natural, and highly probable (3). The Latin word Manducare fignifics to eat ravenously. The Lombards corrupted this into Magnare, and thence came Magnano a voracious eater. What hath this to do with a Smith or a Brazier ? It seems, the honeft women of Modena, agreeably to the laudable custom of their ancestors, terrify their cross children into filence by exclaiming, E' qui il Magnano: Hufh, here comes the man that eats naughty children: meaning the Tinker, whose black budget, begrimmed face, and hollow voice publifhing his trade, feem to confirm the fact. Hence Magnano came to ftand for every Smith, although at firft it was applied only to fuch of them as walked the streets, and perhaps only to one of the fraternity, whofe fize, voice, features, drefs and trade combined to make him the terror of the little folks. Thus the French women have their Loupgarou or Wolfman; and the English Raw Head and Bloody Bones. There are more fuch etymologies than many are aware of, and Bambino feems to be one: but however it be, it is beyond a doubt the words Bambino, figlio, infant, child, and others fynonimous, were all in thofe times vague and indeterminate, and nothing but circumstances can fix the fenfe; and therefore no arguments for baptifm taken from fuch fingle words can be valid. If there be any doubt of this, it may be removed by turning to the vocabulary of the academy Della Crufca, where the fenfe of each word is given, and now fixed and confirmed by examples from the most approved Italian writers (4) but in former ages the language was not reduced to precision: the famous paffage in the gospel fuffer little children to come unto me, is rendered in the Italian verfion: Lafciate i piccoli fanciulli venire a me (5). If the word fanciullo be taken precisely in the fenfe which the academicians have given it, this verfion is the best of any modern translation, and conveys that precife idea, which the evangelifts meant. Fanciullezza, fays the academy, is.puerizia, the age between feven and fifteen: and fanciullo is a child out of infancy; and not arrived at adolefcence (6). They obferve, however, that the word is not always used accurately, but is fometimes put for a marriageable (3) Magnano. Faber Ferrarius. Vaftus hariolandi campus fe aperit inquirenti nominis hujus originem....Nomina funt nobis complura, quæ non a Latinis, fed ab ipfis Italis recta veniunt. Sunt et quæ vel ab uno homine, aut ab uno eventu originem fumfere, eorumque fenfus propagatus poftea per populus fuit. Ego Lombardicum vocabulum effe reor Magnano. (4) Vocabulario Degli Accademici Della Crufca. In Venetia. 1686. (5) La Sacra Bibbia. Per Pietro Chovet. 1641. Mat. xix. 14. Ma Jefu diffe, Lafciate que' piccioli fanciullo....Marc. x. 14. Lafciate i piccoli fanciulli....Luca xviii. 16. Lafciate i piccoli fanciulli. (6) FANCIULLEZZO. puerizia, eta quafi da' fette anni a quindici. Fanciullo. D'eta tra lo infanzia, e l'adolefcenzia cive nella puerizia.. Petrarca. Cap. i. Ila fanciulla di Titone Correa gelata al fuo antico foggiorno. Che. Dante. diffe. La concubina di Titone. perfon. perfon. Piccolo, which fignifies little, is intended to fix the fenfe, and piccolo fanciullo is a little boy of eight or ten years of age. To children of this fize the circumstances in the gospel agree; but they do not agree to new-born infants. By the way the learned Diodati in his Italian notes on the new teftament obferves both the original mode of baptizing, and that of after ages. Thus on Mat. iii. 6. And were baptized of him in Jordan: he fays, were dipped in water (7). Again on Rom. vi. 4. We are buried with him in baptifm: that is, we are immerfed in water, according to the ancient method of baptizing; a facred fymbol proper to fet forth the entire fuffocation of fin in us by the spirit of God, and the cleanfing of the mind by regeneration as a feal of the children of God. The word foffogare, which literally fignifies to fuffocate by drowning, is ufed figuratively to exprefs the putting to death or annihilating of any thing fo that it could be or live no more, as to rot wheat in water is to fuffocate, drown or annihilate the germ or the burying of any thing fo that it was feen no more (8). This word was taken from the drowning of Pharoah and the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and as the paffage through that is faid to be a figure of baptism, the Greek fathers firft, and after them the Latins incorporated the