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false but as true Christians, would he have Church, but are not; "nay, they even act ordered them to be baptized anew? Surely against the Church. How then can they bapnot; but their true conversion would have tize with the baptism of the Church," which gained this for them, that the sacrament which is of avail neither to themselves, nor to those availed for their destruction while they were who receive it from them, unless they are yet unchanged, should begin when they changed in heart with a true conversion, so changed to avail for their salvation. that the sacrament itself, which did not avail 5. For neither are they "devoted to the them when they received it whilst they were Church" who seem to be within and live renouncing the world in words and not in contrary to Christ, that is, act against His deeds, may begin to profit them when they commandments; nor can they be considered shall begin to renounce it in deeds also? And in any way to belong to that Church, which so too in the case of those whose separation He so purifies by the washing of water, "that from the Church is open; for neither these He may present to Himself a glorious Church, nor those are as yet among the members of not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.' "the dove, but some of them perhaps will be But if they are not in that Church to whose at some future time. members they do not belong, they are not in the Church of which it is said, My dove is but one; she is the only one of her mother;"3 for she herself is without spot or wrinkle. Or else let him who can assert that those are members of this dove who renounce the world in words but not in deeds. Meantime there is one thing which we see, from which I think it was said, "He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord," for God judgeth every day. For, according to His foreknowledge, who knows whom He has foreordained before the foundation of the world to be made like to the image of His Son, many who are even openly outside, and are called heretics, are better than many good Catholics. For we see what they are to-day, what they shall be to-morrow we know not. And with God, with whom the future is already present, they already are what they shall hereafter be. | But we, according to what each man is at present, inquire whether they are to be to-day reckoned among the members of the Church which is called the one dove, and the Bride · of Christ without a spot or wrinkle,5 of whom Cyprian says in the letter which I have quoted above, that "they did not keep in the way of the Lord, nor observe the commandments given unto them for their salvation; that they did not fulfill the will of their Lord, being eager about their property and gains, following the dictates of pride, giving way to envy and dissension, careless about single-mindedness and faith, renouncing the world in words only and not in deeds, pleasing each himself, and displeasing all men.' But if the dove does not acknowledge them among her members, and if the Lord shall say to them, supposing that they continue in the same perversity, "I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity;" then they seem indeed to be in the

1 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. 11. 4 Rom. xiv. 6.

6 Cypr. Ep. xi. 1, first

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CHAP. 4.-6. We do not, therefore, “acknowledge the baptism of heretics," when we refuse to baptize after them; but because we acknowledge the ordinance to be of Christ even among evil men, whether openly separated from us, or secretly severed whilst within our body, we receive it with due respect, having corrected those who were wrong in the points wherein they went astray. However as I seem to be hard pressed when it is said to me, Does then a heretic confer remission of sins?" so I in turn press hard when I say, Does then he who violates the commands of Heaven, the avaricious man, the robber, the usurer, the envious man, does he who renounces the world in words and not in deeds, confer such remission? If you mean by the force of God's sacrament, then both the one and the other; if by his own merit, neither of them. For that sacrament, even in the hands of wicked men, is known to be of Christ; but neither the one nor the other of these men is found in the body of the one uncorrupt, holy, chaste dove, which has neither spot nor wrinkle. And just as baptism is of no profit to the man who renounces the world in words and not in deeds, so it is of no profit to him who is baptized in heresy or schism; but each of them, when he amends his ways, begins to receive profit from that which before was not profitable, but was yet already in him.

