Baptism by Immersion vs. Affusion
Plunged under the water or poured upon — one baptism, two ancient ways
This concerns how baptism is administered: by full immersion in water, or by pouring (affusion) or sprinkling. The early Didache already permitted pouring when living water was unavailable. Traditions differ: the East retains triple immersion even for infants, while the Latin West shifted toward affusion. Baptists insist on immersion, whereas Catholics and most mainline churches accept either mode as valid.
How it traveled
- The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the GreatRome · c. 604 CEexplains
- Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90)Paris · c. 1274 CEexplains
- Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic ChurchGeneva · c. 1564 CEexplains
Key passages(16)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas
Reply to Objection 2: Christ's burial is more clearly represented by immersion: wherefore this manner of baptizing is more frequently in use and more commendable. Yet in the other ways of baptizing it
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Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas
Objection 3: Further, Pope Nicholas I, answering questions put to him by the Bulgars, said: "Those who have been baptized in the name of the Trinity, or only in the name of Christ, as we read in the A
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
126 D126 In this sentence Calvin makes three assertions: (1) that the mode of baptism is a matter of complete indifference (“not of the least consequence”). (2) that it is evident that the term “bapti
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Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen · Gregory of Nazianzus
VIII. And since we are double-made, I mean of body and soul, and the one part is visible, the other invisible, so the cleansing also is twofold, by water and the spirit; the one received visibly in th
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The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great · Pope Gregory the Great
I should have wished to reply to your letters with full application of mind, were I not so worn by the labour of my pastoral charge as to be more inclined to weep than to say anything. And this your R
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The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril · Cyril of Jerusalem
Lecture XX. (On the Mysteries. II.) Of Baptism. Romans vi. 3–14 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death? &c..…for ye are not under the Law,
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The Church History of Eusebius · Eusebius of Caesarea
Clinic baptism (so-called from κλίνη, “a bed”) was ordinarily looked upon in the early Church, in which immersion was the common mode of baptism, as permanently debarring a person from the presbyterat
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The Epistles of Cyprian. · Cyprian
Epistle LXXV. To Magnus, on Baptizing the Novatians, and Those Who Obtain Grace on a Sick-Bed. Argument.—The Former Part of This Letter is of the Same Tenor with Those that Precede, Except that He I
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The Chaplet, or De Corona. · Apologetic
Elucidations. ———————————— I. (Usages, p. 94.) Here a reference to Bunsen’s Hippolytus, vol. III., so often referred to in the former volume, will be useful. A slight metaphrase will bring out the
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Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas
We have now to consider each sacrament specially: (1) Baptism; (2) Confirmation; (3) the Eucharist; (4) Penance; (5) Extreme Unction; (6) Order; (7) Matrimony. Concerning the first, our consideration
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
17. Then, again, when they ask us what faith for several years followed our baptism, that they may thereby prove that our baptism was in vain, since it is not sanctified unless the word of the promise
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Treatise on the Sacraments (qq[60]-90) · Thomas Aquinas
Objection 1: It seems that several can baptize at the same time. For unity is contained in multitude, but not "vice versa." Wherefore it seems that many can do whatever one can but not "vice versa": t
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Letter CCXXXVI. This letter is also dated in 376, and treats of further subjects not immediately raised by the De Spiritu Sancto: How Christ can be said to be ignorant of the day and the hour; Of the
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The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen · Sozomen
Chapter XXVI.—Eunomius and his Teacher Aëtius, their Affairs and Doctrines. They were the first who broached One Immersion for the Baptism. About this time, Eunomius, Philost. many sections, especia
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The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great · Pope Gregory the Great
See above, IV. 9. There is some doubt as to what the practice was which Gregory had forbidden in his former epistle but now allows. In Ep. IX. he had said, “Episcopi baptizatos infantes signare bis in
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The Dialogue Against the Luciferians · Jerome
L. We receive the laity, because no one will be induced to change, if he knows he must be baptized again. And then, if they are rejected, we become the cause of their destruction. O. By receiving a l
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