BAPTISMAL
276
BAPTISTERY
church, in the presence of the bishop. The form
of this renunciation as found in the Apostohc Con-
stitutions (VII, 4) has a quaint interest. It is as
follows: "Let therefore the candidate for baptism
declare thus in his renunciation: 'I renounce Satan
and his works and his pomps and his wor.ship and
liis angels and his inventions and all things that
are under him'. And after his renunciation let
him in his consociation say: 'And I associate myself
to Christ and believe and am baptized into one
unbegotten being' ", etc.
Where there was a baptistery the renunciations were made in the wpoavX^ov oIkov^ the vestibule or ante-room, as distinguished from the iadinpov olKop, the inner room where the baptism itself was administered. The catechumen, standing with his face to the West, which symbolized the abode of darkness, and stretching out his hand, or some- times spitting out in defiance and abhorrence of the devil, was wont to make this abjuration. It was also customary after this for the candidate for baptism to make an explicit promise of obedience to Christ. This was called by the Greeks a-vvrdcra-eaffai Xphra, the giving of oneself over to the control of Christ. St. Justin Martyr testifies that baptism was only administered to those who, together with their profession of faith, made a promise or vow that they would live in conformity with the Chris- tian code. Hence the generally employed for- mula: (TvvTdffcrofiai crot, Xpiffre. "I surrender myself to thee, O Christ, to be ruled by thy precepts". This took place directly after the dirordfis, or re- nunciation of the devil, and was variously described by the Latins as promissvm, pacti/m, and rotum. During this declaration of attachment to Jesus Christ the person to be baptized turned towards the East as towards the region of light.
The practice of renewing the baptismal promises is more or less widespread. This is done under cir- cumstances of special solemnity such as at the clos- ing exercises of a mission, after the administration of First Communion to children, or the conferring of the Sacrament of Confirmation. It is thus intended as a way of reaffirming one's loyalty to the obliga- tions taken over by membership in the Christian Church.
BlNGH.\M, Antiquities of the Christian Church (London, 1S38); Duchesne, Origines du culle chrelien (Paris, 1898).
Joseph F. Delany.
Baptismal Water. See Baptism; Holt Saturday.
Baptist, Saixt John the. See John the Bap- tist, Saint.
Baptista Mantuanus (or Spagnoli), Blessed, Carmelite and Renaissance poet, b. at Mantua, 17 April. 1447, where he also died, 22 March, 1516. The eldest son of Peter SpagnoH, a Spanish noble- man at the court of Mantua, Baptista studied gram- mar imiier Gregorio Tifernate, and philosophy at Pa\aa under Polo Bagelardi. The bad example of his schoolfellows led him into irregularities. He fell into the hands of usurers and, returning home, was turned out of liis father's house owing to some calumny. He went to Venice and later on to Ferrara where he carried out his resolution of enter- ing the Carmelite convent which belonged to the then flourishing Reform of Mantua. In a letter ad- dres.sed to his father (1 April, 1464), and in liis first publication, "De Vita boatd", he gave an ac- count of his pre\-ious life and of the motives which led him to the cloister.
Baptista pursued his studies at Ferrara and Bologna where he was ordained priest, received his degrees, and delivered lectures in philosophy and divinity. The Duke of Mantua entrusted him with the education of his children, and the connexion w'th the ducal family resulted in a number of poetical
works, the "Trophsum Gonzaga>" and the "Fortuna
Gonzag^", on the various misfortunes of the young
duke; "Contra amorem" containing good advice to
Sigismondo Gonzaga, and other poems celebrating the
latter's elevation to dignities, even to the Roman
purple. Six times (each for two years with four
years interval) Baptista was nominated \'icar-general
of his congregation, and, in 1513, general of the
whole order through the exertions of his former
disciples, the duke and the cardinal. The chapter,
however, resenting the intervention, restricted his
powers. He held the office until his death, but,
broken in health and energj-, he exercised but Uttle
influence beyond consolidating the congregation of
Albi, a French imitation of the Mantuan Reform.
Baptista Mantuanus was beatified in 1S90, his feast
being assigned to 2.3 March.
Chiefly known as one of the most prolific Renais- sance poets he excelled in almost everj' form of Latin verse; Virgil, however, was his favourite model. A monument represents the two poets of Mantua with Poetrj' hesitating to whom she is to offer the crown: "Ctii daho?" Baptista exercised too little self-restraint, however, to deserve it. He was bit- terly attacked concerning the good taste of his earlier works printed without his knowledge, and also, but groundlessly, with reference to the legiti- niacj' of liis birth. To the end he made too free use of pagan mythology.
Opera omnia (Bologna, 1502); Historia domus Loureianw. s. d. (c. 1489), reprinted in Chevalier, Notre Dame de Lorette (Paris. 1906, 241 sqq.; Paris, 1513; Antwerp, 1576). His correspondence, chiefly with the two Pico de Mirandola, uncle and nephew, is in Zimmerman, Monumenta hist. Car' melitana (L^rins, 1907\ I; Ambrosio. De rebus fjestis (Turin, 1784); P.p. in Chroniques du Carmel (Soignies, 1902), 272 sqq.
Benedict Zimmerm.*.n.
Baptistery, the separate building in which the Sacrament of Baptism was once solemnly adminis- tered, or that portion of the church-edifice later set apart for the same purpose. In ancient times the term was applied to a basin, pool, or other place for bathing. The Latin term haptisterium was also ap- plied to the vessel or tank which contained the water for baptism, and in the Early Church denoted in- differentlj' the baptismal font and the building or chapel in which it was enshrined. There is no means of knowing when the first baptisteries were built; but both their name and form seem borrowed from pagan sources. They remind one of the bathing apartments in the thermtF, and the fact that Pliny, in speaking of the latter, twice uses the word baj>- listeria seems to point to this derivation. The term was also applied to the bath in the circular chamber of the baths at Pompeii and to the tank in the tri- angular court of suburban villas. The earliest extant tj-pe of baptistery is found in the catacomb chambers in which were the baptismal-pools. (See Baptismal Font.) These rooms were sometimes spacious; that in the Roman catacomb of Priscilla adjoins other larger cubicula used perhaps for the adjimcts of the baptismal rite; that of the Pontian cemeterj' bears traces of sixth-centurj- mural decoration, a beautiful frw.T gemmata with other Christian symbols being yet visible. With the construction of edifices for Chris- tian worship a special building was erected for the ceremonies of initiation. Ordinarily circular or polyg- onal, it contained in the centre the font; a circular ambulatory gave room for the ministers and wit- nesses who, with the neophj'tes, were numerous at the Easter and Pcnteco.st solemnities; radiating from the structure were rooms for the preparation of the candidates, and sometimes a chapel with altar for the Eucharistic service following baptism (cf. Bap- tism), as may be seen in the Lateran baptist erj'. The building sometimes joined, but was generally adjacent to, the cathedral or church to which it be- longed, and was usually situated near the atrium or
