Note 910 — Chapter IV

There is not in the whole range of early Christian epigraphy the slightest indication of the Romish doctrine of Transubstantiation; which, indeed, as Dr. Maitland remarks, “was not distinctly broached till the ninth century.” Some of the earlier poets, however, and the more rhetorical of the Fathers, allude to a mystical presence of Christ in the eucharist, bordering on the modern Romish conception.

The council of Elvira forbade the acceptance of any gift for the administration of the sacraments. How different from Rome’s mercenary tariff for the celebration of masses for the dead!