CASIMIR A. KUCHAREK THE SACRAMENTAL MYSTERIES A Byzantine Approach The present work is an inquiry into the " mysteric" character of the sacraments of the Byzantine Church both in their early Christian context and in their present state. Hopefully, this is the first volume of a series that will consider these same sacraments from other viewpoints, for instance their theology and their administration. Yet, what is offered here is not an incomplete study, but a complete and independent whole. The " mysteric" character of the sacraments is visible in the tradition of all the Christian Churches, but more particularly in the Byzantine, where to this day the sacraments are still called " Mysteries " or " Holy Mysteries." The exploration of the notion of mystery in its Christian and pagan aspects is one of the most fascinating fields in the area of liturgical studies. Our book is divided into three parts. Part I is historical: it explores the genesis and meaning of the mysteries in both pagan and Christian contexts. Even a cursory survey of th e two may offer richer fruits than mere apologetics, for it gives new insights into the works of the Fathers and shows some of the problems faced and solved by the early Church. Such practical realism may help in the solution of similar difficulties faced by churchmen and Christian writers in their present attempt to make their message relevant to the twentieth century world. Contempo- rary problems, grave as they may seem, are dwarfed in comparison with those of the ancient Church. Modern man may benefit greatly from the study of ancient religious wisdom. Part II traces the institution of th e seven sacraments, their meaning and their ritual in the early Church. Based on documentary sources of the first five centuries, this survey shows that all seven sacraments existed in the primitive Church. It distinguishes their essential rites from auxiliary ceremonial introduced to make their meaning more explicit to the early Christians. 6 FOREWORD Part III deals briefly with the present sacramental theory of the Byzantine Church. It may surprise many Western Christians that most of the discrepancies between the Orthodox and Latin Catholics are merely a matter of focusing on different facets of the same truth. Different mentalities rather than different theologies separate the two great Christian bodies. The gap between Latin Catholics and Byzantine Catholics is far greater than that between Byzantine Catholics and Orthodox. This is why, in nearly all instances, we legitimately regard the viewpoint of Byzantine Catholic theologians and that of the Orthodox as identical, and call it the Byzantine approach. In this day of Christian renewal and ecumenism, religious groups may learn much from one another. To understand another rite's viewpoint on any religious truth means coming closer to it in thought and heart; it means drawing nearer to that final embrace of oneness in Christ. Most of the material of this book wa s delivered in the form of lectures to post-graduate students at the John XXIII Institute for Eastern Christian Studies, Fordham University, New York City. It is now being offered to anyone interested in Byzantine sacram entology. Some of the lectures are published in abridged form. Selected footnote references offer a basis for more detailed studies. The reader will find the term sacrament(s) less confusing than its Byzantine counterpart, mystery or mysteries; hence the more familiar term is generally used throughout the work. I wish to embrace in an expression of gratitude all those who have helped or encouraged me in this work: the Russian Jesuit Fathers who invited me to deliver these lectures at the John XXIII Institute in the summer of 1972; the students of the same Institute whose enthusiasm inspired their publication; the various University librarians without whose patient cooperation this volume would not have been possible; also, " my three Polish friends," John Markewich, Joseph Chicilo, and Joseph Barteski, whose great love for the Byzantine liturgy has increased my own affection for it; Mr. Wasyl Leniuk, my devoted cook, who at eighty-five faithfully prepared my daily bread while I readied more ethereal sustenance; finally, Baron Jose de Vinck who prepared the manuscript for publication and supervised the design and production of the book. C.K. TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword PART ONE THE PAGAN AND THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERIES COMPARED Chapter I The Transformation of the Pagan World ... 11 II The Origin and Early Meaning of Mystery ... 19 III The Pagan Mysteries........................................................ 26 IV The Sacramental Mysteries in Apostolic Christi- anity .......................................................................... 37 V The Sacramental Mysterie s in the Pre-Nicene Fa- thers ............................................................................ 49 VI The Sacramental Mysterie s in the Post-Nicene Pe- riod .......................................................................... 