RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Eucharist
performed by the deacons receiving the offerings and carrying them to the bishop. When they were numerous, special tables were necessary to hold them, which stood on each side of the altar. Besides bread and wine there were present other kinds of food, such as milk, oil, honey, etc., which were used for the support of the poor. These gifts were blessed, and the givers commemorated by name. As the first spontaneous generosity languished and the Old Testament was increasingly taken as a model, the offering of all kinds of first-
4. The fruits was insisted on. The disturb- Oblation. ance to the service caused by the
bringing of these various offerings gave rise to attempts to limit them, at the beginning of the fourth century, to bread and wine, or other things used in ecclesiastical functions, such as oil for the holy unction, milk and honey for the reception of neophytes, and the like. In the time of Chrysostom scarcely anything but bread and wine was brought (cf. Augustine, Serm. lxxxii. 3, 5), and the offering was not made every Sunday by all the members, but on special festivals and in honor of the departed. The church provided the bread and wine from its own resources.
The central prayer (originally prayers), as is seen from the Didache (ix.), at first contained thanksgiving for both bodily and spiritual nourishment, in free adaptation of the ordinary Jewish formularies referred to above. Later this prayer was broken by the Trisagion (from Isa. vi. 3), sung by the congregation. Tertullian is the first evidence for this; Origen seems to have known it; in the time of Athanasius it was in general though not universal use, in both East and West. It arose
probably in Syria, where the liturgies
5. The show a really organic connection be- Prayers. tween it and the prayer which it
follows. This prayer usually contains a thanksgiving for the benefits of redemption, leading up to a recitation of the words of institution. That these formed a part of the earliest Christian liturgy can not be safely concluded from I Cor. xi. 23 sqq. ; but it is possible that the custom was known to Justin, as it certainly was to Origen, Cyprian, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Chrysostom; and no ancient liturgy has been preserved which does not contain these words. Under the influence of I Cor. xi. 26, there followed what was called the anamnesis or commemoration, and then the anaphora, in which the consecrated elements were offered up to God; and next came the epiklesis (q.v.). The actual consecration was never considered to take place through the words of institution alone before Augustine and Ambrose, but was attributed to the entire eucharistic prayer — though the view is also found that the epiklesis has this power. Whether the exomologesis or acknowledgment of sin originally preceded or followed the eucharistic prayer can not be determined; later it came after, and was usually connected with the epiklesis. From the third or fourth century on, a great intercession for the whole church followed. It is found in Cyril of Jerusalem and elsewhere, but not in Tertullian or Cyprian. It also had its origin probably in Syria, as it is not found in the
oldest Egyptian liturgy known. The use of the Lord's Prayer as a part of the liturgy seems to have been known to Tertullian and Cyprian, but is first certainly attested by Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Augustine, and Jerome. It is not mentioned in the Apostolic Constitutions.
The actual communion, as long as the Eucharist had the form of a real meal, was accomplished by the passing of the consecrated elements from hand to hand. When it became a formal act, it was prefaced (demonstrably as early as the end of the second century) by the bishop saying, " Holy things to holy persons " (from the Septuagint version of Lev. xxiv. 9; cf. Matt. vii. 6). The congregation answered, "One alone is holy," etc., and then approached the altar, where they received the elements in their hands, standing. Great care was exercised to prevent a crum of the hallowed bread or a drop of the consecrated wine falling to the ground; in the reception of the for- 6. The mer it was usual to place the left hand
Commu- under the right in the form of a cross. nion. The careful washing of the hands before communion was prescribed; and Cyril of Jerusalem instructs his catechumens to receive the chalice bowing low. The distribution of the elements was performed in Justin's time by the deacons; but this function was withdrawn from them with the gradual growth of reverence for the elements and belief in priestly dignity and power. As a transitional stage, the deacons are found in some places entrusted with the administration of the chalice, as the less important. When a definite formula of administration came in is uncertain, though there are no traces of one in the apostolic age. The oldest was the simple statement ; the formula is Hoc est corpus Christi, Hie est sanguis Christi. In the Apostolic Constitutions (VIII. , xiii. 4) " body of Christ " for the bread, and " blood of Christ, cup of life " for the cup. In Mark the Hermit (c. 410) a longer formula occurs: " the holy blood of Jesus Christ for life eternal"; and in seventh-century Gaul a still further expansion, " May the Body and Blood of our Lord bring to thee remission of sin and eternal life " (Council of Rouen, can. ii.). Each communicant answered " Amen," as an expression of faith. That the earliest use was to give first the cup and then the bread is shown by the Didache, and possibly by Luke xxii. 17 and I Cor. x. 16.
Only baptized Christians could receive the communion; this was a universal principle from the beginning. Heretics, schismatics, and unreconciled penitents were also excluded, though it was sometimes given to the lapsed when dying. It was the general practise to give it to children. The custom of placing it in the mouth of dead persons must have been deeply rooted, to judge from the number of councils which found it necessary to prohibit it (see Communion of the Dead). Fasting communion is an old and quite universal practise, in fact, a church law, which was referred to apostolic command by Augustine; an exception was made on Maundy Thursday, when the Eucharist was celebrated in the evening. Much emphasis was laid, following Lev. vii. 20 and I Cor. xi.
Eucharist Euchologion