Infant baptism in the early church

Baptizing infants and children, and the reasons given for or against it. Part of Baptism.

On Baptism 18Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Baptism should not be given rashly; Tertullian advises delaying it according to each person's condition, especially for little children and for the unmarried, until they can ask for it knowingly or are settled in life.
Apostolic Tradition 21 (English)Hippolytus of Rome · early third century
Homily on Luke 14Origen · ca. 233–250 · Christ’s circumcision and presentation were for our sake; “their purification” leads Origen to distinguish the “defilement” of bodily birth from sin, to explain the baptism of infants by it, and to speak of Mary’s womb as opened only at Christ’s birth.
Homilies on Leviticus 8.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen sees a hidden mystery in the impurity of childbirth: the saints never celebrated birthdays, Jeremiah and Job cursed theirs, David was conceived in iniquity, and the church baptizes infants for the remission of sins; the circumcision that matters is of the spirit.
Commentary on Romans 5.9Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains being “planted together” in the likeness of Christ’s death and resurrection, answers Docetists, and discusses two meanings of “the body of sin,” including infant baptism as an apostolic tradition.
Letter 64.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Against Fidus, who would wait until the eighth day as with circumcision, the council rules that newborn infants may be baptized at once, for God's grace is to be denied to no one born.
Letter 64.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Elisha stretching himself over the child shows that before God infants and adults are equal; the grace of baptism and the Spirit are given equally regardless of age.
Letter 64.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · An infant's supposed uncleanness is no obstacle, since to the clean all things are clean; the eighth-day circumcision was a figure of the Lord's day and of spiritual circumcision, now fulfilled.
Letter 64.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · If even grave sinners are baptized when they believe, much more should an infant, who has no sins of his own but has contracted from Adam the contagion of the ancient death.
Letter 64.6Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The council's sentence: no one, and least of all a newborn infant, is to be kept from baptism.
Oration 40.17Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Young and old alike should seek baptism now, and parents should have their infants baptized rather than trusting in amulets.
Oration 40.27Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory urges the rich, the noble and masters not to disdain being baptized with the poor and slaves, to confess their sins and accept exorcism, and to receive God's free gift; infants in danger should be baptized.
Letter 107.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues that parents answer for the upbringing of children not yet able to judge, including their baptism, and that a child vowed to God must be guarded with special care.
Letter 131.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine asks Jerome where an infant's soul contracts the guilt from which baptism frees it, noting that Jerome affirms original sin.
Letter 131.16Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine confesses that he cannot explain, on this view, why infants suffer sickness and afflictions in this life and condemnation without baptism.
Letter 131.20Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine explains that his earlier argument about compensation for suffering infants does not cover infants who die unbaptized.
Letter 131.21Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine argues from 1 Cor 15:22 that no one is made alive except in Christ, so unbaptized infants remain under Adam's condemnation.
Letter 131.22Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine considers the suggestion that an unbaptized infant's soul is saved while only its flesh fails to rise.
Letter 131.23Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine rejects that suggestion from the resurrection of all to life or judgment, and cites Cyprian's ruling that infants may be baptized at once to save their souls.
Letter 131.24Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine insists that the apostolic faith and the church's practice of infant baptism show that baptism is for the soul.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.15.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · Infants are to be baptized and brought up in God's discipline.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 2Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Solemn baptism is to be given only at Easter and Pentecost to prepared candidates, but infants and those in danger are to be baptized at once.
Letter 98.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine answers Boniface that parents who offer baptized infants to demons cannot bind them with their sin, since inherited guilt comes only from Adam, in whom all were one.
Letter 98.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The one Holy Spirit makes others' faith profit the infant at baptism, but sin cannot be shared that way, so baptismal grace is lost only by the child's own later sins.
Letter 98.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Such parents are spiritual murderers in intent, but, as Cyprian's On the Lapsed implies, the infants themselves lose nothing before God.
Letter 98.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The infant in Cyprian's story who spat out the Eucharist was a divine sign to the adults, like Balaam's ass, not an act of the child's knowledge.
Letter 98.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Infants are truly regenerated even if presented for bodily healing, because the whole church, through the Holy Spirit, offers them; even heretics' baptism is valid.
