Chapter. 3.—3. But in what Cyprian adds, saying, "Nor yet because men once have erred must there be always error, since it rather befits wise and God-fearing men gladly and unhesitatingly to follow truth, when it is clearly laid before their eyes, than obstinately and persistently to fight for heretics against their brethren and their fellow-priests,"1473
| 1473 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. 23.
|
he is uttering the most
perfect truth; and the man who resists the manifest
truth is opposing himself rather than his neighbors. But, so
far as I can
judge, it is perfectly clear and certain, from the many arguments which I have already adduced, that the
baptism of
Christ cannot be invalidated even by the perversity of
heretics, when it is given or received among them. But, granting that it is not yet certain, at any rate no one who has considered what has been said,
even from a hostile point of view, will assert that the
question has been decided the other way. Therefore we are not striving against manifest
truth, but either, as I think, we are striving in behalf of what is clearly true, or, at any rate, as those may hold who think that the
question has not yet been solved, we are seeking for the
truth. And therefore, if the
truth be other than we think, yet we are receiving those
baptized by
heretics with the same
honesty of
heart with which those
received them whom, Cyprian supposed, in
virtue of their cleaving to the
unity of the
Church, to be capable of pardon. But if the
baptism of
Christ, as is indicated by the many arguments used above, can retain its
integrity amid any defect either of
life or
faith, whether on the part of those who seem to be within, and yet do not
belong to the members of the one
dove or on the part of those whose severance from her extends to being openly without, then those who sought its repetition in those
former days deserved the same pardon for their
charity in clinging to
unity, which Cyprian thought that those deserved for
charity of the same
kind whom he believed to have been admitted without
baptism. They therefore who, without any cause (since, as Cyprian himself shows, the bad cannot hurt the good in the
unity of the
Church), have
cut themselves off from the
charity which is shown in this
unity, have lost all place of pardon, and whilst they would incur
destruction by the very
crime of
schism, even though they did not rebaptize those who had been
baptized in the Catholic Church, of how bitter punishment are they deserving, who are either endeavoring to give to the Catholics who have it what Cyprian affirms that they themselves have not, or, as is clear from the facts of the case, are bringing as a charge against the Catholic Church that she has not what even they themselves possess?
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