Firmilian to Cyprian, Against the Letter of Stephen

Firmilianus to Cyprian his brother, greeting in the Lord.

We received through Rogatianus, our dearest deacon sent by you, the letter which you wrote to us, most beloved brother; and for this we gave the greatest thanks to the Lord, that it came to pass that we who are separated from one another in body are so united in spirit as though we held not merely one region, but dwelt together in the very same and one house. This teaches and declares that the spiritual house of God is one. For it shall come to pass in the last days, says the prophet, that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest and the house of God above the tops of the mountains. Into it those who gather together are united with joy, as the Psalm also asks of the Lord: to dwell in the house of God all the days of one's life. Whence also in another place it is made manifest that among the saints there is great charity of will to come together as one.

Behold, he says, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together as one!

For union and peace and concord afford the greatest pleasure not only to faithful men who know the truth, but also to the heavenly angels themselves, of whom the divine word says there is joy over one sinner doing penance and returning to the bond of unity. This would certainly not be said of angels dwelling in heaven unless they too were united with us and rejoiced in our union; just as, on the contrary, they are surely saddened when they see the diverse and divided minds of certain persons, as though these did not invoke one and the same God together, but, being separated and divided from one another, could no longer have any conversation or common discourse among them. Except that we can render thanks to Stephen in this matter, that through his inhumanity it has now come about that we have had proof of your faith and wisdom. But it does not follow that, because we have received this benefit on account of Stephen, Stephen has therefore done anything worthy of thanks.

For neither can Judas, by his treachery and betrayal, by which he acted wickedly against the Saviour, be thought worthy, as though he himself had provided the occasion of such great goods, that through him the world and the people of the nations were freed by the Passion of the Lord.

But let these things which have been done by Stephen be passed over for the time being; lest, while we call to mind his audacity and insolence, we bring upon ourselves a longer grief over the things wickedly done by him. But learning from you that you have disposed of the matter now in question according to the rule of truth and the wisdom of Christ, we exulted with great joy and gave thanks to God, because we found in brethren placed so far away so great a unanimity of faith and truth with us.

For the grace of God is able to join and bind together by the bond of charity and unity even those things which seem to be separated by a longer expanse of lands, according to what also of old the divine power joined Ezekiel and Daniel, later in age, to the bond of unanimity with Job and Noah, who had been first, though separated by intervals of time, so that, though they were set apart by long ages, they felt the same things by the same divine inspiration. Which we now also observe in you, that you who are separated from us by the most distant regions have shown yourselves to be joined to us in mind and spirit. All of which comes about through divine unity. For since the Lord is one and the same who dwells in us, he everywhere joins and binds his own with the bond of unity.

Whence their sound went out into all the earth, those who are sent by the Lord running swiftly in the spirit of unity; just as on the contrary it profits nothing for some to be near and joined to one another in body, if they disagree in soul and mind, since souls which have divided themselves from the unity of God can in no way be united: For behold, he says, they that go far from thee shall perish. But such persons shall undergo the judgment of the Lord according to their desert, withdrawing from the words of him who prays to the Father for unity and says: Father, grant that, as I and thou are one, so also these may be one in us.

We indeed received what was written by you as our very own, and did not read it in passing, but having repeated it often committed it to memory. Nor does it hinder salutary usefulness either to retrace the same things for the confirmation of truth, or to add certain things for the accumulation of proof. But if anything has been added by us, it is not added as though something had been said insufficiently by you, but because the divine word surpasses human nature, nor can the soul conceive it wholly and perfectly; and for this reason also the number of prophets is so great, that the manifold and divine wisdom may be distributed through many. Whence also the first one speaking in prophecy is commanded to be silent if something has been revealed to a second.

For which reason it necessarily comes about among us that through each year the elders and those set over us gather together as one to arrange those things which are committed to our care, so that, if any matters are more serious, they may be directed by common counsel, and that for the fallen brethren also, who after the saving washing have been wounded by the devil, a remedy may be sought through penance; not as though they obtain remission of sins from us, but that through us they may be turned to an understanding of their offences and be compelled to make fuller satisfaction to the Lord.