Letter 98.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Boniface asks how sponsors can answer that an infant believes and turns to God when they cannot say whether he will be chaste or honest.
Letter 98.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The infant is made faithful by the sacrament of faith, which protects him and, if he dies before reason, frees him from Adam's condemnation.
Letter 139.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains his delay in revising his books on infant baptism by listing his urgent writings: the summary of the conference with the Donatists, letters to the Donatist laity, to Marcellinus and Volusian, and a book for Honoratus.
Letter 143.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Whatever the origin of souls, the soul now rules its body imperfectly 'after sin,' whether its own or Adam's; even infants are born in the flesh of sin and need baptism.
Letter 157.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Against the claim that unbaptized infants cannot perish, Augustine cites Romans 5 on sin entering through Adam, and defends infant baptism as freeing them from inherited condemnation.
Letter 157.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Infants share Adam's sin and need baptism; before the law sin existed but was not imputed, since there was no law to expose it.
Letter 166.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If each soul is newly created, Augustine cannot see how unbaptized infants can justly be condemned, and he asks Jerome how this view can be defended.
Letter 166.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine is at a loss to explain the sufferings of infants in this life, and their condemnation if unbaptized, if their souls are newly created and sinless.
Letter 166.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Compensation may apply to infants who suffer for Christ or are baptized, but not to unbaptized infants who die after suffering and are condemned.
Letter 166.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Since all die in Adam and are made alive only in Christ, unbaptized infants are condemned, as the church's practice and Jerome himself affirm; but Augustine cannot see why, if their souls are sinless.
Letter 166.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine considers a hypothesis that only the infant's flesh is sinful, so that an unbaptized infant's soul would be saved but its body would not rise in Christ.
Letter 166.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine rejects the hypothesis, since Scripture knows only the resurrection of life and of judgment, and the church baptizes infants for their souls, as Cyprian taught.
Letter 166.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Whatever one thinks of Cyprian on other points, no one may oppose the apostolic faith in original sin or the church's custom of infant baptism, which is not for the body.
Letter 175.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The council anathematizes those who deny the necessity of grace and of infant baptism for salvation.
Letter 176.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The two chief errors are that God's help need not be asked and that the sacrament does not benefit infants.
Letter 178.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine warns Bishop Hilary of a new heresy (Pelagianism) that limits grace to creation, law, and forgiveness of past sins, and denies infants need baptism.
Letter 179.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Pelagius should be asked plainly whether we must pray not to sin and whether infants are freed from original sin by Christ's grace.
Letter 182.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Innocent rejects the claim that unbaptized infants can have eternal life, citing John 6:53 and Matt 19:14.
Letter 184.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Unbaptized infants are condemned, though with the lightest punishment; there is no middle place between kingdom and punishment.
Letter 186.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The grace given to infants in baptism is plainly free, since it precedes any will of theirs and is even given to those who resist.
Letter 186.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · To say unbaptized infants have life contradicts Christ's words in John 6, the apostolic see, and Pelagius's own anathema.
Letter 186.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Since unbaptized infants lack life and a just God would not condemn the innocent, their condemnation must come from original sin in Adam.
Letter 187.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Infants plainly know nothing of divine things; their resistance at baptism is not imputed to them precisely because they do not know what they do.
Letter 187.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Holy Spirit dwells in baptized infants without their knowing it, as Paul said he dwelt in the immature Corinthians.
Letter 190.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If Optatus cannot reconcile the creation of new souls with original sin, he must drop the theory, since infant baptism truly remits sins, as Zosimus's letter affirms.
Letter 193.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Pelagians concede that infants believe through their sponsors; then, by John 3:36, unbaptized infants are unbelievers on whom God's wrath remains, which can only be from original sin.
Letter 194.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Pelagian objection fails with infants: why does one die baptized and another unbaptized, when no merit distinguishes them and fate or fortune cannot be invoked?
Letter 194.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God's providence brings some infants of the ungodly to baptism while infants of believers die unbaptized, which no human merit can explain.
Letter 194.42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The theory that God punishes sins infants would have committed is absurd and contradicts the Pelagians' own promise of salvation for unbaptized infants.
