All Sins Are Put Away in Baptism

To take another point, I am told that one of his followers, Chrysogonus, finds fault with me for having said that in baptism all sins are put away; and for having said, in the case of the man who had married twice, that he had died and risen a new man in Christ; and further, that there were several such men who were bishops in the churches. I will give him a short answer. He and his friends have in their hands the letter of mine for which they take me to task. Let him answer it. Let him overthrow its reasoning with reasoning of his own, and prove my writings false by his writings. Why should he knit his brow, draw in and wrinkle up his nose, weigh out his hollow words, and put on before the common crowd a holiness that his conduct belies? [a]

Let me proclaim my principles in his ears once more: that the old Adam dies completely in the washing of baptism, and a new man then rises with Christ; that the earthly man perishes and the man from heaven is raised up. I say this not because I myself, by the mercy of Christ, have any personal stake in this question, but because I gave an answer to my brothers when they asked me for my opinion. I did not mean to prescribe for others what they should think right to believe, nor to overturn their decision by my opinion.

For we who lie hidden in our cells do not covet the office of bishop. We are not like some who, despising all humility, are eager to buy the episcopate with gold. Nor do we wish, with the minds of rebels, to put down the pontiff chosen by God. Nor do we show ourselves heretics by favoring heretics. As for money, we neither have it nor wish to have it. “If we have food and clothing, with these we are content.” And meanwhile we constantly chant the words that describe the man who will go up to the hill of the Lord: “He who does not lend his money at interest, nor take a bribe against the innocent: whoever does these things will not be moved for eternity.” We may add that whoever does the opposite will fall for eternity.