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Hippolytus
[c.160-235]
The Apostolic Tradition
[Adapted from <www.bombaxo.com/hippolytus.html>
[cf. NE 121]]
21.a. At the hour in which
the cock crows, they shall first pray over the water. When
they come to the water, the water shall be pure and flowing,
that is, the water of a spring or a flowing body of water.
Then they shall take off all their clothes. The children shall
be baptized first. All of the children who can answer for
themselves, let them answer. If there are any children who
cannot answer for themselves, let their parents answer for
them, or someone else from their family. After this, the men
will be baptized. Finally, the women, after they have unbound
their hair, and removed their jewellery. No one shall take
any foreign object with themselves down into the water.
21.b. At the time determined
for baptism, the bishop shall give thanks over some oil, which
he puts in a vessel. It is called the oil of thanksgiving.
He shall take some more oil and exorcise it. It is called
the oil of exorcism. A deacon shall hold the oil of exorcism
and stand on the left. Another deacon shall hold the oil of
thanksgiving and stand on the right.
21.c. When the elder takes
hold of each of them who are to receive baptism, he shall
tell each of them to renounce, saying, "I renounce you
Satan, all your service, and all your works." After he
has said this, he shall anoint each with the oil of exorcism,
saying, "Let every evil spirit depart from you."
Then, after these things, the bishop passes each of them on
nude to the elder who stands at the water. They shall stand
in the water naked. A deacon, likewise, will go down with
them into the water. When each of them to be baptized has
gone down into the water, the one baptizing shall lay hands
on each of them, asking, "Do you believe in God the Father
Almighty?" And the one being baptized shall answer, "I
believe." He shall then baptize each of them once, laying
his hand upon each of their heads. Then he shall ask, "Do
you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born
of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who was crucified
under Pontius Pilate, and died, and rose on the third day
living from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat down
at the right hand of the Father, the one coming to judge the
living and the dead?" When each has answered, "I
believe," he shall baptize a second time. Then he shall
ask, "Do you believe in the Holy Spirit and the Holy
Church and the resurrection of the flesh?" Then each
being baptized shall answer, "I believe." And thus
let him baptize the third time.
21.d. Afterward, when they
have come up out of the water, they shall be anointed by the
elder with the Oil of Thanksgiving, saying, "I anoint
you with holy oil in the name of Jesus Christ." Then,
drying themselves, they shall dress and afterwards gather
in the church.
21.e. The bishop will then
lay his hand upon them, invoking, saying, "Lord God,
you who have made these worthy of the removal of sins through
the bath of regeneration, make them worthy to be filled with
your Holy Spirit, grant to them your grace, that they might
serve you according to your will, for to you is the glory,
Father and Son with the Holy Spirit, in the Holy Church, now
and throughout the ages of the ages. Amen.
21.f. After this he pours
the oil into his hand, and laying his hand on each of their
heads, says, "I anoint you with holy oil in God the Father
Almighty, and Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit." Then,
after sealing each of them on the forehead, he shall give
them the kiss of peace and say, "The Lord be with you."
And the one who has been baptized shall say, "And with
your spirit." So shall he do to each one. From then on
they will pray together will all the people. Prior to this
they may not pray with the faithful until they have completed
all.
21.g. After they pray, let
them give the kiss of peace. Then the deacons shall immediately
bring the oblation. The bishop shall bless the bread, which
is the symbol of the Body of Christ; and the bowl of mixed
wine, which is the symbol of the Blood which has been shed
for all who believe in him; and the milk and honey mixed together,
in fulfillment of the promise made to the fathers, in which
he said, "a land flowing with milk and honey," which
Christ indeed gave, his Flesh, through which those who believe
are nourished like little children, by the sweetness of his
Word, softening the bitter heart; and water also for an oblation,
as a sign of the baptism, so that the inner person, which
is psychic, may also receive the same as the body. The bishop
shall give an explanation of all these things to those who
are receiving.
21.h. Breaking the bread,
distributing a piece to each, he shall say, "The Bread
of Heaven in Jesus Christ." And the one who receives
shall answer, "Amen." The elders, and the deacons
if there are not enough, shall hold the cups and stand together
in good order and with reverence: first the one who holds
the water, second the one who holds the milk, and third the
one who holds the wine. 34. They who partake shall taste of
each three times. And he who gives shall say, "In God
the Father Almighty." The one who receives shall respond,
"Amen." The one giving shall say, "And in the
Lord Jesus Christ." The one who receives shall respond,
"Amen." The one giving shall say, "And in the
Holy Spirit, and in the Holy Church." And the one who
receives shall respond, "Amen." …
22. … On the first day
of the week the bishop, if possible, shall deliver the oblation
to all the people with his own hand, while the deacons break
the bread. When the deacon brings it to the elder, the deacon
shall present his platter, and the elder shall take it himself
and distribute it to the people by his own hand. Other days
they will receive the oblation according to the command of
the bishop.
