Letters 69.1–69.17

Cyprian to his son Magnus, greeting. In your devout care you have consulted my humble self, dearest son, whether among the other heretics those also who come from Novatian ought, after his profane washing, to be baptized and sanctified in the catholic church with the lawful, true, and only baptism of the church. On this matter, so far as the capacity of our faith and the holiness and truth of the divine Scriptures suggest, we say that all heretics and schismatics without exception have no power and no right. For this reason Novatian neither ought to be nor can be made an exception, so as not to be counted among the adversaries and antichrists, since he too stands outside the church and acts against the peace and love of Christ. For when our Lord Jesus Christ testified in his gospel that those who were not with him were his enemies, he did not specify any particular kind of heresy; he showed that all without exception who were not with him, and who, not gathering with him, scattered his flock, were adversaries, saying: “He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters.” Likewise the blessed apostle John did not himself distinguish any heresy or schism or set any apart specially, but called all who had gone out from the church and who acted against the church antichrists, saying: “You have heard that antichrist is coming; but now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.” Hence it is clear that all are adversaries of the Lord and antichrists who are known to have withdrawn from the love and from the unity of the catholic church. Further, the Lord in his gospel lays it down and says: “But if he despises even the church, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector.” If those who despise the church are held to be heathens and tax collectors, much more surely must rebels and enemies, who fabricate false altars, unlawful priesthoods, sacrilegious sacrifices, and counterfeit names, be counted among heathens and tax collectors, since those who sin less and are only despisers of the church are judged heathens and tax collectors by the Lord's sentence.

That the church is one, the Holy Spirit declares in the Song of Songs, speaking in the person of Christ: “My dove, my perfect one, is one; she is the only one of her mother, the chosen of her who bore her.” Of her he also says again: “A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, a fountain sealed, a well of living water.” If the bride of Christ, which is the church, is a garden enclosed, a thing shut cannot lie open to strangers and the profane. And if she is a fountain sealed, one placed outside, who has no access to the fountain, can neither drink from it nor be sealed from it. The well of living water too, if it is one, the same which is within, cannot give life and holiness to one placed outside from that water, whose whole use and drinking is granted only to those who are within. Peter also showed this, that the church is one and that only those who are in the church can be baptized, when he said: “In the ark of Noah few, that is, eight souls of men were saved through water; which baptism will likewise save you also,” proving and attesting that the one ark of Noah was a type of the one church. If at that time, in that baptism of the world when it was cleansed and purified, anyone who was not in the ark of Noah could be saved through water, then now too one who is not in the church, to which alone baptism has been granted, can be given life through baptism. But Paul too, showing this same thing still more openly and clearly, writes to the Ephesians and says: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, cleansing her with the washing of water.” If the church which Christ loves and which alone is cleansed by his washing is one, how can one who is not in the church either be loved by Christ or be washed and cleansed by his washing?

Therefore, since the church alone has the life-giving water and the power to baptize and wash a person, whoever says that anyone can be baptized and sanctified with Novatian must first show and prove that Novatian is in the church or presides over the church. For the church is one, and being one it cannot be both within and without. If it is with Novatian, it was not with Cornelius. But if it was with Cornelius, who succeeded Bishop Fabian by lawful ordination, and whom the Lord glorified with martyrdom besides the honor of the priesthood, then Novatian is not in the church and cannot be counted a bishop, since, despising the gospel and apostolic tradition and succeeding no one, he sprang from himself. For one who has not been ordained in the church can in no way have or hold the church.

That the church is not outside, and cannot be split against itself or divided, but keeps the unity of an inseparable and undivided house, the faith of divine Scripture makes plain, when it is written of the sacrament of the Passover and of the lamb, which lamb signified Christ: “In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not cast the flesh out of the house.” We see the same expressed in the case of Rahab, who herself also bore a type of the church, to whom it is commanded and said: “Your father and your mother and your brothers and the whole house of your father you shall gather to yourself into your house; and whoever goes out of the door of your house shall be guilty on his own head.” By this sacrament it is declared that those who are to live and escape the destruction of the world must be gathered into one house only, that is, into the church; but that whoever of those gathered goes outside, that is, if anyone, though he has obtained grace in the church, withdraws and goes out from the church, will be guilty, that is, will have himself to blame for his perishing. The apostle Paul explains this when he teaches and commands that a heretic is to be avoided as perverted and a sinner and self-condemned. For this is the one who will be guilty on his own head: not cast out by the bishop, but a fugitive from the church of his own accord, condemned by himself through heretical presumption.

