BATTISTERO

BAPTISTERY. — The word is used by Pliny the Younger with the meaning of a bathing tub (Ep., II, 17, 11) and is employed in the same sense by Sidonius Apollinaris as a synonym for *piscina* (Ep., II, 2: PL 58, 473). The deacon Philip baptized the minister of Queen Candace in the water they found along the journey they made together (Acts 16, 13-45); St. Justin writes that Baptism is administered in a place where there is water (Apol. I, 61: PG 6, 420); likewise Tertullian (De corona, 3: PL 2, 79), who states that “there is no distinction whether it be the sea, a pool, a river, a spring, a lake, or a trough,” and just as John baptized in the Jordan, so St. Peter “immersed in the Tiber” (De Baptismo, 4: PL 1, 1311). From the 4th century onward, the word *b.* in both East and West denotes a special building annexed to the basilica, intended for the conferral of the Sacrament of Baptism. Synonyms for it were *tinctorium*, *lavacrum*, and *fons*.

The essential use of water in the administration of the Sacrament inspired the architectural forms of public or private bath buildings, without any uniformity, indeed with the greatest variety; thus there are baptisteries with a central, circular, pentagonal, hexagonal, octagonal plan, in the shape of a Greek cross, covered by vaults and domes, but all uniformly containing in the center of the space a pool 70 to 75 cm deep, into which one descended by steps and where the water flowed from above, from lambs, stags, the jaws of a lion, etc.; at the bottom of the basin was an opening for the drainage of the water.

Sometimes adjacent to the *b.* were annexed a *balneum* with pools for the bathing of catechumens before the ritual immersion, as shown by examples found at Fréjus and Marseille in France, or at Gemila and Timgad in Roman Africa, or those attested by documents for Rome and Ravenna (v. AGNI).

The oldest known *b.* is currently Mesopotamia (v.), dating before A.D. 256. In some sporadic cases the *b.* was inside the basilica itself, as, for example, in St. Peter’s in the Vatican and in St. Chrysogonus.

For Rome, in addition to the monumental *b.* of the Lateran (G. B. Giovenale, *Il battistero lateranense nelle recenti indagini della Pont. commissione di archeologia sacra*, Rome 1929), which has come down to us in its architectural configuration largely from the time of Sixtus III, with 8 columns inside, preceded by a portico, there is a group of smaller *b.* such as those of St. Marcellus, St. Chrysogonus, and St. Stephen on the Via Latina.

In the chronicles of the bishops of Naples mention is made of a *baptisterium fontis maioris* and another *fontis minoris*, the first being St. John in Fonte near St. Restituta (G. Stuhlfauth, *Das Baptisterium S. Giovanni in Fonte zu Neapel und seine Mosaiken*, in Reinhold Seebergs Festschrift, II, Berlin 1930, pp. 181-212), the second near the Stephania (erected by Bishop Stephen).

At Nocera dei Pagani the large rotunda with columns contains an octagonal pool; in Calabria at St. Severina, the rotunda also has an annular colonnade (P. Lojacono, *Il b. di S. Severina*, in Boll. d’Arte [1934-35], pp. 174-85).

At Milan, from the time of St. Ambrose, is the basilica of the Baptistery, south of the new basilica near St. Tecla, called *Sanctus Johannis ad fontes* or *Fons S. Theclae*; Ennius knows of the *b.* of St. Stephen; in the Middle Ages the one of St. John was used for men, the other of St. Stephen for women. A notable group of *b.* of the type of Riva San Vitale in Ticino is repeated in many places in Lombardy (F. Reggiori, *Dieci b. lombardi minori dal sec. V al sec. XII. I monumenti italiani. Rilievi raccolti a cura della R. Accademia d’Italia*, I, Rome 1935). At Albenga and Ventimiglia the octagonal form is found (G. De Angelis d’Ossat, *I b. di Albenga e di Ventimiglia*, in Boll. delle R. Deputazioni di Storia patria per la Liguria, 1936).

At Ravenna two *b.* are preserved: one erected near the Cathedral by Bishop Neon (c. 458) and that of St. Mary in Cosmedin, built by the Arians under Theodoric. At Cividale the *b.* was from the time of Patriarch Callistus (737), at Aquileia with 5 steps in the pool. At Poreč the octagonal *b.* with a hexagonal pool is the work, like the Duomo, of Bishop Euphrasius (c. 530); also at Salona the *b.* was octagonal with a square pool.

