Baptism In The Medieval West

As infant baptism became common, the process of catechizing shifted from before to after baptism. In the Western church, the baptismal anointing with oil (chrism) slowly developed into a separate sacrament called confirmation. First Communion was often delayed for a number of years. Scholastic theologians developed theological language to describe the way baptism left its mark on the person baptized. The patristic form of the catechumenate was in its prime in the third, fourth and fifth centuries. The history of baptism in the early medieval period is a story of its division of the patristic unified structure of initiation into three separate ritual moments of water baptism, confirmation, and first Eucharist. There were a variety of reasons for the decline of the catechumenate. One factor was the mass conversions of the German and Slavic tribes. Since they were largely nomadic tribes, they were not in one place long enough for an extended period of formation. Another reason was the…