The Dogmatic Council Of Vienne Contradicts “Three Baptisms”

By Brother Peter Dimond, O.S.B.

Source: vaticancatholic.com

It would have been interesting to see, however, what St. Thomas would have said if he had lived until the dogmatic Council of Vienne in 1311.  St. Thomas died in 1274, 37 years before the Council.  The Council of Vienne infallibly defined as a dogma that there is only one baptism that must be confessed by all Catholics, and that the one baptism is water baptism.

Pope Clement V, Council of Vienne, 1311-1312, ex cathedra:  “Besides, one baptism which regenerates all who are baptized in Christ must be faithfully confessed by all just as ‘one God and one faith’ [Eph. 4:5], which celebrated in water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit we believe to be commonly the perfect remedy for salvation for adults as for children.”[1]     

This definition is crucial to this discussion, because one cannot affirm one baptism of water and at the same time obstinately cling to the belief that there are “three baptisms,” two of which are not of water.  That is a clear contradiction.  Those who understand and comprehend this dogma must repudiate the so-called “three baptisms.”