Neophyte
a term applied in the primitive Church to the newly baptized.
They wore white garments at their baptism, and for eight days after. The Council of Nice (325 A. D.) ordered that neophytes should not be admitted to holy orders till their constancy had been in some measure proved. The term is still used by Roman missionaries for their converts from the heathen. A special use of the word was to denote one who, not having passed through the inferior grades, was, in view of I Tim. iii: 6, con- A NEO-PLATONISM sidered canonically unfit to be consecrated bishop.