56 PART TWO THE SEVEN SACRAMENTAL MYSTERIES OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH VII The Human Use of Divine Powers in the Sacramen- tal Mysteries ............................................................... 67 VIII The Basic Meaning of Baptism in the Early Church 73 IX The Training Period for Baptism .................................... 85 X The Ancient Baptismal R ites .................................... 100 XI Confirmation-Chrismation in the Apostolic Church 124 XII Confirmation-Chrismation in the Pre-Nicene Church......................................................................... 135 XIII Confirmation-Chrismation in the Post-Nicene Church.................................................................................. 143 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS XIV The Establishment of the Eucharist ............................ 156 XV The Basic Meaning of the Eucharist in the Early Church ................................................................................ 162 XVI The Ancient Celebration of the Eucharist 175 XVII The Power of Remitting Sins Given to the Apostles 191 XVIII The Apostolic Use of Forgiving and Retaining Sins 197 XIX The Rise of Rigorism in Loosing and Binding . 211 XX The Decline of Rigorism in Loosing and Binding . 224 ^XXI The Unction of the Sick in the Scriptures . . . 242 v/XXII The Unction of the Sick in the Early Church 247 XXIII The Establishment of Priestly Orders .... 258 XXIV The Pre-Nicene Bishops ............................................ 268 XXV The «Apostolic Succession» of Bishops .... 280 XXVI The Pre-Nicene Presbyters and Deacons 292 XXVII The Meaning of Marriage in Scripture and Tradi- tion . ................................................................. 302 XXVIII The Ancient Marriage Rites....................................... 310 PART THREE BYZANTINE SACRAMENTAL SYNTHESIS XXIX Synthesis of the Seven Sacramental Mysteries . 325 XXX Visible-Invisible Reality ............................................. 335 XXXI The Visible Reality ................................................... 342 XXXII Sacramental Causality-Efficacy .................................... 350 XXXIII The Invisible Reality: Grace-Energies-Theosis 358 Selected Bibliography of Greek Authors ........................................ 371 Bibliography .......................................................................... 375 PART ONE THE PAGAN AND THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERIES COMPARED CHAPTER I THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE PAGAN WORLD o the Jews Jesus was a blasphemer; to the Romans, a common agitator with designs of making himself king. When he died on that barren hilltop outside Jerusalem on these char ges, he was crucified between two thieves. His enemies thought they ha d disgraced him forever. His little band of followers scattered, silently disappearing into the anonymity of the tenement quarter. Soon everybody would forget—they always do. But the mighty had miscalculated. Christ's revolution swept on. The initial group of believers of "about an hundred and twenty" (Acts 1:15) grew within a century to become an important minority in the Roman Empire. Undaunted by overwhelming obstacles, it spread from Palestine to Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Africa and Gaul. Christian cemeteries at Naples date from A D 150. Christians lived and died at Pompeii and Herculaneum long before Vesuvius erupted in A D 79 and buried the two cities. The Christian community must have been relatively numerous at Gortyna in Crete where so many splendid Christian ruins can still be seen. There must have been many Christians in Gaul among the colonies of Eastern merchants who conducted the commercial business of the province. In the area of present day Tunisia at Susa, the ancient Hadrumetum, catacombs containing more than five thousand tombs prove that the Gospel of Christ was widespread there at the time of the Antonines. In Syria, Asia Minor, in Athens and Greece, the Church flourished. At Lyons, Vienne, and down the Rhone Valley, the Church increased in strength. Christ's Gospel touched exotic places: Numidia, Mauretania (Algeria), Africa Proconsularis (Northern Tunisia) and the provinces of Byzacena (Southern Tunisia). In some areas, in fact, the Christians became a majority. By the end of the second century, Tertullian could write: “We appeared only yesterday, and T 12 CHAPTER I now we fill your cities, islands, forts, towns, your squares, even military camps, the tribes, the town councils, the palace, the senate and the forum; we have left you nothing except your temples. Should we secede from you, you would be terrified by your own loneliness."1 Christ's revolution was not only widespread: it was also deep. It penetrated all levels of society, from the humble slaves and artisans, cobblers, seamstresses, and wool-carders, to the very wealthy Romans, aristocrats of imperial society, senior magistrates, intellectuals, and senators. On the lower level stand poor and unlettered men: Stephanus, Phlegon, Achaicus, Fortunatus, and Urbanus, known only through clumsily carved names in the catacombs. Others are not even mentioned by name: they are only identified as having died for Christ in that vanished