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1 This general title of the five following Lectures is omitted in many Mss. "In Cod. Ottob. at the end of the special title of this first Mystagogic Lecture, after the words "to the end of the Epistle," there follows the statement "Of the same author Cyril, and of John the Bishop" (Bened. Ed.). See Index, Authenticity.
2 This Lecture was delivered on the Monday after Easter in the Holy Sepulchre: see Cat. xviii 33.
3 th\n e!mfasin th/n. . . . gegenhme/nhn, is found in all the Mss. "Nevertheless it would seem that we ought to read tw=n . . . . gegenhme/nwn,which Grodecq either read or substituted" (Ben. Ed.). With the proposed reading the meaning would be - "the significance of the things done to you," which agrees better with the meaning of e!mfasij.
4 to 9n proau/lion, called below in § 11 "he outer chamber." Cf. Procat. § 1, note 3. It appears from Tertullian, De Cororna § 3 that the renunciation was made first in the Church, and afterwards in the Baptistery: "When we are going to enter the water, at that moment as well as just before in the Church under the hand of the President, we solemnly profess that we disown the devil, and his pomp, and his angels."
7 fugadeuth/rion, the word commonly used in the Septuagint for "a city of refuge." But the Verb fugadeu/w is Transitive in 2 Macc. ix. 4, as well as in Xenophon and Demosthenes. The application of the blood of Christ in Baptism is represented by marking the sign of the Cross on the forehead. Compare the lines of Prudentius quoted by the Benedictine Editor:
"Passio quae nostram defendit sanguine frontem,
Corporeamque domum signato collinit ore."
10 Herod. 11. 58: "The Egyptians were the first to introduce solemn assemblies (panhgu/rij) and processions (pompa/j)." At Rome the term "pompa" was applied especially to the procession with which the Ludi Circenses were opened and also to any grand ceremony or pageant.
11 qeatromaniai. Cf: Tertull. Apologet. 38; "We renounce all your spectacles.... Among us nothing is ever said, or seen, or heard, which has anything in common with the madness of the Circus. the immodesty of the theatre. the atrocities of the arena, the useless exercises of the wrestling-ground." He calls the theatre "that citadel of all impurities," De Spectaculis, c. 10, "immodesty's peculiar abode," c. 17, and gives a vivid description of the rage and fury of the Circus in c. 16.
13 mi/mwn, the name either of a species of low comedy, "consisting more of gestures and mimicry than of spoken dialogue," or of the persons who acted in them. Cyril's description of the coarse and indecent character of the mimes is more than justified by the impartial testimony of Ovid, Trist. ii. 497:
"Quid si scripsissem mimos obscoena jocantes,
Qui semper vetiti crimen amoris habent;
In quibous assidue cultus procedit adulter,
Verbaque dat stulto callida nupta viro.
Nubilis hos virgo, matronaque, virque, puerque
Nubilis hos virgo, matronaque, virque, puerque
Spectat, et e magna parte Senatus adest.
Nec satis incestis temerari vocibus aures;
Assuescunt oculi multa pudenda pati."
A theatre is mentioned as one of the buildings erected by Hadrian in his new City Aelia Capitolina built on the site of Jerusalem and that theatrical performances were continued in the time of Cyril we know from the accusation that in a time of famine he had sold one of the Church vestments, which was afterward, used upon the stage.
14 Lactantius, Epitome, § 63: "Hictrionici etiam impundici gestus, quibus infames foeminas imitantur, libidines, quae saltando exprimunt, docent"."
15 kunhgesi/aij, the so-called "venationes" of the Circus in which the "bestiarii" fought with wild beasts.
16 The "bestiarii" were feasted in public on the day before their encounter with the beasts. See Tertull. Apologet. § 42: "I do not recline in public at the feast of Bacchus, after the manner of the beast-fighters at their last banquet." lb. § 9: "Those also who dine on the flesh of wild beasts from the arena, who have keen appetites for bear and stag." These latter, however, were chiefly the poor, to whom flesh was a rarity: Apuleius Metam. iv. 14, quoted by Oehler.
