Baptism outside the Church: is the washing of heretics and schismatics no baptism at all, so that converts must be baptized and custom yield to truth?

Cyprian of Carthage, answered from the texts and cited to the page.

Cyprian of Carthage answers

It is no baptism at all, and so those who come to us are not rebaptized but baptized. I wrote to Quintus that they do not receive anything there, where there is nothing; they come to us that here they may receive, where there is both grace and all truth, because grace and truth are one.¹ The baptism is one because the Church is one, and there cannot be any baptism out of the Church.²

If I granted that heretics truly baptize, I would either make two baptisms, or I would yield to the enemy and adversary of Christ the power of washing, purifying and sanctifying a man.² The argument runs from the Spirit. Water alone is not able to cleanse away sins and sanctify a man, unless he have also the Holy Spirit; therefore those who say there is baptism among heretics must grant that the Spirit is there, or else there is no baptism, for there cannot be baptism without the Spirit.³

And a part cannot be void and part valid: if one could baptize, he could also give the Holy Spirit. But he who stands outside is not endowed with the Spirit, and so he cannot baptize those who come.⁴ The Church was founded by Christ upon Peter, by a source and principle of unity, and she is one.⁴ Where the Church is not, there is no spouse; and heresy, which is not the spouse of Christ, cannot bear sons to God, since it is she alone, joined and united with Christ, who bears them spiritually.⁵

How shall a man have God for his Father who has not first had the Church for his Mother?⁵ Scripture speaks to the same end. The Lord complains that they have forsaken him, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out broken cisterns that can hold no water.⁶ The water must first be cleansed and sanctified by the priest, and how can he cleanse and sanctify the water who is himself unclean, and in whom the Holy Spirit is not?⁶

And how can he who is outside the Church, and cannot put away his own sins, give another remission of sins?⁶ It is written, "He who is baptized by one dead, what availeth his washing?" Those who are not in the Church of Christ are reckoned among the dead, and another cannot be made alive by him who is not alive.¹ As for custom, I took the case of the ancients seriously, and I distinguished.

In the first beginnings of heresy, those who went out had first been baptized in the Church, and when they returned in repentance it was enough to lay hands on them, so that the Shepherd might receive the estranged sheep into the fold it had left.⁷ But the one who comes from the heretics and was never baptized in the Church comes as a stranger and entirely profane, and he must be baptized that he may become a sheep, because in the holy Church is the one water which makes sheep.⁷

So the custom my brother Stephen urges does not reach the case. It is a different man he is receiving. The conclusion I drew in the council is the one I hold: whatever the Lord's adversaries and the antichrists do, we ought to repudiate and regard as profane, and to those who come out of error and acknowledge the true faith of the one Church, we should give the truth both of unity and faith, by means of all the sacraments of divine grace.⁸

I took this to be no new opinion but the rule long since decreed by our predecessors and observed among us.⁶ And I did not claim to settle it over the heads of my colleagues. I laid out what the council judged, and the day of judgment, before the tribunal of Christ, will read what each of us wrote.⁹

The position in brief

There is one baptism, as there is one Church, and it belongs to the Church alone. The heretic or schismatic has not the Spirit and cannot give him; he has not the Church and cannot give birth to sons for God. Those washed outside are therefore not rebaptized when they come to us but baptized for the first time. Stephen's custom of receiving them with the laying on of hands is a custom without truth, and custom without truth is the antiquity of error.

Yet no bishop compels a colleague: each judges for his church and answers to Christ, and the council keeps peace with those who think otherwise.¹⁰¹¹¹²¹³¹⁴

Sources

Now it is manifest that they who are not in the Church of Christ are reckoned among the dead; and another cannot be made alive by him who himself is not alive
The Epistles
there is one baptism which indeed is therefore one, because the Church is one, and there cannot be any baptism out of the Church.
The Epistles
For water alone is not able to cleanse away sins, and to sanctify a man, unless he have also the Holy Spirit.
The Epistles
If one could baptize, he could also give the Holy Spirit. But if he cannot give the Holy Spirit, because he that is appointed without is not endowed with the Holy Spirit, he cannot baptize those who come
The Epistles
where and of whom and to whom is he born, who is not a son of the Church, so as that he should have God as his Father, before he has had the Church for his Mother?
The Epistles
It is required, then, that the water should first be cleansed and sanctified by the priest, that it may wash away by its baptism the sins of the man who is baptized
The Epistles
if he who comes from the heretics has not previously been baptized in the Church, but comes as a stranger and entirely profane, he must be baptized, that he may become a sheep, because in the holy Church is the one water which makes sheep.
The Epistles
we ought to repudiate and reject and regard as profane whatever His adversaries and the antichrists do
The Epistles
You have my letter, and I yours. In the day of judgment, before the tribunal of Christ, both will be read.
The Epistles
We bid you, dearest brethren, ever heartily farewell. Epistle LXX. To Quintus, Concerning the Baptism of Heretics. 1. Cyprian to Quintus his brother, greeting.
The Epistles
And that you may know what kind of letters we have written on this subject, I have transmitted for our mutual love a copy of them, as well for your own information as for that of our fellow-bishops who are in those parts. I bid you, dearest brother, ever heartily farewell. Epistle LXXI. To Stephen, Concerning a Council. 1. Cyprian and others, to Stephen their brother, greeting.
The Epistles
But of those things that you have done, either in persecution or in peace, it is foolish for me to pretend to judge you, since you rather appoint yourself a judge over us. These things, of the pure conscience of my mind, and of my confidence in my Lord and my God, I have written at length. You have my letter, and I yours. In the day of judgment, before the tribunal of Christ, both will be read. Epistle LXIX.
The Epistles
For water alone is not able to cleanse away sins, and to sanctify a man, unless he have also the Holy Spirit. Wherefore it is necessary that they should grant the Holy Spirit to be there, where they say that baptism is; or else there is no baptism where the Holy Spirit is not, because there cannot be baptism without the Spirit. 6.
The Epistles
Nor will heretics refuse to be baptized among us with the lawful and true baptism of the Church, when they shall have learnt from us that they also were baptized by Paul, who already had been baptized with the baptism of John, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles. 25.
The Epistles

Where the argument is made

Epistle LXIX to Januarius and the Numidian bishops
Epistle LXX to Quintus, on converts who "are not re-baptized among us, but are baptized"
Epistle LXXI to Stephen, reporting the council
Epistle LXXII to Jubaianus (256), on the one baptism, the Samaritans of Acts, and "there is no salvation out of the Church"
Epistle LXXIII to Pompey, against Stephen's "let nothing be innovated," and "custom without truth is the antiquity of error"
Epistle LXXV to Magnus on the Novatianists and on baptism by sprinkling of the sick
On the Unity of the Church 11 on the false washing of the heretics
the address and sentence at the Seventh Council of Carthage (1 September 256)

How the argument was received

The position on which the later Western Church overruled him, and on which he stood to the end against the bishop of Rome while refusing to break the college over it.