The Sentences of the Eighty-Seven Bishops

​Nemesianus of Thubunae said: “That the baptism which heretics and schismatics give is not true is declared everywhere in the holy scriptures, since their leaders themselves are false Christs and false prophets, as the Lord says through Solomon: ‘He who trusts in falsehoods feeds the winds, and the very same man pursues flying birds. For he has abandoned the ways of his vineyard, and has strayed from the paths of his field. Moreover, he enters through pathless and dry places, and a land destined for thirst, and gathers in his hands unfruitful things.’ And again: ‘Abstain from foreign water, and do not drink from a strange spring, so that you may live a long time, and that years of life may also be added to you.’ And in the gospel, our Lord Christ spoke with His divine voice, saying: ‘Unless anyone is born again of water and Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’ This is the Spirit which from the beginning was borne over the water. For neither can the Spirit work separately without water, nor water without the Spirit. Therefore, some wrongly interpret for themselves so as to say that by the imposition of hands they receive the Holy Spirit and are thus received, when it is manifest that they ought to be born again by both sacraments in the catholic church. Then they will be able to be sons of God, as the apostle says: ‘Careful to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.’ All these things the catholic church speaks. And again in the gospel the Lord says: ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit, because God is a spirit, and is born of God.’ Therefore, all heretics and schismatics, all things whatever they do are carnal, as the apostle says: ‘For the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornications, uncleannesses, unchastity, the service of idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, jealousy, anger, divisions, heresies, and things like these: of which I foretold to you, as I do foretell, that whoever do these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.’ And so the apostle condemns, along with all the wicked, those also who make division, that is, schismatics and heretics. Therefore, unless they receive the saving baptism in the catholic church, which is one, they cannot be saved, but [must] be condemned with the carnal in the judgment of the Lord Christ.

​Ianuarius of Lambaesis said: “According to the authority of the holy scriptures, I decree that all heretics must be baptized and thus admitted into the holy church.”

​Lucius of Castra Galbae said: “Since the Lord in His gospel said: ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has become tasteless, with what shall it be seasoned? From then on it is good for nothing, except to be cast out and trodden under foot by men,’ and again, after His resurrection, sending His apostles, He commands, saying: ‘All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and teach the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ Since therefore it is manifest that heretics, that is, the enemies of Christ, do not have the complete confession of the sacrament, and likewise that schismatics cannot season with spiritual wisdom, since they themselves, by departing from the church which is one, have become tasteless and contrary, let it be done as it is written: ‘The houses of those who are contrary to the law owe cleansing’; and consequently, those who, having been baptized by contraries, have been defiled, must first be purged and then finally be baptized.”