins, and yet those baptized by them are not rebaptized.
Notes and citation
Summary: Against Nicomedes: sinners within the church do not forgive sins either, yet those they baptize are not rebaptized.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error): remissie → remissio.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 9 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.27 (CSEL 51:315; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-27). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-27
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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).
6.28CSEL 51:315
Monnulus a Girba dixit: Ecclesiae catholicae matris nostrae ueritas semper aput nos, fratres, mansit et manet uel maxime in baptismi trinitate domino nostro dicente: ite, baptizate gentes in nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti. cum ergo manifesto, inquit, sciamus haereticos non habere nec patrem nec filium nec spiritum sanctum, debent uenientes ad ecclesiam matrem nostram uere renasci et baptizari, ut cancer quod habebant et damnationis ira et erroris offectura per sanctum et caeleste lauacrum sanctificetur.
Monnulus of Girba said: “The truth of the catholic church, our mother, brothers, has both remained and remains with us, above all in the trinity of baptism, as our Lord says: ‘Go, baptize the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ Since, then,” he says, “we know plainly that heretics have neither the Father nor the Son nor the Holy Spirit, those who come to the church our mother ought truly to be born again and baptized, so that the cancer they had, and the wrath of condemnation, and the taint of error may be sanctified by the holy and heavenly washing.”
Matt 28:19 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Monnulus of Girba: heretics have neither Father, Son, nor Spirit, and so must be born again in the church’s baptism.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 10, following the site’s translation; Augustine’s text reads “above all in the trinity of baptism.”
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (semicolon for a comma in the digital text): fratres; mansit → fratres, mansit.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 10 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Topics: Baptism, Heresy, Trinity
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.28 (CSEL 51:315; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-28). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-28
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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).
6.29CSEL 51:315–316
Huic respondemus patrem et filium et spiritum sanctum in sacramento dumtaxat omnes habere, qui baptismo uerbis euangelicis consecrato baptizantur, in corde autem et in uita nec illos habere qui intus perdite et execrabiliter uiuunt.
To him we answer that all who are baptized with baptism consecrated by the words of the gospel have the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in the sacrament only; but that in heart and life not even those have them who live lost and accursed lives within.
Notes and citation
Summary: Against 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.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray semicolon and digit in the digital text): uerbis; 1 euangelicis → uerbis euangelicis.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 10 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); allusion)
Topics: Baptism, Heresy, Trinity
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.29 (CSEL 51:315–316; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-29). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-29
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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).
6.30CSEL 51:316
Secundinus a Cexas dixit: cum dominus noster Christus dicat: qui mecum non est aduersus me est, et Johannes apostolus eos qui ab ecclesia exeunt antichristos dicat, indubitanter hostes Christi quique antichristi nominati sunt gratiam baptismi salutaris ministrare non possunt. et ideo censeo eos qui de insidiis haereticorum confugiunt ad ecclesiam baptizandos esse a nobis qui amici appellati sumus dei de eius dignatione.
Secundinus of Cedias said: “Since our Lord Christ says, ‘He who is not with me is against me,’ and the apostle John calls those who go out from the church antichrists, without doubt the enemies of Christ and those who have been named antichrists cannot minister the grace of saving baptism. And therefore I judge that those who flee to the church from the snares of heretics are to be baptized by us, who by his favour have been called friends of God.”
Luke 11:23 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 John 2:18–19 (allusion, high confidence) · John 15:15 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The 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.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 11, following the site’s translation. The digital text spells the see “Cexas.”
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error): esse n nobis → esse a nobis.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 11 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.30 (CSEL 51:316; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-30). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-30
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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).
6.31CSEL 51:316
Cui respondetur Christi aduersarios omnes esse quibus dicentibus: domine, in nomine tuo uirtutes multas fecimus et alia quae ibi dicuntur in fine dicturus est: non noui uos; recedite a me omnes qui operamini iniquitatem. quae tota palea si usque ad ultimum in malitia perseuerabit, siue aliquid eius ante uentilationem foras uolet siue intus esse uideatur, igni destinata est. si ergo propterea baptizandi sunt ad ecclesiam uenientes haeretici, ut ab amicis dei baptizentur, numquid illi auari, raptores, homicidae amici dei sunt aut quos baptizauerint denuo baptizandi sunt?
To him the answer is: all are adversaries of Christ to whom, when they say, “Lord, in your name we have done many mighty works,” and the other things said there, he will say at the end, “I do not know you; depart from me, all you who work iniquity.” All this chaff, if it persists in malice to the last, whether some of it flies outside before the winnowing or seems to be within, is destined for the fire. If, then, heretics coming to the church must be baptized so that they may be baptized by friends of God, are those greedy men, robbers, murderers friends of God, or are those they have baptized to be baptized again?
Matt 7:22–23 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 3:12 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Against 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.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 11 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.31 (CSEL 51:316; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-31). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-31
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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).
6.32CSEL 51:316
Felix a Bagai dixit: Sicut caecus caecum ducens simul in foueam cadunt, ita haereticus haereticum baptizans simul in mortem cadunt.
Felix of Bagai said: “As ‘a blind man leading a blind man,’ they ‘will fall together into the pit’; just so a heretic baptizing a heretic, they will fall together into death.”
