Folio 54

St. Stephan I, 254-257

printed p. 22 · pdf p. 54

The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy1

[From the epistle "Ἵνα δὲ γνῷς" to Fabius, bishop of Antioch, in the year 251]

45. Therefore did not that famous defender of the Gospel [Novatian] know that there ought to be one bishop in the Catholic Church [of the city of Rome]? It did not lie hidden from him (for how could it be concealed?) that in this there were forty-six priests, seven deacons, seven subdeacons, forty-two acolytes, and fifty-two exorcists and lectors together with porters and more than a thousand five hundred widows and [needy] eunuchs.

St. Lucius I 253–254

ST. STEPHAN I 254–257

The Baptism of Heretics2

[Fragment of a letter to Cyprian, from his letter (74) to Pompey]

46. (1) . . . "If therefore any come to you from any heresy whatsoever, let nothing be renewed except what has been transmitted, so that the hand is placed upon them for repentance, since the heretics among themselves properly do not baptize those coming to them, but only give them communion."

[Fragment from a letter of Stephan from a letter (75) of Firmilianus to Cyprian]

47. (18) "But," he [STEPHAN] says, "the name of Christ conduces greatly to faith and to the sanctification of baptism, so that whoever has been baptized anywhere in the name of Christ, at once obtains the grace of Christ."3

St. Xystus (Sixtus) II 258

  1. Cst 149 B f.; Jf 106 c. Add.; ML 3, 741 A f. and MG 20, 622; Msi I 821 A f. ↩

  2. CSEL III 2, 799 and 822 (Cypr. Opp., ed. Hartel); Jf 125; ML 3, 1128 B f. and 1169 C f. ↩

  3. In the same epistle (75) Firmilianus attests to these statements: (8) . . . "STEPHAN and those who agree with him contend that the remission of sins and a second birth can result in the baptism of heretics. . . . (9) They do not think that inquiry ought to be made as to who it was that baptized, because he who was baptized could have gotten the grace by invoking the Trinity of names of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost" [CSEL III 2, 815; ML 3, 1161 B f.]. And a little later Firmilianus says with indignation: (17) . . . "STEPHAN, who brags so about the place of his bishopric, and asserts ↩