burial or commemoration at the altar. In short, the oblations of all persons, who were not in actual or full communion with the Church, were absolutely rejected: and therefore those penitents, who had gone through all the stages of discipline, and were now allowed to stay, and hear the prayers with the rest of the faithful, were not yet allowed to make any oblations, as being not yet fully reconciled to the communion of the altar. Upon this account the ancient canons1 style them “ κοινωνόντας χωρὶς προσφοράς, such as communicated in prayers only, without any oblation." But this was more precisely observed in the beginning of their censures. For if a great delinquent, an heretic or other excommunicate person, would have given his whole estate to the Church, in such a case they would not accept his oblation. There goes an epistle under the name of St. Austin to Count Boniface, wherein he tells him, he had forbidden all his clergy to accept the oblation of his house, and interdicted him all communion, till he had done penance for a certain bold attempt, and offered to God first the sacrifice of an humble and contrite heart for his error. The Epistle probably is not St. Austin's, but it contains nothing disagreeable to the discipline of those times, when the greatest gift would not be accepted from an emperor, if he were an heretic, or under the censure of excommunication. As it is clear, not only from what has been observed before out of St. Ambrose's Epistle to Valentinian, but from what Gregory Nazianzen says of St. Basil, that he refused the oblations of the Emperor Valens, because he was a professed enemy of the divinity of Christ, and a furious defender of the Arian heresy. So Liberius refused the offering of Eusebius, the Arian statesman under Constantius, as we are told by Athanasius and Theodoret," who report the story with all its circumstances in this manner: when Con

1 Con. Nicen. can. xi. Con. Ancyr. can. iv. v. viii. &c.

Aug. Ep. vi. ad Bonifac. in Appendice. tom. ii. Oblatio domûs tuæ à clericis ne suscipiatur, indixi, communionemque tibi interdico, donecpro hoc facto corde contrito et humiliato dignum offeras sacrificium Deo. 9 Naz. Orat. xx. de Laud. Basil. p. 351.

Athan. Ep. ad Solitarios. p. 831.

cap. xvi.

5 Theod. lib. ii.

stantius drove Liberius into banishment, because he would not subscribe the condemnation of Athanasius with the Nicene faith, he sent him five hundred shillings-oλOKOTÍVUC -to bear his charges. But Liberius bid the messenger, that brought them, return them to the Emperor, for his soldiers had more need of them. The Empress also sent him the same sum, which he returned to the Emperor with a like answer, that he might keep them for his own expeditions. Last of all, when he had refused both the former, Eusebius the eunuch was sent to make him another offer. To whom Liberius replied, "Thou hast harassed and laid waste the Churches over all the world, and dost thou now offer me an alms as a condemned criminal? But go thou first, and learn to become a christian." It is no less remarkable what Tertullian tells us of the Church's treatment of Marcion, the heretic, when he was excommunicated with Valentinus for his heresy: " they cast him out with his two hundred Sestertia, which he had brought into the Church." They were so far from receiving the gifts of such men, that they rejected them with scorn, as St. Peter did Simon Magus. "Thy money perish with thee:" or as Abraham rejected the gifts of the King of Sodom, saying, "I will not take from a thread to a shoe-latchet, I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abraham rich,"

SECT. S.-What Oblations might be received at the Altar, and what not.

And as they thus made a distinction in the persons, of whom they received, so, secondly, they made a distinction in the oblations themselves, which were to be received. For the most ancient custom was only to offer such things at the altar, as were proper for the service of the altar. To this purpose there are several canons among those called the Apostolical Canons. One says, "No bishop or presbyter under pain of deposition shall offer any thing in the

Tertul. de Præscript. cap. xxx. Marcion et Valentinus semel et iterum ejecti: Marcion quidem cum ducentis sestertiis, quæ ecclesi intulerat. Canon. Apost. can. iii.

sacrifice on the altar contrary to the Lord's command, as honey, milk, or strong beer, instead of wine, or birds, or living creatures, excepting only the first-fruits of corn and grapes in their proper season." Another forbids any thing to be brought to the altar," besides oil for the lamps, and incense in the time of the oblation." And a third orders, "all other first fruits to be carried home to the bishop and presbyters, to be divided between them and the deacons and the rest of the clergy." Some of the African Canons are to the same purpose. The third Council of Carthage orders,3 s" that in the sacraments of the body and blood of the Lord, nothing else be offered but what the Lord commanded, that is, bread, and wine mingled with water. Nor in the oblation of first-fruits any thing more be offered but only grapes and corn." The Collections of African Canons* both Greek and Latin give us this canon a little more at large in these words: "Nothing shall be offered in the sacraments of the body and blood of the Lord, but what the Lord himself commanded, that is, bread, and wine mingled with water. But the first-fruits, and honey and milk, which is offered on one most solemn day for the mystery of infants, though they be offered at the altar, shall have their own peculiar benediction, that they may be distinguished from the sacrament of the body and blood of the Lord. Neither shall any first-fruits be offered, but only of grapes and corn." Here we see, milk and honey was only to be offered on one solemn day, that is, on the great Sabbath, or Saturday before Easter, which was the most solemn time of baptism; and that for

