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Excerpt from On the Mysteries, And, the Treatise on the Sacraments
The names of those who expressed their intention of offering themselves for baptism were given in at the beginning of Lent (cp. A'e Sacram. Iii. And hence forth they were known as competentes, or at Rome c/ccti, while the corresponding term in the East was oi ¢w~n§6uev0t (those who are being illuminated At Milan, during Lent, Ambrose daily instructed the candi dates in Christian morals and the elements of religion (a'e Myst. I. And many of his extant sermons, based upon the books of Scripture read during Lent, are of this character. Thus Ambrose tells us, in the passage just cited, that in Lent the lives of the patriarchs (genesis) and the precepts of Proverbs were read, and his own sermons On Abraham contain references which Show that they were intended for candidates for baptism.1 In the East the Epiphany was also commonly set apart for this purpose, and there are traces of the same custom in Gaul and Spain. See W. C. Bishop in journ. Of Theo]. Studies (1909) pp. 127 f. On the connexion between the preparation for baptism and the forty days of Lent see Thompson, Offices of Baptism and Con]: pp. 19 f., and Brightman in Essays on Early Church and Ministm/ (ed. Swete), pp.
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