COMMUNION IN BOTH KINDS. A term of theology. implying that, in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. communicants partake of both the bread and the wine. It is universally ac knowledged that in the Primitive Church both the bread and the cup were distributed to all who communed. Sects which, like the Mani •hfeans, discarded the wine, were condemned as irregular. Early popes commanded the use of both kinds (e.g. Gelasins I., 492496). As. how ever, there was frequent occasion to carry the consecrated elements from the church to sick persons at their homes, it became customary, for convenience, to dip the bread in the wine, admin istering,, in this way, both in one. At length it was thought more convenient to omit the wine. In the thirteenth century, Robert Pulleys, of Oxford. approved the custom of to the laity the bread only, in order, as was said, to avoid the danger of spilling the wine. This view was adopted by the scholastic theologians, who taught that Christ was wholly present in the sacrament under either form, and that, conse quently, one form was sufficient. for a. valid ob servance of it. Thomas Aquinas and Bonaven tura. especially, advocated the administration of the eommunion under one form only. As this
predominated in the course of time, it be came the practice of the Church in the Pest to withhold the cup from the laity. Against this the heretics of the Mddle Ages. as the Wal denses, and especially the Hussite sect of Ca lixtines protested. The Protestant churches. also were united in regarding the communion in both kinds as essential to the right observance of the ordinance. The prac tice of the Roman Catholic Church was con firmed and made binding by the Council of Trent in 11i3. It is defended on the ground that the cup is not necessary to the com pleteness of the sacrament. Since the whole Christ, as to His body, soul, and divinity, is not only in each species, but in every particle of both, he who receives the consecrated bread re ceives the whole Christ. But while this law is uniformly enforced in the Western Roman Catho lic Church, those portions of the Eastern churches that acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope are allowed to retain both forms: and the same toleration has been offered to Protestants in order to facilitate their return into the unity of the Church under the Roman See. See LORD'S SUPPER.