those with excommunication who received converted heretics without rebaptism. But a milder view gradually obtained even in the East, which settled at last upon a compromise. The ecumenical council of Constantinople in 381, in its sev- enth canon (which, however, is wanting in the Latin versions, and is perhaps later), recognizes the baptism of the Arians, the Sabbatians (a sort of IsTovatians, so called from their leader Sab- batius), the Quartodecimanians, the Apollinarians, but reject- ed the baptism of the Eunomians, " who baptize with only one immersion," the Sabellians, " who teach the Son-Fatherhood {vioTraropia)" the Montanists (probably because they did not at that time use the orthodox baptismal formula), and all other heretics. These had first to be exorcised, then instructed, and then baptized, being treated therefore as heathen proselytes.* The TruUan council of 692, in its 95th canon repeated this canon, and added the Nestorians, the Eutychians, and the follow- ers of Dioseui-us and Severus to the list of those heretics who may be received into the church on a mere recantation of their error. These decisions lack principle and consistency. The catechetical instruction which preceded the baptism of ' Epist. 129 ad Xicet. c. 7 : " Qui baptismum ab hsereticis acceperunt . . . sola invocatione Spiritus S. per impositionem manuum confirmandi sunt, quia formam tantum baptismi sine sanctificationis virtute sumpsenmt." ^ Comp. Hefele, Coneiliengeschichte, ii. 26 ; Mattes, TJeber die Ketzertaufe, in the Tiibingen Quartalschrift, 1849, p. 580. 486 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 811-590. proselytes and adults, and followed the baptism of children, ended with a public examination {scrutiniuin) before the con- gregation. The Creed — in the East the Niceue, in the West the Apostles' — was committed to memory and professed by the candidates or the god-parents of the cliildren. The favorite times for baptism for adults were Easter and Pentecost, and in the East also Epiphany. In the fourth cen- tury, when the mass of the population of the Roman empire went over from heathenism to Christianity, the baptisteries were thronged with proselytes on those high festivals, and the baptism of such masses had often a very imposing and solemn character. Children were usually incorporated into the chm-ch by baptism soon after their birth. Immersion continued to be the usual form of baptism, espe- cially in the East ; and the threefold immersion in the name of the Trinity. Yet Gregory the Great permitted also the sin- gle immersion, which was customary in Spain as a testimony against the Arian polytheism.^ With baptism, several j^reparatory and accompanying cere- monies, some of them as early as the second and third centu- ries, were connected ; which were significant, but overshadowed and obscured the original simplicity of the sacrament. These were exorcism, or the expulsion of the devil ; ° breathing upon the candidates,^ as a sign of the communication of the Holy Ghost, according to John xx. 22 ; the touching of the ears,* with the exclamation : Ephphatha ! — from Mark