Eucharist in the early church · Sophia Scriptura

Didache 9.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Instructions for the Eucharist begin.
Didache 9.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The thanksgiving over the cup.
Didache 9.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The thanksgiving over the bread.
Didache 9.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · A prayer that the church be gathered into one, like grain into bread.
Didache 9.5Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Only the baptized may share in the Eucharist.
Didache 10.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The thanksgiving after the meal begins.
Didache 10.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Thanks for God's name, knowledge, faith, and immortality.
Didache 10.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Thanks for daily food and for spiritual food and eternal life.
Didache 10.7Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Prophets may give thanks freely.
Didache 14.1Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · On the Lord's day, gather to break bread and give thanks after confessing your sins.
Didache 14.2Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Be reconciled before joining the gathering.
Didache 14.3Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · Malachi's prophecy of a pure sacrifice among the nations.
1 Clement 44.4Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Deposing blameless bishops is a serious sin.
To the Ephesians 5.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Whoever stays away from the church's gathering lacks the bread of God.
To the Ephesians 13.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Frequent gatherings for the Eucharist defeat the powers of Satan.
To the Ephesians 20.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · In the one Eucharistic bread, the “medicine of immortality,” the united church shares Christ's life.
To the Philadelphians 4.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · One Eucharist, one flesh and cup of Christ, one altar, one bishop.
To the Romans 7.3Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Ignatius longs for the bread of God, Christ's flesh, and the drink of his blood.
To the Smyrnaeans 7.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · The docetists avoid the Eucharist because they deny it is Christ's flesh.
To the Smyrnaeans 8.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · A valid Eucharist is one held under the bishop or his appointee.
To the Smyrnaeans 8.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Where the bishop is, there the people should be, as the catholic church is where Christ is.
Epistle of the Apostles 15Anonymous · ca. 140-170 · Christ commands the apostles to keep the memorial of his death at the Passover and foretells an apostle's imprisonment and release by an angel during the feast.
First Apology 65Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · After baptism the new Christian joins the prayers; bread and wine mixed with water are brought, thanks are given, and deacons distribute them, also to those absent.
First Apology 66Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · The Eucharist is for the baptized only; it is not common bread and drink, but the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus, as the Gospels record.
First Apology 67Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Justin describes Sunday worship: Scripture reading, sermon, prayer, the Eucharist, and a collection for the needy, held on the day of creation and of the resurrection.
Acts of John 72Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · On the third day John and the brothers go to Drusiana's tomb to break bread.
Acts of John 84Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John denounces Fortunatus's unrepentant soul and the devil behind it.
Acts of John 85Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John breaks bread in the tomb with a prayer of thanksgiving to Jesus Christ.
Acts of John 86Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · After the eucharist John foretells Fortunatus's death, which is found to have happened.
Acts of John 107Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · John exhorts the brothers, prays, breaks bread with them, has a grave dug outside the city, and begins his last prayer.
Dialogue with Trypho 28.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Mal 1:10–12: a pure sacrifice among the nations.
Dialogue with Trypho 41.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The flour offering for cleansed lepers prefigured the eucharistic bread, given in remembrance of Christ's passion.
Dialogue with Trypho 41.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Mal 1:10–12.
Dialogue with Trypho 41.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Malachi's pure sacrifice in every place is the Eucharist of the Gentile church.
Dialogue with Trypho 70.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Isaiah's “bread” and “water” foretell the Eucharist.
Dialogue with Trypho 116.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians, cleansed through Christ's name, are the true high-priestly race offering pure sacrifices.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Eucharist of bread and cup is the pleasing sacrifice of Malachi.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Prayers and thanksgivings from the worthy are the only perfect sacrifices.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The Christian thanksgiving over bread and cup remembers Christ's passion; at the resurrection God will vindicate Christians.
Dialogue with Trypho 117.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Prayers in Jesus' name are offered among every people on earth.
Lines 13–16Anonymous · ca. 160–220 · Faith everywhere sets before him the Fish caught by a pure Virgin, with wine mixed and bread, given to her friends.
Diatessaron, section 19Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 45Tatian · ca. 160-180
Fragment 13Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 170–200
Fragment 19Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 170–200
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 3Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Paul celebrates a eucharist of bread and water, an adulteress is struck down, he exhorts the new believers, prays, and is escorted to the harbour to sail for Spain.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 4Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Simon Magus wins over the Roman church in Paul's absence; Peter sails for Italy, baptizes the captain Theon at sea, and gives him the eucharist.
The Instructor 1.6.36Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Milk, the Word, is the believer's food from beginning to end; the solid food Paul withheld may mean the face-to-face vision in the age to come.
The Instructor 1.6.38Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Milk may be the preaching and solid food faith; Christ's words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood speak symbolically of faith and hope, which sustain the church.
The Instructor 1.6.41Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Milk, prepared by God for the newborn like the manna for Israel, pictures the spiritual food of the Word, whom the Father rained down to nourish the faithful.
The Instructor 1.6.42Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The church is the one virgin mother who nurses her children with the Word; Christ bore her in the travail of his flesh and swaddled her in his blood, and is everything to his little ones.
The Instructor 1.6.43Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Christ gives his flesh and blood as food; Clement explains flesh as the Spirit and blood as the Word, and Christ, who shed his blood for us, as the Father's milk.
The Instructor 1.6.46Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Christ's food was doing the Father's will; ours is Christ himself, the bread from heaven, whose flesh, like grain and baked bread, rises and gladdens the church.
The Instructor 1.6.47Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Word is called food, flesh, bread, blood, wine, and milk; Christ's flesh, the heavenly bread, nourishes to incorruption, and Abel's pleading blood prefigures his.
The Instructor 2.2.19Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Water is the natural drink, as the rock in the desert shows; wine is prescribed only as medicine. The great cluster of grapes is Christ, crushed for us, whose blood is both fleshly, redeeming us, and spiritual, anointing us.
The Instructor 2.2.20Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · To drink Christ's blood is to share his incorruption: the mingling of the cup and the Word is called the Eucharist, which sanctifies body and soul. The young should for the most part avoid wine, which inflames desire.
The Instructor 2.2.29Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Paul forbids drunkenness; Christ changed water into wine but did not permit drunkenness; wine is a symbol of his blood; drink only to meet need, keeping the soul dry and clear.
The Instructor 2.2.32Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Warlike peoples glory in drunkenness, but the peaceful Christian drinks soberly, as the Lord did: he drank wine, blessed the cup as his blood, and taught self-control at meals.
Against Heresies 1.13.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Marcus counterfeits the Eucharist with cups that turn red and overflow, to deceive women.
Against Heresies 4.17.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Christ gave thanks over bread and cup as his body and blood and taught the new offering of the new covenant, which the Church offers everywhere, as Malachi foretold.
Against Heresies 4.17.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The name glorified among the nations is Christ’s, which the Father calls his own; through Christ the Church offers the pure sacrifice and the incense of prayer.
Against Heresies 4.18.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Church’s offering is a pure sacrifice, not because God needs it, but because the grateful offerer is honoured; it must be offered with a reconciled heart.
Against Heresies 4.18.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Offerings continue in the Church, but as the free gifts of sons, who give all they have rather than a tenth.
Against Heresies 4.18.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · God accepted Abel’s offering and not Cain’s because sacrifice does not sanctify; a pure conscience sanctifies the sacrifice.
Against Heresies 4.18.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Church alone offers the pure sacrifice from God’s creation; the heretics cannot consistently call the eucharistic bread and cup the Lord’s body and blood while denying that he is the Creator’s Son.
Against Heresies 4.18.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As the bread that receives God’s invocation becomes the Eucharist, earthly and heavenly, so our bodies that receive it have the hope of resurrection.
Against Heresies 4.18.6Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · We offer to God not because he needs it but to give thanks and for our own sake; our offerings are directed to the altar in heaven.
Against Heresies 4.33.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The spiritual disciple will refute Marcion’s two gods: Christ’s Eucharist, title Son of Man, forgiveness of sins, and real death and resurrection all imply the one Creator.
Against Heresies 5.2.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · If the flesh were not saved, the cup and bread of the Eucharist would not be the communion of Christ’s blood and body, which nourish our flesh and blood.
Against Heresies 5.2.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As the cup and bread receive the Word and become the Eucharist of Christ’s body and blood, so our bodies, nourished by it and laid in the earth, will rise by the Word of God.
Against Heresies 5.33.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · At the Last Supper Christ promised to drink the fruit of the vine new with his disciples in the kingdom, which shows a renewed earth and a bodily resurrection.
Excerpts from Theodotus 13.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Son is the heavenly bread and spiritual food that gives life through eating and knowledge.
Excerpts from Theodotus 13.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Those who ate manna died, but those who eat the true bread will not die.
Excerpts from Theodotus 13.3Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The Son is the living bread given by the Father.
Excerpts from Theodotus 13.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · “The bread I will give is my flesh” means either what nourishes the flesh in the Eucharist, or, better, his body the church.
Excerpts from Theodotus 13.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The heavenly bread is also the blessed assembly of the elect, who share one substance and one destiny.
Excerpts from Theodotus 82.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · The bread and the oil are sanctified by God's name: outwardly unchanged, they are changed in power into spiritual power.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 23.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · Christ gives himself as bread and the daily drink of immortality, and has paid the death owed for our sins.
Miscellanies 1.1.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Writer and reader must each examine themselves, as each communicant takes his own portion of the Eucharist after self-examination, as Paul teaches.
Miscellanies 1.10.46Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ spoke and gave thanks before breaking bread, so that we might eat “rationally”; good speech and good deeds belong together, and each person should serve by his own gift.
Miscellanies 1.19.96Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Proverbs' stolen bread and water are the heretics' Eucharists, some using only water, contrary to the church's rule; their baptism is “strange water” that sweeps people back into the sea of paganism.
Miscellanies 3.2.10Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement reports that the Carpocratians' common meals end in promiscuity in the dark; he says Carpocrates misread Plato, who meant women are open to suitors before marriage but not after.
Miscellanies 4.25.161Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Rebecca, “virgin” said twice, signifies purity of body and soul, the glory of God; righteousness is peace; Christ is king of Salem, “peace,” foreshadowed by Melchizedek, who gave bread and wine as a type of the Eucharist.
On Idolatry 7Tertullian · ca. 196–211 · It is scandalous that idol-makers come to church, lift their hands in prayer, touch the Lord's body, and are even admitted to church office.
Octavius 9.6Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Caecilius describes the rumoured Christian banquet that ends in the lamp being knocked over.
On the Dress of Women 2.11Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Christian women go out only for grave purposes, such as visiting the sick, the Eucharist, or hearing the word, and need no finery; the fear that plainness brings blasphemy is misplaced.
On Prayer 6Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · The petition for daily bread is chiefly a prayer for Christ, the bread of life, and union with his body; taken literally it asks only for what is needed today.
On Prayer 19Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · On fast days (“stations”) Christians should still attend the Eucharist and may receive the Lord's body and keep it to take later, without breaking their fast.
To His Wife 2.4Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · A pagan husband will obstruct his Christian wife's fasts, night services, Easter vigil, Eucharist, prison visits, and hospitality.
To His Wife 2.5Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Even a tolerant pagan husband knows and can exploit his wife's Christian practices, such as signing herself with the cross, night prayer, and taking the reserved Eucharist.
Acts of Thomas 27Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas anoints the king and his brother with an invocation of the name of Christ and the Spirit, a radiant young man appears, and at dawn he gives them the Eucharist.
Acts of Thomas 31Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas gives the Eucharist and goes where the Lord sends him; finding a dead youth, he prays, and a great dragon confesses it killed the youth out of jealousy over a woman.
Acts of Thomas 41Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The colt dies at the city gate; Thomas frees a woman from a demon that has abused her for five years, seals her and gives the Eucharist; then a youth who killed his lover for refusing continence is convicted by the Eucharist and healed, and the woman, raised, describes the punishments she saw in the place of the dead.
Acts of Thomas 121Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas anoints Mygdonia with oil, baptizes her in a spring in the name of the Trinity, and gives her the Eucharist of bread and a cup of water; Marcia too receives the seal.
Acts of Thomas 132Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas speaks of baptism as forgiveness of sins and new birth, anoints and baptizes Siphor's household in the name of the Trinity, and gives them the Eucharist with a prayer over the bread of life.
Acts of Thomas 158Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas gives the Eucharist with a prayer that sets each detail of Christ's passion against a gift to the faithful, and a voice from heaven answers Amen.
Didascalia 6.21Anonymous · first half of the third century · Christians must not keep the Levitical purity rules about menstruation, seminal flow, and intercourse, as though the Holy Spirit received in baptism left them, and so abstain from prayer, the eucharist, and the Scriptures.
Didascalia 6.22Anonymous · first half of the third century · Purity rites from the second legislation must be abandoned; Christians gather and offer the eucharist in cemeteries for the departed, touch the dead without fear, and treat menstruation and seminal flow as no bar to prayer, while adultery alone truly defiles.
Epitaph of Pectorius (lines 1–11)Anonymous · 3rd–4th century (disputed) · A Christian epitaph from Autun: the faithful, born anew from divine waters, are urged to receive the Saviour's food, holding the Fish in their hands, and Pectorius asks his dead father to remember him.
Arabic Pentateuch fragment XII (on Gen 38:19)Hippolytus of Rome · unknown (transmitted in a medieval Arabic catena) · The catena defends Judah and Tamar as acting by providence, and makes Judah's three pledges a type of Christ's body, blood, and baptism given to the church.
On the Passover (Syriac fragment VI, Bar Salibi and Bar Hebraeus)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Two Syriac writers report Hippolytus's view that Jesus did not eat the legal Passover at the Last Supper but gave the sacrament.
Apostolic Tradition 4Hippolytus of Rome · early third century · After the kiss of peace the new bishop offers the eucharistic prayer: thanksgiving for Christ's incarnation and passion, the words of institution, the remembrance and offering, and the prayer for the Spirit.
Apostolic Tradition 21 (Latin)Hippolytus of Rome · early third century · The candidate is baptized three times after three questions of faith, anointed, receives the bishop's hand, prayer and seal, and joins the people for the peace and a first communion of bread, cup, milk and honey, and water.
Apostolic Tradition 36Hippolytus of Rome · early third century · The faithful receive the eucharist before any other food, and it protects the one who receives in faith.
Apostolic Tradition 37Hippolytus of Rome · early third century · The eucharist must be guarded from unbelievers and animals, and none of it be lost.
Apostolic Tradition 38Hippolytus of Rome · early third century · The eucharistic body and cup are to be treated with reverence, so that nothing is spilled.
Book of Jeu 2 44Anonymous · ca. 200–300 · Jesus promises the grieving disciples the higher mysteries and the once-only mystery of the forgiveness of sins, which carries the soul after death through every order to rest; then he performs the baptism of water with an offering of wine, bread and herbs, and the wine is changed into the water of life.
On Dice-Players 4Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Paul and the teaching of the apostles forbid even eating with sinning brothers, so much more must such sinners be kept from the Eucharist.
On Dice-Players 8Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Gambling involves sacrifice to the inventor of dice, so a Christian gambler shares in idolatry and receives the Eucharist unworthily.
Against the Jews 10Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · The unlearned Gentile believers now teach the Scriptures to Israel's learned, who come to baptism and the Eucharist and take their place under a young minister.
Prescription against Heretics 36Tertullian · ca. 203 · Anyone may visit the apostolic churches, such as Corinth, Philippi, Ephesus, and Rome, where the apostles taught and died; Rome's faith, shared with Africa, is the one from which the heresies broke away.
Prescription against Heretics 40Tertullian · ca. 203 · The devil imitates Christian sacraments in pagan mysteries, as in Mithraism, and likewise twists Scripture into heresy, which is a kind of idolatry.
Fragment 23 on Genesis (Gen. 49, 11° ἃ)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-235 · The robe washed in the blood of the grape is the flesh cleansed by the Spirit and by the Lord's own flesh and blood.
Fragment 39 on Genesis (Gen. 49, 20)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-235 · Asher's rich bread is Christ the bread of life, who feeds the Gentiles and the faithful of Israel alike.
Commentary on the Song of Songs, Armenian fragment (Song 1:5-5:1)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-235 · A long running commentary on Song 1:5–4:16 preserved in Armenian: the black and beautiful bride is humanity renewed by Christ, the watchmen are angels, the breasts are knowledge and sight, and the spices are the manifold good deeds of the righteous.
Against Marcion 1.14Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Even tiny creatures show the Creator's skill; Marcion's own Christ loved the Creator's man and uses the Creator's water, oil, milk, honey, and bread in his sacraments, and the Marcionites themselves live on the Creator's world.
Against Marcion 3.19Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Further prophecies of the cross: the Lord reigning from the tree, government on his shoulder, wood cast into his bread, pierced hands and feet, and Isaiah's words on his death, burial, and resurrection.
Against Marcion 3.22Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The apostles' mission, their break with the synagogue, their persecution, the sign of the cross on believers' foreheads, and the church's pure sacrifice of praise were all foretold by the Creator's prophets.
Against Marcion 4.40Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ chose the Passover, was betrayed and sold as the prophets foretold, and at the Last Supper called the bread his body and the cup his blood, which shows that he had a real body of flesh and blood.
On Modesty 9Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Parables must not be forced; the prodigal son is the heathen converted in baptism, not a Christian restored after grave sin, for that reading would make every apostasy pardonable.
On Modesty 18Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Old Testament and apostolic texts forbid communion with the sexually immoral without any time limit; God's mercy to the repentant applies to those before baptism, while after baptism only lighter sins can be pardoned by the bishop and graver ones by God alone.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 8Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · In the Christian life the flesh is washed, anointed, signed, receives the laying on of hands and the body and blood of Christ, fasts, keeps chastity, and suffers martyrdom, so it shares in salvation.
On the Crown 3Tertullian · 211 · Many church practices rest on tradition and custom rather than written Scripture: the baptismal renunciation, triple immersion, milk and honey, the dawn Eucharist, offerings for the dead, not kneeling on Sundays and at Eastertide, and the sign of the cross.
Fragments on Proverbs, column 173Origen · ca. 220-254 · False teaching, like the harlot, charms only the ear; the wicked profane Christ's flesh and blood; knowledge is a spring to the pure and a deep well to beginners.
Fragments on Proverbs, column 177Origen · ca. 220-254 · Sleep is sin in deed and slumber the first evil thought; the ant shows the practical life and the bee the contemplation of creation, whose honey, Christ's words, will never pass away.
PG 12:1069Origen · ca. 220-254 · Origen finishes the title of Psalm 33 (LXX), discusses psalms without musical titles, and explains “the hymns of David have failed” at the end of Psalm 71 (LXX) by the Greek versions.
PG 12:1211 (Ps 15 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On Ps 16:3–5 (LXX 15:3–5): God makes his “wishes,” the virtues, wonderful in the saints; Christ gathers his assemblies not from blood but by an unbloody sacrifice and the one blood of the Lamb; the Lord as portion and cup.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.39.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcus made the eucharistic cup turn purple or red to make people think grace had come upon it.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.39.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus explains the trick: Marcus secretly added a dye and talked until it dissolved.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.40.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcus had a woman give thanks over a small cup and then poured it back and forth into a larger one.
Refutation of All Heresies 6.40.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · With an invocation of Grace, Marcus made the small cup seem to fill and overflow the larger one.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.26Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Under Callistus a second baptism was introduced, and his community, which admitted all to communion, took the name Callistians.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 34, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen argues from Moses at Sinai and the priest's question to David that married people should abstain for a time before prayer, and much more before receiving the eucharistic bread.
Commentary on John 6.234Origen · ca. 230–248 · In the promised land Israel kept a more joyful Passover and ate its grain, better than manna.
Commentary on John 6.235Origen · ca. 230–248 · In the true holy land, the heavenly Jerusalem, God feeds his people with a better bread.
Commentary on John 6.236Origen · ca. 230–248 · Manna was bread for learners; the new bread of the holy land, reaped through Jesus, gives life to the mature.
Commentary on John 6.237Origen · ca. 230–248 · One fed only on the preparatory bread can die, but whoever eats the later bread lives forever.
Commentary on John 10.99Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Passover lamb's flesh is the flesh of the Word, eaten now in the night of this world, together with the Word as bread from heaven.
Commentary on John 10.101Origen · ca. 230–248 · So Jesus can call his flesh bread.
Commentary on John 13.199Origen · ca. 230–248 · So Christ knocks at the door to dine with us and then feed us in return.
Commentary on John 19.39Origen · ca. 230–248 · Christ's aspects form a progression: way before door, shepherd before king, lamb before true food; so knowing him leads to knowing the Father.
Commentary on John 20.188Origen · ca. 230–248 · God too desires; Jesus said he desired to eat the Passover.
Commentary on John 20.387Origen · ca. 230–248 · Likewise the Jews did not take “eat my flesh” literally.
Commentary on John 28.27Origen · ca. 230–248 · Each should examine himself before communion and before lifting his eyes in prayer.
Commentary on John 28.30Origen · ca. 230–248 · As not all should abstain from communion, not all should keep their eyes lowered.
Commentary on John 28.240Origen · ca. 230–248 · Jesus kept the feast in the upper room with his disciples.
Commentary on John 28.242Origen · ca. 230–248 · Others go up to be purified so they may keep Christ's Passover with sincerity and truth.
Commentary on John 32.304Origen · ca. 230–248 · Elsewhere receiving is followed by eating, as when Jesus said of the bread of blessing, “Take, eat.”
Commentary on John 32.309Origen · ca. 230–248 · Like the Lord's bread eaten unworthily, the morsel brought salvation to the apostles but judgment to Judas.
Commentary on John 32.310Origen · ca. 230–248 · The bread and cup mean the Eucharist for simpler believers and the nourishing word of truth for deeper ones.
On Prayer 27.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Christ's flesh, the Word made flesh, is true food for the mature; when we eat and drink him, he dwells in us and we behold his glory.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 40Origen · 235 · Denial sets a table for demons and cuts one off from the Lord's table and cup; whoever denies the Son loses the Father, but whoever confesses has him.
Homilies on Exodus 13.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Each believer should offer for the tabernacle what he has conceived in his heart, guarding the word of God as carefully as the eucharistic body; the four colours of the offerings figure the four elements.
Homilies on Leviticus 7.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ's parable of the net shows that the clean and unclean fish are people; each person gives others clean or unclean 'food' in conversation, and even the Gospel's letter, such as eating Christ's flesh, kills unless taken spiritually.
Homilies on Leviticus 9.10Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The sprinkling of blood toward the east points to Christ's blood, known to the initiated, and to Christ, 'the East', from whom light and atonement come.
Homilies on Leviticus 13.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The loaves of presentation point to Christ, the bread from heaven, and to the eucharistic memorial; spiritually they distinguish deep teaching ('fine flour', as Abraham's loaves) from ordinary moral exhortation ('meal', as Lot's).
Homilies on Leviticus 13.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The pure frankincense on the loaves is pure prayer, the sabbath is the soul's rest in God, and the 'holy place' where the loaves are eaten is a pure soul, which alone may receive the Lord's body worthily.
Homilies on Numbers 5.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · As the priests covered the holy things before the Kohathites carried them, the church's teachers hand on mysteries whose meaning most believers practice without understanding, such as kneeling, praying toward the east, the Eucharist, and the rites of baptism.
Homilies on Numbers 16.9Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Because drinking blood cannot be meant literally, Origen reads it of drinking Christ’s blood in the sacraments and in his words and those of his wounded apostles.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 7.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Confession relieves the soul as vomiting relieves the stomach; one should choose a wise and merciful “physician” to confess to, who will judge whether public confession before the Church is needed; and no one should approach the Eucharist carelessly while conscious of sin.
