re: #137 Decatur Deb

Trans: The ‘Roman’ and other Catholic rite churches in Europe celebrated communion as bread and wine until the plagues ravaged the west. Then they stopped sharing wine from a single large cup, and distibuted only the bread. Don’t know in detail what the eastern (Greek rite) churches did, but they seem always to have distributed bread and wine, sometimes by dipping. Since Vatican II reforms, Roman churches have distributed both species—bread and wine.

Actually, the middle ages didn’t know from contagion. They went the “in one kind” route because of the risk of spilling the wine — blood of Christ! — (and often still do, for the same reason). The eastern churches dip the bread into the wine and distribute it that way for the same reason.