Canon 32 of the Quinisext (AKA Trullo) Council reads:
CANON 32
That it is necessary in the bloodless sacrifice to mix water with the
wine.
[37] It has come to our
notice that in the land of Armenia those who perform the bloodless sacrifice
offer only wine at the sacred table without mixing water with it, citing the
doctor of the church John Chrysostom, who speaks as follows in his commentary
on the Gospel according to Matthew: ‘When he rose again, why did he drink not water
but wine? IN order to pull out by the roots another evil heresy! For since
there are some who use water in the mysteries, he showed that when he handed
down the mysteries he handed down wine, and when after the resurrection he set
out a simple table without the mysteries, he used wine from the fruit of the
vine, as he said, and a vine produced wine and not water.’ On the basis of this
they think that the teacher rejected the addition of water at the sacred
sacrifice. But so that they may not from now on be kept in ignorance, we shall
reveal in an orthodox manner the father’s meaning.
Since there existed
the wicked and ancient heresy of the Hydroparastatae (A sect which celebrated
the eucharist with water in place of wine. Basil, Canon 1 [ed, Courtonne II,
122, 47-50] says they had been condemned in the third century by Cyprian and
Firmilian of Caesarea in Cappadocia. See PGL 1423 for further references),
who used water only instead of wine in their own sacrifices, this inspired man
composed this text in order to refute the lawless teaching of this heresy and
to show that they set themselves in opposition to the apostolic tradition. In his
own church, where he had been entrusted with pastoral leadership, he handed
down that water is to be mixed with wine when the bloodless sacrifice is to be
performed, thereby pointing to the mixture out of the honourable side of your redeemer
and saviour Christ God of blood and water, which flowed forth to give life to
the whole world and redemption from sin. And this God-given ordinance is in
force in every church where the spiritual luminaries have shone their light.
For James too, the brother in the flesh of Christ our God, who was the first to
be entrusted with the see of the church of Jerusalem, and Basil archbishop of
Caesarea, whose fame has spread throughout the world, both of whom handed down
to us in writing the holy mystic ritual, taught that at the divine liturgy the
holy cup is to be consecrated from water and wine. And the sacred fathers who
convened at Carthage made explicit mention that ‘in the holy [mysteries]
nothing more than the body and blood of the Lord is to be offered, as the Lord
himself handed down, that is, bread and wine [38] mixed with water’ (See
the Anaphoras of St James and St Basil). Therefore, if any bishop or presbyter
does not follow the ordinance handed down by the apostles and does not when
offering the spotless sacrifice mix water with wine, he is to be deposed for an
incomplete proclamation of the mystery and for distorting the tradition through
innovation. (The Canons of Quinisext Council (691-2) [trans. Richard
Price; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020], 112-13)
We elsewhere read the following canon:
CANON 83
That the eucharist is not to be given to the bodies of the dead
[54] No one ‘is to give
the eucharist to the bodies of those who have died. For Scripture says, “Take,
eat,” but the bodies of the dead can neither take nor eat’ (from Canon 18 of
Carthage). (Ibid., 157)
Commenting on this, Richard Price wrote
that:
It was an ancient
Christian custom to give viaticum (‘food for the journey’) to the dying. There
would naturally be distress if someone died suddenly without viaticum. Either
in the hope that the deceased was not quite dead, or without that hope but to
comfort the relatives, it was easy for this to develop into giving communion to
the dead. This canon shows that this practice was as alive in the seventh as it
had been in the fifth, when the canon of Carthage cited here was enacted. (Ibid.,
157)
