No One Gives What He Lacks

Cyprian, Liberalis, Caldonius, Junius, Primus, Caecilius, Polycarp, Nicomedes, Felix, Marrutius, Successus, Lucianus, Honoratus, Fortunatus, Victor, Donatus, Lucius, Herculanus, Pomponius, Demetrius, Quintus, Saturninus, Januarius, Marcus, another Saturninus, another Donatus, Rogatianus, Sedatus, Tertullus, Hortensianus, still another Saturninus, and Sattius, to their brothers Januarius, Saturninus, Maximus, Victor, another Victor, Cassius, Proculus, Modianus, Cittinus, Gargilius, Eutycianus, another Gargilius, another Saturninus, Nemesianus, Nampulus, Antonianus, Rogatianus, and Honoratus: greetings. [a]

When we were together in council, dearest brothers, we read the letter you wrote to us about people who appear to have been baptized by heretics and schismatics — asking whether, when they come to the universal church, which is one, they ought to be baptized. On that point you already hold the truth and the certainty of the universal church’s rule; but since you thought that the love we have for one another made it right to consult us, we put forward our judgment, and not as a new one. We are joining you in full agreement with a judgment settled long ago by those who came before us and kept by us ever since: we hold it for certain that no one can be baptized abroad, outside the church, since there is one baptism, and it has been appointed in the holy church. And it is written in the words of the Lord: “They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and have dug themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.” And again, sacred Scripture warns and says, “Keep away from strange water, and do not drink from a spring of strange water.”

So the water must first be cleansed and made holy by the priest, if it is to wash away in its baptism the sins of the person being baptized. For the Lord says through the prophet Ezekiel: “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be cleansed from all your filthiness; and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart as well, and I will put a new spirit within you.” But how can a man cleanse and make holy the water when he is himself unclean, and the Holy Spirit is not in him? For the Lord says in the book of Numbers: “And whatever the unclean person touches will be unclean.” Or how can the man who baptizes give another the forgiveness of sins, when he himself, being outside the church, cannot put away his own?

And the very question put at baptism is a witness to the truth. When we say, “Do you believe in eternal life and the forgiveness of sins through the holy church?” we mean that forgiveness of sins is granted nowhere except in the church, and that among heretics, where there is no church, sins cannot be put away. So those who insist that heretics can baptize must either change the question or hold to the truth — unless, of course, they mean to grant a church as well to the people they claim have baptism.

The one who is baptized must also be anointed, so that having received the chrism — that is, the anointing — he may be anointed of God and have in him the grace of Christ. And it is from the thanksgiving that the baptized are anointed with the oil made holy on the altar. But a man who has neither altar nor church cannot make holy the oil that God made. So there can be no anointing of the Spirit among heretics either, since it is plain that among them the oil cannot be made holy and the thanksgiving cannot be kept at all. But we ought to know and remember what is written: “Let no sinner’s oil anoint my head.” The Holy Spirit gave that warning beforehand in the Psalms, so that no one who has gone off the road and wandered from the path of truth should be anointed by heretics and enemies of Christ.

Besides, what prayer can a priest offer for a baptized person when the priest is himself a godless man and a sinner? For it is written, “God does not listen to a sinner; but if anyone worships God and does his will, God listens to him.” And who can give what he does not have himself? Or how can a man carry out the work of the Spirit when he has himself lost the Holy Spirit? So anyone who comes to the church still untaught must be baptized and made new, to be made holy on the inside by those who are holy, since it is written: “Be holy, for I am holy, says the Lord.” Then the man who was led astray into error and dipped outside the church should lay aside, in the true baptism of the church, this very thing as well: that in coming to God and looking for a priest, he was tricked by error and fell in with an unholy one.

But to admit that heretics and schismatics have truly baptized is to approve their baptism. In a matter like this, one part cannot be void and another part hold good. If a man could baptize, he could give the Holy Spirit as well. But if he cannot give the Holy Spirit, because a man appointed outside is not himself given the Holy Spirit, then neither can he baptize the people who come to him. For the baptism is one, and the Holy Spirit is one, and the church is one too, which Christ the Lord founded upon Peter as the source and principle of unity. It follows that, since everything among them is empty and false, nothing they have done ought to be approved by us. For what can be ratified and made firm by God when it is done by the very people the Lord calls his enemies and his adversaries? He sets it out in his Gospel: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” And the blessed apostle John also, keeping the Lord’s commands and instructions, laid it down in his letter and said: “You have heard that antichrist is coming; and now there are many antichrists, and from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would surely have stayed with us.”

From this we too ought to gather and consider whether people who are the Lord’s adversaries, and are called antichrists, can give the grace of Christ. So we, who are with the Lord and hold to the Lord’s unity, and who by his own stooping favor carry out his priesthood in the church, ought to refuse and reject and count as unholy whatever his adversaries and the antichrists do. And to those who come out of error and wickedness and acknowledge the true faith of the one church, we should give the truth of both unity and faith, through every one of the sacred rites of God’s grace. Dearest brothers, we always wish you well.