e
doctrines which they select for emphasis, but they both agree in
requiring a knowledge of sound doctrine on the part of the candidates.

In spite of the numerous references to catechumens in Patristic
literature, our knowledge of the details of the system is often very
deficient, and upon some points there is considerable diversity of
opinion amongst experts. The following are the most important questions
which come under consideration.

1. _The Classification of Catechumens_.--Bingham and many of the older
writers held that there were four classes of catechumens, representing
different stages in the process of instruction: (a) "The inquirers"
whose interest in Christianity had been sufficiently aroused to make
them desire further information, and who received private and
individual instruction from the teachers before they were admitted
into the second class, (b) "The hearers" (_audientes_), who were
admitted into the Church for the purpose of listening to sermons and
exhortations, (c) The _prostrati_ or _genu flectentes_, who were
allowed also to take part in the prayers, (d) The _electi_ or
_competentes_, who had completed the period of probation and were
deemed ready to receive baptism. Modern scholars, however, for the
most part, deny that there is sufficient basis to justify this
elaborate classification, and think that its advocates have confused
the catechumenate with the system of penance. The evidence does not
seem to warrant more than two classes, (a) the _audientes_, who were
in the initial stages of their training, (b) the _competentes_, who
were qualified for baptism.

2. _The Relation of Catechumens to the Church_.--Catechumens were
allowed of course to attend church services, but at a certain point
were dismissed with the words "Ite catechumeni, missa est." The moment
at which the dismissal took place cannot be exactly determined, and it
is not clear whether the catechumens were allowed to remain for a
portion of the Communion service, and if so, whether as spectators or
as partial participants. A passage in Augustine seems to imply that in
some way they shared in the Sacrament, "that which they (the
catechumens) receive, though it be not the Body of Christ, is yet an
holy thing and more holy than the common food which sustains us,
because it is a Sacrament" (_De peccatorum meritis_, ii. 42). The
explanation of these words has occasioned co