The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was the most sacred and consoling rite of the primitive church. It was at once the emblem of the Christian’s highest hopes, and the sublime commemoration of the ineffable sacrifice on which those hopes depend. It was the focus in which concentrated all their holiest thoughts, kindling the whole soul into a flame of adoring love.[900] It was the central act of worship, around which all their solemn devotions gathered, and to which they all looked. The sublime thought of the atonement of Christ and of salvation through his death, shone ever star-like over their souls, illumining even the sepulchral gloom of these subterranean crypts. Daily,[901] or as often as the vigilance of their foes in times of persecution would
permit, the faithful met in the silent halls of death, far from the “madding crowd’s ignoble strife,” to nourish and strengthen their souls for fiery trial, and often for the red baptism of martyrdom, by meditation on the passion of their Lord and partaking of the emblems of his death.
Therefore, in ever-recurring and appropriate symbolism, was this holy rite set forth upon the walls of the Catacombs. Its direct representation, however, was carefully avoided; and its sacred meaning was hidden from the profane gaze of the heathen under a veil of allegory and emblem, which was, nevertheless, instinct with profoundest significance to the initiated. Thus, we find representations of seven men eating bread and fish, which are interpreted as the repast of the disciples by the sea-shore when Our Lord manifested himself in the breaking of bread, and, indirectly, as symbols of the holy eucharist.[902] They are not at all analogous to the pictures of pagan funeral banquets, to which they have been compared, but which are entirely foreign to Christian thought. The miracles of turning water into wine, and of the multiplication of the loaves, were also regarded as types of the eucharist, which was, doubtless, frequently symbolized under these figures. We have seen a copy of the remarkable fresco, twice repeated in the Catacomb of St. Lucina, of a fish bearing a basket of bread on its back, and in the midst what seems to be a chalice of wine.[903] This is considered one of the most ancient emblems of this sacred rite. This view derives singular corroboration from a passage in Jerome, which speaks of carrying the body of Christ in a basket made of twigs,
and his blood in a chalice of glass.[904] The eucharist is also evidently symbolized in the representations of fish and sheep carrying small loaves of bread in their mouths. These are sometimes marked with a decussate cross, as was done to facilitate fracture during administration.
The first Christian altars were tables of wood, which, in times of persecution, could be easily removed from house to house in which worship was celebrated. The entire absence of any thing corresponding to the pagan sacrificial altar was made the subject of heathen reproach.[905] In a painting found in the Catacomb of Callixtus, which Dr. Northcote describes as “the sacrifice of the Mass, symbolically depicted,” a man stands with hands outstretched, as if in act of consecration, over a three-legged table, on which are bread and a fish, while opposite stands a female figure in the attitude of prayer. In an adjoining chamber a precisely similar table is represented, but without the accompanying figures.[906] These tables were placed, not against the wall like a Romish altar, but set out from it, so that the ministrant could stand behind it looking toward the congregation.
In the “papal crypt” of the Callixtan Catacomb the sockets for the four feet of the table thus set out from the wall are distinctly visible, and Bosio and Boldetti both found examples of altars standing in the middle of the cubicula. This was also their position in the oldest basilicas of Rome.
In the sixth century a general council decreed that the altars should be of stone. This transition had already taken place in the Catacombs, and arose from the employment of the slab covering the grave in an arcosolium for the administration of the eucharist. This practice led to an increased veneration for the relics of the saints; and soon the presence of these relics became essential to the idea of an altar.[907] To this custom Prudentius refers in his hymn for Hippolytus’ day.
“Illa sacramenti donatrix mensa, eademque
Custos fida sui martyris apposita:
Servat ad æterni spem Judicis ossa sepulchro
Pascit item sanctis Tibricolas dapibus.
Mira loci pietas, et prompta precantibus ara.”
“That slab gives the sacrament, and at the same time faithfully guards the martyr’s remains; it preserves his bones in the sepulchre in hope of the Eternal Judge, and feeds the dwellers by the Tiber with sacred food. Great is the sanctity of the place, and it offers a ready altar for those who pray.”
After the consecration of the elements by the presbyter or bishop, the communion in both kinds was administered to the faithful by the deacons in the formula of its institution which we still use.[908] The consecrated