Note 7 — Lecture I. INTRODUCTORY.
Reading edition
The conception underlies the whole of Tertullian’s treatise, de Baptismo: it accounts for the rites of exorcism and benediction of both the oil and the water which are found in the older Latin service-books, e.g. in what is known as the Gelasian Sacramentary, i. 73 (in Muratori, Liturgia Romana vetus, vol. i. p. 594), “exaudi nos omnipotens Deus et in hujus aquæ substantiam immitte virtutem ut abluendus per eam et sanitatem simul et vitam mereatur æternam.” This prayer is immediately followed by an address to the water, “exorcizo te creatura aquæ per Deum vivum ... adjuro te per Jesum Christum filium ejus unicum dominum nostrum ut efficiaris in eo qui in te baptizandus erit fons aquæ salientis in vitam æternam, regenerans eum Deo Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto....” So in the Gallican Sacramentary published by Mabillon (de Liturgia Gallicana libri tres, p. 362), “exorcizo te fons aquæ perennis per Deum sanctum et Deum verum qui te in principio ab arida separavit et in quatuor fluminibus terram rigore præcepit: sis aqua sancta, aqua benedicta, abluens sordes et dimittens peccata....”