substance accepted by the Christian community, the practice of Christians, even in domestic details, was strongly marked by distinctive observances. Some of these observances are briefly enumerated. Besides those festivals which are exclusively Christian, there are some celebrations which are of an older date, in which, as they were not mixed up with any idolatrous rites, Christian families might unite with their pagan neighbours, and which they might retain for their own use. Even Tertullian, who was so strict in forbidding all semblance of participation in idol-worship, saw no objection to Christians joining in the domestic ceremony of putting on the toga virilis,' which corresponded with our coming of age,' or to their being present at weddings, or the naming of children (Nominalia or dies lustrici).

'As the facility of divorce was a primary source of corruption in Roman social and family life, so Christianity, having invested marriage with a religious sanctity, and not allowing divorcement under any circumstances except those mentioned by Christ himself, drew more closely together, not only the husband and wife, but all the other members of the family.

The relationship between parents and children was greatly influenced for good; the barbarous practice of infanticide which prevailed among the Greeks and Romans was immediately discontinued. Under the old Roman law parents might at any time put their children to death, or sell them as slaves; but this severity was at once voluntarily softened in Christian families, and the power was afterwards taken away by Christian emperors; who further directed that, in case of great poverty, when parents might be tempted to sell their children, relief might be given to them from the public revenues, thus affording an example of an incipient poor-law. (Cod. Theod., vi. 27; in Bingham, xvi. ix. 1.)

'Parental authority, however, and family ties were strongly upheld. Children were not allowed to marry without the consent of their parents (Tertul. Ad Uxor., ii. 9); and under the Christian emperors, in case of daughters so marrying, the most dreadful punishments were ordered to be inflicted on all who were consenting parties to the marriage. (Cod. Theod. ix. 24.)

The education of the children assumed a new interest with Christian parents, but at the same time caused them new anxieties and cares; since, "in bringing them up in the admonition and nurture of the "Lord," it was needful, more especially in the earlier times, to guard them against the evil influences in the midst of which they livedfrom the contact of idolatry all around them-from the contagion of companions on every side. Further difficulties, too, presented themselves in connexion with the future occupation of the children, inasmuch as many employments open to others were closed against them. For a Christian had to avoid all the numerous trades and arts which were connected with idol-worship, together with some offices of civil and military life.

'But, to look more closely at the family life of Christianity, it must be observed that the abnegation of idolatry caused a displacement of the household and hearth gods-the Penates and Lares of the Romans -together with all family rites which savoured of idol-worship, and a substitution of Christian observances in their stead. And as it seems to have been the custom of religious Romans to offer their prayers the first thing in the morning in the Lararium, or household shrine (Lampridius, Alex. Sever., 29, 31), so family prayer, in which the different members of a Christian household joined, appears to have had its place from the beginning of the new religion. Such united prayer appears to be alluded to in the remark "that your prayers be not hindered (1 Pet. iii. 7). And Clement of Alexandria, at the end of the second century, testifies to the same thing, where, commenting on the words, when two or three are gathered together in my name," he says that the three mean a husband, a wife, and a child, άνδρα, καὶ γυναῖκα, καὶ TÈKVOV TOÙS Tρεiç λéyɛɩ (Stromat. iii. 10). And the same author speaks expressly of prayer and reading of the Scriptures (εὐχὴ καὶ ἀνάγνωσις) in Christian families. (Pædag. ii. 194.)

'It is evident from the words of Tertullian (Ad Uxorem, ii. 4), and subsequently of Cyprian (De Lapsis, ii. 26), that Christians were in the habit of taking home portions of the eucharistic bread, and eating a small portion of it every morning, as an act of devotion.

"The practice, also, of making the sign of the cross on the forehead, to which at a later period so much efficacy was superstitiously ascribed, had become, before the beginning of the third century, a perpetually repeated ceremony in Christian families, being used "on getting up and "6 going to bed, on putting on their clothes or their shoes, on walking "out or sitting down, at table or at bath," in short, at every act or moment of the day (see Tertullian De Cor. Mil. § 5). This little symbolical action may in early times have been a useful memento to Christians in the midst of so many things of a contrary tendency, however much, like some other practices, once innocent and salutary, it was subsequently used in the service of formalism and error. And the same desire of being constantly reminded of the Christian position, led them to adorn their goblets with the figure of a shepherd carrying a lamb, and their seal-rings with a dove, an anchor, and other similar devices. (Neander, Hist. Christ., p. 399.)