Southern France offers a series of ancient *b.* of great architectural importance, with clusters of columns supporting the vaults or the dome, as at Aix-en-Provence, Angers, Baptiste, Fréjus, Le Puy, Marseille, Riez, and Saint-Rémy. The pool is hexagonal at Lemenc (Chambéry); square at Aire-sur-l’Adour; in the shape of a Latin cross at Grenoble in St. Lawrence; cruciform at Montcaret (Dordogne).

In Spain the *b.* of Calahorra was erected, as attested by Prudentius (Peristephanon, 8), on the site of the martyrdom of Sts. Emeterius and Chelidonius. Gregory of Tours recalls how in a city in Portugal there was a rich *b.* in the shape of a cross, richly revetted with marbles (De gloria martyr., I, 24: PL 71, 725).

In Albania at Butrint the *b.* is round; in Greece at Navarino it is octagonal with porticoes; at Jerusalem the pilgrim of Bordeaux saw already in the 4th century the *balneum* behind the basilica of the Anastasis where infants were washed (P. Geyer, *Itinera Hierosolymitana*, Vienna 1898, p. 23). Recently at ‘Ajn el-Ma’mudijich near Hebron a round *b.* has been discovered (A. M. Steve, *Le désert de Saint-Jean près d’Hebron*, in *Revue Biblique*, 53 [1946], pp. 547-75). In Syria a series of *b.* is now studied by J. Lassus, *Sanctuaires chrétiens de Syrie*, Paris 1947, passim.

Eusebius mentions the supplementary constructions of the basilica of Tyre in Phoenicia for those who must be purified in water and in the Holy Spirit (Hist. Eccl., 4: PG 20, 808).

In Egypt, in the Byzantine basilica of Abū Mīnā, the *b.* is quadrilateral on the outside and octagonal on the inside; at Luqsoar it is apsidal with a truncated-conical pool; at Medamūd it has a round pool. Very numerous are the examples of *b.* in Roman Africa, from Carthage to Uppenna, from Scefeta, from Hammām el-Lif to Tebessa, from Gemila to Tigizit, from Tipasa to Castiglione, from Timgad to Announa, etc. They are in the most varied forms, with a *tegurium* supported by four columns, with rich mosaic decoration.

DECORATION OF PALEOCHRISTIAN BAPTISTERIES. — The rites of ancient Christian initiation exerted an influence not

C. Baur, *The paintings in the Christian Chapel*, in *The Excavations at Dura Europos*, New Haven 1934, pp. 254-88; L. De Bruyne, *La decoration des baptistères paléochrétiens*, in *Miscellanea L. C. Mohlberg*, I, Rome 1948, pp. 189-220. Luciano De Bruyne

I B. FROM THE 7TH CENTURY – The architectural forms of central-plan buildings used predominantly for baptisteries, which from the Paleo-Christian period to the 7th century had evolved through a process of simplification compared to classical architectural models and the incorporation of some essential values—especially illuministic values—of Eastern art, between the 8th and 9th centuries took on new inflections in certain Italian regions. This occurred especially in northern Italy, namely in those territories where, on the one hand, ancient models were less overwhelming and Eastern influences less direct, and on the other, contacts with Central Europe were more lively, already then in the full ferment of cultural and spiritual life. Thus, while in Calabria the baptistery of S. Severina, near Catanzaro (8th century), has a ribbed dome set on eight columns and balanced by the vault of the ambulatory, it repeats a Byzantine architectural scheme that found no further development among us, in northern Italy there gradually emerged those forms which in the 9th century appear in the baptistery of Agliate, and later in those of Biella and the Pieve di Galliano near Cantù (11th century), which truly foreshadow the forms of the Romanesque age. These latter constructions, always of central plan with a dome set on plastic masses clearly articulated externally, while internally convey a sense of rhythmically continuous space within complex yet logical stone forms. Indeed, in Italy during the Romanesque period, especially in the north, numerous baptisteries resumed and developed the same architectural themes previously seen in the buildings mentioned, with greater freedom and confident skill in addressing even difficult structural problems characteristic of the age.

However, some baptisteries of the Romanesque age also developed simpler themes, such as that of a polygonal hall, sometimes with projecting niches or apses, covered by a dome. This is the case at Lenno (Como), at Novara near the Cathedral, at Ventimiglia, and above all at Cremona. Here, however, the vast pointed dome gives a sense of spaciousness, and the arcading of the first order, along with the small windows of the two upper levels, hints at a theme derived from more complex models. That is, from those buildings—in our case always baptisteries—in which the structures were divided into two concentric spaces by columns or piers, sometimes surmounted by loggias; the dome was then set on the walls of the central space, which at Cremona are as if pushed back toward the perimeter wall. Baptisteries built between the 11th and 12th centuries with colonnades, galleries, or small loggias are found at Arzago, Agrate Conturbia, and Asti, where the octagonal baptistery has a central space covered by a dome set on a tall drum supported by sturdy columns with characteristic cubic capitals.

