To Quintus, on the Baptism of Those Outside the Church

Cyprian to his brother Quintus, greeting.

Our fellow-presbyter Lucianus reported to me, dearest brother, that you had desired us to signify to you what we think concerning those who appear to have been baptized among heretics and schismatics. That you might know what we recently decreed in council, together with the many fellow-bishops and the fellow-presbyters who were present, I sent you a copy of that same letter. For I know not by what presumption certain of our colleagues are led to think that those who have been dipped among heretics, when they come to us, ought not to be baptized, on the ground that they say there is one baptism, which is indeed one in the Catholic Church. Which Church, if it is one, baptism cannot exist outside the Church: for, since there cannot be two baptisms, if heretics truly baptize, they possess baptism; and whoever grants them this patronage by his own authority yields to them and consents, so that enemies and adversaries of Christ are seen to have the power of washing, purifying, and sanctifying a man.

But we say that those who come from thence are not re-baptized among us, but baptized. For they receive nothing there where there is nothing; but they come to us that here they may receive what is here, where both grace and all truth is, because both grace and truth are one. Moreover, certain of our colleagues prefer to give honor to heretics rather than to agree with us; and, while by insistence on one baptism they refuse to baptize those who come, they thus either themselves make two baptisms, while they say that baptism exists also among heretics, or certainly, which is more serious, they contend that the foul and profane dipping of heretics is to be placed before and preferred to the true and sole and lawful baptism of the Catholic Church: not considering that it is written: He that is baptized by a dead man, what doth his washing profit him?

But it is manifest that those who are not in the Church of Christ are reckoned among the dead, nor can one who does not himself live give life to another; since there is one Church which, having obtained the grace of eternal life, both lives forever and gives life to the people of God. And they say that in this they follow the ancient custom, when among the ancient heresies and schisms there were still only first beginnings, so that those who were there were persons who had withdrawn from the Church and had previously been baptized here; whom, however, when returning to the Church and doing penance, it was not necessary to baptize.

Which we also observe today, so that those who are established to have been baptized here, and to have gone over from us to heretics, if afterward, their sin being recognized and their error set aside, they return to the truth and to the mother, it is sufficient to lay the hand upon them in penance; so that, since the person had been a sheep, the shepherd may receive this sheep, estranged and wandering, back into his fold. But if one who comes from heretics was not previously baptized in the Church, but comes as wholly a stranger and profane person, he must be baptized, that he may become a sheep, because there is one water in the holy Church which makes sheep, and therefore, because nothing can be common between falsehood and truth, darkness and light, death and immortality, antichrist and Christ, we must in all things maintain the unity of the Catholic Church, and in nothing yield to the enemies of faith and truth. Now custom ought not to be pleaded against reason, but reason must prevail.

For neither did Peter, whom the Lord first chose, and upon whom He built His Church, when Paul afterward disputed with him concerning circumcision, claim anything for himself insolently, or assume anything arrogantly, so as to say that he held the primacy and that newcomers and those who came after ought rather to obey him. Nor did he despise Paul because he had previously been a persecutor of the Church, but admitted the counsel of truth, and easily consented to the lawful reason which Paul maintained; giving us, that is, a lesson both of concord and of patience, that we should not stubbornly love our own views, but should rather account as our own those things which are usefully and wholesomely suggested at any time by our brethren and colleagues, if they be true and lawful. To which matter Paul also looking, and faithfully consulting for concord and peace, set down in his Epistle, saying: And let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge.

But if any thing be revealed to another sitting, let the first hold his peace. In which passage he taught and showed that many things are revealed to individuals for the better, and that each one ought not to contend stubbornly for what he had once imbibed and held, but, if anything better and more useful shall have appeared, to embrace it gladly. For we are not overcome when better things are offered to us, but instructed, especially in those matters which pertain to the unity of the Church, and the truth of our hope and faith; that we priests of God and of His Church, set over it by His condescension, may know that remission of sins can be given only in the Church, and that adversaries of Christ can claim nothing for themselves with regard to His grace. Which indeed Agrippinus, a man of blessed memory, together with his fellow-bishops who at that time governed the Church of the Lord in the province of Africa and Numidia, decreed and confirmed by the weighed examination of common counsel.

Whose judgment, religious and lawful and salutary, consonant with the faith and the Catholic Church, we also have followed. And that you might know what letters we have composed on this matter, we have transmitted a copy of them, out of common affection, to the knowledge both of yourself and of our fellow-bishops who are there. I wish you, dearest brother, always good health.