near.

Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon There were many lepers in Israel ----- In the beginning was the word---- John bare witness of him - Now in the fifteenth year of Tiberius ----The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. These, and several more such lessons, were read to the children, and the deacon often cried between times, "Stand still and hear diligently. Mind and observe your order (7)." On the last day of the scrutiny the priest gave notice of the time and place of baptism.

As there were several baptismal churches at Rome(8), that of St. John Lateran, the mistress if not the mother of all the rest, where the pope was bishop, and where himself officiated, is the most proper to be seen on the present occasion. Holy Saturday, the day before Easter, was the chief day of baptizing (9). The prime, or the first canonical hour of that day, began at midnight and three hours were spent in singing psalms, saying prayers, and reading homilies (1). At three in the morning the catechumens, who had been scrutinized, attended, and various ceremonies were performed, as crossing (2), blessing, catechizing, taking the renunciation, and so on; and in the end the archdeacon dismissed them with these words: "My dear children, return to your

(7) Adnunciat Diaconus, dicens: State cum silentio, audientes intente. (8) Ordo Roman. xi. n 43.

(9) Ordines Missal. Breviar. De Sabbato Sancto. Ord. Rom. i. vii. 46. (1) Missal. Sabbato sancto.

(2) Ibid. Sacerdos tangit de oleo sancto scapulas et pectus, et dicit: Abrenuncias Satanæ ? R. Abrenuncio. Et omnibus operibus ejus ? R. Abrenuncio. Et omnibus pompis ejus ? R. Abrenuncio. Ego te lino oleo salutis, c. Postea dicuntur eis ab archidiacono: Orate electi, flectite genua. post paululum dicit: Levate, c Dicit Diaconus; filii charissimi revertimini, &c.

TRANSLATION.

Et

The priest applies the holy oil to the head and breast of the catechumen, and says: Dost thou renounce Satan ? Ans. I do renounce him. And all his works? I do renounce them. And all his pomps? Ans 1 do renounce them. I anoint thee with the oil of salvation, &c. Afterwards the archdeacon thus addresses them: Ye elect, pray, bend the knee. And after a short pause, he says, Rise, c. The deacon then says: Dearly beloved children, return, &c. [Editor.

places, and wait for the hour in which the grace of God may be communicated to you by baptism." At nine the pontiff, attended by a great number of prelates and clergy, went to the sacristy, and after they had put on the proper habits, proceeded in silent order into the church (). Then the lessons for the day were read, and several benedictions performed. When this part was finished, his holiness with his attendants proceeded to the baptistry, the choir (4) singing all the way the forty-second psalm: As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God; and so on. This ended at the porch of the first chapel, where his holiness sat down. Then the cardinals presented themselves before him, and one, in the name of the rest, prayed for his benediction, which was bestowed (5). This was repeated thrice, and immediately after the last, the pontiff added: Go ye, and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The cardinals having received the mission, withdrew immediately, and mounting their horses proceeded each to his own station to baptize. The pope went on to the baptismal-hall, and, after various lessons and psalms, consecrated the baptismal water. Then, while all were adjusting themselves in their proper places, his holiness retired into the adjoining chapel of St. John the evangelist, attended by some acolothists, who took off his habits, put on him a pair of waxed drawers, and a surplice, and then returned to the baptistery (6). There three children were waiting, which was the number usually baptized by the pontiff. Silence was ordered. When the first was presented, he asked, What is his name (7)? The attendant answered, John. Then he proceeded thus: John, dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty, the Creator of

(3) Hora nona ingrediuntur sacrarium pontifex. (4) Mab. in ord. Rom. comment. xv. De ritibus Sabbati sancti. (5) Ord. Rom. xi. 43. (6) Or Rom. x. 22. (7) Ord. Rom. x. 22. Preparatus vero. regreditur ad fontes, et præsentatis sibi infantibus, Johanne scilicet, sive Petro et Maria, interroget offerentem. Quis vocaris ? Resp, Johannes. Inculcat et dicit, Johannes, credis in Deum patrem omnipotentum, creatorem cæli et terræ ? R. Credo, c. Interrog. et dicit: Johannes vis baptizari ? R. volo. Tunc baptizat eum sub trina immersione, sanctam trinitatem semel tantum invocando, sic, Et ego te baptizo in nomine patris; et immergat semel; et filii, et immergat secundo; et spiritus sancti, et immergat tertio; ut habeas vitam æternam. R. Amen. Similiter Petrum et Mariam.

of heaven and earth? I do believe. Dost thou believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was born and suffered death? I do believe. Dost thou believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholick church, the communion of saints, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life eternal? I do believe. John, do you desire to be baptized? I do desire it. I baptize thee in the name of the Father, dipping him once, and of the Son, dipping him a second time, and of the Holy Ghost, dipping him a third time. The pontiff added, may you obtain eternal life! John answered, Amen. The same was then repeated to Peter and Mary, the other two. Attendants with napkins received the children, and retired to dress them (8). The attendants of his holiness threw a mantle over his surplice, and he retired. The rest of the catechumens were baptized by deacons, who in clean habits, and without shoes, went down into the water (9), and performed the ceremony as the pontiff had set them an example. Af ter all was over (1), and the children dressed, they waited on the pope in an adjacent room, where he confirmed them, and delivered to each chrism and a white garment. The part relative to the habits of the pope is taken from the twelfth ordinal in the collection of Father Mabillon, and it was written by a cardinal in the latter end of the twelfth century.

