till our time. When Amadeus VIII., in whose person Savoy had been
raised to the rank of a duchy by the Emperor Sigismund, determined to
live as a recluse, he desired to create an order of secular knighthood,
with himself as its chief. He accordingly built a retreat at Ripailles,
near the Lake of Geneva, as a residence for the new order, and placed
it under the protection of St. Maurice, the patron saint of Savoy. The
first knights, only six in number, were distinguished by a cross of
white taffeta sewn on their dress. The successors of Amadeus VIII.,
however, so neglected the order that it was on the point of becoming
extinct, when Duke Emanuel Philibert, in 1572, obtained from Gregory
XIII. a bull to reconstitute it; and shortly afterwards, by a second
bull, the knights of St. Lazarus and those of St. Maurice were united.
The knights took the same triple vow as the Templars; they swore
fidelity to the Dukes of Savoy, and undertook to wage war against the
heretics who from Geneva were continually threatening the frontiers
of the duchy. The order possessed considerable property, and its
head-quarters were at Nice and Turin.
The sign of the order was a white cross with flowered points, beneath
which was a second cross surrounded with green, with the image of the
two patron saints.
The Knights of St. Stephen, an order founded in 1562 by Cosmo de
Medicis, Grand Duke of Tuscany, played an active part in the sea-fights
of the Mediterranean, where they were constantly chasing the Ottoman
galleys or effecting landings on the shores of the surrounding
barbarian states. In the middle of the seventeenth century they boasted
that they had released, since the creation of the order, upwards of
five thousand six hundred Christian captives and fifteen thousand
slaves.
This order, in its customs and ceremonies, was strikingly like
the order of Malta; and, like it, was divided into military and
ecclesiastical knights.
[Illustration: Fig. 156.--Reception of a Knight of the Order
of St. Michael, which was created on August 1, 1469, by Louis
XI., at the Castle of Amboise.--Fac-simile of a Miniature in the
“Statuts de l’Ordre,” dated from Plessis-les-Tours. Manuscript of
the Sixteenth Century, in the Library of M. Ambr. Firmin-Didot.]
Several orders of military knighthood existed in France, created by its
sovereigns; but their honorary character caused them to be looked upon
as rewards bestowed for good service rendered to the monarchy, rather
than as solemn engagements to take up arms in any definite cause. It
is hardly worth while to mention the Order of the Star, which it has
been attempted to trace back to King Robert and to the year 1022, but
the real origin of which only dates from King John. The oldest royal
military orders of knighthood are those that Louis IX. founded to
encourage his nobles to join him in his expeditions beyond the seas,
and to take part in the Crusades. The Order of the Cosse de Geneste,
instituted in 1254, was bestowed at a later period on the sergeants of
the king, a body-guard of a hundred gentlemen specially entrusted with
the duty of protecting the sovereign’s person against the assassins
sent by the Old Man of the Mountains. The Order of the Ship, instituted
in 1269, became extinct shortly after the second crusade of St. Louis,
who had conferred it, before his departure, on some of his most
illustrious followers.
The Order of St. Michael was founded in 1469 by Louis XI. to fulfil a
vow made by his father, who had a particular veneration for that saint,
the tutelar angel and patron of France (Fig. 156). The image of St.
Michael was already embroidered in gold upon the banner of the king,
who created a new order of military knighthood “in honour,” say the
statutes, “of the first knight who in God’s quarrel fought the ancient
enemy of the human race and made him fall from heaven.” The order was
composed of thirty-six knights of stainless name and arms, with the
sovereign who had appointed them at their head. The collar of the order
was composed of golden shells inlaid with the figure of St. Michael
overthrowing Satan. The knights, besides this collar, wore on occasions
of ceremony a white mantle with a hood of crimson velvet.
[Illustration:
A, the door from which the knights issued, and then went along
the terrace marked B, out at the door marked C, and so to the
place where the new knights were initiated.
D, trumpets.
E, drums.
F, fifes and hautboys.
G, four heralds, walking two and two.
H, king-at-arms of France, walking by himself.
I, the Sieur de Bourgneuf, usher of the order, walking by
himself.
K, the Sieur du Pont, herald of the order, walking by himself.
L, three officers of the order walking abreast--viz., MM.
d’Achères, provost and master of the ceremonies; Bouthillier,
grand treasurer; and Duret-Chevry, secretary.
