Trine
immersion was the universal rule of the Catholic Church.
cf. Greg. Nyss. The Great Catechism, p. 502 of this
edition. So Tertull. de Cor. Mil. c iii.,
Aquam adituri, ibidem, sed et aliquanto prius in ecclesia, sub
antistitis manu contestamur, nos renuntiare diabolo et pompæ et
angelis ejus. Dehinc ter mergitamur. Sozomen (vi.
26) says that Eunomius was alleged to be the first to maintain that
baptism ought to be performed in one immersion and to corrupt in
this manner the tradition of the apostles, and Theodoret
(Hæret. fab. iv. 3) describes Eunomius as abandoning the trine
immersion, and also the invocation of the Trinity as baptizing into
the death of Christ. Jeremy Taylor (Ductor dubitantium,
iii. 4, Sect. 13) says, “In England we have a custom of
sprinkling, and that but once.…As to the number, though the
Church of England hath made no law, and therefore the custom of
doing it once is the more indifferent and at liberty, yet if the
trine immersion be agreeable to the analogy of the mystery, and the
other be not, the custom ought not to prevail, and is not to be
complied with, if the case be evident or declared.”