The Sixth Council of Carthage under Cyprian, on the Baptism of Those Baptized Outside the Church

Cyprian and the rest to Stephen, their brother, greeting.

For the settling of certain matters and for refining them by the examination of common counsel, dearest brother, we found it necessary, with a great number of priests assembling in one place, to convene and hold a council. In which indeed many things were brought forward and transacted: but that which most of all had to be written to you, and conferred upon with your gravity and wisdom, as pertaining more to priestly authority and equally to the unity and dignity of the catholic Church coming from the ordering of divine dispensation, is this: that those who are baptized outside the Church, and have been defiled among heretics and schismatics by the pollution of profane water, when they come to us and to the Church, which is one, ought to be baptized; because it is too little for them to have hands laid on them to receive the Holy Spirit, unless they also receive the Baptism of the Church.

For then at last they can be fully sanctified and be sons of God, if they are born by both Sacraments, since it is written: Unless one is reborn of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. For we find also in the Acts of the Apostles, that this was observed by the apostles and maintained by the truth of saving faith: that when in the house of Cornelius the centurion the Holy Spirit had descended upon the Gentiles who were present there, burning with the warmth of faith and believing in the Lord with their whole heart, so that being filled with Him they blessed God in various tongues; nonetheless the blessed apostle Peter, mindful of the divine precept and the Gospel, commanded that those same men, who were already full of the Holy Spirit, should be baptized: so that nothing might seem to have been omitted whereby the apostolic teachings might in all things observe the law of the divine precept and the Gospel.

Moreover, that the baptism which heretics use is no baptism, and that no one among those who are adversaries of Christ can advance through the grace of Christ, has been carefully set forth recently in the letter which was written to Quintus our colleague stationed in Mauritania concerning that matter, and likewise in the letters which our colleagues previously sent to the bishops presiding in Numidia: copies of both of which letters I have appended.

We add plainly and join, dearest brother, by common consent and authority, that even if any presbyters or deacons, who were either previously ordained in the catholic Church and afterwards stood faithless and rebellious against the Church, or were promoted among heretics by pseudo-bishops and antichrists with profane ordination contrary to the ordinance of Christ, and attempted outside to offer false and sacrilegious sacrifices against the one altar and the divine sacrifice, these also should be received on this condition when they return: that they communicate as laymen, and count it sufficient that they are admitted to peace, who had shown themselves enemies of peace; nor ought they, on returning, to retain among us those arms of ordination and honor with which they had rebelled against us.

For it is fitting that priests and ministers who serve the altar and the sacrifices should be whole and unblemished: since the Lord God speaks in Leviticus and says: The man in whom there is a blemish and defect shall not approach to offer gifts to God; likewise in Exodus He commands the same and says: And the priests who draw near to the Lord God, let them be sanctified, lest perchance the Lord God forsake them; and again: And when they draw near to minister at the altar of the Holy One, they shall not bring guilt upon themselves, lest they die. But what greater guilt can there be, or what more shameful blemish, than to have stood against Christ, than to have scattered His Church, which He prepared and founded with His own blood, than, forgetful of evangelical peace and love, to have fought with the fury of hostile discord against the unanimous and harmonious people of God?

Who, even if they themselves afterwards return to the Church, cannot restore or recall with them those who were led astray by them and, overtaken by death outside, perished outside the Church without communion and peace: whose souls shall be required at their hands on the day of judgment, who were the authors and leaders of their perdition. And therefore it is enough that pardon be given to such when they return: yet faithlessness ought not to be advanced in the house of faith. For what do we reserve for the good and innocent who have not withdrawn from the Church, if we honor those who have withdrawn from us and stood against the Church?

These things we have brought to your conscience, dearest brother, both for the sake of our common honor and of sincere love, believing that those things which are both religious and true will likewise please you in accordance with the truth of your religion and faith. For the rest, we know that some are unwilling to lay aside what they have once imbibed, nor easily to change their purpose, but, with the bond of peace and concord among colleagues kept safe, to retain certain practices of their own which have once been adopted among them. In this matter we force no one nor lay down a law, since each presiding officer has in the administration of the Church the free exercise of his own will, being about to render account of his conduct to the Lord. We wish you, dearest brother, always to fare well.