acramental life of the
individual in fact was to begin with his entrance into the Church and
never to be intermitted. Even infants were present throughout the
celebration of the sacred mysteries and partook of the Communion, a
custom which was only abandoned in the West because of the difficulty
of frequent giving of Confirmation and the consequent delay of that
rite till later years.

[Sidenote: The Holy Communion.]

Baptism and Confirmation was the gate by which the Christian was
admitted to the Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood. The
celebration of that Sacrament was the chief act of the Church's worship
every Sunday and holy day, and in {179} Spain, Africa, Antioch, daily,
in Rome every day except Friday and Saturday, in Alexandria except on
Thursday and Friday: indeed by the end of the sixth century it seems
probable that in most parts of the Church a daily celebration was
usual. From the seventh century the mass of the presanctified, when
the priest communicated from elements previously consecrated, is found
in use on certain days, and in the East throughout except on Saturdays
and Sundays. [Sidenote: Frequent Communion.] It seems clear that at
least up to the sixth century it was usual for all who were confirmed
to communicate whenever they were present, unless they were under
penance; but the custom of noncommunicating attendance was growing up.
In the East a spiritual writer said, "it is not rare or frequent
communion which matters, but to make a good communion with a prepared
conscience"; while in the West Bede's letter to Archbishop Egbert of
York supplies an excellent illustration of custom. [Sidenote: Bede.]
The people are to be told, he advises, "how salutary it is for all
classes of Christians to participate daily in the body and blood of our
Lord, as you know well is done by Christ's Church throughout Italy,
Gaul, Africa, Greece, and all the countries of the East. Now, this
kind of religion and heavenly devotion, through the neglect of our
teachers, has been so long discontinued among almost all the laity of
our province, that those who seem to be most religious among them
communicate in the holy mysteries only on the Day of our Lord's birth,
the Epiphany, and Easter, whilst there are innumerable boys and girls,
of innocent and chaste life, as well as young men and women, old men
and old women, who without any scruple {180} or debate are able to
communicate in the holy mysteries on every Lord