Canon
XIV.
The
holy things are not to be
sent into other dioceses at the feast of Easter by way of
eulogiæ.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon
XIV.
It is not right to send the holy gifts to another
parish.
Hefele.
It was a custom in the ancient Church, not indeed to
consecrate, but to bless such of the several breads of the same form
laid on the altar as were not needed for the communion, and to employ
them, partly for the maintenance of the clergy, and partly for
distributing to those of the faithful who did not communicate at the
Mass. The breads thus blessed were called
eulogiæ
. Another very ancient custom was, that
bishops as a sign of Church fellowship, should send the consecrated
bread to one another. That the Roman Popes of the first and
second centuries did so, Irenæus testifies in his letter to Pope
Victor in Eusebius. In course of time, however, instead of the
consecrated bread, only bread which had been blessed, or
eulogiæ
, were sent abroad. For instance, Paulinus and
Augustine sent one another these
eulogiæ
. But at
Easter the older custom still prevailed; and to invest the matter with
more solemnity, instead of the
eulogiæ
, the consecrated
bread, i.e., the Eucharist, was sent out. The Synod of Laodicea
forbids this, probably out of reverence to the holy Sacrament.
Binterim (
Denkwürdegkeiten
, vol. IV., P.
iij., p. 535.) gives another explanation. He starts from the fact
that, with the Greeks as well as the Latins, the wafer intended for
communion is generally called
sancta
or
ἅγια
even before the
consecration. This is not only perfectly true, but a well-known
fact; only it must not be forgotten that these wafers or oblations were
only called
sancta
by anticipation, and because of the
sanctificatio
to which they were destined. Binterim then
states that by
ἅγια
in the canon is to be
understood not the breads already consecrated, but those still
unconsecrated. He further conjectures that these unconsecrated
breads were often sent about instead of the
eulogiæ
, and
that the Synod of Laodicea had forbidden this, not during the whole
year, but only at Easter. He cannot, however, give any reason,
and his statement is the more doubtful, as he cannot prove that these
unconsecrated communion breads really used before to be sent about as
eulogiæ
.
In connection with this, however, he adds another
hypothesis. It is known that the Greeks only consecrate a square
piece of the little loaf intended for communion, which is first cut out
with the so-called holy spear. The remainder of the small loaf is
divided into little pieces, which remain on or near the altar during
Mass, after which they are distributed to the non-communicants.
These remains of the small loaf intended for consecration are called
ἀντίδωρα
and
Binterim’s second conjecture is, that these
ἀντίδωρα
might
perhaps have been sent as
eulogiæ
and may be the
ἅγια
of this
canon. But he is unable to prove that these
ἀντίδωρα
were sent about, and is, moreover, obliged to confess that they are
nowhere called
eulogiæ
, while this canon certainly speaks
of
eulogiæ
. To this must be added that, as with
regard to the unconsecrated wafer, so we see no sufficient cause why
the Synod should have forbidden these
ἀντίδωρα
being
sent.