's Day, nay, on all the
birthdays of the holy Apostles and martyrs, as you have yourself seen
done in the holy Roman and Apostolic Church." It would seem from this
that frequent communion was inculcated by the first missionaries to
England in the sixth century. Bede tells also how in his day two
Anglian priests went on a mission to the heathen Saxons, and, while
waiting for the decision of the "satrap," "devoted themselves to prayer
and psalm-singing, and daily offered to God the sacrifice of the Saving
Victim, having with them sacred vessels and a hallowed table to serve
as an altar."

[Sidenote: Fasting Communion.]

The Sacrament was received in both kinds and fasting, and the priest
was forbidden to celebrate after taking any food; some exception to
this rule may be inferred from a canon of the Second Council of Macon
in 585 enforcing it, and the ecclesiastical historian Socrates (whose
History extends from 306 to 439) states that some in Egypt did not
receive "as the custom is among Christians," but after a meal. The
presence of the Lord in the Eucharist was recognised and adored.
[Sidenote: The doctrine of the Sacrifice.] S. Anastasius of Sinai,
probably of the sixth century, writes: "After the bloodless sacrifice
has been consecrated, the priest lifts up the bread of life, and shows
it to all." The Eucharist is continually spoken of as the holy
Sacrifice, the offering of the Saving Victim, the Celestial Oblation;
and it was offered, as the writings of Gregory the Great show, in
special intercession for the dead as well as the living. From the
beginning of the fifth century it seems to have been, at least
occasionally, {181} reserved in church as well as sent to the sick in
their own houses.

[Sidenote: The Roman mass.]

During the fifth and sixth centuries it would seem that the Roman mass,
the rite which has slowly superseded the local forms of service in most
parts of Europe, was undergoing the modifications which brought it to
the stereotyped form it now has. The severe, terse, practical nature
of the liturgy, in words, ritual, ceremonial, which is so
characteristic of the Roman nature, was being altered by the admixture
of other elements. This was especially the case, it is said, in France
and Germany, during the ninth century. Earlier changes had been made
by Gregory the Great, partly from Eastern sources. [Sidenote: The
fifth century.] At the middle of the fifth century the rite, in words
and