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| "....To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:19) |
The Church’s liturgical year begins on September 1, a day also known as the Indiction. Tradition teaches that on this same date Christ entered the synagogue and publicly declared His saving work for humanity (Luke 4:16–22). On the same day, September 1, 256, the Council of Carthage led by St. Cyprian with 71 bishops decreed that baptisms performed by heretics were invalid and that all converts from heresy and schism must be rebaptized upon entering the Church, which had been set forth at the preceding council of Carthage in 255. This dispute anticipated later Ecumenical Councils, which resolved the tension between strict rebaptism and lenient reception by adopting a graded approach that combined both akribeia (strictness) and oikonomia (economy).
The most simple and standard premise for the Cyprianite position is expressed as follows:
“For if the Church is not with heretics, therefore, because it is one, and cannot be divided; and if thus the Holy Spirit is not there, because He is one, and cannot be among profane persons, and those who are without; certainly also baptism, which consists in the same unity, cannot be among heretics, because it can neither be separated from the Church nor from the Holy Spirit.” (St. Cyprian, Epistle 70.1)
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| St. Cyprian of Carthage (d. 258) |
This position was advanced most famously by St. Cyprian of Carthage and St. Firmilian of Caesarea. On the other hand, Pope St. Stephen I of Rome affirmed the view that those coming from heretical and schismatic confessions have a true baptism:
“If any one, therefore, come to you from any heresy whatever, let nothing be innovated (or done) which has not been handed down, to wit, that hands be imposed on him for repentance; since the heretics themselves, in their own proper character, do not baptize such as come to them from one another, but only admit them to communion.” (Quoted in St. Cyprian, Epistle 73.1)
The three Councils of Carthage under St. Cyprian (255–258) ruled that baptisms performed outside the Church by heretics or schismatics were invalid, so converts had to be rebaptized, while those once properly baptized in the Church but later fallen into heresy were restored only by prayer and laying on of hands. These rulings, reaffirmed against opposition from Pope St. Stephen of Rome, firmly established the African Church’s strict stance on rebaptism. The third council held in Carthage by the same St. Cyprian, and was attended by 84 bishops. Canon 1 (the one and only canon of the council) showed by means of many arguments, that "baptism administered by heretics and schismatics is unacceptable, and they ought to be baptized when they return to the Orthodoxy of the catholic Church."
Despite their disagreements on the rebaptism of heretics, communion was not interrupted between Pope St. Stephen and St. Cyprian, and both became hieromartyrs and canonized saints in the Orthodox Church. The Valerian persecution soon ensued, and the martyrdoms of Stephen (257) and of Cyprian (258) suppressed this internal conflict.
The Orthodox akribeia-oikonomia debate concerning rebaptism is more popularly known as the Cyprianic-Augustinian dilemma. The Augustinian position, articulated by St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430), arose partly in response to the Donatist schism. According to St. Augustine, baptism performed with the correct Trinitarian formula was valid regardless of the minister’s personal orthodoxy, since Christ Himself is the true minister, but that those baptized outside the Church must still be reconciled by chrismation or laying on of hands.
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| St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) |
The Ecumenical Councils resolved the Cyprianite–Augustinian tension by adopting a graded approach. This synthesis—codified especially in Canon 7 of Constantinople I (381) and Canon 95 of Trullo (692)—creating a consistent canonical framework for receiving heretics and schismatics into the Orthodox Church. This post will focus especially on the Councils rulings toward Novatianists because their reception into the Church was central to controversy between Rome and Carthage in the third century.
Canon 8 of the Council of Nicaea (315), the First Ecumenical Council, states that Novatian clergy who joined the Catholic Church were received with the laying on of hands and allowed to retain their clerical rank—provided they confessed in writing to accept the Church’s teaching, including communion with the lapsed and the twice-married. However, if an Orthodox bishop was already present in the city, the Novatian bishop would be received only as a presbyter or given another clerical role, so as to avoid having two bishops in the same see.
The local Council of Laodicea (363-364), located in Asia Minor, decreed that Novatianists (and other similar groups) returning to the Church must first anathematize all heresies—especially their own—and, after learning the faith, be received by chrismation rather than rebaptism. In contrast, Montanists (Phrygians), even their supposed clergy, were to be fully catechized and baptized anew upon conversion.
