Chapter IV: Part II

16. ¹New[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. ¹Let 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. ¹At 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.

TEST ¹¹Then, 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
LAT holding 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. ¹And 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,
SAH and 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”.