Letter 31: Zacharias, servant of the servants of God, to his very reverend and holy brother and fellow-bishop, Boniface.
Pope Gregory the Great→Boniface|c. 746 AD|Boniface|Human translated
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Zacharias, servant of the servants of God, to his very reverend and holy brother and fellow-bishop, Boniface.
We have heard from Virgilius[] and Sedonius, men of religious life in Bavaria, that you have ordered them to confer Baptism for a second time on certain Christians. This report has caused us some anxiety and, if the facts are true, has greatly surprised us. They told us that there was a certain priest in that province who knew no Latin at all, and who at the ceremony of Baptism, through ignorance of Latin grammar, made the mistake of saying:"Baptizo te in nomine patria. et filia et spiritus Sancti", and for this reason you considered a second Baptism to be necessary. But, very reverend brother, if the minister intended no error or heresy, but simply through ignorance made a slip in Latin, we cannot agree to a repetition of the baptismal rite. For, as you are well aware, even a person who has been baptized by a heretic in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, does not need to be baptized over again, but is merely absolved by the laying on of hands. If, then, the case is really such as the report makes out, you must no longer issue instructions to this effect. You must endeavour to conform to the teaching and preaching of the Fathers of the Church.
Probably the Irish Bishop of Salzburg (745-84), whose cosmological theories about the existence of another world, with sun and moon, below the earth, caused much controversy.
May God keep you safe, most reverend brother.
Given on the kalends of July in the twenty-sixth year of our pious and august emperor, Lord Constantine, crowned by God,
the fourth year of his consulship, the fourteenth indiction.
Zacharias, servant of the servants of God, to his very reverend and holy brother and fellow-bishop, Boniface.
We have heard from Virgilius[] and Sedonius, men of religious life in Bavaria, that you have ordered them to confer Baptism for a second time on certain Christians. This report has caused us some anxiety and, if the facts are true, has greatly surprised us. They told us that there was a certain priest in that province who knew no Latin at all, and who at the ceremony of Baptism, through ignorance of Latin grammar, made the mistake of saying:"Baptizo te in nomine patria. et filia et spiritus Sancti", and for this reason you considered a second Baptism to be necessary. But, very reverend brother, if the minister intended no error or heresy, but simply through ignorance made a slip in Latin, we cannot agree to a repetition of the baptismal rite. For, as you are well aware, even a person who has been baptized by a heretic in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, does not need to be baptized over again, but is merely absolved by the laying on of hands. If, then, the case is really such as the report makes out, you must no longer issue instructions to this effect. You must endeavour to conform to the teaching and preaching of the Fathers of the Church.
Probably the Irish Bishop of Salzburg (745-84), whose cosmological theories about the existence of another world, with sun and moon, below the earth, caused much controversy.
May God keep you safe, most reverend brother.
Given on the kalends of July in the twenty-sixth year of our pious and august emperor, Lord Constantine, crowned by God,
the fourth year of his consulship, the fourteenth indiction.
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Zacharias, servant of the servants of God, to his very reverend and holy brother and fellow-bishop, Boniface.
We have heard from Virgilius[] and Sedonius, men of religious life in Bavaria, that you have ordered them to confer Baptism for a second time on certain Christians. This report has caused us some anxiety and, if the facts are true, has greatly surprised us. They told us that there was a certain priest in that province who knew no Latin at all, and who at the ceremony of Baptism, through ignorance of Latin grammar, made the mistake of saying:"Baptizo te in nomine patria. et filia et spiritus Sancti", and for this reason you considered a second Baptism to be necessary. But, very reverend brother, if the minister intended no error or heresy, but simply through ignorance made a slip in Latin, we cannot agree to a repetition of the baptismal rite. For, as you are well aware, even a person who has been baptized by a heretic in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, does not need to be baptized over again, but is merely absolved by the laying on of hands. If, then, the case is really such as the report makes out, you must no longer issue instructions to this effect. You must endeavour to conform to the teaching and preaching of the Fathers of the Church.
Probably the Irish Bishop of Salzburg (745-84), whose cosmological theories about the existence of another world, with sun and moon, below the earth, caused much controversy.
May God keep you safe, most reverend brother.
Given on the kalends of July in the twenty-sixth year of our pious and august emperor, Lord Constantine, crowned by God,
the fourth year of his consulship, the fourteenth indiction.