The Hessian Delegation at the Synod of Dordt on the Baptism of Slave Children

Translated from Early Sessions of the Synod of Dordt (V&R, 2018), pgs. 134-36.

[Authors: Georg Cruciger; Paul Stein; Daniel Angelocrator; Rudolphus Goclenius]

OPINION OF THE HESSIAN BRETHREN ON THE QUESTION WHETHER CHILDREN BORN OF PAGAN PARENTS AND NOW ADOPTED INTO CHRISTIAN FAMILIES SHOULD BE BAPTIZED, IF THOSE WHO OFFER THEM FOR BAPTISM PLEDGE IN GOOD FAITH THAT THEY WILL EDUCATE THEM IN THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION OR ENSURE THAT THEY ARE SO EDUCATED?

In order for this question to be properly and legitimately decided, in our judgment, certain circumstances, which often alter the entire law, as jurists say, should be observed and more distinctly laid out. These circumstances concern: 1. Those about whom the question is asked, the children of pagans; 2. Their parents; 3. Those into whose family they are adopted; and finally, 4. The very adoption of these into Christian families.

Regarding the children who are in question, their age should be considered first. For they are either still infants lacking all use of reason, or they have reached an age where they can use reason to some extent, and thus can be taught and instructed in the Christian religion.

Concerning the parents from whom they were born, it should be noted whether they are still alive or not. And if they are alive, whether and in what way they have consented for their children to be adopted into Christian families—simply and absolutely, or under certain conditions and reserving for themselves some part of their right over their children? Likewise, whether they consent to their baptism or not?

Those who adopt pagan children into their families have either acquired them legitimately or illegitimately. The very adoption of these children into Christian families can happen in different ways. For they are either adopted as sons, or taken into servitude, such that they can be expelled and cast out again whenever it pleases the masters.

I. Children of pagans, of whatever age and however they have come into the power of Christians, whether legitimately or illegitimately, if they are taken into Christian families as their slaves or servants, who can be manumitted again at their masters’ pleasure and ejected from Christian families, should not be baptized, but should first be taught the Christian religion, and a confession of the same should be required from them before they are admitted to baptism. For such children of pagans are not and should not be considered members of the visible church either by right of birth or by right of adoption into Christian families. Not by right of birth, for they are born outside the church from unbelieving and polluted parents, and therefore they themselves are also rightly considered unbelieving and polluted, according to 1 Corinthians 7:14. Not by right of adoption into Christian families, for this, if it is done only for the sake of servitude and with reserved liberty of expulsion, makes no one a member of the church. For thus in the Old Testament, in the families of faithful patriarchs, and in the time of the primitive apostolic church in Christian families, many children were born from pagan servants, who nevertheless were outside the church no less than their parents, and were not considered its members, until their parents, having abandoned paganism, transferred to the Jewish or Christian religion and brought their children with them to the church. Nor does the example of Abraham in Genesis 17 stand opposed [to our position], who also circumcised those bought with money and foreigners. For Abraham did not force such unwilling ones to circumcision, nor did he admit them while still unbelieving, for otherwise God’s covenant would have been profaned. Instead, he first instructed them in the doctrine of the covenant and circumcised those who embraced that doctrine along with their infants.

II. Infants of pagans who, with their parents deceased or simply and absolutely consenting and renouncing their right, or those who are in place of parents, or by any other legitimate means, are adopted into Christian families in such a way that they become their adoptive children, can be baptized if those who offer them for baptism publicly testify in the presence of the church that they have adopted these same infants as children in the aforementioned manner and solemnly promise that they will take care that they are instructed in the Christian religion, and will not give them cause or occasion, when they have grown up, to return to paganism. The reason for this assertion is that through the renunciation of the right of their pagan parents, they are exempted from their power, and thus, as it were, cease to be their children, but through adoption by Christians, they acquire the right of children in Christian families, and thus after that adoption they are rightly considered members of the same church of which those Christians who adopted them as children are members. And therefore, baptism can be administered to them under the aforementioned condition.

III. Infants of pagans, if their parents have not consented at all to their adoption into Christian families, or have reserved some part of their right over them, should not be baptized unless the consent of the pagan parents is obtained. However, older children of pagans, however they have come into Christian families, if they have embraced the Christian religion and confessed and desire baptism, should be baptized not only without consulting the parents, but even against their wishes. The reason for the former is: If infants of pagans were baptized against the will of their parents, it would not seem very different from the crime of kidnapping, which is severely prohibited by both divine and human laws. The reason for the latter is: Because the right and power of parents does not extend so far that they can command and prescribe to their children who have reached the years of discretion anything regarding religion against God’s Word and their children’s conscience. Nor are children in the cause of religion bound to stand by the judgment and opinion of their parents, but rather to look to God’s will and the judgment of their own conscience.

IV. Children of pagans who by age can use reason and can be instructed in the Christian religion, in whatever way they are adopted into Christian families, should first be instructed in the Christian religion and a profession of faith should be required from them before they are admitted to receive baptism. For since such are capable of instruction and discipline, in their conversion to Christianity, a beginning should be made with the same, according to Christ’s command, Matthew 28:19, and the apostolic practice used in the primitive Christian church.

These things are stated with respect for better judgments.