world of the second century. Some inscriptions read: "God and only God knows this man's name." On the top levels are names that would have made the social register of the day: senators, Pudens and Apollonius; consuls, Liberalis, Marcus Acilius Glabrio; aristocrats, Vetius, Praxedes and Caecilia; intellectuals, Justin, Epicletus, Dion Chrysostomus, who could have held their own on any university faculty. Christianity even made inroads into the imperial family: Vespasian's nephew, Flavius Clemens, his wife Flavia Dimitilla, and their two sons, the emperor's heirs presumptive, suffer ed under Domitian for their belief in Christ. Long suspect for his "lack of enthusiasm" for the official cult, Flavius Clemens, says Suetoneus, was condemned and put to death" on the flimsiest of pretexts." A minority group in the Roman empire of the second century had become a decisive majority by the fourth century. While the Christian revolutionary movement spread horizontally by increasing its membership, its action was mostly vertical: it penetrated to the heart and transformed people. Numerical increase depended upon the depth of penetration. Without an inner transformation of the individual convert, the movement could not have survived and spread. The fierce persecutions alone would have buried it without trace in history. At best, it would have been 1 Tertullian, Apologeticus adv. Gentes pro Christianis, 37, PL 1, 525 A. TRANSFORMATION OF THE PAGAN WORLD 13 remembered as a quaint, scholarly footnote. The Church would indeed have been a house built on sand. The total transformation of individual Christians must be explained through divine providence and grace, but also through the fiercely rigorous policy of the Church, which demanded and obtained a total transformation through iron discipline, stern training and careful instruction. Totally dedicated Christians were made th rough the the catech umenate. Modern armies insist on rigorous training: so did the ancient Church for the soldier in the army of Christ. Ancient Chris tian literature often speaks of warfare with the powers of evil. If the prospective convert failed to make sufficient progress, or did not measure up to the expected standards, he was rejected. Total transformation could not have been accomplished in any other way. And without complete transformation and dedication, the pagan world could not have been conquered. The Christian ideal of those days was a completely sanctified life, or, as the Greeks later put it, theosis ( !"#$%& )—becoming more and more God- like. The closer men and women patte rned themselves on the Divine Model, the more God-like they becam e. With Paul, they could say, “ I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me" (Ga 2:20). They took Christ's precepts literally and put them into practice. They heard Paul's wonderful Letters read to them and took to heart his own example when he described (foolishly, he said) his own difficulties and trials: “Five times I had the thirty-nine lashes from the Jews; three times I have been beaten with sticks; once I was stoned; three times I have been shipwrecked and once adri ft in the open sea for a night and a day. Constantly travelling, I have been in danger from rivers and in danger from brigands, in danger from my own pe ople and in danger from pagans; in danger in the towns, in danger in the open country, danger at sea and danger from so-called brothers. I have worked and laboured, often without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty and often starving; I have been in the cold without clothes. And to leave out much more, there is my daily preoccupation..." (2 Cor 11: 25-28). So when their time came to suffer, they expected it: most did not flinch in the arena, in the market-place or in prison. The transformation in Christ and for Christ did not make them 14 CHAPTER I sour, hollow-eyed zealots who spurned all contact with the pagan world about them. No, theosis made them kind, compassionate and lovable to all, even to their enemies. Defini ng the evangelical standard, the Didache tells us what the Christian should do: "Be gentle, for the gentle will inherit the land. Be long-suffering, and merciful, and guileless and quiet and good... Do not carry your head high, or open your heart to presumption. Do not be on intimate terms with the mighty, but associate with holy and lowly folk. " 2 Church leaders demanded and obtained complete personal transformation of their flocks. There was no sin, except those faults whereby even a just man falls seventy times a day. Being transformed into Christ, the Christians went out into the marketplace as living witnesses to his truth. That is why Tertullian could write with perfect frankness: "We others, we Christians, do not live apart from the rest of the world. We visit the forum, the baths, the workshops, the stores, the markets and all the public places. We earn our livings as sailors, soldiers, farmers, or businessmen." 