Chap. xxxviii.—74. Felix of Gurgites[592] said: "I give my judgment, that, according to the precepts of the holy Scriptures, those who have been unlawfully baptized outside the Church by heretics, if they wish to flee to the Church, should obtain the grace of baptism where it is lawfully given."
75. Our answer is: Let them indeed begin to have in a lawful manner to salvation what they before had unlawfully to destruction; because each man is justified under the same baptism, when he has turned himself to God with a true heart, as that under which he was condemned, when on receiving it he renounced the world in words alone, and not in deeds.
Chap. xxxix.—76. Pusillus of Lamasba[593] said: "I believe that baptism is not unto salvation except within the Catholic Church. Whatsoever is without the Catholic Church is mere pretence."
77. This indeed is true, that "baptism is not unto salvation except within the Catholic Church." For in itself it can indeed exist outside the Catholic Church as well; but there it is not unto salvation, because there it does not work salvation; just as that sweet savour of Christ is certainly not unto salvation in them that perish,[594] though from a fault not in itself, but in them. But "whatsoever is without the Catholic Church is mere pretence," yet only in so far as it is not Catholic. But there may be something Catholic outside the Catholic Church, just as the name of Christ could exist outside the congregation of Christ, in which name he who did not follow with the disciples was casting out devils.[595] For there may be pretence also within the Catholic Church, as is unquestionable in the case of those who renounce the world in words and not in deeds, and yet the pretence is not Catholic. As, therefore, there is in the Catholic Church something which is not Catholic, so there may be something which is Catholic outside the Catholic Church.
Chap. xl.—78. Salvianus of Gazaufala[596] said: "It is generally known that heretics have nothing; and therefore they come to us, that they may receive what previously they did not have."
79. Our answer is: On this theory, the very men who founded heresies are not heretics themselves, because they separated themselves from the Church, and certainly they previously had what they received there. But if it is absurd to say that those are not heretics through whom the rest became heretics, it is therefore possible that a heretic should have what turns to his destruction through his evil use of it.