23. Widows and virgins will
fast often and pray for the Church. The elders will fast when
they want to, as is the same for the laypeople. The bishop
may not fast except when all the people fast. For often someone
will bring an offering, and it cannot be rejected. For whenever
the bishop breaks the bread, he must partake of it, and eat
it with all who are there.
Hippolytus, Refutation of all the Heresies
[based on NE 127-129]
9.7.a. [On Callistus' modalism]…
And having even venom imbedded in his heart, and forming no
correct opinion on any subject, and yet withal being ashamed
to speak the truth, this Callistus [a bishop in Rome], not
only on account of his publicly saying in the way of reproach
to us, "You are Ditheists," but also on account
of his being frequently accused by Sabellius, as one that
had transgressed his first faith, devised some such heresy
as the following. Callistus alleges that the Logos Himself
is Son, and that Himself is Father; and that though denominated
by a different title, yet that in reality He is one indivisible
spirit. And he maintains that the Father is not one person
and the Son another, but that they are one and the same; and
that all things are full of the Divine Spirit, both those
above and those below.
9.7.b. And he affirms that
the Spirit, which became incarnate in the virgin, is not different
from the Father, but one and the same. And he adds, that this
is what has been declared by the Saviour: "Believe you
not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" For
that which is seen, which is man, he considers to be the Son;
whereas the Spirit, which was contained in the Son, to be
the Father. "For," says (Callistus), "I will
not profess belief in two Gods, Father and Son, but in one.
For the Father, who subsisted in the Son Himself, after He
had taken unto Himself our flesh, raised it to the nature
of Deity, by bringing it into union with Himself, and made
it one; so that Father and Son must be styled one God, and
that this Person being one, cannot be two." And in this
way Callistus contends that the Father suffered along with
the Son [= patripassionism] … .
9.7.c. The impostor Callistus,
having ventured on such opinions, established a school of
theology in antagonism to the Church …
9.7.d. Now such disciples
as these passed over to these followers of Callistus, and
served to crowd his school. This one propounded the opinion,
that, if a bishop was guilty of any sin, if even a sin unto
death, he ought not to be deposed. About the time of this
man, bishops, priests, and deacons, who had been twice married,
and thrice married, began to be allowed to retain their place
among the clergy. If also, however, any one who is in holy
orders should become married, Callistus permitted such a one
to continue in holy orders as if he had not sinned. And in
justification, he alleges that what has been spoken by the
Apostle has been declared in reference to this person: "Who
are you that judges another man's servant?" But he asserted
that likewise the parable of the tares is uttered in reference
to this one: "Let the tares grow along with the wheat;"
or, in other words, let those who in the Church are guilty
of sin remain in it. But also he affirmed that the ark of
Noah was made for a symbol of the Church, in which were both
dogs, and wolves, and ravens, and all things clean and unclean;
and so he alleges that the case should stand in like manner
with the Church. And as many parts of Scripture bearing on
this view of the subject as he could collect, be so interpreted.
9.7.e. And the hearers of
Callistus being delighted with his tenets, continue with him,
thus mocking both themselves as well as many others, and crowds
of these dupes stream together into his school. … For
even also he permitted females, if they were unwedded, and
burned with passion at an age at all events unbecoming, or
if they were not disposed to overturn their own dignity through
a legal marriage, that they might have whomsoever they would
choose as a bedfellow, whether a slave or free, and that a
woman, though not legally married, might consider such a companion
as a husband. Whence women, reputed believers, began to resort
to drugs for producing sterility, and to gird themselves round,
so to expel what was being conceived on account of their not
wishing to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry
fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth.
Behold, into how great
impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by inculcating adultery
and murder at the same time! …
Tertullian
[c.160-post 220]
Apology [cf. NE 138-139]
21.10… [The Incarnate
Word] We have already asserted that God made the world, and
all which it contains, by His Word, and Reason, and Power.
It is abundantly plain that your philosophers, too, regard
the Logos-that is, the Word and Reason-as the Creator of the
universe. For Zeno lays it down that he is the creator, having
made all things according to a determinate plan; that his
name is Fate, and God, and the soul of Jupiter, and the necessity
of all things. … [We], in like manner, hold that the
Word, and Reason, and Power, by which we have said God made
all, have Spirit as their proper and essential substratum;
in which the Word has being to give forth utterances, with
Spirit; and Reason abides to dispose and arrange, as Spirit;
and Power is over all to execute. We have been taught that
He proceeds forth from God, and in that procession He is generated;
so that He is the Son of God, and is called God from unity
of substance with God. For God, too, is a Spirit. Even when
the ray is shot from the sun, it is still part of the parent
mass; the sun will still be in the ray, because it is a ray
of the sun-there is no division of substance, but merely an
extension. Thus Christ is Spirit of Spirit, and God of God,
as light of light is kindled … so, too, that which has
come forth out of God is at once God and the Son of God, and
the two are one. In this way also, as He is Spirit of Spirit
and God of God, He is made a second in manner of existence-
in position, not in nature; and He did not withdraw from the
original source, but went forth. This ray of God, then, as
it was always foretold in ancient times, descending into a
certain virgin, and made flesh in her womb, is in His birth
God and man united. The flesh formed by the Spirit is nourished,
grows up to manhood, speaks, teaches, works, and is the Christ.
