Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IV/Donatist Controversy/On Baptism/Book VII/Chapter 33

by Philip Schaff et al.

Chapter 33.—64.  Donatulus of Capse^[1] said:  "I also have always entertained this opinion, that heretics, who have gained nothing outside the Church, should be baptized when they are converted to the Church."^[2]

65.  To this the answer is:  They have, indeed, gained nothing outside the Church, but that is nothing towards salvation, not nothing towards the sacrament.  For salvation is peculiar to the good; but the sacraments are common to the good and bad alike.

Footnotes

1. Capse was in ecclesiastical province of Byzacene.  This Donatulus is probably to be identified with the one mentioned Cypr. Ep. lvi.
2. Conc. Carth. sec. 69.