§ 74. Heretical Baptism.
§ 74. Heretical Baptism.
On Heretical Baptism comp. Eusebius: H.E. VII. 3–5. Cyprian: Epist. LXX.-LXXVI. The Acts of the Councils of Carthage, a.d. 255 and 256, and the anonymous tract, De Rebaptismate, among Cyprian’s works, and in Routh’s Reliquiae Sacrae, vol. v. 283–328.
Hefele: Conciliengeschichte, I. 117–132 (second ed.).
G. E. Steitz: Ketzertaufe, in Herzog, rev. ed., VII. 652–661.
Heretical baptism was, in the third century, the subject of a violent controversy, important also for its bearing on the question of the authority of the Roman see.
Cyprian, whose Epistles afford the clearest information on this subject, followed Tertullian461 in rejecting baptism by heretics as an inoperative mock-baptism, and demanded that all heretics coming over to the Catholic church be baptized (he would not say re-baptized). His position here was due to his high-church exclusiveness and his horror of schism. As the one Catholic church is the sole repository of all grace, there can be no forgiveness of sins, no regeneration or communication of the Spirit, no salvation, and therefore no valid sacraments, out of her bosom. So far he had logical consistency on his side. But, on the other hand, he departed from the objective view of the church, as the Donatists afterwards did, in making the efficacy of the sacrament depend on the subjective holiness of the priest. "How can one consecrate water," he asks, "who is himself unholy, and has not the Holy Spirit?" He was followed by the North African church, which, in several councils at Carthage in the years 255–6, rejected heretical baptism; and by the church of Asia Minor, which had already acted on this view, and now, in the person of the Cappadocian bishop Firmilian, a disciple and admirer of the great Origen, vigorously defended it against Rome, using language which is entirely inconsistent with the claims of the papacy.462
The Roman bishop Stephen (253–257) appeared for the opposite doctrine, on the ground of the ancient practice of his church.463 He offered no argument, but spoke with the consciousness of authority, and followed a catholic instinct. He laid chief stress on the objective nature of the sacrament, the virtue of which depended neither on the officiating priest, nor on the receiver, but solely on the institution of Christ. Hence he considered heretical baptism valid, provided only it was administered with intention to baptize and in the right form, to wit, in the name of the Trinity, or even of Christ alone; so that heretics coming into the church needed only confirmation or the ratification of baptism by the Holy Ghost. "Heresy," says he, "produces children and exposes them; and the church takes up the exposed children, and nourishes them as her own, though she herself has not brought them forth."
The doctrine of Cyprian was the more consistent from the hierarchical point of view; that of Stephen, from the sacramental. The former was more logical, the latter more practical and charitable. The one preserved the principle of the exclusiveness of the church; the other, that of the objective force of the sacrament, even to the borders of the opus operatum theory. Both were under the direction of the same churchly spirit, and the same hatred of heretics; but the Roman doctrine is after all a happy inconsistency of liberality, an inroad upon the principle of absolute exclusiveness, an involuntary concession, that baptism, and with it the remission of sin and regeneration, therefore salvation, are possible outside of Roman Catholicism.464
The controversy itself was conducted with great warmth. Stephen, though advocating the liberal view, showed the genuine papal arrogance and intolerance. He would not even admit to his presence the deputies of Cyprian, who brought him the decree of the African synod, and he called this bishop, who in every respect excelled Stephen, and whom the Roman church now venerates as one of her greatest saints, a false Christ and false apostle.465 He broke off all intercourse with the African church, as he had already with the Asiatic. But Cyprian and Firmilian, nothing daunted, vindicated with great boldness, the latter also with bitter vehemence, their different view, and continued in it to their death. The Alexandrian bishop Dionysius endeavored to reconcile the two parties, but with little success. The Valerian persecution, which soon ensued, and the martyrdom of Stephen (257) and of Cyprian (258), suppressed this internal discord.
In the course of the fourth century, however, the Roman theory gradually gained on the other, received the sanction of the oecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325, was adopted in North Africa during the Donatistic controversies, by a Synod of Carthage, 348, defended by the powerful dialectics of St. Augustin against the Donatists, and was afterwards confirmed by the Council of Trent with an anathema on the opposite view.
Note.
The Council of Trent declares (Sessio Sept., March 3, 1547, canon 4): "If any one says that the baptism, which is even given by heretics in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, with the intention of doing what the church doth, is not true baptism: let him be anathema." The Greek church likewise forbids the repetition of baptism which has been performed in the name of the Holy Trinity, but requires trine immersion. See the Orthodox Conf. Quaest. CII. (in Schaff’s Creeds II. 376), and the Russian Catch. (II. 493), which says: "Baptism, is spiritual birth: a man is born but once, therefore he is also baptized but once." But the same Catechism declares "trine immersion" to be "most essential in the administration of baptism"(II. 491).
The Roman church, following the teaching of St. Augustin, bases upon the validity of heretical and schismatical baptism even a certain legal claim on all baptized persons, as virtually belonging to her communion, and a right to the forcible conversion of heretics under favorable circumstances.466 But as there may be some doubt about the orthodox form and intention of heretical baptism in the mind of the convert (e.g. if he be a Unitarian), the same church allows a conditional rebaptism with the formula: "If thou art not yet baptized, I baptize thee," etc.
Evangelical creeds put their recognition of Roman Catholic or any other Christian baptism not so much on the theory of the objective virtue of the sacrament, as on a more comprehensive and liberal conception of the church. Where Christ is, there is the church, and there are true ordinances. The Baptists alone, among Protestants, deny the validity of any other baptism but by immersion (in this respect resembling the Greek church), but are very far on that account from denying the Christian status of other denominations, since baptism with them is only a sign (not a means) of regeneration or conversion, which precedes the rite and is independent of it.
Chorus, bh'ma. The two are sometimes identified, sometimes distinguished, the bema being the sanctuary proper for the celebration of the holy mysteries, the choir the remaining part of the chancel for the clergy; while the nave was for the laity.
[Ambwn, suggestus, pulpitum.
Travpeza, mensa sacra; also ara, altare.
jEkklhsiva, ejkklhsiasthvrion, kuriakav, oi\ko" qeou',, ecclesia, dominica, domus Dei, templum. The names for a church building in the Teutonic and Slavonic languages (Kirche, Church, Kerk, Kyrka, Tserkoff, etc.) are derived from the Greek kuriakhv, kuriakovn, (belonging to the Lord, the Lord’s house), through the medium of the Gothic; the names in the Romanic languages (Chiesa, Igreja, Eglise, etc.) from the Latin ecclesia, although this is also from the Greek, and meant originally assembly (either a local congregation, or the whole body of Christians). Churches erected specially in honor of martyrs were called martyria, memoriae, tropaea, tituli.
In ecclcsima, in domum Dei venire
Tovpo",anda]qroisma tw'n ejklektw'n
De Mort. Persec. c. 12. The Chronicle of Edessa (in Assem. Bibl Orient. XI. 397) mentions the destruction of Christian temples a.d. 292.
