Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/367

Rh Church, cannot help regarding infant baptism as a mere mockery. Hence the doctrines of the Anabaptists, Baptists, Mennonites, &c, (see ), who reject infant baptism altogether, and maintain that there can be no valid baptism without the conscious appropriation by an act of faith of the benefits symbolized by the rite. It is to be noticed that the tendency of those who reject infant baptism is to regard the sacrament not so much as a means of grace, but simply as an act symbolical of entrance into the Church, and to approach in this way the views of the Socinians and Remonstrants. Quakers reject baptism altogether along with the sacrament of the Supper.

III. Baptismal Rites.—In the Apostolic and immediately post-Apostolic Church, there was no stated time or place for baptism. Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch by the roadside, as soon as he had declared his faith. After wards, however, Easter, Whitsuntide, and Epiphany were seasons supposed to be specially appropriate for baptism, and the sacrament was not performed at other times save in cases of necessity. Baptism, Tertullian said, had special reference to the death and rising again of our Lord, and also to the mission of the Holy Ghost ; and festivals which were connected with these events were specially appropriate for baptism. As soon, too, as churches were built, and congregations formed, baptism became a public act of worship, and was generally performed in baptisteries built adjoining the church. The early Church, like most of the Reformation Churches, condemned private baptism. In the Apostolic Church the baptismal rite seems to have been a very simple one. Repent and be baptized, every one of you,&quot; was all that Peter thought it necessary to say to those whom he invited to join the Christian Church; but soon after the Apostolic times baptism became a very elaborate ceremonial. No one could be baptized unless he had submitted to a long and elaborate course of instruc tion as a catechumen ; and in order to be made a catechumen a ceremony of some length had to be gone through. The candidate was received into the number of the catechumens by the laying on of hands and prayer ; and, in the Western Church, salt was given to him, the salts datio being held to be the special sacramentum catechumenorum. Catechu mens were permitted to attend public worship at first as hearers only ; afterwards they were permitted to take part in the responses and genuflections of the audience. From these catechumens the candidates for baptism, called com- petentes or electi, were from time to time selected. The baptismal ceremony was a lengthy one. The catechumens were first received, then got their Christian names, then, facing the west, the place of darkness, they renounced the devil and all his works. The priest then exorcised them, by laying his hands upon their heads and breathing into their faces. After the exorcism came the opening of the ears and nose, a ceremony which had special reference to the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Christ in the form of a dove. The catechumens were then anointed with the catechumen oil. (This part of the ceremony was sometimes gone through after baptism, although it is possible that there were two anointings, one before and one after.) The officiating priest then repeated the Creed and the Lord s Prayer, and gave a short explanation of their meaning, and the lengthy ceremony was concluded by the catechumen repeating the Lord s Prayer and the Apostles Creed. All these ceremonies preceded the special baptismal rite, and commonly occupied more than one day. In the baptismal ceremony the minister first consecrated the water by prayer, and the catechumen was then baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, The usual mode of performing the ceremony was by immersion. In the case of sick persons (clinici) the minister was allowed to baptize by pouring water upon the head or by sprinkling. In the early Church &quot;clinical&quot; baptism, as it was called, was only permitted in cases of necessity, but the practice of baptism by sprinkling gradually came in in spite of the opposition of councils and hostile decrees. The Council of Ravenna, in 1311, was the first council of the Church which legalized baptism by sprinkling, by leaving it to the choice of the officiating minister. The custom was to immerse three times, once at the name of each of the persons in the Trinity, but latterly the threefold immersion was abolished, because it was thought to go against the unity of the Trinity. The words used in baptizing always embodied the formula in the last chapter of St Matthew. But the mode of uttering them varied. In the Western Church the priest uttered the simple formula, but in the Eastern Church the common formula was, /3aimTai 6 SoOAos TOV 6eov 6 otiva ets TO ovo/xa rov Trarpos Afj.rjv KOL TOV vlov A[j.r)v Kal TOV ayiov Trver/xaros A/j/r/v vvv /cat act eis TOVS atwvas TWV aitovwv. A/xryv. After immersion the neo phyte partook of milk and honey to show that he was now the recipient of the gifts of God s grace ; he was then anointed with oil to show that he was enrolled among the spiritual priesthood, and with the unction was joined the sign of the cross made on the forehead. Then followed the laying on of hands, which latterly, when the episcopate became separate from the presbytery, was done by the bishop, and was the germ of the sacrament of confirmation. In the course of time one or two other symbolical actions were added ; the neophyte was clothed in a white garment (hence Pentecost, which was the principal baptismal festival, was called Whit sunday) and a band (chrismale) was put round his head. In the Eastern Church there followed the girding of the loins of the neophyte and the crowning of him with a consecrated corona, significant of his entrance into the royal priesthood ; in the Western Church a burning cross was given him. In the various Eastern churches the rites differed somewhat from each other, nor was exact uniformity to be found in the Western Church. It could easily be shown that a great deal of this complex ceremonial took its origin .from the introduction of Pagan ceremonies into the Christian worship. The present form of administering baptism in the Church of Rome is as follows : When a child is to be baptized, the persons who bring it wait at the door of the church for the priest, who comes thither in his surplice and Ms purple stole, surrounded by his clerks. He begins by questioning the godfathers, whether they promise in the child s name to live and die in the true Catholic and Apostolic faith ; and what name they would give to the child. Then follows an exhortation to the sponsors, after which the priest, calling the child by its name, asks, &quot;What dost thou demand of the Church 1 ?&quot; The godfather answers, &quot; Eternal life.&quot; The priest proceeds, &quot; If thou art desirous of obtaining eternal life, keep God s commandments, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,&quot; &amp;lt;kc. ; after which he breathes three times in the child s face, saying, &quot; Come out of this child, thou evil spirit, and make room for the Holy Ghost.&quot; Then he makes the sign of the cross on the child s forehead and breast, saying, &quot; Receive the sign of the cross on thy forehead and in thy heart ; &quot; upon which, taking off his cap, he repeats a short prayer, and, laying his hand gently on the child s head, repeats a second prayer ; then he blesses some salt, and putting a little of it into the child s mouth, he says, &quot; Receive the salt of wisdom.&quot; A.11 this is per formed at the church door. Afterwards, the priest, with the godfathers and godmothers, come into the church, and advancing towards the font, repeat the Apostles Creed and the Lord s Prayer. Arrived at the font, the priest again exorcises the evil spirit, and taking a little of his own spittle, with the thumb of his right hand rubs it on the child s ears and nostrils, repeating as he touches the right 