Matt 15:14 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Felix of Bagai: a heretic baptizing a heretic, like the blind leading the blind, falls with him into death.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 12 (first part), following the site’s translation.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray full stop in the digital text): haereticum. baptizans → haereticum baptizans.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 12 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.32 (CSEL 51:316; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-32). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-32
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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).
6.33CSEL 51:316–317
Hoc uerum est, sed non propterea uerum est quod adiungit: et ideo, inquit, haereticus baptizans est et uiuificandus, ne nos uiui mortuis communicemus. nonne mortui erant qui dicebant: manducemus et bibamus, cras enim morimur? — non credebant resurrectionem mortuorum —: qui ergo istorum conloquiis malis corrumpebantur et eos sequebantur, nonne pariter cum eis in foueam cadebant? et in eis tamen erant isti quibus scribebat apostolus iam baptizatis, nec tamen ideo si corrigerentur denuo baptizarentur. nonne idem apostolus ait: sapere secundum carnem mors est? et utique secundum carnem sapiebant auari fraudatores raptores, inter quos gemebat ipse Cyprianus. quid ergo illi in unitate uiuenti oberant mortui, aut quis dicat baptismum Christi quod tales haberent uel darent eorum iniquitatibus fuisse uiolatum?
This is true, but what he adds is not therefore true: “And therefore,” he says, “a heretic must be baptized and given life, lest we, the living, hold communion with the dead.” Were not those dead who said, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”? (They did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.) Those, then, who were corrupted by their evil conversations and followed them, did they not fall together with them into the pit? And yet among them were those to whom the apostle was writing as already baptized, nor would they, if they were corrected, have been baptized again. Does not the same apostle say, “To be minded according to the flesh is death”? And certainly the greedy, defrauders, and robbers, among whom Cyprian himself groaned, were minded according to the flesh. What harm then did the dead do him while he lived in unity, or who would say that the baptism of Christ which such men had or gave was violated by their iniquities?
1 Cor 15:32–33 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Cor 15:12 (allusion, high confidence) · Rom 8:6 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Against 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.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 12 (second part), following the site’s translation.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR error for mortui (“the dead”); stray full stop in the digital text): tamen. ideo → tamen ideo; oberant monui → oberant mortui.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 12 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.33 (CSEL 51:316–317; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-33). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-33
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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).
6.34CSEL 51:317
Pollianus a Mileo dixit: Iustum est haereticum baptizari in ecclesia sancta.
Pollianus of Milevis said: “It is right that a heretic be baptized in the holy church.”
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Pollianus of Milevis: a heretic should be baptized in the church.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 13, following the site’s translation.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 13 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.34 (CSEL 51:317; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-34). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-34
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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).
6.35CSEL 51:317
Nihil quidem breuius dici potuit, sed puto et hoc breue est: Iustum est baptismum Christi non exsufflari in ecclesia Christi.
Nothing indeed could be said more briefly; but I think this too is brief: it is right that Christ’s baptism not be blown upon in Christ’s church.
Notes and citation
Summary: Augustine answers Pollianus just as briefly: Christ’s baptism should not be rejected in Christ’s church.
- “Blown upon” (exsufflari) refers to the rite of exsufflation in baptismal exorcism, here as a sign of rejection.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 13 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.35 (CSEL 51:317; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-35). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-35
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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).
6.36CSEL 51:317
Theogenes ab Hippone Regio dixit: Secundum sacramentum dei gratiae caelestis quod accepimus unum baptismum quod est in ecclesia sancta credimus.
Theogenes of Hippo Regius said: “According to the sacrament of God’s heavenly grace which we have received, we believe in the one baptism which is in the holy church.”
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Theogenes of Hippo Regius: we believe in the one baptism which is in the holy church.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 14, following the site’s translation. Theogenes was a predecessor of Augustine as bishop of Hippo.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 14 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.36 (CSEL 51:317; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-36). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-36
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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).
6.37CSEL 51:317–318
Potest et mea esse sententia; sic enim librata est, ut nihil habeat contra ueritatem. nam et nos unum baptismum quod est in ecclesia sancta credimus. si autem dixisset: quod est in sola ecclesia sancta credimus, respondendum erat sicut ceteris. nunc uero quia sic dictum est: unum baptisma quod est in ecclesia sancta credimus, ut esse quidem in ecclesia sancta diceretur, sed et alibi esse non negaretur, quodlibet ille senserit, contra haec uerba disputare non opus est. si enim de me singula quaererentur, utrum unum esset baptisma, responderem unum esse. deinde si interrogarer, utrum hoc esset in ecclesia sancta, responderem hoc esse. tertio si quaereretur, utrum hoc baptisma crederem, responderem ita me credere, ac per hoc unum baptisma quod est in ecclesia sancta me credere responderem. si autem quaereretur, utrum in sola sancta esset ecclesia et aput haereticos uel schismaticos non esset, non me ita credere cum tota ecclesia responderem. sed quia hoc ille in sententia sua non posuit, puto esse inprobum ut ego illi addam uerba contra quae disputem, quae ibi non inueni. ita enim si diceret: una est aqua Eufratae fluminis quae est in paradiso, uerum utique diceret. sed si interrogaretur, utrum in solo paradiso esset ista aqua et ita esse diceret, falsum diceret. est enim et praeter paradisum in his terris in quas ab illo fonte permanat. sed quis est tam temerarius qui dicat hoc eum responsurum fuisse quod falsum est, cum posset fortasse hoc respondere quod uerum est? quapropter uerba huius sententiae non debent habere contradictionem, quia nihil inpediunt ueritatem.
