Chapter 39.—76. Pusillus of Lamasba1859
| 1859 Lamasba was in ecclesiastical province of Numidia.
|
said: "I believe that
baptism is not unto
salvation except within the Catholic
Church. Whatsoever is without the Catholic
Church is mere pretense."
1860
| 1860 Conc. Carth. sec. 75.
|
77. This indeed is true, that "baptism is not unto salvation except within the Catholic Church." For in itself it can indeed exist outside the Catholic Church as well; but there it is not unto salvation, because there it does not work salvation; just as that sweet savor of Christ is certainly not unto salvation in them that perish,1861
though from a fault not in itself, but in them. But "whatsoever is without the Catholic
Church is mere pretense," yet only in so
far as it is not Catholic. But there may be something Catholic outside the Catholic
Church, just as the name of
Christ could exist outside the
congregation of
Christ, in which name he who did not follow with the
disciples was casting out
devils.
1862
For there may be pretense also within the Catholic
Church, as is unquestionable in the case of those "who
renounce the world in words and not in deeds," and yet the pretense is not Catholic. As, therefore, there is in the Catholic Church something which is not Catholic, so there may be something which is Catholic outside the Catholic Church.
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