Prepared by J. Patout Burns
March 2, 1998

1.The physical space.
 -description of the different kinds of baptistries and their placement.
 -the arrangement of space and kinds of decoration
 -the supply of water and the provisions for draining.

2.  The symbols which interpret the ritual.
 -The symbolism of the ritual from the images that are used about it in sermons.
  -The Red Sea, through which one escapes from the power of sin and vices.
  -Crossing the water and entering into the desert or the promised land for the struggle of conquest
  -The church as the ark of Noah and the Church riding on the flood.
  -water coming from the side of Christ, along with the blood of his suffering.  This links baptism to martyrdom and suffering.
  -new birth with the church as mother and God as Father.
 -decorative motifs in the baptistries and fonts.
  -image of the deer eating snakes and the destruction of Satan
  -new birth related to the shape of the font
  -the paradise with the fruit trees, fish and birds.
  -the inscriptions:  illuminamini; pax, fides, caritas.
 -meaning communicated by the shape of the font and arrangement of the rooms.
  -the passage way, the significance of the steps, the shape of the cross, of the womb,
  -the four steps for the four rivers of paradise.
 -meaning communicated by the sequence of events.
  -passage from the outside to the inside of the church
  -renunciation of the devil and confession of Christ; washing and then anointing
  -stripping for rebirth.

3.  Renewals of baptism
 -ablution pools
 -washings at the shrines of saints?

4.  The role of the minister
 -division of the ceremony between the presbyter, deacon and bishop
 -possible division of the ritual itself to fit these roles
 -role of the fidelity of the minister to the profession of the gospel.
 -was there a popular sense of the role of Christ in the ritual; or of the Spirit and the Father, as opposed to the minister?

5.  The invocation of the martyrs in the ritual of baptism
 -inscriptions which are related to the martyrs
 -burial of martyrs or placing of relics in fonts
 -what is the role of the baptistries which are at pilgrimage shrines?

6.  The social significance of the ritual.
 -crossing from the pagan into the christian world.
 -crossing from the catechumenate into the body of faithful.
 -joining one communion rather than another.
  -Catholic versus laxist and rigorist
  -Catholic and Donatist
  -Catholic and Arian
 -The changing meaning of the ritual with the christianization of the empire.
  -renunciation of Satan and division from the culture
  -separation from friends and family
  -delay of baptism and use of the status of catechumen to associate with the church;
  -but the sermons indicate that there are many baptized, who follow the discipline of the church.
  -for what might have been a minority, baptism becomes the ritual for entering the kingdom of heaven rather than the church on earth.
  -do we have a class difference here; between those who have to do the work of the imperial economy and military and those who do not?

7.  Cosmic significance of the ritual
 -necessary for entrance into the Kingdom of Christ
 -the boundary which is crossed, that of the church, excludes from heaven but it does not guarantee entrance.
 -the faithful seem to have been convinced of this.

8.  Problems with efficacy and administration of the ritual.
 -the ritual ought to have functioned to make the transition across a social and a heavenly boundary at once.  It should have purified from sin and made a person a member of the church on earth, and qualified for the kingdom of heaven.
 -This was the thinking of Tertullian and Cyprian.  It might not always have been the thinking of the African church, however, but was the judgment of a synod under Agrippinus, bishop of Carthage.
 -Under Cyprian, the position was challenged and firmly asserted.
 -The donatist held to this kind of understanding of the ritual.  Unless it was performed within the true church communion, it did not give a person access to kingdom of heaven.
 -the Catholics accepted the Roman position which recognized the ritual even when it was performed outside the true church.
 -Are there indicators of the popular reception of the different practices?
  -Augustine indicated that some of the Catholics accepted the Donatist baptism and then returned to the Catholic communion, since both group agreed that donatist baptism worked.
 -Both sides agreed that salvation could not be attained in schism from the true church.

9.  Change in the significance of the ritual of imposition of hands.
 -Cyprian refused to recognize that the parts of the baptismal ritual might be separated; with the second giving access to the church for those who had been baptized outside.
  -for emergency baptisms, he even asserted that the first part of the ritual was fully salvific, even without the imposition of the bishop's hands.
 -But the African treatise On Rebaptism argued that the spirit baptism was the salvific one, and that it could be given only through the imposition of the bishop's hands within the true church.  The water baptism was only preparatory and could be given by anyone.  Here the adhesion to the church is the decisive element in the efficacy of the ritual.
 -After the Dontast schism, the Catholics had to take the position that the efficacy came through the imposition of hands within the true church.  The second part of the ritual became more important than the first in this sense.  It can be doubted that it ever did in the popular mind and practice.
 -Augustine's solution establishes the independence of the rituals from the communities in which they are performed but it has the consequence of undercutting the social roles of the rituals as making individuals members of hte community.
  -this might not have been the way things functioned in practice because of the other forms of participation which built and maintained the unity of the community.
  -the actual fall-out of the Donatist controversy may have been to lower the social significance of the ritual.