This could be my opinion too; for it is so balanced that it has nothing against the truth. For we too believe in the one baptism which is in the holy church. But if he had said, “which is in the holy church alone,” the answer would have to be as to the others. But now, since it is said thus, “we believe in the one baptism which is in the holy church,” so that it is said to be in the holy church, but its being elsewhere too is not denied, whatever he may have thought, there is no need to argue against these words. For if I were asked point by point whether there is one baptism, I would answer that there is one. Then, if I were asked whether it is in the holy church, I would answer that it is. Third, if it were asked whether I believe in this baptism, I would answer that I do; and so I would answer that I believe in the one baptism which is in the holy church. But if it were asked whether it is in the holy church alone and not among heretics or schismatics, I would answer, with the whole church, that I do not believe so. But since he did not put this in his opinion, I think it improper for me to add words to him to argue against, which I did not find there. So too, if he said, “The water of the river Euphrates, which is in paradise, is one,” he would certainly speak the truth. But if he were asked whether this water is in paradise alone, and said that it is, he would speak falsely. For it is also outside paradise, in the lands into which it flows from that spring. But who is so rash as to say that he would have answered what is false, when perhaps he could have answered what is true? Therefore the words of this opinion ought not to be contradicted, since they in no way stand in the way of the truth.
Gen 2:10–14 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Theogenes’ 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.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 14 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.37 (CSEL 51:317–318; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-37). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-37
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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).
6.38CSEL 51:318
Datiuus a Uadis dixit: Nos quantum in nobis est haeretico non communicamus, nisi baptizatus in ecclesia fuerit et remissionem peccatorum acceperit.
Dativus of Vada said: “As far as it lies with us, we do not hold communion with a heretic unless he has been baptized in the church and has received remission of sins.”
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Dativus of Vada: as far as possible, no communion with a heretic not baptized in the church.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 15, following the site’s translation.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error): Datiuns → Datiuus.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 15 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.38 (CSEL 51:318; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-38). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-38
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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).
6.39CSEL 51:318–319
Si propterea uis eum baptizari, quia non accepit remissionem peccatorum, si intus aliquem inueneris qui tenens odium aduersus fratrem sic baptizatus sit, cum dominus mentiri non possit qui ait: si non dimiseritis, non uobis dimittetur, iubebis correctum denuo baptizari? non utique. sic ergo nec haereticum. sane iste cur non breuiter dixerit: nos haeretico non communicamus, sed addidit: quantum in nobis est, non est praetereundum. uidit enim plures huic sententiae consentire, a quorum tamen consortio, ne uiolaretur unitas, se isti separare non possent, et addidit: quantum in nobis est, utique demonstrans non uoluntate se communicare his quos arbitrabatur baptismum non habere, sed tamen omnia bono pacis et unitatis esse toleranda. quod et illi faciebant, qui istos non recte facere sentiebant et illud tenebant, quod postea melius declarata ueritas docuit et antiquior consuetudo concilio posteriore firmata robustius persuasit, inuicem se tamen, cum salua caritate diuersa sentirent, sollicita pietate tolerauerunt, studentes seruare unitatem spiritus in uinculo pacis, donec alteris eorum, si quid aliter saperent, id quoque illis deus reuelaret. hoc isti audiant a quibus per hoc concilium unitas obpugnatur, per quod concilium quantum amanda sit unitas declaratur.
If you want him baptized because he has not received remission of sins, then if you find someone within who was baptized while holding hatred against his brother (since the Lord cannot lie who says, “If you do not forgive, it will not be forgiven you”), will you order him, once corrected, to be baptized again? Certainly not. So neither the heretic. We must not pass over, of course, why he did not say briefly, “We do not hold communion with a heretic,” but added, “as far as it lies with us.” For he saw that many agreed with this opinion, from whose fellowship, however, these men could not separate themselves without violating unity, and he added, “as far as it lies with us,” showing indeed that he did not willingly hold communion with those whom he thought did not have baptism, but that everything is to be borne for the good of peace and unity. This the others did too, who thought that these men were not acting rightly, and held what the truth, more fully declared afterward, taught, and what the older custom, confirmed by a later council, urged more strongly; yet, while they thought differently with love preserved, they bore with one another with anxious devotion, eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, until God should reveal to one side or the other whatever they thought otherwise. Let those hear this by whom unity is attacked by means of this council, through which council it is declared how much unity is to be loved.
Matt 6:15 (quotation, high confidence) · Eph 4:3 (quotation, high confidence) · Phil 3:15 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Against 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.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 15. “He saw that many agreed with this opinion” is translated as printed; the sense seems to require those who held the opposite opinion, with whom Dativus could not break communion.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error and stray full stop; stray asterisk and space in the digital text): iit. nobis → in nobis; con* cilium → concilium.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 15 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.39 (CSEL 51:318–319; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-39). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-39
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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).
6.40CSEL 51:319
Successus ab Abbir Germaniciana dixit: Haereticis aut nihil licet aut totum licet. si possunt baptizare, possunt et spiritum sanctum dare; si autem spiritum sanctum dare non possunt, quia non habent spiritum sanctum, nec baptizare spiritaliter possunt. propterea censemus haereticos baptizatos.
