Distinction XLVIII

GRATIAN. Part I. “Neophytes” are also prohibited from being ordained bishops, so that one who yesterday was a catechumen may not today become a bishop; one who yesterday was in the theater may not today sit in the church; one who in the evening was in the circus may not today minister at the altar; one who a short time ago was a patron of actors may not today be a consecrator of virgins. The cause of this prohibition, according to the Apostle, is lest, exalted in pride as though the Christian religion had very great need of him, he fall into the ruin of the devil. For the priest made in a moment does not know humility, the manners of persons, or how to despise himself; he has not fasted, has not wept, has not corrected himself, has not distributed to the poor. Those who in a point of an hour become masters before they have yet become disciples fall into arrogance, which is the ruin of the devil; and, as Innocent says, “it is wretched for one to be made a master who has not yet learned to be a disciple.” Hence it is read concerning the same persons in the Council of Nicaea [c. 2]:

Since many things have been done contrary to the rule, whether through necessity or from any cause whatsoever, so that persons recently from a gentile life, still catechumens or newly instructed, immediately came to spiritual baptism and, as soon as they were baptized, were also advanced to the episcopate or priesthood, it has therefore rightly seemed good that henceforth no such thing be done. For time is needed for one to be a catechumen, and after baptism he needs much probation. For the apostolic precept is evident, saying: “Not a neophyte, lest perhaps, exalted in pride, he fall into the judgment and snare of the devil.” But if, in the preceding time, he committed some mortal sin and is convicted by two or three witnesses, one of this kind will cease from the clergy. If anyone acts beyond these things, as one acting contrary to the statute of the holy council, he himself will also endanger the status of his clergy. GRATIAN. Today, however, those newly approaching the profession of sacred religion are called neophytes. Hence blessed Gregory writes [Book VII, epistle 110], saying:

Just as one who at the beginning of the holy faith had been planted by instruction was called a neophyte, so now one is to be held a neophyte who, suddenly planted in the habit of religion, has crept in to canvass for sacred orders. §1. Therefore, one must ascend to orders in an ordered manner. For one who, setting aside the steps, seeks an ascent over precipices to the heights of the highest place seeks a fall. We know, moreover, that walls that have been built do not receive the weight of beams before they have dried from the moisture of their newness, lest, if they receive the weights before they are made firm, they bring the whole structure to the ground at once.