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The City of God

Chapter 25.--Whether Those Who Received Heretical Baptism, and Have Afterwards Fallen Away to Wickedness of Life; Or Those Who Have Received Catholic Baptism, But Have Afterwards Passed Over to Heresy and Schism; Or Those Who Have Remained in the Catholic Church in Which They Were Baptized, But Have Continued to Live Immorally,--May Hope Through the Virtue of the Sacraments for the Remission of Eternal Punishment.

But let us now reply to those who promise deliverance from eternal fire, not to the devil and his angels (as neither do they of whom we have been speaking), nor even to all men whatever, but only to those who have been washed by the baptism of Christ, and have become partakers of His body and blood, no matter how they have lived, no matter what heresy or impiety they have fallen into. But they are contradicted by the apostle, where he says, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variances, emulations, wrath, strife, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and the like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, for they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." ¹ Certainly this sentence of the apostle is false, if such persons shall be delivered after any lapse of time, and shall then inherit the kingdom of God. But as it is not false, they shall certainly never inherit the kingdom of God. And if they shall never enter that kingdom, then they shall always be retained in eternal punishment; for there is no middle place where he may live unpunished who has not been admitted into that kingdom.

And therefore we may reasonably inquire how we are to understand these words of the Lord Jesus: "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever." ² And those, indeed, whom we are now answering, are refuted in their interpretation of this passage by those whom we are shortly to answer, and who do not promise this deliverance to all who have received the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's body, but only to the catholics, however wickedly they live; for these, say they, have eaten the Lord's body not only sacramentally, but really, being constituted members of His body, of which the apostle says, "We being many are one bread, one body." ³ He then who is in the unity of Christ's body (that is to say, in the Christian membership), of which body the faithful have been wont to receive the sacrament at the altar, that man is truly said to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ. And consequently heretics and schismatics being separate from the unity of this body, are able to receive the same sacrament, but with no profit to themselves,--nay, rather to their own hurt, so that they are rather more severely judged than liberated after some time. For they are not in that bond of peace which is symbolized by that sacrament.

But again, even those who sufficiently understand that he who is not in the body of Christ cannot be said to eat the body of Christ, are in error when they promise liberation from the fire of eternal punishment to persons who fall away from the unity of that body into heresy, or even into heathenish superstition. For, in the first place, they ought to consider how intolerable it is, and how discordant with sound doctrine, to suppose that many, indeed, or almost all, who have forsaken the Church catholic, and have originated impious heresies and become heresiarchs, should enjoy a destiny superior to those who never were catholics, but have fallen into the snares of these others; that is to say, if the fact of their catholic baptism and original reception of the sacrament of the body of Christ in the true body of Christ is sufficient to deliver these heresiarchs from eternal punishment. For certainly he who deserts the faith, and from a deserter becomes an assailant, is worse than he who has not deserted the faith he never held. And, in the second place, they are contradicted by the apostle, who, after enumerating the works of the flesh, says with reference to heresies, "They who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

And therefore neither ought such persons as lead an abandoned and damnable life to be confident of salvation, though they persevere to the end in the communion of the Church catholic, and comfort themselves with the words, "He that endureth to the end shall be saved." By the iniquity of their life they abandon that very righteousness of life which Christ is to them, whether it be by fornication, or by perpetrating in their body the other uncleannesses which the apostle would not so much as mention, or by a dissolute luxury, or by doing any one of those things of which he says, "They who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Consequently, they who do such things shall not exist anywhere but in eternal punishment, since they cannot be in the kingdom of God. For, while they continue in such things to the very end of life, they cannot be said to abide in Christ to the end; for to abide in Him is to abide in the faith of Christ. And this faith, according to the apostle's definition of it, "worketh by love." ⁴ And "love," as he elsewhere says, "worketh no evil." ⁵ Neither can these persons be said to eat the body of Christ, for they cannot even be reckoned among His members. For, not to mention other reasons, they cannot be at once the members of Christ and the members of a harlot. In fine, He Himself, when He says, "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him," ⁶ shows what it is in reality, and not sacramentally, to eat His body and drink His blood; for this is to dwell in Christ, that He also may dwell in us. So that it is as if He said, He that dwelleth not in me, and in whom I do not dwell, let him not say or think that he eateth my body or drinketh my blood. Accordingly, they who are not Christ's members do not dwell in Him. And they who make themselves members of a harlot, are not members of Christ unless they have penitently abandoned that evil, and have returned to this good to be reconciled to it.

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXV: An hi, qui inter haereticos baptizati sunt et deteriores postea male uiuendo sunt facti, uel hi, qui apud catholicos renati ad haereses aut schismata transierunt, uel hi, qui a catholicis apud quos renati sunt non recedentes criminose uiuere perstiterunt, possint priuilegio sacramentorum remissionem aeterni sperare supplicii.

