Thursday, June 5, 2025

Isidore of Seville (d. 636) on the Damnation of Unbaptized Infants

  

23. Baptism and Communion

 

22.1. That only the Catholic Church has baptism for salvation is stated by Zechariah the prophet: “On that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity” (Zech 13:1). Clearly the house of David and Jerusalem is the Church of Christ, in which there endures the fountain for the cleansing of sins. Heretics, however, perform it only by imaginary show, and therefore baptism is given to them not for the remission of sins, but as an indication of punishment.

 

22.2. Recently born infants suffer pains in hell for original sin alone if they have not been made new through the washing. Thus for this reason the recently born infant is damned, if he has not been regenerated, because he has been destroyed by the sin of origin.

 

22.3. Why are young children, lacking original sin through baptism and not yet having their own proper sin, mangled by beasts and other sufferings? This is the reason: baptism frees one from eternal suffering, not from the punishment of this present life, because if human beings were freed from the punishment of the present through baptism, they might think that this is the reward of baptism rather than that which is eternal.

 

Therefore, original sin having been removed, there nevertheless remains a certain temporal punishment, in order that that life might be more fervently requested that will be distant from all punishments.

 

22.4. Not one of the faithful, even after the baptism by which sins are removed, denies that we ought to be converted to God on a daily basis, as long as we are in this world. This is because, even though this turning to God is done daily without ceasing, it will not be enough to have been accomplished.

 

22.5. Those who are in their mother’s wombs are therefore not able to be baptized with their mother, because whoever is not yet born according to Adam is not able to be reborn according to Christ (cf. Rom 6:3–7), and thus it cannot be said that there is regeneration in the person whose generation has not yet taken place.

 

22.6. [Concerning those who live within the Church but not in conformity with the dignity of the Church, who hold the faith by their words but destroy it by their works, it is read, “They would be more than can be counted” (Ps 40:5) in order that you might understand this in the kingdom of the predestined.]

 

22.7. Those who live wickedly in the Church and do not cease to receive communion, thinking that they will be cleansed by this communion, ought to learn that nothing will profit them for their cleansing, as the prophet says:

 

“What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done vile deeds? Can vows and sacrificial flesh avert your doom?” (Jer 11:15). The Apostle also says, “Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Cor 11:28). (Isidore of Seville, Sententiae [Ancient Christian Writers 73; trans. Thomas L. Knoebel; New York: The Newman Press, 2018], Book I, Chapter 23)

 

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