Treatises on Marriage and Other Subjects

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FAITH AND WORKS Chapter 1 IIHERE ARE CERTAIN PERSONS who are of the opinion that everybody without exception must be admitted to the font of rebirth which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, even those who, notorious for their crimes and flagrant vices, are unwilling to change their evil and shameful ways, and declare frankly-and publicly-that they intend to continue in their state of sin. Suppose a man to be strongly attached to a harlot; he would not need to be instructed to give her up before he comes for baptism, but even while staying with her and confessing, or even professing, that he is going to continue living with her, he should be admitted and baptized and not prevented from becoming a member of Christ, even though he persists in being one with a harlot.1 Let him subsequently be taught how evil this is; after he has been baptized, let him be instructed on changing his habits for the better. They consider it perverse and preposterous first to show a man how he ought to live as a Christian and then to baptize him. But they maintain that 1 Cf. 1 Cor. 6.15. 221 222 SAINT AUGUSTINE the sacrament of baptism ought to come first, so that instruction on the conduct of life may follow. And if he should wish to accept and abide by this instruction, it would be to his advantage; if, however, he should prefer not to, as long as he retains the Christian faith, without which he would perish forever, he will be saved, as it were by fire. This would hold regardless of his stubborn attachment to any sin of impurity, as if it were perfectly possible to build upon the foundation, which is Christ, not gold, silver, precious stone, but wood, hay, stubble,2 that is, not just and chaste, but unjust and impure habits. (2) Now, it would seem that these who argue in this fashion are impelled to do so because, if baptism is refused such persons, it would have to be denied also to men who have put away their wives3 and remarried, or to women who, having put away their husbands, have married again, since the Lord Christ has shown beyond any doubt that such marriage is not marriage at all, but adultery. Since, therefore, they could not deny that that is adultery which Truth in no uncertain terms confirms as adultery, and since they were willing to recommend for the reception of baptism those whom they saw so ensnared by a snare of this kind that, if they were not admitted to baptism, they would prefer to live and even die without any sacrament than to free themselves by deliberately breaking the bond of adultery, they have been moved by a sort of human pity to support, therefore, the cause of those involved in adulterous marriage, even to the extreme of maintaining that everyone must be admitted to baptism-the vicious and profligate, even those most insensible to prohibitions, impervious to instruction, and unmoved by penances. They judge that, if this indulgence be not granted, 2 Cf. 1 Cor. 3.11-15. 3 Cf. Matt. 19.9; Mark 10.11.12; Luke 16.18; 1 Cor. 7.10,11. FAITH AND WORKS 223 these souls would be lost for all eternity; if, however, it were, even though they persevered in these evils, they would be saved by fire. Chapter 2 (3) In answer to these persons I say first and foremost: Noone should so misconstrue these testimonies of sacred Scripture, which recognize in the Church either a present mingling of both the good and the wicked or foretell a future mingling, as to conclude that the solicitude and severity of discipline must be relaxed altogether, and even omitted. Such a one is misled by his own preconceptions and is not taught by those very words of sacred Scripture. The fact that Moses, the servant of God, endured with so much patience that mingling of bad with good among the chosen people did not stop him from punishing many offenders with the sword. And Phinees the priest thrust his avenging dagger through the adulterers found in each other's company.! Nowadays, since the visible sword has become inactive in the discipline of the Church, retribution has to be visited on the culprits by reduction in rank and excommunication. And though the blessed Apostle...