Chap. ix. – 10. Now we must see what is said of the baptism of John. For "we read in the Acts of the Apostles, that those who had already been baptized with the baptism of John were yet baptized by Paul,"313 simply because the baptism of John was not the baptism of Christ, but a baptism allowed by Christ to John, so as to be called especially John's baptism; as the same John says, "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven."314 And that he might not possibly seem to receive this from God the Father in such wise as not to receive it from the Son, speaking presently of Christ Himself, he says, "Of His fulness have we all received."315 But by the grace of a certain dispensation John received this, which was to last not for long, but only long enough to prepare for the Lord the way in which he must needs be the forerunner. And as our Lord was presently to enter on this way with all humility, and to lead those who humbly followed Him to perfection, as He washed the feet of His servants,316 so was He willing to be baptized with the baptism of a servant.317 For as He set Himself to minister to the feet of those whose guide He was Himself, so He submitted Himself to the gift of John which He Himself had given, that all might understand what sacrilegious arrogance they would show in despising the baptism which they ought each of them to receive from the Lord, when the Lord Himself accepted what He Himself had bestowed upon a servant, that he might give it as his own; and that when John, than whom no greater had arisen among them that are born of women,318 bore such testimony to Christ, as to confess that he was not worthy to unloose the latchet of His shoe,319 Christ might both, by receiving his baptism, be found to be the humblest among men, and, by taking away the place for the baptism of John, be believed to be the most high God, at once the teacher of humility and the giver of exaltation.

11. For to none of the prophets, to no one at all in holy Scripture, do we read that it was granted to baptize in the water of repentance for the remission of sins, as it was granted to John; that, causing the hearts of the people to hang upon him through this marvellous grace, he might prepare in them the way for Him whom he declared to be so infinitely greater than himself. But the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses His Church by such a baptism that on receiving it no other is required; while John gave a first washing with such a baptism that on receiving it there was further need of the baptism of the Lord, – not that the first baptism should be repeated, but that the baptism of Christ, for whom he was preparing the way, might be further bestowed on those who had received the baptism of John. For if Christ's humility were not to be commended to our notice, neither would there be any need of the baptism of John; again, if the end were in John, after his baptism there would be no need of the baptism of Christ. But because "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,"320 it was shown by John to whom men should go, and in whom, when they had reached Him, they should rest. The same John, therefore, set forth both the exalted nature of the Lord, when he placed Him far before himself, and His humility, when he baptized Him as the lowest of the people. But if John had baptized Christ alone, he would be thought to have been the dispenser of a better baptism, in that with which Christ alone was baptized, than the baptism of Christ with which Christians are baptized; and again, if all ought to be baptized first with the baptism of John, and then with that of Christ, the baptism of Christ would deservedly seem to be lacking in fulness and perfection, as not sufficing for salvation. Wherefore the Lord was baptized with the baptism of John, that He might bend the proud necks of men to His own health-giving baptism; and He was not alone baptized with it, lest He should show His own to be inferior to this, with which none but He Himself had deserved to be baptized; and He did not allow it to continue longer, lest the one baptism with which He baptizes might seem to need the other to precede it.

Chap. x. – 12. I ask, therefore, if sins were remitted by the baptism of John, what more could the baptism of Christ confer on those whom the Apostle Paul desired to be baptized with the baptism of Christ after they had received the baptism of John? But if sins were not remitted by the baptism of John, were those men in the days of Cyprian better than John, of whom he says himself that they "used to seize on estates by treacherous frauds, and increase their gains by accumulated usuries,"321 through whose administration of baptism the remission of sins was yet conferred? Or was it because they were contained within the unity of the Church? What then? Was John not contained within that unity, the friend of the Bridegroom, the preparer of the way of the Lord, the baptizer of the Lord Himself? Who will be mad enough to assert this? Wherefore, although my belief is that John so baptized with the water of repentance for the remission of sins, that those who were baptized by him received the expectation of the remission of their sins, the actual remission taking place in the baptism of the Lord, – just as the resurrection which is expected at the last day is fulfilled in hope in us, as the apostle says, that "He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus;"322 and again, "For we are saved by hope;"323 or as again John himself, while he says, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, for the remission of your sins,"324 yet says, on seeing our Lord, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,"325– nevertheless I am not disposed to contend vehemently against any one who maintains that sins were remitted even in the baptism of John, but that some fuller sanctification was conferred by the baptism of Christ on those whom Paul ordered to be baptized anew.326

