COMMUNION. 



COMPANIES. 



several reasons, one of the quaintest of which is, to avoid the profana 

 tion of wasting the consecrated wine by the dipping of bushy beards 

 into the chalice. The communion under one species, that is, with 

 bread alone, was authorised in 1415 by a decree of the council of Con 

 stance, and was confirmed by the council of Trent in 1562 : but, with 

 the exception of the Latin church, all the various sects of Christiana 

 have retained the communion under two species. During the firs 

 seven centuries the mixing of water with the wine was very general!; 

 considered as indispensable to the proper and efficient performance o 

 the eucharistic rite. Justin Martyr, in his ' Apology/ written probabl; 

 about the end of the 1st or beginning of the 2nd century, observes 

 that the mode of communicating was with a chalice of wine and water 

 It is unnecessary to quote passages from the subsequent fathers 

 in confirmation of this fact. They all appear to have believed the 

 water to be an essential ingredient ; and several (Cyprian, ' Epist.' 63 

 and Athanas. ' in Psal.' 74) assign as the reason of it, that the pure 

 wine of the mystic chalice represents the unmixed nature of God ; the 

 pure water represents the nature of faithful Christians ; and the com- 

 mixture of the wine and water represents the union of God and the 

 faithful. A decree of the (Ecumenic council, A.D. 691, denounces the 

 Armenians as heretics for celebrating the communion with wine 

 unmixed with water ; and the 32nd canon of the council of Trullo 

 tlecrees the deposition of every bishop or priest who shall omit the 

 water. From the writings of Germain, patriarch of Constantinople , 

 of Cabaailas; of Simeon of Thessalonica ; of Balsamon, patriarch ol 

 Antioch ; of Goar, in his Euchologia ; and from the Greek Ritual, il 

 appears to have been a long-established custom in the Greek church to 

 dilute the eucharistic wine with hot water, and to administer the mix- 

 ture hot. To these remarks on the matter of the eucharist, we may 

 add that Epiphanius (' Hseres.' c. 49) and Augustin (' Hares." e. 28] 

 speak of an ancient sect of Christians in Phrygia, followers of Mon- 

 tanus, who were called Artotyrites (Afros, rupbt), because in the com- 

 munion, they used not bread and wine, but bread and cheese. (Pluquet. 

 ' Diet, des He're'sies.') Others, the followers of Tatian, in the second 

 century, made use of bread and water without wine, and hence were 

 called Aquarians, and Hydroparastai. (Epiphan. ' de Haeres.' 47 ; Au- 

 gustin 'de Ha>res.' c. 25; Cyprian, 'Epist.' 63.) This sect is also 

 spoken of by Clemens Alexandrians, and Chrysostom, and in the 5th 

 century it was revived, with a declaration of motives of sobriety. 

 There appears to have been a custom of communicating with conse- 

 crated bread and milk, for it is condemned by the council of Braga, in 

 Spain, A.D. 675. The prevalent report in the first centuries, that the 

 Christiana celebrated the communion with flour which was kneaded 

 in or with bread which was dipped in he blood of infants, slain or 

 punctured for this purpose, appears to be applicable only to the 

 Christian sects included under the denomination of Gnostics and 



tMontanista ; at least several of the Catholic fathers, in repelling the 

 accusation from the orthodox, distinctly fix it upon these heretical 

 sects. (Epiphan. ' Hasres.' 26 and 48 ; Philastrius, ' Hteres. Bib. Patr.' 

 torn. 4, p 13 ; Cyril, ' Catech.' 16, p. 178 ; Augustin, ' Hajres.' c. 26 ; 

 Tertull. 1. 2, 'ad Uxor.' c. 5; Baronius, 'Annales,' 120-129.) Until 

 the 7th century the communion bread was that commonly used for 

 food ; a particular kind began then to be prepared exclusively for the 

 purpose, of a circular form, and impressed with the sign of the cross. 