And so the Lord, impressing on us the unity that comes from divine authority, lays it down and says: “I and the Father are one.” Bringing his church back to this unity, he says again: “And there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” But if the flock is one, how can one be counted in the flock who is not in the number of the flock? Or how can he be held a shepherd who, while the true shepherd remains and presides in the church of God by succeeding ordination, succeeds no one, begins from himself, and becomes a stranger and profane, an enemy of the Lord's peace and of divine unity, not dwelling in the house of God, that is, in the church of God, in which none dwell but those of one heart and one mind, as the Holy Spirit speaks in the Psalms and says: “God, who makes those of one mind to dwell in a house”? Indeed, the Lord's sacrifices themselves declare Christian unanimity, bound to itself by firm and inseparable love. For when the Lord calls his body bread, gathered together from the union of many grains, he indicates our people, whom he bore, as united; and when he calls his blood wine, pressed from many clusters and grapes and brought together into one, he likewise signifies our flock joined by the mingling of a multitude made one. If Novatian is united to this bread of the Lord, if he too is mingled with the cup of Christ, he might seem also to be able to have the grace of the one baptism of the church, if it were established that he holds the unity of the church.

Then how inseparable is the sacrament of unity, and how hopeless they are and what utter ruin they bring on themselves from the indignation of God, who make a schism and, forsaking their bishop, set up for themselves another, a false bishop, outside, divine Scripture declares in the books of Kingdoms, where the ten tribes were split off from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin and, forsaking their king, set up another for themselves outside: “And the Lord was indignant,” it says, “with all the seed of Israel, and removed them and gave them up to plunder, until he cast them from his presence; because Israel was scattered from the house of David, and they set up for themselves as king Jeroboam son of Nebat.” It said that the Lord was indignant and gave them up to ruin because they had been scattered from unity and had set up another king for themselves. And so great was the Lord's indignation against those who had made the schism that even when the man of God was sent to Jeroboam to rebuke him for his sins and to foretell the coming vengeance, he was forbidden to eat bread or drink water among them. When he did not keep this, and dined against God's command, he was at once struck by the majesty of the divine judgment, so that on his way back he was killed on the road by the attack and bite of a lion. And does any of you dare to say that the saving water of baptism and heavenly grace can be shared with schismatics, with whom not even earthly [food] nor worldly drink ought to be shared? The Lord satisfies us further in his gospel and shows a greater light of understanding: that those same people who had then cut themselves off from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin and, leaving Jerusalem, had withdrawn to Samaria, were counted among the profane and the gentiles. For when he first sent his disciples on the ministry of salvation, he commanded and said: “Do not go off into the way of the nations, and do not enter the city of the Samaritans.” Sending them first to the Jews, he orders the gentiles to be passed over for the time; but by adding that the city of the Samaritans, where the schismatics were, must also be left aside, he shows that schismatics are put on a level with gentiles.

But if someone objects, saying that Novatian holds the same law as the catholic church holds, baptizes with the same creed as we do, knows the same God the Father, the same Son Christ, the same Holy Spirit, and that for this reason he can claim the power of baptizing, because he seems not to differ from us in the baptismal questions: let whoever thinks this should be objected know, first, that we and the schismatics do not have one law of the creed nor the same questions. For when they say, “Do you believe in the remission of sins and eternal life through the holy church?” they lie in their question, since they do not have the church. Then too, with their own voice they confess that the remission of sins cannot be given except through the holy church; and not having it, they show that sins cannot be remitted there.

As for their being said to know the same God the Father, the same Son Christ, the same Holy Spirit as we do, not even this can help such people. For Korah and Dathan and Abiram knew the same God as Aaron the priest and Moses, living under the same law and religion; they called on the one true God who was to be worshiped and called upon. Yet because they overstepped the ministry of their own place and claimed for themselves the license to sacrifice, against Aaron the priest who had received the lawful priesthood by God's favor and the Lord's ordination, they were struck from heaven and at once paid the penalty for their unlawful attempts; and the sacrifices offered irreligiously and unlawfully, against the right of divine appointment, could not be valid or of any profit. Even the censers in which the incense had been unlawfully offered, so that they should no longer be used by the priests but should rather present to posterity, for its correction, a memorial of divine indignation and vengeance, were by the Lord's command melted down, purged with fire, beaten into thin plates, and fastened to the altar, as divine Scripture says: “A memorial,” it says, “to the sons of Israel, that no stranger who is not of the seed of Aaron should come near to put incense before the Lord, that he may not be as Korah.” And yet those men had not made a schism, nor gone outside and rebelled shamelessly and hostilely against the priests of God, as these now do, who split the church and, rebels against the peace and unity of Christ, attempt to set up a chair for themselves, to assume primacy, and to claim the license to baptize and to offer. How can those accomplish what they do, or obtain anything from God by unlawful attempts, who contrive against God what is not permitted them? Therefore those who plead the cause of Novatian or other schismatics of that kind contend in vain that anyone can be baptized and sanctified there with saving baptism, where it is established that the one who baptizes has no license to baptize.

