ANONYMOUS TKEATISE ON RE-BAPTISM. ♦ INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. |HE following treatiseon Ke-baptism has been attributedby some authoritiesto the pen of one Ursinus,1a monk, who issaidto have writtenin the fourthcentury. But internalevidenceseems to pointto a bishopas having been the writer;s and itseems very probablethat it was writtenwhile the baptismalcon troversywas stillagitatingthe church,from the manner in which he refersto it. Moreover, the bitterattackcontained in the firstchapter was probably levelledagainstCyprian' as the leaderof the party in favour of the re-baptismof heretics.And thiswould hardlyhave been the case,at least the attackwould not have been characterizedby the same rancour,ifCyprian had alreadysufferedmartyrdom, and the controversyhad lostitsacrimony and intensity. Rigaltius,who firsteditedthe treatiseamong hisnotesto the works of Cyprian, judged that itwas writtenabout the time ofthatfather. And Fell,Cave, Tillemont,and Galland, are of the same opinion. The two latter,indeed,conjecture that itwas actuallyintendedagainstCyprian. The difficultyarisingto the translatorfrom a looseand rambling style,and very involvedargument, has been en hanced by a text singularlyuncertain; but he ventures to think thatthere are pointsin the treatmentof the subject which willnot be withoutinterestto the theologicalstudent of the presentday,althoughitsimmediate purposehas passed away. 1 Gennadius,deScript.Eccles.cap.xxvii. 3 Sectionx. CTP.— VOL. n. 2 O