allowed and exercised under the law which has come down to us. Legally we are in the same position as our forefathers; but, looking at the long and general disuse of wafer bread, we are morally bound, in deciding which kind we ourselves will use, to give unusual weight to every alleged consideration of expedience and charity.1

The Ritual Commission, 1870, proposed to forbid “wafers;” -"but wafers shall not be used."2 In 1866 the Lower House of Convocation discussed the propriety of the use of " unleavened bread of the thickness of a wafer;" and concluded that the use of such bread, "if not actually forbidden, is certainly discouraged, and that the use of bread, 'such as is usual to be eaten' is most in accordance with the mind of the Church of England."3

We need only remark further, that the question between wafer bread and common bread tacitly includes the question between leavened and unleavened.

SECTION II.-Of Singing-Cakes and Houseling-Bread.

The Singing-Cakes of which the Injunctions of Elizabeth speak were so called because used by the Priest when singing Mass. Commonly no other would be needed, but when the people communicated, smaller Hosts were also provided, which were called Houseling-Bread. Both were round

1 These words were written long before the Judgment in Hebbert v. Purchas had appeared. It now becomes a question whether the highest charity does not, in the interests of truth and Christian liberty, dictate some return at least to the bread preferred and prescribed in the Church after the Reformation. There is a danger lest we become accomplices in a misrepresentation of fact or of law, by not making a practical protest against it. See the Advertisement prefixed to this book.

2 Fourth Report, p. 20.

3 Rit. Comm. First Report, App. p. 161.

4 See before, p. 846. Mr. Robertson (How shall we Conform? p. 186) says, "This seems to have been a term used to denote wafers in general; thus we find in a tract of 1590:-The letters finished and sealed up with singing-cake' (Harl. Misc., 8vo, ed. ii. 171)." So the French oublie, and Spanish oblea, a wafer, are from oblata; and the Italian ostia, also a common wafer, is from hostia. Is it not probable that, originally at least, the wafers actually prepared for the Sacrament were thus used to give a more sacred and inviolable character to the seal? Singing. bread" is mentioned as part of the stock-in-trade of a shopkeeper in 1519 (Peacock's Church Furniture, p. 200). This could not be for the Altar. Probably the application of the term to sealing-bread was due not only to the cause suggested, but in some measure to a confusion between "singing" and "signing." Tyndale (The Supper of the Lord, p. 227) uses the phrase "singing-loaf ;" which seems to imply some size.

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and flat, like those now used in the Church of Rome, with some sacred symbol stamped on them. Durandus,1A.D. 1286, alluding to their resemblance to a coin in form, says, "On this bread is often inscribed the name and image of our Emperor, . . . because through Him we are refashioned after the image of God, and our names are written in the Book of Life. Some also figure a lamb on it, both because He who is sacrificed is the true Lamb, and also because of that which is read, Exod. xxix." (where the daily sacrifice of two lambs is prescribed). Honorius,2 1130, mentions "the figure of the Lord with letters," and gives the same reason for it as Durandus. Udalric, who made a collection of the Customs of Clugny about 1090, speaks of the "iron with characters on it ;" and Lanfranc, 1070, of " the irons" in which the Oblates were baked. Much later we find the baking-irons enumerated in lists of Church furniture in this country.5 In three representations of a Priest celebrating that occur in a MS. Sacramentary of the end of the tenth century, the Host is marked by a simple cross. On a fourth figure of it in the same MS. we have the lamb, without any lettering. A story assigned to the year 895, and related in the anonymous Miracles of S. Wandregesil, shows that the Hosts were even then "stamped with an iron;" but the device we are not told. In the same passage the iron mould by which they were stamped, and in which they were baked, is called the Oblatory. A Spanish Bishop named Eldefonsus, writing in 845, or more probably a later writer assuming the name, prescribes Oblates of different sizes to be offered together on Festivals, arranged in various figures; the larger with several sacred names and words on either side,-as Truth, Matthew, Mark, etc., Life, King, Lord, Jesus Christ, etc., with a cross

1 Lib. iv. c. xli. n. 8.

2 Gemma Animæ, L. i. c. 35; Hittorp. col. 1190.

3 Ferramentum, in quo sunt coquendæ (Oblata), characteratum. De Consuet. Clun. L. iii. c. xiii. Spicil. Dacher. tom. iv. p. 197.