Homilies on Jeremiah 12.2Origen · ca. 240 · Every soul is a wineskin filled with wine: the wicked drink the unmixed cup of punishment, the mixed in character drink a cup mixed in proportion to their good and bad deeds, and the righteous drink Christ's cup of the new covenant.
Homilies on Jeremiah 12.12Origen · ca. 240 · The bright mountains are the angels and saints, the dark ones the devil and his powers; to “listen secretly” is to grasp the hidden spiritual sense of Scripture, which is why Christians who keep Jewish feasts and fasts literally are rebuked, and the church must fear being crushed as Israel was.
Homilies on Jeremiah 19.13Origen · ca. 240 · Pashhur threw Jeremiah down into a dungeon although there was an upper room in God's house; Scripture shows that saints receive prophets “upstairs,” and whoever keeps Christ's Passover must go up to the upper room, where Christ gives his body and blood.
Instructions 2.35Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Commodian rebukes those who chatter in church during the readings and the eucharistic prayer.
On the Shows 5Novatian · mid-3rd cent. (disputed) · The writer describes the bloodshed and the idle fanaticism of the games, and a Christian who carries the Eucharist through the brothel district on his way to the circus.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 1.92Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The liturgical kiss of peace is an image of the Word's kiss; in the drama, the bridegroom appears while the bride is still praying, and she turns to praise his breasts and ointments.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 2.171Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · Nard, drop and henna mark steps of progress in love; Christ the true vine first gives the scent of the flower, then strength in trials, and at last the wine of the new covenant; henna's warming power is the love that made the disciples' hearts burn.
On the Singleness of Clerics 14Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · In the church's assembly, where the Spirit rules and all are equal in Christ, men and women may rightly worship together, unlike the private cares of a shared household.
On the Singleness of Clerics 38Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Ministers of the altar must be as pure as the sacraments they serve; living alone, not in pairs, witnesses to their gravity, while cohabitation breeds countless evils.
Against Celsus 8.22Origen · ca. 248 · Christians do keep the Lord's day, Preparation days, Easter, and Pentecost, but for the perfect every day is the Lord's day, a preparation, a passing-over to God, and a Pentecost of prayer and the Spirit.
Against Celsus 8.24Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says that eating sacrificial meat is harmless or that demons belong to God and should be honoured; Origen answers from 1 Corinthians that eating idol offerings harms weaker brothers and that one cannot share both the Lord's table and the table of demons.
Against Celsus 8.33Origen · ca. 248 · Christians live and use God's gifts with thanksgiving to the Creator, not to demons, whose rule extends only over those who submit to wickedness; they eat the eucharistic bread, which through prayer becomes a holy body that sanctifies.
Against Celsus 8.57Origen · ca. 248 · Christians show proper gratitude not to demons but to God, whose gifts fill them, and their eucharistic bread is a symbol of that thanksgiving; they honour but do not worship the angels who oversee nature.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 78Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The two apostles named Judas figure faithful and faithless confessors; Judas sold Christ for thirty staters, as those who sin for gain betray the Word, and sought a moment without the crowd, as betrayers do in persecution; the Passover is to be kept not bodily, as the Ebionites would, but spiritually, in the large upper room of a purified understanding.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 82Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Jesus pointed out the traitor through the prophecy of the one who ate his bread; Judas's betrayal after sharing salt, bread, and the Lord's supper shows great malice, as do those in the Church who plot against brothers with whom they share the body and blood of Christ.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 85Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The bread and cup that God the Word calls his body and blood are the word that nourishes souls and the word that gladdens the heart; only the cup is called “of the new covenant” because salvation comes through faith in Christ's birth and passion.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 86Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Christ will eat and drink the renewed Passover with his disciples in the kingdom, not bodily but as true spiritual food; he always takes the bread and cup from the Father and gives them to the worthy, drinking with them, since he is in each, and his blood poured into the heart remits sins.
Commentary on Matthew 10.25Origen · ca. 246–248 · Jesus heals the sick before giving the loaves of blessing, as those who receive the Lord’s bread unworthily become weak, sick, or asleep.
Commentary on Matthew 11.14Origen · ca. 246–248 · Against those who separate the God of the law from the Father of Jesus, Origen says the Pharisees were rejected for their misreading of the law, not for the law; and he argues that the bread of the Lord benefits only one who receives it with a pure conscience, the word spoken over it, not its matter, being what helps.
Commentary on Matthew 16.7Origen · ca. 246–248 · Another view: as Christ’s food is doing the Father’s will, his cup is contemplation; so at the Last Supper the bread, given first, signifies action and the cup knowledge.
Ep. Bas. 2Dionysius of Alexandria · ca. 247-265 · Dionysius holds that menstruating women should not approach the holy table or receive the body and blood of Christ, though anyone may pray in any condition.
Ep. Bas. 4Dionysius of Alexandria · ca. 247-265 · Those who have had an involuntary nocturnal emission are to follow their own conscience about approaching communion.
To Quirinus 1.16Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · The prophets and Psalms reject animal sacrifices and foretell a pure sacrifice offered among the nations.
To Quirinus 1.22Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · The prophets and Jesus' words about the bread of life are read as foretelling that Christ's bread and cup, and the new name of Christian, would pass to the nations.
To Quirinus 2.2Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Wisdom's banquet in Proverbs is read as a figure of Christ's incarnation, passion, the eucharistic cup and altar, and the apostles' preaching.
To Quirinus 3.25Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Baptism and new birth, and eating Christ's flesh and drinking his blood, are necessary for entering God's kingdom.
To Quirinus 3.26Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Baptism and the Eucharist profit little unless they bear fruit in good works.
To Quirinus 3.94Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · The Eucharist must be received with reverence, since unworthy reception brings guilt.
Letter 1.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Because Victor broke this rule, no offering or prayer is to be made for him in the church at Furni, as a warning to others.
Letter 5.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Visits to the confessors in prison should be discreet, and the presbyters who celebrate the Eucharist there should take turns with one deacon each, to avoid provoking the authorities.
Letter 12.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The dates of martyrs' deaths must be recorded so that the Eucharist can be offered in their memory; the faithful poor deserve special care.
Letter 15.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian warns the martyrs that certain presbyters are admitting the lapsed to the Eucharist on the martyrs' recommendation without penance, confession, or the laying on of hands.
Letter 16.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Denying Christ is the gravest sin; presbyters who give the lapsed communion before penance, confession, and the laying on of hands deceive them and profane the Eucharist.
Letter 16.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Those presbyters, not the lapsed, bear the guilt; they set the martyrs against the bishop and ignore the martyrs' own request to wait until the persecution ends.
Letter 16.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · God warns the church through visions and through boys who prophesy in ecstasy; if the presbyters persist, Cyprian will suspend them from offering the Eucharist.
Letter 17.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Some presbyters are giving the lapsed communion without the due order of penance, confession, and the bishop's laying on of hands, which applies even to lesser sins.
Letter 34.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian approves the excommunication of the presbyter Gaius of Dida and his deacon, who kept giving the lapsed communion despite warnings.
Letter 37.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Celerinus has brought Cyprian news of the Roman confessors; Cyprian prays for them at the Eucharist and says that each day they choose prison over release, they confess and are crowned anew.
Letter 39.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Celerinus comes from a family of martyrs: his grandmother Celerina and his soldier uncles Laurentinus and Egnatius, whose anniversaries the church celebrates with the Eucharist.
Letter 57.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Now communion must be given to the strong who will fight, not only to the dying; the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ, arms them, and those denied the Lord's cup cannot be fit for the cup of martyrdom.
Letter 57.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Peace is given not to apostates or schismatics but to penitents ready to fight; if some deceive, God judges the heart, and it is better that none who will be martyrs be passed over.
Letter 57.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Martyrdom is a baptism in blood, but only one armed by the church's peace and the Eucharist is fit for it; and pastors who fail their sheep will answer to God, as Ezekiel warns.
Letter 58.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Unable to visit Thibaris, Cyprian writes to prepare the people for a fiercer persecution at the approaching end of the age: those who drink Christ's cup daily must be ready to shed their blood for him.
Letter 58.9Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian applies each piece of the armor of God to the Christian under persecution: ears closed to edicts, eyes to idols, the forehead keeping God's sign, the hand that receives the Lord's body refusing sacrifice.
Letter 62.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Carthage stands ready to help again, and Cyprian sends the donors' names so that they may be remembered in the Numidian churches' sacrifices and prayers.
Letter 63.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian writes to correct those who, in ignorance, do not offer the Lord's cup as Christ did, acting not on his own authority but on the Lord's command.
Letter 63.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The Lord's tradition requires that the cup be offered mixed with wine; since Christ is the true vine, his blood is represented by wine, not water.
Letter 63.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Noah's drinking of wine and his nakedness prefigure the Lord's passion.
Letter 63.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Melchizedek's offering of bread and wine prefigured Christ, priest after his order, who offered bread and the cup mixed with wine, his body and blood; the blessing of Abraham passes to all who believe.
Letter 63.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Wisdom's banquet in Proverbs, with its mixed wine, foretells the Lord's cup of wine mixed with water.
Letter 63.6Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Jacob's blessing of Judah, washing his robe in the blood of the grape, and Isaiah's red garments from the winepress, both point to the Lord's blood in the wine of the cup.
Letter 63.7Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · As grapes must be trodden to make wine, Christ had to suffer before believers could drink his blood.
Letter 63.8Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Where Scripture names water alone it signifies baptism, received once; the cup of the Lord, drunk continually in the church, is another thing.
Letter 63.9Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · At the Last Supper Christ gave a mixed cup and called the wine his blood; without wine the blood of Christ is not offered and the sacrifice does not correspond to his passion.
Letter 63.10Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Paul hands down the Lord's command to do what he did with the bread and cup, and warns that no one may alter the gospel.
Letter 63.11Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Water alone cannot express Christ's blood; the psalm's “inebriating cup” implies wine, and the Lord's cup gives a sober inebriation that frees the heart from sin and sorrow.
Letter 63.12Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Christ turned water into wine at Cana, signifying the nations joining Christ; to turn the cup's wine into water reverses his sign. Waters signify peoples, as Revelation says.
Letter 63.13Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Water in the cup signifies the people and wine Christ's blood; their inseparable mixture shows the church's union with Christ, as many grains make one bread and one body.
Letter 63.14Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Custom cannot override Christ's example: only Christ is to be heard, and the priest truly acts in Christ's place when he offers as Christ offered.
Letter 63.15Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Some avoided wine at the morning Eucharist lest the smell betray them in persecution; but those ashamed to drink Christ's blood will not shed their own for him.
Letter 63.16Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Offering a mixed cup at an evening meal does not excuse a water-only morning Eucharist; Christ offered in the evening to signify the world's evening, but the church celebrates the resurrection in the morning.
Letter 63.17Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Since the Lord's passion is the sacrifice offered, the church must do what he did; past ignorance may be pardoned, but not continued error after warning.
Letter 63.18Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Persisting in the error after warning is spiritual theft and adultery against the Lord's words; priests must follow Christ, the light of the world, who pardons past error and commands obedience to all he taught.
Letter 63.19Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Priests must keep the Lord's tradition in mixing and offering the cup, so that at his coming he may find them doing what he did.
Letter 65.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · A bishop who sacrificed to idols cannot return to offer God's sacrifice; the law barred even blemished priests from the altar, and God does not hear sinners.
Letter 65.4Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · If Fortunatianus persists, the faithful must be separated from him, since an offering cannot be sanctified where the Holy Spirit is absent.
Letter 66.9Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · If Puppianus repents, Cyprian will consult the Lord about receiving him; he cites a vision warning that those who disbelieve Christ in making a priest will believe him in avenging one, and leaves both letters to Christ's judgment.
Letter 67.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · A people that communicates with a sinful bishop shares his sin, as Korah's followers did; the people have the power to choose worthy bishops and refuse unworthy ones.
Letter 69.5Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · One flock and one shepherd: a self-made bishop is outside God's house, and even the eucharistic bread and wine, made of many grains and grapes, signify the church's unity.
Letter 70.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The baptismal creed and the anointing with oil consecrated at the altar both presuppose the church; heretics have neither, so their baptism is void.
Letter 75.10Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Firmilian tells of a woman in Cappadocia about twenty-two years earlier who, possessed by a demon, posed as a prophetess, deceived clergy, celebrated the Eucharist, and baptized with the correct words.
Letter 75.21Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Those already admitted without baptism who have died are like catechumens who died before baptism; the living should be baptized, lest they receive the Eucharist unworthily.
Letter 76.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Though the imprisoned clergy cannot celebrate the Eucharist, their suffering is itself a sacrifice pleasing to God.
On the Lord's Prayer 4Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · Prayer should be quiet and modest, in private and in church, since God sees the heart and is everywhere.
On the Lord's Prayer 18Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · 'Our daily bread' is Christ in the Eucharist, received daily; we pray not to be cut off from it by grave sin.
On the Lord's Prayer 23Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · God forgives us only as we forgive others; the greatest sacrifice is peace and a people united in the unity of the Trinity.
On the Lord's Prayer 31Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 252 · In prayer the heart must be fixed on God alone, as the liturgy's 'Lift up your hearts' reminds us.
On the Lapsed 2Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian welcomes the confessors who resisted sacrifice, and praises equally those who stood firm by refusing to sacrifice even if they were not arrested.
On the Lapsed 9Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Some lapsed Christians drew others into sacrificing, even their baptized infants, who will accuse their parents at the judgment.
On the Lapsed 15Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian attacks those who readmit the lapsed to communion without penance, a false peace that lets them receive the Lord's body with hands still defiled by idol sacrifice.
On the Lapsed 16Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Easy readmission of the lapsed before penance and reconciliation is not peace but a new persecution by the devil, which robs them of true repentance; only the Lord can show mercy.
On the Lapsed 22Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Some of the lapsed, unrepentant and proud, rage against the clergy for refusing them the Eucharist, though these are the very ones praying for their forgiveness.
On the Lapsed 25Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian recounts how a little girl, fed idol-offered bread and wine by a nurse without her parents' knowledge, refused and vomited the eucharistic cup.
On the Lapsed 26Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Other lapsed Christians who received the Eucharist secretly were struck down: a woman choked, another was stopped by fire from her box holding the sacrament, and a man found it turned to ashes.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 8Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · There is one flock and one shepherd; like Rahab's house and the Passover lamb eaten in one house, salvation is found only within the one church.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 13Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · God accepts neither prayer nor sacrifice from those at odds with their brothers, so schismatics cannot expect Christ's presence.
On the Unity of the Catholic Church 17Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Believers must shun schismatics, who set up a rival altar and profane the Lord's sacrifice.
On Works and Almsgiving 15Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 253 · The rich who bring no offering to the Eucharist but eat what the poor offered should learn from the poor widow, whom Christ praised for giving all she had.
On Jealousy and Envy 17Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 256 · The envious man must tear out envy, let the cross sweeten his bitterness as the wood sweetened the waters of Marah, and love those he once envied.
Canonical Epistle, canon 11Gregory Thaumaturgus · ca. 254–264 · A description of the four grades of public penance (weeping, hearing, kneeling, standing together) and the final restoration to communion.
On the Good of Patience 14Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Patience guards against the deadly sins of adultery, fraud, and murder, keeping the body, God's temple, and the hand that has held the Eucharist pure.
Opinions of the Bishops 1Cyprian of Carthage · 1 September 256 · Caecilius of Biltha holds that there is one baptism, in the church alone, and that heretics, who have neither true faith nor hope, cannot give it.
On the Making of the World 5Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · Christians fast on Saturday, not keeping the Jewish Sabbath, which Christ dissolved; Moses' raised hands prefigured the cross.
Book 3, chapter 15Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · The pagan philosopher attacks the command to eat Christ's flesh and drink his blood as worse than any cannibalism known from myth or history, and argues that the other three Gospels omitted it as uncivilized.
Book 3, chapter 23Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · Macarius answers that as a newborn lives on its mother's blood as milk, the children of God live on Wisdom's flesh and blood, first allegorically in the words of Scripture and then truly in the eucharistic bread and wine, which are Christ's body and blood.
Sang. 4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The great serpent of the waters is the devil, whose head God crushes; Christ calmed the sea and rescued Peter, and believers are given power to trample on the enemy.
Apostolic Church Order 25Anonymous · ca. 300 · Peter turns the discussion to the offering of the body and blood.
Apostolic Church Order 26Anonymous · ca. 300 · John argues from the Last Supper that women did not stand with the apostles at the offering; Martha and Mary respond.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 3Anonymous · 4th century · The prayer for a new bishop, the kiss of peace, and the opening dialogue of the eucharistic prayer, with blessings of oil and firstfruits.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 19Anonymous · 4th century · The order of baptism: martyrdom as baptism in blood, examination of candidates, fasting, exorcism, vigil, renunciation of Satan, threefold confession and immersion, anointing, the bishop's prayer and kiss, and first communion with milk and honey.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 28Anonymous · 4th century · The faithful are to receive the eucharist before eating, especially on fast days, and only the faithful are invited to communion.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 29Anonymous · 4th century · The consecrated elements are to be guarded from falling or contamination, silence kept within the veil, psalms sung after communion, the altar dust thrown into the baptistery, and the forehead signed with the cross like the Passover blood.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 30Anonymous · 4th century · Catechumens must be ready to forsake family and suffer death; the three temptations of Christ are read as desire, pride, and avarice; a long description of Christian conduct follows, with counsel for those seeking perfection and rules for Sunday communion.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 31Anonymous · 4th century · A deacon may distribute communion with the bishop's or presbyter's permission.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 32Anonymous · 4th century · Virgins and widows fast and pray often; clergy fast freely; a deacon may act for an absent presbyter except at the great offering; alms are distributed promptly; agapes for the poor are held with the bishop's prayer and end before dark.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 33Anonymous · 4th century · Commemorative meals for the dead begin with communion, are not held on Sunday, exclude catechumens, and avoid drunkenness.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 37Anonymous · 4th century · Clergy and readers wear clean white garments at the eucharist, though integrity matters more; readers read in turn until the people gather.
Church History 3.27.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · They kept the sabbath and Jewish customs, but also Sunday rites in memory of the resurrection.
Church History 5.24.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus: earlier Roman bishops sent the eucharist to visitors from communities who kept the fourteenth day.
Church History 5.24.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Anicetus let Polycarp celebrate the eucharist in Rome, and they parted in peace.
Church History 6.43.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Cornelius: at communion Novatian made people swear by Christ's body and blood never to return to Cornelius.
Church History 6.43.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Instead of “Amen” at communion, the recipient had to say, “I will not go back to Cornelius.”
Church History 6.44.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The sick presbyter sent a portion of the eucharist, to be moistened and given to Serapion, following Dionysius's instruction to absolve the dying.
Church History 6.44.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Serapion received the eucharist and died at once.
Church History 6.44.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius: God evidently kept Serapion alive until he was absolved.
Church History 7.9.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius would not rebaptize a man who had long shared in the eucharist, and told him to take courage.
Church History 7.9.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The man still mourns and fears to approach the table.
Church History 10.3.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · One Spirit united the church in faith and worship: psalms, Scripture reading, and the celebration of the sacred mysteries of Christ's passion.
Church History 10.4.44Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The church has high thrones for the clergy, benches for all, and in the center the altar, enclosed by a finely carved wooden screen.
Homilies 11.36Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Before leaving Tripolis for Antioch, Peter baptizes many, celebrates the eucharist, and appoints Maroones bishop with twelve presbyters, deacons, and widows.
Homilies 14.1Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter baptizes Mattidia in the sea at a secluded place and afterwards breaks bread with thanksgiving and salt, sharing it first with her.
Recognitions 1.63Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter summarizes the apostles' testimony and urges the people to be reconciled to God through baptism with the threefold invocation and the Eucharist.
Recognitions 6.15Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · After three months at Tripolis Peter baptizes Clement and many others, celebrates the Eucharist, ordains Maro bishop with presbyters, deacons, and widows, and leaves for Antioch.
Recognitions 10.72Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Faustinianus declares his faith and asks for baptism; after a public fast Peter baptizes him on the Lord's day, and the city honors him.
Testament of Our Lord 1.23Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Testament of Our Lord 2.10Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Testament of Our Lord 2.20Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Prophetic Extracts 3.33Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius reads Jeremiah's “innocent lamb led to slaughter” and “let us put wood into his bread” as Christ's crucifixion, his body being the bread.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 2Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Saturninus the presbyter, his children, and dozens of other Christians are arrested at Abitina while celebrating the Lord's service in the house of Octavius Felix.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 5Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Before the proconsul Dativus confesses that he was at the assembly; as he is about to be tortured Thelica throws himself forward, declares that they all held the assembly, and is tortured, praying with thanksgiving.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 7Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Dativus confesses; Fortunatianus, an advocate, accuses him of having led his sister Victoria astray, but Victoria declares she came of her own will; Dativus is torn with hooks and prays not to be put to shame.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 8Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · The torture stops over the false charge about Victoria, but when Dativus confesses that he joined the Lord's service, he is tortured again, still praying not to be put to shame.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 9Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Saturninus the presbyter is brought forward and declares that the Lord's service cannot be left off; Dativus, still on the rack, prays and confesses he is a Christian, and is sent to prison.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 10Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Saturninus admits he was present; the reader Emeritus claims the assemblies were in his house; Saturninus, tortured savagely, answers that the law of God commands the Lord's service.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 11Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Emeritus confesses that the Lord's service was held in his house, saying that they cannot be without it, and that he has the Scriptures in his heart.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 12Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Felix confesses that the Christians always met at the Lord's service to read the Scriptures; the narrator insists that the Christian and the Lord's service cannot be separated; two martyrs named Felix die of beatings.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 13Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Ampelius, Rogatianus, Quintus, Maximianus, and Felix the younger each confess the assembly and the Lord's service and are sent to prison.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 14Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Saturninus the younger confesses that he celebrated the Lord's service because Christ is Savior, is tortured on his father's rack with his father's blood still on the hooks, and is sent to prison to join him.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 16Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Victoria, who had escaped a forced marriage to dedicate herself to virginity, refuses her brother's attempt to save her and confesses that she took part in the assembly.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 17Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · The small boy Hilarianus confesses that he held the assembly with his father and brothers, laughs off the proconsul's threats, and gives thanks as he is sent to prison; the contest ends in the martyrs' victory.
Canonical Epistle, canon 8Peter of Alexandria · AD 306 · Those who lapsed but then returned to confess Christ and suffered imprisonment and torture are to be received into full communion, including the Eucharist.
Canon 2Anonymous · 314 · Deacons who sacrificed but then confessed keep their honor without serving, though bishops may relax or tighten this.
Canon 15Anonymous · 1 August 314 · Deacons must not offer the eucharist.
Canon 19Anonymous · 1 August 314 · Visiting bishops are to be invited to celebrate the eucharist.
Canon 13Anonymous · ca. 315 (approximate) · Country presbyters may not celebrate or give communion in the city church when city clergy are present.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.6.43Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Malachi foretold a pure sacrifice offered to God in every place among the nations.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.6.50Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Throughout the world, including Egypt, an altar of bloodless, rational sacrifices has been raised to the one Lord.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Since Christ, the Lamb of God, is the true ransom, Christians celebrate daily the memorial of his body and blood and do not return to the old symbolic sacrifices.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.25Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ offered himself to the Father for our salvation and gave us a memorial to offer continually instead of sacrifice.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.28Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ’s incarnate body replaced the old sacrifices; Christians, receiving the memorial of his body and blood, sing of the table and cup.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.29Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The psalm signifies the mystical anointing and the Eucharist, through which Christians offer bloodless sacrifices through Christ the high priest.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.31Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Isaiah foretells wine, gladness, and anointing for all nations.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.32Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The anointing explains the name “Christians,” and the wine points to the mystery of the new covenant celebrated everywhere.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.35Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The prophecy of a pure sacrifice among the nations is now fulfilled.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.36Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christians offer the sacrifice of praise, the holy victim, and a contrite heart.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.10.38Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christians sacrifice by celebrating the Eucharist, offering thanksgiving and hymns, and consecrating themselves wholly to God in purity and true doctrine.
