Chapter 8.—11. Cæcilius of Bilta1601
| 1601 Bilta (Biltha, Vilta) was in Africa Proconsularis. This Cæcilius is probably the same as the one addressed by Cyprian in Ep. lxiii., and who unites with Cyprian and other bishops in letters addressed to others. Epp. iv. (to Pomponius), lvii., lxvii., lxx.
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said: "I know of one
baptism in the one
Church and of none outside the
Church. The one will be where there is true
hope and sure
faith. For so it is written, ‘One
faith, one
hope, one
baptism.’
1602
Not among
heretics, where there is no
hope and a false
faith; where all things are done by a
lie; where one
possessed of a
devil exorcises; the
question of the sacrament is asked by one from whose mouth and words proceeds a cancer; the faithless gives
faith; the
guilty gives pardon for
sins and
Antichrist baptizes in the name of
Christ; one accursed of
God blesses; the dead
promises life; the unpeaceful gives
peace; the blasphemer calls on
God; the
profane administers the
priesthood; the sacrilegious sets up the
altar. To all this is added this further
evil that the
servant of the
devil dares to celebrate the eucharist. If this be not so, let those who stand by them
prove that all of it is false concerning
heretics. See the
kind of things to which the
Church is compelled to assent, being forced to communicate without
baptism or the
remission of
sins. This,
brethren, we ought to
shun and
avoid, separating ourselves from so great a
sin, and holding to the one
baptism which is granted to the
Church alone."
1603
| 1603 Conc. Carth. sec. 1.
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12. To this I answer, that all who even within the Church profess that they know God, but deny Him in their deeds, such as are the covetous and envious, and those who, because they hate their brethren, are pronounced to be murderers, not on my testimony, but on that of the holy Apostle John,1604
—all these are both devoid of
hope, because they have a bad conscience; and are faithless, because they do not do what they have vowed to
God; and
liars, because they make false professions; and
possessed of
devils, because they give place in their
heart to the
devil and his
angels; and their words
work corruption, since they
corrupt good manners by
evil communications; and they are infidels, because they
laugh at the
threats which
God utters against such men; and accursed,
because they
live wickedly; and
antichrists, because their lives are opposed to
Christ; and
cursed of
God, since holy Scripture everywhere calls down
curses on such men; and dead, because they are without the
life of
righteousness; and unpeaceful, because by their contrary
deeds they are at variance with
God’s behests; and blasphemous, because by their abandoned acts despite is done to the name of
Christian; and
profane, because they are spiritually shut out from that inner
sanctuary of
God;
and sacrilegious, because by their
evil life they
defile the
temple of
God within themselves; and
servants of the
devil, because they do service to
fraud and
covetousness, which is
idolatry. That of such a
kind are some, nay very many, even within the
Church, is testified both by
Paul the
apostle and by Cyprian the
bishop. Why, then, do they
baptize? Why also are some, who "
renounce the
world in words and not in
deeds,"
baptized without being
converted from a
life like this, and not
rebaptized when they are
converted? And as to what he says with such indignation, "See the
kind of things to which the
Church is compelled to assent, being forced to communicate without
baptism or the
remission of
sins," he could never have used such expressions had there not been the other
bishops who elsewhere forced men to such things. Whence also it is shown that at that time those men held the truer views who did not depart from the primitive
custom, which is since confirmed by the
consent of a general
Council.
1605
| 1605 Concilii universitate.
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But what does he mean by adding, "This,
brethren, we ought to
shun and avoid, separating ourselves from so great a sin?" For if he means that he is not to do nor to approve of this, that is another matter; but if he means to condemn and sever from him those that hold the contrary opinion, he is setting himself against the earlier words of Cyprian, "Judging no man, nor depriving any of the right of communion if he differ from us."
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