Table Of ContentInfant Communion
Gorgias Liturgical Studies
54
This series is intended to provide a venue for studies about liturgies
as well as books containing various liturgies. Making liturgical
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offices, services for special occasions, and the sacraments.
Infant Communion
The New Testament to the Reformation
Mark Dalby
1
gorgias press
2010
Gorgias Press LLC, 180 Centennial Ave., Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA
www.gorgiaspress.com
Copyright © 2010 by Gorgias Press LLC
Originally published in
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prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC.
2010
1
ISBN 978-1-60724-405-9 ISSN 1937-3252
Published first in the U.K. by Grove Books, 2003.
Printed in the United States of America
Infant Communion
The New Testament to
the Reformation
by
Mark Dalby
Archdeacon Emeritus of Rochdale
Contents
Abbreviations 3
1 The Background: Baptism and Eucharist 4
2 Rise and Practice
The Early Centuries 7
After Augustine 15
3 Decline and Fall
The Ending 21
Easterns and Bohemians 26
4 The Reformation
The Continental Reformers 29
The English Reformers 32
The Roman Response 35
Summary 38
Copyright Mark Dalby 2003
Introduction
The communion of infants is different from the admission of children at, say, seven
or eight. Both practices traditionally require baptism, and either may require
confirmation/chrysmation as well. But infant communion never requires a measure
of 'understanding', whereas child communion does.
As yet there is no comprehensive history of infant communion. Several learned
attempts were made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but there were
major gaps in their treatment and much that today needs amending. Thanks to the
work of J D C Fisher and D R Holeton, many of these gaps have now been filled. I
have drawn significantly on their work, as well as on an article of my own in CQR in
1966, but I have also sought to fill in more of the gaps. For reasons of space, I have
concluded my study with the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, but
hopefully one day I can extend it to our own times.
THE COVER PICTURE
is by Dona McCullagh.
ABBREVIATIONS
CC Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, Turnhout 1953ff.
CCCM Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis, Turnhout 1966ff.
CR Corpus Reformatorum, Brunswick 1834-1900, Leipzig 1904ff.
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vienna 1866ff
Denzinger Enchiridion Symbolorum Definitionum et Declarationum, H Denzinger,
32nd edn rev A Schonmetzer, Barcelona 1963.
GCS Griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der erstan drei Jahnhunderte,
Leipzig 1897-1941, Berlin and Leipzig 1953, Berlin 1954ff.
HBS Henry Bradshaw Society, 1891ff
LW Luther's Works, ed J Pelikan and H T Lehmann, 56 vols, Philadelphia
and St Louis, 1955ff.
Mansi J D Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio. 53 vols,
Paris and Leipzig 1903-27.
MGH Monumenta Germaniae Histórica
Legum Sectio II, 2 vols, Hanover 1883-97
Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, 7 vols, Berlin 1885-1920
PG Patrologia Graeca, ed J P Migne, 162 vols, Paris 1857-66.
PL Patrologia Latina, ed J P Migne, 221 vols, Paris 1844-64.
WA D Martin Luthers Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Weimer, 1883ff.
Biblical quotations are usually from the Revised Version
Except where stated, the place of publication of books, journals, etc is London
3
1
Baptism And Eucharist: The Background
The first clear witness to the baptismal eucharist is Justin Martyr c.1551, but later
witnesses are sufficiently numerous and diverse as to suggest that its origins
may well be much earlier. Gregory Dix traced it to Jewish initiation rites where
proselyte baptism was followed by the offering of sacrifice2. F L Cross3 and Massey
H Shepherd4 saw baptismal eucharists underlying 1 Peter and Revelation
respectively. Others have seen hints in Acts 9.18 where Paul after his baptism
'took food and was strengthened', Acts 16.34 where the newly-baptized
Philippian jailor and his family 'set meat' before Paul and Silas, 1 Corinthians
10.1-4 where Paul relates to Christians the experience of Israelites who 'were all
baptized into Moses' and who 'all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the
same spiritual drink', Hebrews 6.4 where enlightenment is followed by tasting
the heavenly gift, and 1 Peter 2.2f where the new-born have tasted the goodness
of the Lord.5
The similarity in inner meaning of baptism and the eucharist is as striking as
the sequence. Some have seen them linked in the Lord's words, 'Can you drink
the cup that I must drink, or be baptized with the baptism with which I must be
baptized?'6, and in the Johannine statement that from the side of Jesus 'there
came out blood and water'7. But the link is clearest in Paul. The supper was a
proclamation of the Lord's death8. But 'all we who were baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into his death', 'we were buried with him through baptism
into death', and 'we have become united with him by the likeness of his death'9,
so baptism too was a proclamation of the Lord's death10. Paul also brought them
together in his concept of the church as the body of Christ11. Those baptized in
the one Spirit into the one Christ were all baptized into one body in which they
became members of him and of one another12. But that was not all, The bread
1 Apologia i.65, ed A W Blunt (Cambridge, 1911) pp 97f.
2 Confirmation, or Laying on of Hands?(1936) p 10; '"The Seal" in the Second Century'in Theology Vol LI
(1948) p 7.