Demonstration of the Gospel 2.3.10Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Malachi foretells the rejection of Israel’s sacrifices and a pure offering among the nations; next heading: Isaiah.
Demonstration of the Gospel 2.3.38Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · All nations will worship God from their own places and offer bloodless sacrifices even from Ethiopia.
Demonstration of the Gospel 5.3.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · As Melchizedek blessed Abraham with bread and wine, Christ and the church’s priests celebrate the mysteries of his body and blood with bread and wine.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.1.78Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The joyful eyes and white teeth of Genesis 49:12 signify the gladness of the eucharistic wine and the purity of the mystical food.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.1.79Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Christ handed on to his disciples the symbols of his dispensation, commanding them to make the image of his body.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.1.80Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Because Christ replaced animal sacrifices with bread as the symbol of his body, the prophecy speaks of the whiteness of the food.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.118Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · As the lawful priesthood ended with Hyrcanus, so the lawful sacrifice ended with Christ’s own sacrifice, handed on in the new covenant’s mysteries.
Demonstration of the Gospel 8.2.119Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The new covenant was confirmed at the Last Supper, when the old was taken away, as the torn veil showed.
Demonstration of the Gospel 9.8.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The wine at Cana symbolizes the spiritual drink of the new covenant, which Galilee would be first to receive.
Demonstration of the Gospel 10.8.109Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The poor who eat are Christians fed by the Word with spiritual bread for eternal life.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 12.5Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · The martyrs are honoured with a bloodless thanksgiving, lamps for prayer, and sober feasts for the relief of the poor.
Canon 13Anonymous · 325 · The dying are never to be denied communion, though if they recover they return to their penance.
Canon 18Anonymous · 325 · Deacons must not give communion to presbyters or receive it before bishops, and must keep their place below the presbyters.
On the Paschal Feast 6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337 · Eusebius contrasts the yearly Jewish Passover with the Christian Pascha celebrated every Lord's day, when believers partake of the body of the true Lamb and keep a spiritual circumcision and unleavened bread.
On the Paschal Feast 9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337 · Eusebius argues from John and Luke that Jesus ate his Passover with the disciples on Thursday, a day before the Jews ate theirs on the day of his death, so that the Christian Pascha is new and distinct from the Jewish one.
On the Paschal Feast 11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337 · Eusebius urges Christians to keep the Pascha with Christ every week in a spiritual way, with Friday as a fast in memory of the passion.
On the Paschal Feast 12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337 · Eusebius argues that the Gospels show the Jews ate their Passover a day after Jesus ate his, and that Christians keep the mysteries all year, fasting on Fridays and receiving Christ's body and blood every Sunday.
Theophany 3.71Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Book 4, lines 439–463Juvencus · ca. 330 · Woe to the betrayer; Judas is named; the institution of the Eucharist; the walk to the Mount of Olives and the prophecy of the scattered sheep.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 16.9Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Christ alone spread his teaching worldwide, abolished barbarous customs, endured constant persecution and flourished, founded a new nation, turned Egypt from animal worship, gave power over demons, and established bloodless sacrifices.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 16.10Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Churches and spiritual sacrifices now fill the world, and human sacrifice ended only after Christ's teaching, under Hadrian.
Demonstration 3.2Aphrahat · 337-345 · The righteous from Abel to Joseph fasted purely; fasting without purity of heart is not accepted, and the mouth that receives Christ's Body and Blood must not speak filth.
Demonstration 7.21Aphrahat · 337-345 · After baptism the brave are separated from the fearful, as Gideon's men who lapped like dogs, a figure of the faithful who guard their Lord, meditate on the law, and receive his Body.
Demonstration 11.11Aphrahat · 337-345 · God gave a succession of covenants; the new covenant replaces fleshly circumcision with circumcision of the heart in baptism, and Joshua's deeds prefigure those of Jesus.
Demonstration 12.6Aphrahat · 337-345 · Christ ate the Passover with his disciples and gave his Body and Blood; Aphrahat counts his three days and nights among the dead from the Supper and sets out the Christian Pascha as the fulfilment of Israel's.
Demonstration 12.9Aphrahat · 337-345 · Each Passover rule is a mystery fulfilled in the church: one house is the church, outsiders are heretics, the unbroken bone is Christ's, and the circumcised slave is the baptized penitent who receives the Eucharist.
Demonstration 12.10Aphrahat · 337-345 · On Passover night Christ washed his disciples' feet, revealing the baptism of his passion, which, unlike John's baptism, forgives sins; then he gave them his Body and Blood.
Demonstration 20.7Aphrahat · 337-345 · In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man is Israel, enriched by God's gifts, and the dogs who lick Lazarus's sores are the nations who receive Christ's Body.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.10.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Marcellus misuses John 6:61–63.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.12.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The discourse of John 6 concerns the mystical body and blood, prompted by the manna.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.12.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius quotes John 6 on the true bread from heaven.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.12.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius continues quoting John 6.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.12.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The disciples found the saying hard, and Jesus answered them.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.12.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Eusebius reads John 6:63 as teaching that Christ's words are the flesh and blood to be received spiritually.
On Ecclesiastical Theology 3.12.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Christ's words profit those who hear them spiritually.
Life of Constantine 4.45.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Others expounded Scripture or offered the Eucharist and prayers; Eusebius too preached at the dedication.
Canon 4Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · Anyone who refuses communion from a married presbyter is anathematized.
Canon 2Anonymous · 341 · Those who attend church but refuse the common prayer or the eucharist are to be excluded until they repent, and no one may pray with the excommunicated.
Canon 14Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · The consecrated eucharist is not to be sent to other dioceses at Easter as a gift.
Canon 19Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · The order of the liturgy: prayers for catechumens and penitents after the sermon, three prayers of the faithful, the kiss of peace, then the offering; only clergy enter the sanctuary.
Canon 25Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Subdeacons may not distribute the eucharistic bread or bless the cup.
Canon 49Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · In Lent the eucharist is celebrated only on Saturdays and Sundays.
Canon 58Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Bishops and presbyters are not to celebrate the eucharist in private houses.
Historical Fragments 1.4.1.9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The Easterners accuse Paul of Constantinople, Marcellus, Asclepas, and Lucius of violence and sacrilege on their return.
Historical Fragments 1.4.1.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The eighty Eastern bishops refused communion with the Westerners who kept the condemned bishops.
Historical Fragments 2.2.1.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 343–367 · The council refutes the charges against Athanasius: Arsenius, supposedly murdered, is alive; the story of the broken chalice is false, as the records themselves show; and the accuser Scyrus was rewarded with a bishopric though never a presbyter.
Canon 7Anonymous · ca. 345–348 · No cleric or layman may receive communion in another church without letters from his bishop.
Catechetical Lecture 13.19Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The garden, the tree and the evening of the passion answer to paradise lost; Jeremiah and Moses foretold the wood of the cross and the Life that hung on it.
Catechetical Lecture 18.30Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Eternal life comes from the Father through the Son in the Spirit; Cyril closes the Lenten lectures and announces the lectures on the mysteries to be given in Easter week.
Catechetical Lecture 19.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Foods offered at idol festivals belong to the devil's pomp: as the invocation makes the eucharistic bread and wine Christ's body and blood, so the invocation of demons defiles these foods.
Catechetical Lecture 21.3Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · After the invocation the chrism, like the eucharistic bread, is no longer ordinary: the body is anointed with the visible ointment, the soul sanctified by the Spirit.
Catechetical Lecture 22.1Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ's words "This is my body" and "This is my blood", read from Paul, leave no room for doubt.
Catechetical Lecture 22.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · He who changed water into wine at Cana can change wine into his blood.
Catechetical Lecture 22.3Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · In the figure of bread and wine the body and blood of Christ are given, so that the communicants become one body and blood with him and partakers of the divine nature.
Catechetical Lecture 22.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The hearers of John 6 took Christ's words carnally and were offended.
Catechetical Lecture 22.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The showbread of the Old Testament has given way to the bread of heaven; though the senses suggest otherwise, faith holds that the bread and wine are Christ's body and blood.
Catechetical Lecture 22.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Psalm 23's table, anointing, and cup are read as the Eucharist and the chrism, opposed to the demons' table.
Catechetical Lecture 22.8Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Ecclesiastes' bread, wine, oil, and white garments are read as the Eucharist, the chrism, and the spiritual purity of the baptized.
Catechetical Lecture 22.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · What appears to be bread and wine is the body and blood of Christ; partaking of it strengthens the heart and makes the soul's face shine.
Catechetical Lecture 23.1Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Having explained baptism, chrism, and communion, the lecturer turns to the rest of the liturgy.
Catechetical Lecture 23.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The washing of the celebrants' hands signifies purity from sin.
Catechetical Lecture 23.3Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The kiss of peace signifies reconciliation and the putting away of grudges.
Catechetical Lecture 23.4Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · "Lift up your hearts": at the Eucharist the heart must be with God, not on earthly cares.
Catechetical Lecture 23.5Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · "Let us give thanks": thanks are owed for calling, reconciliation, and adoption, which God gave beyond what was right.
Catechetical Lecture 23.6Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The thanksgiving recalls all creation and the angelic orders and joins the seraphim's "Holy, holy, holy".
Catechetical Lecture 23.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · In the invocation (epiclesis) the Holy Spirit is asked to make the bread and wine the body and blood of Christ.
Catechetical Lecture 23.8Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Over the eucharistic sacrifice the church prays for peace, rulers, soldiers, the sick, and all in need.
Catechetical Lecture 23.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The liturgy commemorates the saints, asking their intercession, and prays for the departed faithful.
Catechetical Lecture 23.10Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · An illustration of a king moved by a crown offered for exiles defends praying for the departed, for whom Christ sacrificed is offered.
Catechetical Lecture 23.11Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Lord's Prayer follows; God's love lets sinners call him Father, and those who bear the heavenly image are themselves "heavens".
Catechetical Lecture 23.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The "epiousios" bread of the Lord's Prayer is the holy bread that nourishes the substance of the soul.
Catechetical Lecture 23.19Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · "Holy things for the holy": the gifts are holy through the Spirit, the communicants by participation; Christ alone is holy by nature.
Catechetical Lecture 23.20Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · At the communion chant "Taste and see" the communicants are to judge by faith, not by taste.
Catechetical Lecture 23.21Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The lecturer describes how to receive the body of Christ in the hand with reverence, losing not a crumb.
Catechetical Lecture 23.22Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The communicant receives the cup with reverence and gives thanks; the lecturer urges the newly baptized to hold fast the traditions and not cut themselves off from communion.
Defence against the Arians 11Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · The bishops show that the charge of the broken chalice is impossible: Ischyras’s house was no church, he was no presbyter, and it was not the Lord’s day.
Defence against the Arians 28Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · Julius reports Athanasius’s evidence: the letters of Alexander of Thessalonica and of Ischyras himself, and contradictions in the Mareotic minutes, which show the charge was invented.
Defence against the Arians 31Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · Julius protests that the inquiry into the chalice was held before a civil judge, catechumens, pagans, and Jews, while the presbyters were excluded.
Defence against the Arians 46Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · The synod reports its own examination of the charges: Arsenius is alive, the Mareotic evidence shows no Eucharist could have been celebrated, and Ischyras was never a presbyter.
Defence against the Arians 63Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · Athanasius tells how the Meletians, with Eusebius’s party, built the charges of the broken chalice and the murder of Arsenius around Ischyras, who later confessed the plot.
Defence against the Arians 64Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · Ischyras’s written confession to Athanasius that the charges of the broken chalice and the overturned table were false and extorted from him by violence.
Defence against the Arians 68Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · Constantine’s letter to Athanasius condemns the Meletians, whose charges of murder were refuted by the living men themselves and whose charge about the chalice kept shifting.
Defence against the Arians 74Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · The clergy of the Mareotis testify to the synod of Tyre that Ischyras was never a presbyter, that no chalice was broken, and that the commission suborned witnesses through fear of the prefect.
Defence against the Arians 83Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 349–357 · Athanasius shows from the Mareotic minutes themselves that the charge was impossible: catechumens were present and Ischyras was lying sick, so no Eucharist was being celebrated.
Long recension, Ephesians 13Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius urges frequent gatherings for the Eucharist, joins faith and love as the beginning and end of life, praises deeds over words, and warns that corrupters of the church face eternal punishment.
Long recension, Ephesians 20Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius urges the Ephesians to stand firm and to gather in one faith under the bishop, breaking the one bread, the medicine of immortality.
Long recension, Romans 5Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius describes his journey under guard, longs for the beasts and for the bread of God, and begs the Romans not to keep him from dying for Christ.
Long recension, Philadelphians 4Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius urges one faith and one Eucharist, sets out the unity of God, faith and church, and gives instructions to wives, virgins, children, slaves, husbands, fathers and masters, honouring both virginity and marriage.
Long recension, Smyrnaeans 8Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius commands that nothing in the church, Eucharist, baptism or love-feast, be done without the bishop.
Cento, lines 586–612Proba · ca. 360 · At the supper Christ gives bread and wine and teaches the sacred rite, foretells his betrayal and his death for many; at dawn the priests and people demand his death, question him, and mock him.
Commentary on Matthew 30Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary treats the preparation of the Passover with an unnamed host (the future Christian), says Judas left before the Eucharist and did not share in it, and expounds the hymn, the prediction of the scattering, and Peter’s protest.
On the Trinity 8.13Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Because Christ took our flesh and we truly receive his flesh in the Eucharist, he is in us by nature, as the Father is in him.
On the Trinity 8.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John 6:55–56 teaches that receiving Christ's true flesh and blood makes Christ dwell in us and us in him.
On the Trinity 8.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John 14:19–20 shows a graded unity: the Son in the Father by nature, we in the Son through his birth, and he in us through the sacraments.
On the Trinity 8.16Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · As the Son lives through the Father by nature, we live through the Son by receiving his flesh (John 6:56–57).
On the Trinity 8.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · The heretics' appeal to our unity with God fails, since that unity is itself natural through the sacrament of Christ's flesh and blood.
On the Trinity 10.18Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Calling himself the living bread from heaven (John 6:51, 53), Christ shows that his flesh, born of the Virgin, has a heavenly origin.
Letters to Serapion 4.19Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357–360 · In Matt 12 “Son of Man” names Christ’s humanity and “Spirit” his Godhead, as in John 6, where the flesh he gives as food is given spiritually.
Letter 93Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil approves frequent and daily communion, describes his church's practice of communicating four times a week, and defends receiving communion by one's own hand at home when no priest is present.
Against the Arians 12Phoebadius of Agen · ca. 357-358 · Phoebadius answers the Arian use of “The Father is greater than I” by showing from John that the Son shares the Father’s honour, works, and divinity.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 21Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's twenty-first rule: partaking of Christ's body and blood is necessary for eternal life, must be done with understanding and worthily, in remembrance of his obedience unto death, and with hymns.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 80Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's eightieth and last rule: what the word wants Christians, and those entrusted with preaching, to be, ending with his summary of the marks of a Christian.
Tractate 2, section 4Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The three measures of flour are Noah's three sons, whose believing descendants become one bread of Christ's body through repentance and baptism; Sarah figures the Church.
Tractate 5, section 5Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The famine figures the end-time famine of the word under Antichrist; Isaac's blessing of Jacob points to the renewed earth in the kingdom of God.
Tractate 6, section 8Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The grape cluster on the spies' pole figures Christ on the cross; the eyes shining from wine are the Spirit's grace from his blood, and the teeth whiter than milk are the apostles, surpassing the law.
Tractate 9, section 4Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The ban on leaven teaches believers who share in the Lord's passover to cast out the leaven of malice; the passover, fulfilled in Christ's passion and resurrection, is to be kept with reverence.
Tractate 17, section 3Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · Paul excludes from the kingdom not the substance of the flesh but its works; Christ rose in the flesh, the flesh shares the sacraments and will share the reward, and nature itself foreshadows resurrection.
Letter 279Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory commends the presbyter Sacerdos to two friends; then he asks Bishop Amphilochius to pray for him and loose his sins when he consecrates the Eucharist.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.3.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The church, born from Christ's side and nourished by his flesh in the sacrament, is foreshadowed in Eve.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.6.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Abel's offering of firstlings prefigures the church's sacrifice of Christ's body.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.31.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The hand's restoration shows the glory is still future; water turned to blood signifies baptism leading to the Eucharist.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.39.4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The quails were given once as a figure; the manna tests worthiness for the true bread from heaven.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.40.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The equal measure of manna signifies the heavenly food, undivided in power, given equally to all.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.42.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The golden jar of manna prefigures Christ's body and the faithful keeping of the spiritual food.
Treatise on the Mysteries 2.3.3Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Grain, wine, and oil signify the sacraments; God makes the Gentiles his people.
Tractates on the Psalms 64.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The river of God is the Holy Spirit poured into believers; the prepared food is the communion of Christ's holy body, which saves now and prepares for future fellowship with God.
Tractates on the Psalms 68.17Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God alone knew that Christ’s weakness was assumed; Christ awaited and desired his sufferings, as he desired to eat the Passover.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.18.8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The Exodus wonders, the conquest, and the law's rites find their truth in the church: circumcision of the heart, baptism in the Jordan, the true Passover, and the bread of sincerity.
Tractates on the Psalms 121.12Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Those who love the heavenly Jerusalem will have abundance, foreshadowed in Jacob's blessing and given now in the church's mystery and sacraments, the grain, wine, and oil of the psalm.
Tractates on the Psalms 127.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The 'labors' to be eaten are good works that nourish the soul now, with the living bread, while their fruit is reaped in eternity.
Tractates on the Psalms 127.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Wisdom, the wife, bears good works as her children, who surround the table of the Lord's bread and of Scripture.
Tractates on the Psalms 135.15Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God remembered our lowliness in the incarnation, redeemed us by Christ's blood from the devil and death, and feeds the redeemed with the living bread, all from his mercy.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 2Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian asks to be heard in love, says his sermon on penance concerns the whole church, and sets out its four parts.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 6Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian warns those who receive communion after grave sin without penance, citing the death of Uzzah and the law on eating sacrifices while unclean.
Paraenesis, or Exhortation to Penitence 7Pacian of Barcelona · ca. 360-390 · Pacian applies Paul’s warning against eating the Lord’s body unworthily to sinners who receive communion without penance.
Oration 4.52Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · On taking power Julian openly renounced Christianity and is said to have tried to wash off his baptism with sacrificial blood.
Oration 5.2Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory passes over the judgments that struck persecutors to tell of Julian's plan to rebuild the Jerusalem temple.
Oration 17.11Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory pleads with the governor by the grey hair of a long priesthood and, more boldly, by Christ’s self-emptying, cross, resurrection, and the eucharistic table.
Oration 18.29Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory’s father, near death, rose during the Easter liturgy, celebrated the Eucharist from his bed, recovered, and gave thanks in church a week later.
Oration 40.32Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Our observances of fasting, the Passover and baptism follow Christ's but at different times; the baptized should show gratitude by prayer, tears and generosity to the poor, strangers, the sick, the naked and debtors.
Oration 43.53Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Overcome by the sight, Valens nearly fell when his offering was not received; afterwards Basil spoke with him within the sanctuary curtain, and the emperor's attitude began to soften.
Oration 45.16Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The sandals and staff of the Passover are interpreted: shoes protect those fleeing Egypt from the serpent, and the staff is the support of faith that lets one eat Christ's body and drink his blood without doubt.
Tractates 1.5.8Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno describes the practical conflicts and dangers when a Christian woman married to a pagan must keep her worship and his.
Tractates 1.14.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno lists the 'wages' given to all the builders of the spiritual church, sacramental gifts, and promises riches to those who persevere.
Tractates 1.15.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno cites Malachi 1:10–11 on the clean sacrifice of the Gentiles and explains Psalm 50:14–15 of the Son, who is one in majesty with the Father.
Tractates 1.15.6Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno warns Christians who tolerate pagan shrines on their estates, feast at tombs, observe omens or wrong their wives that their sacrifice is unacceptable, and that eating the Eucharist unworthily is deadly.
Tractates 2.14.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno allegorises the story of Tamar: Shelah is the Gentile people, Tamar the church, and Judah's pledges the law, the cross and the seal of faith, by which the church is justified.
Tractates 2.53.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno tells the candidates that on Easter day they will pass through the four seasons: the end of sin, anointing, baptism, the Eucharist and the Spirit.
Tractates 2.63.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno compares the Exodus with Christian salvation point by point: baptism is the true sea, Christ the true leader, bread and drink.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 1.16Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The schism began with Lucilla, a wealthy woman rebuked by the archdeacon Caecilian for kissing the relic of an unrecognized martyr before receiving communion.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 2.12Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The Donatists, who pray in the Eucharist for the one church spread throughout the world, contradict their own prayer by rebaptizing even Christians who come from Antioch and Arabia.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 2.19Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The Donatist bishops threw the Eucharist to dogs and the chrism out of a window, and Felix of Idicra, after violating a consecrated virgin, deposed an innocent Catholic bishop by laying penance on him.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 3.12Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The rumor that the imperial commissioners would place an image on the altar proved false, so those who passed from the Donatists to Catholic unity cannot be blamed for changing.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 6.1Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The Donatists broke, scraped or removed Catholic altars, the seat of Christ's body and blood, on which they themselves had once offered, and so struck Christ as the Jews did.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 6.2Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The Donatists melted down the chalices that had held Christ's blood and sold the metal indiscriminately, even to pagans for idol worship.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The bishop judges only church members, who are to be shunned at table and sacrament until they amend.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 10:3–4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The manna and water from the rock were miraculous figures of the Eucharist, and Christ was the one who supplied them.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 10:16–17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Sharing one bread and one cup in the Lord's body and blood makes believers one body who must think alike.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 10:18Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · As the Eucharist unites believers to Christ's body, eating sacrifices unites people to the altar of error.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 10:21Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · One cannot share both the Lord's table and the demons' table; to do so insults the altar and opposes Christ.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:20–22Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Factions claimed their own offerings at the Eucharist, shaming the poor; the offering belongs to the whole people as one bread.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:23–25Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul recalls Christ's institution of the Eucharist, which is not an ordinary meal but a spiritual medicine and memorial of redemption.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:26Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Eating and drinking Christ's flesh and blood proclaims his redeeming death and the new covenant foreshadowed by Moses, against heretics who set the testaments against each other.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:27Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Receiving the Eucharist without the received order and without devout self-examination makes one guilty of the Lord's body and blood.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:30Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Sickness and death among careless communicants foreshadow the judgment on unworthy reception.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:31–32Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Self-correction averts the Lord's judgment, whose present chastening saves from condemnation with unbelievers.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:33–34Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The church should wait so that all share one offering; other matters Paul will settle in person.
Epigram 14Damasus I of Rome · 366–384 · Epigram joining the protomartyr Stephen and Tarsicius, who died rather than surrender the eucharist he was carrying.
Question 20, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Spiritually, the manna is Christ, the bread now offered in the church; Christians, given greater grace, are the “angels” whose bread the Jews ate in figure.
Question 102, section 25Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The church may not exclude secret sinners from the Eucharist without accusation and proof, as Christ gave his body to Judas and Joseph would not publicly expose Mary; only those who consent to sin are defiled.
Question 109, section 18Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Melchizedek’s bread and wine prefigured the Eucharist, and if he had been a human priest he would have had a people of God before Abraham, which would make Abraham’s calling pointless.