M, M. de Bullion, keeper of the seals of the order, walking by
himself.
N, the knights novices, walking two and two, each according to
his rank.
O, the commanders, walking also two and two, each according to
his rank.
P, the king, walking by himself, his train carried by M. le
Marquis de Gesvres; behind his majesty walks M. le Cardinal Duc
de Richelieu, by himself, an almoner carrying his train.
Fig. 157. Procession of the Knights of the Order of the Holy
Ghost crossing the courtyard of the Palace of Fontainebleau on
their way to the chapel, for the ceremony of the initiation of
new knights.]
[Illustration: Fig. 158.--State Gloves of embroidered silk, gold,
and silver, with the Monogram of Christ, formerly belonging to
Louis XIII.--From the originals in the Collection of M. Jubinal.]
The Order of the Holy Ghost was the last military order that the
sovereigns of France themselves conferred towards the close of the
sixteenth century. Both this and the Order of St. Michael were termed
orders of the king. Henry III., in 1579, created the order in honour
of God, and particularly in that of the Holy Ghost, under whose
inspiration he had accomplished “his best and most fortunate exploits,”
to use the exact words of the statutes of the order. From the day of
his ascending the throne he had always intended to found this order,
which had been suggested to him in his childhood by the perusal of the
statutes of the first Order of the Holy Ghost, instituted at Naples,
in 1352, by one of his ancestors, Louis of Anjou, King of Jerusalem
and Sicily. These statutes were carefully preserved in a precious
manuscript, the miniature of which represented with marvellous art
all the ceremonies of the order. The manuscript was a present from
the nobility of Venice to Henry III. on his return from Poland. This
prince, however, borrowed but little from these ancient statutes, which
had been drawn up in view of the military services which the knights of
the order, three hundred in number, might be able to render towards
the Crusades in Palestine. The new order of the Holy Ghost, although
a military one, was destined to gather round the king, who was its
supreme head, a body of a hundred knights, selected from among the most
eminent and the most illustrious personages of the court, the Church,
and the nobility. The insignia of the order were a collar composed of
golden fleurs-de-lis, surmounted with enamelled flames, forming the
initials of the king and his wife Louise of Lorraine, with a cross
bearing a silver dove, emblem of the Holy Ghost. At the meetings of
their order, the knights were clad in costly round-caped mantles of
blue velvet spangled with fleurs-de-lis in gold (Fig. 157). These
meetings, which at first were held in the Church of the Augustines at
Paris, where the solemn receptions of the new members took place, were
afterwards transferred to the Louvre, where they were celebrated with
extraordinary pomp. It is true that the statutes enjoined on each lay
knight the duty of taking arms for his sovereign whenever the latter
was preparing to go to war for the defence of his dominions, or in the
interest of his crown; but they were never scrupulously obeyed on this
point, and the Order of the Holy Ghost, while preserving its military
and religious character on all ceremonial occasions, never played any
other part than one of display and heraldic pretension. The sovereigns,
however, at all times showed themselves extremely jealous of the
privilege of appointing its knights, and the latter for more than three
centuries composed the actual guard of honour of the royal house of
France.
[Illustration: Fig. 159.--St. George, the patron of warriors,
vanquishing the Dragon.--From the Tomb of Cardinal Georges
d’Amboise, at Rouen (Sixteenth Century).]
LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.
Prayer.--Liturgy of St. James, of St. Basil, and of St.
John-Chrysostom.--Apostolical Constitutions.--The Sacrifice of
the Mass.--Administration of Baptism.--Canonical Penances.--Plan
and Arrangement of Churches.--Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.--The
Ceremony of Ordination.--Church Bells.--The Tocsin.--The Poetry
of Gothic Churches.--Breviary and Missal of Pius V.--Ceremonies
used at the Seven Sacraments.--Excommunication.--The Bull _In
Cœnâ Domini_.--Processions and Mystery Plays at the Easter
Solemnities.--Instrument of Peace.--Consecrated Bread.--The
Pyx.--The Dove.