3 1 Peter—A Paschal Liturgy (1954).
4 The Paschal Liturgy and the Apocalypse (1960) pp 77-97.
5 Cf G Dix, The Theology of Confirmation in Relation to Baptism (Dacre Press, 1946) p 16; A H Couratin,
'Baptism: The Liturgical Pattern' in Church Quarterly §eviev) CLV1I (1956) p 400; A Richardson, An
Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament (1958) pp 338,356; F L Cross, op.eil p 39.
6 Mark 10.38, cf G W H Lampe, The Seal of the Spirit (1951) pp 38-40.
7 John 19.34, cf C K Barrett, The Gospel according to St John (1958) pp 69, 462f. O Cullmarin, Early
Christian Worship (ET 1953) p 118, sees six common features in John.
8 1 Corinthians 11.23-26.
9 Romans 6.3-5.
10 Cf W Flemington, The New Testament Doctrine of Baptism (1948) p 137; Y B Tremel, 'Baptism—the
Incorporation of the Christian into Christ', in A George et alii, Baptism in the New Testament (ET 1964)
p 207.
11 1 Corinthians 12.12f, Romans 12.5, cf Ephesians 1.22f, Colossiaris 1.24.
12 1 Corinthians 12.12-25, Romans 12.4-8; cf also Ephesians 4.4.
4
BAPTISM AND EUCHARIST: THE BACKGROUND
which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ? seeing that there is
one bread, we, who are many, are one body; for we all partake of the one bread'.13
T F Torrance concluded of the New Testament that 'again and again the
language it uses about Baptism is interchangeable with that it uses about the
Eucharist. Indeed, Baptism and Eucharist are just as parallel, and just as one, as
in Christ and Christ in us'. They are two aspects of the one event, incorporation
into Christ, and 'we may say, therefore, that strictly speaking there is only one
sacrament, and that baptism and eucharist belong to this indivisible whole.'"
There were of course differences. Baptism took place once; the eucharist was
regularly repealed. Baptism was initial incorporation into Christ and his body;
the eucharist was continual sharing. Baptism began the union; the eucharist
renewed and sustained it. In John 3 baptism was birth, while in John 6 the
eucharist was nourishment. But the essence of the baptismal eucharist lay not in
its bestowal of a new gift, but in its provision for the immediate enjoyment,
expression and strengthening of that union with Christ and his body which
baptism as such had now established.
The similarity between the two was equally clear to the fathers. They could
use the same imagery for both15 and could easily 'ascribe to one sacrament the
effects generally attributed to the other'16. Ignatius of Antioch17 and Cyprian18
associated each with the passion; Theodore of Mopsuestia declared that we
commemorate Christ's death in each.19 Firmicius Maternus attributed rebirth
and renewal to each.20 John Chrysostom21 and Theodore22 associated the Spirit
with each.
The differences remained, as when Cyprian contrasted baptism 'which indeed
is once received, and is not again repeated' with the Lord's cup which 'is always
both thirsted for and drunk in the church.'23 Cyprian also spoke of the church as
a mother24, and Chrysostom developed this, 'Just as a woman nurtures her
offspring with her own blood and milk, so also Christ continually nurtures with
his own blood those whom he has begotten.'25 Theodore wrote similarly: in
13 1 Corinthians 10.16f (RV margin).
14 'Eschatology and the Eucharist' in Intercommunion, ed D Baillie and J Marsh (1952) pp 304f.
15 Tertullian, De Allium xli.4 (CC 2.844), Origen, hi Ceneiim Horn x.5 (GCS 29.990, Didymus, De TrinUate
ii.l3f (PC 39.692) used nuptial imagery of baptism, while Cyril of Jerusalem, Caicchesis Mystagogiea
iv.1, ed F LCross (1951) pp 26f, and Theodoret, Explanatio in Canticuin ii.3 (PG 81.128) used it of (he
eucharist.
16 G W H Lampe, op.cit p 40.
17 For baptism, cf Ad Ephesios xviii.2, in J B I.ightfoot, Flic Apostolic Tattlers (1891) p 110; for the
eucharist, cf Ad Philadelphenses iv, ibid, p 124, and Ad Smyrnaeos vi ibid p 129.
18 De Baptismo xix, ed E Evans (1964) pp 40f; Ep lxiii.l7 (CSEL 3.ii.714)
19 Ad Baptizandos v, ed A Mingana (Cambridge, 1933) p 78.
20 De Err ore Profanum Rcligioniini ii.5, xviii.7 (CSF.L 211,104).
21 Baptismal Instructions, Stavronikita ii.25-27 (ed A Wenger, Paris 1957, p 147-49; ET P VV Harkins, 1963,
p 51-53) where, having told catechumens that the Spirit would descend on them at baptism, he then
spoke of the table where they would become the Spirit's dwelling-place.
