Description
Excerpt from Communion Tokens of the Established Church of Scotland: Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries
There was no more familiar object in Scotland from the Reformation down to half a century ago than the Communion token, but its origin cannot be attributed to Scotland, nor was it a post-reformation institution.
The antiquity and universality of the token are unquestionable. From very early times it is probable that a token, or something akin to it, was used in all oath-bound secret societies.
They will be found to have been used by the Greeks and Romans, whose tesserae were freely utilised for identifying those who had been initiated into the Eleusinian and other kindred mysteries, and in this manner the way was easily paved for their introduction into the Christian Church, where they were used for the purpose of excluding the uninitiated and preventing the entrance of spies into the religious gatherings which were only open to the select few.
After the persecution ceased to which, in a measure, their use may be attributed, they would naturally continue to be used to distinguish between those who had a right to be present at meetings and those who had not.
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Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
There was no more familiar object in Scotland from the Reformation down to half a century ago than the Communion token, but its origin cannot be attributed to Scotland, nor was it a post-reformation institution.
The antiquity and universality of the token are unquestionable. From very early times it is probable that a token, or something akin to it, was used in all oath-bound secret societies.
They will be found to have been used by the Greeks and Romans, whose tesserae were freely utilised for identifying those who had been initiated into the Eleusinian and other kindred mysteries, and in this manner the way was easily paved for their introduction into the Christian Church, where they were used for the purpose of excluding the uninitiated and preventing the entrance of spies into the religious gatherings which were only open to the select few.
After the persecution ceased to which, in a measure, their use may be attributed, they would naturally continue to be used to distinguish between those who had a right to be present at meetings and those who had not.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Details
Publisher - Forgotten Books
Author(s) - Alexander J. S. Brook
Hardback
Published Date -
ISBN - 9780266954644
Dimensions - 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm
Page Count - 156
Paperback
Published Date -
ISBN - 9781527906228
Dimensions -
Page Count -
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