But since the messenger sent by you was hastening to return to you, and the winter season was pressing, we have replied to your writings as much as we were able. And indeed, as regards what pertains to what Stephen said, that the apostles forbade those who come from heresy to be baptized and handed this down to be observed by posterity, you have most fully replied that no one is so foolish as to believe that the apostles handed this down, since it is established that the very heresies themselves arose as execrable and detestable afterwards, seeing that Marcion, the disciple of Cerdon, is found to have introduced his sacrilegious tradition against God late, after the apostles and after a long time from them; and Apelles also, agreeing with his blasphemy, added many other new things, more serious and hostile to faith and truth. But also the time of Valentinus and Basilides is well known, that they too, after the apostles and after a long age, rebelled against the Church of God with their wicked lies.

And the rest of the heretics likewise are established to have introduced their depraved sects and perverse inventions afterwards, each as he was led by error; all of whom it is manifest have been condemned by themselves, and have pronounced an inexcusable sentence against themselves before the day of judgment: whoever confirms their baptism, what else does he do but adjudge himself with them, and by making himself a partaker of such persons, condemn himself?

But that those who are at Rome do not observe in all things what has been handed down from the beginning, and that they vainly pretend the authority of the apostles, anyone can know even from this, that one may see there are among them certain diversities regarding the celebration of the days of Easter and regarding many other sacraments of the divine matter, and that not all things are observed there equally as they are observed at Jerusalem, just as also in many other provinces much varies according to the diversity of places and names, and yet for this reason there has never been any departure from the peace and unity of the catholic Church. Which Stephen has now dared to do, breaking the peace against you which his predecessors always kept with you in mutual love and honour, and moreover defaming the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, as though they themselves had handed this down, who in their letters execrated heretics and warned us to avoid them.

Whence it is apparent that this tradition is a human one, which asserts that heretics have baptism, and defends that they possess what belongs to the Church alone.

But also to that part you have well replied, where Stephen said in his letter that "heretics themselves also agree in baptism, and that those who come to one another do not baptize them but only communicate with them," as though we too ought to do this. In which place, although you have already shown sufficiently how ridiculous it is for anyone to follow those who err, we add this nonetheless in abundance: it is no wonder if heretics act thus, who, even if they disagree in certain lesser matters, yet in that which is greatest hold one and the same agreement, namely to blaspheme the Creator, fashioning for themselves certain dreams and phantoms of an unknown God; whom it is consequently fitting to agree thus in the vanity of their baptism as they agree in repudiating the truth of the divinity.

Concerning whom, since it would be lengthy to reply to each of their wicked or superfluous things individually, it is enough to say briefly and in summary that those who do not hold the true Lord and Father can hold neither the truth of the Son nor of the Holy Spirit, according to what also those who are called Cataphrygians, and who strive to usurp new prophecies, can have neither the Father nor the Son nor the Holy Spirit; of whom let us ask what Christ they preach, and they will answer that they preach him who sent the Spirit speaking through Montanus and Prisca. In whom since we perceive there was not the Spirit of truth but of error, we recognize that those who vindicate their false prophecy against the faith of Christ cannot have Christ.

But also all the other heretics, if they have cut themselves off from the Church of God, can have no power or grace, since all power and grace is established in the Church, where the elders preside, who possess the power both of baptizing and of laying on hands and of ordaining. For a heretic, just as he is not permitted to ordain or to lay on hands, so neither to baptize nor to do anything holy or of special character, since he is alien from spiritual and divine holiness. All of which we long since confirmed at Iconium, which is a place of Phrygia, gathered together as one with those coming together from Galatia and Cilicia and the other neighbouring regions, to be held firmly and maintained against heretics, when doubt was being raised by some on this matter.

And since Stephen and those who agree with him contend that remission of sins and a second birth can proceed from the baptism of heretics, among whom they themselves also confess there is no Holy Spirit, let them consider and understand that spiritual birth cannot exist without the Spirit, according to what also the blessed apostle Paul baptized again with spiritual baptism those who had been baptized by John, before the Holy Spirit had been sent by the Lord, and so laid hands on them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. But what manner of thing is it that, while we see Paul baptized again his disciples after the baptism of John, we should hesitate to baptize those who come from heresy to the Church after their unlawful and profane immersion?

Unless Paul was of less account than those bishops who exist now, so that these indeed can give the Holy Spirit to heretics who come by the laying on of hands alone, whereas Paul was not competent to give the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands to those baptized by John, unless he had first also baptized them with the baptism of the Church.

