The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Baptism of the Dead

BAPTISM OF THE DEAD, a superstitious custom which anciently prevailed among the people of Africa of baptizing the dead. The third council of Carthage (Can. vi) speaks of it as a matter of which ignorant Christians were fond, and forbids &ldquo;to believe that the dead can be baptized.&rdquo; Gregory Hacianzenus observes that the same superstitious opinion prevailed among some who delayed to be baptized. It is also mentioned by Philastrius as the general error of the Montanists, or Cataphrygians, that they baptized men after death.