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PRINCE OF MERCY. 377
in Masonry to be longer subjected to physical test?
and trials, or you would again in this degree have
represented the Fellow Craft, or Companion, advan-
cing toward the Master's degree.
In the early days of Christianity, there was an
initiation like those of the Pagans. Persons were
admitted on special conditions only. To arrive at a
complete knowledge of the doctrine, they had to
pass three degrees of instruction. The initiates
were consequently divided into three classes : the
first, auditors, the second, catechumens, and the
third the faithful. The auditors were novices, pre-
pared by ceremonies and instruction to receive the
dogmas of Christianity. A portion of these dogmas
was made known to the Catechumens ; who, after
particular purifications, received baptism, or the
initiation of the theogenesis (divine generation) ; but
in the grand mysteries of that religion, the incarna-
tion, nativity, passion, and resurrection of Christ,
none were initiated but the faithful. These doc-
trines, and the celebration of the holy sacraments,
particularly the Eucharist, were kept with profound
secrecy.
To avoid persecution, the early Christians were
compelled to use great precaution, and to hold meet-
ings of the faithful [of the household of faith] in
private places, under concealment by darkness. They
assembled in the night, and they guarded against