Chapter 7.—10. Wherefore, then, have ye severed yourselves? If there is any sense left in you, you must surely see that you can find no possible answer to these arguments. "We are not left," they say, "so utterly without resource, but that we can still answer, It is our will. ‘Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.’"1234
They do not understand that this was said to men who were wishing to
judge, not of open facts, but of the
hearts of other men. For how does the
apostle himself come to say so much about the
sins of
schisms and
heresies? Or how comes that verse in the Psalms, "If of a
truth ye
love justice,
judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?"
1235
| 1235 Ps. lviii. 1. Aug.: Si vere justitiam diligitis, recte judicate filii hominum. Cp. Hieron.: Si vere utique justitiam loquimini, recta judicate filii hominum.
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But why does the
Lord Himself say, "
Judge not according to the
appearance, but
judge righteous judgment,"
1236
if we may not
judge any man? Lastly, why, in the case of those traditors, whom they have judged unrighteously, have they themselves ventured to pass any judgments at all on another man’s
servants? To their own master they were standing or falling. Or why, in the case of the recent followers of Maximianus, have they not hesitated to bring forward the
judgment delivered with the
infallible voice, as they aver, of a plenary
Council, in such terms as to compare them with
those first schismatics whom the
earth swallowed up alive? And yet some of them, as they cannot deny, they either
condemned though
innocent, or received back again in their guilt. But when a
truth is urged which they cannot gainsay, they mutter a truly wholesome murmuring: "It is our will: ‘Who art thou that judgest another man’s
servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth.’" But when a
weak sheep is espied in the
desert, and the
pastor who should reclaim it to the fold is nowhere to
be seen, then there is setting of teeth, and
breaking of the
weak neck: "Thou wouldst be a good man, wert thou not a traditor.
Consult the welfare of thy
soul; be a
Christian." What unconscionable madness! When it is said to a
Christian, "Be a
Christian," what other lesson is taught,
save a denial that he is a
Christian? Was it not the same lesson which those persecutors of the
Christians wished to
teach, by resisting whom the
crown of martyrdom was
gained? Or must we even look on
crime
as lighter when
committed with threatening of the
sword than with treachery of the
tongue?
11. Answer me this, ye ravening wolves, who, seeking to be clad in sheep’s clothing,1237
think that the letters of the
blessed Cyprian are in your
favor. Did the
sacrilege of schismatics
defile Cyprian, or did it not? If it did, the
Church perished from that instant, and there remained no source from which ye might spring. If it did not, then by what offense on the part of others can the
guiltless possibly be
defiled, if the
sacrilege of
schism cannot
defile them? Wherefore, then, have ye severed yourselves? Wherefore, while shunning the lighter offenses,
which are inventions of your own, have ye
committed the heaviest offense of all, the
sacrilege of
schism? Will ye now perchance confess that those men were no longer schismatics or
heretics who had been
baptized without the
communion of the
Church, or in some
heresy or
schism, because by coming over to the
Church, and renouncing their former errors, they had ceased to be what formerly they were? How then was it, that though they were not
baptized, their
sins remained not on their heads? Was
it that the
baptism was
Christ’s, but that it could not
profit them without the
communion of the
Church; yet when they came over, and, renouncing their past error, were received into the
communion of the
Church by the laying on of
hands, then, being now rooted and founded in
charity, without which all other things are profitless, they began to receive
profit for the
remission of
sins and the
sanctification of their lives from that sacrament, which, while without the pale of the
Church, they
possessed in
vain?
12. Cease, then, to bring forward against us the authority of Cyprian in favor of repeating baptism, but cling with us to the example of Cyprian for the preservation of unity. For this question of baptism had not been as yet completely worked out, but yet the Church observed the most wholesome custom of correcting what was wrong, not repeating what was already given, even in the case of schismatics and heretics: she healed the wounded part, but did not meddle
with what was whole. And this custom, coming, I suppose, from apostolical tradition (like many other things which are held to have been handed down under their actual sanction, because they are preserved throughout the whole Church, though they are not found either in their letters, or in the Councils of their successors),—this most wholesome custom, I say, according to the holy Cyprian, began to be what is called amended by his predecessor Agrippinus.1238
| 1238 Agrippinus was probably the second (some place him still earlier) bishop before Cyprian. He convened the council of 70 (disputed date), who were the first to take action in favor of rebaptism. Cp. Cypr. Ep. lxxi. 4, bonæ memoriæ vir. Cp. lxxiii. 3.
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But, according to the teaching which springs from a more careful investigation into the
truth, which, after great doubt and fluctuation, was brought at last to the decision of a plenary
Council, we ought to believe that it rather began to be
corrupted than to receive correction at the
hands of Agrippinus. Accordingly, when so great a
question forced itself upon him, and it was difficult to decide the point, whether
remission of
sins and man’s
spiritual regeneration could
take place among
heretics or schismatics, and the
authority of Agrippinus was there to
guide him, with that of some few men who shared in his misapprehension of this
question, having preferred attempting something new to maintaining a
custom which they did not understand how to defend; under these circumstances considerations of probability forced themselves into the eyes of his soul, and barred the way to the thorough investigation of the truth.
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