PART II
[16.] ¹[New][97] converts to the faith, who are to be admitted as hearers of the word, shall first be brought to the teachers before the people assemble. ²And they shall be examined as to their reason for embracing the faith, and they who bring them shall testify that they are competent to hear the word. ³Inquiry shall then be made as to the nature of their life; whether a man has a wife[98] or is a slave.[99] ⁴If he is the slave of a believer and he has his master’s permission, then let him be received; but if his master does not give him a good character, let him be rejected. ⁵If his master is a heathen, let the slave be taught to please his master,[100] that the word be not blasphemed.[101] ⁶If a man has a wife or a woman a husband, let the man be instructed to content himself with his wife and the woman to content herself with her husband. ⁷But if a man is unmarried, let him be instructed to abstain from impurity, either by lawfully marrying a wife or else by remaining as he is.[102] ⁸But if any man is possessed with demons, he shall not be admitted as a bearer until he is cleansed.
⁹Inquiry shall likewise be made about the professions and trades of those who are brought to be admitted to the faith. ¹⁰If a man is a pander,[103] he must desist or be rejected. ¹¹If a man is a sculptor or painter, he must be charged not to make idols; if he does not desist he must be rejected. ¹²If a man is an actor or pantomimist, he must desist or be rejected. ¹³A teacher of young children had best desist, but if he has no other occupation, he may be permitted to continue. ¹⁴A charioteer, likewise, who races or frequents races, must desist or be rejected. ¹⁵A gladiator or a trainer of gladiators, or a huntsman [in the wild-beast shows],[104] or anyone connected with these shows, or a public official in charge of gladiatorial exhibitions must desist or be rejected. ¹⁶A heathen priest or anyone who tends idols must desist or be rejected. ¹⁷A soldier of the civil authority[105] must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded, and to refuse to take an oath;[106] if he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected. ¹⁸A military commander or civic magistrate that wears the purple must resign or be rejected. ¹⁹If a catechumen or a believer seeks to become a soldier, they must be rejected, for they have despised God. ²⁰A harlot or licentious man[107] or one who has castrated himself, or any other who does things not to be named, must be rejected, for they are defiled. ²¹A magician must not [even] be brought for examination. ²²An enchanter, an astrologer, a diviner, a soothsayer, a user of magic verses, a juggler, a mountebank, an amulet-maker[108] must desist or be rejected. ²³A concubine, who is a slave and has reared her children and has been faithful to her master alone, may become a hearer; but if she has failed in these matters she must be rejected. ²⁴If a man has a concubine, he must desist and marry legally; if he is unwilling, he must be rejected.
[²⁵If,] now, we have omitted anything (any trade?), the facts [as they occur] will instruct your mind; for we all have the Spirit of God.
[17.] ¹[Let] catechumens spend three years as hearers of the word. ²But if a man is zealous and perseveres well in the work, it is not the time but his character that is decisive.
[18.] ¹When the teacher finishes his instruction, the catechumens shall pray by themselves, apart from the believers. ²And [all] women, whether believers or catechumens, shall stand for their prayers by themselves in a separate part of the church.
³And when [the catechumens] finish their prayers, they must not give the kiss of peace, for their kiss is not yet pure. ⁴Only believers shall salute one another, but men with men and women with women; a man shall not salute a woman.
⁵And let all the women have their heads covered with an opaque cloth, not with a veil of thin linen, for this is not a true covering.
[19.] ¹[At] the close of their prayer, when their instructor lays his hand upon the catechumens, he shall pray and dismiss them; whoever gives the instruction is to do this, whether a cleric or a layman.
²If a catechumen should be arrested for the name of the Lord, let him not hesitate about bearing his testimony; for if it should happen that they treat him shamefully and kill him, he will be justified, for he has been baptized in his own blood.
[20.] ¹They who are to be set apart for baptism shall be chosen after their lives have been examined: whether they have lived soberly, whether they have honoured the widows, whether they have visited the sick, whether they have been active in well-doing. [²When] their sponsors have testified that they have done these things, then let them hear the Gospel. [³Then] from the time that they are separated from the other catechumens, hands shall be laid upon them daily in exorcism and, as the day of their baptism draws near, the bishop himself shall exorcise[109] each one of them that he may be personally assured of their purity. ⁴Then, if there is any of them who is not good or pure, he shall be put aside as not having heard the word in faith; for it is never possible for the alien to be concealed.[110]
⁵Then those who are set apart for baptism shall be instructed to bathe and free themselves from impurity and wash themselves on Thursday. ⁶If a woman is menstruous, she shall be set aside and baptized on some other day.
⁷They who are to be baptized shall fast on Friday, and on Saturday the bishop shall assemble them and command them to kneel in prayer. [⁸And,] laying his hand upon them, he shall exorcise all evil spirits to flee away and never to return; when he has done this he shall breathe in their faces, seal their foreheads, ears and noses, and then raise them up. ⁹They shall spend all that night in vigil, listening to reading and instruction.
¹⁰They who are to be baptized shall bring with them no other vessels than the one each will bring for the eucharist; for it is fitting that he who is counted worthy of baptism should bring his offering at that time.
