Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 7 (Augustine: Gospel and Epistle of John)

xiv INTRODUCTION.

It is stated by Bingham, but without any reference to ancient authors, that "the children of believing parents, as they were baptized in infancy, were admitted Catechumens as soon as they were capable of learning." Though the title "Catechumen" was not usually applied to those who had been already baptized, it is probable that such children were admitted to the Lectures addressed to Catechumens both in the earlier and later stage of their preparation; for it seems to be implied in the passage quoted above from Cat. xv. 18, that admission was not limited to the candidates for Baptism.

To believe and to be baptized are the two essential conditions of membership in Christ's Church: but for the admission of new converts to the class of Catechumens nothing more could be required than evidence of a sincere desire to understand, to believe, and ultimately to be baptized.

We know that unbelievers, Jews, and Heathens were allowed in the Apostolic age to be present at times in the Christian assemblies; and in Cyril's days they stood in the lower part of the Church (νάρηξ—narthex) to hear the Psalms, Lessons, and Sermon.

Any persons who by thus hearing the word, or by other means, were brought to believe in the truth of Christianity, and to wish for further instruction, were strictly examined as to their character, belief, and sincerity of purpose. The care with which such examinations were conducted is thus described by Origen: "The Christians, however, having previously, so far as possible, tested the souls of those who wish to become their hearers, and having previously admonished them in private, when they seem, before entering the community, to have made sufficient progress in the desire to lead a virtuous life, they then introduce them, having privately formed one class of those who are just beginners, and are being introduced, and have not yet received the mark of complete purification; and another of those who have manifested to the best of their ability the purpose of desiring no other things than are approved by Christians." Such as were thus found worthy of admission were brought to the Bishop or Presbyter, and received by the sign of the Cross, with prayer and imposition of hands, to the status of Catechumens.

We have a description by Eusebius of some of these ceremonies in the case of Constantine: When the Emperor felt his life to be drawing to a close, "he poured forth his supplications and confessions to God, kneeling on the pavement in the Church itself, in which he also now for the first time received the imposition of hands with prayer." Soon after this the Bishops whom he had summoned to Nicomedia to give him Baptism, "performed the sacred ceremonies in the usual manner, and having given him the necessary instructions made him a partaker of the mystic ordinances."

Another ceremony used in the admission of Catechumens, at least in some Churches, is mentioned by St. Augustine: "Sanctification is not of one kind only: for I suppose that Catechumens also are sanctified in a certain way of their own by the sign of Christ's Cross, and the Prayer of the Imposition of Hands; and that which they receive, though it be not the Body of Christ, is yet an holy thing, and more holy than the common food which sustains us, because it is a sacrament." From this passage it has been inferred that consecrated bread...