1 Canon. Apost. can. iv. Eliber. in. can. xlix.

Can. v. Vid. Con. Con. Carth. iii. can.

xxiv. Ut in sacramentis corporis et sanguinis Domini nihil amplius offeratur quàm ipse Dominus tradidit, hoc est, panis et vinum aquâ mixtum. Nec amplius in sacrificiis (al in primitiis) offeratur, quàm de uvis et frumentis. * Con. African. can. iv. ap. Crab. tom. i. p. 503. Ut in sacramentis corporis et sanguinis Domini nihil amplius offeratur, quàm quod ipse DomiAus tradidit, hoc est, panis et vinum aquâ mixtum. Primitiæ verò, seu mel et lac, quod uno die solennissimo in infantum mysterio solet offerri, quamvis in altari offerrantur, suam tamen propriam habeant benedictionem, ut à sacramento Dominici corporis et sanguinis distinguantur. Nec amplius in primitiis offeratur, quàm de uvis et frumentis. Vid. Cod. Eccles. Afric. can. xxxvii. ap. Justellum.

the mystery of infants, that is, persons newly baptised, who were commonly called infants, in a mystical sense from their new birth, in the African Church: for it was usual to give them a taste of honey and milk immediately after baptism, as has been shewn in a former Book;1 and upon that account an oblation of honey and milk is here allowed to be made for this mystery of infants, which was to be offered and consecrated with a peculiar benediction, that it might not be thought to come in the room of the eucharist. And no other first-fruits are allowed to be offered at the altar but only grapes and corn, as being the materials of bread and wine, out of which the eucharist was taken. In the time of the Council of Trullo, the offering of milk and honey at the altar was universally forbidden. But the oblation of the first-fruits of grapes was still allowed: only whereas a corrupt custom prevailed in some places, to join them in the same sacrifice with the eucharist, and distribute them together with it to the people, the rule of the African Code is revived, and orders given, that they shall have a distinct consecration, and a distinct distribution, if the people were desirous to eat their first-fruits in the church. In the mean time we may observe, that in other Churches, not only the first-fruits of grapes and corn, but all other things which the people were voluntarily disposed to offer, whether money or the like gifts, were received at the altar. For in France the first Council of Orleans made it a rule, "that of such oblations one moiety should fall to the bishop, and the other be divided among the rest of the clergy." But it is severely censured by Strabo, as a gross piece of superstition in the Roman Church, that they were used to offer and consecrate a lamb, and eat the con

* Ibid. can. xxviii.

1 Book. xii. chap. iv. sect. 6. * Con. Trull. can. Ivii. • Con. Aurelian. i. can. xvi. Antiquos canones relegentes, priora statuta credimus renovanda, ut de his quæ in altario oblatione fidelium conferuntur, medieta• Straho tem sibi episcopus vendicet. &c. Vid. ibid. can. xvii.

de Rebus Eccles. cap. xviii. Du Pin says also, that there is an example of this usage in the Life of St. Uldarie, and that both Ratramnus and Eneas Parisiensis wrote in defence of it against Photius, but he says, it was not authorised in all the Latia Churches. Du Pia. Cent. ix. p. 113.

secrated flesh of it, out of a pretended reverence to the immaculate Lamb of God, which was slain for the sins of the world. Photius carries the charge a little higher, and objects to them, that they offered it together with the body of Christ upon the altar. But this is commonly said to be an aggravation of the thing,' and therefore is rejected by Cardinal Bona as a slander. But he owns the fact so far as it is related by Strabo, because the old Ordo Romanus has such a form for the consecration of a lamb on Easter day, and it is agreeable to their present practice. Only he blames Strabo for being too zealous in his censure of this rite, and inveighing against it as a superstitious and erroneous practice. Which only shews how much Bona was inclined to defend the superstitions that were crept into his Church, without any foundation in ancient practice.

SECT. 4.-The Names of such, as made Oblations of any considerable Value, rehearsed at the Altar.

But I proceed with the practice of the ancient Church, and observe thirdly, that when their oblations were received, it was usual in many places to rehearse the names of such as offered, that a commemoration of them might be made, and prayers and praises be offered to God for them at the altar. I have already had occasion to say something of this custom3 out of St. Cyprian3 and St. Jerom in speaking of deacons, whose office it was to recite the names. To these I shall now add some further evidences, both out of these and other writers. Cyprian, in one of his Epistles to the Churches of Numidia, speaking of a collection that had been made at Carthage for them, says,5" he had sent them

'Nicolai Papa Epist. ap. Baron. tom. x. an. 867. Bona. Rer. Liturg. lib. ii. cap. viii. n. 5. Hoc putidum mendacium est. &c. • Book ii. chap. xx. sect. 5. 3 Cypr. Ep. x. al. xvi. p. 37.

Hieron. Com. in Ezek. xviii. p. 537. Cyprian. Ep. lx. al. lxii. ad Episcopos Numidas. p. 147. Ut autem fratres nostros ac sorores, qui ad hoc opus tam necessarium promptê ac libenter operati sunt, ut semper operentur, in mentem habeatis in orationibus vestris, et eis vicem boni operis in sacrificiis et precibus repræsentetis, subdidi nomina singulorum, &c.