One of the most important doctrines of the early Church

Above is a great lecture by Sam Shamoun on baptism.  Sam Shamoun is one of my favourite Youtubers and he’s a great.  I also admire the fact that he doesn’t tolerate people going off-topic or being sectarian in the chat.  I’d recommending watching at least two of his videos every week.

In this video he touches on infant baptism.  There is a related topic on baptism that I want to touch on and I think it is one of the most important doctrines of the early Church.  It is the doctrine of Ex Opere Operato.  This translates as “by the work worked”.  Basically it means that the form is sufficient for the effectiveness of the sacrament.

In other words it doesn’t matter who performs it.  As long as it has the right form then all is well.  In the fourth century, there was the issue of Arianism.  Arianism was defeated on paper in 325 AD, but it wasn’t fully defeated in the Christian world until about 380 AD.  The fourth century is also the century that saw the majority of the pagans in the Roman Empire convert to Christianity.

Many of these former pagans entered Christianity through Arianism.  Once Arianism was defeated, these men became Catholic.  Now, once they were baptized does that mean they had to be rebaptized?  Absolutely not.  A baptism done by a heretic though in the right form is still valid.  Arians did proper baptisms so they didn’t have to be rebaptized when they entered the Catholic Church.

A fourth century Pope writes:

And son on the first page of your letter you have indicated that very many baptized by the impious Arians are hastening to the Catholic faith and that certain of our brothers wish to baptize these same ones again.  This is not allowed since the Apostle forbids it to be done and the canons oppose it, and after the cessation of the Council of Ariminum general decrees sent to the provinces by my predecessor Liberius of venerable memory prohibit it.

– Pope Siricius, Letter to Himerius

Pope Leo the great also came out against the rebaptism of heretics provided the form was correct:

For they who have received baptism from heretics, not having been previously baptized, are to be confirmed by imposition of hands with only the invocation of the Holy Ghost, because they have received the bare form of baptism without the power of sanctification.

– Pope Leo the Great, Letter to Nicaetas

Now, in the early Church, there were people who had to be rebaptized but it was because of a lack of form.  It had nothing to do with the orthodoxy or heterodoxy of the baptizer.  The Paulianists had to be rebaptized but the Novations did not.  It was all about form.

Pope Innocent I writes:

What therefore is distinct in the two heresies themselves, clear reason declares, because the Paulianists do not at all baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and the Novatians do baptize in the same tremendous and venerable names, and among them the question has not ever been raised concerning the unity of the divine power, that is of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

– Pope Innocent I, Letter to Rufus and other bishops of Macedonia

This is a good explanation of what the early Church, guided by the Popes believed.  It’s the only consistent way to know if someone is baptized correctly or not; the doctrine of ex opere operato.  While this teaching did receive opposition from individual Catholics like St. Cyprian, the Church never accepted it.  However, Christian saints believed that this error was minor and that despite being wrong, St. Cyprian is resting eternally with Christ.

For who is so demented as to doubt that that blessed light among all holy bishops and martyrs, Cyprian, together with the rest of his colleagues, will reign with Christ; or, who on the other hand so sacrilegious as to deny that the Donatists and those other pests, who boast the authority of that council for their interaction of baptism, will be consigned to the eternal fire with the devil?

– St. Vincent of Lerins, Commonitory, Chapter 6

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