 The Greek church adopts a leavened bread, but the Roman church has 

 it unleavened ; and thu difference has been the cause of much con- 

 troversy, though it seems easy to decide which kind was used by Jesus, 

 the last supper having been on one of the " days of unleavened bread," 

 when no other kind could be eaten in the land of Judjca. It has been 

 a subject of still greater contention whether the proper posture of 

 communicants is that of sitting, reclining, kneeling, or standing. In 

 the 3rd century standing appears to have been the usual posture. See 

 Euseb. ' Hist.' 1. vii. c. 9 ; Tertull. ' De Orat.' c. ult. ; Chrysost. torn. i. 

 ' Horn." 22, p. 260, TopaorTJKm T/J lfp$ Tparffy. It is also a subject of 

 dispute whether the ancient Agapao (ai a-yaira!), which some modern 

 sects continue under the name of love-feasts, were identical with the 

 celebration of the eucharist. Probably these friendly repasts, so 

 zealously continued throughout the four first centuries, were com- 

 menced or terminated by the act of communion ; for they often took 

 place in the churches until A.D. 360, when they were excluded from 

 the churches by the council of Laodicea, on account of their having 

 become scenes of indecorous conviviality. Tertullian, in his ' Apol.' 

 c. 39, minutely describes the proceedings of one which was conducted 

 with propriety. The fathers frequently speak of the consecrated ele- 

 ments being carried home by the communicants, who gave them to the 

 sick, or kept them deposited in their coffers as a charm against evil 

 spirits, or bore them as a viaticum about their persons in travelling, 

 and in voyages by sea. (Cyprian, ' de Caps.' p. 1 76 ; Basil. ' Epis.' 289 ; 

 Ambrose, ' de Obit Satyri,' t. iv. p. 315 ; Cyprian, ' de Spectac.' p. 292 ; 

 Justin. Mart. ' Apol. 1 ; Baronius, ' Annales,' 57, n. 151.) Among the 

 many purposes to which the sacramental symbols have been applied, 

 we may notice an instance related by St. Augustin (' Contr. Julian." 

 1. iii. c. 164) of a child born blind who was perfectly enabled to see, 

 after his mother had put upon his eyes a poultice made of the 

 euchariatic bread and wine. In the first centuries it was customary to 

 bury the eucharist with the dead ; and though, by the council of 

 Carthage, A.D. 419, and the (Ecumenic council in 691, the custom was 

 condemned, it still continued to prevail ; and St. Cuthbert and many 



ARTS A!TD SCI. DtV. VOL. FIT. 



others were entombed with the consecrated bread on their breasts, as a 

 safeguard against the molestation of demons. To heighten the in- 

 tensity of a solemn asseveration, a few drops of " the vivifying blood" 

 were sometimes put into the ink with which the signature was written. 

 Thus, in the eighth council of Constantinople, all the bishops signed 

 the deposition of Photius with a pen "dipped in the blood of the 

 Saviour." Thus Pope Theodore signed depositions ; and thus Charles 

 the Bold signed treaties of peace. (Baronius, 'Annales,' 648.) It 

 appears to have been always required that, after the serving of all the 

 communicants, any portion of the consecrated elements which might 

 be left should be immediately eaten by the officiating priests ; and by 

 the council of Toledo, in 693, the consecration of a prudent and mode- 

 rate quantity is enjoined, in order to prevent repletion from eating all 

 that remained. Hesychius (in ' Levitic." 1. 2, c. 8) says, that, in the 

 church of Jerusalem these remnants were burned ; and Evagrius 

 (' Hist.' 1. iv. c. 35) informs us that, in the churches of Constantinople, 

 the priests sent for a school of children to eat up any large quantity of 

 fragments. To the work entitled ' An Inquiry concerning Infant 

 Communion in the first Ages of Christianity,' we must refer for in- 

 formation on that point of the subject (vol. ii. p. 75) ; and also to the 

 ' Essays on the Eucharist," by Pierce and Waterland. In the 5th cen- 

 tury the communion was sometimes administered by women, and they 

 continued to officiate at the altar in Italy and France until after the 

 10th century. (Pope Gelasius, ' Epis. 9 to Bishops of Lucania ; ' ' Epis. 

