Tertullian, On Baptism 17
One last item before we close this material: a warning about who may give and who may receive Baptism. The right to give it belongs first to the high priest — that is, the bishop. Next come presbyters and deacons, but never without the bishop's authorization, for the sake of the Church's honor. Keep that authority intact, and peace stays intact; discard it, and even laypeople claim the right. The logic is blunt: what is received on equal terms can be given on equal terms, provided no bishop, presbyter, or deacon has already been summoned. Learners must not be kept from the Lord's word. (1 Corinthians 6:12) Accordingly, Baptism — God's own assessment — can be exercised by all alike. Yet the discipline of modesty and reverence weighs all the more heavily on laypeople, precisely because those qualities belong to the greater orders, lest layfolk usurp the bishop's consecrated office. Rivalry is the mother of schism. 'All things are permitted,' said the most holy Apostle, 'but not all things are expedient.' In emergencies — when place, time, or the condition of the person forces the issue — it is enough to act. The constancy of the one who steps in is recognized only when the peril of the one in danger demands it; otherwise the helper becomes guilty of that person's loss for failing to give what he freely could.
As for the woman who insolently seized the right to teach, her petulance will certainly not win her the right to baptize either — unless some new beast arises like the primeval one, so that just as that creature took Baptism away, some woman might now confer it on her own. If certain writings falsely attributed to Paul are waved around, citing Thecla's example to license women teaching and baptizing, let them learn the facts: in Asia a presbyter who fabricated that scripture, padding it with Paul's name as if it were his own, was convicted and confessed he did it out of love for Paul, and was stripped of his office. How could it seem consistent with faith that the same apostle who would not even permit a woman to learn steadily — 'Let them be silent, and consult their husbands at home' — would hand her the power to teach and to baptize? (1 Corinthians 14:34-35)
Latin
Superest ad concludendam materiolam de observatione quoque dandi et accipiendi Baptismum commonefacere. Dandi quidem habet jus summus sacerdos, qui est episcopus. Dehinc presbyteri et diaconi, non tamen sine episcopi auctoritate, propter Ecclesiae honorem. Quo salvo, salva pax est. Alioquin etiam laicis jus est. Quod enim ex aequo accipitur, ex aequo dari potest, nisi episcopi jam aut presbyteri, aut diaconi vocantur, discentes, Domini sermo non debet abscondi ab ullo. Proinde et Baptismus aeque Dei census ab omnibus exerceri potest: sed quanto magis laicis disciplina verecundiae et modestiae incumbit, cum ea majoribus competat, ne sibi assumant dicatum episcopi officium episcopatus. Aemulatio schismatum mater est. Omnia licere, dixit sanctissimus Apostolus, sed non omnia expedire. Sufficiat scilicet in necessitatibus ut utaris, sicubi aut loci, aut temporis, aut personae conditio compellit. Tunc enim constantia succurrentis excipitur, cum urget circumstantia periclitantis. Quoniam reus erit perditi hominis, si supersederit praestare, quod libere potuit. Petulantia autem mulieris quae usurpavit docere, utique non etiam tinguendi jus sibi pariet, nisi si quae nova bestia evenerit similis pristinae: ut quemadmodum illa Baptismum auferebat, ita aliqua per se eum conferat. Quod si quae Paulo perperam adscripta sunt, exemplum Theclae ad licentiam mulierum docendi tinguendique defendunt; sciant in Asia presbyterum, qui eam scripturam construxit, quasi titulo Pauli de suo cumulans, convictum atque confessum id se amore Pauli fecisse, loco decessisse. Quam enim fidei proximum videretur, ut is docendi et tinguendi daret foeminae potestatem, qui ne discere quidem constanter mulieri permisit: Taceant, et domi maritos suos consulant.