church.' This was done in some Churches twenty days before baptism; for so the second Council of Bracara 91 ordered for the Spanish Churches. But the Council of Agde 92, in France, speaks only of eight days before Easter, appointing PalmSunday to be the day, when the Creed should be publicly taught the competentes in all their churches. But perhaps we are to distinguish betwixt the public and private teaching of the Creed; and so one might be done privately twenty days before by the catechists in the baptisteries or catechetic schools, and the other publicly, eight days before, by the ministers of the Church. However this was, there was a certain day appointed for these catechumens to give an account of their creed, and that was the Parasceue, or day before our Saviour's passion, which the Council of Laodicea 93 calls 'the fifth day of the great and solemn week,' when such as were to be baptized, having learnt their creed, were to repeat it before the bishop or presbyters in the church. And this was the only day for several ages that ever the Creed was publicly repeated in the Greek Churches, as Theodorus Lector 94 informs us, who says, it was used to be recited only once a year, and that was on the Parasceue, or day of preparation to our Saviour's passion, now called Holy Thursday: at which time the bishop was always wont to catechize the competentes in the church. When they had learned the Creed, they were also taught the Lord's Prayer, which was not allowed ordinarily to the catechumens till immediately before their baptism. For this prayer was usually called exǹ îɩστŵν, the prayer of the faithful, as being peculiarly used only by persons baptized, who were made sons of God by regeneration, and had a title, as such, to address God under the denomination of their Father which is in heaven; which catechumens, at least those of the first orders,

91 C. 1. See before, s. 8. n. 71, preceding.

92 C. 9. [al. 13.] (t. 4. p. 1385 e.] Symbolum etiam placuit ab omnibus ecclesiis una die, id est, ante octo dies dominicæ resurrectionis, publice in ecclesia competentibus prædicari [al. tradi].

94 L. 2. (v. 3. p. 578. 17.) Tiμóleos τὸ τῶν τριακοσίων δέκα καὶ ὀκτὼ πατέρων τῆς πίστεως σύμβολον, καθ ̓ ἑκάστην σύναξιν λέγεσθαι παρεσκεύ ασεν, ἐπὶ διαβολῇ δῆθεν Μακεδονίου, ὡς αὐτοῦ μὴ δεχομένου τὸ σύμβολον, ἅπαξ τοῦ ἔτους λεγομένον πρότερον 93 C. 46. (t. I. p. 1504 e.) "Οτι δεῖ ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ Παρασκευῇ τοῦ Θείου Πάθ τοὺς φωτιζομένους τὴν πίστιν ἐκμανθους, τῷ καιρῷ τῶν γινομένων ὑπὸ τοῦ θάνειν, καὶ τῇ πέμπτῃ τῆς ἑβδομάδος ἐπισκόπου κατηχήσεων. ἀπαγγέλλειν τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ ἢ τοῖς

And the

form of renouncing

the Devil,

and cove

nanting

could not so properly do: but when they arrived at this last degree of competentes, and stood as immediate candidates of baptism, then this form was part of their instruction, and not before. As we learn from Ferrandus Diaconus 95, who speaks first of their repeating the Creed, and then learning the Lord's-Prayer. And the same is evident from Chrysostom, Austin, and Theodoret, of whom I shall have occasion to speak more particularly in the ninth section of the fifth chapter of this Book, where I treat of the ancient discipline in concealing the sacred mysteries from the catechumens.

11. Together with the Creed, they were also taught how to make their proper responses in baptism; particularly the form of renouncing the Devil and his works, his pomps, his worship, his angels, his inventions, and all things belonging to him; and with Christ, the contrary form of covenanting with Christ, and engaging responses themselves in his service: for though these acts in their highin baptism. est solemnity did properly appertain to the substance of bap

and other

to be used

tism itself, yet it was necessary to instruct the catechumens beforehand, how they were to behave themselves in these matters, that they might not, through ignorance, be at a loss when they came to baptism. And therefore the author of the Apostolical Constitutions 96 orders it to be one special part of the catechumens' instruction, just before their baptism, that they should learn what related to the renunciation of the Devil, and covenanting with Christ. And these engagements they actually entered into, not only at their baptism, but before it, as a just preparation for it: For,' says that author 97, they ought first to abstain from the contraries, and then come to the holy mysteries, having purged their hearts beforehand of all spot and wrinkle and habits of sin.' And the same thing is intimated by Tertullian and Ferrandus, the deacon of Carthage. For Ferrandus 98 says expressly, that the catechu

