Epistle LXX.717    Oxford ed.: Ep. lxxi. a.d. 255.

To Quintus, Concerning the Baptism of Heretics.

Argument.—An Answer is Given to Quintus a Bishop in Mauritania, Who Has Asked Advice Concerning the Baptism of Heretics.

1. Cyprian to Quintus his brother, greeting. Lucian, our co-presbyter, has reported to me, dearest brother, that you have wished me to declare to you what I think concerning those who seem to have been baptized by heretics and schismatics; of which matter, that you may know what several of us fellow-bishops, with the brother presbyters who were present, lately determined in council, I have sent you a copy of the same epistle. For I know not by what presumption some of our colleagues718    [Note this, at the outset: it is presumption in his colleague Stephen to act otherwise than as a general consent of the provinces seems to rule.] are led to think that they who have been dipped by heretics ought not to be baptized when they come to us, for the reason that they say that there is one baptism which indeed is therefore one, because the Church is one, and there cannot be any baptism out of the Church.719    [Otherwise, “which doubtless is one in the Catholic Church; and if this Church be one, baptism cannot exist outside the Church.” His theory of unity underlies all our author’s conduct.] For since there cannot be two baptisms, if heretics truly baptize, they themselves have this baptism. And he who of his own authority grants this advantage to them yields and consents to them, that the enemy and adversary of Christ should seem to have the power of washing, and purifying, and sanctifying a man. But we say that those who come thence are not re-baptized among us, but are baptized. For indeed they do not receive anything there, where there is nothing; but they come to us, that here they may receive where there is both grace and all truth, because both grace and truth are one. But again some of our colleagues720    [Note this, at the outset: it is presumption in his colleague Stephen to act otherwise than as a general consent of the provinces seems to rule.] would rather give honour to heretics than agree with us; and while by the assertion of one baptism they are unwilling to baptize those that come, they thus either themselves make two baptisms in saying that there is a baptism among heretics; or certainly, which is a matter of more importance, they strive to set before and prefer the sordid and profane washing of heretics to the true and only and legitimate baptism of the Catholic Church, not considering that it is written, “He who is baptized by one dead, what availeth his washing?”721    Ecclus. xxxiv. 25. Now it is manifest that they who are not in the Church of Christ are reckoned among the dead; and another cannot be made alive by him who himself is not alive, since there is one Church which, having attained the grace of eternal life, both lives for ever and quickens the people of God.

2. And they say that in this matter they follow ancient custom;722    [The local custom of the Roman Province seems to have justified Stephen’s local practice. It is a case similar to that of Polycarp and Anicetus disturbed by Victor, vol. i. 310, and 312.] although among the ancients these were as yet the first beginnings of heresy and schisms, so that those were involved in them who departed from the Church, having first been baptized therein; and these, therefore, when they returned to the Church and repented, it was not necessary to baptize. Which also we observe in the present day, that it is sufficient to lay hands for repentance upon those who are known to have been baptized in the Church, and have gone over from us to the heretics, if, subsequently acknowledging their sin and putting away their error, they return to the truth and to their parent; so that, because it had been a sheep, the Shepherd may receive into His fold the estranged and vagrant sheep. But if he who comes from the heretics has not previously been baptized in the Church, but comes as a stranger and entirely profane, he must be baptized, that he may become a sheep, because in the holy Church is the one water which makes sheep. And therefore, because there can be nothing common to falsehood and truth, to darkness and light, to death and immortality, to Antichrist and Christ, we ought by all means to maintain the unity of the Catholic Church, and not to give way to the enemies of faith and truth in any respect.