Letter 194.44Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Children of baptized parents still inherit sin through concupiscence, as the seed of a cultivated olive yields a wild olive; the Church must baptize all infants, as farmers graft all shoots.
Letter 194.45Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Pelagian claim that infants profess belief in the remission of sins only for others is a laughable evasion.
Letter 194.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The exorcism of infants shows the devil rules them through sin; and since the Pelagians admit infants believe through sponsors, unbaptized infants as unbelievers are condemned, which presupposes original sin.
Letter 217.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that the power of darkness is the devil, to whom humanity fell subject in Adam, and from which baptized infants are rescued, the freedom of their will appearing when they reach the age of reason.
Letter 217.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sets out twelve propositions of Catholic faith on original sin, grace, judgment, infant baptism, free will, and prayer for unbelievers.
Letter 217.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that grace given to infants and condemned Pelagian formulas show that grace is neither given for the will's merit nor identical with nature or law.
Letter 217.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine interprets "God wills all to be saved" as meaning that all who are saved are saved by his will, citing infants who die unbaptized despite their parents' efforts.
Letter 225.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Prosper reports how the Marseilles monks explain the different fates of infants and unevangelized nations by God's foreknowledge of their future merits.
On Free Choice of the Will 3.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–395 · Augustine answers objections about infants who die or suffer (no one is created in vain; baptized infants are helped by the faith of those who present them; the Holy Innocents are honored as martyrs) and about animal pain, which shows the soul's desire for unity and points to the Creator's unity.
Sermon 115.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Infants brought to Christ need the Savior because they inherited Adam’s sin, though they committed none themselves; adults must plead for them and bring them to the grace that wipes out both inherited and added sin.
Sermon 165.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the claim that God creates everyone immortal and each dies for his own sins, Augustine points to dying infants, who have no personal sin and so must die from Adam's sin and need Christ's grace.
Sermon 174.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To deny that infants have anything for Jesus to save is to deny that he is Jesus, Savior, to baptized infants, who become his members, receive his sacraments, and share his table.
Sermon 174.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ came only to save sinners, and his name Jesus means he saves his people from their sins; infants belong to that people, so those who answer for them at baptism must bring them with this faith.
Sermon 174.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine pleads for infants, who cannot speak for themselves: all inherit Adam's sin and pass to Christ only by baptism; baptized parents beget by the flesh, so their children too must be reborn, as the ancient rule of faith holds.
Sermon 176.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one descended from Adam is healthy without Christ's grace, including infants, whom the Church brings to baptism on others' feet, hearts, and tongues; to deny their need is to keep them from the Physician.
Sermon 183.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Pelagian, by making every infant's flesh equal to Christ's sinless flesh, denies that only Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh; mothers who bring infants to baptism to be saved testify against him, so he too denies Christ come in the flesh.
Sermon 246.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ says “my Father and your Father” because he is Son by nature and we by grace, and “my God and your God” because he was born of a virgin without sin, while we are born with the sin drawn from Adam, which is why infants are brought to baptism.
Sermon 293.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Infants need a liberator, as the mother’s haste to baptism, the Church’s receiving them, and their own weeping testify; all should speak for them, since Christ became a child for them and infants were the first to die for him.
Sermon 293.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Jesus means Savior, and he saves his people from their sins; if infants had nothing to be saved from, they should not be brought to baptism, but they are, because in Adam they died and only through Christ can they live.
Sermon 294.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Returning to the question of infant baptism, which he could not treat fully on John’s birthday, Augustine addresses the growing arguments of certain people, aiming to heal rather than merely refute them.
Sermon 294.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Pelagians agree that infants are to be baptized, but say it is for entry to the kingdom of heaven, not for salvation and eternal life, which they claim sinless infants have anyway; Augustine asks whether eternal life exists outside the kingdom.
Sermon 294.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine asks the Pelagians how, on their own reasoning, they could answer someone who granted unbaptized innocent infants the kingdom of heaven as well as eternal life, and argues that side for the sake of the argument.
Sermon 294.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Both agree, on Christ’s word in John 3:5, that the unbaptized do not enter the kingdom; Augustine presses the Pelagian further, since the judgment leaves no middle place for eternal life outside the kingdom.
