Chapter 17.—22. "For as regards the fact that to preserve the figure of unity the Lord gave the power to Peter that whatsoever he should loose on earth should be loosed,"1306
it is clear that that
unity is also described as one
dove without fault.
1307
Can it be said, then, that to this same
dove belong all those
greedy ones, whose existence in the same Catholic
Church Cyprian himself so grievously
bewailed? For
birds of prey, I believe, cannot be called
doves, but rather hawks. How then did they
baptize those who used to plunder
estates by treacherous
deceit, and increase their
profits by compound
usury,
1308
| 1308 Cypr. de Lapsis c vi.
|
if
baptism is only given by that indivisible and
chaste and
perfect dove, that
unity which can only be understood as existing among the good? Is it possible that, by the prayers of the
saints who are
spiritual within the
Church, as though by the
frequent lamentations of the
dove, a great sacrament is dispensed, with a
secret administration of the
mercy of
God, so that their
sins also are loosed who are
baptized, not by the
dove but by the hawk, if they come to that
sacrament in the
peace of Catholic
unity? But if this be so, why should it not also be the case that, as each man comes from
heresy or
schism to the Catholic
peace, his
sins should be loosed through their prayers? But the
integrity of the sacrament is everywhere recognized, though it will not avail for the irrevocable
remission of
sins outside the
unity of the
Church. Nor will the prayers of the
saints, or, in other words, the groanings of that one
dove, be able to help one who is set in
heresy or
schism; just as they are not able to help one who is placed within the
Church, if by a
wicked life he himself retain the debts of his sins against himself, and that though he be baptized, not by this hawk, but by the pious ministry of the dove herself.
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