(_a_) The conception of the table as an altar is later than the middle of the second century.[651] It is used in the Apostolic Fathers of the Jewish altar. It is used by Ignatius in a Christian sense, but always metaphorically.[652] It may be noted that though the Apostolic Constitutions (Bk. ii.) speak of a θυσία, they do not speak of a θυσιαστήριον.[653] This use of θυσιαστήριον is probably not earlier than Eusebius.[654] (_b_) The conception of the elements as μυστήρια is even later;[655] but once established, it became permanent, like the Latin term “sacramentum.” (5) The conception of a priest—into which I will not now enter—was certainly strengthened by the mysteries and associations. The full development or translation of the idea is found in the great mystical writer of the end of the fifth century, in whom every Christian ordinance is expressed in terms which are applicable only to the mysteries. The extreme tendency which he shows is perhaps personal to him; but he was in sympathy with his time, and his influence on the Church of the after-time must count for a large factor in the history of Christian thought. There are few Catholic treatises on the Eucharist and few Catholic manuals of devotion into which his conceptions do not enter.[656] I will here quote his description of the Communion itself: “All the other initiations are incomplete without this. The consummation and crown of all the rest is the participation of him who is initiated in the thearchic mysteries. For though it be the common characteristic of all the hierarchic acts to make the initiated partakers of the divine light, yet this alone imparted to me the vision through whose mystic light, as it were, I am guided to the contemplation (ἐποψίαν) of the other sacred things.” The ritual is then described. The sacred bread and the cup of blessing are placed upon the altar. “Then the sacred hierarch (ἱεράρχης) initiates the sacred prayer and announces to all the holy peace: and after all have saluted each other, the mystic recital of the sacred lists is completed. The hierarch and the priests wash their hands in water; he stands in the midst of the divine altar, and around him stand the priests and the chosen ministers. The hierarch sings the praises of the divine working and consecrates the most divine mysteries, (ἱερουργεῖ τὰ θειότατα), and by means of the symbols which are sacredly set forth, he brings into open vision the things of which he sings the praises. And when he has shown the gifts of the divine working, he himself comes into a sacred communion with them, and then invites the rest. And having both partaken and given to the others a share in the thearchic communion, he ends with a sacred thanksgiving; and while the people bend over what are divine symbols only, he himself, always by the thearchic spirit, is led in a priestly manner, in purity of his godlike frame of mind (ἐν καθαρότητι τῆς θεοειδοῦς ἕξεως), through blessed and spiritual