DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 083 DISCIPLINA AKCANI. Disci,.les (Cincinnati. IS'JT) ; J. }l-„'»"!*7' Old yailh h-cstaltd (baint Louis, IhW); 1 . U. I'ow.T, Bibfe Uoclriiw for Young I coplc {lb., IS'.ili). IJis(orical.—n. Kiehurdson. Lilc of Alex- ander Cawpbell (Philadelphia, 18G8) ! .' >'i'"f' Liff of Elder J. l^mith (Cini'mnati. ISiO) ; BaMer! life of Kldcr IV. .S.o» (.*■ •"'^'"""t>' 1S74)- B B. Tvler, Uislonj of Ihsnples (New York 'l8'J4) ; Power, ^7.■<7c/n■s of Uitr I'lonecrs (Clevelan.l. 1898) ; J. 11. Garrison. The lleforma- 1io„ of the Xinelcenlh Century (Saint Louis, I'.iOD. DIS'CIPLI'NA ARCA'NI (Lat.. discipline of the secret). A seventeenth-century tj-'nu. ap- plied to a system of the early Church which treated certain rites as mysteries and withheld them from the knowledge of the iniinitiatoa. There is no trace of this secret discipline before the end of the second century. It emerges into view durins the third, and is well established in the fourth and fifth centuries, which constitute its most nourishing period. The writers who set forth the mvsteiT idea are Origen. Athamtsius, Basil Kniphanius. Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusa- lem Cvril of Alexandria. Theodoret, Ambrose, u'mstine, and Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita. It 'appears also in the Apostolic Constitutions. From the sixth century onward, when Chris- tianity had won the victory over paganism, we hear less and less of the secret discipline, vet its influence is clearly traceable in basl-
- orn and Western Catholicism, even down to
modern times (cf. e.g. the Russian Catcchtsm of 1839) Baptism and the eucliarist were the two rites of the Church to which especially the mystery idea became attached. To call baptism a -seal or 'illumination': to speak of -the initiated _ and 'the vminiliated': to use the term 'niystcp' tor the holv communion, or for the creed, or for the Lord's "Pravei-all this denotes assimil.'.tion of heathen modes of expression and of tiought. The process went on during the period when the Church was receiving her largest accessions from the decadent Gr^ecoKoman and Ori'^nUM reli"ions. And it could hardly be expected that an institution with solemn rites and formulas ol its own, which thus drew constituents from other religions, should remain wholly free fiom their influence, or escape the unconscious appro- l.riation of some of their ideas. Hence resulted .lignilicant changes in the Christian sacraments, and mvstagog>- took the place of pedagogy in Christian nurture. The creed eamc to be re- carded as a mvstery because it was formally delivered to the catechumen at his baptism; the Lord's Praver. because of its prominence m the communion" olRce. These things were of en with- drawn from public mention, or referred to on I > remotely, with such words as "the initiated know what l" mean." etc. Sozomen will not include the Xicene Creed in his Ilistor;,. for fear some- of the profane mav read the book. Ambrose warns the Church to "guard against incautiously divulging the mysterv- of the creed or of the Lord s Praver" Chri-sostom explains reticence witn regard to the latter by asserting that "no unbap- tized person can call God his Father.' Athana- sius rebukes those who are "not ashamed to parade the sacred mysteries before catechumens, or worst of .ill. even before heathen." It was the general opinion that fnmiliaritv with such eaored thintrs must be discouraged. Basil ob- serves that •the vineralion of the mysteries is preserved by silence." And Augustine goes so far as to assert that concealment, by provok- in-' curiosity, helps along the extension of Christianity; for the uninitiated are eager to learn the secrets which the Church so carefully guards! The views given in the nreiediug paragraph are those of a modern critical school, and are denieil generally by those who hold the traditional theory of the history of Christianity. Aicoiding to the latter, the early Christians, surrounded by pa"an populations who were only too prone to misinterpret their teachings, ami severely jier- sceuted by the government, naturally .sought con- cealment "and practiced a prudent reticence. Ke- .'ai-aiii" their doctrines as a sacred deiMisit. they shrank" from recklessly communicating them to tiie profane who might distort them. Kxperienee had taught them, moreover, that all n.-oidivtcs were not sincere, and the danger of betrayal by informers who preten.led conviMSion led them to ■niard the more intimate doctrines and jiractices from catechumens until after a long i)robation. Further it was not deemed wise to communicate the fullness of truth to the unprepared mind, and for this reason also the neophyte wa.s only grad- ually inducted into the mysteries of the faith. Consenuentlv there arose among the early t hns- tians a svinlKilic mode of expv.-ssion by which they misiil communicate in public with their brethren^vilhout betraying themselves. .Ihe ta- mous inscription discovered at Aries m !».».• furnishes an excellent example of their symbolic lan-ua-e: "Take the food, sweet as honey of the^'savionr of the holy ones, and drink. holdinR the fish in thy hands"— words utter y uiun el- li.»ible to the profane, hut perfectly clear to the Christian, for whom the fish was the symbol of Christ, the initial letters of the Greek words for "Jesus Christ. Son of God. Saviour." forming the word rxfles, fish. Roman Catholics hold that the discipline of the secret originated in apos- tolic times, and urge that the words of Tertnllian (Pra-seripl. i) indicate that it "^'^^^l^. » well-established tradition in his day (1..0-iJO). s regards its subject-matter. Protestant writers i.cnerallv contend that it embraced merely certain rites of' worship, and that the silence of early Christian writers on certain doctrines is evidence that they were not held by the primitive church. Roman Catholics hold that the system inelud.-d doctrines as well as rites, and tl.at it explains the silence of certain writers on points after wards held to have been handed down by con- tinuous tradition. For the division of the eil- charistic service into tw.. parts, from the inore sacred of which the unbaptized were exc.ude.l, see l^iTVROV. . „ , , For the Roman Catholic view, consult: Schelstrale, Dr TUscipUmi ,lre',„i (Rome. l.«S5> ' *;2 the Prot.^stant view, Tentzel. Di.ssrr(a/io </eDM«»- ,,/;,m Ire,,-,; (Leipzig. 10!)2) ; also m generri. Bingham. Antiquities of the Chr,st,n„ t hureh, bk Ix (London, 18.->.5) : Hatch. The Inpuencec Greek Ideas and Vsaqes upon the (><"■«•" Church (London. 18S3) : Anrich. Das anl,ke Mtlf terienu-esen in seinem ^influss auf das ChrVh tenlum (Gilttingen. 1804) : A. '^Ver^!„^""' "jL Virrhlirhe Vnda,,ofnV (Freiburg. 1869)); Wohbermin. Religionsgeschichtliche Studien (Berlin. 1869).