8 The anonymous author of the Epistle to Diognetus, who calls himself Mathetes and a disciple of the apostles, expresses it even better: “For the Christians are not distinguished from other men either by country, or language, or the customs which they observe... They marry, as do all (others); they beget children, but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the fles h, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are c itizens of heaven. They obey prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all people, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death... They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. Th ey are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are 2 Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 3, 7; trans, by J. A. Kleist, in ANCIENT CHRISTIAN WRITERS (Westminster, Maryland, 1948), p. 17. 3 Tertullian, Apologeticus, 42, PL 1, 555 A-556 A. TRANSFORMATION OF THE PAGAN WORLD 15 assailed by the Jews as foreigners, a nd are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred. "To sum up all in one word—what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians are scattered through all the cities of the world."4 The transformed Christian prayed intensely, he prayed constantly. According to Clement of Alexandria who lived at the end of the second century:”The Christian prays while he walks, while he talks, while he rests, while he works or reads: and, when he meditates alone in the secret retreat of his own soul, and calls upon the Father with groans that are no less real because they are unspoken, the Father never fails to answer and draw near to him."5 It was not easy, it could not have been easy to keep the faith, much less to spread it among a people steeped in evil and moral depravity. We only have to re-read Paul's Letter to the Romans to realize what it was to live among those whom “God left to their filthy enjoyments and practices," who "worshipped and served creatures instead of the creator," who “are steeped in all sorts of depravity, rotte nness, greed and malice, and addicted to envy, murder, wrangling, treacher y and spite. Libellers, slanderers, enemies of God, rude, arrogant and boastful, enterprising in sin, rebellious to parents, without brains, honour, love, or pity" (Rm 1: 25-32). Because some jobs and occupations were closely connected with immorality or implied support of idolatry, they were closed to the Christian. Hippolytus lists the more obvious ones: brothelkeeper, sculptor or painter of idols, playwright and act or, teacher or charioteer , gladiator, priest or sacristan of temples, judge and governor,6 magician, soothsayer, astrologer, incantator, and interpreter of dreams. 7 4 Ep. ad Diog., chaps 5 and 6, PG 2, 1173 B-1176 C. 5 Clement of Alexandria, Strom., VII, 7, PG 9, 469 C. 6 Because judge and governor could condemn men to death. 7 Cf. G. Dix, The Treatise on the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus of Rome (London, 1937), 23, v. 1-18 and 25, v. 4-15. 16 CHAPTER I It took courage and not a little daring to forsake an occupation in which one had worked for years before conversion. If, on becoming a Christian, a man had to abandon the only trade he knew, what of wife, of family? Could he learn another trade? Would his family and neighbors suspect the reason why he abandoned the first? Would they report their suspicions to government officials? Would this lead to the arena or the deadly mines? Soldiers who refused to execute fellow Christians were signing their own death warrants. Yet there were many Christian soldiers and they proved to be good missionaries. Christians encountered many other obstacles. If a Christian businessman had to borrow money, he would have to take the usual oath in the name of the gods. What was he to do? A Christian teacher could be asked to instruct his students in classical mythology; but this was propagating pagan beliefs. How was he to evade it? Every pagan festival—and there were many— was an occasion fraught with danger. How to avoid the drunken bacchanalia or the degrading spectacles in the circus, watching men die in sport— without giving oneself away? In times of persecution, the prosecuting tribunals were especially watchful of those who failed to attend such events. If a Christian belonged to one of the many trade guilds — and it was almost impossible to survive without belonging to one—how was he to evade religious celebrations and eating food and drink offered to idols? How could he avoid the immorality of drunken orgies? The system of slavery placed Christians in a difficult pos ition because it offered the pagan master easy opportunities to abuse Christian boy or girl slaves. He used them in any way he wished, as chattel. Resisting a master's advances often meant death. Some masters ev en tested poison on their slaves. Even within the circle of family and friends, there could be dangers and difficulties, demanding nothing short of heroism. A pagan father pleaded with his only daughter to pity his grey hair and renounce the superstitions of the Christians. Another disinherited his convert-son who refused to worship the gods of his gens. The chances of domestic disagreements were seemingly endless. Tertullian recounts an incident in which a husband, extremely suspicious TRANSFORMATION OF THE PAGAN WORLD 17 of his unfaithful wife, noticed her sudden change in behavior. When he learned