Question 127, section 36Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Bishops and deacons, who daily act in Christ’s place at prayer, the offering, and baptism, must keep a purity beyond that of lay people, as courtiers do in the emperor’s presence.
Letter 14.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome honors the clergy, who consecrate the Eucharist and exercise discipline, but warns that their office demands the highest standards and brings grave danger to the unworthy.
Letter 21.26Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome interprets the fatted calf as Christ, whose flesh and blood believers receive daily in the Eucharist.
Letter 21.27Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome sees the feast as the daily Eucharist in which Christ is offered for believers.
Letter 46.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Paula and Eustochium argue from Scripture that God calls his people to leave the world for the land of promise, and praise Jerusalem's sacred history.
Letter 49.15Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome defends his view, drawn from Paul and Peter, that married intercourse is a hindrance to prayer and to receiving the body of Christ, and urges couples to abstain before communion.
Letter 55.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome requires the woman to do penance and cease relations with her second partner in order to receive communion, and holds that, by Deuteronomy 24, she cannot return to her first husband.
Letter 64.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome applies the rule that the high priest must not leave the sanctuary to the bishop's duty to live blamelessly and keep his baptismal garment.
Letter 71.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome advises Lucinius that on fasting on the Sabbath and daily Communion each church should keep its own received tradition.
Letter 73.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains that most interpreters see the Canaanite Melchizedek as a type of Christ's priesthood, offering bread and wine.
Letter 82.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome says he wants true peace, not submission under the name of peace, and asks how he can receive the Eucharist from a bishop whose love he doubts.
Letter 96.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus argues that if Christ suffered for demons, they would share in the Eucharist, which Scripture forbids.
Letter 96.20Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus closes by urging repentance, prayer, almsgiving, and care for the sick and imprisoned, confesses the Trinity, and announces the dates of Lent and Easter for 401.
Letter 98.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus rejects Origen's teaching that the Spirit and the Word act only in rational beings, citing the consecration of baptismal water and the eucharistic elements and Christ's miracles.
Letter 114.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome praises Theophilus's book for teaching reverence for the altar and its vessels, which share in the holiness of the Lord's body and blood.
Letter 120.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome rejects a millenarian reading of Matt 26:29 and interprets the new wine as the Eucharist drunk in the church.
Letter 149.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer explains how Christ fulfilled and changed the Passover, and interprets the paschal lamb spiritually.
On the Holy Spirit 27.66Basil of Caesarea · ca. 374–375 · Much that the church holds comes from unwritten apostolic tradition—the sign of the cross, facing east, the words of the epiclesis, the blessings and threefold immersion of baptism, standing to pray on Sunday and at Pentecost—kept in silence to guard the mysteries.
Ancoratus 57.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · At the supper Christ said of what he held, “This is my …”.
Ancoratus 57.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · What he held does not look like his body.
Ancoratus 57.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Christ's word is to be believed; disbelief forfeits grace.
Ancoratus 57.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · We believe it is his, though the Lord is wholly beyond it.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.4.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They offer the semen as the body of Christ.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.4.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They eat it as a parody of the eucharist.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.4.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They consume menstrual blood as the blood of Christ.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.8.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They apply John 6 to their obscene rite.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.11.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They blaspheme the holy mysteries.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.16.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Their rite is the serpent's flesh, foretold in the Psalms.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.4.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · He was baptized and received communion in secret.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.16.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They celebrate a yearly eucharist with unleavened bread and water.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.1.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · In his 'eucharist', cups of white wine seem to turn red, purple and blue.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.2.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcus makes wine appear to turn to the blood of 'Grace'.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.2.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcus has women give thanks over cups, then pours into a larger cup.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.2.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcus's formula over the cup.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.2.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The larger cup overflows, and Marcus seems a wonder-worker.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 37.5.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · In their rite a live snake coils over the bread.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 37.5.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They share the bread and kiss the snake.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 37.5.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They call this rite their eucharist.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 37.8.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Leave malice behind when coming to church and the sacraments.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 40.2.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They reject baptism and the sacraments as belonging to Sabaoth.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.3.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcion preaches virginity and sabbath fasting and celebrates his mysteries before catechumens, using water.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 42.11.17Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius repeats each of his 78 excerpts from Marcion's gospel and refutes Marcion from it, chiefly on Christ's real flesh, the unity of God, and the Old Testament.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 45.4.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's words at the Supper show the vine is not the devil's.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.2.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Tatian's followers use only water in their Eucharist.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 47.1.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Encratites use water in their mysteries and reject wine.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 47.3.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Their water-only mysteries are false imitations.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 47.3.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's words about the fruit of the vine refute them.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 49.2.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The name Artotyrites comes from their use of bread and cheese in their rites.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.27.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jesus ate the Passover eagerly and went to the Mount of Olives.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.6.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Melchizedek’s bread and wine prefigured the mysteries.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 55.6.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The bread and wine were antitypes of Christ’s body and blood.
On Cain and Abel 1.19Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Instead of pleasure's feast, come to the banquet of wisdom and of the church, where Christ serves the food of his word and sacraments in a house vast and well founded.
On Cain and Abel 2.19Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Of four qualities that commend a sacrifice, the first, "new of the new", signifies those renewed by baptism who offer themselves, nourished by both Testaments and by the truth of Christ's body.
On Paradise 42Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The command about eating concerns spiritual food: the bread of angels, which is to do God's will, and Christ the living bread.
Apostolic Canon 2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Nothing but what the Lord ordained may be offered at the altar.
Apostolic Canon 3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Only new grain, grapes, lamp oil and incense may be brought to the altar.
Apostolic Canon 8Anonymous · ca. 380 · A cleric who does not receive communion must give a reason.
Apostolic Canon 9Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful who leave before the prayer and communion are excommunicated.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.25.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · Bishops are the priests and Levites of the church, who offer the bloodless sacrifices and must teach God’s will.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.26.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The old sacrifices and tithes are now the church’s prayers, thanksgivings and offerings presented through the bishops.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.33.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Bishops are spiritual parents, who give baptism, the Spirit, the Eucharist and forgiveness, and must be honoured above natural parents.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.53.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer and thanksgiving are not accepted while anger remains.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.57.14Anonymous · ca. 380 · After the dismissal of catechumens and penitents come the prayers facing east, the kiss of peace, the intercessions, the blessing and the Eucharist, received in order.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.58.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · A visiting bishop is invited to preach and to offer the Eucharist, or at least to bless the people.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.59.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Sunday is the day of prayers, readings, the Gospel and the Eucharist, which no one should miss.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.10.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Laymen may not perform priestly acts.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.20.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Presbyters teach, offer, baptize and bless but do not ordain; deacons only serve.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.14.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · After giving the mysteries of his body and blood, Christ went out to the Mount of Olives with the eleven.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.19.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · At the resurrection the faithful offer the Eucharist and end their fast with rejoicing.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.23.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christ replaced daily washings with one baptism, the tribe of Levi with the best of every nation, blood sacrifice with the bloodless Eucharist, and worship in one place with worship everywhere.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.27.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Those who abstain from prayer and the Eucharist after bodily discharges show that they lack the Spirit.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.27.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A menstruating woman keeps the Spirit and should pray and receive the Eucharist.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.30.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful gather at the cemeteries to read, sing psalms and celebrate the Eucharist for the departed.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.25.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The eucharistic thanksgivings are introduced.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.25.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Thanks are given for life through Jesus, sent, crucified, raised and glorified.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.25.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · As the bread was gathered into one loaf, so may the church be gathered into the kingdom.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.25.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Thanks are given for Christ's blood and body; only the baptized may partake.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.25.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · An unbaptized person who partakes in secret eats judgment.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.25.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · One who partakes in ignorance is to be instructed and baptized at once.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.26.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The thanksgiving after communion is introduced.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.26.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Thanks are given for God's name and the gifts given through Jesus.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.26.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The Creator of all, God of the patriarchs, is thanked.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.26.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · God is asked to remember, deliver, perfect and gather his church.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.26.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The thanksgiving ends with Hosanna to the Son of David, God manifested in the flesh.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.26.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · The holy may draw near; the presbyters too may give thanks.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.28.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A teacher of another doctrine may not give thanks.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.30.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful assemble every Sunday to give thanks.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.30.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Sunday worship is the pure sacrifice foretold by Malachi.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.5.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The ordination prayer asks the Spirit for the new bishop, who then offers the sacrifice, is enthroned, greets the church and preaches.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.11.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop greets the people with the peace.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.11.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · The kiss of peace is exchanged.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.11.10Anonymous · ca. 380 · Deacons keep order and guard the doors during the anaphora.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.11.12Anonymous · ca. 380 · The priests wash their hands as a sign of purity.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.12.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · James gives the order of the anaphora.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.12.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · All but the faithful are dismissed before the offering.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.12.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The gifts are brought to the altar, with presbyters and deacons in attendance.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.12.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The anaphora praises God for creation and the history of salvation, joins the angels' Holy, recalls Christ's incarnation and passion, offers the bread and cup, calls down the Holy Spirit, and intercedes for the whole church and world.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.13.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop gives the peace after the anaphora.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.13.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer that God receive the offered gift on his heavenly altar.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.13.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · After the bishop's prayer and “Holy things for the holy,” all receive communion in order, the bishop giving the body and the deacon the cup.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.14.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The prayer after communion is introduced.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.14.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The faithful give thanks for communion and pray that it bring salvation.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.15.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop's thanksgiving after communion is introduced.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.15.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop thanks God for the gift of the holy mysteries.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.15.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop asks God to unite and confirm the communicants.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.15.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · The liturgy ends with a doxology and the dismissal.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.28.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The deacon neither blesses, baptizes nor offers, but distributes communion.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.31.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Leftover blessed bread is shared among the clergy by rank.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.46.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The apostles warn against those who offer sacrifice without authority.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.46.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · The apostles ordained bishops, presbyters and deacons for distinct functions; no one may usurp a higher office, and even Stephen kept to his diaconate.
On the Christian Faith 4.10Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose explains John 6:57 (“I live because of the Father”) as said of the incarnate Son of Man, or as showing his equality with the Father in giving life, and answers a similar objection from John 11:4 and John 17 about the Son being glorified.
13.4Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius urges priests to intercede for sinners like Moses and to welcome them like the father of the prodigal son, and urges penitents to imitate the sinful woman's tears instead of living as before while excluded from communion.
Canon 3Anonymous · 380 · Anyone who receives the eucharist in church but does not consume it there is anathematized.
Canonical Letter, Migne PG 45:225Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390 · Gregory describes the right actions and failings of the desire and of the spirit, then sets lifelong penance for willing apostasy and a fixed term for those who denied under torture, and begins on those who consult sorcerers.
Canonical Letter, Migne PG 45:231Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390 · Gregory sets twenty-seven years of graded penance for voluntary murder and nine for involuntary, both shortenable, allows communion to the dying, and turns to covetousness, which the Fathers left without penalty.
Homily 45.2Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Psalm 22 is read as spoken by Christ: his cry of abandonment, the worm born without seed as a figure of his virgin birth, and the divided garments and seamless tunic as the Scriptures divided by heretics and Christ's heavenly wisdom.
Sermon 78.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The martyrs are praised for their faith, not their sufferings; they rest under the altar where Christ's body is offered daily, as Revelation 6 shows, Cyprian among them, and their vindication waits until the number of the faithful is complete.
Sermon 93.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The saints became Christ's friends by keeping his commands; Christians can likewise win his friendship, but those who skip church on the Lord's day for worldly feasting offend it.
Chapter 1Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas lists the scriptural titles of Christ (Word, Wisdom, Light, Lamb, Priest, Vine, Bread, Stone, Door and others) and explains what each means.
Book of Heresies 74.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Artotyrites offer bread and cheese.
Book of Heresies 77.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Aquarians offer water in the Eucharist.
Book of Heresies 110.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Melchizedek's offering shows that Christianity is from the beginning.
Book of Heresies 148.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Melchizedek, born of Canaanites, celebrated Christ's mystery.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 42Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Whoever receives Christ's body and blood unworthily is guilty of them.
Eleven Tractates 6.110Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · The blood on the doors means Christ's blood sealing believers for the judgment; the seven days of unleavened bread mean a life without vice.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 3.6Egeria · ca. 381-395 · After reading and the Eucharist, the monks give the pilgrims fruit from their gardens.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 4.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · They read the Elijah passage and celebrate the Eucharist at Horeb.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 4.8Egeria · ca. 381-395 · At the bush they pray, read Exodus, stay the night and celebrate the Eucharist next morning.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 16.7Egeria · ca. 381-395 · After the Eucharist at Job's church they return to Jerusalem.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 23.6Egeria · ca. 381-395 · She returns to Tarsus and goes on to the Taurus.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 26.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The fortieth day after Epiphany celebrates the Presentation in the temple.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 27.7Egeria · ca. 381-395 · On Fridays an all-night vigil leads to an early Saturday Eucharist.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 27.8Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The vigil ends with the Eucharist at sunrise.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 27.9Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The early Saturday Eucharist lets those who fast all week break their fast.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 29.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · On the Saturday before Palm Sunday all go to Bethany.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 35.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · On Thursday the Eucharist is celebrated early at the Martyrium.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 35.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · Only on Holy Thursday is the Eucharist offered behind the Cross.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 38.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The Paschal Eucharist is celebrated at the Martyrium and again at the Anastasis.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 43.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · After an early Eucharist the people go to Sion by the third hour.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 43.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · On Sion they read of the coming of the Spirit.
On the Complaints of Job and David 4.31Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · God answered David at once, leading him in spirit into the church before the altar of the world’s redemption.
On the Complaints of Job and David 4.32Ambrose · ca. 383-390 · Seeing the sacraments in spirit, David says “I will go in to the altar of God”: through Christ’s self-offering, better than Abel’s blood, humanity returns to God’s presence.
Apology of the Prophet David 35Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · Spiritually, David thirsted for Christ, born in Bethlehem, and for the sacrifice of his blood.
Apology of the Prophet David 59Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · David asks to be sprinkled with the law’s hyssop and washed whiter than snow by the Gospel’s baptism, which he foresaw in other psalms too.
Apology of the Prophet David 84Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · The “sacrifice of righteousness” is Christ’s body, offered when the church of the nations is blessed, together with believers’ spiritual offering.
Catechetical Oration 37Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · As the soul is united to Christ by faith, the body is united to him by the Eucharist: as bread became Christ's body by nourishment, the bread sanctified by the Word and prayer is changed into his body, making believers sharers in incorruption.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 3Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Apostates who sacrificed to idols are excluded from communion, must do penance for life, and are reconciled only at death.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 5Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Penitents who return to military service, the shows, new marriages, or sexual relations are barred from communion except as viaticum at death.
Exposition of Psalm 118 0.2.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Though baptism purifies at once, the newly baptized offer their gift only on the eighth day, after instruction in the sacraments.
Exposition of Psalm 118 5.35.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The church’s sacrifice, the forgiveness of sins, is a sweet fragrance.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.48.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Moses had the lamb eaten in the evening so that Israel would be protected at midnight.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.49.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Like Israel, we should forestall the tempter by first sharing the heavenly banquet.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.49.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · On fast days one should wait for the sacrament rather than eat; at the midday service one receives the body of the Lord Jesus.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.49.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Where Christ’s body is received, Christ is present, and the adversary finds no room.
Exposition of Psalm 118 8.49.4Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ received in the evening sacrament guards the night and rouses us to pray at midnight.
Exposition of Psalm 118 13.24.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The cup that inebriates and the drenched earth show the fruitfulness of spiritual drunkenness.
Exposition of Psalm 118 14.2.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ and the sacraments are the pastures of the faithful.
Exposition of Psalm 118 15.28.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The apostles’ teaching prepares us for the Eucharist, the cup that gladdens and consecrates.
Exposition of Psalm 118 16.29.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Manna, the bread of angels, prefigures the spiritual food that cleanses the baptized.
Exposition of Psalm 118 18.26.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The gentile church feeds daily on Christ, the flesh and blood of God, its unfailing food.
Exposition of Psalm 118 18.26.8Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ is the food that satisfies, unlike the quails and manna.
Exposition of Psalm 118 18.27.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The manna was a shadow; the true bread from heaven came down for the church.
Exposition of Psalm 118 18.28.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The bread of life is offered to all; whoever approaches it lives.
Exposition of Psalm 118 21.4.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The cup offered to Edom is the Lord’s cup of forgiveness, which made the nations forget their error.
Exposition of Psalm 118 21.4.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The cup of salvation gives a good, spiritual drunkenness that removes sorrow.
Letter 23.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Maximinus not to fear his own councils and hopes for peace, so that Christian families divided between the two communions may share the table of Christ.
Letter 29.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine read the people Paul's lists of sins that exclude from the kingdom, including drunkenness, and his rebuke of feasting at the Lord's supper, arguing that no banquets belong in the church.
Letter 36.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine corrects the tract's contrast between old and new worship, arguing that each old sign gave way to its spiritual counterpart, and so the carnal Sabbath to the spiritual.
Letter 36.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Paul's all-night discourse at Troas on the first day of the week was a special necessity, not evidence that the apostles fasted on Sundays, as the Priscillianists claim.
Letter 43.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine gives examples from Aaron to Paul of saints who tolerated the wicked among God's people without being defiled.
Letter 44.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from Christ's toleration of Judas at the Last Supper and rebuts the claim that the apostles then had only John's baptism.
Letter 54.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Januarius that Christ gave few and simple sacraments, and that customs observed by the whole church come from the apostles or plenary councils.
Letter 54.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says that practices which vary locally, such as Saturday fasting and the frequency of communion, are free, and one should follow the local church.
Letter 54.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sets out the arguments for and against daily communion and concludes that both sides honour the sacrament and should remain in peace.
Letter 54.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine illustrates the folly of insisting on one's home custom with examples about the Lenten fast and the Maundy Thursday Eucharist.
Letter 54.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine classifies the question of the Maundy Thursday Eucharist as a local custom, in which each should follow the church he is in.
Letter 54.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains how the custom of an evening Eucharist after a meal on Maundy Thursday may have arisen from the gospel accounts of the Last Supper.
Letter 54.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine defends the universal custom of receiving the Eucharist fasting, which he attributes to the apostles' ordering of the church.
Letter 54.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine accepts an evening Eucharist after a meal on Maundy Thursday and explains the double celebration by the custom of bathing that day.
Letter 98.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The infant in Cyprian's story who spat out the Eucharist was a divine sign to the adults, like Balaam's ass, not an act of the child's knowledge.
Letter 98.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Sacraments take the names of what they signify, as Easter is called the day of the passion and the sacrament of Christ's body is called his body; so the sacrament of faith is called faith.
Letter 102.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God's word foretold that the sacrifices would change with the coming of Christ's one sacrifice, without any change in God or religion.
Letter 130.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains each petition of the Lord's Prayer as a reminder to ourselves of what we should desire, the bread meaning either sufficiency or the sacrament.
Letter 140.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Under the Old Testament people feared God and offered bloody sacrifices without understanding them; under the New the sacrifice is praise, and God's salvation is Christ, as Simeon recognized.
Letter 140.48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God foretells sins, threatens punishments, and promises benefits; the children of promise are children of grace, freely given; the thanksgiving in the New Testament sacrifice will be explained after baptism.
Letter 140.61Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ's 'vows' are the sacrifice of his body, the Eucharist; the poor who eat it and imitate his humility are satisfied, and their hearts live for ever, whereas pride is the beginning of sin.
Letter 140.62Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Love lives by the heavenly bread; its breadth is good works, its length patient endurance, its height the hope of eternal life, and its depth the hidden grace of God's will, as in Ephesians 3.
Letter 140.63Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine expounds Ephesians 3:13–19: rooted and grounded in love by God's free grace, believers grasp its breadth, length, height, and depth, until in the age to come love contemplates and praises God for ever.
Letter 140.66Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The nations will turn to the Lord; the 'rich of the earth', the proud, also come to Christ's table and receive his body and blood, but are not satisfied because they do not imitate his humility.
Letter 140.70Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Alternatively, the verse means that those who do good to God's praise belong to him; the creature becomes happy by turning from its own good to God, and so gives thanks, as in the Eucharist.
Letter 141.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Separation from the Catholic Church forfeits life, while within it no one is defiled by others' sins except by consenting to their deeds.
Letter 149.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine maps the four kinds of prayer in 1 Timothy 2:1 onto the eucharistic liturgy: supplications before the consecration, prayers at the consecration and breaking, intercessions at the blessing of the people, thanksgiving after communion.
Letter 149.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Prayer must be offered for all, including persecuting rulers, because God wills all to be saved, but only through the one mediator, the man Christ Jesus, and sharing in his body and blood.
Letter 149.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · 'Do not touch me' asks for the spiritual touch of faith; Christ's being known in the breaking of bread is a sacrament gathering us to know him.
Letter 158.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The young man died singing psalms and signing himself with the cross, and Evodius held three days of hymns and offered the Eucharist on the third day.
Letter 177.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The righteous of old were saved by the same faith in Christ, hidden then and revealed now, as shown by Abraham and Melchizedek.
Letter 182.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Innocent rejects the claim that unbaptized infants can have eternal life, citing John 6:53 and Matt 19:14.
Letter 185.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The parable's two stages, “bring in” then “compel,” show that compulsion belongs to the church's later age; the banquet is the unity of Christ's body.
Letter 185.50Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Holy Spirit gives life only within the Catholic Church, the body of Christ; the Donatists have the sacrament outside but not its reality.
Letter 186.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · To say unbaptized infants have life contradicts Christ's words in John 6, the apostolic see, and Pelagius's own anathema.
Letter 187.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Spirit divides gifts without being divided, as members share one health; the unity of Christ's body is shown in the Eucharistic sacrifice.
Letter 187.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Philosophers who knew God without thanking him are not his temple, while baptized infants who cannot yet know him are.
Letter 213.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine closes the assembly by asking the people to turn to the Eucharist and pray for the church, for himself, and for Eraclius.
Letter 217.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine ironically challenges Vitalis to reject the liturgical prayers for unbelievers, catechumens, and the faithful, and Cyprian's book on the Lord's Prayer, if he holds that faith comes from the human will alone.
Letter 217.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sets out twelve propositions of Catholic faith on original sin, grace, judgment, infant baptism, free will, and prayer for unbelievers.
Letter 217.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine asks whether Vitalis will forbid the Church's prayers for unbelievers or refuse to say Amen to them, or accuse Cyprian of error.
Letter 228.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine describes the crowds seeking baptism, reconciliation and communion in a crisis, and the eternal loss if the clergy have fled.
Letter 245.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine condemns amulets and superstitious earrings as service of demons, and declines to advise ordaining a man baptized among the Donatists.
Homilies on Matthew 4.9John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Anger is a beast within that must be tamed; its remedy is the blood of Christ received with confidence, the hearing of Scripture, and almsgiving; the passions enslave as completely as Paul served Christ; vainglory is self-defeating.
Homilies on Matthew 7.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Moral section of Homily 7: Christians should leave worldly ways as the magi left Persia; unworthy communicants are like Herod; we should offer gold to Christ in the poor, sick, and imprisoned, yet many will not cross a street to church but run to the theater.
Homilies on Matthew 7.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Preferring the theater's naked swimming women to the eucharistic 'spring' is spiritual shipwreck, worse than Pharaoh's drowning; spectators sin by desire even without the act; Chrysostom sends men to learn from their wives, and even from the ant.
