! Hannah dedi- cated her Samuel to the Lord even before his birth ; and imme- diately after his birth trained him for the priesthood. Instead of fearing human weakness, trust in God." Many adult catechumens and proselytes likewise, partly from light-mindedness and love of the world, partly from pious pru- dence and superstitious fear of impairing the magical virtue of baptism, postponed their baptism until sorae misfortune or se- vere sickness drove them to the ordinance. The most celebrat- ed example of this is the emperor Constantine, who was not baptized till he was on his bed of death. The postponement of baptism in that day was equivalent to the postponement of repentance and conversion so frequent in ours. This custom was resisted by the most eminent church teachers, but did not give way till the fifth century, when it gradually disappeared before the universal introduction of infant baptism. Heretical baptism was now generally regarded as valid, if performed in the name of the triune God. The Roman view prevailed over the Cyprianic, at least in the Western church ; except among the Donatists, who entirely rejected heretical baptism (as well as the catholic baptism), and made the efii- eacy of the sacrament dejDend not only on the ecclesiastical position, but also on the personal piety of the officiating priest. Augustine, in his anti-Donatistic writings, defends the va- lidity of heretical baptism by the following course of argument : Baptism is an institution of Christ, in the administration of which the minister is only an agent ; the grace or virtue of the sacrament is entirely dependent on Christ, and not on the moral character of the administering agent ; the unbeliever receives not the power, but the form of the sacrament, which indeed is of no use to the baptized as long as he is outside of the saving catholic communion, but becomes available as soon as he enters it on profession of faith ; baptism, wherever performed, imparts an indelible character, or, as he calls it, a " character dominicus," " regius." He compares it often to the " nota militaris," which marks the soldier once for all, whether it was branded on his body by the legitimate captain or by a rebel, and binds him § 92. BAPTISM. 485 to the service, and exposes him to punishment for disobe- dience. Proselyted heretics were, however, always confirmed by the laying on of hands, when received into the catholic church. They were treated like penitents. Leo the Great says of them, that they have received only the form of baptism without the power of sanctification.' The most eminent Greek fathers of the Nicene age, on the other hand, adhered to the position of Cyprian and Firmilian. Athanasius, Gregory I^azianzen, Basil, and Cyril of Jerusa- lem regarded, besides the proper form, the true trinitarian faith on the part of the baptizing community, as an. essential condition of the validity of baptism. The 45th of the so-called Apostolic Canons threatens