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ER 2361

Liber ordinum, the ritual in the use of the Church in Iberian Peninsula, probably representing the liturgy from the period between the 7th c. (or even the 6th c.) to 11th c., includes the rites of anointment with chrism of the former Arian by the priest and the prayer accompanying the laying of hands on those who had been rebaptized.

XXXVII. — ORATIO AD RECONCILIANDVM EVM QVI IN HERESI ARRIANA BABTIZATVS FVERIT

In primis interrogat eum nomen suum, et dicit ei:

Inter.: Abrenuntias heresim Arrianorum, in qua te huc usque fuisse penitet?

Resp.: Abrenuntio.

[Inter.]: Abrenuntias iis qui Filium Dei dicunt minorem esse Patri?

[Resp.}: Abrenuntio.

[Inter.]: Abrenuntias iis qui Spiritum Sanctum Deum esse non credunt, uel minorem Patri aut Filio dicunt?

[Resp.]: Abrenuntio.

Iterum interrogat eum nomen suum, et dicit ei:

[Inter.]: Ille, credis in Deum Patrem omnipotentem?

Resp.: Credo.

Inter.: Credis in Ihesum Christum Filium eius?

Resp.: Credo.

Inter.: Credis et in Spiritum Sanctum, Deum indiuidue Trinitatis unius essentie, uirtutis atque potentie?

Resp.: Credo.

Et ego te chrismo in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, in remissione omnium peccatorum, ut habeas uitam eternam. - Amen.

Post hec inponit ei manum, et dicit orationem confirmationis:

Oratio

Deus, qui in fide tua cor unum et anima una omnes in te credentes habere uoluisti, et nullis dissensionibus uulneratis uel fornicarentur in Christo, uel adulterarent in schismate, uel in sectis adsisterent parricide, diuidentes Filium a Patre, aut incarnationem negantes in Filium, uel Spiritum Sanctum separantes: sed indiuisam parilemque diuinitatem in Trinitate uenerantes, unum Deum factorem omnium uisibilium et inuisibilium confitentes [in] remissionem omnium peccatorum, carnis etiam crederent resurrectionem: respice, quesumus, super hunc famulum tuum, quem tibi simpliciter offerentes hostiam uiuam qui iam ad te conuersus est immolamus, qui diu oberrans a ueritate tandem ouilibus tuis intulit pedem. Per te siquidem intraturus ad te, communionemque Ecclesie tue, ex hoc in ea permansurus, meruit, festinans ad matrem suam Ecclesiam, in qua hereses nulla, peruersitas nulla, diuisio nulla, nullaque manet inpietas; sed pax uera atque perpetua, quam diuina gratia instituit et apostolorum doctrina firmauit et sancta fides obtinuit.

Da ergo ei, Domine, spiritum sapientie et intellectus, spiritum consilii et fortitudinis, spiritus scientie et pietatis, et confirma in eum spiritum diuini timoris: ut, coniunctus fideli populo tuo et electis tuis adgregatus, tue obediat uoluntati, nemoque eum de manu tua rapiat, sed in uera fide atque catholica, ad quam te inspirante accessit, in ea te custodiente per omnia perseueret: ut et in hoc seculo a malis tua protectione custodiatur, et in futuro tua dextera coronetur. — Amen.

XXXVIII. — ITEM MANVS INPOSITO SVPER EVM QVI DE FIDE CATHOLICA IN HERESIM BABTIZATVS EST.

Deus misericors, Deus clemens, qui secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum peccata penitentium deles, et preteritorum criminum noxas uenia remissionis euacuas, respice propitius super hunc famulum tuum, remissionem omnium peccatorum tota cordis contritione poscentem. Renoua in eum, pissime Pater, quidquid terrena fragilitate corruptum, quidquid diabolica fraude uiolatum est et in unitatem corporis Ecclesie tue membrum perfectum remissione restitue. Miserere gemituum, miserere lacrimarum, et non habentem fiduciam nisi in misericordia tua, tu eum ad sacramentum reconciliationis admitte: ut qui hereticorum damnationem ita per conditionem captiuatis expauit, ut iterari in se lauacrum regenerationis admitteret, in reparationem salutis conuersus tuam misericordiam consequatur; qui nullius anime hoc in corpore constitue apud te tarda curatio est. Fidelis enim es in uerbis tuis, qui conuersum peccatorem non longa temporum spatia differendo, sed mox [ut] ingemuisset, promisisti esse saluandum.

(ed. Férotin 1904: col. 100-104)

XXXVII. — THE PRAYER TO RECONCILE A PERSON WHO WAS BAPTIZED IN THE ARIAN HERESY

First, he asks him his name and says to him:

He asks: Do you renounce the heresy of Arians in which you grieve you have been until now.

He replies: I renounce.

I.: Do you renounce those who say that the Son of God is lesser than the Father?

R.: I renounce.

I.: Do you renounce those who do not believe that the Holy Spirit is God or who say that He is lesser than the Father and the Son?

R.: I renounce.

Again he asks him his name and says to him:

I.: [Name], do you believe in God the Father allmighty?

R.: I believe.

I.: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His Son?

R.: I believe.

I.: Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, God of the indivisible Trinity one in essence, power and might?

R.: I believe.

And I anoint you with chrism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in the remission of all sins, so that you may have eternal life. — Amen.

