Corey prompted my curiosity last week over baptism. I have some knowledge of current practice, but that has only limited applicability here. I have done some poking about and unearthed some info. Not all of it has authoritative sources that I have found.
Baptism in the Roman Catholic Church was and is done in infancy, except in the case of converts. Every Catholic child learns to do an emergency baptism before they are seven. As children do, they practice in their play. They baptize each other, their siblings and their playmates. An emergency baptism require water, preferably but not necessarily clean, in whatever amount is available and the requisite statement. It was, and is, usual for newborns to be privately baptized by their carers quite soon after birth. The Church ceremony is public and follows later.
We have a statement of advice from a Bishop very early, first Century, stating that the amount of water is not critical. You use what you have. Therefore, baptism by infusion (pouring water over the head) is very early, and a response to desert conditions rather that the Reformation.. Some Catholic Churches today have pools and do adult baptisms by immersion, but it is not considered at all necessary.
San Giovanni is a baptistery, not a church. It is across the piazza from the cathedral in Florence. It was a place for baptisms, which were public ceremonies done at intervals for a number of individuals. It was not a place for regular worship. The website for the Baptistery says that Dante was baptized there and gives a date, for which they give no source. I also found a statement that the font in his day was octagonal and had multiple basins of different sizes. The statement was made that Dante had broken one of the basins saving a child from drowning. No source was given. That font is no longer there.
Anointing with oil happens at Baptism, at Confirmation at Holy Orders, and at the Sacrament of the Sick (often referred to as Last Rites, but used in any serious illness). The oil is blessed by the Bishop annually during the Triduum (Easter services). One does not pull out the cooking oil.
Baptism in the Roman Catholic Church was and is done in infancy, except in the case of converts. Every Catholic child learns to do an emergency baptism before they are seven. As children do, they practice in their play. They baptize each other, their siblings and their playmates. An emergency baptism require water, preferably but not necessarily clean, in whatever amount is available and the requisite statement. It was, and is, usual for newborns to be privately baptized by their carers quite soon after birth. The Church ceremony is public and follows later.
We have a statement of advice from a Bishop very early, first Century, stating that the amount of water is not critical. You use what you have. Therefore, baptism by infusion (pouring water over the head) is very early, and a response to desert conditions rather that the Reformation.. Some Catholic Churches today have pools and do adult baptisms by immersion, but it is not considered at all necessary.
San Giovanni is a baptistery, not a church. It is across the piazza from the cathedral in Florence. It was a place for baptisms, which were public ceremonies done at intervals for a number of individuals. It was not a place for regular worship. The website for the Baptistery says that Dante was baptized there and gives a date, for which they give no source. I also found a statement that the font in his day was octagonal and had multiple basins of different sizes. The statement was made that Dante had broken one of the basins saving a child from drowning. No source was given. That font is no longer there.
Anointing with oil happens at Baptism, at Confirmation at Holy Orders, and at the Sacrament of the Sick (often referred to as Last Rites, but used in any serious illness). The oil is blessed by the Bishop annually during the Triduum (Easter services). One does not pull out the cooking oil.
