(Note- this article from the encyclopedia shows that the Biblical Baptist position of believer’s baptism by immersion was also the position on the early church.

Baptist Church History – Daily Baptist Encyclopedia Post by Jim Curran

10/28/234 4h  · (Note- this article from the encyclopedia shows that the Biblical Baptist position of believer’s baptism by immersion was also the position on the early church. As such it quotes even those that were questionable in their doctrine still showing this until it was gradually changed by the apostate Catholics) Catechumeni, or Catechumens, Baptism of. —Believers who received the Word gladly were the subjects of baptism in the Saviour’s day and during the ministry of his apostles. About a.p. 150, the same class of persons received baptism. Justin Martyr, one of the most talented and reliable of the early Christian writers, says, ‘‘ In what manner we dedicate ourselves to God, after being renewed by Christ, we will now explain, lest by omitting we should seem to dissemble in our statement; as many as are persuaded and believe that the things which we teach and declare are true, and promise that they are determined to live accordingly, are taught to pray to God, and to beseech him with fasting to grant them remission for their past sins, while we also pray and fast with them. We then lead them to a place where there is water, and then they are regenerated (baptized) in the same manner as we also were, for they receive a washing in water (“ev 7@’véar.) in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.”! The “ Apology,” from which this is taken, was addressed to the emperor Antoninus Pius, and there is no doubt about its authenticity. Accord- ing to Justin, the only persons baptized in his day were believers, resolved to live for God. Later than his time, but still in the second century, before men were baptized they were instructed for some time and catechized, and then baptized. This cate- chumenical system preceded baptism for centuries in the Christian church. The most celebrated school for catechumeni in the Christian world was at Alexandria, in Egypt, and Origen was its most distinguished instructor, as he had been its most illustrious pupil under Cluneus Alexandrinus. ° Catechists, to conduct the instruction of the cate- chumeni, in process of time were appointed all over the Christian world ; and twice a year the scholars went forth to baptism, at Easter and Whitsuntide in the West, and at Easter and Whitsuntide, or at the Epiphany, in the East. No catechised candi- date for baptism employed another to profess his faith, he attended to that duty himself. The learned Bingham says, ‘‘The mora, or be- lievers, being such as were baptized, and thereby made complete and perfect Christians, were upon that account dignified with several titles of honor and marks of distinction above the catechumens ;” after mentioning their titles, he describes their privileges : ‘‘ It was their sole prerogative to partake of the Lord’s Supper,” ‘‘ another of their preroga- tives above the catechumens was to stay and join with the minister in all the prayers of the church, which the catechumens were not allowed to do, the use of the Lord’s prayer was the sole prerogative of the mora. (believers) ; the catechumens were not allowed to say ‘Our Father’ till they had first made themselves sons by regeneration in the waters of baptism. They were admitted to hear all discourses made in the church, even those that treated of the most abstruse and profound mysteries of the Christian religion, which the catechumens were strictly prohibited from hearing.” Bingham speaks of four classes of catechumeni, those who were instructed privately, the hearers, the kneelers, and the competentes and electi, that is, those who petitioned for baptism, and were chosen to observe that sacred ordinance. They were strictly ex- amined, according to Bingham, in the Christian in- structions imparted to them by the catechist before they were elected to receive baptism. As the same erudite writer informs us, the cate- chumeni were placed-with their faces to the west, the region of darkness, and there they renounced the devil and his works, and the world with its luxury and pleasures. And they struck their hands together as if they were ready for conflict with Satan. They afterwards faced the east, the region of light, where the rising sun first appears, that before the sun of righteousness they might record their sacred profession as Christians. They made a solemn vow of obedience to God, and ‘‘ there was also exacted a profession of faith of every person to be baptized. And this was always to be made in the same words of the creed that every church used for the baptism of her catechumens.”’*? They were solemnly questioned publicly in the church on the several parts of the Christian faith, and after some ceremonial observances without warrant of Scrip- ture they were led into the baptismal waters and immersed. Ambrose of Milan gives us an illustra- tion of believer’s baptism in catechumenical times when he says, ‘‘Thou wast asked, Dost thou be- lieve in God the omnipotent Father? and thou saidst, I believe; and thou wast immersed, that is, thou wast buried. Again thou wast asked, Dost thou believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and in his cross? and thou saidst, I believe; and thou wast immersed, and therefore thou wast buried with Christ, for he who is buried with Christ shall rise with Christ; a third time thou wast asked, Dost thou believe in the Holy Spirit? and a third time thou wast immersed, . . . for when thou dost im- merse (mergis) thou dost form a likeness of death and burial.”’