Iberian Fathers, Volume 1

Triple Immersion

TRIPLE IMMERSION1 (De trina mersione) Bishop Martin to Bishop Boniface, most blessed and most revered lord, worthy of honor for the perfection of apostolic charity, lord and father in Christ. Chapter 1 The much hoped-for letter from your apostolic dignity has overwhelmed me doubly with the gift of holy inspiration; first, that you look upon my abject, insignificant, and humble self with your usual episcopal favor; then, that you combine this very kind epistolary exchange with the ardent warmth of pure charity. This series of desirable events makes it proper that we, too, who now grasp the full measure of your consummate charity, should undertake to continue this correspondence. Therefore, I return to your most holy apostolic dignity the debt involved by epistolary courtesy, asking that in your prayers, which are ever acceptable to God, you include mention of our unworthy person. C:hapter 2 As to what you have indicated in your letter to us, that certain people from our country while traveling in your terri1 Cf. Introduction pp. 13-14. 99 100 MARTIN OF BRAGA tory have brought a report to your ears that holy baptism is performed by the priests of this province. not in the single name. but in the names of the Trinity. you must know that this is completely and totally false. 1 believe that whoever chose to give you such information has either never seen bishops baptizing or. at any rate. wanted to report something that had been done here previously. I have learned for certain that some years ago the metropolitan of this province asked for the formula of baptism that had the surest authenticity directly from the See of the most blessed Peter. Upon reading a copy of it very carefully. I found the statement that the one who is to be baptized must be dipped or immersed three times in the single name of the Trinity.! Chapter 3 Now you say: "The triple invocation of the name and the triple immersion is certainly Arian." Here is my answer: to be immersed thrice in the single name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is an ancient and apostolic tradition . which the priests of this province possess in written form on the authority of the Bishop of Rome. This same custom was observed at Easter by the Bishop of Constantinople in the presence of delegates appointed from this kingdom to the imperial court. We have also read the letter of blessed Paul the apostle. in which it is written: "one Lord. one faith. one baptism: "1 and the exposition of the blessed Jerome, in which he confirms that they are to be immersed thrice wi th the invocation of the single name.2 If you wish to see it. you will find the book itself, written on papyrus and very old. in the possession of our venerable and holy brother the priest. Ausen1 Epistola Vigilii ad Profuturum (PL 69.15-19). 1 Eph.4.5. 2 Contra Luciferianos 12 (PL 23.166·167). TRIPLE IMMERSION 101 tius. Likewise, in the Acts of Saint Silvester warning was given to Constantine in a vision and he was commanded to be immersed three times.a Many, hearing the words of the Apostle: "one baptism," have tried to understand this as referring to a single immersion rather than to the unity of the Catholic faith in this, that baptism everywhere should be celebrated in a single manner. Then, in attempting to avoid approaching the custom of the Arians, who also immerse three times but in a single name, as we do, they changed the formula of the ancient tradition so that there should be a single immersion under a single name, not realizing that the unity of the sub· stance is revealed in the single name, but the distinction of the three persons in the triple immersion, so that-just as we believe in all truth-we demonstrate the single substance but the three persons of the Godhead. For if there is a single immersion under a single name, then only the unity of the Deity in the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost is demonstrated, but no difference of persons is shown. Chapter 4 The result is that while they try to avoid approaching the Arians, they unknowingly come near to the SabeIIian heresy, which, in retaining single immersion under a single name, claims...