the winter of 256[1] Cyprian's messengers to Firmilian returned with (10) his reply, the most enthusiastic letter of the series. We have it in Cyprian's translation from the Greek.[2] It has points of great interest; compares the bp. of Rome to Judas; shews the antiquity of rebaptism in Asia; touches on their annual synods; the fixed and extempore portions of the liturgy; the quasi-supremacy of Jerusalem; the unity under wide divisions. For arguments to the point it relies on Cyprian's letters.
We will now briefly classify Cyprian's arguments and the answers to them, avoiding the making him responsible for his partisans, whose judgment in council (vii.) differs much from his. Firmilian, on the other hand, summarizes sensibly. Cyprian then urges for rebaptism (A), Objective grounds. (a) The unity of the church, viz. that in the critical point of "church and non-church," schism does not differ from heresy (69, iii.): the representation of sacred acts outside not equivalent to sacred acts within: "one Lord, one faith," there may be, but not "one baptism," for this implies "one church," which the schismatic renounces. (b) Unity of Belief. In its African form the creed ran, "Dost thou believe the remission of sins and life everlasting through holy church?" and was accordingly null at the moment of baptism away from the church. (c) Baptism is a function of holy orders on account of its remissory virtue in respect of sin (not Tertullian's doctrine [de Bap. xvii.]), and holy orders have no being outside the church (73, vii.), so that the whole question of episcopal authority as the bond of unity and divine organization is involved[3] (Ep. 72, i.), and if external baptism is true, the church has many centres; not one foundation rock, but several (75, xvii.). The separatist teacher surrenders (70, ii.) the animating, unifying Spirit, and cannot through his personal earnestness convey that Spirit to followers by baptizing them[4] (Ep. 69). (d) The imposition of hands on the readmitted separatist expresses that he has not, but needs to receive, the Holy Ghost; Stephen's party use this rite, and quote the apostles at Samaria as an example. But without that Spirit how could the separatist consecrate even the water or the unction of confirmation? (Ep. 70, i.; cf. Sentt. Epp. 18; on the significance of this "royal" oil, see Bunsen; and on the Novatianist disuse of it, Routh, vol. iii. pp. 69, 70). Above all, how give the New Birth which, as the essence of the sacrament, is essentially the Spirit's act (Ep. 74, v. vi. etc.)? (e) Baptism in the absence of the Spirit is a Judaic, a carnal rite: a defilement; more than a deceiving semblance, a material pollution (Ep. 75, xiii.; 72, i.; 73, xxi.; 69, xvi.; cf. Sedatus, Sentt. Epp. 18; Victor Gordub. Sent., whom Augustine criticizes as going to lengths beyond Cyprian; still the frightful expression of de Unit. xi. involves all this). The pretender can "neither justify nor sanctify" (69, x.), who but the holy can hallow (69, ii.)? who but the living give life (71, i.)? (f) Christ not present to make up for the unworthiness of the minister. For if so His Spirit could not be absent (75, xii.), and that He is absent is admitted by the necessity for imposition of hands (id. xiii.).
(B) Subjective Grounds. (a) Faith of recipient insufficient (Epp. 73, 75, ix.): to be effective must be true; but is deficient in a cardinal point, viz. the remission of sins by the church; even if not false and, as often, blasphemous (73, iv. v; 74). (b) Not secured by the formula. In the Roman church there was still such absence of rigidity that it was argued that without the Trinal form baptism into Christ's name sufficed (Ep. 74, v.). Cyprian however points to the clear words of institution, and appeals to common reason to decide whether one is truly baptized into the Son who denies His Humanity (Ep. 73, v.),[5] or treats the God of the O. T. as evil (74, iii.): even if the genuine formula be used, still the rite is no question of words; the absent Christ and Spirit are not bound by them as a spell. (c) Incapable of definition. It is not the church's part to graduate departures from the faith. Even death in behalf of a heresy can not restore to the church. If what is universally accepted as ipso facto baptism (in blood) is unavailing, how can ordinary extraneous baptism be more (Ep. 73, xxi.; de Unit. xiv. (12) xix.; or Dom. xxiv.)?
(C) The historical argument is handled by Cyprian in the most masterly way. (a) Usage is not worth considering as more than an apology for ignorance; cannot be matched
- ↑ Stephen died, and Cyprian was exiled before the winter of 257.
- ↑ It is impossible not to recognize Cyprian's style in it; equally impossible not to see the Gk. [A] in some of its compound phrases and coupled epithets (e.g. i. magnam voluntatis caritatem in unum convenire; iii. velociter currentes, iv. quoniam sermo . . . distribuatur, etc.). [B] In the literal (sometimes awkward) rendering of words: iv. seniores et praepositi (= presbyteri et epicopi) for πρεσβύτεροι καὶ προεστῶτες; vii. praesident majores natu, where Cyprian could not have used presbyteri, and yet age is not to the point; fratribus tam longe positis (μακρὰν κειμένοις); v. inexcusabilem; vi. eos qui Romae sunt; aequaliter quae; vii. possident potestatem; x. nec vexari in aliquo; quamvis ad imaginem veritatis tamen; xxiii. volentibus vivere; xii. Nos etiam illos quos hi qui. [C] Instances where the Gk. is not thoroughly mastered: viii. nisi si his episcopis quibus nunc minor fuit Paulus (? τῶν νῦν); xii. ut per eos qui cum ipsi, etc.; cum unmeaning—observe in ix. patrias of local persecutions in Asia Minor. The remarkable translation of Eph. 4, 3, in xxiv. is in the same words as in three other places of Cyprian, and differs from every other known rendering; even the African Nemesianus in this council uses curantes instead of satisagentes.
- ↑ This view becomes "Christus baptizandi potestatem episcopis dedit" in the mouth of one of the bishops (Sentt. Ep. 17).
- ↑ "Qui non habet quomodo dat?" became a catchword of the Donatists. The reply of the Catholics was "Deum esse datorem" (Optat. p. 103).
- ↑ The basis of this is Tert. de Bapt. xv.