4 Decr. pro Ord. S. Bened. c. vi. p. 206. The Portuguese in the Synod of Diamper imposed such instruments on the Church in Goa :-"The Synod orders that in every Church be had iron moulds for making round and stamping the wheaten cakes, or Hosts, as it is commonly said."Decr. vii. n. cxxvi.; Raulin, p. 156. Becon, in Mary's reign, speaks of the Hosts"being baken of the wafer-man, between a pair of hot printing-irons."-The Displaying of the Mass, Prayers, and other Pieces, p. 278; Camb. 1844.

5 See Raine's North Durham, pp. 125, 357.

6 Mon. Liturg. Alem. Gerbert, pp. 234-237.

7 Mabill. Præf. i. in Sæc. iii. Ord. S. Ben. § vi. p. 117.

8 Revelatio, printed by Mabill. ad calcem Præf. in Acta S. B. O., pp. 599-604.

on the upper side; the less with X P C, or I H C, or D S on the upper side only, or X P C on the upper and A 2 with a cross above on the under. This, I think, claims to be the earliest1 Western notice of the practice of stamping figures on the Host. It is probable that the Latin Churches borrowed it from the East through Spain. It was doubtless owing to their bearing such impressions that the Hosts were often called Forma and Formata. Forma, it may be mentioned, was a name given to coins on which figures were impressed.

The history of the larger Oblate, or Singing-cake, appears to be as follows. At an early period, when all brought their offerings, the Bishop used to place his own3 in the middle of the Altar, and to surround it with those of the congregation. He afterwards broke this at the Commixture, and communiIcated of it himself. We may suppose that it was even then distinguished by some mark, if not by its greater size. When in course of time the Hosts were made very small, that which was to be broken by the Celebrant, though no longer his special offering, was still put in the middle, and was less reduced in size than the rest, because part of it had to be put into the Chalice, part consumed at the time, and part reserved, while the others were given whole to the Communicants. In the tract of Eldefonsus,5 the largest Host is seen in various figures, surrounded by the smaller, and he tells us that before it is baked it ought to be equal to three of them in weight. He calls it the Lamb' and the Lord's Bread, names evidently borrowed from the East. The little Hosts given to the laity are called particula, by which word, however, were originally understood the fragments of the large loaf from which Priest and people alike communicated at an earlier period. By a decree of the Roman Congregation of Rites, July 9th, 1644, Priests were forbidden to give

1 Bona, L. i. c. xxiii. n. xviii. citing the Fifth Conc. of Arles, Can. i., which ordered that all Oblates in that Province should be offered ad formam Arelatensis Ecclesiæ, explains,-not stamped or shaped after every man's fancy. They were to have the same figure impressed as those used in the Mother-Church.

2 See Ducange in vv.

3 Oblatam Pontificis," Ord. Rom. i. c. 15; "Pontifex de propriâ oblatione confractâ super Altare reliquit," c. 19; Musæ. Ital. tom. ii. pp. 12, 14. Comp. Ord. ii. cc. 9, 12, pp. 47, 49; Ord. iii. cc. 14, 16, pp. 58, 59. 4 Bona, Rer. Lit. Lib. i. c. xxiii. n. xix.

5 Mabillon, Præf. in Acta S. O. B. p. 599; or in the Vetera Analecta, ed. 2, p. 549.

6 Mabill. Præf. u.8. p. 604.

7 Ibid. p. 602.

9 Bona, Rer. Lit. Lib. i. c. xxiii. n. xix.

8 Ibid. p. 603.

De Vert, tome iii. p. 389.

more than one Host, or a "larger" Host to the laity.1 A miracle is alleged by certain writers to show that such is the will of God. A nobleman in the Tyrol, named Oswald, A.D. 1384, "endeavoured to communicate of the greater Host, and not as other laymen did, and the Priest, out of fear, was willing to humour him to his ruin." But the earth opened before the Altar, so that Oswald fell into it up to his knees, and when to save himself he laid hold of the Altar, it yielded to his hand like wax; nor was he able to swallow the Host; which, "stained by divine power of the colour of blood," was, with the Altar itself, still bearing the print of his fingers, to be seen in the time of Beyerlinck,2 in the Sacrarium of the Church, where the miracle took place.

5

The Greek Oblate has a raised square called the Holy Lamb in the middle. This square is divided by a cross into four square compartments, which are filled severally by the letters IC, XC, N, and K, representing the words IH2OYC XPIZTOC NIKA, Jesus Christ conquers.3 This custom is said to have been suggested by the inscriptions on three crosses erected by Constantine, viz., IHZOYC, XPIΣTOC, and NIKA. The Syrian Oblate has many crosses stamped on it, of which that in the middle is larger than the rest. The part of the Oblate on which this large cross is impressed is often called, after the division, the Pearl. Among the Copts the Host is surrounded by the inscription, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Hosts," or, less frequently it seems, by "Holy, Mighty," within which are twelve crosses representing the Apostles, and in the centre a raised square also stamped with crosses, and marking the part called Isbodicon, which answers to the Syrian "Pearl.”

