[For my material that I have been reporting here, I am using John T. Humphrey's book, " Understanding and Using Baptismal Records ".]
Several significant changes took place in the practice of baptism in the Christian church starting about the Ninth Century. The number of sponsors increased from one to three, two of the same sex as the child and one opposite. The rite was changed to place greater emphasis on the role of the sponsors. The sponsors, being responsible for the spiritual world, were sometimes called godparents or, in particular, godfathers and godmothers. Parents could not be sponsors.
This created two families, a natural family and the spiritual family. The two could not co-mingle. A godfather was forbidden to marry a goddaughter. This idea extended to confirmation, where a man could not marry a woman whose child he had led to confirmation. In the Middle Ages it became very popular to choose socially prominent people as sponsors, in part, perhaps, because of the hope that the sponsors could give the child help when it grew up. This was called a spiritual kinship, and the concept lasted until the Reformation.
The belief that baptism equals salvation meant that seriously ill infants, who had not been baptized, were lost souls. A mechanism was needed to save the dying of all ages who were not baptized. The answer was to allow anyone, even a heretic, to baptize another individual if the correct words were said. The requirements were two: The Trinitarian formula had to be used, and the baptism had to be performed with good intent. This was called an emergency baptism, and no sponsors were required. After an emergency baptism, no other baptism was required, and, in fact, it could not be allowed because one could be baptized only once. Midwives and parents were instructed in what to do, namely, repeat the phrase, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
Emergency baptism created a predicament for the church. Normally rites of the church were performed by a priest, not by a lay person. Yet, the church insisted that a baptism by a lay person was valid. Some parents who had an emergency baptism performed for one of their children, and even the priesthood, would worry that the emergency baptism was valid. Conditional baptism was the solution devised by the church. The rite of baptism was modified by having the priest say the phrase, "If thou art not already baptized, I baptize . . . "
At the end of the Fifteenth Century, the practice of baptism generally followed the form that the father would assemble three sponsors, two of the same sex as the child and one of the opposite sex. These sponsors, with the father (but perhaps not the mother), and perhaps the older children, went to the church. Often this baptism was on the day of birth or the next day. The godmother or the midwife carried the infant to the church door where the priest met the party.
(30 Jun 03)
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.