Table of Contents | Words: Alphabetical - Frequency - Inverse - Length - Statistics | Help | IntraText Library

Council of Nicea I

IntraText CT - Text

  • CANON XIV.
Previous - Next

Click here to hide the links to concordance

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. 5; Hieron. Ep. 61, ad Pammach. c. 4:). 
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. 5; 4 C. Carth. c. 85; 
Tertull. De Bapt. c. 20; Cyril. 1. c.) and, in the case of those who were 
married, of the strictest continence(August. De fide et oper. v. 8). 
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. 213), 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. 21). . . 
.It is only necessary to notice here that the Sacramentum 
Catechumenorum of which Augustine speaks(De Peccat. Merit. ii. 26) 
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.
 
 



Previous - Next

Table of Contents | Words: Alphabetical - Frequency - Inverse - Length - Statistics | Help | IntraText Library

Best viewed with any browser at 800x600 or 768x1024 on Tablet PC
IntraText® (V89) - Some rights reserved by EuloTech SRL - 1996-2007. Content in this page is licensed under a Creative Commons License