"[3] According to the Canon law of the Catholic Church, before the age of seven, a child "is considered not responsible for oneself", but after that "is presumed to have the use of reason.
Duncan suggests that[6] The idea of an age of accountability arose in the 19th century and the 20th century amongst non-Calvinistic Protestants who were attempting to address the issue of infant mortality and explain on the basis of Arminianism and freewill why all children who had been unable to exercise their own unaided faith by freewill didn't go to hell.
[3] Stephen Wellum connects belief in an age of accountability with the rejection of inherited guilt:[10] Most Christian traditions teach that children enter the world fallen due to Adam's sin, but some argue children are not guilty before God until they knowingly disobey God's commands.
If the child dies before reaching that age, he or she receives salvation based on Christ's finished work.
Similarly, traditions that practise infant baptism usually wait until a person has undergone confirmation before he or she can partake of the Eucharist, and this is connected to the age of discretion.