In the primitive Church, the newly
baptized were immediately admitted to communion; and with the growing frequency of infant
baptism the same custom
was still maintained.
Cygrian
(De lapsis,
ix.) speaks of children who at
the outset of their lives have received "the meat
and drink of the Lord," and similar
evidence may be collected from the
Apostolic Constitutions, Dionysius the
Areopagite, Paulinus of Nola (d. 431),
and Gennadiue of Marseilles (c. 492). The
neces
sity of communion to salvation being taught on the
basis of
In the early Church it was customary to carry the consecrated elements immediately after service to the sick and to prisoners; and two passages in Tertullian (Ad uxorem, II., v.; De oraCiorae, six.) seem to imply the custom of communicating at home under the species of bread even apart from illness. Later we find the consecrated bread carried on journeys and used as an amulet, a practise against which more than one council legislated. With the introduction of communion in one kind it became usual to carry the consecrated bread to the sick immediately after mesa or from the tabernacle in which it was reserved; and the strict enforcement of the rule of fasting communion made it desirable as obviating the necessity of the priest's having to celebrate in the afternoon or evening for a person in sudden danger of death. In the Church of England a special service is provided for the celebration of the communion in the sick room, somewhat shorten than the usual form; but in re cent years, with the growth of the practise of reser vation, the elements are not infrequently carried from the church and administered with a brief form of prayer. The Lutheran Church freely allows pri vate communion, while the Reformed discourages it.
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