The origin of the Communion token is a
matter of some conjecture. There is a standard belief that the Communion token
begins with John Calvin, reformer and father of the Reformed family of
churches.
In a letter to the Council of
Geneva, dated 1560, Calvin wrote, “…[Il] serait bon que pour éviter le danger
de ceux qui profanent la cène, lesquels on ne peut tout connaître, il serait
bon de faire des marreaux et que, advenant le jour de la cène, chacun allât
prendre des marreaux pour ceux de sa maison qui seraient instruits et les
étrangers qui viennent ayant rendu témoignage de leur foi en pourront aussi
prendre et ce qui n’en auront point n’y seront pas admis.”
Translation: “It would be good, to avoid the danger of those who
profane the Lord’s Supper, of which one cannot know everyone, it would be good
to make tokens and when the day of the Lord’s Supper comes, each [member] would
go and get tokens for those in their households that have received instruction,
and the strangers who come, having given witness to their faith, would receive
them as well, and that those who have no token should not be admitted to the
Supper.”
The reference to the tokens
(marreaux) is the earliest written record, and as such has been regarded as the
beginning of the Communion token.
Certainly there have been signs
(the Latin word for token is ‘signum’, from which we get our word ‘sign’) and
tokens used in the church prior to 1560. An early sign was in the days of
persecution of the church. A Christian meeting someone whose faith was in doubt
would make a curved sign in the dirt and the other, if a Christian also, would know
to make a corresponding curved sign completing the simple picture of a fish.
Why a fish? Because in Greek the first letter of the words for “Jesus Christ,
God’s Son, Saviour” ΙΧΘΥΣ is the word ‘fish’.
Tokens were used for special
purposes in the middle ages. I have an example of a centuries old clay token of
the True Cross. These tokens were made of clay which held shavings purportedly
from the true cross of Jesus and distributed to crowds when the true cross was
paraded for all to see. Some say that the vast number of tokens made would have
whittled the cross to a very small size.
The Communion token, however, was
a later addition to the exonumia of the church. Did it begin with Calvin, or
did he simply mention a practice that had already begun in some congregations?
I tend to prefer the latter
explanation, specifically because of a token I have that is dated 1553. I
bought this token many years ago in an auction in Canada. It was simply listed
as a French Communion token dated 1553. The cross radiate on one side and the
chalice and dove on the other make this almost certain. To be certain, I have
had the token viewed by Museums in both Britain and France that have large
collections of Communion tokens, and they agreed with the original designation:
a French Communion token. Neither said anything about the date.
So the question is this: Is the
date 1553 accurate or is the token antedated to the founding of the issuing congregation?
There is a single clue. As a
former collector of Scottish coinage and having seen corresponding French
coinage, I know that a regular feature of coins of both countries from the
1550’s is the use of annulets (circles or haloes) over the royal initials and dates. This is a
feature of this token as well, suggesting to me that the date is accurate.
Unfortunately, the congregation
is not named and the exact origin of the token must remain uncertain, but it remains
for me a piece of evidence that the use of the token preceded Calvin’s letter,
at least to a limited degree.
The token measures 37.3 x 32 mm, is 3.4 mm thick, and weighs 17.6 grams.
