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Gregory Nazianzen (c. 329–390)
§ 1. Penitence. The candidate for Baptism, having been duly admitted and registered, was required not only to be diligent in attending the course of Catechetical instruction, but also to enter at once upon a course of strict devotion and penitential discipline. "Those who are coming to Baptism," says Tertullian, "must be constantly engaged in prayers, fastings, kneelings, and watchings, together with confession of all past faults."
On these subjects Cyril's teaching is earnest, wise, and sympathetic: he seeks to lead to repentance by gentle persuasion, and pleads for self-discipline as needful for the good of the soul. One whole Lecture is devoted to the necessity of thorough repentance for all past sins, and forgiveness of all offences: another to the sure efficacy of repentance for the remission of sins.
§ 2. Confession. 'Exomologesis. Great stress is laid by Cyril on the necessity not only of sincere inward repentance, but also of open confession. The words exomologeisthai, exomologesis have a twofold meaning and a wide application.
(1.) In the Septuagint they occur very frequently, especially in the Psalms, in the sense of "giving thanks or praise" (Heb. hdvh), a meaning which is also found in the New Testament. Perhaps the earliest instance in an Ecclesiastical writer is in Hermas, Mandat. X. iii. 2: exomologoumenos to theo. I have not found any instance of this meaning in Cyril.
S. Chrysostom, commenting on the words, "I will give thanks unto Thee, O Lord," says, "There are two kinds of exomologesis; for it is either a condemnation of our own sins or a giving of thanks to God." The link between these two ideas is seen in Joshua's exhortation to Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and make confession unto Him. R.V. Margin. Or, give praise.
(2.) In the sense of "confessing" sins, the Verb is not uncommon in the N.T., and in the early Fathers. Tertullian adopts the Greek word, and calls exomologesis "the handmaid of repentance," adding that it will extinguish the fire of Gehenna in the heart, being a second remedy for sin, after Baptism.
Again, speaking of the outward act of repentance, he says: "This act, which is more usually expressed and commonly spoken of under a Greek name, is exomologesis, whereby we confess our sins to the Lord, not indeed as if He were ignorant of them, but inasmuch as by confession satisfaction is appointed, and of confession repentance is born, and God appeared by repentance. Accordingly exomologesis is a discipline for man's prostration and humiliation, enjoining a demeanour calculated to move mercy. With regard also to the very dress and food, it commands (the penitent) to lie in sackcloth and ashes...to know no food and drink but such as is plain,--to feed prayers on fastings, to groan, to weep and roar (mugire) unto the Lord God; to roll before the feet of the presbyters, and kneel to God's dear ones, to enjoin on all the brethren embassies of intercession on his behalf. All this exomologesis does, that it may enhance repentance, &c."
In this highly rhetorical description of the ecclesiastical discipline so dear to Tertullian there are many features of extreme severity to which Cyril makes no allusion; yet he frequently and very earnestly insists on the necessity and the efficacy of confession. "The present is the season of confession: confess what thou hast done in word or in deed, by night or by day; confess in an acceptable time, and in the day of salvation receive the heavenly treasure " "Tell the Physician thine ailment: say thou also, like David, I said, I will confess me my sin unto the Lord; and the same shall be done in thy case, which he says forthwith, and Thou forgavest the wickedness of my heart." " Seest thou the humility of the king? Seest thou his confession?....The deed was quickly done, and straightway the Prophet appeared as accuser, and the offender confessed his fault; and because he candidly confessed, he received a most speedy cure."
§ 1. Renunciation. We have seen that Cyril's last Catechetical Lecture was delivered in the early dawn of the Great Sabbath, Easter Eve. The additional instructions then promised concerning the behaviour of the Candidates were given on the same day, probably in the evening, when they were all assembled immediately before the administration of Baptism. The most important parts of the Baptismal ceremony are described by Cyril in the first Mystagogic Lecture, delivered on the Monday of Easter week. Thus in § 1 he says, Let us now teach you these things exactly, that ye may know the significance of the things done to you on that evening of your Baptism."
The first act was the renunciation of the Devil and all his works. This, as described by Tertullian, was done first in the Church "under the hand of the Bishop," and again immediately before entering the water. Cyril speaks of the latter occasion only. "First ye entered into the outer chamber of the Baptistery, and there facing towards the West (as the region of darkness) ye heard the command to stretch forth your hand, and as in the presence of Satan to renounce him." For the formula of renunciation in the Apostolical Constitutions, see note 2 on Mystag. i. § 8; it corresponds closely with Cyril's, except that this is addressed to Satan as if personally present: " I renounce thee, Satan, and all thy works, and all thy pomp, and all thy worship."
§ 2. Profession of Faith. After the renunciation of Satan the Candidate immediately turned to the East and said, "And I associate myself (suntassomai ) with Christ." Cyril does not give the words, but seems to allude to the custom, when he speaks of the Candidates "turning from the West to the East, the place of light."
