THE allusions to the Holy Eucharist in the Christian writings between the close of the canon of the New Testament and the Council of Nicæa in 325 are less numerous and less lengthy than might perhaps be anticipated by those familiar with modern controversies. For the purpose of an historical inquiry into the doctrine held in the Church they have the advantage that they are found in writers representing different lines of thought, who lived in different localities and were of different types of character. They thus possess far more value as testimony than would be in much more voluminous evidence from one writer or place only. Moreover, the period itself is of special interest and importance because of its proximity to the time of the Apostles and its priority to the friendship between the Church and the State in the reign of Constantine. The basis of the thought which the writers express was in the administration of the Sacrament which they possessed in the Church, the words of the New Testament, the tradition which they inherited as to details in the administration and as to explanations of doctrine, and in some cases the mystical interpretation of parts of Holy Scripture not explicitly referring to the Eucharist. On this basis they taught that the Christian in Communion partakes of Christ’s life, that the consecrated elements are in some sense the body and blood of Christ, and that the Eucharist is in some sense a sacrifice. If they are grouped geographically, Asia Minor is represented by St. Justin Martyr and Abercius; Syria by St. Ignatius; Alexandria by the Epistle of Barnabas, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Dionysius of Alexandria; Athens by the Epistle to Diognetus and Athenagoras; Rome by St. Clement of Rome, St. Justin Martyr, and Hippolytus; Gaul by St. Irenæus and an inscription at Autun; Carthage by Tertullian and St. Cyprian; while the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles may be either Syrian or Alexandrian, and the Canons of Hippolytus either Alexandrian or Roman. If a grouping on the principle of theological affinities is attempted, the Alexandrian writers may be placed together as representing with greater or less completeness the obscurity, the mysticism, the intense spirituality usually associated with Alexandria; the love of system, the love of order, the power of rule which mark the Church of Rome through the long course of history are already manifest in St. Clement of Rome; St. Ignatius is in much the precursor of the most orthodox type of Eastern teaching; Tertullian and St. Cyprian have the legal turn of mind which strongly marked African Christianity; St. Justin Martyr and Athenagoras and the writer of the Epistle to Diognetus and St. Irenæus have points of contact with both East and West. As to dates, the Epistle of Barnabas may have been written between 70 and 79; St. Clement of Rome wrote about 95; St. Ignatius was a martyr about 117; St. Justin Martyr wrote about 150; the Epistle to Diognetus may be of the same date or a little later; Athenagoras flourished in the latter half of the second century: Abercius was Bishop of Hierapolis in the third quarter of the second century; St. Irenæus wrote about 180; the Autun inscription is probably of the end of the second century; Clement of Alexandria died early in the third century, Hippolytus about 238, Origen in 253, Dionysius of Alexandria in 265, Tertullian died in the first half of the third century, St. Cyprian in 258; the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles may have been written either in the first or in the second century, the Canons of Hippolytus either late in the second or in the third.