Hist. Ecel. X. 4. Eusebius also describes, in rhetorical exaggeration and looseness, the churches built by Constantine in Jerusalem, Antioch, and Constantinople (Vita Const. 1. III. 50; IV. 58, 59). See De Vogüe, Eglises de la terre-sainte, Hübsch, l.c., , -tnd Smith & Cheetliam, I. 368 sqq.
II. 57, ed. Ueltzen, p. 66 sqq.
The original designations of the Christian Sabbath or weekly rest-day are: hJ miva ormiva sabbavtwn, the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 21:1; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2), and hJ hJmevra kuriakhv, the Lord’s Day, which first occurs in Rev. 1:10, then in Ignatius and the fathers. The Latins render it Dominicus or Dominica dies. Barnabas calls it the eighth day, in contrast to the Jewish Sabbath. After Constantine the Jewish term Sabbath and the heathen term Sunday (hJmevra tou' hJlivou, dies Solis)were used also. In the edict of Gratian, a.d. 386, two are combined: "Solis die, quem Dominicum rite` dixere majores." On the Continent of Europe Sunday has ruled out Sabbath completely; while in England, Scotland, and the United States Sabbath is used as often as the other or oftener in religious literature. The difference is characteristic of the difference in the Continental and the Anglo-American observance of the Lord’s Day.
Ep., c. 15: "We celebrate the eighth day with joy, on which Jesus rose from the dead, and, after having appeared [to his disciple, ;], ascended to heaven." It does not follow from this that Barnabas put the ascension of Christ likewise on Sunday.
Ep. ad Magnes. c. 8, 9.
Apol. I. 67.
"Stato die, ’ in his letter to Trajan, Ep. X. 97. This " stated day, "on which the Christian, in Bithynia assembled before day-light to sing hymns to Christ as a God, and to bind themselves by a sacramentum, must be the Lord’s Day.
Ch. 14: Kuriakh; kurivou, pleonastic. The adjective in Rev. 1:10.
Ep. ad Magna. c. 8, 9 in the shorter Greek recension (wanting in the Syriac edition).
Cap. 15. This Epistle is altogether too fierce in its polemics against Judaism to be the production of the apostolic Barnabas.
Dial c. TryPh. M. 19, 27 (Tom. I. P. II. p. 68, 90, in the third ed. of Otto).
Dial. 12 (II, p. 46):sabbativzein uJma'" (so Otto reads, but hJma'" would be better) oJ kaino;" novmo" dia; panto;" (belong to sabbativzein)ejqevlei. Comp. Tertullian, Contra Jud. c. 4: "Unde nos intelligimis magis, sabbatizare nos ab omni opere servili semper debere, et non tantum septimo quoque die, sed per omne tempus."
Apol. I. 67 (I. p. 161):Th;n de; tou' hJlivou hJmevran koinh'/ pavnte" th;n sunevleusin poiouvmeqa, ejpeidh; prwvth ejsti;n hJmevra, ejn h|/ oJ qeo;" to; skovto" kai; th;n u{lhn trevya" , kovsmon ejpoivhse, kai; jIhsou'" Cristo;" oJ hJmevtero" swth;r th'/ auth'/ hJmevra/ ejk nekrw'n ajnevsth. k.t.l.
Eusebius, H. E. IV. 23.
Peri; kuriakh'" lovgo". Euseb. IV. 26.
In one of his fragments peri; tou' pavsca, and by his part in the Quartadecimanian controversy, which turned on the yearly celebration of the Christian Passover, but implied universal agreement as to the weekly celebration of the Resurrection. Comp. Hessey, Bampton Lectures on Sunday. London, 1860, p. 373.
Adv. Haer. IV. 16.
De Orat. c. 23: "Nos vero sicut accepimus, solo die Dominicae Resurrectionis non ab isto tantum [the bowing of the knee], sed omni anxietatis habitu et officio cavere debemus, differentes etiam negotia, ne quem diabolo locum demus." Other passages of Tertullian, Cyprian, Clement of Alex., and Origen see in Hessey, l.c., pp. 375 ff.
Feria quarta.
Feria sexta, hJ paraskeuhv
Dies stationum of the milites Christi.
Semijejunia.
Pascha, pavsca, is not from the verb pavscein, to, suffer (though often con founded with it and with the Latin passio by the Father, who were ignorant of Hebrew), but from the Hebrew js'K, the Chaldee ah;s]K' , (Comp. the verb js'K; to pass over, to spare). See Ex. chg. 12 and 13; Lev. 23:4–9; Num. ch. 9. It has three meanings in the Sept. and the N. T. 1) the paschal festival, called "the feast of unleavened bread," and lasting from the fourteenth to the twentieth of Nisan, in commemoration of the sparing of the first-born and the deliverance of Israel from Egypt; 2) the paschal lamb which was slain between the two evenings. (3-5 p. m.) on the 14th of Nisan; 3) the paschal supper on the evening- of the same day, which marked the beginning of the 15th of Nisan, or the first day of the festival. In the first sense it corresponds to the Christian Easter-festival, as the type corresponds to the substance. Nevertheless the translation Easter for Passover in the English version, Acts 12:4, is a strange anachronism (corrected in the Revision).
Easter is the resurrection festival which follow., ; the Passover proper, but is included in the same festive week. The English Easter (Anglo-Saxon easter, eastran, German Ostern) is connected with East and sunrise, and is akin to hjwv", oriens, aurora (comp. Jac. Grimm’s Deutsche Mythol. 1835, p. 181 and 349, and Skeat’s Etym. Dict. E. Lang. sub Easter). The comparison of sunrise and the natural spring with the new moral creation in the resurrection of Christ, and the transfer of the celebration of Ostara, the old German divinity of the rising, health-bringing light, to the Christian Easter festival, was easy and natural, because all nature is a symbol of spirit, and the heathen myths are dim presentiments and carnal anticipations of Christian truths.
To; mevga savbbaton, to; a{gion savbbaton , Sabbatum magnum.
Pannucivde",vigiae paschae, Easter Eve. Good Friday and Easter Eve were a continuous fast, which was prolonged till midnight or cock-crow. See Tertull. Ad uxoR. II. 4; Euseb. H. E. VI. 34; Apost. ConSt. V. 18; VII. 23.
Various names: pavsca staurwvsimou (as distinct from p. ajnastavsimou).hJmevra staurou', paraskeuh; megavlh or ajgiva, parasceue, feria sexta major, Good Friday, Charfreitag (fromcavri" or from carus, dear). But the celebration seems not to, have been universal; for Augustin says in his letter Ad Januar., that he did not consider this day holy. See Siegel, Handbuch der christl. Kirchl. Alterthümer, I. 374 sqq.
From Palm Sunday to Easter Eve. JEbdoma;" megavlh, or tou' pavsca, hebdomas magna, hebdomas nigra (in opposition to dominica in albis), hebdomas crux, Chaiwoche.
