in Ecclesiastical History. The council of Auxerre, held in 578, decreed that women should communicate with their dominical. Some authors contend that this dominical was a linen cloth, in which they received the species, not being allowed to receive them in the bare hand; whilst others think 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 in which they received and preserved the eucharist in times of persecution, to be taken upon occasion at home. That this was the case appears by the practice of the first Christians, and by Tertullian's book Ad Uxorum.