Successus of Abbir Germaniciana said: “Either nothing is permitted to heretics or everything is. If they can baptize, they can also give the Holy Spirit; but if they cannot give the Holy Spirit, because they do not have the Holy Spirit, neither can they baptize spiritually. Therefore we judge that heretics are to be baptized.”
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Successus of Abbir Germaniciana: if heretics cannot give the Spirit, they cannot baptize.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 16, following the site’s translation; the digital text ends “haereticos baptizatos,” translated as in the Sentences (“baptizandos”).
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (words run together in the digital text): necbaptizare → nec baptizare.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 16 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.40 (CSEL 51:319; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-40). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-40
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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).
6.41CSEL 51:319–320
Huic prope totidem uerbis ita responderi potest: Homicidis aut nihil licet aut totum licet. si possunt baptizare, possunt et spiritum sanctum dare; si autem spiritum sanctum dare non possunt, quia non habent spiritum sanctum, nec baptizare spiritaliter possunt. propterea censemus ab homicidis baptizatos uel homicidas baptizatos adque in melius non mutatos, cum se correxerint, baptizari. at hoc non est uerum. qui enim odit fratrem suum homicida est, et tales nouerat intus Cyprianus, qui utique baptizabant. frustra ergo talia de baptizandis haereticis dicta sunt.
To him one can answer in almost as many words: “Either nothing is permitted to murderers or everything is. If they can baptize, they can also give the Holy Spirit; but if they cannot give the Holy Spirit, because they do not have the Holy Spirit, neither can they baptize spiritually. Therefore we judge that those baptized by murderers, or murderers baptized and not changed for the better, are to be baptized when they have corrected themselves.” But this is not true. For he who hates his brother is a murderer, and Cyprian knew such men within, who certainly baptized. So such things are said in vain about baptizing heretics.
1 John 3:15 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Augustine 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.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray bracket in the digital text): (Homicidis → Homicidis.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 16 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.41 (CSEL 51:319–320; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-41). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-41
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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).
6.42CSEL 51:320
Fortunatus a Tuccabori dixit: Iesus Christus dominus et deus noster dei patris et creatoris filius super Petrum aedificauit ecclesiam, non super haeresim, et potestatem baptizandi episcopis dedit, non haereticis. quare qui extra ecclesiam sunt et contra Christum stantes oues eius et gregem spargunt baptizare foris non possunt
Fortunatus of Thuccabori said: “Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, the Son of God the Father and Creator, built his church upon Peter, not upon heresy, and gave the power of baptizing to bishops, not to heretics. Therefore those who are outside the church and, standing against Christ, scatter his sheep and flock, cannot baptize outside.”
Matt 16:18 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Fortunatus of Thuccabori: Christ gave the power of baptizing to bishops of the church built on Peter, not to heretics.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 17, following the site’s translation.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR error (uoce for non); OCR letter error): uoce super haeresim → non super haeresim; quire qui → quare qui; baptizanre → baptizare.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 17 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Topics: Baptism, Heresy, Church office
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.42 (CSEL 51:320; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-42). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-42
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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).
6.43CSEL 51:320–321
Ad hoc addidit foris, ut ei tam breuiter responderi non possit. nam et huic totidem paene uerbis ita responderetur: Iesus Christus dominus et deus noster dei patris et creatoris filius super Petrum fundauit ecclesiam, non super iniquitatem, et potestatem baptizandi episcopis dedit, non iniquis. quare qui non pertinent ad petram, super quam aedificant qui uerba dei audiunt et faciunt, sed contra Christum uiuentes audiendo uerba eius et non faciendo ac per hoc super harenam aedificando oues eius et gregem perditorum morum exemplo corrumpunt, baptizare non possunt. numquid non posset hoc uerisimiliter dici? et tamen falsum est. baptizant quippe iniqui, quoniam iniqui sunt illi raptores quos in unitate secum positos Cyprianus arguebat. sed ideo, inquit, addidit foris. cur ergo foris isti baptizare non possunt? an quia peiores sunt eo ipso quo foris sunt? sed nihil interest ad integritatem baptismi, quanto peior id tradat. neque enim tantum interest inter malum et peiorem quantum interest inter bonum et malum, et tamen cum baptizat malus non aliud dat quam bonus; ergo et cum baptizat peior non aliud dat quam ille qui minus est malus. an forte non ad hominis meritum, sed ad ipsius baptismi sacramentum pertinet ut foris dari non possit? si hoc ita esset, nec haberi foris posset et totiens necesse esset baptizari, quotiens recedens quisque ab ecclesia rursus ad ecclesiam remeasset.
To this he added “outside,” so that he cannot be answered so briefly. For he too could be answered in almost as many words, thus: “Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, the Son of God the Father and Creator, founded his church upon Peter, not upon iniquity, and gave the power of baptizing to bishops, not to the wicked. Therefore those who do not belong to the rock, on which those build who hear the words of God and do them, but who, living against Christ by hearing his words and not doing them, and so building on sand, corrupt his sheep and flock by the example of lost morals, cannot baptize.” Could this not be said plausibly? And yet it is false. For the wicked do baptize, since those robbers whom Cyprian rebuked, placed in unity with him, were wicked. “But that is why,” he says, “he added ‘outside.’” Why then can these men not baptize outside? Is it because they are worse by the very fact that they are outside? But it makes no difference to the integrity of baptism how much worse is the one who hands it on. For the difference between bad and worse is not as great as that between good and bad; and yet when a bad man baptizes he gives nothing other than a good man gives; so too when a worse man baptizes he gives nothing other than one less bad. Or perhaps it belongs not to the man’s merit but to the sacrament of baptism itself that it cannot be given outside? If that were so, it could not be had outside either, and anyone would have to be baptized as often as he withdrew from the church and returned to it again.
