Chap. xxviii.—54. Another Saturninus of Abitini[580] said: "If Antichrist can give to any one the grace of Christ, then can heretics also baptize, who are called Antichrists."
55. What if another were to say, If a murderer can give the grace of Christ, then can they also baptize that hate their brethren, who are called murderers? For certainly he would seem in a way to speak the truth, and yet they can baptize; in like manner, therefore, can the heretics as well.
Chap. xxix.—56. Quintus of Aggya[581] said: "He who has a thing can give it; but what can the heretics give, who are well known to have nothing?"
57. To him our answer is: If, then, any man can give a thing who has it, it is clear that heretics can give baptism: for when they separate from the Church, they have still the sacrament of washing which they had received while in the Church; for when they return they do not again receive it, because they had not lost it when they withdrew from the Church.
Chap. xxx.—58. Another Julianus of Marcelliana[582] said: "If a man can serve two masters, God and mammon,[583] then baptism also can serve two, the Christian and the heretic."
59. Truly, if it can serve the self-restrained and the covetous man, the sober and the drunken, the well-affectioned and the murderer, why should it not also serve the Christian and the heretic?—whom, indeed, it does not really serve; but it ministers to them, and is administered by them, for salvation to those who use it right, and for judgment to such as use it wrong.
Chap. xxxi.—60. Tenax of Horrea Celiae[584] said: "There is one baptism, but of the Church; and where the Church is not, there baptism also cannot be."