bread and wine, yet nevertheless the laudable authority of the holy canons and the approved custom of the church have established that communion should be administered only to those who are fasting. Similarly, though in the primitive church, the faithful received communion in the two kinds, yet it was afterwards decreed that priests only should receive communion in the two kinds, and the laymen in the species of bread only. As therefore this custom was wisely introduced by the church and the holy fathers, and has long been observed, it is to be considered as a law, which cannot be contested or changed except by the authority of the church. Therefore no priest shall, under penalty of excommunication, administer communion to the people in the two kinds. Those who have committed this offence shall, if they do penitence, be re-admitted into the bosom of the church. Those who harden their hearts and refuse to do penance shall be considered as heretics, and the aid of the secular arm shall be demanded for their punishment.”[1]
The historical importance of this decree cannot be overrated. Communion in the two kinds became the watchword of the Hussite Bohemian Church up to its extinction in 1620. In the place of a battle-flag the Bohemian priests carried a monstrance containing the sacrament—which it became customary to call the “ark”—before the troops when they engaged in battle.[2]
- ↑ Abridged from Von der Hardt, T. iv. p. 334.
- ↑ The fact that communion in the two kinds, “utraquism,” as it was called, acquired so great an importance among the Hussites, induced the Bohemians to endeavour to connect Hus himself as closely as possible with its introduction. They would certainly have proved their case, could we believe in the authenticity of a letter which is included in most collections of the letters of Hus. In this letter Hus writes: “Exhort all to profess their faith and to receive communion in the two kinds, that is the body and blood of Christ.” The letter, which is undated and addressed, “Sacerdoti cuidam,” is printed by Palacky also, but he strongly doubted its genuineness and believed that it was of later origin and belonged to the time when the Bohemians wished to prove that their great leader and martyr was entirely the originator of the doctrine on which they laid most stress. The letter is not found among the early MSS. of Hus but is included in the Nuremberg edition of his works. It is also possible that the letter is partly genuine and that the passage