7. "He therefore that is baptized in heresy does not become the temple of God;" but does it therefore follow that he is not to be considered as baptized? For neither does the avaricious man, baptized within the Church, become the temple of God unless he depart from his avarice; for they who become the temple of God certainly inherit the kingdom of God. But the apostle says, among

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many other things, "Neither the covetous, holy Cyprian, who was not only learned, but nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom also patient of instruction, which he so fully of God." For in another place the same himself understood to be a part of the praise apostle compares covetousness to the worship of the bishop whom the apostle describes, of idols: Nor covetous man," he says, that he said, This also should be approved "who is an idolater;" which meaning the in a bishop, that he not only teach with knowlsame Cyprian has so far extended in a letter edge, but also learn with patience." I do to Antonianus, that he did not hesitate to not doubt that if he had had the opportunity compare the sin of covetousness with that of of discussing this question, which has been so men who in time of persecution had declared long and so much disputed in the Church, in writing that they would offer incense.3 with the pious and learned men to whom we The man, then, who is baptized in heresy in owe it that subsequently that ancient custom the name of the Holy Trinity, yet does not was confirmed by the authority of a plenary become the temple of God unless he abandons Council, he would have shown, without hesihis heresy, just as the covetous man who has tation, not only how learned he was in those been baptized in the same name does not be- things which he had grasped with all the securcome the temple of God unless he abandons ity of truth, but also how ready he was to rehis covetousness, which is idolatry. For ceive instruction in what he had failed to perthis, too, the same apostle says: "What ceive. And yet, since it is so clear that it is agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" much more grievous to sin wittingly than in Let it not, then, be asked of us "of what God ignorance, I should be glad if any one would he is made the temple"s when we say that tell me which is the worse,-the man who falls he is not made the temple of God at all. Yet into heresy, not knowing how great a sin it is, he is not therefore unbaptized, nor does his or the man who refuses to abandon his covetfoul error cause that what he has received, ousness, knowing its enormity? I might consecrated in the words of the gospel, should even put the question thus: If one man unnot be the holy sacrament; just as the other wittingly fall into heresy, and another knowman's covetousness (which is idolatry) and ingly refuse to depart from idolatry, since great uncleanness cannot prevent what he re- the apostle himself says, "The covetous man, ceives from being holy baptism, even though which is an idolater;" and Cyprian too underhe be baptized with the same words of the stood the same passage in just the same way, gospel by another man covetous like himself. when he says, in his letter to Antonianus, "Nor let the new heretics flatter themselves in this, that they say they do not communicate with idolaters, whereas there are amongst them both adulterers and covetous persons, who are held guilty of the sin of idolatry; for know this, and understand, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God;'" and again, Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.' """ I ask, therefore, which sins more deeply, he who ignorantly has fallen into heresy, or he who wittingly has refused to abandon covetousness, that is idolatry? According to that rule by which the sins of those who sin wittingly are placed before those of the ignorant, the man who is covetous with knowledge takes the first place in sin. as it is possible that the greatness of the actual sin should produce the same effect in the case of heresy that the witting commission of the sin produces in that of covetousness, let us suppose the ignorant heretic to be on

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CHAP. 5.-8. "Further," Cyprian goes on to say, in vain do some, who are overcome by reason, oppose to us custom, as though custom were superior to truth, or that were not to be followed in spiritual things which has been revealed by the Holy Spirit, as the better way." This is clearly true, since reason and truth are to be preferred to custom. But when truth supports custom, nothing should be more strongly maintained. Then he proceeds as follows: "For one may pardon a man who merely errs, as the Apostle Paul says of himself, 'Who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly;" but he who, after inspiration and revelation given, perseveres advisedly and knowingly in his former error, sins without hope of pardon on the ground of ignorance. For he rests on a kind of presumption and obstinacy, when he is overcome by reason." This is most true, that his sin is much more grievous who has sinned wittingly than his who has sinned through ignorance. And so in the case of the

