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30 the inward acceptance of the Word of God, which is Christ; and such a communion, they say, penetrates the understanding of man, as it were, to the marrow of the bones.

The communion of the body and blood of Christ in the form of bread and wine they do not accept; saying that bread and wine enter into the mouth like ordinary food, and are of no avail to the soul.

10. Fasting they regard as a matter not of kind or quality of food, but of abstinence from gluttony and other vices, of purity, meekness and humility of the spirit. Mere outward abstinence from food does not, according to them, yield any good to the soul.

11. They respect the saints, but do not call for their help, saying that they—the saints—have pleased God on their own behalf, and that we must simply imitate them.

They do not, however, indiscriminately count as good all the deeds of the so-called saints; thus they deem that when St. Nicholas, during a Church Council, hit Arius on the cheek, the Word of God had then deserted him.

12. Marriage amongst them is not regarded as a holy sacrament, and is accomplished merely by the mutual consent of the young couple. As, among the Spirit- Wrestlers, no preference is given to wealth or rank, the parents do not at all