The Fifth Council of Carthage under Cyprian, on Baptism

Cyprian, Liberalis, Caldonius, Junius, Primus, Caecilius, Polycarp, Nicomedes, Felix, Marrutius, Successus, Lucianus, Honoratus, Fortunatus, Victor, Donatus, Lucius, Herculanus, Pomponius, Demetrius, Quintus, Saturninus, Marcus, another Saturninus, another Donatus, Rogatianus, Sedatus, Tertullus, Hortensianus, likewise another Saturninus, Sattius, Januarius, Saturninus, Maximus, Victor, another Victor, Cassius, Proculus, Modianus, Cittinus, Gargilius, Eutychianus, another Gargilius, another Saturninus, Nemesianus, Nampulus, Antonianus, Rogatianus, Honoratus, brothers, greeting.

When we were assembled together in council, dearest brothers, we read the letter you sent to us concerning those who appear to have been baptized among heretics and schismatics, asking whether, when they come to the catholic Church, which is one and true, they ought to be baptized. In this matter, although you yourselves hold there the truth and firmness of the catholic rule, yet since out of mutual love you judged that we should be consulted, we set forth our opinion, not a new one, but one long ago established by our predecessors and observed by us, and join it with yours in equal agreement, determining and holding for certain that no one can be baptized outside the Church. For one Baptism has been established in the holy Church, and it is written, the Lord saying: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

And again divine Scripture warns and says, according to the Septuagint: Abstain from strange water, and drink not from a fountain of strange water. It is necessary, therefore, that the water first be cleansed and sanctified by the priest, so that by its Baptism it may be able to wash away the sins of the person who is baptized, because through the prophet Ezekiel the Lord says: And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. But how can one who is himself unclean, and in whom the Holy Spirit is not present, cleanse and sanctify the water, since the Lord says in Numbers: And everything whatsoever the unclean person touched was unclean? Or how can one who is baptizing give to another the remission of sins, when he himself cannot put away his own sins outside the Church?

But also the very interrogation which is made in baptism is a witness to the truth. For when we say: Do you believe in eternal life and the remission of sins through the holy Church? We understand that the remission of sins is given only in the Church, and that among heretics, where there is no Church, sins cannot be forgiven. Therefore, those who assert that heretics are able to baptize should either change the interrogation or vindicate the truth, unless indeed they also attribute a Church to those whom they contend to have Baptism. It is also necessary that one who has been baptized be anointed, so that, having received the Chrism, that is, the Unction, he may be able to be the anointed of God and to have in himself the grace of Christ. Moreover, the Eucharist is that from which those who are baptized are anointed with oil sanctified at the altar. But he who had neither altar nor Church could not sanctify the creature of oil.

Wherefore neither can spiritual unction exist among heretics, since it is established that oil cannot be sanctified and the Eucharist cannot be performed among them at all. But we ought to know and to remember that it is written: Let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head, which the Holy Spirit forewarned beforehand in the Psalms, lest anyone going astray and wandering from the way of truth should be anointed among heretics and adversaries of Christ. But also, what prayer can a sacrilegious and sinful priest make on behalf of one who is baptized, since it is written: God does not hear a sinner; but if anyone worships God and does his will, him he hears. But who can give what he himself does not have, or how can one who has himself lost the Holy Spirit perform spiritual acts?

And therefore he who comes to the Church as an uninitiated person must be baptized and renewed, so that he may be sanctified within among the saints, because it is written: Be holy, because I also am holy, says the Lord; so that he who has been led astray into error and has been baptized outside may lay aside in true and ecclesiastical Baptism even this very thing, that a man coming to God, while seeking a priest, has fallen by the deceit of error upon a sacrilegious person.

Furthermore, to approve the baptism of heretics and schismatics is to agree with what they have done in baptizing. For neither can part of it be void there and part prevail. If he was able to baptize, he was also able to give the Holy Spirit. But if he cannot give the Holy Spirit, because, being placed outside, he is not with the Holy Spirit, neither can he baptize one who comes, since both Baptism is one, and the Holy Spirit is one, and the Church is one, founded by Christ the Lord upon Peter as the origin and principle of unity. Thus it comes about that, since all things among them are empty and false, nothing of what they have done ought to be approved by us. For what can be ratified and firm before God when it is done by those whom the Lord calls his enemies and adversaries, saying in his Gospel: He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters.

And the blessed apostle John also, keeping the commandments and precepts of the Lord, set down in his letter, saying: You have heard that antichrist is coming; now many antichrists have arisen. From this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us. Wherefore we also ought to gather and consider whether those who are adversaries of the Lord and have been called antichrists can give the grace of Christ. Therefore we who are with the Lord, and hold the unity of the Lord, and administer his priesthood in the Church according to his condescension, ought to repudiate and reject and hold as profane whatsoever his adversaries and antichrists do, and to give in all things the sacraments of divine grace and the truth of unity and faith to those who come from error and wickedness and acknowledge the true faith of the one Church. We wish you, dearest brothers, always to fare well.