17 yuxa\j e'ktraxh/lizon, an allusion to the risk of a broken neck in the chariot-race. Tertull. de Spectacutis, § 9: "Equestriarism was formerly practised in a simple way on horseback, and certainly its ordinary use was innocent: but when it was dragged into the games, it passed from a gift of God into the service of demons." The presiding deity of the chariot-race was Poseidon (Hom. Il. xxiii, 307; Pind. Ol. i. 63 Pyth. vi. 50; Soph. (Edip. Col. 712), and both this and the other shows of the Circus, and of the theatre, were connected with the worship of the gods of Greece and Rome, and therefore forbidden as idolatrous: "What high religious rites, what sacrifices precede, intervene, and follow, how many guilds, how many priesthoods, how many services are set astir" (Tert. de Spect. § 7).
18 panhgu/resi. The Panegyris was strictly a religious festival, but was commonly accompanied by a great fair or market, in which were sold not only such things as the worshippers might need for their offerings, e.g. frankincense, but also the flesh of the animals which had been sacrificed. Cf. Dictionary of Greek and Rom. Antiq. "Panegyris." Tertull. Apolog. § 42: "We do not go to your spectacles: yet the articles that are sold there, if I need them, I shall obtain more readily at their proper places. We certainly buy no frankincense."
19 Compare St. Paul's argument against meats offered to idols, 1 Cor. x. 14-21: and on Cyril's Eucharistic doctrine, see notes on CVat. xxii.
20 The for of renunciation before Baptism is given in the Apostolic Constitutions, VII. 41: "I renounce Satan, and his works, and his pomps, and his services, and his angels, and his inventions, and all things that are under him." Cf. Tertull. De Spectaculis, § 4: "When on entering the water, we make profession of the Christian faith in the words of its rule, we bear public testimony that we have renounced the devil, his pomp, and his angels."
21 Herod. ii. 62: "At Sais, when the assembly takes place for the sacrifices (to Minerva, or Neith), there is one night on which the inhabitants all burn a multitude of lights in the open air round their houses. . . . these burn the whole night, and give to the festival the name of the Feast of Lamps ( Lnxnokai/h)."
22 Fountains and rivers had each its own deity or nymph, to whom sacrifices were offered, and incense burned.
23 e 9j tou=to die/bhsan. These words are omitted in many Mss., and regarded by the Benedictine Editor as a spurious addition made to complete the construction. The words h$ toiau=ta at the end of the sentence are better omitted, as in servile good Mss.
24 Cat. iv. 37: Apost. Const. vi.:
"Be not a diviner, for that leads to idolatry. . . . Thou shalt not use enhancements or purgations for thy child. Thou shalt not be a soothsayer nor a diviner by great or little birds. Nor shalt thou learn wicked arts; for all these things has the Law forbidden." Deut. xviii. 10, 11.
25 Apost. Const. vii. 41: "And after his renunciation let him in his association (suntasso/menoj) say, I associate myself with Christ."
26 peiraqh/sh (Cod. Mon. 1) is a better reading than peirasqh/sh. Cf.Plat. Laches, 188 E: tw=n e#rgwn e'peira/qhn.
27 Phil. iii. 13. On the pillar of salt, see Wisd. x. 7: "Of whose wickedness even to this day the wast land that smoketh is a testimony, . . . and a standing pillar of salt is a monument of an unbelieving soul." Joseph. Ant. I. xi. 4: "Moreover I have seen it, for it remains even unto this day." Bp. Lightfoot, Clem. Rom. Ep. ad Cor. xi. remarks that the region abounds in pillars of salt, and "Mediaeval and even modern travellers have delighted to identify one or other of these with Lot's wife."
30 Cf. S. Amros. De Mysteriis, c. ii. 7: "Ad orientem converteris; qui enim renunciat diabolo ad Christum convertitur:" "Where he plainly intimates. . . . that turning to the East was a symbol of their aversion from Satan and conversion unto Christ, that is, from darkness to light, from serving idols, to serve Him, who is the Sun of Righteousness and Fountain of Light" (Bingh. Ant. xi. vii. 7).
31 Cf. Didaché. vii. 1; Justin M. Apolog. I. c. 61 A; Swainson, Creeds, c. iii. on the short Baptismal Professions. "The writings of S. Cyprian distinctly tell us, that in his day the form of interrogation at Baptism was fixed and definite. He speaks of the "Usitata et legitma verba interrogationis," - and we know as distinctly that the interrogation included the words,
"Dost thou believe in God the Father, in His Son Christ, in the Holy spirit? Dost thou believe in remission of sins and eternal life through the Church?"
