Continued from VIII. The Council of Trent.

I find this section very interesting history about how false doctrines about Baptism crept into the Church! Water had become a diety to some people!

---

During the period beginning with the commencement of the fourth century, and ending with the sixth, baptism was commonly administered twice in the year, at Easter and Pentecost.

Preliminaries of Baptism.

There were three classes of sponsors generally employed during this period for three distinct lists of persons; one sponsor became surety for an infant, another for an adult, and a third for a person of deranged or defective intellect. In each case, the sponsor was bound to look after the religious welfare of his charge: even the sureties of adults “were their curators and guardians, bound to take care of their instruction before and after baptism.”

The baptized were anointed with oil, from head to foot, before receiving the sacred rite. This ceremony signified, in that day, the unction of the Holy Spirit, and grafting into the Olive Tree, Christ Jesus. It also denoted that celestial chrism, which qualified Christ’s earthly wrestlers for heroic struggles with the powers of evil.

The bishop breathed upon the candidate for baptism after he had been exorcised to expel demons, to indicate the gift of the Spirit to be conferred.

He touched his ear, saying: “Ephphatha (Mark vii. 34), Be opened; may God send thee an open understanding, that thou mayest be apt to learn and to answer.”

In north Africa, after signing candidates with the cross, the bishop gave them a portion of consecrated salt.

Just before the baptism was administered, the candidate faced the west, the supposed region of diabolical and dark influences, and then, by his sponsor or personally, he renounced Satan with his works and pomps, his service, his angels, his inventions, and all things that owe or render him obedience. This renunciation was commonly repeated three times, the speaker stretching out his hands, and striking them with horror, and spitting, in defiance of the Wicked One, in the direction in which his power was supposed to be exercised. Then, facing the east, the region of the rising sun, the quarter in which Eden, the type of the heavenly paradise, was planted, the candidate vowed to live ever after in obedience to the laws of Christ. After this, a solemn profession of faith was made in the articles of a gospel creed, with the eyes directed towards heaven. Such was the custom which continued at Rome and elsewhere, for a great while, in defiance of opposition. The baptism was administered after these observances.

Ceremonies immediately after Baptism.

When the candidate was baptized, his forehead, ears, nostrils and breast, were anointed with holy chrism.

White robes were placed upon him, to show that he was washed in the blood of the Lamb, and meant to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Lighted tapers (candles) were placed in his hands, as emblems of the lamps of faith, with which virgin souls go forth, to meet the divine bridegroom.

The kiss of peace was always given to the babe or adult just baptized, to show the perfect reconciliation with God now enjoyed.

Milk and honey were imparted to the baptized, to teach that, as babes in Christ, they required as simple food, of a spiritual kind, as natural infants needed of a material sort.

The ingenuity of the early fathers was sorely taxed to discover some new ceremony to add to the dignity of baptism, to make it more imposing and glorious in the estimation of men.

The Effects of Baptism.

Nothing in all earthly history ever wrought such prodigies as baptism at this period was supposed to accomplish. It removed the taint of original sin, blotted cut actual transgressions, made the baptized as innocent as an angel, gave him a new heart, and bestowed upon him an outfit for heaven so perfect that it was imagined that the best time to die was just after being baptized. How early these heresies appeared in the churches it is somewhat difficult to settle. Justin Martyr uses the word regenerate about baptism in a way that looks in the direction of baptismal regeneration. The passage is:

“They who are persuaded and do believe that those things which are taught by us are true, and do promise to live according to them, are directed first to pray and ask of God with fasting the forgiveness of their former sins; and we also pray and fast with them. Then we bring them to some place where there is water, and they are regenerated, according to the manner of regeneration by which we were regenerated.”

Possibly, Justin may have used this word regenerate in a figurative sense; but the probabilities are not favorable to that opinion. Evidently he attached an amount of importance to baptism unknown to Christ or his apostles.

Tertullian, a little later, expresses the doctrine of baptismal regeneration in terms as vigorous and unscriptural as any Romanist or ritualist could possibly employ; nay, they could not wish their sentiments more explicitly asserted. His words are: “We fishes, after the name (Greek word) of our Lord Jesus Christ, are born in the water.” The word (written in Greek) is an acrostic made of the first letter of the following names of Jesus in Greek: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour. And it means, a fish. From this name, a fish became as common a symbol among the early Christians to indicate their faith as a crucifix is among the adherents of Rome in our times. We are born in the water, was a leading view of baptism, cherished by great and good men like Augustine, Chrysostom, and Ambrose. This doctrine springing up in the latter half of the second century, swept over Christendom, and left scarcely a trace of dissent in its pathway of triumph.

