a mixed body: thus water changed into the juice of the
grape is wine, wherefore it has not the nature of water. Sometimes,
however, there may be a natural change of the water, without
destruction of species: and this, both by alteration, as we may see
in the case of water heated by the sun; and by mixture, as when the
water of a river has become muddy by being mixed with particles of
earth.

We must therefore say that any water may be used for Baptism, no
matter how much it may be changed, as long as the species of water is
not destroyed; but if the species of water be destroyed, it cannot be
used for Baptism.

Reply Obj. 1: The change in sea-water and in other waters which we
have to hand, is not so great as to destroy the species of water. And
therefore such waters may be used for Baptism.

Reply Obj. 2: Chrism does not destroy the nature of the water by
being mixed with it: just as neither is water changed wherein meat
and the like are boiled: except the substance boiled be so dissolved
that the liquor be of a nature foreign to water; in this we may be
guided by the specific gravity (_spissitudine_). If, however, from
the liquor thus thickened plain water be strained, it can be used for
Baptism: just as water strained from mud, although mud cannot be used
for baptizing.

Reply Obj. 3: The water which flowed from the side of Christ hanging
on the cross, was not the phlegmatic humor, as some have supposed.
For a liquid of this kind cannot be used for Baptism, as neither can
the blood of an animal, or wine, or any liquid extracted from plants.
It was pure water gushing forth miraculously like the blood from a
dead body, to prove the reality of our Lord's body, and confute the
error of the Manichees: water, which is one of the four elements,
showing Christ's body to be composed of the four elements; blood,
proving that it was composed of the four humors.

Reply Obj. 4: Baptism may be conferred with lye and the waters of
Sulphur Baths: because such like waters are not incorporated,
artificially or naturally, with certain mixed bodies, and suffer only
a certain alteration by passing through certain bodies.

Reply Obj. 5: Rose-water is a liquid distilled from roses:
consequently it cannot be used for Baptism. For the same reason
chemical waters cannot be used, as neither can wine. Nor does the
comparison hold with rain-water, which for the most part is formed by
the condensing of vapors, themselves formed from wate