Sacraments in the early church

The sacraments or mysteries in general: what they are, how they act, and who may give them. Part of Worship.

On Baptism 4Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The Spirit who hovered over the waters at creation sanctified the element, so that any water, when God is invoked, becomes a means of sanctification that cleanses both spirit and flesh.
Pistis Sophia 130Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 133Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 141Anonymous · 3rd century
Pistis Sophia 142Anonymous · 3rd century
Homilies on Numbers 4.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Priests of the church must guard the deeper mysteries and hand them on to the less skilled only veiled, as the Kohathites carried the holy objects covered.
Catechetical Lecture 3.3Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Baptism is a solemn enlistment before God and the angels; its water carries spiritual grace.
Tractates on the Psalms 121.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Those who love the heavenly Jerusalem will have abundance, foreshadowed in Jacob's blessing and given now in the church's mystery and sacraments, the grain, wine, and oil of the psalm.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 3.9Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Only Africa needed the union, because only there had the garment of the church been torn; the mender who pricks some threads is less to blame than the one who tore it, and Catholics and Donatists still share the same sacraments.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 5.4Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Baptism has three elements, the Trinity, the believer's faith and the minister; the first two are unchangeable and decisive, while the minister is a changeable worker, since Scripture says that God, not man, washes.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 6.3Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · Against the Donatist use of Haggai (what the polluted touches is polluted), Optatus argues that no Catholic has been shown polluted and that the invocation of God's name sanctifies, as with the censers of Korah's company kept for the sanctuary.
Question 102, section 29Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The benefit of the faith handed on in the sacraments does not depend on the merit of the minister, for God gives the growth.
Question 102, section 30Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · A believer who comes in faith to God’s minister receives what God gives, whatever the minister’s life, as the believer could rightly plead before God.
Question 102, section 31Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Like an advocate whose private life does not affect his client’s case, a bishop only performs his office, while God judges the faith of those who come for baptism.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.20.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Others reject all outward rites.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 46.6Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The bishop promises to explain the mysteries of baptism after Pascha.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 47.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · In Easter week the bishop explains the rites of baptism.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 47.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · Only the baptized hear the explanation of the mysteries.
Exposition of Psalm 118 0.2.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Though baptism purifies at once, the newly baptized offer their gift only on the eighth day, after instruction in the sacraments.
Exposition of Psalm 118 1.17.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The righteous acts the bride learns are the sacraments of baptism, by which Christ fulfilled all righteousness.
Exposition of Psalm 118 2.26.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · On verse 11: God’s words are to be hidden in the heart, and mysteries not betrayed to the unworthy.
Exposition of Psalm 118 2.26.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Mysteries are betrayed through flattery, greed, boasting, or careless talk.
Letter 54.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Januarius that Christ gave few and simple sacraments, and that customs observed by the whole church come from the apostles or plenary councils.
Letter 55.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Christmas is a simple commemoration, whereas Easter is a sacrament signifying the passage from death to life, as the Hebrew word pascha means.
Letter 55.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes astrology, which he condemns, from observing natural seasons and from using creation as figures of sacred truths.
Letter 55.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine deplores the multiplication of local observances not grounded in Scripture, councils, or universal custom, and would abolish them where possible.
Letter 87.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Catholics seek to reunite the Donatists to the root of the Church, without rebaptizing them, since the sacraments they hold remain Christ’s even in schism.
Letter 93.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Catholics do not rebaptize Donatists because baptism is Christ's; converts keep their sacraments, which begin to profit them only within the unity of the church.
Letter 98.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Sacraments take the names of what they signify, as Easter is called the day of the passion and the sacrament of Christ's body is called his body; so the sacrament of faith is called faith.
Letter 105.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The imperial law rightly states that baptism does not depend on the minister's merit; the Donatist view would make an unknown bad minister preferable to a known good one.
Homilies on Matthew 23.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The dogs and swine are the incurably impious and licentious, to whom sacred teaching is not to be exposed, which is why the mysteries are celebrated behind shut doors; Christ then turns to prayer.
On the Mysteries 1Ambrose · ca. 387–391 · Ambrose explains why he teaches the newly baptized about the sacraments only after their initiation, beginning with the rite of “Ephphatha.”
On the Mysteries 8Ambrose · ca. 387–391 · The newly baptized approach the altar; the Church’s sacraments are older than the Synagogue’s, as Melchizedek shows, and greater than the manna, for the Eucharist is the body of Christ that gives eternal life.
On the Blessings of the Patriarchs 44Ambrose · ca. 387-392 · One freed from fear and nourished by the sacraments of regeneration bears the beauty of the word and is taken into Christ's grace.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 35.19.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The sons of men are fed at the table of the sacraments, with bread, oil and cup.
