A brief overview of the history of godparents - touching primarily on the Roman Catholic church and then the Anglican Church founded by Henry VIII.
0
Baptism takes place in the Bible in a number of places including John baptising Jesus, but there were no godparents.
408
Sponsors were the birth parents of a child, as emphasized by St. Augustine who suggested that the sponsors could be other individuals in exceptional circumstances.
530
A Justinian decree outlawed marriage between godfather and goddaughter
534
the Corpus Juris Civilis shows that parents had been almost completely replaced by non-parents.
600
Male sponsors were being referred to as 'spiritual fathers'
800
Being referred to as compaters and commaters - i.e. spiritual co-parents
813
Mainz Council / Synod bans parents from being godparents
900
Emergence of sponsors for the new ceremony of confirmation (also included in the godaprent ban of marriage to a godchild)
1200
By this time the laws had increased to ban any marriage between natural and spiritual parents (godparents) and anyone related to either...
1240
Synod of Worcester (England and still RC at this time) stipulated 3 sponsors (or godparents), two of the same sex and one of the opposite sex. This has remained as the default in the Church of England since that time.
1523
Martin Luther first published The Baptismal Booklet - an indication of how strongly Luther considered Baptism to be a key element of the Christian Faith
1531
Church of England formed by Henry VIII
1540
Church of England removed barriers of marriage and retained godparents in baptism.
1563
Council of Trent decided that only one, or at most two (not being of the same sex) should be allowed as godparents
Council of Trent clarified that prohibition against marriage only applied to godparents - not sponsors at confirmation.
Council of Trent re-asserted that there should be either one or two godparents
1644
Godparents were abolished by the Directory of Public Worship (replacement for the book of Common Prayer) during the English Civil War.
1660
Godparents reintroduced post restoration of the monarchy.