RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Baptism
and children, and boys, and youths, and old men " (Hosr., II, xxii, 4). The phrase " born again to God " refers plainly to baptism; in Irenaeus's usage (cf. I, xxi, 1) baptism is " being born to God," and (III, xvii, 1) " the power of regeneration unto God." Origen, who was himself baptized in infancy, distinctly derives the custom from the apostles. " The Church," he says (on Rom. v, 9), " has received the tradition from the apostles to give baptism to little children." He also speaks of infant baptism as a " custom of the Church " (Horn., on Lev. viii, MPG, ii, 496). The opponents of the practise make much use of Tertullian (close of the second century). In his De baptismo (xviii) he counsels delay of baptism, particularly in the case of infants. But, when the passage is investigated, it is found that his motive is not the impropriety, but the inexpediency of infant baptism, on the ground that it involved the great risk of forfeiting forever the remission of sins in the case of relapse. The very argument proves not only the existence, but the prevailing practise of infant baptism. Tertullian does not even hint at its being a postapostolic innovation. His opposition is due to his peculiar theory of the magical effect of baptism in washing away the guilt of past sins, and is by no means antipedobaptist. Loofs (Dogmengeschichte, Halle, 1893, p. 137) sententiously sums up the early historic evidence in these words: " The rite of infant baptism can be traced in Irenseus, was contested by Tertullian, and was for Origen an apostolic usage."
The practise of the third century is uncontested. Cyprian (d. 258) says (Epist., lxiv) an infant should be in no case denied grace and baptism. The Synod of Carthage in 252 rejected the opinion that baptism should, like circumcision, be deferred to the eighth day after birth (cf. Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, i, 115). But that the custom was not universally followed is evident from the cases of Augustine, Gregory Nazianzen, and Chrysostom, who had Christian mothers, but were not baptized till they were converted in early manhood; and Constantine the Great put off his baptism till his death-bed. Gregory Nazianzen recommended that the baptism of children be put off till they were three years old, unless there was danger of death. This delay was recommended by church teachers because of the prevailing doctrine of the effects of baptism, which was regarded as washing away original sin and all actual transgressions committed before the administration of the rite.
The Schoolmen, following the later Fathers,taught that children are proper subjects of baptism because they are under the curse of Adam, and baptism washes away the guilt of original sin. As the mother nourishes her offspring in the womb before it can nourish itself, so in the bosom of mother Church infants are nourished and re- 5. The ceive salvation through the act of the Schoolmen Church. It is not a question of faith
and the but of the definite sponsorial and fos- Reformation tering act of the Church; so Thomas
Period. Aquinas (Summa, III, lxviii, 9, ed. Migne, iv, 646: " Children receive salvation not of themselves but by act of the Church ") and Bonaventura (Breviloquium, vii, ed. Peltier,
yn, 320A). A child can not be baptized before it is born, but if its head appear it may be baptized, for the head is the seat of the immortal agent (Peter Lombard, Sent., IV, vi, 2; Thomas Aquinas, Summa, III, Ixvui, 11). Thomas Aquinas (Summa, III, lxvm, 10) and most of the Schoolmen pronounced it unlawful to baptize the children of Jews and infidels without their parents' consent, but Duns Scotus took the opposite view (cf. R. Seeberg, Duns Scotus, Leipsic, 1900, p. 364). The baptism of infants was expressly commended by the Council of Trent (Session vii, de baptismo, canon xiii). It was also commended by the Protestant Confession of the Reformation period: the Augsburg Confession (art. ix, with an anathema against the Anabaptists); the Second Helvetic Confession (xx, 3, also with an anathema against the Anabaptists); the Heidelberg Catechism (question lxxiv); the Gallican Confession (xxxv); the Belgic Confession (xxxiv); the Thirty-nine Articles (xxvii); the Scotch Confession (xxiii); and the Westminster Confession (xxviii).
It must be admitted that adult baptism was the rule and infant baptism the exception \n the apostolic age, and not until the fifth century, when the Church was widely established in the Roman Empire, was infant baptism general. It continued to be the universal rule, with some exceptions, as in the case of the Cathari, until the Protestant Reformation, when " believers' baptism " came to be insisted on by some leaders in Switzerland. Holland, etc. Infant baptism has no meaning apart from the Christian family and without the guaranty of Christian education. Hence the Church has always insisted on catechetical instruction, and most Churches practise confirmation as a subjective supplement to infant baptism. Compulsory infant baptism was unknown in the ante-Nicene age; it is a profanation of the sacrament, and one of the evils of the union of Church and State, against which Baptists have a right to protest.
(Philip Schaff-)-) D. S. Schaff. 3. The Baptist Position Concerning Immersion and Infant Baptism: The Greek word baptizein means " to dip," " to submerge." When we read in the Septuagint (II Kings v, 14) that Naaman went down into the Jordan and " baptized himself " (Gk. ebaptisato), we are compelled to understand a dipping; and there is cited from Greek literature not a single instance of the use of the word in which the idea of submersion is not involved. i. True Wherefore it is held that the rite of Baptism a baptism as spoken of in the New Tes- Burial in tament was always a burial in water Water. and that the command to baptize is a command to immerse. The burial in water has always been the practise of the Greek Church, its older patriarchates holding that there is no other baptism (Stanley, Eastern Church, Lecture i). The Baptists and some other bodies in Western Christendom hold rigidly to this view. Immersion is the only satholic act of baptism, the only one whose validity is recognized semper et ubique et ab omnibus. The burial in water continued to be the standard usage of the Roman Church for more than a thousand years. Thomas Aquinas speaks of it as " the more common " usage. It was
Baptism