Distinction IV

GRATIAN.

The same on John. PART I. The visible sacrament of water is necessary for the washing of the visible body, just as the teaching of invisible faith is necessary for the sanctification of the invisible soul. The same. § 1. A human being is reborn of water, the visible sacrament, and of spirit, namely invisible understanding, so that he may receive the symbol of baptism visibly and perceive the spiritual understanding of that symbol. Or: of visible water and the Holy Spirit.

The same in book I On the Baptism of Infants, [c. 39]. Through Christ’s baptism this is accomplished: that the flesh of sin is emptied.

It is not, however, emptied in such a way that innate concupiscence does not exist in the flesh, but so that it does not harm. For if after baptism they reach the natural age, there they have something against which to struggle and which, with God’s help, to overcome, if they have not received grace in vain. For not even to adults is this granted in baptism—except perhaps by a miracle of God—that the law of sin, resisting the law of the mind, is utterly extinguished and does not exist; rather, whatever was said, done, or thought by a human being while his mind served in subjection to this concupiscence is wholly abolished and regarded as though it had not been done.

The same to Peter the Deacon, [c. 26]. Hold most firmly and in no way doubt that every human being who is conceived through intercourse between a man and a woman is born with original sin, subjected to impiety and subject to death, and on this account is born naturally a child of wrath, concerning which the Apostle says: “For we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest.” From this wrath no one is freed except through faith in the mediator, the man Jesus Christ. § 1. Hold most firmly that not only human beings who use reason, but also little children—whether they begin to live in their mothers’ wombs and die there, or, already born from their mothers, pass from this world without the sacrament of baptism, which is given in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—are to be punished with eternal fire; because, although they have no sin of their own action, they have nevertheless drawn the condemnation of original sin from birth through carnal conception.

Likewise John Chrysostom. No one can receive the grace of heavenly life unless he has been cleansed from every stain of sin through the confession of penance, through the gift of the saving baptism of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ages of ages.

Likewise Gregory in the Moralia, [book IV, c. 2]. What the water of baptism effects among us, among the ancients either faith alone effected for little children, or the power of sacrifice for adults, or, for those who came forth from the stock of Abraham, the mystery of circumcision.

Likewise Augustine to Valerius, Against Julian, [book II, c. 11]. From the time circumcision was instituted among the people of God—which was then the seal of the faith of God’s righteousness—it availed little children for the sanctification of cleansing from original and ancient sin, just as baptism also began to avail for the renewal of the human being from the time it was instituted.

The same in book III On Free Choice, [c. 23]. Human beings are accustomed to investigate what benefit the sacrament of Christ’s baptism affords little children, since after receiving it they often die before they have been able to know anything of themselves. In this matter it is believed with sufficient piety and correctness that the faith of those by whom the little child is presented for consecration profits him. And the authority of the Church commends this, so that from it each person may perceive how his own faith profits him, when it is beneficial also for the benefit of others who do not yet have power of their own.

The same On the Baptism of Infants, [book I, cc. 32 and 33]. The Son of God assumed the flesh of sin and punishment without fault, so that in the flesh of sin both fault and punishment might be dissolved. Therefore, through faith in him and through his baptism, a human being is freed from sin through justification and from death through resurrection. § 1. Even baptized little children are counted among believers through the power of the sacrament and the response of those presenting them. But those who have not been baptized are judged among unbelievers from the Gospel of John: “Unless someone is reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

Likewise Ambrose in book I On the Sacraments, [cc. 4 and 5]. Through the water of baptism there is a passage from earthly things to heavenly things. Therefore Pascha is called a passage; this passage is from sin to life, from fault to grace, from defilement to sanctification. He who passes through this water does not die but rises again. § 1. Not every water heals, but that which has the grace of Christ. The element is one thing, the consecration another. Water does not heal unless the Holy Spirit descends and consecrates that water, as it is read that, when Christ was giving the form of baptism, he came to John, and John said to him: “I ought to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” Jesus answered: “Thus it befits us to fulfill all righteousness.” See what all righteousness is. Christ descended to baptism not so that the flesh which he assumed from our condition might be cleansed. For a washing away of sin was not necessary for Christ, who committed no sin; but it was necessary for us, who were liable to sin. § 2. Christ descended; the Holy Spirit also descended. But why did Christ descend first and the Holy Spirit afterward, when the form and use of baptism have it that the font is first consecrated and then the one to be baptized descends? § 3. Christ, however, descended first, and the Holy Spirit followed, so that he might never seem himself to need the mystery of sanctification, but so that he himself might sanctify and the Holy Spirit also might sanctify.

Likewise John Chrysostom. The waters of baptism could never cleanse the sins of believers unless they had been sanctified by the touch of the Lord’s body.

Likewise Pope Siricius to Himerius of Tarragona, [letter I]. PART II. It is presumed upon not by reason of any authority but by temerity alone that innumerable peoples are baptized indiscriminately and freely on the Nativity of Christ, or Epiphany, and also on the feasts of the Apostles or martyrs, although the Lord’s Easter, together with its Pentecost, specially vindicates this privilege for itself among us and among all the churches.

Likewise Pope Leo to all the bishops established throughout Sicily, [letter IV, c. 5]. Two times, namely Easter and Pentecost, have been fixed by the Roman Pontiff as lawful for baptizing. Hence, because it is most manifest that these two times of which we have spoken are lawful for those chosen to be baptized in the Church, we admonish your Charity not to mingle any other days with this observance.

The same, [in the same letter, c. 3]. Precisely in the death of the crucified one and in his resurrection from the dead, the power of baptism founded a new creature from the old, so that both the death and life of Christ might work in those being reborn, as the Apostle says: “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus have been baptized in his death? For we were buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. For if we have been made planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be so also in the resurrection,” and the rest, which the teacher of the gentiles discussed more fully to commend the sacrament of baptism. Thus it would appear that, from the spirit of this teaching, for the sons of human beings who are to be regenerated and adopted as sons of God, that day and time was chosen on which, through the likeness and form of the mystery, the things done in the members accord with those accomplished in the head himself: while, in the rule of baptism, both death intervenes through the slaying of sin, and triple immersion imitates the three-day burial, and the raising from the waters is a likeness of one rising from the tomb. Therefore, the very character of the work teaches that the lawful day for the general celebration of grace is that on which both the power of the gift and the form of the action arose. § 1. For confirmation of this matter, it is of very great force that the Lord Jesus Christ himself, after he rose from the dead, delivered to his disciples—in whom all the prelates of the churches were being taught—both the form and the power of baptizing, saying: “Going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” He could certainly have instructed them about this even before the Passion, had he not wished it to be understood particularly that the grace of regeneration began from his resurrection. § 2. Added to this observance also is the sacred solemnity of Pentecost from the coming of the Holy Spirit, which depends upon the turning point of the Paschal feast; and while other feasts pertain to other days, this one always falls upon the day distinguished by the Lord’s resurrection. It extends, as it were, the hand of assisting grace and invites those whom either the distress of sickness, the length of a journey, or the difficulty of navigation excluded from Easter day, so that, impeded by whatever necessities, they may obtain the effect of their desire by the gift of the Holy Spirit. § 3. That we defend this not from our own persuasion but preserve it from apostolic authority, we prove by a sufficiently fitting example, following blessed Peter the Apostle, who, on the very day when the coming of the promised Holy Spirit filled the whole number of believers, consecrated in the washing of baptism a people of three thousand converted by his preaching. Holy Scripture, which contains the Acts of the Apostles, teaches this in a faithful history, saying: “When they had heard these things, they were pierced in heart and said to Peter and the remaining Apostles: What shall we do, men and brothers? But Peter said to them: Do penance, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Likewise. But if anyone thinks that the feast of Epiphany—which in its proper order is to be venerated with due honor—has the privilege of baptism because some think that on that day the Lord approached the baptism of Saint John, let him know that the grace of that baptism was one thing and its rationale another, and that it did not pertain to the same power by which those are reborn through the Holy Spirit of whom it is said: “Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.” For the Lord, needing no remission of sin and seeking no remedy of rebirth, willed to be baptized just as he also willed to be circumcised and an offering to be presented for cleansing, so that he who was made of a woman, as the Apostle says, might be made under the law, which he had come not to dissolve but to fulfill and, by fulfilling it, to bring it to an end, just as the Apostle proclaims, saying: “For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness for everyone who believes.” But he founded in himself the sacrament of his baptism, because, holding primacy in all things, he taught that he was the beginning, and he then sanctioned the power of regeneration when the blood of redemption and the water of baptism flowed from his side.

Likewise from the Council of Girona, [c. 4]. Concerning the baptizing of catechumens, it was decreed that they are to come for baptism at the solemnity of Easter or Pentecost; on other solemnities only the sick ought to be baptized.

Likewise Pope Leo, [letter IV, c. 6]. Those who are pressed by the necessity of death, sickness, siege, persecution, or shipwreck ought to be baptized at every time.

Likewise Gelasius to the clergy and people of Taranto. Let a bishop not presume to confer the venerable sacrament of baptism except on the feast of Easter and Pentecost, with the exception of those laboring under sickness, to whom, when danger of death presses, it is necessary to give aid by such remedies, lest they perish eternally.

The same. Let no one who is to be baptized believe that he possesses any confidence at any time other than the Paschal feast and the venerable sacrament of Pentecost, except only when a most grave illness assails him, in which it is to be feared that, with the danger of disease increasing, the sick person, overtaken by death, may perhaps depart without the saving remedy.

Likewise Isidore, On Offices, book II, c. 24. It is established that baptism was entrusted to priests alone, and that it is not lawful even for deacons themselves to carry out its ministry without a bishop or presbyter, unless, when these are far absent, the final necessity of sickness compels. This is also often permitted to faithful laypersons. Likewise Gelasius. § 1. “Deacons also then,” as above in the tract on those to be ordained, where the reverence of deacons toward priests is treated.

Likewise from the Fifth Council of Carthage, [cc. 99 and 100]. PART III. A woman, although learned and holy, is not to presume to baptize anyone or to teach men in an assembly. Gratian. Unless necessity compels. Hence Urban II: “Concerning the matters about which he consulted, etc.,” as above in the tract on marriage, where godparents are treated.

Likewise Augustine to Fortunatus. In necessity, when bishops or presbyters or any of the ministers are not found, and danger presses the one who asks, lest he end this life without this sacrament, we are accustomed to hear that even laypersons ordinarily give the sacrament which they have received.

[PALEA.

Likewise from Decree III of Pope Martin. Whatever presbyter, found in his own province or in another, or wherever he may be, refuses to baptize a sick person entrusted to him, whether because of his intention to journey or from some other excuse, and thus the sick person dies without baptism, is to be deposed.]

