heretics there was no sure distinction between the Catechumen and the Faithful93:  and ac- cording to the second General Council, Canon 7, converts from certain heresies to the or- thodox Faith were to be received only as heathen:  “On the first day we make them Christians, on the second Catechumens, on the third we exorcise them by three times breathing on them on the face and on the ears; and so we instruct them (κατηχοῦμεν), and make them frequent the Church for a long time, and listen to the Holy Scriptures, and then we baptize them.” Whether Cyril calls his hearers Christians before they had been baptized is not very clear:  in Cat. x. § 16, he seems to include them among those who are called by the “new name;” but in § 20 of the same Lecture he assumes that there may be present some one who “was before a believer (πιστός),” and to him he says “Thou wert called a Christian; be tender of the name,” and in Lect. xxi. i, speaking to those who had now been baptized, he says, “Having therefore become partakers of Christ, ye are properly called Christs.  Now ye have been made Christs by receiving the antitype of the Holy Ghost,” that is, Chrism. § 4.  Candidates for Baptism.  Bingham, who himself makes four classes or degrees of Catechumens, acknowledges that “the Greek expositors of the ancient Canons,” and other writers, “usually make but two sorts94.”  These were (1) the imperfect (ἀτελέστεροι), called also hearers (ἀκροώμενοι , audientes), because in Church they were only allowed to remain till the Holy Scriptures had been read, the Sermon preached, the special prayers of the Cat- echumens said, and the blessing given to each by the Bishop in the words of the “prayer of the imposition of hands95.”  After this the Deacon says, “Go out, ye catechumens, in peace.”  (2)  After the Energumens also have been dismissed, the more perfect (τελειότεροι, φωτιζόμενοι) remain on their knees in prayer (γονυκλίνοντες, εὐχόμενοι).  Then the Deacon is to cry aloud, “Ye that are to be illuminated, pray.  Let us the faithful all pray for them.  And being sealed to God through His Christ, let them bow down their heads, and receive the blessing from the Bishop.”  The “Prayer of the Imposition of hands” is then pronounced over them by the Bishop. The period of probation and instruction varied at different times and places:  according xxiv to Canon 42 of the Synod of Elvira, 305, it was to be two years:  “He who has a good name, and wishes to become a Christian, must be a Catechumen two years:  then he maybe bap- tized96.”  After this probation had been satisfactorily passed, the Catechumens invited to 93 Serm. xlvi. de Pastoribus, c. 13:  Tertull. de Præscriptione Hæret. c. 41:  “Imprimis quis Catechumenus, quis Fidelis, in certum est.” 94 Ant. X. ii. 1–5.  The Council of Nicæa, Canon xiv., seems to speak only of two classes. 95 Const. Apost. viii. § 6. 96 Hefele, Councils, i. p. 155.  Const. Apost. viii. 32:  “Let him that is to be instructed be a catechumen three years.” 25 Catechetical Instruction.