It was the first Council of Nice, in the year 325, that gave the
dignity of canonical law to the custom of prayer on bended knees, and
it is a surprising fact that none of the paintings of the Catacombs
represent a devotee in the act of kneeling. We, however, know from the
Acts of the Apostles that from the very first days of Christianity it
was sometimes customary to kneel at prayer. As for the public prayers
of the early Christians, the text of the principal ones has survived
unaltered to our own days. As early as the close of the first century,
the younger Pliny, writing to Trajan, told him that the Christians were
accustomed to assemble at daybreak to sing a hymn in honour of Christ,
whom they worshipped as God. This is a valuable piece of evidence, and
it is moreover corroborated by the known custom that prevailed at the
same epoch in the Church of Antioch, of celebrating the Holy Trinity
(Figs. 160 and 161) by singing anthems, and of glorifying Christ, the
Word of God, by the intoning of canticles and psalms. St. Irenæus,
who wrote in the middle of the second century, also mentions in his
work against heresy, a kind of _Gloria in excelsis_, which was
chanted in Greek in Christian assemblies at the consecration of the
host, and which may be translated thus: “To thee all glory, veneration,
and thanksgiving; honour and worship to the Father, to the Son, and to
the Holy Ghost, now and ever, and for century upon century of infinite
eternity!” The people responded, “Amen!” In the dogmatic treatises
written by Tertullian, at the end of the second century, that great
pagan philosopher, who had become a convert to Christianity, alludes
more than once to the first attempts at a liturgy which the Church
used in the administration of the sacraments. He speaks of secret
meetings where the psalms were sung, the Scriptures read, and edifying
discourses were delivered; he mentions public prayers on behalf of the
reigning sovereign, of his ministers, and of the great functionaries
of the State; he describes ceremonies, forms of prayer, and religious
chants which were used according to certain rites authorised in the
Latin Church, amongst which may be distinguished the _Pater_ of
the New Testament, that simple and yet sublime and touching invocation
of feeble humanity prostrated before the Almighty.
[Illustration: Fig. 160.--Symbol of the Trinity, arranged
vertically--the Son at the bottom, the Father at the top, and the
Holy Ghost in the centre. The Holy Ghost descends from the mouth
of the Father and settles on the head of the Son, and proceeds
from both. Copied from a French Miniature by Count Horace de
Vielcastel (Fourteenth Century).]
[Illustration: Fig. 161.--The three faces of the Trinity on one
head and body. At first sight is read--“The Father is not the
Son; the Father is not the Holy Ghost; the Holy Ghost is not the
Son.” But, from the angles to the centre, is also read--“The
Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Ghost is God.” Printed by
Simon Vostre in 1524.]
The Church of Neo-Cesarea used from the first the liturgy of St. James,
the earliest of the Eastern liturgies, until St. Basil, justly surnamed
the great, for he was one of the most illustrious Fathers of the Greek
Church in the fourth century, modified and shortened it. A little later
it came to be known as the liturgy of St. Chrysostom, on account of the
important changes introduced into it by that Father of the Church.
[Illustration: Fig. 162 to 171.--Monograms of Christ, belonging
to the first centuries of the Church, except the last two. They
are mostly composed of the letters X and P interlaced, letters
which begin the word Christ (ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ); one is accompanied by an
N [_Nazarenus_); several have on either side the letters
α and ω, in allusion to the text, “I am the beginning and the
end.” Two of these monograms, from the Catacombs, recall the
_labarum_ of Constantine, especially the one bearing the
famous inscription, “In hoc signo vinces;” but it is not certain
whether they are rightly attributed. The last two are from the
Churches of St. Martin de Lescas (Gironde) and of St. Exupère
d’Arreau (Upper Pyrenees), edifices of the Eleventh and Twelfth
Centuries.]
The canons of the Council of Laodicea, held in 364, contain many
regulations for the recitation of the psalms and lessons, which, as
early as the second century, according to Tertullian, were recited at
_Tierce_, at _Sexte_, and at _None_, that is, at the third, sixth, and
ninth hour of the day--at vespers or evening prayer, and at the prayers
offered up by the bishops, whether at the ceremonies of baptism and
the eucharist, or over catechumens and penitents. It was not until
after the conversion of Constantine that public prayers became general
in Constantinople even amongst the troops. Constantine built an
oratory in his palace, where his whole court worshipped with him. He
desired that his soldiers, whether Christians or pagans, should every
Sunday repeat aloud certain prayers belonging to the religion of Jesus
Christ. Eusebius is the historian who relates this fact. A record has
been handed down of a prayer that the Emperor Maximinius declared he
had received from the hands of an angel, and which he read out to his
soldiers in 313, before he gave battle to Licinius, his rival for the
imperial throne.