Matt 16:18 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 7:24–27 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Fortunatus’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.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 17.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray quotation mark for a full stop in the digital text): "foris cur → foris. cur.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 17 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); allusion)
Topics: Baptism, Heresy, Church office
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.43 (CSEL 51:320–321; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-43). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-43
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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).
6.44CSEL 51:321–322
Iam uero si diligentius quaeramus quid sit foris, maxime quia ipse commemorationem fecit Petri super quem aedificatur ecclesia, nonne illi sunt in ecclesia qui sunt in petra, qui autem in petra non sunt nec in ecclesia sunt? iam ergo uideamus, utrum super petram aedificium suum constituant qui audiunt Christi uerba et non faciunt. contradicit eis ipse dominus dicens: qui audit uerba mea haec et facit ea, similabo illum uiro prudenti, qui aedificat domum suam super petram, et paulo post: qui audit uerba mea haec et non facit ea, similabo eum uiro stulto, qui aedificat domum suam super harenam. si ergo in petra est ecclesia, illi qui super harenam sunt, quia extra petram sunt, profecto extra ecclesiam sunt. recordemur itaque quam multos commemoret Cyprianus ueluti intus positos qui aedificant super harenam, id est audiunt uerba Christi et non faciunt, et ideo quia in harena sunt extra petram esse conuincuntur, quod est extra ecclesiam: tamen et quamdiu ita sunt et nondum uel numquam in melius commutantur, baptizant et baptizantur et baptismus quem habent illis ad damnationem destinatis integer manet.
Now if we ask more carefully what “outside” is, especially since he himself mentioned Peter, on whom the church is built, are not those in the church who are on the rock, and those who are not on the rock not in the church either? So let us see whether those who hear Christ’s words and do not do them set up their building on the rock. The Lord himself contradicts them, saying: “Whoever hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who builds his house on the rock,” and a little later: “Whoever hears these words of mine and does not do them, I will liken him to a foolish man who builds his house on sand.” If then the church is on the rock, those who are on sand, being outside the rock, are surely outside the church. Let us remember, then, how many Cyprian mentions as placed within who build on sand, that is, hear Christ’s words and do not do them, and so, being on sand, are proved to be outside the rock, which is outside the church; and yet, as long as they are such and are not yet, or never, changed for the better, they baptize and are baptized, and the baptism they have remains entire in them though they are destined for damnation.
Matt 16:18 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 7:24 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 7:26 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The 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.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 17 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.44 (CSEL 51:321–322; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-44). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-44
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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).
6.45CSEL 51:322
Neque hoc loco dici potest: quis enim facit omnia uerba domini quae in ipso euangelico sermone conscripta sunt, quem concludens ait aedificare super petram qui eadem uerba audirent et facerent, super harenam autem qui audirent et non facerent? quia, etsi a quibusdam non implentur omnia, in eodem tamen sermone posuit medicinam dicens: dimittite et dimittetur uobis. et post orationem dominicam in eodem ipso sermone commemoratam adque conscriptam: dico enim uobis, inquit: si dimiseritis peccata hominibus, dimittet uobis et pater uester peccata uestra; si autem non dimiseritis hominibus, neque pater uester dimittet uobis. hinc et Iohannes ait: quia caritas cooperit multitudinem peccatorum, quam utique non habebant illi ac per hoc super harenam aedificabant, de quibus idem Cyprianus dicit quod intus in maliuola inuidia etiam temporibus apostolicis sine caritate conuersabantur. et ideo intus quidem esse uidebantur, sed foris erant, quia in illa petra per quam significatur ecclesia non erant.
Nor can it be said here: “Who does all the words of the Lord written in that gospel sermon, at the close of which he says that those who hear these words and do them build on the rock, and those who hear and do not do them build on sand?” For even if not everything is fulfilled by some, yet in the same sermon he set down a remedy, saying, “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” And after the Lord’s Prayer, recorded and written down in that same sermon, he says: “For I tell you, if you forgive men their sins, your Father will also forgive you your sins; but if you do not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you.” Hence John too says that love covers a multitude of sins; which those certainly did not have, and so built on sand, of whom the same Cyprian says that within, even in apostolic times, they lived in malicious envy without love. And so they seemed indeed to be within, but were outside, because they were not on that rock by which the church is signified.
Luke 6:37 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 6:9–13 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 6:14–15 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Pet 4:8 (quotation, high confidence) · Phil 1:15 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 7:24–27 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: No 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.
- “Love covers a multitude of sins” is 1 Pet 4:8; Augustine’s text attributes it to John.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (garbled characters in the digital text): n ö n → non.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Ep. 73.14 (Letters; allusion)
Topics: Baptism, Heresy, Prayer
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.45 (CSEL 51:322; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-45). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-45
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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).
6.46CSEL 51:322–323
Sedatus a Tuburbo dixit: In quantum aqua sacerdotis prece in ecclesia sanctificata abluit delicta, in tantum haeretico sermone uelut cancere infecta cumulat peccata. quare omnibus pacificis quidem uiribus nitendum est, ne quis haeretico errore infectus et tinctus singularem et uerum ecclesiae baptismum retractet accipere, quo quisque non fuerit baptizatus regno caelorum fiet alienus.
