Adrian, a Christian Bishop or Teacher

In our account of baptism for the year 606, we mentioned the celebrated teacher and Bishop Adrian, and stated, from a certain letter sent by Gregory the Great to John, bishop of Larissa, that Adrian was accused of having refused baptism to infants. But it seems it did not stop with that accusation; apparently they went further, and proceeded more severely and cruelly against him, for the matter above was charged to him as a crime or a heinous sin. Hence he was proceeded against criminally, and such criminal punishment sometimes related to property, but most often it was corporal, or capital, in nature.

Moreover, though that punishment was ordained for great crimes and criminals, yet in Adrian's case we can see that it was founded on nothing but his disregard and rejection of infant baptism, as appears from the rest of Gregory's letter to John, which reads as follows: "Pursuant to the chapter of criminal matters, a charge was brought against Bishop Adrian, or laid against him by way of punishment, concerning the children who, by his orders, had been kept from baptism, and died in darkness, unbaptized (or unwashed) from the filth of sin." Compare with the account in Bapt. Hist., page 546.

If anyone should object that this chapter of criminal matters was not comprehensive and strict enough, and that therefore Adrian was probably not really punished corporally or with death by virtue of it, we do not feel inclined to dispute with such a person. It is enough for us to have learned, on the one hand, that this teacher Adrian did not hesitate, even though he would incur severe penalty, to speak against infant baptism, indeed, what is still more, to refuse infants baptism, and to let them die unbaptized, as being under the grace of God; and on the other hand, that those of the Roman church were exceedingly dissatisfied with this, indeed, to such a degree that the chapter of criminal matters was opened and, apparently in the form of a sentence, set before this good man, either to send him (after previous excommunication) into banishment, or to strip him of his property, or to punish him corporally or with death. But whether that sentence was actually carried out on him is not clearly stated; hence we commit the truth of the matter to God.

In the meantime, what we have said before appears here, namely, that the pope, or the Roman church, did not hesitate not only to anathematize their opposers, as had formerly been customary, especially those who spoke against infant baptism, but also to proceed against them criminally, or by way of corporal punishment. This was done with that teacher Adrian, of whose departure we have a good hope, whether he died a natural or a violent death. The Lord knows His own, and in the hereafter He will not leave unrewarded those who have suffered for testifying to His truth and opposing error.