Note 628 — Chapter IV

The Third Council of Carthage in the year 397 forbade this practice, because Christ said, “Take and eat,” whereas a dead body can neither take nor eat—Placuit ut corporibus defunctorum eucharistia non detur. Dictum est enim a Domino Accipite et edite: cadavera autem nec accipere possunt, nec edere.—Conc. Cath., 3, can. 6. Chrysostom also denounces the practice because the words were spoken to the living and not to the dead.—Hom., 40, in 1 Cor. Gregory the Great speaks of the burial of the Eucharist with the dead, “Jussit communionem Dominici corporis in pectus defuncti reponi atque sic tumulari.”—Greg. Dial., lib. ii, c. 24. Maitland thinks that these cups were probably depositories for aromatic gums much used in the interment of the dead.