Sundays, and holidays of Advent and his alb, and that finished, kissing the hand of the celebrant, he resumes the planet as at first. 7. In smaller churches, on the foresaid days of fast, they minister only with the alb of the amice; the sub-deacon, with the maniple; the deacon, with the stole from his left shoulder hanging under his right. XX.-The Preparation of the Altar and its Ornaments.2 The altar on which the most holy sacrifice of the mass is to be celebrated, ought to be of stone, and consecrated by the bishop; or at least a stone altar, in like manner consecrated by the bishop, inserted in it, so large as to receive the host and the chalice. This altar is covered with three napkins, or clean table cloths, blessed by the bishop, or some one having authority; the upper one, at least, oblong, reaching to the ground, the other two shorter, or one folded. The pall likewise is adorn 1 Amice or amictus, is a square piece of cloth that the priest ties about his neck hanging down behind, under the alb, when he officiates at mass, said to represent the rag or clout with which the Jews muffled our Saviour's face, when at every blow they bade him prophesy. (Luke xxii. 64.) 2 The altar, says the Roman Catholic Directory for Scotland, 1851, represents Mount Calvary where the Redeemer expired on the cross. They add, It also represents the table on which our blessed Saviour, the night before he suffered, celebrated his last supper with his disciples. How it can represent both, is not very clear. This last meaning is foisted in for the Scottish reader, who cannot altogether forget the original institution, and would not like to have it quite ignored for a miserable attempt at a dramatic scene, which proclaims its meaning to no one, and requires long priestly schooling to take it in at all. "The table," says the Bishop of Charleston, "on which the holy eucharist was first consecrated by the Saviour of the world, and of course upon which the Divine oblation was first made, was of wood; and there is every reason to believe, that it is the same which is still preserved and shown at the Church of St John of Lateran. Those which were used by the apostles were probably also of wood. Two of those used by St Peter are shown in Rome, one of which is preserved in the high altar of the same Church of St John, and on which only the Pope celebrates; the other, that is in the church of St Pudentia, is believed to be that upon which this apostle offered the holy sacrifice in the house of the Senator Pudens.” The italics are ours, but the words are taken from "Explication of the Mass," published at Rome, in English, in 1833, dedicated to Cardinal Wold, and written by Dr England, Bishop of Charleston, for the edification of English and American strangers. The preservation of these wooden tables since that memorable night is ed with colours suitable to the feast, or office of the day. Above the altar is placed the cross, in the middle, and candlesticks, at least two, with lighted candles on each side. At the foot of the cross, a table is placed, called Secrets. In the side where the epistle is read, a desk is placed for the Missal, and on the same side with the epistle, a wax taper ready to be kindled on the elevation of the sacrament, a little bell, glass jars for wine and water, with a bason and clean towel in the recess, or on a little table prepared for the purpose. Above the altar nothing is allowed to be placed, but what pertains to the sacrifice of the mass, or the ornament of the altar itself. a greater miracle than the preservation of St Peter's chair, on which the Pope affects to sit on state days, and on which some sceptics contend they found an inscription, in Saracenic characters, in honour of Mahomet,—denoting its Eastern origin. The same bishop tells us that the linen cloths on the altar denote purity, "as various additional ornaments exhibit the richness of the other virtues expected in all those who approach to so holy a place." One would have supposed the virtues of the Saviour, not of any other, would be represented there,—but it expresses either about equally well. RITES TO BE OBSERVED IN THE CELEBRATION OF MASS. I. Of the Preparation of the Priest about to celebrate Mass. 1. The priest about to celebrate mass, having previously made confession, when necessary, and having, at least, finished matins with lauds, spends a little space in prayer, and says the prayers placed below, as time serves. Then he approaches to the place in the sacristy, or other place prepared, where the garments and other necessaries to the celebration are kept, takes the Missal, searches for the mass, reads it over, and marks those things which are to be said. Next he washes his hands, saying the prayer placed be low. Then prepares the chalice, (which ought to be of gold or silver,1 or at least the silver cup inlaid with gold, together with a paten, in like manner inlaid with gold, consecrated by the bishop,) upon its mouth he places a clean purificatory, and upon it the paten with a new host, which he wipes lightly from fragments, if necessary, and covers with a small linen pall, then with a silken veil, over the veil he places a bursa of the colour of the garments having the corporal folded within, which ought only to be of linen not of silk, nor woven in the middle with gold, but all white, and blessed by 1 That everything in the house of God should be ordered in a comely manner, "simplex munditiis," and above all in that institution, which, in all its circumstances, is so exquisitely simple, every right-minded man feels, and every church must be anxious to attain, according to its ability. But it remained for the Church of Rome, in her insane love of pomp and glitter, to lay down, for all churches and in all circumstances, such a law as this. One would have thought the Roman Congregation of Sacred Rites, from whom these enactments emanated, could hardly have so far forgot the upper room, and the humble table and vessels thereon, in which the Saviour of the world instituted the Last Supper. The time was, said one of the fathers, when the church had golden priests and wooden chalices, but now the church has wooden priests and golden chalices. Yet in the Breviary, 13th August, on the octave of St Lawrence, the priest reads that when that deacon and martyr was asked for the treasures of the Roman Church in her metropolis, he assembled the poor that were fed and clothed by its bounty, and replied, "These are the treasures of the Church, in whom Christ is by faith, we have our treasures in earthen vessels." This is one of the many instances in which Rome has practically disproved her own catholicity, not only by requiring what God has not required, but what God does not always give his best people. the bishop, or some one having autho rity, at the same time with the pall.1 2. Which being arranged, he approaches to his garments, which ought not to be torn or cut, but entire, clean, and beautiful, and also blessed by the bishop, or some one having authority; when he puts on his shoes and suitable raiment, of which the outer at least should reach to the ankle of the foot, he puts over them, if he be a secular prelate, the rachet, and if he be a regular prelate or other secular priest over the superpellex if he can have it conveniently, otherwise without it, over his common raiment, saying at each the prayers placed below. 