catechumen, who enters the church, and stands amongst any order of catechumens there, be found guilty of sin; if he be a kneeler, let him become a hearer, provided he sin no more: but if he sin while he is a hearer, let him be cast out of the church.' Here it seems pretty evident that there was an order of catechumens not allowed to enter the church, to which such of the superior orders as had offended were to be degraded by way of punishment, which the canon calls expulsion from the church. Which does not mean utterly casting them off as heathens again, but only reducing them to that state in which they were before, when they first received imposition of hands to make them catechumens; which was a state of private instruction, before they were allowed to enter the church. Maldonate calls these the order of penitents among the catechumens; and Balzamon and Zonaras, on this canon, style them mourners; which expresses something of this order, but not the whole for there were catechumens privately instructed out of the church, who were not properly mourners or penitents, as persons cast out of the church by any censure, but they were such as never had yet been in the church, but were kept at a distance for some time from that privilege, to make them the more eager and desirous of it. And till we can find a better name for these I call them, from this canon, the wOoúμevol, which is a general name, that will comprehend both this lowest order of catechumens privately instructed out of the church, and also such delinquents of the superior orders as were reduced back again to it by way of punishment for their faults. without the church. Secondly, the ἀκροώevo, audiμενοι, hearers. 3. The next degree above these were the hearers, which the Greeks call aкpoάuevo, and the Latins audientes. Who were so called from their being admitted to hear sermons and the entes, or Scriptures read in the church, but they were not allowed to stay any of the prayers, no, not so much as those that were made over the rest of the catechumens, or energumens, or penitents; but before those began, immediately after sermon, at the word of command then solemnly used, Ne quis audientium! Let none of the hearers be present! they were to depart the χούμενος, ἐὰν εἰσερχόμενος εἰς κυριακὸν ἐν τῇ τῶν κατηχουμένων τάξει στήκῃ, οὗτος δὲ ἁμαρτάνων· ἐὰν μὲν γόνυ κλίνων, ἀκροάσθω, μηκέτι ἁμαρτ church. As appears from the author of the Apostolical Constitutions, who orders the deacon to dismiss the hearers and unbelievers with that solemn form of words, before the liturgy or prayers of the Church began. Upon which account the Council of Nice 51 calls them åkрowμévovs μóvov, hearers only, to distinguish them from such catechumens as might not only hear sermons, but also attend some particular prayers of the Church, that were especially offered up for them, whilst they were kneeling upon their knees, and waiting for imposition of hands and the minister's benediction. Thirdly, the 4. Hence arose a third sort of catechumens, which the γονυκλίνον- Greeks call γονυκλίνοντες, and the Latins genuflectentes and nuflectentes, prostrati, that is, kneelers or prostrators. These sometimes the kneelers. have the name of catechumens more especially appropriated to Tes, or ge them, as in the forementioned canon of the Council of Nice 52, which runs in these terms: It is decreed by the great and holy synod concerning the catechumens that have lapsed, that they for three years shall be hearers only, and after that pray with the catechumens again.' Hence that part of the liturgy which respected them was particularly called Karnxovμévwv εixǹ, the prayer of the catechumens, which came immediately after the bishop's sermon, together with the prayers of the energumens and penitents, as we learn from the Council of Laodicea 53, which orders the method of them: and the forms of these prayers are recited both in the Apostolical Constitutions 54 and St. Chrysostom 55, which I do not here insert, because they will have a more proper place 56 in the Liturgy of the Church. Together with these prayers they always received imposition of hands, kneeling upon their knees: whence the Council of Neocæsarea 57 and others distinguish them by the 50 L. 8. c. 5. (Cotel. v. I. p. 392.) . . . Πληρώσαντος αὐτοῦ τὸν τῆς διδασκαλίας λόγον. . . ὁ διάκονος, ἐφ' ὑψηλοῦ τινος ἀνελθὼν, κηρυττέτω, Μή τις τῶν ἀκροωμένων· μή τις τῶν ἀπίστων. 