That also is absurd, that they think it need not be asked who it was that baptized, on the ground that one who has been baptized will be able to obtain grace with the trinity of the names of Father and Son and Holy Spirit having been invoked. Then this will be the wisdom which Paul writes to be among those who are perfect. But who is there in the Church so perfect and wise as to defend or believe this, that this bare invocation of names suffices for the remission of sins and the sanctification of baptism, since these things profit only when he who baptizes also has the Holy Spirit and baptism itself is not constituted without the Spirit? But they say that one who is baptized outside in any manner whatsoever can obtain the grace of baptism by his own mind and faith. Which is itself without doubt ridiculous, as though a depraved mind could draw down to itself from heaven the sanctification of the just, or a false faith of believers could draw down truth.

But that not all who invoke the name of Christ are heard and can obtain anything of grace by their invocation, the Lord himself makes plain, saying: Many will come in my name saying: I am Christ; and they will deceive many. There is indeed no difference between a false prophet and a heretic. For as the one deceives in the name of God or Christ, so the other deceives in the sacrament of baptism: both rely on falsehood to deceive the wills of men.

I wish also to set forth for you an account of what happened among us, pertaining to this very matter. For about twenty-two years ago, in the times after the Emperor Alexander, many conflicts and pressures arose here, both in common for all men and privately for Christians; very many and frequent earthquakes also occurred, so that throughout Cappadocia and Pontus many things were overthrown, and certain cities, swallowed up into the depths, were devoured by the gaping of the split earth; and from this a severe persecution against us of the Christian name also arose, which, having suddenly broken out after a long preceding age of peace, was made more terrible for disturbing our people by reason of an unexpected and unaccustomed evil. Serenianus was then governor of our province, a bitter and cruel persecutor.

Now while the faithful were in this state of disturbance, fleeing hither and thither in fear of persecution, abandoning their homelands and passing over into other regions of the country (for the means of passing over was available, since that persecution had been local and not throughout the whole world), there suddenly emerged there a certain woman, who, being placed in ecstasy, put herself forward as a prophetess and acted as though filled with the Holy Spirit. But she was driven by the assault of the chief demons, so that for a long time she troubled and deceived the brotherhood, accomplishing certain wondrous and portentous things, and promised that she would cause the earth to move. Not that a demon had such great power as to be able to move the earth or shake the elements by its own force, but because the wicked spirit, sometimes foreknowing and understanding that an earthquake was about to come, pretended that it would do what it foresaw was going to happen.

By these lies and boastings it had subdued the minds of individuals so that they obeyed it and followed wherever it commanded and led; it also made that woman walk barefoot through harsh snow in the bitter winter without being troubled or harmed in any way by that wandering; it also said it was hastening to Judaea and Jerusalem, feigning as though it had come from there. Here it also deceived one of the presbyters, Rusticus, and likewise another deacon, so that they had intercourse with that same woman, which was detected a little afterward: for suddenly there appeared against it one of the exorcists, a proven man and one who had always conducted himself well in religious discipline, who, stirred also by the exhortation of very many brethren who were themselves present, strong and praiseworthy in faith, raised himself up to refute that wicked spirit, which by subtle deceit had also predicted a little before that a certain adversary and faithless tempter would come.

Nevertheless that exorcist, inspired by God's grace, resisted bravely and showed that it was a most wicked spirit which had previously been thought holy. And that woman who had previously, through the illusions and deceits of the demon, contrived many things for the deception of the faithful, among the other things by which she had ensnared very many, also frequently dared this: both to sanctify bread with an invocation not to be despised and to simulate making the Eucharist, and to offer sacrifice to the Lord without the sacrament of the customary proclamation, and also to baptize many, employing the customary and lawful words of interrogation, so that she might seem to differ in nothing from the ecclesiastical rule. What therefore shall we say of the baptism of this woman, by which a most wicked demon baptized through a woman? Do Stephen and those who agree with him approve this also, especially since it lacked neither the symbol of the Trinity nor the lawful and ecclesiastical interrogation?

Can it be believed that remission of sins was given or that the regeneration of the saving washing was duly accomplished, where everything, although after the image of truth, was nevertheless done through a demon? Unless those who defend the baptism of heretics also contend that a demon gave the grace of baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; among whom without doubt the same error exists, it is the very deceit of demons, since among them the Holy Spirit is altogether absent. What also is that which Stephen wishes, that the presence and holiness of Christ is present to those who are baptized among heretics? For if the Apostle does not lie when he says: As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, surely whoever has been baptized into Christ there has put on Christ.

