310 BuoniCattolici
his killing of pregnant women to prevent the baptism of their unborn chil-
dren.^6 Merely to neglect baptism was a sin, close to heresy.
Baptism was essential for participation in the sacraments and rites of the
Church. A Franciscan novice was unable to look at the Host when the priest
raised it at Mass. His superiors investigated the matter and found that he
had been born among the Saracens and never baptized. After they baptized
him, the young man was finally able to gaze upon his Maker with the rest of
the community. A Tuscan novice could never recite the Office or Pater Nos-
ter without stuttering. When priests blessed him, the boy would throw him-
self down and pound his head on the floor. Investigations showed that he
was anexpositus—a foundling—who had never been baptized.^7 Again, the
sacrament allowed him to join in the Office and receive its blessings. God
might work miracles to provide baptism. In 1240 , Donna Montanaria, wife
of Ugolino, a saddlemaker from San Cristoforo, near Orvieto, gave birth
to a stillborn child. She invoked Saint Ambrogio of Massa, through whose
intercession the child revived. After emergency baptism, the child lived four
weeks before rejoining his Maker.^8
Any layman or woman could perform emergency baptism if the child was
in danger and no priest was available. Church councils repeatedly reminded
the clergy that they were to explain to the people the Latin formula (in
the name of the Trinity) and the manner (immersion preferred, pouring or
sprinkling allowed) in sermons three times a year, on Holy Saturday, the
Pentecost vigil, and the octave of Epiphany.^9 If illiterate, the baptizer could
perform the rite in the vernacular.^10 If a priest was available for emergency
baptism, he included as many of the other rites as possible, such as the
exorcisms that preceded the baptism and the sacramental Communion that
at this time still followed it, even for infants. As he was not a bishop, he
omitted the anointing of confirmation.^11 The Verona ritual provided for
‘‘private’’ baptisms with a shortened form of the ceremonies of public bap-
tisms.^12 Such rituals also allowed priests later to supply rituals omitted when,
in truly desperate cases, a layperson baptized the child immediately after
birth and the child survived.
All orthodox Christians knew that baptism remitted sin, both original and
6 .Historia Fratris Dulcinae Heresiarche,ed. Arnaldo Segarizzi,RIS^29 : 5 : 9.
7 .ChronicaxxivGeneralium Ordinis Fratrum Minorum, 310 – 11.
8 .Processus Canonizationis B. Ambrosii Massani, 21 ,p. 581 ; cf. Thomas of Pavia,Dialogus de Gestis Sancto-
rum Fraturm Minorum,ed. Ferdinand M. Delorme (Quaracchi: Collegium S. Bonaventurae, 1923 ), 50 ,p.
180. See also a similar miracle by Saint Ambrogio Sansedoni in Gisberto of Alessandria et al.,Vita [B.
Ambrosii], 11. 110 ,p. 199.
9. Ravenna Council ( 1311 ), 9 and 11 , pp. 455 – 56 ; Ravenna Council ( 1314 ), 14 ,p. 547.
10. Bologna Synod ( 1310 ), 488.
11. SeeManuale Ambrosianum, 2 : 472 – 73 ; Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana,msA 189 Inf., fols. 70 v– 72 v.
12. Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare,ms mcix(latexiicent.), fols. 4 v– 15 r.