3. Neither must we prescribe this from custom, but overcome opposite custom by reason. For neither did Peter, whom first the Lord chose, and upon whom He built His Church, when Paul disputed with him afterwards about circumcision, claim anything to himself insolently, nor arrogantly assume anything; so as to say that he held the primacy,723    [But a primacy involves no supremacy. All the Gallicans, with Bossuet, insist on this point. Cyprian now adopts, as his rule, St. Paul’s example, Gal. ii. 5.] and that he ought rather to be obeyed by novices and those lately come.724    [Here, then, is the whole of Cyprian’s idea as to Peter, in a nutshell.] Nor did he despise Paul because he had previously been a persecutor of the Church, but admitted the counsel of truth, and easily yielded to the lawful reason which Paul asserted, furnishing thus an illustration to us both of concord and of patience, that we should not obstinately love our own opinions, but should rather adopt as our own those which at any time are usefully and wholesomely suggested by our brethren and colleagues, if they be true and lawful. Paul, moreover, looking forward to this, and consulting faithfully for concord and peace, has laid down in his epistle this rule: “Moreover, let the prophets speak two or three, and let the rest judge. But if anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace.”725    1 Cor. xiv. 29, 30. [P. 379, note 4, infra.] In which place he has taught and shown that many things are revealed to individuals for the better, and that each one ought not obstinately to contend for that which he had once imbibed and held; but if anything has appeared better and more useful, he should gladly embrace it. For we are not overcome when better things are presented to us, but we are instructed, especially in those matters which pertain to the unity of the Church and the truth of our hope and faith; so that we, priests of God and prelates of His Church, by His condescension, should know that remission of sins cannot be given save in the Church, nor can the adversaries of Christ claim to themselves anything belonging to His grace.

4. Which thing, indeed, Agrippinus also, a man of worthy memory, with his other fellow-bishops, who at that time governed the Lord’s Church in the province of Africa and Numidia, decreed, and by the well-weighed examination of the common council established: whose opinion, as being both religious and lawful and salutary, and in harmony with the Catholic faith and Church, we also have followed.726    [With Cyprian it was an adjudged case. Stephen not only had no authority in the case, but, save by courtesy, even his primacy was confined to his own province.] And that you may know what kind of letters we have written on this subject, I have transmitted for our mutual love a copy of them, as well for your own information as for that of our fellow-bishops who are in those parts. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell.

EPISTOLA LXXI. (Erasm. ad Quintinum, p. 337. Pamel., Rigalt., Baluz., Oxon. Lips. LXXI Paris., LXX.)AD QUINTUM, DE HAERETICIS BAPTIZANDIS.

ARGUMENTUM.---Respondetur Quinto, in Mauritania episcopo, consulenti de haereticis baptizandis.

I. Cyprianus Quinto fratri salutem. Retulit ad me, frater charissime, Lucianus compresbyter noster te desiderasse ut significaremus tibi quid sentiamus de his qui apud haereticos et schismaticos baptizati videntur. De qua re quid nuper in concilio plurimi coepiscopi, cum compresbyteris qui aderant, censuerimus 0409A ut scires, ejusdem epistolae exemplum tibi misi. Nescio etenim qua praesumptione ducuntur quidam de collegis nostris, ut putent eos qui apud haereticos tincti sunt, quando ad nos venerint, baptizari non oportere, eo quod dicant unum Baptisma esse: quod unum scilicet ideo est, quia Ecclesia una est, et esse Baptisma extra Ecclesiam non potest. Nam, cum duo baptismata esse non possint, si haeretici vere baptizant, ipsi habent baptisma. Et qui hoc illis patrocinium de auctoritate sua praestat, cedit illis et consentit ut hostis et adversarius Christi habere videatur abluendi et purificandi et sanctificandi hominis potestatem. Nos autem dicimus eos qui inde veniunt non rebaptizari apud nos, sed baptizari. Neque enim accipiunt illic aliquid 0409B ubi nihil est; sed veniunt ad nos ut hic accipiant ubi et gratia et veritas omnis est, quia et gratia et veritas una est. Porro autem quidam de collegis nostris malunt haereticis honorem dare quam nobis consentire; et dum, unius Baptismi asseveratione, baptizare venientes nolunt, sic aut duo baptismata ipsi faciunt, dum et apud haereticos baptisma esse dicunt, aut certe, quod est gravius, haereticorum sordidam et profanam tinctionem vero et unico et legitimo Ecclesiae catholicae Baptismo praeponere et praeferre contendunt, non considerantes scriptum esse: Qui baptizatur a mortuo, quid proficit lavatio ejus (Eccli. XXXIV, 30)? Manifestum est autem eos qui non sunt in Ecclesia Christi inter mortuos computari, nec posse ab eo vivificari alterum qui 0409C ipse non vivat, quando una sit Ecclesia, quae vitae aeternae gratiam consecuta et vivit in aeternum et vivificat Dei populum.

