Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume IV/Donatist Controversy/On Baptism/Book VII/Chapter 29

by Philip Schaff et al.

Chapter 29.—56.  Quintus of Aggya^[1] said:  "He who has a thing can give it; but what can the heretics give, who are well known to have nothing?"^[2]

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.

Footnotes

1. Aggya, probably the same as Aggiva and the Aga in ecclesiastical province of Proconsular Africa.  The name Quintas as bishop occurs in Cypr. Epp lvii., lxvii., lxx., lxxi., but this one is of Mauritania, as appears from Epp lxxii. 1, lxxiii. 1.
2. Conc. Carth. sec. 65.