{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/201/2010222.htm","path":"chr/ecf/201/2010222.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/201/2010222.htm","text":"Chapter IV.\u2014The Epistles which Dionysius wrote on this Subject.\nDionysius, therefore, having communicated with him extensively on this question by letter, 2172 finally showed him that since the persecution had abated, 2173 the churches everywhere had rejected the novelty of Novatus, and were at peace among themselves. He writes as follows:\n\u03b4\u03b9\u1f70 \u03b3\u03c1\u03b1\u03bc\u03bc\u20ac\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd, which might mean \u201cletters,\u201d but in the present case must refer apparently to a single letter (the plural, \u03b3\u03c1\u20ac\u03bc\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1, like the Latin litter\u00e6, was very commonly used to denote a single epistle), for in chap. 2 Eusebius says that Dionysius\u2019 first epistle on baptism was addressed to Stephen, and in chap. 5 informs us that his second was addressed to Xystus. The epistle mentioned here must be the one referred to in chap. 2 and must have been devoted chiefly to the question of the re-baptism of heretics or schismatics (\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u1f76 \u03c4\u03bf\u03cd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5 referring evidently to the subject spoken of in the previous chapter). But Eusebius quite irrelevantly quotes from the epistle a passage not upon the subject in hand, but upon an entirely different one, viz. upon the peace which had been established in the Eastern churches, after the disturbances caused by the schism of Novatian (see Bk. VI. chap. 43 sq.). That the peace spoken of in this epistle cannot mean, as Baronius held, that the Eastern churches had come over to Stephen\u2019s opinion in regard to the subject of baptism is clear enough from the fact that Dionysius wrote another epistle to Stephen\u2019s successor (see the next chapter) in which he still defended the practice of re-baptism. In fact, the passage quoted by Eusebius from Dionysius\u2019 epistle to Stephen has no reference to the subject of baptism.\n294:2173\nThe persecution referred to is that of Decius.","title":"Nicene and Ante-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol I: The Churc...","type":"page"}