Isidore. The Roman Pontiff does not judge the human being who baptizes, but that the Spirit of God supplies the grace of baptism, even if the one who baptizes is a pagan.

Likewise Nicholas, in response to the inquiries of the Bulgarians, c. 4. You assert that many in your country were baptized by a certain Jew—you do not know whether he was a Christian or a pagan—and you ask what is to be done about it. Assuredly, if these were baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, or only in Christ’s name, as is read in the Acts of the Apostles—for it is one and the same thing, as Saint Ambrose explains—they ought not to be rebaptized, because it is not theirs but his.

Likewise Augustine, Against Cresconius the Grammarian, [book III, c. 6]. If, among good ministers, although one is better than another, the baptism given through the better one is not better, in no way is that which is given even through a bad one bad, since the same baptism is given. And therefore God’s equal gift is given through unequal ministers, because it is not theirs but his.

The same on John, part I, tractate V, [on c. 1]. Baptism is such as he is in whose power it is given, not such as he is through whose ministry it is given. Likewise. § 1. What did John the Baptist know? The Lord. What did he not know? That the power of the Lord’s baptism would pass from the Lord to no human being, although its ministry would certainly pass: the power from the Lord to no one, but the ministry to good and bad persons. Let the dove not recoil from the ministry of the bad; let it look to the Lord’s power. What does a bad minister do to you where the Lord is good? How does a malicious herald impede you where the judge is benevolent? Likewise. § 2. Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Likewise. § 3. Therefore I say, and all of us say, that those through whom one is baptized ought to be righteous, because the ministers of so great a judge ought to be righteous, if they wish to minister righteously. But if those who sit in the chair of Moses are unwilling to be righteous, my Teacher has made me secure, of whom his Spirit says: “This is he who baptizes.” Likewise. § 4. I do not fear an adulterer, a drunkard, or a murderer, because I look to the dove through which it is said to me: “This is he who baptizes.”

The same in tractate VI, [on c. 1 of John]. When a bad person baptizes through either some ignorance or toleration of the Church—for either the bad are unknown, or the chaff is tolerated until the threshing floor is winnowed at the end—that which is given is one, neither unequal because of unequal ministers, but alike and equal because of: “This is he who baptizes.”

The same, On Ecclesiastical Rules, [c. 52]. If any have been baptized among those heretics who baptize with confession of the Holy Trinity and come to the Catholic faith, let them indeed be received as baptized, lest the invocation or confession of the Holy Trinity be annulled. But let them be fully taught and instructed in what the mystery of the Holy Trinity is held to be in the Church; and if they consent to believe or agree to confess it, once cleansed by the integrity of faith, let them be confirmed by the imposition of a hand. But if they are little children or dull-witted persons who cannot grasp teaching, let those who present them answer on their behalf according to the custom of baptizing; and thus, through the imposition of a hand, having been given communion by chrism, let them be admitted to the mysteries of the Eucharist.

The same to Orosius, [in book LXV of Questions in Dialogue, question 59]. Although there is one baptism both of heretics—namely, those who baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—and of the Catholic Church, nevertheless those who are baptized outside the Church receive baptism not unto salvation but unto destruction, possessing indeed the form of the sacrament but denying its power. And therefore the Church does not rebaptize them, because they were baptized in the name of the Trinity. And this assuredly is the form of the sacrament. Therefore, when they have returned, let them receive the power of the Holy Spirit, which those baptized outside the Church do not yet possess.

Likewise Pelagius to Bishop Gaudentius. If in truth those heretics who are said to dwell in places neighboring your Charity perhaps confess that they were baptized only in the name of the Lord, without the ambiguity of any doubt you shall baptize them, when they come to the Catholic faith, in the name of the Holy Trinity. But if it has become clear to your Charity from the manifest confession of those who wish to be converted that they were baptized in the name of the Trinity, you shall hasten to unite them to the Catholic faith by bestowing only the grace of reconciliation, so that, with such dispensation preserved, nothing other than what evangelical authority commands may seem to have been effected by a spirit of anyone’s temerity.

Likewise Augustine, On the One Baptism, book VIII, [c. 53]. PART IV. It is also customary to ask whether baptism received from one who has not received it is to be approved, if perhaps he learned from some curiosity how it is to be given; and whether it makes no difference with what intention the person to whom it is given receives it—with simulation or without simulation; and, if with simulation, whether as one deceiving, as in the Church or in that which is thought to be the Church, or as one jesting, as in a mime. § 1. Nevertheless, if someone perhaps pressed me, placed in a council where the question of such matters was being discussed, there being no preceding judgments whose opinions I would prefer to follow, to say what I myself thought, if I were affected in the same manner as I was when I dictated these things, I would in no way doubt that those possess baptism who, wherever and from whomever, received it consecrated with the evangelical words without simulation on their part and with some faith, although it would not profit them for spiritual salvation if they lacked charity, by which they are inserted into the Catholic Church. “For if I have faith so as to move mountains, but do not have charity, I am nothing.” So, from the statutes of our predecessors, I do not doubt that those also possess baptism who, although they receive it deceitfully, nevertheless receive it in the Church or where those in whose society it is received believe the Church to be; concerning them it was said: “They went out from us.” But where no society at all was believed to exist in such a way, and the whole thing was done playfully, mimically, and jestingly, I would judge that God’s judgment as to whether baptism given in this way was to be approved ought to be implored by the oracle of some revelation, with concordant prayer and groaning—yet in such a way that I would humbly examine whether those who would state opinions after me brought forward anything already investigated and known.

The same in book II. PART V. Those are shown to act impiously who try to rebaptize the unity of the world, and we to act rightly who do not dare to disapprove God’s sacraments even in schism itself. For in that in which they agree with us, in that they also are with us. But they have withdrawn from us in that in which they disagree with us. Likewise. § 1. The sacrament of baptism is what the one who is baptized possesses, and the sacrament of giving baptism is what the one who is ordained possesses. For just as one baptized, if he withdraws from unity, does not lose the sacrament of baptism, so also one ordained, if he withdraws from unity, does not lose the sacrament of giving baptism. For injury is to be done to no sacrament. If he departs from the bad, both depart; if he remains among the bad, both remain. Therefore, just as the baptism which one who had withdrawn from unity could not lose is accepted, so the baptism given by one who did not lose the sacrament of giving when he withdrew is to be accepted. Likewise, [c. 12]. § 2. If one approaches baptism feignedly, have his sins been remitted to him or have they not been remitted? Let them choose what they wish; whichever they choose suffices for us. If they say that they have been remitted, how will the Spirit of discipline flee from the feigned person, if he has worked the remission of sins in him? If they say that they have not been remitted, I ask: if afterward, with his heart converted and with true sorrow, he confessed his feigning, would he be judged to require baptism anew? But if it is utterly mad to say this, let them acknowledge that a human being can be baptized with the true baptism of Christ and yet his heart, persevering in malice or sacrilege, not permit the abolition of sins to occur. And let them understand that people can be baptized in communions separated from the Church, where Christ’s baptism is given and received with the same celebration of the sacrament, which nevertheless then profits for the remission of sins when someone, reconciled to unity, is stripped of the sacrilege of dissension by which his sins were held and not permitted to be remitted.

The same in letter XXIII to Boniface. PART VI. Do not let this disturb you: that certain persons bring little children to receive baptism, not with the faith that they may be regenerated by spiritual grace unto eternal life, but because they think that by this remedy they may retain or recover temporal health. For the children are not on that account not regenerated, because they are not presented by these persons with this intention.

Likewise, On the One Baptism, book IV, [c. 22]. PART VII. Blessed Cyprian takes from that thief to whom, though not baptized, it was said, “Today you shall be with me in paradise,” no slight proof that suffering sometimes fulfills the place of baptism. Considering this again and again, I find that not only suffering for Christ’s name can supply what was lacking from baptism, but also faith and conversion of heart, if perhaps in the constraints of time aid cannot be given for celebrating the mystery of baptism. For that thief was not crucified for Christ’s name, but for the deserts of his crimes; nor did he suffer because he believed, but while he suffered he believed. Therefore, how greatly even without the visible sacrament of baptism that which the Apostle says avails—“With the heart belief is made unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”—was declared in that thief. But this is fulfilled invisibly when not contempt for religion but an exigency of necessity excludes the ministry of baptism. [c. 24]. § 1. And just as in that thief the omnipotent one’s kindness completed what was lacking from the sacrament of baptism, because it was lacking not through pride or contempt but through necessity, so the same grace of the omnipotent one must be believed to supply in infants who die baptized what, not from an impious will but from the want of age, they are able neither to believe with the heart unto righteousness nor to confess with the mouth unto salvation. Therefore, when prayer is made for them so that the celebration of the sacrament may be fulfilled toward them, it assuredly avails for their consecration, because they cannot answer for themselves. § 2. For it is another’s work when one believes through another, just as it was another’s work when one sinned in another. Likewise, [in the same book IV Against the Donatists, c. 23]. § 3. But just as in the thief, because through necessity baptism was bodily absent, salvation was perfect because through piety it was spiritually present, so also, when piety itself is present, if through necessity that which was absent from the thief is absent, salvation is perfected. The universality of the Church holds this as handed down when infant children are baptized, who certainly cannot yet believe with the heart unto righteousness and confess with the mouth unto salvation, which the thief could; indeed, by weeping and wailing while the mystery is celebrated for them, they themselves make a din against the mystical voices, yet no Christian would say that they are baptized in vain. Likewise, [c. 25]. § 4. By all these things it is shown that the sacrament of baptism is one thing and conversion of heart another, but that a human being’s salvation is completed from both. Nor, if one of them is lacking, ought we therefore to think it follows that the other is also lacking, because the former can exist without the latter, as in an infant, and the latter could exist without the former, as in the thief, God completing, whether in the one or in the other, what had been lacking not by will. But when one of these has been lacking by will, a human being is enveloped in guilt. And baptism indeed can be present where conversion of heart has been lacking. Conversion of heart, however, can indeed be present when baptism has not been received, but cannot be present when baptism has been contemned. Nor is it in any way to be called conversion of the heart to God when God’s sacrament is contemned.

The same, Against Julian, [book VI, c. 6]. If whatever is in a human being when he is baptized and sanctified is to be believed to be baptized and sanctified, you are going to say that those very things in him which are digested in the intestines and bladder through bodily digestions are baptized and sanctified. You are going to say that a human being situated in his mother’s womb is baptized and sanctified if necessity compels a pregnant woman to receive this sacrament, and therefore that one who is afterward born ought not now to be baptized. Finally, you are going to say that fevers are baptized and sanctified when the sick are baptized.

