20 The Orgin of Infant Baptism
The Origin of Infant Baptism
There is not the first line about the baptism of babies in the New Testament. The firstundisputedinstance of infant baptism was in 370 A.D.
Orchard records, “There is not one record of the baptism of a child till the year 370, when Galetes, the dying son of the emperor Valens was baptized by order of a monarch who swore he would not be contradicted” (Orchard pg 37). Except for two disputed instances, there is no record of the previous baptism of any infant.
Well over three hundred years after Pentecost, the Catholic party first advocated the baptism of babies. 1100 years later, the various Protestant Churches did the same, but it can be proven by their own documents, and by the decisions of their own Councils, that infant baptism did not begin until the time of Augustine.If he was not the father of the practice, it clearly began in his time, and he was its most powerful advocate. Space will only allow us to list a few of those conciliar decisions.
315 A.D. “The council of Neocessarea, in the sixth canon, saith, ‘That confession and free choice were necessary to baptism’” (Orchard pg 46). A baby does not exercise free choice. No infant baptism in 315 A.D.
365 A.D. “The council of Laodicea required notice from the person who intended to be baptized, and resolved all should be instructed before they received it; and determined that the baptized should rehearse the articles of the creed” (Orchard pg 46). Babies cannot rehearse the articles of the creed. No infant baptism in 345 A.D.
383 A.D. “The council of Constantinople decreed that certain persons should remain a long time under scriptural instruction, before they receive baptism” (Orchard pg 46). For over 300 years, only those who professed faith in Christ, and a desire for baptism, were baptized. Then in 396 A.D. Augustine was ordained, and everything changed.
401 A.D. “The fifth council of Carthage, in canon 76, declares children ought to be baptized” (Orchard pg 47). In 415 A.D., Augustine presided over a council that anathematized those who denied that babies should be baptized. “The difficulty of establishing infant baptism, even among the licentious clergy and people of Africa, suggested to Augustine the expediency of calling together a number of his brethren, which he effected at Mela, in Numidia. Amidst ninety-two ministers, Augustine presided; he, with them in this assembly, since called a council, issued the following manifesto of their charity to dissenters, ‘That it is our will that all that affirm that young children receive everlasting life, albeit they be not by the sacrament of grace or baptism renewed; and that will not that young children, which are newly born from their mother’s womb, shall be baptized to the taking away original sin, that they be anathematized’” (Orchard ppg 97,98) In order to persuade their own followers to submit their babies for baptism, Augustine and his party promised eternal salvation-if the babies were baptized-and perdition if they failed.
“Another assembly of divines was convened the same year [415] at Carthage, to enforce the rite, and occasion its universality if possible. The council solemnly declared, ‘We will that whoever denies that little children by baptism are freed from perdition and eternally saved, that they be accursed’” (Orchard pg 98). In order to advocate infant baptism, Augustine did what every pedobaptist must do; he based the forgiveness of sins on baptism.
“Augustine’s view of original sin led many to inquire how it [original sin] could be taken away from those who could not believe; the answer was, that sin was removed in baptism: consequently, this view of baptism drove him into pedobaptism, and infants became as eligible in his view, as minors and youths had been in the last century. Augustine, to enforce his views of infant salvation by water, called an assembly of which we shall speak hereafter” (Orchard, ppg 45,46).
“In 412, the Baptists were banished as heretics. In 413, Innocent sent letters of advice to various minsters. In the same year, the Baptists, for rebaptizing, were sentenced to death.”
“In 413 A.D. Augustine prevailed on Honorius and Theodosius the emperors of the east and west to issue an edict, ‘that the person re-baptizing and the person re-baptized, should be punished with death.’”
“In 416, a council at Mela, accursed all those who denied forgiveness to accompany infant baptism, and in 418, a council at Carthage enforced the same curse. Augustine, Cyril, Innocent and others, concurred in its expediency, Rob. Res. 151.”
“They borrowed the sword of the magistrate, to enforce what their arguments and views could not do, Wall, i.p.111. The sword, and the infant rite have always been companions,Rob. Bap. 438 and 450; and the early advocates accursed the parents who withheld the blessing from the child. Its support by the sword has called the Baptists to extreme sufferings, but they are additionally convinced of its origin from its companion and defense, and know that every rite defended by the sword shall perish by the sword” (Orchard pg. 61). The introduction of infant baptism gave Augustine and the Catholic party what they were looking for. It gave them the numerical superiority over the Donatists, and more important than that, it gave them an issue on which to wage war against them.
“The establishment of this rite by these severe censures, in time, raised the catholic community into numerical importance, and by patronizing the infant cause, the bishop of Rome became a father (papa) to the church. His authority was allowed or disallowed by the adoption or rejection of this rite....Consequently they all have advocated, and enforced by fire and sword, the sanctifying ceremony in opposition to the Baptists in every age. Every national establishment, as a daughter or division of the Romish establishment, adopts the measure as the best palladium to its constitution.” (Orchard pg 99).
Augustine was the first to claim the authority of Christ in waging all out, unrelenting, war against the saints.He taught the Catholic party the art of forcing religion by the power of the sword, and those lessons were handed down for the next 1000 years. During the Dark Ages, the Roman Catholic Inquisition drew rivers of blood from those who would not bring their babies to be baptized, or who allowed a dissenting minister to baptize them by immersion after the Catholic Church had baptized them as infants.
“Gibbon remarks on these edicts, that ‘three hundred bishops, with many thousands of the inferior clergy, were torn from their churches, stripped of their ecclesiastical possessions, banished to the islands, proscribed by law, if they presumed to conceal themselves in the provinces of Africa. Their numerous congregations, both in cities and in the country, were deprived of the rights of citizens, and the exercise of religious worship. A regular scale of fines, from ten to two hundred pounds of silver, was curiously ascertained according to the distinctions of rank and fortune, to punish the crime of assisting at a schismatic conventicle; and if the fine had been levied five times, without subduing the obstinacy of the offender, his future punishment was referred to the discretion of the imperial court. By these severities, which obtained the warmest approbation of Augustine, great numbers were reconciled to the Catholic Church; but the fanatics (or faithful) who still persevered in their opposition, were provoked to madness and despair.’”
“Augustine owned, the city of Hippo had been full of conventicles, till he procured penal laws for their suppression. When the Donatists reproached him with making martyrs of their bishops and elders, and told him God would require an account of their blood at the day of judgment; he replied, ‘I know nothing of your martyrs, martyrs! martyrs to the devil. There are no martyrs out of the church, besides, it was their obstinacy, they killed themselves,’” (Orchard’s History, ppg 94,95). The Donatists believed it was the duty of the ministry to preach the gospel, and so call the children of God to obedience. They went meekly and humbly, but boldly and at the risk of their lives, preaching the gospel. “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradven-ture will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:25).
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling” (1 Corinthians 2:1-3).
Augustine did not believe that. He taught that it was the duty of the political powers to reinforce the preaching of the gospel in bringing people into the church. He invoked the power of the sword to force conversions.