is therefore certain. So little do the bulk of the people understand the Latin service as it proceeds, that the people not unfrequently read other prayers while the regular service is proceeding, and this is permitted, if not encouraged by the priests.

Though the real corporeal presence of our Lord in the sacrament was insisted on as a matter of fact, it was not until the Fourth Lateran Council, under Innocent III., that the bread was declared to be transubstantiated into the body, and the wine into the blood of Christ, and thus Transubstantiation became, for the first time, an article of faith by decree of a general council; or, as Neander expresses it, was "definitely settled by the church at the Lateran Council, 1215." 1

The canon is as follows:

"But there is one universal church of the faithful, out of which no one at all is saved; in which Jesus Christ himself is at once priest and sacrifice: whose body and blood in the sacrament of the altar are truly contained under the species of bread and wine, which, through the Divine power, are transubstantiated the bread into the body, and the wine into the blood, that for the fulfilment of the mystery of unity, we may receive of his that which he received of ours.'

"2

In pursuance of this decree, it was ordered that all churches should be furnished with a cabinet or cupboard, in which to keep the consecrated host not used; hence the use of pixes began. Heretofore the surplus bread and wine

1 Neander's Church History, vol. vii. p. 466. London, 1852.

2 "Una vero est fidelium universalis ecclesia, extra quam nullus omnino salvatur. In qua idem ipse sacerdos et sacrificium Jesus Christus: cujus corpus et sanguis in sacramento altaris sub speciebus panis et vini veraciter continentur; transubstantiatis, pane in corpus, vino in sanguinem, potestate divinâ, ut ad perficiendum mysterium unitatis accipiamus ipsi de suo quod accepit de nostro." Labb. Concl. tom. xi. p. 143. Paris, 1671.

were either given away or burned. The host is supposed to be very God. "We command (said Innocent) that in all churches the eucharist be kept under lock and key, that it may not be touched by sacrilegious hand." Arnobius, a Christian writer of the third century, ridiculed the pagans for locking up their gods for a similar reason:-" Why keep you them locked up? Is it for fear thieves should take them away by night? If you are assured they are gods, leave to them the care of keeping themselves; leave their temples always open." 1

A.D. 1217.-Honorius III. instituted the elevation and adoration of the host.2 Fleury expressly states that the custom of elevating the host before the consecration of the chalice was not in use until the commencement of this century. The early Christian writers repeatedly and most fully describe the way and manner of receiving the sacrament, but we find no mention whatever of the elevation or adoration of the Host. Further, "From the oldest liturgies, and the eucharistic forms in them, it appears that there was no such adoration given to the sacrament till of late, for in none of them is there any such mention, either by the priest or the people, as in the Roman missal or ritual, nor any such forms of prayer added to it, as in their breviary. Cassander, a learned Roman Catholic divine, who died A.D. 1566, has collected together most of the old liturgies, and

1 Arnob. Notitia Literaria, lib. vi. vol. i. Edit. Lips. 1816. 2 "Sacerdos quilibet frequenter doceat plebem suam ut cum in celebratione missarium elevatur hostia salutaris, quilibet reverenter inclinet." See Raynaldus ad an. 1219. These words are in Honorius' Epistle to the Latin bishops of the patriarchate of Antioch, A.D. 1219.

3 "Cette question n'auroit pas eu lieu si l'usage eût été dès lors d'adorer et élever l'hostie avant la consécration du calice: aussi n'ai-je trouvé jusqu'ici aucun vestige de cette cérémonie." Fleury, Eccl. Hist. vol. xv. liv. 74, p. 663, Paris, 1719; and tom. xv. p. 580. Paris, 1769.

4 Cassandri Liturgic. oper. p. 10, etc. Paris, 1616.

endeavours, as far as he can, to show their agreement with that of the Roman church; but neither in the old Greek, nor in the old Latin ones, is there any instance to be produced of the priest's or the people's adoring the sacrament, as soon as he had consecrated it. Notwithstanding the elevation and adoration being one of the most prominent features of the modern Roman service, this last was added or brought into the Roman liturgy after the doctrine of transubstantiation was established in that church, which has produced a consequent alteration, not only in their liturgy, but even their religion in good part, and made a new sort of worship, unknown, not only in the first and best times of the church, but for above a thousand years after Christ." 1

It should be noted that Cardinal Guido seems not to have contemplated an adoration of the host, but that on the elevation the people should pray for pardon.

The ritualists Bona, Merati, Benedict XIV., Le Brun, etc., acknowledge that there is no trace of the custom of the elevation of the host, before the eleventh or twelfth century, in the West.

The elevation of the host appears to have been first introduced into the diocese of Paris about A.D. 1200, by Odo de Sulli, bishop of Paris; and even so late as A.D. 1536,

4

1 See Gibson's Preservative against Popery, new Edition, p. 141, vol. x. London, 1848, and where the places alleged by Romanists out of the early Christian writers in support of the custom are examined and explained.