The same to Fortunatus. Baptism is holy in itself, which is given in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, so that in the same sacrament there is also the authority of its transmission through our Lord to the Apostles, and through them to bishops and other priests, and even to lay Christians coming from the same origin and stock. § 1. For when that story is told, all who hear it are moved to tears. When on a certain ship there was no believer except one penitent, shipwreck began to threaten. There was someone there not unmindful of his salvation and a most vehement demander of the sacrament, and there was no one who could give it except that penitent. For he had received it; because of the sin for which he was doing penance, he had lost holiness, but he had not lost the sacrament. For if those who sin lose this, why are they not baptized again when they are reconciled after penance? Therefore he gave what he had received; and, lest he dangerously end his life unreconciled, he asked the very person whom he had baptized to reconcile him, and it was done. They escaped shipwreck. You know what they did. There was no one among those who heard of them who did not believe their disposition so pious as to believe that the Lord had been present to their counsels in that danger. For a religious and suppliant disposition demanded the sacrament from a human being and obtained holiness from God. But if someone perhaps does not wish to believe what I have narrated concerning those who were in danger when shipwreck threatened—for the authority of divine Scripture does not commend this, but report from an uncertain author—I shall not dispute it; but I ask: if something like this should happen, what will occur? For no one can say that the person who desires to be baptized when death threatens is to be abandoned. Whoever does not believe that it happened that he was baptized by a penitent must believe that it can happen.

The same. We do not believe that a catechumen, although he died amid good works, has life, except only if he completes the sacrament of martyrdom. A baptized person confesses his faith before a priest and answers when questioned. A martyr does this same thing before a persecutor: he both confesses the faith and answers when questioned. The former, after confession, is sprinkled with water; the latter is sprinkled with blood or immersed in fire. The former receives the Holy Spirit by the pontiff’s imposition of a hand; the latter becomes a dwelling of the Holy Spirit, since it is not he himself who speaks, but the Holy Spirit who speaks in him. The former communicates in the Eucharist in commemoration of the Lord’s death; the latter dies together with Christ himself. The former confesses that he renounces the deeds of the world; the latter renounces those deeds and life itself. All the former’s sins are remitted; the latter’s are extinguished.

Likewise Pope Leo, [letter XC, otherwise XCII, to Rusticus, c. 16]. PART VIII. Those concerning whom you wrote, who know that they were baptized but profess that they do not know of what faith those who baptized them were, are not to be rebaptized if in any manner they received the form of baptism; but through the imposition of a hand they are to be joined to Catholics by the power of the Holy Spirit, which they could not receive from heretics.

Likewise Augustine on John, [tractate V on c. 1]. PART IX. It is one thing to baptize by ministry, another to baptize by power. Likewise. § 1. Therefore his disciples baptized, and Judas was still there among his disciples. But if Judas baptized any, were they not baptized again, while those whom John baptized were baptized again? Clearly again, but not with baptism repeated. For those whom John baptized, John baptized; but those whom Judas baptized, Christ baptized. Likewise, [tractate 6]. § 2. For through this power which Christ alone retained for himself and poured into none of his ministers—although he deigned to baptize through ministers—through this power, I say, stands the unity of the Church, which is signified in the dove, of which it was said: “One is my dove, the one chosen for her mother.” For if, as I have already said, my brothers, power were transferred from the Lord to a minister, there would be as many baptisms as there were ministers, and the unity of baptism would no longer stand. Attend, brothers. Before our Lord Jesus Christ came to baptism, the dove descended upon the water. John recognized something proper to him to whom it was said: “Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.” Now he knew that he baptized in the Holy Spirit; but that he did so with such a property that the power would not pass from him to another, although by his gift, this he learned there. Likewise, [tractate 80]. § 3. “Now you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” Why did he not say, “You are clean because of the baptism with which you were washed,” but said, “Because of the word which I have spoken to you,” unless because the word cleanses also in the water? Likewise, [tractate 5]. § 4. If the minister is righteous, I count him with Paul, with Peter; with these I count righteous ministers. But because righteous ministers do not seek their own glory—for they are ministers—they do not wish to be regarded as leaders; they shudder at hope being placed in themselves. Therefore I count a righteous minister with Paul. For what does Paul say? “I planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase.”

The same in book I On Baptism. No one denies that even apostates possess baptism; when they return and are converted through penance, it is assuredly not restored to them, because it is judged that it cannot be lost. So also those who withdraw from the communion of the Church into the sacrilege of schism assuredly possess the baptism which they received before they withdrew. For even if they themselves return, it is not given to them again. From this it is shown that what they received while situated in unity could not be lost when they were separated. But if it can be possessed outside, why can it not also be given there? If you say, “It is not rightly given outside,” we answer: just as it is not rightly possessed outside and yet is possessed, so it is not rightly given outside and yet is given. But just as through reconciliation to unity that which was possessed uselessly outside unity begins to be possessed usefully, so through the same reconciliation that which was given uselessly outside it begins to be useful. Likewise, [book III, c. 19]. § 1. Heretics possess the sacraments and the Scriptures for appearance, not for salvation. Likewise, [book IV, c. 11]. § 2. If a faithless person remains in faithlessness, through baptism he does not receive remission of sins even outside the Church; or, if because of the power of the sacrament he receives it for a point of time, that power works both outside and inside, just as the power of Christ’s name worked the expulsion of demons even outside.

Likewise. How does God hear a murderer praying, whether over the water of baptism, over oil, over the Eucharist, or over the heads of those upon whom a hand is imposed? Yet all these things are both done and valid even through murderers, that is, through those who hate their brothers. Even within the Church itself, since no one can give what he does not possess, how does a murderer give the Holy Spirit? And yet within it even he baptizes. Therefore God gives the Holy Spirit even when he baptizes. Consequently, God gives the sacrament of grace even through bad persons, but grace itself only through himself or through his saints; and therefore he effects the remission of sins either through himself or through the members of that dove, to whom he says: “If you remit the sins of anyone, they shall be remitted.” But if the imposition of a hand were not applied to one coming from heresy, although he would be judged to be entirely without fault, nevertheless, for the joining of charity—which is the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit, without which whatever other holy things may be in a human being do not avail unto salvation—a hand is imposed upon corrected heretics. Human beings, moreover, put on Christ sometimes as far as the reception of the sacrament, sometimes also as far as the sanctification of life; and that first can be common to both good and bad persons, but this is proper to the good and pious. § 2. It seemed to certain even excellent men, bishops of Christ—among whom blessed Cyprian especially stood forth—that Christ’s baptism could not exist among heretics or schismatics, for no reason other than that the sacrament was not distinguished from the effect or use of the sacrament; and because its effect and use in liberation from sins and rectitude of heart was not found among heretics, they thought that the sacrament itself also did not exist there. But when they turned their eyes to the multitude of interior chaff—since even those who within unity itself are perverse and live ruinously appear to be able neither to give nor possess the remission of sins, because it was said not to malignant sons but to the good, “If you remit the sins of anyone, they are remitted to them,” and the rest, and yet they possess, give, and receive the sacrament of baptism—it shone forth sufficiently clearly to the shepherds of the Catholic Church that even a sheep which wandered outside and received the Lord’s character outside, upon coming to the salvation of Christian unity, was to be corrected from error, but that the Lord’s character in it was to be recognized rather than disapproved, since many who are both wolves and imprint it upon wolves appear to be within, but nevertheless do not belong to that sheep which is one from many. § 3. When a bad person transmits baptism to a good person, that is, one changed by true conversion within the bond of unity, the malice of the giver does not separate the good sacrament which is transmitted from the good believer to whom it is transmitted. And when sins are remitted to one truly converted to God, they are remitted by those to whom he is joined by true conversion; the Holy Spirit remits them, who has been given to all the saints cohering with him by charity, whether they have known one another bodily or have not known one another. Similarly, when someone’s sins are retained, they are retained by those from whom he is disjoined by depravity of heart, whether known or unknown bodily. § 4. All bad persons are spiritually separated from the good. But if they are separated also bodily by open withdrawal, they become worse. Yet it makes no difference to the sanctity of baptism how much worse anyone who possesses it is, or to how much worse a person he transmits it. One separated can nevertheless transmit it, just as one separated can possess it. But as pernicious as it is to possess, so perniciously does he transmit it. The person to whom he transmits it, however, can receive it salutarily if he himself, not separated, received it when the necessity of death pressed. § 5. Why can heretics not baptize outside? Is it because they are worse by the very fact that they are outside? But it makes no difference to the integrity of baptism how much worse a person transmitting it is. For there is not as much difference between a bad and a worse person as between a good and a bad person, and yet, when a bad person baptizes, he gives nothing other than one who is less bad. Or perhaps does it pertain not to the merit of the human being but to the sacrament of baptism itself that it cannot be given outside? If this were so, it could not be possessed outside either, and it would be necessary to baptize someone as many times as, having withdrawn from the Church, he returned again to the Church. § 6. For those who are baptized with a feigned heart, either sins are in no way remitted, because the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the feigned person, or, remitted at the very point of time through the power of the sacrament, they are again brought back through the feigning, so that both this may be true—“As many of you as have been baptized in Christ”—and this: “The Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the feigned person”; that is, let the sanctity of baptism clothe him with Christ, and let the ruin of feigning strip him of Christ. For the Lord teaches most openly in the Gospel, in that servant from whom the Lord demanded the debt that had been remitted because he would not remit the debt to his fellow servant, that remitted sins return where fraternal charity is absent. Thus the grace of baptism is not impeded from remitting all sins, even if fraternal hatred persists in the mind of the one to whom they are remitted. For yesterday is absolved, and whatever remains is absolved, even the hour and moment itself before baptism and in baptism; but immediately afterward he begins to be guilty not only of the succeeding days, hours, and moments, but also of the preceding ones, as all the things that were remitted return.

The same. PART X. Baptism begins to avail unto salvation when that feigning which, while the heart persevered in malice or sacrilege, did not permit the washing away of sins to occur has withdrawn through truthful confession.

The same to the Donatists, [letter XLVIII]. We do not change in you those things in which you are with us—for in many things you are with us, since of such persons it was said: “Because they were with me in many things”—but we correct those things in which you are not with us, and we wish you to receive here the things you do not possess there, where you are. For you are with us in baptism, in the creed, and in the other sacraments of the Lord. But in the spirit of unity and bond of peace, and finally in the Catholic Church itself, you are not with us. § 1. But those with whom or concerning whom we are dealing are not to be despaired of, for they are still in the body; but let them not seek the Holy Spirit except in Christ’s body. Outside they possess its sacrament, but within they do not hold the reality itself to which that sacrament belongs; and therefore they eat and drink judgment for themselves.

