Download File - JOHN J. HADDAD, Ph.D.

32 ◆ Christianity A SHORT GLOBAL HISTORY
Some variations were allowed. When water was too limited for
immersion, pouring it on a person three times was sufficient. People too
ill for immersion could be cared for in a similar manner on their sickbed,
but immersion remained a common practice. Baptism of infants does not
seem to have been frequent until the beginning of the third century,
perhaps a bit earlier. Tertullian opposed it as a recent innovation, but
Origen defended it as an apostolic practice. This act apparently reflected
the desire of parents to have their children share in the blessings the
Christian life offered in the rite. It is not likely that the parents viewed
their babies as evil enough to need remission of their sins. Infants so
often died that the protection provided by infant baptism must have been
quite consoling. Inscriptions often record their baptism near their death.
Yet during this period adult immersion remained the norm.
Those who administered the rite were usually bishops, singular heads
of churches, but presbyters and deacons, those of lesser orders, could do
so if selected by the bishop. In emergencies any man could baptize, but
women were often forbidden to do so. Yet in Syria deaconesses offered
assistance to women candidates for baptism, most likely because of
issues concerning modesty.
In the third century, Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, and Stephen,
bishop of Rome, argued over the validity of baptism performed by a
heretic. Cyprian opposed it; Stephen said that the water and the confession
of the Trinity overpowered any deficiency of the one administering
the rite.
The Eucharist, the memorial to the death and resurrection of Christ
celebrated by eating and drinking consecrated bread and wine, was also
common in Christian communities. Jesus established such a supper
himself. Paul warned that participating in the Eucharist haphazardly
had brought sickness and death. The apostle knew of similar meals
held in both Graceo-Roman and Jewish gatherings. The Jewish sabbath
eve meals and the Passover feast provided close parallels to the Christian
observance.
In the early second century, Pliny, the governor of Bithynia (northwest
Turkey), tortured deaconesses, women leaders of the church, in
order to find out the truth. He discovered that Christians met for what
appeared to him to be a rather bland meal. In that same period, however,
Ignatius of Antioch insisted on its importance by calling it ‘the medicine
of immortality’. By that time it had come to be called the ‘Eucharist’, a
thanksgiving rite. Only Christians could participate although the bread