But if he has put on Christ, he could also receive the Holy Spirit, who was sent by Christ, and the laying on of hands upon him when he comes to receive the Spirit is in vain—unless he put on the Spirit from Christ—so that among heretics there is indeed Christ, but the Holy Spirit is not there. Let us run briefly through the rest also of what has been said by you copiously and most fully, especially since Rogatianus, our dearest deacon, is hastening to you. For there follows that which those who defend heretics must be asked by us: whether their baptism is carnal or spiritual. For if it is carnal, they differ nothing from the baptism of the Jews, which they use in such a way that by it, as by a common and ordinary washing, only filth is washed away; but if it is spiritual, how can spiritual baptism exist among those among whom the Holy Spirit is not?

And therefore the water in which they are dipped is for them only a carnal washing, not the sacrament of baptism.

But if the baptism of heretics can have the regeneration of a second birth, then those who are baptized among them are to be reckoned not as heretics but as sons of God; for the second birth which is in baptism begets sons of God. But if the bride of Christ is one, which is the Catholic Church, she it is who alone begets sons of God. For there are not many brides of Christ, since the Apostle says: I have espoused you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ; and, Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your own people, because the king has desired your beauty; and, Come, bride, from Lebanon, you shall come and pass through from the beginning of faith; and, I am come into my garden, my sister, my bride. We see one person set forth everywhere, because the bride also is one.

But the synagogue of heretics is not one with us, because it is not a bride either, but an adulteress and a fornicatress; wherefore it cannot bear sons of God: unless, according to what seems good to Stephen, heresy indeed bears and exposes them, but the Church takes up the exposed ones and nurtures as her own those whom she herself did not bear, since she cannot be the mother of another's children. And therefore Christ our Lord, making manifest that his bride is one and declaring the sacrament of her unity, says: He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters. For if Christ is with us, but heretics are not with us, heretics are assuredly against Christ. And if we gather with Christ, but heretics do not gather with us, without doubt they scatter.

But neither must that be passed over by us which has been necessarily said by you, that the Church, according to the Song of Songs, is an enclosed garden and a sealed fountain, a paradise with the fruit of trees. But those who have never entered into this garden, and have not seen the paradise planted by God the Creator, how will they be able to provide to anyone the living water of the saving washing from the fountain which is enclosed within and sealed with the divine seal?

Moreover, since the ark of Noah was nothing other than a sacrament of the Church of Christ, which at that time, while all outside were perishing, preserved only those who were within the ark, we are plainly instructed to perceive the unity of the Church, just as the apostle Peter also set forth, saying: So baptism shall in like manner save you, showing that, just as those who were not with Noah in the ark were not only not cleansed and saved through the water, but immediately perished in that flood, so also now whoever are not in the Church with Christ will perish outside, unless they are converted through repentance to the one and saving washing of the Church.

But what manner of error it is and how great is the blindness of him who says that remission of sins can be given in the synagogues of heretics, and who does not remain on the foundation of the one Church which was once established by Christ upon the rock, can be understood from this: that Christ said to Peter alone: Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven; and again in the Gospel when Christ breathed upon the apostles alone, saying: Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they shall be retained. The power therefore of forgiving sins was given to the apostles and to the Churches which they, sent by Christ, established, and to the bishops who succeeded them by vicarious ordination.

But the enemies of the one Catholic Church, in which we are, and our adversaries, who have succeeded the apostles, claiming for themselves unlawful priesthoods against us and setting up profane altars, what else are they than Korah and Dathan and Abiram, equally sacrilegious in crime, and destined to receive the same punishments as they, together with those who agree with them, just as even then those who were partakers and supporters of those men perished with an equal death along with them.

And I in this matter am justly indignant at this so open and manifest foolishness of Stephen, who thus glories in the place of his episcopate and contends that he holds the succession of Peter, upon whom the foundations of the Church were laid, yet introduces many other rocks and establishes new buildings of many churches, while he defends by his authority that baptism exists there. For those who are baptized without doubt fill up the number of the Church. But he who approves their baptism confirms from the baptized that the Church also exists there. Nor does he understand that the truth of the Christian rock is obscured by him and in some manner dissolved, who thus betrays and abandons unity. The Jews, however, though blinded by ignorance and bound by a most grievous crime, the Apostle professes to have a zeal for God.

