mologesis_,
by which, after a fresh term of repentance, marked by austerities more
strict than any Trappist monk imposes on himself to-day, the persons lapsed
from grace could re-enter the church. In effect this rite was a repetition
of baptism, the water of the font alone being omitted. Such restoration
could in the earlier church only be effected once. A second lapse from the
state of grace entailed perpetual exclusion from the sacraments, the means
of salvation. As has been remarked above, the terror of post-baptismal sin
and the fact that only one restoration was allowable influenced many as
late as the 4th century to remain catechumens all their lives, and, like
Constantine, to receive baptism on the [v.03 p.0368] deathbed alone. The
same scruples endured among the medieval Cathars. (See PENANCE and
NOVATIANUS.)

11. _Baptism for the Dead._--Paul, in 1 Cor. xv. 29, glances at this as an
established practice familiar to those whom he addresses. Three
explanations are possible: (1) The saints before they were quickened or
made alive together with Christ, were dead through their trespasses and
sins. In baptism they were buried with Christ and rose, like Him, from the
dead. We can, therefore, paraphrase v. 29 thus: "Else what shall they do
which are baptized for their dead selves?" &c. It is in behalf of his own
sinful, _i.e._ dead self, that the sinner is baptized and receives eternal
life. (2) Contact with the dead entailed a pollution which lasted at least
a day and must be washed away by ablutions, before a man is re-admitted to
religious cult. This was the rule among the Jews. Is it possible that the
words "for the dead" signify "because of contact with the dead"? (3) Both
these explanations are forced, and it is more probable that by a
make-believe common in all religions, and not unknown in the earliest
church, the sins of dead relatives, about whose salvation their survivors
were anxious, were transferred into living persons, who assumed for the
nonce their names and were baptized in their behalf, so in vicarious wise
rendering it possible for the sins of the dead to be washed away. The
Mormons have this rite. The idea of transferring sin into another man or
into an animal, and so getting it purged through him or it, was widespread
in the age of Paul and long afterwards. Chrysostom says that the
substitutes were put into the beds of the deceased, and assuming the voice
of the dead asked for baptism and remission