109 



Communion Tokens of the South-Eastern Border of 

 Scotland. By Rev. David Paul, LL.D., Edinburgh. 



PLATES VI., VII., VIII., and IX. 



Up to a very recent period the Communion Token was an 

 object familiar to all Scotsmen. It is still used in many 

 churches, but is gradually being superseded by the printed 

 Communion card. Both are employed for the purpose of 

 ensuring that only those shall be admitted to the Sacrament 

 of the Lord's Supper who have been found qualified and 

 entitled to receive it. On the day of Preparation for the 

 Communion, or at any convenient time before celebration, 

 intending communicants receive their tokens, which they give 

 up to the elders before the Communion service begins. Some 

 such arrangement as this, adopted for the purpose of excluding 

 the uninitiated, and preventing the entrance of spies and 

 enemies, would naturally be employed in connection with all 

 secret or sacred meetings which were open only to a select few. 

 It was employed for that reason in connection with the celebra- 

 tion of the Eleusinian mysteries of ancient Greece. The early 

 Christians, who had much to fear from the persecution of their 

 enemies, would find it absolutely necessary to make use of a 

 pass-word or token of admission to their religious gatherings, 

 in order to make certain that none but friends were among 

 them. And when all fear of persecution had passed away, 

 tokens would still serve the purpose of distinguishing between 

 those who had a right to be present and those who had not. 



The practice then of issuing tokens of admission to the 

 highest act of worship of the Christian church has probably 

 been always more or less in use. It is a mistake to suppose 

 that it belongs solely to Presbyterianism or even to Protestant- 

 ism. Communion certificates or tokens, either of paper or of 

 metal, were used by the Roman Catholic Church in some parts 

 of Europe after the Council of Trent. In Scotland they have 

 been used by the same church in comparatively recent times. 

 We have proof of their use in the Church of England in the 

 16th and l7th centuries. And in both periods of Scottish 

 Episcopacy they were employed precisely as they were before 

 1609 and after 1690. The Episcopal congregations of old 

 standing in the north of Scotland used them up to a very recent 