30.1. [On the Emperor and
Persecution] … But we merely, you say, flatter the
emperor, and feign these prayers of ours to escape persecution.
Thank you for your mistake, for you give us the opportunity
of proving our allegations. Do you, then, who think that we
care nothing for the welfare of Caesar, look into God's revelations,
examine our sacred books, which we do not keep in hiding,
and which many accidents put into the hands of those who are
not of us. Learn from them that a large benevolence is enjoined
upon us, even so far as to supplicate God for our enemies,
and to beseech blessings on our persecutors. Who, then, are
greater enemies and persecutors of Christians, than the very
parties with treason against whom we are charged? Nay, even
in terms, and most clearly, the Scripture says, "Pray
for kings, and rulers, and powers, that all may be peace with
you."
Apology 39.1-6 [cf.
NE 141]
39.a. We are a body knit together
as such by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline,
and by the bond of a common hope. We meet together as an assembly
and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as with
united force, we may wrestle with Him in our supplications.
This violence God delights in. We pray, too, for the emperors,
for their ministers and for all in authority, for the welfare
of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of
the final consummation. We assemble to read our sacred writings,
if any peculiarity of the times makes either forewarning or
reminiscence needful. However it be in that respect, with
the sacred words we nourish our faith, we animate our hope,
we make our confidence more steadfast; and no less by inculcations
of God's precepts we confirm good habits. In the same place
also exhortations are made, rebukes and sacred censures are
administered. For with a great gravity is the work of judging
carried on among us, as befits those who feel assured that
they are in the sight of God; and you have the most notable
example of judgment to come when any one has sinned so grievously
as to require his severance from us in prayer, in the congregation
and in all sacred intercourse. The tried men of our elders
preside over us, obtaining that honour not by purchase, but
by established character.
39.b.There is no buying and
selling of any sort in the things of God. Though we have our
treasure-chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of
a religion that has its price. On the monthly day, if he likes,
each puts in a small donation; but only if it be his pleasure,
and only if he be able: for there is no compulsion; all is
voluntary. These gifts are, as it were, piety's deposit fund.
For they are not taken thence and spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts,
and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to
supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and
parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such,
too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be
any in the mines, or banished to the islands, or shut up in
the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of
God's Church, they become the nurslings of their confession.
But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many
to put a brand upon us.
Prescriptions against heretics
13 [cf. NE 143]
Now, with regard to this rule
of faith- that we may from this point acknowledge what it
is which we defend-it is, you must know, that which prescribes
the belief that there is one only God, and that He is none
other than the Creator of the world, who produced all things
out of nothing through His own Word, first of all sent forth;
that this Word is called His Son, and, under the name of God,
was seen "in diverse manners" by the patriarchs,
heard at all times in the prophets, at last brought down by
the Spirit and power of the Father into the Virgin Mary, was
made flesh in her womb, and, being born of her, went forth
as Jesus Christ; thenceforth He preached the new law and the
new promise of the kingdom of heaven, worked miracles; having
been crucified, He rose again the third day; (then) having
ascended into the heavens, He sat at the right hand of the
Father; sent instead of Himself the power of the Holy Ghost
to lead such as believe; will come with glory to take the
saints to the enjoyment of everlasting life and of the heavenly
promises, and to condemn the wicked to everlasting fire, after
the resurrection of both these classes shall have happened,
together with the restoration of their flesh. This rule, as
it will be proved, was taught by Christ, and raises amongst
ourselves no other questions than those which heresies introduce,
and which make men heretics.
Prescriptions against heretics
20-21 [NE144]
a. [On the Apostles and
their Disciples] … They then in like manner rounded
churches in every city, from which all the other churches,
one after another, derived the tradition of the faith, and
the seeds of doctrine, and are every day deriving them, that
they may become churches. Indeed, it is on this account only
that they will be able to deem themselves apostolic, as being
the offspring of apostolic churches. Every sort of thing must
necessarily revert to its original for its classification.
Therefore the churches, although they are so many and so great,
comprise but the one primitive church, (founded) by the apostles,
from which they all (spring). In this way all are primitive,
and all are apostolic, whilst they are all proved to be one,
in (unbroken) unity, by their peaceful communion, and title
of brotherhood, and bond of hospitality,- privileges which
no other rule directs than the one tradition of the selfsame
mystery.