1 Cavalieri, Cap. iv. de Comm. Fidel. Decr. ii. in Ord. lv. tom. iv. p. 37. 2 Theatrum Vitæ, tom. iii. p. 402.

3 Gabriel Severus, in his Defence of the Adoration at the Great Entrance, p. 3; in the Fid. Eccl. Orient., edited by Father Simon, Par. 1671. Figures may be seen in Gabriel, u.s.; in Goar, p. 117; Neale's Liturgies Translated, p. 162; Introd. p. 342; Le Brun, tome iv. p. 387; Arcud. de Concord. Eccl. Occ. et. Or. L. i. c. xxxiii. p. 316.

4 Goar, p. 117, note 31.

Niceph. Hist. L. viii. c. xxxii. tom. i. p. 601.

6 Renaud. tom. ii. pp. 62, 3.

7 Le Brun, Diss. vii. Art. ii. tome iv. p. 481; where the figures are given (from Vansleb, Hist. de l'Egl. d'Alex. c. xxx. p. 99, and Sirmond, Diss. de Pane Azymo, etc.). Neale, East. Ch. B. iv. Sect. xix. vol. ii. p. 214, gives the first-mentioned figure from Sollerius de Copt. Jacob. p. 143. See also Martene, L. i. c. iii. Art. vii.

8 A corruption of AeσTOTIKÓν, the Lord's (Body). Renaud. tom. i. p. 259.

SECTION III.-The shape and size of the Loaf in earlier Ages.

It is confessed that at the earliest period of the Church "whole and solid loaves, such as were either at hand or were offered by the Faithful, of whatever form and figure they might be, were placed on the Altar and consecrated and distributed to those who were to communicate." At the same time it is probable that there would be a preference for loaves like those used at the Passover, which were of such a form and size as to be easily broken with the hand.2 Cæsarius, the brother of Gregory of Nazianzum, 368, and his contemporary, Epiphanius, both speak of them as round. This language, when we regard the use, suggests the form of cake called a bun. This shape has been preserved among the Greeks and Orientals to this day. At Rome, at the end of the sixth century, Gregory 1. calls Oblates "crowns of oblation," implying their round figure. The compiler of the earlier part of the Liber Pontificalis, which may be of about the same age, speaks similarly of a "consecrated crown." Bernolds of Constance (as supposed), A.D. 1089, says the Oblates should be made "in the likeness of a crown." In Spain, the Sixteenth Council of Toledo, A.D. 693, recognises the round form of the Oblate, when it complains of Priests who employ part of a common loaf cut round, instead of making bread for the purpose." In Iso, a monastic writer

1 Bona, L. i. c. xxiii. n. xviii. He says, Ec re ipsâ exploratissimum est. 2 This was the rule at the Passover:—“Washing his hands, and taking two loaves, he breaks one, and places the broken on the unbroken, and blesses."-Maimonides, apud Lightfoot, in Ev. S. Matt. xxvi. 26; tom. ii. p. 379.

3 Dial. iii. De Fide Cath. Interr. clxix. Galland. tom. vi. p. 127. He uses the word περιφερές, Epiphanius στρογγυλοειδές.

4 Ancor. c. lvii. tom. ii. p. 60; Colon. 1682.

5 See the figures referred to in notes 3, 7, at the end of last section.

6 Dial. L. iv. c. lv. tom. iii. col. 345.

7 Anast. Biblioth. de Vit. Pont. n. xvi. p. 6.

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8 Apud Cassandr. Liturg. Opp. p. 60. 9 Can. vi. Labb. tom. vi. col. 1340. Humbert similarly accuses the Greeks of shaping a "crownlet of bread" (coronulam) out of a common loaf.-Galland. tom. xiv. Resp. ad Mich. § xxxiii. p. 202. Vopiscus, p. 220, says that Aurelian, having promised the people crowns of two pounds in weight," if he should return a conqueror from the East, distributed "crowns of loaves." I suppose that these corone were often hollow rings; and the word rotulo, also applied to Oblates, rather favours this. Lactantius (Instit. L. i. § 21) tells us that in the great Vestal rites at Rome asses were "crowned with loaves of bread;"-another probable reason for thinking them annular. Salmasius (in Vopisc. p. 373) quotes Constantine Hepì Oeu. as describing the bucella, a form of loaf, by the word κpikeλλoeids, ring-shaped.