[Footnote 284: The disquisitions of Clement of Alexandria in Paedag. I, 6
(baptism and sonship) are very important, but he did not follow them up.
It is deserving of note that the positive effects of baptism were more
strongly emphasised in the East than in the West. But, on the other
hand, the conception is more uncertain in the former region.]
[Footnote 285: See Tertullian, de bapt. 7 ff.; Cypr., ep. 70. 2 ("ungi
quoque necesse est eum qui baptizatus est, ut accepto chrismate, i.e.,
unctione esse unctus dei et habere in se gratiam Christi possit"), 74. 5
etc. "Chrism" is already found in Tertullian as well as the laying on of
hands. The Roman Catholic bishop Cornelius in the notorious epistle to
Fabius (Euseb., H. E. VI. 43. 15), already traces the rites which
accompany baptism to an ecclesiastical canon (perhaps one from
Hippolytus' collection: see can. arab. 19). After relating that Novatian
in his illness had only received clinical baptism he writes: [Greek: ou
men oude ton loipon etuche, diaphugon ten noson, hon chre metalambanein
kata ton tes ekklesias kanona, tou te sphragisthenai hupo tou
episkopou.] It is also remarkable that one of the bishops who voted
about heretic baptism (Sentent. episcop., Cypr., opp. ed. Hartel I. p.
439) calls the laying on of hands a sacrament like baptism: "neque enim
spiritus sine aqua separatim operari potest nec aqua sine spiritu male
ergo sibi quidem interpretantur ut dicant, quod per manus impositionem
spiritum sanctum accipiant et sic recipiantur, cum manifestum sit
_utroque sacramento_ debere eos renasci in ecclesia catholica." Among
other particulars found in Tertullian's work on baptism (cc. I. 12 seq.)
it may moreover be seen that there were Christians about the year 200,
who questioned the indispensability of baptism to salvation (baptismus
non est necessarius, quibus fides satis est). The assumption that
martyrdom replaces baptism (Tertull., de bapt. 16; Origen), is in itself
a sufficient proof that the ideas of the "sacrament" were still
uncertain. As to the objection that Jesus himself had not baptised and
that the Apostles had not received Christian baptism see Tert., de bapt.
11, 12.]
[Footnote 286: In itself the performance of this rite seemed too simple
to those who sought eagerly for mysteries. See Tertull., de bapt. 2:
"Nihil adeo est quod obduret mentes hominum quam simplicitas divinorum
operum, quae in actu videtur, et magnificentia, quae in effecta
repromittitur, ut hinc quoque, quoniam tanta simplicitate, sine pompa,
sine apparatu novo aliquo, denique sine sumptu homo in aqua demissus et
inter pauca verba tinctus non multo vel nihilo mundior resurgit, eo
incredibilis existimetur consecutio aeternitatis. Mentior, si non e
contrario idolorum solemnia vel arcana de suggestu et apparatu deque
sumptu fidem at auctoritatem sibi exstruunt."]
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