Writings in Connection with the Donatist ControversyAugustine, of Hippo, Saint
ReligionChristian
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy
Augustine, of Hippo, Saint
Donatists; Donatists -- Controversial literature
7. To this we answer that the baptism of the Church exists even among
heretics, though they themselves are not within the Church; just as
the water of Paradise was found in the land of Egypt, though that land
was not itself in Paradise. We do not therefore admit heretics to
communion without baptism; and since they come with their waywardness
corrected, we receive not their sins, but the sacraments of Christ.
And, in respect of the remission of their sins, we say again here
exactly what we said above. And certainly, in regard of what he says
at the end of his judgment, declaring that he "is guilty of two errors
contrary to reason, seeing that on the one hand he does not cleanse
the heretics, and on the other he defiles the Christians," Cyprian
himself is the first and the most earnest in repudiating this with the
colleagues who agreed with him. For neither did he think that he was
defiled, when, on account of the bond of peace, he decreed that it was
right to hold communion with such men, when he used the words, "Judging
no one, nor removing any from the right of communion if he entertain a
different opinion." Or, if heretics defile the Church by being admitted
to communion without being baptized, then the whole Church has been
defiled in virtue of that custom which has been so often recorded here.
And just as those men call us _traditors_ because of our forefathers,
in whom they were able to prove nothing of the sort when they laid
the charge against them, so, if every man partakes of the character
of those with whom he may have held communion, all were then made
heretics. And if every one who asserts this is mad, it must be false
that Victor says, when he declares that "he who admits heretics to
communion without baptism, not only fails to cleanse the heretics, but
pollutes the Christians as well." Or if this be true, they were then
not admitted without baptism, but those men had the baptism of Christ,
although it was given and received among heretics, who were so admitted
in accordance with that custom which these very men acknowledged to
exist; and on the same grounds they are even now rightly admitted in
the same manner.
* * * * *
CHAP. V.--8. Aurelius of Utica[536] said: "Since the apostle says that
we ought not to be partakers with the sins of other men,[537] what else
does he do but make himself partaker with the sins of other men, who
holds communion with heretics without the baptism of the Church? And
therefore I pronounce my judgment that heretics should be baptized,
that they may receive remission of their sins, and so communion be
allowed to them."
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