3. The Eucharist from the earliest times was administered under the name of communion to those in sound health, and under the name of viaticum to those at the point of death (Figs. 192 and 193).
Fig. 190.—The Ship of Baptism, a Flemish work of the Sixteenth Century, in chiselled gold and silver; from the Collection of M. Onghena, at Ghent.—When a child was baptized, it was the custom in the Low Countries to drink the infant’s health in a cup of spiced wine. The cup, shaped like a boat, is typical of the voyage of life: an aged knight is at the helm, two others are fencing together, a sailor adjusts the rigging, the wind fills the sail, and at the mast-head the look-out scans the horizon. The Flemish device runs thus: “A fortunate voyage to the new-born.”
The communion, that is to say the host, was received in the hand, and was administered by the communicant himself. After the sixth century women were enjoined to receive it in a white veil, termed dominical, with which they lifted it to their mouths without touching it with their hands. In 880 the Council of Rouen decreed that in future the sacrament was only to be received at the hand of the officiating priest. Until the thirteenth century the communion was always preceded by the kiss of love; the men embraced the men, and the women the women. After the distribution of bread the deacons came forward with two-handled cups of large dimensions, containing wine for the communicants, which each tasted through a golden pipe (Fig. 191).
Fig. 191.—Sacramental Cup; a work of the Twelfth Century, in silver gilt, from the Abbey of the Benedictines of Witten, near Inspruck.
Fig. 192.—The Sacrament of the Eucharist, which keeps youth holy.—Central portion of the triptych, by Roger Van der Weyden, in the Antwerp Museum (Fifteenth Century).
4. Penance, the obligatory practice of which was reduced to once a year by the fourth Lateran Council, had always for its aim the absolution from sin consequent upon confession.
Excommunication, the extreme punishment inflicted upon great sinners, was pronounced by the faint light of a wax taper, which the priest afterwards extinguished and trampled under foot. In some countries the populace used to carry a bier to the door of the excommunicated person; stones were hurled against his dwelling, and all kinds of foul abuse were heaped upon him. Of a still more solemn nature was the excommunication pronounced by the pope himself on Holy Thursday, in virtue of the bull termed In Cœna Domini, against all who appealed to the general council against the decrees and the ordinances of the pontiffs; against the princes who exacted unfair tribute from ecclesiastics; and against heretics, pirates, &c. A deacon read the bull from the balcony (loggia, an open tribunal) of St. Peter’s in the presence of the pope, who, as a symbol of anathema, dashed a lighted torch of yellow wax into the open court of the Vatican, which the assistants hastened to extinguish by trampling upon it. It was also on Holy Thursday that the reconciliation of the penitents took place, that is to say, their general absolution, to enable them to take part in the mysteries of Easter.