Le lien de caritas dans la société chrétienne médiévale et la justification du baptême des enfants en bas-âge

• Main Author: Axelle Neyrinck
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Centre de Recherches Historiques 2015-11-01
• Series: L'Atelier du CRH
• Subjects: Middle Ages; baptism; Holy Innocents; martyrdom; caritas
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/acrh/6674

Medieval theologians think the social link in terms of caritas, a spiritual love conveyed by the Holy Spirit and irrigating the whole society. This caritas is provided by the sacraments that punctuate the life of the Christian, first and foremost by the rite of baptism which marks the integration into the community. In Early Christianity, baptism was a personal commitment pronouced by adult catechumens. However, during Early Middle Ages, infant baptism became widespread. This paedobaptism raises the following problem: how can an infant, etymologically “unable to speak” (in-fans) pronounce a personal commitment to prove his faith? Medieval theologians, seeking doctrinal solutions to this problem of paedobaptism, provide reflexions about the Holy Innocents, who are martyrs but unbaptized forasmuch as Jewish and whose massacre is reported in the Gospel of Matthew (2, 16-18).