Baptism washes out all Sin.

From the third century down to the Reformation, except in a few isolated communities, baptism was the grand fountain of soul-cleansing. It was believed to contain the whole forgiving power of Father, Son and Spirit. And it was imagined that heaven could never be entered without it.

On this account many put off baptism till death threatened them, that their iniquities might be removed as the King of Terrors carried them into the land of spirits. And when an earthquake vibrated, or a pestilence, or a deadly war threatened, the clergy were besieged, and their utmost powers were tasked to administer baptism to frightened thousands, whose faith in the liquid deity was unbounded; and who were resolved to render no service to Jesus till the scepter of death seemed likely to strike them.

The Emperor Valens raised an army to drive back the insolent Goths who had crossed the Danube, and invaded Thrace, which he intended to lead in person. And as he reflected upon the risks of battle, he concluded he ought not to hazard his life without the protection of “divine grace,” and that he ought to secure “the complete armor of God by means of the holy rite of baptism.” And the intelligent Greek historian who records the transaction, says: “This was a wise and prudent reflection.” Eudoxius baptized him, and with his soul washed by water, as he foolishly imagined it to be, he supposed himself ready for battles with their savage havoc and huge graves. A foolish faith in the power of water to cleanse the polluted souls of men was universal. And it was believed that it gave a far more complete purification to hearts than it ever gave to hands or garments.

Many sick persons were baptized in their beds from the third to the sixth century. This was called clinic baptism, from the Greed word, a bed or couch. It met with much opposition, but as even this sort of baptism was supposed to take away all sin, it was freely resorted to in cases where the disease threatened to prove fatal. Novatus,of Rome, enjoyed the application of water in this way when it was imagined that he was at the point of death, and his future career as the founder of a new sect of Puritans, opposed to some of the customs of the churches in his day, brought his baptism into notoriety and disrepute. But he believed that it gave him a full outfit for the “Shining Shore,” at a time when he supposed that he was leaving the earth.

In A.D. 253, a council of sixty-six bishops sat in Carthage, with Cyprian at its head. To this council Fidus, a rural bishop, presented by letter two questions for solution; one about Victor, a presbyter, and the other a query, asking how soon after birth a babe might be baptized; and suggesting that it should never receive the sacred rite till after the eighth day, as it would not be pleasant to give it the kiss of peace before it was eight days old. Cyprian and the council say to him in reply, among other things,

“Therefore, most dear brother, this was our opinion in the council, that no one should be hindered by us from baptism and the grace of God, who is merciful, kind and affectionate to all; which rule, as it holds for all, so we think it more especially to be observed in reference to infants and persons newly born, to whom our help and the divine mercy are rather to be granted, because at their first entrance into the world, by their weeping and wailing, they do no other thing than implore compassion.”

Cyprian proceeds to give his rustic brother a little information, by saying:

“Whereas you assert that an infant, the first days after its birth, is unclean, so that any of us abhors to kiss it, we reckon that this ought to be no impediment to giving it celestial grace; for it is written, ‘To the clean all things are clean’ …. Though an infant is fresh from the womb, yet is it not such that any one should be horrified to kiss it, in giving grace, and in making (the kiss of) peace.”

One of the reasons for the baptism of a child before it is eight days old, in this letter is, that Elisha stretched himself upon the dead son of the Shunamite, in such a manner that his head, face, limbs, and feet were applied to the head, face, limbs, and feet of the child, showing a certain equality between a child and a man, in features if not in stature, and this equality, Cyprian argues, is intended to show that the soul of a child and of a man are of the same stature, dimensions, and needs, that all souls are alike and equal; and then he proceeds to infer, that if the weightiest sinners are not kept from baptism and grace, “How much less reason is there to refuse an infant, who being newly born, has no sin, except that as a descendant of Adam, after the flesh, he has from his very birth contracted the contagion of the death anciently threatened, who comes for this reason the more easily to receive the remission of sins, because the sins forgiven him are not his own; they were committed by others.”

This doctrine about baptism inspired the same false hopes everywhere which it lighted in the hearts of Cyprian and his fellow bishops at Carthage. It took away the iniquities of the strong man burdened with guilt, and when the young were brought to its saving water, it removed the stains and curse of Adam’s sin.