[Illustration: Fig. 172.--Heathen Caricature drawn on the wall
of the Palatinate, in the Third Century, and preserved in the
Kircher Museum, at Rome.--The object of veneration of the
Christians is represented by a crucified figure with a donkey’s
head, looking down on a small figure of a man: it is accompanied
by a Greek inscription signifying, “Alexamenus worshipping his
God.” Reduced to a quarter the size of the original.]
In the fourth century, it was customary nearly everywhere, in the
West as well as in the East, after having sung the praises of God, to
put up prayers for the reigning sovereign and the leading potentates
of the civilised world. For instance, when St. Athanasius cried out
in the presence of the faithful, assembled in the splendid basilica
of the Cæsars, “Let us pray for the safety of the very pious Emperor
Constantine,” the whole assembly answered with one resounding voice,
“Christe, auxiliare Constantio!” (“Help Constantine, O Christ!”) The
preceding examples, and many others that it would be easy to gather
from the history of early Christianity, prove that in the fourth
century, in France, in Italy, in Spain, as well as in the churches of
the East and of Africa, Christian worshippers were accustomed to recite
either aloud or in a low tone, a set form of prayers, to chant, or
rather slowly to intone psalms, and to sing hymns. Did not St. Pacôme
order his monks to recite twice a day a psalmody which was composed of
psalms interspersed with prayers? Did not St. Hilary of Poictiers lay
the foundations of the Gallican liturgy, as St. Ambrose did those of
the Lombard liturgy, at the time that St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine
revised the liturgies of the Eastern and African Churches?
[Illustration: Fig. 173.--Painting symbolical of the Catacombs
of Rome: Jesus Christ, represented as Orpheus, fascinating with
the sound of his lyre the wild and domestic animals, as also the
trees, which are bending towards him to listen.--Fresco of the
First or Second Century, from the Cemetery of Domitilla.]
It was generally the custom to follow the precepts of the so-called
“Apostolical Constitutions,” a primitive work that was supposed to date
from the second century. These Constitutions ordered the psalms to be
recited to the congregation in the morning, at the third, the sixth,
and the ninth hours of the day, at vespers, and at cockcrow, that is to
say, at dawn. But the faithful, who were long prevented by persecution
from openly assembling in sacred buildings, at first offered up their
prayers in private, or perhaps surrounded only by their families and a
few intimate friends. Tertullian tells us that each strove to show the
greatest zeal in singing the praises of God. In the fourth century, the
Christians both of the East and of the West were so zealously attached
to their psalmody, that none would have willingly missed saying it at
its appointed hour, no matter where he might happen to be. “Instead of
the love songs formerly heard at all hours, and in all places,” says
St. Jerome in a letter to his friend Marcellinus, “the labourer at the
plough hums an _Alleluia_, the reaper, bathed in perspiration,
repeats his psalmody as he rests from his toil, and the worker in the
vineyard carols David’s grateful verse as he plies his curved sickle.”
[Illustration: Fig. 174.--Silver-gilt Cruet, showing its
different sides; on one side is depicted the head of Christ, with
a nimbus, and on the other that of St. Peter. (First or Second
Century.)--Museum of the Vatican.]
[Illustration: Fig. 175.--The Last Supper, symbolically
represented as the first eucharistic sacrifice. Jesus, surrounded
by his disciples, and with John, his favourite disciple, leaning
on his bosom, is administering his body and blood under the
form of bread and wine, to another disciple kneeling in front
of the table.--From a Miniature of the Eleventh Century in the
Burgundian Library, Brussels.]
Long before any churches were open to the public, the apostles “broke
bread with, the faithful” in the guest chamber of private dwellings;
their disciples followed their example in the subterranean cemeteries,
termed Catacombs, where the early Christians used to assemble to
celebrate the Lord’s Supper (Fig. 175). This sacrament, the primitive
form of which is unknown to us, was not termed a _mass_ (_missa_)
till the middle of the fourth century. “It was on a Sunday,” says St.
