Spenser says in the View that he "doubts not" that "many" Irish papists
who don't know the true, the Protestant faith, are saved by their
baptism "by what hand soever it be done rightly"(itself a romanist
idea). It's in a passage that talks about Rome teaching trash and being
the whore of Babylon who made all nations drunken, so that many readers
take it as just another antipapal tirade, but it isn't. A fortiriori, if
some contemporary but ignorant Irish papists can be saved by their
baptism even now, then some of these poor benighted souls who lived
before the Reformation must certainly be saved.
James Broaddus wrote:
> Were there discussions other than Hooker's regarding salvation for those
> who, adhering to the doctrines espoused by the "bishops of Rome," lived
> and died prior to the Reformation?
>
> I have been lead to believe that Hooker was more liberal about the
> matter than most;
>
> My thanks in advance,
>
> Jim Broaddus
>
> emeritus, Ind. State Univ.
> 2487 KY 3245
> Brodhead, KY 40409
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