Likewise Gregory to Bishop Quiricus and the other bishops in Iberia, [book IX, letter 61]. We have learned from the ancient institution of the Fathers that those who are baptized in the name of the Trinity among a heresy, when they return to holy Church, are recalled to the bosom of Mother Church either by anointing with chrism, by the imposition of a hand, or by profession of faith alone. Hence the West reforms Arians for entrance into the Catholic Church through the imposition of a hand, but the East through anointing with holy chrism. It receives Monophysites and others by confession alone, because the holy baptism which they obtained among heretics then receives in them the powers of cleansing when either the former have received the Holy Spirit through the imposition of a hand, or the latter have been united to the inward parts of the holy and universal Church through profession of the true faith.

Likewise Augustine. The Church, compared to paradise, indicates to us that human beings can indeed receive its baptism even outside, but that no one outside it can either receive or retain the salvation of beatitude. For the happiness of life which is commemorated in paradise is not in Mesopotamia or Egypt, to which those rivers came. Thus, therefore, the Church’s baptism can be outside the Church, but the gift of a good life is found only within the Church.

The same, On the One Baptism, [Against the Donatists], book III, [c. 11]. But now, just as heresy belongs to heretics, as their error belongs to them, and as the sacrilege of their dissension also belongs to them, so the baptism, which belongs to Christ, ought not also to be called theirs.

The same in book V, [c. 13]. Since baptism through a contemptible human being avails as much as that given through an Apostle, it is thereby known to belong neither to the one nor to the other, but to Christ. Likewise, [c. 14]. § 1. We find that the Apostles said “my glory,” although certainly in the Lord, and “my prudence,” and “my ministry,” and “my Gospel,” although certainly imparted and given by the Lord; but none of them ever called baptism “mine.” For not everyone’s glory is equal, nor do all minister equally; nor are all endowed with equal prudence or knowledge, and in evangelizing one works better than another. And therefore one can be called more learned than another in saving doctrine itself. But one cannot be called more or less baptized than another, whether he is baptized by an inferior or a superior.

The same in book IV, [c. 15]. We have shown sufficiently that the error of anyone, whether giver or receiver, does not pertain to baptism which is consecrated with the evangelical words, whether he thinks differently about the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit from what heavenly teaching intimates.

The same in the book On Baptism. There is a unity of the Church which extends widely, namely in the fellowship and communion of the sacraments, which embraces the chaff together with the grains when it tolerates them thus bodily mixed, so that the righteous neither avoid them nor are avoided by them. Thus bad human beings are in the Church as bad humors are in the human body, which sometimes go out from the body.

The same, On the One Baptism, book VI. The water over which the Lord’s name is invoked is not profane and adulterous, even if it is invoked by profane persons and adulterers, because neither the creature itself nor the name itself is adulterous.

Likewise Bede, homily XXXVI, [on c. 3 of John]. Whether a heretic, a schismatic, or any criminal baptizes in the confession of the Holy Trinity, the person baptized cannot be rebaptized by good Catholics, lest the confession or invocation of so great a name seem to be annulled.

Likewise Gregory II to Bishop Boniface. Concerning those whom you asserted to have been baptized by pagans, if this is so, we command that you baptize them anew in the name of the Trinity.

Likewise Pope Celestine. PART XI. Whether little children or young persons come to the sacrament of regeneration, let them not approach the font of life before the unclean spirit is driven from them by the exorcisms and exsufflations of clerics.

Likewise Rabanus, On the Instruction of Clerics, [book I, c. 25]. Before baptism the office of catechizing ought to precede a human being, so that the catechumen may first receive the rudiment of faith. Likewise. § 1. Christ himself first smeared the eyes of the man born blind with clay made from spittle and thus sent him to the waters of Siloam, because one to be baptized ought first to be instructed in the faith of Christ’s incarnation and thus, now believing, be admitted to baptism, so that he may know of whose grace he is made a participant in it and to whom he thereafter becomes a debtor.

Likewise from the Second Council of Braga, [c. 1]. For twenty days before baptism, catechumens are to hasten to the cleansing of exorcism; during these twenty days they are to be taught spiritually the whole creed, which is: “I believe in God the Father almighty.”

Likewise from the Council of Agde, [c. 13]. It was also resolved that the creed be preached publicly in church to the competentes by all churches on one day, that is, eight days before the Lord’s resurrection.

Likewise Pope Nicholas. The catechisms of those to be baptized can be performed by the priests of each church, as they are proved to be solemnly performed in this holy Roman Church, to which, by God’s authority, we render the ministry of our service.

Likewise from the Council of Laodicea, [c. 46]. Those to be baptized ought to learn the creed of the faith and recite it to either the bishop or presbyter on the Thursday of the final week.

Likewise from the Council of Pope Martin, [c. 49]. It is not permitted to receive anyone for baptism two weeks before Easter, but three weeks before. Those who are to be baptized ought, during these days, to learn the creed and recite it to the bishop or presbyter on the Thursday of the final week.

Likewise from the Fourth Council of Carthage, [c. 85]. Those to be baptized are to give their names, and for a long time, under abstinence from wine and meats and through frequent examination with imposition of a hand, receive baptism.

Likewise Rabanus, On the Instruction of Clerics, [book I, c. 27]. After the one to be baptized has commended himself through confession of the true faith to the dominion of another and through renunciation has alienated himself from the service of his former possessor, the savage power is exsufflated from him, so that, through the pious ministry of the priest, the malign spirit may flee and yield to the Holy Spirit.

Likewise Augustine, On the Creed, book I, [c. 1]. As you know, dearest brothers, little children are exsufflated and exorcized so that the hostile power of the devil, which deceived the human being in order to possess human beings, may be driven from them. Therefore, it is not the creature in the infants that is exorcized or exsufflated, but he under whom those who are born under sin are held.

Likewise Rabanus, On the Instruction of Clerics, [book I, c. 27]. Afterward the one to be baptized is signed with the sign of the holy cross both on the forehead and on the heart, so that from that time the apostate devil, recognizing in his former vessel the sign of his own destruction, may know that it is thereafter alien to him.

The same in the same book. From this point prayers are said over him so that he may become a catechumen. Then blessed salt is given into the mouth of the one to be baptized so that, seasoned through the typological salt with the salt of wisdom, he may lack the stench of iniquity and no longer putrefy from the worms of sins, but rather be preserved unharmed for receiving greater grace.

Likewise Bede on the Book of Kings. We are commanded to offer in all the sacrifices of our works the salt of heavenly wisdom with which catechumens are initiated.

Likewise Rabanus, On the Instruction of Clerics, [book I, c. 27]. Then the devil is exorcized again, so that, recognizing his own wickedness and fearing God’s just judgment upon himself, he may withdraw from the human being and no longer strive by his art to overthrow him lest he obtain baptism, but rather, exhibiting honor to God his creator, may restore the work to God its maker.

Likewise Gregory in homily XXIV. When priests, through the grace of exorcism, impose a hand upon believers and forbid malignant spirits to dwell in their mind, what else do they do but cast out demons?

Likewise Rabanus, On the Instruction of Clerics, [book I, c. 27]. Afterward his nostrils and ears are touched with saliva, and the evangelical word is said to him which Jesus, when he healed the deaf and mute man, said while touching his tongue with spittle and putting his fingers into his ears: “Ephphatha,” which is “Be opened.” For this sacrament is enacted here: that through the typological saliva and the priest’s touch divine wisdom and power may work the salvation of the same catechumen, so that his nostrils may be opened to receive the fragrance of the knowledge of God, his ears may be opened to hear God’s commandments, and his senses may be opened in his inmost heart to respond.

Likewise Ambrose, On the Sacraments, [book I, c. 1]. On account of the glory of the gift and work, the bishop does not touch the mouth but the nostrils, so that the person may receive the good fragrance of eternal piety.

Likewise Rabanus, On the Instruction of Clerics, [book I, c. 27]. Then he is anointed by the priest so that holy baptism together with the faith received may be preserved. His breast is then anointed with consecrated oil, with invocation of the Holy Trinity, so that no remnants of the lurking enemy may remain in him, but his mind may be strengthened in the faith of the Holy Trinity. He is anointed between the shoulders with the same oil so that he may be fortified on every side and strengthened by God’s grace for performing good works. The same, [c. 28]. § 1. The font is consecrated so that the catechumen may approach it for baptism itself.

Likewise Ambrose in book II On the Sacraments, [c. 5]. The priest comes to the font, says a prayer, invokes the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and uses heavenly words. Heavenly are the words which are Christ’s. The presence of the Trinity is at hand; the eternal Word works; and there the Holy Spirit descends. First he descended as a dove so that unbelievers might be called to faith. In the beginning there had to be a sign; in later times, perfection. For the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles in fiery tongues on account of unbelievers; but for us, now in the fullness of the Church, the truth is to be gathered not through signs but through faith.

Likewise Augustine, On the One Baptism, book VI, [c. 25]. PART XII. If water is not sanctified when the one praying pours forth some words of error through inexperience, many brothers within the Church itself, not only bad but also good, do not sanctify water. For the prayers of many are corrected daily if they are recited to learned teachers, and many things contrary to the Catholic faith are found in them. Surely, if it should be disclosed that some were baptized when those prayers had been said over the water, are they ordered to be baptized anew? Why is this? Because the disposition of the one praying frequently overcomes the fault of the prayer; because those other evangelical words, without which baptism cannot be consecrated, are so powerful that through them whatever is said in a faulty prayer contrary to the rule of faith is nullified, just as a demon is driven out by Christ’s name. For assuredly, if a heretic offers a faulty prayer, he does not possess the good disposition of charity by which that inexperience can be overcome—and therefore whoever within the Catholic Church is envious, unclean, or malevolent, such as Cyprian rebukes here, is like him. Let him also offer, as often happens, some prayer in which he speaks contrary to the rule of faith—for many fall upon prayers composed not only by inexperienced talkers but even by heretics, and, being unable to discern these things through the simplicity of ignorance, use them thinking them good—yet what is perverse in them does not nullify those things that are right there, but rather is nullified by them.