95 Ep. ad Fulgent. de Catechiz. Æthiop. (ap. Bibl. Max. t. 9. p. 172 h. 19.) Ipsa insuper sancti symboli verba memoriter in conspectu fidelis populi clara voce pronuncians piam regulam Dominica Orationis accepit.

96 L. 7. c. 40. [ap. cc. 41.] (Cotel. v. I. p. 379.) Καὶ ὅταν ᾖ πρὸς αὐτὸ λοιπὸν τὸ βαπτισθῆναι ὁ κατηχηθεὶς, μανθανέτω τὰ περὶ τῆς ἀποταγῆς τοῦ

Διαβόλου, καὶ τὰ περὶ τῆς συνταγῆς тOû XрiσTOU.

97 ibid. (seqq.) Δεῖ γὰρ αὐτὸν πρῶ τον μὲν ἀποσχέσθαι τῶν ἐναντίων καὶ τότε ἐντὸς γενέσθαι τῶν μυστη ρίων, προκαθάραντα ἑαυτοῦ τὴν καρ δίαν πάσης κακοηθείας, σπίλου τε καὶ ῥυτίδος, καὶ τότε τῶν ἁγίων μεταλαχεῖν.

98 Ep. Fulgent. ut supra. (ibid. p. 172 h. 17.) Per exorcismum con

mens, at the same time that they were exorcized, made their actual renunciation of the Devil, and then were taught the Creed.' And Tertullian 99 means the same thing when he says, 'that this renunciation was made twice; first in the church under the hands of the bishop, and then again when they came to the water to be baptized.' And hence it became one part of the ancient office of deaconesses, to instruct the more ignorant and rustic sort of women, how they were to make their responses at the time of baptism to such interrogatories as the minister should then put to them, as I have had occasion to shew from a canon of the fourth Council of Carthage, in discoursing of the office of deaconesses in another place 2.

veiled some

12. Besides these parts of useful discipline and instruction, What meant by there were some other ceremonies of less note used toward the the compecatechumens, which I must not wholly pass over. Among tentes going these was the ceremony of the competentes going veiled, or time before with their faces covered, for some days before baptism: which baptism. custom is taken notice of by Cyril of Jerusalem3, together with the reason of it: Your face,' says he to the catechumens, 'was covered, that your mind might be more at liberty, and that the wandering of your eyes might not distract your soul. For when the eyes are covered, the ears are not diverted by any impediments from hearing and receiving saving truths.' St. Austin and Junilius 5 give a more mystical reason for it.

tra diabolum vindicatur; cui se renunciare constanter, sicut hic consuetudo poscebat, auditurus symbolum, profitetur.

99 De Cor. Mil. c. 3. (p. 102 a.) ..... Aquam adituri, ibidem, sed et aliquanto prius in ecclesia, sub antistitis manu contestamur nos renunciare diabolo, et pompæ et angelis ejus.

1 C. 12. (t. 2. p. 1201 a.) Viduæ vel sanctimoniales, quæ ad ministerium baptizandarum mulierum eliguntur, tam instructæ sint ad officium, ut possint apto et sano sermone docere imperitas et rusticas mulieres, tempore quo baptizandæ sunt, qualiter baptizatori interrogatæ respondeant, et qualiter accepto baptismate vivant.

2 B. 2. ch. 22. s. 9. v. 1. p. 295. n. 58.

BINGHAM, VOL. III.

* Præf. ad Catech. n. 5. p. 7. [al. n. 9.] (p. 7_b.) Εσκέπασταί σου τὸ πρόσωπον, ἵνα σχολάση λοιπὸν ἡ διάνοια, ἵνα μὴ τὸ βλέμμα ῥεμβόμενον ποιήσῃ ῥέμβεσθαι καὶ τὴν καρδίαν rŵv de oplaλμŵv éσкetaoμévwv, oùk ἐμποδίζεται τὰ ὦτα δέξασθαι τὸ σωThptov.

