Chapter 1.—1. In the treatise which we wrote against the published epistle of Parmenianus1145
| 1145 Parmenianus was successor to Donatus the Great in the See of Carthage, circ. 350 A.D., and died circ. 392 A.D.
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to Tichonius,
1146
| 1146 Tichonius, who flourished circ. 380, was the leader of a reformatory movement in Donatism, which Parmenianus opposed, in the writing here alluded to. The reformer was excommunicated. He had the clearest ideas concerning the church and concerning interpretation of any of the ancients.
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we
promised that at some future time we would treat the
question of
baptism more thoroughly;
1147
| 1147 Contra Epist. Parmen. ii. 14, also written circ. 400 A.D.
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and indeed, even if we had not made this
promise, we are not unmindful that this is a
debt fairly due from us to the prayers of our
brethren. Wherefore in this
treatise we have undertaken, with the help of
God, not only to refute the objections which the Donatists have been wont to urge against us in this matter, but also to advance what
God may enable us to say in respect of the
authority of the
blessed martyr Cyprian, which they endeavor to use as a prop, to prevent
their perversity from falling before the attacks of
truth.
1148
And this we propose to do, in order that all whose
judgment is not
blinded by party spirit may understand that, so
far from Cyprian’s
authority being in their
favor, it tends directly to their refutation and discomfiture.
2. In the treatise above mentioned, it has already been said that the grace of baptism can be conferred outside the Catholic communion, just as it can be also there retained. But no one of the Donatists themselves denies that even apostates retain the grace of baptism; for when they return within the pale of the Church, and are converted through repentance, it is never given to them a second time, and so it is ruled that it never could have been
lost. So those, too, who in the sacrilege of schism depart from the communion of the Church, certainly retain the grace of baptism, which they received before their departure, seeing that, in case of their return, it is not again conferred on them whence it is proved, that what they had received while within the unity of the Church, they could not have lost in their separation. But if it can be retained outside, why may it not also be given there? If you say, "It is not rightly given without
the pale;" we answer, "As it is not rightly retained, and yet is in some sense retained, so it is not indeed rightly given, but yet it is given." But as, by reconciliation to unity, that begins to be profitably possessed which was possessed to no profit in exclusion from unity, so, by the same reconciliation, that begins to be profitable which without it was given to no profit. Yet it cannot be allowed that it should be said that that was not given which was given, nor that any one should
reproach a man with not having given this, while confessing that he had given what he had himself received. For the sacrament of baptism is what the person possesses who is baptized; and the sacrament of conferring baptism is what he possesses who is ordained. And as the baptized person, if he depart from the unity of the Church, does not thereby lose the sacrament of baptism, so also he who is ordained, if he depart from the unity of the Church, does not lose the sacrament of conferring
baptism. For neither sacrament may be wronged. If a sacrament necessarily becomes void in the case of the wicked, both must become void; if it remain valid with the wicked, this must be so with both. If, therefore, the baptism be acknowledged which he could not lose who severed himself from the unity of the Church, that baptism must also be acknowledged which was administered by one who by his secession had not lost the sacrament of conferring baptism. For as those who return to the Church,
if they had been baptized before their secession, are not rebaptized, so those who return, having been ordained before their secession, are certainly not ordained again; but either they again exercise their former ministry, if the interests of the Church require it, or if they do not exercise it, at any rate they retain the sacrament of their ordination; and hence it is, that when hands are laid on them,1149
| 1149 Comp. v. 23, and iii. 16, note.
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to mark their reconciliation, they are not ranked with the laity. For Felicianus,
1150
| 1150 Felicianus, bishop of Musti, headed the revolt against Primianus, the successor of Parmenianus in the Carthaginian See. Listening to the complaint of the deacon Maximianus, who had been deposed by Primianus, a synod was convened in 393 at Cabarsussis, which ordained Maximianus as bishop of Carthage. Hence the title Maximianistæ. Primianus, in 394, at the council of Bagai, was recognized by 310 bishops. The larger fraction, according to the Catholics, was
subsequently forced into reunion. Prætextatus, bp. of Assuris, was also one of the leaders in this separation.
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when he separated himself from them with Maximianus, was not held by the Donatists themselves to have lost either the sacrament of
baptism or the sacrament of conferring
baptism. For now he is a recognized member of their own body, in
company with those very men whom he
baptized while he was separated from them in the
schism of Maximianus. And so others could receive from them, whilst they still had not joined our society, what they themselves had not lost by severance
from our society. And hence it is clear that they are
guilty of impiety who endeavor to rebaptize those who are in Catholic
unity; and we act rightly who do not
dare to repudiate
God’s sacraments, even when
administered in
schism. For in all points in which they think with us, they also are in
communion with us, and only are severed from us in those points in which they dissent from us. For contact and disunion are not to be measured by different
laws in the case of material or
spiritual
affinities. For as union of bodies arises from continuity of position, so in the
agreement of wills there is a
kind of contact between
souls. If, therefore, a man who has severed himself from
unity wishes to do anything different from that which had been impressed on him while in the
state of
unity, in this point he does sever himself, and is no longer a part of the united whole; but wherever he desires to
conduct himself as is customary in the state of unity, in which he himself learned and
received the lessons which he seeks to follow, in these points he remains a member, and is united to the corporate whole.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