'Besides these, there were other domestic observances, which from time to time interested the piety as well as the natural affections of Christian households, especially those which were connected with the baptism of children, marriages, and funerals, more particularly noticed in separate articles. Children cherished the memory of departed relatives, as those with whom they trusted to be re-united in rest and glory, and not unfrequently held family banquets over their remains in a room provided for that purpose.

'While children were young their superintendence and education engaged especially the mothers' care and vigilance; but, besides this and many other strictly domestic duties, it was usual for Christian women to devote a portion of their time to doing good beyond their own houses; and Tertullian shows that in his days it was expected, as

a matter of course, that they should attend on the sick, go round to the houses of the poor, relieve the needy, and visit imprisoned martyrs.' (Tertul. Ad Uxor. ii. 4.)

The same profoundly religious sentiment pervaded the public life of the time, as well the assemblages for the solemn celebration of the liturgy as certain usages and observances indirectly connected with it, and thus sacred either in themselves or in their immediate associations. We have not met anywhere, within the same compass, so interesting an account of the primitive usage of the Agape, so complete in its details, and explaining so clearly the origin of the institution, and the stages of its history through the successive variations arising out of the modifications of the primitive discipline regarding the Eucharist.

After briefly tracing the analogy which the Christian usage bears to the Essene community in Judæa, as described by Josephus, to the pavo of Greek guilds, to the Charisties of Roman life, the ovocítia of Crete, and the padiria of Sparta, the writer proceeds to describe the order followed in the Chris

tian feast.

The Christians of a given town or district came on a fixed day, probably the first day of the week (the "stato die" of Pliny's letter to Trajan, Epp. x. 96), in some large room hired for the purpose, or placed at their disposal by some wealthy converts. The materials of the meal varied according to the feeling or wealth of the society. Bread and wine were of course indispensable, both as connected with the more solemn commemorative act which came at some period or other in the service, and as the staple articles of food. Meat, poultry, cheese, milk, and honey were probably used with them (August. C. Faust. xx. 26). Early paintings on the catacombs of Rome seem to show that fish also was used. (Aringhi, Roma Subterran., ii. pp. 77, 83, 119, 123, 185, 199, 267.)

Both the fact of its being so largely the common diet of the poor in Syria (Matt. vii. 9, xiv. 17, xvi. 34) and the associations of Luke xxiv. 42, John xxi. 9 (to say nothing of the mystical signification attached to the word ixue as early as Tertullian), would naturally lead Christians to use it in their "feasts of love." The cost of the meal fell practically on the richer members of the Church, whether it was provided out of the common funds or made up of actual contributions in kind, meat or fruit sent for the purpose, or brought at the time. At the appointed hour they came, waited for each other (1 Cor. xi. 33), men and women seated at different tables, perhaps on opposite sides of the room, till the bishop or presbyter of the church pronounced the blessing (ɛvλøyía). Then they ate and drank. Originally at some time before or after the rest of the meal, one loaf was specially blessed and broken, one cup passed round specially, "the cup of blessing." When the meal was over, water was brought and they washed their hands. G G

VOL. CXLIV. NO. CCXCVI.

Then, if not before, according to the season of the year, lamps were placed (as in the upper room at Troas, Acts xx. 8) on their stands, and the more devotional part of the evening began. Those who had special gifts were called to expound Scripture, or to speak a word of exhortation, or to sing a hymn to God, or "to Christ as to a God." (Pliny, Epp. x. 96.)'-Dictionary, pp. 40, 41.

Then came what may be regarded as the more secular part of the proceedings. Intelligence which had been received from other churches was reported; letters from foreign bishops or churches were read; strangers who were the bearers of such communications, or of letters of communion, or who in other ways represented the brethren of other communities, were introduced, collections were made for the relief of distressed churches at a distance, or for the poor of the district.

