has been established in Eastern Christendom, can hardly justify breach of our Western discipline. The well-grounded law enacted at the Council of Westminster, A. D. 1173 (Wilkins, Conc. I, p. 475) "Let there be no intinction of the Body of Christ in His Blood," should be our invariable rule as to the mode of administering the holy Communion.
Of the Time and Place for the Ablutions
The rubric which directs the officiating priest to place upon the altar "what remains of the consecrated elements, covering the same with a fair linen cloth," implies the probability that some portion of the Sacrament will remain after "all have communicated." Another rubric directs that, "If any of the consecrated Bread and Wine remain after the Communion," the Minister and other Communicants shall, immediately after the Blessing, reverently eat and drink the same."
It is quite possible that, "after all have communicated," not the least fragment of the species of bread, nor a drop of the species of wine, will remain. The vessels should then be covered as usual; but before they are so covered the priest may lawfully and with propriety receive at once the "wine of the purification" and the ablutions, and wipe his fingers and the chalice. Nevertheless, because such entire consumption of the species of bread and the species of wine is not likely to occur, it seems best, for the sake of uniformity, that, even in such a case as we have supposed, the taking of the wine of the purification, and the ablutions, should be deferred until "after the Blessing."
Very plausible arguments have been published recently in England, in defence of the opinion that in our modern English Rite, as in the modern Latin Rite, the time and place "for the consumption of whatever remains of the Sacrament and for the consequent ablutions" is immediately, or almost immediately, after the Communion. The priest, we are told, should take care that "none shall remain," to be consumed at a later time, by consuming at once what remains; and it is asserted that to defer such consumption until after the Blessing, has no precedent in Catholic Christendom. We are told that "liturgical precedent, Eastern and
