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.