82 Tim. ii. 24. 10 Eph. v. 5.

9 Cypr. Ep. lxxiv. 10. 11 Col. iii. 5. Cypr. Ep. lv. 27.

a par in guilt with the consciously covetous time. And seeing that this was not enough man, although the evidence which Cyprian for him, as against the custom of the whole himself has advanced from the apostle does world, he laid hold on these reasons which we not seem to prove this. For what is it that just now, considering them with great care, we abominate in heretics except their blas- and being confirmed by the antiquity of the phemies? But when he wished to show that custom itself, and by the subsequent authority ignorance of the sin may conduce to ease in of a plenary Council, found to be truth-like obtaining pardon, he advanced a proof from rather than true; which, however, seemed to the case of the apostle, when he says, "Who him true, as he toiled in a question of the was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, greatest obscurity, and was in doubt about the and injurious; but I obtained mercy, because remission of sins,--whether it could fail to be I did it ignorantly." But if possible, as I given in the baptism of Christ, and whether said before, let the sins of the two men-the it could be given among heretics. In which blasphemy of the unconscious, and the idol- matter, if an imperfect revelation of the truth atry of the conscious sinner-be esteemed of was given to Cyprian, that the greatness of equal weight; and let them be judged by the his love in not deserting the unity of the same sentence,—he who, in seeking for Christ, Church might be made manifest, there is yet falls into a truth-like setting forth of what is not any reason why any one should venture to false, and he who wittingly resists Christ claim superiority over the strong defenses and speaking through His apostle, "seeing that excellence of his virtues, and the abundance no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor of graces which were found in him, merely covetous man, which is an idolater, hath any because, with the instruction derived from the inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of strength of a general Council, he sees someGod," and then I would ask why baptism thing which Cyprian did not see, because the and the words of the gospel are held as naught Church had not yet held a plenary Council on in the former case, and accounted valid in the matter. Just as no one is so insane as the latter, when each is alike found to be es- to set himself up as surpassing the merits of tranged from the members of the dove. Is the Apostle Peter, because, taught by the it because the former is an open combatant epistles of the Apostle Paul, and confirmed outside, that he should not be admitted, the by the custom of the Church herself, he does latter a cunning assenter within the fold, that not compel the Gentiles to judaize, as Peter he may not be expelled? once had done.4

10. We do not then "find that any one, after CHAP. 6.-9. But as regards his saying, being baptized among heretics, was afterwards "Nor let any one affirm that what they have admitted by the apostles with the same bapreceived from the apostles, that they follow; tism, and communicated; "5 but neither do we for the apostles handed down only one Church find this, that any one coming from the society and one baptism, and that appointed only in of heretics, who had been baptized among the same Church:"3 this does not so much them, was baptized anew by the apostles. move me to venture to condemn the baptism But this custom, which even then those who of Christ when found amongst heretics (just looked back to past ages could not find to have as it is necessary to recognize the gospel itself been invented by men of a later time, is when I find it with them, though I abominate rightly believed to have been handed down their error), as it warns me that there were from the apostles. And there are many other some even in the times of the holy Cyprian things of the same kind, which it would be who traced to the authority of the apostles tedious to recount. Wherefore, if they had that custom against which the African Coun- something to say for themselves to whom cils were held, and in respect of which he Cyprian, wishing to persuade them of the himself said a little above, In vain do those truth of his own view, says, "Let no one say, who are beaten by reason oppose to us the What we have received from the apostles, authority of custom." Nor do I find the that we follow," with how much more force reason why the same Cyprian found this very we now say, What the custom of the Church custom, which after his time was confirmed by nothing less than a plenary Council of the whole world, already so strong before his time, that when with all his learning he sought an authority worth following for changing it, he found nothing but a Council of Agrippinus held in Africa a very few years before his own 11 Tim. i. 13. 2 Eph. v. 5. 3 Cypr. Ep. lxxii. 13.

has always held, what this argument has failed to prove false, and what a plenary Council has confirmed, this we follow! To this we may add that it may also be said, after a careful inquiry into the reasoning on both sides of the discussion, and into the evidence

4 Gal. ii. 14.

5 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. 13.

of Scripture, What truth has declared, that amongst those who were within so great an we follow.

