CANON XIV.

CONCERNING catechumens who have lapsed, the holy and great 

Synod has decreed that, after they have passed three years only as 

hearers, they shall pray with the catechumens.

NOTES.

ANCIENT EPITOME OF CANON XIV.

If any of the catechumens shall have fallen for three years he shall be a 

hearer only, and then let him pray with the catechumens.

JUSTELLUS.

The people formerly were divided into three classes in the church, for 

there were catechumens, faithful, and penitents; but it is clear from the 

present canon there were two kinds of catechumens: one consisting of 

those who heard the Word of God, and wished to become Christians, 

but had not yet desired baptism; these were called "hearers." Others 

who were of long standing, and were properly trained in the faith, and 

desired baptism--these were called "competentes."

There is difference of opinion among the learned as to whether there 

was not a third or even a fourth class of catechumens. Bingham and 

Card. Bona, while not agreeing in particular points, agree in affirming 

that there were more than two classes. Bingham's first class are those 

not allowed to enter the church, the  exwqoumenoi  , 

but the affirmation of the existence of such a class rests only on a very 

forced explanation of canon five of Neocaesarea. The second class, the 

hearers, audientes, rests on better evidence. These were not allowed to 

stay while the Holy Mysteries were celebrated, and their expulsion 

gave rise to the distinction between the "Mass of the 

Catechumens"(Missa Catechumenorum) and the "Mass of the 

Faithful"(Missa Fidelium). Nor were they suffered to hear the Creed or 

the Our Father. Writers who multiply the classes insert here some who 

knelt and prayed, called Prostrati  or Genuflectentes(the same name as 

was given to one of the grades of penitence). (Edw. H. Plumptre in 

Dict. Christ. Antiq. s. v. Catechumens.)

After these stages had been traversed each with its appropriate 

instruction, the catechumens gave in their names as applicants for 

baptism, and were known accordingly as Competentes 

 sunaitountes  . This was done commonly at the 

beginning of the Quadragesimal fast, and the instruction, carried on 

through the whole of that period, was fuller and more public in its 

nature (Cyril Hieros. Catech. i. ; Hieron. Ep. , ad Pammach. c. :). 

To catechumens in this stage the great articles of the Creed, the nature 

of the Sacraments, the penitential discipline of the Church, were 

explained, as in the Catechetical Lectures of Cyril of Jerusalem, with 

dogmatic precision. Special examinations and inquiries into character 

were made at intervals during the forty days. It was a time for fasting 

and watching and prayer(Constt. Apost. viii. ;  C. Carth. c. ; 

Tertull. De Bapt. c. ; Cyril. . c.) and, in the case of those who were 

married, of the strictest continence(August. De fide et oper. v. ). 

Those who passed through the ordeal were known as the perfectiores 

 teleiwterot  the electi, or in the nomenclature of the 

Eastern Church as  baptizomenoi   or 

 fwtizowenoi  , the present participle being used of 

course with a future or gerundial sense. Their names were inscribed as 

such in the album or register of the church. They were taught, but not 

till a few days before their baptism, the Creed and the Lord's Prayer 

which they were to use after it. The periods for this registration varied, 

naturally enough, in different churches. At Jerusalem it was done on 

the second(Cyril. Catech. iii.), in Africa on the fourth Sunday in 

Lent(August. Serm. ), and this was the time at which the 

candidate, if so disposed, might lay aside his old heathen or Jewish 

name and take one more specifically Christian(Socrat. H. E. vii. ). . . 

.It is only necessary to notice here that the Sacramentum 

Catechumenorum of which Augustine speaks(De Peccat. Merit. ii. ) 

as given apparently at or about the time of their first admission by 

imposition of hands, was probably the 

 eul  <s228 giai   or panis benedictus, 

and not, as Bingham and Augusta maintain, the salt which was given 

with milk and honey after baptism.