202 Dimensions of Baptism
any way on infant baptism. Nearly all of the GlosscC's sources have been
reviewed earlier in this paper, so that no interpretative element is there
presented which goes beyond the range covered here.^50 The same holds for
Thomas Aquinas's patristic Catena Aurea on the four Gospels, compiled
in the early 1260s. All of his sources on the three Synoptic parallel texts
have been considered in this study apart from two: the commentaries of
Theophylact, archbishop of Ohrid in Bulgaria (died after 1125), and an
unidentified Remig[ius].^51 The former supplies nothing not rehearsed here
already, for Theophylact closely followed earlier expositors. The latter,
who is most probably Remigius of Auxerre (died c. 908), provides two
short extracts on Matthew. The first is of some interest:
It was also a custom among the ancients that little children be presented to
older persons, to be blessed by their hand or mouth. It was according to this
custom that little children were offered to the Lord.^52It would be worthwhile knowing what Thomas's source was for this
extract, since it adds a fresh element to the sum total of patristic (or early
medieval) interpretations.
It is not part of this investigation to pursue exegesis of the Synoptic
passages in Gospel commentaries of the medieval centuries. We have seen
that, apart from two texts, the Fathers failed to associate Jesus' blessing of
infants with infant baptism. The exceptions are Tertullian on Baptism and
the Apostolic Constitutions, neither of which in the Latin West seems to
have had much influence. Even Augustine did not cite Jesus' words and
actions in favour of infant baptism as fulsomely as might have been
expected.
The reforms of the baptismal liturgies carried out in the sixteenth
century cannot therefore at this point claim patristic precedent. Earlier in- Most conveniently seen in the facsimile reprint of the earliest printed edition
(Strasbourg, 1480-81), in K. Froehlich and M.T. Gibson (eds.), Biblia Latina... (4
vols.; Turnhout: Brepols, 1992), IV, pp, 62, 115, 203. - Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea... (ed. A. Guarienti; Turin: Marietti, 1953), I,
pp. 283-84, 509, II, p. 247; English translation, Catena Aurea: Commentary on the
Four Gospels (Oxford: Parker, 1843), I/II, pp. 659-62, II, pp. 198-99, III/II, pp. 607-
- Thomas, Catena Aurea I, p. 284; Commentary I/II, p. 660. Thomas included a
paraphrase in his own Lectura on Matthew (ed. R. Cai; Turin: Marietti, 5th edn, 1951,
pp. 241-42). The extract is not found in Remigius's homilies on Matthew inPL cxxxi,
cols. 865-932, but these seem to be selections from a larger manuscript exposition: cf.
PL cxxxi, col. 117; L. Scheffczyck, Lexikon filr Theologie und Kirche (Freiburg:
Herder, 2nd edn, 1957-67), VIII, cols. 1223-25, at 1224.