language of the history in Exodus into defcriptions of baptifm. The reverend Father Mingarelli lately published at Rome an ancient gloffary on Exodus, written in the ninth or tenth century, and as the learned Scipio Maffei fuppofed, by Pacificus an archdeacon of Verona, either a native or an Englishman, or a German, which proves that the Italians of thofe times administered baptifm to people, after they were inftructed, by dipping, and that they tranfmitted the ideas of drowning and fuffocating fin in baptifm from the fathers to the moderns (9). Diodati therefore ufed not. (7) S. MATTEO. iii. 6. Ed erano battezati da lui nel Jordano, confeffando i lor peccati. battezzati. e. Tuffati nel l'acqua. A'ROMANI vi. 4. Noi fiamo adunque ftati con lui feppelliti per lo battefimo, a morte. Not. Noi fiamo. e. eio che nel Battefimo fiamo tuffati nel l'acqua, fecondo l'antica ceremonia; ci e un figno facro, che conviene che'l peccato fia foffogato in noi per lo spirito di Dio: como quello ci eun fuggello del lavamento dell' anime noftre davanti a Dio. VOCAB. Tuffare. Sommergere in acqua, o altro liquore. (8) VOCAB. Soffogare, e foffocare. Serrar la ftrada a gli spiriti vitali....Per metaf. opprimere non lasciar furgere. (9) D. JOHAN. ALOYSII MINGARELLII Anecdotorum fafciculus. Romæ 1756. Gloffa fuper Exodum. Cap. xiv. 20. Et erat nubes tenebrofa, et in luminans noctem: Tenebrofa Egyptiis, lucida Ifrael; fic ipfa doctrina eft fidelium inluminatio. 21. Abftulit illud Dominus flante vento: Mare baptifmum fignificat....Divifaque est aqua: post baotifmum aditus regni apertus eft. 23. Perfe ufed the established language of his country: a harsh figure: fully expreffive however of a perfect immerfion of men, who had been guilty of actual fin. Nothing is more common with writers on baptifm than, on producing a law to baptize infants, inftantly to conclude that modern infant-baptifm was an ancient univerfal practice, but the conclufion is hafty, as themselves muft own, if they please to advert to the cafes above, for baptism of infants in Saxony in the eighth century was that of babes within a year old, under an imperial law, but baptifm of infants in Italy in that and following centuries was that of minors under canon law mifinterpreted by cuftom, and applied to babes not by the defpotifm of the civil magiftrate, but by the depravity of the clergy, or rather by that unnatural law of clerical celibacy. IN Several Confequences of transferring Baptifm to Babes. N the ages between the third century and the ninth, while the baptifm of minors by dipping was generally practifed, and while babes were baptized only in cafes of extreme danger, publick baptifms at Easter and Whitfuntide were fo ornamented with ceremonies as to exhibit a grand fhow. After the baptifm of babes had been introduced in publick many of thefe ceremonies became impracticable, and confequently fell into difufe, while others took an oblique direction, and became utterly unintelligible to a common fpectator, though they continued to be ufed. 23. Perfequentes Egyptii ingreffi funt poft eos. Ufque ad ipfum baptifmi introitum diabolus cum fuperbia, et ceteris fatellitibus homines perfequitur. Qui baptizandus eft, filius diaboli defcendit, fed eo fummerfo filius Dei afcendit. 28. Ne unus quidem fuperfuit ex eis. Summerfis curribus, et equitibus Pharaonis, id eft omnibus armis diaboli direptis, nec minimum in baptifmo peccatum remanet, quod non alluatur. Cap. xv. ver. 1. Tunc cecinit Mofes, &c. Prefat. Scipio Maffeius vir et a nobilitate, et a doctrina præclarus, et antiquitatis peritiffimus, illud a Pacifico Veronenfis ecclefiæ archidiacono fcriptum fuiffe opinatus eft....Quo minus tamen in ejus opinione omnino acquiefcam, deterrent me exotica quædam vocabula....Quod fi ita eft, Anglum potius, Germanumve, quam Italum hujus libelli auctorem fuiffe quis fus picabitur. At quifquis tandem fuerit, eum fane conftat pervetuftum effe, quum codex, unde hoc opus exfcriptum fuit, decimo circiter fæculo fcriptus fit. Quo autem fæculo floruerit, non aufim omni affeveratione affirmare: crediderim tamen nono. To give a brief fketch of this. i. It is remarkable that baptifteries difappeared, and along with them all the ceremonies ufed at the confecration of them; for thefe buildings had been confecrated diftin&ly and apart from churches, and with great propriety, if confecration be neceffary at all, for they were feparate and independent edifices, as