Irenaeus, in his letter to Victor of Rome (Euseb. V. 24): "Not only is the dispute respecting the day, but also respecting the manner of fasting. For some think that the v ought to fast only one day, some two, some more days; some compute their day as consisting of forty hours night and day; and this diversity existing among those that observe it, is not a matter that has just sprung up in our times, but long ago among those before us, who perhaps not having ruled with sufficient strictness, established the practice that arose from their simplicity and ignorance."
quadragesima.
Matt. 4:2; comp. Ex. 34:28; 1 Kings 19:8.
See note at the end of the section.
So Renan regards the controversy, Marc-Aurèle, p. 194, as a conflict between two kinds of Christianity. "le christianisme qui s’envisageait comme une suite du judaisme," and "le christianisme qui s’envisageait comme la destruction du judaisme."
By Mosheim (De rebus christ. ante Const. M Com., p. 435 sqq.) and Neander (in the first edition of his Church Hist., 1. 518, but not in the second I. 512, Germ. ed., I. 298 in Torrey’s translation). There is no trace of such a Jewish custom on the part of the Quartadecimani. This is admitted by Hefele (I. 87), who formerly held to three parties in this controversy; but there were only two.
The celebration of the eucharist is not expressly mentioned by Eusebius, but may be inferred. He says (H. E. V. 23): "The churches of all Asia, guided by older tradition (wJ"ejk paradovsew"ajrcaiotevra", older than that of Rome), thought that they were bound to keep the fourteenth day of the moon, on (or at the time of) the feast of the Saviour’s Passover (ejpi; th'"tou' swthrivou pavsca ejorth'"), that day on which the Jews were commanded to kill the paschal lamb; it being incumbent on them by all means to regulate the close of the fast by that day on whatever day of the week it might happen to fall."
Justin M. Dial.c.111; Iren. Adv. Haer. II. 22, 3; Tert. De Bapt. 19; Origen, In Matth.; Epiph. Haer. XLII. St. Paul first declared Christ to be our passover (1 Cor. 5:7), and yet his companion Luke, with whom his own account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper agrees, represents Christ’s passover meal as takin, place on the 14th.
The id v=14, quarta decima. See Ex. 12:6; Lev. 23:5, where this day is prescribed for the celebration of the Passover. Hence Tessareskaidekati'taiQuartodecimani, more correctly Quartadecimani. This sectarian name occurs in the canons of the councils of Laodicea, 364, Constantinople, 381, etc.
Philosph. or Refutat. of all Haeres. VIII. 18.
So also Renan regards it, L’égl. Chrét., p. 445sq., but he brings it, like Baur, in conflict with the chronology of the fourth Gospel. He traces the Roman custom from the pontificate of Xystus and Telesphorus, a.d. 120.
Renan (l.c., p. 447) conjectures that Trenaeus and Florinus accompanied Polycarp on that journey to Rome. Neander and others give a wrong date, 162. Polycarp died in 155, see § 19, p. 51, The pontificate of Anicetus began in 154 or before.
In a fragment of a letter to the Roman bishop Victor, preserved by Eusebius, H. E. V. c. 24 (ed. Heinichen, I. 253).
kai; peri; a{llwn tinw'n mikra; scovnte" (ore[conte")pro;" ajllhvlou"
mh; threi'n, i.e. the fourteenth of Nisan, as appears from the connection and from ch. 23. The threi'n consisted mainly in fasting, and probably also the celebration of the eucharist in the evening. It was a technical term for legal observances, Comp. John 9:16.
H. E. IV. 26.
With the exception of a few fragments in the Chrenicon Paschale.
Eusebius spells his name jApolinavrio" (IV. 21 and 26, 27, ree Heinichen’s ed.), and so do Photius, and the Chron. Pachale in most MSS. But the Latins spell his name Apollinaris. He lived under Marcus Aurelius (161-180), was an apologist and opponent of Montanism which flourished especially in Phrygia, and must not be confounded with one of the two Apollinarius or Apollinaris, father and son, of Laodicea in Syria, who flourished in the fourth century.
Ed. Dindorf I. 13; in Routh’s Reliquiae Sacrae I.p. 160. Quoted and discussed by Milligan,l.c. p. 109 sq.
If this is the genuine Quartadecimanian view, it proves conclusively that it agreed with the Synoptic chronology as to the day of Christ’s death, and that Weitzel and Steitz are wrong on this point.
Since according to the view of Apolinarius, Christ as the true fulfillment of the law, must have died on the 14th, the day of the legal passover.
This seems to be the meaning of stasiavzein dokei', kat j aujtouv", ta; eujaggevlia,inter se pugnare, etc. On the assumption namely that John fixes the detail of Christ on the fourteenth of Nisan, which, however, is a point in dispute. The opponents who started from the chronology of the Synoptists, could retort this objections.
The same argument is urged in the fragments of Hippolytus in the Chronicon Paschale. But that Jesus was the true Paschal Lamb is a doctrine in which all the churches were agreed.
So Baur (p. 163 sq.) and the Tübingen School rightly maintain.
As Weitzel, Steitz, and Lechler assume in opposition to Baur.
In the passage of the Philosoph. above quoted and in the fragments of the Paschal Chronicle.
Epiphanius, it is true, distinguishes different opinions among the Quartadecimanians (Haer. L. cap. 1-3 Contra Quartadecimanas), but be makes no mention of the practice of eating a Paschal lamb, or of any difference in this chronology of the death of Christ.
Eusebius, H. E., V. 23-25.
Megavla stoicei'a in the sense of stars used Ep. ad Diog. 7; Justin Dial.c. 23 (ta; oujravnia stoicei'a).
oJ ejpi; to; sth'qo" tou' kurivou ajnapeswvn. Comp. John 1. 3: 25; 21: 20, This designation, as Renan admits Marc-Aurèle, p. 196, note 2), implies that Polycrates acknowledged the Gospel of John as genuine.
to; pevtalon.On this singular expression, which is probably figurative for priestly holiness, see vol. 1. p. 431, note 1.
Euseb. V. 24 (ed. Heinichen, 1. p. 250 sqq).
He is probably the author of the pseudo-Cypranic homily against dice players (De Aleatoribus), which assumes the tone of the papal encyclical.
In the third fragment discovered by Pfaff, probably from his book against Blastus. See Opera. ad. Stieren, I. 887.
In the Synodical letter which the fathers of Nicaea addressed to the churches of Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis (Socrates, H. E. l.c. 9), it is said: "We have also gratifying intelligence to communicate to you relating to the unity of judgment on the subject of the most holy feast of Easter; ...that all the brethren in the East who have heretofore kept this festival at the same time as the Jews, will henceforth conform to the Romans and to us, and to all who from the earliest time have observed our period of celebrating Easter." Eusebius; reports (Vita Const. III. 19) that especially the province of Asia acknowledged the decree. He thinks that only God and the emperor Constantine could remove this, ; evil of two conflicting celebrations of Easter.
