Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

the viaticum of the sick) was some recess or cupboard, often closed with iron bars, in the wall on the Gospel side of the altar. Sometimes (as Bishop Devie says was the case in the district of Bresse, north of Lyons) the petite armoire grillée was au fond du choeur. We read that the Blessed Sacrament was kept in quodam angulo, in an out-of-the-way corner of the Cathedral of Verona up to the middle of the sixteenth century, when Bishop Ghiberti, a great reformer, had it enclosed in a tabernacle of marble and crystal, borne by four angels in brass and suspended over (not placed upon) the high altar, that he might excite the devout to Godly piety towards the reserved sacrament of the altar. This case was an anticipation of later devotional feeling. With the gradual increase of frequent communion the inconveniences of the old arrangement were increasingly felt, and the tabernacle upon the altar was the obvious way out of them. The once exclusive idea of viaticum gave way to that of communion in the reservation on the altar; yet even up to a late period in many parts of the continent the Hosts for the sick were reserved in a place (loculus in muro) apart from the altar, whilst the Hosts for communicants were reserved in the tabernacle on the high altar." A relic of this former discipline remains in the prescription derived from Roman practice that the Blessed Sacrament is not to be reserved at the high altar of cathedrals, but at a side altar.

From the history of the Christian altar we may pass to that of the chalice.

THE CHALICE.

Chalice is the word adopted by the Church to designate the vessel in which the wine for the Holy Eucharist is consecrated. It is derived, like the German kelch, from the cup-like calia of a flower or the husk of corn, and is used in a figurative sense in Holy Scripture, meaning a lot, from the early custom when drawing lots, of putting beans or balls into a cup. Thus we read in the Psalms: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup" (Ps. xv., 5). And the prophets frequently speak of the "cup of God's wrath" about to be poured out upon a sinful nation (Is. li., 17). Our Lord also in His agony prays that the chalice of His Passion may pass away. Whether Christ Himself partook of the chalice when He instituted the Holy Eucharist is an important question, since heretics who deny transubstantiation confidently affirm that He did so, quoting in proof the words He spoke: "I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until the day when I shall drink it new in the kingdom of God" (St. Mark xiv., 25). Of all the fathers, Augustine and Chrysostom alone admit this theory, on the strength of those

words. Jerome denies that they refer to the Eucharistic cup, and later writers agree with him. "Non pertinet (he says) ad calicem eucharisticum, sed ad calicem qui datus fuit post agni poschalis manducationem." Hence it is probable that our Lord conformed to the ancient custom of passing round, after banquets of ceremony, a goblet filled with wine, now known as the grace cup, as a sign of fraternal concord or benediction; it was termed calix salutaris, or calix inebrians. To participation in this the passage cited above doubtless refers.

St. Athanasius and St. Ambrose speak of the sacred chalice as vas dominicum, poculum mysticum. It is impossible to determine how soon it was distinguished in form, material or ornament from the cups used in ordinary life. At first there was probably little or no distinction between the Eucharistic cup and that of the domestic table; the eventually exclusive adoption of the name of calix to designate the former may be thought to imply that the cup specifically so called had a special form. The word denoted a somewhat shallow bowl with two handles and a foot. Of this shape are the chalices represented in the paintings of the first centuries. They appear in early times to have been small in size, the bowl hemispherical in form, with a short stem and a foot, almost like a cup, as is the one of yellow jasper preserved in St. John Lateran. A chalice brought from Jerusalem in the fifth century by St. Jerome is of similar form; it is of Syrian manufacture and of opaline glass. Later on the bowl of the chalice was much deeper, standing on a large conical or funnel-shaped foot, the knot, or rather knob, nodus, pomellum, half way up the stem being invariably present. The variety of size in ancient chalices, the very small size of some, leads to the supposition that the smaller ones were for the clergy, while the larger, twohand'ed ones, were used for the purpose of dispensing the Precious Blood to the people. When the laity no longer communicated in both kinds the chalices with handles seem to have disappeared. Ecclesiastical antiquity distinguishes three different kinds of chalices: offertorial, in which the wine offered by the faithful for the holy sacrifice was poured by the deacons; communical, in which the wine was consecrated, and ministerial, in which it was administered to the people. A practice at one time existed of the clergy alone communicating from the chalice of consecration, a few drops only being poured out of it into that offered to the laity. Thus the consecrated wine was mixed with unconsecrated, which the communicants drank by means of a tube, fistula or pugillaris, in French called chalumeau, of gold or silver attached to the chalices. These were capable of holding a considerable quantity and were multiplied in proportion to the number of communicants. Sometimes there were as many

When this custom originated
Pope Gregory II. expressed

as seven or eight chalices on the altar. and how long it lasted seems obscure. disapproval of the usage of placing more than one chalice upon the altar. If the vases found in the catacombs are taken for chalices, P. Secchi remarks, one must suppose that every communicant had his or her own, into which the deacon poured the Precious Blood from a ministerial chalice. These vessels were of glass, decorated with gold leaf.

It is impossible to determine of what material the chalice used by our Lord at the Last Supper was made. It is claimed that the glass goblet preserved at Genoa is the one of which He made use when instituting the Holy Eucharist. St. Joseph of Arimathea is said to have brought it to Glastonbury, but the vessel he brought (if indeed he brought any) was more probably that in which he collected some portion of the Precious Blood when washing the wounds on our Lord's Sacred Body preparatory to its deposition in the sepulchre. In the seventh century Venerable Bede mentions a large silver chalice as the true one, but there are no proofs of the authenticity of any of those which are asserted to have been hallowed by the Redeemer's hands. The search for the Holy Grail, the Sangreal, formed the subject of many romances and epics in the Middle Ages.