21.a. [On Tradition or
the Apostolicity of the Church] From this, therefore,
do we draw up our rule. Since the Lord Jesus Christ sent the
apostles to preach, (our rule is) that no others ought to
be received as preachers than those whom Christ appointed;
for "no man knows the Father save the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Nor does the Son
seem to have revealed Him to any other than the apostles,
whom He sent forth to preach-that, of course, which He revealed
to them. Now, what that was which they preached-in other words,
what it was which Christ revealed to them-can, as I must here
likewise prescribe, properly be proved in no other way than
by those very churches which the apostles rounded in person,
by declaring the gospel to them directly themselves, both
rivet race, as the phrase is, and subsequently by their epistles.
21.b. If, then, these things
are so, it is in the same degree manifest that all doctrine
which agrees with the apostolic churches-those moulds and
original sources of the faith must be reckoned for truth,
as undoubtedly containing that which the (said) churches received
from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God.
Whereas all doctrine must be prejudged as false which savours
of contrariety to the truth of the churches and apostles of
Christ and God. It remains, then, that we demonstrate whether
this doctrine of ours, of which we have now given the rule,
has its origin in the tradition of the apostles… . We
hold communion with the apostolic churches because our doctrine
is in no respect different from theirs. This is our witness
of truth.
Prescriptions against heretics
36 [cf. NE 142]
36.a. [The Apostolic Churches]
… Come now, you who would indulge a better curiosity,
if you would apply it to the business of your salvation, run
over the apostolic churches, in which the very thrones of
the apostles are still pre-eminent in their places, in which
their own authentic writings are read, uttering the voice
and representing the face of each of them severally. Achaia
is very near you, (in which) you find Corinth. Since you are
not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi; (and there too)
you have the Thessalonians. Since you are able to cross to
Asia, you get Ephesus. Since, moreover, you are close upon
Italy, you have Rome, from which there comes even into our
own hands the very authority (of apostles themselves). How
happy is its church, on which apostles poured forth all their
doctrine along with their blood! where Peter endures a passion
like his Lord's! where Paul wins his crown in a death like
John's where the Apostle John was first plunged, unhurt, into
boiling oil, and thence remitted to his island-exile! See
what she has learned, what taught, what fellowship has had
with even (our) churches in Africa! One Lord God does she
acknowledge, the Creator of the universe, and Christ Jesus
(born) of the Virgin Mary, the Son of God the Creator; and
the Resurrection of the flesh; the law and the prophets she
unites in one volume with the writings of evangelists and
apostles, from which she drinks in her faith. This she seals
with the water (of baptism), arrays with the Holy Ghost, feeds
with the Eucharist, cheers with martyrdom, and against such
a discipline thus (maintained) she admits no gainsayer.
Prescriptions against heretics
37 [cf. NE 147]
37.a. [On the Scriptures
& Heretics] … Since this is the case, in order
that the truth may be adjudged to belong to us, "as many
as walk according to the rule," which the church has
handed down from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, and
Christ from God, the reason of our position is clear, when
it determines that heretics ought not to be allowed to challenge
an appeal to the Scriptures, since we, without the Scriptures,
prove that they have nothing to do with the Scriptures. For
as they are heretics, they cannot be true Christians, because
it is not from Christ that they get that which they pursue
of their own mere choice, and from the pursuit incur and admit
the name of heretics. Thus, not being Christians, they have
acquired no right to the Christian Scriptures; and it may
be very fairly said to them, "Who are you? When and whence
did you come? As you are none of mine, what have you to do
with that which is mine?
37.b. [vs. the Gnostics]
Indeed, Marcion, by what right do you hew my wood? By whose
permission, Valentinus, are you diverting the streams of my
fountain? By what power, Apelles, are you removing my landmarks?
This is my property. Why are you, the rest, sowing and feeding
here at your own pleasure? This (I say) is my property. I
have long possessed it; I possessed it before you. I hold
sure title-deeds from the original owners themselves, to whom
the estate belonged. I am the heir of the apostles. Just as
they carefully prepared their will and testament, and committed
it to a trust, and adjured (the trustees to be faithful to
their charge),even so do I hold it. As for you, they have,
it is certain, always held you as disinherited, and rejected
you as strangers-as enemies. But on what ground are heretics
strangers and enemies to the apostles, if it be not from the
difference of their teaching, which each individual of his
own mere will has either advanced or received in opposition
to the apostles?"
Tertullian, Against Praxeas
[c.213] [cf. NE 146]
a. [On the "Modalistic
Monarchianism" of Praxeas] … In various ways
has the devil rivalled and resisted the truth. Sometimes his
aim has been to destroy the truth by defending it. He maintains
that there is one only Lord, the Almighty Creator of the world,
in order that out of this doctrine of the unity he may fabricate
a heresy. He says that the Father Himself came down into the
Virgin, was Himself born of her, Himself suffered, indeed
was Himself Jesus Christ. Here the old serpent has fallen
out with himself, since, when he tempted Christ after John's
baptism, he approached Him as "the Son of God;"
surely intimating that God had a Son, even on the testimony
of the very Scriptures, out of which he was at the moment
forging his temptation: "If you be the Son of God, command
that these stones be made bread." Again: "If you
be the Son of God, cast yourself down from hence; for it is
written, He shall give His angels charge concerning you"-referring
no doubt, to the Father-"and in their hands they shall
bear you up, that you hurt not your foot against a stone."
