The
question is whether the baptism has been solemnized, according to
the divine command, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost. St. Cyprian in his controversy with
Stephen, Bp. of Rome, represented the sterner view that heretical
baptism was invalid. But, with some exceptions in the East,
the position ultimately prevailed that baptism with water, and in
the prescribed words, by whomsoever administered, was
valid. So St. Augustine, “Si evangelicus
verbis in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Marcion
baptismum consecrabat, integrum erat Sacramentum, quamvis ejus fides
sub eisdem verbis aliud opinantis quam catholica veritas docet non
esset integra.” (Cont. Petil. de unico
bapt. § 3.) So the VIII. Canon of Arles
(314), “De Afris, quod propria lege sua utuntur ut
rebaptizent, placuit, ut, si ad ecclesiam aliquis de hæresi
venerit, interrogent eum symbolum; et si perviderint eum in Patre,
et Filio et Spiritu Sancto, esse baptizatum, manus ei tantum
imponantur, ut accipiat spiritum sanctum. Quod si interrogatus
non responderit hanc Trinitatem, baptizetur.” So the
VII. Canon of Constantinople (381) by which the Eunomians who only
baptized with one immersion, and the Montanists, here called
Phrygians, and the Sabellians, who taught the doctrine of the
Fatherhood of the Son, were counted as heathen. Vide
Bright’s notes on the Canons of the Councils, p.
106. Socrates, v. 24, describes how the Eunomi-Eutychians
baptized not in the name of the Trinity, but into the death of
Christ.