Sermon 294.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If infants are told to look in faith to Christ, their inherited guilt must be confessed; they are healed by the words of those who answer for them in baptism, since they were wounded by another’s deed.
Sermon 294.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · ‘Whoever does not believe is already condemned’ and ‘the wrath of God remains upon him’ leave no eternal life outside faith; baptized infants are counted among believers, while original fault, become nature in Adam’s descendants, is healed only by Christ.
Sermon 294.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To the claim that if Adam harms non-sinners Christ should profit non-believers, Augustine replies that Christ does profit baptized infants, who are counted as believers by their parents’ faith; so they were also defiled by their first parents’ sin.
Sermon 294.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The ‘holiness’ of believers’ children in 1 Cor 7:14 is a kind of sanctification that, like that of food or of an unbelieving spouse, does not suffice for salvation; such children still need baptism.
Sermon 294.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine reads Cyprian’s ruling that infants may be baptized before the eighth day: they have contracted the contagion of Adam’s death and receive forgiveness of another’s sins, which shows the Church’s ancient belief in original sin.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 56Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Infants who die baptized receive the goods of baptism through the faith of those who brought them; unbaptized infants do not.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Traducianists argue from Rom 5:12–19 and from the church's practice of baptizing infants that the soul too must come from Adam, otherwise an infant's soul would be innocent and need no grace.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · This view avoids both absurdity and Manichaeism; the question concerns infants, not older children, who sin in many ways, nor the sins of parents, which do not harm children.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Those who hold that God gives new souls answer that souls joined to the flesh of sin are weighed down and need grace; infants need the sacrament of baptism, by which the penalty of original sin is loosed.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · If an infant dies unbaptized, those who hold that new souls are given seem unable to explain its loss; Augustine suggests they might appeal to God's foreknowledge, but finds the cause hidden and decisive for neither side.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The creationist answer that God provides baptism for infants whose future piety he foresees would make salvation depend on unlived lives; the traducianists' appeal to Rom 5 and infant baptism stands unless refuted by clear reason or Scripture.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The arguments are nearly balanced except that infant baptism weighs in favor of the transmission of souls; the church's custom of baptizing infants is an apostolic tradition not to be despised.
Canon 72 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · On baptizing infants when it is doubtful whether they were baptized; the edition prints only a cross-reference to the Breviary of Hippo.
Canon 110 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Anathema on whoever denies infant baptism or denies that infants are baptized for the remission of an original sin inherited from Adam.
Letter 30, chapter 5Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rejects the Pelagian claim that unbaptized infants can have eternal life, citing John 6 and Christ’s call to the children.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 38.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · All are born with sin and add to it; what Christians flee, by hastening to baptism even for infants, is to die in sin, as the unbelievers were told they would.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 67.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine rejects the view that some of the many dwelling places lie outside the kingdom of heaven as a place of blessedness for unbaptized infants.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 80.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Baptismal water cleanses only through the word of faith joined to it, which makes the sacrament a visible word and cleanses even infants.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 4.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · All are born sinners from Adam, as infant baptism shows; Christ, the man who is God, came to loose the works of the devil.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.10Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Adam is not only an example of sin but its origin, passing it to his descendants through carnal concupiscence, just as Christ gives inward grace even to infants who cannot imitate him.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.21Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Unbaptized infants will suffer the mildest condemnation of all; Adam's disobedience brought shameful desire and mortality, so all generated in the flesh need spiritual regeneration in baptism.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.22Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine dismisses as absurd the claim that infants are baptized for sins committed in their own brief lives.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.23Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Against those who say infants are baptized only to enter the kingdom, Augustine argues that without regeneration no one has eternal salvation, since Christ died for the ungodly and came as physician to the sick.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.24Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Infants cannot be baptized as neither sinners nor righteous, since Christ came to call sinners; baptism heals in them the sickness of original sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.26Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Against those who grant unbaptized infants eternal life outside the kingdom, Augustine cites John 6:53: without eating Christ's flesh and drinking his blood, which only the baptized receive, there is no life.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.27Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · John 6:53 applies to infants too, since Christ's flesh was given for the life of the world, which includes all who are born.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.28Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Since the church counts baptized infants among believers, unbaptized infants fall among those who do not believe the Son, on whom God's wrath remains, which implies original sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.30Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine turns the charge of injustice back on his opponents: on their own view, too, God's differing treatment of equal infants can only be met with Paul's cry at the depth of his judgments.