the Church organization on the Roman State. Compare these privileges with those previously granted (R. 26) to physicians and surgeons.

319 A.D. Those who exercise the functions of divine worship, that is to say those who are called clerics (clerici), shall be exempt from all public burdens, lest otherwise they might be called away from their sacred duties through some one's malicious interference.

349 A.D. From public burdens and from every disquietude of civil office all clerics shall be free, and their sons shall continue in the Church if they are not subject to public responsibilities.

377 A.D. We decree that all priests, deacons, subdeacons, exorcists, lectors, and doorkeepers, likewise all who are in higher orders, shall be free from personal taxes.

361 A.D. In every city, in every town, hamlet, and burg, whoever, according to the spirit of the Christian law, shall have sincerely striven to bring home to all its supreme and peculiar merits shall enjoy permanent protection. We should rejoice and be exceeding glad in the faith, knowing that our empire is maintained more by religion than by officials or by the labor and sweat of the body.

412 A.D.

It is right that clerics, whether they be bishops, priests, deacons, or those of lower rank, ministers of the Christian law, should be accused only before a bishop — unless there is some reason why the case should be considered elsewhere.

39. How the Catechumens are to be instructed

(From the Apostolic Constitutions)

This extract gives a good idea of the early Catechumenal instruction.

Let him, therefore, who is to be taught the truth in regard to piety be instructed before his baptism in the knowledge of the unbegotten God, in the understanding his only begotten Son, in the assured acknowledgement of the Holy Ghost. Let him learn the order of the several parts of the creation, the series of providence, the different dispensations of the laws. Let him be instructed how the world was made, and why man was appointed to be a citizen therein; let him also know his own nature, of what sort it is; let him be taught how God punished the wicked with water and fire, and did glorify the saints in every generation I mean Seth, and Enos, and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham and his posterity, and Melchizedek, and Job, and Moses, and Joshua, and Caleb, and Phineas the priest, and those that were holy in every generation; and how God still took care of and did not reject mankind, but called them from their error and vanity to the acknowledgement of the truth at various seasons, reducing them from

bondage and impiety unto liberty and piety, from injustice to righteousness, from death eternal to everlasting life. Let him that offers himself to baptism learn these and the like things during the time that he is a catechumen; and let him who lays his hands upon him adore God, the Lord of the whole world, and thank him for his creation, for his sending Christ his only begotten Son, that he might save man by blotting out his transgressions, and that he might remit ungodliness and sins, and might "purify him from all filthiness of flesh and spirit," and sanctify man according to the good pleasure of his kindness, that he might inspire him with the knowledge of his will, and enlighten the eyes of his heart to consider of his wonderful works, and make known to him the judgments of righteousness, that so he might hate every way of iniquity, and walk in the way of truth, that he might be thought worthy of the laver of regeneration, to the adoption of sons, which is in Christ, that "being planted together in the likeness of the death of Christ," in hopes of a glorious communication, he may be mortified to sin, and may live to God, as to his mind, and word, and deed, and may be numbered together in the book of the living. And after this thanksgiving, let him instruct him in the doctrines concerning our Lord's incarnation, and in those concerning his passion, and resurrection from the dead, and assumption.

40. Catechumenal Schools of the Early Church

(Leach, A. F., The Schools of Mediæval England, p. 8. London, 1915)

The following description of catechumenal instruction, by one of the foremost authorities on early education, gives a good picture of the nature and the work of these schools.

Catechetical schools, so called, were nothing more than courses of lectures to catechumens, who, whether they were new converts or longstanding Christians, were grown-up people being prepared for baptism by catechesis, that is oral instruction, in the principles of the Christian faith. In the first three centuries of the Christian Church no one dreamt of baptizing infants. To do so would have seemed not so much profane, though it would have been that, as preposterous. Baptism was the supreme rite, the admission to the highest grade in the Christian gild, not as now the first initiation into it. Tertullian, writing in the third century on Baptism, exhorts the faithful to get over the business of marriage and founding families before they incur the awful responsibilities of baptism, a regeneration, a new birth of the soul, which was freed from all sin thereby, a "baptism of repentance." He asks, referring to the proposal made by some that children of three or four years old no one had suggested new-born babies should be baptized, why shouid the age of innocence be in a hurry to get its sins emitted? A century and a half later, when Augustine, at the age of

fourteen, clamoured to be baptized, his mother told him to wait until he was older and had a deeper sense of responsibility. To be baptized was to be illuminated, and a passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews had given rise to, or perhaps rather expressed, the current belief that mortal sin committed after baptism could not be forgiven. "For as touching those who once have been illuminated . . . but then have fallen away it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance." The age of thirty, the traditional age at which Christ was baptized, was regarded as the normal age for baptism, but many put it off to their death-beds, and then risked being unable to receive it because through physical or mental weakness they were unable to repeat or understand the formulas.

Catechumens therefore were grown persons being informed or instructed in the mysteries of Christianity, translated by the Latin audientes, hearing or audience.