Chap. xi. – 13. For we must look at the point which especially concerns the matter before us (whatever be the nature of the baptism of John, since it is clear that he belongs to the unity of Christ), viz., what is the reason for which it was right that men should be baptized again after receiving the baptism of the holy John, and why they ought not to be baptized again after receiving the baptism of the covetous bishops. For no one denies that in the Lord's field John was as wheat, bearing an hundred-fold, if that be the highest rate of increase; also no one doubts that covetousness, which is idolatry, is reckoned in the Lord's harvest among the chaff. Why then is a man baptized again after receiving baptism from the wheat, and not after receiving it from the chaff? If it was because he was better than John that Paul baptized after John, why did not also Cyprian baptize after his usurious colleagues, than whom he was better beyond all comparison? If it was because they were in unity with him that he did not baptize after such colleagues, neither ought Paul to have baptized after John, because they were joined together in the same unity. Can it be that defrauders and extortioners belong to the members of that one dove, and that he does not belong to it to whom the full power of the Lord Jesus Christ was shown by the appearance of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove?327 Truly he belongs most closely to it; but the others, who must be separated from it either by the occasion of some scandal, or by the winnowing at the last day, do not by any means belong to it, and yet baptism was repeated after John and not after them. What then is the cause, except that the baptism which Paul ordered them to receive was not the same as that which was given at the hands of John? And so in the same unity of the Church, the baptism of Christ cannot be repeated though it be given by an usurious minister; but those who receive the baptism of John, even from the hands of John himself, ought to be afterwards baptized with the baptism of Christ.

Chap. xii. – 14. Accordingly, I too might use the words of the blessed Cyprian to turn the hearts of those that hear me to the consideration of something truly marvellous, if I were to say "that John, who was accounted greater among the prophets, – he who was filled with divine grace while yet in his mother's womb; he who was upheld in the spirit and power of Elias; who was not the adversary, but a forerunner and herald of the Lord; who not only foretold our Lord in words, but also showed Him to the sight; who baptized Christ Himself, through whom all others are baptized,"328– he was not worthy to baptize in such wise that those who were baptized by him should not be baptized again after him; and shall no one think that a man should be baptized in the Church after he had been baptized by the covetous, by defrauders, by extortioners, by usurers? Is not the answer ready to this invidious question, Why do you think this unmeet, as though either John were dishonoured, or the covetous man honoured? But His baptism ought not to be repeated, of whom John says, "The same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost."329 For whoever be the minister by whose hands it is given, it is His baptism of whom it was said, "The same is He which baptizeth." But neither was the baptism of John himself repeated, when the Apostle Paul commanded those who had been baptized by him to be baptized in Christ. For what they had not received from the friend of the Bridegroom, this it was right that they should receive from the Bridegroom Himself, of whom that friend had said, "The same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost."

Chap. xiii. – 15. For the Lord Jesus might, if He had so thought fit, have given the power of His baptism to some one or more of His chief servants, whom He had already made His friends, such as those to whom He says, "Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends;"330

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Aug. De Hœr. c. 69; Enarr. in Ps. 132, secs. 3, 6; C. Cresc. iii. 46, 47; C. Gaudentium i. 32.

Epist. xlix. li.

Vol. ix p. 34, etc.

The other works bearing on this controversy are mentioned in the exhaustive volume of Ferd. Ribbeck, Donatus und Augustinus (Elberfeld, 1858). – Ed.

This treatise was written about 400 A.D.

Contra Epist. Parmen. ii. 14.

Comp. v. 23, and iii. 16, note.

Ps. lxi. 2, 3. Augustine translates from the Septuagint. The English version is: "From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. For Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy."

Eph. ii. 6.

Matt. vii. 15.

Matt. xxiv. 23.

Matt. xi. 24.

The Council of Donatist bishops, held at Bagai in Numidia, A.D. 394. Cp. Contr. Crescon. iii. 52, 53.

Quodam modo cardinales Donatistas.

See below, on ii. 9.

Matt. xii. 30.

Mark ix. 38, 39; Luke ix. 50.

Acts x.

Ex. xxxii.

Num. xvi.

1 Cor. xiii. 2.

1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2.

John xi. 51.

1 Sam. xviii. 10.

Acts viii. 13.

Mark i. 24.

Eph. iv. 2, 3.

Acts viii. 13, 21.

1 Cor. iii. 1-4.

1 Cor. i. 10-13.

1 Cor. x. 11. In figura; :τυπιχως; A. V., "for ensamples."

Gen. xxi. 10.

