DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24719#0089
70
THE CEREMONIES OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
influence throughout the Homan empire; hut we never find them capitulating with conscience,
nor tampering with the doctrine they had sworn to defend and to make triumphant. All this
was a subject of fear and astonishment to the philosophers and the authorities; for they saw
all that the people were habituated to respect, subverted. They would, perhaps, have pardoned
the Christians for not sacrificing to Jupiter; but to refuse to burn incense before the statues
of the deified emperors was in their eyes a capital crime. However, when the people cried
out “The Christians to the lions!” we must not suppose it to have been solely the result
of hatred to the Christian name: they wanted amusement, and sanguinary pleasures were
so natural to them, that it did not appear to them to he anything very flagrant when
thousands of innocent people were sent to the arena. Nero certainly caused the Christians to
he burnt; hut he also burnt Home. Amongst a people to whom the word charity was devoid
of sense, the most cruel punishments awaited those who rebelled in the slightest degree
against the ferocious authority of the Caesars.
Upon examining closely the reception that Christianity met with at the time of its first
establishment, we are induced to see on the part of the pagans a certain amount of admiration
for the virtues and pure morals of its first confessors. The name of Christ was found one day
inscribed in the imperial Pantheon; but Christians repulsed such an assimilation as insulting,
for they believed that neither gods nor emperors, but Christ alone, had a right to their
adoration. Then it was that the imperial authority was insulted and persecution commenced.
The martyrs, radiant, triumphed over the stake, and every execution brought thousands of
neophytes to the bosom of the Church. At the time that Constantine became a Christian,
half his empire was already christianized.
As spontaneous conversions were numerous, the Church wished to find in the neophytes
men repentant of their past crimes and well instructed in the duties they had to fulfil towards
God and their neighbours. Hence originated the order of Catechumens.
Prom the earliest times instructions emanating from the Apostles were observed by the
bishops as well as by the Catechumens. The latter were admitted to hear the reading of
the Holy Scriptures, but not allowed to participate in the holy mysteries before receiving
baptism, which admitted them into the society of the faithful.
The instructions of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, touching the duties of the new Christian,
are still in existence. He had to go to the hierarch, and express to him his desire to enter
into the Christian communion. ■ After the first interrogatories, if the neophyte replied in a
satisfactory manner, the pontiff placed his hand upon his head, signed him with the sign of
the cross, and ordered the minister to enrol the name of the godson and sponsor.
Catechumens were of several degrees, occupying different positions, not in the church — for
they had not the right to enter there — hut in the nartliex, and in the embolon, — a kind of
portico by which the primitive church was surrounded. These different degrees were not
acquired definitively; they could be forfeited through misconduct. There were two or three
degrees of punishment intervening between forfeiture and excommunication, which was the
most severe punishment the Church could inflict.
Baptism was the reward of the religious noviciate, which lasted often several months,
and which could be prolonged if the converts retrograded.
The Christian community was then divided into three classes: the first consisted of those
who ministered in holy things, and had the power of conferring the ministry on others; the
second, of those who had been baptized and admitted to communion; the third and last, of
those who had been excluded from Christian communion, and had returned to the right path
with tears of repentance, imploring forgiveness from God. Included in the last class were
also those who, though devoted in spirit to Christ, had not yet received baptism, but were
being taught the principles of the Christian faith. They bore the name of Catechumens.
To the first order the most secret part of the temple (the sacrarium, bema, or sanctuary)
was open. This part was separated from the rest of the temple by veils and barriers, in order
that it might appear still more sacred, and that the sight of the service should be hidden
from those who were not worthy to sec it.
The second had access to the middle part of the temple, the nave, where the faithful
assisted at the service.
The third and last were admitted to the exterior portico, called the nartliex, only, and did
not enter into the church except when they were summoned, and went out the moment
THE CEREMONIES OF THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
influence throughout the Homan empire; hut we never find them capitulating with conscience,
nor tampering with the doctrine they had sworn to defend and to make triumphant. All this
was a subject of fear and astonishment to the philosophers and the authorities; for they saw
all that the people were habituated to respect, subverted. They would, perhaps, have pardoned
the Christians for not sacrificing to Jupiter; but to refuse to burn incense before the statues
of the deified emperors was in their eyes a capital crime. However, when the people cried
out “The Christians to the lions!” we must not suppose it to have been solely the result
of hatred to the Christian name: they wanted amusement, and sanguinary pleasures were
so natural to them, that it did not appear to them to he anything very flagrant when
thousands of innocent people were sent to the arena. Nero certainly caused the Christians to
he burnt; hut he also burnt Home. Amongst a people to whom the word charity was devoid
of sense, the most cruel punishments awaited those who rebelled in the slightest degree
against the ferocious authority of the Caesars.
Upon examining closely the reception that Christianity met with at the time of its first
establishment, we are induced to see on the part of the pagans a certain amount of admiration
for the virtues and pure morals of its first confessors. The name of Christ was found one day
inscribed in the imperial Pantheon; but Christians repulsed such an assimilation as insulting,
for they believed that neither gods nor emperors, but Christ alone, had a right to their
adoration. Then it was that the imperial authority was insulted and persecution commenced.
The martyrs, radiant, triumphed over the stake, and every execution brought thousands of
neophytes to the bosom of the Church. At the time that Constantine became a Christian,
half his empire was already christianized.
As spontaneous conversions were numerous, the Church wished to find in the neophytes
men repentant of their past crimes and well instructed in the duties they had to fulfil towards
God and their neighbours. Hence originated the order of Catechumens.
Prom the earliest times instructions emanating from the Apostles were observed by the
bishops as well as by the Catechumens. The latter were admitted to hear the reading of
the Holy Scriptures, but not allowed to participate in the holy mysteries before receiving
baptism, which admitted them into the society of the faithful.
The instructions of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, touching the duties of the new Christian,
are still in existence. He had to go to the hierarch, and express to him his desire to enter
into the Christian communion. ■ After the first interrogatories, if the neophyte replied in a
satisfactory manner, the pontiff placed his hand upon his head, signed him with the sign of
the cross, and ordered the minister to enrol the name of the godson and sponsor.
Catechumens were of several degrees, occupying different positions, not in the church — for
they had not the right to enter there — hut in the nartliex, and in the embolon, — a kind of
portico by which the primitive church was surrounded. These different degrees were not
acquired definitively; they could be forfeited through misconduct. There were two or three
degrees of punishment intervening between forfeiture and excommunication, which was the
most severe punishment the Church could inflict.
Baptism was the reward of the religious noviciate, which lasted often several months,
and which could be prolonged if the converts retrograded.
The Christian community was then divided into three classes: the first consisted of those
who ministered in holy things, and had the power of conferring the ministry on others; the
second, of those who had been baptized and admitted to communion; the third and last, of
those who had been excluded from Christian communion, and had returned to the right path
with tears of repentance, imploring forgiveness from God. Included in the last class were
also those who, though devoted in spirit to Christ, had not yet received baptism, but were
being taught the principles of the Christian faith. They bore the name of Catechumens.
To the first order the most secret part of the temple (the sacrarium, bema, or sanctuary)
was open. This part was separated from the rest of the temple by veils and barriers, in order
that it might appear still more sacred, and that the sight of the service should be hidden
from those who were not worthy to sec it.
The second had access to the middle part of the temple, the nave, where the faithful
assisted at the service.
The third and last were admitted to the exterior portico, called the nartliex, only, and did
not enter into the church except when they were summoned, and went out the moment