51 See the next note. 52 C. 14. (t. 2. p. 36 c.) Hepì Twv κατηχουμένων καὶ παραπεσόντων, ἔδοξε τῇ ἁγίᾳ καὶ μεγάλῃ συνόδῳ, ὥστε τριῶν ἐτῶν αὐτοὺς ἀκροωμένους μόνον, μετὰ ταῦτα εὔχεσθαι μετὰ τῶν κατηχουμένων. 53 C. 19. (t. 1. p. 1500 c.) Hepì τοῦ, δεῖν ἰδίᾳ, πρῶτον μετὰ τὰς ὁμι λίας τῶν ἐπισκόπων, καὶ τῶν κατηχουμένων εὐχὴν ἐπιτελεῖσθαι· καὶ μετὰ τὸ ἐξελθεῖν τοὺς κατηχουμένους, τῶν ἐν μετανοίᾳ τὴν εὐχὴν γίνεσθαι. 54 L. 8. c. 6. (Cotel. v. 1. p. 393.) Εὔξασθε οἱ κατηχούμενοι, κ. τ. λ. 55 Hom. 2. in 2 Cor. (t. 10. p. 435 b. seqq.) Διά τοι τοῦτο, καὶ τὰς εὐχὰς οὕτω γίνεσθαι, κ. τ. λ. 56 See b. 14. ch. 5. s. 3. in vol. 5. of this edition. 57 C. 5. See before, s. 2. n. 49, preceding. name of yovvkλívovtes, the kneelers: the prayer is called Oratio impositionis manus, the Prayer of imposition of hands, which was frequently repeated both in the public and private exercises of the catechumens. the compe immediate 5. Above these was a fourth order, which the Greeks call Fourthly, βαπτιζόμενοι and φωτιζόμενοι, and the Latins competentes and tentes ana electi; all which words are used among the Ancients to denote electi, the the immediate candidates of baptism, or such as gave in their candidates names to the bishop, signifying their desire to be baptized the of baptism. next approaching festival. Their petitioning for this favour, gave them the name of competentes; and from the bishop's examination and approbation, or choice of them, they were styled electi. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catechetic Discourses 57, always terms them wróμevo, which, though it frequently signifies persons already baptized 58, or illuminated by the sacrament of baptism, yet in his style it denotes persons yet to be baptized, or such as had only the illumination of catechetical instruction antecedent to baptism; and so the name Banтicóuevo, in the author of the Apostolical Constitutions 59, is taken, not for persons actually baptized, but for those catechumens who were desirous to be baptized; whence, in the same author, the prayer that is said over these catechumens in the church is called βαπτιζομένων and φωτιζομένων εὐχὴ, the prayer for those that were about to be illuminated and baptized: which also shows that the substrati and competentes were different orders or degrees of the catechumens, contrary to what Mr. Basnage and some others have asserted, since different prayers, at different times in the church, were offered up for them. 57 Catech. 1, 2, &c. (pp. 16, seqq.) Κατήχησις τῶν φωτιζομένων ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις. 58 [This sense of the passive participles present, φωτιζόμενοι and βαπτιζόμενοι, is not very common: nevertheless both terms are so employed by Jobius in Photius's Bibliotheca, Codex 222. (p. 596. 35.) Οἱ φωτιζόμενοι ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας λαμπροφοροῦσιν. and, ibid. (p. 597. 20.) Το μέντοι λαμπροφορεῖν τοὺς βαπτιζομένους, κ. τ. λ. See Suicer, in voce λаμmроpорéw. Refer also to b. I. ch. 4. s. 1', where our author alleges the above-cited place in proof that 59 L. 8. c. 8. (Cotel. v. 1. p. 395.) How this last order were parti ciplined and prepared for baptism. 6. These competentes, as I said, were so called from their petitioning for the sacrament of baptism, as we learn from cularly dis- St. Austin 60, who often gives this reason for it, telling us, that upon the approach of the Easter festival, it was usual for the catechumens to give in their names in order to be baptized, whence they were called competentes, petitioners or candidates for baptism. When their names were given in, and their petition accepted, then both they and their sponsors were registered in the books of the Church; as is noted by the author, under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite 61, who brings in the bishop commanding the priests to register both the catechumen and his sponsor, or susceptor, together: and in the Council of Constantinople, under Mennas 62, there is mention made of an officer in the Church, particularly appointed to this business, one whose appropriated office it was to register the names of those