Chapter I — The notion of Baptism, and its matter

I. QUESTION I. What is the Baptism of the new law? ANSWER. It is, says the Tridentine Catechism, part 1, chapter 1, § 5, the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word. This definition in few words sets forth the matter, the form, and the property of Baptism. That Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration is established from the Gospel. In the word is set the form of the sacrament. St. Thomas, III, q. 66, art. 1, hands down this description of Baptism: It is a sacrament by which a man is outwardly washed and spiritually regenerated through water under the form of words prescribed by Christ. Each definition comes back to the same thing.

II. QUESTION II. What is the matter of Baptism? ANSWER. Twofold: remote and proximate. Of the former now; of the latter below. Natural water alone is the remote matter of Baptism, as is had in John 3: Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Why Christ the Lord chose water rather than another liquor no true reason can be assigned beyond the divine will. Many congruences the Fathers assign — Ambrose and Jerome — which St. Thomas recounts, III, q. 66, art. 3.

III. QUESTION III. Is the ancient usage to be approved by which the Roman Church consecrates the water serving for Baptism? ANSWER. That this sacred custom is ancient the Fathers prove — Basil, Cyril, Cyprian, and others. See the testimonies in Vol. VIII, Book 2, dissertation 1, chapter 2.

IV. QUESTION IV. What water is to be called natural? ANSWER. That natural water alone is the matter of Baptism all Catholics affirm. What is to be called natural water the Roman Ritual published by order of Gregory XIII answers: it is the water of springs, wells, the sea, rivers, lakes, ponds, and marshes, and rain-water; and let it be simple and pure of whatever kind, which retains the proper species of water: nor does it matter whether it be cold or hot: but it is not artificial water, such as is expressed or distilled from roses, flowers, herbs, or like things, nor any other liquor whatsoever. In how many ways natural water can be corrupted St. Thomas explains, III, q. 66, art. 4. For the rest, there is no need of philosophers' disputations; the common judgment of men suffices for discerning natural water.

V. They dispute whether one drop of water or another suffices for Baptism. But these disputations are vain. That quantity of water is necessary which suffices for washing. But one drop or another does not truly wash. Water melted from salt I should not reckon, outside the case of necessity, to be matter of Baptism; but well indeed water resolved from snow, ice, frost, or the dew of heaven, as the common opinion teaches. But snow itself, ice, and hail, since they are not a matter apt for washing, are not matter of Baptism. Nor is water which flows from the vine or from other trees an apt matter of Baptism, because it is not natural water. Lye and broth, if they be not thick but diluted, are water apt for baptizing, as St. Thomas teaches in the place cited.

VI. QUESTION V. What is the proximate matter of Baptism? ANSWER. It is the use of water, by which the body is washed. A threefold manner of washing has obtained: by immersion, by infusion, and by aspersion. Immersion was first threefold, afterwards simple obtained. In the early centuries of the Church the discipline of triple immersion flourished, and in the thirteenth century it still obtained. About the fourteenth century the usage obtained of baptizing by aspersion or infusion. In whatever manner Baptism be conferred — whether by immersion, or by infusion, or by aspersion — it is valid. Nevertheless the rite of one's own Church is to be observed; and he who without compelling necessity should change it would sin gravely. Such infusion or aspersion ought to be made so that the baptized may according to the common sense be truly said to be washed.

VII. QUESTION VI. Can an infant enclosed in the mother's womb be baptized, the mother's womb being washed? ANSWER. If no member of the infant appear, it can in no way be baptized, and the Baptism conferred would be null. See St. Thomas, III, q. 68, art. 2, reply 4, and the Roman Ritual. Wherefore false is the opinion of some, whom Leander cites, namely that Baptism is valid conferred upon an infant enclosed in the mother's womb by the art of a midwife who introduces water into it with her hand. For the validity of Baptism it is required that either the whole or some part of the body of the infant to be baptized appear from the woman's belly. An infant wrapped in the skin of the afterbirth, if danger of death threaten, is to be baptized, the membrane being broken; if no danger of death press, the infant, being stripped of this skin, is to be baptized. It does not suffice that the hair or the clothes be washed, but some part of his body ought to be washed.

VIII. If anyone, on account of scarcity of water, should cast a boy near to death into a well or a river that he may baptize him, and utter the form, the Baptism is valid. Since the word, the element, and the minister's intention are had. Valid also is Baptism administered with poisoned or with boiling water, and with the intention of killing the infant, provided there be present the intention of baptizing and the due form be observed. All these things nevertheless cannot lawfully be done: for evils are not to be done that goods may come.

IX. QUESTION VII. Is it lawful to cut open the womb of a woman despaired of as to health, that the infant may be baptized? ANSWER. Fr. Comitolus, Book 1, question 14, says that this can be done, because the eternal salvation of the infant is to be preferred to the bodily life of the pregnant mother. But St. Thomas, to whom theologians commonly subscribe, teaches the opposite, 3, question 68, article 11, reply 3, where he says: Evils are not to be done that goods may come: Romans 3. And therefore a man ought not to kill a mother that he may baptize the child. If nevertheless the mother shall have died, the offspring living in the womb, she ought to be opened, that he may be baptized. That saying — the eternal salvation is to be preferred to the life of the body — does not infer that anyone can inflict bodily death upon himself or upon others, but it pertains to this, that for another's eternal salvation death is sometimes to be sustained.