The Mediæval Office.

ciendum Catechu menum.'

CHAPTER IV.

The Baptismal Offices.

SECT. I. The Ministration of Public Baptism of
Infants, to be used in the Church.

THE following portion of the Prayer-Book corresponds to the Manual and Pontifical of the medieval period:the one containing the occasional offices which fell within the duty of the parish priest; and the other, those which the bishop only might perform.

Our service for the Public Baptism of Infants1 corresponds to three offices in the Sarum Manual ;—Ordo ad faciendum Catechumenum, Benedictio Fontis, and Ordo ad fa- Ritus baptizandi. The first of these contained many ceremonies at the church-door, such as the placing salt in the mouth, exorcism, and signings of the cross, ending with the recitation of the Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, and Creed. Then the priest took the child's right hand, and introduced him into the church as a complete Catechumen. In practice this formed the commencement of Ritus bapti- the Baptismal service, which then proceeded, at the font, with the questions addressed to the sponsors3, the anointing with oil, baptism, the anointing with chrism, the putting on the chrisom, and placing a lighted taper in

zundi.'

1 See an account of the baptismal ceremonies of the early Church in Guericke, Manual, § 31, pp. 224 sqq.; Bingham, Antiq. Bk. XI. For the administration of this sacrament to infants, see Dr Wall's Hist. of Infant-Baptism; Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. lviii-lxiv.

2 Maskell, Mon. Rit. I. pp. I sqq.; Fallow, Baptismal Offices Illustrated, pp. 3 sqq.

3 Godparents-(formerly gossips =God-sibs or God-relations)-sponsores, fide jussores, ávádoxo, susceptores are probably coeval with the practice of baptizing not only the infant children of Christians, but foundlings rejected by their heathen parents. They are mentioned by Tertullian, De Baptismo, c. 18. Opp. p. 264; Guericke, p. 240; Bingham, xI. 8.

BAPTISM
OF IN-
FANTS.

Fontis.'

the child's hand. If a bishop were present, Confirmation PUBLIC was then administered. A Gospel from St Mark was read, as a protection from the falling sickness; followed by another Gospel from St John1. The water in the Benedictio font was changed on the Saturdays before Easter-Day and Whit-Sunday, and at other times, as often as might be required, but not while it continued pure and clean. The form for consecrating the fresh water consisted of the invocations of a litany, prayers, and many ceremonies, -breathing upon the water, and putting into it wax, oil, and chrism.

6

Office in

Luther.

In preparing a reformed service of Baptism, much use was made of the previous labours of Bucer and Me- The reformed lancthon in the Consultation of Archbishop Hermann2; debted to and some ceremonies, which had the authority of that treatise, were retained in 1549, although afterwards discarded.

The first rubric was originally longer, and in the form of an Introduction to the Office:-'It appeareth by ancient writers, that the Sacrament of Baptism in the old time was not commonly ministered but at two times in the year. at Easter and Whitsuntide3, at which times solemn times it was openly ministered in the presence of all the con

14.

1 Mark ix. 17-29; John i. I—

2 Hermann's Baptismal Service, borrowed word for word from Luther's Taufbüchlein (Daniel, Cod. Liturg. Eccl. Luth. p. 185), is printed at length in Mr Fallow's Baptismal Offices Illustrated, pp. 29 sqq.; and also a comparative view of the offices in the Sarum Manual, in Hermann's Consultation, and in the English PrayerBooks of 1549 and 1552. Mr Bulley (Communion and Baptismal Offices, pp. 90 sqq.) gives the Offices of 1549, 1552, and 1662, and also

that in the Prayer-Book for Scot-
land (1637).

3 At Easter, in remembrance of
Christ's resurrection, of which bap-
tism is a figure; and at Whitsun-
tide, in remembrance of the three
thousand souls baptized by the
Apostles at that time. In the
Eastern Church, the feast of Epi-
phany was also assigned for the
administration of this sacrament,
in memory of our Saviour's bap-
tism. About the 8th or 9th cen-
tury the Latin Church began to
administer baptism (as at first) at
all times of the year. Wheatly.

of Baptism.

PUBLIC gregation: which custom (now being grown out of use)

BAPTISM

OF IN

FANTS.

Sponsors.

although it cannot for many considerations be well re-
stored again, yet it is thought good to follow the same as
near as conveniently may be: wherefore the people are
to be admonished, that it is most convenient that Bap-
tism should not be ministered, but upon Sundays and
other holy-days1, &c.' Since the custom of observing
solemn times of baptism had long been disused, the men-
tion of the custom was omitted in 1661. It was enough to
specify the things which were necessary, which are, that
the rite be administered at the font on a Sunday or a holy-
day, when the most number of people come together;'
that the time in the service be after the Second Lesson
at Morning or Evening Prayer; and that three sponsors
be required for each child2: notice must also be given
by the parents at least before the beginning of Morning
Prayer3. At the last revision (1661) it was directed

1 'We will that Baptism be ministered only upon the Sundays and holy-days, when the whole congregation is wont to come together, if the weakness of the infants let not the same, so that it is to be feared that they will not live till the next holy-day.' Hermann's Consultation, fol. 164.

2 The rubric in the Sarum Manual was, 'Non plures quam unus vir et una mulier debent accedere ad suscipiendum parvulum de sacro fonte...nisi alia fuerit consuetudo approbata: tamen ultra tres amplius ad hoc nullatenus recipiantur:' Maskell, Mon. Rit. I. p. 31. Our present rule, however, was the ancient custom in this country: Synod. Wigorn. (1240) cap. 5, 'Masculum ad minus duo masculi et una mulier suscipiant; fœminam duæ mulieres et masculus unus' Mansi, XXIII. 527. By canon xxix. (1604) no parent shall

be admitted to answer as godfather
for his own child; nor any person
before he hath received the holy
Communion. The American rubric
allows that 'parents shall be ad-
mitted as sponsors, if it be de-
sired.'

3 Hermann's Consultation, fol.
clxiv: But that all things may be
ministered and received religiously
and reverently, the parents of the
infants shall signify the matter be-
times to the pastors, and with the
godfathers shall humbly require
baptism for their infants. That if
the parents, or the godfathers, or
both, be subject to manifest crimes,
they may be corrected of the pas-
tor, if they will admit correction,
or if they be incorrigible, that they
may be kept from the communion
of Baptism, lest they be present at
so divine a ministration unto dam-
nation, and with danger of offend-
ing the church....'