42 



Communion Tokens. 



to be presented to the authorities for tlie suj^ply of provisions. 

 This ancient custom of supplying pauper parishioners with 

 Communion tokens for use as "Beggar's Badges " long survived 

 the Reformation, and was known to exist in some parishes in 

 Scotland within living memory, if indeed it does not still 

 continue. Frequently these small lead or pewter badges 

 were pierced and strung, and thus worn by their needy 

 possessors for their safer keeping. The French word for token 

 " le mereau " varied almost with the district — merrcau, tnarreaii, 

 marrou, masrcau, merel, and marque. In the Treasury Registers 

 of the Chapter-house of Saint-Pierre at Poictiers there are entries 

 in 1466, 1472, 1476, and 1479 in which certain sums were paid 

 to the " marreleur " or " marrelier " for performing certain 

 duties : " paid to our marrelier for distributing our marreaux, 

 etc., 60 sols." Thus the various and continuous use of Tokens 

 throughout France during the centuries preceding paved the way 

 for the introduction of Communion tokens among the Huguenots 

 in the sixteenth century. Their first mention in the Records 

 of the Reformed Church in Franc^e, according to Mons. Gelin 

 (1891), is in 1560. On the 30th January of that year Calvin at 

 the Council of Geneva proposed the adoption of lead tokens in 

 the following terms : " To prevent the profanation of the Table it 

 would be well if each took lead tokens for each of the eligible 

 ones of their households. Strangers giving witness of their 

 faith could also take these, but those not provided with tokens 

 would not be admitted to the Table." This was first adopted in 

 France by the Reformed Church at NIMES in 1562. Its use 

 was extended throughout over forty districts, but did not become 

 universal. In GEyEVA itself the token was not adopted till 

 about 1605. It would appear that in France, at least, the intro- 



REFORMED CHURCH 

 OF FRANCE 



REFORMED CHURCH- 

 OF FRANCE 



