them and partly to protect themselves from false pagan charges, many of the early Christian communities exercised what is called the disciplina arcani, a self-imposed discipline in respect to the Mysteries that hid them even from the catechumens. It is for this reason that many of our early references to the Eucharist are found in catechetical instructions given to the newly baptized only during the Easter Vigil, when they were about to receive the Eucharist for the first time. References to this