The earliest chalices in use in the Christian Church were undoubtedly of glass or wood. The Roman martyrology states that Bishop Donatus repaired by prayer the consecrated glass vessel which the heathen broke at Aretum (Arezzo) in the time of Julian the Apostate. St. Jerome, speaking of Esuperius, Bishop of Toulouse, and commending his frugality, says "he ministered the Body of Christ in a basket of osiers and the Precious Blood in a glass cup." But it was only by monks and in the poorer churches that the use of glass was retained. That the richer churches had chalices of precious metal is proved by the fact that the sacred vessels were sometimes sold for the redemption of captives or for the relief of the poor. And that valuable chalices were in use at Antioch appears from an exclamation of the imperial treasurer on seeing the treasures of the Church which were confiscated by the prefect Julian: "Ecce quam sumptuosis vasis filio mariae ministratur." This is confirmed by St. Augustine when commenting on Psalms cxiii., 4. The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold; he says that Christians also have many vessels of the same materials in use for celebrating the sacraments. Queen Brunhilda presented a chalice of onyx inlaid with gold to the Cathedral of Auxerre in the ninth century. And amongst the rich presents sent by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III. in 857 to Pope Nicholas was a gold chalice set with numerous jewels. The

earliest chalice now existing, preserved in the Biblithèque Imperiale of Paris, dating from the fourth or fifth century, is of white opaque glass, with a metal foot. In the Church of St. Anastasius in Rome is one of metal gilt, with an hemispherical bowl, supposed to have belonged to St. Lambert, 708. In the ninth century Pope Leo IV. forbade the use of lead for the chalice, though pewter or glass was allowed. This prohibition was renewed by an English Council in 887. Popes Zephyrus and Urban I. both ordered the exclusive use of gold or silver for the sacred vessels. Copper, horn or bone, wood and glass were prohibited by the Council of Rheims 815; the first because it provokes nausea, the second because they are impure, the third because it is absorbent, the fourth on account of being brittle. The poverty of some churches prevented strict obedience to this prohibition; glass was used in some places until a much later period. Glass or ivory mounted in gold or pewter chalices were considered superior to glass. The use of bronze was exceptional and peculiar to Irish monks. St. Gall refused to use silver, saying that St. Columban was accustomed to offer the Holy Sacrifice in a chalice of bronze (aereis), alleging as a reason that our Lord was fastened to the Cross with bronze nails. The traditional use of bronze lingered long amongst the successors of the Irish missionaries in South Germany. In 1875 the Sacred Congregation of Rites prohibited the use of valueless metal or copper gilt for chalices, although they authorized aluminium in exceptional cases. At the same time women and laymen (unless they were clerks) were forbidden under pain of mortal sin to touch the chalice.

From early times gold and silver chalices adorned with jewels were presented by monarchs, princes and prelates. Some of these were of great weight, too heavy for use, and were placed on the altar as ornaments on solemn festivals. Chalices were anciently consecrated by prayer and anointed with chrism. They were frequently adorned with pious representations to guard against profane use, chased or enameled on the cup or the foot, such as the Good Shepherd and other suitable subjects. Many bore inscriptions, the name of the giver or a pious epigram expressing the destiny of the cup; for instance, on a chalice given by St. Remy to his cathedral church were these lines:

Hauriat hinc populus vitam de sanguine sacro
Iniecto æternus quem fudit vulnere Christus.

ELLIS SCHREIBER.

F

A TOUR IN EGYPT.

OR all those who feel the instinct of reverence for the past and delight in antiquity, massive and hoary, Egypt stands out alone as a paradise upon earth. For such travelers, to visit Egypt for a few days is but to catch the Nile fever, which can only be cured when the opportunity comes for a prolonged stay and an intimate acquaintance with the banks of the Nile. In these few pages I have to record the impressions of one who spent some five weeks in the land of the Pharaohs in order to recover from one fever, and who came back with another not so easily to be cured. Our carrier, the Delos, of the Deutsche Levante Line, left Malta on February 15 with a cargo of railway sleepers for Jappa and seven saloon passengers representing their respective nations, Germany, France, England and Roumania. The Algeçiras conference was then at a somewhat critical phase, and the general hope on board was that we should not reach our destination to find ourselves public enemies. I was much struck by the politeness of the Germans on board, both passengers and crew. When the French passengers wanted to talk the general conversation was always in French, the autocrat of the breakfast table being a cultured German from San Paulo, Brazil, who spoke French and English fluently. As we had a very fair share of stormy weather, the poor deck passengers, who were herded together like sheep, had to suffer all kinds of horrors. My berth mate, a charitable Frenchman, took a big pile of baggage belonging to one of them into our cabin to shelter it from the rain. Owing to the strong wind against us we did not reach Alexandria until February 20, after a four and a half days' passage.

Alexandria, the home of the Ptolemies and of Cleopatra, of Euclid and Eratosthenes, of Origen, St. Catherine and St. Athanasius, possesses few monuments of its former greatness. All these were laid low in the name of Allah and his prophet, and the superb granite monoliths which once adorned the city and which had been carried down the Nile from the quarries of Syene were thrown into the sea to break the waves or extend the seaboard. Even the configuration of the land has changed, and the Heptastadion, which was once an artificial isthmus connecting the ancient town and island of Alexandria with the mainland, is now a broad strip of land forming an important part of the modern city.

The prevailing religion seems to be the worship of the piastre, but other denominations exist. As far as Catholicism is concerned, Egypt is still a missionary country, i. e., the hierarchy and a native secular clergy have not yet been established. In fact, a secular priest

« AnteriorContinuar »