Sedatus of Thuburbo said: “As much as water sanctified in the church by the priest’s prayer washes away sins, so much does water infected, as by a cancer, with heretical speech heap up sins. Therefore we must strive with all peaceable strength that no one infected and dipped in heretical error refuse to receive the one true baptism of the church; whoever has not been baptized with it will become a stranger to the kingdom of heaven.”
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Sedatus of Thuburbo: water infected by heretical speech heaps up sins, and those dipped in it must receive the church’s baptism.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 18, following the site’s translation.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error; OCR letter error (x for z)): canccre → cancere; baptixatus → baptizatus.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 18 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.46 (CSEL 51:322–323; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-46). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-46
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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).
6.47CSEL 51:323–324
Huic respondetur quia, si non sanctificatur aqua, cum aliqua erroris uerba per inperitiam precator effundit, multi non solum mali, sed etiam boni fratres in ipsa ecclesia non sanctificant aquam. multorum enim preces emendantur cotidie, si doctioribus fuerint recitatae, et multa in eis repperiuntur contra catholicam fidem. numquid, si manifestetur aliquos baptizatos, cum illae preces dictae super aquam fuissent, iubebuntur denuo baptizari? quid ita? quia plerumque precis uitium superat precantis adfectus et quia certa illa uerba euangelica sine quibus non potest baptismus consecrari, tantum ualent, ut per illa sic euacuentur quaecumque in prece uitiosa contra regulam fidei dicuntur, quemadmodum daemonium Christi nomine excluditur. nam utique haereticus, si adferat precem uitiosam, nec bonum habet caritatis adfectum, quo possit illa inperitia superari, et ideo similis est ei quicumque in ipsa catholica inuidus et maliuolus, quales illic arguit Cyprianus, adferat etiam, ut fieri solet, aliquam precem in qua loquatur contra regulam fidei. multi quippe inruunt in preces non solum ab inperitis loquacibus, sed etiam ab haereticis conpositas, et per ignorantiae simplicitatem non eas ualentes discernere utuntur eis arbitrantes quod bonae sunt; nec tamen quod in eis peruersum est euacuat illa quae ibi recta sunt, sed ab eis potius euacuatur, sicut in ipso homine bonae spei et probabilis fidei, sed tamen homine, si quid aliter sapit, non inde euacuantur quae recte sapit, donec ei deus reuelet et quod aliter sapit. si autem malus est ipse adque peruersus, si precem integram dicat et nulla ex parte fidei catholicae aduersam, non ideo ipse rectus est quia illa recta est, et si in aliquibus peruersam precem adferat, deus adest euangelicis uerbis suis, sine quibus baptismus Christi consecrari non potest, et ipse sanctificat sacramentum suum, ut homini siue antequam baptizetur siue cum baptizatur siue postea quandoque ueraciter ad se conuerso id ipsum ualeat ad salutem, quod ad perniciem nisi conuerteretur ualeret. ceterum quis nesciat non esse baptismum Christi, si uerba euangelica quibus symbolum constat illic defuerint? sed facilius inueniuntur haeretici qui omnino non baptizent quam qui non illis uerbis baptizent. ideoque dicimus non omnem baptismum — nam in multis idolorum sacrilegis sacris baptizari homines perhibentur —, sed baptismum Christi, id est uerbis euangelicis consecratum, ubique eundem esse nec hominum quorumlibet et qualibet peruersitate uiolari.
To him the answer is: if water is not sanctified when one who prays pours out some words of error through lack of skill, many, not only bad but even good brothers in the church itself, do not sanctify water. For the prayers of many are corrected daily, if they are recited to the more learned, and many things are found in them against the Catholic faith. If it is shown that some were baptized when those prayers had been said over the water, will they be ordered to be baptized again? Why not? Because often the devotion of the one praying outweighs the fault of the prayer, and because those fixed words of the gospel, without which baptism cannot be consecrated, have such force that through them whatever faulty things are said in the prayer against the rule of faith are made void, just as a demon is driven out by Christ’s name. Now certainly a heretic, if he brings a faulty prayer, does not have the good affection of love by which that lack of skill could be outweighed; and so anyone in the Catholic Church itself who is envious and malicious, such as Cyprian rebukes there, is like him, if he too, as often happens, brings some prayer in which he speaks against the rule of faith. For many rush upon prayers composed not only by unskilled talkers but even by heretics, and, through simple ignorance not able to judge them, use them, thinking that they are good; yet what is perverse in them does not make void what is right there, but rather is made void by it; just as in a man of good hope and commendable faith, but still a man, if he thinks something otherwise, what he thinks rightly is not made void by it, until God reveals to him that too which he thinks otherwise. But if he himself is wicked and perverse, if he says a sound prayer, in no part opposed to the Catholic faith, he is not therefore upright because it is upright; and if he brings a prayer perverse in some points, God is present to his gospel words, without which Christ’s baptism cannot be consecrated, and he himself sanctifies his sacrament, so that for the man, whether before he is baptized, or when he is baptized, or afterward at some time when truly converted to him, it avails for salvation, which would avail for ruin if he were not converted. Besides, who does not know that it is not Christ’s baptism if the gospel words of which the creed consists are lacking there? But heretics who do not baptize at all are more easily found than ones who do not baptize with those words. And so we say that not every baptism (for men are said to be baptized in many sacrilegious rites of idols), but Christ’s baptism, that is, the one consecrated with the gospel words, is everywhere the same and is not violated by any men or any perversity.
