PRE-SANCTIFIED

A word used by the Greek Church, who have a liturgy called that of the Presanctified , because that upon those days they do not consecrate the bread or wine, but receive the bread which was consecrated the day before. This service is observed all Lent long, except Saturdays and Sun days, and the Annunciation of the Ble ed Virgin, which, being festivals, are exempt from fasting; the Greeks being of opinion that the whole communion service is not to be celebrated on fasting days, and upon this account charging the Latin Church with breach of the canons, because they celebrate the eucharist in Lent time, as they do the rest of the year, Good Friday excepted; for on that day this liturgy of the Presanctified is offered in the Latin Church; the priest then consecrating neither bread nor wine, but making use of the bread which was consecrated the day before, and communicating only under one kind; for the wine he receives is only for ablution, being unconsecrated. The Greeks do the same thing, from whence we may conclude that they communicate only in one kind during Lent, the wine that they then receive being not consecrated. The Communion of the Sick, as enjoined by the First Book of King Edward, if administered on any day of public communion, was a liturgy of the pre-sanctified; as the elements were not consecrated in the private house, but previously in the church.