They were annoyed, not only because the apostles were teaching, but because they declared that not only was Jesus Christ himself risen from the dead but that through him we too rise again. . . . So powerful was his resurrection that he is the cause of resurrection for others as well.

If we take the five thousand men fed by the Lord in the wilderness^[1] as [standing for] the people established under the law, but created anew by Christ’s favor, they and this five thousand, who were instructed by the teaching of the apostles, can designate the people of the nations who would spiritually follow the mysteries of the same law. Also it was well done that both [groups of five thousand] were granted their heavenly favor in the evening, for when the fullness of time came God sent his Son.^[2]

And now recall what Christ said, When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.^[1]

That the Father is said to have raised from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ (the effect of the act being on his flesh, clearly) is not in doubt. He, being the life-creating and active power of the Father, gave life to his own temple, as in Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.^[1] What was made alive was not another’s body, nor indeed one belonging to a man among us, but his own, the body of the Word.

The builders were the Jews, while all the Gentiles remained in the wasteland of idols. The Jews alone were daily reading the law and the prophets for the building up of the people. As they were building, they came to the cornerstone, which embraces two walls—that is, they found in the prophetic Scriptures that Christ, who would bring together in himself two peoples, was to come in the flesh. And, because they preferred to remain in one wall, that is, to be saved alone, they rejected the stone, which was not one-sided but two-sided. Nevertheless, although they were unwilling, God by himself placed this [stone] at the chief position in the corner, so that from two Testaments and two peoples there might rise up a building of one and the same faith.

For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,^[1] since there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved, and in him God has defined to all men their faith, in that he has raised him from the dead.^[2] Now without this faith, that is to say, without a belief in the one Mediator between God and humankind, the man Christ Jesus; without faith, I say, in his resurrection by which God has given assurance to all people and which no one could of course truly believe were it not for his incarnation and death; without faith, therefore, in the incarnation and death and resurrection of Christ, the Christian truth unhesitatingly declares that the ancient saints could not possibly have been cleansed from sin so as to have become holy and justified by the grace of God. And this is true both of the saints who are mentioned in holy Scripture and of those also who are not indeed mentioned therein but must yet be supposed to have existed—either before the deluge or in the interval between that event and the giving of the law or in the period of the law itself—not merely among the children of Israel, as the prophets, but even outside that nation, as for instance Job. For cleansing from sin was by the self-same faith. The one Mediator cleansed the hearts of these too, and there also was shed abroad in them the love of God by the Holy Spirit,^[3] who blows where he wills,^[4] not following people’s merits but even producing these very merits himself. For the grace of God will in no wise exist unless it be wholly free.

If the salvation of the world is in no other but in Christ alone, then the fathers of the Old Testament were saved by the incarnation and passion of the same Redeemer, by which we also believe and hope to be saved. For although the sacramental signs differed by reason of the times, nevertheless there was agreement in one and the same faith, because through the prophets they learned as something to come the same dispensation of Christ which we learned through the apostles as something which has been done. For there is no redemption of human captivity [to sinfulness] except in the blood of him who gave himself as a redemption for all.

Do not err, my brethren. If any man follows him that makes a schism in the Church, he shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If anyone walks according to a strange opinion, he does not agree with the Passion [of Christ]. Take heed, then, to have but one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to [show forth] the unity of his blood; one altar; as there is one bishop, along with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow servants: that so, whatever you do, you do it according to [the will of] God.

We have been taught that Christ is the firstborn of God, and we have declared that he is the Word of whom every race of men are partakers; and those who live reasonably are Christians, even though they have been thought atheists; as, among the Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus, and men like them; and among the barbarians, Abraham, and Ananias, and Azarias, and Misael, and Elias, and many others whose actions and names we now decline to recount, because we know it would be tedious. So that even those who lived before Christ, and lived without reason, were wicked and hostile to Christ, and slew those who lived reasonably. But he who, through the power of the Word, according to the will of God the Father and Lord of all, was born of a Virgin as a man, and was named Jesus, and was crucified, and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, an intelligent man will be able to comprehend from what has been said.

In the Church God has placed apostles, prophets, teachers, and every other working of the Spirit, of whom none are sharers who do not conform to the Church, but who defraud themselves of life by an evil mind and an even worse way of acting. Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace.