2 The renunciation and the profession of faith were made in the outer chamber or vestibule of the Baptistery.
4 Ib. ii. 15. Cyril's use of this passage agrees best with the interpretation that Christ, having been clothed with the likeness of sinful flesh during His life on earth, submitted therein to the assaults of the powers of evil, but on the Cross threw off form Himself both it and them.
7 See Dict. Christ. Antiq. "Baptism," § 48: The Unclothing of the Catechumens: Bingh. Ant. XI. xi. 1: All "persons were baptized naked, either in imitation of Adam in Paradise, or our Saviour upon the Cross, or to signify their putting off the body of sin, and the old man with his deeds."
8 Apost. Const. vii. 22: "But thou shalt beforehand anoint the person with holy oil (e'lai/w), and afterward baptize him with water, and n the conclusion shat seal him with the ointment (mu/rw), that the anointing (xri/sma) may be a participation of the Holy Spirit, and the water a symbol of the death, and the ointment the seal of the Covenants. But if there be neither oil nor ointment, water suffices both for anointing, and for a seal, and for a confession of Him who died, or indeed is dying with us." The previous anointing "with oil sanctified by prayer" is mentioned in the Clementine Recognitions, III. c. 67, and in the Pseudo-Justin, Quoestiones ad Orthodoxos, Qu. 137. It was not however universal, and seems to have been unknown in Africa, not being mentioned by Clement of Alexandria (Poed. II. c. viii. On the use of ointments), nor Tertullian, nor Augustine.
9 On the significance of the wild olive-tree, see Irenaeus, V. 10.
11 kalumbh/qran. The pool or piscina was deep enough for total immersion, and large enough for many to be baptized at once. Cf. Bingh. Ant. VIII. vii. 2; XI. xi. 2, 3;. For engravings of the very ancient Baptisteries at Aquileia and Ravenna, shewing the form of the font or piscina, see Dict. Christian Ant. "Baptistery."
12 The same significance is attributed to the trine immersion by many Fathers, Burt a different explanation is given by Tertullian (Adv. Praxean, c. xxvi.): "Not once only, but three times, we are immersed into the several Persons at the mention of their several names." Gregory of Nyssa (On the Baptism of Christ, p. 520 in this Series) joins both reasons together: "By doing this thrice we represent for ourselves that grace of the Resurrection which was wrought in three days: and this we do, not receiving the Sacrament in silence, but while there are spoken over us the Names of the Three Sacred Persons on whom we believed, &c." Compare p. 529. Cf. Apost Const. VIII. § 47, Can. 50: "If any Bishop or Presbyter does not perform the three immersions of one initiation, but one immersion made into the death of Christ, let him be deprived."
Milles in his note on this passage mentions that "this form of Baptism is still used in the Greek Church. See Eucholog. p. 355. Ed. Jac. Goar. and his notes p. 365".
14 Tertullian (De Baptismo, c. 10) denies that John's Baptism availed for the remission of sins: "If repentance is a thing human, its baptism must necessarily be of the same nature: else if it had been celestial, it would have given both the Holy Spirit and the remission of sins." Cyril's doctrine is more in accordance with the language of the Fathers generally, and of St. Mark i. 4, Luke iii. 3.
16 a'nti/tupon. The "Antitype" is here the sign or memorial of that which is past, and no longer actually present: see note 6 on xxi. 1. Cf. Heb. ix. 24.
17 Rom. vi 3. In the following sentence several Mss. have a different reading: "Theses things perhaps he said to some who were disposed to think that Baptism ministers remission of sins only, and not adoption, and that further it has not the fellowship, &c." Against this reading, approve by Milles, the Benedictine Editor argues that in Rom. vi. 3, 4, there is no reference to adoption, but only to the fellowship of Chris's Passion, and that Cyril quotes the passage only to prove the latter, the gift of adoption being generally admitted, and therefore not in question.
18 This clause is contained in the Nicene Creed, and in that which was offered to the Council by Eusebius as the ancient Creed of Caesarea. It probably formed part of the Creed of Jerusalem, though it is not found in the titles of the Lectures, nor specially explained.
19 Ib. vi. 5. Cyril gives the phrase "planted together" a special application to those who had been baptized in the same place where Christ had been buried.
20 1 Cor. xi. 2: Now I praise you, &c.