id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
4j03cz32k3x	Michael Patrick Whitehouse	Manus Impositio: The Initiatory Rite of Handlaying in the Churches of Early Western Christianity	2008		.txt	text/plain	330	7	15	In addition to treating all of the extant witnesses of initiatory handlaying, other related uses of handlaying (e.g., for those baptized in the bishop's absence, for the reception of heretics) are also examined because of the common belief that such independent handlaying rites are equivalent to initiatory handlaying, thus attesting that a particular community also employed handlaying as a part of its normal initiatory ritual. By assessing the evidence from a critical historical perspective and with the aid of the principles of comparative liturgy, the picture of early Christian initiatory practice appears less clear than prior assumptions have stated it to be, yet does undoubtedly demonstrate the great deal of diversity present among early Christian communities in their ecclesial structures, theologies, and liturgical practices.	cache/4j03cz32k3x.txt	txt/4j03cz32k3x.txt