And so that it may be better understood what the divine judgment is against such audacity, we find that in such a crime not only the leaders and authors but also the partakers are destined for punishment, unless they separate themselves from communion with the wicked, as the Lord commands through Moses and says: “Separate yourselves from the tents of these most hardened men, and do not touch anything that is theirs, lest you perish together in their sin.” And what the Lord had threatened through Moses he fulfilled: whoever had not separated himself from Korah and Dathan and Abiram at once paid the penalty for his impious communion. By this example it is shown and proved that all will be liable both to guilt and to punishment who have joined themselves to schismatics against the leaders and priests with irreligious rashness. So too the Holy Spirit testifies through the prophet Hosea and says: “Their sacrifices are like the bread of mourning; all who eat them shall be defiled,” teaching and showing, that is, that all without exception who have been defiled by their sin are joined in punishment with the authors.

What merit, then, can there be with God for those on whom punishments are inflicted from heaven? Or how can such men justify and sanctify the baptized, who, enemies of the priests, try to usurp what belongs to others, what is unlawful and granted them by no right? Yet we do not wonder that they contend for their own perversity. Each one must needs defend what he does, and once defeated they do not want to yield easily, though they know that what they do is not lawful. What is to be wondered at, or rather to be indignant at and grieved over, is that Christians stand by antichrists, and that betrayers of the faith and traitors to the church stand within the church itself against the church. Obstinate and unteachable as they are in other things, they do at least confess this, that all, whether heretics or schismatics, do not have the Holy Spirit, and therefore can indeed baptize but cannot give the Holy Spirit; and on this very point we hold them fast, so as to show that those who do not have the Holy Spirit cannot baptize at all.

For since in baptism each person's sins are remitted, the Lord proves and declares in his gospel that sins can be forgiven only through those who have the Holy Spirit. For after the resurrection, sending his disciples, he speaks to them and says: “As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you remit anyone's sins, they will be remitted to him; if you retain anyone's, they will be retained.” In this passage he shows that only one who has the Holy Spirit can baptize and give remission of sins. Indeed John, who was to baptize Christ our Lord himself, received the Holy Spirit beforehand while still in his mother's womb, so that it might be certain and plain that none can baptize except those who have the Holy Spirit. So let those who plead for heretics or schismatics answer us whether they have the Holy Spirit or not. If they have it, why, when those baptized there come to us, are hands laid on them to receive the Spirit, since it would surely have been received already where, if it was there, it could have been given? But if all heretics and schismatics outside do not give the Holy Spirit, and therefore hands are laid on among us so that here may be received what there neither exists nor can be given, it is clear that remission of sins cannot be given through those who are known not to have the Holy Spirit. And therefore, so that, according to the divine appointment and the truth of the gospel, they may obtain remission of sins, be sanctified, and become temples of God, all without exception who come from the adversaries and antichrists to the church of Christ must be baptized with the baptism of the church.

You have also asked, dearest son, what I think of those who obtain the grace of God in sickness and weakness, whether they are to be held lawful Christians, because they have not been bathed with the saving water but had it poured over them. In this matter our modesty and restraint prejudge no one, so as to prevent each from holding what he thinks and doing what he holds. We, so far as our small capacity conceives, judge that the divine benefits cannot in any way be mutilated or weakened, nor can anything less happen there, where what is drawn from the divine gifts is received with full and entire faith both of the giver and of the receiver. For the contagion of sins is not washed away in the saving sacrament as the dirt of the skin and body is washed away in a fleshly and worldly bath, so that there is need of soda and other aids, and of a tub and a pool, by which the poor body can be washed and cleaned. The breast of the believer is washed in another way; the mind of a person is cleansed in another way, by the merits of faith. In the saving sacraments, when necessity compels and God grants his indulgence, the divine abridgments confer the whole on believers. Nor should it trouble anyone that the sick seem to be sprinkled or poured over when they obtain the Lord's grace, since holy Scripture speaks through the prophet Ezekiel and says: “And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols; and I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you.” Likewise in Numbers: “And the man who is unclean until evening shall be purified on the third day and on the seventh day, and he shall be clean. But if he is not purified on the third day and on the seventh day, he shall not be clean, and that soul shall be cut off from Israel, because the water of sprinkling has not been sprinkled on him.” And again: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Take the Levites from among the sons of Israel, and purify them. And thus you shall do their purification for them: you shall sprinkle them with the water of purification.” And again: “The water of sprinkling is a purification.” Hence it appears that sprinkling with water also has the force of the saving bath; and when this is done in the church, where the faith of both receiver and giver is whole, all can stand and be completed and perfected by the majesty of the Lord and the truth of faith.

