Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 5) - XXXVI - Seventh Council of Carthage

Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Vol 5) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read 'The Seventh Council of Carthage Under Cyprian'.

My summary
This week we read a report of the Seventh Council of Carthage which was led by Cyprian and concerned the baptism of heretics.

Cyprian gives a summary of the historical background of the occasion: 'When, in the kalends of September, a great many bishops from the provinces of Africa, Numidia, and Mauritania, had met together at Carthage, together with the presbyters and deacons, and a considerable part of the congregation who were also present; and when the letter of Jubaianus written to Cyprian had been read, as also the reply of Cyprian to Jubaianus, about baptizing heretics, and what the same Jubaianus had subsequently rejoined to Cyprian,—Cyprian said: You have heard, my dearly beloved colleagues, what Jubaianus our co-bishop has written to me, taking counsel of my poor intelligence concerning the unlawful and profane baptism of heretics, as well as what I wrote in answer to him, decreeing, to wit, what we have once and again and frequently determined, that heretics who come to the Church must be baptized and sanctified by the baptism of the Church. Moreover, another letter of Jubaianus has also been read to you, wherein, replying, in accordance with his sincere and religious devotion, to my letter, he not only acquiesced in what I had said, but, confessing that he had been instructed thereby, he returned thanks for it. It remains, that upon this same matter each of us should bring forward what we think, judging no man, nor rejecting any one from the right of communion, if he should think differently from us. For neither does any of us set himself up as a bishop of bishops, nor by tyrannical terror does any compel his colleague to the necessity of obedience; since every bishop, according to the allowance of his liberty and power, has his own proper right of judgment, and can no more be judged by another than he himself can judge another. But let us all wait for the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only one that has the power both of preferring us in the government of His Church, and of judging us in our conduct there.'

Each of the bishops then makes a statement affirming the need for the baptism of those leaving heretical churches.

What grabbed me
A lot of repetition in today's reading.  So, not surprisingly, nothing grabbed me.

Next week's reading
Read the 'Treatises attributed to Cyprian on questionable authority'.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.