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.