that conversion to the Christian sect was the cause of this transformation, he begged her to take back her lovers rather than make him endure the shame of being th e husband of a Christian! To cling to Christ and to spread his truth in the face of such superhuman obstacles meant that the Christian had to be completely transformed. The incredible growth of the Church proves the vast majority of Christians in those early centuries were indeed made like God, and triumphed over sin, at least over deadly sin. This single fact explains why confession and reconciliation were used so sparingly in the early Church. For the most part, the need did not arise. The sins which were not unto death were forgiven by weeping, fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. For the rest, grave sin was unthink- able for the Christian. This may perhaps be explained by the fact that during the first centuries most of the followers of Christ were converts. They became Christians because they wanted to be Christians, and only after becoming thoroughly convinced of Christ's truth. And they were received only after severe testing and training. They had to prove their sincerity before they were received into the ecclesia. In these early days "born Christians” were probably a rarity. Tertullian did not lie when he wrote at the end of the second century: "Men become Christians, they are not born Christians. " 8 For all its iron discipline, the Christian revolutionary movement with its wondrous transformation of people must ultimately be explained by divine power. The main ways in which God chose to touch the souls of men to effect this transformation are the sacraments, channels of grace so mysterious that to this day half of Christendom calls them "mysteries" in the strictest sense. It is mainly through the sacraments that the Holy Spirit "communicates," 8 Tertullian, Apologeticus, 18, PL I, 435 A. The sentence may be understood to mean that men, being born sinners, can only become Christians through the sacrament of Baptism or, even if born of Christian parents, they become true followers of Christ only by their actions; however, such an interpretation seems unlikely in view of the senten ce which precedes: “These are points (of doctrine) at which we, too, laughed in times past. We are from your own ranks.” 18 CHAPTER I pours into men deifying energies ( '()*+,%& ) making them «partakers of the divine nature" ( !,-.& /0%)#)0- 12$,#& , 2 3 1:4) in an inscrutable but real way.9 Then as now, the sacraments are the chief instruments through which the « rays of divinity penetrate men's souls and transform them into God-the apocalyptic revolution dwarfing every other revolution and upheaval of human history. 9 The distinction between God's essence and his energies forms the Eastern Church's dogmatic basis for explaining union wi th God. See chap. XXXII below CHAPTER II THE ORIGIN AND EARLY MEANING OF MYSTERY he first Christians, including those of the Apostolic era, were at a loss, as we would have been, to name some of the new, unheard-of things taught and practiced by Christ and his apostles. Not all of these teachings and practices, however, were entirely new. Some had a foundation in the Old Testament and hence presented no difficulty. Others were entirely original. New words designating the revolutionary spiritual realities would have meant little or nothing to their listeners. Christian leaders, then, chos e to use words alr eady in existence, but to give them a new meaning. Sometimes it took centuries for terminology to settle down an d to be universally adopted. Some of the great new spiritual realities were the ritual-signs established by Christ himself to impart grace, make men holy, transform them, so that, as Hippolytus later put it boldly, man "will also be God" ( "$4.% /.% !,5& ). 1 What names could be given to the manifestations of the Lord's saving power, those means by which Christ is present and works in his Church, those realities founded on th e close connection of spirit and matter, the supernatural and the material, pervading all of Christianity? The first churchmen saw the whole Christian life as a unity, a single mystery (in the Pauline sense, cf. below, pp. 38 ff.), to be made holy by a variety of acts, some performed but once in a person's life, as the laver of regeneration, others perhaps daily, as receiving the Eucharistic Christ into their souls. But these rites or acts were so spiritual, so tremendous, that they seemed to defy any attempt at understanding them completely, expressing them adequately or even denominating them through the attribution of a proper name. 1 Hippolytus, Sermo in 5. Theophania, 8, PG io, 860 A; the phrase probably refers to 2 Peter 1:4. Other Fathers were no less daring in expressing !"#$%& , divinization, cf. chap. XXXII below. T 20 CHAPTER II When, for instance, at the Last Supper , Christ changed bread and wine into his own Eucharistic body and blood, 2 or when he imparted the power of forgiving sins, 3 he did not give any particular name to these tremendous spiritual realities. Nor did he label any of the other channels of grace he established: we may search the New Testament in vain to find terms designating what was to be known later as Baptism, 4 Chrism or Confirmation, 5 Holy Orders, 6 the Unction of the Sick, 7 and Matrimony. 