'Then came the salutation, the kiss of love (1 Pet. v. 14), the "holy "kiss" (Rom. xvi. 16), which told of brotherhood, the final prayer, the quiet and orderly dispersion. In the ideal Agapæ, the eating and drinking never passed beyond the bounds of temperance. In practice, as at Corinth, the boundary line may sometimes have been transgressed, but the testimony of Pliny in his letter to Trajan, as well as the statements of the Apologists, must be allowed as proving that their general character at first was that of pure simplicity. The monstrous slanders of "Thyestean banquets," and "shameless impurity," were but the prurient invention of depraved minds.'

By degrees, however, this severity began to relax, as time proceeded and the Church grew in wealth and numbers.

'At Alexandria, as was natural in a wealthy and luxurious city, there seems to have been a tendency to make the Agape too much of a sumptuous feast, like the entertainments of the rich, and it gave the name to banquets to which the rich only were invited. Clement pro

tests, with natural indignation, against such a misapplication of it by those who sought "to purchase the promise of God by such feasts" (Pædag. ii. 1, § 4, p. 61). It seems probable from his protest against the use of flutes at Christian feasts, that instrumental music of a secular and meretricious character had come to be used, instead of the "psalms, "and hymns, and spiritual songs" (Eph. v. 19, Cor. iii. 16) which had been in use without accompaniment at the original Agape. Clement, however, permits the employment of the harp or lute.

At first the practice would naturally serve as a witness and bond of the brotherhood of Christians. Rich and poor, even master and slave, met together on the same footing. What took place but once a year in the Roman Saturnalia was repeated in the Christian society once a week. But, in proportion as the society became larger, and the sense of brotherhood less living, the old social distinctions would tend to reassert themselves. The Agape would either become mere social entertainments for the wealthy, as at Alexandria, or a mere dole of food for the poor, as in Western Africa (Augustin. C. Faust., xx. 20), and

in either case would lose their original significance. Other causes also tended to throw them into the background. When Christians came to have special buildings set apart for worship, and to look on them with something of the local reverence which the Jews had for the Temple, they shrank from sitting down in them to a common meal as an act of profanation. The Agape, therefore, were gradually forbidden to be held in churches, as by the Council of Laodicea (c. 27), and that of Third Carthage, A.D. 391 (c. 30), and that in Trullo much later (A.D. 692). This, of course, together with the rule of the Third Council of Carthage (c. 29), that the Eucharist should be received fasting, and the probable transfer, in consequence of that rule, of the time of its "cele"bration" from the evening to the morning, left the "feast of love" without the higher companionship with which it had at first been associated, and left it to take more and more the character of a pauper meal. Even the growing tendency to asceticism led men who aimed at a devout life to turn aside fastidiously from sitting down with men and women of all classes, as a religious act. So Tertullian, who in his "Apology" had given so beautiful a description of them, when he became a Montanist, reproaches the Church at large with the luxury of its Agapæ, and is not ashamed to repeat the heathen slander as to the prevalence in them of incestuous licence (De Jejun., cxvii.). One effort was made, as by the Council of Gangra, to restore them to their old position. Those who despised and refused to come to them were solemnly anathematized (c. 11). But the current set in strongly, and the practice gradually died out. Their close connexion with the annual commemoration of the death of martyrs and the choice of the graves of martyrs as the place near which to hold them, was, perhaps, an attempt to raise them out of the disrespect into which they had fallen. And for a time the attempt succeeded. Augustine describes his mother Monica as having been in the habit of going with a basket full of provisions to the Agape, which she just tasted herself, and then distributed (Confess. vi. 2). And this shows the prevalence of the practice in Western Africa. In Northern Italy, however, Ambrose had suppressed them on account of the disorders from which they were inseparable, and their resemblance to the old heathen Parentalia; and Augustine, when he returned to Africa, urged Aurelius, bishop of Carthage, to follow the example (Epist. x. and xi.). The name, indeed, lingered, as given to the annual dedication feasts of churches at Rome in the sixth century. (Greg. M. Epp. ii. 76.)'—Dictionary, p. 41.

Long after the general discontinuance of the Agapæ, traces of the institution are found in various parts of the Church under a variety of forms, more or less closely analogous. One of these will be described hereafter under the title of EULOGIE, which forms the subject of a separate article. Another was a curious custom, which is prohibited by the Apostolic canons (c. 3), and by the Council in Trullo of bringing to the altar honey, milk, grapes, poultry, joints of meat, that the priest. might bless them before they were eaten at a common table. A third lingered long in Alexandria and the Thebaid, and is