Pentekosthv (hJmevra), Quinquagesima, is the fiftieth day after the Passover Sabbath, see vol. I. 225 sqq. It is used by the fathers; in it wider sense for the whole period of fifty days, from Easter to Whitsunday, and in a narrower sense for the single festival of Whitsunday.
De Idol. c. 12; Comp. De Bapt. c. 19; Const. Apost. V. 20.
In this sense Pentecoste is first used by the Council of Elvira (Granada) a.d. 306, can. 43. The week following was afterwards called Hebdomadas Spiritus Sancti.
hJ ejpifavneia, ta; epifavnia, hJ qeofavneia, hJmevra tw'n fwvtwn: Epiphania, Theophania, Dies Luminum, Festura Trium Regum, etc. The feast is first mentioned by Clement of Alex. as the annual commemoration of the. baptism of Christ by the Gnostic sect of the Basilidians (Strom. I. 21). Neander supposes that they derived it from the Jewish Christians in Palestine. Chrysostom often alludes to it.
Augustin, Serm. 202, § 2.
Matt. 2:11. The first indistinct trace, perhaps, is in Tertullian, Adv., Jud. c. 9: "Nam at Magos reges fere habuit Oriens." The apocryphal Gospels of the infancy give us no fiction on that point.
Comp. §17, p. 46, and G. Boissier, De l’authenticité de la lettre de Pline au sujet des Chrétiens, in the "Revue Archéol., " 1876, p. 114-125.
"Quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire, Carmenque, Christo, Deo, dicere secum invicem."
Apol. l.c. 65-67 (Opera, ed. Otto III. Tom. I. P. I. 177-188). The passage quoted is from ch. 67.
th'/ tou' JHlivou legomevnh/ hJmevra/
Mevcri" ejgcwrei'
JO proestwv", the presiding presbyter or bisbop.
·Th;n nouqesivan kai; paravklhsin.
Eujca;" pevmpomen, preces emittimus.
Chap. 65.
{Osh duvnami" aujtw'/ , that is probably pro viribus, quantum potest; or like Tertullian’s "de pectore", and" ex proprio ingenio."Others translate wrongly: totis viribus, with all his might, or with a clear, load voice. Comp. Otto, l.c. 187. The passages, however, in no case contain any opposition to forms of prayer which were certainly in use already at the time, and familiar Without book to every worshipper; above all the Lord’s Prayer. The whole liturgical literature of the fourth and fifth centuries presupposes a much, older liturgics tradition. The prayers in the eighth, book of the Apost. Constitutions are probably among the oldest Portions of the work.
Cap. 13. Justin himself wrote a book entitled vyavlth".
See the passages quoted by Otto, l.c. 184 sq.
B. VIII. 3 sqq. Also VII. 33 sqq. See translation in the "Ante-Nicene Library, " vol. XVII., P. II. 191 sqq. and 212 sqq.
BK. VII. 5.
The Ep. of Clemens in the Codex Alexandrinus (A); Barnabas and Hermas in the Cod. Sinaiticus.
Jomiliva, lovgo", sermo, tractatus.
§ 19, ajnaginwvskw uJmi'n. But the homily may have first been delivered extempore, and taken down by short-hand writers (tacugravfoi, notarii). See Lightfoot, p. 306.
Ed. by Bryennios (1875), and in the Patr. Apost. ed. by de Gebhardt and Harnack, I. 111-143. A good translation by Lightfoot, S. Clement of Rome, Appendix, 380-390. Lightfoot says: "If the first Epistle of Clement is the earliest foreshadowing of a Christian liturgy, the so called Second Epistle is the first example of a Christian homily." He thinks that the author was a bishop; Harnack, that be was a layman, as be seems to distinguish himself from the presbyters. Lightfoot assigns him to Corinth, and explains in this way the fact that the homily was bound tip with the letter of Clement to the Corinthians; while Harnack ably maintain, the Roman origin from the time and circle of Hermas. Bryennios ascribe, ; it to Clement of Rome (which is quite impossible), Hilgenfeld to Clement of Alexandria (which is equally impossible).
Ad Cor. ch. 59-61, discovered and first published by Bryennios, 1875. We give Clement’s prayer below, p. 228 sq. The prayers if the Didache(chs.9 and 10), brought to light by Bryennios, 1883, are still older, and breathe the spirit of primitive simplicity. See § 68.
See vol. III. 517 sqq., and add to the literature there, quoted, Probst (R.C.), Die Liturgie der 3 ersten Jahrh., Tüb., 1870; C. A. Hammond, Ancient Liturgies (with introduction, notes, and liturgical glossary), Oxford and Lond., 1878.
Ap. Const., Bk. VIII., also in the liturgical collections of Daniel, Neale, Hammond, etc.
Const. Apost. lib. VII. 47. Also in Daniel’s Thesaurus Hymnol., tom. III, p. 4, where it is called u{mno" eJwqinov"(as in Cod. Alex.), and commences: Dovxa ejn uJyivstoi" qew'/. Comp. Tom. II. 268 sqq. It is also called hymnus angelicus while the Ter Sanctus (from Isa. 6:3) came afterwards to be distinguished as hymnus seraphicus. Daniel ascribes the former to the third century, Routh to the second. It is found with slight variations at the end of the Alexandrian Codex of the Bible (in the British Museum), and in the Zurich Psalter reprinted by Tischendorf in his Monumenta Sacra. The Latin form is usually traced to Hilary of Poictiers in the fourth century.
Daniel, l.c. vol. III. p. 5. Comp. in part Const. Ap. VIII. 37. The u{mno" eJaperinov"or u{mno" tou' lucnikou', commences:
Fw'" iJlaro;n aJgiva" dovch"
jAqanavtou patro;" oujranivou.
In Euseb. H. E. V. 28.
In the Paedag. III. 12 (p. 311 ed. Pott.); also in Daniel’s Thesaurus hymnologicus III. p. 3 and 4. Daniel calls it "vetustissimus hymnus ecclesiae", but the Gloria in Excelsis may dispute this claim. The poem has been often translated into Cierinan, by Münter (in Rambach’s Anthologie christl. Gesänge, I. p, 35); Dorner (Christologie, I. 293); Fortlage (Gesänge christl. Vorzeit, 1844, p. 38); and in rhyme by Hagenbach (Die K. G. der 3 ersten Jahrh. p. 222 sq.). An English translation may be found in Mrs. Charles: The Voice of Christian Life, in Song, N. York, 1858, p. 44 sq., and a closer one in the "Ante-Nicene Christian Library, " vol. V. p. 343 sq.
Leitourgiva tw'n kathcoumevnwn, Missa Catechumenorum. The name missa (from which our mass is derived) occurs first in Augustin and in the acts of the council of Carthage, a.d. 398. it arose from the formula of dismission at the close of each part of the service, and is equivalent to missio, dismissio. Augustin (Serm. 49, c. 8): "Take notice, after the sermon the dismissal (missa) of the catechumens takes place; the faithful will remain." Afterwards missa came to designate exclusively the communion service. In the Greek church leitourgiva or litourgiva, service, is the precise equivalent for missa.
