Host

HOSS, ELIJAH EMBREE: Methodist Episcopal bishop; b. at Jonesboro, Tenn., Apr. 14, 1849. He was educated at Ohio Wesleyan University and Emory and Henry College, Emory, Va. (B.A.,1869). He entered the ministry in 1869, and after holding pastorates at Jonesboro, Tenn., Knoxville, Tenn., San Francisco, Cal., and Asheville, N. C., was president of Martha Washington College, Abingdon, Va., from 1876 to 1881. He was then vice-president of Emory and Henry College until 1886, and professor of church history in Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., from 1886 to 1890. In 1890-1902 he was editor of The Christian Advocate, and in 1902 was elected bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was a member of the ecumenical conferences of 1891 and 1901.

HOSSBACH, PETER WILHELM: German theologian; b, at Neustadt-on-the-Dosse (45 m. n.w. of Berlin) Feb. 20, 1784; d. at Berlin Apr. 7, 1846.

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He was educated at the universities of Halle and Frankfort-on-theo-Oder, and from 1806 to 1815 he officiated as private tutor, as conrector at the gym nasium at Prenzlau, and as pastor at Pliinitz-on the-Dosse. In 1815 he was appointed minister at a military academy in Berlin; and in 1821 became third preacher at the Jerusalem Church of that city. He was the author of Johann Valentin Andred und sein Zeitalter (Berlin, 1819) and Philipp Jakob Spener und seine Zeit (2 vols., 1828), two works which established his reputation as a church his torian of rank. He also published numerous collections of sermons which enjoyed wide popularity, and the first of these was dedicated to Schleier macher, with whom he was on terms of intimate friendship.

(W. Hollenberg†.)

HOST: The consecrated bread or wafer used in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper: The Latin hostia (properly " feast of sacrifice, sacrificial offering ") is used even as early as Cyprian (De unitate ecclesite, avii.) to denote the bread employed by the priest in celebrating the Eucharist. According to the definite formulation of the Roman doctrine of the sacrifice in the Mass (q.v.), this designation was properly applicable only to the bread transubstantiated by the priest into the body of Christ, whereas the name oblaEa (originating in the custom of having the natural products supplied by members of the congregation), which was likewise applied to the sacramental bread, belonged to the unconsecrated elements. That in the primitive Church the bread in use for the Lord's Supper, and furnished by the congregation, was the leavened bread which served for food is not to be doubted. But while the Eastern Church retained the leavened bread, unleavened bread became customary in the Western Church from the ninth century, and gained exclusive prevalence. The bread originally had a round, flat shape, though sometimes it was in the form of a large round disk, perforated in the center. From the eleventh century the present small form of the host appears; and this was the form best adapted to the proper sacrifice of the mass, wherein the priest alone communicated.

The sacramental wafers were quite early marked with the sign of the cross. At a later period there occur particular symbols, figures, the letters alpha and omega, and images of Christ. In 1834 the Congregation of Rites appointed the emblem of the crucifix. In early times the bread was zealously prepared by devout men and women; but after the adoption of the small host (of pure wheat flour, without any admixture) it devolved upon the monks, and called for the most painstaking care in the proem.

The Lutheran Church accepted, without hesitation, the use of the host for the eucharistic festival. Luther retained the wafers for the very reason that he was offended by the rude. scorn of certain fanatical spirits (e.g., Münzer; cf. Werke, Erlangen ed., sz~i. 329). Johann Gerhard (Loci, sxi., chap. vii.) vindicated their use, though not rejecting the use of other bread. On the other hand, the Reformed Church vehemently combated the employment of wafers, although Calvin and Butzer had undertaken

Hospitalsrs $ottinger no alterations in this respect. Subepquently, however, the use of wafers was occasionally known in Reformed congregations.

Georg Rietschel.

Bibliography: Bingbam, Origin", XV. ii., §§ 5-6 (where the history is traced and the literature given); E. Mart6ne, Ds antiquia ecclesim ritibua, i., chap. iii.. art. 7, iv., book ii., chap. iv., if 5-6, 4 vols.. Bassanio, 1788; J. A. Schmid, De oblatis sucharistiia, Hehnetadt, 1733; J. C. W. Augusti, Denkwardipksitsn, viii. 274 sqq., Leipsic, 1826; F. X. Kraus, Real-Encyklopädie der thriatlichen Alterthanur, 2 vols., Freiburg, 1886; KL, vi. 307-310.