On True Religion 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 389–391 · Augustine explains that God's teaching is given both plainly and in figures and sacraments, and defends the unity of the Old and New Testaments, comparing God to a physician who prescribes differently for different conditions.
Sermon 4.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Good and bad in the Church share the Scriptures (the dew) and the visible sacraments (the fatness of the earth), but the wicked turn the same rain into thorns.
Sermon 37.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The “many daughters” are the heresies, born of the Church and sharing her sacraments, Scriptures, and even baptism, and able to do mighty works; but they are thorns with flowers and no fruit, while the Church bears fruit.
Sermon 99.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God showed that the Spirit is his gift, not men’s, by sending him without human hands on the eunuch and on Cornelius; so any penitent soul, whoever baptizes her, is cleansed by the Lord’s grace and her faith.
Sermon 218.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The blood and water from Christ's side are the sacraments that form the Church, as Eve was formed from Adam's side.
Sermon 266.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Some read “the oil of the sinner” as any human minister’s, but the oil is Christ’s, and a sinful minister does not intercept the gift of the giver.
Sermon 266.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit came on Cornelius before baptism, showing that he breathes where he wills and is not given by human power; the sacrament is God’s oil, good even in a bad minister and even when received badly, as Judas received the morsel to his judgment.
Sermon 272.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine explains to the newly baptized that the bread and cup are Christ’s body and blood, and that the faithful, many grains made one bread, are themselves the body of Christ: “Be what you see, and receive what you are.”
On Christian Doctrine 3.9Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Whoever understands the signs God instituted is free; since Christ's resurrection the Church has a few easy and meaningful signs, baptism and the Eucharist.
Confessions 13.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · The creatures of the sea are the sacraments, miracles, and preachers that spread the gospel among the nations.
Confessions 13.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Because of Adam's fall, humanity became a restless sea needing bodily sacraments, which must lead on to spiritual life.
Confessions 13.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · The spiritual judge the church's sacraments, preaching, and the conduct of the faithful, over which they have power to correct.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 12.39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine contrasts Philo’s allegory of the ark as the human body, which failed at the door in its side, with the Christian reading of the door as the sacraments flowing from Christ’s side.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine says the old rites ceased because they foretold Christ and he has come, and adds that every religion is held together by visible sacraments whose contempt is sacrilege.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine notes that the wicked can have the sacraments without their power, citing Simon Magus and Peter’s words on baptism.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine says the old sacraments were removed because Christ fulfilled them, and fewer, greater, and easier sacraments were instituted.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that if the faithful of old suffered for sacraments that only promised Christ, Christians should be readier still to suffer for baptism, the eucharist, and the sign of Christ, which show him come.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine compares sacraments to visible words: as verbs change tense when what was future has happened, so the sacraments changed when what they promised was fulfilled in Christ.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine rejects Faustus’s comparison of the eucharist with Manichaean reverence for food: Christians’ bread and cup become a sacrament by consecration, while the Manichaeans think Christ is bound in all food.
Tractates 2Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · To the newly baptized: the Passover lamb was a figure of Christ, whose body and blood are given in the bread and wine; the rules for eating the lamb teach how to read Scripture and how to receive the Eucharist in faith.
On the Trinity 3.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine describes how God's will, presiding over the angels in heaven, governs the whole ordered creation, and argues that if Paul could signify Christ by speech, letter and the sacrament of his body and blood, God can much more signify himself through visible creatures without his substance appearing.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · If the texts meant that bad ministers cannot baptize, the Donatists’ hidden sinners could not have baptized either; if they reply that the Spirit cleanses the recipient while fleeing the false minister, they have answered for the Catholics too.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · The sacraments harm those who handle them unworthily but profit worthy recipients; Augustine offers other readings of the Donatists’ texts: the broken cisterns and lying water are carnal people, the dead are pagan gods, the sinner’s oil is flattery, and the flies are crowds of careless converts.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Spiritual sons are begotten through the gospel and the Spirit, not by the minister’s own holiness, as Judas’s preaching shows; otherwise hidden sinners among the Donatists could not baptize, so it is Christ who baptizes through any minister.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Christ’s gift of the Spirit before the power to forgive sins shows that the Spirit, not the minister, forgives; the Spirit flees a deceitful minister’s heart but not his ministry, as Paul rejoiced that Christ was preached even by envious men.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Ordination, like baptism, is a sacrament that schismatics do not lose and the Catholic Church does not repeat; returning Donatist clergy are not reordained, and what they had to their ruin comes to be had healthfully through correction.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Baptism given by a layman in necessity, or even unlawfully, remains given; like the emperor’s stamp on coins or the military brand, the sacrament’s mark is recognized and approved on correction, not repeated.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Whether non-Christians can baptize is left to a council, but schismatics both have and can give baptism and ordination, wrongly but truly; the sacraments remain holy in the bad, for reward in the good and for judgment in the bad.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Against Parmenian’s claim that only a living, healthy, enlightened, clothed, clean minister can give these gifts, Augustine shows from Scripture that God alone gives life, healing, light, clothing, and cleansing, working even through bad ministers such as Judas and the Pharisees.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Parmenian’s text, ‘A man cannot receive anything unless it is given him from heaven’, says ‘from heaven’, not from Donatus, Parmenian, or even a righteous man; the chain of human givers must begin with one who received from God.