 Ratherius, Bishop of Verona.') In the 2nd century the eucharist began 

 to be celebrated in the churches with closed doors, with the exclusion 

 of all but the initiated, on which the Pagan philosophers accused the 

 Christians of having adopted the Eleusinian mysteries of Ceres and 

 Bacthus, bread and wine. (Augustin. ' Contr. Faustum," 1. xx. c. 13.) 

 " The fathers," says the Rev. Mr-Abthorp (' Letters on Christianity,' 

 p. 365), " adopted the language of the Eleusinian mysteries, and most 

 incautiously applied it to the Christian worship ; especially to baptism 

 and the eucharist." Many learned writers have noticed some remark- 

 able points of resemblance in the Eleusinian mysteries and the Eucha- 

 ristic rites, such as their being commemorative, and designed to effect 

 a moral regeneration (ra\ryy ( * f " ia ) > or new birth. See Abthorp uli 

 itipra ; and Casaubon ' in Baronii Ann. exercit.' xvi. p. 478. On the 

 different sorts of communion, see Albaspinscus ; Du Pin ; Anton. 

 Dominicus ; and the very elaborate ' Histoire de 1'Eucharistie,' by 

 Arroque. 



COMPANIES, JOINT-STOCK. [JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES.] 

 COMPANIES, or GUILDS. It is necessary to recollect the nature 

 of the relation subsisting between the English boroughs and the 

 Norman kings in the period during which they successively purchased 

 their civil redemption, in order to be convinced that the local comfort 

 and welfare of the burgesses were objects of little solicitude to those 

 monarchs that their primary aim was the securing of the regular, 

 punctual, and willing payment of the stipulated rent, and the ensuring 

 in each locality of so much internal peace and order, at least as to 

 them might seem requisite for enabling the community to perform 

 this stipulation with exactness. Further than this they concerned 

 themselves not at all about the internal regulations of the municipality. 

 Its whole community, now rising again from one and the same level of 

 civil nullity, were at liberty to adopt either the ancient customs and 

 usages of the place as existing before the Conquest, or such others as 

 they might think proper to establish in accordance with the common 

 law of the land. The charters were constantly addressed to "the 

 citizens," " the burgesses," or " the men " of such a city or borough ; 

 and the sum of the description of a burgess, townsman, or member of 

 the community of the borough, as Madox, in his ' Firma Burgi,' ob- 

 serves, was this : " They were deemed townsmen who had a settled 

 dwelling in the town, who merchandised there, who were of the bans or 

 juild, who were in lot and scot with the townsmen, and who used and 

 :njoyed the liberties and free customs of the town." The municipal 

 Dody, in short, consisted of the resident and trading inhabitants, 

 sharing in the payment of the local taxes and the performance of 

 ;he local duties. This formed substantially a household franchise. 

 Strangers residing temporarily in the town for purposes of trade had 

 no voice in the affairs of the borough nor any liability to its burdens, 

 which, at common law, could not be imposed upon them without 

 admission to the local franchise. The titles to borough freedom by 

 >irth, apprenticeship, and marriage, all known to be of very remote 

 antiquity, seem to have been only so many modes of ascertaining the 

 ;eneral condition of established residence. The title by purchase was 



necessary condition for the admission of an individual previously 

 unconnected with that particular community, in those days when such 

 admission conferred peculiar advantages of trading ; and the right of 

 >estowing the freedom on any individual by free gift, for any reason 

 them sufficient, was one necessarily inherent in the community, for 

 he exercise of which they were not responsible to any authority what- 

 .ver. The freemen's right of exclusive trading too had some ground of 

 ustice when they who enjoyed it exclusively supported the local 

 mrdens. Edward III.'s laws of the staple authorised the residence of 

 aon-freemen in the staple towns, but at the same time empowered the 

 ominunity of the borough to compel them to contribute to the public 

 urdens ; and under these regulations it is that the residence of non- 

 reemen appears first to have become frequent. 



The progress of wealth, population, and the useful arts, produced, 