Gen. xxx. 3.

Mal. i. 2, 3; Gen. xxv. 24.

Matt. xxviii. 19.

John xx. 23.

Song of Sol. vi. 9.

1 John ii. 11.

Gal. iii. 27.

Wisd. i. 5.

Debebat. It is necessary to depart from the A. V., "owed," as Augustine founds an argument on the use of the imperfect tense. Gr. ωφειλεν.

Matt. xviii. 23-35.

1 Cor. xv. 46.

1 Cor. ii. 14.

Gal. iv.

Ps. cxxxix. 16.

So Augustine from the Septuagint: επι βιβλιο σου παντις γραφησονται. A.V., "In Thy book were all my members written."

Non caste; ουχ αγνως. Phil. i. 16.

In the Retractations, ii. 18, Augustine notes on this passage, that wherever he uses this quotation from the Epistle to the Ephesians, he means it to be understood of the progress of the Church towards this condition, and not of her success in its attainment; for at present the infirmities and ignorance of her members give ground enough for the whole Church joining daily in the petition, "Forgive us our debts."

Gen. xv. 10.

1 Pet. iv. 8.

See below, ii. 9.

Eph. iv. 2, 3.

Ps. lxxiii. 18.

1 Cor. xii. 31, xiii. 1.

John xv. 1, 2.

John xiii. 34.

Gal. v. 22, 23.

Botrum.

John xv. 2.

Rom. iii. 17; from which it has been introduced into the Alexandrine MS. of the Septuagint at Ps. xiv. 3, as it is quoted by Migne, and found in the English Prayer-book version of the Psalms.

Charitatis ubera.

Præfocantur.

The Council of Carthage, September 1, A.D. 256, in which eighty-seven African bishops declared in favour of rebaptizing heretics. The opinions of the bishops are quoted and answered by Augustine, one by one, in Books vi. and vii.

Matt. xvi. 18.

Cypr. Ep. lxxi.

Gal. i. 20.

Gal. ii. 14.

Luke xxiii. 40-43.

Matt. xxvi. 69-75.

That is, the proconsular province of Africa, or Africa Zeugitana, answering to the northern part of the territory of Tunis.

See above, c. i. 2.

Bede asserts that this was the case, Book viii. qu. 5.

See above, c. ii. 3.

Matt. xxii. 30.

1 Cor. x. 13.

Phil. iii. 15.

Rom. iii. 17; see on i. 19, 29.

Phil. iii. 16.

1 Cor. xiii. 3.

Eph. iv. 3.

Traditores sanctorum librorum.

Ex. xxxii.

Jer. xxxvi.

Num. xvi.

Non convicti sed conficti traditores.

Rom. xiv. 4.

Ps. lviii. 1; though slightly varied from the LXX.: si vere justitiam diligitis; for ει αληθως αρα δικαιοσυνην λαλειτε

John vii. 24.

Matt. vii. 15.

1 Cor. xiv. 29, 30.

Cypr. Ep. lxxi.

The former Council of Carthage was held by Agrippinus early in the third century, the ordinary date given being 215 A.D.

Tanquam lectulo auctoritatis.

Cypr. Ep. lxxi.

The general Council, on whose authority Augustine relies in many places in this work, was either that of Arles, in 314 A.D., or of Nicæa, in 325 A.D., both of them being before his birth, in 354 A.D. He quotes the decision of the same council, contra Parmenianum, ii. 13, 30; de Hœresibus, 69; Ep. xliii. 7, 19. Migne brings forward the following passages in favour of its being the Council of Arles to which Augustine refers, since in them he ascribes the decision of the controversy to "the authority of the whole world." Contra Parmenianum, iii. 4, 21: "They condemned," he says, "some few in Africa, by whom they were in turn vanquished by the judgment of the whole world;" and he adds, that "the Catholics trusted ecclesiastical judges like these in preference to the defeated parties in the suit." Ib. 6, 30: He says that the Donatists, "having made a schism in the unity of the Church, were refuted, not by the authority of 310 African bishops, but by that of the whole world." And in the sixth chapter of the first book of the same treatise, he says that the Donatists, after the decision at Arles, came again to Constantine, and there were defeated "by a final decision," i. e. at Milan, as is seen from Ep. xliii. 7, 20, in the year 316 A.D.

See above, ch. ii. 3.

Rom. xiv. 4.

100

Wisd. xii. 10.