II. Et dicunt se in hoc veterem consuetudinem sequi, quando apud veteres haereseos et schismatum prima adhuc fuerint initia, ut hi illic essent qui de Ecclesia recedebant, et hic baptizati prius fuerant; 0410A quos tunc tamen, ad Ecclesiam revertentes et poenitentiam agentes, necesse non erat baptizare. Quod nos quoque hodie observamus, ut quos constet hic baptizatos esse et a nobis ad haereticos transiisse, si postmodum, peccato suo cognito et errore digesto, ad veritatem et matricem redeant, satis sit in poenitentiam manum imponere; ut quia ovis jam fuerat , hanc ovem abalienatam et errabundam in ovile suum pastor recipiat. Si autem qui ab haereticis venit, baptizatus in Ecclesia prius non fuit, sed alienus in totum et profanus venit, baptizandus est ut ovis fiat, quia una est aqua in Ecclesia sancta quae oves faciat. Et idcirco, quia nihil potest esse commune mendacio et veritati, tenebris et luci, morti et immortalitati, antichristo et Christo, 0410B per omnia debemus Ecclesiae catholicae unitatem tenere, nec in aliquo fidei et veritatis hostibus cedere.

III. Non est autem de consuetudine praescribendum, sed ratione vincendum. Nam nec Petrus, quem primum Dominus elegit, et super quem aedificavit Ecclesiam suam, cum secum Paulus de circumcisione postmodum disceptaret, vindicavit sibi aliquid insolenter aut arroganter assumpsit, ut diceret se primatum tenere et obtemperari a novellis et posteris sibi potius oportere. Nec despexit Paulum quod Ecclesiae prius persecutor fuisset, sed consilium veritatis admisit, et rationi legitimae quam Paulus vindicabat facile consensit (Gal. II, 14); documentum scilicet nobis et concordiae et patientiae tribuens, ut non pertinaciter nostra amemus, sed quae aliquando 0410C a fratribus et collegis nostris utiliter et salubriter suggeruntur, si sint vera et legitima, ipsa potius nostra ducamus . Cui rei Paulus quoque prospiciens, et concordiae et paci fideliter consulens, in epistola sua posuit dicens: Prophetae autem duo aut tres loquantur, et caeteri examinent. Si autem alii revelatum fuerit sedenti, ille prior taceat (I Cor. XIV, 29, 30). 0411A Qua in parte docuit et ostendit multa singulis in melius revelari, et debere unumquemque, non pro eo quod semel imbiberat et tenebat pertinaciter congredi, sed, si quid melius et utilius extiterit, libenter amplecti. Non enim vincimur quando offeruntur nobis meliora, sed instruimur, maxime in his quae ad Ecclesiae unitatem pertinent et spei ac fidei nostrae veritatem; ut nos sacerdotes Dei, et Ecclesiae ejus de ipsius dignatione praepositi sciamus remissam peccatorum non nisi in Ecclesia dari posse, nec posse adversarios Christi quidquam sibi circa ejus gratiam vindicare.

IV. Quod quidem et Agrippinus, bonae memoriae vir, cum caeteris coepiscopis suis qui illo in tempore in provincia Africa et Numidia Ecclesiam Domini gubernabant, statuit et librato consilii communis 0411B examine firmavit. Quorum sententiam et religiosam et legitimam et salutarem, fidei et Ecclesiae catholicae congruentem, nos etiam secuti sumus. Et quales super hac re litteras fecerimus ut scires, exemplum earum ad notitiam tam tuam quam coepiscoporum nostrorum qui illic sunt, pro communi dilectione, transmisimus. Opto te, frater charissime, semper bene valere.