Likewise Augustine to the Neophytes, [homily III]. PART XIII. In the first and second sermon, therefore, we spoke only about those things which, before you came to the holy font, we handed down to you according to the institutions of the Catholic Church. And, insofar as the Lord deigned to grant it, we interpreted what the anointing signified, which, applied to diverse parts of our body, designates a diverse understanding, when we showed that through the oil of sanctification you were prepared for hearing the full faith and called to the good fragrance of Christ, and were admonished from the whole heart to renounce the devil. Now, however, we are going to speak about the more inward mysteries which were celebrated in the holy font itself. For, after issuing the most certain bond by which you promised to renounce all the pomps of the devil, his works, and every diabolical fornication, you descended into the font—the sacred font, the font of redemption, the font sanctified by heavenly power. Likewise. In this font, therefore, before we immersed you with the whole body, we asked: “Do you believe in God the Father almighty?” You answered: “I believe.” Again we asked: “Do you believe also in Jesus Christ his Son, who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary?” Each of you answered: “I believe.” Likewise we asked: “And in the Holy Spirit?” You similarly answered: “I believe.” We do this according to the command of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who, when he was ascending to the Father in heaven, commanded his disciples, that is, the Apostles, saying: “Going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Likewise. § 1. But when we asked, “Do you believe the holy Church, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the flesh?” we did not ask in such a way that you would believe in the holy Catholic Church as in God. It is holy and Catholic for this reason: because it believes rightly in God. Therefore we did not say that you should believe in the Church as in God; but understand that we say, and said, that while dwelling in the holy Catholic Church you should believe in God, and should also believe the resurrection of the flesh which is to come.

Likewise Isidore, On Offices, book II, [c. 24]. PART XIV. Little children are baptized with another professing because they do not yet know how to speak or believe, just as also the sick, mute, and deaf, in whose place another professes so that he may answer for them while they are baptized.

Likewise from the Fourth Council of Carthage, [c. 48]. If sick persons cannot answer for themselves, let them be baptized when their own people have spoken testimony to their will. The same is to be done concerning penitents.

Likewise Augustine, [letter XXIII to Boniface]. To believe is nothing other than to have faith, and by this, when the answer is given that the little child believes, though he does not yet possess the effect of faith, the answer is given that he has faith on account of the sacrament of faith, and that he turns himself to God on account of the sacrament of conversion, because that very response also pertains to the celebration of the sacrament. Likewise. § 1. Although that faith which consists in the will of believers does not yet make the little child faithful, nevertheless the sacrament of faith itself now does, just as the answer is given that he believes; for in this way they are called faithful, not by assenting to the reality itself with the mind, but by receiving the sacrament of the reality itself.

The same in book IV On Baptism, [c. 24]. When others answer for little children so that the celebration of the sacrament may be fulfilled toward them, it assuredly avails for their consecration, because they cannot answer for themselves. But if another answers for one who can answer, it does not avail in the same way. From this rule comes that saying of the Gospel which naturally moves everyone when it is read: “He is of age; let him speak for himself.”

Likewise Augustine in homily III. After you promised to believe, we immersed your heads three times in the sacred font. This order of baptism is celebrated with a twofold signification of the mystery. For rightly were you immersed three times, who received baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity. Rightly were you immersed three times, who received baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead on the third day. For that immersion repeated three times expresses the type of the Lord’s burial, through which you were buried together with Christ in baptism and rose together with Christ in faith, so that, absolved from sins, you may live Christ in the sanctity of virtues by imitating him.

Likewise from the Canons of the Apostles, [c. 50]. If any presbyter or bishop does not celebrate the triple immersion of the one mystery, but immerses once in baptism—which some command to be given in the Lord’s death—let him be deposed. For the Lord did not say to us, “Baptize in my death,” but: “Going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Likewise Gregory to Bishop Leander, [book I, letter 41]. PART XV. Concerning the triple immersion of baptism, nothing can be answered more truly than what you yourselves perceived, because diversity of custom harms holy Church in no way in one faith. For our part, because we immerse three times, we signify the sacraments of the three-day burial, and while the infant is raised from the waters three times, the resurrection of the three-day period is expressed. But if someone perhaps also considers that it is done in veneration of the supreme Trinity, neither does this in any way prevent immersing those to be baptized once in the waters; for since there is one substance in three subsistences, it can in no way be reprehensible to immerse an infant in baptism either three times or once, because in three immersions the Trinity of persons can be designated, and in one the singularity of the divinity.

Likewise Jerome on the Letter to the Philippians, book II, [on c. 4, v. 5]. In the same way we are baptized in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and are immersed three times, so that the one sacrament of the Trinity may appear. Likewise. Although one is baptized three times on account of the mystery of the Trinity, nevertheless it is reckoned one baptism.

Likewise Pelagius to Bishop Gaudentius. There are many who assert that they are baptized only in Christ’s name, even with one immersion. But the evangelical precept, handed down by God himself, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, admonishes us to confer holy baptism upon each person in the name of the Trinity, even with a triple immersion, as our Lord Jesus Christ says to his disciples: “Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Likewise Pope Zacharias to Bishop Boniface, [in the letter whose beginning is “At the Sacred Thresholds”]. PART XVI. It is known to have been decreed in the synod of the English, most firmly commanded, and diligently demonstrated that whoever had been immersed without invocation of the Trinity did not possess the sacrament of regeneration. This is altogether true, because if anyone has been immersed in the baptismal font without invocation of the Trinity, he is not a perfect Christian unless he has been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. § 1. The priests in the aforesaid synod also wished this to be observed: that if anyone did not name even one person of the Trinity in baptism, that baptism could not be true. This is certainly true, because one who has not confessed the name of one of the Holy Trinity cannot be a perfect Christian. For one who confesses the Father and the Son, if he has not confessed the Holy Spirit, possesses neither the Father nor the Son; and one who has confessed the Father and the Holy Spirit but has not confessed the Son possesses neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit, but is empty of divine grace.

Likewise Gregory to Bishop Quirinus in Iberia, [book IX, letter 61]. But those heretics who are not baptized in the name of the Trinity, such as the Bonosians and Cataphrygians—because the former do not believe Christ the Lord, and the latter, with perverse understanding, believe the Holy Spirit to have been a certain depraved man, Montanus, and there are many others like them—when they come to holy Church, are to be baptized, because that was not baptism which, situated in error, they did not receive in the name of the Holy Trinity.

Likewise from the Fourth Council of Toledo, [c. 5]. For the avoidance of the scandal of schism or the usage of heretical doctrine, let us retain the single immersion of baptism.

Likewise Pope Zacharias to Bishop Boniface. Your messengers reported that in that same province there was a priest who was entirely ignorant of the Latin language and, while baptizing, not knowing how to speak Latin and mangling the language, would say: “I baptize you in the name of the Fatherland, and the Daughter, and the Holy Spirit.” And on account of this your reverend Holiness considered rebaptizing them. But, most holy brother, if the one who baptized, introducing no error or heresy, but solely through ignorance of Roman speech and mangling the language, said this while baptizing, as we stated above, we cannot consent that they be baptized anew.

Likewise Ambrose, On the Sacraments, tractate I, [c. 2]. PART XVII. You came to the font; you entered. Consider what you saw; carefully repeat what you said. A Levite met you, a presbyter met you; you were anointed like an athlete of God so that as a catechumen you might approach baptism.

Likewise Rabanus in book II on the Letter to the Ephesians. After the baptized person ascends from the font, he is immediately signed on the crown of the head by the presbyter with sacred chrism, with a prayer accompanying it at the same time, so that he may become a participant in Christ’s kingdom and may be called a Christian from Christ.

Likewise Ambrose, On the Sacrament, tractate II, [c. 7]. You emerged; you came to the priest. What did he say to you? “God,” he says to you, “the almighty Father, who regenerated you from water and the Holy Spirit and forgave you your sins, may he himself anoint you unto eternal life.” See to what you were anointed: “Unto eternal life,” he says.

Likewise, [in book III On the Sacraments, cc. 1 and 2]. You received the mystery, that is, ointment upon the head. Why upon the head? Because the senses of a wise person are in his head. [c. 2]. § 1. The spiritual seal follows, which you heard read today, which remains after the font so that perfection may be brought about when, at the invocation of the priest, the Holy Spirit is poured forth.

Likewise Rabanus, On the Instruction of Clerics, [book I, c. 29]. After baptism a white garment is handed to the Christian, which signifies Christian innocence and purity; after the old stains have been washed away, he ought to preserve it immaculate by zeal for holy conduct, to present it before Christ’s tribunal. All the reborn are clothed in white garments for the mystery of the rising Church. Likewise. § 1. The baptized use white garments so that the attire of second regeneration may display a garment of glory for those whose countenance at their first birth the cloth of ancient error had darkened. For after the sacred anointing his head is covered with a mystical veil so that he may understand that he possesses the diadem of the kingdom and priestly dignity.

Likewise Ambrose, On the Mysteries, [c. 7]. After baptism you received white garments so that it might be an indication that you had put off the pleasure of sins and put on the chaste veils of innocence.

Likewise from the Council of Agde, [c. 34]. PART XVIII. If Jews, whose faithlessness frequently returns to its vomit, wish to come to the Catholic laws, let them enter the threshold of the Church for eight months among the catechumens; and if they are known to come with pure faith, then at last let them merit the grace of baptism. But if, through some occurrence, they encounter the danger of sickness within the prescribed time and are despaired of, let them be baptized.

Likewise from the Fifth Council of Toledo, [c. 58]. Many of the Jews who long ago were advanced to the Christian faith are now known, while blaspheming Christ, not only to have perpetrated Jewish rites but also to practice abominable circumcisions. Concerning them, at the counsel of our most pious and religious lord King Sisenand, this holy council decreed that transgressors of this kind, corrected by pontifical authority, are to be recalled to the worship of Christian dignity, so that priestly chastisement may restrain those whom their own will does not amend. But those whom they circumcised, if they are their children, are to be separated from association with their parents; if slaves, they are to be delivered to liberty for the injury to their bodies.

Likewise Rabanus, On the Instruction of Clerics, [book I, c. 27]. First let the pagan be asked whether he renounces the devil and all his harmful and deceitful works, so that he may first reject error and thus approach truth, and, according to the Apostle, may be able to put off the old human being according to his former conduct, who is corrupted according to the desires of error, renouncing impiety and secular desires.

Likewise Augustine, On Penance, [c. 2]. Everyone who has now been established arbiter of his own will, when he approaches the sacrament of the faithful, cannot begin the new life unless he repents of the old life. Little children alone are exempt from this penance when they are baptized, for they cannot yet use free choice.

The same to the man of Salecta, [letter CVIII]. Human beings do penance before baptism for their former sins, yet in such a way that they are also baptized, as is written in the Acts of the Apostles, when Peter speaks to the Jews and says: “Do penance, and let each of you be baptized in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Likewise Gregory to the Defender Faustinus, [book VII, letter 24]. Lest—which may it not happen—a long delay be able to call back the minds of the Jews, speak with our brother the bishop of that place, so that, after penance and abstinence of forty days have been enjoined, you may baptize them either on a Sunday or, if a most celebrated feast occurs, under the protection of almighty God’s mercy.

Likewise Ambrose on the Letter to the Romans, [on c. 11]. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance, because the grace of God in baptism requires no groaning, requires no lamentation or any work, but faith alone, and freely forgives all things.