The words of Peter on the day of Pentecost, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins,” tended largely to nourish this heresy; and, among the ancient fathers, they were commonly understood to link forgiveness and baptism together. In Matt. iii. 11, John the Baptist says: “I, indeed, baptize you with water unto repentance” The word unto is properly into. John did not baptize these persons to procure repentance; he baptized them into a profession of repentance which they claimed to possess. It is said in the same chapter that “Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.” Matt. iii.5, 6. They were penitent, and they were baptized, not for the purpose of obtaining a change of heart, but into a profession of the sorrow for sin which they already felt. Peter’s words, translated “for the remission of sins” are literally “into the remission of sins,’ a saying exactly like John’s, and they mean “into a profession of the forgiveness of sins already enjoyed through penitential faith.”

Christ gave the woman who washed his feet with her tears a full pardon, without the slightest allusion to baptism. Luke vii. 47. He forgave the paralytic man let down through the roof of the house into his presence without any reference to baptism, and as he does not save through two instrumentalities, faith alone grasps the Captain of our Salvation, and gives everlasting salvation to the soul.

The passage in John iii. 5, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” was understood universally by the fathers of the third century, and their successors for many ages, as teaching the magical efficacy of baptism in regenerating souls. If the words “kingdom of God” mean the Church in this world, there is considerable unanimity in receiving the doctrine that the birth of the Holy Spirit and the baptismal birth are necessary to church membership. But if these words mean heaven, then the birth of water cannot be baptism; for, doubtless, there are myriads in heaven who never received that ordinance. The words, “Born of water and of the Spirit,” describe the new heart given by the Divine Comforter when a man first repents of his sins, and the floods of pardoning grace which immerse the man born of the Spirit, and, carrying away all his sins, assure him of God’s love. In this way only can any one share in the blessings of God’s kingdom, either here or hereafter.

Modern Romish baptism.

The middle ages made few changes in baptism. The Emperor Charles the Great commanded the archbishops of France to inform him what instructions they and their suffragans gave the priests and people about baptism. He demanded the reason for ranking an infant among the catechumens (persons being taught the principles of Christianity). He asked what a catechumen was. He inquired what was meant by renouncing the devil with his pomps and works; why they exorcised an infant, and breathed upon it; why they gave it salt; why they touched its nostrils; why they anointed its breast; why they covered it with a veil and clothed it in white; and why they gave it the body and blood of the Lord. From these questions it is evident that Romish bap- . tism differed little in the time of Charlemagne from the same ordinance in the fifth century; nor is it much changed now from the manner of its observance in the days of the great son of Pepin,

Baptism according to the Catechism of the Council of Trent.

Part second, chapter second, question 11. “But it is to be observed that although simple water, without any addition, in case of necessity, is the proper element for administering the sacrament, yet from a tradition of the apostles always observed in the Catholic Church, when baptism is conferred with solemn ceremonies, holy chrism is also added, by which it is evident that the effect of baptism is more fully declared.” …. .

Quest. 17, . . . . “For those who ought to be initiated by this sacrament are either immersed in water, or water is poured upon them, or they are baptized by sprinkling. But, whichever one of these modes is observed, we must believe that baptism is properly given; for water, in baptism, is used to signify the cleansing of the soul which it accomplishes, Wherefore, baptism is called by the apostle ‘a bath.’ But baptism is made no better when any one is immersed in water, although we notice that this mode was long observed in the earliest times in the Church, than by the pouring out of water, which we perceive to be a frequent practice now, or by aspersion.” . . . . .

Quest. 23. After naming bishops, priests, and deacons as the proper ministers of this sacrament, the catechism specifies a fourth class who may baptize: “The last list of those who can baptize when necessity compels them, without the solemn ceremonies, includes all, even of the laity, of both sexes, whatever creed they may profess. For this office is permitted even to Jews, to infidels, and to heretics, when necessity compels; provided that they intend to perform that which the Catholic Church effects in that office of her ministry.” ……

Quest. 24. This article prescribes the order to govern those who administer baptism. If a priest is present a deacon must not baptize; if a deacon is present a layman must not; if a man is present a woman must not, unless she be a “midwife, accustomed to baptize, and the man inexperienced” in the method of saving the dying by water.

Quest. 25. “As therefore every one, after he has been born, needs a nurse, and an instructor, by whose assistance and labor he may be educated and trained in knowledge and useful arts; so also it is necessary that they who begin to live a spiritual life at the baptismal font should be committed to the fidelity and prudence of some one, through whom they may imbibe the precepts of the Christian religion, and be instructed in every pious way.”…..

