The Church Fathers · c. 400–401
On Baptism, Against the Donatists
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
What it is
An argument that a sacrament belongs to Christ and not to the minister, so a baptism performed by a traitor or a heretic is still a real baptism.
Why it lasted
The settled Western doctrine that sacraments work by the act performed rather than the worth of the one performing it.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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