Likewise Pope Hyginus. PART XIX. In catechism, baptism, and confirmation, one sponsor can serve if necessity compels. Yet this is not the Roman custom, but individual persons receive individual persons.

Likewise from a decree of Pope Leo. Let no more than one person, whether man or woman, approach to receive an infant from baptism. Let the same also be done in confirmation.

Likewise from the Council of Mainz. In baptism or chrism, one who is neither baptized nor confirmed cannot receive another as a godchild.

Likewise from the Council of Auxerre, [c. 25]. It is not permitted for an abbot or monk to receive children from baptism or to have co-mothers.

Likewise from the Book of Capitularies. Let monks not make for themselves co-fathers or co-mothers, nor kiss women.

Likewise from a sermon of Saint Augustine after the Lord’s Easter, which begins, “Today’s day.” Above all, I admonish you, women as well as men, who have received children in baptism, to recognize that you have stood as sureties before God for those whom you were seen to receive from the sacred font. Therefore, always admonish them to preserve chastity, love justice, and retain charity. § 1. Above all, both hold the creed and the Lord’s prayer yourselves and show them to those whom you received.

Likewise from the Council of Lleida. PART XX. Every presbyter who has been unable to have a stone font is to have a suitable vessel solely for the office of baptizing, which is not to be carried outside the church. Similarly, proper vessels are to be kept for washing the corporal and the altar palls, in which nothing else is to be done.

Likewise from the Fourth Council of Carthage, [c. 38]. PART XXI. It is not permitted for rebaptizations, reordinations, or retranslations of bishops to be performed.

Likewise from letter CCIII of Augustine to Maximinus. To rebaptize a heretical person who has received those signs of the Holy Trinity which Christian discipline has handed down is altogether a sin; but to rebaptize a Catholic is a most monstrous crime.

Likewise in the First Council of Arles, [c. 8]. Concerning Arians who use their own law, it was resolved that if any come to the Church from this heresy, the priests of our faith are to question them about the creed; and if they perceive that they were baptized in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, only a hand is to be imposed upon them so that they may receive the Holy Spirit. But if, when questioned, they do not answer this Trinity, let them be baptized.

Likewise Gregory III to Boniface, [letter IV]. Reason requires that you ought to baptize, according to the traditions of the Fathers, little children who have been taken from their parents and concerning whom it is unknown whether they were baptized or not, if there are none who can testify.

Likewise from the Fifth Council of Carthage, [c. 5]. It was resolved concerning infants that, whenever no wholly certain witnesses are found who testify without doubt that they were baptized, and the infants themselves are not by reason of age fit to answer concerning the sacraments handed down to them, they are to be baptized without any scruple, lest this hesitation cause them to be deprived of the cleansing of the sacraments. Hence also our brothers, the legates of the Moors, sought counsel, because they redeem many such persons from barbarians. The same is to be done concerning churches whenever there is hesitation over their consecration; that is, they are to be consecrated without any hesitation.

Likewise Pope Leo to Leo, Bishop of Ravenna, [letter XXXV, c. 1]. Therefore, when one who desires regeneration remembers nothing of his baptism and no other person who knows that he was consecrated can attest concerning him, nor can the one who is consecrated—indeed, we know it to be an inexpiable crime whenever, according to the dogmas of heretics and contrary to the institutions of the holy Fathers, someone is compelled to undergo twice the washing once bestowed upon those to be regenerated, while the apostolic sentence protests, preaching to us one divinity in the Trinity, one confession in faith, and one sacrament in baptism. But nothing similar is feared in this case, since what is altogether unknown to have been done cannot fall into the crime of repetition. And therefore, whenever such a person should appear, first examine the matter with solicitous inquiry, and for a long time—unless perhaps the final end threatens—investigate whether there is utterly no one who can assist the ignorance of the one who does not know by his testimony. And when it has been established that this person, who needs the sacrament of baptism, is prohibited by empty suspicion alone, let him approach without fear to obtain the grace of which he knows there is no trace in himself; nor should we fear to open for him the gate of salvation which he is never shown to have entered before.

The same, [letter XC, otherwise XCII, to Rusticus, c. 16]. If no indications exist among relatives and associates, none among clerics or neighbors, by which those concerning whom inquiry is made are shown to have been baptized, it is to be arranged that they be reborn, lest they manifestly perish; in their case, since what is not shown to have been done cannot by any rationale be regarded as repeated. But those who can remember that they used to come to church with their parents can remember whether they received what was given to their parents. Yet if this too is foreign to their memory, it seems that what is not known to have been conferred should be conferred upon them, because there is no rashness of presumption where there is diligence of piety.

Likewise Augustine, Against Julian, [book VI, c. 5]. PART XXII. If that which is conceived in a mother pertained to her body in such a way as to be reckoned a part of it, an infant whose mother was baptized while carrying him in the womb, when some danger of death pressed, would not be baptized. But now, since he too is baptized, he assuredly did not pertain to the maternal body when he was in the womb.

Likewise Isidore, Sentences, book I. Those who are in their mothers’ wombs cannot be baptized with their mother for this reason: one who has not yet been born according to Adam cannot be regenerated according to Christ. For regeneration cannot be said to occur in one whom generation has not preceded. § 1. Let those who live criminally in the Church and do not cease to communicate, thinking that they are cleansed by such communion, learn that it profits them nothing for cleansing.

Likewise from the Council of Pope Martin, [c. 54]. If any pregnant woman desires to receive the grace of baptism, let her have the power whenever she wishes. For the mother shares nothing in this with the infant who is born, because each person’s own will is manifested in confession.

Likewise from the Penitential of Theodore. PART XXIII. Those who have been baptized twice unknowingly do not need to do penance for it, except that according to the canons they cannot be ordained unless some great necessity compels.

But those who were baptized again not in ignorance, because they as it were crucified Christ again, are to do penance for seven years on Wednesday and Friday and during three Lents. If they did it because of some vice, likewise. If they thought they did it for cleansing, let them similarly do penance for three years.

Likewise Pope Felix III, [letter I, c. 2 and following]. Those who are established to have been bishops, presbyters, or deacons, and who are shown, whether perhaps willingly or under compulsion, to have made shipwreck of that one washing, ought—if they recover their senses—to lie in penance until the day of their departure and in every way to participate neither in the prayer of the faithful nor even of the catechumens; only lay communion is to be restored to them at death. § 1. But concerning clerics, monks, virgins of God, or secular persons, we command that this tenor be observed which the Nicene Synod established was to be observed among those who have fallen or shall fall: namely, that those who, under no necessity and from fear or danger of no thing, impiously handed themselves over to heretics to be rebaptized, if nevertheless they repent from the heart, are to be among the hearers for three years; for seven years they are to be subjected among the penitents to the hands of the priests; for two years they are in every way not to be permitted to offer oblations, but are only to be joined to the people in prayer. And let those who did not fear to deny God not be ashamed to bow their necks to him. § 2. But to boys, who are called from puberty because they are still beardless, whether clerics or laypersons, and also to similar girls, for whom ignorance of age lends support, communion is to be restored after they have been detained for some time under imposition of a hand; nor is the penance of those whom a censure excepts for correction to be awaited.

Likewise Pope Innocent to Bishop Decentius, [letter I, c. 3]. PART XXIV. Let presbyters—whether in the bishop’s absence or in his presence when they baptize—be permitted to anoint the baptized with chrism, but with chrism that has been consecrated by the bishop; they are not, however, to sign the forehead with the same oil, because this is owed to bishops alone when they hand on the Paraclete.

Likewise from the Register of Gregory to Januarius, Bishop of Cagliari, [book III, letter 9]. Let presbyters not presume to sign baptized infants on their foreheads with sacred chrism. But let presbyters anoint the baptized on the breast so that bishops may afterward confirm them on the forehead.

Likewise from the Council at Beauvais. If anyone wishes to smear a cloth with chrism again and place it upon another baptized person, it is not absurd.

Likewise from the Council of Lyon. If anyone has attempted to baptize using chrism other than that new chrism which he received by the generosity or concession of his own bishop, unless death forestalls him, he is manifestly shown by the audacity of his temerity to have pronounced upon himself the sentence of his own condemnation.

Likewise from the Council at Valencia. Presbyters who govern diocesan churches are to seek chrism before the solemnity of Easter, not from any bishops whatever but from their own, and not through a junior cleric but by themselves or through one who is of the same order.

Likewise from the Council of Pope Martin, [c. 51 and following]. Let a bishop be permitted at every time to confect chrism and send it throughout his dioceses, in such a way that a deacon or subdeacon is sent from the individual churches to the bishop before Easter day to receive chrism. § 1. But let a presbyter not sign infants in the bishop’s presence unless perhaps it was commanded him by the bishop. § 2. Nor is a presbyter permitted to enter the baptistery before the bishop, but with the bishop, unless perhaps the bishop is absent or sick.

Likewise from the Council of Orange, [c. 1]. No minister who receives the office of baptizing ought to proceed anywhere without chrism, because it was resolved among us that one is to be chrismated once in baptism. But concerning one who, in baptism, through whatever necessity, was not chrismated, the priest is to be admonished at confirmation. For among us there is only one blessing of the chrism itself. We say this without prejudicing anyone, but so that chrismation may be regarded as necessary.

Likewise the Capitularies, book VI, c. 77. On the holy Sabbath of Easter or Pentecost, if anyone wishes to receive consecrated water for sprinkling in his house, let him receive it before the chrism is poured in.

Likewise Cyprian, [book IV, letter 7 to Magnus]. Nor ought it to trouble anyone that the sick are commanded to be sprinkled or have water poured over them when they obtain the Lord’s grace, since holy Scripture speaks through the prophet Ezekiel and says: “I shall sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from all your uncleannesses, and I shall cleanse you from all your idols; and I shall give you a new heart, and I shall give a new spirit within you.” Likewise in Numbers. § 1. “He who touches the corpse of a human being and for this reason is unclean for seven days is to be sprinkled with this water on the third and seventh day, and thus he shall be cleansed.” § 2. If he has not been cleansed by faith in the Trinity, at the resurrection he shall be unclean among the assembly of the saints. “If he has not been sprinkled on the third day, he will not be able to be cleansed on the seventh. Everyone who touches the dead body of a human soul and has not been sprinkled with this mixture shall pollute the Lord’s tabernacle and shall perish from Israel; because he has not been sprinkled with the water of expiation, he shall be unclean, and his filth shall remain upon him.” And again: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Take the Levites from the midst of the children of Israel, and you shall purify them; and thus you shall perform their purification for them: you shall sprinkle them round about with the water of purification.” And again: “The water of sprinkling is purification.”