22 . Baptizandos iv, v, ed Mingana p 68, 71, where he speaks of the Spirit's descent at baptism and ot
feeding on his grace at the eucharist.
23 Ep lxiii.8 (CSHL 3.ii.707).
24 Dc Cathohcae Ecclesiae Unitale v (CC 3.253).
25 Baptismal Instructions, Stavronikita iii.19, ed Wenger p 162, ET I larkins p 62.
5
INFANT COMMUNION
baptism we were born, in the eucharist we were nourished from the same source.26
Methodius of Olympus saw nourishment as leading to growth. The eucharist
was the way in which Christ provided that 'all those who are built on him, who
have been born by the laver, may grow by receiving of his flesh and bones, that
is to say, of his holiness and glory.'27
Baptism of course was still the source of union with Christ and his body28,
but the eucharist expressed and deepened this union29, and Hilary of Poitiers
explained, from Paul's reference to baptism in Galatians 3.27, that the unity of
the faithful arose not from 'an agreement of will' but from 'the unity of the
sacrament', and that the continuing reality of this natural union was maintained
and intensified by the eucharist.30
John 6 could be interpreted 'spiritually' as well as 'sacramentally731, but though
the sacramental reference was normally to the eucharist, this was not invariable.
Cyprian first cited John 6.53 in a eucharistic context32, but then alongside John
3.5 as a proof that 'unless a man has been baptized and born again, he cannot
attain to the kingdom of God ,'33 He probably saw baptism as a form of eating the
flesh and drinking the blood, but from baptism his thoughts moved naturally to
the eucharist; thus his next heading read, 'that it is of small account to be baptized
and to receive the eucharist, unless one profits by it both in deeds and words.'
John 6.53 was also associated with both baptism and the eucharist by Firmicius
Maternus34 and Hilary of Poitiers.35
The fathers thus recognized both the similarities between baptism and the
eucharist and the differences. But they never suggested that there were
requirements for communion—whether of age, faith or knowledge—which did
not apply equally to baptism.
26 Ad Baptizandos v, ed Mingana p 71-79.
27 Symposium iii.8 (GCS 27.36).
28 Cf Irenaeus, Adversus Haercses iii.18.1, ed W W Harvey (Cambridge, 1857) ii.92f; Athanasius, Contra
Ar ¡¡T/los iii.33 (PG 26.393); Chrysostom, In Ep ad Calatas Comm iìi (PG 61.656).
29 Cf Didache ix.f, ed Lightfoot p 220; Ignatius, Ad Philadelphenses iv, ed Lightfoot p 124; Cyprian, Ep
lxiii. 13, lxix.6 (CSEL 3.Ü.711, 754); Chrysostom, In Matthaeum Horn lxxxiii (PG 58.7430, In Joannem
Horn xlvi (PG 59.260), In Ep 1 ad Corinlhios Horn xxiv.2 (PG 61.200), In Ep 1 ad Timatheum Horn xv (PC,
62.586); Cyril of Alexandria, Adversus Neslorium iv (PG 76.193), In Joannem Comm x.2, xi.llf (PG
74.341-44,'560-64).
30 De Trinitate viii.8-16 (PL 10,2431-49), cf also Tractatus super Psalmos xci.9 (CSEL 22.3520.
31 For 'spiritual' usage, cf Ignatius, Ad Trallianos viii, ed Lightfoot p 118; Clement of Alexandria,
Paedagogus 1.6.38-43 (GCS 12.112-116), ii.2.19f (GCS 12.1670, Slromata v. 10 (GCS 52.370); Tertullian, De
Resurrectione Marinoni in xxxvii.3 (CC 2.970); Origen, In Nwneros How xvi.9 (GCS 30.152), cf also
xxiii.6 (GCS 30.218); In Leviticum Ham vii.5 (GCS 29.3860, xiii.6 (GCS 29.477); In Matthaeum Comm
series 85 (GCS 38.1960; In Joannem Comm xxxii.24 (GCS 10.468); Eusebius of Caesarea, De Ecclesiastica
neologia iii.l2.5 (GCS 14a.l68).
32 Testimonia ad Quirimtm i.22 (CC 3.25).
33 Ibid iii.25 (CC 3.121).
34 De Errore Profanimi Religionum xviii.7 (CSEL 2.104) where he ascribes to the eucharist the rebirth and
renewal which in ii.5 (CSEL 2.77) he ascribes to baptism.
35 De Trinitate x.18 (PL 10.357), but cf Tractatus super Psalmos xci.9 (CSEL 22.353) where believers 'enter
into fellowship with Christ's flesh' at baptism.
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