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Character Dominicus

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Character Indelebilis.

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(the mark of the Lord), a name by which, as well as character regius (royal mark), Augustine designates the sacrament of baptism; "by which he does not mean any internal quality or spiritual power distinct from baptism imprinted on the soul, but only the external form common to all receivers, both good and bad, who are duly baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity; that they are so far signed by the mark or character of the Lord as thereby to be distinguished from unbaptized Jews and Gentiles, who never made any formal profession of Christianity, nor ever received so much as the external indication of it. He allowed this character to be so far indelible that a Christian, though he turn Jew or pagan, can never need a second baptism, but only repentance and absolution to reinstate him in the Church." It is clear that Augustine did not dream of the later Romanist theory of sacramental "character." — Bingham, Orig. Ecclesiastes bk. 11, ch. 1, § 7. (See CHARACTER INDELEBILIS).