in ecclesiastical writers, a place in which the ceremony of baptism is performed.

In the ancient church it was one of the edifices or buildings distinct from the church itself; and consisted of a porch or ante-room where the persons to be baptized made their confession of faith, and an inner room where the ceremony of baptism was performed. Thus it continued till the fifth century, when the baptistries began to be taken into the church-porch, and afterwards into the church itself.

The ancient baptistries were commonly called ophiria, photisteria, q.d., places of illumination; an appellation sometimes given to baptism. Or they might have the name for another reason, because they were the places of an illumination, or instruction, preceding baptism: for here the catechumens seem to have been trained up, and instructed in the first rudiments of the Christian faith.

Those baptistries were anciently very capacious; because, as Dr Cave observes, the flated times of baptism returning but seldom, there were usually great multitudes to be baptized at the same time: and then the manner of baptizing, by immersion, or dipping under water, made it necessary to have a large font likewise. In Venantius Fortunatus, it is called aula baptismatis, the large hall of baptism; which was indeed so capacious, that we sometimes read of councils meeting and sitting therein. This hall, or chapel, was always kept shut during Lent, and the door sealed up with the bishop's seal, not to be opened till Maundy-Thursday.

The baptistery was always reputed a sacred place. In the Roman order, we find the ceremonies used in the consecration of the baptistries: they were to be built of a round figure, and distinguished with the image of St John the Baptist; over the bason or font was a figure of a dove in gold or silver; to represent the Holy Ghost.

The name baptistery is sometimes also given to a kind of chapel in a large church, which served for the same office. It is an observation of some learned men, that anciently there was but one baptistery in a city, and that at the bishop's church; and that afterwards they were set up in parish churches, with the special allowance however of the bishop.