breast. Before turning to follow in procession, each pair of the clergy and acolytes make due act of reverence towards the altar. Each pair in the procession will walk about three or four paces distant from the person or persons in advance of them, and all will keep in a straight line. If any one go in procession without a companion, he will walk in the midst of the line of the procession, and equi-distant from the couples before and behind him. Each person in the procession will be intent on the prayers, Psalms or hymns sung (or said) during the progress of the procession, hold no conversation with others whether within or without the procession, not look about, nor behave in any unseemly manner.

If a Bishop be present he will follow the Celebrant, and have two attendant clergy or acolytes, vested in surplices, supporting his cope on either side. The Bishop will carry his staff in his left hand if he be the Bishop of the diocese, or a Bishop who has received jurisdiction to act in the stead of the Bishop of the diocese. If need be, his staff may be borne by a chaplain vested in surplice, walking before him. Before the Bishop (or before his chaplain carrying his staff) may go two acolytes vested in surplices, carrying lighted candles in candlesticks. Other attendants (if any) of the Bishop will walk in pairs, at equal distances, behind him. Also, if it be the custom of the place, lighted candles may be borne by two acolytes, before the Celebrant.

If in the way by which the procession must pass, there be a narrow space through which the cross-bearer and his candle-bearers cannot walk abreast, the candlebearers will precede the cross-bearer.

Quarti, de Process., sec. prima punct. vi.

Having returned into the chancel, after due act of reverence towards the altar, as before, all go to their places. The candle-bearers put down their candlesticks upon the credence. Other acolytes bearing

candles carry them to the sacristy and return at once to their places in the sanctuary. When the Celebrant and Deacon draw near, an acolyte takes the cross from the Sub-Deacon, and carries it to its place and returns to his own place. The Sub-Deacon then goes to the left of the Celebrant, and after due act of reverence standing on the floor before the midst of the altar, all three go at once to the sedilia, where the Celebrant is divested of his cope (the Master of Ceremonies and the Deacon, or the Deacon and the Sub-Deacon assisting); and then, at the hands of the sacred ministers he receives his maniple and chasuble. When the Celebrant is vested, the Deacons put on their maniples. Then the Sub-Deacon preceding, the Deacon' following him, and the Celebrant following the Deacon, all three go by the floor of the sanctuary to the midst before the lowest step of the altar, where the Celebrant standing in the midst, the Deacon at his right hand and the Sub-Deacon at his left, they make together due act of reverence towards the altar; and then standing erect the Celebrant signs himself with the sign of the cross and begins the Mass as directed above, on page 16.

When the Celebrant has laid aside his cope at the sedilia, it is at once carried to the sacristy by the Master of Ceremonies, or by some one of the acolytes, who after putting it away in its place, returns at once to the sanctuary.

If banners are borne in procession, the principal one is carried immediately before the processional cross;

others are carried at convenient points in the procession, e. g., immediately in advance of the attendant clergy, the acolytes and the choristers. All the banners should be of ecclesiastical shape and be adorned with only suitable devices and pictures.

The acolytes or other persons who carry the banners, when the procession is ended, put them in their places, as the Master of Ceremonies may direct, and then return promptly to their proper places in the sanctuary or choir.

If both the rite of sprinkling and a procession take place before the Mass the former should precede the latter, or more properly (as of old) the sprinkling of the people should be made by the Celebrant as he goes in procession.†

† Cf. Quarti, de Process., sec. ii., punct. vii.

APPENDIX.

I. OF THE Offerings of MONEY MADE BY THE PEOPLE.

When alms or offerings of the people are received on occasions of public worship other than the Mass, they should not be placed upon the altar, for that ceremony, whereby a formal presentation is made of such offerings, belongs properly to the Mass only.

1

Our custom of making an offering of money, on occasions of public worship, is a comparatively modern substitute for the ancient usage of offering bread and wine, and other gifts for the service of God. "In the primitive Church, all who were to be communicated were accustomed to offer bread and wine to be consecrated for themselves at the altar." In an Epistle ascribed to Fabian (Bishop of Rome, A. D. 236-250), it is decreed that "every Lord's day, oblations both of bread and wine be made by every man and woman.' The portion of such oblations not used for the holy sacrifice, was reserved for the use of the priest or distributed among the poor. This custom prevailed also in England. "The constitutions of Theodulph,"A. D. 797-“enjoin that all Christian men should on Sunday morning, come with their offerings to the Celebration of Mass."

2

Of the custom of offering bread and wine by those who were to be communicated in the Mass, the Canon in the Latin Mass at this day bears witness in the words, "et omnium circumstantium . . . qui tibi offerunt hoc sacrificium laudis;" while in the Mass at the consecration of a Bishop, the Bishopelect is required to make such an offering: "Dicto Offertorio, Consecrator sedet cum mitra in faldistorio, ante medium altaris. Et Consecratus veniens ex sua capella, inter assistentes 1 Merati, Nova Observ., in Gav., Thes. Sac. Rit., pt. i., tit. xii. 2 Ibid.

See Thorpe, Ancient Laws, II. 406.

Simmons Lay Folks Mass Book, pg. 236.

Episcopos medius, coram Consecratore genuflectit, et illi offert duo intortitia accensa, duos panes, et duo barilia vino plena, et Consecratoris prædicta recipientis manum reverenter osculatur."

5

When, in later times, because love had grown cold, fewer communions were made by the people, and there was needed for the sacrifice but a small quantity of bread and wine, the people began generally to offer money instead. Honorius, of Autun, A. D. 1130, refers to this change of custom and its cause, in the following words: "After that the Church had indeed increased in number, yet had diminished in sanctity, on account of carnal sins, it was appointed that they who could, should communicate each week, or on Sundays, or at the chiefest festivals, or thrice in the year, lest, before confession and penitence for some crime, they might take (the sacrament) to their condemnation. And because when the people were not communicating, it was not necessary to provide so much bread, it was appointed that it (the bread) should be formed in the shape of coins. And that the people, in lieu of the oblation of bread, should offer coins, for which, they should remember, the Lord was betrayed. Which coins, however, they should give for the use of the poor, who are members of Christ, or for something which pertains to this sacrifice." "Postquam autem Ecclesia numero quidem augebatur, sed sanctitate minuebatur, propter carnales statutum est, ut qui possent, singulis dominicis, vel in Dominica, vel summis festivitatibus, vel ter in anno communicarent, ne ante confessionem et pœnitentiam pro aliquo crimine judicium sibi sumerent. Et quia populo non communicante, non erat necesse, panem tam magnum fieri, statutum est, eum in modum denarii formari. Et ut populus pro oblatione farinæ denarios offerret, pro quibus dominum traditum recognosceret. Qui tamen denarii in usum pauperum, qui membra sunt Christi, cederent, vel in aliquid quod ad hoc sacrificium pertinet."

"Except at coronations, ordinations, the consecration of nuns, and special services when the Mass was celebrated by

Pontif. Rom., pars prima. Cf. Secreta, Dom. V., post Pentec., Mis. Rom.

Gemma Anima, cap. lviii.; Speculum Antiq. Devotionis, à Joanne Cochlæo collectum; Mentz, A. D. 1549.