After that he imposes the hands on him and says the prayer of confirmation:

The prayer

God, in your faithfulness you wanted that all your believers have one heart and one soul and that they, not wounded by any disagreements, do not fornicate in Christ nor commit adultery in schism, nor assist in parricide joining sects dividing the Son from the Father and denying the incarnation of the Son and separating the Holy Spirit. But you rather wanted them to venerate undivded and equal divinity in the Trinity, professing one God, the maker of all things visible and invisible, and that they also believe in the remission of sins and resurrection of the body. Have regard, we pray, to this servant of Yours, who has already converted to you and who, having erred for long far from the truth has now come to your sheep: we bring him to you in simplicity and offer him as a living sacrifice. Since indeed he comes to you through you, he also deserved the communion of Your Church, hence he will remain there, hurrying to his mother, the Church in which there is no heresy, no perversity, no division and also no impiety stays there but only true and perpetual peace instituted by the divine grace, confirmed by the apostolic doctrine and achieved by the holy faith.

Give him, o Lord, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and confirm in him the spirit of the fear of the Lord so that he, united with your faithful people and brought back to your chosen ones, obey Your will. Let no one snatch him from Your hand but let him preserve in the true and Catholic faith to which he has come inspired by You and take care of him in all circumstances. So that he be protected by You from evil in this time, and is crowned by Your right hand in the future. — Amen.

XXXVIII. — ALSO THE IMPOSITION OF HANDS ON THE PERSON WHO BEING OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH HAD BEEN BAPTIZED INTO HERESY

O merciful God, o forgiving God, who removes sins according to the abundance of Your mercy and cancels the harm of past crimes by grace of remission, graciously have regard to this servant of Yours who begs with contrite heart forgiveness of all sins. Renew in him, o most pious Father, whatever has been corrupted by earthly fragility, whatever was violated by diabolical deception and restore him by full forgiveness as a member to the unity of the body of Your Church. Have mercy on his lamentations, have mercy on tears, on him who does not have other recourse but Your mercy. Admit him to the mystery of reconciliation so that he, who, because of his condition as a captive, had been so greatly afraid of the condemnation of heretics that he allowed them to give him again the bath of regeneration, now converted could receive Your mercy and recover his salvation. Because there is never too late to cure the soul which is still joined with the body. He trusts Your words who promised converting sinner that he would be saved not after very long time but as soon as he sighed over [his sins].

(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

The rite of anointment and imposition of hands can be dated with certainty to the sixth century. In the fifth and sixth centuries the Goths of Gaul and Hispania belonged to the Homoian church (by Nicene Christians denounced as "Arian"). The pastoral need to have a rite of reconciliation for the former "Arians" existed thus only as long as there was the Homoian church. King Reccared converted to the Nicene faith and he also gathered the general council in Toledo in 589 (Third Council of Toledo) which proclaimed the conversion of the whole kingdom. The Homoian church lost its official support and many members and in consequence soon (although probably not immediately) it ceased to exist. It is possible that the rite was composed in the form preserved in the Liber ordinum somewhere around the times of this general conversion as it generated the necessity to reconcile many people who followed the decisions of the Third Toledo.

It is also interesting that the rite contains a special prayer which should be proclaimed in the case of reconciliation of someone who being a Catholic received baptism in the Homoian church. The Homoians in the successor kingdoms practiced a repetition of baptism in the case of "heretics" baptized outside the Homoian church (so also in the case of the Nicenes converting to Homoianism). In 580, the council fo the Homoian bishops gathered in Toledo by Reccared's father, Leovigild, decided to stop practicing the repetition of baptism in the case of the converting Nicenes (we know about this event from John of Biclar, Chronicle c. 57). But it does not mean that the prayer must be earlier than 580. We do not know whether the decisions of the Homoian synod were immediately accepted by all Homoian clerics. Also there might have been people who received the Homoian baptism before 580 but decided to reconcile with the Nicene church after that date, especially in the period following the general conversion of the kingdom.

Place of event:

Region

Iberian Peninsula

About the source:

Title: Liber ordinum
Origin: Iberian Peninsula
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Liber ordinum is the ritual book used in the Old Spanish liturgy consisting of the various prayers and the sacramental rites performed by the priest or the bishop. It was edited in 1904 by Marius Férotin who based his edition on the four manuscripts - three codices from the monastery of Silos (Archivo del Monasterio, ms. 3 and 4), the first one from 1039 (cod. A in the edition of Férotin), the second from 1052 (cod. B), the third, Rituale antiquissimum, from the eleventh century; and the codex from Madrid, the so-called Manuale mozarabicum (cod. 56, formerly F.224, in the library of Real Academia de la Historia), also from the eleventh century. The copyists used different old books of the Old Spanish liturgy, and various texts included in these Libri ordinum might come from different periods. However, according to Férotin, who based his interpretation on internal evidence, most of it was composed in the sixth and seventh centuries. He dated only a few prayers (e.g. the exorcism of oil, no. 1) to the later period.

Edition:

M. Férotin, Le Liber ordinum en usage dans l’église wisigothique et mozarabe d’Espagne du cinquième au onzième siècle, Paris 1904.

Bibliography:

K. Schäferdiek, Die Kirche in den Reichen der Westgoten und Suewen bis zur Errichtung der westgotischen katholischen Staatskirche, Berlin 1967.

M. Szada, "The Debate over the Repetition of Baptism between Homoians and Nicenes at the End of the Fourth Century”, Journal of Early Christian Studies 27 (2019), 635–63.

E.A. Thompson, The Goths in Spain, Oxford 1969.

Categories:

Ritual activity - Presiding at prayer

Ritual activity - Anointment

Ritual activity - Imposition of hands

Ritual activity - Reconciliation/Administering penance

Relation with - Heretic/Schismatic

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2361, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2361