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evil of envy and malicious strife? For these are the words of Cyprian. Can it be that envy and malicious strife are a small evil? How then were those in unity who were not at peace? For it is not my voice, nor that of any man, but of the Lord Himself; nor did the sound go forth from men, but from angels, at the birth of Christ, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will." And this certainly would not have been proclaimed by the voice of angels when Christ was born upon the earth, unless God wished this to be understood, that those are in the unity of the body of Christ who are united in the peace of Christ, and those are in the peace of Christ who are of good will. Furthermore, as good will is shown in kindliness, so is bad will shown in malice.

CHAP. 7.-11. For in fact, as to what some opposed to the reasoning of Cyprian, that the apostle says, "Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretence or in truth, let Christ be preached," Cyprian rightly exposed their error, showing that it has nothing to do with the case of heretics, since the apostle was speaking of those who were acting within the Church, with malicious envy seeking their own profit. They announced Christ, indeed, according to the truth whereby we believe in Christ, but not in the spirit in which He was announced by the good evangelists to the sons of the dove. "For Paul," he says, "in his epistle was not speaking of heretics, or of their baptism, so that it could be shown that he had laid down anything concerning this matter. He was speaking of brethren, CHAP. 8-12. In short, we may see how whether as walking disorderly and contrary great an evil in itself is envy, which cannot be to the discipline of the Church, or as keeping other than malicious. Let us not look for the discipline of the Church in the fear of other testimony. Cyprian himself is sufficient God. And he declared that some of them for us, through whose mouth the Lord poured spoke the word of God steadfastly and fear-forth so many thunders in most perfect truth, lessly, but that some were acting in envy and and uttered so many useful precepts about strife; that some had kept themselves encom- envy and malignity. Let us therefore read passed with kindly Christian love, but that the letter of Cyprian about envy and malig others entertained malice and strife: but yet nity, and see how great an evil it is to envy that he patiently endured all things, with the those better than ourselves,—an evil whose view that, whether in truth or in pretence, origin he shows in memorable words to have the name of Christ, which Paul preached, sprung from the devil himself. "To feel might come to the knowledge of the greatest jealousy," he says, "of what you regard as number, and that the sowing of the word, good, and to envy those who are better than which was as yet a new and unaccustomed yourselves, to some, dearest brethren, seems work, might spread more widely by the a light and minute offense." And again a preaching of those that spoke. Furthermore, little later, when he was inquiring into the it is one thing for those who are within the source and origin of the evil, he says, "From Church to speak in the name of Christ, an- this the devil, in the very beginning of the other thing for those who are without, acting world, perished first himself, and led others against the Church, to baptize in the name to destruction." 5 And further on in the of Christ." These words of Cyprian seem same chapter: "What an evil, dearest to warn us that we must distinguish between brethren, is that by which an angel fell! by those who are bad outside, and those who are which that exalted and illustrious loftiness bad within the Church. And those whom he was able to be deceived and overthrown! by says that the apostle represents as preaching which he was deceived who was the deceiver! the gospel impurely and of envy, he says From that time envy stalks upon the earth, truly were within. This much, however, I when man, about to perish through malignity, think I may say without rashness, if no one submits himself to the teacher of perdition, outside can have anything which is of Christ, when he who envies imitates the devil, as neither can any one within have anything it is written, Through envy of the devil came which is of the devil. For if that closed gar-death into the world, and they that do hold den can contain the thorns of the devil, why of his side do find it.'" How true, how cannot the fountain of Christ equally flow forcible are these words of Cyprian, in an beyond the garden's bounds? But if it can- epistle known throughout the world, we cannot contain them, whence, even in the time not fail to recognize. It was truly fitting for of the Apostle Paul himself, did there arise

1 Phil. i. 18. Hieron. "annuntietur."

2 Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. 14.

3 Luke ii. 14. "Hominibus bona voluntatis ;" and so the Vulgate, following the reading ἐν ἀνθρώποις εὐδοκίας. 4 Cypr. de Zel, et Liv. c. 1. 5 lb. c. 4. 6 Wisd. ii. 24, 25.

us.

