Decretoriae Sententiae

The Acts and Monuments of the Most Celebrated Disputation on the Baptism of Heretics. Part One. The Principal Ancient Monuments Which Survive Concerning the Baptism of Heretics. The Decretal Sentences of St. Stephen, Pope and Martyr. Preface. It is indeed to be lamented that whatever letters the most blessed Pope Stephen I wrote in these storms of affairs, whether to the African or to the Eastern bishops, have not come down to us; nay more, it is a wonder that none at all, except only a few sentences, have survived: since meanwhile neither the injury of oblivion nor the voracity of time has caused to perish some pamphlets of certain anonymous authors, far humbler and of much slighter tenor and moment; and since, moreover, the whole Church was shaken from its very foundations by this most grave controversy, and from that time onward, intent upon the holy See of Peter, it ought to have received with attentive ears whatever pontifical opinions or decrees emerged. Therefore, as many sentences of Pope Stephen as have emerged, excerpted from the letters of Cyprian and Firmilian, are to be collected all the more diligently; they are moreover palmary and rightly called decretal, seeing that, although with great and most worthy men resisting on both sides, they finally settled the immense controversy and were soon after accepted by the whole Church, firmly embraced, and perpetually observed.

These are indeed the utterances of the holy Pontiff, which we chiefly extract from the letters of Firmilian; yet it is by no means our intention to hold Firmilian’s own epistle as authentic or ratified. Let the case remain entirely under judgment; we only wish it to be permitted that from this source, whether doubtful or disturbed, we may draw forth those sentences which savor of venerable antiquity, and which a crafty interpolator could have inserted from ancient documents into his novel farrago. The one and necessary end of controversies of faith. Stephen boasts of the place of his episcopate and contends that he holds the succession of Peter, upon whom the foundations of the Church were conferred (Firmil. Epist.). II. A fundamental principle of law. If, therefore, anyone comes to us from any heresy whatsoever, LET NOTHING BE INNOVATED, EXCEPT WHAT HAS BEEN TRADITIONALLY HANDED DOWN, namely, that hands be laid upon him for penance, since the heretics themselves, when one of their own comes to them, do not baptize him, but only admit him to communion (Cypr. Epist. LXXIV).

III. A testimony of apostolic tradition concerning the baptism of heretics.... As if the apostles forbade those who come from heresy to be baptized and handed this down to posterity to be observed (Firmilian, Epistle). IV. Intrinsic arguments of the testimony. Stephen and those who agree with him contend that the remission of sins and the second birth proceed in the baptism of heretics, among whom they themselves confess that the Holy Spirit is not, and at the same time that there is one baptism for us and for heretics.... They think it should not be asked who that person is who baptized, because whoever baptized could obtain grace by invoking the Trinity of the names of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit... Stephen wishes that for those who are baptized among heretics, the presence and sanctity of Christ be at hand... The name of Christ avails much, so that whoever and wherever someone has been baptized in the name of Christ, he immediately obtains the grace of Christ (Firmilian, Epistle, passim).

V. Clause. Heresy indeed gives birth and exposes; but the Church receives those who have been exposed (Firmilian, Epistle). Eds.