Infant Damnation: A rather grim Protestant doctrine associated with Puritan theologian John Calvin. It is closely associated with the doctrines of 'Total Depravity,' 'Original Sin,' and 'The Elect.' The idea of Infant Damnation is that, since all humans suffer from original sin and share in the guilt of their primordial ancestors, Adam and Eve, even newborn infants are evil and wicked rather than truly innocent. Accordingly, all infants and children who die in their youth before achieving the age of reason will face punishment in the afterlife. This contrasts with the Catholic doctrines developed by Saint Augustine, which stated a child that was baptised before the age of reason by having water sprinkled on his or her forehead would receive an invisible mark of salvation, and if the child died before adulthood, he or she would be welcomed into heaven. (Thus, in the medieval poem Pearl, we find the narrator's daughter has died as a toddler, but she is now the Bride of Christ. Likewise, in the Arthurian legends, we read of the giant cannibal that lives on a Swiftian diet of babies, but he insists that each child be baptised before he consumes the babe. Calvin would refute such a soteriology, stressing the child can only be saved by its repentence and understanding of Christ's sacrifice.)

 

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Infant Damnation: A rather grim Protestant doctrine associated with Puritan theologian John Calvin. It is closely associated with the doctrines of 'Total Depravity,' 'Original Sin,' and 'The Elect.' The idea . . . View Full Definition

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Cholera Infantum: A common, noncontagious diarrhea of young children, occurring in summer or autumn. It was common among the poor and in hand-fed babies. Death frequently occurred in three to five days