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.33Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine sums up: Scripture teaches that all are under sin and that only Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of infants too, frees from it, so no salvation is to be promised to infants apart from baptism.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.34Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The African custom of calling baptism “salvation” and the Eucharist “life” reflects apostolic tradition that neither can be had without these sacraments, which in infants loose only original guilt.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.38Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine offers several readings of “coming into this world” in John 1:9, and concludes that even a created rational soul remains in darkness unless it believes, which infants do through the church's sacrament.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.39Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Christ came to give life, salvation, freedom, redemption, and light to sinners; since the church baptizes infants, they too need these benefits, which can only be because of original sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.40Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine begins a collection of Gospel texts showing that Christ came to save the lost and that without baptism infants do not belong to his sheep and will perish.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.44Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Texts from 1 and 2 Corinthians show that Christ died for all, who were therefore dead; if infants are brought to baptism, they are among those whose offenses need forgiving.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.55Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · There is no middle place: an unbaptized infant is not with Christ and so is against him, which can only be because of original sin; Christ saves all who are saved, as Adam condemns all who are born.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.58Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Against the claim that John 3:5 excludes unbaptized infants only from the kingdom but not from eternal life, Augustine argues that rebirth implies renewal from the oldness of sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.61Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The bronze serpent signifies Christ's death, which bore punishment without guilt; those conformed to it in baptism are healed of sin and death, which implies that infants too have been poisoned by sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.62Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · John 3:16–21 shows that baptized infants belong among believers who are not judged, while the unbaptized are among those already judged; regeneration comes only through Christ.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.63Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The rite of infant baptism, with its exorcism, renunciation of the devil, and profession of belief in the forgiveness of sins, would be a deception if infants had no sin; some opponents now admit infants are forgiven, but only for sins after birth.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.64Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Those who say infants have no sin and those who say they sin after birth are each partly right; combining their true claims leaves only original sin to be forgiven in infant baptism.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.11Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · A righteous parent does not beget a righteous child, since he begets by the flesh, not by the Spirit; every child needs spiritual rebirth.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.34Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · To the fourth question Augustine answers that no one but Christ has ever been, or will be, wholly without sin from birth, as the case of infants shows.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.40Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Circumcision, though given only once, was given to each child of circumcised parents; likewise the children of the baptized must themselves be baptized.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.41Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Those who cite 1 Corinthians 7:14 to argue against baptizing believers' children fall into contradiction: if holiness is inherited, so is sin, and on their own view holy and unclean children fare alike.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.42Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · There are several kinds of sanctification, like that of catechumens or of food; the holiness Paul ascribes to believers' children, like that of unbelieving spouses, does not replace baptism.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.43Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · No one can be reborn before being born, so children of the baptized must themselves receive the sacrament of regeneration, which frees infants from the serpent's bite received in Adam.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.2Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine turns the argument around: if Christ's righteousness benefits only believers and it benefits baptized infants, they must be counted believers through others, just as they are sinners through others' flesh.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.6Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Pelagius, perhaps out of shame or caution, put these views in others' mouths; Augustine hopes he does not hold them, since they imply that sinless infants are condemned or have eternal life outside God's kingdom.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.7Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Scripture plainly teaches that no one is saved apart from Christ and no one is unjustly condemned; since unbaptized infants are not in Christ's body, they must bear original sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.10Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine cites Cyprian's letter to Fidus, where a council decided infants may be baptized before the eighth day, and Cyprian says that infants, though innocent of personal sin, contract Adam's contagion and receive forgiveness of another's sins.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.11Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Cyprian's council treated original sin as certain and debated only the day of baptism, deciding infants could be baptized at any time, since circumcision on the eighth day foreshadowed Christ's resurrection.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.17Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Since the opponents admit that Christians beget children who must be made Christians, they should admit that the cleansed beget children who must be cleansed; it is rebirth, not birth, that makes Christians and removes sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.21Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Original sin is inherited as death is; whatever holiness Paul means in 1 Corinthians 7:14, it does not replace baptism for unbelieving spouses or for the children of believers.