Leitourgiva tw'n pistw'n, Missa Fidelium.
Mhv ti" tw'n kathcoumevnwn, mhv ti" tw'n ajkrowmevnwn, mhv ti" ajpivstwn, mhv ti" eJterodovxwn, "Let none of the catechumens, let none of the hearers, let none of the unbelievers, let none of the heterodox, stay here." Const. Apost. viii. 12. Comp. Chrysostom Hom. in Matt. xxiii.
De PraescR. Haer. C. 41: "Quis catechimenus, quis fidelis, incertum est" that is, among the heretics); "pariter adeunt, pariter orant, etiam ethnici, si supervenerint; sanctum canibus et porcis, margaritas, licet non veras " (since they have no proper sacraments), "jactabunt." But this does not apply to all heretics, least of all to the Manichaeans, who carried the notion of mystery in the sacrament much further than the Catholics.
Muvhtoi, initiati = pistoiv, fideles.
The learned Jesuit Emanuel von Scheistrate first used this argument in Antiquitas illustrate (Antw. 1678), and De Disciplina Arcani (Rom. 1685); but he was refuted by the Lutheran W. Ernst Tentzel, in his Dissert. de Disc. Arcani, Lips. 1683 and 1692. Tentzel, Casaubon, Bingham, Rothe, and Zetzschwitz are wrong, however, in confining the Disc. Arc. to the ritual and excluding the dogma. See especially Cyril of Jerus. Katech, XVI. 26; XVIIL 32, 33.
Heb. 5:12-14; 1 Cor. 3:1, 2. So some fathers who carry the Disc. Arc. back to the Lord’s command, Matt. 7:6, and in recent times Credner (1844), and Wandinger (in the new ed. of Wetzer and Welte, I. 1237). St. Paul, 1 Cor. 14:23-25, implies the presence of strangers in the public services, but not necesarily during the communion.
So Bonwetsch, l.c., versus Rothe and Zetzchwitz.
The correspondence is very apparent in the ecclesiastical use of such terms as musthvrion, suvmbolon, muvhsi", mustagwgei''n, kavqarsi" , teleiwvsi", fwtismov"(of baptism), etc. On the Greek, and especially the Eleusinian cultus of mysteries, Comp. Lobeck, Aglaophanus, Königsberg, 1829; several articles of Preller in Pauly’s Realencyklop. der Alterthumswissenschaft III. 83 sqq., V. 311 sqq., Zetzs chwitz, l.c. 156 sqq., and Lübker’s Reallex. des class. Alterthums. 5th ed. by Erler (1877), p. 762. Lobeck has refuted the older view of Warburton and Creuzer, that a secret wisdom, and especially the traditions of a primitive revelation, were propagated in the Greek mysteries.
Names:eujcaristiva, koinwniva, eucharistia, communio, communicatio, etc.
Apol. l.c. 65, 66
Eujcaristhqevnto" a[rtou
Cyprian speaks of daily sacrifice, ;. Ep. 54: "Sacerdotes qui Sacrificia Dei quotidie celebramus." So Ambrose, Ep. 14 ad Marcell., and the oldest liturgical works. But that the observance was various, is certified by Augustin, among others. Ep. 118 ad Januar. c. 2: "Alii quotidie communicant corpori et sanguini Dominico; alii certis diebus accipiunt; alibi nullus dies intermittitur quo non offeratur; alibi sabbato tantum et dominico; alibi tantum dominico." St. Basil says (Ep. 289): ’We commune four times in the week, on the Lord’s Day, the fourth day, the preparation day [Friday], and the Sabbath. "Chrysostom complains of the small number of communicants at the daily sacrifice.
Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Pet. 5:14. The Kiss of Peace continued in the Latin church till the end of the thirteenth century, and was then transferred to the close of the service or exchanged for a mere form of words: Pax tibi et ecclesiae. In the Russian church the clergy kiss each other during the recital of the Nicene Creed to show the nominal union of orthodoxy and charity (so often divided). In the Coptic church the primitive custom is still in force, and in some small Protestant sects it has been revived.
Prosforav.
jEpivklhsi" tou' Pn. JAg. Irenaeus derives this invocatio Spiritus S., as well as the oblation and the thanksgiving, from apostolic instruction. See the 2nd fragment, in Stieren, I. 854. It appears in all the Greek liturgies. In the Liturgia Jacobi it reads thus:Kai; ejxapovsteilon ejf j hJma'" kai; ejpi; ta; proskeivmena dw'ra tau'ta to; Pneu'mav sou to; panavgion, to; kuvrion kai; zwopoiovn ... i{na ... ajgiavsh/ kaiv poihvsh/ to;n me;n a[rton tou'ton sw'ma a{gion tou' Cristou; sou', kai; to; pothvrion tou'to ai\ma tivmion tou' Cr. sou', i{na gevnhtai pa'si toi'" ejx auJtw'n metalambavnousin eij" a{fesin aJmartiw'n kai; eij" zwh;n aijwvnion, eij" aJgiasmo;n yucw'n kai; swmavtwn, eij" kartoforivan e[rgwn ajgaqw'n.
Koino;" a[rto", says; Justin, while in view of its sacred import be calls it also uncommon bread and drink. The use of leavened or unleavened bread became afterwards, as is well known, a point of controversy between the Roman and Greek churches.
This simplest form of distribution, "Sw'ma Cristou'," and "Ai[ma Cr., pothvrion zwh'"" occurs in the Clementine liturgy of the Apostolic Constitutions, VIII. 13, and seems to be the oldest. The Didache gives no form of distribution.
The standing posture of the congregation during the principal prayers, and in the communion itself, seems to have been at first universal. For this was, indeed, the custom always on the day of the resurrection in distinction from Friday ("stantes oramus, quod est signunt resurrectionis," says Augustin) besides, the communion was, in the highest sense, a ceremony of festivity and joy; and finally, Justin expressly observes: "Then we all stand up to prayer." After the twelfth century, kneeling in receiving the elements became general, and passed from the Catholic church into the Lutheran and Anglican, while most of the Reformed churches; returned to the original custom of standing. Sitting in the communion was first introduced after the Reformation by the Presbyterian church of Scotland, and is very common in the United States the deacons or elders banding the bread and cup to the communicants in their pews. A curious circumstance is the sitting posture of the Pope in the communion, which Dean Stanley regards as a relic of the reclining or recumbent posture of the primitive disciples. See his Christ. Instit. p. 250 sqq.
On Maundy-Thursday, according, to Augustin’s testimony, the communion continued to be celebrated in the evening, "tanquam ad insigniorem commemorationem." So on high feasts, as Christmas night, Epiphany, and Easter Eve, and in fasting seasons. See Ambrose, Serm. viii. in Ps. 118.
