The Council maintains ancient usage as to Baptism. 233 who are thought to be baptized by heretics and schismatics, whether, when they come to the one true Catholic Church, they ought to be baptized. Wherein, although ye yourselves also hold the Catholic rule in its truth and fixedness, yet since, out of our mutual affection, ye have thought good to consult us, we deliver not our sentence as though new, but, by a kindred harmony, we unite with you in that long since settled by our predecessors, and observed by us; thinking, namely, and holding for certain, that no one can be baptized without the Church, in that there is one Baptism appointed in the holy Church, and it is written, the Lord Himself speaking, They have forsaken Me, the Fountain of Jerem. living water, and hewed them out broken cisterns that 2, 13. can hold no water. Again, holy Scripture admonishes us, and says, Keep thee from the strange water, and drink not from a fountain of strange water. The water then must first be cleansed and sanctified by the priest, that it may be able, by Baptism therein, to wash away the sins of the baptized; for the Lord says by the prophet Ezekiel, Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be Ezek. cleansed from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will 26. regions of the afore-mentioned Bishops, and alone, according to the practice delivered down to them." (Can. 2. Bev. Pand. Can. t. i. p. 158.) It is prefixed to the Conc. Carth. as a Canon in the Synodic. (ib. p. 365.) Bp. F. says that "all the African Councils under Cyprian were then confirmed;" but the expression," and moreover those in Carthage," probably refers to the later Canons, chiefly against the Donatists, which occur in the Synodicon after those of the Council of Sardica, in which order they are mentioned in the Canon. On the difference between this and the Greek view of heretical Baptism, see Note G. on Tert. de Bapt. p. 289 sqq. Oxf. Tr. S. Aug. replies in great detail (de Bapt. c. Don. l. iii-vii.) to the arguments used by St. C. in this Ep., in Ep. 71-74. and the Council of Carthage, (see below). His answer is a varied application of the one principle, that if Baptism in the Church is valid although administered by evil men who are themselves not of the Church, though in it outwardly, and if to evil men within the Church, it becomes valid, on their subsequent penitence, without being c Prov. ix. fin. lxx. The same ad- d Sacerdos, i. e. the Bishop, whose office the consecration of the font especially was. see Bingham, xi. 10. LXX. 234 Questions in Baptism imply that it is in the Church only. EPIST. I cleanse you; a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. But how can he cleanse and A. 255. sanctify the water, who is himself unclean, and with whom the Holy Spirit is not? whereas the Lord says in Numbers, Numb. And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be 19, 22. unclean. Or how can he that baptizeth give remission of sins to another, who cannot himself free himself from his own sins, out of the Church? 2. Moreover, the very interrogatory' which is put in Baptism, is a witness of the truth. For when we say, "Dost thou believe in eternal life, and remission of sins through the holy Church?" we mean, that remission of sins is not given, except in the Church; but that, with heretics, where the Church is not, sins cannot be remitted. They, therefore, who claim that heretics can baptize, let them either change the interrogatory, or maintain the truth; unless indeed they ascribe a Church also to those who they contend have Baptism. 3. Anointed also must he of necessity be, who is baptized, that having received the chrism, that is, unction, he may be the anointed of God, and have within him the grace of Christ. Moreover, it is the Eucharist through which the baptized are anointed, the oil sanctified on the altar. But he cannot e S. Aug. answers throughout to this class of argument, As in the case of evil men "God vouchsafes to be present at His own Sacraments, hindered by no falsehood of men." (de Bapt. c. Donat. v. §. 28.) S. Aug. says, 1. c. in like way one See Ep. 69. §. 6. and Note P. on 485. There is considerable difficulty both as to the reading and construction. That of the old Edd. and Ed. Memm. and Bp. Fell has been retained, " Porro autem Eucharistia est unde baptizati unguntur, oleum in altari sanctificatum," with 6 Eng. Mss. 4 old Mss. ap. F. Bal. also names 6. Erasmus, (followed by Pam.) substituted from conjecture "et" for "est" and "sanctificatur" for "sanctificatum." "More over the Eucharist and the oil, wherewith the baptized are anointed is sanctified on the Altar. One should have at least expected "sanctificantur." Harduin, however, (Concil. t. i. p. 155.) says that this reading occurs in a Ms. of the Jesuits, and in others (if he was well informed) "optimæ notæ." Baluzius adopts from the one very ancient Ms. Corb. a reading which would remove all difficulty, "oleo in altari sanctificato." But had this been the original reading, it is not likely that the other, oleum sanctificatum, should have come instead, whereas it is a frequent source of corruption in Mss. that the scribes alter the grammatical forms of words, standing in connection with others at a distance, so as to conform them to those near them; thus probably here, unguntur oleo for oleum, altari sanctificato for sanctificatum, without observing the sense of the whole passage. The meaning, however, of these two readings is probably the same; that since the oil was conse Heretics cannot confirm nor celebrate the Eucharist. 