RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Baptism
the bishop. Deacons, however, were only allowed to baptize by commission of a bishop or priest.
Yet, although thus the right to baptize was appropriated to officials of the Church, the old practise of lay baptism was maintained by the doctrine of the necessity of baptism to salvation. The validity of lay baptism is dogmatically asserted by Augustine {Contra Parmenianum, II, xiii, 29; Epist., ccxxviii), but only, of course, in the absence of a presbyter and in danger of death. The Synod of Elvira (306) decreed (canon xxxviii) that on a journey by sea or in any case where no church is accessible, a layman, so long as he had not lost his baptismal grace by apostasy or bigamy, might baptize a catechumen in mortal illness, though the bishop was afterward to give the laying on of hands, if possible. These principles (with the exception of the restriction as to the moral quality of the baptizer) became generally accepted. Both the Catechismus Romanus and the Rituale Romanum permit both men and women, even unbelievers or heretics, to administer baptism in case of necessity, provided they use the proper formula. The Lutheran Church recognizes lay baptism as permissible in case of necessity. The Reformed Churches, on the other hand, denying the necessity of baptism to salvation, forbid it as a usurpation of the ecclesiastical ministry.
The right of women to baptize has a separate history. There is no evidence that they baptized in the primitive age, though it is conceivable that the right was conceded to prominent women. Tertullian recognizes no such right (De baptismo, xvii), condemns the Gnostics who had the custom, and protests energetically when a woman appears in Carthage teaching and baptizing. In the acts of the martyrs, however, there are some cases of both teaching and baptizing by female martyrs, such as Domitilla and Chryse; and nothing but the existence of pushing women who claimed both this right and that of administering the Eucharist would explain protests like those in the Apostolic Constitutions (iii, 9) and Epiphanius (Hcer., lxxix). That women, especially " clerical " women (widows and deaconesses) assisted at baptisms, especially in the unction of female candidates is evident from the Syriac Didascalia ; but this did not involve the concession of the right to baptize. The modern Roman Catholic custom can scarcely, then, be a survival of ancient practise, as it is first sanctioned by Urban II (1088-99; cf. MPL, cli, 529). Thomas Aquinas justifies it on dogmatic grounds (Summa, III, lxvii, 4); but it is only permitted now in the absence of a man. The Lutheran Church retained the practise, Luther expressly declaring such baptism valid, and the Lutheran agenda giving the right especially to midwives.
5. The Time for Baptism: No special season was observed in the apostolic age, nor is such limitation ever mentioned in the oldest Christian literature. But before the end of the second century Easter must have been recognized as the appropriate time. The fixing of a special season was the natural consequence of the great number of candidates and of the catechumenate system, which led up through common instruction to common
reception of the sacrament. The choice of Easter was determined not only by the feeling that heavenly grace was more abundant at that time, but also by Paul's connection of baptism with the death and resurrection of Christ (Rom. vi, 3; Col. ii, 12; iii, 1). The increasing number of candidates led to the addition of Pentecost, for which again there was an intrinsic appropriateness. These two seasons were widely adopted, and the popes enforced them zealously against innovators (e.g., Siricius, 385, MPL, xiii, 1134; Celestine I, MPL, 1, 536; Leo I, 429, MPL, liv, 696, 1209; Gelasius I, MPL, lix, 52; Gregory II, MPL, Ixxxix, 503, 533; Nicholas I, Ad consulta Bulgarorum, lxix). The oldest of these papal utterances passed into the collections of decretals and thus gained universal sanction. The first break in the practise came from the East, where it became customary to baptize at the Epiphany also; Leo I asserts that in Sicily more people were baptized then than at Easter. The second Irish synod under Patrick (canon xix, Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ii, 678) puts the Epiphany on a level with Easter and Pentecost. Then it became customary to baptize also at Christmas, the evidence for which goes back to the sixth century, and on the feasts of martyrs, apostles, and John Baptist. Infant baptism made it all the more impossible to adhere to the few ancient days. Even Pope Siricius had admitted that children and the sick might be baptized at any time. Attempts were made to enforce the old restriction in the ninth century (synods at Paris, 829; Meaux or Paris, 845, 846; Mainz, 847); but in the tenth it began to disappear. Thomas Aquinas, though he still prefers Easter and Pentecost for adult baptism, recommends that infants shall be baptized immediately after birth. The Rituale Romanum speaks of the vigils of Easter and Pentecost as the most fitting times for the solemn administration of the sacrament; but almost the only trace of the ancient custom is the blessing of the baptismal font on those two days as part of the regular ceremonies. From the eleventh century no more attention was paid in the East to the old seasons. 6. The Place of Baptism: Primitive Christianity had complete freedom also in regard to the place. Running or sea water was, indeed, preferred; and the open air was the usual place (Victor I, d. 202, still presupposes this as the norm, MPG, v, 1485). But perhaps even while this was still the custom, the atrium was used for the ceremony which conferred entrance to the Church, until finally special baptisteries began to be built in connection with the episcopal churches (see Baptistery). The restriction of baptism to the ecclesim baptismales was frequently attempted, but with diminishing success. By the present Roman Catholic and Greek usage, baptism in private houses is permitted only in case of necessity. The same rule was laid down by the Reformers, but in the seventeenth century the custom of baptizing healthy infants at home came up, and in the eighteenth became the normal practise in some Lutheran communities, especially among the upper classes, who considered it a distinction of rank; and the Reformed and Roman Catholic practise was par-
Baptism