Intinction

Intinction is a name for one of the three modes in which the sacrament is administered to the laity' f the Eastern Church (comp. Neale, Introd. East. Church, p. 525), viz., by breaking the consecrated bread into the consecrated wine, and giving to each communicant the two elements together in a spoon, to prevent the possibility of a loss of either element. Some Greek liturgical writers assert that the practice of intinction was introduced by Chrysostom himself (which Neale approves), but the traditional evidence adduced does not well support this assertion; and the fact, which seems to be pretty well established, that the two elements were of old administered by two persons, and not by one only, as is done at present, makes it doubtful whether their admixture for communion was ever the ordinary practice. Bona (Rerum Liturg. II, 18:3), however, says that it was forbidden by Julius I (A.D. 337-352), whose decree, as given by Gratian (Distinct. 2, c. 7), speaks of it as a practice not warranted by the Gospel, in which Christ is represented as giving first his body and then his blood' to the apostles; and, if this decree is authentic, it goes to prove that the practice was known during Chrysostom's time. The third Council of Braga (A.D. 675) decreed against it in their first canon in the identical words used by Julius I: "Illud, quod pro complemento communionis intinctam tradunt eucharistiam populis, nec hoc probatum ex evangelio testimonium recipit, ubi apostolis corpus suum et sanguinem commendavit; seorsum enim panis et seorsum calicis commendatio memoratur. Nam intinctum panem aliis Christum non praebuisse legimus excepto illo tantum discipulo, quem proditorem ostenderet." Micrologus (c. 19) asserts that the practice contradicted the primitive canon of the Roman liturgy, but this certainly cannot go to prove the time of its introduction into the Eastern Church. In the 11th century it was forbidden by pope Urban II (A.D. 1088- 1099), except in cases of necessity; and his successor, Pascal II, forbade it altogether, and ordered in cases where difficulty of swallowing the solid element occurred, to administer the fluid element alone. Bona, however, quotes from Ivo of Chartres about this time a canon of a Council of Tours, in which priests are ordered to keep the reserved oblation "intincta in sanguine Christi, ut veraciter Presbyter possit dicere infirmo, Corpus, et Sanguis Domini nostri Jesu Christi proficiat tibi in remissionem peccatorum et vitam seternam." The Convocation of Canterbury (A.D. 1175) expressed itself opposed to the practice of intinction in the following plain language: "Inhibemus ne quis quasi pro complemento communionis intinctam alicui Eucharistiam tradat." But from the word coplementum the practice forbidden seems to have been as much the consumption of the superabundant elements by the laity (directed in one of the modern rubrics of the Church of England) as that of intinction. There can be no doubt, however, that the Western Church always stood committed against the practice, though some think that traces of it can be found, e.g. in 'the ancient Irish Visitation Office, written about the 8th century, and which was published by Sir William Bentham (comp. Hart, Eccles. Records, Introd. 14). SEE CONCOMITANT.