City of God 21.16Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Baptized children who die before the age of reason suffer no punishment after death; older believers must fight their vices by grace; purifying punishments occur only before the last judgment, and eternal fire varies with deserts.
On Nature and Grace 9Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine answers Pelagius with the case of an infant who died unbaptized, whom, he argues, Scripture does not absolve though it could not have been otherwise.
On Nature and Grace 23Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine objects that Pelagius, by declaring infants healthy and Adam's descendants stronger than Adam, denies them the physician Christ.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 4Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Even if Pelagius meant the teaching given before baptism, the baptized infants, who are without personal sin yet know nothing, refute his written statement.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 25Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Augustine recalls his earlier writings and preaching against these errors, especially on infant baptism, and notes that the Eastern bishops acquitted Pelagius only because he condemned them.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.32Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Augustine turns to the letter and statement of faith Pelagius sent to Pope Innocent, which answer charges about infant baptism and about excluding God's help.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.35Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius's statement that infants are baptized with the same words, or even for the forgiveness of sins, still leaves him denying they have any sin to be forgiven.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.36Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Caelestius's statement at Rome shows that confessing infant baptism for forgiveness can go with denying original sin; Pelagius's 'we always need God's help' remains ambiguous.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.1Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Augustine opens book 2, on original sin, by warning that the Pelagians grant infant baptism for forgiveness of sins while denying that infants inherit any sin.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.4Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Caelestius granted infant baptism but would not confess that Adam's sin passes to infants.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.19Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius misstated the charge against him: the issue is not whether infants are baptized but whether unbaptized infants are under Adam's condemnation and need cleansing from original sin.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.24Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius's 'same sacramental words' implied only verbal forgiveness for infants; Zosimus's circular letter later condemned passages from his Expositions of Romans denying inherited sin.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.37Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Baptism in Christ is the true circumcision, freeing infants from the debt contracted by carnal birth through Christ, who was made 'sin', that is, a sacrifice for sin.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.45Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Baptized parents still beget children guilty of the inherited fault, as olive seeds produce wild olives; the church's exorcism and renunciation in infant baptism show that infants are freed from the devil's power.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine advises that dying catechumens who can no longer ask for baptism should be baptized, as infants are, while not condemning more cautious clergy.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · If the soul’s desert was good, grace is not grace; if bad, there was evil desert before sin; Victor must retract.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor promises heaven to unbaptized infants and prescribes eucharistic offerings for them; Augustine replies that only baptism or martyrdom makes a member of Christ.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · The penitent thief counts as a martyr baptized in blood (or perhaps by the water from Christ’s side); his case gives no ground for promising heaven or a middle place to unbaptized infants.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · The Dinocrates story is not canonical and does not say the boy was unbaptized; he may have lapsed after baptism.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Even granting offerings for the unbaptized, Victor cannot account for the countless infants of unbelievers who die unbaptized with no one to offer for them.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor must choose between saying unbaptized infants are freed from original sin or that a just God damns wholly innocent souls.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor applies Wisdom 4 to infants who die unbaptized, implying absurdly that baptism would have corrupted them and that God’s predestination can be thwarted.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor separates paradise and the Father’s mansions from the kingdom of heaven to give unbaptized infants a blessed place, citing the thief and Dinocrates.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor “decrees” eucharistic sacrifices for unbaptized infants on the example of 2 Maccabees, but those sacrifices were for the circumcised.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor goes further, allowing unbaptized souls the kingdom of heaven after the resurrection while admitting that Christ’s words in John 3:5 oppose it.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor, though admitting original sin, goes beyond the condemned Pelagians by promising unbaptized infants paradise and the kingdom, against John 3:5, Rom 5:18 and Mark 16:16.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Unable to reconcile God’s justice with infants’ damnation on his view, Victor scorned Augustine’s caution and was “shipwrecked” by promising them paradise and the kingdom.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · The question of the soul’s origin remains open; Victor’s answer defames God’s nature and still cannot explain the infants of unbelievers.
