Volume 1

Encyclopædia of religion and ethics / edited by James Hastings ; with the assistance of John A. Selbie ... and other scholars.

Date:
1908-1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Encyclopædia of religion and ethics / edited by James Hastings ; with the assistance of John A. Selbie ... and other scholars. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be able to live according [to the truth].’ The first witness for renunciations, however, is Tertullian. He says {de Sped. 4):— ‘When entering the V words of its ced the devil, his poi exion with idolatry, make profession of the Christi ! bear nublic testimony that' Well, is e all, that you have the Elsewhere (de Idol. 6) he says that idol-making is prohibited to Christians by the very fact of their baptism. ‘ For how have we renounced the devil and his angels if we make them?’ In de Cor. 3, after describing the act of disowning ‘ the devil and his pomp and his angels,’ he says: ‘Hereupon we are thrice immersed, making a somewhat ampler pledge than the Lord has ap- pointed in the Gospel.’ So in the Canons of Hippolytus, which probably represent Roman or Alexandrian usage early in the 3rd cent., the candidate for baptism turns to the West and says : ‘ I renounce thee, Satan, with all thy pomp.’ He is then anointed by the presbyter, and before being baptized turns to the East and says : ‘ I believe and bow myself in thy presence and in the presence of all thy pomp, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ’ [for the meaning of ‘ pomp ’ see below]. Other 3rd cent, writers mention the interrogations, but not the renunciations in particular. Cyprian {Ep. Ixix. 2, [Oxford ed., Ixx.] ad Januarium) gives the interro- gations thus ‘ Dost thou believe in eternal life and remission of sins in the holy Church?’ So Fir- millian (Cyprian, Ep. Ixxiv. 10, [Oxford, Ixxv.]) speaks of a prophetess in Cappadocia, 22 years before, who had baptized many, ‘making use of the usual and lawful words of interrogation.’ And Dionysius of Alexandria, writing to Pope Xystus (ap. Euseb. HE vii. 9), speaks of the questions and answers (t&v ^TrepuiT-qaewv nal rwv i,iroKpl<X€uv inraKoia-as). It is clear, then, that in the 3rd and probably in the 2nd cent, the candidates made an act of submission to God at baptism as well as a renunciation of the devil. The same thing is also evident in the 4th century. The act of submission might be the recital of a creed (‘redditio symbol!’), which had been taught to the candidates during their catechumenate (‘traditio symbol!’); or it might be a simple formula, or both the formula and the creed. In Cyril of Jerusalem (Cat. Led. xix. 2-9) we read of the candidate first facing West, because ‘the West is the region of sensible darkness,’ and Satan, ‘ being darkness, has his dominion also in darkness,’ whereas the East is ‘ the place of light. ’ He says, stretching out his hand : ‘ I renounce thee, Satan, and all thy works, and all thy * pomp, and all thy service (or worship, 'Karpeiav).’ The word ‘pomp’ is explained as being the shows, horse races, hunt- ing, and all such vanity; the word ‘ service ’ as idolatry, prayer in idol temples, etc. Then the candidate faces East and says: ‘ I believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, and in one baptism of repentance,’ and is anointed and baptized. The renunciation and submission are pronounced in the outer chamber; the anointing and baptism follow in the baptistery, where the candidate is again asked whether he believes in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (xx. 4). It does not appear that at Jerusalem in Cyril’s time the Creed was recited at baptism. Of the 4th cent. Church Orders we may first cite the Egyptian and Ethiopic Orders, which are almost alike. The candidate says : ‘ I renounce thee, Satan, and all thy service and all thy works ’ (Ethiopic : ‘all thy angels and all thy unclean works ’); he is then anointed, and a long * Cyril has ‘his’ here, probably by error. creed takes the place of the formula of submission. Turning to the West and East is not mentioned in these two Church Orders. In the corresponding part of the Verona Latin Fragments of the Didas- calia (ed. Hauler) there is a lacuna. In the Testament of our Lord (ii. 8) the candidate turns to the West and says : ‘ I renounce thee, Satan, and all thy service (lit. ‘military service’), and thy shows (lit. ‘ theatres ’), and thy pleasures, and all thy works.’ After being anointed, he turns to the East and says: ‘ I submit to thee. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,’ etc.* In the Apostolic Consti- tutions the form is somewhat different (vii. 41). The renunciation is: ‘I renounce (dTroTiiT(To/j,at) Satan, and his works, and his pomps, and his wor- ships, and his angels, and his inventions, and aU things that are under him.’ This is immediately followed by the act of submission: ‘ I associate myself (crvvTdcr<rop.ai) with Christ, and believe and am baptized into one imbegotten Being,’ etc. (a long creed); then come the anointing and baptism. Turning to the West and East is not mentioned ; but later, after confirmation, the neophyte is directed to ‘ pray towards the East ’ (vii. 44). We have some confirmatory evidence from other 4th cent, writers. St. Basil (de Spir. Sancto, xi. [27]) says: ‘ [Apostates] have set at naught their owti confessions . . . belief in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost, when they renounced the devil and his angels, and uttered those saving words.’ The Pilgrimage of Silvia (or of Etheria) does not mention the renunciation, but says that the ‘ redditio symbol! ’ was made publicly. Pseudo- Ambrose in de Sacramentis (ii. 7, c. 400 A.D. ?) also does not mention the renunciation, but gives the interrogations at the time of the trine immer- sion : ‘ Dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty ? ’—‘ Dost thou believe also in our Lord Jesus Christ and in His cross ? ’—‘ Dost thou believe in the Holy Ghost ? ’ When the candidates were too young to make the answers to the interrogations and to say the renunciations themselves, this was done for them by the sponsor, or the parents, or a relation (Canons of Hippolytus, 113; Egyptian Church Order, § 46; Testament of our Lord, ii. 8 ; for sponsors see also Tertullian, de Bapt. 18, and the allusion to them—‘ inde suscepti ’—in de Cor. 3). The custom of renouncing the devil has persist- ently remained. Duchesne (Origines du culte chrdien, Eng. tr. ['Christian Worship’'\ p. 304), gives the form long in use at Rome. At the seventh and last scrutiny, after the ‘ Effeta ’ and anointing on the breast and back, the candidate was asked: ‘Dost thou renounce Satan?’—‘And all his works?’—‘And all his pomps?’ To each question he answered, ‘ I renounce (ahrenuntio).' The candidate recited the Creed publicly, but in the 8th cent, the priest recited it for him. In the Gallican use, the candidate, facing West, was asked : ‘ Dost thou renounce Satan, the pomps of the world and its pleasures?’ The candidate replied, entered the font, and answered a threefold interrogatory on the faith with ‘ I believe,’ and was baptized (Missale Gallicanum, see Duchesne, op. cit. p. 324). In the Sarum Manual the renunciations were as at Rome (see above); after the anointing the priest asks the candidate a threefold interrogatory which is a short form of the Apostles’ Creed, to each part of which he answers ‘ I believe,’ and the baptism follows (Maskell, Monumenta *, i. 22 f.). The custom in the Eastern Churches is much the same as in the West. In the Orthodox Eastern Church the renunciations come in the ‘ Office for * In the Testament, the Verona Fragments, and in the Canons of Hippolytus, a form of the Apostles’ Creed is put before the candidates in the shape of three questions at the act of baptism.