Homilies on Matthew 16.9John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ puts reconciliation with a brother before the offering of a gift at the altar, applies this to prayer and alms, and urges settling with an adversary quickly before the matter reaches the judge.
Homilies on Matthew 17.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The habit of swearing can be overcome easily by practice and the watchfulness of one’s household; Chrysostom refuses applause in place of obedience, threatens to bar persistent swearers from the mysteries, and warns by the example of Eli.
Homilies on Matthew 19.11John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Forgiving enemies is the easiest way to the remission of sins, while praying against them insults God and turns the tongue into a beast’s teeth; Chrysostom rebukes the noise of his congregation during the reading of Scripture and urges reconciliation.
Homilies on Matthew 23.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The dogs and swine are the incurably impious and licentious, to whom sacred teaching is not to be exposed, which is why the mysteries are celebrated behind shut doors; Christ then turns to prayer.
Homilies on Matthew 25.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The crowds marvel at Christ’s authority, which he confirms by cleansing the leper with “I will” and a touch; sending him to the priest honors the law, and the homily closes on thanksgiving, the Eucharist, and humility.
Homilies on Matthew 32.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The peace the apostles brought is given now by the one who presides in church; the congregation must receive it and the preacher’s words with attention and love, not with chatter and secret slander.
Homilies on Matthew 32.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The church has become a marketplace of chatter; Chrysostom asks for love, since all share one table and one cup, and teaches that God stopped the signs because virtue, not miracles, is the true proof and health of the soul.
Homilies on Matthew 36.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John sent his jealous disciples to learn from Christ’s works who he was; Chrysostom rejects the view that John did not know of the passion or of a preaching in Hades, insists that there is no repentance after death, and warns his hearers who partake of the mysteries unworthily.
Homilies on Matthew 45.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Giving a cup of cold water to the poor is like serving Christ as a priest; since Christ asks so little in return for so much, those who neglect the needy deserve the fire prepared for the devil.
Homilies on Matthew 50.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Peter sinks through little faith though he is near Christ, the disciples confess Jesus as Son of God, the sick of Gennesaret are healed by touching his fringe, and Chrysostom urges approaching Christ’s body in the Eucharist with faith and a pure heart.
Homilies on Matthew 50.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ himself gives the Eucharist through the priest as at the Last Supper, so communicants must be free of robbery and enmity, and he is honored not by golden vessels bought by injustice but by care for the poor, who are his body.
Homilies on Matthew 71.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Almsgiving is a mystery to be done behind closed doors, as the church’s prayers for the possessed, the penitents and the faithful are all prayers for mercy; display defeats even the glory it seeks.
Homilies on Matthew 82.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Judas partook of the mysteries unchanged; Christ instituted the Eucharist at the Passover, the type giving way to the truth, as the memorial of his death for the forgiveness of sins—a memorial that refutes those who deny his passion—and after foretelling the disciples’ flight promised to meet them in Galilee.
Homilies on Matthew 82.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Peter’s confident contradiction was cured by being left to fall, which teaches that virtue needs both human effort and grace; as we trust Christ’s word against our reasoning, so in the Eucharist we trust “this is my body” against our senses, and must approach it with purity and fervor, since Christ himself still consecrates it and feeds us with his own flesh and blood.
Homilies on Matthew 82.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom charges the deacons who distribute the Eucharist to keep known sinners from the table, whatever their rank, since the unworthy communicant is worse than the possessed, and declares he would rather give his life than give the Lord’s blood to the unworthy, while urging that such sinners be corrected and brought back.
Homilies on Matthew 89.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ rose within the three days while his enemies guarded the tomb, so that their precautions proved the resurrection; the angel and then Christ himself send the women, the first witnesses, to the disciples. We may still hold his feet in the mysteries, but women who load themselves with gold while the poor go hungry cannot.
On Elijah and Fasting 33Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Fasting prepares us for the mystical table of the sacraments, to which hunger and thirst lead.
On Elijah and Fasting 34Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Lent ends in Easter baptism and the eucharist; but true fasting, as Isaiah says, means justice, release of debts, and care for the poor, not mere hunger.
On Elijah and Fasting 82Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The church must separate the unrepentant from the altar, so that by correction they may return to the sacraments.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.90Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Ambrose ends the sermon, praying that Peter weep for them and that Christ's passion, celebrated in the sacrament, forgive their sins.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.92Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Ambrose turns from the birds to the mysteries of the Lord's body, as evening ends the fifth day.
Hexameron (Exameron) 6.69Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The hand works, writes Scripture, offers and receives the sacraments, and even names the Son of God as God's right hand.
On Joseph 52Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Joseph's coming at noon figures Paul's enlightenment and Christ entering his house when the sacraments are celebrated.
On the Mysteries 8Ambrose · ca. 387–391 · The newly baptized approach the altar; the Church’s sacraments are older than the Synagogue’s, as Melchizedek shows, and greater than the manna, for the Eucharist is the body of Christ that gives eternal life.
On the Mysteries 9Ambrose · ca. 387–391 · Ambrose argues from the miracles of Scripture and from the virgin birth that the word of Christ changes the bread and wine into his body and blood, which feed the Church, and that the Spirit truly regenerates in baptism.
On the Blessings of the Patriarchs 38Ambrose · ca. 387-392 · Asher, 'riches,' signifies Christ, rich yet made poor for us, whose rich bread is the eucharist consecrated daily by the priest.
On the Blessings of the Patriarchs 39Ambrose · ca. 387-392 · The bread is Christ's flesh, the bread of life, which gives eternal life and forgiveness of sins to those who receive it worthily.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 35.19.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The sons of men are fed at the table of the sacraments, with bread, oil and cup.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.9.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Sinners are the dragon's body; the faithful feast on Christ's body and pardon.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.17.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ emptied the cup of death in his blood and gives the cup of salvation.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.25.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The rock's water foreshadowed Christ's blood; now we see the high priest offering his blood.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 38.25.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Priests offer the sacrifice, in which Christ is offered and himself offers by his word.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.5.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Unlike pagan blood-rites and the old sacrifices, baptism and the heavenly table bring the riches of Christ’s poverty.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.17.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · By refusing the “sinew”, the passion of Christ, they renounced the flesh and blood that give eternal life.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.37.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ became the sheep of our feast, the Passover lamb, whose sacrament we eat daily.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.37.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ is the food of those who eat; without eating his flesh no one reaches eternal life.
Canon 8Anonymous · 390 · A presbyter who, after being disciplined, sets up a separate altar is anathematized and expelled from the city; his complaint against his bishop goes to the neighbouring bishops.
Canon 9Anonymous · 390 · Presbyters may not celebrate the Eucharist in private houses without consulting the bishop.
Tractates on Matthew 7.3Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains that a gift at the altar is acceptable only after reconciliation, as the offerings of Abel and Cain show.
Tractates on Matthew 14.5Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains 'daily bread' as the food needed for today and, spiritually, the Eucharistic bread of the Lord's body, received daily.
Homily 45.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Gluttony blinds the Jews, who demand a sign like the manna; Christ points them from Moses' manna to the Father's true bread from heaven, himself, the bread of life.
Homily 45.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ, the bread of life, first speaks of his divinity; the Jews' offence comes from losing hope of bodily bread; all whom the Father gives will come to him and be raised to life.
Homily 46.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Jews grumble at the bread from heaven; the Father's drawing does not remove free will but gives help, and all who are willing are taught by God; Christ is the bread of life in his teaching and his body.
Homily 46.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The flesh Christ gives surpasses the manna; though the crowds stumble at the “how,” the faithful in the mysteries are blended into his flesh and nourished by his blood, which the old types foreshadowed.
Homily 46.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The eucharistic table is an awesome spring of spiritual rivers; Christ's blood bought and adorns the Church, but to receive it unworthily brings judgment.
Homily 47.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ insists that eating his flesh and drinking his blood are necessary for eternal life; those who eat abide in him and will live the glorious life after the resurrection, as the manna could not give.
Homily 47.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The “hard saying” exceeded the hearers' weakness; Christ points to his ascension and teaches that his words must be heard spiritually, for “the flesh profits nothing” refers to fleshly hearing, not to his flesh.
Homily 47.5 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Judas, though an apostle, was ruined by love of money; we betray Christ when we neglect the poor or receive the mysteries unworthily, and should spend on the needy rather than on luxury.
Homily 77.5 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Since Christ gives us heaven, the sun, and his own body and blood, we must not refuse him bread and clothing in the poor; greed makes the rich cruel, while alms laid up with the poor lead to God.
Homily 78.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Concord and friendship multiply each person's strength and safety; even monks in the mountains are bound to others in love, and the church's kiss in the mysteries and its common prayers express this unity.
Homily 85.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · From the cross Christ commits his mother to John, dies by his own authority, and from his pierced side flow water and blood, the sources of baptism and the Eucharist; Joseph and Nicodemus bury him.
Homily 10Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390–394 · On Song 4:16–5:2 Gregory reads the bride's banishing of the north wind and summoning of the south wind as the soul's authority over evil and its welcome to the Spirit, the bridegroom's feast as the eucharistic mysteries and a sober drunkenness of ecstasy, and the bride's sleep with a waking heart as the senses stilled while the mind contemplates God.
Sermon 4.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Good and bad in the Church share the Scriptures (the dew) and the visible sacraments (the fatness of the earth), but the wicked turn the same rain into thorns.
Sermon 4.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Like Isaac, the Church under constraint tolerates the wicked and admits them to the sacraments for the sake of peace, though they eat judgment to themselves unless they change.
Sermon 5.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ, who forgave his crucifiers and laid down his life freely, is our model and our price; the Church bears with the wicked among her until judgment separates them.
Sermon 9.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The unmarried man who goes to prostitutes breaks no single commandment by name, but he breaks the rule that contains all the commandments: do not do to another what you do not want done to you.
Sermon 17.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God, now silent, will rebuke the sinner by setting him before his own face at the judgment; now is the time of mercy, when daily sins are washed by the Lord's Prayer before communion.
Sermon 31.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The martyrs spent themselves for Christ, as those who eat at his great table must give their lives for the brothers; secure of the resurrection, they sowed, and so must we by good works.
Sermon 51.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Matthew’s genealogy centers on forty, the number of our pilgrim life of fasting and continence; the one extra generation either does not matter or marks Christ, who alone is both man and God.
Sermon 56.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Bodily bread God gives to good and bad alike; the children’s daily bread is the word of God, and also the eucharist the baptized receive, from whose altar we pray not to be separated.
Sermon 56.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Few love their enemies, yet all who receive the eucharist pray “as we forgive”; Augustine cannot tell them not to pray, so they must both say it and do it.
Sermon 57.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “Your will be done” has many senses: angels and us, saints and sinners, Church and enemies, spirit and flesh; the first three petitions concern eternity. Daily bread is bodily food, and also the eucharist, the word preached, the readings, and the hymns, needed for this pilgrimage.
Sermon 58.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Daily bread means all bodily necessities, the eucharist received by the faithful, from whose altar we pray not to be separated, and the word of God broken daily.
Sermon 58.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first three petitions concern eternity, the last four this life; the Lord’s Prayer is said daily at the altar, so the newly baptized will learn it by hearing it.
Sermon 59.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Daily bread is bodily food, the eucharist, and the word preached, all needed only in this life; daily sins are washed away by the Lord’s Prayer, provided we forgive those who ask our pardon.
Sermon 60.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s counsel is to store treasure in heaven, for where our treasure is, there our heart is; but greed keeps treasure and heart in the earth.
Sermon 62.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A good superior nourishes, a bad one tests; the world is a furnace where chaff burns and gold is refined; Christians must stand firm against threats and be filled from God’s banquet, not the idols’.
Sermon 71.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As eating Christ’s flesh does not make everyone abide in him, but only those who eat in a certain way, so only a certain kind of blasphemy is unforgivable.
Sermon 77.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Jews converted at Pentecost were the lost sheep to whom Christ was sent; even the killing of Christ was forgiven those who repented.
Sermon 87.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Some rage against Christ like the frenzied, but he heals them, as he did the Jews converted after Pentecost.
Sermon 89.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s pretending to go farther signifies that he is found in the breaking of bread by those who hold him fast.
Sermon 90.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine distinguishes the Lord’s two banquets, one here for good and bad alike, one in heaven for the good alone, and urges the good to bear with the bad within the church.
Sermon 90.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The wedding garment cannot be baptism, the eucharist, fasting, churchgoing, or miracles, since the bad share all of these.
Sermon 95.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The wedding garment is not any gift shared by good and bad, such as baptism, the eucharist, prophecy, or faith, but love, which is put on by clothing Christ in the naked.
Sermon 112.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · In the parable of the great supper, the invited are Israel, called through the prophets, who read the prophets but killed Christ and so unknowingly prepared the supper, the eucharist, for the Gentiles, who were brought and compelled.
Sermon 112.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The five yoke of oxen are the five senses, paired like yokes, by which earthly people refuse to believe what they cannot perceive, like Thomas; Christians believe without seeing, and eat by faith the same supper Christ consecrated.
Sermon 112.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The supper arose from a guest’s saying about eating bread in God’s kingdom, while the bread himself reclined before him; the oxen to be “tested” signify a curiosity of the senses that, like Thomas, refuses to believe without touching.
Sermon 130.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ is the bread from heaven and the Merchant who took our birth, toil, and death and gave rebirth, resurrection, and eternal reign; his cross was the mousetrap and his blood the bait by which the devil lost his captives.
Sermon 131.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s words about eating his flesh scandalized many, but his ascension shows that his body is not consumed; his body and blood give life when what is received visibly in the sacrament is eaten and drunk spiritually.
Sermon 132.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The faithful know what Christ meant by eating his flesh; Augustine urges the catechumens to give in their names for baptism at Easter so that they too may understand and share the Lord’s table.
Sermon 132.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The faithful who receive the Eucharist must live chastely: husbands must keep the fidelity they demand of their wives, and unmarried young men must keep themselves as pure as they want their brides to be, out of fear of God who sees everything.
Sermon 132.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who do not keep chastity should not come to the Lord’s table; Augustine must speak the truth like a servant paying out his master’s money, and he prays that the unchaste be converted.
Sermon 137.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Bad clerics claim that “what we do, do not do” refers to offering the sacrifice, which laymen may not do; but the following verse shows that it refers to burdens they lay on others and do not carry.
Sermon 159.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Our justification in this life is imperfect, but the martyrs attained perfection; so at the altar the Church prays for the other departed but not for the martyrs, whose prayers we seek.
Sermon 164.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The merciful should persevere in doing good even to the ungrateful; and if an avaricious man approaches the altar beside them, they need not fear, for each bears his own burden, provided they do not share his sin.
Sermon 164.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Others' sins do not justify leaving the Church, a flock and threshing floor mixed of good and bad; sharing Christ's table with a sinner does not share his sin, though church judges must still discipline the convicted.
Sermon 172.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Funerals and monuments console the living, but the Church's prayers, the eucharistic sacrifice, and alms help the faithful dead, though only those who lived so as to be helped; no new merit is gained after death.
Sermon 174.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To deny that infants have anything for Jesus to save is to deny that he is Jesus, Savior, to baptized infants, who become his members, receive his sacraments, and share his table.
Sermon 177.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Enough for the present suffices; hoarding treasure binds the heart to the earth and makes the response “Lift up your heart” a lie, though Augustine grants a distinction between being rich and wanting to be rich.
Sermon 181.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Lord's Prayer belongs to baptized sons, and the whole Church prays it; the Church is made without spot or wrinkle by confession and forgiveness here, stretched like cloth on the fuller's frame of the cross, and is presented spotless in heaven.
Sermon 216.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Like the prodigal son, the candidates will be met by the merciful Father and fed with Christ's flesh and blood; found free of possession, they must keep that health in their hearts.
Sermon 227.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine explains the Eucharist to the newly baptized: the bread and cup are Christ's body and blood, and they themselves, ground, moistened, and baked like bread, are Christ's body; he then explains the parts of the rite.
Sermon 228.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine announces the instruction on the sacrament of the altar, following those on the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and baptism.
Sermon 229.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The newly baptized, threshed, ground, moistened, and baked like bread, have become the Lord's bread; the one bread and cup call them to unity, which heretics deny.
Sermon 232.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ was recognized in the breaking of bread; the faithful know where to recognize him, and catechumens should not shut themselves out from coming to know.
Sermon 234.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We, who believe, are better off than the Emmaus disciples who had lost hope, whom the thief on the cross outdid; Christ is known in the breaking of bread, which by his blessing becomes his body.
Sermon 235.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ willed to be recognized in the breaking of bread for the sake of those who would eat his flesh without seeing him; hospitality restored what unbelief had taken.
Sermon 239.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mark's “in another form” agrees with Luke's “their eyes were held”; the disciples' eyes were opened to recognize Christ in the breaking of bread, where eternal life is received.
Sermon 266.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit came on Cornelius before baptism, showing that he breathes where he wills and is not given by human power; the sacrament is God’s oil, good even in a bad minister and even when received badly, as Judas received the morsel to his judgment.
Sermon 272.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine explains to the newly baptized that the bread and cup are Christ’s body and blood, and that the faithful, many grains made one bread, are themselves the body of Christ: “Be what you see, and receive what you are.”
Sermon 273.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christians honor the martyrs, naming them at the altar, but offer sacrifice only to God; the saints themselves, like Paul and Barnabas at Lystra and the angel in the Apocalypse, refused worship, and the martyrs hate the drunken feasting at their shrines.
Sermon 304.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lawrence, deacon at Rome, who ministered Christ’s blood and shed his own, fulfilled the proverb about the mighty man’s table; but not only martyrs follow Christ: married people, widows and virgins too have their place in the Lord’s garden.
Sermon 307.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God himself swore to Abraham and swore that Christ is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, whose offering the faithful recognize; God’s oaths are true and he does not repent of them as Herod did.
Sermon 310.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At the place of Cyprian’s martyrdom in Carthage, where a crowd once shed his blood, a crowd now drinks Christ’s blood; the altar there, God’s table, is called ‘Cyprian’s table’ because he was sacrificed there.
Sermon 311.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · There is another life after this one: Christians who hear ‘Lift up your heart’ daily should send their treasure ahead to heaven, the rich by doing good and the poor by not murmuring, for having God is everything.
Sermon 329.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The martyrs' deaths were bought by Christ's one death, the grain of wheat; having eaten at his table, where he is the food, they paid back the like.
Sermon 332.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ's love, which laid down his life, is the pattern; at his table, where he gives himself, believers learn to prepare the like by laying down their lives for the brothers.
Sermon 334.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God's giving of his Son, the Word through whom all was made, proves he is for us; Christ's death, received daily in the Eucharist, is the pledge of his life given to us.
Sermon 345.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ is found on earth in his members, the poor, as his words to Saul and the judgment parable show; giving to them moves one's treasure and heart to heaven, as the liturgy's “Lift up your heart” demands.
Sermon 351.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The third repentance, for grave sins, requires the sinner to judge himself, weep, and accept exclusion from the eucharist by church discipline, so as not to be excluded from the heavenly altar.
Sermon 351.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Church discipline may exclude from communion only those who confess or are convicted by due judgment; others must be tolerated, as chaff with wheat, and no one should leave the Church to avoid them.
Sermon 352.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The crossing of the Red Sea, the manna, and the water from the rock were figures: believers among the Israelites who understood Christ in them ate and drank the same spiritual food as Christians, for Christ to come and Christ come are the same.
Sermon 352.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The third repentance, for grave sins such as adultery and homicide, excludes the penitent from the altar; like Lazarus, he is raised by Christ and loosed by the Church, while Judas perished through despair.
Sermon 354.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Not all who receive the sacrament of Christ's body will be among his members at the judgment; the worst enemies are those inside the Church who love the world and envy the faithful.
Sermon 366.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The rod disciplines the proud and the staff of grace supports the weak; the table prepared in Psalm 23 is Christ's passion, in which he feeds the Church with his body and blood.
Sermon 372.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ came forth from the virgin's womb as bridegroom of the Church: slain as the lamb, he feeds the guests with his flesh and blood, pays his blood as dowry, and is both beautiful as a bridegroom and strong as a giant.
Homily 10.1 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The faithful must esteem their priests very highly in love, since the priest bears the hatred that correction brings, prays for them, ministers baptism and the mysteries, and opens heaven to them.
Homily 11.3 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · A story shows the power of an adjuration by Christ; Chrysostom rebukes those who ignore beggars adjuring them by the Lord but reward flattery and lewd songs, and teaches that the poor at church doors teach thanksgiving and humility, since God seats them at his gates and admits them to his table with kings.
Homily 5.2 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains why Paul handed Hymenaeus and Alexander over to Satan, and warns that receiving the Eucharist unworthily, even once a year, brings judgment, since the sacrifice is the same on every day and Easter communion is no holier.
Homily 6.2 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom forbids Christians to pray against their enemies or brothers, since one who asks God not to forgive another condemns himself, and holds up Stephen’s prayer for his killers.
Homily 5.5 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Unlike the three youths and Joseph, who uttered no curses against their oppressors, Christians who pray for harm to their enemies speak absurd and devilish words; they should pray for those who wrong them, since Christ’s sacrifice was offered for enemies.
Homily 6.4 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Having been given life by the Spirit, Christians must keep the soul alive by its proper works; a soul given to greed, cruelty, or foul speech is dead and foul-smelling, like the rich man’s in the story of Lazarus, while living souls speak like Paul, Peter, Job, Jacob, and Joseph.
Homily 11.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Christ still has his body, but freed from its weaknesses; whoever is in Christ is a new creation, receiving all things new, the heavenly realities in place of the old types; God, the one offended, took the first step to reconcile the world through the Son, not counting sins, and entrusted the apostles with the ministry of reconciliation.
Homily 18.1 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains Paul's commendation of Titus and the two brothers sent with him for the collection, and his care to avoid any suspicion over money (2 Cor 8:16–24); from 'in the face of the churches' he shows how much the people share with the priest in ordination, prayer and the Eucharist, and urges that good counsel be accepted from anyone, as Moses accepted Jethro's.
Homily 20.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains Paul's thanksgiving for God's 'indescribable gift', warns against drunkenness and gluttony, and calls the merciful man a priest and the poor believer an altar, more awesome than the church's altar because it is itself the body of Christ.
Homily 30.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains the holy kiss as kissing the entrance of Christ's temple, the mouth that receives the Lord's body in communion, defends the full deity of the Spirit and the Son from Paul's varied naming of the persons in the closing blessing (2 Cor 13:12–14), and urges love of God, who commands everything for our good, as his rules on marriage, reconciliation and almsgiving show.
Homily 4.4 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The Antichrist’s false signs will convict unbelievers who rejected Christ; Elijah will come to strengthen the faithful; God chose the Thessalonians for salvation through sanctification and faith; unwritten tradition is as trustworthy as letters; Paul asks prayer, and Chrysostom begs his people to pray for their bishop, with whom they share the same table, baptism and Spirit.
Homily 2.4 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Closing Homily 2, Chrysostom compares a bad priest to a wounded doctor whose state does not excuse the patient, and teaches that the eucharistic offering and baptism are the same whoever performs them, because God sanctifies them and everything depends on faith.
Homily 6.4 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom ends Homily 6 by comparing baptism with the creation and fall of Adam: the baptismal renunciation of Satan is a covenant, not a debt; the candidate is stripped, anointed, formed anew by the Spirit, set in heaven, and joined to Christ's body, beyond the devil's reach.
