Note 885 — Chapter IV

The following resumé of the principal patristic evidence on the practice of infant baptism is corroborated by the testimony of the Catacombs. We omit the passages from Clement and Hermes Pastor, which imply its prevalence in the first century, as being rather vague. Justin Martyr, about A. D. 148, speaks of persons sixty and seventy years old who had been made disciples of Christ (ἐμαθητεύθησαν, the very word employed in Matt. xxviii, 19,) in their infancy, (Apol., 2,) and compares the rite of baptism to that of circumcision.—Dial. c. Tryph. Irenæus expressly speaks of “infants, little ones, children, youth, and the aged, as regenerated unto God,” which phrase he elsewhere applies to baptism—Infantes et parvulos, et pueros, et juvenes, et seniores.—Lib. ii, c. 39. Tertullian, indeed, in the third century, recommends the delay of baptism, especially in the case of infants—Cunctatio baptismi utilior est, præcipue tamen circa parvulos—an indication of the Montanist heresy, into which he fell, which regarded post-baptismal sins as inexpiable.—De Baptis., c. 18. The practice, however, continued, and Origen expressly asserts that little children were baptized for the remission of sins (Parvuli baptizantur in remissionem peccatorum—Hom., 14, in Luc.,) which custom, he says, the church handed down from the apostles—Ecclesia ab apostolis traditionem suscepit.—Id., in Rom., v. 6. When the question arose, in the third century, not whether baptism should be administered to infants, but whether it should be administered before the eighth day, Cyprian and a council of sixty-six African bishops unanimously decreed that the rite should be denied to none, even in earliest infancy—Universi potius judicavimus, nulli hominum nato misericordiam Dei et gratiam denegandam.—Cypr. Ep. 59, ad Fidum. “And this,” says Augustine, “is no new doctrine, but of apostolic authority”—Nec omnino credenda, nisi apostolica esse traditio.—De Genesi ad Literam., x. The later Fathers abound in similar testimonies. The infant children of heathen converts were baptized immediately, and the older ones when instructed.—Cod. Justin., i, 11, Leg. 10. Orphans, foundlings, and even the children of heathens, received this sacred rite. At an early period the eucharist was administered to infants, which was of necessity preceded by baptism.