From this it appears that the sprinkling of water also obtains the likeness of the saving washing; and when these things are done in the Church, it is known most truly that through the faith of the recipient and the giver all things stand whole and can be consummated and perfected by the majesty of the Lord and the truth of faith. § 3. The Holy Spirit, however, is not given by measure but is poured out whole upon believers. For if the day rises equally for all and if the sun is diffused over all with like and equal light, how much more does the true sun and day in his Church bestow the light of eternal life with like equality? We see the sacrament of this equality celebrated in Exodus, when manna flowed down from heaven and, by prefiguration of future things, showed the nourishment of heavenly bread and the food of the Christ who was to come. For there each person, without distinction either of sex or age, gathered equally a gomor. From this it appeared that Christ’s indulgence and the heavenly grace which would afterward follow were divided equally among all, without variety of sex, without distinction of years, without acceptance of person, and that the gift of spiritual grace was poured out upon all God’s people. Certainly the same spiritual grace which is received equally by believers in baptism is afterward either diminished or increased in our conduct and action, just as in the Gospel the Lord’s seed is sown equally; but according to the variety of the soil, some is consumed, while some, abounding unto a manifold supply of fruit of the thirtieth, sixtieth, or hundredth number, is heaped up. § 4. But if anyone is troubled by the fact that certain of those who are baptized while sick are still held by unclean spirits, let him know that the persistent wickedness of the devil prevails up to the saving water, but in baptism loses all the poison of its wickedness. We perceive an example of this in King Pharaoh, who, long resisting and lingering in his faithlessness, was able to resist and prevail until he came to the water; but when he came to it, he was both conquered and extinguished. Blessed Paul the Apostle declares that sea to have been the sacrament of baptism, saying: “For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized in Moses in the cloud and in the sea”; and he added, saying: “But all these things were figures of us.” This assuredly is what occurs today: through exorcists, by a human voice and divine power, the devil is scourged, burned, and tormented; and although he often says that he will depart and release the human beings, he nevertheless lies in what he says and exercises, with the same manner of obstinacy and fraud, that which was previously enacted through Pharaoh. Yet when one comes to the saving water and to the sanctification of baptism, we ought to know and trust that there the devil is crushed and the human being dedicated to God is liberated by divine indulgence.

Likewise John Chrysostom on the Letter to the Hebrews, [homily XIII on c. 7]. PART XXV. When someone sins for this reason, that he may receive holy baptism at his final expiration, perhaps he does not attain it. And believe me: I do not say what I am about to say to terrify you. I have known many who suffered this, who committed many sins in the hope of baptism but departed empty near the day of death. For God gave baptism for this reason, that it might dissolve sins, not add them. But if anyone uses baptism for this purpose, that he may offend more greatly, it becomes itself a cause of negligence.

Likewise Augustine to Boniface, [letter XXIII]. PART XXVI. You ask me whether parents harm their baptized little children when they try to heal them by sacrifices to demons: how does the faith of the parents profit them when they are baptized, while their faithlessness cannot harm them? To this I answer that the power of that sacrament, that is, of saving baptism, in the holy structure of Christ’s body is so great that one who has once been generated through the will of others cannot thereafter be bound by the bond of another’s iniquity, to which he does not consent by any will of his own. “For both the soul of the father is mine,” he says, “and the soul of the son. The soul that sins, it shall die.” For the soul itself does not sin when its parents, while it is wholly ignorant, or anyone else employs the sacrileges of demons. But it drew from Adam that which was to be dissolved by the grace of that sacrament because it was not yet a soul living separately, that is, another soul, concerning which it might be said: “Both the soul of the father is mine and the soul of the son.” Therefore, when the human being has now been made another in himself from the one who begot him, he is not held liable for another’s sin without his own consciousness. § 1. How, then, do adults sin against a little child when, presenting him, they try to bind him with the sacrilegious bonds of demons? The soul is not common to them both so that they can also have a common fault. For fault is not shared through another’s will in the same way that grace is shared through the unity of the Holy Spirit. Likewise. The regenerating Holy Spirit is common to the adults who present and to the little child who is reborn and presented. The same. Through this fellowship of one and the same Spirit, the will of those presenting profits the little child presented. For one Spirit can be in both this human being and that one, even if they do not know one another, through whom the grace of both is common. But the human spirit through which one sins cannot belong both to this person and that, so that, while the other does not sin, the fault is nevertheless common. And by this, a little child once generated from the flesh of his parents can be regenerated by God’s Spirit so that the obligation contracted from them may be dissolved. But one once regenerated by God’s Spirit cannot be generated again from the flesh of his parents so that the obligation which was dissolved may be contracted again. And therefore a little child does not lose the grace of Christ once received except by his own impiety. § 2. Nevertheless, parents or whatever adults who try to bind their children or any baptized little children by the sacrileges of demons are rightly called spiritual murderers. For they do not indeed accomplish the killing in them, but, so far as lies in them, they become killers. Therefore it is rightly said to them when they are prohibited from this crime: “Do not kill your little children.” For the Apostle says, “Do not extinguish the Spirit,” not because he can be extinguished, but those who act so as to wish him extinguished are deservedly called, so far as lies in them, his extinguishers. § 3. Nor let that move you, etc. And below: For necessary ministries are celebrated through them. Little children are indeed presented to receive spiritual grace not so much by those in whose hands they are carried—although also by them, if they too are good believers—as by the universal society of saints and believers. For they are rightly understood to be presented by all to whom it is pleasing that they are presented and by whose holy and indivisible charity they are assisted toward communion in the Holy Spirit. Therefore the whole Mother Church, which is in the saints, does this, because as a whole she gives birth to all and as a whole to each. § 4. You seemed indeed to have proposed a most difficult question at the end of your inquiry, namely with that intention by which you are accustomed vehemently to guard against falsehood. If, you say, I place a little child before you and ask whether, when he comes to adult age, he will be chaste or a thief, or will not be one, you will without doubt answer: “I do not know”; and whether, situated in the same infant age, he thinks anything good or evil, you will say: “I do not know.” Therefore, if you dare promise nothing certain concerning his future conduct or concerning his present thought, what else is it that, when they are presented for baptism, the parents answer for them as guarantors of the faith and say that they do what that age cannot think, or, if it can, it is hidden? For we ask those by whom they are presented and say: “Does he believe in God?” concerning an age which does not know whether God exists. They answer: “He believes”; and to the other things that are asked individually the answer is made thus. Hence I wonder that parents answer so confidently for the little child in these matters that they say he does such great good things when the baptizer asks at the hour when he is baptized; yet if at the same hour I add, “Will the one being baptized be chaste or a thief, or will he not?” I do not know whether anyone would dare to say, “He will be one of these,” or “He will not,” as he answers me without doubt that the child believes in God or turns himself to God. § 5. Behold, I do what I can. May the Lord help me to be able to do what you request. We often speak in such a way that, when Easter approaches, we call tomorrow or the day after tomorrow the Lord’s Passion, although he suffered many years ago and the Passion itself was accomplished altogether only once. On the Lord’s day itself we say: “Today the Lord rose,” although so many years have passed since he rose. Why is no one so foolish as to accuse us of lying when we speak thus, unless because we name these days according to the likeness of those on which these things were done, so that the day which is not that very day by revolution of time but is similar to it is called that very day, and what was done not on that day but long ago is said to be done on that day because of the celebration of the sacrament? § 6. Therefore the little child, etc. And below: § 7. But when the human being begins to understand, he does not repeat that sacrament, but understands it and will be joined to its truth by a consonant will. As long as he cannot do this, the sacrament will avail for his protection against contrary powers; and it will avail so greatly that, if before the use of mature age he migrates from this life, through the sacrament itself, with the charity of the Church commending him, he is freed by Christian aid from that condemnation which entered the world through one human being. One who does not believe this and thinks it cannot occur is assuredly an unbeliever, even if he possesses the sacrament of faith; and far better is this little child who, although he does not yet have faith in thought, nevertheless does not oppose to it the obstacle of contrary thought, whence he receives its sacrament salutarily.

The same to Boniface, Against the Heresy of the Pelagians, [book I, c. 22]. In the Church of the Savior little children believe through others, just as from others they drew the sins which are remitted in baptism; nor do you consider that those who are without the body and blood of Christ cannot have life, since he himself says: “Unless you eat my flesh, etc.”

The same. No one is in any way to doubt that each of the faithful then becomes a participant in the Lord’s body and blood when in baptism he becomes a member of Christ’s body, and that he is not alienated from the fellowship of that bread and chalice even if, before he eats that bread and drinks the chalice, he departs from this world while established in the unity of Christ’s body. For he is not deprived of participation in and the benefit of that sacrament when he himself is found to be that which the sacrament is.

The same, On the Baptism of Infants, [book II, cc. 25 and 26]. PART XXVII. If the flesh of Christ, which was without sin, was baptized for an example of imitation, how much more must the flesh of death be baptized to avoid the judgment of condemnation? But just as in the time of circumcision one who was born of a circumcised person had to be circumcised, so now one who is born of a baptized person must be baptized. § 1. For the sacrament of baptism is the sacrament of regeneration. Hence, just as one who has not lived cannot die, so one who has not been born cannot be reborn. From this it is established that no one could have been reborn in his parent when he was not yet born. And although a parent’s own sins do not harm him after conversion, nevertheless they harm those who are generated from him. They do not harm the parent because he has been reborn; but unless those born of him are reborn in the same way, the things drawn from the parent will harm them, because even a renewed father carnally begets not from newness but from the remnants of oldness, and children escape through the sacrament of regeneration the condemnation of sin propagated in the flesh from the remaining oldness of their parents’ whole oldness.

Likewise in the Enchiridion, [c. 52]. In order to show that we are dead to sin, the Apostle says: “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus have been baptized in his death?” Therefore, if from this we are shown to be dead to sin, because we have been baptized in Christ’s death, assuredly little children who are baptized in Christ die to sin because they are baptized in his death. For it was said with no one excepted: “All of us who have been baptized in Christ have been baptized in his death”; and it was said for this reason, to prove that we are dead to sin. But do little children by being reborn die to that sin which they contracted by being born? And through this, what follows pertains to them: “For we were buried together with him through baptism into death.” § 1. Therefore, to those baptized in Christ’s death, in which not only adults but also little children are baptized, he says: “So reckon yourselves indeed to be dead to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus.”

The same in the same work, [c. 43]. From the newly born little child to the decrepit old man, just as no one is to be prohibited from baptism, so there is no one who does not die to sin in baptism. But little children die only to original sin, while adults die also to all the sins which by living badly they added to the original one.

