Furnaces, Candles, and Other Tricks: Christian Clergy as Baptismal “Magicians”

Abstract

In the third century, the anonymous author of De Rebaptismate argued that one of the heretical groups used tricks to create fire on the water during their baptisms in imitation of Jesus' baptism in the river Jordan. This paper will begin by briefly summarizing the scriptural and non-scriptural accounts of the appearance of fire and light on the water during Jesus’ baptism. It will then look at liturgical, literary, and material sources from the fourth century to early medieval period, primarily in the West, that may indicate that the tricks and artifices so objectionable to the author of De Rebaptismate were actually embraced by Nicene Christians, though the link to the debate that animated De Rebaptismate became largely forgotten.