Page:Faithcatholics.pdf/238

 which wicked men have corrupted.” Serm. xxvii. adv. Hær. p. 500.-T. v. Edit. Quirini.

St. PACIANUS, L. C. “Do you say that this (the power of remitting sins) was granted only to the Apostles? Then I say, that they alone could baptise, and give the Holy Spirit, and pardon the sins of the Gentiles; for to them alone was the command of doing it given.—If, therefore, the right of conferring baptism, and of anointing, descended to the episcopal order, to them has likewise come the power of binding and loosing.'' Ep. 1. ad Symp. Bibl. Max. T. iv. p. 307.

St. AMBROSE, L.C. “Because thou hast received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of holy fear, keep what thou hast received. God the Father has sealed thee; Christ the Lord has confirmed thee; and has given the pledge of the Spirit in thy heart, (2 Cor.i. 22.) as thou hast learned from the Apostle.” De Mysteriis, c. vii. T. ii. p. 336.

St. SIRICIUS, L.C. “As it has been decreed in our Synod, we admit these, with the Novatians and other heretics, to the communion of the faithful, by invoking the Holy Spirit, and by the imposition of the hand of the Bishops, as it is practised in all the Churches of the East and West.” Ep. ad Himer. c. 1. Conc. Gen. T. ii. p. 1018.

St. JEROM, L.C. The schismatic, against whose party he writes, is introduced, saying: “You cannot be ignorant that it is the practice in the Church to impose hands on those that have been baptised, and to invoke the Holy Spirit.