AG'AP.ZE nom. Pl. of (I;(;-.-1,, apa love-feast). Love-feasts, or feasts of charity, usually celebrated by the earliest Christians in connection with the Lord's Supper. The rich Christians presented their poorer brethren in the faith with gifts, and all ate together, in token of their equality before God and their brotherly harmony. The meetings were opened and closed with prayer, and during the feast spiritual songs were sung. At first, a bishop or presbyter pre sided, who read a portion of the Scripture, pro posed questions upon it, and received the various answers of the brethren. Afterward, whatever information had been obtained regard ing the other churches was read—such as the official letters of overseers, or private communi cations from eminent members; and thus a spirit of practical sympathy was engendered. Before the conclusion of the proceedings money was col lected for widows, orphans, the poor, prisoners, and those who had suffered shipwreck. Then the members gave one another the holy kiss and the feast was ended with a "philanthropic prayer." Generally the feast of the agape preceded the celebration of the Lord's Supper, but during the period of the persecutions, when the Christians had often to hold divine service before dawn, the agape were, for the most part, delayed till the evening. Later, a formal separation was
made between the two rites. In the third and fourth centuries the agape had degenerated into a common banquet, where the deaths of relatives and the anniversaries of the martyrs were com memorated, and where the clergy and the poor were guests; but with the increase of wealth and the decay of religious earnestness and purity in the Christian Chureh, these agaru• became occa sions of great riotousness and debauchery. t'ouneils declared against them, forbade the clergy to take any share in their celebration, and finally banished them from the Church. At the same time, it must he admitted that the heathens ignorantly calumniated the practices of the Christians in these agapat. and that the defense made by Tertullian. Siinucius Felix, Origen, etc., is eminently convincing. The Mora visits have attempted to revive these agape, and hold solemn festivals with prayer and praise, where tea is drunk and wheaten bread, called love-bread, is used. Somewhat similar are the agapae of the Chureb founded by Wesley.
See LOVE-FEASTS.