Likewise in the same work, [c. 49]. Those who were baptized with John’s baptism were not regenerated, but by a certain forerunning ministry of him who said, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” they were prepared for him in whom alone they could be reborn. For his baptism is not only in water, as John’s was, but also in the Holy Spirit, so that whoever has believed in Christ may be regenerated from him; from him Christ is generated, who had no need of regeneration. § 1. Therefore he willed to be baptized in water not so that his iniquity might be washed away, but that his humanity might be commended. For just as baptism had nothing in him to wash away, so death found nothing to punish.

The same, On the Baptism of Infants, [or On the Merits of Sins, book I, cc. 15 and 16]. When the flesh generates, only original sin is drawn; but when the Spirit regenerates, remission is made not only of original sins but also of voluntary sins. Consequently, it can rightly be said that little children departing without baptism will be in the mildest punishment of all. But one who proclaims that they will not be in condemnation both deceives and is deceived, since the Apostle says: “Through the offense of one, all human beings unto condemnation, etc.”

The same in the same work, [c. 16]. Whoever is carnally generated from obedience to the flesh and the law of sin and death needs to be spiritually regenerated, so that he may not only be led to the kingdom of God but also be freed from the condemnation of sin. Just as through the first human being they are born in sin and death, so also through Christ they are reborn in baptism in righteousness and eternal life.

Likewise in the same work, [c. 19]. Little children are rightly called faithful who in some manner confess the faith through the words of those carrying them and through the words of the same persons renounce the devil and also the world. And this occurs by the power of the sacrament and of divine grace, which God gave to the Church. But if a little child who is baptized, upon reaching the years of reason, does not believe and does not abstain from illicit things, what he received as a little child profits him nothing.

Likewise Augustine in the book On the Merits and Remission of Sins, [cc. 25 and 19]. Mother Church supplies a maternal mouth to little children so that they may be imbued with the sacred mysteries, because they cannot yet believe with their own heart unto righteousness or confess with their own mouth unto salvation. Yet no one of the faithful can therefore call them unfaithful—a name assuredly derived from believing—although they themselves did not answer, but others answered for them amid the sacraments. But if they are rightly called faithful because in some manner they profess the faith through the words of those carrying them, why are they not also regarded as penitents, since through the words of those carrying them they are shown to renounce the devil and this world?

The same, [in tractate CXXI on c. 20 of John]. The charity of the Church, which is poured forth through the Holy Spirit in the hearts of those who are its participants, remits sins; it retains those of persons who are not its participants.

The same, Against Julian, book II. No one takes away sins except Christ alone, who is the Lamb taking away the sins of the world. He takes them away by remitting those which have been done—in which original sin also is contained—by assisting so that they are not done, and by leading to the life where they cannot be done at all.

The same, On the Baptism of Infants. No salvation apart from baptism is promised to infants, because infants remain in darkness if through the sacrament divinely instituted for this purpose they do not pass into the number of believers.

The same in the same work, [c. 26]. Baptism avails for this: that those baptized may be incorporated into Christ as his members and buried together with him, and that those presented may through the sacrament and the charity of the faithful be reconciled to God, so that in him they may be made living, safe, liberated, redeemed, and illuminated.

But who does not know that for infants to believe is to be baptized, while not to believe is not to be baptized?

The same in the book On Free Choice, [c. 14]. Grace, which is given through Christ, effects not only the remission of sins but also that the law may be fulfilled, that nature may be liberated, and that sin may not rule. The Spirit of grace also gives faith, which is granted by God even when not requested, so that other things may also be granted to the human being who asks. For faith is not only from free choice, but is God’s gift.

The same, On the Baptism of Infants, [book II, c. 7]. PART XXVIII. Not from the moment anyone is baptized is every old infirmity consumed in him; rather, renewal begins from the remission of all sins and from the understanding and operation of spiritual things. But the remaining things are in hope until they come to be in reality, which will occur in the resurrection. For in baptism, although full remission of sins takes place, there is not yet full newness and perfect change, because corruption still remains not only in the body but also in the mind, which is the inner human being; if newness were perfect in it, the Apostle would not say that it is renewed from day to day. Likewise, [c. 27]. § 1. We ought to remember this: that full and perfect remission of all sins takes place in baptism, but the whole human being is not changed immediately; rather, in those progressing well, as newness increases from day to day, that which is old and carnal is changed until it is so renewed that the animal infirmity of the body arrives at spiritual and incorrupt strength. § 2. But this law of sin, concerning which the Apostle says, “Let sin not reign in your mortal body,” does not remain in the members of those who have been reborn as though remission had not been made for them where there is full remission of all our sins, with all the enemies by whom they were separated from God killed; but it remains in the oldness of the flesh as conquered and slain, if it does not revive through illicit consent and is not recalled to its own kingdom. But the life of the Spirit, in whose newness the baptized are reborn, is distinguished to such an extent from this oldness of the flesh and from sin which has been remitted that such persons are said even in the present to be not only not in sin, but also not in the flesh, whose desires they do not follow, but in the Spirit. But one uses the corruptible flesh well who turns its members to working well, not living according to the desires of the flesh by the law of sin which, although it has now been remitted, nevertheless remains in the oldness of the flesh. Faithful married persons use it well when, from the fact that they are in the newness of Christ, they do not permit lust to rule over them; but from the fact that they still draw the oldness of Adam, they mortally generate children who must be regenerated, with the propagation of sin to which the reborn are not held liable and from which those born are freed by being reborn. Likewise. § 3. Just as iniquitous things said, done, and thought pertain to soul and body, and although as regards their movements they have now passed and do not exist, nevertheless, once they have passed, their guilt remains unless the sin is dissolved by remission, so, while the law of concupiscence not past but still remains, its guilt is dissolved and will not exist when full remission of sin takes place in baptism.

The same in letter CVIII to Seleucianus. PART XXIX. When Jesus went out from Jerusalem with his disciples into the land of Judea and remained there with them, he baptized not through himself but through his disciples, whom we understand already to have been baptized, whether with John’s baptism, as some think, or—which is more credible—with Christ’s baptism. Likewise. § 1. The Lord answered Peter: “He who has been washed needs only to wash his feet, but is wholly clean.” From this it is understood that Peter had already been baptized.

The same to Vincentius Victor. If we contend that those concerning whom it is not written whether they were baptized or not departed from this life without baptism, we make a calumny against the Apostles themselves, for, apart from the Apostle Paul, we do not know when they were baptized. But that they themselves were baptized could become known to us through this: that the Lord said to blessed Peter the Apostle, “He who has been washed needs only to wash his feet.”

The same in book IV On Baptism, [c. 21]. PART XXX. I do not doubt that a Catholic catechumen burning with divine charity is to be preferred to a baptized heretic; but even within the Church itself we prefer a catechumen to a bad baptized person. Yet we do not thereby do injury to the sacrament of baptism with which the former has not yet, but the latter has already, been imbued. § 1. For deservedly the centurion, not yet baptized, is preferred to the baptized Simon. The former was filled with the Holy Spirit received even before baptism; the latter was puffed up by an unclean spirit even after baptism. Nevertheless, if Cornelius, after already receiving the Holy Spirit, had refused to be baptized, he would become guilty of contempt for so great a sacrament. § 2. But just as baptism is lacking to a good catechumen for attaining the kingdom of heaven, so true conversion is lacking to a bad baptized person. For he who said, “Unless someone is reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven,” also said: “Unless your righteousness abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

The same in the book of Prosper’s Sentences. True baptism consists not so much in the washing of the body as in the faith of the heart, as apostolic teaching hands down, saying: “Cleansing their hearts by faith,” and elsewhere: “Baptism saves—not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the questioning of a good conscience toward God.”

The same, On Baptism. Just as in the sacraments of the Old Testament certain spiritual persons lived, secretly pertaining to the New Testament which was then hidden, so also now, in the sacrament of the New Testament which has now been revealed, certain animal persons live who, because they are unwilling to advance to perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God, as the apostolic discourse exhorts, will pertain to the Old Testament. But if they advance, even before they attain, by the very approach and progress they pertain to the New; and if, before they become spiritual, they are snatched from this life, preserved through the sanctity of the sacrament they are counted in the land of the living. Nor do I find what can be found more true in what is written: “Your eyes saw my imperfection, and in your book all shall be written.” Likewise, [book III, c. 14]. § 1. When the integrity and sanctity of the sacrament is treated, it makes no difference what the person who receives the sacrament believes or with what kind of faith he is imbued. It indeed makes a very great difference to the way of salvation, but no difference to the question of the sacrament. Likewise. § 2. It is manifest that it can happen that the sacrament of baptism remains whole in someone whose faith is not whole. Likewise, [c. 15]. § 3. If it were possible for individuals to be questioned diligently, there would perhaps be as many diversities of opinions as human beings are numbered. “For the animal human being does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God.” Do they therefore not receive the sacrament whole? Or therefore, if they advance and amend the vanity of their carnal opinions, must what they had received be repeated anew? Each person receives according to his faith, but as much as he grasps, with the mercy of God governing.

Likewise from the Council of Milevis, at which Augustine and Anselm, legate of the Roman Church, were present, against the Pelagians, [c. 1]. PART XXXI. Therefore it pleased all the bishops who were in this holy synod to establish these things which were defined in the present council: that whoever says that Adam, the first human being, was made mortal in such a way that, whether he sinned or did not sin, he would die in the body, that is, would depart from the body, not by the desert of sin but by necessity of nature, let him be anathema.

Likewise from the same Council, [c. 2]. It was resolved that whoever denies that newborn little children are to be baptized from their mothers’ wombs, or says that they are baptized for the remission of sins but draw nothing from Adam of original sin which is to be expiated by the washing of regeneration—whence it follows that in them the form of baptism “for the remission of sins” is understood not as true but as false—let him be anathema; because what the Apostle says, “Through one human being sin entered the world, and through sin death, and thus it passed into all human beings, in whom all sinned,” is to be understood in no other way than the Catholic Church diffused everywhere has always understood it. For on account of this rule of faith, even little children who have not yet been able to commit any sins in themselves are therefore truly baptized for the remission of sins, so that what they drew by generation may be cleansed in them by regeneration.

Likewise, [c. 3]. It was resolved that whoever says that the grace of God by which a human being is justified through Jesus Christ our Lord avails only for the remission of sins which have already been committed, and not also for assistance so that they are not committed, let him be anathema.

Likewise, [c. 4]. Whoever says that the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord assists us not to sin only for this reason—that through it the understanding of the commandments is revealed and opened to us, so that we may know what we ought to pursue and what to avoid—but that through it we are not granted also to do, or to be able to do, what we have learned must be done, let him be anathema.

Likewise, [c. 5]. PART XXXII. It was resolved that whoever says that the grace of justification is given to us so that what we are commanded to do by free choice we can fulfill more easily through grace, as though, even if grace were not given, we could—indeed not easily, but nevertheless even without it—fulfill the divine commandments, let him be anathema.