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
ἐξωθούμενοι
, but the affirmation of the existence of such a class rests only on a
very forced explanation of canon five of Neocæsarea. 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
(
συναιτοῦντες
). 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 (
Const. Apost.
viii. 5;
4 C.
Carth.
c. 85; Tertull.
De Bapt.
c. 20; Cyril. l. 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
(
τελειώτεροι
), the
electi
, or in the nomenclature of the Eastern Church as
βαπτιζόμενοι
or
φωτιζόμενοι
, 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
εὐλογίαι
or
panis benedictus
, and not, as Bingham and Augusti maintain, the
salt
which was given with milk and honey after
baptism.