On the Soul and Its Origin 3.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Neither the thief nor Dinocrates proves that unbaptized infants are forgiven; either may have been baptized, and the Dinocrates account is not canonical.
On the Soul and Its Origin 3.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Eighth error: Wisdom 4:11–14 concerns baptized saints who die young, not unbaptized infants.
On the Soul and Its Origin 3.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Eleventh error: promising paradise and later the kingdom to the unbaptized, which even Pelagius did not dare.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The church's exorcism and renunciation at infant baptism show that infants are under the devil's power through original sin until baptized.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine notes that his opponent omitted the words that charge the Pelagians with denying that infants need baptism for the forgiveness of sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · In denying that infants are under the devil, Julian accuses the whole church, which exorcises infants at baptism.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.51Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Ambrose and Cyprian, who wrote before Manichaeism reached the Roman world, taught original sin and infant baptism for its forgiveness.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the Pelagian view of infant baptism denies original sin, since Scripture ties salvation and life to baptism and the Eucharist.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine agrees that baptism removes all sins but insists that the Pelagians deny that it frees infants from inherited guilt.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine quotes Pope Innocent's letter to the Council of Carthage and shows that Caelestius, by professing agreement with it, bound himself to accept original sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine quotes Innocent's letter to the Numidian bishops denying eternal life to unbaptized infants and presses Caelestius with the dilemma it raises.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues from infant baptism, where no merit can be claimed, that unmerited grace is neither fate nor respect of persons.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine imagines twins of a prostitute, one baptized and one not, to show that only God's grace or just wrath can explain their different fates.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine cites Cyprian's synodal letter to Fidus, which approved baptizing infants before the eighth day because they contract Adam's sin, though not sins of their own.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that Cyprian's words on paradise restored and infant baptism prove that he taught original sin, without condemning creation or marriage.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Baptism is for all ages: infants die in it to original sin, adults also to their own sins.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Infants may also be bound by their own parents' sins until regeneration; rebirth exists because birth is faulty, as Ps 51:5 says even of one born in lawful marriage.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 52Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Romans 6 shows that baptism is a likeness of Christ's death and resurrection, so that all the baptized, infants included, die to sin and live to God.
On Grace and Free Will 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Infants receive grace in baptism with no prior merit, even struggling against it, while some children of believers die unbaptized; this rests on God's inscrutable judgments.
Retractations 2.33Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine explains how the Pelagian controversy led him to write On the Merits and Remission of Sins, on infant baptism and original sin, and why he at first spared Pelagius by name.
Chapter 12Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 426-428 · There is no salvation apart from Christ; the free salvation of some baptized infants, while others die unbaptized, shows grace is not given by merit.
On Rebuke and Grace 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Why God gives perseverance to some of the regenerate and not to others, like why some infants are baptized and others not, is among his inscrutable but just judgments; Augustine confesses he does not know.
On the Predestination of the Saints 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Infants and Christ himself refute merit before grace; the suggestion that infants are baptized or not according to merits they would have had if they had lived is absurd, since judgment is according to what one did in the body.
On the Predestination of the Saints 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · The theory that infants are baptized or not according to foreseen future repentance would undo original sin; even the Pelagians did not say it, since future merits that will never exist are no merits.
On the Gift of Perseverance 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Grace is given by God's good pleasure, not by merit, as infants show: whether one infant is baptized and another not is neither fate nor chance nor parents' negligence but God's hidden judgment; Augustine answers the use of his early On Free Choice against him.
Commonitorium 4Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Marius explains that he has gathered his notes on Julian's books at Pientius's request, and answers Julian's 'making new' with Scripture's language of renewal and regeneration, which includes infants.
Commonitorium 14Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Marius argues that Julian's denial of original sin empties infant baptism of meaning, since every title of Christ (Saviour, Redeemer, Reconciler, Regenerator, Life) presupposes sin; he defends the twofold death from Adam with 1 Corinthians 15 and closes with Augustine's authority.
Part 2, chapter 5Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The calf, lamb, sheep, ram, and kid of the sacrifices figure Christ; the turtledove and dove the Church and the baptized infants; the offerings for sins of ignorance figure penitence, as in Peter; and the true votive offering is praise and almsgiving.