Why are so many Fathers and baptism liturgies concerned with renouncing the devil?

The candidate for baptism removes his clothes while facing the west, or the mother, father, or sponsor stands carrying the child on their left arm and facing the west. The candidate for baptism or his sponsor raises his right hand as if talking to Satan, declaring their renunciation openly to him and his dark kingdom.

When baptizing infants, the mother or the sponsor takes off the child’s clothes and then carry him/her on their left arm while facing the west. The sponsor then raises their right hand and repeats after the priest certain words to renounce Satan. When baptizing adults, the candidate for baptism repeats the same words after the priest saying, “I renounce you Satan and all your unclean works and all your wicked angels and all your evil demons and all your power and all your abominable service and all your evil cunning and error and all your army and all your authority and all the rest of your impieties. I renounce you. I renounce you. I renounce you.”

According to Tertullian , this renunciation was performed inside the baptismal font.¹³⁴² But according to the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus , it is done before getting into the water.¹³⁴³ The source of this rite according to St. Basil the Great is tradition:

“Moreover we bless the water of baptism and the oil of the chrism, and besides this the catechumen who is being baptized. On what written authority do we do this? Is not our authority silent and mystical tradition? By what written word is the anointing of oil itself taught? And from where did the custom of baptizing thrice come from? And as to the other customs of baptism from what Scripture do we derive the renunciation of Satan and his angels? Does not this come from that unpublished and secret teaching which our fathers guarded in a silence out of the reach of curious meddling and inquisitive investigation? Well had they learned the lesson that the awful dignity of the mysteries is best preserved by silence. What the uninitiated are not even allowed to look at was hardly likely to be publicly paraded about in written documents.”¹³⁴⁴

This is an essential part of the baptism rite. Many of the writings of the early Church refer to it and reveal its theological and spiritual basis. Tertullian says, “When we are going to enter the water, but a little before, in the presence of the congregation and under the hand of the president [bishop], we solemnly profess that we disown the devil, and his pomp, and his angels.”¹³⁴⁵ J. Jungmann believes that the word, “pomp” refers to the special procession that was carried out during feasts in the past, at the time when idols used to be carried in victorious processions, so that the devil appears as if he is the conqueror of the world, and as though

1342 Tertullian, De Corona (The Chaplet) 3 (ANF 3:94) and The Shows 4 (ANF 3:81).

1343 E. C. Whitaker and M. E. Johnson, Documents of the Baptismal Liturgy (revised 3rd ed.) (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2003) p. xiii.

1344 St. Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit 27.66 (PP 42:104).

1345 Tertullian, De Corona (The Chaplet) 3 (ANF 3:94).

those who are living in sin are walking in this procession as his soldiers. So, the baptism candidate declares that he has left behind this satanic camp and has become a member of God’s army to serve His Kingdom.¹³⁴⁶

Some scholars understand the word “pomp” to refer to luxurious living and worldly glory or vain glory. St. John Chrysostom explains this word thus: “if we say from the heart: ‘I renounce you, Satan, and your pomps,’ He has received all that He asks. Therefore, let us say these words: ‘I renounce thee, Satan,’ knowing that we shall be called to account for them on that Day of Judgment; let us guard them, so that we may then repay in full what has been entrusted to our care. And the pomps of the devil are the theaters, the racecourses, every sinful observance of days, presages contained in chance utterances, and omens. And what in the world are omens, you ask? Often a man leaves his own house and sees a man who has one eye or who is lame, and counts it an omen. This is a pomp of the devil. Meeting up with the man does not make it an evil day, but living in sin does. Therefore, when you leave your house, guard against one thing only: see to it that sin does not meet up with you. For it is sin which trips us up, and apart from this there is no way in which the devil can hurt us.”¹³⁴⁷ Christians abstained from all kinds of amusements. At that time, these amusements were usually performed to honor the pagan gods. Even the winners in sports were crowned by the name of the gods.

The phrase “his angels” refers to our renunciation of the devil and all his followers: “Those named “his angels” are all those humans who glean from [Satan] some malice whereby they wrong others.”¹³⁴⁸

St. Cyril of Jerusalem explains this rite to the newly baptized saying, “But, you are bidden to say, with arm outstretched towards him as being present, ‘I renounce you, Satan.’ I also wish to say wherefore you stand to face the West; for it is necessary. Since the West is the region of sensible darkness, and he, being in the dark, has his dominion also in darkness … What then did each of you stand up and say? ‘I renounce you, Satan,’ — you wicked and the cruelest tyrant! Meaning, ‘I fear your might no longer; for that Christ has overthrown, having partaken with me of flesh and blood. That through these He might by death destroy death that I might not be made subject to bondage forever.’ ‘I renounce you,’ — you crafty and the most subtle serpent. ‘I renounce you,’ — plotter as you are, who under the guise of friendship did contrive all disobedience, and work apostasy in our first parents. ‘I renounce you, Satan,’ — the artificer and partner of all wickedness. Then in a second sentence, you are taught to say, ‘And all your works.’ Now the works of Satan are all sin, which also you must renounce; — just as one who has escaped a tyrant has inevitably survived his weapons also. Then you say, ‘And all his pomp.’ Now the pomp of the devil is the madness of theatres,

1346 Josef Andreas Jungmann, The Early Liturgy, to the Time of Gregory the Great , trans., Francis A. Brunner (University of Notre Dame Press, 1959): p. 80.

1347 St. John Chrysostom, Baptismal Instructions 2.51–53 (ACW 31:189) amended.

1348 Theodore of Mopsuestia, Catechetical Homilies 13.8 quoted in Fredrick G. MacLeod, Theodore of Mopsuestia (Routledge, 2009): p. 164.

and horse races, and hunting, and all such vanity. After this, you say, ‘And all your service.’ Now the service of the devil is prayer in idol temples; things are done in honor of lifeless idols.”¹³⁴⁹

Theodore of Mopsuestia says that the candidate for baptism renouncing Satan in the presence of the bishop is like an accused person who declares his innocence before the judge. Since the beginning, Satan has always been trying to find any evidence against us, claiming that it is not our right to flee from his kingdom and that we are still his possession, since we are Adam’s offspring who fell under his authority. “Thus, it is befitting for us to hasten and to stand before the judge and claim our right that we do not belong to Satan but to God who created us from the beginning in His own image.”¹³⁵⁰

Perhaps that is why the Church reads the Gospel of Christ’s temptation on the second Sunday of the Lent (Matt. 4:1–11), which is read in the presence of the candidates for baptism in the Liturgy of the Word. This is their first lesson on baptism being a triumph over Satan and a liberation from His power.

For this reason, also, candidates for baptism are anointed with oil after renouncing Satan and before entering the waters of baptism as a sign that they are soldiers and warriors against Satan. If confessing the faith is entry into a new covenant with God, then it is necessary, first, to renounce Satan. This means, to tear apart the covenant that we have established with the devil through sin.

We should consider that our war against the devil is not concluded by renouncing him, all his pomp, soldiers, and works; but because it continues, we are given strength against him with this oil. Immediately after baptism, we are anointed with the Chrism oil (Myron) that we may bear within us the Holy Spirit; Christ’s triumphant Spirit that He may support us in our warfare against the devil for the rest of our lives.