Council of Agde, in Gaul, obliged the laity to receive three times a year at least, at the three great festivals, Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. It is the first precedent of that kind: and some very pious and serious Christians have wished, that it never had been set, because it might furnish an handle to many for imagining that they were under no obligation to greater frequency. But the Council designed no such inference; which at best is but a perverse construction of the thing: only, they considered, that to oblige all persons to receive weekly was impracticable; and to exhort them to frequency at large, without specifying any certain times, was doing nothing; and that if ordinary Christians were left to themselves, they would not, probably, communicate so often as thrice in the year, nor twice. Other Councils, later in the same century, revived the more ancient rules: the Councils of Braccara and Luca, in Spain, (A. D. 572.) approved of the collection of old canons drawn up by Martinus Braccarensis; among which is the second Antiochian canon, above recited, being the eighty-third in this collections. Afterwards, the second Council of Mascon (A. D. 585.) endeavoured to reinforce weekly communions, obliging both men and women to communicate every Lord's Day, under pain of anathemat: which was severe enough, unless we may under Seculares, qui Natali Domini, Pascha, et Pentecosten, non communicaverint, Catholici non credantur, nec inter Catholicos habeantur. Concil. Agathens. Can. xviii. p. 1000. Hard. It is thus worded: Si quis intrat Ecclesiam Dei, et sacras Scripturas audit, et pro luxuria sua avertit se a communione sacramenti, et in observandis mysteriis declinat constitutam regulam disciplinæ, istum talem projiciendum de Ecclesia Catholica decernimus &c. Concil. Braccarens. et Lucens. Can. lxxxiii. Hard. tom. iii. p. 400. • Decernimus, ut omnibus Dominicis diebus, altaris oblatio ab omnibus viris et mulieribus offeratur tam panis quam vini, ut per has immolationes, et peccatorum fascibus careant, et cum Abel, vel cæteris justis offerentibus promereantur esse consortes. Omnes autem qui definitiones nostras per inobedientiam evacuare contendunt, anathemate percellantur. Concil. Matiscon. II. Can. iv. Hard. tom. iii. p. 461. stand it only as opposed to absenting in way of scorn or contempt. Century the Seventh. I may here take notice, that the Council of Autun, in the year 670", revived the abovementioned canon of the Council of Agde, about communicating three times a year, at the three great festivals. In this century, the Greeks used to communicate weekly; and such as neglected three weeks together were excommunicated: but in the Church of Rome, the people were left more to their own liberty *. Century the Eighth. Venerable Bede, in his epistle to Ecgbriht Archbishop of York, in the year 734, has a passage to our purpose, worth the noting. He writes thus: "The teachers-should "instruct the people, how salutary daily communions "might be to all kinds of Christians; a point which the "Church of Christ through Italy, Gaul, Africa, Greece, "and the whole East, have much laboured, as you well "know. This solemn service of religion, and devout "sanctification to Godward, is so far sunk almost among "all the laity, by negligence of their teachers, that even "those among them who appear to have a more than "ordinary sense of religion, yet presume not to partake "of those holy mysteries but upon the Nativity, Epiphany, and Easter: though there are innumerable per"sons of very innocent and chaste conversation, boys and "girls, young men and maidens, old men and matrons, "who without the least scruple of doubt, might well re"ceive every Lord's Day, or over and above, upon all the "festivals, whether of Apostles or Martyrs; as you have " Concil. Augustodunens. Can. xiv. Hard. tom. iii. p. 1015. * Græci omni Dominica die communicant, sive Clerici sive Laici, et qui tribus Dominicis non communicaverint, excommunicantur. Romani similiter communicant qui volunt, qui autem noluerint, non excommunicantur. Theodor. Pænitential. p. 46. "seen with your own eyes, in the holy apostolical Church "of Romey." From this remarkable paragraph, we may observe, that even so late as the eighth century, daily communions were still kept up, among some of the Clergy at least; and that all the Christian Churches, or Church guides of best note, wished to have the like prevail among the laity, and had laboured that point as far as they could: but as that was impracticable, hopes however were conceived, that weekly communions, and more, might yet take place, if due care were taken; and that it was in some measure owing to the remissness of pastors, that communion was grown so rare and uncommon among the laity of the better sort; who neglected the communion, when competently qualified for it, only for want of opportunity, or for want of being reminded of it and exhorted to it, or else out of ignorance, supineness, or the like, more than out of any dislike to it or unfitness for it: which may also be the case at this very day. What has been here offered may be sufficient, I conceive, to give a competent idea of the state of frequent communion, for the first eight centuries: and I need