235 sanctify the creature of oil, who has neither Altar nor Church. Whence neither can the spiritual unction be with heretics, since it is acknowledged that the oil cannot be sanctified nor the Eucharist celebrated among them. But we ought to know and remember that it is written, Let not the oil of a sinner Ps. 141, anoint my head; which the Holy Ghost forewarned in the 5. lxx. Psalms, lest any, quitting the track, and wandering out of the path of truth, be anointed by heretics and adversaries of Christ. Moreover, when baptized, what kind of prayer can a profane priest and a sinner offer? in that it is written, God heareth not a sinner; but if any man be a worshipper John of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth. 4. But who can give what himself hath not? or how can he perform spiritual acts, who hath himself lost the Holy Spirit'? Wherefore he is to crated on the Altar, it was ultimately through the Holy Eucharist that the baptized were anointed, since it was through It that the oil was hallowed. Rig. interprets that "the oil sanctified on the Altar was 'Eucharistia," "i.e. as he explains it, that "the oil, through thesus, i. e. the interpellation or invocation of the Name of God, was, through the praises and thanksgivings poured forth to God, blessed." He adds in proof, "Thus Matthew and Mark and John called the act of blessing Eucharistia, (eucharistiam dixerunt eulogiam,) and not in the institution of the Lord's Supper only, but also in the multiplying of the bread." [i.e. in Matt. 15, 36. 26, 37. Mark 8, 6. 14, 23. Luke 22, 17. 19. John 6, 11.23. suxagoria "give thanks" is used in sense as λoyiw "bless," Matt. 14, 19. 26, 26. Mark 6, 41. 8, 7. 14, 22. Luke 24, 30.] But this interchange of the verbs falls far short of entitling the Chrism by the name already appropriated to the Holy Communion, Eucharistia, (for Eucharisticum aliquid.) This seems, however, to have been the sense given by the Greek translators (Pandecta Canon. ed. Bever. t. i. p. 366.) For, although they omit this clause, they seem to render the following, "quando constet oleum sanctificari et Eucharistiam fieri apud illos omnino non posse," freely, "it is plain to us that the oil can by no means be sanctified by them is tuxaguria." Bp. F. reverses this construction apparently, as though the Holy the same be baptized and received, who Eucharist were called "an anointing," iSt. C. seems here inadvertently to If no 9, 31. LXX. A. 255. Levit. 236 Heretics called in Scripture Anti-Christs. EPIST. comes uninitiated to the Church, that within he may be hallowed through the holy; for it is written, Be ye holy, for I I am holy, saith the Lord. So that he who has been seduced 19, 2. into error and washed without, should, in the true Baptism of the Church, put off this very thing also'; that he, a man coming to God, while seeking for a priest, fell, through the deceit of error, upon one profane. But to acknowledge any case where they have baptized, is to approve the baptism of heretics and schismatics. 5. For neither can part of what they do be void and part avail. If he could baptize, he could also give the Holy Ghost. But if he cannot give the Holy Ghost, because, being set without, he is not with the Holy Ghost, neither can he baptize any that cometh; for that there is both one Baptism, and one Holy Ghost, and one Church, founded by Christ the Lord upon Peter", through an original and principle of unity; so it results, that since all among them is void and false, nothing that they have done ought to be approved by us. For what can be ratified and confirmed by God, which they do whom the Lord calls His enemies and adversaries, proLuke pounding in His Gospel, He that is not with Me, is against 11, 23. Me; and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth. And the blessed Apostle John also, keeping the commandments 1 John and precepts of the Lord, has written in his Epistle, Fe have heard that Antichrist shall come; even now are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. Whence we too ought to infer and consider, whether they who are the adversaries of the Lord, and are called Antichrists, can give the grace of Christ. Wherefore we who are with the Lord, 2, 18.19. "But what shall he do, if within also, he falls upon such as are unholy ?" S. Aug. 1. c. and so in the sequel that bad priests within the Church equally have not "this Spirit, equally are enemies of God." S. Aug. sums up, "Wherefore what C. writes to Quintus, and, with his colleagues, to Saturninus and others, well considered, is no ways to be brought against the consent of the whole Catholic Church, of which they joyed to be members, and from Heretics,not having grace and truth of Xt.impart nothing.237 and who hold the unity of the Lord, and according to this vouchsafement administer His priesthood in the Church, ought to repudiate and reject and account as profane, whatever His adversaries and Antichrists do; and to those who, coming from error and wickedness, acknowledge the true faith of the one Church, we should impart the reality of unity and faith by all the sacraments of Divine grace. We bid you, dearest brethren, ever heartily farewell. EPISTLE LXXI. Cyprian to Quintus», his brother, greeting. 1. LUCIAN, our fellow-presbyter, has reported to me, dearest brother, that you have expressed a desire that I should make known to you my opinion as to those who seem to have been baptized by heretics and schismatics. Whereon that you may know what very many of ourselves, the bishops, with our fellow-presbyters, decreed lately in council, I send you a copy of our Epistle. For I know not on what presumption some of our Colleagues are led to think, that such as have been washed among the heretics ought not to be baptized when they come to us; because, they say, there is One Baptism. For Baptism is therefore one, because the Church is one, and Baptism cannot be out of the Church. For seeing there cannot be two Baptisms, if heretics truly baptize, then they have the Baptism. And whoso by his own authority allows this privilege to them, yields and allows to them, that the enemy and adversary of Christ seem to have the power of washing, purifying, and sanctifying man. But we say, that such as come thence are not rebaptized, but baptized by us. For neither do they receive any thing there, where there is nothing; but they come to us, that here they may receive, where is all grace and truth; for both grace and truth are one. Some, however, of our Colleagues had rather give honour to heretics, than agree with us; and whilst, for the assertion of Bishop in Mauritania, Ep. 72. §. 2. |