In which of these ways the threefold interrogation ("usitata et legitima verba interrogationis") was made at Jerusalem, is not quite certain from Cyril's words: "Each was asked, Dost thou believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and ye made that saving confession, and went down thrice into the water [193] ." The Didaché [194] enjoins baptism simply into the names of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Justin Martyr [195] adds a few words only to the names "of God the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit;" and Tertullian [196] observes that "Wherever there are three, that is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, there is the Church, which is a body of three." The trine immersion had reference not only to the Trinity, but was also a symbol of the three days of our Saviour's burial [197] . The use of the three Holy Names was made more strictly indispensable as heresies were multiplied: thus the 49th Apostolic Canon, which, Hefele says, "must be reckoned among the most ancient Canons of the Church," orders that "If any Bishop or Presbyter does not baptize, according to the Lord's command, into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, but into three Beings without beginning, or into three Sons, or three Comforters, he shall be deprived."
We see here that the power of administering Baptism was not restricted to the Bishop: and Cyril speaks of it as possessed by "Bishops, or Presbyters, or Deacons," assigning as the reason the great increase of believers, "for the grace is everywhere, in villages and in cities, on them of low as on them of high degree, on bondsmen and on freemen [198] ."
Thus the rule of Ignatius [199] , that "it is not lawful either to baptize or to hold a love-feast apart from the Bishop (choris tou episkopou)," must be understood to mean "without the authority and permission of the Bishop."
Of certain minor ceremonies connected with Baptism, such as the "Kiss of peace," and the taste of milk and honey administered to the neophyte [200] , no mention is made by Cyril.
§ 6. Chrism. The custom of anointing the baptized with consecrated ointment is regarded by Cyril as a sacramental act representing the anointing of Jesus by the Spirit at His Baptism. "As the Holy Ghost in substance lighted on Him, like resting upon like, so, after you had come up from the pool of the sacred waters, there was given to you an unction the counterpart (to antitupon) of that wherewith He was anointed, and this is the Holy Ghost [201] ." As "He was anointed with a spiritual oil of gladness, that is with the Holy Ghost, called oil of gladness, because He is the author of spiritual gladness, so ye were anointed with ointment, and made partakers and fellows of the Christ [202] ." The ceremony was very ancient: there is probably a reference to it in the words of Theophilus of Antioch [203] (c. a.d. 170): "We are called Christians, because we are anointed with the oil of God." Tertullian, a little later, after speaking of Baptism, says: "Immediately on coming out of the Laver we are thoroughly anointed with a consecrated unction [204] ;" and again, "After that, the hand is laid upon us in benediction, invoking and inviting the Holy Ghost [205] ." In another passage [206] he mentions also the sign of the Cross: "The flesh is washed, that the soul may be cleansed; the flesh is anointed that the soul may be consecrated, the flesh is signed [with the Cross] that the soul also may be guarded; the flesh is overshadowed by imposition of the hand, that the soul also may be illuminated by the Spirit."
The consecration of the ointment is compared by Cyril to the consecration of the Eucharist; after the invocation of the Holy Ghost it is no longer simple or common ointment, but a gift (Charisma) of Christ, and by the presence of the Holy Ghost is able to impart of His Divine Nature. And this ointment is symbolically applied to thy forehead, and thy other organs of sense [207] ."
The ears, nostrils, and breast were each to be anointed, and Cyril explains the symbolical meaning in each case by appropriate passages of Scripture [208] .
The consecration of the chrism could be performed by none but the Bishop, and he alone could anoint the forehead [209] , Presbyters being allowed to anoint the breast, but only with chrism received from the Bishop [210] . The several ceremonies are thus explained in the Apostolical Constitutions [211] : "This baptism is given into the death of Jesus: the water is instead of the burial, and the oil instead of the Holy Ghost; the seal instead of the Cross; the ointment is the confirmation of the Confession [212] ."
In like manner the chrism is explained again, "The ointment is the seal of the covenants [213] ," that is, both of God's promises, and of the Baptismal vows.
The members to be anointed were not the same in all Churches, but everywhere the chief ceremony was the anointing of the forehead with the sign of the Cross. This is what Cyril calls "the Royal Sign [214] ," and "the Royal Seal to be borne upon the forehead of Christ's soldiers [215] ," and again, "The Seal of the fellowship of the Holy Ghost [216] ."
