LORD'S SUPPER. 



541 



when the congregations became more numerous, the 

 agapes ceased, and the Lord's supper was from 

 thence celebrated on the occasion of every divine 

 service in the churches, in such a way that all pre- 

 sent could partake, with the exception of catechu- 

 mens (i. e. Christians not yet baptized), and of unbe- 

 lievers. These were obliged to withdraw when the 

 celebration of the Lord's supper commenced, because 

 communion was considered as a mysterious act, 

 which was to be withheld from profane eyes. Chris- 

 tians soon began to ascribe supernatural power to 

 the rite, and to take the consecrated bread and wine 

 for more than bread and wine, and to maintain that the 

 body and blood of our Saviour were united with them. 

 From this originated the doctrine of transubstan- 

 tiation, which was started by Parrhasius Radbertus, 

 in the ninth century. Though this doctrine was at 

 first opposed (see Berengarius), yet it was soon gen- 

 erally received, and, in 1215, solemnly confirmed by 

 pope Innocent III., in the fourth Lateran council. 

 From the new doctrine sprang the adoration of the host 

 (in which God was present, according to the new belief), 

 as well as the custom of refusing the cup in the com- 

 munion to the laity, because it was supposed, that, 

 where the body of Christ was, his blood must be too 

 (Concomitance], whence the use of the wine was not 

 necessary for the reception of the communion. This 

 refusal was, also, partly owing to a desire of avoid- 

 ing every occasion whereby the blood of Christ 

 might be incautiously spilled, and become profaned ; 

 and partly to the efforts of the clergy to establish a 

 distinction in their own favour. Even before the 

 origin of the doctrine of transubstantiation, the Lord's 

 supper had begun to be represented as a sacrifice. 

 From this sprang the private mass. (See Mass.) 

 After the notion of purgatory had become prevalent, 

 this doctrine was connected with the above-mentioned 

 conception of the communion as a sacrifice, and now 

 masses were said chiefly for the purpose of deliver- 

 ing the souls of the deceased from purgatory. As 

 early as the seventh century, private masses were 

 celebrated in various places ; after the ninth cen- 

 tury, they were in use every where. Thus the Lord's 

 supper had become, in the course of time, something 

 quite different from the design of its founder. This 

 had been contended previous to the reformation, by 

 some parties dissatisfied with the ruling church, espe- 

 cially by the Hussites (see Hussites, in article Huss), 

 in the fifteenth century, to whom indeed the council 

 of Bale was obliged to allow the use of the cup in 

 the communion. The reformers renewed the com- 

 plaint, that the church had deviated, in the celebra- 

 tion of the Lord's supper, from the purpose of Christ, 

 and the example of the apostolic age, and both the 

 German and Swiss reformers agreed in rejecting the 

 doctrine of transubstantiation and the mass, and 

 maintaining, that the Lord's supper ought to be cel- 

 ebrated before the whole congregation, and with the 

 administration of both bread and wine. In explain- 

 ing the words by which the supper was instituted, 

 Luther and Zuinglius differed, and their different 

 opinions on this subject formed the principal subject 

 of the unhappy dissension between the Lutheran and 

 Calvinistic churches. Luther took the words, " This 

 is my body," &c., in their literal sense, and thought 

 that the body and blood of Jesus Christ were united, 

 in a mysterious way, with the bread and the wine, so 

 that the communicant receives, with and under (cum 

 et sub} the bread and wine, the real body and real 

 blood of the Redeemer. Zuinglius, on the other 

 side, understood the words in a figurative sense, and 

 supposed that Jesus Christ meant to say, " The bread 

 and the wine represent my body and my blood," and 

 maintained, therefore, that the bread and wine were 

 mere signs of the body and the blood of Christ. 



From this difference of opinion arose a violent dis- 

 pute between Luther and Zuinglius, which, in later 

 times, has been continued between the Lutheran and 

 Calvinistic divines. The opinion advanced by Cai- 

 vin, by which a spiritual presence of the body and 

 blood of Christ is supposed in the communion, though 

 it came nearer to the Lutheran doctrine than that 

 of Zuinglius did, yet was essentially different, and, 

 therefore, also met with a strong opposition from the 

 strict adherents of Luther. Melanchthon inclined to 

 the Calvinistic notion, and so did many other Luth- 

 eran divines, who were called by the opposite party 

 Philippists and Crypto-Calvinists. The/ormula con- 

 cordice, or articles of religious peace, suppressed the 

 Crypto-Calvinists in the greatest part of the Luther- 

 an church, and established the idea of Luther. In 

 recent times, many Lutheran divines have inclined to 

 the Calvinistic doctrine. The Greek church has not 

 adopted the doctrine of transubstantiation in its 

 whole extent ; yet her doctrine comes nearer to this 

 dogma than to that of the reformed church. The 

 Oriental Christians differ also from the Western, in 

 using leavened bread in the Lord's supper, and in 

 administering it to children. See Greek Church. 



[The doctrine of the Lord's supper has given rise 

 to such long and bitter contention between Catholics 

 and Protestants, that the following remarks, written 

 by a Catholic, and giving the Catholic views on this 

 subject, may not be uninteresting to our readers.] 

 The Catholic doctrine of communion (says the writer) 

 cannot be understood without a clear insight into the 

 fundamental views of the Catholic church on all 

 sacred things. He, to whom Christianity is not an 

 external revelation of the Deity, to whom Jesus is 

 not the incarnate God, and his doctrine not divine 

 truth higher than all human conceptions, who re- 

 gards not the church as a divine institution, and her 

 traditions as indisputably true, cannot enter into the 

 Catholic views on the communion. It must be par- 

 ticularly considered, that Catholic Christianity is of 

 a truly mystic nature. By mysticism we mean not 

 the capricious imaginations of each individual, but 

 the universal mystical belief of the church. Of these 

 mysteries the sacrament of communion is the highest, 

 and is the central point of all the institutions of the 

 Catholic church. In all religions, we find the idea 

 of a sacrifice, which man offers to the Deity, by 

 which he acknowledges a relation between himself 

 and the Deity, and endeavours to represent the 

 devout spirit of religion by an act of external wor- 

 ship. The purer this idea of a sacrifice is, the purer 

 is the religion. It was reserved for Christianity to 

 give it its highest reality and greatest purity. In 

 the prophecies relating to the Messiah, it is said, 

 that he shall be a priest after the order of Melchise- 

 dek (Psalm ex. 4); but this Melchisedek was a priest 

 of the Most High, who offered bread and wine. 

 ( Gen. xiv.) How then was this prophecy fulfilled ? 

 Malachi predicted that the sacrifices of the ancient 

 law would be abolished, and supplied by a pure 

 meat-offering. (Malachi i. 11.) The incarnate God 

 walked in the flesh among mortals, teaching and 

 working miracles. After having performed the 

 miracle of multiplying the loaves, he delivered a 

 part of his mysteries (John vi. 48 56 ; 1 Corinth. 

 xix. 16 ; Luke xxii. 19, 20 ; Mark xiv. 22 29 ; 

 Math. xxvi. 26 28.) It is easily perceived that this 

 rite must have been coeval with the foundation of 

 his religion, and that the apostles every where intro- 

 duced it and made known its signification. But what 

 the apostles have introduced and preached we learn 

 only by tradition. This tradition, however, tells us 

 that the ordinance of Christ was meant literally. 

 The Lord (proceeds the writer) remained in his 

 church: in the congregations of the Christians, the 