Phil 3:15 (allusion, high confidence) · Matt 28:19 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Faulty 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.
- “The gospel words of which the creed consists” refers to the threefold name of Matt 28:19, on which the baptismal creed was built.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error; OCR letter error (n for u); stray mark in the digital text): ■— → —; datholica → catholica; sine postea → siue postea.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 18 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); allusion)
Topics: Baptism, Heresy, Prayer
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.47 (CSEL 51:323–324; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-47). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-47
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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).
6.48CSEL 51:324–325
Sane in ista quoque sententia non neglegenter omittendum est quod hic interposuit et ait: quare omnibus pacificis quidem uiribus nitendum est, ne quis haeretico errore infectus et cetera. respexit enim uerba illa beati Cypriani dicentis: neminem iudicantes aut a iure communionis aliquem si diuersum senserit amouentes. ecce quantum ualeat in bonis ecclesiae filiis amor unitatis et pacis, ut, quos dicebant sacrilegos et profanos sine baptismo ut arbitrabantur admissos, si eos quantum putabant corrigere non ualerent, eligerent potius tolerare quam propter eos sanctum illud uinculum rumpere, ne propter zizania eradicaretur simul et triticum, permittentes quantum in ipsis erat, sicut in illo nobilissimo iudicio Salomonis, infantile corpus a falsa matre nutriri potius quam concidi. hoc autem et illi faciebant, qui de baptismi sacramento uerius sentiebant, et isti quibus pro merito tantae caritatis deus erat reuelaturus, si quid aliter sapiebant.
Certainly in this opinion too we must not carelessly pass over what he put in, saying, “Therefore we must strive with all peaceable strength that no one infected with heretical error,” and so on. For he had in view those words of blessed Cyprian, who said, “judging no one and removing no one from the right of communion if he thinks differently.” See how much the love of unity and peace avails in good sons of the church, that those whom they called sacrilegious and profane, admitted, as they thought, without baptism, if they could not correct them as they thought right, they chose rather to bear than to break that holy bond on their account, lest the wheat be rooted up together with the tares; allowing, as far as lay in them, as in that most famous judgment of Solomon, the child’s body to be nursed by the false mother rather than be cut in two. This both those did who thought more truly about the sacrament of baptism, and these to whom God, in reward for so great a love, would reveal whatever they thought otherwise.
Matt 13:29 (allusion, high confidence) · 1 Kgs 3:16–27 (allusion, high confidence) · Phil 3:15 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Sedatus’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.
- Quotations from Sentences 18 and the preface. Solomon’s judgment is 1 Kgs 3:16–27.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 18 (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)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.48 (CSEL 51:324–325; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-48). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-48
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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).
6.49CSEL 51:325
Priuatianus a Sufetula dixit: Qui haereticos potestatem baptizandi habere dicit, dicat prius quis haeresim condiderit. si enim haeresis a deo est, habere et indulgentiam diuinam potest; si uero a deo non est, quomodo gratiam dei aut habere aut conferre alicui potest?
Privatianus of Sufetula said: “Let him who says that heretics have the power of baptizing first say who founded heresy. For if heresy is from God, it can also have divine indulgence; but if it is not from God, how can it either have the grace of God or confer it on anyone?”
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Privatianus of Sufetula: heresy is not from God and cannot have or give God’s grace.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 19, following the site’s translation.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray mark for a question mark in the digital text): potest % → potest?.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 19 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.49 (CSEL 51:325; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-49). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-49
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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).
6.50CSEL 51:325
Huic totidem uerbis ita respondetur: Qui maliuolos et inuidos potestatem baptizandi habere dicit, dicat prius quis maliuolentiam inuidiamque condiderit. si enim maliuolentia et inuidia a deo est, habere et indulgentiam diuinam potest; si uero a deo non est, quomodo gratiam dei aut habere aut conferre alicui potest? sed sicut ista eodem modo dicta manifestissime falsa sunt, sic etiam illa, quae ut conuincerentur haec dicta sunt. baptizant enim maliuoli et inuidi, sicut concedit ipse Cyprianus, quia eos etiam intus esse testatur. sic ergo possunt etiam haeretici baptizare, quia baptismus sacramentum Christi est, inuidia uero et haeresis opera diaboli, quae quisquis habuerit non hinc efficit ut, si habet sacramentum Christi, etiam ipsum numeretur inter opera diaboli.
To him the answer in as many words is: “Let him who says that the malicious and envious have the power of baptizing first say who founded malice and envy. For if malice and envy are from God, they can also have divine indulgence; but if they are not from God, how can they either have the grace of God or confer it on anyone?” But just as these things, said in the same way, are most plainly false, so are those which these were said to refute. For the malicious and envious do baptize, as Cyprian himself grants, since he testifies that they are even within. So heretics too can baptize, because baptism is Christ’s sacrament, but envy and heresy are works of the devil; and whoever has them does not thereby bring it about that, if he has Christ’s sacrament, it too is counted among the works of the devil.
Notes and citation
Summary: Privatianus’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.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (stray full stop in the digital text): inter. opera → inter opera.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 19 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.50 (CSEL 51:325; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-50). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-50
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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).