fome ancient infcriptions prove (1) ii. The disappearance of deaconneffes, too, ought to be observed, for from the times of the apoftles for feveral ages elderly women officiated in the church, and performed the fame offices to their own fex as deacons did to men, one of which was adminiftering baptifm. When adult baptifm fell into difufe, deaconneffes difappeared, although the old form of ordaining them remains in the ordinals, for both Greek and Latin rituals retain the ancient form of ordaining these fifter Phoebes, as the ritualists call them: but they are not used now in the western churches (2). (1) PACIAUD. Antiq. Chrift. Difs. ii. Cap. 3. Brixiæ baptifterium, vulgo rotunda, Theodolinda jubente, cultui divino dedicatum fuit. DOMINA NOSTRA FLAVIA THEVDOLINDA CONSECRARE FECIT HOC BAPTISTERIVM VIVENTE DOMINO NOSTRO FLAVIO ADELVALDO Sæculo ix. Heribaldus Antiftes Autiffiodori Bafilicam S. Johannis Baptiftae Urbis Baptifterium.. x. Kal. Jan. Solemniter dedicavit. Quod autem eft ejufmodi templum? Locus ad expiandos animos facra lavatione teftem do ipfum ecclefiae Martyrologium, quod nuper edidit cl. LE BOVIUS...vide Mutilam infcriptionem Veneto marmoreo baptifterio apud Monachos Capucinos infculptam... Alterum protulit MURATORIUS in novo Thefauro, ubi Epigraphen Baptifterii cujufdam Hadrienfis fibi a Bochio communicatam vulgavit, quæ eft ejufmodi. IN N DNI DINI IHV XPI TEMPORIBVS DOMNI BONI EPISC + ET ROMALDOS LVPIC PRE ET SANCTO IOHANI MAC IVLIANVS MARTINVS IND XV RENOVATA FONS EST. Id eft, temporibus domni boxi Epifcopi Romualdo et Lupico prefbyteris Indi&ione xv. renovata fons eft, et Sancto Johanni dedicata, Artifices, qui baptifterium fabricarunt, fuere Juliani duo, quorum alter cognomento Martinus...Sed quid opus eft plura? Sive baptifteria a fundamentis excitarentur, five folemni cæremonia confecrarentur, omnia patrocinio, amori, fideique Beatiffimi Johannis commendebantur. (2) GOARII Ritual. Græcor. Paris 1647. pag. 262. De Diaconiffis. Orat. in Diaconiffe ordinat. Dominator Domine....huic tuæ famulæ, feipfam tibi confecrare volenti, & hujus minifterii gratiam adimplere, fancti tui fpiritus gratiam, ficut Phœbæ ad opus minifterii electæ conceffifti, Jargire, &c. iii. Catechumens alfo have difappeared, and the forms relating to them are difufed. The learned and candid Dr. King, with the most laudable zeal, refiding in Ruffia, availed himself of his fituation, and made the Proteftant churches a prefent of what they never had before, a clear, faithful, and accurate account of the rites and ceremonies of the Greek church in Ruffia, obferves, "that a vast number of inventions have been added to that plain inftitution of Chrift, baptifm; inventions which arose from the capricious imaginations of bifhops, while each appointed all the offices and ceremonies in his own diocefe: though fome circumftances, which might be fuppofed to have been proper or ufeful in carlier times, muft appear unneceffary at prefent on account of the different fituation of the Greek church. There is in this church a form of making Catechumens before baptifm, and this is continued to infants: but there is alfo in the liturgics a form of difmiffing Catechumens before the church received the Lord's fupper, which is now for a very obvious reason difcontinued. The following is the Ritual. Deacon. Catechumens; pray unto the Lord. Choir. Lord have mercy upon us, Deacon. Ye faithful, let us pray unto the Lord for the Catechumens, that the Lord will have mercy upon them. Choir. Lord have mercy upon us. Deacon. That he may inftruct them in the word of truth. Deacon. That he may reveal unto them the gofpel of righteousness. Deacon. church. Choir. Deacon. That he may unite them to his holy catholick and apoftolick Lord have mercy upon us. Save them, have mercy upon them, protect them and preferve them by thy grace, O God. Choir. Deacon. Lord have mercy upon us. Catechumens: bow your heads unto the Lord. Choir. To thee, O Lord. Prieft faith the prayer for the Catechumens, before the holy oblation, in a low voice, O Lord our God, who dwelleft on high, yet haft respect unto the lowly, who haft fent thine only begotten fon Jefus Chrift, our God and our Lord, for the falvation of mankind, look down upon thy fervants the Catechumens, who bow down their necks unto thee, and make them worthy in thy good time of the laver of regeneration, of forgivenefs of fins, and of the garment of incorruption: unite them to thy |