Homily 3.4 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · We should weep, with restraint, not for the dead as such but for those who die in sin or unbaptized, and help the faithful departed by prayer, alms, and remembrance at the Eucharist, as Job provided for his children by sacrifice.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine weighs three meanings of “daily bread” (bodily needs, the Eucharist, the spiritual food of God’s precepts), prefers the spiritual, and allows all three to be taken together.
Letter 1.109Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The Spirit, named with Father and Son in baptism and making the bread Christ's body, cannot be a creature; a second letter says an ascetic must embrace every hardship and humbly remember his body's origin and end.
Letter 1.123Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The linen cloth on the altar recalls Joseph of Arimathea's shroud, and the bread consecrated on it is truly Christ's body; a second letter says the suffering belongs to God made flesh, not to bare Godhead.
Letter 1.170Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · One who lives in sin yet receives communion is warned by the example of Judas.
Letter 1.219Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The Passover lamb roasted with fire prefigures Christ, whose flesh, united to the fire of the Godhead, we now eat for forgiveness.
Letter 1.228Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Receiving the sacrament is called "communion" because it unites us to Christ and makes us sharers in his kingdom.
Letter 1.313Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · A drunken priest is reminded that the wine he abuses is what the Spirit makes into Christ's blood.
Letter 1.360Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Christ is the bread of life both as food of salvation and as having united human nature to his Godhead, like dough baked in fire.
Letter 1.395Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · A man who hoards books he does not read is like the grain-hoarder who was stoned; two further letters explain "he led captivity captive" and defend the church's offering of bread from the showbread of the inner sanctuary.
Letter 1.431Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Enosh, Enoch and Melchizedek show that knowledge of God is natural, and Melchizedek's bread and wine foreshadowed the eucharist.
Letter 2.52Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The priesthood, through which come rebirth and the mysteries, must not be blamed for the sins of unworthy priests like Eusebius and Zosimus.
Letter 3.75Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Rom 12:1 makes every believer priest of his own body, offering purity, while the ordained alone offer the bloodless sacrifice.
Letter 3.134Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore tells Zosimus either to stop his scandalous conduct or to keep away from the altar.
Letter 3.194Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · True kingship serves its subjects; (another letter) infants are baptized not only to wash away the inherited stain of Adam but to receive adoption, union with Christ and every gift of grace; (another letter) God's patience must not breed carelessness.
Letter 3.339Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Not all of the Old Testament should be forced into prophecy of Christ; (3.340) a sacrament is valid even from an unworthy priest, who should nonetheless repent or withdraw; (3.341) Deut 8:3; (3.342) against the Arians, "greater" implies comparison and so excludes the Son's being a creature.
Letter 3.364Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Sinners who abstain from the Eucharist are on the way to amendment, but those who receive unworthily, like Judas, give themselves over to the devil.
Letter 4.162Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The command to eat the Passover "in haste" means that those who share the true Passover must be earnest in virtue.
Letter 4.165Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Two letters: virginity is given not by lot but to those who seek divine help and discipline themselves; the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ essentially, so his lowly words fit God made man, while his divine words could not fit a mere man.
Letter 4.181Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Two letters: the saying about dogs and swine forbids casting the divine word, the priesthood, the mysteries, or baptism before the unworthy; the different Psalm titles distinguish composer, singer, and subject.
Letter 5.12Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore urges the aged presbyter Zosimus either to give up his lechery or to withdraw from the altar; a second letter laments that he has insulted a wise man sent to correct him.
Letter 5.85Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Even robbers are tamed by sharing salt, yet Christians who share the divine table wage unending war on one another.
Letter 5.221Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Lesser sins are purged by suffering in this life, as Paul says of unworthy communicants and as the rich man and Lazarus show; grave sins are punished both here and hereafter, as with Sodom and with Jerusalem in its siege.
Letter 5.569Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · In a long final appeal Isidore tells Zosimus that he has defended the validity of his sacraments, arguing that a priest's sins do not harm the layman, as Balaam, Caiaphas and Elijah's raven show, but that people still shun the mysteries and pagans are kept from the church because of him; he must reform or withdraw from the altar.
Against Jovinianus 1.7Jerome · 393 · Jerome expounds 1 Cor 7:1–9 and 1 Pet 3:1–7 to argue that marriage is allowed as a remedy against sexual immorality and that intercourse hinders prayer.
Against Jovinianus 1.14Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues from 1 Cor 7:39–40 and other texts that second marriage is permitted only as a concession and ranks below a single marriage.
Against Jovinianus 1.20Jerome · 393 · Jerome turns Jovinian's examples from Judah to Moses, and cites the laws of Sinai, the bread of the Presence, and priestly marriage as showing the precedence of chastity.
Against Jovinianus 1.34Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the objection that Paul appointed married clergy: Paul's requirements were a concession to new converts, and married clergy are bound to continence.
Against Jovinianus 2.5Jerome · 393 · Jerome sets out Jovinian's third proposition on food: everything was created for human use, and Christ and the apostles ate and drank.
Against Jovinianus 2.25Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's arguments from the equal manna, the parables, the flood, and the Passover: these concern the division between good and bad, not equality among the good.
Against Jovinianus 2.29Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues that the temple and body of Christ have many parts and degrees, and that believers are one with God by grace, not by nature, through the sacrament and the Spirit.
Poem 28, lines 187–217Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The bishop dedicates the chapel for both the eucharist and baptism, whose font always renews the old; the old basilica, restored with columns and paintings, matches the new one.
Poem 33, lines 1–32 (XXXIII)Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The Death of Baebianus: a wealthy noble, near death, repents, is baptized and receives the sacrament and chrism, and, feeling a wondrous fragrance, refuses to pray for longer life.
Letters 11.6Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus reads the two in the field and the two women at the mill as peoples or as the two parts of human nature, and says he and Sulpicius were taken up together by grace.
Letters 13.14Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus says Pammachius’s offerings and alms in Paulina’s memory were a sacrifice to God that refreshed both his own spirit and his wife’s soul.
Letters 23.7Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus jokes that Victor’s bean porridge recalls Ezekiel’s bread and Elisha’s pot, and turns this into a meditation on Christ, who took our flesh like a pot to make it food of life.
Letters 23.32Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus reads the sinful woman as the church of the Gentiles, anointed, washed in tears, and receiving Christ’s body and blood in figure, justified in the Pharisee’s place.
Letters 32.5Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus sends verses for Sulpicius’s baptistery, set between two basilicas as the font of grace between the two Testaments, from which the newly baptized go to the altar.
Letters 32.7Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus suggests placing the relic of the cross with the martyrs’ relics under the altar of Sulpicius’s new basilica, and sends verses for it.
Historia monachorum, chapter 2Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Abba Hor, father of many monasteries, who learned to read by grace, received a promise from an angel, and resisted a demon posing as Christ the King.
Historia monachorum, chapter 7Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Apollonius of Hermopolis: his call and victory over the demon of pride, his miracles among pagans and in famine, the Easter feast sent from God, and his teaching on joy, hospitality, daily communion and hidden fasting.
Historia monachorum, chapter 14Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Eulogius, a priest who discerned the hidden sins of those coming to communion and sent them away to do penance.
Historia monachorum, chapter 15Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Apelles the smith, who drove off the devil with red-hot iron, tells of the hermit John, who prayed standing for three years, unmasked Satan disguised as a priest, healed, and discerned the state of distant monks.
Historia monachorum, chapter 20Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Dioscorus, a presbyter who examined his monks before communion and taught when nocturnal emissions do or do not involve sin.
Historia monachorum, chapter 29Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Macarius of Alexandria: a paradise in the desert refused as a demonic snare, the bunch of grapes passed round Scetis, his vision of demons distracting monks at prayer and at communion, and a tribune converted by a word.
Historia monachorum, chapter 32Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Piammon of Diolcos, who saw an angel record the names of worthy communicants, did penance with those omitted until they were reconciled, and was healed by the angel of the altar.
On Christian Doctrine 2.3Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Human signs mostly address sight and hearing, and words are by far the most important, since they can express all other signs.
On Christian Doctrine 3.9Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Whoever understands the signs God instituted is free; since Christ's resurrection the Church has a few easy and meaningful signs, baptism and the Eucharist.
On Christian Doctrine 3.16Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · A precept that seems to command wrongdoing or forbid kindness is figurative, as with eating Christ's flesh, heaping coals of fire, and losing one's life.
On Christian Doctrine 4.21Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Augustine illustrates the three styles from Cyprian and Ambrose: the subdued in Cyprian on the eucharistic cup and Ambrose on the Holy Spirit, the temperate in their praises of virginity, and the grand in their attacks on cosmetics.
Confessions 6.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Monica obediently gave up the African custom of bringing food and wine to martyrs' shrines when she learned Ambrose had forbidden it, and Ambrose often praised her to Augustine.
Confessions 9.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Falling ill at Ostia, Monica asks only to be remembered at the Lord's altar, wherever her sons may be.
Confessions 9.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine does not weep even at the eucharist offered for Monica; a bath does not help, but sleep and Ambrose's hymn ease his grief.
Confessions 9.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Monica asked only to be remembered at the altar, where the sacrifice that cancels our debts is offered.
Confessions 10.70Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine gave up a flight into solitude to live for Christ, who redeemed him; he feeds on his ransom.
Confessions 13.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · The spiritual judge the church's sacraments, preaching, and the conduct of the faithful, over which they have power to correct.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 13.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine describes how the convert, received into the Catholic Church, learns to bear with the wicked mixed in it until the harvest, as the prophets foretold, and not to follow heretics.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that if the faithful of old suffered for sacraments that only promised Christ, Christians should be readier still to suffer for baptism, the eucharist, and the sign of Christ, which show him come.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine rejects Faustus’s comparison of the eucharist with Manichaean reverence for food: Christians’ bread and cup become a sacrament by consecration, while the Manichaeans think Christ is bound in all food.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that pagan sacrifices imitate, and Hebrew sacrifices foretold, the one true sacrifice of Christ, which Christians commemorate in offering and receiving his body and blood.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that Christians honor the martyrs with love and imitation, but offer sacrifice only to God at their shrines, tolerating but not approving drunkenness there.
Canon 5Anonymous · 397 · Even at Easter catechumens receive only the customary blessed salt.
Canon 6Anonymous · 397 · The eucharist is not to be given to corpses, since the dead cannot take and eat, and the practice might suggest that the dead can be baptized.
Canon 23Anonymous · 397 · Prayers at the altar are to be addressed to the Father, and prayers taken from elsewhere must first be checked by more learned brothers.
Canon 24Anonymous · 397 · Only bread and wine mixed with water are to be offered in the eucharist.
Canon 29Anonymous · 397 · The eucharist is celebrated only fasting (except on Maundy Thursday); funeral commendations after a meal are made with prayers alone.
Canon 5Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Clergy who neglect the daily eucharist at their church cease to be counted clergy unless they make amends.
Canon 13Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Those who attend church but never receive communion are to be admonished either to do penance or to communicate, on pain of exclusion.
Canon 14Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Anyone who receives the eucharist without consuming it is expelled as sacrilegious.
Tractates 2Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · To the newly baptized: the Passover lamb was a figure of Christ, whose body and blood are given in the bread and wine; the rules for eating the lamb teach how to read Scripture and how to receive the Eucharist in faith.
Homily 13.4 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom warns the baptized against falling away and catechumens against delaying baptism in order to sin, showing that even if saved by grace alone they would stand ashamed and lowest in the kingdom, and that God’s commands are not burdensome.
Homily 14.1 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 8:1–5, Chrysostom shows that Christ, seated at God’s right hand, ministers in the true tabernacle of heaven, that his priesthood could not be on earth, and that the church’s mysteries are heavenly things.
Homily 14.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 8:5–13, Chrysostom calls the church’s worship heavenly, explains that the new covenant is better because it is written on hearts and brings knowledge of God to all, and that the old covenant was set aside not as evil but as old and insufficient.
Homily 16.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 9:19–23, Chrysostom explains the sprinkling of the book and the people as a type of Christ’s blood, which cleanses not the body but the soul, so that believers themselves become the books, vessels and tabernacle of the new covenant.
Homily 17.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 9:27–10:9, Chrysostom explains that Christ, both priest and victim, died once for all, bearing to the Father the sins of the many who believe, and that the law’s repeated sacrifices were only a shadow, replaced by his doing of God’s will.
Homily 17.3 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · On Heb 10:1–10, Chrysostom argues that the law’s repeated sacrifices proved their weakness, while Christ’s single sacrifice sufficed forever, and explains that the church’s daily offering is not many sacrifices but the one sacrifice of Christ, offered as a remembrance.
Homily 17.4 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom teaches that frequency of communion matters less than a clean conscience and a blameless life, warns against receiving after a token Lenten preparation only to return to sin, and explains the priest’s cry “Holy things for the holy” as a separation of the unworthy.
Homily 17.5 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom explains the cry “The holy things for the holy” as a herald’s summons that makes each communicant his own accuser, calls for holiness and not mere freedom from sin, and urges Christians to train the eye of the soul on heavenly things.
Homily 20.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom warns that sinning after sharing in the mysteries tramples on Christ, comforts those wronged with the thought of God's judgment, and urges contempt for wealth, with the example of Job, whose losses the devil used to tempt him to blasphemy.
Homily 27.1 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Expounding Heb 11:28–30, Chrysostom shows that the Passover blood was a type of Christ's blood, which protects souls far more surely, and that by faith Israel crossed the Red Sea and brought down the walls of Jericho.
Homily 27.5 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom urges humble, persevering prayer like the tax collector's, warns that small sins and resentment are still sins, and exposes the vainglory of calling oneself a sinner while resenting reproach from others, citing David's patience under Shimei's curses.
Homily 2.6 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · The lifted lintel and the smoke in Isaiah's vision signify the glory leaving the synagogue for the churches of the whole world; the vision was of Christ's glory (John 12:41), and the Sanctus, which a heretic wanted removed, is essential to the eucharistic mystery.
Homily 6.4 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · The tree was named for what happened at it, as places in Scripture are named for events; it had no deadly power of its own, just as the eucharistic gift saves by grace and food offered to idols harms by its invocation, and Adam learned evil only by the experience of disobedience.
On the Trinity 3.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine describes how God's will, presiding over the angels in heaven, governs the whole ordered creation, and argues that if Paul could signify Christ by speech, letter and the sacrament of his body and blood, God can much more signify himself through visible creatures without his substance appearing.
On the Trinity 3.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that miracles and signs, whether done by angels or by men, can bear the person of God, illustrates this with prophets, Jacob's stone, Moses' rod and the bread of the sacrament, admits he cannot know how angels do these things, and affirms that God, being unchangeable, is still less visible.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 2.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Scripture suggests that lacking baptism is worse than being rebaptized, and the church admits the rebaptized to the altar after penance; as Cyprian hoped for those received without baptism, Catholics hope for pardon for the rebaptized through unity.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 3.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Like the unfaithful wife of Hosea and Ezekiel, who adorned her harlotry with her husband’s gifts, heretics hold the sacraments and Scriptures, which remain God’s; the fornication is to be corrected, the gifts recognized.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 5.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Like the law, baptism is good if used lawfully; misuse does not make it evil or void, as the eucharist received unworthily by Judas or the Corinthians remained the Lord’s body; heretics should seek in the church the love they lack.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 5.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · The baptismal question about the church does not void heretical baptism any more than an insincere Catholic’s false answer voids his; and since murderers within the church validly baptize, consecrate oil, and celebrate the eucharist, God, not the minister, gives the Spirit.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 6.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · The opinion of Caecilius of Biltha: there is one baptism, in the church alone, and heretics, who are liars, demoniacs, and antichrists, cannot give it.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 7.89Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · John’s prohibition concerns those who keep a false teaching, not converts who leave it; Paul’s stricter rule about greedy brothers did not stop Cyprian sharing God’s altar with greedy colleagues.
On Baptism, against the Donatists 7.98Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Cyprian’s passage on the one-hearted house of God, signified by the eucharistic bread and wine, excludes the envious, yet they, known to Paul, baptized; so the sacrament can be held and given by those not in the church.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.102Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · The healings at Gennesaret and the dispute about unwashed hands fit with John's discourse on the bread of life, since Capernaum lies by the lake of Gennesaret.
The Harmony of the Gospels 3.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Augustine begins the combined narrative with the institution of the Eucharist and the announcement of the betrayer, drawing on all four Gospels.
The Harmony of the Gospels 3.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · After the cup Christ spoke again of the betrayer, and John's account of the beloved disciple's question and the morsel follows at this point.
The Harmony of the Gospels 3.72Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Mark's 'another form' is Luke's 'their eyes were held,' an impediment removed at the breaking of bread, signifying that Christ is known by sharing in his body, the church.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · The same sacrament is judgment or grace to each according to his own heart, as Paul says ‘to himself’, so bad ministers harm only themselves; the schismatics who divided families and Christ’s co-heirs should ask whether they eat worthily.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 3.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Parmenian quoted only the end of 1 Cor 5, omitting ‘not even to eat with such a one’, because the Donatists themselves share the Lord’s table with greedy men, revilers, and drunkards.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · By Petilian's own rule, Catholics are not sons of traitors whose deeds they do not share; sharing sacraments with the wicked is no more sin than the apostles' sharing the supper with Judas.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.50Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Penitent traitors are not rebaptized, so baptism is not lost; and Christ called the disciples clean even with Judas present.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.53Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Augustine sets the notorious deeds of the Donatist Optatus against Petilian's charges: if the Donatists were not defiled by him, distant nations cannot be defiled by unknown Africans.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.87Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · John's baptism, like circumcision and the Passover, foretold Christ; Christ received them as an example, but Christian baptism is a different sacrament.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.96Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Sharing sacraments with the wicked, as Peter did with Judas, is not partnership in their iniquity.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.110Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Psalm 23 speaks of those who use baptism well, but the one holy baptism is also held by the wicked, as Simon, Judas, Saul, and apostates show.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.119Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Petilian declares Catholic sacrifices defiled, citing Isaiah and Hosea.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.120Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · The sacrifice is to each according to his own state; the Donatists' bread of mourning is their shared schism and their reception of the condemned Felicianus.
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.126Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · Miracles prove nothing without love, and love is found only in those who love unity; those who share Christ's sacraments but reject his worldwide body will hear 'I do not know you.'
Against the Letters of Petilian 2.243Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–403 · 1 Tim 5:22 was addressed to Timothy, an ordained minister, and forbids consenting to sin, not tolerating sinners in unity.
On the Work of Monks 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Not all monks can teach, and those who can should do so in turn; Paul himself, as Acts shows, kept set times for preaching and worked at others.
Opusculum 10.8Mark the Hermit · early to mid fifth century · Abraham's 318 servants figure the 318 fathers of Nicaea; Melchizedek's bread and wine figure the Eucharist.
Poem, lines 421–450Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The gospel has reached and tamed the barbarian peoples to the ends of the earth; since the incarnation the pagan oracles have fallen silent and the emperors adore the Cross; but in the poet’s boyhood one able emperor remained devoted to the gods.
Hymn 5, lines 97–128Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · God gave quails and manna to the fathers and feeds Christians with mystic food; he leads the weary to the paradise of the righteous, and on the night of Christ’s resurrection even the punished souls below have a respite.
Hymn 9, lines 33–64Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Christ’s miracles: he heals the blind with clay, stills the storm, heals the woman with the flow of blood, raises the widow’s son and Lazarus, walks on the sea, frees the demoniac of the tombs, feeds the thousands, and opens deaf ears; he is himself the bread that satisfies forever.
Hymn 2, lines 65–96Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · The prefect alleges that Christian bishops use gold and silver vessels and that the faithful sell their estates to enrich the churches, and demands the treasure for the state, quoting Christ’s saying about rendering to Caesar.
Hymn 11, lines 161–192Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Beside Hippolytus’ tomb stands the altar of the Eucharist; the poet himself was helped there in prayer and credits Hippolytus with his safe return; crowds kiss the silver shrine daily, and on his feast all Rome flocks there.
Poem, lines 361–390Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Sobriety reminds the deserters of the water from the rock and the manna, now fulfilled in the body of Christ, of their descent from Judah through which God became man by the Mother of God, and of Samuel, who would not spare the conquered king.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 20–21Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Two questions: why Christ called the apostles fishers of men (men must die to their old life); and whether monks troubled by involuntary sexual dreams must abstain from communion (no: dreams are not in our power; only delight in them is culpable, and grief and tears suffice).
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 43–45Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Three questions: the animals entered the ark in pairs and sevens of each sex; Isaiah's vision shows Christ and the cleansing power of his flesh in the Eucharist, while Ezekiel's living creatures foretold Nebuchadnezzar's fate and the end of Israel's captivity; and Ezekiel is called “son of man” because his vision of dry bones prefigures the resurrection by the Son of man.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 11.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Adam had to be separated from the tree of life, which either sustained his body or was a sacrament of wisdom, as the excommunicated are kept from the altar; the expulsion and the cherubim are real events with a spiritual meaning.
Letter 6 to Exsuperius, chapter 2Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rules that those who lived incontinently after baptism and ask for penance at death are to receive both penance and final communion.
Letter 25, chapter 1Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · The kiss of peace is to be given after the eucharistic prayer, as a seal of the people’s consent, not before.
Letter 25, chapter 2Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · The names of those who bring offerings are to be read within the eucharistic prayer, after the offerings are commended, not before.
Letter 25, chapter 5Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent explains that the Roman bishop sends the consecrated fermentum to the city’s titular churches on Sundays as a sign of communion, but not to distant parishes.
Letter 30, chapter 5Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rejects the Pelagian claim that unbaptized infants can have eternal life, citing John 6 and Christ’s call to the children.
Dialogues 2.2Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · A globe of fire is seen above Martin at the altar; he heals Gallus’s uncle Evanthius from a distance and draws snake venom out of a boy through his finger.
Dialogues 3.10Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · At Martin’s word the deacon Cato catches a huge pike at Easter; Arborius sees Martin’s hand shine as with gems at the eucharist.
Dialogues 3.13Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · To save the condemned and stop the tribunes, Martin takes communion once with the Ithacian bishops at Felix’s ordination, refuses to sign, is consoled and warned by an angel, and never attends a synod again.
Against Cresconius 1.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 405–406 · Augustine shows from Paul that the law, knowledge, and even the Lord's body and blood harm those who use them badly.
Against Cresconius 3.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 405–406 · Augustine argues that by Donatist principles those who ordained Maximian and shared his altar were defiled even more than he.
Against Cresconius 4.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 405–406 · Augustine explains, from Judas among the apostles, Paul's rivals, and Cyprian's greedy colleagues, that the good share sacraments, not sins, with the wicked until the final separation.
1 Corinthians 10:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The manna prefigured Christ's body.
1 Corinthians 10:6Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The exodus is fulfilled in the Christian life, but its gifts do not save one who sins.
1 Corinthians 10:16Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The cup and bread are communion in Christ's blood and body; idol bread is communion with demons.
1 Corinthians 10:17Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Eating with idolaters makes one body with them.
1 Corinthians 10:21Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · One cannot share both the Lord's table and the demons'.
1 Corinthians 11:18Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul turns to the sacraments and the divisions at the assembly.
1 Corinthians 11:19Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Dissension leads to heresy, which reveals the faithful.
1 Corinthians 11:21Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Those who offered consumed everything themselves; the Lord's supper must be common to all.
1 Corinthians 11:22Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The church is not a banqueting hall; offerings should be anonymous.
1 Corinthians 11:23Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul's account of the Supper came from the Lord.
1 Corinthians 11:24Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The Supper is Christ's parting pledge; those who receive his body must live worthily of it.
1 Corinthians 11:26Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The sacrament keeps Christ's death in memory until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:27Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · One must examine the conscience and leave vices before receiving the Lord's body.
1 Corinthians 11:28Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Christ's body must not be received into a polluted heart, as Joseph's clean shroud foreshadowed.