In the baptistery of Concordia Sagittaria (Verona), a central-plan structure with small apses, Byzantine elements are combined with those more typically Lombard.

Of particular interest for the history of architectural forms are also: the baptistery near the cathedral of Ascoli Piceno, consisting of a lower cubic element and an octagon that conceals the dome, and the most famous of all, the baptistery of Florence. This octagonal construction (with a "scarsella" or rectangular space opening in the wall opposite the Ghiberti door, called the "Paradise," which in 1202 replaced an apse) is undoubtedly a very ancient building erected over Roman structures. However, apart from the remains of Roman constructions, what is visible today does not appear to predate the Romanesque age, nor have excavations conducted even in recent times fully clarified the previous appearance of the structure. Here, the cladding, both external and internal, is remarkable for its marble inlays, and internally, the musical decoration of the vault of the "scarsella" and the dome, work of the 13th century, as well as the baptismal font of 1371, which replaced Dante’s font. Mention should also be made of the marble mosaic pavement, the monument to the antipope John XXIII by Donatello and Michelozzo, and the three famous doors, including that by Andrea da Pontedera and the other two by Ghiberti. The baptistery of Pisa, begun in 1153 by the architect Diotisalvi, has two domes nested one inside the other. The external decoration, to which Giovanni Pisano also contributed, was continued into the 14th century; inside, the font is by Guido Bigarelli (1245), while the pulpit was signed by the great Nicola Pisano in 1260. The octagonal baptistery of Volterra, begun in 1283 by a Giroldo from Como or Lugano, also retains a Romanesque character (the dome is 16th century), as do the octagonal baptisteries of Pistoia, begun in 1337 by Cellino di Nese to a design by Andrea Pisano—and that of Parma, which, begun in the 12th century, was covered during the 13th century by a very tall pointed dome with pronounced ribs. Characteristic of Parma is the external decoration with superimposed loggias, and inside, the magnificent 13th-century pictorial decoration with representations from the Old and New Testaments. The baptistery of the Siena cathedral, on the other hand, is a structure that forms like a crypt of the Duomo, serving as the base for its extension on the apse side. It was built in the 14th century. Inside, it is a rectangular hall divided into three naves by two piers, with ribbed vaults and a polygonal apse. The hexagonal font is a creation by Iacopo della Quercia, but it was executed in full harmony by various sculptors, including Donatello and Ghiberti. It is one of the masterpieces of Tuscan sculpture at the beginning of the 15th century.

By the 15th century, the practice of constructing special buildings to house the baptismal font (v.) had completely disappeared. Now that the memory of immersion baptism had also faded, the font, now a basin topped by a water reservoir, was placed in a chapel, almost always near the entrance of the church or in one of the side naves, sometimes against a wall or a pier, other times slightly elevated in the middle of the nave itself or beneath one of the arches separating it from the central nave. For example, in the Orvieto cathedral, the baptismal font consists of a red marble basin supported by eight crouching lions, begun in 1390 by Luca di Giovanni Senese, continued by Pietro di Giovanni da Friburgo and a Cristoforo Teutonico, and completed in 1403 by Iacopo di Pietro Guidi, while the octagonal pyramid surmounted by a statue of the Baptist is signed and dated by Santo di Matteo.

Since the baptismal font was placed inside the churches, the spaces that housed it did not differ architecturally from other chapels, especially since, on many occasions, the same baptistery contained an altar, and the font was not placed in the center of the space, so that the character of the environment was essentially determined by that of the fonts (v.).

limited reduction to the elect alone and admitted only their own sectarians to the Eucharist.

Of the other divisions of English Baptists, only the Seventh Day Baptists are mentioned, who professed that the Sabbath rather than Sunday should be consecrated to the Lord, and the Free Will Baptists, who practiced foot washing and anointed the sick.

