Childbirth

All [pagans] are brought to birth with idolatry for the midwife. The very wombs that bear them are still bound with the bands that have been wreathed before the idols, declaring their offspring to be consecrated to demons. For in childbirth, pagan women invoke the aid of Lucina and Diana. For a whole week, a table is spread in honor of Juno. On the last day, the fates of the horoscope are invoked. The infant’s first step on the ground is sacred to the goddess Statina. After this, does anyone fail to devote to idolatrous service the entire head of his son? . . . Hence, in no case is there any birth that is free from idolatrous superstition. It was from this circumstance that the apostle said that, when either of the parents were sanctified, the children were holy. And this as much by the prerogative of the seed as by the discipline of the institution. He says, “Otherwise, the children would be unclean” by birth. I think he meant us to understand that the children of believers were designed for holiness, and thereby for salvation. This was in order that—by this pledge of hope—he might give his support to marriage, which he had determined to maintain in its integrity. Besides, he had certainly not forgotten what the Lord had so definitively stated: “Unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” In other words, he cannot be holy. Tertullian (c. 210, W), 3.219, 220.