The Third Council of Carthage under Cyprian, on Infant Baptism

Cyprian and the other colleagues, sixty-six in number, who were present in the council, to Fidus, their brother, greeting.

We have read your letter, dearest brother, in which you wrote concerning Victor, formerly a presbyter, that Therapius, our colleague, had rashly given him peace prematurely and too hastily, before he had done full penance and made satisfaction to the Lord God against whom he had sinned. This matter moved us considerably, since there had been a departure from the decree of our council, so that peace was granted to him before the lawful and full time of satisfaction, and without the request and knowledge of the people, with no infirmity pressing nor necessity compelling; but after long deliberation weighed among us, it was sufficient to rebuke our colleague Therapius for having done this rashly, and to instruct him to do nothing of the sort hereafter. Nevertheless, we did not think that peace once given by a priest of God, in whatever manner, ought to be taken away, and accordingly we permitted Victor to make use of the communion granted to him.

But as regards the case of infants, whom you said ought not to be baptized within the second or third day after their birth, and that the law of the ancient circumcision ought to be considered, so that you thought one who is born ought not to be baptized and sanctified before the eighth day, the view of all in our council was far otherwise. For in what you thought should be done, no one agreed, but we all rather judged that the mercy and grace of God ought to be denied to no one who is born.

For since the Lord says in His Gospel: The Son of man is not come to destroy men's souls, but to save them, so far as lies in us, if it can be done, no soul is to be lost. For what does one lack who has once been formed in the womb by the hands of God?

For to us and to our eyes, those who are born seem to receive their growth according to the course of worldly days. But whatever things are done by God are perfected by the majesty and work of God the maker.

That there is, moreover, among all, whether infants or those of greater age, one equality of divine gift, the testimony of the divine Scripture declares to us: Elisha laid himself upon the son of the widow who lay dead, praying to God in such a manner that head was applied to head and face to face, and the limbs of the prostrate Elisha were joined member by member to the limbs of the little one, and feet to feet. If this matter be considered according to the inequality of our birth and body, an infant could not be made equal to one adult and advanced in years, nor could small members suffice to correspond and match with larger ones.

But there the divine and spiritual equality is expressed, that all men are alike and equal when they have once been made by God, and our age may have difference in the growth of the body according to the world, but not according to God; unless indeed the very grace which is given to the baptized is also granted as lesser or greater according to the age of those who receive it, whereas the Holy Spirit is provided equally to all not by measure but by fatherly piety and indulgence. For as God accepts not the person, so neither does He accept the age, since He offers Himself as Father to all in equal measure for the attainment of heavenly grace.

For also as to what you said, that the condition of an infant in the first days after birth is not clean, so that each of us still shrinks from kissing it, we do not think that this ought to be an impediment to the giving of heavenly grace. For it is written: All things are clean to the clean. Nor ought any of us to shrink from that which God has deigned to make. For even though the infant is newly born from the womb, it is not such that anyone ought to shrink from kissing it in giving grace and making peace, since in the kiss of an infant each of us ought, in accordance with his religion, to think of the very hands of God still fresh, which in a man newly formed we kiss in a certain manner when we embrace what God has made.

For as to the fact that in Jewish carnal circumcision the eighth day was observed, it is a sacrament sent before in shadow and in image, but completed in truth by the coming of Christ. For that day which was to be the eighth, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, on which the Lord was to rise again and give us life and give us spiritual circumcision; this eighth day, that is, the first after the Sabbath and the Lord's day, went before in image.

Which image ceased when the truth later came and spiritual circumcision was given to us. For which reason we think that no one ought to be hindered from obtaining grace by that law which is now established, nor ought spiritual circumcision to be impeded by carnal circumcision, but every man whatsoever ought to be admitted to the grace of Christ, since also Peter speaks in the Acts of the Apostles and says: The Lord said to me that no man should be called common or unclean. Moreover, if anything could hinder men from the attainment of grace, sins more grave could more hinder those who are adult and advanced and of greater age.

But furthermore, if even to those guilty of the gravest offences, and who have sinned much against God before, when they have afterwards believed, remission of sins is given, and no one is kept from baptism and grace, how much more ought an infant not to be kept back, who, being newly born, has sinned in nothing, except that, being born carnally according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the ancient death by his first birth, who comes to receive remission of sins all the more easily in that what is remitted to him are not his own sins but another's. And therefore, dearest brother, this was our judgment in the council, that no one ought to be kept by us from baptism and the grace of God, who is merciful and kind and gracious to all.

And while this ought to be observed and maintained with regard to all, we think it ought to be observed all the more with regard to infants themselves and the newly born, who for this very reason deserve more of our help and of divine mercy, in that from the very first moment of their birth, crying and weeping, they do nothing else but entreat. We wish you, dearest brother, always good health.