1 Corinthians 11:29Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Unworthy reception adds presumption to sin.
1 Corinthians 11:30Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Lemma of 1 Cor 11:30.
1 Corinthians 11:33Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The offering should be made together.
1 Corinthians 11:34Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul will settle the remaining matters of the sacrament in person.
1 Thessalonians 4:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Sanctification means abstaining from incontinence, especially before receiving Christ's body.
1 Thessalonians 4:7Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Even excessive marital incontinence is uncleanness that hinders receiving Christ's body.
Romans 16:16Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The kiss of peace before communion shows peace with all.
Catastasis II 4Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 405-412 · The invaders desecrated graves, burned churches, used altars as butchers' tables, and carried off the sacred vessels, along with captives and plunder on five thousand camels.
Catastasis II 6Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 405-412 · Facing a threatened assault, Synesius resolves to stay in the church clinging to the altar and to die there as God's minister if need be.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 6.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Holy things received unworthily bring judgment, like the Eucharist to the unworthy or the morsel to Judas; baptism outside the Church is like the emperor's mark on a deserter, and Catholics should call the Donatists back with groaning love.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 11.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Nicodemus, like the catechumens, believed in Jesus' name, but Jesus entrusts himself only to those born anew, who know what it is to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 11.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As Israel ate manna only after crossing the Red Sea, so catechumens must pass through baptism, red with Christ's blood, before receiving the true bread from heaven.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 11.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Nicodemus, like the disciples who were offended by Christ's words about eating his flesh, understood carnally what was meant spiritually; Christ needs no one, but all need him.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 12.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Catechumens believe in Jesus, but he entrusts himself to them only when they are born again in baptism and receive his flesh and blood.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 15.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Eve formed from a rib of the sleeping Adam, with flesh put in its place, prefigures the Church born from the side of Christ asleep on the cross: his weakness is our strength.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 22.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “Judgment” sometimes means discernment, before which all appear, and sometimes condemnation, into which believers will not come.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 25.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The true bread from heaven, which the manna signified, is Christ himself; like the Samaritan woman, the crowd asked for it in a bodily sense.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Jews did not hunger for the bread from heaven because they trusted their own righteousness; Christ is God's righteousness, given by grace, and to believe in him is to eat the living bread.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The fathers who ate manna without faith died, while Moses and others who understood it spiritually did not; so the sacrament differs from its power, and one should approach the altar with innocence and forgiveness.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Manna and the altar were sacraments differing in sign but alike in what they signified; the fathers ate the same spiritual food, and life comes from eating inwardly, in the heart.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The bread is Christ's flesh for the life of the world; the faithful live by the Spirit of Christ only as members of his body, and the sacrament is a sign of unity and a bond of love.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Jews quarreled because they did not understand the bread of concord, which makes many one body.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Unless one eats Christ's flesh and drinks his blood one has no eternal life; this food signifies the fellowship of his body, the church of the predestined, and its sacrament, received daily or at intervals, brings life to some and destruction to others, while the reality brings life to all who share it.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who eat Christ's flesh still die in the body; they have eternal life now in the spirit and will receive it in the body at the resurrection.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's flesh and blood are true food and drink because they make the saints one; he commended them in bread and wine, each made one out of many grains or grapes.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · To eat Christ's flesh and drink his blood is to abide in him and he in us; one who does not abide in Christ, even if he receives the sacrament, eats and drinks it to his judgment.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Son lives because of the Father, as one sent and emptied in the form of a servant, while we live because of the Son by participation in his body and blood; this shows the grace of the mediator, not equality between us and him.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Unlike those who ate manna and died, those who eat Christ, though they die in time, live for ever, because he is eternal life.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Eating Christ's flesh means abiding in him and in the unity of his body; those who thought of his flesh carnally were scandalized.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Many disciples found the saying hard because they understood it carnally, as if Christ would distribute his flesh in pieces.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ's ascension, whole, into heaven answers the scandal: his body is not doled out in pieces, nor is his grace consumed by bites.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · “The flesh profits nothing” means flesh alone, understood as dead meat; quickened by the Spirit, as knowledge by love, Christ's flesh profits greatly.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Spirit gives life only to members joined in the unity of Christ's body, as the soul quickens only attached limbs; so the Christian must dread separation from that body.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Peter, speaking for all as the sign of unity, confessed that Christ has the words of eternal life; we believe in order to know, and Christ gives in his flesh and blood what he himself is.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · We must eat Christ's flesh and blood not only in the sacrament, as the wicked also do, but to share in his Spirit as members of his body, which on earth remains mixed with the wicked until the end.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Saint Laurence abode in Christ through slow torture by fire, strengthened by the food and cup he had received, and followed his bishop Xystus to martyrdom three days later, as Xystus had foretold.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 45.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The righteous before Christ believed in him as to come and so belonged to the same faith and fold as believers now; the signs differed, as in the Red Sea and the rock, but the faith was one.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 47.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine enters to his hearers through Christ the door; the good shepherd's laying down of his life is shared by his members, as John urges and as Christ foretold of Peter.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 50.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Judas was already a thief before the betrayal; his presence among the twelve teaches the Church to bear with the wicked without dividing Christ's body, for the one bread gives life to the good and judgment to the unworthy.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 50.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · "Me you will not always have" was said to Judas as the figure of the wicked in the Church, as Peter, receiving the keys, figured the Church of the good.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 59.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Judas was not chosen for blessedness, though chosen for a purpose; the other disciples ate the bread that was the Lord, Judas the Lord's bread to his judgment.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 62.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Augustine explains that Satan entered Judas after the bread because a good thing received badly does harm, as Paul shows of the Lord's body taken unworthily.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 62.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Judas had already received the sacrament with the others; the dipped morsel only identified him as the betrayer.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 84.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The ruler's table of Proverbs is the Lord's table, where Christ's body and blood are received; the martyrs repaid in kind by laying down their lives, and at the altar they are asked to pray for us, not prayed for.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 120.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The soldier 'opened' Christ's side, from which flowed blood and water, the sacraments of the Church, as Eve was formed from the side of the sleeping Adam.
Against Vigilantius 8Jerome · 406 · Jerome appeals to the practice of the Roman bishop and of bishops everywhere, and links Vigilantius with Eunomius and the old heresy that Tertullian answered in the Scorpiace.
Against Vigilantius 9Jerome · 406 · Jerome defends frequent vigils at the martyrs' shrines: abuses by a few do not condemn the practice, any more than at the Easter vigil.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Many receive the sacraments without truly belonging to the Church, as their leaving in temptation shows; the anointing of the Holy Spirit teaches believers to know good and evil.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Love is 'from God' and 'is God' because the Holy Spirit, God from God, is poured out as love; the wicked may have the sacraments but cannot have love, which is the Spirit's own gift.
Dialogue 8Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 408 · John's attempt at peace fails; the Nitrian monks win an imperial order bringing Theophilus to Constantinople, where he wins allies, gathers charges, convenes the Synod of the Oak, and condemns John in his absence after John refuses to appear before judges who are his avowed enemies.
Summary of the Collation with the Donatists 3.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 411–412 · A dispute over dating the council of Cirta: the staff miscalculate, and the Catholics argue that a few bishops could meet in a house during persecution, as congregations did.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.26Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Against those who grant unbaptized infants eternal life outside the kingdom, Augustine cites John 6:53: without eating Christ's flesh and drinking his blood, which only the baptized receive, there is no life.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.27Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · John 6:53 applies to infants too, since Christ's flesh was given for the life of the world, which includes all who are born.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.34Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The African custom of calling baptism “salvation” and the Eucharist “life” reflects apostolic tradition that neither can be had without these sacraments, which in infants loose only original guilt.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.8Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Even if Romans 5:12 were ambiguous, other clear texts show that infants need baptism for salvation, so Paul's words should be read in agreement with them.
To the Donatists after the Collation (Against the Party of Donatus after the Proceedings) 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 412 · Sharing the sacraments with the bad does not make the good share their guilt; only consent to evil does, as Peter and Judas received from the same hand.
To the Donatists after the Collation (Against the Party of Donatus after the Proceedings) 27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 412 · God himself separates the wicked visibly at his judgment; the guest without a wedding garment stands for the many bad who share the Lord’s table now with the few good.
To the Donatists after the Collation (Against the Party of Donatus after the Proceedings) 33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 412 · Paul praises the Corinthians as if all were holy and rebukes them as if all were divided, yet all shared one altar; “to himself” shows that unworthy eaters harm only themselves.
On the Spirit and the Letter 18Augustine of Hippo · 412 · True wisdom is godliness, which gives thanks to God rather than claiming righteousness for oneself; the righteousness of God in Rom 1:17 is the righteousness God gives.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 2, part 13Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril reads the “strength of bread and water” as the understanding of Scripture, and mystically as Christ’s life-giving body and the water of baptism, which the Jews have lost; and the giant, warrior and judge as the spiritual strength of believers against evil powers.
Commentary on Isaiah 3, Tome 1, part 3Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The scribes and Pharisees took away the key of knowledge; on the mountain of the church God gives all nations gladness in hope, the wine of the eucharist and the ointment of the Spirit given in baptism, for the counsel of salvation is for all nations (Isa 25:5–7).
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 2, part 14Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · The wine and fat bought without money may signify the body and blood of Christ; the silver spent in vain is the money paid to Greek teachers of falsehood, whereas the gospel, plain in style, nourishes the soul with true knowledge.
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 6, part 7Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · As unbelieving Israel was punished while the remnant was saved, so among the nations those who cling to idols face endless fire, while God's servants feast at Christ's life-giving table, eating the bread of life and the divine drink (Isa 65:11–15).
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 6, part 13Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Former wild beasts, the converted persecutors, now feed with the tame on Christ, the living bread, who nourishes with his flesh and his word; then God turns to Israel, teaching that he who fills heaven and earth cannot be enclosed in a temple made with hands (Isa 65:25–66:3).
Commentary on Luke 4:38Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ lodged with the poor Simon; his rebuke of the fever suggests a hostile power behind it; his touch healed because his flesh, united to the Word like fire in bronze, bore divine power, which we receive through the mystical blessing; he silenced the demons’ confession.
Commentary on Luke 6:3Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · If David, who broke the law by eating the holy bread, is admired as a saint, the disciples should not be condemned; the holy loaves foreshadow the eucharistic bread, and the twelve loaves the twelve apostles.
Commentary on Luke 15:16Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The prodigal starved for heavenly teaching; calling God Father requires a worthy life; the sinner who confesses is near to salvation; and the fatted calf is Christ, the spotless sacrifice foreordained before the world, shared by those who return from sin.
Commentary on Luke 22:8Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · The Passover means passing over, from the flesh, ignorance and death to self-control, knowledge of God and incorruption; Christ hid the place of the supper from Judas; the man with the water jar signifies baptism; the true Passover is fulfilled in the church, where Christ himself, the living bread, is offered; the sheaf of first fruits prefigures his resurrection on the third day and his ascension, and the seven weeks prefigure Pentecost.
Commentary on Luke 22:19Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ’s thanksgiving is a pattern for the church’s eucharistic prayer; since death came through the devil, the Word, life by nature, made our flesh his own and life-giving, as fire fills iron; eating his flesh and drinking his blood we have life in us; his indwelling in us by participation differs from his becoming flesh; God transforms the bread and wine on the holy tables into the life-giving energy of his flesh, so we must believe his words, “This is my body.”
Commentary on Luke 24:27Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ opened the law and prophets to the Emmaus disciples, since the prophecies prepared faith in the resurrection; once the word had moved their hearts, he made himself known in the breaking of bread and vanished, for after the resurrection only the renewed and incorruptible can be with him, as Mary was forbidden to touch him.
Letter 11 (Cyril to Celestine, bishop of Rome)Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Cyril reports to Celestine of Rome on Nestorius's teaching and conduct, asks whether he should break communion with him, and attaches a memorandum summarizing Nestorius's views and his deposition of the presbyter Philip.
Letter 17 (Cyril and the synod of Alexandria to Nestorius (third letter, with the twelve anathemas))Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Cyril and the Egyptian synod give Nestorius a final warning, set out at length the faith in the one incarnate Word, the Eucharist, and Mary as Mother of God, and append twelve anathemas he must accept.
Letter 55 (Cyril to Anastasius, Alexander and others (explanation of the Creed))Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Cyril explains the Nicene Creed clause by clause to a group of monks, insisting that the one only-begotten Word himself became man, suffered in his own flesh, and is the one Lord into whose death Christians are baptized, against the followers of Nestorius and Theodore.
Book 1, chapter 4Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · Hesychius reads the sin offering of the anointed priest (Lev 4) as a figure of Christ's sacrifice: the calf is his flesh, the blood carried into the tabernacle his entry into heaven, the burning outside the camp his passion at Golgotha; the offerings of the multitude, the ruler and the common people teach repentance, confession, mutual prayer, and the forgiveness given through priests.
Book 2, chapter 6 (second part)Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · Opening Book 2 with Lev 6:8–30, Hesychius reads the perpetual fire as the Spirit kept alive by meditation on Scripture, the grain offering eaten by Aaron's sons as theology kept within what Christ revealed and practised in the church, the priest's offering as Christ's passion, and the sin offering as repentance, whose 'blood' is baptism.
Book 2, chapter 8Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On the consecration of Aaron and his sons (Lev 8), Hesychius reads the assembly as the church, the washing as baptism, the high priest's vestments as Christ's incarnation and divinity, the anointing as the incarnation shared by Christians through the Spirit, the second ram as the mystical Passover of the Last Supper, and the seven days at the tabernacle door as the days until Pentecost.
Book 2, chapter 9Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On the eighth day of Aaron's ordination (Lev 9), Hesychius reads the whole scene as Pentecost and the church at worship: the elders are the order of presbyters, the sacrifices are preaching of Christ's sacrifice, repentance and theology, the word Moses commands is the eucharist, the priest's blessing comes from heaven, and the fire from the Lord is the Spirit descending on the apostles.
Book 6, chapter 19Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Leviticus 19 Hesychius expounds the holiness code: holiness, honour of parents and the spiritual Sabbath, care for the poor and hired workers, honest judgment and weights, love of neighbour as the fullness of the law, and warnings against augury, sorcery, mixing church and synagogue, and burdening Gentile converts.
Book 6, chapter 21Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Leviticus 21 Hesychius reads the priest's defilement by the dead as his responsibility for his household's and people's sins, the high priest as Christ, who weds the virgin church and not the harlot, widowed and divorced synagogue, and the bodily blemishes that bar priests from service as defects of soul, matching Paul's qualifications for a bishop.
Book 6, chapter 22Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Lev 22, Hesychius applies the laws on priestly purity to the clergy and to communion: the unclean must not approach the holy things until cleansed by the tears of repentance; foreigners, sojourners and hirelings stand for unbelievers, heretics and self-seeking ministers; the 'fifth part' is Christ's word spoken over the mystery; blemished animals are those unfit to be ordained; the seven days under the mother are the present life, and the ban on sacrificing a beast with its young separates the Jewish Pascha from the Lord's.
Book 6, chapter 23Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On the feasts of Lev 23, Hesychius reads the six working days and the Sabbath as good works now and rest in the age to come; Passover and unleavened bread as Christ's passion and a life free of the old leaven; the sheaf offered on the day after the Sabbath as the risen Christ and the lamb with it as the eucharistic sacrifice of the intelligible Melchizedek; Pentecost, kept on the Lord's day, as the coming of the Spirit; and the feasts of trumpets, atonement and tabernacles as resurrection, humility, and life lived as sojourners.
Book 7, chapter 24Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Lev 24, Hesychius reads the lamp oil as almsgiving and the lamp as the Holy Spirit on Christ the lampstand; the twelve loaves of presence as the eucharistic table and its memorial; the blasphemer born of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father as one who mixes Scripture with pagan learning and blasphemes Christ by calling the Son less than the Father; and the laws of retaliation as the judgment awaiting those who lead others into impiety.
Book 7, chapter 26Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Lev 26, Hesychius reads the ban on idols as a ban on the hidden idolatry of greed, the Sabbath as rest from evil, and fear of the sanctuary as chastity and careful self-examination before communion; the thirty blessings are spiritual goods of the gospel; the curses describe the fate of the Jews who rejected Christ, read both of the Roman destruction (with Josephus) and of their loss of the spiritual sense of Scripture; the chapter ends with the promise that a remnant will be saved and that 'all Israel will be saved' (Rom 11).
City of God 8.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine explains that Christians honor the martyrs' memorials but offer sacrifice only to God, whose one sacrifice is celebrated even at the martyrs' shrines.
City of God 10.6Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine defines true sacrifice as every work that unites us to God, and teaches that the whole redeemed city is offered to God through Christ the priest, as the church shows in the sacrament of the altar.
City of God 10.20Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine teaches that Christ, the Mediator, is both priest and offering, and that the church's daily sacrifice is the sacrament of this one sacrifice, prefigured by all the ancient ones.
City of God 16.22Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Abraham rescued Lot and was blessed by Melchizedek, whose offering first showed the sacrifice now offered by Christians, fulfilled in Christ, priest for ever after his order.
City of God 16.37Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Jacob's obtaining Isaac's blessing was not fraud but a mystery: the blessing proclaims Christ among the nations, Isaac figuring the law and prophets.
City of God 17.5Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The prophecy to Eli (1 Sam 2:27–36) foretold the end of Aaron's priesthood and the faithful priest Christ, whose Christian sacrifice of bread the remnant of Israel would share.
City of God 17.17Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Psalm 110 proclaims Christ's eternal priesthood after Melchizedek, and Psalm 22 foretells his crucifixion and the conversion of the nations.
City of God 17.20Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine praises David's repentance, notes Solomon's fall, and finds prophecies of Christ and the Church in Wisdom, Sirach, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs.
City of God 18.35Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reads Haggai's shaking of the nations, Zechariah's humble king and the blood of the covenant, and Malachi's pure offering among the nations, the angel of the covenant, and the day of judgment as prophecies of Christ and the church.
City of God 19.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine examines oracles quoted by Porphyry, in which Apollo condemns Christ while praising the God of the Hebrews and Hecate praises Christ as a pious man while cursing Christians, and argues that the demons' aim is to keep men from becoming Christians and that justice, and so a true people, exists only where the one God alone receives sacrifice.
City of God 21.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view that all the baptized who have received Christ's body, even heretics, will eventually be saved.
City of God 21.20Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reports the view that those baptized in the catholic church, even if they later fall into heresy or idolatry, will eventually be saved.
City of God 21.25Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Neither heretics nor lapsed catholics nor catholics living wickedly will be saved by the sacraments alone: those who do the works of the flesh will not inherit the kingdom, and only those who abide in Christ truly eat his body.
City of God 22.10Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The martyrs are not gods; Christians build memorials, not temples, for them and offer the sacrifice, which is the body of Christ, to the one God at their shrines, whereas the demons work wonders to be worshipped.
On Faith and Works 9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Except at the point of death, the time before baptism is precisely when converts should be taught how to live; the catechumenate exists for this.
On Faith and Works 46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · The “holy commandment” of 2 Peter is chaste living; Peter's dry springs, Jude's waterless clouds, and James's dead faith all describe believers who do not live accordingly.
Commentary on Jeremiah 4.37Jerome · ca. 414-419 · 'Shallum' is best taken as Zedekiah, the last king; the woe on the builder of a palace by injustice is against Jehoiakim, compared with his just father Josiah; the confused Septuagint is read figuratively of heretics who leave the church (Jer 22:10–17).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.17Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The nations are told that God, who scattered Israel, will gather and redeem it by his blood from the stronger hostile powers; the grain, wine, and oil, the watered garden, the rejoicing virgins, young and old, and the priests drunk with fatness are spiritual gifts in the church, given now in part and in full at the resurrection (Jer 31:10–14).
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.36.8Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Mascezel advances after prayer and the sacraments.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.19Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius misstated the charge against him: the issue is not whether infants are baptized but whether unbaptized infants are under Adam's condemnation and need cleansing from original sin.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor promises heaven to unbaptized infants and prescribes eucharistic offerings for them; Augustine replies that only baptism or martyrdom makes a member of Christ.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Even granting offerings for the unbaptized, Victor cannot account for the countless infants of unbelievers who die unbaptized with no one to offer for them.
On the Soul and Its Origin 1.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · The view of new souls may be defended, but not in Victor’s way, whose errors Augustine lists.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Victor “decrees” eucharistic sacrifices for unbaptized infants on the example of 2 Maccabees, but those sacrifices were for the circumcised.
On the Soul and Its Origin 2.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · The question of the soul’s origin remains open; Victor’s answer defames God’s nature and still cannot explain the infants of unbelievers.
On the Soul and Its Origin 3.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Tenth error: Christian sacrifice is not to be offered for the unbaptized; Victor, a layman, presumed to “decree” it.
On the Soul and Its Origin 3.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Augustine lists Victor’s eleven errors.
On the Soul and Its Origin 4.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Augustine repeats the eleven errors, urges Victor to learn not to know, and restates his own positions.
The Institutes 1.9John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The monks go without shoes, wearing only sandals when needed, and remove even these to celebrate or receive the sacred mysteries.
The Institutes 3.2John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · In Egypt the monks pray continually while they work, so they hold no public day offices except for Communion on Saturday and Sunday.
The Institutes 3.11John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · On Sunday a single office with Communion replaces the third and sixth hours, marking the day of the resurrection as a festival.
The Institutes 6.8John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · If athletes guard their purity so carefully, how much more must monks who daily receive the flesh of the Lamb, as Leviticus requires.
Lausiac History 16Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Nathanael stays thirty-seven years in his cell, refusing to leave it even to escort visiting bishops or to help a boy who was really a demon in disguise.
Lausiac History 17Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Macarius the Egyptian of Scetis foretells his disciple's punishment for greed, restores a woman thought turned into a mare, digs a tunnel for prayer, and cures a ravenous demoniac.
Lausiac History 18Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Macarius of Alexandria, presbyter of the Cells, outdoes every ascetic feat he hears of, visits the tomb of Jannes and Jambres, astonishes Pachomius's monks, heals the sick and possessed, and resists vainglory.
Lausiac History 19Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Moses the Ethiopian, a former slave and robber chief, repents, overcomes long sexual temptation through severe asceticism and Isidore's help, and becomes a presbyter of Scetis.
Lausiac History 25Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · The proud monk Valens, deceived by demons, worships a false Christ and refuses Communion until the fathers chain and cure him; Palladius explains why such falls are recorded.
Lausiac History 26Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · The gifted ascetic Heron, puffed up with pride against Evagrius and the fathers, falls into dissipation in Alexandria, is struck with disease, and returns repentant before his death.
Lausiac History 27Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · The hermit Ptolemy, living fifteen years alone on dew, cut off from teaching and the sacraments, loses his faith and ends a wandering drunkard.
Lausiac History 32Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Palladius describes Pachomius's monasteries at Tabennesi: the angel's bronze tablet of rules, the twenty-four lettered classes, prayers, meals, crafts, and numbers.
Lausiac History 33Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Palladius describes the Pachomian women's monastery and tells how a slander drove one nun to drown herself and the slanderer to hang herself, with the presbyter's penalties.
Lausiac History 38Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Evagrius of Pontus, a brilliant deacon at Constantinople, flees a dangerous love after an angelic warning, becomes a monk at Nitria and the Cells, and is renowned for asceticism and wisdom.