2 "Bonam illic consuetudinem instituit, ut ad elevationem hostiæ omnis populus in ecclesia ad sonitum notæ veniam peteret, sicque usque ad calicis benedictionem protratus jaceret." Raynaldus, an. 1203.

3 Bona, Rer. Liturgic. lib. ii. c. 12.-Gavanti Thesaurus a Merati-Lambertinus, de Missa, p. 115. Le Brun. Cérémonies de la Messe. tom. i. p. 469, etc. (See Palmer's Treaties of the Church of Christ, vol. i. p. 240. London, 1842.)

4 Harduini Concilia, tom. xi. p. 1945.

the synod of Cologne explained that the people should on the elevation of the host remember the Lord's death, and return him thanks with minds raised to heaven.1.

The veneration or adoration of the host itself was not actually enjoined until 1551, by the sixth canon of the thirteenth session of the Council of Trent. The fifth chapter declares that there is no room left for doubting that all the faithful of Christ, "according to the custom ever received in the Catholic church, exhibit in veneration the worship of Latria, which is the supreme worship due to God, to the sacrament.' And the sixth canon anathematizes those who deny that the eucharist "is not to be proposed publicly to the people to be worshipped."

The custom of worshipping or praying before the elevated host, as before explained, was easily converted into an actual worship of the elements as Christ, but no fixed date can be assigned to the transition. That the elements themselves, however, were worshipped before the passing of this canon, is evident. Fisher, the Romish bishop of Rochester, A.D. 1504, said that if there was nothing more in the eucharist but bread, then the whole church for sixteen centuries had committed idolatry, for during all this time people must have been worshipping the creature in the place of the Creator. We cannot, however, trace any record of the fact that the host was worshipped by the people under the sup

1 "Post elevationem consecrati corporis ac sanguinis Domini .... ab omni populo mortis Dominicæ commemoratio habenda, prostratisque humi corporibus, animis in cœlum erectis, gratiæ agendæ Christo Redemptori, qui nos sanguine suo lavit morteque redemit." Synod. Colon. an. 1536, pars. ii. can. 14, Lab. tom. xiv. Paris, 1671.

2 "Nulli dubium esse potest, si nihil in eucharistia præter panem sit, quin tota ecclesia jam xv. annos centenarios, idololatria fuerit; ac, provide, quotquot ante nos hoc sacramento tum adoraverunt, omnes ad unum esse damnatos: nam creaturam panis adoraverint Creatoris loco." Fisher, Roffens, cont. Ecolamp. oper. p. 760. Wirceburg, 1597.

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position of Christ's presence therein before Durand, bishop of Mende, who mentioned it A.D. 1286.1 John Daille, a faithful and diligent searcher of antiquity, says that he could not find "among the interpreters of ecclesiastical offices in the Latin church, the mention of any sort of elevation before the eleventh century."

3

A.D. 1229.-The Bible was now, for the first time, forbidden to the laity by the Council of Toulouse. The decree was as follows:-"We forbid also the permitting of the laity to have the books of the Old and New Testament, unless any should wish, from a feeling of devotion, to have a psalter or breviary for Divine service. But we most strictly forbid them to have the above-mentioned books in the vulgar tongue." This council was attended by the legate of the bishop of Rome, three archbishops, and several bishops and other dignitaries.5

4

A.D. 1230.-Gregory IX. added the little bell, to inform the people when to kneel down to adore the host:

"We are informed by Alberic, in his Chronicon ad Ann. 1200, that the Cistercian Abbott, Guido, whom the pope had created a cardinal, and despatched as his legate to Cologne, first introduced this practice at the elevation of the host in the mass, on a signal given by a bell, for the people to prostrate themselves, and to remain in that posture until the benediction of the cup." 6

1 See his Rationale Divinorum Officium, iv. 41.

2 Dallæus de Relig. Cult. Object, lib. 2, c. 5. Gen. 1664.

3 Tom. xvi. p. 633.

4 "Prohibemus etiam, ne libros Veteris Testamenti aut Novi, laici permittantur habere; nisi forte Psalterium, vel Breviarium pro divinis officiis, aut Horas Beatæ Mariæ, aliquis ex devotionæ, habere velit. Sed ne præmissos libros habeant in vulgari translatos, arctissimè inhibemus." Lab. et Coss. Concl. tom. xi. part 1, col. 425, Concl. Tolosanum. can. 14. Paris, 1671. 5 For some useful information on this subject, see Massy's "Secret History of Romanism," pp. 72, 73. London, 1853.

6 See Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. cent. xii. pt. ii. c. iv. s. ii. p. 423, note 2. Edit. London, 1852.