On One Occasion
The Khan Promised To Come To The Church Next Day; But He Departed On His
Journey To The Northward, Desiring The Priests To Excuse Him, Because He
Had Learnt That The Dead Were Carried Thither.
But we remained behind, that
we might celebrate the festival of Easter.
There were a vast multitude of
Hungarians, Alans, Rutenians or Russians, Georgians, and Armenians, who had
not received the sacrament since they were taken prisoners, as the
Nestorians would not admit them into their church unless they were
rebaptized; yet they offered their sacrament freely to us, and allowed me
to see their manner of consecration; on the vigil of Easter I saw their
ceremony of baptism. They pretend to have the ointment with which Mary
Magdalen anointed the feet of Jesus, and they put in so much of that oil in
kneading their sacramental bread; for all the people of the east use
butter, or oil, or fat from a sheeps tail, in their bread, instead of
leaven. They pretend also to have of the flour of which the bread was made
which was consecrated by our Lord at his Last Supper, as they always keep a
small piece of dough from each baking, to mix up with the new, which they
consecrate with great reverence. In administering this to the people, they
divide the consecrated loaf first into twelve portions, after the number of
the apostles, which they afterwards break down into smaller pieces, in
proportion to the number of communicants, giving the body of Christ into
the hand of every one, who takes it from his own palm with much reverence,
and afterwards lays his hand on the top of his head.
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