1910–1911
Britannica 11th
Encyclopaedia Britannica · 11th edition
The practice of reserving the sacred elements for the purpose of subsequent reception prevailed in the church from very early times. The Eucharist being the seal of Christian fellowship, it was a natural custom to send portions of the consecrated elements by the hands of the deacons to those who were not present (Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 65). From this it was an easy development, which prevailed before the end of the 2nd century, for churches to send the consecrated Bread to one another as a sign of communion (the e…
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- OCR text aligned to scanned pages
- Pages
- Vol. 9, pp. 876-877