Tractates on the Gospel of John

¹⁷ I go back to John, and say, “This is he which baptizes.” For John is better than a heretic, just as John is better than a drunkard, as John is better than a murderer. If we ought to baptize after the worse because the apostles baptized after the better, whosoever among them were baptized by a drunkard,— I do not say by a murderer, I do not say by the satellite of some wicked man, I do not say by the robber of other men's goods, I do not say by the oppressor of orphans, or a separater of married persons; I speak of none of these; I speak of what happens every year, of what happens every day; I speak of what all are called to, even in this city, when it is said to them, Let us play the part of the irrational, let us have pleasure, and on such a day as this of the calends of January we ought not to fast: these are the things I speak of, these trifling everyday proceedings—when one is baptized by a drunkard, who is better?

John or the drunkard? Reply, if you can, that the drunkard is better than John! This you will never venture to do. Do you then, as a sober man, baptize after your drunkard. For if the apostles baptized after John, how much more ought the sober to baptize after the drunkard? Or do you say, the drunkard is in unity with me? Was not John then, the friend of the Bridegroom, in unity with the Bridegroom?