B

BAPTISM. One of the seven sacraments (q.v.) of the Catholic Church, baptism was administered by century-old tradition to infants. In the early Reformation baptism was initially not an issue. Even though Martin Luther's (q.v.) redefinition of the sacraments reduced their number from seven to two, baptism was retained by him as a sacrament alongside Communion since it had both a dominical command and a salvatory consequence (as a vehicle of grace). Luther's insistence that faith was a necessary ingredient in the beneficial reception of the sacrament raised the obvious question as to the appropriateness of administering the sacrament of baptism to infants.