Sed iam respondeamus etiam illis, qui non solum diabolo et angelis eius, sicut nec isti, sed ne ipsis quidem omnibus hominibus liberationem ab aeterno igne promittunt, uerum eis tantum, qui Christi baptismate abluti et corporis eius et sanguinis participes facti sunt, quomodolibet uixerint, in quacumque haeresi uel inpietate fuerint. sed contradicit eis apostolus dicens: manifesta autem sunt opera carnis, quae sunt fornicatio, inmunditia, luxuria, idolorum seruitus, ueneficia, inimicitiae, contentiones, aemulationes, animositates, dissensiones, haereses, inuidiae, ebrietates, comisationes et his similia; quae praedico uobis, sicut praedixi, quoniam qui talia agunt regnum dei non possidebunt. haec profecto apostolica falsa sententia est, si tales post quantalibet tempora liberati regnum dei possidebunt. sed quoniam falsa non est, profecto regnum dei non possidebunt. et si in regni dei possessione numquam erunt, aeterno supplicio tenebuntur; quoniam non est medius locus, ubi non sit in supplicio, qui illo non fuerit constitutus in regno. quamobrem quod ait dominus Iesus: hic est panis qui de caelo descendit, ut, si quis ex ipso manducauerit, non moriatur. ego sum panis uiuus, qui de caelo descendi; si quis manducauerit ex hoc pane, uiuet in aeternum, quomodo sit accipiendum, merito quaeritur. et ab istis quidem, quibus nunc respondemus, hunc intellectum auferunt illi, quibus deinde respondendum est; hi sunt autem, qui hanc liberationem nec omnibus habentibus sacramentum baptismatis et corporis Christi, sed solis catholicis, quamuis male uiuentibus, pollicentur, quia non solo, inquiunt, sacramento, sed re ipsa manducauerunt corpus Christi, in ipso scilicet eius corpore constituti; de quo corpore ait apostolus: unus panis, unum corpus multi sumus. qui ergo est in eius corporis unitate, id est in Christianorum conpage membrorum, cuius corporis sacramentum fideles communicantes de altari sumere consuerunt, ipse uere dicendus est manducare corpus Christi et bibere sanguinem Christi. ac per hoc haeretici et schismatici ab huius unitate corporis separati possunt idem percipere sacramentum, sed non sibi utile, immo uero etiam noxium, quo iudicentur grauius, quam uel tardius liberentur. non sunt quippe in eo uinculo pacis, quod illo exprimitur sacramento. sed rursus etiam isti, qui recte intellegunt, non dicendum esse manducare corpus Christi, qui in corpore non est Christi, non recte promittunt eis, qui uel in haeresim uel etiam in gentilium superstitionem ex illius corporis unitate labuntur, liberationem quandoque ab aeterni igne supplicii; primum, quia debent adtendere, quam sit intolerabile atque a sana doctrina nimis deuium, ut multi ac paene omnes, qui haereses inpias condiderunt exeuntes de catholica ecclesia et facti sunt haeresiarchae, meliores habeant causas, quam hi, qui numquam fuerunt catholici, cum in eorum laqueos incidissent, si illos haeresiarchas hoc facit liberari a supplicio sempiterno, quod in catholica ecclesia baptizati sunt et sacramentum corporis Christi in uero Christi corpore primitus acceperunt; cum peior sit utique desertor fidei et ex desertore obpugnator eius effectus quam ille, qui non deseruit quod numquam tenuit; deinde quia et his occurrit apostolus eadem uerba proferens et enumeratis illis carnis operibus eadem ueritate praedicens: quoniam qui talia agunt, regnum dei non possidebunt. unde nec illi in perditis et damnabilibus moribus debent esse securi, qui usque in finem quidem uelut in communione ecclesiae catholicae perseuerant, intuentes quod dictum est: qui perseuerauerit usque in finem, hic saluus erit, et per uitae iniquitatem ipsam uitae iustitiam, quod eis Christus est, deserunt, siue fornicando siue alias inmunditias flagitiorum, quas nec exprimere apostolus uoluit, in suo corpore perpetrando, siue turpitudine luxuriae diffluendo siue aliquid aliud eorum agendo, de quibus ait: quoniam qui talia agunt, regnum dei non possidebunt; ac per hoc, quicumque agunt talia, nisi in sempiterno supplicio non erunt, quia in dei regno esse non poterunt. in his enim perseuerando usque in huius uitae finem non utique dicendi sunt in Christo perseuerasse usque in finem, quia in Christo perseuerare est in eius fide perseuerare; quae fides, ut eam definit idem apostolus, per dilectionem operatur; dilectio autem, sicut ipse alibi dicit, malum non operatur. nec isti ergo dicendi sunt manducare corpus Christi, quoniam nec in membris conputandi sunt Christi. ut enim alia taceam, non possunt simul esse et membra Christi et membra meretricis. denique ipse dicit: qui manducat carnem meam et bibit sanguinem meum, in me manet, et ego in eo. ostendit quid sit non sacramento tenus, sed reuera corpus Christi manducare et eius sanguinem bibere; hoc est enim in Christo manere, ut in illo maneat et Christus. sic enim hoc dixit, tamquam diceret: qui non in me manet, et in quo ego non maneo, non se dicat aut existimet manducare corpus meum aut bibere sanguinem meum. non itaque manent in Christo, qui non sunt membra eius. non sunt autem membra Christi, qui se faciunt membra meretricis, nisi malum illud paenitendo esse destiterint et ad hoc bonum reconciliatione redierint.