CATECHUMENS
154
CATENA
F^nch bifhop who converted them took onlj seven days to catechise them, and then baptized them. But, in case of sickness or imminent death, the catechumens were immediately baptized with what was called clin- ic baptism. C}Til of Jerusalem and Jerome direct the catechumens to observe a season of fasting and prayer forty days.
4. Clauu of CateckmneHi.^They were early divided into separate classes, the number and names of which were somewhat different. The Greek canonbts, fbl- lowed by Beveridge, Gave, and others, among the mod- ems, speak of the dreXiartpoif the untnitiated^ and the TfXkartpot^ the more adocmced, Snidas distinguishes them as Axpowfuvoi^ suiih as were occupied in learn- ing, and (vxofuvoif such as are engaged in devotional pursuits. Bingham specifies four classes : First, the IKtttBovfifvoi, or those who were instructed privately without the Ghurch, and kept at a distance from the privilege of entering into the Ghurch for some time, to make them the more eager and desirous of it. The next degree above these were the dxpoutfuvoi, audienies, cr hearers. They were so called from being admitted to hear sermons and the Scriptures read in the Ghurch, but were not allowed to partake of the prayers. The third sort of catechumens were the yowcXi'vovrcc, ffetm-Jlectenteiy or kneelers, so called because they re- ceive imposition of hands kneeling upon their knees. The fourth order was the fiaTrrtJ^Sfuvoi, ^rtZ6fuvoi^ the compeientet and electi, which denote the immediate candidates of baptism, or such as were appointed to be baptized the next approaching festival, before which strict examination was made into their proficiency un- der the several stages of catechetical exercises. The age, sex, and circumstances of the catechumens were duly observed, men of age and rank not behig classed with children {AntiqtdHes, bk. x, ch. ii, § 2).
6. Instruction and Admitsion to the Church, — ^The ex- ercises of the parties till their union with " the believ- ers" were generally directed with reference to their preparation for baptism. They were required to at- tend to various doctrinal and catechetical instructions, to reading the Scriptures, etc. One of Ghiysostum's homilies (ad 2 Gor. 2) is an exposition of the pray- er of the Ghurch for the catechumens (see Neander, Life of Chrysottomj tr. by Stapleton, Appendix to voi. i). That part of divine service which preceded the common prayers of the communicants at the altar, that is, the psalmody, the reading of the Scriptures, the ser- mon, etc. was called nmsa catechumenorttnij because the catechumens had the liberty of being present only at this part of the service. The advanced classes be- fore baptism were subjected to repeated examinations, and, in later times, to a kind of exorcism, accompanied by the imposition of hands ; they received the sign of the cross, and insufflation, or the breathing of the priest upon them. They also passed many days in &sting and prayer, and in learning the Apostles' Greed and the Lord's Prayer. Some days before baptism they were required to wear a veil. Thetr mode of ad- mission was simple. The bishop examined the candi- date, and, if he was found worthy, enrolled his name in the records of the Ghurch. The solemnity was con- cluded by prayer, by the imposition of hands, and by the signing of the cross.
" No such arrangement as the catechumenate is in- dicated in the New Testament: when an individual professed faith in the Lord Jesus Ghrist, he was imme- diately admitted to the initiatory rite of Ghristianity. All converts then, however they might differ in their knowledge or attainments, were equally entitled to the outward sign, as they were to the inward and spiritual grace. But when the Ghurch was augmented by the accession to her pale of large numbers from heathen- ism, and when her purity was no longer guarded by the presiding care of those apostles and others who possessed the power of discerning spirits, the custom 61 deferring the admission of members was adopted, hi
order to obtain satisfisctory evidence of their fitness to be enrolled in the rank of the disciples. The experi- ence of the primitive Ghristians had taught them that the gross habits of idolaters were not at once relin- quished for the pure and spiritual principles of the Gos- pel, and that multitudes of professed believers held their faith by so slender a tie that the slightest temptatioo plunged them again into their former sensuality. The protracted inquiry into ttie character and views of can- didates for admission into the Ghurch was therdbte designed, if possible, to prevent the occurrence of apca- taises, which had disturl)ed the peace and prosperity of the Ghurch, and may be traced to a laudable desire of instructing young and uninitiated converts in the prin- ciples of the Ghristian Ikith."
In modem Ghristian usage, the words caCecJhaBws, catechnmenatef are not found fai the books of Ghurch law, except with historical reference to the ancient Ghurch. But the things designated by these terms have always existed, and the terms themselves appear likely (and very properly) to come into use again, to designate the chUdren of the Ghurch and their period of instraction preparatory to confirmation, in the churches which use that rite, and preparatoiy to com- munion in Aill membership, in those churches which do not In the Methodist Ghurch in England the t^rm has been revived, especially in the efibrts of the Bev. S. Jackson to estabUsh a fixed method and course of instruction for young persons between childhood and puberty (see the volumes of the Catechumen*s Re- porter^ London). The whole subject is also carefully discussed by Zezschwitz, System d. ckriML-hirekL Ka- techeHk (Leips. 1862, i, 79 sq.).