Or perhaps, after all, he was only reproaching the Gospels
with a lie, saying in fact: "Away with Matthew; away
with Luke! Why heed their words? In spite of them, I declare
that it was God Himself that I approached; it was the Almighty
Himself that I tempted face to face; and it was for no other
purpose than to tempt Him that I approached Him. If, on the
contrary, it had been only the Son of God, most likely I should
never have condescended to deal with Him."
b. However, he is himself
a liar from the beginning, and whatever man he instigates
in his own way; as, for instance, Praxeas. For he was the
first to import into Rome from Asia this kind of heretical
depravity, a man in other respects of restless disposition,
and above all inflated with the pride of confessorship simply
and solely because he had to bear for a short time the annoyance
of a prison; on which occasion, even "if he had given
his body to be burned, it would have profiled him nothing,"
not having the love of God, whose very gifts he has resisted
and destroyed. For after the Bishop of Rome had acknowledged
the prophetic gifts of Montanus, Prisca, and Maximilla [i.e.
Montanism], and, in consequence of the acknowledgment, had
bestowed his peace on the churches of Asia and Phrygia, he,
by importunately urging false accusations against the prophets
themselves and their churches, and insisting on the authority
of the bishop's predecessors in the see, compelled him to
recall the pacific letter which he had issued, as well as
to desist from his purpose of acknowledging the said gifts.
By this Praxeas did a twofold service for the devil at Rome:
he drove away prophecy, and he brought in heresy; he put to
flight the Paraclete, and he crucified the Father. Praxeas'
tares had been moreover sown, and had produced their fruit
here also, while many were asleep in their simplicity of doctrine;
but these tares actually seemed to have been plucked up, having
been discovered and exposed by him whose agency God was pleased
to employ.
c. Indeed, Praxeas had deliberately
resumed his old (true) faith, teaching it after his renunciation
of error; and there is his own handwriting in evidence remaining
among the carnally-minded, in whose society the transaction
then took place; afterwards nothing was heard of him. We indeed,
on our part, subsequently withdrew from the carnally-minded
on our acknowledgment and maintenance of the Paraclete. But
the tares of Praxeas had then everywhere shaken out their
seed, which having lain hid for some while, with its vitality
concealed under a mask, has now broken out with fresh life.
But again shall it be rooted up, if the Lord will, even now;
but if not now, in the day when all bundles of tares shall
be gathered together, and along with every other stumbling-block
shall be burnt up with unquenchable fire.
Tertullian, On the Soldier's
Crown (The Chaplet) 3-4 [NE 149]
3.a. [On Unwritten Traditions]
… And how long shall we draw the saw to and fro through
this line, when we have an ancient practice, which by anticipation
has made for us the state, i.e., of the question? If no passage
of Scripture has prescribed it, assuredly custom, which without
doubt flowed from tradition, has confirmed it. For how can
anything come into use, if it has not first been handed down?
Even in pleading tradition, written authority, you say, must
be demanded. Let us inquire, therefore, whether tradition,
unless it be written, should not be admitted. Certainly we
shall say that it ought not to be admitted, if no cases of
other practices which, without any written instrument, we
maintain on the ground of tradition alone, and the countenance
thereafter of custom, affords us any precedent. To deal with
this matter briefly, I shall begin with baptism. When we are
going to enter the water, but a little before, in the presence
of the congregation and under the hand of the president, we
solemnly profess that we disown the devil, and his pomp, and
his angels. Hereupon we are thrice immersed, making a somewhat
ampler pledge than the Lord has appointed in the Gospel.
3.b. Then when we are taken
up (as new-born children), we taste first of all a mixture
of milk and honey, and from that day we refrain from the daily
bath for a whole week. We take also, in congregations before
daybreak, and from the hand of none but the presidents, the
sacrament of the Eucharist, which the Lord both commanded
to be eaten at meal-times, and enjoined to be taken by all
alike. As often as the anniversary comes round, we make offerings
for the dead as birthday honours. We count fasting or kneeling
in worship on the Lord's day to be unlawful. We rejoice in
the same privilege also from Easter to Whitsunday. We feel
pained should any wine or bread, even though our own, be cast
upon the ground. At every forward step and movement, at every
going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when
we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on
couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life,
we trace upon the forehead the sign.
4.a. If, for these and other
such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction,
you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as
the originator of them, custom as their strengthener, and
faith as their observer. …
Tertullian, On Baptism
17 [cf. NE 150]
17.a. For concluding our brief
subject, it remains to put you in mind also of the due observance
of giving and receiving baptism. Of giving it, the chief priest
(who is the bishop) has the right: in the next place, the
presbyters and deacons, yet not without the bishop's authority,
on account of the honour of the Church, which being preserved,
peace is preserved. Beside these, even laymen have the right;
for what is equally received can be equally given. Unless
bishops, or priests, or deacons, be on the spot, ether disciples
are called (i.e. to the work). The word of the Lord ought
not to be hidden by any: in like manner, too, baptism, which
is equally God's property, can be administered by all. But
how much more is the rule of reverence and modesty incumbent
on laymen-seeing that these powers belong to their superiors-lest
they assume to themselves the specific function of the bishop!
