At the time that Martin Luther was forming the church that became the Lutheran Church, other men were discussing what they thought the church should be. These included Zwingli, Calvin, and Knox (Swiss, French, and Scottish, respectively, but in spite of the geographical diversity they worked together in Switzerland). Their work led to the German Reformed Church, the Swiss Reformed Church, the Dutch Reformed Church, and the Presbyterian Church. Calvin and Zwingli, the original two, were more systematic in their thinking than Luther. The denominations they formed did without bishops and were organized around pastors, teachers, elders, and deacons.
To Calvin, baptism was a tentative entrance into the church, but infants who died before baptism were not necessarily condemned. Whereas Luther had emphasized faith as a necessary part, even in the infant, Calvin emphasized it was the faith of the parents. Because it was the faith of the parents that was important, sponsors at the baptism were unnecessary. Baptisms should be public, not private. Some congregations maintained that financial support of the Church was a necessary element for baptism and communion. After proper preparation and examination, children were encouraged to make a public confession of faith when they reached the age of accountability. This was the substitute for the rite of confirmation.
Only a minority of the Presbyterian Churches in Pennsylvania have extant baptismal records. The evidence suggests this is not the result of losing the books, but that they were never kept. In 1766, the synod of a group of Presbyterian churches decided that churches should keep registers of births, baptisms, marriages, and burials. This suggests that it was not the custom of the churches to keep such records, prior to 1766. Most of the extant records start shortly after this date, but the consistency is poor. Record keeping did not have a strong appeal. When records were kept, they were simple. Sometimes they showed as little as the name of the infant, the date of baptism, and the name of the father. Usually, the name of the mother was also included. Sometimes the date of birth was included.
In Pennsylvania, the name Reformed Church usually meant the German Reformed Church, but it typically included both Germans and Swiss. The Reformed Churches of these nations were very much alike. The same men contributed to the theology of both Churches. The most important document in Reformed doctrine is the Heidelberg Catechism, written in 1563, at the request of the Elector Frederick III in the Palatinate. He was the first German prince to adopt the Reformed faith. Whereas the Presbyterian Church was inclined to predestination, the Reformed churches took no stand on this issue. (Predestination in its extreme form took the view that salvation was determined before Adam and Eve were created.)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.