The first American Baptist Church had no connection with the English Baptists. W. Rogers (1599–1683), an Anglican minister, joined the Nonconformists. Persecuted by Archbishop Laud, he emigrated in 1631 to Massachusetts and for several years served as a Puritan minister. Intolerant of the established ecclesiastical and civil system in that colony, he openly criticized it, was excommunicated, and took refuge outside the colony in Rhode Island, where he founded the city of Providence. In 1638, he became convinced that baptism received in infancy was invalid and was baptized by a companion, Ezekiel Holliman, whom he then baptized in turn. Some followed this example, and thus the first Baptist Church in America was founded, Calvinist in doctrine, which soon came into contact with General or Arminian Baptists who had emigrated to America, continuing in the English colonies the division that was rife in the mother country.

Soon the independent spirit of the colonists led to further schisms. In 1653, from the church founded by Rogers in Providence, there separated the “Baptists of the Six Principles,” that is, those who, in addition to common doctrines, accepted as fundamental the six points indicated by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews (6:1–2): repentance, faith, baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. In the 18th century, some Baptists sought to establish associations for religious instruction, missions, etc., which others opposed as contrary to Holy Scripture. The former called themselves “Separate Baptists” or “New Lights,” and the latter “Regular Baptists” or “Old Lights.” In 1806, a Baptist minister, D. Parker, gave rise to the “Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Baptists,” namely those who professed that there are in man two spiritual seeds, one infused by God and the other by the devil, reviving in part the doctrines of Manichaeism.

But the great division among American Baptists occurred over the issue occasioned by slavery. Those in the North were opposed to it, while those in the South favored it; this difference of opinion caused the schism of 1844–45, still unresolved, between Northern Baptists (Northern Baptist Convention) and Southern Baptists (Southern Baptist Convention). In the Southern states, the intense Baptist propaganda converted many (in 1936 there were more than 3,000,000), who, to avoid friction with whites, in 1895 formed among themselves the National Baptist Convention of the United States of America, which conducts many missions among blacks in the West Indies, Liberia, and other parts of Africa. In official U.S. censuses, they are grouped separately under the name “Negro Baptists.”

III. DIVISIONS

The Baptists, both English and American, are divided into more than twenty sects. The Italian Protestant Di Silvestri Falconieri, in his pamphlet *Questioni Battesimali*, enumerates some of them, as cited in the preceding pages: Calvinist Baptists, Congregationalist Baptists, Old Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Free-Will Baptists, Six-Principle Baptists, Tunkers, Campbellites or Reformed Baptists, Seventh-Day Baptists, Open Baptists, Closed Baptists, Seventh-Day Baptists, Scottish Baptists, Unitarian Baptists, Particular Baptists, General Baptists, New Connection Baptists, Believers’ Baptists, and it is not known how many other Baptist denominations exist or arise every day... In substance, one does not find “a Church, indeed the idea of Church has truly disappeared, but rather voluntary associations, confraternities, congregations of believers in their own way, all adults, of course, ready to divide over the slightest discrepancy, who have in common only the erroneous idea of not conferring baptism on children and of rebaptizing those who received it as infants” (Di Silvestri-Falconieri).

IV. DOCTRINE

Baptists reduce the authority of their confessions of faith to mere declarations to which no one is obliged to assent unless they conform to their own convictions. Instead, they place great importance on the conventions held in individual congregations, in which members voluntarily bind themselves to certain doctrinal and disciplinary schemes. Despite such broad freedom, almost all Baptists, both by tradition and solidarity, agree on certain doctrines. These include: the invalidity of infant baptism and the necessity of rebaptizing those who received it as infants; baptism must be by immersion; each individual church or congregation must be independent and self-governing; and there must be absolute separation between Church and State.

V. MISSIONS

The English Baptists, after centuries of dormancy, began their missions in India at the end of the 18th century with William Carey, and the Americans at the beginning of the 19th century in Burma with Adoniram Judson. Today they form one of the denominations that supports the most missions and missionaries. Suffice it to note that they not only work among nearly all pagan peoples but have extended their missions to Protestant nations (Germany, Scandinavian countries, etc.) and Catholic ones (Italy, France, etc.); indeed, in some nations they have formed centers that in turn have undertaken new missions. Among the 45 Baptist missionary societies or organizations, the majority originate from the United States, England, and the British dominions, but also from Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Brazil, China, and Japan.

VI. BAPTIST MISSIONS IN ITALY

In Italy, the English Baptists arrived in 1866 and, after founding various stations, ceded them in 1923 to the Southern American Baptists, along with 12 national pastors, 16 congregations, and 8 churches. However, E. Clarke, who directed the station in La Spezia, did not comply with this decision and continued his work under the name “Independent Mission of La Spezia.”

The Southern American Baptists came to Italy in 1869, a few years after the English, and still operate there with more than 50 churches or chapels and regularly visit about thirty towns.

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