Apol. c.39: "About the modest supper-room of the Christians alone a great ado is made. Our feast explains itself by its name. The Greeks call it love. Whatever it costs, our outlay in the name of piety is gain, since with the good things of the feast we benefit the needy, not as it is with you, do parasites aspire to the glory of satisfying their licentious propensities, selling themselves for a belly-feast to all disgraceful treatment-but as it is with God himself, a peculiar respect is shown to the lowly. If the object of our feast be good, in the light of that consider its further regulations. As it is an act of religious service, it permits no vileness or immodesty. The participants, before reclining, taste first of prayer to God. As much is eaten as satisfies the cravings of hunger; as much is drunk as befits the chaste. They say it is enough, as those who remember that even during the night they have to worship God; they talk as those who know that the Lord is one of their auditors. After the washing of hands and the bringing in of lights, each is asked to stand forth and sing, as he can, a hymn to God, either one from the holy Scriptures or one of his own composing-a proof of the measure of our drinking. As the feast commenced with prayer, so with prayer it closed. We go from it, not like troops of mischief-doers, nor bands of roamers, nor to break out into licentious acts, but to have aq ruucli care of our modesty and chastity as if we had been at a school of virtue rather than a banquet." (Translation from the "Ante-Nicene Library ").
Ad Smyrn. c. 7; against the Docetists, who deny th;n eujcaristivan savrka ei\nai tou' swth'ro" hJmw'n jL.Cr., k.t.l. and Ad Ephes. C. 20: {O" (sc. a{rto")e[stin favrmakon ajqanisiva" , a[ntivdoto" tou' mh; ajpoqanei'n, ajlla; zh'/n eJn jIhsou' Cristw' dia; pantov" . Both passages are wanting in the Syriac version. But the first is cited by Theodoret, Dial. III. p. 231, and must therefore have been known even in the Syrian church in his time.
Apol. I. 66 (I. 182, third ed. of Otto). Here also occurs already the term metabolhv, which some Roman controversialists use at once as an argument for transubstantiation. Justin says: jEx h|" (i.e.trofh'")ai|ma kai; savrke" kata; metabolh;n trevfontai hJmw'n, ex quo alimento sanguis et carnes nostae per mutationem aluntur. But according to the context, this denotes by no means a transmutation of the elements, but either the assimilation of them to the body of the receiver, or the operation of them upon the body, with reference to the future resurrection. Comp. John 6:54 sqq., and like passages in Ignatius and Irenaeus.
Adv. haer. IV. 18, and passim.
In the second of the Fragments discovered by Pfaff (Opp. Tren. ed Stieren, vol. I. p. 855), which Maffei and other Roman divines have unwarrantably declared spurious. It is there said that the Christians, after the offering of the eucharistic sacrifice, call upon the Holy Ghost, o{pw" ajpofhvnh/ th;n qusivan tauvthn kai; to;n a[rton sw'ma tou' Cristou', kai; to; pothvrion to; ai|ma tou' Cr., i{na oij metalabovnte" tou'twn tw'n ajntituvpwn, th'" ajfevsew" tw'n aJmartiw'n kai; zwh'" aijwnivou tuvcwsin.
1 Pet. 3:20, 21.
Const. Apost. l. V. c. 14Ta; ajntivtupa musthvria tou' timivou swvmato" aujtou' kai; ai{mato". So VI. 30, and in a eucharistic prayer, VII. 25. Other passages of the Greek fathers see in Stieren, l.c. p. 884 sq. Comp. also Bleek’s learned remarks in his large Com. on Heb. 8:5, and 9:24.
Adv. Marc. IV. 40; and likewise III. 19. This interpretation is plainly very near that of Œcolampadius, who puts the figure in the predicate, and who attached no small weight to Tertullian’s authority. But the Zwinglian view, which puts the figure in theejsti. instead of the predicate, appears also in Tertullian, Adv. Marc. I. 14, in the words: "Panem qui ipsum corpus suum repraesentat." The two interpretations are only grammatical modifications of the same symbolical theory.
De Resur. Carnis, c. 8."Caro corpore et sanguine Christi vescitur, ut et anima de Deo saginetur." De Pudic. c. 9, he refers the fatted calf, in the parable of the prodigal son, to the Lord’s Supper, and says: "Opimitate Dominici corporis vescitur, eucharistia scilicet."De Orat. c. 6: "Quod et corpus Christi in pane censetur," which should probably be translated: is to be understood by the bread (not contained in the bread).
For this reason he considers the mixing essential. Epist. 63 (ed. Bal.) c. 13: "Si vinum tantum quis offerat, sanguis Christi incipit esse sine nobis; si vero aqua sit sola, plebs incipit esse sine Christo. Quando autem utrumque miscetur et adunatione confusa sibi invicem copitlatur, tunc sacramentum spirituale et cœleste perficitur."
Comment. ser. in Matt. c. 85 (III. 898): "Panis iste, quem Dem Verbum [Logos] corpus suum esse fatetur, verbum est nutritorium animarum, verbum de Deo Verbo procedens, et panis de pani cœlesti ... Non enim panem illum visibilem, quem tenebat in manibus, corpus situm dicebat Deus Verbum, sed verbum, in cuius mysterio est panis ille frangendus." Then the same of the wine. Origen evidently goes no higher than the Zwinglian theory, while Clement approaches the Calvinistic view of a spiritual real fruition of Christ’s life in the Eucharist.
Prosforav, qusiva, oblatio, sacrificium.
So among the Jews the cup of wine at the paschal supper was called "the cup of blessing,"pothvrion eulogiva" = eujcaristiva" , Comp. 1 Cor. 10:16.
Adv. Haer. IV. c. 18, §. 4: "Verbum [the Logos] quod offertur Deo;" instead of which should be read, according to other manuscripts: "Verbum per quod offertur,"—which suits the connexion much better. Comp. IV. 17, § 6: "Per Jes. Christum offert ecclesia." Stieren reads "Verbum quod," but refers it not to Christ, but to the word of the prayer. The passage is, at all events, too obscure and too isolated to build a dogma upon.
Epist. 63 ad Council. c. 14: "Si Jesus Christus, Dominus et Deus noster, ipse est summus sacerdos Dei Patris et sacrificium Patri seipsum primus obtulit et hoc fieri in sui commemorationem praecepit: utique ille sacerdos vice Christi vere fungitur, gui id, quod Christus fecit, imitatur et sacrificium verum et plenum tunc offert."
Apol. I., c. 61 (I. 164 ed. Otto).
Abrenunciatio diaboti. Tertullian: "Renunciare diabolo et pompae et angelis ejus." Const. Apost.: jApotavssomai tw/' Satana/' kai; toi'" e[rgoi" aujtou' kai; tai;" pompai'" aujtou', kai; tai'" latreivai" aujtou', kai; pa'si toi'" uJp j aujtovn This renunciation of the devil was made, at least in the fourth century, as we learn from Cyril of Jerusalem, in the vestibule of the baptistery, with the face towards the west, and the hand raised in the repelling posture, as if Satan were present (wJ" parovnti ajpotavssesqe Satana/'), and was sometimes accompanied with exsufflations, or other signs of expulsion of the evil spirit.
