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The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

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Romish Ritual the direction is: "Baptism may be performed either by<br />

pouring, immersion, or sprinkling; but either the first or second mode,<br />

which are most in use, shall be retained, according as it has been the usage<br />

of the churches to employ the one or the other, so that either THE HEAD<br />

OF THE PERSON to be baptized shall have a trine ablution--that is, either<br />

the water shall be POURED UPON IT (perfundatum--Luther quotes the<br />

very word), or the HEAD shall be immersed (ut trina ablutione caput<br />

immergatur)--Luther again quotes almost verbatim. In the Roman Ritual,<br />

furthermore, for the Baptism of adults, it is said: "But in the churches<br />

where Baptism is performed by immersion, either of the entire body, or of<br />

the head only, the priest shall baptize by thrice immersing the person, or<br />

his head" (illum vel caput ejus). It is a mistake, as these words<br />

demonstrate, to suppose that even if immersion be practised, there must<br />

needs be a submergence of the whole body. <strong>The</strong> Roman Ritual leaves the<br />

choice between the immersion of the whole body, <strong>and</strong> the immersion of<br />

the head. <strong>The</strong> immersion of the head was performed in the case of infants,<br />

usually by dipping the back of the head into the font. Thus in the<br />

Ambrosian Ritual: "He shall dip the back of the child's head (ter occiput<br />

mergit) three times in the water." In the case of adults, the solemn<br />

immersion of the head could take place, in the same way, without any sort<br />

of immersion of the rest of the body; or, the person could go into the water<br />

up to the neck, <strong>and</strong> the solemn immersion of the head alone be made by<br />

the minister. It is evident that in the second case, equally with the first, the<br />

baptismal immersion was of the head only. <strong>The</strong> submergence to the neck<br />

was a mere natural preparation for the other. It is in this second manner<br />

that Luther directs, in case the Jewess was immersed at all, that the<br />

officiating minister should immerse her head only. She was to seat herself<br />

in the bath, <strong>and</strong> the only religious immersion was not that of her whole<br />

body (as Rome permits, <strong>and</strong> the Baptists, if consistent, would prescribe),<br />

but of her head only (ut caput ejus immergeretur). Luther, so far as he<br />

allowed of immersion at all, was not as much of an immersionist as the<br />

Ritual of Rome might have made him, for he does not hint at the<br />

immersion of the whole

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