who offered and presented themselves to baptism. These registers were called their diptychs; but as they had several sorts of diptychs, some for the dead and some for the living, these were particularly called díπTUɣa (úvтw the diptychs, or books of the living, as is observed by Pachymeres 63, in his comment upon the foresaid place of Dionysius. Partly by 7. When their names were thus registered, then followed frequent examina- a scrutiny or examination of their proficiency under the prewhich such ceding stages of the catechetical exercises; and this was often as approved repeated before baptism, according to the direction given in tions, in 60 De Fid. et Oper. c. 6. (t. 6. p. 169 d.).... Cum fontis illius sacramenta peteremus, atque ab hoc competentes etiam vocaremur, &c.-De Cur. pro Mort. c. 12. (ibid. p. 525 f.) Pascha appropinquante [al. Pascha jam propinquabat] dedit nomen inter alios competentes. 61 Hierarch. Eccles. c. 2. part. 3. n. 4. p. 216. (t. I. p. 171 d.) Ὧν ἐστι σύμβολον ἱερὸν, ἡ τοῦ ἱεράρχου τῷ προσιόντι δωρουμένη σφραγὶς, καὶ τῶν ἱερέων ἡ σωτηριώδης ἀπογραφὴ, τοῖς σωζομένοις αὐτὸν ἐγκαταλέγουσα, καὶ μνημοσύνοις ἱεροῖς ἀνατιθεῖσα πρὸς αὐτῷ καὶ τὸν ἀνάδοχον, ὡς τῆς ζωο· ποιοῦ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν πορείας τὸν μὲν, ἐραστὴν ἀληθῆ καὶ συνοπαδὸν ἡγεμόνος ἐνθέου· τὸν δὲ, ἀπλανὴ ταῖς θεο Tapadóτois hynσeσɩ Tоû Éπоμévov xelpaywyóv.-[Ibid. part. 2. n. 5. (p. 169 a.)...lepáрxns] èπitionσ αὐτοῦ τῇ κεφαλῇ τὴν χεῖρα· καὶ oppayiσáuevos ȧпоурávaσbαι Kελεύει τοῖς ἱερεῦσι τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ τὸν dvádoxov. Grischov.] 62 Act. 5. (t. 5. p. 221 e.) 'Os ETÉφανος ὁ θεῖος καὶ ἱερώτατος διάκονος ἐπιμαρτυρεῖ, ὁ καὶ τῆς προσηγορίας τῶν εἰς τὸ βάπτισμα προσιόντων ἐγε γράφην τεταγμένος. 63 In Dionys. 1. c. part. 2. n. 5. p. 234. (t. I. p. 180 d.) Κελεύει τοῖς ὑπ ̓ αὐτὸν πρεσβυτέροις καὶ διακόνοις ἐν δέλτοις ἱεραῖς ἀπογράψασθαι τὰ ὀνόματα, τοῦ τε προσελθόντος καὶ τοῦ ἀναδόχου· ταῦτα δὲ οἶμαί εἰσι τὰ τῶν ζώντων δίπτυχα. had the this case by the fourth Council of Carthage 64. They that themselves were approved upon such examination, were sometimes called name of electi, the chosen, as we find in the decrees of Pope Leo electi. Magnus 65, who speaks of them under this appellation, because they were now accepted and chosen as persons qualified for baptism at the next approaching festivals of Easter or Whitsuntide, which were the usual times of baptizing. Cardinal Bona 66 makes these electi a distinct order from the competentes: but there seems to be no ground for such a distinction, because their exercises were all the same henceforward till they arrived at baptism. accompa sign of the 8. For as they were all examined, so they were all exorcized Partly by alike, for twenty days before baptism. This custom is often exorcism, mentioned by the ancient writers, both of the Greek and Latin nied with imposition Church. St. Austin 67 more than once speaks of it as the of hands, common practice of the African Church; joining examination, and the catechizing, and exorcism together, and telling us that the fire cross, and of exorcism,' as his phrase is, always preceded baptism. We insufflalearn the same from Cyprian and the Council of Carthage, held under him about the validity of heretical baptism; for there 68 it is often said, that heretics and schismatics were first to be exorcized with imposition of hands, and then baptized, before they could be admitted as true members of the Catholic 64 C. 84. [al. 85.] (t. 2. p. 1206 d.) Crebra examinatione [al. examinati] baptismum percipiant. .... 65 Ep. 4. ad Episc. Sicul. c. 5. (CC. t. 3. p. 1300 b.).... In baptizandis in ecclesia electis, hæc duo tempora, de quibus locuti sumus esse legitima, &c. 66 [Rer. Liturg. l. I. c. 16. n. 4. (p. 238.) Alii [catechumeni] in fide. recte instituti baptismum petebant, et dicti sunt competentes. Qui vero ex istis in albo baptizandorum descripti erant electi nuncupari solebant.-Bona does not seem to regard these electi as a distinct order, but rather, if we judge from the words ex istis referring to the antecedent competentes, as the approved portion selected successively for the privilege of baptism which the others were still petitioning for, though they were not yet found equally tion. |