JOmolovghsi", professio. The creed was either said by the catechumen after The priest, or confessed in answer to questions, and with the face turned eastwards towards the light.
See the authorities (Quoted in Smith and Cheetham, I. 161, and more fully in Augusti.. l.c."Ter mergitamur, " says Tertullian. Immersion was very natural in Southern climates. The baptisteries of the Nicene age, of which many remain in Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe, were built for immersion, and all Oriental churches still adhere to this mode. Garrucci (Storia della Arte Cristiana, I. 27) says: "Antichissimo e solenne fu il rito d’ immergere la persona nell’ acqua, e tre volte anche it capo, al pronunziare del ministro i tre nomi." Schultze (Die Katacomben, p. 136): "Die Taufdarstellungen vorkonstantinischer Zeit, deren Zahl sich auf drei beläuft, zeigen sämmtlich erwachsene Täuflinge, in zvei FälIen Knabent von etwa zwölf Jahren, im dritten Falle einen Jüngling. Der Act wird durch Untertauchen vollzogen." Dean Stanley delights in pictorial exaggeration of the baptismal immersion in patristic times as contrasted with modern sprinkling. "Baptism," he says, "was not only a bath, but a plunge—an entire submersion in the deep water, a leap as into the rolling sea or the rushing river, where for the moment the waves close over the bather’s head, and he emerges again as from a momentary grave; or it was a shock of a shower-bath—the rush of water passed over the whole person from capacious vessels, so as to wrap the recipient as within the veil of a splashing cataract. This was the part of the ceremony on which the Apostles laid so much stress. It was to them like a burial of the old former self and the rising up again of the new self."Christian Institutions, (1881), p. 9. See Schaff, l.c. p. 41 sqq.
Ep. I. 41 in reply to Leander, bishop of Hispala. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theol., Tom. IV., f. 615, ed. Migne) quotes this letter with approval, but gives the preference to trina immersio, as expressing "triduum sepulturus Christi et etiam Trinitas personarum."
The Russian Orthodox Catechism defines baptism as "a sacrament, in which a man who believes, having his body thrice plunged in water in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, dies to the carnal life of sin, and is born again of the Holy Ghost to a life spiritual and holy." In the case of infants the act is usually completed by pouring water over the head, the rest of the body being, immersed. So I was informed by a Greek priest.
Pouring or affusion is the present practice of the Roman Catholic church. It is first found on pictures in the Roman catacombs, one of which De Rossi assigns to the second century (in the cemetry of Calixtus). "It is remarkable that in almost all the earliest representations of baptism that have been preserved to us, this [the pouring of water from vessels over the body] is the special act represented." Marriott in Smith and Cheetham, I. 168. But the art of painting can only represent a part of the act, not the whole process; in all the Catacomb pictures the candidate stands with the feet in water, and is undressed as for immersion, total or partial.
"Baptismus clinicorum" (klinikoiv, from klvivnhbed) Clinicus or grabbatarius designated one who was baptized on the sick bed.
Ep. 69 (al. 75), ad Magnum. He answered the question as best be could in the absence of any ecclesiastical decision at that time. This Epistle, next to Tertullian’s opposition to infant baptism, is the oldest document in the controversial baptismal literature. Cyprian quotes (ch. 12) several passages from the O.T. where "sprinkling" is spoken of as an act of cleansing (Ez. 36:25, 26; Num. 8:5–7; 19:8–13), and then concludes: "Whence it appears that sprinkling also of water prevails equally with the salutary washing (adspersionem quoque aquae instar salutaris lavacri obtinere); and that when this is done in the church where the faith both of the receiver and the giver is sound (ubi sit et accipieatis et dantis fides integra), all things hold and may be consummated and perfected by the majesty of the Lord and by the truth of faith." But in the same Ep., Cyprian denies the validity of heretical and schismatic baptism in any form. See below, §74.
The twelfth canon of the Council of Neo-Caesarea (after 314) ordains: "Whosoever has received clinical baptism cannot be promoted to the priesthood, because his [profession of] faith was not from free choice, but from necessity (ejx ajnavgkh" ,fear of death), unless he, excel afterwards in zeal and faith, or there is a deficiency of [able] men." This canon passed into the Corpus jur. can. c. 1 Dist. 57. See Hefele, Conciliengesch, I. 249 (2nd ed.).
Pouring and sprinkling were still exceptional in the ninth century according to Walafrid Strabo (De Rel. Eccl., c. 26), but they made gradual progress with the spread of infant baptism, as the most convenient mode, especially in Northern climates, and came into common use in the West at the end of the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) says, that although it may be safer to baptize by immersion, yet pouring and sprinkling are also allowable (Summa Theol. P. III. Qu. LXVI. De Rapt. art. 7: in Migne’s ed. Tom. IV. fol. 614): "Si totum corpus aquâ non possit perfundi propter aquae paucitatem, vel propter aliquam aliam causam, opportet caput perfundere, in quo manifestatur principium animalis vitae. In Ireland aspersion seems to have been practiced very early along with immersion." Trine immersion, with the alternative of aspersion, is ordered in the earliest extant Irish Baptismal Office, in the composition of which, however, Roman influence is strongly marked." F. E. Warren, The Liturgy and Ritual of the CeItic Church, Oxford (Clarendon Press), 1881, p. 65. Prof. Norman Fox and other Baptist writer., ;, think that " neither infant baptism nor the use of pouring and sprinkling for baptism would ever have been thought of but for the superstitious idea that baptism was necessary to salvation."But this idea prevailed among the fathers and in the Greek church fully as much as in the Roman, while it is rejected in most Protestant churches where sprinkling is practiced.
Luther sought to restore immersion, but without effect. Calvin took a similar view of the subject as Thomas Aquinas, but he went farther and declared the mode of application to be a matter of indifference, Inst. IV. ch. 15, §19: " Whether the person who is baptized be wholly immersed (mergatur totus)and whether thrice or once, or whether water be only poured (infusa)or sprinkled upon him (aspergatur), is of no importance (minimum refert): but this should be left free to the churches according to the difference of countries. Yet the very word baptize signifies to immerse (mergere); and it is certain that immersion was the practice of the ancient church." Most Protestants agree with Calvin, except the Baptists, who revived the ancient practice, but only in part (single instead of trine immersion), and without the patristic ideas of baptismal regeneration, infant baptism, and the necessity of baptism for salvation. They regard baptism as a mere symbol which exhibits the fact that regeneration and conversion have already taken place.
Tertullian calls it "principals crimen generis humani" (De idol. c. 1), and Cyprian, "summum delictum" (Ep. x.).
jAnavdocoi, sponsores, fideijussores.
The patristic terms for baptism expressive of doctrine are ajnagevnnhsi", paliggenesiva(and loutro;n paliggenesiva" ,Tit. 3:5), qeogevnesi"regeneratio, secunda or spiritualis nativitas, renascentia; also fwtismov" , fwvtisma, illuminatio, sfragiv",signaculum, seal, muvhsi", mustagwgiva, initiation into the mysteries (the sacraments). The sign was almost identified with the thing itself.