Stephen, who proclaims that he holds through succession the chair of Peter, is stirred by no zeal against heretics, conceding to them not a small but a very great power of grace, so as to say and assert that they wash away through the sacrament of baptism the filth of the old man, forgive the ancient sins of death, make sons of God by heavenly regeneration, and restore to eternal life by the sanctification of the divine washing. He who thus concedes and grants to heretics the great and heavenly gifts of the Church, what else does he do than communicate with those whose great grace he defends and vindicates? And he now hesitates in vain to agree with them in the rest also and to be a partaker, so as to assemble together with them, and to mingle prayers equally with the same, and to establish a common altar and sacrifice.

But, he says, the name of Christ avails much for faith and the sanctification of baptism, so that whoever and wherever one has been baptized in the name of Christ, he straightway obtains the grace of Christ—when to this point a brief reply can be made and it can be said that, if baptism outside the Church availed in the name of Christ for the purifying of a man, then in the name of that same Christ the laying on of hands could also have availed there for receiving the Holy Spirit. And the other things also which are done among heretics will begin to seem just and lawful, when they are done in the name of Christ, according to what you have set forth in your letter: that the name of Christ can avail only in the Church alone, to which alone Christ has granted the power of heavenly grace.

But as regards the refutation of custom, which they seem to oppose to truth, who would be so vain as to prefer custom to truth, or who, having perceived the light, would not abandon the darkness? Unless perhaps the Jews also are helped in some way by their most ancient custom against Christ's coming, that is, against truth, in that, having abandoned the new way of truth, they remained in the old. Which indeed you Africans can say against Stephen, that having come to know the truth, you have left behind the error of custom. But we join truth with custom, and to the custom of the Romans we oppose custom, but the custom of truth, holding from the beginning what was handed down by Christ and the apostles. Nor do we remember that this ever began among us, since it has always been observed here that we teach there is but one Church of God, and that we should count holy baptism as belonging only to the holy Church.

Indeed, since some were in doubt about the baptism of those who, although they do not receive the prophets as we do, yet seem to know the same Father and Son together with us, very many of us assembled together at Iconium, and we treated the matter most diligently and confirmed that every baptism whatsoever that is established outside the Church must be repudiated. But as for what they put forward on behalf of heretics, and say that the Apostle said: Whether by occasion or by truth, let Christ be announced, it is absurd for us to respond to this, since it is manifest that the Apostle in his epistle in which he said this made no mention either of heretics or of their baptism, but spoke only of brethren, whether speaking with him in bad faith or persevering in sincere faith, nor is it necessary to examine this in a lengthy discussion, but it is enough to read the epistle itself, and to recognize from the Apostle himself what the Apostle said.

What then, they say, will become of those who, coming from heretics, were admitted without the baptism of the Church? If they have departed from this world, they are counted in the number of those who among us were indeed catechized but died before they were baptized, who nonetheless are said to have the benefit of the truth and faith to which, having left error, they had arrived, even if they did not attain the completion of grace, being forestalled by death. But those who still remain in this world are to be baptized with the baptism of the Church, so that they may be able to obtain the remission of sins, lest, remaining in their former error through another's presumption, they die without the completion of grace.

Moreover, what a sin it is, both for those who admit them and for those who are admitted, that without the filth being washed away through the washing of the Church, and without sins being exposed, they rashly and presumptuously touch the body and blood of the Lord by usurped communion, since it is written: Whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

We have also judged that those whom men who had previously been bishops in the catholic Church, and afterwards assuming for themselves the power of clerical ordination, baptized, are to be held as not baptized. And this is observed among us, that whoever has been dipped by them and comes to us is baptized among us with the one and true baptism of the catholic Church as a stranger who has obtained nothing, and obtains the regeneration of the life-giving washing. And yet there is a great difference between one who unwillingly and compelled by the necessity of persecution yielded, and one who with sacrilegious and bold will rebels against the Church, or with impious voice blasphemes against the Father and God of Christ and the Creator of the whole world. And Stephen is not ashamed to assert this, that through those who, being themselves established in all sins, he says remission of sins can be given, as though there could be a washing of salvation in the house of death!

