Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/113

 T] MYSTERIES AND SYMBOLISM 95 ascribed to the material substances and physical acts by which the rites were accomplished. Catechumens were instructed plainly as to the meaning and effect of baptism only when they were about to be baptized ; they were forbidden to divulge the teaching save to other catechumens preparing for baptism, and only the baptized were admitted to the celebration of the Eucharist. This point of resemblance to the heathen mysteries is not to be unduly pressed. Christ had said, "Cast not your pearls before swine," and had explained His parables only to His disciples. And, as Cyril of Jerusalem says, there was fitness in not divulg- ing matters to the unworthy, who would not under- stand. Moreover, the early situation of the churches furnished practical reasons for wariness as to strangers.* The other element of Mystery is of greater import. Writing near the middle of the fourth century, Cyril of Jerusalem, in the Introduction to his lectures to catechumens preparing for baptism, maintains, as the Catholic Church always maintained, the spiritual sig- nificance of the rite; he distinguishes between the external rite of Baptism and the change of heart, without which Baptism profits not. Yet the magic- mystery element is strong with Cyril, as with all the men of his time both East and West. He calls the candidates partakers of the mysteries, and invites them to come to the mystical seal, tU r^v fjLXKrriKijv payi8a^ Instruction and preparation render the 1 The Didachi of the ApoBths, which gives the earliest non- canonic picture of the Christian community, shows (Chap. XII) the care exercised in receiving strangers professing to be Christians. < CaUehe*e$, I, 2.