Note 147 — First Part. (continued 11)

What Smaragdus has written on 1 Pet. 2, saying: “Such holy, pure, and innocent childhood, the mother, the church of Christ, gains through the grace of baptism,” gave cause to consider whether by the word childhood he meant infants of the cradle, and by the words grace of baptism, infant baptism; but it is also interpreted as having reference to the believing children of God, according to Gal. 3:26, and to the baptism of believers, according to Mark 16:16. As to the exposition, however, which he is stated to have made on John 13, it is held that it took place before his enlightenment.