Philip Schaff (ed.) · 426 of 652

In which the remaining judgments of the Council of Carthage are examined. · Chapter 40

Chapter 40.—78. Salvianus of Gazaufala said: "It is generally known that heretics have nothing; and therefore they come to us, that they may receive what previously they did not have."

79. Our answer is: On this theory, the very men who founded heresies are not heretics themselves, because they separated themselves from the Church, and certainly they previously had what they received there. But if it is absurd to say that those are not heretics through whom the rest became heretics, it is therefore possible that a heretic should have what turns to his destruction through his evil use of it.