VIRUS Band 15, pp. 107-125, 2020/07/22
Schwerpunkt: Medizin und Religion
In 1777 the Tyrolean theologian Anton von Sterzinger zu Salzrein (1751–1809) publisheda manual on the importance and practical administration of the holy sacrament of baptism („Abhandlung von der Heiligen Taufe“), including two chapters on the issue of midwife administered emergency baptism. This paper focuses on the contextualisation of the instruction situated at the ambivalent intersection of theological and medical knowledge. Sterzinger’s motivation and the sources cited are scrutinized in order to reconstruct the author’s standpoint in the virulent debates surrounding the animation of the human embryo and the administration of emergency baptism. The final chapter will then deal with the deliberate omission of medico-anatomical terminology and of controversial obstetric and religious practices such as intrauterine baptism procedures and caesarean section.
Keywords: Emergency baptism, midwives, clergymen, religious education, 18th century, Tyrol