Emulation of the episcopal office is the mother of schisms.
The most holy apostle has said, that "all things are
lawful, but not all expedient." Let it suffice assuredly,
in cases of necessity, to avail yourself (of that rule's),
if at any time circumstance either of place, or of time, or
of person compels you (so to do); for then the steadfast courage
of the succourer, when the situation of the endangered one
is urgent, is exceptionally admissible; inasmuch as he will
be guilty of a human creature's loss if he shall refrain from
bestowing what he had free liberty to bestow.
17.b. But the woman of pertness,
who has usurped the power to teach, will of course not give
birth for herself likewise to a right of baptizing, unless
some new beast shall arise like the former; so that, just
as the one abolished baptism, so some other should in her
own right confer it !But if the writings which wrongly go
under Paul's name, claim Thecla's example as a licence for
women's teaching and baptizing, let them know that, in Asia,
the presbyter who composed that writing, as if he were augmenting
Paul's fame from his own store, after being convicted, and
confessing that he had done it from love of Paul, was removed
from his office. For how credible would it seem, that he who
has not permitted a woman even to learn with over-boldness,
should give a female the power of teaching and of baptizing!
"Let them be silent," he says, "and at home
consult their own husbands."
Cyprian
of Carthage [c.200-258]
To Jubaianus, Concerning
the Baptism of Heretics
1. … You have written
to me, dearest brother, wishing that the impression of my
mind should be signified to you, as to what I think concerning
the baptism of heretics; who, placed without, and established
outside the Church, arrogate to themselves a matter neither
within their right nor their power. This baptism we cannot
consider as valid or legitimate, since it is manifestly unlawful
among them; ... And now also, when we had met together, bishops
as well of the province of Africa as of Numidia, to the number
of seventy-one, we established this same matter once more
by our judgment, deciding that there is one baptism which
is appointed in the Catholic Church; and that by this those
are not re-baptized, but baptized by us, who at any time come
from the adulterous and unhallowed water to be washed and
sanctified by the truth of the saving water.
Epistle 7.1-2 [NE 199]
1. Cyprian to the presbyters
and deacons, his brethren, greeting. I marvel, beloved brethren,
that you have answered nothing to me in reply to my many letters
which I have frequently written to you, although as well the
advantage as the need of our brotherhood would certainly be
best provided for if, receiving information from you, I could
accurately investigate and advise upon the management of affairs.
Since, however, I see that there is not yet any opportunity
of coming to you, and that the summer has already begun-a
season that is disturbed with continual and heavy sicknesses,-I
think that our brethren must be dealt with;-that they who
have received certificates from the martyrs, and may be assisted
by their privilege with God, if they should be seized with
any misfortune and peril of sickness, should, without waiting
for my presence, before any presbyter who might be present,
or if a presbyter should not be found and death begins to
be imminent, before even a deacon, be able to make confession
of their sin, that, with the imposition of hands upon them
for repentance, they should come to the Lord with the peace
which the martyrs have desired, by their letters to us, to
be granted to them.
2. Cherish also by your presence
the rest of the people who are lapsed, and cheer them by your
consolation, that they may not fail of the faith and of God's
mercy. For those shall not be forsaken by the aid and assistance
of the Lord, who meekly, humbly, and with true penitence have
persevered in good works; but the divine, remedy will be granted
to them also. To the hearers also, if there are any overtaken
by danger, and placed near to death, let your vigilance not
be wanting; let not the mercy of the Lord be denied to those
that are imploring the divine favour.
Letter of Cyprian with
his colleagues to Stephen, the Roman Bishop [c.255]
1.a. [On Re-Baptism]
We have thought it necessary for the arranging of certain
matters, dearest brother, and for their investigation by the
examination of a common council, to gather together and to
hold a council, at which many priests were assembled at once;
at which, moreover, many things were brought forward and transacted.
But the subject in regard to which we had chiefly to write
to you, and to confer with your gravity and wisdom, is one
that more especially pertains both to the priestly authority
and to the unity, as well as the dignity, of the Catholic
Church, arising as these do from the ordination of the divine
appointment; to wit, that those who have been dipped abroad
outside the Church, and have been stained among heretics and
schismatics with the taint of profane water, when they come
to us and to the Church which is one, ought to be baptized,
for the reason that it is a small matter to "lay hands
on them that they may receive the Holy Ghost," unless
they receive also the baptism of the Church. For then finally
can they be fully sanctified, and be the sons of God, if they
be born of each sacrament; since it is written, "Except
a man be born again of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God."