8 The New Testament writers did not synthesize, nor did they neatly categorize these divinely instituted realities to distinguish them from those lesser ones which Christ and the apostles used: exorcisms, benedictions, and special blessings. While the seven chief means of grace were known from the earliest times, their specific names, definition, and centenary determination came much later. The apostles' first concern, quite naturally, was to do what Christ had taught them, not to expound scientific, theological formulations. The bulk of their converts, after all, were the unle ttered poor, and many were slaves. Elaborate terms would have confused them. The Christian writers and preachers of the primitive era, roughly the first two centuries, did the same. They relied heavily on Scriptural sour ces for their instructions, practices, and liturgical prayers. Whenever they spoke of what the Western Church would later call sacraments and the Byzantine mysteries they referred to them descriptively without labeling them. 9 They did the same with the lesser spiritual realities, later called sacramentals or lesser mysteries. The formal terminology appeared only in the fourth century. St. Paul did make frequent use of the word +($467%0) , mystery but the Pauline mystery had little if anything to do either with the sacraments or with the pagan mysteries (see below, pp. 38 ff.). 2 Mt 26:26 ff.; Mk 14:22 ff.; Lk 22:19 f.; 1 Co 11:23 ff. 3 Jn 20:21 ff.; Mt 16:19; 18:18; cf. Ac 19:18. 4 Mt 28:19 f.; cf. Ac 2:41; 8:38; 16:33. 5 Ac 8:12 ff.; 19:2 ff.; cf. Heb 6:2. 6 1 Tm 4:6 ff.; 2 Tm 1:6 f.; Ac 6:6; 13:3; 14:22; cf. 1 Tm 5:22. 7 Jm 5:13 ff. 8 Ep 5:22 ff.; cf. 1 Co 7:14, 39; Mt 19:4 ff. 9 E. g., Ep 1:13; 4:30, 2 Co 1:22, Ac 2:33 f.; Rm 5:5 f., etc.; also Barnabas who speaks of Baptism=water. ORIGIN AND EARLY MEANING OF MYSTERY 21 Etymologically, +($467%0) may be traced to the verb +2# , I close, I shut, 10 originally used only of the eyes, ear s, and lips. Even the verb's root +2 is pronounced by closing the lips. The word +2$48& , the one initiated into the mysteries, also implies a close-mouthed person. From +2# later evolved another verb +("# meaning I initiate into the mysteries or I instruct about sacred things 11 (often used only in the passive +(02+.% 12 ). Thus, the person initiated was called the +2$48& and the revealed secret or mystery itself +($467%0) 13 The etymological evolution of the term +($467%0) had stopped long before Paul's time. Did Paul borrow the term from the pagans? Is there any real evidence of a true analogy between Paul's mystery and the pagan mysteries? To what extent, if any, are the verbal figures and 10 Most Byzantine theologians seem to trace the etymology of the term to +2# ; e. g., Gabriel Severus, 9()4.:+*4%0) ;,7- 4#) .:-#) +($487-#) in Chry santhos, 9()4.:+*4%0) (Venice, 1778), p. 97; Athanasius of Paros, <;%40+6 4#) !,-#) 48& ;-$4,#& '0:+*4#) (Leipzig, 1806), p. 344; Archbishop Ignatij, ! tainstvakh jedynoi, sviatoi, sobornoi i apostolskot tserkvy (St. Petersburg, 1849), p. 19; N. Malinovsky, Pravoslavnoe dogmaticheskoe bogoslovie, IV (Serg. Posad. 1909), P 4; C. Androutsos, =0:+.4%/6 48& 07!0'5>0( *).!0?%/6& <//?8$-.& (Athens, 1907), p. 294. 11 @ A Damalas, ' B7!5'0>0& /.46C8$%& (Athens, 1877), 3 78. The idea of sacredness is also evident in the Latin Church's term sacrament. Ultimately, the term sacrament stems from the verb sacrare, to render sacred; sacrare, in turn, can be traced to the Latin base sancire, to make holy, deriving from the original Indo-germanic root SAK (cf. K. Brugmann, Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der Indogermanischen Sprachen, II [Strassburg, 1889-1890], p. 744). The sacra ment's immediate etymological deri vation is from the term sacramentum, which, in the oldest and most general form of ci vil lawsuit, was a deposit made beforehand by the parties in the suit. The deposit originally consisted of five sheep or five oxen, depending on the value of the object in dispute; later, the sum of ten asses for each sheep and one hundred for each ox was substituted. This deposit was given back to the party winning the suit; th e loser's deposit was originally applied to religious purposes (whence its connotatio n of sacredness) but later it went to the public treasury. The evolution progressed further: the term sacramentum was used later to designate the processi on to the law court; then, for the oath taken in court, whence it began to be applie d to any oath in general, but especially to the military oath of allegiance (cf. Cic. Off., i. 11 36; Livy, xxii, 38 2). Such an oath was first taken by the legates a nd tribunes; these officers in turn admi nistered it to the soldiers. 12 K. Oikonomos, D.46C8$%& 6 ' B7!5'0>0& '%'.$/.?-. (Athens, 1868), p. 54. 13 Curiously, Archbishop I gnatij erroneously derives +2# from +8 and applies it accordingly as "the expression by which a person cannot explain himself because either he is a mute, or he lacks the knowledge, or b ecause he is not allowed to speak a bout something." Ibid.