With regard to baptism, he taught in accordance
with the received belief of his day that it is the sacrament of
adoption and regeneration, wherein sin is forgiven, De Pœn. I.
36. and
the Holy Spirit confers new life upon the soul and joins it mystically
to Christ. As to the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the
Eucharist, his doctrine is no less definite. In his treatise on
the Faith he says of the elements that they “are transfigured
[transfigurantur] For the force of the
word transfigurantur in early ecclesiastical Latin, compare
Tertullian, adv. Praxeam, c. 27: “Transfiguratio
interremptio est pristini. Omne enim, quodcunque transfiguratur
in aliud desinit esse quod fuerat, et incipit esse quod non
erat.” by the mystery of the
sacred prayer into flesh and blood.” De Fid. IV.
124. He
interprets various texts, also, in many places in the same sense.
In a like spirit he maintains that the power of forgiving sins on
repentance is vested in the ministry of the Church. De Pœn. II. 12,
etc.
The intercession of the saints, and up to a certain point their
invocation, is likewise upheld. Ep. 22 De ob.
Theod. 41–51; De Viduis., 55.