Infant Baptism.
Infant Baptism.
§ 389. Tenth: “It is necessary to believe that the Baptism of infants is valid. But this cannot be proved from the Scriptures alone.” We respond. (1) The ancients do prove this from Scripture, as we have shown in its own place. Arguments from the Scriptures themselves are not lacking, which quite firmly reinforce infant Baptism. (2) In his Enchir., c. 30, Eck offers four arguments from the Scriptures in favor of infant Baptism. In De baptis., c. 8, Bellarmine himself draws three arguments from the Scriptures and adds in c. 9: “This is concluded quite clearly from Scripture.” (3) Innocent III, the Roman pope, also confirms infant Baptism from Holy Writ (Decretal., bk. 3, title 42, c. Majores). According to the hypothesis of Bellarmine, however, the Roman pope does not err. (4) What he adds about the actual faith of infants, which our people assert, belongs to another place.