Disciplina Arcani
Disciplina Arcani
The following topic is essential for any understanding of the real function of Holy Scripture. One cannot simply pick up a Bible and declare that the entire Faith is to be found in it, line by line. This is a thought that was unheard of for a thousand and a half years. It is contradicted by the historical evidence.
The following topic was the subject of heated debate during the Reformation, but has faded out of some people's minds. Yet it must be faced. I refer to the so-called
Disciplina Arcani.
See
and
https://sites.google.com/site/catholictopics/scripture-topics/disciplina-arcani-catholic-dictionary
on this web site.
There is a comprehensive account on
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05032a.htm
(Latin Disciplina Arcani; German Arcandisciplin).
The earliest Christians treasured everything that Our Lord had said and done. Matthew, the former tax-collector, was first to write down a long and detailed account of His words and actions, about eight years after the Ascension. There were probably many other written pieces in circulation in the earliest years, but the status and authority of the Four Gospels, guaranteed by the apostles themselves and their nominated successors, ousted the others. Various letters sent by the apostles to particular communities - churches - were also widely copied and circulated.
A different approach was taken to the actual details of worship. Strange as it sounds to us now, it was strictly forbidden to reveal, or even to write down, the Mysteries of the Faith, including the details of worship, including the words and actions of the Mass and the other Sacraments. This was with a double motive: to prevent their being mocked of profaned by unbelievers, in obedience to Our Lord’s words: "Give not that which holy to dogs; neither cast your pearls before swine; lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, they tear you" (Matthew 7:6); and as part of the long and discreet initiation of the catechumens. S. Paul refers to this in 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 where he writes that he fed the Corinthians "as . . . little ones in Christ", giving them "milk to drink, not meat", because they were not yet able to bear it. In Hebrews 5:12-14, the same illustration is used, and it is declared that "solid food is for the perfect; for them who by custom have their senses exercised to the discerning of good and evil."
Those preparing for admission to the Church were sent out after the reading of the Gospel. Only the Baptised were allowed to remain for the Sacred Mysteries. The words of the Creed were not taught to the catechumens until eight days before they baptism. The Lord’s prayer was always spoken in secret. This tradition is continued down to the present day among priests and religious who follow the traditional Prayer of the Church: at Lauds and Vespers the Our Father is said silently until the final phrase – a remarkable link with these earliest days.The Traditional Latin Mass is still formally divided into the first part, 'The Mass of the Catechumens', of prayers, Scripture readings and a sermon, and 'The Mass of the Faithful', centering around the Holy Eucharist. In the Greek liturgy, at the junction, there is still a call for the unbaptised to leave: 'Holy things to the holy'.
There are many references in the literature to this practice.
The earliest formal witness for the custom seems to be Tertullian (Apol. vii): Omnibus mysteriis silentii fides adhibetur. (All the mysteries of the Faith are held in silence). Again, speaking of heretics, he complains bitterly that their discipline is lax in this respect, and that evil results have followed: "Among them it is doubtful who is a catechumen and who a believer; all can come in alike; they hear side by side and pray together; even heathens, if any chance to come in. That which is holy they cast to the dogs, and their pearls, although they are not real ones, they fling to the swine" (Praescr. adv. Haer., xii). Other passages from the Fathers which may be cited are St. Basil (On the Holy Spirit 27): "These things must not be told to the uninitiated"; St. Gregory Nazianzen (Oratio xi, in s. bapt.) where he speaks of a difference of knowledge between those who are without and those who are within, and St. Cyril of Jerusalem whose "Catechetical Discourses" are entirely built upon this principle, and who in his first discourse cautions his hearers not to tell what they have heard. "Should a catechumen ask what the teachers have said, tell nothing to a stranger; for we deliver to thee a mystery . . . see thou let out nothing, not that what is said is not worth telling, but because the ear that hears does not deserve to receive it. Thou thyself wast once a catechumen, and then I told thee not what was coming. When thou hast come to experience the height of what is taught thee, thou wilt know that the catechumens are not worthy to hear them" (Cat., Lect. i, 12). St. Augustine and St. Chrysostom in like manner stop short in their public addresses, and, after a more or less veiled reference to the mysteries, continue with: "The initiated will understand what I mean".
Almost the sole exception to this 'Discipline' was the letter of S. Justin to the Emperor, in an attempt to bring him to the Faith, and also to correct the misinformation that has always bedevilled the Church. The attempt was not successful, but the document – known as the 'Apology' (Latin apológia = Explanation) provides important historical evidence.
When the Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity as the State religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth Century, the Christians were slow to change their ways, and the “discipline of the secret” was kept for another century or more. But the Missal was now for the first time written down from the carefully-treasured oral tradition.
These things were known, although imperfectly, in the Sixteenth Century, during the upheaval known to history as the Protestant Rebellion or The Reformation (depending on which side one is).
It must be noted that the attempt by some Protestants to find every detail of Faith and practice in the written words of Holy Scripture is looking in the wrong place, if we want the whole truth. The Scriptures were a treasured part of the inheritance for Christ, but nobody ever said they were the one and only source, until the dissidents of the Sixteenth Century suddenly began claiming it.