1.b. For we find also, in
the Acts of the Apostles, that this is maintained by the apostles,
and kept in the truth of the saving faith, so that when, in
the house of Cornelius the centurion, the Holy Ghost had descended
upon the Gentiles who were there, fervent in the warmth of
their faith, and believing in the Lord with their whole heart;
and when, filled with the Spirit, they blessed God in divers
tongues, still none the less the blessed Apostle Peter, mindful
of the divine precept and the Gospel, commanded that those
same men should be baptized who had already been filled with
the Holy Spirit, that nothing might seem to be neglected to
the observance by the apostolic instruction in all things
of the law of the divine precept and Gospel. But that that
is not baptism which the heretics use; and that none of those
who oppose Christ can profit by the grace of Christ; has lately
been set forth with care in the letter which was written on
that subject to Quintus [and others] … .
2.a. [On lapsed Clergy]
We add, however, and connect with what we have said, dearest
brother, with common consent and authority, that if, again,
any presbyters or deacons, who either have been before ordained
in the Catholic Church, and have subsequently stood forth
as traitors and rebels against the Church, or who have been
promoted among the heretics by a profane ordination by the
hands of false bishops and antichrists contrary to the appointment
of Christ, and have attempted to offer; in opposition to the
one and divine altar, false and sacrilegious sacrifices without,
that these also be received when they return, on this condition,
that they communicate as laymen, and hold it to be enough
that they should be received to peace, after having stood
forth as enemies of peace; and that they ought not, on returning,
to retain those arms of ordination and honour with which they
rebelled against us. For it behoves priests and ministers,
who wait upon the altar and sacrifices, to be sound and stainless;
since the Lord God speaks in Leviticus, and says, "No
man that hath a stain or a blemish shall come nigh to offer
gifts to the Lord."
To Cornelius, Concerning
Fortunatus [cf. NE 204]
14.a. … To these [heretics
and schismatics] also it was not sufficient that they had
withdrawn from the Gospel, that they had taken away from the
lapsed the hope of satisfaction and repentance, that they
had taken away those involved in frauds or stained with adulteries,
or polluted with the deadly contagion of sacrifices, lest
they should entreat God, or make confession of their crimes
in the Church, from all feeling and fruit of repentance; that
they had set up outside for themselves-outside the Church,
and opposed to the Church … when there had flowed together
a band of creatures with evil consciences, and unwilling to
entreat and to satisfy God. After such things as these, moreover,
they still dare-a false bishop having been appointed for them
by, heretics-to set sail and to bear letters from schismatic
and profane persons to the throne of Peter, and to the chief
church whence priestly unity takes its source; and not to
consider that these were the Romans whose faith was praised
in the preaching of the apostle, to whom faithlessness could
have no access.
14.b. But what was the reason
of their coming and announcing the making of the pseudo-bishop
in opposition to the bishops? For either they are pleased
with what they have done, and persist in their wickedness;
or, if they are displeased and retreat, they know whither
they may return. For, as it has been decreed by all of us-and
is equally fair and just-that the case of every one should
be heard there where the crime has been committed; and a portion
of the flock has been assigned to each individual pastor,
which he is to rule and govern, having to give account of
his doing to the Lord; it certainly behoves those over whom
we are placed not to run about nor to break up the harmonious
agreement of the bishops with their crafty and deceitful rashness,
but there to plead their cause, where they may be able to
have both accusers and witnesses of their crime; unless perchance
the authority of the bishops constituted in Africa seems to
a few desperate and abandoned men to be too little, who have
already judged concerning them, and have lately condemned,
by the gravity of their judgment, their conscience bound in
many bonds of sins. Already their case has been examined,
already sentence concerning them has been pronounced; nor
is it fitting for the dignity of priests to be blamed for
the levity of a changeable and inconstant mind, when the Lord
teaches and says, "Let your communication be, 'Yea, yea;
Nay, nay.'"
To Pompey, Against the
Epistle of Stephen about the Baptism of Heretics [cf.
NE 214]
1. Although I have fully comprised
what is to be said concerning the baptism of heretics in the
letters of which I sent you copies, dearest brother, yet,
since you have desired that what Stephen our brother replied
to my letters should be brought to your knowledge, I have
sent you a copy of his reply; on the reading of which, you
will more and more observe his error in endeavouring to maintain
the cause of heretics against Christians, and against the
Church of God. For among other matters, which were either
haughtily assumed, or were not pertaining to the matter, or
contradictory to his own view, which he unskilfully and without
foresight wrote, he [Stephen] moreover added this saying:
"If any one, therefore, come to you from any heresy whatever,
let nothing be innovated (or done) which has not been handed
down, to wit, that hands be imposed on him for repentance;
since the heretics themselves, in their own proper character,
do not baptize such as come to them from one another, but
only admit them to communion."
2. [Stephen] forbade one coming
from any heresy to be baptized in the Church; that is, he
judged the baptism of all heretics to be just and lawful.
