SECT. 7.-The Catechumens allowed to read the Holy Scriptures.

Here I shall only remark further, that they allowed them to read some portions of the Scripture; for the moral and historical books were thought most proper at first for their instruction; and the chief use of those, which are now called apocryphal books, was then to instil moral precepts into the catechumens. Upon this account Athanasius' says, "though they were not canonical books, as the rest of the books of the Old and New Testament; yet they were such as were appointed to be read by those who were new proselytes and desirous to be instructed in the ways of godliness: such were the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, Tobit; to which he also adds, the book called, the Doctrine of the Apostles, and the Shepherd, that is, Hermes Pastor. The Author of the Synopsis of the Holy Scripture also, under the name of Athanasius, has much the same observation, "that besides the canonical books there were other books of the Old Testament, which were not in the canon, but only read to or by the catechumens." But this was not allowed in all Churches: for it seems to have been otherwise in the Church of Jerusalem, at the time when Cyril wrote his Catechetical Discourses. For he forbids his catechumens to read all apocryphal books whatsoever, and charges them to read those books only which were securely read in the Church, viz. those books which the Apostles and ancient bishops, who were wiser than the catechumens, had handed down to them. Then he specifies particularly the canonical books of the Old and New Testament, all the same as are now in our Bibles, except the Revelations, because I presume it was not then read in the Church; and at last

1 Athan. Ep. Heortastic. tom. ii. p. 39. Ετιν κι ἕτερα βιβλία τέτων ἔξωθεν· Η κανονιζόμενα μὲν, τετυπωμενα δὲ παρὰ τῶν πατέρων ἀναγινώσκεσθαι τοῖς ἄρτι προσερχομένοις, και βελομένοις κατηχεῖσθαι τὸν τῆς εὐσεβείας λόγον Σοφία Σολομῶνος, &c. & Διδαχὴ καλεμένη τῶν ̓Αποτόλων, κ, ὁ Ποιμην. 2 Athan. Synops. Scriptur. tom. ii. p. 55. 'Eкròç twv kavovičoμevov krepa βιβλία τῆς παλαιᾶς διαθήκης, & κανονιζόμενα μὲν, ἀναγινωσκόμενα δὲ μόνον τοῖς κατηχεμένοις. Cyril. Catech. iv. n. 22. p. 66. IIpòc rù ἀπόκρυφα μηδὲν ἔχε κοινὸν, &c. Ibid. p. 67. Ὅσα ἐν ἐκκλησίαις μὴ ἀναγινώσκεται, ταῦτα μηδὲ κατὰ σαυτὸν ἀναγίνωσκε.

concludes with this charge to the catechumens," that they should not read any other books privately by themselves, which were not read publicly in the Church." From whence I conclude, that as the books which we now call apocryphal were not then read in the Church of Jerusalem, so neither were they allowed to be read by the catechumens, though they were read both publicly and privately in many other Churches. I know some learned persons are of a different opinion, and think that Cyril by apocryphal books, means not those which we now call apocryphal, viz. Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, &c. but other pernicious and heretical books, which were absolutely reprobated and forbidden to all Christians. But if that had been his meaning, he would not have said, that the canonical books were the only books that were read in the Church of Jerusalem, but would have distinguished, as other writers in other Churches do, between canonical, ecclesiastical, and apocryphal books, and have intimated that the ecclesiastical books were such as were allowed to be read in the Church, as well as the canonical, for moral instruction, though not to confirm articles of faith. Whereas he says nothing of this, but the express contrary," that none but the canonical books were read publicly in the Church, nor were any other to be read privately by the catechumens." Which, at least, must mean thus much, that in the Church of Jerusalem, there was a different custom from some other Churches; and that, though in some Churches the catechumens were allowed to read both the canonical books and the apocryphal, or as others call them the ecclesiastical, yet in the Church of Jerusalem they were allowed to read only the canonical Scriptures, and no other. However it is observable, that no Church anciently denied any order of Christians the use of the Holy Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, since even the catechumens themselves, who were but an imperfect sort of Christians, were exhorted, and commanded to read the canonical books in all Churches and the apocryphal books in some Churches for moral instruction. Nay, if we may believe Bede, they were obliged to get some of the Holy Scriptures by heart, as a part of their exercise and discipline, before they were baptized. For he

commends it as a laudable custom in the ancient Church,' that such as were to be catechized aud baptized, were taught the beginnings of the four Gospels, and the intent and order of them, at the time when the ceremony of opening their ears was solemnly used; that they might know and remember what and how many those books were, from whence they were to be instructed in the true faith. So far were they from locking up the Scriptures from any order of men in an unknown tongue, that they thought them useful and instructive to the meanest capacities; according to that of the Psalmist, " Thy word giveth light and understanding to the simple :" and therefore they allowed them to be vulgarly read, not only by the more perfect and complete Christians, but even by the very catechumens, among whom, as St. Austin and others have observed, those were commonly the most tractable and the best proficients, who were the most conversant in the Holy Scriptures. For which reason they made it one part of the catechumens' care to exercise themselves in the knowledge of them, and did not then fear that men should turn heretics by being acquainted with the word of truth,

CHAP. II.

