_Holy-loaf Money_ (Vol. ix., pp. 150. 256.).--In Normandy and Brittany, and
probably in other Roman Catholic countries, bread is blessed by the
officiating priest during the performance of high mass, and handed round in
baskets to the congregation by the inferior officers of the church. On
inquiring into the meaning of this custom, I was told that it represented
the _agapæ_ of the primitive church; and that, before the first revolution,
every substantial householder in the parish was bound in turn to furnish
the loaves, or a money equivalent. It is now, I believe, a voluntary gift
of the more devout parishioners, or furnished out of the ordinary revenues
of the church.