The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

310 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS.through Adam s fall, and theaniversal necessity ofBaptism without distinction of age.Upon this decision, I will make two observations :1. Fidus did not inquire about the necessity of infant baptism, which he already admitted, but aboutthe propriety of conferringit on the eighth day, inimitation of the Jewish law of circumcision. 2. TheBishops assembled in that Council were as numerous as the whole Episcopate of the United States,which contains about five thousand Priests and upwards of six millions of Catholics. We may therefore reasonably conclude that the judgment of theAfrican Council represented the faith of severalthousand Priests, and several millions of Catholics.St. Augustine, commenting on this decision, justlyobserves that St. Cyprian and his colleagues madeno new decree, but maintained most firmly the faithof the Church. And this is the unanimous sentiment of tradition from the days of the Apostles toour own times.Is it not ludicrous as well as impious to see a fewGerman fanatics, in the sixteenth century, raisingtheir feeble voice against the thunder tones of allChristendom, by decrying a practice which wasuniversally held as sacred and essential ? And injudging between the teachings of Apostolical antiquity, on the one hand, and of the Anabaptists onthe other, it is not hard to determine on which sidelies the truth ; for, what becomes of the ChristianChurch, if it has erred on so vital a point as that ofBaptism during the entire period of its existence?