101

Ps. ciii. 8. "And truth" is not found in the A. V., nor in the Roman version of the LXX. The Alexandrian MS. adds και αληθεινος.

102

Ezek. xxiii. 11.

103

2 Tim. iv. 2.

104

John xii. 43.

105

He is alluding to that chief schism among the Donatists, which occurred when Maximianus was consecrated bishop of Carthage, in opposition to Primianus, 394 A.D.

106

Optatus, a Donatist bishop of Thaumugade in Numidia, was called Gildonianus from his adherence to Gildo, Count of Africa, and generalissimo of the province under the elder Theodosius. On his death, in 395 A.D., Gildo usurped supreme authority, and by his aid Optatus was enabled to oppress the Catholics in the province, till, in 398 A.D., Gildo was defeated by his brother Maxezel, and destroyed himself, and Optatus was put in prison, where he died soon afterwards. He is not to be confounded with Optatus, Bishop of Milevis, the strenuous opponent of the Donatists.

107

The Council of Bagai. See above, I. v. 7.

108

Matt. xviii. 19.

109

1 Pet. iv. 8.

110

Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. to Jubaianus.

111

John xiii. 10. "Qui lotus est, non habet necessitatem iterum lavandi." The Latin, with the A.V., loses the distinction between ο λελουμινος, "he that has bathed," and νιπτειν, to wash; and further introduces the idea of repetition.

112

John iii. 5.

113

See above, c. ii. 3.

114

See above, ii. ii. 3.

115

See above, II. ii. 3.

116

Ecclus. iii. 18.

117

See above, II. ii. 3.

118

John i. 33.

119

The Council of Carthage.

120

Epist. lxxiii. sec. 20, to Jubaianus.

121

Conc. Carth. sec. 28.

122

John xiv. 6.

123

Conc. Carth. sec. 30.

124

Ib. sec. 56.

125

Gal. ii. 11-14.

126

Conc. Carth. sec. 63.

127

Ib. sec. 77.

128

Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 1.

129

Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 2.

130

Cypr. Ep. lxxiii. sec. 3.

131

Above, Book i. c. xi. foll.

132

Non ut jam vere dimissa non retineantur. One of the negatives here appears to be superfluous, and the former is omitted in Amerbach's edition, and in many of the MSS., which continue the sentence, "non ut ille baptismus," instead of "neque ut ille," etc. If the latter negative were omitted, the sense would be improved, and "neque" would appropriately remain.

133

2 Cor. ii. 15, 16.

134

Phantasmata.

135

1 Cor. ii. 14.

136

1 Cor. i. 13.

137

1 Cor. iii. 1-3.

138

Eph. iv. 14.

139

Matt. xxviii. 19.

140

Cp. Concilium Arelatense, can. 8. "De Afris, quod propria lege utuntur ut rebaptizent; placuit ut si ad ecclesiam aliquis de hæresi venerit, interrogent eum symbolum; et si perviderint eum in Patre, et Filio, et Spiritu sancto esse baptizatum, manus ei tantum imponatur, ut accipiat Spiritum sanctum. Quod si interrogatus non responderit hanc Trinitatem, baptizetur."

141

Phil. iii. 15.

142

Jer. xv. 18, quoted from the LXX.

143

Rev. xvii. 15.

144

Rom. v. 5.

145

1 Cor. xiii. 1-3.

146

1 Cor. xii. 11.

147

Acts viii. 13.

148

1 Sam. x. 6, 10.

149

1 Tim. i. 5.

150

He refers to laying on of hands such as he mentions below, Book v. c. xxiii.: "If hands were not laid on one who returned from heresy, he would be judged to be free from all fault."

151

Matt. xvi. 19.

152

Song of Sol. vi. 9.

153

Cypr. de Lapsis, c. 4.

154

John xx. 21-23.

155

1 Cor. ii. 15.

156

Eph. v. 27. Cp. Retract. ii. 18, quoted above on I. xvii.

157

Tit. i. 7.

158

Num. xvi.

159

Lev. x. 1, 2.

160

Rom. ii. 4.

161

Acts viii. 5-17.

162

Because Cyprian, in his letter to Jubaianus (Ep. lxxiii. sec. 8), had urged as following from this, that "there is no reason, dearest brother, why we should think it right to yield to heretics that baptism which was granted to the one and only Church."

163

Deut. iv. 24.

164

Hos. ii. 5, from the LXX.

165

John i. 47.

166

John xiv. 21.

167

John xiii. 34, 35.

168

Matt. v. 17.