The change in the ordinance, like most of the
changes that came about in the days of the "falling away" from the
primitive faith and practice, was by gradual process.
Dean Stanley, in his "Christian Institutions," page 24, says that it is
not till the third century that "we find one case of the baptism of
infants." Of the change from immersion to sprinkling, he says:
"What is the justification of this almost universal departure
from the primitive usage? There may have been many reasons,
some bad, some good. One, no doubt, was the superstitious
feeling already mentioned which regarded baptism as a charm,
indispensable to salvation, and which insisted on imparting it
to every human being who could be touched with water, however
unconscious."
The common practice as late as the twelfth century is thus described by
a Roman Catholic cardinal of that time, named Pullus:
"Whilst the candidate for baptism in water is immersed, the
death of Christ is suggested; whilst immersed and covered with
water, the burial of Christ is shown forth; whilst he is raised
from the waters, the resurrection of Christ is
proclaimed.
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