These last were probably the very words pronounced by the Bishop in making the sign of the Cross on the forehead, for by Canon 7 of the Second General Council at Antioch (381), converts from heretical sects were to be "sealed or anointed with the holy ointment on the forehead, eyes, nostrils, mouth, and ears. And in sealing them we say, The seal of the gift of the Holy Ghost.'"
An additional prayer to be said by the Bishop is given in the Apostolical Constitutions [217] : "O Lord God, the Unbegotten, who hast no Lord, who art Lord of all, who madest the odour of the knowledge of the Gospel to go forth among all nations, grant also now that this ointment may be efficacious upon him that is baptized (baptizomeno), that the sweet odour of thy Christ may remain firm and stable in him, and that having died with Him, he may arise and live with Him."
The whole ceremony was called by the Greeks "Chrism," the "Unction" being regarded by them as the chief part. In the Latin Church the name Confirmation is of later date, and indicates that greater importance was then attached to the "Laying on of Hands" with prayer.
Another ceremony, not alluded to by Cyril, was the saying of the Lord's Prayer by the neophyte, standing up, and facing towards the East [218] , after which he was also to pray, "O God Almighty, the Father of Thy Christ, Thine Only-begotten Son, give me a body undefiled, a clean heart, a watchful mind, an unerring knowledge, the influence (epiphoitesin) of the Holy Ghost for attainment and full assurance of the truth, through Thy Christ, by whom be glory to Thee in the Holy Ghost for ever. Amen."
[165] Cat. xviii. § 32,
[166] De. Cor. Mil. c. 3.
[167] Myst. i. § 2.
[168] § 4.
[169] § 5.
[170] § 6.
[171] § 8.
[172] § 9, note 3.
[173] Compare xviii. 22: "One Baptism of repentance for the remission of sins."
[174] Creeds of the Church, p. 17.
[175] Pseudo-Dionysius Areopag. Eccl. Hierarch. iii.
[176] Mystag. ii. § 2.
[177] This passage has recently (1891) acquired a special interest from the controversy concerning Mr. Calderon's picture, representing St. Elisabeth of Hungary as kneeling naked before the altar. The word "naked" (gumnos, nudus) is not in itself decisive, but here in St. Cyril's account of Baptism absolute nakedness seems to be implied; for though women sometimes wore an under-tunic (chitonion), men had nothing beneath the tunic proper (chiton), which is here said to be put off. According to Theophylact, on Matt. v. 40, the chiton was properly to par' hemin legomenon hupokamisoe. See Dictionary of Biblical Antiquities, "Baptism," § 48.
[178] Ib. § 3.
[179] Const. Apost. vii. c. 42.
[180] Ant. XI. c. 9, § 1.
[181] Ephes. i. Hom. i. § 3.
[182] Quæstio 137.
[183] Mystag. ii. § 3.
[184] Lib. iii. c. 15.
[185] Mystag. ii. § 4.
[186] Bingham, Ant. VIII. c. 7, § 2; XI. c. 11, § 3.
[187] De Baptismo, c. iv.
[188] VII. c. 43.
[189] Cat. iii. § 3. See also Introduction, ch. vi. § 2.
[190] Mystag. ii. § 4.
[191] Pseudo-Ambros. de Sacramentis, II. c. 7.
[192] Ant. XI. c. 7, § 11.
[193] Mystag. iii. § 4.
[194] Cap. vii.
[195] Apolog. I. c.
[196] De Baptismo, c. vi.
[197] Mystag. ii. § 4, note 3.
[198] Cat. xvii. 35.
[199] Ad Smyrn. c. viii.
[200] Bingham, Ant. XII. c. 4, §§ 5, 6.
[201] Mystag. iii. § 1.
[202] Mystag. iii. § 2.
[203] Ad Autolycum, i.
[204] De Bapt. c. 7.
[205] Ib. c. 8.
[206] De Resurr. Carnis, c. 8.
[207] Ib. § 3.
[208] Myst. iii. § 4.
[209] Apost. Const. iii. § 16: "Let the Bishop anoint those that are baptized with ointment (muro)."
[210] See the authorities in Bingham, Ant. xii. c. 2, §§ 1, 2.
[211] iii. 17.
[212] Const. Apost. vii. c. 22.
[213] Ib. vii. c. 43. Cf. Cat. iii. 17.
[214] Cat. iv. § 14.
[215] Ib. xii. § 8.
[216] Ib. xviii. 33.
[217] vii. c. 44.
[218] Const. Apost. vii. c. 44.