Chapter 64: Baptism
At around 10:30 a.m., the last part of the Mass was completed in the Nazareth Church at Nottingham Castle, where Fr. Boniface Thomas presided over the Sunday Mass to the sound of the congregational hymns of the faithful.
Next, Father Thomas held a personal confession for Isabel Walton in the confessional room at the behest of Lord Henry. After going through the five steps of confession, contrition, confession, contrition, forgiveness, and penance, Isabel completed one of the two sacraments that she needed to complete as a sinner before she could be pardoned.
Another sacrament is baptism. Baptism is the right path for Jesus to join the Christian church, one of the seven sacraments, that is, seven ceremonies endowed with special sacred meanings, and one of the only seven sacraments recognized by traditional Christian denominations such as Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. However, within the Protestant Church, founded by the German Martin Luther, the only sacraments of Christ were baptism and communion (known as the Eucharist in Catholicism).
When Isabel, a former Protestant, went to church in her hometown town (called Mass in Catholicism), she was instilled with the Protestant idea that since salvation can be achieved by faith alone, every believer can become a pastor, and there is no need for a pastor to act as an intermediary between God and man.
Therefore, when she confessed to Father Thomas in the confessional chamber of the church in Nazareth in north-east England in 1534, she could only dig out some meditation and collect some memorable scenes of confessions of Catholics in Hollywood films to get by.
As a human being who has undergone a high degree of evolution in terms of thinking logic and the relationship between man and society hundreds of years later, Isabel does not even believe that a large number of confessional dialogues "borrowed" from the movie can play a miraculous role in front of the ancient clergy.
As for the baptism that followed, she certainly knew exactly what it was, because she had been baptized once as a Protestant. Whether it is Catholicism, Orthodoxy or Protestantism, baptism is regarded as an important religious ritual of Christianity, that is, the initiation ceremony. Later, baptism was subdivided into two types: water baptism and baptism.
She estimated that the Catholic clergy in north-east England at this time were likely to adopt the "baptism" method. Regardless of the controversy that the two forms of baptism, water baptism and baptism, often caused in later societies, she was now ready to be baptized in two ways. One view of the later Church, she believes, is more correct, that is, there is no difference between the effects of water baptism and baptism.
As expected, Father Thomas led her to the side outside the church after putting her in a white blouse. He pointed to a large water tank in the corner and said, "Sister Isabel Walton, will you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?" ”
Under the silent gaze of the lord, the governess, the butler, the two knights and the would-be lancers, the servants and tenant farmers, and the common people from Richmondshire, Isabel reverently said, "I do." ”
Father Thomas said, "Now I baptize you in the name of Christ Jesus. ”
Without waiting for the priest's further instructions, Isabel, still clothed, immediately walked to the tank called the Baptist Pool, stepped into the tank with her legs raised, and submerged her whole body in the water, leaving her head exposed.
Next, Father Thomas, who presided over the baptism, faced the crowd and said in a loud voice as he pressed his right hand on the top of her head and submerged her in the water: "God, please enshrine your servant Isabel as a saint, make her an angel of light, and let the water of holiness be poured on her ......." ”
With that, he raised his right hand to expose Isabel's head to the water. A few seconds later, when the priest submerged her head in the water again, he exclaimed: "Bless her and make her your right-hand man...... Let her inherit your glory. ”
And so on, when the priest submerged her head in the water for the third time, he said, "...... Let her pass on the Word and let her grow in wisdom and respect...... Then she will have God-like qualities, Amen. ”
At this point, the three "immersion" baptisms, which symbolize the meaning of "washing, death, and resurrection", have been perfectly completed. When Isabel stood up from the water casually but with great emotion, the crowd gave her a round of applause and a friendly smile.
Isabel herself was smiling at everyone. How excited and pious she was in the eyes of all; It seemed to her that at this time a joke about baptism came to mind. US President George W. Bush once said that the reason why "water baptism" is different from "water immersion" is that "water immersion" will completely wash people's souls, while "water baptism" is "dry cleaning" of the soul.
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Now, Isabel's original sin and guilt have been completely forgiven. To paraphrase the book "Gospel of Mark" in the New Testament of the Bible, he who believes and is baptized will be saved, and he who does not believe will be condemned.
What is ironic is that at this time she was once again "lucky" to become a Catholic, and she was a Catholic hundreds of years ago. Like the resurrection of Jesus in the Bible, Isabel Walton has now been completely freed from being a "witch" or a Burgundian from continental Europe. In the eyes and hearts of all, she has been resurrected as a new member of the Nottingham Castle family.
Luckily, her lord, Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond, looked the other way for her, otherwise she would have been saddled with a debt of compensation to Ackerman's family, who she had killed.
Before lunch, Henry called Isabel aside and said to her in French hesitantly: "Isabel, you are like a budding red and white rose in my eyes." How elegant and beautiful you are when you are young. I think I'm very lucky that I can have you to lunch. ”
Henry thought he spoke French fluently, beautifully or beautifully. Isabel also admits that there are couplets and conjunctions, with a subdued and undulating intonation, and that the accent at the end is indeed more coherent in speaking and reading in French than in English.
At the moment, she had only one feeling about Henry's large passage of French: the underage redhead was actually flirting with her. Isabel smiled at Henry, who looked like a high school student, and said in French: "Your Royal Highness, I am not qualified to have lunch or dinner with you so far. If what you're saying is true, I don't think you're just going to treat me to lunch, are you? ”
Henry's little face flushed slightly, and he replied, "Isabel, I really just wanted to treat you to lunch. Because, at the very least, it will shorten the distance between me and you. ”
Isabel glanced at Sir Alex Ferguson and Augustine as she thought back and forth in her mind about the plunder she had devised over and over again. He said a joke with a smile: "Your Royal Highness, there will always be such a thing as distance between me and you. Unless one day, I can be some nobleman who can have lunch with you. ”