2015 Arthur O. Lovejoy Lecture: The Boys on the Beach: Children’s Games and Baptismal Grace in Medieval Thought

This paper tracks the fortunes of the debate on whether children playing at baptism can actually administer and receive a valid sacramental baptism from Rufinus of Aquileia (late 4th to early 5th century) through ca. 1300. Theologians and canonists who addressed this question arrived at no consensus. They often disagreed with their own masters, applied Rufinus to a range of issues he never took up, used him to support or criticize Augustine on this topic, and viewed as acceptable more than one position on it within orthodox Christianity.