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were so immersed, for I was informed by Mr. Berisford that his parents
immersed not only him, but the rest of his family at his baptism. He is now
about 60 years old, which by the date of the letter must be about 1640.” f496
Dr. Cutting says:
“No known service book of the English church gave authority to substitute
something else for dipping, down to the period of the Reformation. …
Simpson, in his excellent work on Baptismal fonts, says: ‘Not one of the
rituals which we have examined (he is alluding to those preceding the prayer
book of Edward VI.) contains any permission to use pouring or sprinkling
when the child is brought to the church.’ … In the prayer book of Edward VI.
the exceptional allusion was first put into the rubrick. … ‘This,’ says
Simpson, ‘was the first instance of pouring being allowed in public baptism.’”
f497
Dr. Wall says:
“The offices of liturgies for public baptism in the Church of England, did all
along, as far as I could learn, enjoin dipping without any mention of pouring
or sprinkling. And John Frith, writing in the year 1533, a treatise on baptism,
calls the outward part of it the plunging down into the water, which he often
mentions without ever mentioning sprinkling and pouring.” f498
Says Dr. Schaff:
“King Edward and Queen Elizabeth were immersed. The first prayer book of
Edward the VI., 1594, directs the priest to dip the child in the water. … In the
second prayer book, 1552, the priest is simply directed to dip the child
discreetly and warily, and permission is given, for the first time in Great
Britain, to substitute pouring, if the godfathers and godmothers certify that
the child is weak. During the reign of Elizabeth, says Dr. Wall, ‘Many fond
ladies and gentlewomen first, and then by degrees the common people, would
obtain the favor of the priests to have their children pass for weak children,
too tender to endure the dipping in the water.’ The same writer traces the
practice of sprinkling to the period of the Long Parliament and the
Westminster Assembly. This change in England and other Protestant
countries from immersion to pouring, and from pouring to sprinkling, was
encouraged by the authority of Calvin, who declared the mode to be a matter
of no importance, and by the Westminster Assembly of Divines, 1643-1652,
which decided that pouring or sprinkling is ‘not only lawful but also
sufficient.’” f499
Says Dr. Wall:
“As for sprinkling, properly so called, it seems it was, in 1625, just then
beginning and used by very few. It must have begun in the disorderly times
after 1641, for Mr. Blake had never used it, nor seen it used.” f500