1. [I.]—Caution Needed in Attending to Pelagius’ Deliverances on Infant Baptism.

Next I beg of you,144    For the persons addressed, see above, in Book i. c. 1, of On the Grace of Christ. carefully to observe with what caution you ought to lend an ear, on the question of the baptism of infants, to men of this character, who dare not openly deny the laver of regeneration and the forgiveness of sins to this early age, for fear that Christian ears would not bear to listen to them; and who yet persist in holding and urging their opinion, that the carnal generation is not held guilty of man’s first sin, although they seem to allow infants to be baptized for the remission of sins. You have, indeed, yourselves informed me in your letter, that you heard Pelagius say in your presence, reading out of that book of his which he declared that he had also sent to Rome, that they maintain that “infants ought to be baptized with the same formula of sacramental words as adults.”145    See above, On the Grace of Christ, ch. 35. Who, after that statement, would suppose that one ought to raise any question at all on this subject? Or if he did, to whom would he not seem to indulge a very calumnious disposition—previous to the perusal of their plain assertions, in which they deny that infants inherit original sin, and contend that all persons are born free from all corruption?

CAPUT PRIMUM.

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1. Jam nunc diligenter advertite, de Baptismate parvulorum quam caute debeatis audire homines ejusmodi, qui neque aperte illi aetati lavacrum regenerationis et peccatorum remissionis audent negare, ne hoc christianae aures ferre non possint; et tamen opinionem suam, qua putant peccato primi hominis carnalem generationem obnoxiam non teneri, tueri et defensare persistunt, quamvis eis Baptismum videantur in peccatorum remissionem concedere. Nempe ipsi a Pelagio vos praesente scripsistis audisse, recitante vobis de libello suo, quem etiam Romam se misisse asserebat, quod «iisdem Sacramenti verbis» dicant «debere baptizari infantes, quibus et majores.» Quis post illa verba putaret, eis de hac re ullam movendam esse quaestionem? aut cum faceret, cui non calumniosissimus videretur, si non eorum manifesta verba legerentur, ubi negant parvulos trahere originale peccatum, 0386 omnesque sine ullo vitio natos esse contendunt?