Where then will that be which is written: Refrain from strange water, and drink not from a foreign fountain, if, having left the sealed fountain of the Church, you receive foreign water as your own and defile the Church with profane fountains? For when you communicate in the baptism of heretics, what else do you do but drink from their whirlpool and mire, and yourself, purified by the sanctification of the Church, are defiled by contact with foreign filth? Nor do you fear the judgment of God, bearing witness for heretics against the Church, since it is written: A false witness shall not be unpunished. Nay rather, you are worse than all heretics: for while many of them, having come to know their error, come to you to receive the true light of the Church, you assist the errors of those who come, and, having obscured the light of ecclesiastical truth, you heap up the darkness of heretical night.

And whereas they confess that they are in sins and have no grace, and therefore come to the Church, you take away from them the remission of sins which is given in baptism, while you say that they have already been baptized and have obtained the grace of the Church outside the Church. Nor do you understand that the souls of those will be required at your hand when the day of judgment comes, you who have denied the drink of the Church to those who thirsted, and have been the cause of death to those who wished to live. And on top of this you are indignant. See with what ignorance you dare to rebuke those who strive for truth against falsehood. For who ought more justly to be indignant against the other? Is it he who asserts the enemies of God, or he who agrees with the one who asserts the enemies of God against the truth of the Church?

Except that it is manifest that even the ignorant are bold and wrathful, since through lack of counsel and speech they easily turn to anger, so that divine Scripture says of no one more than of you: A bold man stirreth up strife, and a wrathful man heapeth up sins. For how great strifes and dissensions have you stirred up throughout the churches of the whole world! And how great a sin have you heaped up for yourself, when you have cut yourself off from so many flocks! For you have cut off yourself. Deceive yourself not; for he is truly a schismatic who has made himself an apostate from the communion of ecclesiastical unity: for while you think that all can be restrained from you, you alone have restrained yourself from all.

Nor could the precepts of the Apostle warning and saying form you to the rule of truth and peace: I therefore, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called, with all humility of mind and mildness, with patience supporting one another in charity, carefully to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; one body and one Spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.

How diligently has Stephen fulfilled these commands and salutary admonitions of the Apostle, observing humility of mind and mildness in the first place. For what is more humble or mild than to have dissented from so many bishops throughout the whole world, breaking peace with each by various kinds of discord, now with the Easterners, as we are confident is not unknown to you, now with you who are in the South; from whom he received the bishop-legates patiently enough and mildly, so as not even to admit them to the exchange of ordinary conversation, and moreover, mindful of love and charity, he commanded the whole brotherhood that no one should receive them into his house, so that to those who came there should be denied not only peace and communion, but also roof and hospitality.

This is to have kept the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace—to cut oneself off from the unity of charity, and to make oneself in every way a stranger to the brethren, and to rebel against the sacrament and faith with the fury of contumacious discord. Can there be one body and one spirit in such a man, in whom perhaps even the soul itself is not one, so slippery and shifting and uncertain is it? But as far as he is concerned, let us leave him. Let us rather examine that about which the greatest question is. Those who contend that persons baptized by heretics ought to be received as having obtained the grace of legitimate baptism say that we and they have one baptism and that it differs in nothing. But what does the Apostle Paul say? One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. If the baptism of heretics is one and the same as ours, without doubt the faith is also one.

If the faith is one, then certainly the Lord is also one. If the Lord is one, it follows that one must say that he is one. But if this unity, which can in no way be separated and divided, is also present among the heretics themselves, why do we contend further, why do we call them heretics and not Christians? Furthermore, since neither God is one, nor Lord one, nor Church one, nor faith one between us and heretics, nor one Spirit, nor one body, it is manifest that neither can baptism be common to us and heretics, who have absolutely nothing in common. And yet Stephen is not ashamed to furnish such persons with patronage against the Church, and for the sake of defending heretics to rend the brotherhood, and moreover to call Cyprian a pseudo-Christ and a pseudo-apostle and a deceitful worker. Conscious that all these things apply to himself, he anticipated them by falsely imputing to another what he himself deserved to hear.

We all, together with all the bishops who are in Africa, all the clergy, and the whole brotherhood, wish you well, that, being perpetually of one mind and one sentiment, we may have even those who are far away united with us.