[21.] ¹At cockcrow prayer shall be made over the water. ²The stream shall flow through the baptismal tank or pour into it from above when there is no scarcity of water; but if there is a scarcity, whether constant or[111] sudden, then use whatever water you can find.
³They shall remove their clothing. ⁴And first baptize the little ones; if they can speak for themselves, they shall do so; if not, their parents or other relatives shall speak for them. ⁵Then baptize the men, and last of all the women; they must first loosen their hair and put aside any gold or silver ornaments that they were wearing: let no one take any alien thing down to the water with them.
[⁶At] the hour set for the baptism the bishop shall give thanks over oil and put it into a vessel: this is called the “oil of thanksgiving”. ⁷And he shall take other oil and exorcise it: this is called “the oil of exorcism”. [The anointing is performed by a presbyter.][112] ⁸A deacon shall bring the oil of exorcism, and shall stand at the presbyter’s left hand; and another deacon shall take the oil of thanksgiving, and shall stand at the presbyter’s right hand. ⁹Then the presbyter, taking hold of each of those about to be baptized, shall command him to renounce, saying:
I renounce thee, Satan, and all thy servants and all thy works.
¹⁰And when he has renounced all these, the presbyter shall anoint him with the oil of exorcism, saying:
Let all spirits depart far from thee.
TEST¹¹Then, after these things, let him give him over to the presbyter[113] who baptizes, and let the candidates stand in the water, naked, a deacon going with them likewise.[114] ¹²And when he who is being baptized goes down into the water, he who baptizes him, putting his hand on him, shall say thus:
Dost thou believe in God, the Father Almighty?[115]
¹³And he who is being baptized shall say:
I believe.
¹⁴Then
LATholding his hand placed on his head, he shall baptize him once. ¹⁵And then he shall say:
Dost thou believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was born of the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was dead and buried, and rose again the third day, alive from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sat at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the quick and the dead? ¹⁶And when he says:
I believe,
he is baptized again. ¹⁷And again he shall say:
Dost thou believe in [the] Holy Ghost, and the holy church, and the resurrection of the flesh?
¹⁸He who is being baptized shall say accordingly:
I believe,
and so he is baptized a third time.[116]
¹⁹And afterward, when he has come up [out of the water], he is anointed by the presbyter with the oil of thanksgiving, the presbyter saying:
I anoint thee with holy oil in the name of Jesus Christ.
²⁰And so each one, after drying himself, is immediately clothed, and then is brought into the church.
[22.][117] ¹Then the bishop, laying his hand upon them, shall pray, saying:
O Lord God, who hast made them worthy to obtain remission of sins through the laver of regeneration of [the] Holy Spirit, send into them thy grace, that they may serve thee according to thy will; for thine is the glory, to the Father and the Son, with [the] Holy Spirit in the holy church, both now and world without end. Amen.[118]
[²Then,] pouring the oil of thanksgiving from his hand and putting it on his forehead, he shall say:
I anoint thee with holy oil in the Lord, the Father Almighty and Christ Jesus and [the] Holy Ghost.
³And signing them on the forehead he shall say:
The Lord be with thee;
and he who is signed shall say:
And with thy spirit.
⁴And so he shall do to each one.
⁵And immediately thereafter they shall join in prayer with all the people, but they shall not pray with the faithful until all these things are completed. [⁶And] at the close of their prayer they shall give the kiss of peace.
[23.] ¹[And] then the offering is immediately brought by the deacons to the bishop, and by thanksgiving he shall make the bread into an image[119] of the body of Christ, and the cup of wine mixed with water according to the likeness[120] of the blood, which is shed for all who believe in him. [²And] milk and honey mixed together for the fulfilment of the promise to the fathers, which spoke of a land flowing with milk and honey; namely, Christ’s flesh which he gave, by which they who believe are nourished like babes, he making sweet the bitter things of the heart by the gentleness of his word. ³And the water into an offering in a token of the laver, in order that the inner part of man, which is a living soul, may receive the same as the body.
⁴The bishop shall explain the reason of all these things to those who partake. ⁵And when he breaks the bread and distributes the fragments he shall say:
The heavenly bread in Christ Jesus.
[⁶And] the recipient shall say, Amen.
⁷And the presbyters—or if there are not enough presbyters, the deacons—shall hold the cups, and shall stand by with reverence and modesty; first he who holds the water, then the milk, thirdly the wine. ⁸And the recipients shall taste of each three times, he who gives the cup saying:
In God the Father Almighty;
and the recipient shall say, Amen. ⁹Then:
In the Lord Jesus Christ;
[and he shall say, Amen. [¹⁰Then:]
In][121] [the] Holy Ghost and the holy church;
and he shall say, Amen. ¹¹So it shall be done to each.
¹²And when these things are completed, let each one hasten to do good works,
SAHand to please God and to live aright, devoting himself to the church, practising the things he has learned, advancing in the service of God.
[¹³Now] we have briefly delivered to you these things concerning the holy baptism and the holy oblation, for you have already been instructed concerning the resurrection of the flesh and all other things as taught in Scripture.[¹⁴Yet] if there is any other thing that ought to be told [to converts], let the bishop impart it to them privately after their baptism; let not unbelievers know it, until they are baptized: this is the white stone of which John said: “There is upon it a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth the stone”.