The doctrine of baptismal regeneration is universal in early and medieval Christianity. We can see how it is ubiquitous even in the medieval-era “Lives of Muhammad.” The following excerpts come from:
Medieval Latin
Lives of Muhammad (trans.
Julian Yolles and Jessica Weiss; Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 51; Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2018)
Embrico of
Mainz, “Life of Muhammad”:
As you know, an enemy in one’s own house does more harm in every way,
and the matter at hand teaches how it harms. For a certain man, lacking in
devotion but cleansed by baptism, lived in the church, though completely faithless,
seeking men’s praises for himself through magic deception and bringing the Church’s
ruin by his efforts. (p. 31)
Walter of
Compiègne, “Poetic Pastimes on Muhammad”:
“Therefore since he was willing on his stretched out [on the cross].
Although gentle himself, he suffered cruelty: nails, blows, insults, the cross.
When he died on the cross and had been committed to earth, he went to the
regions of Tartarus; he broke them down and returned with the spoils. He
appeared to his disciples for forty days; he himself gave his side to be
touched by Thomas and he accepted bodily food with all looking on in order to
show that the true flesh lived. Finally, he ordered them to travel the whole
world and convince the peoples of the true faith, so that they believe, so that
they act, so that they be washed in the sacred spring and saved; otherwise they
will perish (ut sacro fonte laventur, et salvi fient: sin alias, perient).
(p. 137)
“Apology of
al-Kindī”:
After he granted us faith, with which we might believe in him, he also
gave us baptism, saying: “If anyone has not been reborn from the water and Holy
Spirit, he will not be able to enter the Kingdom of God.” This is the baptism,
by which we are freed from the inextinguishable fire. (Qui, postquam
dedit nobis fidem, qua in eum crederemus, addidit nobis baptismum dicents: “Nisis
quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu Sancto, non potest introire in regnum
Dei. » Hic est baptismus, quo baptizati liberamur ab igne inextinguibili)
(p. 507)
