EARLY CHURCH SOURCES REGARDING INFANT COMMUNION:
I. Gennadius of Marseilles (495 A.D.)
"But if they are infants (parvuli)6 , or so dull as not to take in teaching, let those who offer them answer for them, after the manner of one about to be baptized; and so, fortified by the laying on of hands and chrism, let them be admitted to the mysteries of the Eucharist."7
II. St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.):
"Those who say that infancy has nothing in it for Jesus to save, are denying that Christ is Jesus for all believing infants. Those, I repeat, who say that infancy has nothing in it for Jesus to save, are saying nothing else than that for believing infants, infants that is who have been baptized in Christ, Christ the Lord is not Jesus. After all, what is Jesus? Jesus means Savior. Jesus is the Savior. Those whom he doesn't save, having nothing to save in them, well for them he isn't Jesus. Well now, if you can tolerate the idea that Christ is not Jesus for some persons who have been baptized, then I'm not sure your faith can be recognized as according with the sound rule. Yes, they're infants, but they are his members. They're infants, but they receive his sacraments. They are infants, but they share in his table, in order to have life in themselves."36
III. Cyprian (c. 250 A.D.):
"Could the servant of God, who had already renounced the devil and the world, stand there and speak and renounce Christ?... But for many their own destruction was not enough... And that nothing might be lacking to cap the crime, infants also, placed in the arms of parents or led by them, lost as little ones what they had gained at the very first beginning of their nativity. When the day of judgment comes, will they not say: 'We have done nothing; we have not abandoned the Lord's bread and cup and of our own accord hastened to profane the contaminations. The perfidy of others has ruined us...'".
IV. Clement of Rome (c.90 A.D.):
Regarding Clement, Tommy Lee comments and quotes, at length:
We find further primary evidence in favor of the early practice of paedocommunion in the Apostolic Constitutions. This work is attributed to Clement of Rome (c.90), but was actually compiled by "an Eastern Arian in the late fourth century."27 The twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth chapters of the eighth book of the Constitutions describe an early church communion service. According to this account, no non-communicating persons may remain in attendance for the observance of the Lord's Supper. Before the eucharist may be observed, the deacon must say, "Let none of the catechumens, let none of the hearers, let none of the unbelievers, let none of the heterodox, stay here."28 We notice immediately that there is no direction given that would preclude infants and young children from the upcoming ceremony.
On the contrary, after the catechumens, hearers, unbelievers, and heterodox depart, the deacon begins the service by inviting the remaining believers with the following words (all italics are mine): "Let the mothers receive their children; let no one have anything against any one; let no one come in hypocrisy; let us stand upright before the Lord with fear and trembling, to offer."29 What follows next is a very careful, comprehensive, four-and-a-half page long prayer. Near the end of the prayer, the people in attendance are prayed for ("this people"30) according to their differing circumstances. The minister prays, "for those that are in virginity and purity; for the widows of the Church; for those in honourable marriage and childbearing; for the infants of Thy people...".31 It is striking to note how the infants and children of the church were included in every aspect of this service. And lest we suspect that the infants and children were present but did not commune, the author of the Constitutions then describes the order in which those present were to come to the Lord's Supper. "And after that, let the bishop partake, then the presbyters, and deacons, and sub-deacons, and the readers, and the singers, and the ascetics; and then of the women, the deaconesses, and the virgins, and the widows; then the children; and then all the people in order, with reverence and godly fear, without tumult."32 Far from being excluded, the children were communicated before the adults without a special "office" of some type.
After everyone had participated in the communion service, the bishop gave thanks again to God and prayed once more for the people. Included in this prayer are the following words: "sanctify Thy people, keep those that are in virginity, preserve those in the faith that are in marriage, strengthen those that are in purity, bring the infants to complete age, confirm the newly admitted; instruct the catechumens, and render them worthy of admission...".33 Again we see the infants included in the communion prayers, but what is especially remarkable about this prayer is that the infants are set apart from the catechumens whom God must prepare for admission into the Lord's Supper. We see no prayer that God would make the infants and young children "worthy of admission" one day. They are born into the church and naturally included in the church's communion service.
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