These are not Puritan names. The dates are against the theory. They belong to a pre-Reformation practice, being names given to _quick children before birth_, in cases when it was feared, from the condition of the mother, they might not be delivered alive. Being christened before the sex could be known, it was necessary to affix a neutral name, and Vitalis or Creature answered the purpose. The old Romish rubric ran thus: "Nemo in utero matris clausus baptizari debet, sed si infans caput emiserit, et periculum mortis immineat, baptizetur in capite, nec postea si vivus evaserit, erit iterum baptizandus. At si aliud membrum emiserit, quod vitalem indicet motum in illo, si periculum pendeat baptizetur," etc. Vitalis Engaine and Creature Cheeseman, in the above instances, both lived, but, by the law just quoted, retained the names given to them, and underwent no second baptism. If the sex of the yet breathing child was discovered, but death certain, the name of baptism ran thus: "1563, July 17. Baptizata fuit in aedibus Mri Humfrey filia ejus quae nominata fuit Creatura Christi."--St. Peter in the East, Oxford. "1563, July 17. Creatura Christi, filia Laurentii Humfredi sepulta."--Ditto. An English form occurs earlier: "1561, June 30. The Chylde-of-God, filius Ric. Stacey."--Ditto. Without entering into controversy, I will only say that if the clergy, up to the time of the alteration in our Article on Baptism, truly believed that "insomuch as infants, and children dying in their infancy, shall undoubtedly be saved thereby (_i.e._ baptism), _and else not_," it was natural that such a delicate ceremonial as I have hinted at should have suggested itself to their minds. After the Reformation, the practice as to unborn children fell into desuetude, and the names with it. IV. INSTANCES. (_a._) _Latin Names._ The elder Disraeli reminded us, in his "Curiosities of Literature," that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was common for our more learned pundits to re-style themselves in their own studies by Greek and Latin names. Some of these--as, for instance, Erasmus[36] and Melancthon--are only known to the world at large by their adopted titles. The Reformation had not become an accomplished fact before this custom began to prevail in England, only it was transferred from the study to the font, and from scholars to babies. Renovata, Renatus, Donatus, and Beata began to grow common. Camden, writing in 1614, speaks of still stranger names-- "If that any among us have named their children Remedium, Amoris, 'Imago-saeculi,' or with such-like names, I know some will think it more than a vanity."--"Remaines," p. 44.