HOLMES Baptism: Patristic Resources 265
and noting that Cyprian explicitly refused to break communion with
anyone who differed on this point (2.3). Augustine unsurprisingly makes
much of this example of 'holy humility, catholic peace, and Christian
charity' (2.4).
The rights and wrongs of the case need not detain us, but there are twopoints in the argument of great interest. First, Augustine is prepared, in
Cyprian's defence, to claim that the issue might be difficult and obscure.
What then should someone do, if coming from heresy to the Church? She
is faced with a choice of being in danger of being unbaptized, and being in
danger of being twice baptized. Augustine thinks the latter is the lesser
evil, on the basis of two dominical statements: the one who has not been
'born of water and the Spirit' 'cannot enter the kingdom of God' (Jn 3.5);
to Peter Jesus says 'whoever has been washed has no need of a second
washing' (at least in the Vulgate version of Jn 13.10); the former is a grave
danger, the latter merely unnecessary {On Baptism 2.19). So, Augustine
thinks that there have been those in the Church who were twice-baptized,
and is fairly sanguine about it, just as Cyprian was about the thought that
there might be some unbaptized in the Church. The mercy of God and the
unity of the Church will triumph in either case (2.19-20).
Secondly, this stress on the unity of the Church comes through even
more strongly towards the end of Augustine's argument, where he again
follows Cyprian in believing that charity, maintaining the bond of peace in
the Church, is more important than even the baptismal status of some of
the Church's members, priests and bishops. Rebaptism, for Augustine, is
only a serious matter if it is done with the intention of creating schism; the
bond of unity and charity that marks Christ's Church can cover over
improper practices, provided they do not serve to sever it (5.2-3).
There are two areas, I think, where all this witness to the confused and
messy nature of baptismal practice in the churches in the patristic period
might be of help to us in modern ecumenical debates. First, and less
importantly, Basil and Augustine might teach us very simply not to worry
too much about our disagreements: both (Basil implicitly and Augustine
explicitly) accepted fairly readily that within their churches there would be
those who had been baptized more than once and those who had not been
baptized at all. Neither course was a good idea, naturally, but neither was
anything to worry unduly about either. I stress again, these are not eccle-
siastical administrators anxious to preserve the peace at any cost, and
entirely unaware of the theological significance of the sacraments; they are
amongst the greatest theologians of the eastern and western churches
respectively. Both, clearly, believed in the importance of right baptismal