There are two sets of early catechetical lectures extant. The famous Didache or Teaching of the Apostles, now recognized as being a guide to catechists, is simply an exposition of the doctrines and services of the Church, a theological treatise. The Catechetical Lectures of Cyril of Alexandria, Bishop of Jerusalem, delivered in 347, are eighteen homilies or expository sermons, addressed to grown-up congregations. The title of the first is "To those to be enlightened," the illuminandi. The second is on the necessity for "Repentance and remission of sins," and the third expounds that "Baptism gives remission." The last thirteen go steadily through the Creed, expounding and explaining the meaning and importance of its articles. There is not a word in them to suggest that this catechist is educating the young. Chiefly he is arguing against the heathen as a missionary nowadays might in preaching to Hindoos, Brahmins, or Chinese sages.

41. Christians should abstain from all Heathen Books

(From the Apostolic Constitutions)

The Apostolic Constitutions, compiled at various times before the early part of the fourth century, was intended as a manual of instruction in conduct and worship for the use of the clergy and the educated laity, and gives a good idea of ecclesiastical usages and of the attitude of the Church as it had developed up to the time of its final victory in the reign of Constantine.

VI. Abstain from all the heathen books. For what hast thou to do with such foreign discourses, or laws, or false prophets, which subvert the faith of the unstable? For what defect dost thou find in the law of God, that thou shouldst have recourse to those heathenish fables? For if thou hast a mind to read history, thou hast the books of the Kings; if

books of wisdom or poetry, thou hast those of the prophets, of Job, and the Proverbs, in which thou wilt find greater depth of sagacity than in all the heathen poets and sophisters, because these are the words of the Lord, the only wise God. If thou desirest something to sing, thou hast the Psalms; if the origin of things, thou hast Genesis; if laws and statutes, thou hast the glorious law of the Lord God. Do thou, therefore, utterly abstain from all strange and diabolical books. Nay, when thou readest the law, think not thyself bound to observe the additional precepts; though not all of them, yet some of them. Read those barely for the sake of history, in order to the knowledge of them, and to glorify God that he has delivered thee from such great and so many bonds. Propose to thyself to distinguish what rules were from the law of nature, and what were added afterwards, or were such additional rules as were introduced and given in the wilderness to the Israelites, after the making of the calf; for the law contains those precepts which were spoken by the Lord God before the people fell into idolatry, and made a calf like the Egyptian Apis that is, the ten commandments. But as to those bonds which were further laid upon them after they had sinned, do not thou draw them upon thyself; for our Saviour came for no other reason but that he might deliver those that were obnoxious thereto from the wrath which was reserved for them, that he might fulfil the Law and the Prophets, and that he might abrogate or change those secondary bonds which were superadded to the rest of the law. therefor: did he call to us, and say, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." When, therefore, thou hast read the Law, which is agreeable to the Gospel and the Prophets, read also the books of the Kings, that thou mayst thereby learn which of the kings were righteous, and how they were prospered by God, and how the promise of eternal life continued with them from him; but those kings which went a-whoring from God did soon perish in their apostasy by the righteous judgment of God, and were deprived of his life, inheriting, instead of rest, eternal punishment. Wherefore by reading these books thou wilt be mightily strengthened in the faith, and edified in Christ, whose body and member thou art.

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42. The Nicene Creed as framed in 325 A.D.

(From Mitchell, E. K., Canons and Creeds of the First Four Councils, p. 3) The Council of Nicæa, in Asia Minor, was called by the Emperor Constantine, in the summer of 325 A.D. Some three hundred bishops, mostly of the Eastern branch of the Church, were present at this first general Council of the Church. The following creed was the first authoritative formulation of the articles of faith of the Church.

We believe in one God, the FATHER Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one essence with the Father; by whom all things were made, both in heaven and on earth; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; and he shall come to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost. But those who say: "There was a time when he was not"; and, “He was not before he was made"; and, "He was made out of nothing," or, “He is of another substance or essence,”. or, “alterable" — they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic church.

43. The Rule of Saint Benedict

(Extracts from the translation in Henderson, E. F., Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, p. 274 et seq. London, 1896)

Though monasticism in the West had begun as early as 340, and became established by the beginning of the fifth century, the really great impulse to monastic life was given by Saint Benedict, a native Italian with large genius for organization. In 529 he founded the monastery of Monte Casino, between Rome and Naples, on the site of an ancient temple of Apollo, and later others in the vicinity. For all these he established his "Rule," a document of some length, divided into seventy-three different commands or rules. It was generally adopted by the monasteries of western Europe, those following the rule being known as Benedictines. The most important rules, from the standpoint of education and civilization, were numbers 38, 42, and 48, the important parts of which are reproduced below. To rule 48, in particular, we are in large part indebted for the copying of manuscripts and the preservation of learning throughout the Middle Ages.

Prologue. ... we are about to found, therefore, a school for the Lord's service; in the organization of which we trust that we shall ordain nothing severe and nothing burdensome. But even if, the demands of justice dictating it, something a little irksome shall be the result, for the purpose of amending vices or preserving charity; thou shalt not therefore, struck by fear, flee the way of salvation, which can not be entered upon except through a narrow entrance.

38. Concerning the weekly reader. At the tables of the brothers when they eat the reading should not fail; nor may any one at random dare