Quest. 30. “The law of baptism is thus prescribed by our Lord to all men; insomuch that unless they are regenerated to God through the grace of baptism, whether their parents be Christian or infidel, they are born to eternal misery and destruction”… .

Quest. 41….. “They are to be taught in the first place, that by the admirable force of this sacrament sin is remitted and pardoned, whether derived originally from our first parents or committed by ourselves, however great its enormity.”

Quest. 51. “Now truly by baptism we are united and joined as members to Christ the head.” ……

Quest. 57. “But beside the other advantages which we secure from baptism, the last as it were, and that to which all the rest seem to be referred, is that it opens to each of us the gate of heaven closed formerly against us by sin.”

Quest. 64. “The exorcism follows, which is administered by holy and religious words and prayers, to expel the devil and to break his power.”

Quest. 68….. At the font, “the priest puts three distinct interrogatories to the person to be baptized: Dost thou renounce Satan? and all his works? and all his pomps? To each of which he, or the sponsor in his name, replies: I renounce. The priest then questions him on each article of the creed, and asks him if he believes it? To which the sponsor answers: I believe.”

Quest. 69. “When the sacrament is now to be administered, the priest asks the person about to be baptized, if he will be baptized?” and after receiving the usual answer, he is invariably dipped, if the ceremony is performed in Milan, or poured upon, or sprinkled, if he is baptized elsewhere.

Quest. 70. “The baptism being now over, the priest anoints the baptized on the crown of the head with chrism, that he may understand that from that day, as a member, he is joined to Christ the Head, and ingrafted on his body.” ……

Quest. 71. “Afterwards the priest clothes the baptized with a white garment.” ……

Quest. 72. “A lighted candle is then put in his hand, which shows that faith, burning with charity, which he received in baptism, should be nourished and increased by the pursuit of good works.”

Canons of the Council of Trent.

“If any one shall say that baptism is optional, that it is not necessary to salvation, let him be accursed.”

“If any one shall say that the baptism given by heretics, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with the intention of doing what the Church does, is not true baptism, let him be accursed.”

“If any one shall say that the baptized are free from all the precepts of holy Church, which are written or received by tradition, so that they are not bound to observe them, unless they wish to subject themselves to them of their own accord; let him be accursed.”

By this last canon all baptized persons are bound to obey the entire precepts of the Church of Rome, whether they approve of them or not. Willing or unwilling, if the Church has the power they must yield, or suffer at the discretion of the clergy. By the second decree all Protestant baptisms are good in the Catholic Church, and every Protestant, baptized in any way, is a son of the Bishop of Rome, and bound to obey the holy father, or bear the consequences just as severely as if he and his fathers for twelve hundred years had been in the Holy Church that gave birth to St. Dominic and the inquisition.

It is universally believed among Protestants that large numbers of children, not belonging to the Romish Church, in our chief cities, are baptized by popish priests, to whom they are stealthily conveyed by nurses and others. [William] Hogan (a priest who left the Catholic Church) says about his residence in this city, when priest of St. Mary’s:

“I baptized more children than any clergyman in Philadelphia; among these were hundreds of Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Baptists, brought to me for that purpose by their Roman Catholic nurses, without the knowledge of their Protestant mothers.”

No doubt but this is true. And even here, it is more than likely that many a “father” since Hogan’s day could have made the same statement. This was the favor conferred upon the baby Israelite, Mortara, some years ago by his nurse, for which he was wickedly torn from his parents, and brought up in a convent in the religion of Rome. If some Catholic Bishop, armed with such powers as his brethren have often exercised, were to reclaim all the children baptized in the Catholic Church in Philadelphia, perhaps half the leading Protestants of this city might be compelled to suffer the wrongs of Edgar Mortara (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortara_case); or worse evils, if they proved rebellious.

But as heretical baptism is orthodox, and as the baptized must obey all the precepts of Holy Church, with their own accord or without it, the pope needs but the power to seize us all, and train us to obedience, or crush us by such fierce displays of tyranny as have given his Church the most hideous record in the annals of cruelty and sanctified murder. Well may the pope eulogize his magical baptism in the words with which Tertullian begins his tract on that ordinance: “Oh, fortunate sacrament of our water!”

(To be continued.)

All chapters of The Papal System by William Cathcart