in Ecclesiastical History. The council of Auxerre, held in 578, decreed that women should communicate with their dominical. Some authors contend that this signified a linen cloth in which they received the species, not being allowed to receive them in the bare hand; while others suppose it was a kind of veil for the head. The most probable account is, that it was a linen cloth in which in times of persecution they received and preserved the eucharist, 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 Uxorim.