6.51CSEL 51:325
Priuatus a Sufibus dixit: Qui haereticorum baptismum probant quid aliud quam haereticis communicant?
Privatus of Sufes said: “He who approves the baptism of heretics, what else does he do but hold communion with heretics?”
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Privatus of Sufes: to approve heretics’ baptism is to hold communion with heretics.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 20, following the site’s translation.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error): baptismus probant → baptismum probant.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 20 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.51 (CSEL 51:325; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-51). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-51
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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).
6.52CSEL 51:325–326
Huic respondetur: Non est baptismus haereticorum quem in haereticis probamus, sicut non est baptismus auarorum insidiosorum fraudatorum raptorum inuidorum quem in eis probamus. omnes quippe isti iniqui sunt, sed iustus est Christus, cuius in se sacramentum, quod ad ipsum adtinet, sua iniquitate non uiolant. alioquin posset alius dicere: qui iniquorum baptismum probant quid aliud quam iniquis communicant? quod ipsi catholicae si quis obiceret, responderetur ei quod huic modo responsum est.
To him the answer is: the baptism we approve in heretics is not the heretics’ baptism, just as the baptism we approve in the greedy, the treacherous, defrauders, robbers, and the envious is not theirs. For all these are wicked, but Christ is righteous, whose sacrament they do not, as far as it concerns him, violate in themselves by their wickedness. Otherwise another might say, “He who approves the baptism of the wicked, what else does he do but hold communion with the wicked?” If anyone threw this at the Catholic Church itself, he would be answered as this man has now been answered.
Notes and citation
Summary: Approving 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.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 20 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.52 (CSEL 51:325–326; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-52). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-52
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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).
6.53CSEL 51:326
Hortensianus a Laribus dixit: Uiderint aut praesumptores aut fautores haereticorum: nos unum baptisma quod non nisi in ecclesia nouimus ecclesiae uindicamus. aut quomodo possunt in nomine Christi aliquem baptizare quos ipse Christus dicit aduersarios suos esse?
Hortensianus of Lares said: “Let the presumptuous or the supporters of heretics see to it: we claim for the church the one baptism, which we know exists only in the church. Or how can those baptize anyone in the name of Christ whom Christ himself calls his adversaries?”
Notes and citation
Summary: The opinion of Hortensianus of Lares: the one baptism is the church’s, and Christ’s adversaries cannot baptize in his name.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 21, following the site’s translation.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 21 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.53 (CSEL 51:326; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-53). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-53
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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).
6.54CSEL 51:326
Huic simili tenore uerborum ita respondemus: Uiderint aut praesumptores aut fautores iniquorum: nos unum baptisma, quod non nisi ecclesiae nouimus, ubicumque inuentum quando possumus ad ecclesiam reuocamus. aut quomodo possunt in nomine Christi aliquem baptizare quos ipse Christus dicit aduersarios suos esse? omnibus quippe iniquis dicit: non noui uos: recedite a me qui operamini iniquitatem, et tamen cum baptizant non ipsi baptizant, sed ille de quo Iohannes dicit: ipse est qui baptizat.
To him we answer in a similar strain of words: “Let the presumptuous or the supporters of the wicked see to it: the one baptism, which we know belongs only to the church, we call back to the church wherever it is found, when we can. Or how can those baptize anyone in the name of Christ whom Christ himself calls his adversaries?” For to all the wicked he says, “I do not know you; depart from me, you who work iniquity”; and yet when they baptize, it is not they who baptize, but he of whom John says, “He it is who baptizes.”
Matt 7:23 (quotation, high confidence) · John 1:33 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: The 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.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 21 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); allusion)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.54 (CSEL 51:326; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-54). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-54
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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).
6.55CSEL 51:326–327
Cassius a Macomadibus dixit: Cum baptismata duo esse non possint, qui haereticis baptismum concedit sibi tollit. censeo itaque flebiles et tabidos haereticos baptizandos esse, cum ad ecclesiam uenire coeperint, ut sacra et diuina lauatione lotos et lumine uitae inluminatos non hostes sed pacificos, non alienos sed fidei domini domesticos, non adulteros sed dei filios, non erroris sed salutis effectos in ecclesiam recipi, absque his qui de ecclesia fideles supplantati ad haeresis tenebras transierant, sed eos per manus inpositionem restituendos.
Cassius of Macomades said: “Since there cannot be two baptisms, he who grants baptism to heretics takes it away from himself. I judge, therefore, that wretched and wasting heretics are to be baptized when they begin to come to the church, and, washed with the sacred and divine washing and enlightened in the light of life, received into the church, made not enemies but peaceable, not strangers but members of the household of the Lord’s faith, not adulterers but sons of God, not sons of error but of salvation; except those who, having been faithful members of the church, were tripped up and had passed over to the darkness of heresy: these are to be restored by the laying on of hands.”
Notes and citation
Summary: The 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.
- Sentences of the Council of Carthage 22, following the site’s translation.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (OCR letter error; stray full stop in the digital text): esse. non → esse non; dci filios → dei filios; inpositioncm → inpositionem.
Extrabiblical texts: Cyprian, Sent. 22 (The Opinions of the Eighty-Seven Bishops (Council of Carthage, 256); quotation)
Cite (SBL): Augustine, Bapt. 6.55 (CSEL 51:326–327; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-55). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/augustine-baptismo/6-55
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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).