581. Calvin: no Communion for uncatechized Pre-Adolescents
Rev. Professor Dr. John Calvin of Geneva – the greatest Protestant Reformer of all time – was baptized in infancy in the Romish Church. He was – as a later matter of Protestant principle – never subsequently re-baptized after becoming a Protestant.
Precisely for Biblical reasons, he strongly opposed all re-baptizings – by Protestants – of converts from Rome. Consistently, he also rejected all notions that Presbyterians should ever re-baptize any previously-baptized Anabaptist who might later become a paedobaptistic Protestant.1848
Calvin also opposed all anabaptistic postponement of the baptizing of covenant children till after their infancy.1849 He further opposed all giving of Holy Communion to infantly-baptized though uncatechized children of professing Christians. For he believed they needed first to be catechized, and admitted to the Table no earlier than at adolescence.