Then, still facing the East, the Candidate was bidden to say, "I believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, and in one Baptism of repentance." We have seen that in Cat. xviii. 22, 32, Cyril intimated to his Candidates that they would be required to profess publicly the Creed which he had delivered to them and which they had repeated after him. This public profession of faith (Omologia, "Redditio Symboli") was in some Churches made on Holy Thursday, according to Canon 46 of the Synod of Laodicea: "Those to be baptized must learn the Creed by heart, and recite it to the Bishop or Presbyters on the fifth day of the week." But in the Apostolic Constitutions, c. xli., Candidate is required to recite the whole Creed immediately after the Renunciation: "And after his renunciation let him in his consociation (suntassomenos) say: And I associate myself to Christ, and believe and am baptized into One Unbegotten Being, the Only True God Almighty, the Father of Christ,....and into the Lord Jesus Christ....and I am baptized into the Holy Ghost,....into the resurrection of the flesh, and into the remission of sins, and into the kingdom of heaven, and into the life of the world to come.' And after this vow he comes in order to the anointing with oil."
Such appears to have been the custom of the Eastern Churches in general and of Jerusalem in Cyril's time, although he mentions only those articles of the Creed which were commonly held to be indispensable to a valid profession of Christian belief.
Dr. Swainson represents the matter somewhat differently: "When we come to the profession of his own personal faith which was made at Jerusalem by the Candidate for Baptism, we find that this was far briefer not only than the collection of necessary things' (Cat. iv.), but also than the Creed of the Church of Jerusalem." Then after quoting the short form in Cyril, Myst. i. § 9, "I believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, and in one Baptism of repentance," Dr. Swainson adds: "The words are clear and definite. In these words each answered the question of which we read elsewhere, Did he believe in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit?' In this his reply the Candidate confessed' what Cyril called the saving confession.'"
It is evident that two separate parts of the Baptismal Service are here confused: the question to which Dr. Swainson alludes, and "the saving confession" of which Cyril speaks in Mystag. ii. § 4, belong, as we shall presently see, to a later stage of the ceremony.
§ 3. First Unction. On passing from the outer to the inner chamber of the Baptistery, the Candidate who had made his renunciation and profession barefoot and wearing his tunic (Chiton) only, now put off this inner garment also, as an emblem of putting off the man with his deeds. A further significance is ascribed by Cyril to this unclothing of Candidate, as being an imitation both of Christ, who hung naked on the Cross, and by His nakedness put off from Himself the principalities and the powers, and "of the first-formed Adam, who was naked in the garden, and was not ashamed."
§ 1. First Communion. When the rites of Baptism and Chrism were completed, the new-made Christians, clothed in white robes (Myst. iv. 8), and bearing each a lighted taper in his hand, passed in procession from the Baptistery into the great "Church of the Resurrection." The time was still night, as we gather from the allusion in Procat., § 15: "May God at length shew you that night, that darkness which shines like the day, concerning which it is said, darkness shall not be hidden from thee, and the night shall be light as the day." As the newly-baptized entered the church, they were welcomed in the words of the 32nd Psalm. "Even now," says Cyril (Procat., § 15), "let your ears ring, as it were, with that glorious sound, when over your salvation the Angels shall chant, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; when like stars of the Church you shall enter in, bright in the body and radiant in the soul." During the chanting of the Psalm the neophytes seem to have stood in front of the raised bema' or sanctuary, as we learn from Cyril's eloquent contemporary, Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. XL. § 46: "The station in which presently after Baptism thou wilt stand before the great sanctuary prefigures the glory from yonder heaven; the psalmody, with which thou wilt be welcomed, is a prelude of those heavenly hymns; the lamps, which thou wilt light, are a mystic sign of the procession of lights, with which bright and virgin souls shall go forth to meet the Bridegroom, with the lamps of faith burning brightly."
From the Syriac "Treatise of Severus, formerly Patriarch of Alexandria (Antioch), concerning the rites of Baptism and of Holy Communion (Synaxis) as received among the Syrian Christians" (Resch, Agrapha, § 12, p. 361); we learn that it was the custom "to lift up the newly-baptized to the altar, and after giving them the mysteries the Bishop (Sacerdos) crowned them with garlands."
The white garments (Procat., § 2: Mystag., iv. 88) were worn until the Octave of Easter, Low Sunday, Dominica in Albis (Bingham, XII. c. iv. § 3).
§ 2. The Liturgy. In Cyril's last Lecture, Mystagogic V., he reminds his hearers of what they had witnessed at their first Communion on Easter-day, and thus gives a most valuable testimony to the prescribed form of administering the Holy Eucharist in the Eastern Church in the middle of the fourth century.
Passing over all the preparatory portion of the Liturgy, he tells us first that the Deacon brings water to the Bishop or Priest (to hierei) and to the Presbyters who stand round the altar, that they may wash their hands in token of the need of purification from sin; a ceremony which evidently had reference to the words of the Psalmist, "I will wash mine hands in innocency; so will I compass Thine altar, O Lord." In some Churches, perhaps also at Jerusalem, the words were actually chanted during the ablution.
"Then the Deacon cries aloud, Receive ye one another: and let us salute (aspazometha ) one another." In the Clementine Liturgy the "Kiss of Peace" precedes the "Ablution."
Sometimes these two sentences are combined: "Salute ye one another with the holy kiss." In the Liturgy of S. James there are two separate rubrics, one immediately after the dismissal of the Catechumens, "Take knowledge one of another," and a second after the Creed, "Let us embrace (agapesomen) one another with a holy kiss."
"After this the Priest (hiereus) cries aloud, Lift up your hearts. Then ye answer, We lift them up unto the Lord."
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