On the Good of Marriage 6Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine grades marital intercourse (blameless for procreation, venially faulty from desire) and argues that the marriage bond, as a kind of sacrament, survives separation.
On the Good of Marriage 7Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine finds it a hard question whether a man who dismisses an adulterous wife may remarry, inclines to think not, and explains the firmness of the bond as a sacrament.
On the Good of Marriage 17Augustine of Hippo · 401 · A marriage once entered among God's people can be dissolved only by death, even if it is childless; the patriarchs' plural marriages were a duty of their time.
On the Good of Marriage 32Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine sums up the three goods of marriage, offspring, faithfulness, and sacrament, the last making the bond indissoluble while both spouses live.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 8.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The tree of life was a real tree and also a sacrament signifying Wisdom, as the rock was real and signified Christ; such events differ from parables, which need not have happened.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 8.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The tree of life was a real tree signifying Christ as Wisdom, and also strengthened the body in lasting health; Augustine leaves open whether souls after death are in bodily places.
Letter 25, chapter 8Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rules that the anointing of the sick in James 5 may be given with the bishop’s oil by presbyters, by the bishop himself, and even by lay Christians, but not to penitents, and dates the letter 19 March 416.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 4.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · John's humility in declaring himself unworthy to untie Christ's sandal rebukes those who claim that the baptism they give is theirs and holy because they are holy.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 4.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Against those who claim that the minister's holiness takes away sin, Augustine points to John's words: Christ alone, the eternal Word, is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 5.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ chose not to transfer his power of baptizing to any servant, lest hope be placed in men and there be as many baptisms as ministers; so even an evil minister's baptism is Christ's.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 5.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Ministers of baptism ought to be righteous, but an unworthy minister cannot defile Christ's gift, which passes through him like water through a stone channel or light through unclean places.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Holy things received unworthily bring judgment, like the Eucharist to the unworthy or the morsel to Judas; baptism outside the Church is like the emperor's mark on a deserter, and Catholics should call the Donatists back with groaning love.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 11.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The births from free and slave women among the three patriarchs prefigure four kinds of Christians: good or bad born through good or bad ministers of baptism.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 13.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Like a faithless friend guarding an absent man's bride for himself, the heretic who claims his own baptizing makes baptism holy usurps the place of Christ, who alone baptizes.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 13.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Heretics have baptism, but as ministers, not owners; they have the form of the sacrament but, cut off from the vine, lack the root of love.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The fathers who ate manna without faith died, while Moses and others who understood it spiritually did not; so the sacrament differs from its power, and one should approach the altar with innocence and forgiveness.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Manna and the altar were sacraments differing in sign but alike in what they signified; the fathers ate the same spiritual food, and life comes from eating inwardly, in the heart.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Unless one eats Christ's flesh and drinks his blood one has no eternal life; this food signifies the fellowship of his body, the church of the predestined, and its sacrament, received daily or at intervals, brings life to some and destruction to others, while the reality brings life to all who share it.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · We must eat Christ's flesh and blood not only in the sacrament, as the wicked also do, but to share in his Spirit as members of his body, which on earth remains mixed with the wicked until the end.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 80.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Baptismal water cleanses only through the word of faith joined to it, which makes the sacrament a visible word and cleanses even infants.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 120.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The soldier 'opened' Christ's side, from which flowed blood and water, the sacraments of the Church, as Eve was formed from the side of the sleeping Adam.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The Holy Spirit is signified by living water, distinct from the visible water of baptism; heretics and those cut off by iniquity do not have him, so we must not drink from strange springs.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Love is 'from God' and 'is God' because the Holy Spirit, God from God, is poured out as love; the wicked may have the sacraments but cannot have love, which is the Spirit's own gift.
City of God 10.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine explains that visible sacrifices are signs of the invisible sacrifice of ourselves, and that holy angels and apostles refused the honor due to God.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The marriage bond survives separation as baptism survives excommunication; adultery is a death of the soul, not the death that frees a spouse to remarry.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The sacrament of marriage makes the bond last as long as both spouses live, so that marrying another after separation is adultery by the law of the gospel.