The Sentences of the Eighty-Seven Bishops

​Marcellus of Zama said: “Since sins are not remitted except in the baptism of the church, he who does not baptize a heretic communicates with a sinner.”

​Irenaeus of Ululi said: “If the church does not baptize a heretic for this reason, that he is said to have already been baptized, the heresy is greater.”

​Donatus of Cibaliana said: “I know one church and one baptism of hers. If there is anyone who says that the grace of baptism is with heretics, he must first show and prove that the church is there.”

​Zosimus of Tharassa said: “When the revelation of truth has been made, let error yield to truth, because even Peter, who previously circumcised, yielded to Paul preaching the truth.”

​Iulianus of Thelepte said: “It is written: ‘No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven.’ If heresy is from heaven, it can also give baptism.”

​Faustus of Timida Regia said: “Let those who patronize heretics not flatter themselves. He who, on behalf of heretics, intercedes against the baptism of the church makes them Christians and us heretics.”

​Geminius of Furni said: “Some of our colleagues may prefer heretics to themselves, but to us they cannot. And therefore, what we have once decreed we hold, that we should baptize heretics who come to us.”

​Rogatianus of Nova said: “Christ instituted the church, the devil heresy. How can the synagogue of Satan have the baptism of Christ?”

​Therapius of Bulla said: “He who concedes and betrays the baptism of the church to heretics, what else has he stood forth as but a Judas to the bride of Christ?”

​Another Lucius of Membresa said: “It is written: ‘God does not hear a sinner.’ A heretic who is a sinner, how can he be heard in baptism?”

​Another Felix of Buslaceni said: “In admitting heretics without the baptism of the church, let no one prefer custom to reason and truth, because reason and truth always exclude custom.”

​Another Saturninus of Avitinae said: “If the antichrist can give the grace of Christ to anyone, heretics also can baptize, who have been called antichrists.”

​Quintus of Aggya said: “He can give something who has something. But what can heretics give, who, it is established, have nothing?”

​Another Iulianus of Marcelliana said: “If a man can serve two masters, God and mammon, baptism also can serve two, a Christian and a heretic.”

​Tenax of Horrea Caeliae said: “It is written that there is one God, and one Christ, and one church, and one baptism. How can anyone be baptized there, where God and Christ and the church are not?” ​Another Victor of Assuras said: “Baptism is one, but also of the church. Where the church is not, baptism cannot be there.”

​Donatulus of Capsa said: “And I have always felt this, that heretics who can obtain nothing outside, when they are converted to the church, should be baptized.”

​Verulus of Rusiccade said: “A heretical man cannot give what he does not have; much more a schismatic has lost what he had.”

​Pudentianus of Cuicul said: “The novelty of my episcopate has caused me, most beloved brethren, to wait to see what my elders would judge. For it is manifest that heresies have nothing and can do nothing. And so, if any come from them, it has been judged most justly that they should be baptized.”

​Petrus of Hippo Diarrhytus said: “Since baptism is one in the catholic church, it is manifest that one cannot be baptized outside the church. And therefore I judge that those dipped in heresy or in schism, when they come to the church, ought to be baptized.”