And although special heresies have special baptisms and different
sins, he, holding communion with the baptism of all, gathered
up the sins of all, heaped together into his own bosom. And
he charged that nothing should be innovated except what had
been handed down; as if he were an innovator, who, holding
the unity, claims for the one Church one baptism; and not
manifestly he who, forgetful of unity, adopts the lies and
the contagions of a profane immersion. Let nothing be innovated,
says he, nothing maintained, except what has been handed down.
Whence is that tradition? Whether does it descend from the
authority of the Lord and of the Gospel, or does it come from
the commands and the epistles of the apostles? … If,
therefore, it is either prescribed in the Gospel, or contained
in the epistles or Acts of the Apostles, that those who come
from any heresy should not be baptized, but only hands laid
upon them to repentance, let this divine and holy tradition
be observed. But if everywhere heretics are called nothing
else than adversaries and antichrists, if they are pronounced
to be people to be avoided, and to be perverted and condemned
of their own selves, wherefore is it that they should not
be thought worthy of being condemned by us, since it is evident
from the apostolic testimony that they are of their own selves
condemned? …
4. Certainly an excellent
and lawful tradition is set before us by the teaching of our
brother Stephen, which may afford us a suitable authority!
For in the same place of his epistle he has added and continued:
"Since those who are specially heretics do not baptize
those who come to them from one another, but only receive
them to communion." To this point of evil has the Church
of God and spouse of Christ been developed, that she follows
the examples of heretics; that for the purpose of celebrating
the celestial sacraments, light should borrow her discipline
from darkness, and Christians should do that which antichrists
do.
On the Unity of the Church
[cf. NE 205]
4. If any one consider and
examine these things, there is no need for lengthened discussion
and arguments. There is easy proof for faith in a short summary
of the truth. The Lord speaks to Peter, saying, "I say
unto thee, that you art Peter; and upon this rock I will build
my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven;
and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound also
in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven." [Mt16.18ff.]
[Note: This is the place
where scholars believe that the "textus receptus"
(received text), given below, was changed either by Cyprian
or a later author in order uphold the sole primacy of the
bishop of Rome].
Textus Receptus: And
again to the same He says, after His resurrection, "Feed
my sheep." And although to all the apostles, after His
resurrection, He gives an equal power, and says, "As
the Father hath sent me, even so send I you: Receive you the
Holy Ghost: Whosoever sins you remit, they shall be remitted
unto him; and whosoever sins you retain, they shall be retained;"
yet, that He might set forth unity, He arranged by His authority
the origin of that unity, as beginning from one. Assuredly
the rest of the apostles were also the same as was Peter,
endowed with a like partnership both of honour and power;
but the beginning proceeds from unity. Which one Church, also,
the Holy Spirit in the Song of Songs designated in the person
of our Lord, and says, "My dove, my spotless one, is
but one. She is the only one of her mother, elect of her that
bare her." Does he who does not hold this unity of the
Church think that he holds the faith? Does he who strives
against and resists the Church trust that he is in the Church,
when moreover the blessed Apostle Paul teaches the same thing,
and sets forth the sacrament of unity, saying, "There
is one body and one spirit, one hope of your calling, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God?"
……
5. And this unity we ought
firmly to hold and assert, especially those of us that are
bishops who preside in the Church, that we may also prove
the episcopate itself to be one and undivided. Let no one
deceive the brotherhood by a falsehood: let no one corrupt
the truth of the faith by perfidious prevarication. The episcopate
is one, each part of which is held by each one for the whole.
The Church also is one, which is spread abroad far and wide
into a multitude by an increase of fruitfulness. As there
are many rays of the sun, but one light; and many branches
of a tree, but one strength based in its tenacious root; and
since from one spring flow many streams, although the multiplicity
seems diffused in the liberality of an overflowing abundance,
yet the unity is still preserved in the source. Separate a
ray of the sun from its body of light, its unity does not
allow a division of light; break a branch from a tree,-when
broken, it will not be able to bud; cut off the stream from
its fountain, and that which is cut off dries up. Thus also
the Church, shone over with the light of the Lord, sheds forth
her rays over the whole world, yet it is one light which is
everywhere diffused, nor is the unity of the body separated.
Her fruitful abundance spreads her branches over the whole
world. She broadly expands her rivers, liberally flowing,
yet her head is one, her source one; and she is one mother,
plentiful in the results of fruitfulness: from her womb we
are born, by her milk we are nourished, by her spirit we are
animated.
6. The spouse of Christ cannot
be adulterous; she is uncorrupted and pure. She knows one
home; she guards with chaste modesty the sanctity of one couch.
She keeps us for God. She appoints the sons whom she has born
for the kingdom. Whoever is separated from the Church and
is joined to an adulteress, is separated from the promises
of the Church; nor can he who forsakes the Church of Christ
attain to the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger; he is profane;
he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for his Father,
who has not the Church for his mother. If any one could escape
who was outside the ark of Noah, then he also may escape who
shall be outside of the Church. …
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