Forced baptism
A forced baptism is a baptism against the will of the candidate. In Christian theology, the validity of forced baptism is almost universally disputed. Nevertheless, in the course of church history , power or church political interests resulted in various forced baptisms.
Child baptism is to be distinguished from compulsory baptism . It is partly theologically controversial within the Christian denominations and between them and is seen by some free church groups such as the baptized-minded as a compulsion, since it is carried out without the baptized person's express declaration of intent .
history
After Christianity had been promoted - as a result of the so-called Constantinian Turnaround - and had become the state religion of the Roman Empire at the end of the 4th century , the dispute began about means of coercion to Christianize non- Christians .
Because of the experiences during the persecution of Christians from the time of early Christianity, the instrument of forced baptism was not used in Christian heathen mission in the early period. Instead, the religion of the individual was based on the religious denomination of the people's or tribal leader: If a people's or tribal leader had been won over to Christianity by peaceful or violent means, it was not uncommon for all members of his people or tribe to be baptized. However, it was not actually a compulsory baptism.
The instrument of compulsory baptism is known partly from the German mission and from the Saxon Wars of Charlemagne , which did not take place without severe criticism and resistance, etc. a. by the future abbot Alcuin . After the Decretum Gratiani it was banned in 1150. The renunciation of this means meant for the Teutonic Order a justification to attack its pagan opponents again and again despite the peace of God . Forced baptism was also occasionally used against Jews , in particular as a result of the Alhambra Edict of 1492 by the Catholic kings Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon . No forced baptisms were performed in Latin America . In the area of Paraguay, for example, where not conquistadores but Jesuits took over the missionary work, there was no compulsory baptism.
Until the middle of the 19th century , compulsory baptisms were occasionally carried out in Germany and Austria . Parents who, because of their ideological convictions, did not want their children to be baptized, for example Baptists and atheists , were in individual cases forced to consent to their children being baptized under threat of severe penalties. If they nevertheless refused to give their consent, the state church authorities had the children officially brought before them for baptism. The parents not only had to pay for this procedure, but also received prison sentences and / or fines. Rolf Schäfer writes about the compulsory baptisms in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg :
“[...] the struggle over the doctrine of baptism did not take place with the help of arguments - especially since the Baptists were not taken seriously theologically - but with the instruments of power of the bourgeois order. Therefore, the newborns were forcibly baptized before 1848. "
literature
- Lutz E. von Padberg : Christianization in the Middle Ages. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-8062-2006-9 .
Web links
- Pope Pius IX on the forced baptism and kidnapping of a Jewish boy (PDF file; 1.21 MB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wilfried Hartmann: Charlemagne . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-17-018068-0 , p. 162 f.
- ^ Rolf Schäfer, Joachim Kuropka u. a. (Ed.): Oldenburgische Kirchengeschichte , Oldenburg 1999, ISBN 3-89598-624-0 , p. 405.