Augustine in His Own Words (continued)
(3.4) That baptism exists in the Catholic Church, and that it is rightly received in it, and that it is not rightly received among the Donatists—these are things we assert. That baptism is truly found among Donatists—that is something that they assert and that we concede. . . . (4.5) Now if anyone does not really understand how baptism can be done by the Donatists—which we do confess exists there, but which we say is not rightly given there—let the person notice that we say that it cannot exist rightly there, just as they say it cannot be rightly had by one who has marched out of their communion. Let the person consider the analogy of a military tattoo: both deserters can have it and those outside the army can get it [illegally], but nevertheless it should neither be had nor gotten outside the military. When a deserter is escorted back or someone is inducted, that tattoo is neither changed nor redone.37
Theology of Baptism: Validity vs. Fruitfulness
Augustine distinguished between the validity of baptism and its fruitfulness. By this distinction, he could claim that Donatists were validly baptized, but they did not enjoy baptism's fruits ( forgiveness of sins, eternal life) unless or until they ended their schism and rejoined the Church. He presumed Cyprian's formula that "there is no salvation outside the Church" to be a non-negotiable foundation and concluded that baptism conferred outside the Church, while valid, must be ineffective. From On Baptism (Against the Donatists), Book 1:
(12.18) Let them acknowledge that a person can be baptized with the true baptism of Christ, and yet that person's heart, if it perseveres in malice or in sacrilege, can block allowing the abolition of sins to take place; and so let them understand that people are able to be baptized in communions separated from the Church, communions where the baptism of Christ is given and embraced in the very celebration of the sacrament, but that baptism will be of no avail for the remission of sins unless the person, now reconciled to unity, has stripped off the sacrilege of dissension, by which his sins are held onto and their dismissal not allowed. Take the case of one who, through deception, gets access to the sacrament; he is not baptized all over again, but purges himself by pious correction and a truthful confession, so that what was given before then begins to work powerfully for his salvation, once he withdraws that deception by a truthful confession. So too in the case of a person who received the baptism of Christ in some heresy or schism (from those who
37. De baptismo 1.3.4–4.5 (CSEL 51:148–50); my trans. This analogy of the military tattoo appears also in Contra epistulam Parmeniani 2.13.29; ep. 185.23; s. 359.5; De symbolo ad catechumenos 8.16. The analogy of a sheep-brand is also common: ep. 105.1.1; ep. 173.3; s. 299A.2 (= Dolbeau 4).