Allusions to the Kvpiaicov Stl-avov are to lie met with in heathen writers. Thus Pliny, in his celebrated epistle to the Emperor Trajan, after describing the meeting of the Christians for worship, represents them as assembling again at a later hour, uad capiendum cibum, 2>romisctium tamen et innoxium." By the | ihrase " cibum promiscuum" (Augustine remarks) we are not to understand merely food partaken in common witli others, but common food, such as is usually eaten ; the term innoxium also intimates that it was perfectly wholesome and lawful, not consisting, for example, of human flesh (for, among other odious imputations, that of cannibalism had been cast upon the Christians, which, to prejudiced minds, might derive some appar- ent support from a misinterpretation of our Lord's lan- guage in John vi, 53, " Unless ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man"), nor of herbs pre- pared with incantations and magical rites. I.ucian also, in his account of the philosopher Peregrinus, tells us that, when imprisoned on the charge of being a Christian, ho was visited by his brethren in the faith, who brought with them Btlirva irouciXa, which is generally understood to mean the provisions which were reserved for the absent members of the church at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, ( iesner remarks on this expression, uAgap<is, ojferente unot/uoipn illi- quid, (piod una consumerent ; hive iroiKiXa, mm ii h/.m." 2. The mode of celebrating the feast was simple. The bishop or presbyter presided. The food appears to have been either dressed at the houses of the guests, or to have been prepared at the place of meeting, ac- cording to circumstances. Before eating, the guests washed their hands, and prayer was offered. The Scriptures were read, and questions proposed by tin- person presiding. Then followed the recital of ac- counts respecting the affairs of other churches, such accounts being regularly transmitted from one church to another, so that a deep sympathy was produced; and, in many cases, assistance was furnished to church* es in trouble. At the close of the feast, money was collected for orphans and widows, for the poor, and for
AGAPE
100
AGAPETUS
prisoners. The kiss of charit}' was given, and the ceremony concluded with prayer (Rom. xyi, 16 ; 1 Cor. xvi, 20 ; 1 Thess. v, 26 ; 1 Pet. v, 14).
3. Their Decline. — From the passages in the Epistles of Jude and Peter, already quoted, and more particu- larly from the language of Paul in 1 Cor. xi, it appears that at a very early period the Agapoe were perverted from their original design ; the rich frequently prac- tised a selfish indulgence, to the neglect of their poorer brethren : eicaarog to 'iciov Ciiirvov TrpoXajxjidvti (1 Cor. xi, 21) ; i. e. the rich feasted on the provisions they brought, without waiting for the poorer members, or granting them a portion of their abundance. They appear to have imitated the Grecian mode of entertain- ment called Suttvov c'nro tnrvpifioe (see Xenophon's Memorabilia, iii, 14 ; Neander's Planting of the Chris- tian Church, i, 292). On account of these and similar irregularities, and probably in part to elude the notice of their persecutors, the Christians, about the middle of the second century, frequently celebrated the Eu- charist by itself and before daybreak (cmtelucanis cceti- bus) (Tertullian, De Cor. Militis, § 3). From Pliny's Epistle it also appears that the Agapa; were suspected by the Koman authorities of belonging to the class of Hetaeriae (iraipiai), unions or secret societies, which were often employed for political purposes, and as such denounced by the imperial edicts ; for he says (refer- ring to the " cibum promiscnum," etc.) "quod ipsum facere desiisse jwst (.dictum meum, quo secundum man- data tua Hetcerias esse vetueram" (Plin. Ep. 96 al. 97). At a still later period the Agapa? were subjected to strict regulation by various councils. Thus by the 28th canon of the Council of Laodicea it was forbidden to hold them in churches. At the Council of Carthage (A.D. 397) it was ordered (can. 29) that none should partake of the Eucharist unless they had previously abstained from food ; but it is added, " excepto uno die anniversario, quo etna domini celebratur." This ex- ception favors tlu supposition that the Agapae were originally held in close imitation of the Last Supper, i. e. before, instead of after, the Eucharist. The same prohibition was repeated in the sixth, seventh, and ninth centuries, at the Council of Orleans (can. 12), A.D. 533; in the Trullanian Council at Constanti- nople, A.D. 692 ; and in the council held at Aix-la- Chapelle, A.D. 816. Yet these regulations were not intended to set aside the Agapae altogether. In the Council of Gangra, in Paphlagonia (about A.D. 360), a curse was denounced on whoever despised the partak- ers of the Agapaj or refused to join in them. When Christianity was introduced among the Anglo-Saxons by Austin (A.D. 596), Gregory the Great advised the celebration of the Agapre, in booths formed of the branches of trees, at the consecration of churches.
Few vestiges of this ancient usage can now be traced. In some few churches, however, may still be found what seem to be remnants of the old practice ; thus it is usual, in every church in Rouen, on Easter- day, after mass, to distribute to the faithful, in the nave of the church, an Agape, in the shape of a cake and a cup of wine. It appears that it used to be done on all great festivals ; for we read in the life of Ans- bertus, archbishop of Rouen, that he gave an Agape to the people in his church "after communion, on solemn days, and himself waited at table especially upon the poor." Dr. King suggests, that the Benediction of the Loaves, observed in the Greek Church, is a remnant of the ancient Agapa. Suicer says that it is yet the custom in that Church on Easter-day, after the cele- bration of the holy mysteries, for the people to feast together in the churches; and this distribution panis h, nedicti et vini, he also seems to consider a vestige of the Agapae. But the primitive love-feast, under a simpler and more expressly religious form, is retained in modern times by the Moravians and the Methodists. See Love-feast. Similar meetings are held in Scot- land by the followers of Mr. Robert Sandeman (q. v.),