Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/56

 DISCIPLINE

32

DISCIPLINE

kind] must be regarded as erroneous, and those who obstinately affirm it must be cast aside as heretics." The opinion, generally admitted by theologians, that the Church is infalhble in her approbation of rehgious orders, must be interpreted in the same sense; it means that in her regulation of a manner of life des- tined to provide for the practice of the evangelical counsels she cannot come into conflict with these counsels as received from Christ together vrith the rest of the Gospel revelation. (See Roman Congrega- tions.)

Thomassix, Vetus et nova EcdesicE discipHna (ed. Lyons, 1706). preface; Jeiler in Kirchenlex.. s.v. Disciplin: all treatises on public ecclesiastical law. especially that by Cavagn'Is, Inst, iur. publ. ecd. (Rome, 1906), I. Ill, ch. ii; the treatise de Ec- desul in theological works, especially in Hurter, Theol. dogm. comp. (Innsbruck. 1S78), I, thesis xl\i, and Wiluers, De Christi EcdesiA (Ratisbon, 1897), 469 sq.

A. BOITDINHON.

Discipline o£ the Secret (Lat. DiscipHna Ar- cani; Ger. Arcanilisnplin), a theological term used to express the custom which prevailed in the earliest ages of the Church, by which the knowledge of the more intimate mysteries of the Christian religion was care- fully kept from the heathen and even from those who were undergoing instruction in the Faith. The cus- tom itself is beyond dispute, but the name for it is comparatively modern, and does not appear to have been used before the controversies of the seventeenth centurj-, when special dissertations bearing the title "De disciphna arcani" were published both on the Protestant and on the CathoUc side.

The origin of the custom must be looked for in the recorded words of Christ: "Give not that which is holy to dogs; neither east ye your pearls before swine; lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you" (Matt., vii, 6), while the practice in Apostolic times is sufii- ciently vouched for by St. Paul's assurance that he had fed the Corinthians "as . . . little ones in Christ", gi\-ing them "milk to drink, not meat", be- cause they were not yet able to bear it (I Cor., iii, 1-2). With this passage we may compare also Heb., v, 12- 14, where the same illustration is used, and it is de- clared that "sohd food is for the perfect; for them who by custom have their senses exercised to the dis- cerning of good and eyi\." Although the origin of the custom is thus to be traced back to the verj' beginnings of Christianity, it does not appear to have been so general, or to have been carried out with so much strictness in the earlier centuries as it was immedi- ately after the persecutions had ceased. This may be due in part to the absence of detailed information ^-ith regard to the earlier period, but it is probable enough that the discipline was growing more strict aU through the second and third centuries on account of the pres- sure of persecution, and that, when persecution was at last relaxed, the need for reser\-e was felt at first, while the Church was still surrounded by hostile Paganism, to be increased rather than diminished. After the fifth or sixth centun,', when Christianity was thor- oughly established and secure, the need of such a dis- cipline was no longer felt, and it passed rapidly away. The practice of reserve (olKovofild) was exercised mainly in two directions, in dealing with catechumens, and with the heathen. It will be convenient to treat of these separately, as the reasons for the practice, and the mode in which it was carried out, differ somewhat in the two cases.

(1) Catechximens. — It was desirable to bring learners slowly and by degrees to a full knowledge of the Faith. A convert from heathenism could not profit- ably assimilate the whole Catholic religion at once, but mtist be taught gradually. It would be necessary for him to learn first the gn-at truth of the unity of God, and not until this had sunk deep into his heart could he safely be instructed concerning the Blessed Trinity. Otherwise tritheism would have been the inevitable

result. So again, in times of persecution, it was neces- sarj' to be verj^ careful about those who offered them- selves for instruction, and who might be spies wishing to be instructed only that they might betray. The doctrines to which the reser^'e was more especially applied were those of the Holy Trinity and the Sacra- ment of the Holy Eucharist. The Lord's Prayer, too, was jealously guarded from the knowledge of all who were not fully instructed. With regard to the Holy Eucharist and the Lord's Prayer some relics of the practice still survive in the Church. The Mass of the Catechumens, that earlier portion of the Eucharistic service to which learners and neophj-tes were ad- mitted, and which consisted of prayers or readings from Holy Scripture and sometimes included a sermon, is still quite distinguishable, though the custom no longer sur\-ives in the Western Liturgj-, as it does in the Eastern, of formally bidding the uninitiated to de- part when the more solemn part of the service is about to begin. So also the custom of sajnng the Lord's Prayer in silence in all public ser\-ices, except the lat- ter part of the Mass, when catechumens would accord- ing to the ancient use no longer have been present, owes its origin to this discipline.

The earliest formal witness for the custom seems to be Tertullian (Apol., vii): Omnibus tniisteriis sileniii fides adhibetur. Again, speaking of heretics, he com- plains bitterly that their discipline is lax in this re- spect, and that evil results have followed: "Among them it is doubtful who is a catechumen and who a believer; all can come in alike ; they hear side by side and pray together; even heathens, if any chance to come in. That which is holy they cast to the dogs, and their pearls, though to be sure they are not real ones, they fling to the swine" (Prascr. adv. Haer., xli). Other passages from the Fathers which may be cited are St. Basil (De Spir. Sanct., xxvii): "These things must not be told to the uninitiated"; St. Gregory Nazianzen (Oratio xl. in s. bapt.) where he speaks of a difference of knowledge between those who are with- out and those who are within, and St. Cyril of Jerusa- lem whose " Catechetical Discourses " are entirely built upon this principle, and who in his first discourse cau- tions his hearers not to tell what they have heard. "Should a catechumen ask what the teachers have said, tell nothing to a stranger; for we deliver to thee a mystery . . . Let no man say to thee, ^^"hat harm if I also know it? . . . See thou let out nothing, not that what is said is not worth telling, but because the ear that hears does not deserve to receive it. Thou thyself wast once a catechumen, and then I told thee not what was coming. When thou hast come to ex- perience the height of what is taught thee, thou wilt know that the catechumens are not worthy to hear them" (Cat., Lect. i, 12). St. Augustine and St. Chrj'sostom in like mamier frequently stop short in their public addresses, and, after a more or less veiled reference to the mysteries, continue with: "The initi- ated will understand what I mean."

The Lord's Prayer was in St. Augustine's time taught eight days before baptism (Horn, xlii; cf. "En- chir.", Ixxi, and the "Apostolic Constitutions", VII, xliv; St. Chrj-s., Horn, xx, al. xix, in Matt.). The Creed in like manner was taught just before baptism. So St. Ambrose, writing to his sister Marcellina (Epist. XX, Benedict, ed.), says that on Sunday, after the catechumens had been dismissed, he was teaching the Creed in the baptisterj' of the basilica to those who were sufficiently advanced. (Cf. also St. Jerome, Epist. xxxviii, ad Pammach.) More detailed teach- ing about the Holy Trinity and about the other sacra- ments was only given after baptism. Other passages whichmay be consulted are: Chrys., "Hom. in Matt.", xxiii, "Hom. xviii, in II Cor."; Pseud. Augustine, "Serm. ad Neoph.", i; St. Ambrose, "De his qui mys- teriis iritiantur"; Gaudentius, "Ser. ii ad Neoph."; Apost. Constit., Ill, v, and VIII, xi. The rule of reti-