Controv. XIII.II: Is the baptismal exorcism rite useful — or even necessary — in the church?
Second question under the rites head: the ceremony of exorcism in baptism.
The minister about to baptize an infant (1) asks whether the child believes, whether he renounces the world, and the like; (2) commands Satan to leave the infant — possessed by the demon not bodily, but spiritually — and give place to the Holy Spirit; (3) using the sign of the cross and a fixed form of words.
Is that rite usefully kept in the Christian church — or even necessary, and to be kept without fail? Some Lutherans affirm one or the other; most of them, with the Reformed, deny.
See the Cassel consensus on exorcism (above, p. 340). Saxons and the rest also grant that the rite is not essential to baptism, not commanded by Christ or the apostles, not a spiritual power in itself — only a sign that infants are born children of wrath and stand under Satan's power outside Christ.
Latin
XIV. II. An Exorcismi Ceremonia in Baptismi administratione, quâ Minister baptizaturus Infantem, 1. Quaerit an credat, an abrenunciet seculo, &c. 2. Imperat Satanae, ut ab infante baptizando, non corporaliter quidem, sed spiritualiter à Daemone possesso, exeat, detque locum Spiritui S. 3. Adhibito Crucis signo, & certâ verborum formula; An sit ille ritus vel etiam utiliter retentus in Ecclesia Christiana, vel etiam necessarius, & omninò retinendus? Affirm. alterutrum Luther. quidam; Negant cum Reform. eorum plurimi. VIDE consensum Cassellanum, circa Exorcismum, suprâ p. 340. Ac fassi etiam Saxonici, & reliqui, Ritum nec essentialem esse Baptismo, nec imperatum à Christo vel Apostolis, nec vis alicujus spiritualis, nec nisi σημαντικὸν nasci Infantes irae filios, & sub Satanae potestate, extrà Christum, constitutos.