That these ordinals were originally composed for the baptism of those of riper years seems not to admit of a doubt, and that baptism was performed by immersion cannot be questioned, nor can any one hesitate to determine, that the candidates were the children of christians. The scrutiny; the service in part in the night; the command of silence; the change of deacon's habits; the wax, or oil-skin drawers, breeches, or trousers of the pontiff; the interrogations and answers; the kneeling and praying of the candidates; the proper lessons for the days; the services of susceptors, parents, patrini, and matrini, who were uncles, aunts, relations, or assistants, and not modern godfathers performing sponsion; the addresses to the young folks; the total omission of charges to sponsers; all go to prove the point.

(8) Ord, Rom. i. 44. (9) Ord. Rom. i. 43. (1) Ord. Rom. x. 23.

+

CHAP. XV.

OF THE CATHOLICK AND THE ARIAN BAPTISTERIES AT
RAVENNA.

THE very ancient and noble city of Ravenna was built and inhabited by idolaters, worshippers of Diana, and other Etruscan deities, as marbles, altars, and other ancient monuments prove (1). A primitive christian, named Apollinaris, and said by the ecclesiastical historians of Ravenna to have been one of the seventy disciples, first preached Christianity there (2). He taught in private houses, his converts assembled to worship God in a cottage without the walls, and he baptized sometimes in the sea, and at other times in a bath belonging to an officer of the army, in whose house also during twelve years he taught the gospel. In process of time christianity prospered in this city, and was established by law. Before the year 451, in which the baptistery now in sight was put into its present form, the emperors Honorius and Valentinian had resided here. There are two of these buildings in Ravenna, one erected by the Arians in the reign of Theodorick, the other earlier by the Catholicks in the reign of Valentinian (3). That in view is the catholick, and it was built, or rather rebuilt in a more elegant taste on the ground plot of the old one by Neon, archbishop of Ravenna (4). Proper drafts of this beautiful little monument of antiquity were sent by Cavallo, archdeacon of the church of Ravenna, to Ciampini at Rome, and were published by the latter among other antiquities.

This edifice is octangular (5) as is the Arian baptistery, and as almost all baptisteries were; at present the two angles on the right and left hand sides, at the upper end, are carried out in a semicircular form, and parted off for oratories, or chapels. On entering the front door you find yourself in an octangular room of about two and thirty English feet square. It is not necessary to be so exact as to introduce fractions, the Roman foot is

(1) Ant. Franc. Gorii. Museum Etruscam. Tom. ii. Tab. xxxv. (2) Jos. Vicecomitis. Observ. Eccles. Tom. i. Lib. i. Cap. 4.

(3) Ciampini. (4) Hieron. Fabri In sacris Memoriis Ravennæ antique. (5) Montfaucon. Supplem. Tom, ii. pag. 220.

two-fifths of an inch less than the London foot, or as twenty-nine is to thirty. Exactly in the centre of this hall is a vast bath of white Grecian marble, or, in other words, an octangular receptacle for water about nine feet square. Directly fronting the door, at that end of the baptistery which is furthest from it, is a marble pulpit with two steps cut in the same block, from which elevated stand, probably, some teacher overlooking the water, into which the pulpit projects a little, harangued the people before and during the time of baptism (6).

Eight marble pillars, properly placed at the eight angles, support other pillars, and columns, and arches, which form the dome, which is ornamented with mosaick work of the utmost magnificence (7). At the top of the dome within a large circle exactly in the middle, there is a representation of the baptism of Jesus. In the middle flows the river Jordan, and in the midst of that, stark naked and up to his navel in water, stands Jesus Christ. It is to be observed, by the way, that there is not the least indelicacy in this representation, or any thing to offend the most chaste and scrupulous eye; but not to interrupt attention, it may be proper to defer remarking on this for a few minutes. Over the head of Jesus is the dove. On the left hand bank in a short thin violet coloured cloak stands John the Baptist, inclining over the river, holding in his left hand an ornamented cross taller than himself, and in his right a bason, or some such utensil, and pouring out of it water on the head of Jesus. It hath always been the practice of artists to represent rivers under human forms, and it is done here. There is, as an emblem of the river, a man in the water on the right hand side, over whose head is the word Jordan, who holds in one hand a branch, and in the other toward Jesus a napkin, or towel, as if to wipe him after his baptism (8).

(6) This is not the opinion of Ciampani. His words are, Hoc ex pulpito episcopus (ni tamen fallor) parvulos baptizandos in aquam immergebat. It should seem, for many reasons not to be inserted in this place, that the conjecture in the text is the more probable of the two.

(7) Joh. Fred. Gronovii. Museum Alexandrin.

(8) The god of the river. Virgil. Æneid viii. 31.