Of the several Classes or Degrees of Catechumens, and the gradual Exercises and Discipline of every Order.

SECT. 1.-Four Orders or Degrees of Catechumens among the Ancients. THAT there were different orders or degrees of catechumens in all such Churches, as kept to the term of catechizing for two or three years together, is acknowledged on all hands by learned men: but what was the precise number of these orders, is not so certainly agreed. The Greek ex

1 Bede, de Tabernac. lib. ii. c. 13. tom. iv, p. 887. Pulcher in ipsâ ecclesiâ mos antiquitùs inolevit, ut his, qui catechizandi, et Christianis sunt sacramentis initiandi, quatuor evangeliorum principia recitentur, ac de figuris et ordine eorum in apertione aurium suarum solenniter erudirentur: quo sciant exinde ac meminerint, qui et quot sint libri, quorum ve; bis maximè in fide veritatis debeant erudiri.

positors of the ancient canons, usually make but two sorts, the 'Ατελέτεροι and the Τελειώτεροι, the imperfect and the perfect, the beginners and the proficients, who were the immediate candidates of baptism. So Balzamon1 and Zonaras, Alexius Aristenus and Blastares; and in this opinionthey are followed by many modern writers. Dr. Cave⭑ makes no other distinction but this of the perfect and imperfect, and says of the imperfect "that they were as yet accounted heathens;" which, for the reasons given in the foregoing Chapter, I cannot subscribe to: for I have showed, that from the time that they received imposition of hands to make them catechumens, they were always both called and accounted Christians, though but in an imperfect state, till they were completed by baptism. Bishop Beverege makes but two sorts of catechumens likewise, the Ακροώμενοι, and the 'Ευχόμενοι, or Γονυκλίνοντες, that is, the hearers, who only staid to hear the sermon and the Scriptures read, and the kneelers or substrators, who staid to receive the minister's prayers and benediction also. Suicerus and Basnage go much the same way, dividing them into two classes, the Audientes and Competentes. Maldonate® adds to these a third class, which he calls Catechumeni Pœnitentes, such catechumens as were under the discipline and censures of the Church. Cardinal Bona augments the number to four kinds, viz. the Audientes, Genuflectentes, Competentes, and Electi. And indeed it appears, that there were four kinds of them; yet not exactly the same as Bona mentions; for the Competentes and Electi were but one and the same order. But there was another order antecedent to all these, which none of these writers mention, which we may call the 'Ewuevo, that is, such catechumens as were instructed privately, and without doors, before they were allowed to enter the Church.

1 Balzam. Not. in Con. Neocæsar. c. 5. Alex. Aristen. in Con. Ancyr. c. 14. c. 8. p. 211. Thesaur. tom. ii. p. 72.

Zonaras, ibid.

Cave, Prim. Christ. lib. i. 6 Suicer.

Bevereg. Not. in Con. Nicen, c. 14.

• Maldonat. de Baptism. c. 1. p. 79.

'Basnag. Critic. in Baron. p. 484.

Bona, Rer. Liturg. lib. i. c. 16.

SECT.2. First, the 'Eweμevo, or Catechumens instructed privately without the Church.

That there was such an order or degree of catechumens as this, is evidently deduced from one of the canons of the council of Neocæsarea, which speaks of several sorts of catechumens, and this among the rest in these words;1 "If any catechumen, who enters the Church, and stands amongst any order of catechumens there, be found guilty of sin; if he be a kneeler, let him become a hearer, provided he sin no more: but if he sin while he is a hearer, let him be cast out of the Church." Here it seems pretty evident, that there was an order of catechumens not allowed to enter the Church, to which such of the superior orders as had offended were to be degraded by way of punishment, which the canon calls expulsion from the Church. Which does not mean utterly casting them off as heathens again, but only reducing them to that state in which they were before, when they first received imposition of hands to make them catechumens; which was a state of private instruction, before they were allowed to enter the Church. Maldonate calls these, the order of penitents among the catechumens; and Balzamon and Zonaras, on this canon, style them mourners; which expresses something of this order but not the whole: for there were catechumens privately instructed out of the Church, who were not properly mourners or penitents, as persons cast out of the Church by any censure, but they were such as never had yet been in the Church, but were kept at a distance for some time from that privilege, to make them the more eager and desirous of it. And till we can find a better name for these I call them from this canon, the 'Ewośμevo, which is a general name, that will comprehend both this lowest order of catechumens privately instructed out of the Church, and also such delinquents of the superior orders as were reduced back again to it by way of punishment for their faults.

1 Con. Neocas, c.5. Κατηχέμενος, ἐὰν εἰσερχόμενος εἰς κυριακὸν ἐν τῇ τῶν κατηχεμένων τάξει τήκῃ, ὗτος δὲ ἁμαρτάνων, ἐὰν μὲν γόνυ κλίνων, ἀκροάσθω, μηκέτι ἁμαρτάνων, ἐὰν δὲ ἀκροώμενος ἔτι ἁμαρτάνῃ, ἐξωθείσθω.