altar, of locking it up fafe, with feveral precautions in cafe it should happen that any part of the confecrated elements fhould fall to the ground, or any fly or fpider fhould fall into the wine*.

Confidering how folemn a thing the business of communicating was made, in confequence of the doctrine of tranfubftantiation, we do not wonder that it was ordered by the council of Trent that, how contrite foever a finner fhould feel himself, he should not approach the holy eucharift without having made his facramental confeffion, nor at the folemnity which the receiving of the communion gave to an oath. This appeared, when pope Gregory VII. propofed to the emperor Henry, who was charged with many crimes, to exculpate himfelf, by taking one part of a confecrated hoft, while he himself fhould take the other. This propofal staggered the emperor fo much, that he defired the affair to be referred to a general council t. But we are more furprised that, upon any occafion whatever, any perfon fhould be permitted to eat before he received the communion; and yet, application being made to the pope, on the part of the king of France, in 1722, that he might take some nourifhment before he received the communion, on the day of his confecration, as it was thought that

• Larroche, p. 484.

† Fleury, A. D. 1077.

he would not be able to go through the fatigue of the ceremony without it, the request was granted. It must be prefumed, however, that no other than the pope himself could have given fo great a difpenfation.

It was owing to the great awfulness of the real maffes, and the many ceremonies that were neceffary to be observed in the celebration of them, that, for four or five hundred years, what are called dry masses (or the ceremony of the mass without the confecration of the elements) were much used in the church of Rome. They were more especially used by gentlemen who went a hunting early in the morning, or returned late, or when a new married couple wanted to receive benediction, &c. St. Louis often used this ceremony on board his veffel, and it ferved for a confolation to pilgrims, when they had no opportunity of having real maffes in their return from the Holy Land. These dry maffes were so common at one time, that there was a rubric in the Romish ritual prepared for them. But the reformation opening mens eyes upon the subject, Eccius confeffed that what had been practifed fo long, was, in truth, an impiety and blafphemy against God. The council of Trent did not however correct the abuse; but the bishops fince that time have abolished it by degrees, and

Hift. des Papes, vol, v. p. 499.

now

now it is only used on Good Fridays, and during ftorms at fea*.

We see the farther progrefs of fuperftition in the various methods that were devised in order to prevent the waste or abuse of the confecrated elements, which increased after the doctrine of tranfubftantiation. In the tenth century the priests began to put the bread into the mouths of the communicants, and in the eleventh they began in fome churches, to use little hofts, like wafers, made round, white, and very thin; but this was not till after the condemnation of Berenger, and was difliked by many at that time; and the former custom of breaking the bread into little pieces, and also that of giving the bread steeped in the wine were still used in many places, till near the end of the twelfth century, after which the use of thin wafers became univerfal.

At length, in order to leave the least room for waste or abufe poffible, the custom of communicating the laity with the bread only was introduced; and the doctrine of tranfubftantiation made this practice much easier than it could otherwise have been. For it being now agreed that the confecrated bread was the whole body of Christ, it contained the blood of courfe; and con

fequently the wine, which was the blood only, became fuperfluous.

Thomas Aquinas defended the custom of communicating with the bread only, but he fays that it was not observed in all churches; and the laity, in many places, in order to prevent the fpilling of the wine, or as they called it, the blood of Chrift (against which they were always most particularly cautioned) fucked it through quills or filver pipes, which were faftened to their chalices for that purpose. But at length, and especially from the custom of giving the bread steeped in the wine, came by degrees, the custom of communion in one kind only, without any exprefs authority for the purpose, in almost all the western churches, till it was established by the council of Conftance, in 1415. But the custom of communicating in both kinds was ftill practised in feveral places, and the pope himself is faid at one time to have administered the wine to the deacons and minifters of the altar, and to other perfons of eminent piety, whom he thought worthy of fo great a gift.

The council of Trent confirmed that of Constance, but left it to the pope to grant the use of the cup to those whom he should think proper. Accordingly Pius IV. granted the communion in both kinds to those who fhould demand it, provided they profeffed to believe as the church

church did in other refpects. The Bohemians also were allowed, with the pope's confent, to make use of the cup.

The high reverence for the eucharist, which was produced by the doctrine of tranfubftantiation, made a change in the posture of receiving it. For till the thirteenth century, all perfons had communicated fanding, but about that time the custom of receiving it kneeling came into use, and this is continued ever fince in the church of Rome, and from that in the church of England. Frequent communion alfo was now no more to be expected, and indeed fo early as the tenth century, Ratherius bishop of Verona was obliged to order his priests to warn believers to come four times a year to the communion †, and now the catholics are not required to communicate more than once a year, and this is generally at Easter.

There are various other fuperftitious practices respecting the eucharift in the church of Rome, the origin of which it is not easy to trace. There are fix feveral forts of vestments belonging to the officiating priest, and eight or nine to the bishop, and there is not one of them but has fome mysterious fignification, and a correspond