RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Communicatio Idiomatum Communion of Saints
Church the question was not decided, whether and in what respect all divine attributes of the divine nature were communicated to the human, but that the attempt was made merely to point out those properties whose communication was immediately connected with the reality of the work of redemption and the functions of Christ based thereon {Solida Declaratio, viii. 55). Concerning the manner of the communication they were satisfied to assert that it really took place , but without fusion and equalization of the natures, after the manner of personal union (viii. 63-64). The immediate interests of faith at the time, according to which the statement must be interpreted, were thus satisfied, and they were satisfied also by knowing that the divine omnipotence, power, majesty, and glory showed themselves in, with, and through the assumed human nature, "when and how it seemed good to Christ," namely where his office " as mediator, head, king, and high priest " required it (of. viii. 78). And this irrespective of the general statement that wherever the person of Christ is it is as God and man (viii. 82); for this statement also is not meant to be conceived of as an abstract one, but as one of Christian faith, for which the God-man is just this, since otherwise it would not consider him as being able to save (cf. F. H. R. Frank, Die Theologie der Konkordienformel, iii., Eriangen, 1862).
The Lutheran theology which followed the Formula of Concord has contributed little toward advancing the doctrine of the communicatio idiomatum (cf. H. Schmid, Die Dogmatik der evangelischen lutherischen Kirche, Gtitersloh, 1893, pp. 226 sqq., 234 sqq.). Wherever in modern theology the original position of the Church has been abolished— which necessarily led to the question pertaining to the communicatio idiomatum 5. Later — that the second person of the Trinity, Lutheran hypostatically conceived of, in the Theology, act of incarnation assumed the human nature for a personal, from that time lasting and existing union, the question can be no more of further advancing that doctrine of the communication of the properties in the old ecclesiastical sense. Modern Lutheran theology which participates in that old ecclesiastical suggestion has abided mostly either by the statement of the confession and the corresponding doctrine of the theology of the seventeenth century, or has endeavored to bring about the dogmatically necessary advance by revising and recasting more minutely the foundations on which rests the doctrine of the communication of the properties, especially by assummg a self-limitation, a kenosis of the Logos at the incarnation, without, however, a general agreement or adoption within the Lutheran Church. See Christology, viii. R. Seeberg.
Bibliography: Consult besides the works cited under Christology by Baur, Dorner, Thomasius, Liebner, Kahms, Frank, Nitzsch, Lipsius, Gess, Brenz, Danaeus, Heppe, Schneckenburger, and Hodge: J. Wigand, De communicatione idiomatum, Basel, 1568; H. E. Jacobs, Book of Concord, i. 519, 630, 632-633, 641, Philadelphia, lo93; H. Schmid, Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lntheran Church, Eng. transl., ib. 1889; Neander, Christian Church, ii. 489, 501-502, iii. 159-162, 183, iii. 340.
COMMUNION. See Lord's Supper.
COMMUNION OF THE DEAD: In the ancient church the custom existed of putting a piece of the eucharistic bread as viaticum into the mouth of Christians who by sudden death had been prevented from communing. The practise was prohibited by the synods of Hippo (393), third of Carthage (397), Auxerre (578), and the second Trullan (692). Balsamon states that bishops were given the Eucharist after their death, to protect them from demons while on their way to heaven. This idea was at the bottom of the custom. Later, a piece of the consecrated bread, instead of being put in the mouth of the corpse, was simply laid upon the breast, and buried with it. Gregory the Great tells {Dialogi, bookii.) how Benedict of Nursia did this in the case of a young monk who had left his monastery and gone home without permission, lest the earth should refuse to harbor his dead body. The monk Yso relates in the ninth century that when the body of Othmar, abbot of St. Gall, was moved, under his head and upon his breast were found round pieces of bread. Yso was ignorant of the object of the bread — showing how entirely the early custom had vanished even from memory. Bibliography: F. X, Kraus, Real-Encyklopiidie der christ-
lichen Alterthiimer, ii. 885, Freiburg, 1886; Bingham,
Origines, book xv.; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ii. 56;
H. M. Luckock, Eucharistic Sacrifice and Intercession for
the Departed, London, 1907; DCA, i. 535.
COMMUNION OF SAINTS: A dogmatic term, found in the Apostles' Creed, though not in the doctrinal formulas of the Eastern Church. The time and motive of its insertion in the ancient baptismal symbol and the meaning originally attached to it are still matters of controversy among theologians. The earliest certain evidence for the inclusion of the words sanctorum communionem in the creed is furnished by Faustus, bishop of Riez in the south of France, in the second half of the fifth century, from whose use it may be inferred that the clause was received as of unquestioned antiquity in the wide region repre- Early Tes- sented by Faustus, and that he knew timonies to no form of the creed without it. He the understands it specifically in the Formula, catholic sense of the word " saint," already pretty definitely established in his time, and refers it to the saints in their state of perfection in the other world. Not much later are the pseudo-Augustinian sermons ccxli. and ecxlii., which quote the words as part of the creed, and interpret them as meaning communion " with the saints who have died in the faith which we have received." A still older, though not so well authenticated witness is that of the Explanatio symboli, composed, according to Gennadius, by Bishop Nicetas — probably not Nicetas of Aquileia, but one who lived at Remesiana in Dalmatia as a missionary bishop about 400, and was a friend of Paulinus of Nola. His words have evident reference to the baptismal formula, and are important as showing a wider reception of the clause than could have been argued from Faustus alone. Here it seems to adopt the same interpretation as that borne by the words of Faustus. This amounts
Communiozi of Saints Communism