[The spiritual man] shall also judge those who give rise to schisms, who are destitute of the love of God, and who look to their own special advantage rather than to the unity of the Church; and who for trifling reasons, or any kind of reason that occurs to them, cut in pieces and divide the great and glorious body of Christ, and so far as they are able, destroy it—men who talk of peace while they give rise to war, and who in truth strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. For they can bring about no “reformation” of enough importance to compensate for the evil arising from their schism. . . . True knowledge consists in the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church throughout all the world, and the distinctive manifestation of the body of Christ according to the successions of the bishops, by which they have handed down that Church that exists in every place [i.e., the Catholic Church].

[T]here was never a time when God did not wish to make men live righteous lives; but he continually showed his care for the improvement of the rational animal by affording him occasions for the exercise of virtue. For in every generation the wisdom of God, passing into those souls it ascertains to be holy, converts them into friends and prophets of God.

If someone of that people wishes to be saved, let him come into this house, so that he may be able to obtain his salvation. . . . Let no one, then, be persuaded otherwise, nor let anyone deceive himself; outside this house, that is, outside the Church, no one is saved. For if anyone go outside, he shall be guilty of his own death.

Nor let them think that the way of life or of salvation is still open to them, if they have refused to obey the bishops and priests, since in Deuteronomy the Lord God says, “And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not listen to the priest or judge, whoever he shall be in those days, that man shall die, and all the people shall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously” [Dt 17:12]. God commanded those who did not obey his priests to be slain, and those who did not listen to his judges who were appointed at that time. And indeed they were slain with the sword, when the circumcision of the flesh was yet in force; but now that circumcision has begun to be of the spirit among God’s faithful servants, the proud and stubborn are slain with the sword of the Spirit, in that they are cast out of the Church. For they cannot live out of it, since the house of God is one, and there can be no salvation to any except in the Church.

Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adulteress [a schismatic church] is separated from the promises of the Church; nor can anyone who forsakes the Church of Christ attain the rewards of Christ. He is a stranger; he is profane; he is an enemy. He can no longer have God for his Father, who does not have the Church for his mother.

When we say, “Do you believe in eternal life and the remission of sins through the holy Church?” we mean that remission of sins is not granted except in the Church.

Not even the baptism of a public confession and blood can profit a heretic to salvation, because there is no salvation out of the Church.

Peter himself, showing and vindicating the unity, has commanded and warned us that we cannot be saved except by the one baptism of the one Church. He says, “In the ark of Noah a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. Similarly, baptism will in like manner save you” [1 Pt 3:20–21]. In how short and spiritual a summary has he set forth the sacrament of unity! In that baptism of the world in which its ancient wickedness was washed away, he who was not in the ark of Noah could not be saved by water. Likewise, neither can he be saved by baptism who has not been baptized in the Church, which is established in the unity of the Lord according to the sacrament of the one ark.

[O]utside the Church there is no Holy Spirit. Sound faith moreover cannot exist, not only among heretics, but even among those who are established in schism.

[I]t is the Catholic Church alone that retains true worship. This is the fountain of truth, this is the abode of the faith, this is the temple of God; if anyone shall not enter, or if anyone shall leave, he is estranged from the hope of life and eternal salvation. No one should flatter himself with persevering strife. For the contest is about life and salvation, which, unless it is carefully and diligently kept in view, will be lost and extinguished. But, however, because all the separate assemblies of heretics call themselves Christians in preference to others, and think that theirs is the Catholic Church, it must be known that the true Catholic Church is that in which there is confession and repentance, which treats in a wholesome manner the sins and wounds to which the weakness of the flesh is liable.

Heretics bring sentence upon themselves since by their own choice they withdraw from the Church, a withdrawal that, since they are aware of it, constitutes damnation. Between heresy and schism there is this difference: heresy involves perverse doctrine, while schism separates one from the Church on account of disagreement with the bishop. Nevertheless, there is no schism that does not trump up a heresy to justify its departure from the Church.

[W]e believe also in the holy Church, [intending thereby] assuredly the Catholic. For both heretics and schismatics style their congregations churches. But heretics, in holding false opinions regarding God, do injury to the faith itself; while schismatics, on the other hand, in wicked separations break off from brotherly charity, although they may believe just what we believe. As a result neither do the heretics belong to the Catholic Church, which loves God; nor do the schismatics form a part of the same, inasmuch as it loves the neighbor, and consequently readily forgives the neighbor’s sins, because it prays that forgiveness may be extended to itself by him who has reconciled us to himself, doing away with all past things, and calling us to a new life And until we reach the perfection of this new life, we cannot be without sins. Nevertheless it is a matter of consequence of what sort those sins may be.

[J]ust as baptism is of no profit to the man who renounces the world in words and not in deeds, so it is of no profit to him who is baptized in heresy or schism; but each of them, when he amends his ways, begins to profit from what was not profitable before, but was already in him.

I do not hesitate for a moment to place the Catholic catechumen, who is burning with love for God, before the baptized heretic; nor do we dishonor the sacrament of baptism that the latter has already received, the former not as yet; nor do we consider that the sacrament of the catechumen is preferable to the sacrament of baptism, even when we acknowledge that some catechumens are better and more faithful than some baptized persons. . . . For Cornelius, even before his baptism, was filled with the Holy Spirit [Acts 10:44]; Simon, even after baptism, was puffed up with an unclean spirit.

Anyone who receives the sacrament of baptism, whether in the Catholic Church or in a heretical or schismatic one, receives the whole sacrament; but salvation, which is the strength of the sacrament, he will not have, if he has had the sacrament outside the Catholic Church. He must return to the Church, not so that he might receive the sacrament of baptism again, which no one dare repeat in any baptized person, but so that he may receive eternal life in Catholic society, which no one who remains estranged from the Catholic Church may obtain, even with the sacrament of baptism.

For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. These words belong to a soul that has renounced the present life. His great outspokenness demonstrates this. Here he makes it clear that even when he speaks in lowly terms of Christ, he does it not because he is afraid but out of condescension. Now that the time has come, he speaks in lofty terms to amaze all his listeners by this very change. Behold another miracle no less great than the earlier one.

They recognized that they had been with Jesus. Not without purpose has the Evangelist set down this passage, but so that he might reveal where they were, that is, at the passion. For these men alone were with him then, when indeed they had seen them humble and dejected. It was this that particularly surprised them, namely, the greatness of the change. For in fact Annas, Caiaphas and company were there and had stood by him as well. Now their great outspokenness shocked them. For it was not only by their words that they revealed their lack of concern over the accusations they faced and the extreme danger impending, but also by their bearing, their voice and their gaze—in short, by everything about them they showed the outspokenness with which they confronted the people.

Unlettered men were sent to preach, so that the faith of those who believed would not be thought to have come about by eloquence and teaching instead of by God’s power. As the apostle says, not in the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be made void.^[1]

For what is really marvelous is this, that though they were held in prison and made answerable to charges, though they were imprisoned and beaten, their enemies were still at a loss and in a quandary, since the very things by which they expected to prevail brought about their own downfall. For neither king nor people, neither ranks of demons nor the devil himself had the power to get the better of the apostles, but all were overcome at a very great disadvantage, seeing everything they had planned against them fall on their own heads. Because of this he also says, we are more than conquerors.^[1] For this rule of victory was new: to prevail through their adversaries and never be overcome, but go forth to these struggles as masters of the end.

See the difficulty they are in and how human fear again does everything. Just as in the case of Christ they were not able to undo what is done or to hide it in obscurity, and for all their hindering the faith gained ground all the more, so it is now. What shall we do? What stupidity to suppose that those who had tasted of the struggle would now take fright! And it would be even greater stupidity if, after their initial failure, they expected to accomplish something after such a specimen of oratory. The more they wished to hinder, the more it prospered.

Already these have borne witness as martyrs. Arrayed in battle against all, they said, we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. If what we say is false, arrest us; but if it is true, why do you stand in the way? Such is philosophy! Those in perplexity, these in gladness; those full of great shame, these with boldness in all actions; those in fear, these in confidence. For who, I ask you, were the frightened? Was it those who said, in order that it may spread no further among the people, or these who said, we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard? These had a delight, a freedom of speech, a joy surpassing all; those a despondency, a shame, a fear, for they feared the people. While these spoke what they wished to say, those did not do what they wished to do. Which were in chains and dangers? Certainly not these.

For better than all others he knows the nature of things. He knows that fierceness is not quenched by fierceness but by meekness. If you wish to see this in action, read the book of the Acts of the apostles and you will see how often, when the people of the Jews was rebelling and sharpening their teeth, these men, imitating the dove and answering with suitable meekness, released their wrath, quenched their madness and dissolved their impetuosity. For when they said, We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,^[1] the disciples, although they were able to work countless miracles, neither said nor did anything harsh but answered with all gentleness, saying, Whether it is right to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge.

According to the historical sense, this shows that the man’s mature age [made him] invincible to detractors. Allegorically, however, [the passage signifies that] that people of Israel not only despised the manna and sought the base things of Egypt^[1] for the forty years in the desert, but even in the land of promise they continued always to limp along with the rites of idols together with those of the Lord. Or, if the number forty signifies the fullness of the twofold law (for four times ten makes forty), a transgressor of both, as it were by lying enfeebled, transcends a fortyfold perfection.