4 Serm. 4. in Dominic. Octav. Paschæ, 155. [al. 160.] de Tempore. [al. Serm. 376.] (t. 5. p. 1469 a) Hodie- octavæ dicuntur infantium: revelanda sunt capita eorum, quod est indicium libertatis. Habet enim libertatem ista spiritalis nativitas.

5 De Partibus Divinæ Legis, 1. 2. c. 16. ap. Bibl. Patr. t. 1. p. 15. (ap. Galland. t. 12. p. 88 b. 6.) Typum gerunt Adæ paradiso exclusi..... propter quod et per publicum capitibus tectis incedunt.

H h

Of the ceremony called

For they suppose the catechumens went veiled in public, as bearing the image of Adam's slavery after his expulsion out of Paradise; and that these veils being taken away after baptism was an indication of the liberty of the spiritual life, which they obtained by the sacrament of regeneration. However it be, the evidences are plain, that there was such a ceremony used to the catechumens: but, as Valesius rightly observes, it did not respect them all, but only that order of them, that were peculiarly called the competentes.

6

13. Another ceremony of this nature, was the custom of Ephphata! touching the ears of the catechumens, and saying unto them or opening Ephphata! [Ephphatha! see Mark 7, 34; or Hephata! as in of the cate- Ambrose,] Be opened! which Petrus Chrysologus joins with chumens. imposition of hands and exorcism; making it to have something

of the ears

Of putting clay upon

their eyes. What

meant by it.

of mystical signification in it, to denote the opening of the understanding to receive the instructions of faith. And St. Ambrose, or an author under his name, describes the same custom, deriving the original of it from our Saviour's example, in saying Ephphata! Be opened! when he cured the deaf and the blind. But this custom seems not to have gained any great credit in the practice of the Church; for, besides these two authors, there is scarce any other that so much as mentions it; and whether it was used to the first or last order of the catechumens, is not very easy to determine.

14. The like may be said of another ceremony, which is mentioned in St. Ambrose, which was the custom of anointing the eyes with clay, in imitation of our Saviour's practice, when he cured the blind man by making clay of his spittle, and anointing his eyes with it. (John 9, 6.) The design of this ceremony, as that author explains it9, was to teach the cate

6 Not. in Euseb. de Vit. Constant. 1. 4. c. 62. (v. 1. p. 663. n. 2.)... Catechumeni tectis capitibus per publicum incedebant... ut ait Junilius in l. 2. c. 16. Quod quidem de solis competentibus intelligendum puto, qui non solum caput, verum etiam vultum velabant.

7 Serm. 52. p. 286. juxt. Ed. Lugd. 1750. See before, s. 8. p. 458. n. 70. 8 De iis qui initiantur, [al. De Mysteriis] c. 1. (t. 2. p. 325 c. n. 3.) Quod vobis significavimus, cum aper

tionis celebrantes mysterium diceremus, Effeta! [al. Hephata !] quod est, Adaperire!.... Hoc mysterium celebravit Christus in Evangelio, sicut legimus, cum mutum curaret et surdum.-De Sacrament. 1. 1. c. 1. (ibid. p. 349. c. 2.) . . . . Mysteria celebrata sunt apertionis, quando tibi aures tetigit sacerdos et nares.

9 De Sacrament. 1. 3. c. 2. (ibid. p. 364 e. n. 12.) Ergo quando dedisti nomen tuum, tulit lutum et linivit super oculos tuos. Quod sig

chumens to confess their sins, and to review their consciences, and repent of their errors, that is, to acknowledge what state and condition they were in by their first birth. St. Austin 10 seems also to refer to this practice in his discourse upon the blind man cured by our Saviour, where he says, the catechumens were anointed before baptism, as the blind man. was by Christ, who was thereby perhaps made a catechumen. 15. Vicecomes 11 and Mr. Basnage 12 mention another custom, Whether

the catechumens held