Saturday, July 8, 2023

Baptismal Regeneration in Inter cetera Ecclesia Romane (January 27, 417) and Epistula tractoria to the Eastern Churches (between June and August 418)

 Letter Inter cetera Ecclesia Romane to Silvanus and the Other Fathers of the Synod of Milevum, January 27, 417

 

(Chap. 5) . . . It is quite foolish (to imagine) that little children can be given the rewards of eternal life even without the grace of baptism. For unless they have eaten the flesh of the Son of Man and drunk his blood, they shall not have life in them [cf. John 6:53f.]. Moreover, those who claim this (i.e., eternal life) for them without their being born again seem to me to wish to make baptism itself null and void, since they proclaim that these (children) have that which, it is believed, cannot be conferred upon them except b baptism. If, therefore, they wish (to maintain) that not being born again is not of any consequence, it is necessary that they also profess that the sacred cleansing of rebirth does no good. But, so that the perverse teaching of frivolous men may be able to be thwarted by a swift account of the truth, the Lord proclaims that in the Gospel, saying: “Permit the children to come to me, and do not prevent them; for such is the kingdom of heaven” [cf. Mt 19:14; Mk 10:14; Lk 18:16]

 

Heinrich Denzinger, Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Morals, ed. Peter Hünermann, Robert Fastiggi, and Anne Englund Nash (43rd ed; San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012), 81

 

Zosimus I, Epistula tractoria to the Eastern Churches, between June and August 418

 

. . . Through his death is broken that the bond of death [cf. Col 2:14] contracted by propagation, that death introduced for us all by Adam and transmitted to every soul; to which everyone born without exception is subject before being liberated through baptism.

 

Heinrich Denzinger, Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Morals, ed. Peter Hünermann, Robert Fastiggi, and Anne Englund Nash (43rd ed; San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012), 85