Representatives of the Reformed Church met in Pennsylvania in 1747 to organize a governing body for the nineteen congregations that then existed in the colony. Only four ministers were in the group. The other congregations were represented by lay people. The fact there was only four ministers shows the support that the German churches received from Germany. The body adopted the name Coetus and, at early meetings of the body, adopted some rules concerning baptism. One question was whether a minister could dispense communion or baptize infants, where the people were under the care of another minister in the Coetus. It was decided that a minister could not do these things unless the other minister was aware of the case. A certificate had to be supplied which the people could take back to their regular minister. Later, in 1755, the Coetus decided that baptism could not be administered to a stranger unless in the case of necessity.
Zwingli, the early Reformed leader, shared Calvin's view that all children in infancy are saved, even if unbaptized. Therefore, there was no emergency or conditional baptism in their rites. When a schoolmaster baptized a child, the Coetus declared it was an invalid baptism. Witnesses were present at the Reformed baptisms, and this was based on the "well-established custom". The word "witness" was chosen by the Reformed people because these people were exactly that and nothing more. They could testify as to the baptism occurring, but they were not responsible for the child; the parents were the responsible parties; however, the witnesses had to be people who led pure and blameless lives.
There is a difference between a witness and a sponsor at Reformed baptisms as explained; however, many translators of the German registers in Pennsylvania supplied their own understanding of this role and called the witnesses "sponsors." Because of the enhanced role of the parents for the children, Reformed baptisms were usually limited to children of church members.
Reformed youth received education on the beliefs of the church and professed their faith publicly. But, there is no anointing with oil or conferring of the Holy Spirit. After the profession of faith, the youth become communicant members.
A typical recording at a baptism is the name of the infant, the names of both parents, the dates of birth and baptism, and the names of the witnesses. Individual ministers varied though, tending to embellish the record. One minister in Philadelphia recorded the place of origin for seventy-three sets of parents.
John Hoffman recorded the baptisms of his children in his family Bible. It is not clear who actually did the baptism or where it was done. He does not tell us that. At the birth of Nicholas he tells us, "In the year 1731, February 4th, my son Nicholas was born; baptized July 10th; his witnesses were Nicklaus Jaeger and Baltz Blankenbuechler, and the mother of my wife." [He never told us who the mother of his wife was, but we now know. She was Mrs. George Utz.]
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.