In the Canons of St. Basil the Great (330-379), canons 1 and 47 classifies the Novatianists (or Cathari) as schismatics rather than heretics, noting that some Fathers accepted their baptism by economy, though strictly speaking it lacked grace since they had separated from the Church. It is also clear from St. Basil's canons that the bishops of Rome and the bishops of Asia Minor did not rebaptize Novatianists or similar sectarians. Instead, they received them by economy, accepting their baptism as valid. Basil acknowledges this widespread custom but insists more strictly that Novatianists and related sects ought to be rebaptized, since their separation and distorted teachings placed them closer to heresy.
Canon 7 of the First Council of Constantinople (381), the Second Ecumenical Council, directed that Novatianists (along with Arians, Macedonians, and other sects) who returned to the Orthodox Catholic Church were to be received only by chrismation (not re-baptism), after first giving a written confession renouncing their errors and affirming the Orthodox faith.
Canon 95 of the Quinisext Council (Trullo, 692—appended to the Sixth Ecumenical Council) gives procedures for receiving Nestorians (i.e., the Church of the East) and Severians/Dioscorites/Eutychians (i.e., the Oriental Orthodox): they are to present a written abjuration (libellus), anathematize Nestorius, Eutyches, Dioscorus, Severus, and their doctrines, and then are admitted to Communion—with no rebaptism specified (unlike other groups in the same canon who are chrismated or baptized). The same canon decrees that Novatianists (along with Arians, Macedonians, Apollinarists, and others) returning to the Church are received by chrismation after renouncing their errors, while more radical groups such as Paulianists, Eunomians, Montanists, and Manicheans must be rebaptized before admission.
As Fr. Vasile Mihai also points out in his Orthodox Chanon Law Reference Book that “heretics who convert to Orthodoxy should be received: some through baptism, some through chrismation, some through profession of faith—that is, anathematization of their heresies.” He cites, for example, canon 7 of the Second Ecumenical Council, canons 7 and 8 of the council of Laodicea, canons 1 and 47 of St Basil the Great, canons 47 and 57 of Carthage, and canon 95 of the Sixth Ecumenical Council. (Fr. Vasile Mihai, Orthodox Canon Law Reference Book [Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2014], 208).
Matthew Blastares, a fourteenth century hieromonk and author of various canonical, theological, and hymnological works, describes the council of Carthage as expressing divine truth, although only in relation to its particular historical circumstances. Blastares writes:
"The synod in Carthage, which had Cyprian the Great as an exarch, is recorded to be more ancient than all the ecumenical and local synods. It also increased in number to eighty-four bishops. Indeed they produced only one decision in the form of a canon, that those who were formerly baptized by all heretics and schismatics, who enter the Catholic Church, were to be baptized again (meaning, in an obscure way, the schismatics around Novatian). For at that time, his heresy intruded into the church perniciously. Basil the Great has also made mention of this decree in his first canon, citing it out of approval but at the same time decreeing it null on account of economy. Indeed, the Second Ecumenical Synod in its seventh canon decreed against it. On account of this, mark you, the Sixth Ecumenical Synod stated that the canon which was set forth by these fathers, prevailed only in their own localities and according to the custom that was handed down to them. For this canon, as it appears, followed logically from circumstances at that time. Wherefore, the changing of these circumstances also changed this canon to no longer be in effect.” (Quoted in Fr. Patrick Viscuso, Sexuality, Marriage, and Celibacy in Byzantine Law [Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2008], 8-9).
Further Reading:
J. B. Burnett, "The Manner of Reception of Roman Catholic Converts into the Orthodox Church."
Rev. Joseph Grzywaczewski, “The Validity of the Baptism of Heretics According to Cyprian of Carthage, Pope Stephen and Firmilian of Caesarea.” Vox Patrum 35 (2015): 63 ff.
Father Alexander Pagodin, “On the Reception of the Heterodox into the Orthodox Church.” Father Alexander.
Archimandrite Ambrosius (Pogodin). “On the Question of the Order of Reception of Persons into the Orthodox Church, Coming to Her from Other Christian Churches.” Holy Trinity Cathedral, 2000.
On the Reception of the Heterodox into the Orthodox Church: The Patristic Consensus and Criteria. Uncut Mountain Press.
“Rebaptism, Chrismation, and Reception of Converts.” Ubi Petrusi Bȇ Ecclesia, March 20, 2021.
“Sacramental Rigourism: Tradition or Modern Phenomenon?” Arche-Athanatos, November 22, 2021.
“Why I Don’t Support Re-Baptism.” Ancient Insights, February 4, 2021.