Lausiac History 59Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · At Antinoe, the aged Amma Talis rules a monastery of sixty virgins by love alone, and her disciple Taor refuses new clothes so as never to go out.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the Pelagian view of infant baptism denies original sin, since Scripture ties salvation and life to baptism and the Eucharist.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine quotes Innocent's letter to the Numidian bishops denying eternal life to unbaptized infants and presses Caelestius with the dilemma it raises.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues from Romans 5 that universal reconciliation through Christ presupposes universal sin inherited from Adam, including in infants.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine quotes Cyprian on the Lord's Prayer, the Testimonies, and On Patience to show that Cyprian ascribed every good to God's grace.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues from Cyprian that even avoiding grave sin and converting persecutors depend on grace sought in prayer, without denying free choice.
Life of Porphyry 5Marcus the Deacon · ca. 420-430 · Porphyry, though crippled by illness, refuses Mark's arm on the steps of the Martyrium so that God may see his toil.
On Care for the Dead 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Augustine cites Maccabees and the church's custom of commending the dead at the altar, rejects Virgil's belief that the unburied cannot cross the river of the dead, and introduces a passage from The City of God.
On Care for the Dead 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Only the church's sacrifices, prayers, and alms reach the dead, and only those whose lives made them fit to be helped; burial is a humane duty and a witness to the resurrection, and burial at a martyr's shrine helps only by increasing prayer.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 110Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The Eucharistic sacrifice and alms offered for the baptized dead help those whose lives merited such help, as thanksgiving for the very good, propitiation for the not very bad, and consolation to the living for the very bad.
Discourse 5.57Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Men and women share the same soul, laws, sacraments, and prizes of virtue.
Discourse 10.90Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Malachi foretells a pure sacrifice offered everywhere among the nations.
Discourse 10.91Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Malachi is fulfilled in the church's spiritual sacrifice everywhere.
Book 3, lines 457–480Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · Abram returns the plunder to its owners, gives a tenth to Melchizedek and receives from him the bread and wine that foreshadow the sacrament; God promises him an heir of his own body in place of his servant from Damascus.
Sermon 30Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus contrasts Matthew the tax collector with the paralytic, reading them as figures of the Gentiles and the Jews, and answers the Pharisees' objection: Christ dines with sinners as physician, and all must confess themselves sinners to share his table.
Sermon 33Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On Jairus's plea and the woman with the flow of blood (Mark 5:22–29), Chrysologus describes parental love, reads the hand laid on as God's creating and recreating hand, and praises the woman's ‘theft’ of healing by faith, lamenting that communicants who receive Christ's body are not healed for lack of faith.
Sermon 34Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus presents the woman healed by touching Christ's fringe as the model of silent confession that obtains pardon without public shame, contrasts her faith with those who receive Christ's body unworthily, and explains Jairus's daughter's ‘sleep’ as death before God's power.
Sermon 67Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Handing the Lord's Prayer to candidates for baptism, Chrysologus explains each petition and distinguishes Christ's sonship by nature from theirs by grace.
Sermon 68Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus explains the Lord's Prayer to candidates for baptism through Habakkuk's trembling at God's report; the passage also contains Sermon 69, which surveys God's condescension from Noah to the cross and begins explaining the Prayer again.
Sermon 70Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus explains the Lord's Prayer to candidates for baptism, stressing the boldness of calling God Father and reading the bread as Christ received at the altar.
Sermon 71Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus tells the candidates that the threefold confession of the Trinity has made them God's sons, explains each petition, and urges patient hope, since they have received the promise and not yet the reality.
Sermon 95Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Reading the anointing in the Pharisee's house allegorically, Chrysologus takes the house as the synagogue where Christ gave the sacrament of his body and blood and was betrayed, and the sinful woman as the church of the Gentiles, whose sins will be fully forgiven at Christ's return.
Sermon 159Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Comparing the shepherds and the magi, who came from near and far to the one manger, the preacher reads the ox and ass of Isa 1:3 as Jews and gentiles who both recognized Christ, and urges hearers to offer the gifts of faith and return to paradise by another way.
Sermon 160Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On the Epiphany, Chrysologus describes the magi abandoning astrology to worship the infant God with gifts, Christ's baptism with the Father's voice and the Spirit's descent, and the miracle at Cana as a figure of his blood, three testimonies to his Godhead.
Sermon 161Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Expounding the parable of the unprofitable servants (Luke 17:7–10), Chrysologus shows from a slave's toil how much more man owes God, and how the apostles were kept humble; the passage also contains Sermon 162, on the man who asked Christ to divide an inheritance (Luke 12:13–15), which warns against avarice and points to the shared inheritance with Christ.
Sermon 172Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Expounding Luke 11:52 and 12:1, Chrysologus describes envy as a self-torturing vice that shut the lawyers out of the knowledge they withheld, traces its work from the devil and Cain to Herod and the killing of Christ, and contrasts the swelling leaven of hypocrisy with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
2.13Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Lucian the martyr, bound in prison, celebrates the Eucharist on his own breast for his companions.
3.14Philostorgius · ca. 425-433 · Philostorgius says Arians and Nicenes shared worship except the Eucharist until Aetius brought about a full separation.
Book 1, lines 68–92Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Sedulius praises God who made man, restored him by the food and drink of Christ's blood, and saved the world through the ark as a figure of baptism, and asks him to guide him on the narrow way to the fold of the good Shepherd.
Book 2, lines 255–278Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · The Lord's Prayer continued: God's will be done on earth as in heaven; our daily bread is Christ, Word and food; and we must forgive our debtors, as the parable of the unforgiving servant warns.
Book 4, lines 198–221Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Of the ten lepers healed, only one returns to give thanks, presenting himself to Christ, the true high priest after the order of Melchizedek who offers bread and wine; blind Bartimaeus, crying out persistently, receives his sight, like the friend who gets bread at midnight by persistence.
Book 5, lines 26–49Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Christ washes the feet even of Judas, who is clean outside but foul within; after instituting the gifts of his body and blood, he gives Judas the bread, Satan enters him, and he sells Christ for thirty pieces of silver, a crime no price could measure.
Book 5, lines 276–300Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Death has lost its sting, for it did not reach Christ but Christ reached it; from his pierced side flow blood and water, the gifts of baptism and the Eucharist; he is buried, and his enemies fear the disciples will steal the body.
Book 5, lines 354–378Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · The synagogue yields to the church, Christ's bride, embodied in Mary, ever virgin, to whom (the poet says) the risen Christ first appeared; he is known at Emmaus in the breaking of bread, eats fish and honeycomb, and shows his wounds to the disciples behind closed doors.
Book 5, lines 379–403Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Christ lets doubting Thomas touch his wounds, showing he is no deceiver; at the sea he tells the disciples to cast their nets to the right, and the great catch, the fish, bread and fire are read as figures of the church and of baptism, the Eucharist and the Spirit.
Book 5, lines 404–428Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · After the meal Christ asks Peter three times whether he loves him and entrusts him with his sheep, undoing the threefold denial; he gives his disciples his peace and commands them to baptize all nations, then ascends from Bethany and sits at the Father's right hand.
Book 1, section 2Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Sedulius prays to God the creator, who restored fallen man through the food and drink of Christ's body and blood and prefigured baptism in the ark, asking him to guide him on the narrow way to the heavenly Jerusalem, though God's miracles are too many to tell.
Book 2, section 17Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Sedulius expounds the Lord's Prayer petition by petition: God is our Father by grace as Christ's by nature, making us brothers; his name is hallowed in pure hearts; his kingdom is endless day; his will defeats the devil; our daily bread is food, God's word and Christ's body; we are forgiven as we forgive; God leads no one into temptation but abandons the disobedient; and we ask to be delivered from evil to the right-hand path of the saved.
Book 4, section 16Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Christ cleanses ten lepers; one returns to adore him, showing faith and the prudence to present himself to Christ, the true high priest after the order of Melchizedek, to whom his body and blood are offered.
Book 5, section 3Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · After Christ institutes the gifts of his body and blood, Satan enters Judas, who sells him for thirty pieces of silver, a crime beyond any price; better that he had never been born; he leads the armed band and betrays Christ with a kiss.
Book 5, section 24Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · Christ's side is pierced and blood and water flow; body, blood and water are the three gifts of baptism and the Eucharist, by which believers become the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Book 5, section 30Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · At Emmaus Christ, the true bread, is recognized in the breaking of bread.
Book 5, section 35Sedulius · ca. 425-450 · The fish, bread and fire of the meal by the sea signify baptism, the Eucharist and the Holy Spirit, who came as fire at Pentecost.
Retractations 2.11Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine describes his lost reply to Hilarus, who objected to singing psalms at the altar during the offering and communion.
The Conferences 4.1John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Abba Daniel, a humble monk of Scetis, was ordained deacon and then presbyter by Paphnutius, yet kept serving as a deacon, and died before Paphnutius.
The Conferences 7.29John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus asks why, if possession is purifying, the possessed are excluded from communion in his homeland.
The Conferences 7.30John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The possessed should be prayed for as fellow members; the Egyptian elders never barred them from communion but would give it daily, since the sacrament drives out the demon.
The Conferences 7.34John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Serenus postpones the question of the origin of evil spirits to the next night, as it is almost Sunday dawn and time for church.
The Conferences 14.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Contemplative knowledge divides into historical and spiritual understanding, the latter threefold, tropology, allegory, and anagogy, so that Jerusalem can mean the Jewish city, the church, the heavenly city, or the soul; Nesteros links these to Paul’s revelation, knowledge, prophecy, and teaching.
The Conferences 22.3John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas gives three causes of nocturnal emissions: past overeating, a slothful mind still harboring passions, and the devil’s attempt to keep monks from communion, and warns that gluttony breeds the other vices.
The Conferences 22.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus asks whether a monk who has had a nocturnal emission should receive communion.
The Conferences 22.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas rules that an emission without pleasure or consent, caused by nature or the devil, need not keep a monk from communion, but one caused by his own fault should, since unworthy reception brings judgment.
The Conferences 22.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas tells of a chaste brother whose emissions came only before communion; the elders judged it the devil’s work and bade him communicate, and the trouble ceased; he then urges moderation in food and the inner purity of the true virgin and eunuch for Christ.
The Conferences 22.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · However pure a monk becomes, he must always count himself unworthy of communion, since the sacrament is received by grace, not merit, and no one is without hidden sins.
The Conferences 22.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus objects that if no one is sinless, no one is holy, and so no one can receive the sacraments or hope for the kingdom.
The Conferences 23.21John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Awareness of sin should not keep monks from communion; they should receive it every Sunday humbly as a remedy, rather than once a year as if they could become worthy.
On the Predestination of the Saints 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · The theory that infants are baptized or not according to foreseen future repentance would undo original sin; even the Pelagians did not say it, since future merits that will never exist are no merits.
Instructions 1.11Eucherius of Lyon · ca. 428-434 · The kingdom in which Christ drinks the new wine is the church, where he drinks his blood in his members.
On the Gift of Perseverance 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Cyprian's exposition of “Give us this day our daily bread”, received daily in the Eucharist, shows that the petition also asks for perseverance, so as not to be separated from Christ's body.
On the Gift of Perseverance 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · That some die unbaptized and others baptized, some persevere and others are kept until they fall, shows that grace to begin and to persevere is given by God's secret, just will; no one knows in this life that he belongs to the calling; even “Lift up your hearts” in the liturgy acknowledges God's gift.
Commonitorium 14Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Marius argues that Julian's denial of original sin empties infant baptism of meaning, since every title of Christ (Saviour, Redeemer, Reconciler, Regenerator, Life) presupposes sin; he defends the twofold death from Adam with 1 Corinthians 15 and closes with Augustine's authority.
On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 6.6John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · The creed of Antioch brought Nestorius to baptism, the Eucharist and the episcopate; it confesses Christ as only-begotten, firstborn of all creation, born of the Father before the ages and not made, which leaves no room for his statue and instrument comparisons.
Cyril, Twelve Anathemas, Anathema XIAnonymous · 430–433 · Eleventh anathema: the Lord's flesh is life-giving because it is the Word's own flesh.
Oration 10.1Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · On the evening of the Last Supper Christ gave his flesh and blood, washed the disciples' feet, and went willingly to his passion; Proclus imagines his appeal to Judas, whose greed betrayed the apostleship and its gifts.
Oration 10.4Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · Before approaching the mysteries, the congregation is to put away greed, hypocrisy, anger, and grudges, and to exchange the greeting of peace, so that Christ may find them pure like John, Paul, and Peter.
Oration 14.2Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · The Jewish Passover in Egypt foreshadowed the Christian Pascha: the lamb, the blood, the death of the firstborn, the Red Sea, the song of Moses, and the manna are fulfilled in Christ's sacrifice, baptism, the liturgy, and the bread from heaven.
Oration 17.2Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · Proclus bids the congregation honour Christ in the church, altar, and eucharistic bread as the Magi did at Bethlehem, and praises Stephen, whose name means “crown,” in a string of images, before leaving his praise to Scripture.
Theodotus, ACO I.1.2, homily 73.13Theodotus of Ancyra · 431 · The manger has become the eucharistic table, and Christ's lowliness, sufferings, and death have brought the world salvation; the virgin's body, made good by God, was no unworthy dwelling.
Psalm 135Prosper of Aquitaine · after 432, before 455 · Psalm 136 (135) is read as praise of God's eternal mercy in creation and in redemption, with the exodus figuring baptism, the Eucharist, and victory over the devil.
Epigram 72: De aacramentorum perceptione (Migne also numbers it LXIX)Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 435-450 · The sacrament protects those who receive it worthily, but the unworthy receive it to their judgment.
To the Church 2.23Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Christians owe more than the Jews did because they have received the truth, sonship, the Spirit, and Christ himself.
On Eph 5.25Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret urges husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, explaining the washing as baptism in the Trinitarian name and the nourishing as the Eucharist.
Psalm 8:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · The title of Psalm 8, "for the wine-presses," signifies the many churches and altars of the new covenant replacing the one altar of the old.
Psalm 21:27Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 22:26: the poor who eat are believers fed with spiritual teaching and the mystical feast, awaiting eternal life.
Psalm 21:30Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 22:29: those fed by the immortal food worship Christ, and after the resurrection all will bow to him, willingly or not.
Psalm 22:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 23:1: the nations fed with the saving food call Christ their shepherd, who lets them lack nothing.
Psalm 22:5Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 23:5: the table, oil, and cup are the sacraments known to the initiated, given before the eyes of the defeated enemies.
Psalm 33:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 34, title: David "changed his face" when he hid his flight from the priest at Nob; the holy bread he received foreshadowed the sacrament open to all believers.
Psalm 33:9Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 34:8: the deeper sense of "be enlightened" and "taste" is baptism and the Eucharist, which show the Savior's goodness.
Psalm 35:9Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 36:8: the torrent of delight is the teaching and the mystical food of the church, flowing only for a season, so that all must come now.
Psalm 54:14–15Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 55:13–14: the close friend who turned enemy is Judas, who shared Christ's table and mysteries; an added passage laments communicants who betray one another.
Psalm 62:2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 63:1-2: David longs for God in body and soul in the desert and worships as if at the tabernacle; an addition applies the verse to the church's sacrifice.
Psalm 83:1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 84, title: the psalm foretells both the Jews' return and the world's salvation; the winepresses are the churches.
Psalm 83:4Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 84:3: like birds that find a nest, believers have found God's altars, where they and their children receive spiritual food.
Psalm 95:7–8Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 96:7-9: the nations are called to bring the rational sacrifices of the new covenant in the churches, as Malachi foretold, and to travail and bring forth piety.
Psalm 97:4Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 98:4: freed from the devil, the church shouts God's victory hymn, especially at the time of the mysteries.
Psalm 101:29Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 102:28: the enduring seed is Christ, whose flesh, united to God the Word, is indestructible and gives life to believers.
Psalm 102:7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 103:7: God planned salvation from the start; the sea, the rock, and the manna in Moses' time foreshadowed baptism, the living water, and the heavenly food.
Psalm 109:4Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 110:4: Christ's priesthood, confirmed by oath, is eternal; like Melchizedek's, it is for all nations and uses bread and wine; it began at the Last Supper, replaces the Levitical priesthood, and is exercised through the Church, which offers the symbols of his body and blood.
On the Governance of God 4.85Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Pagan persecutors accused Christians of murder, incest, and cannibalism in their rites.
On the Governance of God 8.11Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Christians came to church reeking of sacrifices to Caelestis, which was worse than staying away.
On the Governance of God 8.13Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · They shared both the Lord’s table and the table of demons, preferring the latter.
Church History 1.27Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Arius is refused by Athanasius at Alexandria; Constantine threatens Athanasius; Eusebius’s party and the Melitians bring charges against him (linen tribute, treason, the broken chalice of Ischyras, the severed hand of Arsenius).
Church History 2.38Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Macedonius of Constantinople persecutes the Nicene party and the Novatianists with torture and forced communion; the Novatianists move their church to Sycae; soldiers sent against Mantinium are killed; the moving of Constantine’s body causes a bloody riot.
Church History 5.22Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Socrates digresses on the diversity of church customs: the date of Easter, the Lenten fast, Saturday and Sunday assemblies, clerical continence, baptism, and other local usages, arguing that such things rest on custom, not apostolic law.
Church History 2.25Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · At the synod of Tyre Athanasius faces charges of violence, of breaking a chalice, of murdering Arsenius and of violating a woman; he exposes the last two, but fearing for his life flees to Constantinople and is deposed in his absence.
Church History 6.28Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Sozomen begins his survey of the famous monks of Egypt under Valens: John, Or, Ammon of Tabennesis, Benus, Theonas, Copres, Helles, Elias, Apelles, Isidore, Serapion, Dioscorus and Eulogius.
Church History 8.5Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Chrysostom’s preaching draws crowds and converts; a Macedonian woman who tries to deceive her converted husband by substituting her own bread for the eucharist finds it turned to stone in her mouth.
Letter 159 to Nicetas of Aquileia, chapter 6Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Leo rules that those who were rebaptized are to be received back through penance and the bishop's imposition of hands, with communion given in danger of death.
Canon 3Anonymous · 441 · Penitents in danger of death receive communion as viaticum without the reconciling laying on of hands; if they recover they complete their penance.
Canon 14Anonymous · 441 · Baptized persons troubled by demons who submit to the clergy's care may receive communion.
Canon 17Anonymous · 441 · The chalice is to be offered with the capsa and consecrated by mingling in the Eucharist.
Canon 12Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · Penitents who die before reconciliation receive communion and have their offering accepted.
Canon 15Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · A deacon may not sit with presbyters or give the Eucharist in a presbyter's presence.
Canon 28Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · Penitents who recover after receiving the viaticum return to the order of penitents (the end of Orange, canon 3).
Canon 2Anonymous · 442 · Penitents who die suddenly before reconciliation are to have their offerings received and to be commemorated in the liturgy.
Church History 3.8Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Julian closes the great church of Antioch and confiscates its vessels; his uncle Julian desecrates the altar and strikes Bishop Euzoius, and the treasurer Felix mocks the costly vessels used for the son of Mary.
Church History 4.10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · The Messalians (Euchites or Enthusiasts) reject work, treat dreams as prophecy, and hold that baptism and the Eucharist are of no effect and only prayer expels the demon each person inherits; bishops Letoius and Amphilochius suppress them, and Flavian of Antioch draws a confession from their leader Adelphius by feigned sympathy.
Church History 5.17Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · After Theodosius's anger leads to the massacre of seven thousand at Thessalonica (390), Ambrose bars him from the church; eight months later, at Christmas, Theodosius seeks reconciliation, accepts Ambrose's demand for a law delaying capital sentences thirty days, performs public penance, and learns to stay outside the sanctuary, later praising Ambrose as the only true bishop.
Part 1, chapter 21Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Jacob’s winning of Isaac’s blessing in Esau’s clothing figures Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh and the Christian people who receive the blessing and the pure sacrifice in place of the Jews.
Part 1, chapter 29Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Joseph’s release on the third year, his rule over Egypt, and his granaries that fed the famine figure Christ’s resurrection, his universal authority, the churches, and the food of his body.
Part 1, chapter 37Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Passover lamb, eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, figures Christ eaten in sincerity until the resurrection; the spoiling of Egypt figures worldly learning passing to Christ, and the flight to the Red Sea, the flight to baptism.
Part 1, chapter 39Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The manna and the meat figure Christ, the bread from heaven, and his flesh given in the passion; the hoarded manna that rotted warns against greed, and the rock struck at Horeb is Christ, pouring out blood and water.
Part 2, chapter 2Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The tabernacle and its materials, measures, curtains, columns, ark, table, lamp, and courts figure the Church, its martyrs, teachers, sacraments, and Christ the priest and victim.
Part 2, chapter 25Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · David, anointed shepherd, harpist who calmed Saul, slayer of Goliath with a stone, persecuted fugitive who spared Saul, and feigned madman carried in his own hands, figures Christ the good shepherd, the cross, the victory over the devil, the persecuted martyrs, and the Eucharist.
Part 2, chapter 28Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The division of the kingdom under Rehoboam figures heresy and schism, which Christ will gather into one flock; Elijah’s drought, the seven thousand, the sacrifice on Carmel, and the ravens that fed him figure Christ’s victory over idolatry and the Eucharist ministered through the Jews to the nations.
Part 3, chapter 15Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalm’s satisfied hungry soul and Isaiah’s promise of food are fulfilled in the feeding of the five thousand, read with Paul’s “one bread.”
Part 3, chapter 18Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Psalms on the friend who ate Christ’s bread and lifted his heel, and Zechariah’s thirty pieces of silver, are fulfilled in Judas’ betrayal at the Last Supper.
Part 3, chapter 39Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Isaiah’s wolf and lamb feeding together and the Psalms’ poor set among princes are fulfilled at Christ’s one table, the great supper to which the nations, the rich, kings, and returning heretics are brought.
Part 3, chapter 40Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The prophecies that all nations will worship God and offer a pure sacrifice will be fulfilled when the gospel has reached all nations, and then the end will come, as the prophets, Christ, and even pagan writers attest; the third part of the book closes.
Part 4, chapter 6Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Job, Paul, and Christ foretell the lying signs of the Antichrist; the author adds recent devilish signs he knew: a possessed young nun at Carthage healed at the Eucharist, a false monk with fraudulent cures, and an impostor near Naples expelled while Pope Leo was suppressing the Manichaeans and Pelagians.
Daniel 7Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · A monk who held the Eucharistic bread to be only a figure is convinced by a vision of the sacrificed Christ child.
Isaac the Theban 2Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Isaac hurries from the Eucharist to his cell lest the light he received be extinguished.
Matoes 9Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Matoes and his brother, ordained presbyters against their will, never celebrated the Eucharist, holding ordination to be for the blameless.
Mark the Egyptian 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Mark refuses to judge a presbyter accused by a demoniac, and sees the presbyter purified by an angel at the altar.
Poemen 30Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Poemen likens monks thirsting for the weekend Eucharist to deer seeking water after swallowing serpents.
Phocas 1Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · A monk torn between Chalcedonians and their opponents fasts forty days until the Lord tells him he is right where he is, with the orthodox.
Phocas 2Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · James fasts forty days in a cave against lust and is revived by holy communion brought by Phocas.
Exodus Question 24Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret explains the Passover rites as a memorial of the exodus and a type of Christ's passion and the Christian mysteries: the lamb's blood, the unleavened bread, the one house as the one church, and the inclusion of proselytes as a sign of the nations' salvation.
Exodus Question 27Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret explains 1 Cor 10:1–4: the exodus is a type of baptism, and the manna and the water from the rock are types of the Eucharist.
Joshua Question 2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · God's promise of land was conditional and was fulfilled more fully in the apostles' mission; Rahab prefigures the church, and the crossing of the Jordan prefigures Christ's baptism and Christian baptism before the Eucharist.
1 Kingdoms Question 52Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · David was blameless in eating the holy bread, as Christ said; his act foreshadows the Eucharist open to all the baptized.