Christening sub conditione

[Gene]

Has anyone else run across the expression 'sub conditione' in old baptismal
records? Any idea what it means?

Thanks -

Gene

[Gene Y.]

In a catholic church, after an emergency baptism by someone who may not
have known the correct procedure or in circumstances where it is not
known whether the person to be baptized has been baptized already, a
form of baptism known as "conditional" is used (often marked as "sub
conditione", "sub con" or merely "s" or "c" in the register).

--
Gene Young

[Steve Hayes]

On Thu, 20 May 2010 10:40:37 -0400, Gene <here...@embarqmail.com> wrote:

>Has anyone else run across the expression 'sub conditione' in old baptismal
>records? Any idea what it means?

"If you are not already baptised, I baptize you..."

It is used when it is doubtful whether a person has already been baptized or
not.

--
Steve Hayes
Web: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/
http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/famhist1.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7783/

[Betti Cogswell]

also used if a baby might die at birth.....since catholocism -
especially pre reformational catholocism, held that even a new born who
dies unshriven, cannot be buried in consecrated ground.

[Steve Hayes]

On Thu, 20 May 2010 13:34:37 -0700, Betti Cogswell <chi...@pobox.com> wrote:

>also used if a baby might die at birth.....since catholocism -
>especially pre reformational catholocism, held that even a new born who
>dies unshriven, cannot be buried in consecrated ground.

Not the same thing.

"Shriven" means given absolution by a priest after making a confession.
Newborn babiesd can't speak, and so can't make confession. In the Catholic
church, children mae their first confession around the age of 7 or 8.

But if someone appears at a church and wants to join, and the priest says
"Have you been baptised?" and the person says "I don't know" then the priest
may baptise the person conditionally, using ther formula "If you are not
already baptised, I baptise you..."

The significance for genealogists is that if there was a conditional baptism,
there may be a record of an original baptism somewhere else.

If a person was baptised as an infant, and the parents have died, they might
not know whether they had been baptised or not, and so the original record of
baptism might give more information about the family.