"Non defectus (or privatio), sed contemtus sacramenti damnat." This leaves the door open for the salvation of Quakers, unbaptized children, and elect heathen who die with a desire for salvation.
Procrastinatio baptismi.
So the author of the Apost. Constit., VI. 15, disapproves those who say: o{tio{tan teleutw', baptivzomai, i{na mh; aJmarthvsw kai; rJupanw' to; bavptisma.
De Paenitientia.
De Opere et Eleemosynis.
Luke 1:4 (kathchvqh") Acts 18:25 (kathchmevno"); Comp. Rom. 2:18; 1 Cor.14:19; Gal. 6:6; Heb. 5:12. The verb kathcevw means 1) to resound; 2) to teach by word of mouth; 3) in Christian writers, to instruct in the elements of religion.
Kathchtaiv, doctores audientium. The term designates a function, not a special office or class.
Kathcouvmenoi, jakroataiv, auditores, audientes.
jAkrowvmenoi, or audientes; gonuklivnonte", or genuflectentes; and fwtizovmenoi, or competentes. So Ducange, Augusti, Neander, Höfling, Hefele (in the first ed. of his Conciliengesch., but modified in the second, vol. I. 246, 249), Zezschwitz, Herzog, and many others. Bona and Bingham add even a fourth class (ejxwqouvmenoi). But this artificial classification (as Dr. Funk has shown, l.c.) arose from a misunderstanding of the fifth canon of Neocaesarea (between 314 and 325), which mentions one govnu klivnwn, but as representing a class of penitents, not of catechumens. Suicer, Mayer, and Weiss assume but two classes, audientes and competentes. Funk maintains that the candidates for baptism (fwtizovmenoi, companies or electi baptizandi) were already numbered among the faithful (fideles), and that there was only one class of catechumens.
Conc. of Elvira, can. 42
Const. Apost. VIII. 32.
Sfragiv", crivsma, confirmatio obsignatio, signaculum.
Orat. XL.
Comp. I. 469 sq. The fact is not capable of positive proof, but rests on strong probabilities. The Baptists deny it. So does Neander, but lie approves the practice of infant baptism as springing from the spirit of Christianity.
Dial. c. Tr. c. 43.
Apol. l.c. 15 (Otto 1. 48): oiJ ejk paivdwn ejmaqhteuvqhsan tw'/ Cristw'/
Adv. Haer. II. 22, § 4: "Omnes venit per semetipsum salvare; omnes, inquam qui per cum renascuntur in Deum, infantes et parvulos et pueros et juvenes et seniores. Ideo per omnem venit aetatem, et infantibus infans factus, sanctificans infantes; in parvulis parvulus, sanctificans hanc ipsam habentes aetatem; simul et exemplunt illis pietatis effectus et justitae et subjectionis, in juvenibus juvenis," etc. Neander, in discussing this passage remarks, that" from this idea, founded on what is inmost in Christianity, becoming prominent in the feeling of Christians, resulted the practice of infant baptism" (I. 312, Boston ed.)
Irenaeus speaks of "the washing of regeneration, " and of the "baptism of regeneration unto God,"to; bavptisma th'" eij" qeo;n ajnagennhvsew" (Adv. Haer. l.c. 21, § 1); he identifies the apostolic commission to baptize with the potestas regenerationis in Deum (III. 17, § 1); he says that Christ descending into Hades, regenerated the ancient patriarchs (III. c. 22, § 4; "in sinum suum recipiens pristinos patres regeneravit eos in vitam Dei"), by which he probably meant baptism (according to the fancy of Hermas, Clement of Alex., and others). Compare an examination of the various passages of Irenaeus in the article by Powers, who comes to the conclusion (l.c. p. 267) that " Irenaeus everywhere implies baptism in the regeneration he so often names."
In Ep. ad Rom. (Opera, vol. IV. col. 1047 ed. Migne; or IV. 565 ed. Delarue): "Pro hoc et Ecclesia ab apostolis traditionem suscepit, etiam parvulis baptismum dare." In Levit. Hom. VIII. (II. 496 in Migne), he says that "secundum Ecclesiae observantiam" baptism was given also to children (etiam parvulis). Comp. his Com. in Matt. XV. (III. 1268 sqq.) where he seems to infer this custom from the example of Christ blessing little children. That Origen himself was baptized in childhood (185 or soon after), is nowhere expressly stated in his works (as far as I know), but may be inferred as probable from his descent of, and early religious instruction, by Christian parents (reported by Euseb H. E. VI. 19: tw'/jOrigevnei ta; th'" kata; Cristo;n didaskaliva" ejk progovnwn ejswvzeto), in connection with the Egyptian custom. Comp. Redepenning, Origenes, I. 49. It would certainly be more difficult to prove that be was not baptized in infancy. He could easily make room for infant baptism in his theological system, which involved the Platonic idea of a prehistoric fall of the individual soul. But the Cyprianic and Augustinian theology connected it with the historic fall of Adam, and the consequent hereditary depravity and guilt.
’Quid festinat innocens aetas ad remissionem peccatorum?" The" innocens" here is to be taken only in a relative sense; for Tertullian in other plain teaches a vitium originis, or hereditary sin and guilt, although not as distinctly and clearly as Augustin
A later council of Carthage of the year 418 went further and decreed: "item placuit, ut quicunque parvulos recentes ab uteris matrum baptizandos negat ... anathema sit."
461 De Bapt. c. 15. Comp. also Clement of Alex., Strom. I. 375.
462 See p. 162. Some Roman divines (Molkenkuhr and Tizzani, as quoted by Hefele, p. 121) thought that such an irreverent Epistle as that of Firmilian (the 75th among Cyprian’s Epp.) cannot be historical, and that the whole story of the controversy between Pope Stephen and St. Cyprian must be a fabrication! Dogma versus facts
463 According to Hippolytus (Philosoph.), the rebaptism of heretics was unknown before Callistus, a.d. 218-223. Cyprian does not deny the antiquity of the Roman customs but pleads that truth is better than custom ("quasi consuetudo major sit veritate"). Hefele, 1. p. 121. The Epistles of Stephen are lost, and we must learn his position from his opponents.
464 Unless it be maintained that the baptismal grace, if received outside of the Catholic communion, is of no use, but rather increases the guilt (like the knowledge of the heathen), and become, ; available only by the subjective conversion and regular confirmation of the heretic. This was the view of Augustin; see Steitz, l. c., p. 655 sq.
465 "Pseudochristum, pseudoapostolum, et dolosum operarium." Firmil. Ad Cyp. toward, ; the end (Ep. 75). Hefele (I. 120) calls this unchristian intolerance of Stephen very mildly "eine grosse Unfreundlichkeit."
466 Augustin thus misinterpreted the "Coge intrare,"Luke 14:22, 23, as justifying persecution (Ep. ad Bonifac., c. 6). If the holy bishop of Hippo had foreseen the fearful consequences of his exegesis, be would have shrunk from it in horror.