. . . some
Christians, including Tertullian, held that the expulsion of demons took place
not only in exorcism, but also as part of baptism, the primary initiatory rite
of the Christian community. According to Tertullian, one of the important
functions of baptism lay in its removal of demons from the soul and insertion
of the Holy Spirit in their stead:
When the
soul embraces the faith, it is regenerated by this new birth in water and
virtue celestial; the veil of its former corruption is removed and it at last
perceives the full glory of the light. When is it welcomed by the Holy Spirit
as, at its physical birth, it was met by the evil spirit (sicut in
pristina nativitate a spiritu profano). (On the Soul 41, emphasis
mine)
Casting off
the “evil spirit,” therefore, cleanses the baptizand of their psychic
corruption and enables them to take on the Holy Spirit, and thus forge a new
Christian identity. In Tertullian’s thought, “baptism is the second birth, on
which occasion the Holy Spirit pushes away the evil spirit that might have
associated itself with one’s soul.” The exorcistic nature of baptism seems to
have been refected in the baptismal practice of the Carthaginian community. In
his treatise On the Shows, for example, Tertullian emphasizes that the
expulsion of Satan and his demonic minions is an important aspect of baptismal
recitation formulas: “When we go into the water and profess the Christian faith
through expressions decreed by its law, we testify with our speech [or ‘mouth’
that we have rejected the Devil and his entourage and his angels” (renuntiasse
nos diabolo et pompae et angelis eius ore nostro contestamur) (On the
Shows 4). Later in the same treatise, Tertullian emphasizes again the
connection between the demon-inspired Roman entertainment spectacles and the
activities that Christians forsake at their baptism: “we have demonstrated that
all these things [i.e., the spectacles] were established for the sake of the
Devil . . . thus here is the ‘entourage of the Devil’ that we swear against
when we are sealed in the faith” (hoc erit pompa diaboli, adversus quem in
signaculo !dei eieramus) (24). Anyone who engages in activities typical of
Roman “idolatry,” according to Tertullian, will in fact undo the work of their
Christian salvation: “But what we swear against (eieramus), we ought not to
have a share in . . . What is more, do we not renounce and annul (eieramus
et rescindimus) the seal by rescinding its testimony?” (24).
We should
not read Tertullian’s language of “renouncing” or “annulling” the seal of
baptism as purely metaphorical; rather, Tertullian ostensibly understands these
terms to indicate the actual physical status of the Christian body. Elsewhere
in the same treatise, for example, Tertullian warns his readers that failure to
uphold the high standard of behavior demanded of baptized Christians will
result in the re-infiltration of demons: “why then might not such people also
become liable to penetration by demons?” (Cur ergo non eiusmodi etiam
demoniis penetrabiles fiant)? (26). Interestingly, Tertullian’s language
here does not call to mind the “possession” of the human body such as is
characteristic of catabolic spirits (discussed previously), but the “piercing”
or “penetrating” of the body typical of “attendant” demons. It is this type of
demonic spirit that Christians cast o0 at their baptism, and thus the kind of
evil spirit that Christians must eschew by avoiding Roman cultural activities.
If they do not, the “seal” of baptism will be broken, and the Christian body
will lie vulnerable to its insidious undoing. (Travis
W. Proctor, Demonic Bodies and the Dark Ecologies of Early Christian Church [New
York: Oxford University Press, 2022], 153-54)