* The baptism of the catechumeni, the baptism of the Church Universal (Catholic) was the immersion of professed believers. According to the forty-second canon of the Coun- cil Eliberis, or Elvira, held about :a.p. 305, the reg- ular period of probation for the catechumeni was two years. In special cases it might be shortened, but this was the ordinary time. It reads, ‘‘ Those who give in their names to be entered into the church shall be baptized two years after, if they lead a regular life, unless they are obliged to relieve them sooner upon account of any dangerous sick- ness, or that it is judged convenient to grant them this grace because of the fervor of their prayers.’’® The two years’ probation, the fervent prayers, and the catechetical instruction unite in showing that candidates for baptism were not babes, but enlight- ened persons. It is pretended that catechumenical instruction was only for converts from heathenism. This state- ment is entirely unsupported by evidence. The catechumenical preparation was a prerequisite to baptism for all classes of persons for ages, except in the case of a babe threatened with death, after superstition created and gave a little encourage- ment to infant baptism. ‘ For various reasons infant baptism made slow progress against the baptism of catechised persons. It was thought that baptism washed out all sin, and parents regarded it as an unwise waste of so great a treasure to apply it to babes who had only Adam’s guilt, when they would need its cleansing – power so much more as they grew older. Hence, even in Africa, the dark birthplace of infant im- mersion, and in the days of Augustine, the grand patron of the unscriptural rite, we find that it was necessary to use the curses of an episcopal council to help infant baptism in its efforts to spread. The Council of Carthage, held a.p. 418, in its second canon “‘ pronounces an anathema against such as deny that children ought to be baptized as soon as they are born.” ® The bishops of Africa had‘hearers who needed maledictions, and a good many of them, to give up the baptism of believers. No curses are needed now in Pedobaptist clerical assemblies to assist the infant rite into extensive popularity. At least, none have been needed for centuries, until within the last fifty years, when our principles have invaded the strongholds of Pedobaptism and injured it in the sanctuaries of its friends. The great Basil was born of pious parents, and baptized, after being a catechumenus, in his twenty- eighth year.7’ The same thing is true of Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine, the distinguished churchmen of the fourth century, and in the case of Augustine, of the fourth and a part of the fifth. Gibbon, speaking of this period, says, ‘“‘The discretion of parents often suspended the baptism of their children till they could understand the obligations they contracted ; the sacrament of baptism was supposed to contain a full and absolute expiation of sin, the soul was instantly restored to its original purity, and entitled to the promise of eternal salvation.” ® Archbishop Cranmer says, “St. Gregory Nazianzen, as great a clerk (clergy- man) as ever was in Christ’s church, and master to St. Hierome, counseled that children should not be baptized until they came to three years of age, or thereabout, except they were in danger of life.” Cranmer’s testimony about Gregory’s advice is cor- rect, but he might have added that even this famous archbishop of Constantinople was heeded by few about the early reception of baptism; that the reigning emperor, Theodosius, “‘ who, according to Socrates, had been instructed in Christian’ prin- ciples by his pious ancestors,’’ only submitted to baptism when dangerously ill at Thessalonica ;” and that baptisms at three years old were rare oc- currences. The celebrated Bishop Jewel says, “ Like- wise in old times they that were called catechumeni were warned aforehand to prepare their hearts that they might worthily receive baptism.’ After making the statement he proceeds to quote Clement and Augustine in support of it. Mosheim, speak- ing of the third century, says, ‘‘ Baptism was pub- licly administered twice a year to candidates who had gone through a long preparation and trial.’”’ ” Neander declares the same thing, speaking of the early churches. ‘‘ Many pious but mistaken pa- rents . . . wished rather to reserve baptismal grace (for their children) against the more decided and mature age of manhood, as a refuge from the temptations and storms of an uncertain life.” ¥ The baptism of catechised persons, after the apos- tolie age and the times of the primitive fathers, spread everywhere, and it existed for centuries after it is commonly supposed that infant baptism had banished it from the world. We have this statement confirmed by the administration of bap- tism only twice a year, on two important church feasts, down at least in many cases to the tenth century. In the West, the great baptisms at Easter and Whitsuntide were in their full glory in the ninth century. They were universal for adults in the fourth century. And there is every reason for believing that in many cases the children baptized in the ninth century were in some degree instructed, though no doubt it was but to a limited extent. One hundred years ago every child in Europe and America of Pedobaptist parentage was baptized within a month after birth. In the ninth century, and afterwards, only sick children were baptized, except at Hasterand Pentecost. The abandonment of the two great baptisms in the year shows an unquestionable change in the subjects of the rite. Milman says, ‘ At Easter and Pentecost, and in some places at the Epiphany, baptism was admin- istered publicly, that is, in the presence of the faithful, to all the converts of the year.’ The Council of Gerunda, held in a.p. 517, in its fourth and fifth canons, decrees, “‘ Baptism shall be ad- ministered only at Haster and Whitsuntide ; at the other festivals only the sick shall be baptized. Children shall be baptized whenever they are pre- sented if they be sick or cannot nurse the breast.” ® This baptism is clearly for the old candidates, and only sick infants. are to receive the rite at other times. Pope Nicholas I., in his 69th letter, written A.D. 858, testifies that ‘‘ the solemn times of admin- istering baptism are the feasts of Easter and Whit- suntide, but that it is not necessary to observe this (rule) in regard to people newly converted, or in reference to those in danger of death.’ In 868, the Council of Worms, in its first canon, decreed “that baptism should be solemnly administered only at Easter and Whitsuntide.”’ ” .In 895, the Council of Tribur, in its twelfth canon, ordained that ‘the sacrament of baptism should not be administered out of the solemn times—at Easter and Whitsuntide.’”’ 1 Whitsuntide, it has been justly observed, ‘was one of the stated times for baptism in the ancient church, when those who were baptized put on white garments as types of that spiritual purity they receive in baptism,” ” hence the name, Whitsunday, Whitmonday. This is a season of rejoicing in several Kuropean coun- tries now, though the grand baptisms have ceased long since. In the ninth century they still had the two great annual baptisms, and the customs that obtained when all the candidates for baptism were instructed beforehand. Of course, if the present practice of infant baptism had prevailed, and each child had been baptized a few days after birth, the Easter and Pentecost baptisms would never have existed. But the probabilities are that in many places in Europe, as late as the ninth century, or later, the persons baptized were two or three years old, or more, so that they could answer all the usual questions themselves. As soon as the bap- tism of unconscious babes in a few days or weekafter birth became universal, then the great bap- tisms of Easter and Pentecost ended. From Alcuin, the distinguished Englishman, who rendered such important literary and religious ser- vices to Charlemagne in the eighth century, we learn that there were catechumeni in his day ; com- menting on the Gospel of John, ii. 23, 24, he says, “ Keclesiastical custom does not give the com- munion of the body and blood of Christ to the catechumeni, because they are not born of water (baptized) and of the Spirit.’’*° There were cer- tainly catechumeni at this time. He states in another place, “We say that no catechumenus (an instructed: candidate for baptism), although dying in good works, has eternal life, unless he becomes a martyr, by which all the mysteries of baptism are perfected ; for by blood, fire, and other pains the confessors were baptized.” He speaks of a catechumenus as one of the existing characters of his day. So that instruction was still demanded in some parts of Christendom outside the ranks of the Anabaptists as a qualification for baptism. Robinson” describes a baptism which took place in the Lateran baptistery in Rome, in which three children, representing John and Peter and Mary, after being catechised by a priest and instructed for the occasion, were solemnly immersed by the pope himself. He wore waxed drawers, the cere- mony took place on the Saturday before Easter, and the children were the recipients of some relig- ious knowledge. The account is taken from an- cient Roman ordinals collected by Father Mabillon, ahd it is undoubtedly reliable. The baptism may be attributed to any period from the ninth to the twelfth century. Muratori, conservator of the public archives of Modena in the beginning of the eighteenth cen- tury, of whom it is recorded that “ literary societies vied with each other in sending him diplomas, and authors who had attained eminence in different de- partments of literature paid him the homage of enscribing to him their works,’”’ himself a learned Roman Catholic, in view of a mass of ancient docu- ments treating of the baptismal history of his church, from the tenth to the fourteenth century, says, ‘‘From monuments thus far produced, we may learn how many ages the custom among Christians of not baptizing infants immediately at birth, as we now do, continued. Unless sickness or danger threatened life, a reception of the sacra- ment (of baptism) was delayed by most persons till the Saturday before Easter Sunday and Whit- sunday, on which days the church celebrated the solemn baptism.” Baptism was conferred by the apostles on a con- fession of faith. In the third century there was a period of instruction imposed before the rite was conferred, and this catechumenical courtinued, the candidates for baptism growing younger every century, for a considerable period after the ninth century. The baptism of unconscious babes to reach universal empire in the great church and drive believer’s baptism to the shelter of the little sects, had to fight the Word of God, the old creeds and customs of Christendom, the prejudices of all Christian countries, and the fierce opposition of Baptists under various denominational names, and it succeeded at last, after the ninth century. But the profession of faith of the sponsors for the child still shows the old divine demand for faith in the candidates of baptism. ? Just. Philos. et Mart., Apol.i. . Patrol. Greeca, tom. vi. p. 140. Migne. Parisiis. *® Euseb. Kecles. Hist., lib. vi. 46. * Bingham’s Antiquities, book i. 4,x.2,xi.7. *De Sacramentis, lib. iv. 7, vol. xvi. p. 448. Patrol. Lat. Migne. ° Du Pin’s Eccles. Hist., i.593. Dublin. ° Idem., i. 635. * Robinson’s Hist. of Baptism, pp. 91-95. Nashville. ° Decline and Fall, i. 450. Magowan, London. ® Miscellaneous Writings, p.175. Parker Society. 1° Eccles. Hist., lib. v. cap. 6. ™ Jewel’s Works, p. 119. Parker Society. ™ Eccles. Hist., p. 106. London, 1848. 8 Church History, ii. 319. Boston. ™ History of Christianity, p. 466. – New York, 1841. 1 Du Pin, 1.688. 1 Idem.,ii.143. ™ Idem.,ii.115. ™ Idem., ii. 118. ™ Buck’s Theological Dictionary, p. 450. #0’Patrol. Lat., tom. ¢. p. 777. Migne. 2! Idem., tom. ci. p. 1074.” Robinson’s History of Baptism, p- 102. * Antiquitates Italicze Medii Avi, tom. iy. diss. 57. De Ritibus, Mel., 1738. From the Baptist Encyclopedia by William Cathcart