thou believe in God the Father Almighty?’ and the Catechumen answers ‘I believe’. He then plunges beneath the water, ‘having’, says Hippolytus, ‘his hand laid upon his head’. It is not quite clear from the account whose hand rests upon the Catechumen’s head at his submersion. General feasibility and also evidence as to the practice elsewhere suggest that it must be that of the Deacon in the water beside him, rather than that of the Presbyter standing beside the water. There follows a second question: