training the creed and the doctrine of the Sacraments were
delivered to the candidates by the bishop with much impressive
ceremonial. This teaching constituted the "holy secret" or "mystery"
(_disciplina arcani_) of Christianity, and could only be imparted to
those who were qualified to receive it. The acquisition of this
arcanum was regarded as the most essential element in the catechetical
discipline, and marked off its possessors from the rest of the world.
There can be little doubt that this conception of the "Holy Secret"
came into the Church originally from the Greek mysteries, and that
much of the ceremonial connected with the catechumenate and baptism
was derived from the same source.

AUTHORITIES.--Cyril, _Catecheses_; Gregory of Nyssa, _Oratio
Catechetica_; Chrysostom, _Catecheses ad illuminandos_; Augustine, _De
rudibus Catechizandis_; Mayer, _Geschichte des Katechumenats ... in
den ersten sechs Jahrhunderten_ (1868); S. Cheetham, _The Mysteries,
Pagan and Christian_. (H. T. A.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Apost. Constit._ viii. 2.

[2] Canon 42.

CATEGORY (Gr.: [Greek: kategoria], "accusation"), a term used both in
ordinary language and in philosophy with the general significance of
"class" or "group." In popular language it is used for any large group
of similar things, and still more generally as a mere synonym for the
word "class." The word was introduced into philosophy as a technical
term by Aristotle, who, however, several times used it in its original
sense of "accusation." He also used the verb [Greek: kategorein], to
accuse, in the specific logical sense, to predicate; [Greek: tho
kategoroumenon] becomes the predicate; and [Greek: kategorikhe protasis]
may be translated as affirmative proposition. But though the word thus
received a new signification from Aristotle, it is not on that account
certain that the thing it was taken to signify was equally a novelty in
philosophy. In fact we find in the records of Oriental and early Greek
thought something corresponding to the Aristotelian classification.

Hindu philosophy.

Our knowledge of Hindu philosophy, and of the relations in which it
may have stood to Greek speculation, scarcely enables us to give
decisive answers to various questions that naturally arise on
observation of their many resemblances (see an article by Richard
Garbe in _Monist_, iv. 176-193). Yet the similarity between the tw