PART II. BAPTISTERIES AND FONTS. IN the times of the apostles and their immediate successors, the converts were baptized in a river, a lake, a sea, and wherever water in sufficient quantity could be found for the administration of the rite by immersion. Thus, John the Baptist immersed in the River Jordan at Enon, where there was much water, and so did the disciples of Christ. (John iii. 22.) But baptism could be administered in any other river or place of water, as appears from various passages in the Acts of the Apostles. The Ethiopian Eunuch went down into water lying by the roadside to receive baptism at the hands of Philip. It is not unlikely that Paul baptized Lydia and her household in the river that runs by the city of Philippi. In his Second Apology, Justin Martyr states that this was the custom in his time; he says that the converts were "led to a place where there was water," and baptized. Tertullian observes that "it makes no difference whether one is washed in a sea or in a pool, in a river or in a fountain, in a lake or in a channel; nor is there any difference between those whom John dipped in Jordan, and those whom Peter plunged in the Tiber; for" he adds, "the waters are made the sacrament of sanctification by invocation of God. The Spirit immediately W descends from heaven, and resting upon them, sanctifies them by Himself; and they, being so sanctified, receive the power of sanctifying." (Nulla distinctio est, mari quis an stagno, flumine an fonte, lacu an alveo diluatur; nec quicquam refert inter eos quos Joannes in Jordane, et quos Petrus in Tiberi tinxit. etc. (De Baptismo, c. iv.) Tertullian also speaks of their going from the church to the water, and then making their renunciations there as they had done in the church before. (Aquam adituri, ibidem, sed et aliquanto prius in ecclesia sub antistitis manu contestamur nos renuntiare diabolo, et pompæ, et angelis ejus. (De Corona Milit. c. 3.) The author of the Recognitions, under the name of Clemens Romanus, represents Peter preaching to the people, and telling them "they might wash away their sins in the water of a river, or a fountain, or the sea, by invoking the name of the blessed Trinity upon them." (Ut in præsenti quidem tempore diluantur peccata vostra per aquam fontis, aut fluminis, aut etiam maris, invocato super vos Trino Beatitudinis nomine. (Clem. Recognit. lib. iv. c. 32.) Walafrid Strabo acknowledges that the believers in the times of the apostles were baptized with great simplicity in rivers or fountains.* The same admission is made by Honorius Augustus, in his Gemma Anime (lib. iii. c. 106).† We have already seen that Paulinus baptized the Northumbrian converts in the rivers Glen and Sarle in the North of England. In the Acts of Apollinarius and * "Sciendum autem, primò simpliciter in fluviis vel fontibus baptizatos credentes; ipse enim Dominus noster Jesus Christus, ut in nobis idem consecraret lavacrum, in Jordane baptizatus est à Joanne, et sicut alibi legitur; erat Joannes baptizans in Ænon, juxta Salim, quia aquæ multæ erant." (De Ritibus Eccles. c. 26.) "Sciendum est, quòd apostoli, et eorum discipuli in fluviis, vel stagnis, vel in fontibus baptizabant." Victor, it is mentioned that these two missionaries led their catechumens to the sea to administer to them the rite of baptism. In his Book on Holy Places, Bede says: "In the place where our Lord was baptized, stands a wooden cross as high as a man's neck, and sometimes covered by the water. From it to the farther, that is, the eastern bank, is a sling's cast; and on the nearer bank is a large monastery of St. John the Baptist on a rising ground, and famous for a very handsome church, from which they descend to the cross by a bridge supported on arches, to offer up their prayers. In the farther part of the river is a quadrangular church, supported on four stone arches, covered with burnt tiles, where our Lord's clothes are said to have been kept whilst he was baptized. Men do not enter this church, but come together around it from all quarters; from the place where the Jordan leaves the Sea of Galilee, to where it enters the Dead Sea, is a journey of eight days." † During the dark days of imperial persecutions the primitive Christians of Rome found a ready refuge in the Catacombs, where they constructed baptisteries for the administration of the rite by immersion. The most remarkable of these is the baptistery in the Catacomb of Martene, De Antiq. Eccles. Ritib. i. p. 3. † Bede: In loco, in quo Dominus baptizatus est, crux lignea stat usque ad collum alta, quæ aliquotiens aqua transcendente absconditur: à quo loco ripa ulterior, id est, Orientalis in jactu fundæ est, citerior verò ripa in supercilio monticuli grande monasterium gestat B. Johannis Baptistæ ecclesia clarum; de quo per pontem arcubus suffultum solent descendere ad illam crucem, et orare. In extrema fluminis parte, quadrata ecclesia est quatuor lapideis cancris superposita, coctili creta desuper tecta, ubi Domini vestimenta cùm baptizaretur, servata esse dicuntur. Hanc non homines intrare, sed undique cingere ac penetrare solent. Ab eo loco, quo de faucibus maris Galilæa Jordanis exit, usque ubi Mare Mortuum intrat, octo dierum iter est. (De locis sanctis Libellus, cap. xiii.) |