“Do you think so?” asked St. Guenole.  “And what then do you believe that baptism really is?  Baptism is the process of regeneration by which man is born of water and of the spirit, for having entered the water covered with crimes, he goes out of it a neophyte, a new creature, abounding in the fruits of righteousness; baptism is the seed of immortality; baptism is the pledge of the resurrection; baptism is the burying with Christ in His death and participation in His departure from the sepulchre.  That is not a gift to bestow upon birds.  Reverend Fathers, let us consider.  Baptism washes away original sin; now the penguins were not conceived in sin.  It removes the penalty of sin; now the penguins have not sinned.  It produces grace and the gift of virtues, uniting Christians to Jesus Christ, as the members to the body, and it is obvious to the senses that penguins cannot acquire the virtues of confessors, of virgins, and of widows, or receive grace and be united to—­”

St. Damascus did not allow him to finish.

“That proves,” said he warmly, “that the baptism was useless; it does not prove that it was not effective.”

“But by this reasoning,” said St. Guenole, “one might baptize in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by aspersion or immersion, not only a bird or a quadruped, but also an inanimate object, a statue, a table, a chair, etc.  That animal would be Christian, that idol, that table would be Christian!  It is absurd!”

St. Augustine began to speak.  There was a great silence.

“I am going,” said the ardent bishop of Hippo, “to show you, by an example, the power of formulas.  It deals, it is true, with a diabolical operation.  But if it be established that formulas taught by the Devil have effect upon unintelligent animals or even on inanimate objects, how can we longer doubt that the effect of the sacramental formulas extends to the minds of beasts and even to inert matter?

“This is the example.  There was during my lifetime in the town of Madaura, the birthplace of the philosopher Apuleius, a witch who was able to attract men to her chamber by burning a few of their hairs along with certain herbs upon her tripod, pronouncing at the same time certain words.  Now one day when she wished by this means to gain the love of a young man, she was deceived by her maid, and instead of the young man’s hairs, she burned some hairs pulled from a leather bottle, made out of a goatskin that hung in a tavern.  During the night the leather bottle, full of wine, capered through the town up to the witch’s door.  This fact is undoubted.  And in sacraments as in enchantments it is the form which operates.  The effect of a divine formula cannot be less in power and extent than the effect of an infernal formula.”

Having spoken in this fashion the great St. Augustine sat down amidst applause.

One of the blessed, of an advanced age and having a melancholy appearance, asked permission to speak.  No one knew him.  His name was Probus, and he was not enrolled in the canon of the saints.