Eve became, later {178} on, especially consecrated to the sacred rite. In the East baptism was often postponed till the infant was two years old; and everywhere there was for long a tendency even among Christian parents to hold back children from the laver of regeneration for fear of the consequences of post-baptismal sin. It was thus that a name was often given, and a child received into the Church, some weeks or even months before the baptism took place. The Greek Syntagma of the seventh century contains interesting information as to the baptism of heretics. It is ordered that Sabellians, Montanists, Manichaeans, Valentianists and such like shall be baptized just as pagans are, after instruction and examination in the faith, and, after insufflation, by triple immersion. [Sidenote: Confirmation.] Throughout these centuries baptism was not separated from Confirmation, except in the case of some converts from heresy. The two rites were regarded as parts of the same sacrament, or at least the former was not considered complete without the latter. The sacramental life of the individual in fact was to begin with his entrance into the Church and never to be intermitted. Even infants were present throughout the celebration of the sacred mysteries and partook of the Communion, a custom which was only abandoned in the West because of the difficulty of frequent giving of Confirmation and the consequent delay of that rite till later years. [Sidenote: The Holy Communion.] Baptism and Confirmation was the gate by which the Christian was admitted to the Sacrament of the Lord's Body and Blood. The celebration of that Sacrament was the chief act of the Church's worship every Sunday and holy day, and in {179} Spain, Africa, Antioch, daily, in Rome every day except Friday and Saturday, in Alexandria except on Thursday and Friday: indeed by the end of the sixth century it seems probable that in most parts of the Church a daily celebration was usual. From the seventh century the mass of the presanctified, when the priest communicated from elements previously consecrated, is found in use on certain days, and in the East throughout except on Saturdays and Sundays. [Sidenote: Frequent Communion.] It seems clear that at least up to the sixth century it was usual for all who were confirmed to communicate whenever they were present, unless they were under penance; but the custom of noncommunicating attendance was growing up. In the East a spiritual writer said, "it is not rare or frequent communion which matters, but to make a good communion with a prepared conscience"; while in the West Bede's letter to Archbishop Egbert of York supplies an excellent illustration of custom. [Sidenote: Bede.] The people are to be told, he advises, "how salutary it is for all classes of Christians to participate daily in the body and blood of our Lord, as you know well is done by Christ's Church throughout Italy, Gaul, Africa, Greece, and all the countries of the East.