incompatible with the persecutions
of the first three centuries. During them, and even long after
Constantine, in consequence of the discipline of secrecy, there was
neither public exposition or procession of the B. Sacrament. The
faithful however adored it privately, as for instance, S. Gregory
Nazianzen relates of his sister Gorgonia, that when seized by a fever
"she fell down with faith before the altar, and invoked with a loud
cry Him who is honoured thereupon". (Discourse on her funeral). S.
Cyril of Jerusalem also exhorts the believer, that when he receives
the chalice of the blood of Christ he should bow down profoundly
and adore. (Catech. 5), The office and mass of Corpus Christi
were composed by S. Thomas Aquinas. As holy-thursday is in great
part devoted to the sufferings of Christ, the festival of _Corpus
Christi_ with its procession was instituted about the middle of the
thirteenth century by Urban IV at the petition of B. Juliana of Mount
_Cornelione_, and in consequence of the miracle of Bolsena, well known
as the subject of one of Raffaello's frescoes in the Vatican. See
Bened. XIV, De Festis, and the authors cited by him. The miraculous
corporal stained with blood is still preserved at Orvieto, the
celebrated cathedral of which owes its foundation to the miracle. "No
one eats that flesh, says S. Augustine, unless he has first adored" in
ps. 98 "The flesh of Christ," says S. Ambrose "which we adore even now
in the mysteries, and which the apostles adored in the Lord Jesus" (de
Spir. S. lib. 34, c. 12) All the fathers and liturgies mention this
adoration, which was therefore derived from apostolic tradition. Sala
ad Bonae lib. 2, c. 13.]

[Footnote 68: In the Greek church communion is on this day reserved
for the sick of the ensuing year under the form of bread alone,
according to Leo Allatius. (De utriusque Ecclesiae consensione). Pope
Innocent I in the beginning of the 5th century directs, that the
eucharist be preserved on this day for the priest and the sick. This
reservation is mentioned also in the Gregorian sacramentary, without
any mention of the sacred blood, since it might be spilt. It has taken
place in the Pauline chapel ever since its erection by Paul III. A
particle of the B. Sacrament was formerly preserved after mass on
festivals and carried back in procession to the sacristy: it was
carried to the altar in procession on the next festival, and a portion
or the whole of it was put into the