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 cap. 2).

This desire on the part of God was so well understood by the first Christians, that they daily flocked to the Holy Table as to a source of life and strength. "They, were persevering in the doctrine of the apostles, and in the communication of the breaking of bread" (Acts ii. 42). And that this practice was to continue into later ages, not without great fruit of holiness and perfection, the holy Fathers and ecclesiastical writers bear witness.

But when in later times piety grew cold, and more especially under the influence of the plague of Jansenism, disputes began to arise concerning the dispositions with which it was proper to receive communion frequently or daily, and writers vied with one another in imposing more and more stringent conditions as necessary to be fulfilled. The result of such disputes was that very few were considered worthy to communicate daily, and to derive from this most healing sacrament its more abundant fruits; the rest being content to partake of it once a year, or once a month, or at the utmost weekly. Nay, to such a pitch was rigorism carried, that whole classes of persons were excluded from a frequent approach to the Holy Table; for instance, those engaged in trade, or even those living in the state of matrimony.

Others, however, went to the opposite extreme. Under the persuasion that daily communion was a divine precept, and in order