Epistolae Quae ad Sixtum II Attinent

Letters Which Pertain to Sixtus II, Pope and Martyr. Letter I. Fragments of a Letter from Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, to Pope Sixtus. Dionysius mentions letters written by him both to Pope Stephen and to the presbyters Dionysius and Philemon, concerning the baptism of heretics and the Sabellian heresy. I. Previously, indeed, (Stephen) had written letters concerning Helenus and Firmilian, and concerning all those established throughout Cilicia and Cappadocia and all the neighboring provinces, testifying that he would withdraw from communion with them for that same reason, namely, that they rebaptized heretics. And consider the gravity of the matter. For in truth, as I hear, it has been decreed in the greatest councils of bishops that those who come from heresy should first be instructed in [Catholic] doctrine and then cleansed of the filth of the old and impure leaven through baptism. Concerning all these things, I sent letters to him, entreating and adjuring him.

And a little later Dionysius continues: But I have also written to our beloved fellow presbyters Dionysius and Philemon, who previously agreed with Stephen and had written to me about the same matters, at first briefly, but now at greater length. In the same letter concerning the Sabellian heretics, says Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History, Book VII, chapter 6, since they were then increasing, he informs Xystus more fully in these words: For concerning the doctrine which has recently been stirred up in the city of Ptolemais of the Pentapolis, impious and full of blasphemy against Almighty God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, full of unbelief and perfidy toward His only-begotten and firstborn Son of every creature, the Word made man, and which takes away the understanding of the Holy Spirit: since letters from both sides were brought to me, and the brethren had come to dispute, as far as I was able, with God’s gift, I wrote a certain letter, setting forth the matter more plainly; copies of which I have sent to you.

I, however, devoted myself to reading the books of heretics and learning their traditions, for a time indeed defiling my mind with their execrable opinions, yet deriving this benefit from them, that I refuted them in my own mind and detested them all the more. And when a certain brother from the order of presbyters tried to deter me, fearing that I might be mingled with the same filth of wickedness—for he said that my mind would be contaminated, and indeed truly, as I myself perceived—I was confirmed by a divinely sent vision, and a speech made to me expressly commanded, saying: Read everything that comes into your hands; for you are fit to correct and test each thing: and from this the cause and occasion for your believing first arose. I received this vision as being in accord with the apostolic voice, which addresses those endowed with greater virtue thus: Be expert money-changers (1 Thessalonians, 21:21).

Then, says Eusebius, after saying a few things about all heresies, he adds the following. I received this rule and form from our blessed pope Heraclas. For those who came from heresies, even if they had fallen away from the Church—or rather, had not fallen away, but were seen to frequent the assembly of the faithful yet were accused of attending to hear teachers of perverse doctrine—he did not admit them, after many entreaties, until they had openly and publicly recounted whatever they had heard from the adversaries. Only then did he admit them to the assemblies of the faithful, without ever asking them to undergo baptism again. For they had already received the Holy Spirit from him. Again, after thoroughly discussing this question, he adds the following. Moreover, I have learned that this custom was not first introduced only among the Africans, but also much earlier, in the times of earlier bishops, in the most populous churches; and that it was approved by synods of brothers held at Iconium and Synada, as well as by very many others. I do not wish to overturn their judgments and cast them into quarrels and contentions. For it is said: “You shall not move the boundaries of your neighbor, which your fathers placed” (Deut. 19:14).

LETTERS III, OF DIONYSIUS, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, TO PIONIUS, THEN PRESBYTER OF XYSTUS, AND LATER HIS SUCCESSOR, A FRAGMENT. He teaches that Novatian is rightly to be opposed on account of schism, on account of impious doctrine, on account of repeated baptism of those coming to him. For we rightly turn away from Novatian, who has divided the Church, and has drawn some of the brethren into impiety and blasphemies; who has introduced into the world a most impious doctrine about God, and slanders our most merciful Lord Jesus Christ as though he were merciless; and besides all these things, he holds the sacred washing as invalid and rejects it, and subverts the faith and confession which precede baptism, and utterly drives away the Holy Spirit from them, even if some hope remains; either that it has remained in them, or that it has returned to them. LETTERS IV, OF DIONYSIUS, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, TO SIXTUS II, THE POPE, A FRAGMENT. Concerning a man who sought to be initiated by the baptism of the Church, when he said that he had received baptism among heretics with other words and things.

Truly, brother, I have need of counsel, and I seek your opinion, lest I be deceived, concerning a matter which has befallen me in this wise. A certain one of the brethren who assemble at the church, long accounted as a faithful man, and who before my ordination, and, unless I am mistaken, before the episcopate of Heraclas himself, had been a participant in the assembly of the faithful, when he had been present at the baptism of those who were recently being baptized, and had heard the questions and responses, came to me weeping and lamenting his lot. And prostrating himself at my feet, he began to confess and swear that the baptism by which he had been initiated among the heretics was not of this kind, nor had it anything at all in common with ours; indeed, it was full of impiety and blasphemy. And he said that his mind was pierced with a most bitter sense of grief, and that he did not even dare to lift his eyes to God, because he had been initiated with those wicked words and things. Therefore he besought that he be granted this most pure washing by reception and grace. This I indeed did not dare to do; but I said that his long-standing communion had sufficed for that. For one who has heard the thanksgiving, and who with the rest has answered Amen; who has stood at the sacred table, and has reached out his hands to receive the holy food, and has received it, and has been a partaker of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ for a very long time, I would not have dared to renew him from the beginning. Moreover, that

I bade him to be of good spirit, and to approach the Holy Mysteries with faith and a good conscience, and to become a partaker of them. But truly, he makes no end of mourning, and shrinks from approaching the table, and scarcely, when asked, does he endure to be present at the prayers. NOTICE OF CERTAIN WRITERS WHICH PERTAIN TO SIXTUS. I. Moreover, Dionysius wrote another epistle to Sixtus, which Eusebius, in Book VII of the *History*, chapter 9, deemed sufficient to indicate in these words: "There is also a fifth epistle of the same Dionysius on baptism, in the name of himself and of the church which he governed, to Sixtus and the church of the city of Rome, in which he institutes a rather lengthy disputation on the proposed question." II. Pontius, in the *Life of S. Cyprian*, has these words: "Now a messenger had come concerning Sixtus, a good and peaceful priest, and on that account a most blessed martyr. The executioner was already being hoped for, coming any day now." The Oxford editor renders these words thus in summary: "Sixtus, the Roman pontiff, warns Cyprian about the coming persecution"; and so, if he has grasped Pontius's meaning, Sixtus is to be said to have sent letters to Cyprian shortly before his passion, by which he would make him more certain of the imminent persecution. But Pontius means only this: that the persecution was raging at Rome, and that a messenger had already come concerning the martyrdom and death of Sixtus, and that at Carthage the executioner was expected daily. For here this deacon touches briefly upon what Cyprian's epistle...

He explains to Successus that those whom he himself had sent to Rome to ascertain the truth have indeed come; from them he learned that Valerian had written back to the senate against the Christians, that Sixtus had been punished, and that the prefects in the City press on daily with this persecution. L. D. Coustant.