Further, as for some calling those who have obtained the grace of Christ by the saving water and lawful faith not “Christians” but “clinics,” I do not find where they take this name from, unless perhaps those who have read more and more recondite books have found these “clinics” in Hippocrates or Soranus. For I, who know of a clinic from the gospel, know that for that paralytic, disabled man lying on his bed through the long course of his years, his infirmity did not hinder him from coming most fully to heavenly strength; and not only was he raised from his pallet by the Lord's indulgence, but with his strength restored and invigorated he took up his pallet himself. And therefore, so far as it is given us by faith to conceive and to perceive, my judgment is this: that everyone should be judged a lawful Christian who has obtained divine grace in the church by the law and right of faith. Or if anyone thinks that they have obtained nothing because they were only poured over with the saving water, then if they are empty and void, let them not be deceived, but, if they escape the trouble of their sickness and recover, let them be baptized. But if those cannot be baptized who have already been sanctified by the church's baptism, why are they made to stumble in their faith and in the Lord's indulgence? Or have they indeed obtained the Lord's grace, but in a shorter and smaller measure of the divine gift and of the Holy Spirit, so that they are indeed held Christians, yet are not to be equaled with the rest?

No, rather, the Holy Spirit is not given by measure but is poured whole upon the believer. For if the day dawns equally for all, and if the sun spreads over all with equal and like light, how much more does Christ, the true sun and day, bestow in his church the light of eternal life with equal fairness? We see the sacrament of this equality celebrated in Exodus, when manna flowed down from heaven and, prefiguring things to come, showed the nourishment of heavenly bread and the food of Christ who was to come. For there, without distinction of sex or age, an omer was gathered equally for each. From this it appeared that Christ's indulgence and the heavenly grace that would follow later would be divided equally to all, and that the gift of spiritual grace would be poured on the whole people of God without difference of sex, without distinction of years, without respect of persons. To be sure, the same spiritual grace which is received equally in baptism by believers is afterwards either lessened or increased by our conduct and action, as in the gospel the Lord's seed is sown equally, but according to the variety of the soil some is consumed and some is heaped up into manifold abundance, with fruit overflowing thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold. Further, since each is called to the one denarius, why should what God distributes equally be lessened by human interpretation?

But if anyone is troubled that some of those who are baptized when sick were still tempted by unclean spirits, let him know that the devil's stubborn wickedness has power up to the saving water, but in baptism loses all the poison of his wickedness. We see an example of this in King Pharaoh, who, long resisting and lingering in his faithlessness, could resist and prevail just so long, until he came to the water; when he had come there, he was both conquered and destroyed. That that sea was a sacrament of baptism the blessed apostle Paul declares, saying: “For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” And he added, saying: “Now all these things were figures of us.” This happens even today, when by exorcists, with a human voice and divine power, the devil is scourged and burned and tortured; and though he often says that he is going out and releasing the people of God, yet he deceives in what he has said, and practices the same lying obstinacy and fraud that was done before through Pharaoh. Yet when one comes to the saving water and to the sanctification of baptism, we ought to know and trust that there the devil is crushed, and the person dedicated to God is set free by divine indulgence. For if scorpions and serpents, which are strong on dry land, can keep their strength or retain their poisons when thrown into water, then the evil spirits too, which are called scorpions and serpents and yet are trodden underfoot by us through the power given by the Lord, can remain any longer in the body of a person in whom, baptized and sanctified, the Holy Spirit begins to dwell.

This indeed we experience in the facts themselves: those baptized under the pressure of necessity in sickness, having obtained grace, are free of the unclean spirit by which they were moved before, live praiseworthy and approved lives in the church, and advance more day by day in the increase of heavenly grace through the growth of faith; while on the contrary some of those who are baptized in health, if afterwards they begin to sin, are shaken by the unclean spirit returning; so that it is clear that the devil is shut out in baptism by the faith of the believer, and returns if faith afterwards fails. Unless perhaps it seems just to some that those who are polluted with profane water outside the church among adversaries and antichrists should be judged baptized, while those who are baptized in the church should be thought to have obtained less of divine indulgence and grace; and that such honor should be paid to heretics that those who come from them are not asked whether they were bathed or poured over, whether they were clinics or walkers, while among us the whole truth of faith is diminished and the church's baptism is robbed of its majesty and holiness.

I have answered your letter, dearest son, as far as my small ability allowed, and have shown what we, for our part, think, prescribing to no one so as to prevent each leader from deciding what he thinks, since he will give account of his action to the Lord, according to what the blessed apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Romans and says: “Each one of us will give account for himself. Let us therefore not judge one another.” I pray, dearest son, that you may always be well.