Cyprian to argue and warn most forcibly of an abandoned life, as the apostle says of about envy and malignity, from which most them, "Thou that preachest a man should deadly evil he proved his own heart to be so not steal, dost thou steal?"5 For Cyprian far removed by the abundance of his Christian says in his letter of such bishops of his own love; by carefully guarding which he remained time, his own colleagues, and remaining in in the unity of communion with his colleagues, communion with him, "While they had who without ill-feeling entertained different brethren starving in the Church, they tried views about baptism, whilst he himself dif. to amass large sums of money, they took fered in opinion from them, not through any possession of estates by fraudulent proceedcontention of ill will, but through human in- ings, they multiplied their gains by accumufirmity, erring in a point which God, in His lated usuries."¿ For here there is no obown good time, would reveal to him by reason scure question. Scripture declares openly, of his perseverance in love. For he says "Neither covetous nor extortioners shall inopenly, "Judging no one, nor depriving any herit the kingdom of God;" and "He that of the right of communion if he differ from putteth out his money to usury, " and "No For no one of us setteth himself up as whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor coveta bishop of bishops, or by tyrannical terror ous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritforces his colleagues to a necessity of obey- ance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.", ing." And in the end of the epistle before He therefore certainly would not, without us he says, "These things I have written to knowledge, have brought accusations of such you briefly, dearest brother, according to my covetousness, that men not only greedily treaspoor ability, prescribing to or prejudging no ured up their own goods, but also fraudulently one, so as to prevent each bishop from doing appropriated the goods of others, or of idolatry what he thinks right in the free exercise of existing in such enormity as he understands his own judgment. We, so far as in us lies, and proves it to exist; nor assuredly would do not strive on behalf of heretics with our he bear false witness against his fellowcolleges and fellow-bishops, with whom we bishops. And yet with the bowels of fatherly hold the harmony that God enjoins, and the and motherly love he endured them, lest that, peace of our Lord, especially as the apostle by rooting out the tares before their time, the says, ‘If any man seem to be contentious, we wheat should also have been rooted up, imihave no such custom, neither the churches of tating assuredly the Apostle Paul, who, with God.' Christian love in our souls, the honor the same love towards the Church, endured of our fraternity, the bond of faith, the har- those who were ill-disposed and envious tomony of the priesthood, all these are main- wards him." tained by us with patience and gentleness. For this cause we have also, so far as our poor ability admitted, by the permission and inspiration of the Lord, written now a treatise on the benefit of patience, which we have sent to you in consideration of our mutual affection." 4

CHAP. 9.-13. By this patience of Christian love he not only endured the difference of opinion manifested in all kindliness by his good colleagues on an obscure point, as he also himself received toleration, till, in process of time, when it so pleased God, what had always been a most wholesome custom was further confirmed by a declaration of the truth in a plenary Council, but he even put up with those who were manifestly bad, as was very well known to himself, who did not entertain a different view in consequence of the obscurity of the question, but acted contrary to their preaching in the evil practices

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14. But yet because "by the envy of the devil death entered into the world, and they that do hold of his side do find it, 12 not because they are created by God, but because they go astray of themselves, as Cyprian also says himself, seeing that the devil, before he was a devil, was an angel, and good, how can it be that they who are of the devil's side are in the unity of Christ? Beyond all doubt, as the Lord Himself says, an enemy hath done this," who "sowed tares among the wheat." 13 As therefore what is of the devil within the fold must be convicted, so what is of Christ without must be recognized. Has the devil what is his within the unity of the Church, and shall Christ not have what is His without? This, perhaps, might be said of individual men, that as the devil has none that are his among the holy angels, so God has none that are His outside the communion of the Church. But though it may be allowed to the devil to mingle tares, that is, wicked men, with this Church which still wears the mortal nature of