Pope Pius V on Baptism
Infants included, and effective for regeneration
If then, through the transgression of Adam, children inherit original sin, with still stronger reason can they attain through Christ our Lord grace and justice that they may reign in life.
THE POSITION
Infants are to be baptised, and baptism regenerates them. The catechism argues from Adam and Christ: if children inherit sin from the one, still more can they receive grace from the other. It calls the remission of all sin, original and actual, "the peculiar effect of Baptism", and since infants "have no other means of salvation", it tells pastors to press parents not to delay.
17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
10 OTHERS HOLD THIS
ABOUT THIS FIGURE
Michele Ghislieri, a Dominican friar and inquisitor, was pope from 1566 to 1572 and carried the Council of Trent's decrees into practice. Under his authority came the Roman Catechism (1566), the reformed Breviary (1568) and Missal (1570), and the bull Ex omnibus afflictionibus (1567) on the teaching of Michael Baius; he also named Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church. He wrote little theology of his own, so this entry rests on what he promulgated: the Roman Catechism, read in the McHugh and Callan translation, a commission's work issued by his order, and the 1567 bull in Deferrari's translation of Denzinger.
Cite this page
"Pope Pius V on Baptism", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/pius-v/baptism (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/pius-v/baptism).