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| To Januarius and Other Numidian Bishops, on Baptizing Heretics.
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Epistle LXIX.2807
| 2807
Oxford ed.: Ep. lxx. a.d.
255. |
To Januarius and Other Numidian
Bishops, on Baptizing Heretics.
Argument.—The Argument of This Letter and the Next is Found in a
Subsequent Epistle to Stephen;2808
“That What Heretics Use is Not
Baptism; And that None Among Them Can Receive Benefit by the Grace of
Christ, Who Oppose Christ; Has Been Lately Carefully Expressed in a
Letter Which Was Written on that Subject to Quintus, Our Colleague,
Established in Mauritania; As Also in a Letter Which Our Colleagues
Previously Wrote to the Bishops Presiding in Numidia; Of Both of Which
Letters I Have Subjoined Copies.”2809
| 2809
Mention is made of both letters in the Epistle to Jubaianus, and in the
one that follows this. |
1. Cyprian, Liberalis, Caldonius, Junius,
Primus, Cæcilius, Polycarp, Nicomedes, Felix, Marrutius,
Successus, Lucianus, Honoratus, Fortunatus, Victor, Donatus, Lucius,
Herculanus, Pomponius, Demetrius, Quintus, Saturninus, Januarius,
Marcus, another Saturninus, another Donatus, Rogatianus, Sedatus,
Tertullus, Hortensianus, still another Saturninus, Sattius, to their
brethren Januarius, Saturninus, Maximus, Victor, another Victor,
Cassius, Proculus, Modianus, Cittinus, Gargilius, Eutycianus, another
Gargilius, another Saturninus, Nemesianus, Nampulus, Antonianus,
Rogatianus, Honoratus, greeting. When we were together in
council, dearest brethren, we read your letter which you wrote to us
concerning those who seem to be baptized by heretics and schismatics,
(asking) whether, when they come to the Catholic Church, which is
one,2810
they ought to
be baptized. On which matter, although you yourselves hold
thereupon the truth and certainty of the Catholic rule, yet since you
have thought that of our mutual love we ought to be consulted, we put
forward our opinion, not as a new one,2811
| 2811 [This
is very much to be observed, at this outset of an important historical
controversy. Cyprian was not conscious of any innovation.
See Oxford Tertull., vol. i. p. 280, note.] | but we join with you in equal agreement,
in an opinion long since decreed by our predecessors, and observed by
us,—judging, namely, and holding it for certain that no one can
be baptized abroad outside the Church, since there is one baptism
appointed in the holy Church. And it is written in the words of
the Lord, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters,
and hewed them out broken cisterns, which can hold no
water.”2812
And
again, sacred Scripture warns, and says, “Keep thee from the
strange water, and drink not from a fountain of strange
water.”2813
It is
required, then, that the water should first be cleansed and sanctified
by the priest,2814
that it
may wash away by its baptism the sins of the man who is baptized;
because the Lord says by Ezekiel the prophet: “Then will I
sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be cleansed from all your
filthiness; and from all your idols will I cleanse you: a new
heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within
you.”2815
But how
can he cleanse and sanctify the water who is himself unclean, and in
whom the Holy Spirit is not? since the Lord says in the book of
Numbers, “And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be
unclean.”2816
Or how
can he who baptizes give to another remission of sins who himself,
being outside the Church, cannot put away his own sins?
2. But, moreover, the very interrogation
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
granted except in the Church, and that among heretics, where there is
no Church, sins cannot be put away. Therefore they who assert
that heretics can baptize, must either change the interrogation or
maintain the truth; unless indeed they attribute a church also to those
who, they contend, have baptism. It is also necessary that he
should be anointed who is baptized; so that, having received the
chrism,2817
| 2817
[i.e., confirmation, called chrism, or unction,
from 1 John ii.
27 and other Scriptures.] | that is, the
anointing, he may be anointed of God, and have in him the grace of
Christ. Further, it is the Eucharist whence the baptized are
anointed with the oil sanctified on the altar.2818
| 2818 An
authorized reading here is, “But further, the Eucharist and the
oil, whence the baptized are anointed, are sanctified on the
altar.” | But he cannot sanctify the
creature of oil,2819
| 2819
[Material oil was not originally used in baptism or confirmation, but
was admitted ceremonially, in divers rites, at an early period.
Mark vi. 13; Jas. v.
14. Bunsen,
Hippol., vol. ii. p. 322, note 1.] | who has
neither an altar nor a church; whence also there can be no spiritual
anointing among heretics, since it is manifest that the oil cannot be
sanctified nor the Eucharist celebrated at all among them. But we
ought to know and remember that it is written, “Let not the oil
of a sinner anoint my head,”2820
which the Holy Spirit before forewarned
in the Psalms, lest any one going out of the way and wandering from the
path of truth should be anointed by heretics and adversaries of
Christ. Besides, what prayer can a priest who is impious and a
sinner offer for a baptized person? since it is written, “God
heareth not a sinner; but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth
His will, him He heareth.”2821
Who, moreover, can give what he
himself has not? or how can he discharge spiritual functions who
himself has lost the Holy Spirit? And therefore he must be
baptized and renewed who comes untrained to the Church, that he may be
sanctified within by those who are holy, since it is written, “Be
ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord.”2822
So that he who has been seduced
into error, and baptized2823
outside of the Church, should
lay aside even this very thing in the true and ecclesiastical baptism,
viz., that he a man coming to God, while he seeks for a priest, fell by
the deceit of error upon a profane one.
3. But it is to approve the baptism of
heretics and schismatics, to admit that they have truly baptized.
For therein a part cannot be void, and part be valid. If one
could baptize, he could also give the Holy Spirit. But if he
cannot give the Holy Spirit, because he that is appointed without is
not endowed with the Holy Spirit, he cannot baptize those who come;
since both baptism is one and the Holy Spirit is one, and the Church
founded by Christ the Lord upon Peter, by a source and principle of
unity,2824
| 2824
[See Cave, Prim. Christianity, p. 365.] | is one
also. Hence it results, that since with them all things are
futile and false, nothing of that which they have done ought to be
approved by us. For what can be ratified and established by God
which is done by them whom the Lord calls His enemies and adversaries?
setting forth in His Gospel, “He that is not with me is against
me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth.”2825
And the
blessed Apostle John also, keeping the commandments and precepts of the
Lord, has laid it down in his epistle, and said, “Ye have heard
that antichrist shall come: even now there are many Antichrists;
whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us,
but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, no doubt they
would have continued with us.”2826
Whence we also ought to gather
and consider whether they who are the Lord’s adversaries, and are
called antichrists, can give the grace of Christ. Wherefore we
who are with the Lord, and maintain the unity of the Lord, and
according to His condescension administer His priesthood in the Church,
ought to repudiate and reject and regard as profane whatever His
adversaries and the antichrists do; and to those who, coming out of
error and wickedness, acknowledge the true faith of the one Church,
we should give the
truth both of unity and faith, by means of all the sacraments of divine
grace.2827
| 2827
[The vigour of Cyprian’s logic must be conceded. The
discussion will show, as it proceeds, on what grounds it failed to
enlist universal support. It resembled the Easter question, vol.
i. p. 569.] | We bid
you, dearest brethren, ever heartily farewell.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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