ABSTRACT
As one of the only two Catholic sacraments retained by the Reformation, baptism aroused deep discussion among the Reformers. Already Christian humanists had stressed the need to purify texts, and in their examination of Scripture had perceived what they regarded as human accretions that over many centuries had embroidered upon the rite of the early church. Within approximately two decades of the beginning of the Reformation, Protestant churches radically altered the ceremony that they had inherited. In their view, they succeeded in recapturing pristine apostolic (and thus true Christian) practice. But I shall maintain here, as elsewhere, that there was more to the story than through imaginative theological smelting processes to refine the precious metal of the divine will out of the dross of papal ore. Whether they were aware of it, Lutheran and Calvinist liturgists reveal in their innovations a profound concern for the shaping of earthly society.