3. And first taking the amice by the extremities and chords, he kisses it in the middle where the cross is, and places it over his head, and then bending his neck and covering the collar of his vest with it, he draws the chords under his arms, and bringing them round from behind, he binds them before his breast. Next, he puts on the alb, lowering his head and placing the right sleeve upon the right arm, and the left sleeve upon the left arm. He adapts the alb to his body, raises it before and from the sides, and his girdle being handed to him by the attendant, he girds himself. The attendant raises the alb over the girdle, that it may hang becomingly and cover his robes; and carefully fits its fringes, that to the breadth of a finger or thereabout it may flow equally upon the ground. The priest receives the maniple, kisses the cross in the midst, and places it on his left arm. Then with both hands taking the stole, he kisses it and places it on the middle of his neck, and crossing it on his breast, after the manner of a cross, draws the pendant part from the left shoulder to the right, and from the right shoulder to the left. And so he joins each part of the stole by the extremities of the girdle, to the gir dle itself.2 4. If the celebrant be a bishop, he does not draw the stole before his breast in the form of a cross, but permits both extremities to hang on each side, and before he takes the stole he takes his small pectoral cross which he kisses and places on his neck, permitting it to hang by chords before his breast. Also, he does not take the maniple before the stole, unless in masses for the dead, but takes it at the altar, when in confession he says Indulgentia, and first kisses it. Lastly the priest takes the planet. 1 The number of coverings for the host betrays the habits of the old lady-& purificatory, a silk veil, a bursa, and a corporal and a pall, all to cover a few wafers and a wine cup. We read in Roman history, that the Romans, entering a vast Egyptian temple, looked round in vain for the god of the temple or some symbol of his presence. Lead through a succession of apartments, in a remote recess they were shown a cat. Monstrous! exclaimed the Roman, such a god to so vast a temple? Were the Romish priest permitted to unfold, for the first time, these coverings to a Mahometan visitor, such would be his exclamation on beholding the idol of the modern Romanist lying under his folds. These vestments of the priest will be found explained in the notes to "The Priests' preparation for the mass." As to the description of the robing here, we are not sure that we have made sense of it to others, because we are not sure we understand it ourselves. We must leave the matter to the judgment of our fair readers, who may have the curiosity to examine these directions of the mistress of the robes. It may perhaps remind them of Count Rumford's celebrated description of the most approved mode of eating our Scotch hasty-pudding, beginning at the circumference, and gradually approaching the centre by regular lines of cir cumvallation. solemn mass, he takes the garments and other things as in the ceremonial.1 II. Of the Approach of the Priest to the Altar. 1. The priest having put on all his robes, takes with his left hand the chalice, as above prepared, which he carries raised before his breast, holding the bursa with his right hand over the chalice, and making reverence to the cross or image in the sacristy;2 with head covered he approaches the altar, the attendant with the missal and other things necessary to celebrate it (unless prepared before) preceding, clothed in a superpellex. But he walks with downcast eyes, grave step, and erect body. If, indeed, it happen that he pass before the great altar, with head covered, he makes a reverence to it; if before the place of the sacrament, he kneels; if before the altar where mass is celebrated, and the sacrament is then elevated or ministered, he also kneels, and, uncovering his head, adores, nor rises before the celebrant has placed the cup upon the corporal.3 2. When he arrives at the altar, standing before its lowest step, he uncovers his head, hands his cap to the attendant, and bows profoundly to the altar or image of the crucifix placed above. But if in it be the tabernacle of the most holy sacrament, kneeling, he makes due reverence. Then ascends to the middle of the altar; there at the horn of the gospel he places the chalice, withdraws the corporal from the bursa, which he spreads on the middle of the altar and upon it places the chalice covered with a veil, but the bursa at the horn of the gospel. If he take his garments at the altar, he does the same before he descend from the altar, that he may begin mass. 3. If he is about to consecrate many hosts for communion, which, from their 1 The ceremonial here referred to is in the Pontifical, the book of the bishops and higher clergy, of which the reader will find an account elsewhere in this work. Rome justifies all the elaborate care for robing, by her theory of the priest representing Christ in his last sufferings, and each part of his raiment representing the robes Christ then wore. Those who have not lost their common sense by long familiarity with these fooleries, will see in them only a poor revival of the holy garments of Aaron and the Jewish priesthood, which Paul calls "the beggarly elements," and which were cast off by the church of Christ never more to be resumed. These many inventions of Rome have not even the excuse of being expressive and significant in themselves, either to priest or people. The tendency of minute attention to these externals, is to fritter away all devotional feeling, destroy all manliness of character, and turn men into women. But this is but a small specimen of what machines Rome makes of her clergy, from the Pope downwards. That church has left nothing to the natural sense or feelings even of her own ministers-all is prescribed, to the tying of their robes. 2 Sacristy. The apartment in the church where the sacred utensils are kept, and the vestments in which the priests officiate-now called in Protestant churches, the vestry. 3 Corporal.-A linen cloth used for covering the elements, or in which they are wrapped. It is derived from the idea of enclosing the body of Christ, as the host is regarded. A corporal oath is so called from the practice of touching this cloth in making it. ♦ Tabernacle.—An ornamental chest placed on the altar as a receptacle for the ciborium and pyx, the one for the cup, and the other a box for the bread or wafers. 5 Bursa signifies a purse or pouch. Hence the French Bourse. The host with its wrappings is conveyed to the altar in the bursa, |