Justification Apart From Baptism In The Eighth Century

Several centuries before the Reformation, Bede wrote against viewing 1 John 5:5 as support for justification through faith alone and, more specifically, justification apart from baptism:

"Who is he who overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? [1 John 5:5] He overcomes the world who joins works worthy of the same faith to his belief in Jesus as the Son of God. But are faith in and confession of his divinity alone enough for salvation? See what follows: This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. [1 John 5:6] Therefore, he who was the eternal Son of God became a human being in time, that he who had created us by the power of his divinity might recreate us by the weakness of his humility. He who came by water and blood, the water, namely, of his baptismal cleansing and the blood of his passion. Not in water only but in water and blood. [1 John 5:6] Not only did he deign to be baptized for the sake of our cleansing, that he might consecrate and pass on to us the sacrament of baptism, but he also gave his blood for us, he redeemed us by his passion, that being always restored to health by his sacraments we might be nourished for salvation." (David Hurst, trans., Bede The Venerable: Commentary On The Seven Catholic Epistles [Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1985], 216)

The relevance this passage has for disputes over the history of belief in justification through faith alone (and justification apart from baptism in particular) depends on what position is being addressed. Bede could just be discussing a hypothetical. He may not have had any actual individuals or groups in mind. I've argued elsewhere that there were many individuals and groups before the Reformation who believed in justification through faith alone and justification apart from baptism specifically. See here, for example. Bede may not have had such people in mind, however.

Even if he was just bringing up a hypothetical, there's some significance in the fact that he recognized the potential to see sola fide in 1 John 5 and thought it was worth responding to. That gets at issues like the conceivability, plausibility, and such of justification through faith alone in the pre-Reformation era and what level of concern the pre-Reformation sources had about it. As Bede illustrates, the concept was recognized before the Reformation, and there was an interest in addressing it.

Elsewhere, Bede acknowledges that people are sometimes justified apart from baptism in the gospels and elsewhere in the New Testament. He compares the centurion in Luke 7 to Cornelius in Acts 10, who likewise "deservedly received the Holy Spirit's gift of great faith and justice, before he was baptized" (Calvin Kendall and Faith Wallis, translators and editors, Bede: Commentary On The Gospel Of Luke [Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press, 2023], 294). He not only refers to the justification of the centurion in Luke 7 apart from baptism, but also refers to how it was granted to the centurion that his "slave be saved" (ibid.), apparently also without baptism.