Ambrose, who was the originator of the Ambrosian rite, “that I first
held a mass.” The name of mass, about the meaning and origin of which
the most learned Christian archæologists are by no means agreed,
appears to have been derived from a Hebrew word denoting an offering or
sacrifice; or perhaps rather from the Latin _missa_, from _mittere_, to
send away, or to take leave of. Apostolical discipline required that
the sacrament should be preceded by a discourse, and that before it was
celebrated the catechumens, those who had not yet been baptized, should
leave the sanctuary. “After the sermon,” says St. Augustine, “the
catechumens are sent out” (_fit missa_).
[Illustration: Fig. 176.--Miraculous Mass of St. Gregory the
Great (Sixth Century), depicting the real presence of Jesus
Christ in the eucharist.--Miniature from a Missal of the
Fifteenth Century, in the Collection of M. Ambr. Firmin-Didot.]
There was, however, a mass for the catechumens which comprised the
introductory prayers, lessons from the Old and New Testaments, and the
bishop’s homily. The true mass, celebrated for the faithful alone,
was specially called the eucharist. “Those are masses,” says St.
Cesarius of Arles, “when the body and blood of Christ are offered up in
sacrifice” (Fig. 176).
At first, mass was celebrated once a week, and always on the Sunday. In
the second century, the sacrament or eucharistic offering took place
three times a week, on Sunday, on Wednesday, and on Friday. In the
following century, the Eastern Church decreed that it should also be
celebrated on Saturday. In the West, mass was held only on Sundays,
unless in exceptional cases; while in the days of St. Augustine, in
the dioceses of Africa, Spain, and Constantinople, it was celebrated
generally every day. It was not till the sixth century that it became
usual in the Latin Church to celebrate mass every day.
As time passed on, and as the number of worshippers increased, the
number of masses was considerably augmented, particularly on great
festivals and during Holy Week. The same priest was at liberty to
perform several, but after each he was bound to purify his fingers
in a chalice, the contents of which were afterwards poured into a
fitting vessel and consumed at the final mass, either by the priests
themselves, by the deacons and clerks, or by those of the laity who
were in a state of grace. At first all masses were sung, or rather
chanted; they were all public, and could only be celebrated in diocesan
or parish churches. Necessity, however, soon instituted inferior or
_private_ masses, thus named because they were held in one of
the lesser shrines or chapels, on an ordinary day, or before a small
congregation.
The bishops, the apostles’ successors, were alone entitled,
during the first two centuries, to administer the solemn rites of
baptism. The priests, under the authority of the bishop, were the
assistant-ministers of this sacrament. The deacons could only confer
it when authorised by special episcopal sanction. In cases of urgent
necessity, laymen were permitted to baptize, provided they were of
irreproachable morals and had been confirmed. In the Latin Church as
well as in the East, public baptism was only solemnised during the
vigils of Easter and Pentecost; in the Gallican Church, at Christmas,
as in the case of King Clovis. Private baptism might be administered at
any period whenever it was deemed necessary.
On the day set apart for baptism, the chosen catechumens met in the
church at noon to undergo a final examination (Fig. 177); at midnight
they again assembled there, the paschal taper and the water were
consecrated, and the officiating priest asked the catechumens if they
renounced the _devil_, the _world_, and its _pomps_. They made answer,
Yes. The priest then required of them a profession of Christian faith,
carefully prepared beforehand, after which they underwent a short
examination on the articles of the Creed. When these preliminaries
were completed the deacon presented to the priest the catechumens
stripped of their clothing, but covered with a veil. Each then stepped
into a large vessel of water and was dipped thrice (Fig. 178); at each
immersion the bishop invoked one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, a
custom that prevailed till the sixth century in the Western Church, and
till the eighth in that of the East. After the immersion the assisting
deacon anointed the catechumen’s forehead with holy oil, and the priest
put on him the _chrismal_, a flowing white robe which he wore for eight
days. Thus clad, and holding lighted tapers, the new Christians went in
procession from the place of baptism to the basilica. Before mass they
received the sacrament of confirmation; they were then given a mixture
of honey and milk, a symbol of their entrance into the promised land,
that is to say, into the highway of Gospel privileges. Whatever the age
of the newly baptized might be, they were termed children (_pueri_,
_infantes_).
[Illustration: Fig. 177.--Exorcism of a catechumen by four of
the clergy, who are applying the cross to him to drive the devil
out of his body, prior to his baptism.--From a bas-relief of the
Fourth or Fifth Century, found at Pérouse. Paciaudi, “De Sacris
Christianorum Balneis:” Venitiis, 1750, 4to.]