not go lower; except it be to throw in a word or two of what has been done, as to this article, since the Reformation. The Lutherans, we are told, by one that declares he is y —quam salutaris sit omni Christianorum generi quotidiana Dominici corporis ac sanguinis perceptio; juxta quod Ecclesiam Christi per Italiam, Galliam, Africam, Græciam, ac totum Orientem solerter agere nosti. Quod videlicet genus religionis ac Deo devotæ sanctificationis tam longe a cunctis pene nostræ provinciæ Laicis, per incuriam docentium, quasi prope peregrinum abest, ut hi qui inter Religiosiores esse videntur, non nisi in Natali Domini, et Epiphania, et Pascha sacrosanctis mysteriis communicare præsumant; cum sint innumeri innocentes et castissimæ conversationis pueri et puellæ, juvenes et virgines, senes et anus, qui absque ullo scrupulo controversiæ; omni die Dominico, sive etiam in natalitiis sanctorum Apostolorum, sive Martyrum (quomodo ipse in sancta Romana et Apostolicu Ecclesia fieri vidisti) mysteriis cœlestibus communicare valeant. Bed, Epist. ad, Ecgbert, p. 311. edit. Cant.. well assured of it, do in this particular excel all other Protestants for they have a communion every Sunday and holyday throughout the year. Calvin and Beza, and the French churches, laboured to restore monthly or weekly communions; but strictly insisted upon four times a year, under pain of contempta. Our own Church has taken good care about frequent communion, time after time b. She has been one while charged as doing too little, and another while charged as doing too much: an argument that she has competently observed the golden mean. But in complicated cases, where there is no passing any certain judgment, without a large comprehensive view of a vast variety of circumstances, it is impossible to please every body, or even to satisfy all the honest and well-deserving. In Queen Elizabeth's time, Mr. Cartwright managed the charge of remissness against us in that article he would have had the generality obliged to communicate constantly, (except in cases of infirmity or necessity,) under pain of ecclesiastical censure, yea, and of civil penalties. Dr. Whitgift, on the other hand, pleaded for moderate counsels and convenient discipline, considering the end and use, and how it might best be attained d. : It is well known what canons have been since made to enforce frequent communione: moderate enough, if compared with ancient canons, or even with those of other Reformed churches. For no express mention is made of 2 Johnson's Unbloody Sacrifice, part ii. p. 151. But compare Calvoer, a Lutheran, who gives but an indifferent account of the number of their com municants, being left to their own liberty, and no particular times strictly insisted on. Calvoer. de Rit. Eccl. tom. i. p. 758. ■ Bingham, French Church's Apology, c. xiv. L'Arroque, Conformity of the Reformed Churches of France, p. 246. b See Wheatly on the Common Prayer, p. 326. e Cartwright, Reply to Whitgift, p. 117. Reply to Whitgift's Defence, part ii. p. 148. d Whitgift, Defence of his Answer to the Admonition, p. 530, &c. Compare Hooker, book v. sect. 68. • Canons of 1603. Can. 13, 21, 22, 23, 24, 112, excommunicating for neglect, but the affair is in a great measure left to the prudential care of the Diocesan, as is just and proper. Nevertheless, exceptions have been taken to the severity of those canons: and the charge has been well answered by our learned Divines f, so that there is no occasion now to enter into that dispute. However, I am persuaded that instruction and exhortation, generally, are the best and most effectual methods of promoting frequent communion, so as to make it answer its true end and use. The most religious kind of persons will of course communicate as often as they have opportunity: the impenitent or irreligious will not choose to communicate at all; neither is it fit that they should, because, while they continue such, it would do them no good, but harm. There remain only the supine, careless, and ignorant, but well disposed, (such as Bede, before cited, spake of,) who perhaps make up the main body of Christians: and they are to be dealt with in a tender, engaging manner, either by exhortations from the pulpit, or by private instruction, or by putting good books into their hands. Much probably might be done, in this way, towards reviving frequent communions, if suitable care and diligence were used in it. But I have said enough on this article, and it is now time to conclude. I once thought of adding a chapter upon the comportment proper at and after receiving the communion: but these papers are already drawn out into a length beyond what I at first suspected; and I may the more conveniently omit what relates to the demeanour proper at and after receiving, since it is well provided for by most of the little manuals which are in every one's hands, and particularly by Bishop Taylor's Worthy Communicant, chapter the seventh. What I have endeavoured all the way, has been to maintain the dignity of a venerable sacrament, by the light of reason, Scripture, and antiquity, against unreason f Falkner, Libert. Eccl. book i. c. 5. p. 205, &c. Sherlock, Defence of Stillingfleet, p. 119. Bingham, French Church's Apol. book iii. c. 14. |