in church-history. The council of Auxerre, held in 578, decrees, that women communicate with their dominical. Some authors contend, that this dominical was a linen cloth, wherein they received the species; as not being allowed to receive them in the bare hand. Others will have it a kind of veil, wherewith they covered the head. The most probable account is, that it was a sort of linen cloth or handkerchief wherein they received and preserved the eucharist in times of persecution, to be taken on occasion at home. This appears to have been the case by the practice of the first Christians, and by Tertullian's book Ad Uxorium.